


Glass Houses

by Viridian5



Category: Weiß Kreuz
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Assassins & Hitmen, Drama, Episode Related, Farfarello Being Farfarello, Humor, Kidnapping, Kink, Mission Fic, Multi, Precognition, Psychic Abilities, Relationship Negotiation, Reprogramming, Revenge, Slice of Life, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Telepathy, WIP
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2003-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2017-10-08 22:37:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 302
Words: 993,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viridian5/pseuds/Viridian5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Aya's sister dies, <strike>Schwarz tries to save themselves and Aya from the mistakes of the Dramatic CDs and <i>Glühen</i></strike> Schwarz tries to save him from himself--for their own reasons, of course--and neither they nor Weiß are ever the same again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It would make angels weep... if angels cared at all.

**Author's Note:**

> WIP started April 2003 and still going. Spoilers for _Kapitel_, bits of the OVAs and Dramatic CDs, and _Glühen_.
> 
> Lots of folks have helped over the years. Thanks to Bardsley, Thorn, Confidentsoba, Juls, Lunarennui, Mai, Kasha, Helleboredoll, Syvia, tarot_card_, Rosaleendhu, Esinde Nayrall, and Graegal (though not all of them at once!) for audiencing, typo-watch, and encouragement. The LiveJournal crowd who read this in serial form also provided encouragement and some typo notices. Thanks to 'nat for "puisín," which she says probably sounds like "pu-sheen." Thanks to Ari for some German language help and some notes on Vienna.
> 
> Inspirational music includes Covenant's _United States of Mind_, Maya's V Mix the Second CD (Jane Jensen, Kidneythieves, Poe's rock version of "Hello," Kristen Barry's "Ordinary Life," Lacuna Coil), Linkin Park's _Meteora_, A Perfect Circle's _Thirteenth Step_, Pigface's _Easy Listening..._, Shriekback's "The Bastard Sons of Enoch," Zeromancer's _Eurotrash_, Neuroticfish's _Les Chansons Neurotiques_, and many others.
> 
> I am not responsible for any therapy bills incurred as a result of trauma from doing research on things mentioned in this story. If you look up, say, "butter dog porn" on your own, I refuse to take the blame. I've been told that it's a bad idea to eat soup or drink while reading "Glass Houses." If you have questions about some points in the story, you might find answers in the comments on [my original posts of this fic at my LiveJournal](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?keyword=Glass+Houses+WIP&user=viridian5&sortby=des). The chapters are the same sizes and have the same titles. 
> 
> A Russian artist, Koro, made [some great, funny fanart for this fic](http://viridian.shriftweb.org/wk_glass-houses-art.htm).

_"Psychologists should bethink themselves before_  
_putting down the instinct of self-preservation as_  
_the cardinal instinct of an organic being. A living_  
_thing seeks above all to_ discharge _its strength --_  
_life itself is Will to Power; self-preservation is only_  
_one of the indirect and most frequent_ results _thereof."_  
      -- _Beyond Good and Evil_ by Friedrich Nietzsche

_"I have devils in my mind,_  
_They refuse to set me free...."_  
      -- "Afterhours" by Covenant  
\-------------------------------------

Aya stared down at his sister with his right hand just over her mouth, not touching. This close, he couldn't delude himself at all. No breath, and she was too still and cold. Her skin looked wrong, thick, heavy. If he touched it, there would be no give to it, he could tell. This was death, not coma.

He'd failed her utterly. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. Worse, he'd gotten Sakura and Manx killed as well. No matter that he hadn't been there to protect them. He should have been. He could have protected them as they fled the citadel, but instead he'd stayed to fight Schwarz, as if trading philosophies and blows mattered more than her life.

He couldn't breathe. He didn't deserve to breathe. He had nothing left. He was already dead inside and empty. The two weeks of waiting to find out her fate had led to the only place it could lead.

As his hands clenched and unclenched, he felt the knife taped to his left forearm bite into his flexing flesh, sharp and stinging and raw. He deserved that and more. She should be the one still standing. The pressure of the knife hilt against his wrist provided a small comfort and a reminder of what must come.

Failure of this magnitude had its price, and he would pay it gladly. Not now, not with Omi standing beside him and Ken and Yoji standing behind him, but later. Later the knife would taste more than his arm. Or perhaps he could find a way to run himself through with his katana. That would be appropriate.

Right now, with nothing left, he could only wait to die.

******************************************************

Omi watched Aya nervously and listened to him breathe, a heart-rending sound that was somewhere between sobbing and hyperventilating. But Aya did not cry. Perhaps would not. Did he even know what he sounded like? Probably not. He'd finally looked up from his sister but now stared wide-eyed at nothing, or at some horror only he could see.

Omi glanced back at Ken and Yoji, who both looked as apprehensive as he felt. He looked back at Aya and noticed motion. No, Aya didn't move except for his clenching and unclenching hands. Something dripped slowly from his left fist. Blood. He was bleeding. Damn, was Aya scoring his palm with his nails? No, couldn't be, not with that much blood coming off....

Aya had an edged weapon up the sleeve of his leather jacket, probably a knife. It had to be. But how? They'd checked him for weapons!

Omi glanced back again and flicked his gaze at Aya's left hand to direct their attention. They nodded and moved up close to Aya's back.

"It's time to go," Omi said softly, moving in close by Aya's right side.

"Yeah," Aya answered, more painful breath than voice. Then something in him came to attention and suspicion, and he started to move with fast, deadly intent....

They grabbed him. He let out a harsh, surprised cry as Yoji grabbed his left wrist but kept fighting like a demon, struggling, jerking, head-butting. The three of them could barely hold him. Ken punched him hard across the face, and he finally sagged, mercifully knocked out.

The Kritiker employees ran in as the three of them put him on the floor and stripped his jacket away. "Shit," Yoji said as they saw the cruel slices Aya's hidden kitchen knife had left on his arm. A kitchen knife fastened to bare flesh with black electrical tape. He probably hadn't meant it to rip into his skin as he wore it, but he'd hardly been thinking clearly since the phone call to identify his sister's body had come. They'd had to lead him to the car and then out again to get here.

Omi could easily imagine Aya's intentions: him slitting his wrists open over her corpse. As if that could happen in the heart of Kritiker's morgue. As if his teammates hadn't known him too well to dare leave him alone at any point, especially not near his sister's body.

As Omi sliced the tape away and removed the knife, Ken asked, "What do we do with him now? If he doesn't want to live, what the hell do we do?"

Kritiker medics were already examining the sliced forearm. Lost, Omi said, "I don't know."

******************************************************

Omi sat in the chair and stared at the bed. Sedated, Aya didn't move, hadn't moved for hours. Omi's gaze skidded away from the padded four-point restraints. He'd argued against those, but Birman had been firm and persuasive. Aya was dangerous enough sane, or at least as close to sane as he came. Maddened, suicidal, with nothing left to lose, he'd have one thing in mind and the berserker strength to do it. Lost in grief, he could hurt himself and others.

Even unconscious, he looked like he was suffering. His face.... Omi couldn't look at his face or the bandages around his forearm.

Aya's sister had been his whole reason for living. What could they offer him to take her place? If Omi could figure that out, he could save him.

Omi heard something and turned--

******************************************************  
_"Take you down,_  
_I want to take you down,_  
_I want to take you down with me...."_  
      -- "Tour de Force" by Covenant  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~ It's like it's my birthday, ~ Schuldig said almost reverently in Farfarello's head as they looked at the figure strapped to the bed, Farfarello in person and Schuldig through his eye. He hated the feel of the telepath lounging in his head, but he had orders.

He would get a gift today, so he could afford to be generous.

"We should kill him," Farfarello said as he looked at the unconscious boy in the chair. Bombay. More dangerous than he looked.

~ Brad says no. Future stuff. 'Sides, just imagine how upset little Omi will be when he comes to and Abyssinian's gone, right from under his nose. ~

"Hmm." Farfarello approached the bed and stared down at his gift. His pet-to-be. Aya Fujimiya smelled of blood, pain, madness, sedatives, disinfectant, and leather. Farfarello understood restraints very well and longed to take them off, but that would come after he had a talk with their recruit.

~ Let me do the talking. ~

Farfarello was no one's puppet. If he wouldn't let God command him, he certainly wouldn't let Schuldig. Besides... "No. I understand him better than you do." He smirked as the telepath bristled at the possibility of anyone knowing people better than he did. "I will let you advise."

~ You have no fucking choice on that. ~

"Exactly." His puisín's hair had fanned out a bit against the pale pillow. Red, his favorite color. "My hair had been red in another life."

~ I can't wait to see how Abyssinian handles your ownership. ~

The kitten stirred a little and mumbled, "Hurts."

"Life does," Farfarello answered.

Aya's eyes jerked open, and he bucked against his restraints. To his credit, he fought hard enough that he came close to dislocating his limbs. Still, he couldn't be allowed to damage himself further.

Farfarello put his palm on Aya's forehead and pressed down hard. "Stop. You'll only hurt yourself. If I wanted to kill you, I would have already."

"What do you want?" Abyssinian growled.

"I'm here to save you." As the kitten sneered, Farfarello continued, "I know that you want to die, but even if you succeed you will never see your sister again, not as a murderer and suicide. You'll go straight to Hell."

Unable to entirely hide his misery, Aya's eyes closed. Grief and sedation had left him more vulnerable. ~ Delicious. ~

"God wants that. He killed her, and He's calling you to Hell right now, but I will fight Him for you."

"Why?"

"Because I hate Him and want to deprive him of anything He wants. And because Crawford said that your presence with us will ensure the destruction of Eszett."

Aya's eyes lit up a little with a hectic gleam. "Eszett? You work for Eszett."

"We worked for them to undermine them from within. We hated them. We struck off the beast's head, but the body remains to do mindless damage. They must suspect that we've turned on them, so we have to eliminate them." Farfarello paused. "You know that they shot your sister and her would-be protectors."

"You want me to join Schwarz?" The kitten sounded incredulous and nearly hysterical.

"You're already a killer for hire."

Some of his righteousness fled, but then blazed up again. "We kill people who do evil. You kill anyone you're paid to, and torture them as well."

"Do you research everyone Kritiker points you at to be certain?"

Abyssinian took in a sharp breath but said nothing.

Farfarello smiled. "And I've seen you. You don't really care about people, and you enjoy inflicting a bit of torment yourself."

"No."

"Yes. You said that as long as there is good in the world you would fight to protect it by being Weiß, but there is no good in the world now that _she_ is gone, is there?"

That reminder obviously chipped away at him further, but he remained deliciously defiant. "Schwarz wanted to use her!"

"It's a moot point now that she's gone."

~ He agrees, even if he doesn't want to. He's thinking that all of the good he's tried to do has only made things worse, that Manx and that girl Sakura died trying to do good and didn't even succeed in doing that good, and that even the man who told him that he should care for more than just his sister was killed senselessly while trying to save him. Oooh, Botan died _horrifically_, and right in front of Aya's eyes. Aya... _liked_ him. That's interesting. ~

"We never bore Weiß any ill will," Farfarello continued. "Why would we? You meant very little to us. You were only business. Now you, Aya, have a meaning to us, and we have a meaning to you." He leaned in closer as if sharing a confidence, for dramatic effect. "You see, your teammates know you for what you are now. An attempted suicide, a maddened animal. They'll never see you the same way again. You'll never have another moment alone as they watch you to be sure you don't try to kill yourself again. When they look at you, they'll have such compassion and pity in their eyes."

Aya flinched and shuddered. Schuldig, ever the mindbreaker, purred and exuded something approaching lust. ~ Fuck yes, Farfie. Bring it on home. ~

"Who do you think put the restraints on you?" Farfarello asked.

Schuldig moaned, making Farfarello wonder at the emotions that must be roiling through his puisín, since Aya looked nauseous and a little depressed but otherwise untouched. Generously, Schuldig gave Farfarello a taste of what was inside. Such pain and despair. It would make angels weep... if angels cared at all.

"You want me to help you destroy Eszett. Your leader says that my presence amongst you will help you succeed. What's left for me after that? Nothing."

~ Oooh, there's a dangerous bit of self-awareness. ~

"What's left for you now without us? Weiß and Kritiker will never trust you again. They may even keep you tied up for your own protection. _We_ will treasure and use you well." Farfarello took off his wristguards and displayed his scarred forearms in a way that the tied-up kitten could see. "Besides, I understand better than you think. Better than they ever would. You have nothing left with them."

Abyssinian couldn't see Bombay from his trussed position on the bed, couldn't know that someone had stayed with him. He probably guessed that they kept the room under surveillance but wouldn't see that as care for him. "They have my katana."

"In a few minutes' work, so could we."

"There would be no turning back for me."

"True. The risk is all yours. But what do you care? You want to die, and you're already damned. Your reputation amongst your friends is already tattered and stained. They see you as a broken thing to be pitied and may never trust you with an edged weapon again. You have nothing left to lose. What will you do?"

Aya's face remained still but Farfarello sensed his struggle. Finally Aya said, softly, "I will go with you." He would have gone no matter what he'd answered, but having him do it voluntarily made things neater.

"There's something I must do to make our escape smoother." Farfarello quickly knocked him out cold with the hilt of his knife, while Schuldig cackled. No need to give the kitten any last minute temptations.

~ Nagi's in Abyssinian's quarters getting his katana and clothing. ~

As Farfarello unfastened the padded cuffs, he said, "No clothing. You'll have to buy him new ones."

~ What the hell are you-- ~

"Fresh start. Almost nothing to bind him to what he used to be. You're a telepath, you have to know his taste and sizes. Make sure they're things he'd actually wear, not just things you want to see him in."

~ I am not Fujimiya Aya's personal shopper! ~

"Crawford said I--"

~ I know what-- Fine, but I'm never letting you forget this. ~

Farfarello draped his pet over his shoulder so his hands would be free. His puisín was too thin and would need better feeding. "I figured as much."

******************************************************

"What do you mean Schwarz took Aya?" Ken asked.

Birman looked annoyed and angry. "Just what we said. I don't know how he got in, but Farfarello taunted him, then knocked him out and carried him away. We have him on camera. The men who'd been watching the feed are both dead from puncture wounds in their necks. Omi was knocked out. Excuse me." She flipped her cell phone open. "What? You must be-- Yes. Thank you." She flipped it closed. "Your building was broken into. Only one thing is missing."

"Aya's katana?" Omi asked, with one hand cradling his head. Another head injury, right on top of what their last fight with Schwarz had gotten him. They'd taken him so easily....

"Yes. Nothing else was moved. They knew exactly where to find it."

"Aya didn't help them," Omi snapped, not liking the expression on her face. "They have a telepath, remember? We've seen him make people do things they wouldn't do on their own."

"And Farfarello knocked Aya out and carried him away," Yoji said. "Besides, I don't think he faked the suicidal tendencies."

"We'll find him," Birman said.

******************************************************

Schuldig telepathically piloted a drugged and sleepwalking Fujimiya Aya through the airport, a common trick they used for getting people out with them. Nobody appreciated how much effort he put in.... Farfarello kept their new recruit physically steady. At least Aya didn't look drunk walking around, as some of the sleepwalkers did, and the blackout sunglasses hid how his eyes didn't focus the way wakeful people's did.

Nobody thought Aya seemed suspicious or stopped Schwarz from boarding, which left Schuldig with several hours of boredom. Feeling an entire plane full of bored people left him short-tempered, and he ended up feeding the terrors of the ones who were afraid of flying just for some variety. He couldn't even complain to Brad, since Brad would just say that the boredom would make sure he had no distractions as he planted a new language or two in their new recruit's head.

That did alleviate the lethal tedium somewhat, with Aya being such a twisted up mess. Such angst, such pain, such violence.

It was a relief to have Farfie's seatmate already sorted out, since Nagi couldn't always deal with sitting near him and demanded a different row sometimes. That time Farfarello had been put next to a nun had been a little too exciting and forced Schuldig to rewrite the memories of an entire planeload of people.

Looking possessive and protective, Farfarello sat across the aisle from them with his unconscious pet's head on his shoulder and stroked that distinctively red hair. Even with the slight bruising on his face, Aya looked cute and snuggly while stoned, out cold, and drooling a bit. He better appreciate the fucking clothes.

Schuldig couldn't wait to see his reaction when a new language flowed out of his mouth.

Brad asked quietly, "Can Farfarello even feel that?" On a physical level, Farfarello didn't feel much pain, but he didn't feel much pleasure either.

"Somewhat. Not like we could. Either way, the repetitive motion soothes him."

"I wonder how long it will take for him to get bored."

"I dunno. You're the seer. He's already calling Abyssinian 'kitten' in Irish. It suggests a greater level of commitment."

"The last one didn't last long."

Farfie didn't do as much extracurricular acting out when he was focused on a pet that needed his care. Great idea, but he'd gotten bored too quickly with the others.

"The last one wasn't a psychotic, suicidal swordsman who needed to be saved from himself. And we're keeping Aya with us under different terms than the last ones."

Brad was amused. "You sound like you want it to work."

"I sound like somebody desperate for entertainment, and Abyssinian's always been good for that. Besides, I'm curious to see if a guy who's had his only purpose in life ripped away can survive once it's gone."


	2. "He only wants to feed you properly. You're lucky he's not trying to make you drink from a saucer."

_"So let me introduce to you_  
_This favorite play of mine,_  
_A comedy called 'Germany'_  
_You may not understand...."_  
   -- "Germany" by Zeromancer  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aya felt something cool pressing against his face as he awoke. A very different world sped by outside the window glass he rested against. "Where the hell are we?" Then he put his hand over his mouth, because the harsh, throat-shredding words that had come out of it hadn't sounded right at all.

Schuldig looked back at him from over the front seat. "Frankfurt. Welcome to the Fatherland." His words were odd but known in the same way.

"What did you do to me?" He could even read the language on the signs.

"Different country, different language. You wouldn't be as useful to us if you couldn't even ask where the little boy's room is or understand the answer. Yes, I went into your head to do it. Weird place you got in there."

"What gave you the right?"

"You did when you agreed to come with us."

He'd agreed to join them out of some hope of... something. Work against them from within. At least get out from under the weighty, undeserved compassion in his teammates' eyes. He'd been weak and desperate. He'd thought that he would get chances to change his mind.

Instead, they'd knocked him out and dragged him off to a different country. Where the fuck was Frankfurt? Germany?

"How much sharper than a serpent's tooth," Farfarello muttered, and his thigh insistently brushed against Aya's. "Roll down the window, Crawford."

Crawford, the driver, put down the automatic window, giving Aya gusts of foreign smelling though pleasant air. It matched the different looking people, different looking buildings, all wrong and unfamiliar. Pleasant but wrong. Here, he was the foreigner.

He'd never seen the leather jacket he was wearing before.

"You're not gonna freak out on us, are you?" Schuldig asked. "We can knock you out again if we have to."

Aya brought his breathing under control and shrugged out from under the hand on his shoulder. Farfarello's hand. "No, that won't be necessary."

He could still escape if he had to. It would just take more work.

"You're thinking of cutting out on us? So much for honor."

"Farfarello spent a lot of time convincing me that I don't have any anymore. Besides, the world looks different when you're lying on your back in restraints. The world looks different when you're in _Europe_. Dragging me to Europe" Aya didn't want to think about how they'd accomplished that with his unconscious body, "and walking through my head changing my language weren't part of the deal."

"They weren't _not_ part of the deal," Farfarello said.

Schuldig smirked. "It's too late to turn back now anyway."

To Aya's annoyance, they were both right.

******************************************************

Aya set a suitcase, a long garment bag, and a closed bag of golf clubs on the bed in the small room they'd directed him to. The suitcase didn't contain a single item of clothing that actually belonged to him, though all of them were in his size. The garment bag protected a new black longcoat, and he ran his hands down the smooth leather, hooked his fingers in the studded straps. His own mission coat had been ruined during his team's submersion in the ocean after the citadel had fallen. This one looked like something he might have chosen for himself.

They were trying to _dress_ him.

He unzipped the golf bag and discarded several individually wrapped clubs until he found the wrapping that contained a club _and_ his sheathed katana. The katana alone felt right. When he partially unsheathed it, he took a deep breath in at the gleam of light along the revealed blade.

He spun about, katana bared, to face the presence at the door. "I thought that only Weiß wouldn't trust me alone with edged weapons." He hated the sounds coming out of his mouth.

"I wanted to see what you'd do with it," Farfarello answered.

"You've seen."

"Not all of it."

Crawford stopped at the doorway. "Time to go. We have a mission."

Already?

But why wait? Why _would_ they give him time to think or research? Keeping him off balance would only benefit them.

Aya hesitated, then put the coat on over his own clothing since it had a kevlar underlayer in it.

It might be good to kill someone. He knew himself well enough to realize that if he placed himself in a dangerous situation self-defense would be excuse enough for him.

******************************************************  
_"Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me."_  
  -- "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Farferello felt his puisín standing at his back, sword drawn, snarling. It made him smile. How happy to have someone who understood a little. Schuldig with his gun and Crawford with his fists and Nagi with his power couldn't understand the way of the blade, the mindset necessary. His eyes blinded by God's machinations, Aya didn't entirely understand himself, but he could be trained. The henchmen ringing them didn't know what they'd put themselves in for.

Earlier, Farfarello hadn't considered disarming Aya for even a moment, not since the kitten came closest to knowing himself while he had a blade in his hand, edge bared.

His puisín's muscles tensed behind him, and he knew to spring forward even before Aya yelled his usual battle cry, which still came out in his native Japanese even if Schuldig had switched the rest of his speech to a German dialect. Farfarello lost himself in the movements, swings, and impacts, smiling at every cry and scream from their victims. _Their_ victims.

A bullet took him in the arm but went clean through. He'd have to tend to that later. Now that he had a kitten, he had to be more careful of himself. Amongst the strangers of Schwarz and thus alone in a foreign land, Aya would die without Farfarello's attention. When he turned his head, he saw Aya lop a henchman's gunhand off while bludgeoning another with his scabbard, as the end of his new black long coat whirled. Such a good pet, now rescued from blundering, deluded Weiß.

Eventually they ran out of targets, having cleared the room. Farfarello breathed in deeply, filling his lungs with the thick, metallic scent of blood. His puisín kept looking for victims, lavender eyes mad and intense in their trance, until he grabbed him by the hair at the crown of his head. Teeth clenched, Aya fought him, but he just clamped his fingers harder in the red hair, which almost felt soft under his fingers. His puisín grimaced, closed his eyes, and breathed hard.

"Shhh," Farfarello said. "We're done. The legions of Hell have swelled from our work."

Grief had made a mess of Aya, but such was the cost of love in God's world. Love created hostages to fate and enemies, yet to cut love out of one's life left God victorious. He and the kitten were both victims. In any case, Aya's grief was Farfarello's opportunity.

Farfarello moved closer to inspect the blood on Aya's face and felt some satisfaction that it wasn't his puisín's. Aya smelled bloody and a bit musky. Carnage obviously stirred his blood too. He flinched and opened his eyes when Farfarello licked his cheekbone, but he looked saner now. Farfarello let him go and watched him sheathe his sword in a smooth motion. Good.

They walked out together in silence, but Farfarello felt his puisín's eyes drilling into his back. He felt no fear at having Aya behind him.

When they met up with the others, Schuldig drawled, "If it isn't Snow-white and Rose-red, our matched set of psychos. Good hunting?"

"I can't complain," Farfarello answered.

Aya said nothing and continued to say nothing as they rode back to their current home of the moment, instead staring out the windows at the streets of Frankfurt and rubbing absently at the blood on his face. Sometimes Farfarello felt tempted to ask Schuldig what ran through his puisín's mind but fought it every time. Far better to let Schuldig give such knowledge free when he felt like it than ask for it and be beholden.

Farfarello tended his wounds in Aya's small room, the better to get the kitten used to his presence and ownership. His puisín sat on the bed and watched him with pale eyes as flat and reflective as mirrors, revealing nothing of what roiled within. Farfarello took a damp washcloth and rubbed the blood off pale kitten skin that wasn't at all as icy as it looked.

Aya grabbed his wrist, a reaction. "Don't do that." Then Aya winced. Hearing a foreign language come out of one's mouth could be shocking for a while, especially a language as harsh as Schuldig's German. Such shock lasted longer even than the shock of being able to understand a foreign language when you heard people speak it.

"I know the temptation to remain marked, but you're taking it too far."

"What's the point?"

Farfarello pushed him down on the bed, gripped his wrists, and straddled him. "The point is that I won't tolerate defeatist shit from you, puisín."

Aya struggled, even after Farfarello pressed down hard on the knife wounds on his forearm, which made him writhe in pain. "Why not? And what the hell is that, that name?"

"I've told you why not. I do not repeat myself to you. And that name means that you're mine. I saved your life, and it is mine."

"I didn't want my life saved!"

"Life is not about what you want. Death is even less so. Life is better." He felt Aya's lower body twist under him to prepare to dislodge him, so he pressed harder on the wounds.

Aya gritted his teeth, and his eyes showed his pain, but he struggled still, contemptuous of his own agony. Sweet, so sweet. The urge to inflict more pain and see how long that contempt could last rang through Farfarello's body, but he refused it. Aya wanted to die too badly, and corpses fell apart too quickly. Alive, he was far more interesting and entertaining, a bottomless well of torment and surprising reactions.

Aya was hard and still smelled musky. And hated to like being touched. He understood pain and worked through it. Right now he probably expected pain or rape. Time to confuse him again.

Farfarello nuzzled his face, gently and tenderly licking and kissing, tasting blood and salt and soap. His puisín struggled harder but to no avail. Seeing that struggle didn't work, he kept squirming but paired his movements with Nos. No, no, no. By this time Farfarello didn't taste any more blood, having gotten it all, but now there was more salt, from helpless tears. To the best of his knowledge, the kitten hadn't cried yet for his lost sister. Tiring, Aya squirmed less, allowing Farfarello to let go of his wrists, simply use his knees and body weight to keep him in place, and stroke his hair. The repetitive stroking soothed him as well, just like banging his head over and over against the same patch of wall. The Nos, likewise repetitive, became meaningless noise, a blur of soft "nein, nein, nein, nein...." Aya shivered beneath him and shivered harder as he said, "Shhh...." He would imprint the kitten with his scent and touch to mark his ownership.

Eventually he simply draped himself atop his pet and listened to his puisín's shuddery, exhausted breathing, content. His breath misted on the long earring Aya wore to remind himself of his failure, similar to how he wore his sister's name. Farfarello had his own memory marks, most of them carved into his flesh, so he understood.

"I'm your keeper, Aya, and I will keep you safe from yourself. I swore it."

******************************************************

Aya struggled to breathe, and his face felt abraded by the shameful tears he'd shed. He'd been overpowered by the enemy. Worse, he'd broken down in front of the enemy. Worst of all, he'd chosen this for himself. His throat tightened as he wondered what Omi, Yoji, and Ken thought of his disappearance. No one knew where he was....

Exhausted, his body felt useless and heavy, even aside from having a lunatic draped on top of it. Seemingly content, Farfarello rubbed his face against Aya's bare neck and had his hand resting over Aya's pounding heart. The lunatic intended to drive him as mad as he was.

Aya heard a rhythmic thumping through the wall and what might have been a moan. Who were they killing over there? Schuldig shouted something nearly unintelligible about wanting to be fucked harder.

Oh.

Farfarello's hand clenched over his chest. "Ah. They're celebrating a mission well completed."

Hopefully Schuldig had been too distracted by his own goings-on to hear what had happened in this room, but Aya doubted he could be that fortunate.

"You must sleep," Farfarello said. "Then you'll be strong and well."

Aya knew it would take a hell of a lot more than that. "I'm not tired." He was exhausted, but he couldn't sleep.

At least Farfarello moved off him and stood... but then he started to take off Aya's boots. They would take those away too.... Aya sprung up and fought, but Farfarello lightly slapped him, making him blink in shock, and said, "You can't sleep in bed with your boots on."

"I won't be infantilized by you or anyone."

"Then take them off yourself."

"No."

"You make an infant of yourself with these tedious protests. I've given you choices. I can take them away."

Which probably meant that Farfarello would knock him out and take his boots off anyway. Forcing that might be a good show of defiance. Aya would make him fight for that.

Farfarello shook his head in obvious frustration at him, then left the room, leaving Aya utterly confused but resolute. He had his katana. Nothing else here was his. They'd taken even his language away. He could leave, fight his way out. Schuldig and Crawford would hopefully be too involved with one another to try to stop him, leaving him to face Farfarello and Nagi. The worst they could do was let him live and keep him here, which they were already doing.

He pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the way his knees wanted to buckle under him, and bared his katana. Better to die with it in his hand.

As he reached the door, he saw Farfarello rushing up. He struck out with his katana, not the best weapon for a narrow hallway, but it could be used as a bludgeon. Its flat hit Farfarello's temple and drew blood as it split skin, but Farfarello struck back, punching him in the stomach and catching him as he doubled over. Beating at Farfarello did no good, because pain meant nothing to him. He disarmed Aya, pressed him up against the wall, and kissed him open-mouthed, his tongue forcing Aya's mouth open. Aya fought for air and freedom, tried to bite the bastard's tongue off but failed, gagged at the sudden bitter, chalky flavor in his mouth. Farfarello backed away a little, put one hand over Aya's mouth, and stroked Aya's throat with the other, obviously caring not at all as his fingers were bitten at.

Darkness beckoned, and Aya lost the fight against his knees, sagging. Drugged....

******************************************************

Feeling groggy and warm, with someone's arm draped over his middle, Aya awoke to a touch at his shoulder. "Breakfast is ready," Nagi said from the door. Struggling to think, Aya realized that the boy had used his telekinesis to rouse him. Yes. He was the newest inmate in the freakshow. Not wanting to wake up ever again, body stuffed with thick, fluffy cotton, Aya shoved his head back into the pillow. Perhaps he could smother himself.

"Puisín," Farfarello said against his neck. "If we don't go now, the tea will be cold, and that is a very sad thing. No way to start the day."

"Fuck off," Aya mumbled in some kind of German, hoping they would just kill him or torture him and end it already.

Farfarello slid a hand up under his shirt and rubbed his belly, kissing his neck as he did it. Feeling weird, Aya squirmed, but he saw the lunatic's meaning. If he stayed in bed, he would be molested. But he couldn't move, not in this thick swamp....

Suddenly he was sober, utterly sober.

"Farfie, not everybody can shrug off that high a dose. At least not without my help," Schuldig said from the doorway. Aya looked up and saw him leaning against the frame with a satisfied smirk on his face and his orange hair a blaze of light in the morning sunshine. "C'mon, Aya, get your first breakfast with the family over with." Thankfully, he left.

Farfarello lifted his arm so Aya could escape. Briefly. On the floor was a pair of boots that didn't belong to him, and he was barefoot. They looked a lot like his uniform boots--black leather that would go up to just below his knees, with straps and buckles--but new. They weren't his; they had to be a Schwarz gift. Schwarz had stolen his boots. At least he still wore his own clothing, but for how long? He didn't put the boots on, walking to the kitchen barefoot instead, with Farfarello as his deranged shadow.

He didn't know what to make of the scene that awaited him in the kitchen as the band of cold-hearted killers had breakfast around the table. Crawford peacefully read a newspaper, drank coffee, and ate some kind of chocolatey, sugary cereal drowned in milk. Schuldig turned a highly provocative grin on him, then returned his attention to his croissant, delicately yet fiercely ripping it apart with his teeth. Nagi ate a hot cereal and studiously ignored everyone, although Aya noticed that as he sat down another bowl of hot cereal slid to a halt in front of him, so the boy had to be paying more attention than he appeared to be. The scene looked weird yet domestic.

Farfarello sat across from Aya, then gathered buns and sausage links onto his plate like a hungry whirlwind. All of that insanity must need a great deal of food to fuel it. Then the lunatic tilted his head in what might be thought, picked up a tiny pitcher of something and a bowl of sugar, and went to stand behind Aya. When he reached for Aya's teacup, Aya grabbed it first and asked, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Fixing your tea."

"With what?"

"Heavy cream?" Nagi asked. "That never stops being disgusting."

"You're not desecrating my tea with cream. Or sugar," Aya said.

"Oh, Farfie," Schuldig said as his eyes glinted. "All that time in Japan, and it's blown out of your head because your puisín thoughts took over."

"What the hell does 'puisín' mean?" Aya asked.

"It's Irish for 'kitten.' He only wants to feed you properly. You're lucky he's not trying to make you drink from a saucer."

Farfarello saw him as some kind of pet? That was horrible. That... made far too much sense. "No cream or sugar." He had to get out of here the moment he saw a chance.

"Hmm. Hardly proper tea at all then," Farfarello answered as he returned to his seat and added cream and seven spoons of sugar to his own tea. That explained a lot. He didn't remove the teabag either.

Aya could swear that Nagi had given him a sympathetic and almost conspiratorial look. Only for a second, true, but he thought he saw it.

"Such mousy clothing, Abyssinian, and rumpled too now," Schuldig said. "I know you're in mourning, but still. Hardly suitable for a breakfast taken with company."

"At least it's mine. I want my boots back."

"Can't do that."

"Why not?"

"I burned them," Schuldig purred.

A red haze fell over Aya's vision. "Burned them? They were my favorites. Perfectly broken in."

"They were nice, but we have to make a clean break. They're gone, and you need shoes. Wear the new boots. Or don't, and rip your feet to shreds. Your choice."

"I may do that."

"Masochists can be so boring."

"You're not eating," Farfarello said.

"I'm not hungry," Aya answered. He didn't think he'd ever be hungry again.

"You will eat."

"Or what? You'll kill me?"

"I'll stare at you." Farfarello's one eye seemed to have more force than the usual two and made Aya squirm under its drilling gaze.

"I can't eat while you're staring at me."

"Children," Crawford said, his voice as smooth and cool as a glacier. He didn't even put his paper down. "Let's not fight. Besides, we could always hook Abyssinian up to an IV if he won't take care of himself."

"Oooh, I'm game," Schuldig purred. "How long do we have to wait before we go to that?"

"One day, Schu."

"In that case, Aya, please feel free to keep acting like an infant."

If he intended to make them pay and escape them, he had to keep his strength up. He mechanically spooned some breakfast into his mouth but barely tasted it. At least eating made Farfarello stop staring at him.

~ You do remember that I'm a telepath, right? ~

If they were all one big, happy, fucking family.... "Fuck off, Schu," Aya muttered, but Schuldig beamed.

******************************************************

In an admittedly half-assed escape plan, Aya told them he needed exercise and went out running, knowing that Schuldig knew that he did that kind of thing. Farfarello followed him out running, staying with him through all of the eleven kilometers while breathing hard but showing no sign of pain. His expression never changed. Could the berserker feel fatigue aches?

Aya hadn't been foolish enough to really think they'd let him go alone. Instead, he ran with his company and paid attention to streets and places and names.

Aya didn't admit to himself that it had reassured him having something familiar nearby as he ran through Frankfurt's streets, which didn't look or smell or sound anything like home, with even the sunlight seeming different. He refused to admit it. It was too embarrassing.

He wore the damned new boots, since he could hardly run through the streets barefoot. They didn't even need much breaking in. The ease of it all disquieted him.


	3. "Bad kitty."

Aya stripped his shirt and the bandage off to examine the wounds on his arm and gently washed flaked blood away from the tender edges. The stitches looked like ugly studs of black barbwire running along the two red jagged lines. They didn't look like suicide attempts; he could have gotten them in a knife fight. Not that it really mattered.

The pain ran all the way to his hand as he flexed his arm. Farfarello pressing on them last night couldn't have helped.

Assassins had to have bandages around. Sure enough, he found an aid kit under the sink. When he stood again, his shirt had disappeared from the counter. Taken. He hadn't felt anyone come in.

He fought back tears of frustration. Schuldig might know how upset he was, but there was no reason for Aya to show the others. Let them find out from the telepath or not at all.

He wrapped his arm in new bandages, then walked back into the bedroom for a shirt. Farfarello sat on the unmade bed and asked, "No bath?"

Despite the exercise sweat on his skin, Aya didn't care about washing right now, and he knew that his pants would disappear. "I've heard that cleanliness is next to godliness."

"Bath."

Aya didn't ask what the alternative was. Having no desire to be knocked out, stripped, and bathed by Farfarello, he sighed and went to the suitcase, giving his pants up for lost in advance. "Who the hell packed this thing?" Aya asked when he looked through the underwear.

Farfarello barked a laugh. "You're lucky he got you only two thongs."

Must have been Schuldig.

The rest was serviceable, real underwear, though silk, far more indulgent than anything Aya would get himself. He added a pair to his pile of new clothing and returned to the bathroom to fill the tub. Its clawed feet bemused him. Once he started the water running, he backed up into Farfarello, who said, "It's possible to drown in even a small bit of water."

"I don't bathe for an audience."

"There's a first time for everything."

"I won't." Why had Farfarello given him privacy for his wound care but not for this?

"It's nothing I haven't seen before." And no doubt dismembered, perhaps saving his favorite parts for later.

To think, he'd gone with Schwarz partly out of the fear that his own teammates would scrutinize his every action and never give him a moment's peace.

He couldn't do this. He had to do this, but he couldn't do it by ignoring the killer's presence, which would be folly. Once the tub had filled, Aya undressed quickly and refused to wonder what Farfarello thought of him, then scrambled into the tub, soaking his new bandage and nearly slipping and breaking his head open in the process. Farfarello made a tch! sound. Disgruntled, Aya unwrapped the sopping gauze and dropped it to the floor.

Farfarello crouched behind Aya's head, which made his skin crawl. Couldn't see him there. Aya tried to turn to watch him, but a firm hand at the top of his head kept him immobile. Warm water trickled over his hair and down his neck in a way that made him shudder.

"I don't want you to touch me." Aya doubted that saying anything would make a difference, but at least he'd tried. "I don't like it. I don't like it when anyone does it."

"Poor kitten. So distrustful."

"I'm _not_ a--" The next sluice of water flowed down his face and into his mouth. Petty vengeance, since the last one had been so careful.

Farfarello hummed as he worked shampoo into Aya's hair and kneaded his scalp with his fingertips, making it tingle. It seemed that he saw Aya as a doll as well as a pet.

Aya quickly learned that as long as he didn't protest he didn't get water running down his face. Blinking shampoo out of his stinging eyes, he told himself that he could get through this. As he washed, he distracted himself by deciding whether he'd kill them all to make them pay or escape first. Events would probably dictate his course of action, but it made him happier to ponder the possibilities.

Whether by accident or design, Farfarello tapped Aya's earring, setting it swinging. Once he'd worn it as a weighty, ever-present reminder of his sister and what he'd have to do to avenge his family. Now it reminded him of his failure to save her and the deaths of two women who wouldn't be dead if they hadn't tried to help him. He tugged at it once, hard.

After two rounds of shampoo and one of conditioner--Farfarello's hair didn't look like it received this much attention--the lunatic simply sat and stared. Aya realized that Farfarello's one eye was focused on Aya's wounded arm, more specifically, on the stitches. He had a sudden nightmare image of Farfarello lunging forward, clamping his teeth around one of the knots of black thread, and yanking.

Aya folded that arm in close to his chest. When Farfarello sighed in what sounded like disappointment, Aya answered, "Get your own."

He'd nearly killed himself getting into the tub out of an attempt at privacy but refused to repeat the process. As much as he wanted to die, he'd rather not do it this stupidly and naked. This time he stood, stepped out, and reached for a towel. Farfarello handed it to him first with only the briefest flicker of emotion in that one eye.

Aya tried to disregard that burning gaze as he dried off and dressed. His own pants had disappeared, as he'd anticipated. The new clothing fit well and reflected his taste in mission wear. It made his skin creep to think of Schuldig going into his brain to help the selection process.

As Aya fastened the straps at his neck, Schuldig pushed the door open, blatantly checked Aya out from head to toe, and said, "Time to do some reconnaissance. Hey, Aya, looking _good_."

Aya glared. Schuldig grinned.

******************************************************

Schwarz kept him busy for the rest of the day but not enough to keep Aya's thoughts from wandering to his lost sister, team, and home. All gone through his deeply flawed judgment. Maybe he shouldn't be allowed to make his own decisions. He'd traded the possibility of having three concerned teammates following him everywhere as his nursemaid to the certainty of having one psychopath in that role instead. At least Farfarello had no pity in his gaze. Insanity and a disturbing hunger, but no pity.

Aya wanted to scream or cry, and his face hurt as he tried to keep it all in.

As they drove or walked through Frankfurt, he felt lost amidst the unfamiliar environs, disconnected and ghostly. Sometimes some treacherous part of him found it pretty and was excited to be somewhere new, but for the most part he felt like he was wandering through purgatory without the possibility of redemption.

"Where are we going?" he'd asked once, and Crawford had answered, "You don't have to concern yourself with that. We'll be there soon."

The hot weight of Farfarello's hand on the back of his neck distracted and anchored him, so he kept shrugging and twitching it off. He didn't want to be anchored.

******************************************************

Schuldig had included a pair of pajamas in the suitcase, but Aya chose a T-shirt and a loose, soft pair of pants instead, preferring to sleep in something he could run away in. Farfarello walked in, stripped down to just pants, and went under the covers.

"I am not sleeping with you," Aya said.

"You did last night."

"I was drugged!"

"And could be again." Farfarello smiled.

Aya's skin crawled. "I'll sleep on the floor."

"I usually do, so that would be no trouble. It's far safer for me to stay with you."

"Safer for whom?"

But he could see that fighting was getting him nowhere again. Far better to go along with it for now, stay quiet, and act unexpectedly. If luck did an unusual thing by favoring him, he might even surprise Schuldig as well.

So he turned out the light and got into bed with Farfarello, who immediately draped an arm over his waist. Aya tried to ignore it.

Sleep wouldn't come, not while he had another person in bed with him. He couldn't ignore the second weight, the pressure and warmth, the breathing, and the knowledge that an unpredictable mind that could decide to do anything to him was lying that close. Farfarello's arm felt hot and humid and left Aya's skin under it feeling the same. Farfarello could rip out his throat with his teeth if he slept, and even if Aya wanted to die, he didn't quite want to die like that. Even if he _didn't_ deserve any better.

Farfarello sighed and rubbed Aya's belly. "You stink of adrenaline."

Aya squirmed under the unwelcome, weird touch. "Do you blame me?"

"Yes."

"Of course you do."

"Poor distrustful kitten."

This was his life. In the absence of dying for his sins, this was what he deserved. She was gone, and thus so was his reason for continuing on.

Here, in the dark, with a demon wrapped around him, he realized that in many ways she had been dead to him for years, and that part of him had known it. He'd betrayed her in his heart long ago.

Unable to hold it back any longer after years of repression, Aya started to shake. He wouldn't do this in front of an enemy, so he tried to pull free, but Farfarello held on too tightly. Desperate, he thrashed and clawed, but it was like fighting a log. Finally he landed a shot that loosened that grip enough for him to break away, but when he reached the door he found out that it was locked from the outside. Yanking and rattling it did no good.

"Puisín." Farfarello was near the closet, where his katana was. Relying on excellent night vision, Aya could just about see him.

Still shaking, Aya slid along the wall until he reached a corner he could put his back to. If Farfarello came at him, one of them would die.

Farfarello sighed and stood there, not moving or speaking. Eventually, Aya exhausted himself, sliding down the wall to sleep sitting up.

Eventually, he woke, alone in the corner, the room still dark. He was free to move, free to act. He could leap out the window if he could get the guard gate free and had no one to stop him, and then the grief would be over. Feeling lighter now, he walked to the closet and picked up his sheathed katana, unsheathed it as quietly as he could, taking comfort in its weight, then walked to the bed. Farfarello might not feel pain, but decapitation would stop him just as it would anyone else.

There the demon was. Silent, deadly, Aya raised his katana, then brought it down--

He never knew what hit him, but he came to crumpled on the floor against the wall in the morning. Farfarello, very much alive and crouching next to him, smacked his nose and said, "Bad kitty."

"I hate you with everything in me."

"Hmph. It's time for breakfast." The bastard smiled. "You need to keep your strength up if you want to kill me."

When he found another chance, he would take it. Aya stood and followed his keeper.

******************************************************

Schuldig smiled as Aya trudged into the kitchen after Farfarello. Abyssinian had been such a treat of torment last night and now felt washed out and gray, like a month of rain.

"Have a good time last night, Aya?" he asked.

The next thing he knew, he had insane lavender eyes glaring at him from a short distance away and a hand clutching his throat choking him. Aya had moved completely without thinking. Brad knocked the maddened kitten aside as Farfarello laughed like he'd never stop. Nagi forcibly sat Aya down in a chair and kept him there. As Schuldig tried to catch his breath he saw that Aya clutched the knife he'd just been using to cut his sausage. So fast.

"Son of a bitch--" Schuldig exploded up to his feet, prepared to dole out punishment, but Farfarello stepped between them. "Get the fuck out of my way."

"You provoked him," Farfarello said.

"He tried to strangle me and slice me open."

"You provoked him."

Schuldig looked to Brad, who raised an eyebrow and said, "Sit down and eat your breakfast."

"But--"

Brad thought, ~ I told you that picking at people can get you in trouble. ~

~ Fuck you. ~

~ What? Now? ~

Schuldig refused to smile.

~ It's not like you've never had a collar of bruises before, Schu. ~

~ He left bruises? That fucking-- I never felt him moving. From the look you had on your face, you didn't see it coming either. ~

~ Something to keep in mind. You're just pissed off that he tagged you. ~

Schuldig knew he had no excuse for being taken so easily. He knew that Aya had trained to fight and kill as they had, drilling the actions into his body and reflexes until he didn't have to think each step through. He couldn't say that he hadn't realized that this pet had teeth and claws. You were as likely to be killed in your own kitchen as anywhere else.

Thus, he was pissed off.

He watched Abyssinian closely through the meal and noticed that he didn't eat, just sat there, lost in a steady pulse of grief and a longing to escape. Farfarello looked unhappy and didn't know what to do. It looked like they'd have to run the kitten around again today to make him stop thinking.

Schuldig wondered how much difficult behavior Brad would put up with before executing their guest. Brad himself didn't know for certain yet.

******************************************************

"You can sleep on the bed or the floor. Either way, I'm sleeping by your side," Farfarello said.

The kitten didn't look at him. Aya had been distant and silent all day, barely there, with even his small flashes of anger seeming cool and dead. After that one, beautiful flare of life during breakfast, all other attempts to provoke him had been useless, and that was even with Schuldig being in particularly fine, pissed off form. Farfarello recognized slow death when he saw it.

He refused to let God win, so he grabbed the kitten's chin and said, "Take the bed." Aya's eyes seemed almost washed out looking, and his body said, "I don't care anymore," in its every line. Farfarello found that bodies could be very eloquent. He shook him a little to try to stir some life into it, get things moving again.

Nothing lived in the kitten's eyes as they stared at him. It was too fucking late at night to deal with this. He tossed Aya at the bed. At least Aya cared enough to grab the bed and sit down instead of letting himself hit the floor.

Farfarello stripped down, but Aya did nothing. Fine. Let him try to sleep in his belts and boots. Farfarello pushed him into a lying down position, then turned out the light, refusing to sleep until he felt that obstinate body relax into slumber.

******************************************************

As Aya awoke he felt relief as he saw that it was still night. The change in time zones had left him disoriented, but at least Schwarz had similar problems.

He waited for his eyes to adjust, then quietly and gently slid out of bed, morbidly certain that Farfarello could hear his heart pounding. But he had fooled them all during the day, so maybe he had a chance. Hopefully his show of despair and inertia would have done its work, lowering the lunatic's guard. Why be wary of someone who'd so obviously given up?

Aya picked up one of his captor's knives. Although the retractable ones fascinated him, they made too loud a noise, so he chose a more standard blade.

Swords necessarily telegraphed a little as you set them in position and moved. He could get in closer and faster with a knife. His breathing quickened as he imagined the splash of hot blood over his fingers. First he would make sure that Farfarello was dead, then he'd escape. Being calmer tonight, he wouldn't make such a mess of it. If the door was locked again tonight--it no doubt was, but he would still check--he would try to undo the metal guard on the window. If all of that failed, he would wait for the others to come, then attack and make a break for it, which would probably be suicide. Whatever would be, would be. It would almost be a relief to have his fate taken out of his hands.

Quietly, calmly, he approached Farfarello's side of the bed. His captor slept on, his throat nicely exposed. Watching carefully for any signs of returning consciousness, Aya set his knife hand in position. He moved--

An iron grip tightened on his wrist, trying to force him to drop the knife. Dammit. How did the madman keep waking up just in time? Farfarello head-butted him, but he clung to his weapon and slashed with it, hitting something. They grappled on the bed, Aya slashing and twisting, Farfarello clinging and punching.

Aya's head hit something hard that left him stunned and uncoordinated through the wave of pain and disorientation. It left him so out of it that he barely felt it as the lower half of his body hit the floor. His head and one arm remained on the mattress.

Farfarello laughed and grabbed the knife. "Tricky kitten. Good try." Something went around one wrist and then the other, and it took Aya a moment to realize that they were some kind of cuffs. Farfarello had wound them around one bedpost.

Aya struggled but couldn't slide out of the padded leather cuffs. Pulling, he felt his arms strain and shoulders hurt. The bed started to move a little toward him.

"You're dragging the bed? Impressive. But you'll hurt yourself." Farfarello grabbed him by the hair and dashed his head against the wall.

******************************************************

Aya's head rung, and the morning light drilled into his skull when he opened his eyes. Crouching beside him, Farfarello grinned. "Good morning."

"Die."

"Not today. You can be quiet as I undo the cuffs, or you can struggle and I'll leave you in here all day." His grin deepened. "You might be spiteful enough to struggle anyway. Fine. I'll stay with you no matter what you do, but if you're good you can be freed from the bed, eat breakfast, and plot my painful death."

Remaining cuffed to the bed would accomplish nothing aside from amusing Farfarello, and he hated to amuse the bastard. "I won't struggle." And he didn't struggle, not even when Farfarello stroked the insides of his wrists with callused fingertips, though he did growl then.


	4. No more casual and perpetual molestation, public bathing, or force feedings.

As Crawford threatened their target in the next room, Aya carefully and quietly walked the length of the target's kitchen. Something here. He turned his back to return and heard something, so he swung around with his katana and chopped the man's arm off, then sliced his neck open. In the close confines, his katana destroyed some objects lying around as well, making even more noise.

It felt good to be doing something.

Someone screamed from the next room. Not Crawford.

When Aya stepped on something that crunched underfoot, he crouched down to see it. The shards of a drinking glass winked in the light and looked wickedly sharp. Potential, gleaming.... Carefully not thinking, he wrapped the best specimens in a dishtowel, then put the small wrapped package in his coat pocket.

******************************************************

Schuldig woke up part of the way as Brad startled awake, and hit consciousness at full throttle at the rush of Brad's angry thoughts and departure from the bed while cursing in English. The excitement never stopped for Schwarz. Then he "heard" what was going on in the next room and rushed out himself, just in time to see Brad growl as he undid the first lock of three on the psycho couple's bedroom door. Funny how precautions against Abyssinian could become an annoyance to them.

The other two locks spun and clicked, the knob turned, and the door swung open. The inside light even turned on. Standing at the other end of the hallway, Nagi yawned. "Nice work," Brad said, and Nagi nodded.

The scene that greeted them... well. It could have been sex, the two of them trying to kill each other, or both. For Farfarello, there was often no difference, and his thoughts now were a chaotic haze of lust and excitement as he straddled Aya and tried to do... something to him while they were lying on the floor. He didn't seem to be sure himself what he wanted to do; he just wanted to do it now. His neck had gushed so much blood that Schuldig couldn't figure out the dimensions of the wound. The way Aya's hands, locked around it, had smeared the blood around didn't help end the confusion. Aya seemed to be trying to push Farfarello off and strangle him at the same time but succeeding in neither.

What had Aya used? Schuldig went into the riptide of that roiling brain and found it. Shards of broken glass. Holding one in his hand, Aya had come up to a sleeping Farfie and stroked it deeply across Farfie's neck in a precise and almost gentle way. None of the "weapon!" warnings that had saved Farfarello from the other attempts had been triggered. Schuldig couldn't read where the shard had come from, but maybe that would be possible once Aya's mind wasn't focused on fighting for his life and the sanctity of his ass.

Farfarello had been right. Taking Aya's weapons away _wouldn't_ have made a difference.

"I really thought that having a pet would calm Farfarello?" Brad asked the air or God or maybe just Schuldig.

"That's what you told me," Schuldig answered with a grin.

"I found another white hair this morning. You people are turning me gray."

"You didn't foresee this attack, did you?"

"No, and I don't know why. We have to separate them."

"You do it. I'm not getting in there."

"Do I have to do everything around here?" Nagi asked, then _pushed_ with his telekinesis. Aya and Farfarello none too gently flew to separate ends of the room from one another, stopping only when they hit the walls. Since Nagi had much more finesse than that, he must have just been ticked off at being woken up at 4 in the morning.

"Crawford, I have everything under control," Farfarello said, so hard that he tented his pants, grinning. Across the room, Aya just snarled.

"Yes, so much in control that you're bleeding to death. Come along."

20 minutes later, Schuldig shook his head in amusement as he took in the scene in front of him: a glaring Abyssinian bound to a chair and Brad putting stitches into the long slash on Farfarello's neck. Without anesthesia, of course, since Farfarello didn't need it. Both Snow-white and Rose-red were blood red at the moment, though it had begun to turn brown as it dried.

Farfarello was still so aroused and hard that it almost registered as pain even to him. If they hadn't been interrupted, who knew what he might have done to Aya? Aside from inflicting that nasty looking bite on Aya's neck that Schuldig had cleaned and bandaged, because who knew what kind of germs Farfarello had in his mouth? The psycho kitten had even allowed Schuldig to do that, objecting only when Schuldig had taken the opportunity to feel him up a bit. Feeling Farfarello's lust made him horny.

When Farfarello caught glimpses of himself in the mirror, he seemed to be very taken by the black stitches on his neck, happily thinking of them as a kind of barbwire choker collar.

Yeah, Aya had entertainment value. He and Farfie were a veritable match made in hell.

From the curve of the glass shards Aya had used, they probably came from a drinking glass, but nothing had gone missing from their kitchen. He must have taken it from their last target's. Schuldig glanced at Brad, sent his theory over telepathically, and asked, ~ And where were you during all of this? ~

Brad raised one eyebrow. ~ In another room. The noise of the glass breaking might have been camouflaged by the sound of him dispatching that bodyguard. ~

~ He carried bits of broken glass with the intent to use 'em for _hours_, but you didn't notice? ~

~ You didn't either. ~

Shit. True.

Brad continued, ~ I can't foresee his actions as easily as I used to. It might be that he's more insane and unpredictable now. ~

Made sense. They kept Farfie around to do exactly that to rival seers. ~ Aya got us good. None of us registered this as a lethal weapon. ~

~ I get the feeling that Farfarello will in the future. ~

~ Aw! They're teaching each other! ~

Brad gave him a look that should have struck him dead. Good thing Brad wasn't the telekinetic in the group.

"Well, Aya--" Schuldig raised an eyebrow as he realized that Aya had fallen asleep, head down and hair hanging in his face, while bound to the chair.

Farfarello crouched behind Aya and nuzzled the hair at the back of his head. "He hasn't been sleeping well lately."

"I know the feeling," Nagi muttered.

"_I'm_ not untying him," Schuldig said.

Nagi walked out of the room and slammed the door behind him before anyone could ask.

"Maybe we should leave him in the chair. He looks so peaceful," Farfie said.

"He'll be stiff this morning if you leave him," Brad said.

"And not in a fun way," Schuldig added.

Farfarello cut the ropes and put Aya over his shoulder to carry him to the bed. Aya twitched awake, then lunged for one of the knives in Farfarello's belt. Armed, Aya tried to slash him, but he bucked him off. Aya hit the floor in a roll and came up to his feet. The two stared one another down, each with a knife in his hand, crackling with violence and sexual tension. Schuldig licked his lips.

"I'm not coming back in!" Nagi shouted from the hall.

"You were bored, Schu," Brad said.

They pounced one another. Aya got a slash in along Farfie's back, but Farfarello knocked him down and kissed him, then headbutted him. Dazed, Aya still slashed and kicked again, but the next headbutt knocked him out.

"I hoped he'd last longer," Schuldig said.

"He's tired," Farfie answered. "I feel warm."

"It might be blood loss," Brad said with a sigh. "Come over here so I can look at the new damage."

******************************************************

When Aya awoke in bed, his head started to ring the moment he moved. Farfarello's hand clenched on his shirt, and the madman slithered up close. Aya's eyes shied away from the black stitches that studded the fresh wound on Farfarello's neck and matched what he had on his arm.

"Not everyone would be as forgiving as I've been," Farfarello said.

"That's the point," Aya said. Tired, he just wanted to rest. Forever.

Farfarello pulled him up to a sitting position by his shirt. "I won't be taken so easily again. Now, we must have breakfast. Must I feed you again? I enjoy it."

"No. I can do it myself."

"You're no fun."

When he sat at the table, no one had any words for him. At all. They passed plates if he asked for them, but otherwise they ignored him. Shunned him. He didn't care. He didn't care.

He just hated to be ignored. It didn't mean they mattered.

******************************************************

Hauser deserved to have his systems hacked. Nagi could do this in his sleep. It insulted him.

He saw color moving from his peripheral vision. Stupid headphones and music had stopped him from hearing anything and feeling anything, stupid impression of safety in their own lair had made him careless.... He turned and called up the power, only to see Abyssinian dive for cover behind his bed.

Nagi pushed his telekinesis back down, put the headphones around his neck, and said, "I could have smashed you to pieces."

How did Aya sneak up on him? Maybe it was from the way Aya became null while depressed, stopping Nagi from feeling him with any of his talents. Of course, it didn't help that Nagi didn't pay full attention to his kinetic sense while outside of battle and especially not while hacking, since feeling everything around him moving all the time was distracting.

"I trust your professionalism," Fujimiya Aya answered as he peeked over the top of the bed.

It looked so funny that Nagi nearly smiled. "I'm surprised that Farfarello let you wander around alone, especially after last night."

Could the madman already be tiring of his new pet? If Farfarello tried to kill Aya directly, Aya would fight back even despite his suicidal tendencies. He was wired to fight. Farfarello would have to sneak up on him or kill him in his sleep. Either was possible.

"I am as well." Aya stood and twitched. At least he didn't seem to be in attack mode.

"You're accustomed to Bombay's key clacking," Nagi said as he realized what had drawn Abyssinian here. Comfort. The familiar. "You couldn't possibly want to try to use the Internet for anything, would you." He said it more as a warning than a question and intended to keep a closer eye on his laptop than usual.

From the look on Aya's face, he hadn't even thought of that. It amazed Nagi to be able to see that on Weiß's famously stone-faced member. "Yes."

Despite Farfarello's professed efforts to heal him, Aya looked worse now than when he'd first joined them, more emotionally bruised, closer to the edge of his endurance. Schuldig had said something about cracking the hard shell to get to the tasty, chewy center.

Nagi hadn't been briefed on how to deal with Fujimiya Aya, whether to be cruel or kind. Lacking that, he could do whatever he pleased and claim ignorance if it turned out to be the wrong thing. Farfarello might try to get vengeance, but Farfarello could attack him at any time anyway.

Aya had no power here. Schwarz had a pecking order, and Aya was at the very bottom.

Nagi could do as he pleased.

"You can stay," Nagi said in his and Aya's native language. Aya looked so pathetically grateful for a moment before he regained control of himself and shut his face down. Nagi hated the German dialects anyway. They had no elegance. "I'm used to having company as I work like this." When around, Schuldig tended to perch behind him like a gargoyle, something that had annoyed the shit out of him until he became accustomed to it.

"Thank you," Aya said in the same, looking even more relieved that he still _could_ speak his own language. He sat near Nagi. "What are you listening to?"

Nagi remembered that he'd been bopping his head to the music in a way that would have looked uncharacteristic of him to someone who'd only seen him in his professional capacity. "Some thrash Schuldig picked up for me in Amsterdam once. I like some noise. It feels good. Otherwise, I am the perfect child, seen but rarely heard." Nagi put his hands together and did an exaggerated bow from the waist over his keyboard.

Aya almost smiled. "Not a child for much longer."

"True, but there's no reason we have to let certain people know that, yes?" Nagi did it because Crawford liked him as the dutiful Asian child. The American had some idea that it was a façade but wanted to believe it enough to often forget. Schuldig found the act amusing, while Farfarello didn't care. "I have to work."

"I can be quiet."

He could. Aya set his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, looking almost peaceful, as Nagi went back to his hacking. Nagi had to start from the beginning, since he'd lost his In, but didn't mind. Hauser's security truly was pathetic.

This time Nagi didn't put the headphones back on, just kept them playing as they hung around his neck, providing tinny music with a beat. He wouldn't be taken by surprise a second time. Besides, he saw Aya's head move a little to the beat.

In a little while, Aya opened his eyes and stared at the doorway, his face blank. Nagi turned his head to see Farfarello standing there, staring back, and got the feeling that even with his eyes closed Aya had known his presence from the moment he arrived, even before Nagi had felt it. The two stared at one another in silence for a few charged minutes, then Farfarello walked on.

"Was that approval?" Nagi asked.

"How would I know?" Aya answered wearily, then rested his head back against the wall again.

******************************************************

In the distance Farfarello fought off a small army of minions, grinning all the while. Aya sent _his_ last foe to hell, then realized that he stood in an empty alleyway. He could see the street ahead, with a whole city beyond it. His chest ached at the thought. Freedom. The freedom of a foreigner lacking money and identification, carrying what had to be an illegal weapon, but it wasn't as if he really wanted to live anyway. Foolhardy, but he could hardly _plan_ an escape with a telepath in the house.

No. He could hide his katana somewhere and go to the local police and tell them that he'd been abducted. It was even true. They would help him get home.

But he remembered how the police had poked at him the night his parents died and Aya was hit, taking apart his story and shredding it, and that had been when he'd been an innocent. They hadn't helped. They'd done anything but, preferring to leave him shaking and in tears, uncertain even of the few things he'd still been certain of.

Besides, the thought of leaving his katana somewhere nauseated him.

Aya sheathed it and hid it within his coat, then started to run, having no idea where he could go, not that it mattered. It made no difference in Frankfurt.

No more casual and perpetual molestation, public bathing, or force feedings. He would live free until he died.


	5. "Don't ruin it by talking."

"I can't find him," Farfarello said, his eye blazing. No need to ask the identity of the "him" in question. Schuldig sighed.

"It will have to wait," Brad said. Kind Brad. Handy Brad cleaning up his wound.

"Why?"

"Schuldig is injured."

Farfarello finally looked at him. "What happened to you?"

"Brad gave me a warning on a bullet heading my way half a minute before it hit me. More warning would have been appreciated." Schuldig hadn't seen it coming himself since it hadn't actually been aimed at _him_. Even with the warning, only his preternatural speed had saved his life.

"I don't have control over how much warning I get," Brad said, but he was concerned. Through Brad's eyes, Schuldig could see the gash along his right cheekbone. Some of his hair had burned. ~ How does it feel? ~ Brad wondered. He tried to hide it, but Schuldig could tell that he thought it _looked_ pretty bad, even though it wasn't deep. The light burns around it didn't help.

Shit. ~ Hurts. How do you think it feels? My head rings. I may never play the piano again. ~

~ You never played it before. ~

~ No great loss, then. ~

"You don't need to use your face to find the kitten," Farfarello said.

"He's not up for it," Brad said, since he didn't believe in needlessly breaking his tools.

"Whether you let Schuldig help or not, I will find him tonight."

"Are you disobeying me?"

"Are you telling me that I'm not allowed to find him on my own? No. You just said you didn't want Schuldig doing it."

"What if I said that you couldn't?"

Farfarello's eyes narrowed. "I have no patience for this." He turned and raced off into the night.

"This is becoming a problem," Brad muttered.

"I can find them," Schuldig said. "It's not like my head isn't already hurting. What are you going to do about our problem?"

"Outlook is hazy. Try again later. Find them, Schu."

******************************************************

Aya took the alleys when he could, figuring that it would be harder for them to follow him in the car if he did. Frankfurt's many narrow streets worked in his favor.

He had no destination aside from Out and Away. At least that should make it harder for Schuldig to find him.

~ Nice thought, but I only have to find _you_, not where you're going. ~

Shit. He'd hoped to get farther, much farther. The car pulled up at the end of the alley and stopped. He leapt back and changed direction, but Farfarello stood there. Aya picked up speed, unhooked his sheathed katana, and used it as a bludgeon as he charged him, knocking the lunatic out of the way.

"Nagi, grab him," Crawford said.

Aya hit an invisible wall that turned into an invisible box that closed tightly around him. Beating at it and struggling did no good. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe.... Sinking under a black wave into oblivion came as a relief.

******************************************************

Farfarello leapt out of his crouch by his puisín's side and launched himself at Nagi, who stopped him in mid-flight with telekinesis. "What did you do?" Farfarello growled.

"He shouldn't have passed out that quickly, so it wasn't my fault," Nagi replied.

"_That_ quickly?"

"It works out well," Crawford said. "Nagi, put him down. Farfarello, stop threatening Nagi and put your pet in the car."

"What do I do?" Schuldig asked as he sat in the front passenger seat with his head back against the headrest.

"Stop bleeding."

"I don't know if I can do that, Brad." Schuldig didn't sound well, which made Farfarello feel a bit bad for him. Schuldig had helped.

Farfarello picked up his puisín's weapon and his puisín. Aya needed a leash. Lovely, lovely thought, with a black collar clasped around that pale neck and a leash for him to hold in his hand to direct his pet. Aya would lounge on his bed and smile as he stroked his flank....

"I like the way you think, Farfie," Schuldig purred.

As they drove away, Schuldig said, "He didn't go to the police. The thought crossed his mind for only about three seconds."

"That's useful to know," Crawford answered. "Farfarello, clean yourself up. Your nose is bleeding."

"It's not broken. It can wait." Farfarello cradled his puisín in the backseat and regretted that the race hadn't gone on longer. He liked to run and fight.

When he noticed Nagi watching him, he bared his teeth in a smile/snarl. _His_ pet.

"Neither of you would be here right now if not for me," Nagi said softly.

"As much as I appreciate your recent effort to make Aya feel more included, I won't let anyone interfere with what belongs to me."

Nagi bowed his head in assent.

******************************************************

When Aya awoke, he quickly realized that someone had stripped him down to his pants. Even his bandage had been taken off. What had his life become that this didn't surprise him anymore?

From the doorway, Schuldig said, "Up and at 'em. We have people to kill today." But he didn't sound as disgustingly chipper as usual. Perhaps the white gauze pad taped to the side of his face had something to do with it. Without his characteristic smirk or sneer, he looked like a different person, younger, almost pretty.

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Aya asked, though he wouldn't ask what had happened.

"If I had a heart, your concern would warm it."

It wasn't concern. Not really. "I didn't--"

"Don't ruin it by talking." Schuldig walked away.

Farfarello perched at the end of the bed. "You'll like this one. We hunt a higher flunky today."

Aya would like that. In the absence of freedom, tormenting the guilty would do. For now.

******************************************************

"Eszett made you!" Gerhard Stecher shouted as he faced them down in his office. He wasn't dealing well with the deaths of his minions and his own impending doom at all. Nowhere left to run....

"Helped make us," Brad said.

Schuldig shrugged, grinned, and said, "We'd probably be less brutal if Eszett hadn't been involved."

"Aya, would you like the coup de grâce?" Brad asked.

Schuldig took in a deep breath at the riptide of dark emotion Aya radiated. Beautiful. The kitten was gleeful vengeance personified as he walked up to Stecher with his katana in hand.

"Who are you?" Stecher sneered.

"You could say that Eszett helped make me too," Aya said in a cool, dead voice. "It kidnapped and tried to sacrifice my sister to raise its pet devil. Then its minions just killed her. I'm dead too."

"I don't know you or her, and I don't care."

"No?" Aya tilted his head. "You must be a lower level creature, then. No matter. Time to die."

"Fuck you."

Aya thrust his katana through Stecher's chest and smiled as his victim grunted in pain, looked down at the weapon violating his body, and spat blood. Swift and brutal, he yanked it back out, tearing the flesh further. Stecher dropped to the expensive carpeting and stained it a darker red. As he cleaned his blade on his victim's suit jacket, Aya felt a little better.

Farfarello wanted to fuck Aya so badly that Schuldig had to dig his nails into his wrist just to think straight through it, yet Farfarello made no move. Schuldig wanted, almost _needed_, to jump Aya himself right now, yet Farfie, who had no inhibitions, resisted? He'd definitely changed the rules with this pet.

******************************************************

Aya felt quiet and almost peaceful on the ride back to the apartment. Purged. But he could feel it all slowly coming back, so he had to bask in this while he could, even if it did come stained in blood.

To his surprise, Farfarello didn't touch him at all. Then again, if appearances could be trusted, Farfarello seemed to be in the throes of a lust that would rip Aya apart if given expression, so maybe he forbore out of the urge to keep his toy intact.

As the weight on his soul returned, Aya realized that he could have interrogated that worm for information that could lead them to the next one. He closed his eyes.

"We already have that information, sugar," Schuldig said from the front seat. "Nagi hacked it for us. We've run through the best victims Frankfurt had to offer, so we're off to Berlin now. I'm going to have to update you to a new dialect."

"That Berliner-speak is almost a different language completely," Nagi said softly.

"You're not going back into my head," Aya replied.

When Schuldig turned to face him, no trace of the morning's vulnerability remained to be seen in his expression. "Who's going to stop me? Besides, I never left your head."

Farfarello put his hand down over the door handle just as Aya reached for it, which put Aya's hand over his. The madman twitched and smiled at him. He drew his hand back and dove in the other direction, over Nagi's lap, for the other door. As his hand closed over the door handle--

******************************************************

"What did you do?" Farfarello demanded as he checked Aya's pulse through his wrist. It was slow but steady.

Aya had stiffened and dropped like a stone across their laps in mid-flight.

"Oops," Schuldig answered as he closed his eyes and put his hand to his head. "Guess that head injury made me misjudge the force a bit. He's fine."

"You don't seem to be. If this keeps up, you'll be seeing a doctor," Crawford said.

"I have a headache, okay? It's something that happens when a metal pellet hits your face at high velocity and then you try to use your head for something. It is not permanent damage."

"You're just afraid of doctors."

"Fuck off."

The usual meaningless bickering. Farfarello preferred the persona Schuldig adopted in front of clients, where he just followed orders.

"Excuse me, but I have an assassin draped across my lap," Nagi said. He must have been flustered if he hadn't thought to use his telekinesis. He'd squeaked before as Aya had made his move.

If anyone deserved to have Aya's head facedown in his lap, it wasn't Nagi.

"He'll be _fine_, since he's just unconscious," Schuldig said. "No damage."

Farfarello pulled his puisín's limp body up and seated it again. Aya looked peaceful in unconsciousness, and Farfarello liked to watch him while he was like this. Awake Aya and unconscious/sleeping Aya made two different pets, a two-for-one deal. Unconscious or sleeping, he could be posed and played with. Pretty. Farfarello ran his fingers down the slope of Aya's nose.

"At least it makes packing for Berlin easier," Crawford said.

"Since we already have the most difficult piece of baggage in the car?"

******************************************************

Aya came to with his face pressed against a cool car window, a feeling of déjà vu, and Farfarello's hand on his thigh. He saw trees and a road. "We're on our way to Berlin, aren't we?"

"Of course we are," Schuldig answered.

Remembering bits of his most recent escape attempt and thus temporarily defeated, Aya leaned back on the seat and closed his eyes to take a nap. Somebody had reminded him once that he'd have to keep his strength up if he wanted to kill them. But his sleep didn't last long.

******************************************************

"Stop touching me!" Aya snarled from the back, to which Brad said, "Stay in the middle of the car seat, Farfarello."

Nagi growled, "No, the _middle_, not my side! I used to wonder what it would be like to have a real family but no longer. I hate you all."

Brad sighed. "Are you children or assassins?" Then he glanced at Schuldig and asked, "What are you smiling at?"

Schuldig's smile widened. What a beautiful day of chaos.... "What do you think? And I'm waiting for you to tell them that any moment now you'll stop this car and turn around."

Nagi said, "If you don't get off my leg now, this car will become a convertible, and I'll dump you out of it."

They really needed another car, since Schwarz's personalities were too larger than life and contentious to fit in one. Schuldig missed his little red sports car, but it hadn't been possible to take it with them. And Schwarz left nothing that could be traced to them behind. It had made a big, pretty explosion....

"Stop touching me," Aya growled.

"_I_ am not touching you," Farfarello answered. Literally speaking, that was true. Farfarello himself didn't touch Abyssinian. But the flat of his knife lightly stroked up and down his pet's right arm. The sight gave Schuldig a pleasant shiver.

"Semantics. You will not touch me with your own flesh or anything you're holding. You will not touch me at all."

Schuldig knew that a dark part of Aya's soul liked the knife stroking but the rest of him wasn't ready to admit it. When pissed off at himself, Aya tended to take it out on other people... which didn't remind Schuldig of anyone else he knew, not at all. With being a sick bastard and naturally violent, maybe Aya would fit in with Schwarz after all. "Better listen, Farfie. Aya's really close to getting violent."

"But I like that." Then he glared. "Nagi, put the shield down now."

Aya took in a deep breath and relaxed a little. "Thank you, Nagi."

Nagi smiled, looking uncharacteristically cheerful. "I don't care what you do in private, but this seat is too small to have the two of you battling each other on my lap."

Why would Nagi put up a telekinetic wall to protect Aya from Farfie's affections? Aya had no pull in Schwarz, so doing him favors wouldn't get Nagi any returns. Nagi didn't like people in general and never cared before who or what Farfarello played with as long as it didn't become messy for him. When Schuldig looked back at him through the rearview mirror, he noticed a certain glint in those big, usually somber puppy dog eyes but couldn't read anything in that fluffy dandelion puff head aside from a desire to help poor, embattled Aya. Which made Schuldig suspicious as all hell. Nagi never used to play games, but Nagi had changed lately, letting his true self hang out a bit.

Safe from molestation, Aya relaxed a little and fell asleep again. All the sleeping worried Schuldig a bit, but it wasn't like Aya had anything else he could do here while on a long, boring trip with people he hated. Aya relaxing around them was either a sign that they were growing on him or that he didn't give a damn any more.

Farfarello spent the rest of the trip testing the teke shield every five minutes and glaring at Nagi every time he saw it was still there. Nagi, behind a shield of his own, put on headphones and ignored him, to Schuldig's disappointment. Aya twitched and muttered apologies to his sister as he watched Eszett goons shoot her down over and over, which provided a little entertainment.

******************************************************

Yoji noticed that Omi was hitting the keys harder than he strictly had to as he typed. Frustration probably. "The last confirmed sighting was at Frankfurt Airport," Omi said. "After that, I had to follow the trail of corpses."

"Charming," Yoji said.

"It gets worse. Look at this." Omi scrolled up what looked like surveillance footage onscreen.

"It looks like someone put those bodies through a thresher," Ken said.

"This is Schwarz's work?" Yoji asked.

"Yeah. One of the cameras caught a glimpse of Farfarello before they were turned off and then turned back on half an hour later. The weird thing is that these people were connected to Eszett," Omi said.

"They're hunting down other members of Eszett? That makes no sense."

"It gets worse. Look at the damage done to those corpses."

Yoji would've been happier not to. "So? Farfarello's a thorough bastard."

"Not all of those cuts are consistent with his blades." Omi looked solemn and a little nauseous. "Some of them look like damage done by a katana."

They did. "Fuck. You gonna let Kritiker know?"

"You think they haven't found a way to get this footage themselves? Yoji, I get the feeling that they don't really understand what Schuldig can do."

"They never faced Schuldig themselves," Ken said, sounding almost bitter.

"Birman already thinks that Aya turned. This won't help. We have to get to him first," Omi answered.

"Schwarz shanghaied him to Germany!" Yoji said. "I think Kritiker would notice if we hopped a plane to Europe."

"Especially if they already know he's there."

"We don't have the fucking _money_ to get to Europe. Besides, they're watching us. We could lead them right to him."

"I know. I'm working on getting the money and trying to make changes from the inside here. But I worry that the longer they have him, the worse he'll get."

Yoji smiled for the first time in what felt like a while. Omi always kept going.

******************************************************

Berlin looked more like what Aya expected a city to be in the size of its population and the rushing demeanor of its people, though it still had that foreign edge. He found the same suitcase, garment bag, and golf bag in the trunk with the others' things. Farfarello walked ahead of him, expecting him to follow, through the already furnished rooms of the apartment.

"Is there any point in unpacking?" Aya asked after he walked into a bedroom that Farfarello's stop there suggested would be his. It was... _their_ bedroom.

"We leave when we leave."

"That's not helpful."

"I think we'll be in Berlin a while."

Crawford appeared at the door. "We'll be here for a while. Aya, when you're done here, go to the kitchen. Nagi will be taking your stitches out."

Aya almost asked when that had been decided but then remembered that Crawford was a seer and would no doubt claim that his foreknowledge had told him, whether it had or not. No point in asking. Aya took his coat off and walked out to the kitchen, which looked a lot like the last one but had enough differences in it to seem spooky, and tried to ignore his Farfarello shadow.

Nagi sat blank-faced with a kit of medical supplies. Aya unwrapped his bandage and set his arm on the kitchen table, injured side up. With Farfarello behind him breathing down his neck, Aya was relieved that he wore a sleeveless shirt and didn't have to strip down further.

Wielding a small scissors and his telekinesis, Nagi gently and carefully snipped and removed the stitches from Aya's arm as Farfarello watched. The tiny, open wounds left by the stitches stung, raw. Aya had the sinking feeling that Farfarello would try to lick away the resulting blood. Once they'd all been removed, Farfarello crouched down next to his arm but did nothing but stare at it for a while, then gently kissed them, which made Aya shiver.

Licking a little blood off his lips, Farfarello said, "Better now."

"It couldn't hurt," Nagi said, an amused light in his eyes. Then he kissed Aya's arm too in a light, feathery brush of soft lips. Farfarello growled, and Nagi growled back, a response that made Farfarello look offended. Aya sighed and tried not to think about any of it.

******************************************************

Berlin offered new streets and sights to take his run through, although his company remained the same. Ignoring his golden-eyed shadow, Aya pushed himself a little harder, faster. It felt good, so he pushed more, trying to fly. Feet pounding against the pavement, arms pumping, breath sawing in out of his nose and mouth, giving thought only to his next direction, he felt nearly free. Thinking any more than that would give him away, so he didn't think. He didn't want to think anyway.

He ran faster, and the sound of Farfarello picking up velocity behind him spurred him to greater speeds. The exertion made him feel high, hollow, and wrung out, which he liked.

Crawford waited around the next corner. Aya dodged, sliding around him, but he had to cut his velocity down to do it. Farfarello tackled him into a wall, and the impact jarred him badly. "Good run. Good game," Farfarello said, but his tone of voice said that he knew exactly what Aya had attempted. At least he was breathing hard.

With a hot lunatic plastered against him and lightly humping him against the wall and Crawford watching, all Aya could do was breathe and twitch. Unable to see a way out, he surrendered. For now.

"When will you learn, Abyssinian?" Crawford asked.

Never.

******************************************************

Aya sat in the kitchen in front of a huge cake and tried not to be blinded by the light from all the candles. Schuldig adjusted the thin cardboard party hat on Aya's head, one similar to what Schuldig wore, and said, "Blow the damned candles out before you're another year older." Aya tried to unwind Schuldig's arms from around his neck, but the telepath clung like a vine or a snake.

"Yes," Crawford said, "I want to get out of this ridiculous hat." When Nagi took a picture of him, he sighed. "I'll have to kill you now."

Nagi grinned. "This will be such a great blackmail shot."

"Blow out the candles, kitten," Farfarello said as he flipped and caught the cake knife, obviously impatient to begin slicing.

They... all wore the hats, and the hats matched the tablecloth and napkins. Aya had never seen so much pink in one place.

"But why?" Aya asked, horrified.

They sang him a song wishing him a happy birthday but with lyrics and a melody he'd never heard before and hoped never to hear again. He blew the candles out in a rush, hoping to make them stop. Farfarello plucked the smoldering and sparking candles off and started to cut with fervor, occasionally licking pink icing off the knife the way he usually licked blood, while Nagi made a face and said, "_That_ can't be hygienic."

Aya woke up in a rush, and Farfarello asked, "Nightmare?"

"Yeah," Aya gasped. What the hell had that been about?

He didn't go back to sleep for an hour. Farfarello stroking his back and belly in what seemed to be meant as comfort didn't help. Aya gave up on slapping his hand away after the first ten minutes.

Later, Aya woke up in a rush when he felt something brush against his face. Smiling, Farfarello ran a piece of red yarn across his nose. Aya snarled, "You're kidding me."

"I'm cheering you up."

"You're patronizing me and treating me like a pet."

"You are a pet." When Aya swiped at him, Farfarello rolled away and said, "No, no, you're supposed to bat at the yarn, not me."

Incensed beyond words, Aya launched himself at the bastard and only became angrier as the man laughed. They wrestled and rolled across the bed, Aya fighting with all the viciousness he had in him while Farfarello seemed to be enjoying himself and not trying very hard to fend him off. Hitting the floor dazed Aya, and he found himself lying on his back with his captor straddling him and grinning.

"Don't you feel better now?" the lunatic asked.

"No!" Aya surged upward, but his opponent clung to him, holding him down and moving along with him

"Liar."

Farfarello still had that damned yarn, and he stroked it playfully along Aya's face, making him shiver. The straddling didn't help either, as his treacherous body responded to the simulation.

"Breakfast!" Nagi called from the door. "Oh, you're already having it."

Aya took advantage of the distraction to push Farfarello off. The lunatic growled at Nagi, who smirked and walked on.

"Don't do that again," Aya said.

"I have other things I could do," Farfarello answered.

They would drive him insane. That had to be their plan.


	6. "Sure, watch me be a walking, singing cliché."

"You could have gone out with them," Nagi said as he typed.

"I didn't want to. I'd said I didn't want to," Aya answered as he twisted around in the chair.

"You didn't expect them to honor your words and leave you here." At Aya's snarl, Nagi continued, "You're bored. They'll be back in about an hour."

Aya really hadn't expected them to let him stay behind at the apartment, and now he didn't know what to do with himself. "I'm keeping you company."

"It's a sweet thought, but you're a terrible liar."

Aya stood. "I'll go to my room, then." Since actual escape would be nearly impossible with Nagi here.

"You do that, dear," Nagi answered, his tone that of a mother talking to a particularly difficult child.

"You don't speak to the others like this."

"They're not sure whether they should be thankful about that."

Feeling patronized, Aya walked to his bedroom but stopped in the doorway when he noticed a cardboard box sitting on the bed. It hadn't been there hours ago. Aya looked at it from all sides, but it still appeared to be an ordinary box. Schwarz wouldn't let something dangerous get so deeply into their base of operations. His curiosity finally got the better of him, and he opened it and saw that it was full of books. Aya felt a stare on his back and turned to see a flash of white hair and movement at the door. Although he watched for five minutes, Farfarello didn't return.

Aya turned back to the box and took out histories and what seemed to be detective novels, books on horticulture and warfare, Nietzsche's _Beyond Good and Evil_. He almost laughed at the last selection. They were all in German, but he could read German now, even though his eyes still rebelled sometimes at reading left to right.

This gift surely had strings attached, but his mind had felt so dulled lately with only his failures to occupy it. He sat on the bed and picked up one of the novels.

******************************************************

Sitting in the living room, booted feet propped up on the coffee table, Farfarello looked disgustingly happy. "It was so... cute. He checked out the box like a cat would, from every angle. I half expected him to put his nose into it. I think he thought it would explode."

"He should know that's not your style," Schuldig answered, half-smiling himself from the echoes of Farfarello's glee.

Farfie was giving Aya courting gifts and had chosen books after seeing the kitten stare into bookstores during his morning runs. Aya should count himself lucky that Farfarello wasn't leaving corpses at his feet as signs of his affection.

"I'm pleased by his caution."

"You know, you could have bought the books. You didn't have to kill the shopkeepers."

"I know that. I only killed the ones who looked at me funny."

"Leaving how many alive?" Nagi asked from the kitchen table.

"One. Him, I paid. The others won't need money where they are."

"Brad doesn't like us doing freebies," Schuldig said with a smirk.

"They're in Frankfurt, while we're in Berlin. Our trail gets colder by the hour. Besides, I'm not killing clergy anymore while I'm making my pet at home. Crawford owes me a few deaths."

******************************************************

Aya crouched back to back with Farfarello, their blades bared, watching their opponents approach. They were vastly outnumbered, but Farfarello laughed a little, unimpressed. They breathed in sync together, waiting for that best, sweet moment when they should part and spring forward. It was beautiful in its way, simple and pure.

Weiß may have been his team, but he hadn't actually killed with any of them. At least, not this closely and intimately. They'd always split off. It disturbed him how much he liked to have a companion in murder now.

******************************************************

Gone. Schwarz had already moved on, their trail cold, and the language barrier here didn't help. Omi would need to use his computer resources to ferret out the next lead. The remnants of Weiß sat in a hostel in Frankfurt with everything they'd tried to do a failure and Aya still in the hands of people who could turn his brain inside out and may have already done so.

"I'm not giving up," Omi said. They'd only been here for a few hours.

"We may have to," Ken replied as he walked back into the room. "Birman's on the phone, and she's pissed. We have tickets waiting at the airport, and if we're not on that plane Persia's sending people after us."

They couldn't accomplish much more here anyway. "This isn't over."

Yoji didn't look too certain of that, but said, "Of course not, kid."

******************************************************

As he knew he would, Crawford caught Schuldig before his telepath could go out the door. "What, Brad?" Schuldig asked, nearly giving off waves of heat and lust. His tight leather pants made his state of advanced arousal obvious.

"You shouldn't go out tonight. You'll be attacked."

"I want to be attacked, but not like that. Thanks." He fidgeted. "Wait a minute, you're lying."

"Really?"

Schuldig smoldered. "If you're willing to let me use you as a fucktoy again, all you have to do is say. You'd just been a little sore yesterday."

With Schwarz's matched set of psycho swordsmen lusting in an unresolved fashion at one another, Schuldig had been needy lately from the backwash, and Crawford had obliged him. It was hardly a chore, especially since the telepath had some amazing tricks. Schuldig didn't _need_ to fuck his way out of the echoes of lust, being strong enough to shield against and deny them, but if he had the time and space he liked to indulge.

"I don't mind." Crawford had foreseen that Schuldig would see through his lie but be willing to go along anyway.

Schuldig pushed him up against the wall and pressed hard, rubbing and kissing hungrily. "Oh yeah, you're so smart, you manipulative little bastard. Let's see how smart you are when I'm fucking you through a wall."

Crawford rubbed back and kissed the faint red mark on Schuldig's cheekbone from where the bullet had creased him but said, "Let's take this to the bedroom. There's no need to blind Nagi."

Nagi turned off his computer. "Too late, you horny bastards."

"Want to join us, Nagi?" Schuldig purred. Crawford smiled, relieved, when the boy sighed, walked off, and slammed his bedroom door shut. "That wasn't friendly."

"I suspect that he's not getting much sleep lately," Crawford said.

******************************************************

Aya tried to ignore the heated presence in bed beside him and the pounding and groaning coming from the next room. He refused to stroke himself off to the sound of Schuldig and Crawford fucking one another. They _always_ seemed to be loudly and happily fucking one another whenever the team stayed home. No wonder he kept feeling a depraved lust for the lunatic who'd kidnapped him. He put his pillow over his head, but it didn't muffle the noises enough, and now he could hear Farfarello cackling too....

******************************************************

Crawford whispered something to the hostess, who nodded and directed them to a corner table with a view of the door. Schwarz just about coated Aya as he walked, with a member walking with him just centimeters away at what seemed like every angle. "I get the point," Aya said. "You don't want me to escape."

"As much as a good run before dinner might aid digestion, no," Crawford answered.

"Not that it would be much of a run," Nagi said. Farfarello just smiled, satisfied.

Aya didn't understand why they'd chosen to take him out for a meal. Did they trust him somewhat? Did they have a point to make?

"No," Schuldig said as he rested his arm over Aya's shoulders. "We're just hungry and didn't feel like cooking or bringing food home." Aya twitched it off.

They sat him on the cushioned bench against the wall with Nagi on one side and Farfarello on the other, while Crawford and Schuldig sat across from him. The restaurant was dim and filled with heavy, dark wood furniture, and it somehow gave the impression of seclusion, as if the world outside couldn't touch anything here. Aya sneered at the moose head mounted on the wall. Then he opened the menu and wondered if he could possibly eat anything.

"Problems, Aya?" Schuldig purred.

"You may have given me German, but I still have no idea what any of this is." He found a malicious joy in that.

"I will order for you," Farfarello said.

"Of course you will." Aya flipped to the next page. "'Vegetables available upon request'?"

"Potatoes are standard. Anything else is on request only," Nagi answered. "Welcome to the land of beef, bread, and potatoes."

"And beer. Don't forget the beer," Schuldig said.

"Of course."

"If we put enough meat in you, Nagi, you might start to grow." Then Schuldig's eyes widened, and he laughed. "I don't know if the rest of the table is old enough to hear that one."

"That's why I only gave it to you. You're familiar with johns."

"Are you going to let him talk to me like that, Brad?"

"Give me a reason to stop him," Crawford answered, sounding absent as he read the menu.

"_So_ mercenary."

Aya strove to ignore them. They enjoyed themselves far too much.

When the waitress brought a loaf of hot bread, pats of butter, and a knife, Schwarz fell upon the bread like ravening wolves. She looked at Aya askance when Farfarello ordered something for him, but it didn't seem to bother her too much. Maybe his obviously foreign looks led her to believe that he didn't speak the local language. It was so odd to be the foreigner. He and Nagi ended up with bottled water, while the others had beer. Crawford hadn't struck him as the type to drink beer, but what did he really know about any of them?

A salad arrived for him very quickly, as well as some kind of dark soup for Farfarello and Schuldig. "You don't want to see what Farfie gets up to when his blood sugar's low," the telepath said.

"Would you like a taste?" Farfarello asked, raising a filled spoon near him. It smelled very rich and looked viscous.

"No," Aya said.

"Your loss. It's tasty."

But Aya tried and liked the dark bread with butter.

During the wait for the main course Schwarz chattered and verbally sniped at one another, occasionally talking of past business but in such euphemistic terms that other diners wouldn't realize they were assassins. As they spoke of exotic places and people, some of whom they had to kill, Aya realized that he hadn't really gone anywhere prior to this. It gave him an odd feeling. Aya watched them, listened, and stayed silent as he tried to ignore the hand tracing intricate, twisting patterns, like knots, on his back.

Their exotic looks attracted attention. Farfarello alone drew curious gazes everywhere he went before the viewers really saw the scars and hastily averted their eyes. Occasionally Schuldig closed his eyes and his expression turned vague and soft. The bullet wound on his face appeared to be healing quickly, perhaps too quickly, and might not even scar. His hair always looked so choppy that the extra choppiness on that side didn't seem out of place.

Finally the food arrived, and Aya stared down at the large platter in front of him. "I can't eat all of this."

Leaning in closer than he had to, Farfarello speared some of his food with a fork and took it away. "I'll help. Mmm, potato dumplings."

"At least leave me one." The beef in some kind of gravy was delicious too.

Conversation slowed and softened as they ate until Farfarello said, "Schu, you should do your Marlene Dietrich impression for Aya."

What? Did he really just hear that? Or had Farfarello drugged him again?

Schuldig almost choked. "You fucker. No. And non sequitur much?"

"It just bothers you that you can't figure out how I got to that thought."

"I'm not drunk enough to do Marlene Dietrich--"

"And she's dead."

"Very funny. Fine, I'm not drunk enough and the crowd's not drunk enough for me to do my impression," he glared when Farfarello pressed a glass of beer in his direction, "and I'm sure as hell not doing it just for Aya."

"Why not?" Aya had to ask. It was good to see someone else being humiliated publicly for once.

"I think he should hear it," Crawford said with a slight smile. "I'll never forget your rendition of 'Illusions' or that black market song."

"And how loaded are _you_, Brad?"

"You have a talent. You should let it shine."

"You're not asking for 'Falling in Love Again'?"

"Too obvious."

"Too twue," Nagi said.

Schuldig shot him a dirty look too. "Et tu, asshole?"

"You do a good lisp for her."

"Sure, watch me be a walking, singing cliché."

"I'd like that," Farfarello said.

Schuldig shot him a dirty look. "No, no, and no. Next topic."

As Aya drifted along half-listening to their conversations, he saw Schwarz become very relaxed after all the beer, but, unfortunately, they didn't drink enough to get drunk and careless. Then again, a drunk Schwarz might be a new kind of frightening.

Fortified by a few beers, Farfarello was nearly mellow by the time they left, and he draped his arm loosely and companionably over Aya's shoulders as they all walked out into the warm night. In the car Farfarello rested his head against Aya's shoulder and neck, behaving somewhat like a contented, lazy cat. As close-cropped silver hair tickled his skin, Aya knew that he should fight all of this, but he'd been fighting everything for so long that it didn't seem worth it. He felt almost peaceful right now, just quietly sad, and didn't want to lose that. Schuldig glanced back at them but didn't smile or smirk or say anything.

The ride back was quiet. Perhaps they all felt as sleepy as he did from the food, a thought supported by the way they all went to their rooms as soon as they returned to the apartment. Farfarello shucked most of his clothing in quick, efficient motions, his usual way, and moved the book off the bed. For a moment Aya tensed as he expected to be questioned on what he thought of the novel. Instead, Farfarello silently set it aside on the table without losing the napkin Aya used as a bookmark, making Aya let out a breath and feel oddly as if the madman had passed some kind of test.

He changed into the loose clothing he slept in, then went under the covers on his side of the bed. Yet he couldn't sleep. Then Farfarello nuzzled the back of his neck in a wave of heat and softness, and Aya closed his eyes.

******************************************************

He woke up feeling good. Then he felt guilty for it, but he still felt good, rested and evened out. Behold the miracle of food and sleep?

Farfarello must have gone on to breakfast already. Aya took his seat at the kitchen table across from him and started to gather together an eclectic meal. Bored of the usual cereal, he wanted to try new things, not that he had any intentions of sampling Crawford's imported Cocoa Puffs. He decided that he rather liked croissants and banana juice. Conversation comfortably continued on around him.

Crawford sat reading his usual morning paper, trying to finish articles before his foresight kicked in on them (if you could ever believe Schuldig), yet still aware of everyone at the table. Aya's father had been much the same, serene and removed yet attentive.

Aya choked on his croissant but recovered. Recovered from the choking.

Oh. Oh, God. If he was starting to see this band of murderers and terrorists as his family, even as he started to forget his own, he didn't deserve to live.

"Aya?" Schuldig asked, his brow wrinkling.

Aya concentrated on the raw scratch of bread in his throat to cover everything else. An expert now at not thinking, he simply sipped his juice. "I'm fine."

******************************************************  
_"I think  
You are  
In too deep...."_  
  -- "Unforgiven" by Covenant  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Aya let the body fall to the roof, he remembered his last rooftop kill, the elation he'd felt at destroying Takatori Reiji at last. Initial and brief elation, since Takatori's death had fixed nothing and left Aya empty. It hadn't brought Aya-chan out of her coma or their parents back. (He would not think of Crawford at the breakfast table now.) At least he'd had his responsibilities to Aya to get him through. Then.

He hopped up to stand at the edge of the roof and looked down. This late at night the view was darkness and mists of colored light, emptiness. It was a long way down, although he couldn't see the bottom. He turned so his back would be to the chasm, the void. Its vacuum sucked and pulled at him, begging him to fill it, and he smiled and backed up a little to let part of his heels stand on only air. He would only have to tilt....

****************************************************

The kitten stood at the edge, his face blissfully transcendent. Beautiful. He had a radiant smile to go with the difficult and perverse brain.

"You won't," Farfarello said, and Aya opened his eyes. "Come back here, puisín."

Aya looked at him, then jumped down onto the roof and walked toward him, exactly as he should. Obedient. Farfarello would have to reward him. But then his smile deepened, and he spun and began to run back to the abyss. No. Farfarello ran after him and briefly snagged the end of his coat with his fingertips but couldn't catch him. He leapt up and kicked off from the edge, his arms outspread as if he would fly, graceful. As Farfarello watched Aya fall, he snarled with rage, grief, and frustration and beat his hands against the concrete.

******************************************************

He was free, flying. Plummeting too, at a speed that thrilled him. Eventually he'd concentrate his weight by shaping his body into a dive, to ensure his death upon impact. After the pain, there would be peace at last.

Better to die before he warped into something worse.

His eyes stung from the rush of air, turning the lights to smears. Pretty in a way.

Threads seemed to be caressing his body, and they thickened, slowing his descent. Fuck. Nagi.

Aya raged and fought back tears as the telekinetic slowly lowered him to the street, stopped him ten centimeters from the sidewalk, then dropped him, a fall that didn't hurt much but did rattle him. Struggling to pick himself up from the pavement met with the firm press of an invisible force keeping him down. At least it did until Farfarello rushed up and kicked him in the ribs. _Then_ he flew.

Aya folded his arms tightly around his pain and laughed until Farfarello pulled him up, grabbed him by the hair at the back of his head, and pulled and shoved him into the car. Then he just laughed in the backseat until the hiccups forced him to stop and spent the next ten minutes gasping for breath as Schwarz either stared at him or pointedly _didn't_ stare at him. He even scared himself.


	7. "It's like living with the most nightmarish goth teenager ever."

They'd been doing this a lot since getting Aya, Schuldig thought as he watched the kitten glare at them from under his wild bangs and struggle against the cuffs and ropes that kept him restrained to the chair.

Farfarello was motionless and whitely angry. Aya's dive had scared the shit out of him. "I should hamstring you."

"I wouldn't be much use to you then," Aya answered quietly.

"I would find uses."

Aya quivered but replied, with some heat, "Am I supposed to be honored to be your toy, your pet? I'm not."

Something had happened today to throw Abyssinian back on his suicide kick--he'd been almost peaceful for a while--but when Schuldig looked into his mind, he saw only a dark murk and an image of Brad eating and reading at the table. Otherwise, Aya was unreadable. Brad with a newspaper? It made no sense. Brad always read the paper during breakfast.

"Maybe you shouldn't have stopped his fall, Nagi," Brad said.

Nagi looked conflicted but defiant. "Give me an order one way or the other. Then you can chastise me as much as you like."

"Please leave me alone with my puisín," Farfarello said.

This should be interesting.

"And don't listen either," he continued.

"You're no fun," Schuldig said. Not that he intended to honor that last request. Leave, sure, since they'd open up more if they thought themselves to be alone, but how could he not listen? "C'mon, let's leave the lovebirds to duel this out."

******************************************************

Once the others left--though Schuldig was no doubt listening in--Farfarello walked around Aya's chair to stand behind him, knowing full well he'd hate that, and stroked his hand down the warm back of his puisín's neck. Aya's hair was growing out there, sloppy and shaggy. He needed to better groom his kitten.

"The excuse you mentioned is not all there is to it," Farfarello said.

"It's not enough?" Aya asked quietly but with defiance.

"You were content." The pulse jumped beneath his fingers, though Aya didn't move in any other way. "That's the problem? You were content and seeing that we're people. Better to die?"

"Better to die as myself."

Farfarello crouched down so he could talk directly in his puisín's ear and make him twitch. "I don't intend to break you. You came here already broken." When Aya tried to jerk away at that, he put his hand to the side of that stubborn face to stop him from going far. "You are you, because there is no one else you can be, but you will be reborn, without the spurious help of an arrogant God." He breathed in deeply to better catch the scent of the cold night wind that clung to Aya.

"It felt so good to fly," his puisín said softly. "Even better when I didn't think anyone would catch me, when I thought I would fall and fall forever."

Shivering pleasantly over the thought of it, he lightly stroked Aya's face with his fingers. "Are you toying with me?"

"You told me once that you understood."

Falling fast, free from the tethers of earth, flying through the night... he understood that. "Yes."

"Can you really blame me for wanting it?"

No. "I can do whatever I want."

His puisín almost smiled, disturbingly insouciant for a kitten who'd tried to plunge to his death a few hours before. "No, you can't."

Farfarello growled. "_You_ can't."

"I know that very well."

The kitten toyed with him, playing with the rules, trying to keep him off balance. Two could play. If Aya thought he knew the game this well, Farfarello would change the rules. With one last caress of the back of Aya's neck, Farfarello moved to stand in front of him, then crouched down to undo the cuffs and ropes. The kitten watched him intently, struggling to hide confusion. With the bindings undone, Farfarello remained crouched and stared back.

"What?" his puisín finally asked.

"You don't know what to do with freedom?"

"You'll let me go? Free to wander Berlin and starve in a gutter?"

"If a gang doesn't find you first."

"I did well in Frankfurt."

"No, you didn't. No gangs found you, but you wouldn't have survived more than the few hours you had free."

"You think I won't try?"

"I think you would."

"What do you want from me?"

"Follow me." Farfarello bounced up onto the chair and straddled his puisín's legs, then he kissed that defiant mouth.

Breathing hard, Aya asked, "More drugs?"

"No. Drugs only postpone problems. Good night." He slid off the chair and touched Aya's cheek, then left for the bedroom, passing Schuldig in the hall.

"What the hell is that?" Schuldig asked.

"Can't you read my mind?"

Schuldig closed his eyes, then smiled. "Devious. Maybe _too_ devious."

"We'll see."

******************************************************

Aya sat in the chair for a while with his arms around his folded up legs and his head on his knees, ignoring his aching ribs. At least Farfarello hadn't broken any; Aya had broken ribs before and knew what it felt like.

He was alone, as far as he could tell, with not a single member of Schwarz stirring in the other rooms. How many times had that happened lately? It was quiet.

He could try to escape again. In a run for the door no one except maybe Nagi would be able to stop him in time. He wondered how long it would take them to find him. He wondered if they would bother to try this time.

So close to the traitor's death he deserved. So close to an end to the confusion and pain. Another failure, and now he sat here mired even deeper in confusion and pain.

Tired, he eventually fell asleep in the chair and woke up stiff in it. No one had tried to move him. He heard breakfast occurring in the kitchen and walked in. No one stopped him from taking some food, yet no one spoke to him, shunning him again. He chewed mechanically but tasted nothing.

Farfarello walked past him to get milk but _didn't_ touch him. Didn't. Farfarello never passed up a chance for a stroke, pat, or smack, and to his horror Aya realized that he missed it. He'd come to expect the touches, anticipate them. Want them.... More treachery and weakness.

His meager appetite now gone, Aya closed his eyes and didn't eat. No one tried to make him eat either. They finished their meal and left him there. He threw away his cold food and washed the plate and cup.

His suicide attempt had been prompted by a fear of feeling too comfortable with them. Now it seemed that he'd no longer have to worry about that.

Lacking an objective, he didn't know what to do with himself. No job, no vengeance, no sister, no reason to go on. Last night he'd failed to kill the person who had put him here: himself. Tears were weakness, so he blinked several times and breathed deeply, willing them away.

In his current state, escape seemed like too much bother, something that would need more energy than he had.

******************************************************

"I could fix him for you," Schuldig said. "It would take some work, but I could make it so he wouldn't run away or attack you or try to kill himself. I could make him want you."

No doubt Schuldig could do all of those things, given enough time in the kitten's brain. For a price, always for a price. But Farfarello wasn't interested anyway. "No. I don't want that, and if I find out that you're fucking with his mind, I'll make you pay for it."

Schuldig smirked, looking unconcerned. "Of course. If he weren't a defiant nutjob, you would have gotten bored already and he'd be in a dumpster now like the other ones."

Farfarello would not get bored with this one. He knew it. Aya was so close to right, and making him right had to be done the correct way. "Dogs and cats are very different. Dogs are always looking for a leader. They want a pack. Cats are solitary and must be won over. They have to be shown the pleasures of company."

"Right now he's exploring the pleasures of trying to kill us or himself. It's like living with the most nightmarish goth teenager ever."

"I'm wearing him down."

"Slicing each other up is more like it."

Farfarello put his hand to the healing gash on his neck and smiled as his fingers brushed the rough ends of stitches. Such a wonderfully sneaky kitten he had. Thoughtful to give him stitches when he wanted some.

"And aren't you taking the kitten metaphor way too far?" Schuldig asked.

"I'll stop when it doesn't apply anymore. Besides, you don't have to make him want me." Farfarello smiled harder. "He already wants me. That's part of what scares him."

A flicker of irritation crossed Schuldig's face. Confirmation. How like Schuldig to offer to let you pay him to give you something that you already had.

"He will come to his senses," Farfarello said, then glared as Schuldig broke out laughing.

******************************************************

To his surprise, Nagi found Aya in the kitchen with his head down on his folded arms on the table, asleep. Not that Aya could have escaped, not with the door rigged, but he hadn't even tried. Nagi wondered if this was a healthy sleep--since he knew well that Aya had been trying to sleep more often but hadn't been sleeping well lately--or a depression sleep.

He could find out. He rarely used the bit of telepathy and empathy he had, disliking the feel of them and having been discouraged by a childhood in which he could _feel_ how deeply people hated and feared him, but they still existed. Unlike Schuldig, who was more powerful in his talent and seemed to be On all the time, Nagi usually needed to make a conscious decision to reach out with his. He would do so.

But as Nagi approached the table Aya's head jerked up. He seemed alert, though a bit groggy looking. Trip-wired for mistrust. Wise of him.

Nagi sat down across from him and switched languages. "You went to sleep in the kitchen?"

Definitely depression, from the look on Aya's face. "I have nowhere to go and nothing to do," he answered in the same.

"Why would you try to kill yourself? That makes no sense to me."

"You've never felt the temptation?"

"My hate brought me through."

Aya's mouth twitched. "Hate is good, but it burns you out so quickly, leaving nothing but ash. It obscures truth, but truth waits and hits you even harder later."

So much honesty. It almost made Nagi smile. "It carried you for two years."

He looked so tired and miserable. "And look at me now."

"This doesn't have to be the end of your life. It could be a beginning."

~ Such a soft, soft heart you have. Are you gonna try to use it to break his fall? Won't work. ~

~ Shut up, Schuldig. ~

"I'm still a killer." Aya leaned his forehead against his hand. "I still enjoy it. Nothing new. Just the old life, with less in it. Eszett is only a temporary distraction."

~ What _do_ you think you're doing? Get with the plan, kid. ~

~ I'm helping the plan. ~

Aya's expression twisted into a dark amusement. "Which part of their plan are you? The one who comes to show me how nice my stay can be if I cooperate now that I've seen what it's like to really be shunned?"

Nagi did smile then. "Actually, I'm getting yelled at for this right now. I'm not part of anything. I'm a freelancer."

To Schuldig, Nagi sent, ~ How long do you think Farfarello can leave him completely alone, anyway? ~

~ He's shown amazing restraint so far. ~ Schuldig sounded amused. ~ You didn't have to see what's been running through his head since we first picked up our little kitten. But he's somehow kept it to mild molestation. ~

~ Trust me. We've made our point. He's dangerously depressed already. Or we could keep going to make sure he finishes the job the next time. ~

~ You're an expert? Have you read him, o wise one? ~

~ I'm a good judge of character. ~

~ You fell for Tot. ~ Schuldig might be a telepath, but he'd admitted that he had no idea what had been behind Nagi's affection for her.

Nagi preferred it that way. ~ You don't want to cross me on that. ~

~ Yeah, I'm sure that she and Mr. Bunny were wittier than I realized. ~

~ Whatever. ~

Schuldig shrugged; Nagi could feel it. ~ I hope Farfie gives you a chance to explain before he rips you apart. ~

~ If he has a problem, he knows where I live. ~

"That's very rude," Aya said, but he looked somewhat amused.

"You didn't really miss anything interesting. Don't be surprised if Farfarello tries to kill me, though. Not that that would be so unusual." A moment of sharing might help. "You know, I didn't want to be part of this group either."

"Who could make you?"

"Eszett has ways." Horrible, painful ways. Plus mindfucking. He got the feeling that Aya understood some of that without needing details. "But I found out that we have similar goals. Eventually you get used to it and inertia sets in."

"That sounds awful."

"Doesn't it just? But this group of madmen is the closest thing I have to friends, and the work has its compensations."

Aya's amusement deepened. "This isn't quite the recruitment speech anyone would expect to get. What you're telling me is that it will seem better once I'm resigned to it and as insane as the other inmates."

"I think that covers it."

Nagi became aware of Farfarello standing in the doorway a few seconds after Aya seemed to. Nagi didn't know if it was some interface of his telekinesis and telempathic abilities, but even standing still Farfarello usually felt like a storm of motion and possibilities to him, which made being near him highly uncomfortable. Although Nagi always strove to look cool and nonchalant around the berserker, inside he was wired and ready for anything. Probably for the best, anyway.

Schuldig didn't perceive Farfarello that way, so it had to be connected to the telekinesis, to the way Nagi sometimes felt everything around him as threads of movement and force. Just tug the strings....

Crawford refused to talk about how his talent reckoned with Farfarello.

After his interference in Farfarello's plans, Nagi might have to defend himself. He was ready.

Silent, Farfarello walked in to stand behind Aya, and Aya _changed_. Not to the eye, which simply saw him seated and still in front of a man who was standing still, but Aya too suddenly seemed like a storm, but leashed. A tightly coiled spring, Aya took in a deep breath but his expression didn't change as Farfarello's hand descended toward his shoulder and stopped a few centimeters above it, the two storms meeting and making interconnected ripples rife with potential and tension.

~ Holy shit, how did you keep this from me for so many years? You see this but you don't _see_ this.... No wonder you hate sitting next to him. ~

~ Get out of my head, Schuldig! ~

~ Your own fault for letting your shields lapse. ~

Nagi threw him out and ignored his laughter and in the process nearly missed the moment when Aya closed his eyes and went null, dead. Storm over. Surrender, maybe?

Surrender? Surely not Aya.

Nagi waited for Farfarello's hand to finish descending and touch Aya's shoulder and suspected that Aya did as well, but it stayed where it was, and Farfarello said nothing, just stood there looming over Aya and staring at Nagi. That storm feeling gradually came over Aya again, growing with each tense, silent moment.

Hating to be toyed with, Nagi prepared to speak, end this, but Farfarello asked, "How do you feel this morning, Aya?"

Obviously off balance, hesitant, confused, and angry, Aya looked younger. "I don't know." It sounded like he'd been surprised into saying it.

Cracking the hard shell....

"Hmm." The tone suggested deep thought and sagacity to come. But he said nothing, giving no clue as to what thoughts might be running in his tortured mind, and Nagi might be curious but had no urge to go in and find out. He didn't know if he'd get back out if he tried.

Even though he sat there quietly, staring at the wall, avoiding eye contact with either of them, Aya crackled to Nagi's senses, especially in the shoulder Farfarello's hand rested just above. Nagi started to wonder if it would be up to him to break the silence, since the other two seemed to be in some kind of competition.

"Are you here for a reason?" Aya finally asked.

"Yeah. I'm doing what I came to do."

"Harassing me."

"I'm not doing anything."

"You're 'not doing anything' in a harassing manner."

"Precisely." Farfarello slowly flexed his fingers, still without touching Aya, who shuddered, obviously able to feel it.

Nagi shifted in his seat, wanting to leave the room but compelled to watch. This scene had all the titillation and squirm factor of watching one's well-known business associates having sex. As hot as something like that might be to watch, later on you had to work with them in a professional capacity and try to forget that you saw them naked and making animal noises. It put a new layer over your perception of people, one you couldn't scrub away. For example, there were things about Schuldig and Crawford he really wished he didn't know.

He may have been watching Farfarello molest Aya in various ways since Japan, but this instance seemed somehow a thousand times more charged. It could explode into anything.

"You look stiff, puisín. You should take a long, hot bath."

Teeth clenched in anger, Aya abruptly stood, his shoulder knocking Farfarello's hand aside, and walked to the doorway. He stared back at them then turned to the living room, where the door was. Farfarello smiled as he watched Aya undo the locks, try the doorknob, and utterly fail to open the door. Nagi had his orders. Oddly, Aya smiled then too, then walked to his room to get clothing and then to the bathroom. He looked back once to see if Farfarello followed, blinked when Farfarello didn't, and slammed the door behind him.

As Nagi stood near Farfarello in the hallway, he could feel the storm crawl along his nerves and skin. Keeping his power ready to strike at any time Farfarello might make a move left a feeling of hot weight and pressure in Nagi's hands and forehead.

"You helped the plan," Farfarello finally said, "but if you make a move toward him again without permission from me first--"

"What? You'll strike me down while I'm asleep or my back is turned? How original." Farfarello wasn't even the scariest asshole Nagi had ever fallen afoul of. "It's funny how life never changes."

Head tilted, Farfarello stared at him in a new way, and Nagi realized that Farfarello was noticing him, really noticing him, for the first time. "I see."

Nagi put a nasty smile on his face. "Remember who's going to be taking your stitches out soon."

"Do you have to? I like them." Then Farfarello walked away, secure in having gotten the last word, probably, and yet he still wasn't the sickest, scariest asshole Nagi had ever run into.


	8. "It's what we do: adapt or die."

Aya soaked in hot water and weighty silence. He should feel lighter without Farfarello's heavy stare following his every move, but he didn't. He didn't feel right....

They were winning. He'd been relieved that they were still talking to him and that they still valued him enough to prevent him from leaving. The feel of Farfarello's almost touch had left Aya shaking and afire with wanting... something. He didn't want to want his tormentor, but it seemed that he didn't get a choice in anything anymore. He couldn't even speak his own language without making a conscious effort.

Aya traced the livid lines of the knife marks on his forearm over and over again, shivering at the not quite pleasure, not quite pain sensation of it. They were sensitive. If he had to be hard, let it be from something like this, something that made more sense. It might not have said good things about his interests that stroking his scars affected him this way, but at least it was actual touch--

~ By someone who doesn't intend to hurt you? Who was the guy who threw you off the top of a building last night? ~

Schuldig didn't understand--

~ Yes, I do. Too well. It's my gift, it's my curse. ~

\--but Aya had started to feel oddly mellow and couldn't rage about it too much. Short of killing the telepath--and he let his mind wander graphically through several methods just to give Schuldig something worthwhile to look at--he couldn't stop the intrusions in his brain. Running away didn't seem to help. Fighting didn't seem to help either.

The hot water felt really nice, especially as it climbed his neck.

~ Aya! Aya! Wake up! Part of the plan? You-- Is that why Nagi's napping too? Farfie, you fuckwad.... ~

Something sparked in his head, so he didn't feel quite as mellow now, but it still seemed like too much trouble to sit up, and the water did feel wonderful. Continuing to slide seemed like a good idea.

A hand in his hair yanked him up. "You should go to bed," Farfarello said.

"It's not bedtime."

"Yes, it is."

Maybe it was. Aya felt so tired. He'd been tired for years. "All right." He might hate Farfarello, but he'd happily take the big, fluffy towel.

Still damp, he climbed into bed--so much more comfortable than either of the chairs he'd slept on--and went to sleep.

******************************************************

Farfarello curled up beside his puisín and sighed. That had almost been tragic. He hadn't put much into Aya's breakfast and drink, preferring the kitten to be relaxed and sleepy instead of thickheaded and groggy, and Aya hadn't even eaten or drank much, but it seemed that the drug had first increased his depression then turned out to be _too_ relaxing when combined with hot water. Of course he'd pick the one time Farfarello hadn't been there to nearly drown himself, accidentally no less.

Farfarello had had the best intentions. He knew that Aya didn't sleep well, muttering apologies and pleas in German during nightmares and twitching constantly awake during the night and car rides. That twitchiness prevented any quality cuddling, and what else was a kitten for but to be cuddled?

And played with.

He'd gotten used to having a warm body in bed with him, so last night had been more difficult for him than he'd expected and inspired the idea of forced relaxation to make up for it during the day. Besides, Aya had just attempted suicide and needed some quality rest.

Aya thought he didn't want to be talked to or touched. Poor abused kitten. Farfarello would retrain him.

Having a pet was a large responsibility that took up a lot of time, taking attention away from other things. As unfortunate as that was, he knew that God would still be there--damn Him to His own Hell and eternal torment--but Aya couldn't wait. Aya needed him.

And Aya marked him up nicely to make up for some of his lapses.

Aya was sprawled on his stomach relaxed, naked, and asleep beside him. Farfarello had seen his body before but not at leisure, not with the opportunity to touch like this. He'd seen him naked in the bath, when he didn't dare approach anything below the neck for fear of losing control, or half-undressed after Farfarello had taken some of his clothes off after he'd been drugged or knocked out. How Farfarello had struggled against the urge to remove them all, but he'd won every time.

This felt different and had the trappings of consent. Near-consent. All right, stoned near-consent.

Aya looked too thin, understandably since he'd made food a control issue, punishment and protest, against Schwarz and himself. He was all sinew, bone, and muscle, although he'd start losing the muscle too if he didn't eat better. Aya had wonderful skin, sleek and firm, a lovely gift-wrapping over the tidbits beneath. Farfarello traced scars, lightly and cautiously at first but with more confidence as Aya didn't wake. Perhaps that bullet scar there was a memento from the time when Schuldig had that girl shoot him. That had been fun and suspenseful to watch, as she'd visibly wavered under Schuldig's control, leaving Farfarello to wonder moment by moment if she would shoot or wouldn't.

Aya murmured, but not in despondence or horror about sisters or failures, and shifted closer. Lust hit like a storm, ravaging Farfarello's will. He wanted to make Aya do more of that and want his touch. He wanted to make Aya scream and moan. He wanted to stroke and nip and thrust over and over until his ownership couldn't be disputed. Aya would die the little death in his arms and come back to life for more, saved by him. They would fight and kill and fuck and be so tangled together that nothing could stop them and God wouldn't recognize them.

But that couldn't be taken, it had to be given.

All of this rigid self-control and self-denial built anticipation, and the day when Aya came to him freely would be explosive. He just hoped he didn't rip his puisín apart in the relief of that long delayed release.

******************************************************

Schuldig breathed harder and stopped walking, and he had the kitten-lust glaze in his expression when Crawford turned to face him. "Very funny. It sounds like a dessert topping," Schuldig rasped, his eyes glittering. "You haven't had any complaints the last few days, but if you don't have the stamina to deal with it I can find people who are more accommodating."

Crawford smiled. "I didn't say I didn't like it. You're so defensive."

Schuldig grabbed him by his suit jacket and pulled him into the nearest alley. Really, why wouldn't he like it?

******************************************************

Aya woke up naked and half-hard, lying on his stomach with his head buried partway in his pillow. Farfarello's hand rested, hot and heavy, on the small of his back, just above the edge of the blanket. From what Aya could tell, the blanket just barely covered his ass. The hand moved, up and then down, further up and then further down, as Farfarello lay beside him and watched him out of that one eye. Aya tried not to pant or move his hips and especially tried not to think of how far down that hand might move or what it might eventually cup.

Then Farfarello got up and moved so fast that Aya barely saw it. One minute he was lying beside Aya, the next on his hands and knees on the bed with Aya's legs under him, staring, breathing hotly against the thin sheet that covered.... What would Farfarello do? Would he-- To Aya's relief/disappointment, he instead licked his way up Aya's spine, ending at the base of his neck, then sat astride his waist and held his wrists down against the mattress. Horribly hard, heart pounding, Aya squirmed a little but was firmly pinned.

"I want to fuck you," Farfarello said, his voice rumbling. "Can you feel it?"

"Yes," Aya gasped.

Farfarello stayed there in silence, as if waiting for something, while Aya's lust and discomfort continued to grow. Do something, he thought, and he didn't know if he was addressing himself or his keeper.

"Hmm." Then Farfarello let him go and got up.

Aya couldn't believe it. "What the hell do you want from me?"

Farfarello crouched beside the bed. "You know. You told me you knew."

"Then why won't you--" Take it. Did he really just think that? At least he hadn't _said_ it.

"You have to ask me for it. I want you to be responsible."

Fuck that. Aya turned his back to Farfarello.

"See?" the madman asked. "You're not ready for it."

Aya couldn't even jerk off. He would take the extreme discomfort as his deserved punishment for falling into this.

******************************************************

Schuldig tried to keep his breathing normal looking through the mental assault and kept walking. What a nice ass Aya had. If they didn't have such lousy timing, he'd be enjoying the lust and peepshow.

He always had been more vulnerable to people he knew. That was one reason why he tried not to get close to too many people.

"I'm beginning to think that taking Aya in was a mistake," Brad said.

Shit. Brad had noticed his slight distraction anyway. Another danger of knowing people. "It'll be easier once they fucking _fuck_ each other. The unresolved sexual tension is always more powerful. And, again, are you complaining?"

"Not that. I'm enjoying that, since it hasn't fucked you up during anything important. I mean that his presence is causing changes I didn't foresee."

Schuldig had been so caught up in what he thought was Brad's reaction that he hadn't actually tried to read Brad on it. Not that Brad was easy to read, with his visions of what would be coexisting with what was.

Well, as long as he wasn't faulting Schuldig on anything.... "Like what?"

"Nagi's behavior has changed since his arrival."

Oh, please. "Nagi has always been like this actually, on the inside."

To Schuldig's amusement, Brad said nothing for about three minutes. He really had been invested in that Good Little Asian Boy crap. Finally Brad said, "But he never showed it on the outside before. _That's_ a change."

"True. But, shit, I hated seeing him act like a wizened old monk in a teenager's body. It says something about you that you liked it that he was deferential to you in exactly the same way he was to our trainers, who got that 'respect' by abusing the shit out of us."

Brad didn't have an answer to that one.

"He's growing up. The sooner you deal with that, the happier you'll be." Schuldig smirked. "What about us needing Aya to take down Eszett?"

"I wonder if he'll ever figure out that I can't really see that far ahead."

"But you have a feeling about it."

"Everybody has feelings about things, as you know. Why are you fighting so hard for someone who nearly killed you with your own table knife?"

Bastard never fought fair, but neither did he. "I'm seeing new pieces of Nagi daily, and he's becoming more himself. Farfarello's following through for once on something that isn't his anti-religion kick, and he's been close to stable. I don't have to hunt him down in some church every week, and it's always been me who has to find him and stop him from going too far on his latest clergy-killing spree. Why don't you admit that you're so used to getting bits of the future that surprises scare you? If we need to put Aya down, we do it, but don't kill him just because it bothers you that we're adapting to him. It's what we do: adapt or die."

Brad stared at him. "You know exactly how to phrase issues to me."

"Yeah."

"I hate that."

"I know."

"I'll consider it."

"You do that."

"Are they still lusting at each other?"

"Yeah. Farfarello's burning with it but abstaining from doing anything about it, while Aya's boiling with it and hating himself for it." It seemed like Schuldig had been at least half-hard non-stop since Japan.

Brad looked at him sideways and smiled, radiating his own lust. Well. Just because the psycho twins wanted to torture themselves didn't mean that he and Brad had to.

******************************************************

Schuldig watched and grinned as Farfarello and Aya practiced their swordwork in the living room, while Nagi boiled with annoyance. Teeth bared, the two maniacs leapt over furniture and spun and clashed. Meanwhile, the lust between them grew and grew, snapping, crackling, blazing. Sometimes when their blades met they would face one another so closely that they could breathe each other's air, and it looked like they would move closer and finally, _finally_ do what they so obviously wanted to do to one another, but then they'd break away again.

Schuldig had to sit down, clutch his dick hard, and struggle to unglaze his eyes, and even Nagi looked hot under the collar. Sure, Nagi became as horny as any other teenager, but usually he didn't show it.

"Enough!" Brad finally said as he walked into the apartment. "Damn it, it's like raising kids...."

Aya broke off first, staring around the room with eyes so intense that they should have set everything on fire, then rushed out of the room, finally snapping the tether of lust.

"Farfarello, will you just fucking pounce him already?" Schuldig said, almost shouting. How embarrassing. But he couldn't take it much longer. Even he was appalled by how much sex he'd been forced to have lately. He was getting _sore_.

"It's very painful," Farfarello said happily.

"I'll show you pain."

"Would you?"

"Children," Brad sighed, "save it for our targets."

******************************************************

"You?" the target shouted, looking shocked and horrified.

Aya went still for a moment. This man knew who he was, and was surprised to see him. Knew him, and didn't expect to see him with Schwarz, which meant that he didn't know Aya from Schwarz's earlier attacks. He had to be a higher-up, someone who knew what had happened in Japan. They were getting somewhere!

High on a rush of dark exhilaration, Aya just about flew over the body of his last victim and to this one. The bastard never had a chance. But this time he didn't let passion entirely cloud his thinking. Nagi may have already gotten all the information they needed here, making this man merely another bloody link in the chain of vengeance and intimidation, but Aya had his own questions.

The target hit the floor hard and bucked under Aya's weight, but Aya had him pinned with the katana at his throat. "Who am I?" Aya asked him.

"I don't know!"

"Wrong answer." Aya sunk the katana into his neck a little, then raised it again. "Tonight you will die, but you can choose how long it takes and how painful it is."

"Aya Fujimiya. Abyssinian."

"Very good. Why did Eszett kill my sister?"

"She's dead?" When the katana descended to leave another dripping, raw line on his skin, he said, "I didn't know! It wasn't the plan. Some guards must have gotten too nervous."

No plan, just clueless minions with itchy trigger fingers. It was possible. "Is there anything you can think to share that might save your life?"

His eyes widened and mouth opened, but no jewels of information fell from his lips. He had nothing and knew it. Elated, Aya grinned and chopped off his head. He felt almost high, so he stood and scanned the room for someone to exorcise his energy on, but only the dead remained.

Farfarello, dripping with blood from his own kills, walked into the room. No, not that. But Aya felt himself smile and his stance shift as the now familiar lust hit him. Farfarello bared his teeth and loped forward towards him, casually stepping over the corpses, finally stopping only centimeters away. As they faced each other and stared, Aya could almost feel Farfarello's lust reach out toward him with hooks, gripping and locking him in. Farfarello's blade retracted back in with a harsh, metallic sound that made Aya jump. When a callused hand reached for his face, he didn't move away, letting it land and cup his cheek, the contact electric. He turned his head into the caress.

This was stupid as well as degrading. They were at a crime scene.

Farfarello's hand stroked back to cup the back of Aya's head and bring him closer, to bring their mouths closer. Despite the lust, Aya breathed out, "No." And Farfarello stopped. Looked utterly annoyed, but he stopped. It was a measure of control he allowed Aya to have.

It was more power than Aya had had in years.

It was enough. "Yes," Aya said and moved forward to make their mouths meet. He didn't do much thinking after that.

******************************************************

No? _No_? His puisín was cruel and perverse beyond belief. Aya was bloody and beautiful and high and _right in his hand_. But Farfarello had sworn to wait until Aya blatantly wanted sex. God might not keep His word, but Farfarello did. It was why he was so careful in what he promised. So he stopped.

Then Aya smiled, feral and radiant. And said, "Yes," and launched himself forward into Farfarello's arms. Oh yes. He tasted bloody too. Farfarello put his hands wherever he wanted to on his enthusiastic kitten because this was consent. More than that, this was the key to the kingdom, more than yes.


	9. All of the previous touches had been reconnaissance for this....

Schuldig swayed suddenly but easily shot down the last man in the room anyway. Crawford took advantage of the cleared room to examine him by eye. That Schuldig let him said volumes about his state of mind. Schuldig was sweating, breathing hard, and blatantly aroused. His half-closed eyes had an industrial-strength version of a familiar hot glaze.

"They couldn't be this fucking irresponsible," Crawford said even as he knew better. They could.

Schuldig licked his lips and clenched one hand on Crawford's suit jacket. "Yeah."

They had to be heading toward consummation if they'd robbed Schuldig of half of his IQ points like this. Crawford wondered if Abyssinian would get through it intact but didn't really care beyond what it would do to his telepath. With his gun in his other hand, Crawford put an arm around Schuldig's shoulders and pulled him along. Once in a while Schuldig leaned their heads together and rubbed against him like a cat in heat.

"Stop that. It's better if at least one of us is thinking clearly."

"Under different circumstances, I'd be enjoying this," Schuldig panted. "You sure you don't wanna--"

"Later."

In the corridor, Nagi telekinetically threw two more minions into a wall and said, "I think they're in the next room. At least that's where the growling and gasping is coming from."

"You didn't go in?" Crawford asked as Schuldig licked his cheekbone.

"Obviously not."

That boy's attitude worsened by the day.

"Open the door."

When the door swung open, Crawford eyes swept the room, taking in the corpses, until he saw movement in the far corner. Still dressed, they were all over each other, devouring, ruthlessly dry humping, and Farfarello seemed to be trying to smear Abyssinian into the wall. In their desperation, they hadn't gotten far. Abyssinian had his head back and eyes closed, an expression of bliss or pain on his face as Farfarello kissed blood off his cheek. Crawford didn't know if the sight or proximity had ratcheted up Schuldig's reaction further, but the telepath just about twined around him like a snake, desperate for touch and release.

"Enough!" Crawford shouted. "This is not the time."

Farfarello shot a vicious look his way and growled, though Aya looked somewhat ashamed. Schuldig bit Crawford's ear. Crawford said to all of them, "You can do this later." Then he turned and walked away, trusting that his team would follow him. Which they did. He tossed the car keys to Nagi, who started to smile once the shock wore off.

******************************************************

What had he been doing? He had to be insane. Making out with Farfarello. Making out with Farfarello at a fresh crime scene. But it had been so good to stop thinking and let himself drown under his lust and Farfarello's. Usually, all he did was think, and it got him nowhere.

"Puisín," Farfarello purred, then pinned him against the car door. They had the backseat to themselves, since Crawford hadn't been able to unlatch Schuldig from his body, allowing Crawford and Schuldig to fit in the front passenger seat while Nagi drove.

Farfarello and Aya kissed in a tangle of tongues, and Aya bucked as he felt his coat's buckles and buttons being further undone. Beyond protesting, Aya spread his legs to let Farfarello settle between them better and hissed as callused hands went down the front of his pants and stroked. Dappled by the streetlights coming through the windows of the moving car, Farfarello pulled back and bared his teeth, then put his face in Aya's lap and started to lick his bared cock. Moaning, writhing, banging his head back hard against the window, Aya knew he had an audience of three in the front seat but couldn't care at the moment.

He vaguely noticed the car stopping, one of the doors opening, and someone getting out, but he had far more important things on his mind, especially once Farfarello deep throated him and hummed. So hot, so wet, so tight.... Aya pulled on his silver hair and shuddered when he purred and sucked harder. It was moving so fast, so fast, but right now he needed fast and he didn't mind harsh or the way Farfarello's grip on his wrists had to be leaving bruises. He could feel the orgasm starting in the base of his spine....

******************************************************

Hands clenching on the steering wheel, Nagi tried to ignore the sounds coming from the backseat, but the volume paired with the waves of lust hitting the back of his head made it impossible, so he drove fast, before the urge to ask to be included grew too strong. Plus, the back of his seat kept getting kicked, and he could see convulsive movement every time he glanced in the rearview mirror. He should be thankful that Crawford had gotten a hotel room for himself and Schuldig in the hope that physical distance would restore some sense to the telepath. Nagi thought that was a lot to ask of distance, but having another source of mindless lust far away from _him_ made him happier.

Aya arched and screamed, then sagged, gasping. Farfarello kissed his closed eyelids, which gave Nagi uncomfortable thoughts of him biting Aya's eyes out, but that didn't seem to be what he had in mind.

As soon as the car reached the street in front of their apartment building, Farfarello dragged Aya out. They both had their clothing half ripped off.

Nagi immediately felt more sane with them gone, so he considered his options. With his entire team convulsed in fucking each other, he'd been left at loose ends... and with the car. Crawford hadn't given any directions for what he should do after he dropped Farfarello and Aya off. As Nagi's fingers stroked the black leather of the steering wheel, he started to smile.

******************************************************

Some people who wore glasses looked vulnerable without them, but not Brad, not ever. Even while coming, Brad looked like steel and retained his cool control. He _allowed_ you to bring him to orgasm.

Lost in lust and flesh, Schuldig had his tongue in Brad's navel when Brad suddenly bucked and came. Schuldig, barely avoiding the blast, asked, "What the hell was that?"

"I just had a flash of Farfarello fucking Aya."

Oh fuck yeah, Schuldig could feel them working up to that, but.... "You never have flashes of Farfie."

"He's never been this set on doing something in a certain way."

"You came and I barely did anything." He could hear himself whining. Fuck, he hated when he got this mindless.

"So? You can still fuck me."

At least one of them was still thinking sensibly.

******************************************************

Something about the way Farfarello approached him made him feel hunted, made him feel hot. It had to be the hungry, intent look in his eyes.... Fuck, he'd already gotten off once tonight from the lunatic's ministrations, but Farfarello hadn't come yet. Aya backed into their room, and Farfarello tackled him onto the bed.

He'd had sex with Farfarello, was having sex with _Farfarello_....

Farfarello was too busy vigorously stripping him to let him do anything in return. It took an astonishingly short amount of time to get him naked, considering all the buttons and straps he had. Even under the lust and rush, he felt vulnerable like this, with a mostly-dressed killer crouching over his nude body, but it soon ceased to matter as Farfarello kissed, licked, sucked, and nipped him all over, even in places he never would have expected. His inner thighs, his earlobes, his neck, his nipples, he understood, but the insides of his elbows and the backs of his knees received as much attention and surprised him for how they made him spark and melt and get harder and left him panting like an animal. Farfarello pointedly ignored his cock. The air of the room against his damp, sensitized skin made him shudder.

"I can't think," Aya murmured to himself.

"Good," Farfarello answered as he turned him over onto his stomach, spread his legs, and ravished him with long, hearty licks.

Aya groaned and humped the mattress, though Farfarello's firm grip on his hips kept him from moving too much and would probably leave more bruises. It went on and on and on. Pinned on Farfarello's tongue, Aya heard himself chant, "Please, please, please...."

"You have to tell me if I hurt you. I won't necessarily know on my own."

Aya cried out at the blunt pressure that invaded him, but the pain faded and melted into something else.

"Not ready yet," Farfarello muttered.

The next movement made Aya writhe from how good it was. "I am...."

"You like that? You want more?"

"Yes...." More felt good too. He could feel Farfarello's gaze burning into his back as he begged with his whole body like a slut.

"I'm going to fuck you now. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, yeah...."

Uncertain of what he was feeling, Aya bit his lip as Farfarello gradually pushed in. Farfarello's leather vest brushed across his back as they started to move together, rocking, thrusting. It started to feel very, very good. Farfarello's hands gripped his arms and teeth rubbed the back of his neck. Farfarello was trembling all over and started to pick up force and speed, banging the bed's headboard against the wall. Aya lost himself in sound, motion, and feeling, overloading, coming. Farfarello's next few thrusts did hurt, but Aya barely noticed, especially once Farfarello growled, nipped his neck, and came.

******************************************************

Thankfully unbroken, Aya breathed and shivered under him. He'd claimed the kitten without destroying him. It left Farfarello feeling bright and warm inside. All of the previous touches had been reconnaissance for this, as Farfarello had catalogued his puisín's reactions, which spots made him sigh, curl, writhe, purr, or flinch, how much pressure had to be applied in the touch. All of that effort had paid off as he'd struck hard and fast, overwhelming his prey to eliminate the possibility of resistance. Now he could afford to remove the rest of his own clothing.

Naked now, Farfarello nuzzled and stroked every part of Aya he could reach, enjoying this body that belonged to him now, this wondrous, intricate thing that the Church said should be scorned as impure and flawed, a pathway to sin. Bodies fascinated him. So many interconnected parts working together invisibly beneath the packaging, the conscious and unconscious flex of muscles and tendons, the autonomic movement that came from breathing and blood circulation. Everything moved unless you forcibly stilled it, and at every moment components of it died and decayed.

He couldn't wait to get hard again, so he could thrust home into his puisín again. That had felt so good, so right. Holes were meant to be filled. Short of ripping or breaking Aya open, this was the closest Farfarello could come to knowing his insides.

"This is wrong," Aya finally sighed, looking dazed as Farfarello stroked his flank.

"No. You enjoyed it, didn't you?"

Aya paused, then said, "Yes."

"Good. I wouldn't have believed you if you'd said no, because I watched you. Wrong. Is it wrong to God, to society? To you?" Farfarello rolled him onto his back.

"Wrong in every way." But his eyes smoldered with lust, and his body moved into every touch. His body knew whom it belonged to, even if his mind still rebelled.

"Sin is a lie created by a sadistic God." As Farfarello stroked over the bites he'd left, red on white, he noticed that they felt a bit hotter than the skin around them. When he stroked behind Aya's balls, Aya spread his legs further open. Lovely. Still slick there. Farfarello went instantly hard, and as he arranged Aya's body for further fucking--an arranging Aya allowed--he said, "You think it's wrong, but you like it. Yes?"

When he thrust in, Aya yelled his yes.

******************************************************

"I could charge admission for this," Crawford said with a smile, his cock hardening again, as he watched his telepath. He could actually tell how Farfarello was touching Aya just from how Schuldig moved. During their own second go-round, Schuldig had told Crawford that while he felt them both, Aya's sensations came through stronger for being stronger. As he'd put it, "Farfie _can_ feel pleasure, but it's nothing anybody else would wanna write home about. He has a nice view of Aya's _nice_ ass though. Damn but I want a piece of that."

Lying on his stomach, his long body twitching and writhing in a highly decorative fashion, Schuldig sighed, and his long orange-red hair slithered across his back in an enticing fashion. "That would be hot. All those people watching." Some of the urgency seemed to have faded after the first time.

"All the money."

Schuldig rolled over and kept languidly writhing, his hair fanned out around him and under him on the white linen. "You're so predictable. Would you even give me a cut of the profits?"

"If I'm so predictable, you know the answer to that." Crawford pushed his glasses up his nose and smirked at the look in Schuldig's eyes. "Aya's having that much fun?"

"Farfie just doesn't stop touching him. Man's a machine. But Aya... if I'd known he could be like this, I would have grabbed him for myself ages ago, but nobody knew, him included, so...." Then Schuldig gasped and moved in a very distinctive way, obviously in response to Aya being fucked again. Crawford could almost see a lover on top of his telepath thrusting in. "Some fast recovery time our lunatic has."

Watching this, Crawford couldn't resist. He put a condom on, slicked up, and positioned himself. "Fuck, yeah, Brad," Schuldig gasped, then groaned as he thrust in and rode him.

******************************************************

Wrong. Wrong to allow this, wrong to enjoy this and the letting go so much, wrong to be a killer, wrong to enjoy another killer--his own kidnapper--fucking him like this. Wrong, but it felt so good, and he didn't have to think, and having such obsessive focus on him alone fed some empty place inside him he hadn't wanted to acknowledge he had. Farfarello wouldn't leave him alone....

Aya clawed and kissed and made embarrassing noises and pulled Farfarello in tighter, deeper. Farfarello smelled like leather, blood, and metal, smelled like him.... Farfarello called him a good kitten, a pretty kitten, my puisín, and he said yes, yes, yes.

"No one but you," Farfarello panted as he thrust harder.

Yes.

******************************************************

"Yes, yes, yes," Schuldig panted as they rocked together hard and fast. Inside and outside, he clutched Crawford tightly. "I think we're turning him, Brad. I think he's ours.... Yes.... Oh, God, it's like being fucked twice at once."

******************************************************

Breathing hard, lost, Nagi pulled the car over to the side of the road with a screech and parked it before he could crash. As his fingers clenched on the leather of the seat, he gasped, "Wonderful. I'm a part of their sex lives whether I want to be or not."

If he didn't take care of himself, it would keep distracting him, so he took out some napkins, unzipped himself, and let the images and sensations roll him under: fucking and being fucked, pale skin and long limbs, scars, heat, sweat, two very different shades of red hair against pillows, friction, obsession, affection, climax.... He came in silence, then cleaned up and went back to driving aimlessly.

Nagi sighed. How embarrassing to have the car but nowhere to go with it. The clubs that Schuldig loved for their close-knit crowds Nagi would hate for that same thing. In many ways, he would be happier if he could go home and go online, but that couldn't happen. There had to be something in Berlin for a young, wealthy, still horny young man to get into.

He'd try a club. At least the music might be fun.

******************************************************

Disengaging from the kitten was almost pain to Farfarello, but his cock refused to stay hard forever. Reality could suck. He rolled over and breathed deeply, enjoying the way they smelled of sex and each other. His puisín regarded him through half-closed eyes and twitched when his hand even came near. Overloaded, poor thing. He would let Aya nap.

******************************************************

Nagi watched the music crash and roar and the dancers move and nearly move under the flashing colors. Some normals paid good money for drugs to get this kind of effect, but he didn't know if he liked it. Of course, with so many drunk and stoned people around him who had their thoughts hanging out, even if he hadn't had that telempathic/telekinetic interface his perceptions would be screwed with. Although he'd shut the telempathy down and shielded up as much as he could, he still had the taste of lime in his mouth from the most popular drink of the evening, some mind-altering Brazilian concoction called "Caipi," even though he hadn't touched anything other than water.

He knew he didn't like this feeling of being alone despite the crowd. No one approached him. If Schuldig didn't get approached, he started approaching, but Nagi wasn't him. Wouldn't want to be, actually. Schuldig said that Nagi's expression discouraged casual, friendly advances, but he didn't know what he was supposed to look like, so experimenting with it would just make him look ridiculous. He knew he couldn't achieve that sexy, imperious feline look Schuldig wore so well.

To his surprise, Nagi had gotten inside the club easily. The gatekeeper had thought his school uniform to be a kinky, ironic statement. Whatever.

"I'm not good in crowds," someone shouted. "I get the feeling you're not too. Am I right?"

"You're talking to me?" Nagi shouted back.

"Yeah!"

Nagi looked him over. Nice looking guy, if you didn't mind the Aryan ideal. Nice looking Aryan guy touched his arm, and Nagi flinched from the onslaught. How fucked up did this guy have to be that his sexual predator status had shouted itself to Nagi like that?

He always got the predators, the slimiest sludge an already debased human race had to offer. Something about his wide eyes and delicate build or some shit. Something about his tragic childhood and that lingering look of hunger. Schuldig claimed that Nagi called them, but Schuldig was a predator himself and thus had his own excuses ready, making him less than objective.

Walther here wanted to break Nagi. He wanted to get those wide eyes under less lurid lighting to see what color they were and whether they were worth preserving.

"I'm Walther."

Nagi gave him a brainless smile. "I'm Nagi."

"You speak German really well."

Gag.

They shouted inanities at each other for a longer time than Nagi had patience for before Walther finally said, "Let's go somewhere quieter and less crowded." He put his hand on Nagi's arm again, radiating bits of his diseased mind.

"Sure!"

They walked Berlin's streets like that, just a cute couple that had found each other in the night or some sweet crap like that. But most couples didn't have one member get ever more fidgety inside as he failed to get an idea of what his intended prey's eyes were from the streetlights. Deep blue? Indigo? Green? He had to know. He was so hard.... He had to move soon.

What a fucking amateur. He wouldn't be able to keep his career of predation up much longer even if he hadn't run into the wrong victim tonight.

Walther pushed Nagi into an alley, and Nagi let him, curious to see how this would play out. "Walther, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I just--" And the moron really couldn't hold it together any longer. Nagi wished he'd get more foreplay before they went with their program of trying to dominate and mutilate him. Walther's hand tightened painfully on Nagi's arm.

So Nagi used his talent to break every one of those fingers, smiling as Walther screamed. "Sorry." Nagi giggled. "I guess I don't know my own strength." Then threw him against the wall, bouncing him off a dumpster first in a cascade of bone-snapping sounds. "Did I look like a victim to you?"

Eyes wide with pain and shock, Walther asked, "What are you?"

"Retribution." Nagi broke the other five fingers. Walther screamed as if he had no dignity whatsoever. Oh, right.

Nagi didn't do this to save potential victims. He did it for himself, as a reminder that he didn't have to take abuse from anyone anymore, not his so-called peers or his trainers or anyone.

Walther was such a gush of raw sewage that Nagi didn't want him alive any longer and so snapped his neck and tossed the body into the so handy dumpster. He didn't even have to touch the body. Telekinesis provided such a useful distance from such things.

Making it this fast took some of the enjoyment away--not that he ever took any _sexual_ pleasure from this--but he couldn't stand Walther's confused emotions and thoughts any longer. Tot's emotions and thoughts had been simple and pure. She loved or hated with her whole attention. She was an innocent, living and killing in innocence.

Sex with her was an impossibility.

Walther couldn't have held out longer, at least petted Nagi a bit first? Stupid amateur.

Maybe he'd find an actual sexual partner instead of a victim if he kept wandering around. Or maybe he should just find a nice café and a good book. He had his laptop in the car, and maybe he could connect up somewhere. At least he didn't have that lime flavor in his mouth anymore.


	10. "'Breathing' is just your type."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More sex. How I make you suffer. I need a scorecard or a chart for the pairings in this story....

When Aya opened his eyes, he found himself staring directly at the black stitches on Farfarello's neck and wondered what they felt like, although he didn't touch them to see. He'd had sex with Farfarello several times tonight. He ached and felt grungy, dirty.

He found that he didn't mind any of it, especially since he felt so oddly purged. Light.

Farfarello had surprisingly delicate features, pretty, if you looked past the scars and eyepatch. Aya had his own scars, inside and out.

One golden eye opened to stare back at him. "Touch me," Farfarello said, and it somehow sounded like a plea and a command all at once.

All night Farfarello had done things to him, but he hadn't done much back. It gave him some specious high ground. Farfarello hardened as he watched, so he reached for Farfarello's cock and stroked the hot, quivering flesh.

"Hmm. Calluses. Harder, much harder."

Aya turned the strokes into pulls as he encircled Farfarello's cock with his fist, jerking hard. Licking his lips, eye closed in what looked like pleasure, Farfarello pushed into it. Such power to make him feel something.... Pull and push, they found a rhythm and moved together until Farfarello came with a growl, then cast Aya a wicked look and slowly licked his come off Aya's skin, which led inexorably to another blowjob....

As Aya arched and purred, captive to Farfarello's tongue and hot mouth and a harsh but stimulating grip on his hips, he thought that maybe he should be fighting this or something. He just couldn't remember why at the moment.

******************************************************

Schuldig stroked Brad's hair, counting the silver strands amidst the black. Not many yet. It looked good on him but made Schuldig sad, even if it didn't totally surprise him. Talents often went prematurely silver or gray as their power burned them out from the inside.

Eszett scientists, upon seeing Schuldig's bursts of superhuman speed, had said that he probably had at least a decade less on his life than he would have had without it, but Schuldig believed what he wanted to believe.

Another wave pulsed through him, though at least it didn't overwhelm him as badly, since the lust wasn't as raw and unrequited now. "Farfie, you're a fucking animal."

Schuldig knew from personal experience how long Farfarello could go. Tired _him_ out.

Brad was asleep and deserved his rest. Schuldig had been using him on and off for weeks and even more than that lately. But he _needed_....

They always got a double room at hotels, two beds, for good reasons.

Schuldig sent his mind out searching and found the bellboy who'd stared at them earlier and yearned. It took only a second to call him, though the kid would never realize that's what it was. He'd feel an urge to walk over and never think it came from outside.

Schuldig put on a robe and opened the door just as his just barely legal prey approached. "I was hoping you would come by," Schuldig said.

Jens stared, wondering if he were dreaming. "Sir?"

Schuldig smiled under the positive appraisal of his body and purred, "I wanted you."

Had to be dreaming, Jens thought. This didn't happen... to anybody. Hot guests didn't come on to the staff like this. "I--"

"We noticed you watching. It made me hot."

"I have to--"

"Downstairs they said that they would get us anything we needed, and I need you. They wouldn't grudge you some time if it made a guest very happy."

Jens didn't really need that much encouragement, but he still said, "What about--"

"I tired him out. If he wakes up, he might join in if you like the idea."

Jens liked it, so Schuldig grabbed him by his uniform jacket and pulled him inside and closed the door. "You got a name?" Schuldig asked. It made the marks feel better if you officially knew their name.

"Jens," the kid said breathily.

"Do you kiss, Jens?"

"Huh?"

Schuldig pulled him closer and kissed him, opening his mouth with his tongue and putting his all into it, smiling at the hard cock he felt against his thigh and Jens' pleasure rushing through him. As good a lay as Brad could be, other people were easier. No shields or futures to break through or navigate, making it so easy to give them exactly what they wanted and even better for him as he felt what they felt.

"Yeah, I kiss," Jens answered, sounding dazed, when Schuldig let him go a little.

Schuldig couldn't wait to see what else Jens would be willing to do, so he pushed him down on the empty bed and applied himself. It turned out that Jens was willing to do a lot, being sweet and eager to please, stroking and kissing and sucking anything Schuldig asked him to. The enthusiasm made up for the clumsiness, and the kid learned fast. He sure as hell didn't stay tentative for long. Schuldig liked them young sometimes, since it reminded him of sneaking around during his training, the totally forbidden nature of it making it all the better. Deeply meshed into the kid's head, he knew exactly where to touch to make Jens beg for more.

"Do you want me to fuck you?" Schuldig asked.

"Yeah, oh please...." Jens couldn't believe they were doing this, couldn't believe that this incredible stranger would want him....

The kids often did things for his ego too, he had to admit. He felt Brad come awake and watch with amusement. Brad probably knew exactly what was going through his head even without the benefit of telepathy.

Schuldig turned Jens over onto his stomach and prepped him slowly--a tight virgin, nice--as Brad's lust stoked his. Had to make this pretty. When he thrust in and started to fuck Jens he had the same thing in mind, posing a bit and slowing the strokes to make the sight more aesthetically pleasing to Brad, who enjoyed the fucking but also thought that the sweep of Schuldig's long hair along Jens' pale body was a very stirring image. He watched himself fuck Jens through Brad's eyes, like watching himself in a mirror.

"Your friend's watching us," Jens said breathlessly.

"He has been for 15 minutes now." Schuldig looked at Brad, smirked at the light reflecting off his glasses, and waved. He could feel Brad's gaze along his skin.... "It's hot, ya know?"

"Yeah. Oh yeah."

"I think he wants to fuck me while I'm fucking you. What do you think?"

Jens came. Damn. That was youth for you. No staying power.

******************************************************

Aya slept deeply, with a small smile on his face and no tension in his long body. Peaceful, no nightmares. So although Farfarello was ready to go again, he let the kitten rest. After all, he'd already had his puisín and eaten him too. He snuggled up to Aya and went to sleep.

******************************************************

"Shouldn't you get back to work?" Schuldig asked Jens. "I don't want to get you in trouble." Suggestion planted.

"Oh!" Jens started to dress in a hurry. "Thanks. For everything. You know." He blushed.

"You were great." Schuldig thought of giving him a tip but figured it would be misconstrued, in a really bad way.

"You were really-- Uh, good night." Then Jens turned to Brad and said, "Good night," again. Cute kid.

Schuldig let him out the door, closed it, then said, "Thank God Farfie's done. I might have had to keep Jens and ask him if he had any friends."

"You've probably ruined that kid for other lovers," Brad said with a small smile.

"You think so? You say the sweetest things. Have I ruined you?" Shit. His mouth had just merrily run him into dangerous territory, since he might not want to have the answer to that stupid question, but he always had to push.

"You ruin everything you touch." But it meant "yes."

Schuldig beamed. "You're such a bitch. Fuck me?"

Brad sighed. "The spirit is willing, but the body isn't up for much right now."

"I'd say something nasty about your stamina, but I have to admit that if I get fucked one more time I might be crippled. Sucks to be us."

"Then why did you ask for it?"

"I gotta be me."

"Come here." Such a cool purr of a voice.

Schuldig settled into bed beside him but put his back to him, which put his ass to him too. It amused Brad, who responded by grabbing a handful of his hair and fingercombing the tangles out, making Schuldig wiggle in pleasure. "Fuck, Brad, you're ruining _me_."

******************************************************

Nagi had found a nice café open at the late hour, and although it didn't have Internet connections available it had pastries that weren't too sweet, plenty of reading materials, and a waitress who only came by once every half hour to ask if sir wanted anything else and _not_ in a "will you just finish and leave already?" way.

Nagi sipped his banana juice and smirked as he turned the page. German haute couture was so _funny_. Actually, anybody's haute couture was funny....

******************************************************

Schuldig and Brad had to take a cab back to the apartment. It was 10 a.m., but Nagi hadn't answered any telepathic calls for a pickup. "Now do you see what I mean about that boy's new attitude?" Brad asked. "Is he still out?"

"Nope, just asleep in his bed. You know, he had to become a teenager sooner or later."

"Some discipline might be in order."

"Yeah, I can't wait to see how you discipline an alpha class telekinetic without hurting yourself. Even Eszett and Rosenkreuz had trouble by the end. And that slap you gave him by surprising him during his affair with Tot was _so_ effective."

Brad paid the driver. "There has to be a way. Maybe a telepathic way."

"With his mental shields being what they are? Sure, Captain Uptight."

"I think _you_ need some discipline."

Schuldig's smile had an edge. "Sign me up, Daddy."

"Discipline is wasted on you."

"Not at all! I love discipline!"

The apartment was quiet when they entered. "Too quiet?" Schuldig asked.

"Don't start."

"I'll check in on Snow-white and Rose-red. You nap."

"I'm not going to nap."

"Sleep!"

Brad smirked. "No."

"You need to keep your strength up."

"Do you have plans for me?"

"You won't know unless you get some rest."

"Or foresee it."

"You suck. Go to your room."

Brad smirked at him again but obeyed. Schuldig loved it when Brad did his bidding. It didn't happen often enough.

Schuldig knocked on the psychos' door, even though he knew what was going on in there without it. Telepath and all. If he hadn't been involuntarily monitoring them telepathically the whole time, he would have worried that Farfarello would break or rip Aya apart. He'd seen it happen. Schuldig wasn't squeamish, but he preferred to break people with less mess and crudity because you could do more with their bodies afterward that way.

Farfarello answered the door naked and half-hard. Man was a machine. "What do you want?" Farfie asked.

"Just to wish you good morning and congratulations."

Aya was in the bed with the top sheet just barely coming up to the top of his ass. Small red nip marks and bruises studded his skin, but nowhere near as badly and thickly as they could have. Then again, Aya faced away, and maybe his front looked worse. Whatever, the sight and the room's sex-drenched air made Schuldig very horny.

"And to ogle the kitten," Farfarello said with a low growl.

"Who wouldn't want to do that? Besides, 'pretty and fucked up' is just my type."

"'Breathing' is just your type."

"Ouch. Prick me and I bleed."

"_Prick_ you, and you--"

"Getting laid seems to help your wordplay."

Farfarello slammed the door in his face, then Schuldig heard him dragging something across the floor. Bastard had just propped a chair under the doorknob. Somebody felt threatened. It made him smile. "This isn't over."

"Yeah, it is. Now fuck off."

Farfie and Aya could keep. Now Schuldig would spread his sunshine to another deserving party. He picked the locks on Nagi's door and slammed it open, then hit the floor before the telekinetic wave could smash him into anything. "No self-control."

Nagi's sleepy, pillow-smothered answer sounded something like "fuck off." The covers left only the very top of his brown mop visible.

"That seems to be the popular answer. Brad's kind of pissed that you didn't pick us up. You might want to kiss his ass later."

"Mmph."

"It's your life. Or not."

Nagi was already asleep again. Schuldig shook his head--nobody appreciated him--and closed the door, then went back to his own sleeping beauty. He'd have to reward Brad for that obedience. Of course, they'd both have to rest and recuperate a bit before he rewarded him in his favorite way.


	11. "I get it now. Reading a newspaper at breakfast!"

Aya woke up alone and a bit confused. When he saw the clock, he stared at it in surprise. 1 p.m.? He hadn't thought himself capable of sleeping that late.

Farfarello, fully dressed, walked in and sat on the side of the bed near Aya, then kissed him, opening his lips with his tongue. "Kitten," he said when he pulled away to let Aya take a breath. "How do you feel?"

Drained and euphoric all at once. A bit afraid and in shock. Grungy. Emptied. Aching and tingling. "Fine."

"Bath time."

"What?" Oh, hell. He did need one. Aya pulled the covers aside, stood, and stretched, noticing the gleam of greed, hunger, and possession in Farfarello's gaze on him. The bed looked war-torn.

As Aya moved to gather some clothes, Farfarello said, "I've done that. We only need you," so Aya only put on a pair of sweatpants and walked into the hallway empty-handed. He didn't want to flash anyone on his way out. Schuldig would enjoy it too much.

How _would_ they look at him after last night? He decided not to care.

While soaking in the tub, Aya started to notice the nips and bruises on his skin. He shivered a little. Farfarello wet his hair and massaged shampoo into it, then said, "I was very excited. I won't always be that rough. At least I'll try not to mark you up as much."

Aya had liked the roughness. "Sometimes--" He managed to hold the rest of it back.

Farfarello chuckled as if he'd heard it anyway. He didn't say anything else, but his touches felt more familiar and pleasurable and lingered longer. Aya still felt that chill of fear at what he'd done and let be done to him, but last night had been irrevocable. He'd chosen, and the deciding at last had taken a weight off him. For the first time in what seemed like forever, he felt nearly centered, balanced. Farfarello grinned as he towel-dried Aya, seeming to take pleasure in Aya's apparent enjoyment of it.

Suddenly ravenous, Aya dressed and walked to the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of banana juice and found half a croissant left over. Too restless and impatient to sit, he stayed standing at the counter to eat.

"Good afternoon, Aya," Schuldig said from the doorway as he walked in with Crawford and Nagi. Aya realized suddenly that Farfarello hadn't come in with him. He quietly picked a knife up from the drainboard to hold behind his back, thinking of anything but.

Crawford sounded like the soul of rationality, his tone calm and slightly condescending, as he said, "Aya, I understand that people have needs, but next time try to wait until we're away from the crime scene."

Aya fought down a blush. He didn't care what Crawford thought, even if it was reason being spoken to him. Crawford didn't remind him of his father at all.

Schuldig cackled. "Oh, fuck. I get it now. Reading a newspaper at breakfast!"

Damn. He hadn't wanted Schuldig to catch any of that.

"What?" Crawford cast an annoyed look behind him to Schuldig.

"Tell you later, Brad."

As Schuldig let out the occasional soft giggle behind his hand, Crawford continued, "Aside from the dangers of lingering at the scene of our work, your lust distracted every member of the team except Nagi."

"It distracted me too," Nagi said. "I have some telepathy and empathy."

Aya refused to let his face show his reaction to the knowledge that they all knew what he'd done from experiencing some aspect of the act personally. It was exposure beyond his worst nightmare.

Farfarello slammed the door open and stalked in, knocking his teammates out of his way, and stopped behind Aya and put his arms around him. "Crawford," he said, "the point is taken. Now you'll stop talking to my kitten before he decides to never touch me again."

"If he's going to be part of the family, he has to be able to take some teasing."

"Family?" Aya asked.

"You're Schwarz now."

Schuldig smirked. "And all you had to do was put out."

Farfarello grabbed Aya's arm and led him away before he could protest more vehemently. Schuldig copped a feel on Aya's way out and only laughed when Aya smacked his hand away. In the hallway, Farfarello said, "They only tease you because they know it bothers you. If it stops bothering you, they'll stop."

"They know everything we do."

"Not everything, but yes, and they always did. You get used to having no privacy in the institution, Rosenkreuz, Eszett, Schwarz.... I say we give them something to complain about." Farfarello maneuvered him until he had his back against the wall and kissed him deeply.

And he liked it so much that he didn't care as much that the rest of the team eavesdropped on them by physical and psychic means, but.... "Not... not in the hallway." He hooked the knife in his belt.

Farfarello rubbed his face against the side of Aya's, grinned, and opened the nearest door, pushing Aya inside. "Here."

"This isn't our room."

"Don't care." Farfarello's hands seemed to be everywhere, and Aya winced away from some of the touches as they brushed bruises and bite marks. "Sorry. I won't break you. I'll be careful, I'll be so careful...."

The bed smelled of Crawford's cologne and Schuldig's hair and faintly of musk. This was so wrong. Thinking of all the frustrating nights when he had to listen to them loudly fucking one another in here, Aya smiled and stretched across the top of the sheets. Farfarello stared at him and smiled, making a soft "mmm" sound all the while, then leapt atop him, kissing and humping.

"A knife? You're so cute." Farfarello removed it from Aya's belt and put it on the night table. "I want to fuck you, kitten."

Aya's cock jerked, and he groaned, unable to believe that he'd be ready to go again so quickly after all the sex he'd just had. "Yeah."

Farfarello still straddled him but rummaged through a drawer in the night table next to the bed, sometimes snickering. Aya asked, "What?"

"I don't think you're old enough for this one. This thing's new.... God would weep for-- I have to keep this in mind."

"What are you--"

Farfarello tossed the tube of lubricant on the table and shut the drawer, then rocked their hips together. "Maybe later." Once he started to tongue the scars on Aya's forearm in long, hard strokes, Aya couldn't find the strength to ask any more questions.

******************************************************

"That's our room," Brad said with a sigh.

"Their bed is a mess." Schuldig smirked and finished Aya's juice. "Besides, you just had to taunt Aya."

"So I brought this on myself?"

"Deal with it."

"We're going to be useless this afternoon."

"You don't need to be a seer to know that." Schuldig shifted in his chair and smiled at the feelings and images coming from the two lovebirds. "But, hey, the team that fucks together--"

"Don't finish that sentence."

"Sure, dear. Hey, Nagi, you have a glow today. Must be all the sex in the air bringing you into adolescence. Or did you break another sexual predator last night?"

Nagi's eyes narrowed, and he stood to leave. "I'm going to go write an e-mail to Tot."

"Send Mr. Bunny my regards." Schuldig ooohed as Nagi flipped him off.

******************************************************

"Perfect, perfect," Farfarello murmured as he slow-fucked Aya. After everything they'd done recently it hurt Aya a bit, but he still liked it. It hurt but it felt good too. "Do you know what would make it even more perfect?"

Insane how he'd become so comfortable having another person so close to him and to having Farfarello inside him. "No."

"Those furry handcuffs I found in their drawer."

What? He had to be joking. Aya smacked the back of his head. "Tacky."

Farfarello laughed against his neck and thrust harder. "They hurt God."

Aya struggled to keep talking. "They hurt everyone."

"You didn't even see them."

"I don't think a tasteful pair of furry handcuffs has ever been made."

"You're still thinking coherently. I have to fuck you more thoroughly."

"You--" Farfarello did something to him that made the world turn inside out with pleasure. Knew his body too well.... "Ohhhh."

"Better."

******************************************************

Aya bit Farfarello's lip as he came. That harsh spark of sensation brought Farfarello to orgasm, and he had to concentrate to remember not to thrust too hard. Kittens might be flexible and resilient, but even they had their limits, and he'd used his puisín hard and often lately.

Still tangled with him, Aya continued to rock, as if he didn't want to stop yet either. Farfarello drank in the sight of him, his head back against the pillow to bare his neck, his lips full and sensual after all the kissing, his eyes half-closed and stoned with pleasure. Perfect. He'd chosen well. The prize you worked hard for always felt more satisfying once you won it.

Aya would stop being violent to himself even if Farfarello had to fuck his brains out several times a day to make sure of it. Farfarello would make such a sacrifice--he smirked--in the interest of keeping his puisín healthy.

Eventually he slid out of Aya's body and stroked soft, luridly colored kitten hair and nuzzled Aya's jaw. He smirked at how domesticated he felt right now. A pet to stroke and snuggle, comfort, and fucking in beds suggested home. "We weren't like this before."

"What?" Aya asked sleepily, opening his eyes a little more.

"Without Eszett, we're free now in a way we never were before. More relaxed, less icy. We're being people we never let anyone see before. I think it's bothering Crawford." Farfarello smiled.

"Get out of my bed," Crawford said from the now open door.

"Speaking of which.... Why? You're not using it right now," Farfarello answered as he covered Aya's body from view with his own. He knew that his puisín didn't like to be on display.

In the background, Schuldig snickered.

"I'd spank you all, but I think you'd enjoy it too much."

"I didn't do anything!" Nagi said from the hall.

"You will."

"They're not so bad, Aya," Farfarello told the kitten. "They're fucking annoying, but not so bad."

"I don't want to leave the bed," Aya said, almost smiling as he pulled the sheet up to cover himself better. "It's very comfortable."

Banter? Farfarello stroked him as a reward.

"Nagi, move them," Crawford said.

Nagi briefly poked his head into the room to answer, "What am I, your housekeeper? No."

"We have a job tonight."

Farfarello sneered.

"I may be a seer but I couldn't predict when Aya would make his move. You'll have to enjoy your kitten later, because we still have a mission to accomplish and a living to make."

"What's the job?" Schuldig asked.

"One of Eszett's major people is in town, Oskar Amann. We need to get information from him, then we can kill him."

Farfarello felt Aya tense, like a cat about to spring. Crawford had dangled a delectable bait, one the kitten couldn't ignore.

Schuldig laughed. "Who gets to cruise the club for him?"

"You and Aya."

"Oooh, you do love me."

Farfarello couldn't believe Crawford's audacity. "No, he won't go."

"What?" Aya asked.

"Amann's fetish for redheads can be served by Schuldig," Farfarello told Crawford. He didn't want the kitten anywhere near that creature, and he hated Aya going anywhere alone with Schuldig.

"Between Aya and Schuldig, he has to find _something_ appealing."

"Schuldig is everyone's type if he puts his mind to it. But what if Amann recognizes them? Even with all the talents he's fucked over the decades, some of them must stand out for him, and Eszett gathered information on Weiß."

Crawford looked surprised. "I thought of that and figured that it would draw him as well as the lust would. If I'd known that repeated sex could get you to think this well, I might have been throwing partners at you sooner."

Schuldig leaned against the doorway and crossed his arms. "You don't think Aya can take care of himself even with me there?" Causing trouble.

"Who is he?" Aya asked.

"Major guy," Schuldig answered as he stared into space. "Big shot, consultant to the geezers, head of research and acquistions, first class pervert and sadist. Sometimes he gets tired of fucking frightened kids and cowed subordinates, so he goes out looking for somebody who doesn't know what an asshole he is."

"You know this from personal experience?"

"As bad as my punishment was, it was worth it to see him impotent for a week. He got a little more cautious about fucking up telepaths after that."

"I thought he had a fetish for redheads, yet you say he victimized everyone around him."

"He prefers redheads, but he'll fuck anything that has a hole otherwise."

Amann had tried something with Farfarello too, but the lack of reaction to his torments had pissed him off. The poor bastard had been reduced to using straps, chains, and hot irons but still hadn't been able to get more than a smirk out of Farfarello.

Aya might have a similar contempt for pain, but he still felt it. "You're not going, puisín," Farfarello said.

But Aya had that berserker look in his eyes. "You can't stop me." Crawford had baited the snare well.

Crawford smiled. "Excellent. We have a few hours, so Abyssinian can get his hair cut to make himself more presentable. He's getting a bit shaggy." He left the room, trailed by a grinning Schuldig. "Oh, and get out of my bed."

"Aya, you won't go," Farfarello said.

"This," Aya's gesture took in the bed and them, "doesn't mean you control me."

"Amann is scum. Schuldig isn't much better. Crawford is toying with us." Gave with one hand and took away with the other. Did he think he was God?

"He's been toying with me since I left Weiß. You all have."

Farfarello saw stubbornness in the set of the kitten's jaw and mouth. He'd chosen this pet for himself, fully knowing it to be an intractable one at times. That quality made Aya more interesting.

Farfarello realized that he couldn't win here, as that bastard Crawford must have intended. Farfarello might own Aya, but Crawford owned _him_, making Aya Crawford's property by extension.

Sighing, he said, "I think you can trust Schuldig with your life for now. Don't trust him with anything else."

Aya bowed his head, and Farfarello inwardly agreed that he needed a haircut. How annoying that Crawford had to suggest it first. Something had to be done about him.

"Come on already," Nagi said from the doorway. "I have to chaperone you to the barber's, and I have better things to do with my time. You can get dressed in front of me; I've seen it all before. Though it's usually dead and eviscerated."

"If it's eviscerated, it should be dead," Aya said.

"Not necessarily," Farfarello answered.

"Please, Aya," Nagi said. "You and Farfarello can get back to whatever depraved acts you want to do later."

"I might as well," the kitten said.

Aya got out of bed and gathered his clothes, while Farfarello admired the view. When he noticed Nagi doing the same he growled, "Not for you. And haven't you seen it all before?"

"I told you. It was usually dead. A live Aya is much more interesting."

"Sometimes you're too much like Schuldig."

"Don't say that, not even as a joke." He looked serious. The boy had odd sore spots. Farfarello liked to poke them now and then.


	12. "...and I never have to wake up with Farfarello crouching at the end of my bed."

When they walked into the barbershop, Nagi put his hand to the back of his head and said, "Maybe I should get a trim too." Then his expression turned sour.

"What?" Aya asked.

"Crawford is a manipulative little bitch. I should let my hair grow past the bottom of my ass just to spite him."

"But then he'd still be controlling your life."

"You're a wise man, Fujimiya-sensei."

"Not really." With wisdom, he never would have ended up here, trapped, confused, and torn.

"Yeah, there's the lousy taste in sexual partners. Don't dare hit me. You wouldn't like the result."

"I wouldn't. I don't understand you people. You gave me to him, and now...."

"We're sadists. Most of us have sharper tongues than is healthy for us too."

"I didn't use to be like this."

"I'm sorry." Nagi sounded sincere. "That crack about your sex life really was a rude thing to say, and it's not even all your fault. If you live with a horny telepath, you get some backwash."

"What?"

"It's not like he does it on purpose or that it _makes_ you an uncontrollable sex fiend. You're just... more inclined."

That was a relief in one way and not in the other. As much as the thought of mind control frightened and horrified him, Aya also couldn't blame his recent behavior on Schuldig.

Nagi sighed. "Like it's not bad enough just being a teenager. Like it's not bad enough that Schuldig's lighting a fire under me with one hand while throwing buckets of cold water on me with the other by making scary comments about me 'making the earth move' for somebody when I finally find my 'special someone.'"

"I'm sorry. You should kill him."

He smiled a little. "Sorry to dump this on you. As you can guess, I don't really have anyone at home I can say this to. But if you don't want your sexuality warped, you're in the wrong place."

"I'm well aware of that."

"Really, as long as you're happy and I never have to wake up with Farfarello crouching at the end of my bed staring at me ever again, I wish you luck."

"What was that about?"

"I don't know. He never said anything before or after I blasted him off."

Aya wanted to ask more, but they were both called over to chairs to get their haircuts. It felt so odd to be doing this here and in such company, yet at the same time it didn't. He could have done without the barber asking if he _wanted_ to look like an anime character, but otherwise it felt so mundane. Telling the man to use his original cut as a guide had worked well enough.

It was also odd to see himself with his hair crisp and neat. He'd let it go worse than usual since Aya's kidnapping. Remembering gave him a stab of pain, which made him see that the pain had at some point ceased to be constant. Feeling treacherous, he shook his head to disorder it a bit.

Aya didn't realize until they returned to the apartment that he hadn't considered escape the whole time they'd been out.

"Nagi, you look good," Crawford said, but he looked a little confused and disturbed.

Aya didn't see why. Nagi did look good, having gone for something different from his former cloud of hair. Now it was cut closer to the head, with one side a bit shorter than the other and the longer side falling attractively over one eye. He looked older, in a good way.

"Bite me," Nagi answered as he walked past Crawford to his room.

Crawford looked at Aya. "I blame you." His tone sounded a little serious.

This was really pissing Aya off. "You're being ridiculous. I have no power here."

"You're one of us, so we have to adapt to you. I worry about all of you." Crawford pressed his glasses further up his nose. "Farfarello doesn't have any diseases despite engaging in the riskiest behaviors possible. I don't think he _can_ pick up anything, but we get him checked out once in a while just to be safe. You don't have to worry about that, at least."

Diseases? Oh. Oh shit. "I didn't even think of that," Aya said softly, stunned.

"I know."

What was wrong with him? Having unprotected sex with a man who licked blood off knives, among other things.

"Schuldig hasn't messed with your head aside from the language shifts," Crawford said.

"I'm supposed to believe that?"

"Oh, he wanted to--still wants to--but Farfarello was and is insistent against it. This is all you."

"And Stockholm Syndrome."

"Maybe. But how do you feel?"

That was the worst part. He felt happier with them. It hurt to admit it, but hiding from it wouldn't change the truth.

"Of course, it's up to you if you learn anything from me or not," Crawford said. "It's not like I'm your father."

Aya winced. "I'm going to kill Schuldig."

"We all want to do that now and then. But it is funny when someone _else's_ embarrassing secrets are pulled out in the open. Just remember that you're here because we share a common enemy, and you'll be fine." Then Crawford left him to his thoughts.

"What am I doing?" Aya muttered to himself as he sat down. He hadn't intended to be happy with Schwarz or have unprotected sex with a madman who slaughtered priests and nuns for sport.

Would nuns fall into Yoji's chivalrous idea of women?

Damn, Yoji. Aya hadn't thought of any of them in such a long time. Couldn't. They probably thought he was utterly co-opted and insane by now. Maybe he was.

"Crawford has been picking at you again. I can tell." Farfarello came up behind the chair and put his arms around Aya while resting his chin atop Aya's head. "I will rip out his heart for you."

Terrible how Aya had come to look forward to these touches. "Just for me? I think not."

Farfarello rubbed his chin on the top of Aya's head, perhaps liking the feel of freshly cut hair. "I'm not allowed to enjoy it or have other reasons?"

"No."

"You're mean."

They were... bantering.

Schuldig showed up in the doorway. "C'mon, Aya. It's time to get dressed for our big night, and you need an expert's consultation."

"I can dress myself."

"Yeah? You've been bathing yourself for years too, but you let Farfie take that over for you." Schuldig cocked his head and smiled. "And you can't kill me, because you're the only suspect and Brad would be pissed. Brad gets lethal when he's pissed."

"I doubt I'd be the only suspect."

"I don't want you to go," Farfarello said.

That only stiffened Aya's resolve, because he had no intention of being here simply as Farfarello's bedtoy. "I have to do this." He wanted to see this man who might give them what they needed to reach their goal. When he put his hands on Farfarello's wrists, the grip around his neck loosened, and he slipped out.

Schuldig's eyes insolently measured him as he approached. Aya said, "Let's get this over with." He didn't look back.

******************************************************

Crawford had his gun out and trained on Farfarello's heart as he entered the room. So, the bastard had seen him coming and gotten an idea of his intentions. "Are you _trying_ to drive the kitten away from us?" Farfarello growled.

"Doubts and second thoughts are inevitable. I want him to have them at safe times and under our observation. Besides, Weiß members have shown an endless capacity for self-delusion."

"Maybe he'd settle in better if you stopped fucking poking him."

"He's not like your other pets. He works with us. We'd be in deep shit if he snapped while we were on a mission. Whereas that girl, the first one, what was her name...."

"Mary."

"I'm sure it wasn't."

"It was by the time I was done with her."

"That girl Mary could snap and start screaming for three hours, but all we had to do was keep her gagged and tied to a table leg in your room. We didn't have to depend on her for anything."

Good times. Unfortunately, she had been weak.

"But we have to be able to trust Aya with our backs," Crawford continued.

That made sense. Fuck. Still.... "Explain why you would entrust Aya to Schuldig, who's wanted to get into his pants since first seeing him."

"If Aya is Schwarz, he has to be able to take orders and work with any one of us."

"It has nothing to do with the fact that you and Schuldig fuck one another?"

"Nothing. Have you realized that you're treating Abyssinian less as a pet than a partner?"

Was he? "He understands us better than the others could, since he knows so much of our lives already."

"I just wanted you to know."

******************************************************

"You should wear less. Show off some of the lovebites. They contrast so nicely with that haughty expression of yours," Schuldig said. Right now he wore only a pair of very low-slung, tight black leather pants, a silver navel ring, and a bit of silver eyeshadow on his eyelids.

"You should wear more."

"I will. A bit of clothing adds mystery and anticipation. You just need the right bits in the right places." Schuldig put his arm around Aya's shoulders. "I'll show you."

Aya twisted away. "No matter what Farfarello and I are doing together, my relations with you remain the same. You don't touch me."

Irritation flickered across Schuldig's face before he put on a bored look. "You need to loosen up more, Aya. What do you do for fun?"

"Read."

"You and Nagi. If I got you two together, the sheer excitement would be off the charts." Then Schuldig smirked. "And you liked being a florist too? Sucker. Though at least you hated the customers, which redeems you a bit."

"Get out of my head."

"Make me."

Aya thought of nothing. Absolutely nothing.

"Not bad," Schuldig said.

Aya stopped thinking of nothing to say, "You don't have as many scars as I expected." Schuldig's current state of dress showed so much creamy, smooth skin that Aya couldn't help noticing. His own body had marks.

"You and Farfie may charge in close with edged weapons, but I either strike really fast and get out or hit from a distance. I heal fast too." Schuldig stared in the mirror with a melancholy look, though.

"You don't even see it unless you're looking for it. I don't think it'll leave a permanent mark."

"Who's the telepath now?"

"It's the way you're angling your face as you look at it."

"Yeah, I'm irresistible. It's fine. Besides, it's better than being dead or losing an eye."

"Losing an eye?"

"That's where the bullet was heading before I dodged. We already have someone in the 'one-eyed maniac' slot and don't need another."

Aya didn't know how to deal with this more vulnerable Schuldig, so he snapped, "You're beautiful. Can we get on with this?"

Ironically, that seemed to be what Schuldig needed. He straightened, grinned, and swept silver powder down each cheekbone. "You need to wear less, or at least put on something fetishy with straps so it looks like you're _supposed_ to be all packaged up for later unwrapping."

"Fine. I'll wear the shirt with the straps and buckles."

"Which one?"

"The one with the higher piece at the neck."

"Good. And your tightest pants. We're trying to attract attention." Schuldig put on a close-fitting black silk shirt that had rips in strategic places in it, creating the impression that someone had tried to tear his clothes off, and buttoned only a few of the middle buttons. That shirt combined with the leather pants made a visual feast of different textures and set off Schuldig's pale skin and bright hair. He added a braided black leather choker around his neck and cheap, sparkly bangles around his wrists. "How do I look?"

"Like a whore."

"Perfect."

Aya dressed himself and tried not to sigh. Schuldig could be so hard to insult.


	13. Cold and dirty and insolent as city snow, Schuldig leaned against the wall, a cigarette smoldering in his mouth.

Farfie walked in as soon as Schuldig unlocked the door and gravitated toward his kitten. He had a cute fascination with Aya's freshly trimmed hair, stroking it or nuzzling it every chance he got, while Aya alternated through amusement, mild lust, and annoyance over his behavior.

As Schuldig brushed his own hair, he ogled Aya and smirked at the thought of what he might be able to get away with later. Aya looked hot. Amann would have to be a blind idiot to pass either of them up. Of course, if Amann realized that they were Abyssinian of Weiß and Schuldig of the renegade Schwarz out hunting together they could wear sackcloth and ashes and still get his total attention.

But--fuck Amann--Schuldig appreciated all that tight black clinging to Aya. Surely he could get some groping in.

But Aya looked way too tense, so Schuldig asked, "Hey, Farfie, why don't you take some of the starch out of Aya and loosen him up a bit?"

Farfie regarded him suspiciously. "Why?"

"How about so he doesn't look like he's going out to kill someone?"

Aya glared. Farfarello's look turned sly, then he grabbed Aya and kissed him deeply, rocking their hips together. Aya fought for about 20 seconds before melting into it. Schuldig raised an eyebrow as they continued to make out, twined around each other. The kitten became less and less shy by the hour, it seemed. Either he was becoming a sex fiend or had finally realized that privacy didn't exist amongst the members of Schwarz. Schuldig clamped his hand on his own dick, then smiled at Farfarello's snarl. It seemed that Aya's trim made it harder for Farfie to grip his kitten's hair.

Farfarello drew away a little, with a little lick on Aya's lips and a kiss on his nose, while Aya's eyes remained closed, his lips slightly parted and wet. "Puisín," Farfie said, his voice husky, "don't take any unnecessary risks. Don't trust Schuldig any farther than you have to."

"Hey!" Schuldig protested.

"And come back to me."

Opening his eyes, Aya looked annoyed and touched all at once. "I'll do what I have to."

"Of course."

"And I'll do Aya," Schuldig said and ducked the knife Farfie threw at him. "Touchy."

Then someone walked into the room. Someone? They were in the apartment, but he didn't know this hot guy. Impossible. Oh. Shit. _Nagi_? "Nagi, baby, _come_ to Schuldig!"

"I'm going to shave my head." That voice and annoyed, disdainful look were sheer Nagi, but his face didn't look so babyish now.

"Don't you dare. Besides, I don't think the Buddhist monk look would suit you. The lifestyle sure wouldn't." Schuldig had to laugh. "Has Brad seen this?"

"He wasn't happy."

Of course not, not with Nagi looking so grown up and fucking hot. Poor Brad, getting his mind blown. At least he had a Schuldig to blow other parts of him to make up for it.

"You sure you don't wanna come out with us? Recreation-like?" He wanted to watch people react to Nagi's new look. Of course he also wanted Nagi to sit in his lap and let him do all kinds of nasty things to him, but he doubted that would be happening either.

"I am so sure I don't." Of course.

"Your loss."

Schuldig lit up a clove cigarette and took in a deep, spicy breath of it. Going out as part of the job should have felt like shit, constricting, but he always got a naughty thrill out of getting paid for the kind of thing he'd do anyway. Hell, sometimes he still couldn't believe it that he could make a good living off of killing people or fucking up their heads. Business and pleasure as one thing really appealed to him.

Schuldig noticed Aya watching him and heard him think that with the primping and smoking Schuldig could have been Yoji. Then Aya very quickly shied away from any thoughts of his former teammates, finding them too painful. He was thinking too much, so something had to be done.

"We gotta get going," Schuldig said.

"The car's waiting outside," Brad said. Schuldig noticed him shooting glances Nagi's way, while Nagi ignored him.

"You're my favorite chauffeur."

"Don't push it."

As they left, Farfie's burning one-eyed gaze promised Schuldig hell if something happened to Aya. Schuldig waved merrily to him.

Aya sat as far away from him on the backseat as possible. It didn't surprise Schuldig much, but he wished for it to be otherwise. As tightly wound looking as he was tightly wrapped, Aya might not have been groped by Farfie only ten minutes ago for all the difference it made now.

The haircut kept throwing Schuldig off, because suddenly all that dark red hair looked neat and in control, whereas before it had that permanent disheveled routine going that begged for somebody to please hug, feed, and care for its owner. But did the new look lie? Aya became harder to read when in professional mode as Abyssinian, reminding Schuldig of trying to see the bottom of a still, dark pond. Fortunately, matters concerning Takatori Reiji or his sister had always knocked him out of professional mode and into a version of Aya whose mind screamed and bled. But one of those two stressors was a moot point now.

Then again... neat and in control? Aya had spent much of the day and night being fucked by Farfarello. Case closed.

Schuldig wanted to muss Abyssinian's hair. Of course, he also wanted to climb on top of him, unbuckle him out of that outfit, and devour him.

"Stop fantasizing at me," Abyssinian said, and Brad coughed.

"Funny guy." When Abyssinian nearly smiled, Schuldig said, "Careful. Your face might crack."

"What does Amann look like?" Abyssinian asked.

"I'll send you a telepathic picture."

"A photo would be fine."

"Don't have any."

"Fine."

Schuldig beamed the image in... and left a little mental caress with it. Aya glared at him, and he smiled.

"Where are we going, Schu?" Brad asked.

Schuldig closed his eyes and let his mind roam the city. Like most high-level members of Eszett, Amann had mental shields to hide his thoughts, but Schuldig had the power and experience to find Eszett members by the signature their training had left. Besides, he'd gone into this head a long time ago when Amann had let his training and attention slip while torturing him, so he could taste the bastard.

"Got him, Brad. Turn here."

When Brad dropped them off in front of the club, Schuldig did a long and luxurious stretch. He'd either "call" Brad later or Brad would foresee the need for a pickup. In the meantime, party. He wallowed in the fucked-up minds around him, letting the pleasure and need flow through his body. It hit him harder once he entered the club, as syncing his environment with the one the other minds were in made the other minds seem so much more immediate and his.

A heavy grip on his shoulder brought him out of it and back to himself faster. He could have done it on his own, but the feel of Abyssinian's chill, inexorable purpose did it faster. Deep water. Looking for Amann with Abyssinian was like hunting with fate at his side. Farfarello felt like this when in the grip of his obsessions but couldn't hold it for very long, his attention often suddenly and unexpectedly jumping to something else. That lack of long-term focus made Farfie a handy ally to have when you went up against a precog or a telepath, but it could be a pain in the ass to Farfie's own telepath.

Abyssinian twitched and became Aya as Schuldig put his hand against the small of that rigid back. Aya said, "I told you--"

Schuldig barely heard him over the roar of the music and shouted, "I can find him easier. To let you know where to go, I'd either have to shout or speak directly into your brain. Or I can direct you by touch. What will it be?"

Aya glared but shouted back, "Touch."

Heh. Poor sucker. Events just kept conspiring against him. Schuldig enjoyed the feel of hot leather and the rigid body under it immensely, and the thought of steering Abyssinian made him hard.

People couldn't stop staring at Abyssinian, and it wasn't just from him being a gorgeous and exotic looking foreigner. His eyes scanned the room with the intensity of lasers, and that gaze said plainly, "I'm looking for someone and you're not it." His haughty, untouchable manner and tightly bound up outfit inspired thoughts of violence, of messing with him, even as something in his walk showed the use Farfie had put him to and suggested that he _could_ be touched. If you dared. It amused the hell out of Schuldig, especially since some of the looks were directed at him as the man who had a hand on the provocative foreign piece's back.

Amann noticed them from a few meters away and dumped the scantily clad bits of fluff, one male and one female, he had on each knee. "Go away," he said. "Something better has shown up."

They glared at Schuldig and Abyssinian, with Schuldig sneering back. They should be thanking him. The woman got a bit scared while looking at Abyssinian, which made her the smarter one if she recognized what that cold stillness meant. Schuldig wasn't trying to look threatening at the moment. No matter; both tarts left in a huff.

"Have a seat," Amann said as he stripped them with his eyes. Schuldig knew how they looked and that the strobe light flashed off their hair and skin. Redheads, just as the bastard preferred. "How considerate of Crawford to remember my predilections."

Schuldig got a mini brainstorm and said, "Abyssinian, have a seat," in Aya's native tongue. Amann shouldn't be aware that Aya knew German now.

Abyssinian gave him a look, then said, "I'd rather stand," in the same, playing along, while Schuldig sat and leaned forward.

"You didn't put much more mass on, Schuldig," Amann said in German. "I supposed that genetics will tell."

"I doubt you've grown much since our last meeting either."

"Some company you're keeping."

"He's decorative _and_ practical."

Abyssinian didn't visibly react, playing incomprehension. Not bad. Without his sister to drive him to madness, he made a better agent. "What has he been saying?" Abyssinian asked.

Schuldig smirked. "He's saying that he likes to fuck dogs."

"I doubt that."

"That he said it or that he likes it?"

Amann said in the same, "Don't believe a word this one tells you, Fujimiya Aya. He's a born liar. My relations with dogs are purely Platonic." Amann couldn't stop staring lustfully at Abyssinian. A _Japanese_ redhead, one who was naturally so, had to appeal to a collector's tastes.

"I _don't_ believe him," Abyssinian answered.

"My, we're all so international," Schuldig purred.

Amann started to say something, but Schuldig couldn't hear it as he felt his body start to lock and his mind slow. Helpless, fucking helpless.... Aya hit Amann hard in the back of the head, ending the word in a strangled sound that broke its power. Enraged, Schuldig slipped back into German to say, "You won't say another word that can stop or hurt or strip power away from me or any other member of Schwarz," and made it stick with telepathy.

Aya sat down behind Amann in the chair, yanked him up by the hair, and put an arm in a chokehold around his neck, pulling him close, sitting Amann between his legs. Oh, happy place to be. Schuldig could see only half of Aya's face this way, and it had an intense, set look.

Then Schuldig had realized what had happened there. Rosenkreuz, Eszett, whatever, had planted a word of suggestion in his head that would have left him entirely at Amann's nonexistent mercy, but Aya had no such weakness and stopped it from taking effect. Maybe all of Schwarz had such controls set in them, making them vulnerable, but Aya had been Weiß.

Was this how Brad's feeling about Aya being important in destroying Eszett played out?

Afire with a malicious happiness, Schuldig straddled Amann's lap. "You should enjoy your position, you know. That's farther than I've ever gotten with Abyssinian." He shifted a little, rubbing himself against Amann's unwilling hard-on, smirking at the grimace that provoked. Somehow the bastard didn't seem to be happy over his loss of control. "You're the envy of the club right now."

"We made sure you can't read my mind."

"But you couldn't make sure that I couldn't command you not to throw certain words at me, huh? What a shame. I also wouldn't boast about your mind being airtight, because this just means that we'll have to let Farfarello take a few cracks at getting the truth out of you. You really annoyed him that time. You figured you could do what Rosenkreuz's sexual indoctrination program couldn't? Big man."

Aya shot him a questioning look that Schuldig ignored. Maybe someday Schuldig would tell him how Farfie had responded to the worst and most intense breakdown program Rosenkruez had ever tried with--depending on the time--boredom, incomprehension, laughter, or demands for more. Farfarello claimed that the looks on their faces when he willingly reported back the next day on his own had been worth the rounds of retaliatory electroshock treatment he'd received.

"I can survive whatever you throw at me, trash."

"Maybe you might. Question is, will you want to by the time we're done with you? What's with that flinch? Is Abyssinian getting hard behind you?"

"Schuldig," Abyssinian growled.

Right. He was supposed to be translating. He switched languages. "Amann doesn't want to help us, and Eszett made it so I can't read his mind. We'll have to let Farfarello take a crack at him."

"Good. Since we can't do anything with him here, I think we should take him to Farfarello immediately." Abyssinian tightened his legs and arm around Amann as Amann started to struggle harder.

"I don't think he likes that plan, Aya."

"What he likes doesn't matter anymore," Brad said as he reached the table. Foresight could be so useful. "Let's go."

Abyssinian pulled Amann up, and he and Schuldig dragged him out of the club, Abyssinian batted him back into line every time he tried to run, just like a cat toying with its prey. It always felt great to be the one who had the power. Smiling, Schuldig got into the backseat first. Abyssinian shoved Amann in and then sat down beside him, sandwiching him.

"Weiß can't be happy that you're doing this," Amann said to Abyssinian, playing games.

"I'm right here, you know," Schuldig said with a sigh as he met Brad's eyes via the rearview mirror. They'd both be monitoring this conversation.

"How do you know we're not all involved?" Aya answered softly, shedding some of the hard, still cold he'd radiated.

"I studied all of you, and something about you right now says that you know you're doing something naughty."

Aya had a nearly twisted smile on his face. "Naughty?"

Amann pressed closer to him, _flirting_. "Oh yes. But I think you're too smart to let Schwarz use you."

"I agree."

Amann smiled and put his hand on Aya's thigh. Apparently he hadn't studied Aya thoroughly enough to realize that amenability was a _bad_ sign. Yet Aya didn't forcibly remove that hand.

Schuldig felt so weird.... Brad wanted to know what the hell was going on, especially since he _also_ felt weird.

Trying to read Amann yielded up nothing, but when Schuldig touched Aya's brain he saw that Aya's pleasure centers were being tromped on hard and that Brad's were being goosed a bit as well, so his own were probably being affected too. Impossible, but-- ~ Brad, Amann's doing this. He has some kind of charm thing, I think. Not telepathy, but some kind of persuasiveness. ~ Schuldig remembered how helpless he'd felt when in Amann's hands years before....

~ He can't possibly. ~ Because Eszett didn't believe in letting talents have any authority or advancement in the organization, not when they should be content with being tools.

~ I wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't been working us so hard, and he has so much authority as part of Eszett that he probably doesn't need to use it most of the time. ~

~ Desperate. But why didn't he use it at the club? ~

~ Maybe he needs to use his voice as part of it? He had to shout to be heard inside. ~

~ It looks like his plan here is to turn Aya against us and have us fight to the death. ~

~ And if Aya survives, fuck him. ~

Amann's hand kept traveling up Aya's thigh, while Aya had a small, coy, almost flirty smile on his face, as if Schuldig needed any further proof that the kitten's mind was being messed with. Still smiling, Aya asked, "You studied me?"

"Of course."

Aya grabbed Amann's hand and squeezed it hard enough to elicit a cry of pain. "Then you would know that I distrust sudden surges of happiness. If you touch my mind or body again, I'll kill you." And that warm bath of mind-clouding endorphins stopped, just like that.

Amann nearly squeaked as he protested, "I didn't--"

Aya punched him into silence.

Smiling darkly, Brad admitted, ~ He does have his moments. ~

******************************************************

The plastic on the floor crinkled as Farfarello walked on it. A bruised and slightly woozy looking Oskar Amann stared at him defiantly. Sad. Farfarello might take one of those eyes out. A brazier full of hot irons sat next to the table that had his knives on it. Appropriate. Sometimes he forgot that his team knew so much about his training at Rosenkreuz.

Cold and dirty and insolent as city snow, Schuldig leaned against the wall, a cigarette smoldering in his mouth. "He touched your kitten, you know."

"That may be the most pathetically obvious attempt to manipulate me you ever tried," Farfarello answered.

"Doesn't mean it's not true."

Farfarello knew that Amann would, since Amann was the type of scum that always had his hands somewhere they didn't belong. Scum couldn't be taught better, but it could be punished. Farfarello would start with a little intimidation. He picked up a hot iron and set its tip lightly against his own wrist, smiling over the hiss and smell of burnt flesh. "I barely felt that. I think they might need to be hotter."

Amann paled a little at the reminder, then put on a smirk and said, "Where's Nagi Naoe? It's been too long."

Crawford made a small hissing sound, while Schuldig growled, "Did you use the word on him?"

The Word? In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... Farfarello already hated the Word.

"I can't use any words in front of you. You made sure of that. Unless you want to free me to do it, and then you can hear it and feel it all you like."

"Schuldig?" Crawford asked.

"Later. Really. Right now, let's see if he'll unburden himself to Aya. He can, since I didn't bind him against saying it to Aya."

"Unless Aya is Schwarz now," Amann said... in Japanese.

"No," the kitten said in the same from the doorway. "I'm not."

Amann opened his mouth... and Schuldig dragged Farfarello and Crawford out of the room at high speed, shutting the door behind them. Farfarello shouted, "Schuldig, you will--"

"Trust me. Just on this. You don't want to be in there if he speaks his word. I can listen to Aya's head to make sure he's safe."

"Wouldn't that put you at some risk?" Crawford asked.

"I live to serve."

Farfarello snorted and fretted.


	14. Yes, it whined and moaned, but it didn't look right.

"I'm so curious about your presence with them," Amann said in Aya's native tongue. "What did they tell you?"

He answered in the same. "Not much. Eszett killed my sister, and Schwarz offered me an opportunity for vengeance. Nothing more."

"You know that you'll never be clean again after making a pact with them."

Remembering how Amann had nearly manipulated him in the car, he examined his thoughts and feelings carefully moment by moment. "I wasn't clean before. Give me the word you can use to control them."

Amann looked sly. "You would like that, wouldn't you? Your own leash on them."

"The thought has its appeal." It did indeed.

"I don't know if I want to tell them to you."

"'Them'?

"I did say 'them,' didn't I? How careless. I'm wondering how deeply co-opted you are. If I gave the words to you, would you use them as they're meant to be used?"

"And how is that?"

"To crush Schwarz and show them who their master is."

Aya let a sick smile twist his lips. "I think you can rely on me for that. They have some damage to make up for."

"Let me taste you, and maybe I'll hand them over."

Aya punched him across the face. "You're in no position to make demands."

Amann spat blood. "They're going to kill me, and even if they don't Eszett will, just as an example. Farfarello is my interrogator, so mercy isn't even a possibility. What could you possibly threaten me with?"

"No threats. I can only offer you something to hold onto as Farfarello rips and burns you. Give me the words and think of me using them. It's the only vengeance still available to you."

"You have a point. Lean closer, and I'll tell you." But when Aya did so, Amann said, "No, closer."

"This is as close as I'm getting, thank you."

Amann looked annoyed but smiled. "So suspicious. You actually fit in better with Schwarz than you ever did with Weiß."

Aya glared. "The words."

"All right."

******************************************************

Schuldig stopped listening to Aya's brain once Amann started to hand the words over. The last thing he needed was to knock himself out by carelessness.

When Aya closed the door behind him, Farfarello immediately went to him and lifted his hands, one of which bled sluggishly from skinned knuckles. "His teeth?" Farfie asked.

"I was careless."

Farfie purred and kissed them.

Aya said, "He gave me four words. None of them start with the syllables that started the one he used on Schuldig."

"Damn," Schuldig snarled. It figured.

"But they may be other, useful words. We have to find a safe way to test them. We may be able to figure out the rest of the incomplete word."

"We also know that changing the word midstream can stop it."

"What do you mean?" Brad asked.

"Aya's punch to the back of Amann's head put an 'ack!' at the end instead of finishing the real word." Schuldig gave Aya a long look. "You like the idea of having these words from him over us, if they work." He'd felt it.

"Wouldn't you, in my place?"

How Schwarz of him. And at least Aya admitted it. Schuldig smiled. "Just checking."

"I want to break him," Farfie said as he stared at the door.

"Please do," Brad replied.

Farfarello grinned, then kissed Aya and walked inside. Schuldig and Brad followed, while Aya remained in the doorway. To watch? Schuldig wondered, but the urge to watch Amann suffer at the hands of a master overwhelmed everything else. He hoped to taste that bastard's pain and despair and see him break.

Besides, Aya wasn't Schuldig's job, especially not when listening to Amann's voice stresses and working at putting a crack in the bastard's mental defenses would consume all of his attention. Brad would take care of things if they needed to be taken care of.

******************************************************

A torture session this long quickly ceased to be fun. The thrill and rush of blood and power faded in the need to strategize the next move, and the acts themselves became a chore, like chopping wood. Just chop and slash and burn, in whatever combination. "You're boring me," Farfarello told Amann several times, meaning it every time.

It also annoyed him when he had to work with something that looked increasingly less human. What was the fun of brutalizing raw meat? Yes, it whined and moaned, but it didn't look right. In a fast session, the victim looked recognizable enough until you didn't have to do anything to it anymore.

Eventually Farfarello had wrung everything from Amann he could, including his life. Thankfully. He had a kitten to tend to. When he turned toward the door he saw Aya standing there, watching with a blank expression, his eyes wide and bleak. Then Aya turned and walked away without a word.

"Crawford!" Farfarello said. He'd thought Aya had left before. "How long has he been standing there?"

"The whole time. He wanted to see." Crawford had no expression on his face.

"You son of a bitch."

"Go after him," Schuldig said, shooting intense looks Crawford's way now that he'd stopped focusing on Amann. "I'll clean up here."

Farfarello stared at him in shock. "Go after Aya," Schuldig said.

Farfarello felt torn, because his puisín needed to be set straight but bodies were so much fun and Crawford had drummed it into his head that once you finished playing you chopped up the remains of your toy and hid it away. There was a power saw waiting for him....

No. There would be other bodies. He only had one puisín.

Farfarello didn't thank Schuldig as he left the room. The telepath never did anything out of kindness, so Schuldig must have already expected to get something out of this.

******************************************************

As Crawford watched Schuldig put latex gloves on, he asked, "What are you doing?" Schuldig always avoided unnecessary work.

"When I finish this, I'll tell you." Schuldig looked coldly angry, which struck Crawford with a bolt of worry and lust. He would wait for it. When Schuldig crouched down by the plastic coat and power saw, Crawford wondered again how Schuldig could possibly move in pants that tight. Though he did appreciate the effort and effect.

"Why isn't Farfarello doing that?" Nagi asked from the doorway. How could a simple haircut transform him from a pretty child to an attractive young man?

"I said I'd do it," Schuldig answered.

"You don't have to."

The binding ropes snapped and the arms ripped off Amann's body with a wet, popping sound and a very controlled spray of blood. Almost no mess. Schuldig whooped and grinned. The legs separated from the hips as quickly and neatly, then the trunk of the body floated off the chair and landed on the plastic on the floor. Nagi had a gift.

"Why don't you do that for Farfarello?" Crawford asked.

"Sometimes he asks me to do it because he thinks it's fun to watch, but he mostly prefers to take them apart himself. He's really fond of the power saw." Nagi approached the pieces and looked down at them with a nasty sneer. "I'd hoped I could see this someday." The head suddenly spun 360 degrees on its neck with a series of popping, snapping, and ripping sounds.

Schuldig gleefully clapped his hands, making him look very young. "Marry me, Nagi."

"Not even if you paid me."

"You're so mean."

"And you're so not the type to do Farfarello's chores for him, while he's not the type to miss out on a last chance to play with the body." Then Nagi looked at Crawford. "Did you do something to Aya?"

"No," Crawford answered.

"Yes," Schuldig replied.

"I'll dispose of the pieces," Nagi said.

Nagi and Schuldig allying? This had to be stopped. Crawford said, "Schuldig promised to--"

"Schuldig will talk to you about whatever you did to Aya," Nagi replied as he telekinetically wrapped the pieces in the plastic and levitated them out of the room with him, leaving Crawford alone with Schuldig, who was letting his cold, calm anger heat up.

Crawford felt the temptation to go after Nagi to establish who commanded whom, but he didn't dare turn his back when Schuldig was in this kind of mood. They may have been calling Abyssinian a kitten, but right now Schuldig resembled an enraged cat in his narrowed eyes and the way he almost seemed to be bristling. If he had a tail, it would be lashing.

Crawford waited for him to come to a boil, and soon Schuldig growled, "Will you fucking stop trying to drive Aya away?"

"I'm not--"

"I have an idea about how having Aya with us will take Eszett down. It has to do with the word, or words."

Crawford had suspected as much, but he wanted details. "You have my full attention."

"When Amann started to say something, a word, my mind and whole body started to lock up. I couldn't move. I could barely _think_." Schuldig's eyes went a little wild just talking about it. "But Aya smacked him before he could finish, and I set a command against him using any such words against me."

"That's what you, Amann, and Aya were talking about?" Incredible. Possible. But.... "If there were words conditioned into us to control us--"

"Why didn't the last head geezer use it to save himself? Think about it, Brad, what was their worst flaw?"

"They had so many." Then Crawford saw it. "Arrogance. They never would have admitted that they'd need a trick to keep us in line. We were so far below them." He'd set Weiß against them hoping that the team would take out as many of them as possible just in case they'd programmed something into their own minions to protect themselves.

"Exactly."

"But Aya doesn't have any words set into him."

"_Exactly_. It's your feeling proven right, Brad... so don't fucking drive him away now."

"I wasn't the only person in the room who was aware of him standing there."

"You must have brain damage. You know me and how I work during these things. Nobody but Amann existed in the whole fucking world for me during this session. You think I was wondering if Aya was still there while I chipped away at Amann's shields? I didn't have the attention to spare."

"Did you get anything from him?"

"Yeah, near the end, and I'll tell it to you later after I've processed it all, and that is not the point here!"

"You're scared of what Amann almost did to you." Amazing.

Enraged, Schuldig bared his teeth. "If you'd been there, you wouldn't need to ask."

Crawford stepped closer to him. "Is it that bad?"

"Don't patronize me. I'm not some fucking weakling. This was _bad_."

"I'm not." Crawford touched his hair.

"Don't patronize me!"

Eszett and Rosenkreuz saw sex as a multi-purpose tool, using it to punish, dominate, breed, intimidate, bind, and reward, but Schuldig had shown Crawford even more possibilities, as _he_ used it also to flatter, enrage, silence, communicate.... Comfort. Apologize. "I didn't mean to." When he stroked down one cheekbone with his thumb, it left a sparkling silver sheen on his skin.

He kissed Schuldig, who kissed him back in that harsh, "don't fuck with me" way he had sometimes, his teeth feeling close and hard under his lips. Crawford had never seen the value of kissing before Schuldig, seeing it as too intimate, too weak, but the telepath used it as a communication and domination tool just as he did almost everything else. He'd watched Schuldig reduce an opponent to a weak-kneed mush with a kiss.

"Fucker," Schuldig said softly, sounding a little mollified. "Flatterer."

Schuldig was right about Aya having a role to play. Aya had to be properly supported and manipulated....

Schuldig kissed him lingeringly. "I love to see you plotting. It's been a pretty good night."

"It must have felt good to watch Farfarello reduce Amann down to his components."

"Oh yeah." He took on a sly look. "But you haven't finished apologizing to me yet."

Crawford ran his hands along the silk, leather, and hot skin that clothed Schuldig's hard, narrow body. "Thinking of you with the power saw did things for me."

Schuldig beamed. "That's even more like it. Tell me how smart and pretty I am."

"You are so smart and pretty."

"Now show me."

Crawford smirked. "So demanding too...."

******************************************************

Farfarello caught up with Aya in the hallway, not that Aya had really expected to get far. He hadn't been thinking much of anything, actually, except that he had to get away. Farfarello's hair, stiff with blood, seemed almost auburn right now, which sent another nauseous rush of horror through Aya's body. Farfarello really didn't look anything like him, even with the bloody red hair, but a physical resemblance wasn't the problem here.

He'd watched Farfarello slowly take Amann apart and remembered too much. That first raw year after his parents' death he'd done and enjoyed doing things that had made him ashamed to even touch his sister's hand. Increasingly horrified by himself, he'd eventually sworn to make his work as clean, quick, and efficient as possible. It wouldn't be so bad if he could be cold and untouched inside as he did murder as a necessary chore, not a pleasure.

Tonight he'd forgotten that. He'd enjoyed watching Farfarello rip into this man who'd tried to rape his mind and use his body. Eventually the torture ran on too long and he became bored, just as Farfarello had, but even that was wrong. But that was what he'd felt.

He and Farfarello were kin, but at least Farfarello was honest in his insanity and bloodlust, while Aya had thought himself to be better than that. At least Farfarello let himself feel the enjoyment he felt, while Aya felt it but denied it or tried to give it another name. Now Farfarello stood here like a golden-eyed demonic shadow version of him, with all the darkness and murder worn openly and proudly instead of hidden, with barbwire and a scar on its neck that he'd given it.

His sister wouldn't recognize what he'd become, and he'd been this way for years.

Aya wanted to scrub at his skin, take the stink off. He reeked of stale cigarette smoke from the club. He needed to scrub it away. Usually he had to wash blood off after a mission, and it felt odd not to be faced with the necessity.

"Aya," Farfarello said. He had blood splashed across his face, and Aya remembered all the times Farfarello had licked the blood off his. Aya remembered being fucked twice the night before and once that day.

Aya couldn't quite answer, so he made a hand gesture even he didn't know the meaning of. It looked to him like he was trying to warn him away, to tell Farfarello to back off.

"You don't need to talk if you don't have the words yet," Farfarello answered, his manner so cautious and almost gentle. He could have been dealing with a wild, skittish animal for all the care he showed.

It made Aya feel insulted. He knew that for all the times he'd tried to project himself as strong to the other members of Weiß that they'd often seen him as being brittle or simply bad-tempered instead and thus avoided him for the wrong reasons. He hated to be patronized.

Unwilling--_not_ unable--to talk, Aya walked into the bathroom and systematically stripped, tossing items of clothing aside hard enough to make noise as they impacted with the walls. It didn't surprise him when Farfarello started to strip as well, having to peel some of the blood-wet clothing off his skin.

"Don't touch me," Aya said.

Farfarello nodded, then took off his eyepatch. Aya had become accustomed to the ruin beneath it and could now look without really seeing it.

They showered after missions, since showers washed the blood away faster and more efficiently. The bathing had often been something Farfarello made him do for pleasure, and he'd never been so clean in his life, at least physically. Aya concentrated on washing himself, pointedly ignoring his naked partner. Or at least trying to. He couldn't help noticing the red that dyed the water sluicing down the drain or glancing back to see Farfarello's hair returning to his natural white. It was white everywhere....

Aya closed his eyes and leaned back against the tiles, letting the water run down his body, and didn't open them when Farfarello started to gently touch him, not as a sex thing but to support him. He'd long ago dealt with the dichotomy of killing, tormenting hands that could also be gentle in himself and his teammates, so he gave that little thought. But, to his horror, he could feel himself becoming aroused. Inappropriate. Wrong. He drove his left elbow back into the wall and grunted at the pain that jolted through his arm and the stars he saw. When Farfarello made a strange, soft sound, Aya opened his eyes.

Farfarello looked far too interested, and Aya remembered too late that Farfarello liked to mutilate himself. "Don't touch me," Aya said.

"Why not?"

"I need to think." And he couldn't do that while being touched, not when he enjoyed it so much now.

Aya grabbed a towel and stepped out, then wrapped himself in it as he walked to their room. Farfarello didn't follow, which made Aya worry and wonder as he put on a T-shirt and sweatpants for bed.

The bed felt too big and empty. If he'd needed any more proof that he'd changed, here it was.

Lying alone in the dark, he realized that his major problem tonight seemed to be that he felt horrified that he didn't feel more horrified by what he'd seen. Oskar Amann was a predator; Aya had seen and felt that for himself. Men like Amann had abused and twisted children into shapes like those Schwarz had. There was justice in him being destroyed by his own victims. He wouldn't talk until they'd forced him to, and he'd given them important information under such duress. This had been necessary.

If they enjoyed their tasks, how much harm could there be in that?

Ran was dead. Had been dead for years. His sister... was dead. He had been a murderer for years, damned, and couldn't go back. In the morning... he might even tell Farfarello something like that.

He was enjoying damnation more than he should, particularly the sex. It seemed wrong, but he felt how he felt. Should he continue to fight it or give in gracefully?

He heard Farfarello breathing in the darkness and felt the bed shift, yet Farfarello didn't touch him, abiding by his wishes. It made him smile. Warmer, comfortable now, he went to sleep.


	15. "You were inexpertly molesting me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Nagi sings along with a CD, the song is "Dead Stars (Version)" by Covenant.

When morning came, washing them in a warm golden light, Farfarello awoke with a sleeping kitten burrowing against his chest, blindly seeking him. Their legs had tangled. In sleep at least, Aya wanted him still, and maybe that extended to the waking world too. Bodies told truths that minds didn't always know, but minds could catch up.

When Aya opened his eyes, he looked at Farfarello without flinching, gazing even at the ruin of Farfarello's left eye that he hadn't covered with the patch again after his shower. Aya had no hatred or horror in his gaze, just melancholy, and for this kitten melancholy was a familiar territory and one of the more benign ones he stayed in.

Warmed, Farfarello said, "I didn't want you to see all of that."

"I've done some terrible things myself."

"In the fire and rush of battle. You never took someone apart coldly and at length."

But the kitten, tugging gently at his earring, stared back at Farfarello. "I did some terrible things in the name of reaching my vengeance."

Interesting. Farfarello petted him. "You don't hate me for it." He didn't regret what he'd done, but he'd hate to lose his puisín over it.

"I couldn't hate you for that without hating myself."

"Which you often do."

Aya's mouth twitched into a small, shaky smile. "True."

"But we are not over." Hope hurt, and Farfarello wallowed in it.

"We're not over." He took in a deep breath. "I don't know what to think anymore, and I don't know who I am anymore, but I'm coming to suspect that I've been in that state of not knowing for years. I get by."

"Moment by moment?"

"When necessary. As I watched you, I recognized myself...." Something sparked in his eyes. "I'm capable of anything."

Aya was _so close_ to being there.... Farfarello had chosen well with this one. "Yes. It's wonderful."

"It's scary."

"That too. No limits, Aya. No limits. We can transcend everything if we're brave enough. Freedom is always scary." God only told you that you were free when He wanted to blame you for something. Otherwise, everything supposedly came about through His grace or plan. Fuck that. Either He was responsible or not. It couldn't be both ways.

Aya's T-shirt felt good, but the skin beneath it felt even better, so he indulged in stroking it and Aya let him. Farfarello was gaining a greater appreciation of living bodies, their warmth and movements, their surprises and changes. What a difference it made to work at keeping something alive instead of killing it. It was more difficult but satisfying. He purred at the steady pounding of his puisín's heart against his hand. Their bodies had tangled so closely, but it didn't feel close enough.

"Puisín, Aya, fuck me."

Aya stilled. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I don't--"

Farfarello rubbed his whole, nude body against Aya and felt reciprocal hardness in the right place. "The idea doesn't intrigue you?"

Aya's breath caught, but he said, "Perhaps."

"Perhaps. Are you teasing me? Sometimes I punish teasing." Farfarello pulled Aya's pants down, reached for his cock, and stroked. It was the second best thing to having his puisín's heart in his hand. After three long strokes, he said, "Always so difficult. Don't you want to sheathe this?"

"I don't confuse my cock with my blade." Yet Aya pulled his pants off the rest of the way.

"I'd be interested in seeing your opponent's reaction if you did." Impatient with the T-shirt, Farfarello ripped it and pulled it off.

The kitten stared at him, his mouth trembling with an emotion Farfarello couldn't name. "I can't believe you just--"

Farfarello grabbed him and kissed him beyond words. Words could hurt, mislead, or outright lie. In sex now as in battle, Aya took the offensive instead of retreating, kissing and grabbing back, competing as they tangled and writhed like snakes. It was even more fun this way, better than when Aya would lie there and let him do things.

"Just fuck me, puisín. I don't need any preliminaries, and I won't stop asking until I get what I want, which is you."

Aya looked at him with wild, hot eyes. Perfect. "We need lubricant."

"I don't."

"I do."

So be it. Farfarello reached back for the night table and quickly found the tube, since they'd used it so recently, and handed it to Aya. "No fingers, just your cock. Gentleness is wasted on me."

Aya muttered something Farfarello couldn't quite hear but slicked his cock, then forcibly pushed Farfarello down to lie on his back. Being helpful, Farfarello opened his legs and gave Aya a challenging look. Dare you. In response, the kitten took on a very feline expression of superior disdain and annoyance with his nearly closed eyes, set mouth, and nearly wrinkled nose. So cute. Aya then grabbed Farfarello's legs and moved them around in an effort to figure out the best position for them.

"Haven't done this before?' Farfarello asked with a smirk.

The expression facing him turned even more feline, disdainful, and annoyed. Then Aya thrust into him, hard, fast, and wonderful. Farfarello _felt_ it, the burn, pressure, and stretch of it. He had Aya inside him now, and the kitten would never be able to get away after this.

"Good. Give it to me hard."

His puisín accomodated with more hard, fast thrusts, making their bodies bang together, the bed thump against the wall, and the springs squeak. Aya even gripped him hard, knowing enough to be harsh. Farfarello looked forward to seeing the bruises.

As the aggressor, Farfarello had been forced to concentrate on holding back and not being too brutal, but as the recipient he could coast and let himself feel what he felt. His body buzzed as his puisín rode it, and he let the kitten's thrusts move it as they pleased. They were connected now, he with his lover and weapon, flesh locked in flesh. Stabbing intimacy, like in killing. This body riding him belonged to him. A few of his holes had been filled, completed. He batted Aya's hands away from his cock, not wanting to come so soon. He wanted this to last.

Aya had two expressions during fucking: dazed bliss and intense focus. Right now Aya focused so hard that his head should have exploded. His small, breathy sounds increased in volume as Farfarello pulled him in deeper and licked the salty sweat off his skin.

Farfarello groaned his lover's name in time with the thrusts, and Aya gasped, perhaps fighting against himself, perhaps struggling toward completion. Ever helpful, Farfarello pushed himself down hard and clenched his muscles around Aya's cock. His puisín came, crying out and shuddering, looking agonized or ecstatic, then grabbed Farfarello's cock and pulled, yanking his orgasm out with his fist.

They dozed twisted and melted together, as they should have been.

******************************************************

Crawford awoke to harsh breathing and movement beside him, so he turned on the light and put his glasses on. Schuldig had moved with him, still thrusting against his side, obviously asleep and probably caught in someone else's mind as had happened many times before.

At least Crawford had ways of finding out whose mind, and he didn't believe in letting anything go to waste. He pulled Schuldig on top of him and opened his thighs, letting the thrusts rub all the right spots. That one time he'd tried to get a sleeping Schuldig into him had been such a painful disaster that he had no urge to repeat it, although he could smirk about it now. Frottage worked well, and he foresaw that Schuldig would be amused again when he woke up.

Being someone else, Schuldig even moved and thrust a bit differently, and he had an expression on that didn't quite match his personality. He made only sounds, when usually he couldn't stop talking, often in Crawford's own English if meshed deeply enough with his mind. The person in Schuldig's head handled Crawford's body roughly, vigorously.

"Talk to me," Crawford said, curious even through his pleasure and lust. Sometimes the command worked.

"I chose this," Schuldig murmured in German. "Chose it.... How can his smile look so sweet?"

Taking a chance, Crawford asked, "Aya?"

Schuldig opened sleepwalker-blind eyes and stared at him without seeing him, giving him a chill that he didn't find entirely unpleasant. When he'd been given the roster of his team, he'd been told that he could fuck the telepath at his discretion, and this telepath _would_ offer, but he should never bed him, because you never knew what you'd wake up with where telepaths were concerned. Except for that one time Schuldig had tried to kill him, which had been a pathetic attempt and one he'd foreseen early enough to make sure it wouldn't work, he couldn't complain about any of the people he'd found in his bed. Besides, even sleeping Schuldig often ferreted out information with his telepathy.

As Crawford stroked and thrust back, he wondered as he always did if Schuldig reacted to it as the person in his head would or as Schuldig. Neither of them knew enough about how it worked to be able to say for certain.

Schuldig cried out as he came and jacked Crawford off hard, making him see stars. This time when Schuldig opened his eyes, they had a more familiar look to them. "Brad, really." He shifted atop Crawford's body to make himself more comfortable.

"You were inexpertly molesting me."

"So you helped me do a better job?"

"Of course."

"You caught the echoes of Aya and Farfie going at it."

"I thought as much. It seems that I didn't do them any damage. Maybe I made things better."

Schuldig snorted. "Like hell. That little success was all about Farfie being obsessive and making sure Aya couldn't run off and brood."

"You don't give me enough credit."

"You give yourself as much credit as you need. Next you'll be saying that you invented the Internet or some shit."

Crawford wrapped his hand around Schuldig's neck and tightened it a little. "You should appreciate me more."

Schuldig responded with a sultry look and a hoarse "Yes, Daddy."

Disciplining Schuldig could be such a pain in the ass, since during his attempts at it the telepath tended to either incense him beyond all thinking or make him laugh, neither of which sent the right message. Crawford let him go.

"So, how was Aya?" Schuldig asked, as if nothing had happened.

"He was tailoring his approach to Farfarello, so how could I judge?"

"Good point."

******************************************************

"Dead stars... still burn.... Dead still... stars burn...." Nagi murmured along to his CD as he danced a little in his seat, enjoying his time alone. Knowing seven languages in several dialects gave him a greater selection of music to enjoy _and_ helped him in his hacking.

Then he sighed as another wave of lust hit him. He wasn't powerful or open enough in his telepathy for only Schuldig and Crawford's fucking to impinge on his brain, but now that Aya and Farfarello boosted the sex signal and Schuldig's horniness, Nagi kept getting distracted. The only thing more unfair than being half-hard most of the time from having his nose rubbed in his whole team's sex lives was having no sex life of his own. He hadn't cared before, but now....

Before, Schuldig would either hunt for partners far away or fuck Crawford. Crawford didn't bother thinking about or initiating sex because he didn't have to, not when he had a horny telepath at home. Once in a while they'd start something in front of Nagi, but he could always leave the room. Farfarello... well. If Farfarello had derived a sexual pleasure from his Christian-killing sprees, at least he'd enjoyed it elsewhere, where Nagi didn't have to feel it.

Lately, everything kept happening at home and in his mind.

He was speculating on their sex lives now. That was sad. Far better to concentrate on business, even if he had to be the only person doing so.

Each target Schwarz hit and database he ransacked put in another piece on the bridge to knowledge. From what he'd ferreted out about Epitaph--what a gift Eszett had for cheery names--and Class Z, Eszett was tampering in God's domain again, and it all sounded very interesting: cloning, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence. He didn't hate Eszett quite as personally as the others did, since he had ample experience in how hell was other people in general, organized evil or no, but he still didn't think Eszett should be the people looking into these things. They were too narrow-minded and narrow-focused and had too many preconceptions, so busy seeing their talents as tools that they didn't bother to think of what genetic enhancement would mean to the whole person.

It turned out that Eszett had a training facility in Japan too. Nagi suspected that Crawford would choose to destroy the longstanding one in Germany first, burning out the roots, and that sounded like a good idea to Nagi as well.

Words.... Nagi knew how he could help piece together that incomplete word.

He had his work. He could be content.


	16. "That wasn't very good. You weren't even trying."

It had to be a sin to feel this satisfied, but right now Aya didn't care. As reason returned, he noticed the bandage around Farfarello's left wrist and, remembering, said, "You didn't have to burn yourself."

"I did. Truly."

"Why?"

"I had to." Farfarello pressed on the area with two fingers, voicing a warning growl when Aya yanked them away. "What little of it I feel feels interesting. I had something inside me that had to come out."

Aya rolled over him to lie on Farfarello's right side, so his one eye could see him. "Is this a God thing?"

"No. Yes." Farfarello shuddered. "It's not important."

"I pierced my own ear with a hot needle."

Interest sparked in that one gold eye. "Why?"

"Nothing felt real anymore."

"The pain was real, a reminder that you were alive?" Farfarello touched the tip of the earring, and Aya stopped himself from flinching away.

"If you could call it living. It was also something I did to and controlled myself."

"I don't know if that would apply to me. Maybe. I don't think about it. You don't like it when I do this kind of thing?"

"I should like to watch you mutilating yourself? No."

"Somebody has to do it." Farfarello put his hand to the stitches at his throat. "Do you want to do it for me?"

Aya felt a rush of anger and disgust. "No."

"Not even if I ask you to do it, and I like it? What if I provoke you?"

Farfarello was what he was. He enjoyed it. What could be done?

Did it make it worse or better if Aya's victim were willing? He sliced people who didn't want him to all the time.

Someone knocked at the door, then it flew open. "Time for breakfast," Nagi said. A certain excited light in his eyes made Aya take notice.

"You're interrupting something," Farfarello said.

"There's always something going on around here. If I never interrupted, nothing would get done."

"Nagi wants something," Aya said.

"Thank you! Now, breakfast." Nagi walked off, perhaps to wake Schuldig and Crawford.

For whatever reason, Schwarz never discussed current business during meals. They waited. Nagi must have done something that he wouldn't be able to talk about until they'd finished breakfast.

"You'll spoil him," Farfarello said with a small smile.

"It might be important," Aya answered.

The smile widened and deepened. "Bath first."

Of course.

After washing and a bit of molestation, Aya and Farfarello went to the table, gathered breakfast together, and sat to eat. Schuldig looked greatly amused over everyone today, dividing his looks between them and Nagi, whose excitement showed to anyone who knew him. Everyone else would only see the still, melancholy façade, missing the light in his eyes and restrained energy. Crawford read his paper, ate his frightening chocolate cereal, and drank his coffee with all calm, refusing to be rushed.

"Are we done?" Nagi asked.

They all looked to Crawford. "Yes," Crawford answered.

The dishes, cups, and silverware floated speedily to the sink. "I could get used to this," Schuldig said.

"You shouldn't. Follow me." Nagi already had his laptop on at the desk and sat in front of it. "This is a program that will take the syllables Amann used on Schuldig last night and come up with possible whole word matches in several languages. Just enter them and wait."

"That's excellent, but how did you know we needed that?" Crawford asked. "You weren't there for the interrogation or my talk with Schuldig."

"I must have picked it up during all the fucking going on," Nagi answered with disdain. "You guys were wide open."

Aya didn't think he'd ever get used to having no privacy whatsoever. At least Nagi didn't sound happy about it either.

"Of course, none of us can work this program," Nagi said as he turned around in his chair to face them.

"It will have to be me," Aya said. Since the words made a difference in Schwarz being able to help him destroy Eszett, he had no objections to working on the problem. "That's fine. I used to help Omi sometimes."

Nagi's eyes widened, then he grinned and clasped Aya's hand. Then he seemed to remember himself and quickly let go, obviously embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I forgot myself. I didn't sleep much, and I had seven cups of tea. It's just that Schuldig hovers over me while I work, but unless he gets into my head he couldn't do any of this."

"Hey!" Schuldig predictably protested.

"It's... all right," Aya replied. It had been nice, actually.

"How come Nagi gets to maul you?"

"I like Nagi."

A moment of silence followed, then Farfarello said, "That had to burn."

Schuldig sighed. "Yeah, Aya's hilarious. My charms will win him over someday."

"What charms?"

"This is all very entertaining, but we have work to do," Crawford said.

"Thank you," Nagi muttered. He'd looked a little flustered since Aya had admitted to liking him.

"We have to test the words."

"No, we don't," Schuldig said quickly.

"We do. We should start with the incomplete word Amann started to use on you to see if it would work on all of us. I assume that it would, since that's most efficient, but it's better to be sure. We should all sit down to be safest."

"I know it works on me, so I should leave the room."

"No, use Nagi's Walkman to try to block it out."

Schuldig and Nagi looked annoyed but resigned. Nagi sighed and handed it over and Schuldig turned it on loud enough that Aya could hear the melody from a few meters away.

Aya remained standing while the rest of them sat. It felt appropriate. He said the word slowly, syllable by syllable. None of them reacted to the first syllable or second, but on the third he saw Crawford and Farfarello tense and Nagi tense and bite his lip. On the fourth they all looked paralyzed, even Schuldig. Eyes squeezed shut, lip bleeding under his teeth, fists clenched, Nagi seemed to be in agony, although he didn't make a sound....

Aya couldn't have continued this even if he'd had the fifth syllable. "Nagi!" With the name interrupting the word, all of them fell forward a little, freed, while Nagi had bent in half over his knees, breathing hard.

Aya and Crawford crouched on either side of him. "What happened?" Crawford said.

"Nothing. I'm fine," Nagi answered, sounding anything but.

Crawford put his hand on Nagi's chin and tilted his face up. The boy looked pale and shocky. "I didn't feel pain, just utter mental and physical paralysis," Crawford said. "What about the rest of you?"

Schuldig flung the headset down on the couch. "Ditto. Fuck! I couldn't block it out all the way. Almost made myself deaf with this damned thing, and I still heard the fucking word."

"It was very still and peaceful," Farfarello said as he stood.

"You're a freak."

"You knew that, Schuldig."

"Maybe they thought I could still use my telekinesis like that, so they set something in me so I didn't have a chance of doing anything. I would have been happier if they'd underestimated me." Nagi winced again.

"Brad, he's still in pain." Schuldig moved closer to Nagi on the couch. "Not as bad, but he has the echoes."

"I can handle it."

"Why should you?"

"You're going to bed," Crawford said.

"I'm not 8!"

"No, but you're injured, and you were already overtired. I prescribe bedrest."

"I'm fine." Nagi stood up, reeling only a little. "See?"

Farfarello lightly pressed one finger against his chest, which easily knocked him back down onto the couch. Crawford said, "This must be some new definition of 'fine.'"

"Fuck you," Nagi mumbled, looking defeated and miserable.

Familiar with the anguish of hitting his body's limit and thus feeling sympathetic, Aya asked, "Do you want to rest in bed or on the couch?"

"I'm already on the couch."

"I'm offering you a choice because I'll take you to bed if you want that." He saw Schwarz giving him odd looks but didn't care. For whatever reason, he wanted to help Nagi.

"_Take_ him to bed?" Schuldig asked.

The look on Nagi's face matched what Aya thought he had on his own as they glanced at the telepath. "Bed, please," Nagi said.

Aya picked him up and carried him. Crawford's disbelief and the sight of Schuldig nearly choking on his own tongue made it more than worth it. Farfarello just laughed.

"You're too light," Aya murmured to Nagi.

Looking dizzy, Nagi had his head pushed into Aya's chest. "I'm helping you. A little. Much as I can. Nobody ever carried me like this before. Not when they didn't have to."

Aya put him down on the bed. "Sleep."

"Aya--"

"Sleep."

"Can't."

"Unacceptable. Sleep."

"Yes, sir. You did this just to yank Schuldig's chain, right?"

"That's part of it. Sleep."

Nagi gave him a searching look that turned into a small smile, then pointedly turned his back on Aya and buried his head into his pillow. Aya left him to it.

Crawford stood in the doorway with an odd expression on his face. Aya closed the door behind him and asked softly, "Will he go to sleep?"

"He'll stare at the ceiling for five minutes, then fall asleep."

"Will he feel better when he wakes up?"

"He sleeps for a while, and I can't see that far ahead."

Can't see that far ahead? How had Crawford known that Schwarz would need Aya, then? Had he, actually?

"Here we go," Schuldig said with a smile as Aya walked into the living room. "Brad can't see that far into the future. So how did we know we'd need you?"

"Did you know?"

Farfarello grabbed Aya and sat him on his lap. "Storytime."

"Brad can't see far ahead, but he gets feelings. His feeling told him we'd need you. It was correct. End of story."

Farfarello looked petulant. "That wasn't very good. You weren't even trying."

Schuldig smirked. "Hey, Aya--"

"No, Schu," Crawford said, giving him a look loaded with meaning. Meaning Aya couldn't make out. Schuldig did, and said nothing more.

"We need to test the rest of the words on someone," Crawford said. "Schuldig broke into Amann's mind a little near the end, but he couldn't get anything about the word controls, and I don't feel like trusting what Amann gave to Aya willingly. Farfarello, you didn't mind the word's effect?"

"It didn't bother me."

"It paralyzed you," Aya said.

"Yet I didn't worry about it. I should probably worry about _that_, but I couldn't at the time."

"We'll test them on Farfarello," Crawford said.

Schuldig smirked. "By which we mean that Aya will test them on Farfarello."

"We might as well start Nagi's program first," Aya answered. He entered his syllables in, then clicked on the Search button. "And that's it." He put a dishtowel over the screen to protect Schwarz.

"That's it?" Schuldig asked. "And that little bastard didn't think I could do _that_?"

"I guess not. Where do you want me to try the words out on Farfarello?" Aya nearly smiled over how shocked Crawford and Schuldig looked at how accommodating he was being. Keeping them off balance entertained him.

"Your room," Crawford answered. "And if you can't control yourselves, at least wait until you're done trying out the words."

As soon as they went into the room, Farfarello sat on their rumpled bed and gave Aya a hot, expectant look. "No," Aya answered. "Not now." And they really needed to change the sheets.

"Hit me then."

Aya said the first word slowly so he could stop if it started to work, as he had the other one, but Farfarello showed no reaction whatsoever and asked, "Are you saying it right?"

"_Yes_. I think he lied."

"I'm not surprised. Next one."

The second and third didn't work either. Farfarello went rigid and unresponsive on three syllables of the fourth. Aya moved in closer to get a better look... and jumped when Farfarello blinked at him, grinned, and said, "Just kidding. Next?"

"That's what he gave me. They were all wrong."

"They didn't work," Crawford said from the doorway. "Don't look at me like that. I wouldn't know whether they worked or not until the time came when you did them."

"Is it possible that they don't work on Farfarello but might on the rest of you?"

"Possible, if unlikely. I volunteer myself as the second test subject. There's no way Schuldig will do it. No, I won't sit on the bed, Farfarello."

They didn't work on Crawford either.

"We could check your pronunciation with the video tape," he said afterward.

"Video tape?"

"We always tape our interrogations. You never know what you might have missed at the time."

"Then we burn them." Farfarello licked his lips.

Schuldig had a bag of popcorn in one hand and the remote in the other when they returned to the living room, but Schwarz left Aya alone so he could watch his questioning of Amann, in case there _was_ a pronunciation problem on his end. Watching himself on the screen left him disquieted. Was that really him? He barely recognized himself, not that he'd seen himself on tape often. Did he really move that provocatively? It looked almost sexual. He touched the scabs on his knuckles, then turned off the tape. "It's not a pronunciation problem," he yelled back.

"You wanna watch the rest of it with us?" Schuldig asked.

"No. I already saw it once."

"Whatever."

While Schuldig and Crawford settled down on the couch, Aya went to his room. Noticing Farfarello behind him, he asked, "Why didn't you stay? I figured you'd like to watch that." He noticed that the sheets had been changed.

"No fresh blood or realtime pain, no point."

"I just want to read."

"I have no problem with that."

Aya curled up on the bed and opened his book to the place he'd saved, while Farfarello curled up nearby but not too close and occasionally stroked his hair. He found the stroking distracting at first but quickly became accustomed to it.

******************************************************

Schuldig laughed and tried to steal the remote control. "What a girly scream he has."

Crawford kept it out of Schuldig's reach. "Farfarello did just take out his left eye."

"It's the principle."

"You put too much butter in."

"Butter is good for you."

Crawford took another handful of popcorn and asked, "Do you have any idea what the hell is up with Abyssinian today?"

"He doesn't know, so I sure don't. He's come to some peace with his inner sociopath, though."

"It worries me that he's being so helpful."

Schu gave him a sidelong look that was far too wise. "That bit with Nagi worried you."

Of course it did. What had Aya intended to accomplish? "We've seen Aya with Weiß, so we know that that isn't his usual kind of gesture. He was standoffish with them."

"Maybe all the touching Farfarello puts him through is warping his brain. Farfie is stroking his hair as he's reading at this very second. You're thinking odd thoughts."

"They're odd to me too," Crawford answered. Aya had looked genuinely concerned for Nagi's well-being, and he'd been helpful.... "It's almost like Abyssinian is becoming a real member of Schwarz."

Aya had already changed them with his presence, and they couldn't go back to what they had been. They could only move forward.

Schuldig grinned. "Why not? We're irresistible. Oooh, there goes the other eye. Farfie may be a few cards short of a full deck, but he gives great torture. You can tell that he really _cares_ about his work."

His telepath didn't seem to be worried about everyone's emotional changes, and he couldn't see or feel anything catastrophic. Maybe he should ease up a little on being such a control freak. As much as he could. "Agreed."


	17. "I *want* one of those."

"Hey," Nagi said softly from their doorway.

"Are you better now?" Aya asked as he looked up from his book.

"Yeah. Crawford wants everybody in the kitchen."

"Why?"

"Do you think he ever tells me anything?" Nagi asked as he left.

"He must be feeling better," Farfarello said.

When they reached the kitchen, Farfarello sat down, while Aya chose to stand, curious about what would come next.

Crawford, standing next to Schuldig, said, "It's time for the stitches to come out."

"No," Farfarello answered as he crossed his arms and pouted. "I like them. I have barbwire in my neck."

"The skin's starting to grow over them."

Schuldig snickered. "Good going, Brad. That was the last thing you should have said. Now he's intrigued."

Aya had noticed Farfarello's eye brightening at the thought too. "Farfarello."

Farfarello turned to face him. Aya crouched down and touched the stitches at the knotted bases, then stroked out to their tips. Farfarello half-closed his eye and asked, "How do they feel?"

"Stiff and prickly. You should get them out. Besides, the skin will eventually grow all the way over them and ruin the effect."

Farfarello sulked a little while more, then said, "Fine. Take them out. Make me ugly."

Schuldig opened his mouth but closed it when he saw Aya's glare. Instead he said, "Yeah, that would have been too easy."

"The skin _is_ growing over them," Nagi said as he cut the stitches, unable to avoid cutting into flesh as well. Farfarello just looked impatient.

"I knew we'd need Aya's help to convince him to let us remove them, so it had to wait," Crawford answered.

Once they'd all come out and been set on a towel on the kitchen table, Farfarello stroked them, then looked up at Aya with a smile and said, "I deserve a reward."

"I suppose so." He didn't like the thought of doing anything in front of Schuldig, Crawford, and Nagi, but since they knew everything he did anyway, why get upset about being in their line of sight?

Aya stared at Farfarello's neck. What had been the gaping slash he'd adminstered now looked like a faint pink line studded with small bleeding spots from where the stitches had come out. Aya remembered Farfarello kissing his wound better when his stitches had come out, so Aya crouched down and did the same. Farfarello purred and moved his head to better expose his neck. The thick, metallic taste of blood reminded Aya of his battle rushes, recreating the dark excitement, and his hands clenched on Farfarello's arms.

******************************************************

"Hmm," Brad said as they watched Aya grab Farfarello and climb on him, kissing his neck hungrily all the while. Farfie looked blissed.

Schuldig smirked at the scene and the echoes of lust he felt. "I _want_ one of those." Then he noticed Brad giving him a heated sidelong look. "Are you expecting something?"

"Do you need something, Schu?"

"Not need it. Want it, though."

Nagi sighed. "I need a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Small horse. Large dog. Something."

"You could join us," Schuldig purred.

"No," Brad said.

"No?"

"I wouldn't be comfortable." Brad still saw Nagi as a kid. He could be weirdly fastidious and stubborn about things.

Schuldig sighed. "Sorry, Nagi."

"Whatever. I'm going online." Nagi stalked out in search of cybersex.

"You can't. Your computer's tied up in working on the word."

Nagi nearly growled. "Then I'll do it the old-fashioned way!" He slammed the door to his room.

"I have to find that kid something before he explodes of sexual frustration," Schuldig said. It could be tough finding a partner for a young misanthrope.

"Later, matchmaker," Brad said.

"Fucker."

******************************************************

"They're gone," Farfarello said with a smile, growling a little as Aya's tongue hit one of the open spots and caused an extra spark of sensation.

Sitting on his lap and grinding against him, Aya kissed him and left the taste of his own blood on his lips. "Good. I don't like having an audience."

"I want to take you on the kitchen table."

The kitten looked amused and disgusted at once. "We eat here."

"And will again." Offending his puisín's overdeveloped sense of propriety never stopped being fun. With effort and luck, pushing at Aya's boundaries would continue to erode those restrictive values. Farfarello would miss being able to shock him, but the gain would make up for it.

He stroked and kissed the kitten with a strategy in mind. Sex had only added to Farfarello's store of knowledge regarding Aya's Spots, and now he felt confident that he could kindle his puisín at any speed he desired just from applying touch in the right ways and places. Right now he wanted a fast, mind-clouding boil, the kind that would break down his puisín's pride and defenses and get him the kitchen table fucking he wanted.

Eyes closed, head thrown back a little, riding his lap, Aya writhed and struggled against him. He loved to watch the kitten do this. Maybe he should ask Aya to jerk off for him sometime so he could watch without the distraction of doing anything. Later. There would be laters....

"It has to be your spine against the table," Aya finally said, his voice sounding deeper and throatier in his lust. He looked a little embarrassed and a little angry too.

Farfarello grinned. "That's fair."

When Aya stood, Farfarello immediately missed his cozy lapful of kitten. Still, he couldn't strip like that, so.... He removed clothing with speed and little care, much the way Aya currently did, and set the tube of lubricant down on the table. Aya raised an eyebrow when he noticed it.

"I wanted to be ready at all times," Farfarello answered as he slicked his fingers.

When they met again in a close, writhing embrace, face to face and chest to chest and cock to cock, Farfarello set his fingers against Aya's hole and teased in hard circles, not penetrating yet. Aya gasped and bit his neck in a perfect reaction. Yes, yes, yes. He teased and teased and teased, lulled by the repetition of those circles, while his puisín became wilder and more insatiable against him, rubbing, gripping him hard, finally surging against him as he slid his fingers up and in.

Aya obviously wanted him inside and out, clutching him with hands and internal muscles, but Farfarello wanted him to say it. "Do you want me?"

"Yes," his puisín answered with a gulping breath and wild eyes.

"Good." Farfarello backed away, then spread out on his back on the table, feeling like a sacrifice. His cock waited for its proper sheath.

Aya looked briefly hesitant, then climbed atop him and slowly lowered himself, using his hand to help guide Farfarello's cock home. Keeping himself under control as he watched Aya's body swallow him proved to be very difficult. It was beautiful and obscene. The sight of his lovebites and bruises on that pale skin excited him further. He wanted to thrust _hard_ and wished he could always keep his cock in the hot, close darkness of his puisín's body.

As Aya moved atop him and he stroked this wonderful creation that belonged to him now, Farfarello couldn't help feeling a rush of pride. He'd made this, having taken a suicide-to-be and given him purpose, a reason to go on. Correcting the tangled mess of Aya's obsessed-over, alternately violated and coddled conscience would take time, but he'd already made obvious progress.

A light slap to his cheek grabbed his attention. Aya looked down on him. "Are you still there?" Ah, pretty kitten, just learning to use its claws.

"Oh yeah." Hating to be accused of inattention, he thrust up harder, smiling as Aya moaned softly in response. This connection and capitulation made orgasm seem a paltry thing by comparison.

But since Aya might not feel the same, Farfarello jerked him off until he came, and the sight and feel of his puisín hitting climax from his hands and cock wrung orgasm out of him anyway. The sex never lasted long enough. Still, he felt a certain peace now as he licked the sweat from Aya's skin.

"I'm never going to be able to eat at that table again," Nagi said.

Aya twitched and moved but Farfarello grabbed his wrist to prevent his flight. "It's only a teammate," Farfarello said. A teammate looking at them with mingled annoyance and frustrated lust. Who wouldn't want to pet this kitten? Another sore spot Farfarello could prod. "Would you like to touch him, Nagi?"

Bristling, Aya wrenched his wrist away and hunted for his clothes as he snarled, "I'm not an object to be passed around." He sounded _really_ pissed off.

Oops. Too offensive.

******************************************************

Nagi had thought they'd finished. At least the sex running at the edge of his mind had surged and ebbed. How was he to know that they'd just lie there on the _table_? By the time he'd realized his mistake, Farfarello had already noticed him, so he'd figured he might as well spread the discomfort around.

Nobody who survived Eszett had any taboos against nudity left, not with the punishments and thorough body inspections, but these were people he knew, and they were beautiful in a hard, harsh, animal way as well as entwined in one another. Their personal fields of kinetic possibility had nearly merged, with Farfarello's only slightly more active than Aya's. Nagi hadn't realized that Farfarello had marked Aya up so much in his passion, though these were temporary marks, not wounds that would scar.

He shouldn't look. Not that Farfarello cared. All right, Aya cared, so he shouldn't look. Besides, he should look away for his own peace of mind, since seeing them like this just left him more frustrated.

"Would you like to touch him, Nagi?" Farfarello asked, and even as Nagi marveled that Farfarello could have handled Aya so well previously yet made such a boneheaded mistake now he also wondered if he were that obvious. Did he have it written on his face? Maybe he did now, as he felt a surge of longing. He didn't even expect it to lead to actual sex; he just wanted.

Nagi didn't touch people with his hands, not usually. Earlier he'd been under the influence of success and too much caffeine.

Aya rolled away with graceful speed and dressed in furious motions, his field snapping and crackling, separate now. "I'm not an object to be passed around."

Of course. Farfarello hadn't changed Aya _that_ much.

How disappointing.

But as Aya put his pants and shirt on, he sparked with something Nagi could almost feel. Thinking. Shirt still unbuttoned and revealing his chest, Aya sat on the table and cast an evil look in Farfarello's direction that made Farfarello look a little unsettled.

"All right," Aya said.

Farfarello looked as surprised as Nagi felt. "What are you up to, puisín?"

"I want to show you something. If Nagi wants to touch me, I'll let him."

_Want_ to? Nagi approached, hand outstretched and trembling. Aya's chest felt hot and smooth, so alive, against his fingers, and Nagi felt Aya's anger and unwilling bond to Farfarello and affection... for Nagi. His hand trembled less as it felt the steady pounding of Aya's heart. He smelled sex and sweat and metal. Farfarello, Aya, and Schuldig always smelled like metal to him. Schuldig, appropriately, had an additional sulfur scent from gunpowder. Aya's knees felt hard and bony against his hips. He moved closer.

The tip of Aya's nose brushed his, which surprised a smile out of him. Wait. Nagi asked with his eyes if Aya intended this, and Aya flicked a glance at a restless looking Farfarello. Nagi concentrated a little and read through his touch that Aya had felt that Farfarello's offer had been cruel, but Aya would like to kiss him, and not just to yank Farfarello around.

"Why?" Nagi asked softly. Still concentrating, he read affection and pain and Omi and Eszett and words and concern and apologies and big brother and protection and anger and an image of Nagi crumpled over. Put more simply, Aya didn't know for sure, but he had a hell of a lot of influences driving it.

"You don't have to," Aya said. The longer they stayed here, unmoving, the more Aya's emotions cooled and he started to feel like a slut.

"No, you're not. Thanks." Nagi moved in before Aya could change his mind. Initially they bumped noses and teeth, but then they found some shared rhythm, and it was... perfect. Weird but tender, and Nagi didn't want to breathe. Aya's lips felt a little rough--from being bitten?--but drew shivers from him as they moved. He had his hand in Aya's hair, and Aya had a hand on his back.

Movement.... Nagi put up a telekinetic shield by instinct and glanced to the side to see a furious looking, thwarted Farfarello.

Regretfully, Nagi backed away. "Thank you, Aya-san." He felt broken open, aroused, and a bit scared, but warm too.

"What lesson was I supposed to learn from that?" Farfarello asked.

Aya opened his eyes. "Before you pledge me to something, think about where it might lead." He briskly fastened his shirt as he left the room.

Having no urge to be around during a temper tantrum, Nagi left when Farfarello started to pound on the table. Farfarello had offered Aya, Nagi had taken that offer, and now Farfarello had to deal with it. Nagi didn't care enough or have the patience to watch it.

To his surprise, a dishtowel covered his computer. Then he understood, sighed, and walked to his room, thwarted.

Schuldig waited at his doorway, leaning against the frame smoking a cigarette and wearing only a low-slung pair of green silk pajama bottoms that barely clung to his hips. Nagi wondered why he had to be cursed to be part of a group full of attractive people. "Do you have a problem?" he asked Schuldig.

"Good going, Nagi." Said entirely without sarcasm.

"Is the word making me hallucinate now?"

"We want Aya to stick around, and you're helping with that. Good job." Schuldig lightly punched Nagi's shoulder, then sauntered back to the room he shared with Crawford.

A group full of attractive, crazy people. Nagi didn't know how he coped. He closed his door, not that anyone respected that here.

Denied access to his computer and having already jerked off, Nagi didn't know what to do with himself. His last night out in Berlin hadn't exactly impressed him, and he didn't have the car. He felt too restless to read.

He pulled his packet of folding paper from a drawer and chose a lavender-colored piece, then picked it up and started to manipulate it with his telekinesis. The paper spun and folded in the air in front of him.

A trainer at Rosenkreuz had commanded him to start doing origami with his talent to learn finesse and discipline. After a moment of bitter amusement at this ghost-faced bigot telling the Japanese kid to take up origami, Nagi had decided he'd do his best anyway for his own enrichment, since pushing, pulling, and tearing may have been easy with telekinesis but fine motor control was very difficult. Then he'd figured out that the teacher hadn't expected him to succeed, and doing a tiny telepathic reading showed him that they'd never had a total success teaching telekinetics to do this. It inevitably led to failure and public castigation. That was the point.

After days of intensely focused practice, a few headaches and nosebleeds, and piles of torn and mutilated papers, Nagi had shoved the point up the trainer's ass. Sometimes he wondered if the tekes who'd done that program after him had suffered for his success, but he didn't let it bother him. He still did origami sometimes for meditation, finding the effort strangely calming even if it did make him sweat from the concentration necessary. Right now he made two purple cranes, then a blue unicorn.

~ A unicorn? Symbolic much? ~

The events of the day had left him weaker. Damn. ~ Get out of my head! ~ Nagi sent Schuldig his memory of the agony the word had given him, then slammed his mental shields shut, vaguely hearing ~ Fucker! ~ then nothing.

Enjoying the silence, Nagi chose a candy red piece of paper and started to make a rose. When he finished it, he turned to see Crawford opening his door.

"I have a task for you and Schuldig," Crawford said. Fully and meticulously dressed, he looked impeccable. Nagi would have thought "as usual," but he'd seen Crawford in full rut, so no. Schuldig, standing behind him, had also dressed and groomed. Black coat, black gloves....

Business. It passed the time. "What do you want us to do?" Nagi asked.

******************************************************

Aya threw himself down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. His knees hurt, his ass hurt, and his self-image had taken grievous injury. He'd kissed Nagi. Because he'd been angry at Farfarello and Nagi had looked so sad. Those were reasons?

He didn't understand it. He had liked it. He was utterly fucked.

As if the thought called him, Farfarello walked into the room and sat down on the bed. Uncertain of Farfarello's reaction, Aya had a kitchen knife in his hand ready if he needed it.

Farfarello smiled. "As good as you may be with cutlery, I have to get you a decent knife."

"Why?"

"I want to encourage you."

That made as much sense as anything did lately.

"Besides, you did far worse damage to me with a drinking glass, so I'm not putting myself in _more_ danger by arming you properly."

"Hnh."

"I overstepped," Farfarello said, sounding annoyed. "I shouldn't have made that offer. I knew better."

Aya sat up. "Good."

"Did you like that kiss?"

"What did it look like?"

Farfarello growled. Answer enough.

Aya remembered the chilled, soft skin of Nagi's fingertips and the awe Nagi had brought to that kiss. He felt protective, and that was after he'd sworn he never would again, not when he'd proven to be a failure at it. And yet.... "I liked it."

"Do I have cause to be jealous?"

"It wasn't that kind of kiss."

Openly gleeful, Farfarello pressed his head against Aya's neck and rubbed, catlike. "I learned my lesson. Sex now?"

Unbelievable. "No." Aya dropped back down to lie on his back and stare at the ceiling.

"You need to work out a better punishments and rewards system."

"You need to figure out that I won't be in the mood all the time."

"We need to work on that."

Aya sighed. He'd chosen this....


	18. But he'd chosen sordid, and sordid was enjoyable much of the time.

After breakfast Aya sat down at Nagi's computer and took a look, finding ten words from five languages. Schuldig, who stood at an angle that would make sure he couldn't see the screen, said, "Pronunciation is key."

"Nagi's program lists the languages they come from."

"Then I can boost you in those. How enterprising of him. I'll have to reward him."

"Schuldig," Crawford said in a warning tone.

"I'm never going to get any, am I?" Nagi asked.

"No."

"How are we going to test these?" Aya asked. Having thought more about the situation last night, he said, "I don't want to do it on any of you, since we don't know the long-term effects of a full word."

"Brad already thought of that. Nagi and I wrangled two Eszett guinea pigs for you to talk at."

Aya didn't really like it, but how could it be worse than killing them, something he did all the time? "Where are they?"

"The room we finished Amann off in."

Schuldig gave him a language booster, which made his head hurt, then left him. When Aya walked into the room, sheets of plastic crinkling beneath his feet, he saw Farfarello locking the last restraint. One guinea pig had been shackled to the chair, while the other was still out cold on the floor in the corner, looking deeply drugged.

"The one in the corner won't wake until we want her to, or so Schuldig swears," Farfarello said. "Schuldig knows what I'll do to him if he's wrong."

"Why is she there?"

"Crawford thought the sight of another victim-to-be lying nearby would help make an impression on our guest." Farfarello slapped the back of the nearest victim's head.

"I don't like it."

"Neither do I, but we don't get a say." Farfarello kissed him deeply. "Knock hard on the door when you have a winner. Try to enjoy yourself."

Aya shuddered on the inside but kept an emotionless façade as he asked, "What wakes him up?"

"Me," Schuldig said from the doorway.

The young man jolted awake in the chair and strained against his bonds, then looked surprised and afraid. "What did you do?"

"That little fire-making ability you have? You can't access it. Don't worry. We just want to say a few things to you to see how you react."

"What?"

"Ta!" Schuldig closed the door behind him and Farfarello, leaving Aya in the room with the two Eszett test subjects.

"Who the hell are you?" the man in the chair asked.

"You don't need to know that." Better to get this done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

"The hell I don't!"

He only became more confused and belligerent as Aya tested the words on him, but the sixth word stopped him completely. He sat utterly still and stared at nothing, drooling a little. Unsettled, Aya waved a hand in front of his face, then knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" Schuldig asked.

"The sixth word."

"Goody. We'll have to put him somewhere to see if he snaps out of it."

Farfarello walked into the room, smacked the man, grinned at the utter lack of reaction, then started to undo the shackles. Once done, he shoved the man facedown into the floor and placed the woman in the chair, binding her in.

"Test the other words on the woman," Crawford said. "If the next four don't get you a reaction, see if the first five get you anywhere. No harm in trying. If none of those do, use the sixth word on her. The word affected each of us differently, and it would be good to do a comparison."

As Farfarello hefted the entranced man over his shoulder, Aya asked Crawford, "What will you do with them?"

"Hook them up to an IV and see if the word wears off on its own. It may be that we'd need counterwords to snap it. I want to have some idea of what we're up against."

Aya really didn't like this but didn't see any alternatives. Schuldig woke up the next victim, then left the room with the rest of Schwarz. She was a young blonde girl, and awake she looked like a cross between his sister and Omi, at least to him.

She also took on that look of strain, probably trying to access the powers Schuldig had blocked, then turned panicky. "How did you-- Please don't hurt me. I'll do anything."

He had to stay detached. He tried to ignore her wide, deep, blue eyes and desperate begging for him to tell her what he wanted as he went through the last four words, then the first five words, then word #6. Word #6 stopped her pleading and crying, though the tears she'd started to shed still ran slowly down her face and finally dripped off her chin.

This was far worse than killing them in the heat of battle.

Feeling slightly ill, he knocked on the door hard. "Word #6," he said again. "Get her out of my sight."

Crawford gave him a look, then directed Farfarello to uncuff her and take her away. Aya would not ask where to.

******************************************************

That night they had their first battle mission since the one he and Farfarello had jumped each other on, and to Aya's relief the sexual... liaison hadn't affected anything. Farfarello hadn't become more protective of him while fighting, and they all gave Aya's abilities the respect they deserved. He and Aya fought back to back again, killing together like a perfectly tuned machine, and Aya lost himself in it. It didn't take much time for them to clear the room of opponents.

Breathing hard, blatantly excited, Farfarello grinned at him, then moved in fast to kiss him, tangling their tongues. This _was_ different, but not unwelcome, especially not when the violence had already left him aroused.

"Oh, kitten, I would have thought having you would make my need lessen, but I only need you more now. You're a fire in my blood. I _want_ you." His voice sounded rough and dark, making Aya shiver.

"Not here." But it was a small objection. He knew that in every other way he'd surrendered.

"I know. Later." Farfarello gritted his teeth, then lightly sliced his wrist. Calmer now, he licked the blood off his blade and wrist, which drove Aya to horrified and lustful distraction, then said, "Let's find the others."

Aya understood the self-mutilation better now.

Ten minutes later they found Nagi in a room downloading information into his laptop. An armed gunman opened the other door and rushed in but was flung hard into a wall before Aya could even warn Nagi. "I saw him," Nagi said. "And I found what we need." He unplugged, closed up his laptop, and gave Aya a winning smile.

~ We're outside already. You wanna join us? ~

It was all so easy.

Aya didn't look at Farfarello during the drive home. Couldn't. It was bad enough listening to him breathe and being able to smell the blood and sweat on him. When Schuldig smirked at Aya--as if Schuldig wouldn't have Crawford's cock up his ass as soon as they got home--he glared back.

Aya had enough dignity not to run to their room when they reached the apartment, but he walked very quickly. Farfarello slammed the door shut behind them, then slammed him up against a wall. As they kissed hungrily they tore off their weapons and clothing, casting them aside and smiling ferally at the thumping sounds they made as they hit the walls or floor. Swords, knives, gloves, belts, straps.... Farfarello tore so desperately and ineffectually at Aya's coat that Aya had to unfasten it for him and whip it off himself. Farfarello had far less trouble unzipping Aya's pants and already had his hand inside, stroking and gripping. Biting his lip, Aya let thoughts and the past fade, eagerly trading them in for sensation and a hot, delirious now. He felt so _awake_.

Farfarello spun him onto the bed, then pulled his pants down to his knees, being forced to stop at the top of Aya's boots. Bare ass in the air, feeling utterly dirty and desperate, Aya said, "Give it to me." Farfarello answered with a kind of growling purr and climbed up behind him in a creaking of bedsprings and leather.

Farfarello unzipped, then grabbed Aya's hips to position him. After what seemed like a small eternity after that, he thrust in. Distantly pleased that Farfarello had used some lubrication, Aya moaned in pain/pleasure and humped the mattress, with his body feeling so sensitive that the blanket provided incredible friction against his cock. But Farfarello fucked him so slowly, thoroughly and ruthlessly working his sweet spot but at such a leisurely pace that he wanted to scream in frustration.

"Is there something you want, puisín?" Farfarello asked, his voice dripping with amusement. Playing games.

"No." He had his pride.

In response, Farfarello slowed down even more. Bastard. Aya clenched his muscles around Farfarello's cock and smiled at the hiss his action elicited.

"Sneaky kitten." Farfarello put some speed and force into his thrusts at last, grunting in pleasure and running his hot, rough hands up under Aya's shirt. "If you could only see what you look like, my bloody fallen angel...."

Aya could imagine how they both looked, still bloody and mostly dressed and taking their twisted sexuality out on each other in the most direct, shameless way possible, and the image combined with the forceful fucking brought him to an orgasm that whipped through his whole body, whiting him out for a moment. He shivered, sensitized, as Farfarello kept going, pounding into him, gasping, "My puisín, my lover...." Finally Farfarello came in a burst of heat and three more hard thrusts.

Farfarello rested, hot and humid, atop him, breathing harshly, and toyed with his nipples. Aya gasped, "We're depraved."

"Yes," Farfarello answered, sounding very happy. Once he carefully pulled out, leaving Aya feeling oddly bereft as well as aching, Aya rolled out of the wet spot and saw that they'd left streaks of blood from their clothing and bodies on the blankets as well. They needed to shower and change their bedding, and Aya still needed to get his boots off. Somehow that made it all seem more sordid.

But he'd chosen sordid, and sordid was enjoyable much of the time.

Farfarello picked him up and rested his body over his shoulder, then started to take the blankets and sheets off the bed, whistling a jaunty tune off-key all the while. Embarrassed, with Farfarello's bony shoulder pressing into his abdomen, Aya struggled, to no avail, and said, "Put me down."

"I'm taking care of you. There will be washing and maybe more sex and then sleep. We should clean up before they lock us in for the night."

Aya reminded himself again that he'd chosen this.

******************************************************

As Aya ran down his prey through the hedge maze, he heard Farfarello let out a feral scream of joy in the distance, and the scream spurred Aya's victim to greater obvious terror and him on to greater speed. This assignment had taken them outside of Berlin to one of Eszett's luxurious, secluded estates. Tonight, the seclusion worked against its inhabitants and let Farfarello be as vocal in his euphoria as he pleased. Farfarello loved to kill outdoors, "right under God's eyes."

When Aya's panicked victim slipped on a paving block and hit the ground hard, Aya ran faster and pounced, dashing the man's head repeatedly against the stone. As much as he wanted to use his katana, he might blunt or chip its edge if he used it here. Once his victim shuddered out a last, gurgling breath and died, Aya let its head drop and looked up as he heard someone approach, then relaxed as he recognized Farfarello's steps.

"It's a wild night," Farfarello said, his voice soft with awe and joy. "A beautiful night."

Aya thought about the moonlight that cast their surroundings in a soft blue light and made shadows, the smell of greenery in the air, the cool wind rustling through the hedges around him, and the cooling body between his thighs. Before tonight's assignment, Crawford had said that they were getting ever closer to Eszett's top echelon. "It is." Then Aya saw the heated look in Farfarello's eye. "Not right now."

"It's been a long time."

Aya thought about how their sword exercise today had ended. "It's been 12 hours."

"Just like I said."

Farfarello made Yoji look like an ascetic. Don't think of that. "No." Aya stood up.

"It's a fucking hedge maze. How many chances does a person get at that?" He grinned. "All this greenery puts me in touch with my Celtic heritage. I feel very pagan right now."

"I don't care."

Farfarello's eye glinted, then he pushed Aya into the hedge wall. Aya fought back, and they punched at each other and wrestled.

Aya really should have remembered that Farfarello saw that kind of behavior of foreplay. He shouldn't have been so surprised that it ended with cold hedge branches poking into his head and Farfarello on his knees deep-throating him as he moaned and clutched at Farfarello's short, moonlight-highlighted white hair.

******************************************************

"I say we kill them," Schuldig said. "It's been three days, and they haven't snapped out of it."

"I'm tired of cleaning them," Nagi growled. "I had to shut their eyelids because their eyeballs were drying up. They're not coming out of it on their own."

"Face it, we would need some kind of counterword to wake them up."

"Agreed," Crawford replied. "We kill them. Problems, Aya?"

Aya shook his head but still looked a little haunted. "No."

"If we send them back to Eszett, Eszett will interrogate and kill them, perhaps even take them apart as experiments. This is kinder."

"I understand."

Aya still had flashes of conscience but didn't let them interfere with his duties. Crawford approved the last and saw room for improvement on the former. Still, it was far from an insurmountable problem. "Who wants the honors?"

"I do," Farfarello answered as he licked one of his knives. Of course.


	19. "Destroyed him through the power of his masochism."

_"I'm selling out,   
Take all I've got.   
Ambitions, convictions, the works!   
Why not?"_  
  -- "Black Market," as performed by Marlene Dietrich  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What is this?" Aya asked as he stared at the object Schuldig had put in his hand.

Schuldig had been looking forward to this moment for a long time. "Your bank book," he answered with a smile and a "you dummy" expression. "C'mon, you didn't really think we'd go off destroying Eszett for free when so many people are eager to pay us for it?"

Aya looked shell-shocked. "All right. I can see that. But--"

"You're Schwarz, so you get a share. Everything you've earned since that first night in Frankfurt--minus a small handling fee for yours truly and the price of your clothes and food--is in this offshore account. Enjoy."

As Schuldig walked away, whistling, Aya was still staring at it as if it might bite him. Having the word made Aya something of a minefield to mindread, though Schuldig could do it if he were careful enough, but reading Aya for a reaction wasn't even necessary at the moment, not with the kitten's emotions spread out across his face, with horror and shock dominating. Aya obviously knew he seemed less like a prisoner and more like a partner if he started to get paid for his jobs. That was the point.

Sometimes even doing something nice could be entertaining. It looked like giving could be as much fun as receiving if you gave the right thing, and the thought gave Schuldig an idea.

That night he returned with a gift for Aya, who took the small box from him with a world-weary look, and Schuldig let his smile get ever more wise-ass as the kitten opened it. Perfect that he'd caught Aya in the bedroom the two psychos shared. Aya let out a sigh as he reached in and took the black leather collar studded with little rhinestones out. As he held it, he tapped the bell--gold-toned to match his earring because the small details made such a difference--with his finger. Ding!

"Like it?" Schuldig purred. Aya was successfully keeping him out of his mind, but that expression suggested deep annoyance. Beautiful. Aya exhaled, then put it down on the bed and walked out of the room, with Schuldig following. "Going to Farfie to tell on me?"

Without a word, Aya grabbed Farfarello's arm and dragged him back to the bedroom. Obviously bemused, Farfie let himself be dragged. Schuldig had to see this, especially since Aya kept blocking him out. How the hell had he learned to do that so well?

Once they all reached the bed, Aya picked up the collar to show Farfie, who took in a deep, lustful breath and barely restrained himself from pouncing. Aya tapped the bell a few times. Ding, ding, ding! Schuldig's smile nearly devoured his face as he waited for what would come next.

Aya unbuckled it and put it around his neck, then buckled it and turned it around to face the right way. Schuldig felt his jaw drop. Wait a minute.... Aya tapped the bell again--ding!--and smiled wickedly at Farfarello.

Farfarello grabbed Schuldig's shoulders and pushed him backward out the doorway. "Thank you," he said before slamming the door shut in his face. Dammit.

"Rude fucker," Schuldig muttered, then used his telepathy to shamelessly eavesdrop. Aya lost all ability to block during sex, and the echoes on this one should be interesting enough to give him one hell of a time with Brad. Schuldig locked the psychos' door as usual and walked off to pounce on him.

******************************************************

"You just about have a black storm cloud over your head," Brad said with a smirk, talking louder than usual to be heard over the rhythmic thumping coming from the next room. Once in a while they could hear some ding!s over the racket as well, just to add insult to injury.

"I'm going to kill them," Schuldig replied. Yes, the sex with Brad had been great, all three times, but they were tired now and Farfie was _still going_. Enough was enough. Between the echoing lust and the bed pounding, Schuldig couldn't think, let alone sleep. He suddenly better understood why their irate neighbors kept banging on _their_ wall all the time, and he hated that.

How the hell did Aya deal with it? Lust, flexibility, and masochism shouldn't have been enough to get him through. How did he even move anymore? Schuldig was an experienced slut, and he couldn't keep up.

Damn the kitten's tendency to go to extremes. Only Aya Fujimiya could do a whiplash turn from asexual to accommodating slut.

The door suddenly crashed open. Nagi looked really pissed off. "Schuldig, I assume that you're behind this."

"Just got home, kid?" Schuldig asked.

"Nagi, knock first," Brad said.

Nagi gave him a dark look, then knocked on the door. "All right? I've been home for two hours. All I wanted was some sleep. But they're doing it and you're doing it, and then they're doing it, and then you're doing it, and then you're all doing it, then they're doing it again, and there's a _bell_. I'm going to be warped beyond repair. I'll snap, just watch me." He glared at Schuldig. "Aya didn't have a bell last night."

"I didn't expect him to use it."

"That makes everything better."

"Sarcasm--" Brad started.

"--is the least of the damage I want to inflict right now."

"I wouldn't have expected them to go on this long either," Schuldig answered with a snarl.

"They're locked in that room all night. What else do they have to do?"

"Sleep," Brad replied.

But Nagi had a bit of a point there, not that Brad would see it. Schuldig would have to think about this, then have a talk with Brad.

"I would cut off the flow of blood to their brains to make them stop, but I like Aya, and Farfarello might not notice."

Schuldig felt the wave of sex cresting. After one more mighty thump and ding!, the noises stopped. Finally. Nagi relaxed a little but said, "If they start up again, I'm coming right back here to share my pain. Good night." The door slammed shut behind him.

"I need to find that kid a lover," Schuldig muttered. "Maybe a prostitute will do. We could always kill her afterward if she sees his talent acting up."

"Schu, shut up and go to sleep."

"Yes, boss."

******************************************************

An odd noise woke Aya up. "Yes," Farfarello hissed, "it's far too early for them to be undoing the locks on the door." They quietly rolled out of the bed to get their weapons, with Aya having to manipulate the collar to stop the bell from ringing. He retrieved his sheathed katana and put on his sweatpants, kevlar-enforced coat, and boots, then slipped his belled collar into an inside pocket and picked up the bag of golf clubs. Farfarello put on pants and a few straps and sheathes for his sword and various knives. Partially dressed, bared weapons in hand, they approached the door at the side it would open on and waited, listening to the locks quietly turning.

Aya shouted in his head for Schuldig but heard nothing back. It would make sense for enemies to block the team's access to its telepath. Unwilling to give up, Aya tried Nagi. On the fourth Nagi! he heard a ~ What? Aya? Oh shit! ~ then an explosion from down the hall. Followed by gunshots. Farfarello started to chuckle.

Abandoning stealth, the opponents outside the door tried to shoot through, to kill them without having to face them, but not a single bullet made it through the wood. "Only a sturdy door could stop me," Farfarello said proudly. Aya vaguely heard cursing in the hall.

The last lock gave, and the door flew open, followed by a spray of gunfire. Farfarello twitched from the effort of holding himself back, especially once the gunfire stopped, but he knew they had to let their opponents make the first move. He let two enter the room before attacking, muttering things about "minions of the God wannabes." Aya took on his share, losing track of how many people he cut, maimed, and killed because they kept coming. He even bashed a few heads in with a golf club at one point.

"It smells like Hell in here," Farfarello growled after disemboweling a man.

The smoke helped Aya identify the smell. Somehow a fire had started in the apartment.

~ Aya, you have to help Nagi out. This group has some kind of telepath with them, and he's fucking with Nagi's head. We need the kid to help keep the fire from spreading until we're clear, and this asshole is a bad distraction. ~ At least Schuldig seemed to be fine, though angry. The anger communicated very well through the link.

A telepath? Aya had an idea.

Schuldig must have heard some of it, because he chuckled. ~ You're one sick fucker. Enjoy yourself. ~

Aya decapitated the man in front of him, then yelled, "I have to go help one of the others!"

Farfarello grinned. "More for me to kill."

******************************************************

Nagi gritted his teeth as memories flipped through his head, the taunting, the stonings, the torments, the hatred, the Eszett-approved tortures and training. The telepath ripped open a hundred old wounds and poked them hard.

"I've been hurt worse by our own telepath," Nagi said as he stepped over the body of one of his first attackers.

"Really? I'll have to try harder then," his current attacker answered.

Staying silent had many things to recommend it. Nagi bit his lip as the telepath turned up the torment, making it so much more immediate and fresh that Nagi could barely see him through the images of the past. Normally he could lash out blind and pulp the bastard but trying to control the spread of the fire through his telekinesis left him diminished and distracted.

~ Nagi, can you finish proving that your traumatic past can't affect you anymore and get your skinny ass over here where it's needed? ~

~ We can't let him just wander around working on us! Someone has to stop him. ~

"Leave him to me, Nagi," Aya said as he stepped into the room. When had he found the time to put the coat on?

"_You'll_ do it? Aya, you don't have--"

"Go."

~ You heard the man. ~

~ He'll be slaughtered. ~

~ He has an idea. ~ Schuldig sounded so confident. Why?

~ Well, if he has an _idea_.... ~

~ Less sarcasm and more getting here. ~

~ Yes, _sir_. ~

"Yes, run along, boy. I'll rip the redhead apart and then come after you."

"Aya...."

"I can handle it." Aya seemed to be in cool Abyssinian mode.

"Sure, sure." Nagi turned to leave but looked back and saw that Aya looked utterly unconcerned. Did he still have a deathwish? Nagi truly hoped not. He tried to send out a tendril of killing force at their opponent, but the telepath blocked it from his mind before it could become a reality. Dammit.

"Go," Aya said. Nagi went.

******************************************************

"What do you think you can do to me, dead-end? I know your every move as soon as you think it, so your sword is useless. I see you have some thought of drawing me in and somehow using my power against me, but you can't overload me."

Amazing how many of these people felt the need to boast. "'Dead-end'? That's so clever. Nagi is right about Schuldig outclassing you in every way. That must be why you won't face him directly."

"It will come. After I rip your mind apart."

Aya said the word, but his opponent only laughed and asked, "Did you really think Eszett would send someone against you who still had a reaction to that? We know who killed Amann."

"It was worth a try."

"I'll enjoy this."

"So you like to cause pain." Aya spread out his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"Inviting me in doesn't make it less painful for you or render me vulnerable."

"Are you afraid?"

"I'm going to hurt you worse just for thinking I'm that stupid."

Then he rushed in anyway. It felt like being doused in a sewage of rage, disgust, and depression, but Aya had acclimated to such a long time ago. Instead of letting the telepath paw through what he wanted to get the right memories, Aya threw them all at him at once: finding his parents' corpses, being pinned and helpless under the wreckage of his home as the last person he loved was run over before his eyes, sitting thousands of bedside vigils, rage, pain, abandonment, terror, no family, no hope, discovering the poisonous thrill of the kill, coming into the room to find her gone and her bed slashed, getting her back, losing her again, getting that phone call and feeling the remains of his soul shred into darkness, standing over her body, his ultimate failure, with his own knife cutting into his arm. Each memory was vividly and exquisitely remembered and detailed, permanently etched in with acid. He flung them up out of chronological order, hitting various notes and levels of dark emotion at random, leaving his flailing invader overwhelmed and unable to take control. Of course, his attack made him feel and remember all of these moments again, but he at least knew what to expect from them. All the while he clutched tightly at the touch of corruption inside his head that was trying to flee him.

Finally he opened his eyes, tasting blood from where he'd bitten his tongue. The telepath had curled up on the floor in fetal position. Head ringing, Aya carefully came up from his kneeling position, drew his katana, and struck his opponent's head off, then picked it up by the hair and walked out of the room.

It seemed that Nagi had pulped many of their attackers already. Others had been shot, sliced, pummeled, or burned. Aya tossed the head in front of the remainders, who recoiled. In the distraction, Schwarz slaughtered them.

"How?" Nagi asked.

"Later," Crawford said.

Picking up only their necessities bags--as they already had their weapons on them--they sped out of the apartment. As soon as they reached the street and Nagi stopped smothering the fire with his telekinesis, the flames raged higher and broke the remaining windows.

As Aya watched the building burn and adjusted the strap of the golf bag containing the clubs and his sheathed katana and the strap for his necessities bag, Farfarello came up behind him to slide the bags off his shoulders and clasp him before murmuring in his ear, "Very pretty, but I'm sorry about your books."

"I had one packed. Just not the one I'd started."

Farfarello snorted a laugh and stroked him. "Of course."

******************************************************

Nagi figured that the gathering crowd of gawkers and escaped tenants should disguise their presence. The tenants also wore whatever they'd thrown on and looked only slightly less soot-stained than they did. It took only a second for Farfarello to wrap himself around his kitten, and as Nagi smirked he remembered his earlier question. "Okay, what did Aya do to the telepath?"

"Destroyed him through the power of his masochism," Schuldig answered with a laugh. He only wore a robe, so Nagi tried not to look at him for too long. At least Nagi had pajamas on. Of course, Schuldig probably wouldn't mind flashing the world.

"It _is_ mighty," Farfarello said.

That wasn't terribly useful. "Okay, but _how_?"

"He willingly threw years of lovingly remembered and agonized-over torment at him. I could smell the poor bastard's brain frying. Not that you could make that trick work on me, Aya," Schuldig said emphatically. "I know your past too well."

Aya nodded his head in acknowledgement, but he had a slight smile on his face.

"And I heard that," Schuldig said.

Nagi heard Farfarello murmur, "How do you feel?" into Aya's ear. Since he'd ripped open all of his old wounds to defeat that telepath.

"Perhaps a little lighter," Aya whispered back.

"It's said that pain shared is pain lessened. Not that I've ever experienced that."

"There's a first time for everything."

"We're obviously making an impression," Crawford said. "My plan to draw them out is working."

Schuldig's mouth twitched, then his hand flew. Crawford caught his wrist before he could successfully smack the back of Crawford's head. Schuldig yanked it loose and yelled, "You saw _that_ coming. Why didn't you see this?"

"I don't see everything. You know that."

"We were roused in the middle of the night. I had to fight bare-assed, wearing nothing but my navel ring, for a while. We nearly fried. You think they didn't realize that we were tired and off our game tonight and _that's_ why they attacked now? They couldn't have figured that out if they hadn't been watching for a while. We were there too long. Was it your plan to get us fucking killed? If it wasn't, you should have moved us along earlier."

Crawford looked bored, his version of a sneer. "Really?"

"You're the guy who decides when we move on! Our supposed leader!"

"There was no real danger."

"Oh, did you _see_ that?"

"You're too emotional, Schu." Thus avoiding the question.

"You're a moron, Brad."

Nagi heard a soft "We're in public" from Aya. He looked back to see Farfarello rocking against Aya and stroking him through his pants. Aya arched like a cat under the attention. Farfarello had an arm around his neck in what would have been a chokehold if it had been tighter. Nagi's kinetic/empathic sense noticed their radiating waves of lust and intent intersecting. How could they still be horny after all the collar sex?

"So?" Farfarello breathed into his ear as he continued his slow, thorough stroking. Nagi shouldn't look, but he really couldn't help himself, especially not when the catches in Aya's deepened breathing kept attracting his attention.

Belonging to a team entirely made up of people who would fuck anything that moved had left him open-minded. Yeah, he bitched, but that was when they distracted him from work or sleep or they hit the "too much" mark. The fight had left him a little excited too....

Schuldig twitched and turned to face them. "This is _not_ the time," he growled.

When Farfarello shrugged, his grip on Aya made him shrug with him. "Crawford should have moved us along, and he can be a moron. You do get emotional. Our apartment is a gutted ruin, and we lost much of what we owned, including my favorite straitjacket. We can't fix any of that except maybe your tendency to get emotional. It's over. I want to move on," Farfarello answered.

"Farfarello's right." Right? Nagi had the sudden urge to check his own temperature. To be more placating, he said, "Schuldig, I made sure the fire went into the apartment of those people who kept banging on your wall at night."

That got a smile. "Nagi, I do love you."

"Good. You should. Does anybody know if they got to our car?"

The others looked at each another, sighed, and started to walk. Actually, they walked, while Nagi hovered a centimeter above the ground the whole way to protect his bare feet. Farfarello walked barefoot but didn't leave bloody prints.

Fortunately, the car remained safe, although they checked it for alarms and bombs before feeling satisfied. They had more of their gear in the trunk too, so they hadn't lost as much tonight as they might have. Crawford tossed Nagi the keys, and Nagi knew when not to ask questions, so he just slipped into the driver's seat.

As soon as Nagi started to drive them away, Crawford flipped open his cell phone and punched in a number. "Kalb, I need that apartment sooner than I expected. As in now. Yes, I know what time it is, but for the money you're making off this deal it shouldn't matter. Several other brokers would be more than happy to take my business. It's fine that it isn't completely ready yet. I have pressing business. Excellent. We should be there in 20 minutes." Crawford ended the call and asked, "Well?"

"You don't want to know what he's saying about Americans right now," Schuldig said.

"I can guess. Is the apartment ready enough?"

"It's habitable. Some of the stuff that's left to do might be better done by us anyway."

"You know what--"

"Yes, Brad. I know what I have to do. It's what I always do, and you always ask me about it. It's a good thing for you that I find your anal retentiveness cute."

Nagi found the routine very comforting.

His team stank of fire, blood, and sweat, but they were safe and his. Nagi smiled a little as he thought of the fit Crawford would eventually throw at what they'd done to the upholstery of the car just by sitting in it, since even with the plastic down on the seats some of the blood and soot was getting on the doors. The two bloodiest members snuggled in the backseat, which broke from the old routine but fit the new one just fine.


	20. Living in damnation wasn't going as planned.

The man, Kalb, was annoyed but far too calm to be seeing them as they actually were--soot- and blood-stained, carrying everything they owned that had survived--so Schuldig must have been messing with his head. Aya didn't care as long as it let him get some sleep as soon as possible. The night's fucking, fighting, and flashbacks had drained him, and he'd only managed maybe two hours of rest. Now he just wanted a bed.

Crawford handed Kalb a suitcase, after which the man immediately left them in their new apartment. Farfarello rushed off to the bedrooms, then cackled. Poking his head out of one, he said, "No outside locks," with great glee.

"That's a temporary state of affairs," Crawford said.

"Did you think that those gunmen could have just left them locked in their room and let them die in the fire?" Nagi asked, his eyes narrowed.

"They had the window--"

"With the bars on it. You made sure they'd be too well secured for even Farfarello to rip off. Aya and Farfarello would have roasted."

Aya hid a smile behind his hand.

"You didn't complain about the locks and bars when it meant he didn't visit you at night anymore."

"Has he been pulling any kind of weird extracurricular activities since we got Aya?"

"That works now, but--"

"But what happens when I tire of my puisín?" Farfarello asked, a dark look in his eye. Schuldig leaned against the wall and licked his lips.

"What is this shit?" Crawford asked, openly annoyed. "No one complained before."

Nagi crossed his arms. "Maybe new times call for new measures."

"_You're_ questioning me?"

"It looks like it."

"New measures.... Nagi, how were you alerted tonight?"

"What does that have to do with anything? You're not changing the subject."

"Nagi, it's important." Even half-dressed and soot-stained, he looked imperious.

"I... heard Aya calling me."

Schuldig straightened up suddenly. "Not with your ears. Son of a bitch, you forged a link with him."

Nagi seemed almost afraid. "I don't do that kind of thing."

"Of course you did. You couldn't hear a normal mentally shouting for you otherwise, especially not while you're sleeping. I can see the link now that I'm looking for it. You need training."

"No, I don't. I don't have enough of anything to need it."

"If you could put a link together without knowing it, you're stronger than we guessed. Maybe something scared you into shutting it down when you were younger, but it's still there."

"Nobody's doing anything with my head." Nagi's eyes darkened, and force gathered around him.

Without being sure why, Aya stepped between them, facing Nagi. "This isn't the time or place for this."

All right, he knew why he'd endangered himself so rashly. He needed them alive for his goal. Plus, their bickering kept him from finding a bed and successfully collapsing onto it.

"Nagi, if you use your talent, you'll break Aya's ribs," Crawford said, "because he won't be able to dodge the whole blast in time."

Nagi powered down. "Fine."

"This isn't over," Schuldig said. "If your telepathy is getting stronger, you need training."

"If you mess with me you'll need traction. Or a cemetery plot."

Schuldig smirked. "Don't you trust me?"

"No."

"This doesn't sound like you're stopping," Aya said. Farfarello watched it all with obvious amusement.

"Save your violence for our enemies," Crawford said. "You remember our enemies, the ones who are responsible for what happened tonight? You can try to kill one another tomorrow."

"Brad, this is--"

"No."

Schuldig sulked, then said, "I get the first shower."

******************************************************

Sitting in bed, Crawford looked at his account books and fought back a sigh. Wise investing and steady work ensured that he'd never really have to worry about money for his team, but being forced to move earlier than he'd wanted to galled. He should have seen this, either through his talent or simple common sense, but he hadn't. His arrogance could have led them to tragedy.

"Crawford."

From the dark, icy tone of voice and formal address in an informal setting, Schuldig must have been pissed off about something. Crawford looked up to see him. "Yes?"

Clad in only a new robe, his hair slowly air-drying, Schuldig should have looked domestic, like no threat. Should have. "None of my bandannas are in my necessities bag. None of them are in the bag I left in the trunk," Schuldig said in a too-even tone. "How did that happen?"

Arrogance again, yet it was too late to change this course now without losing face. "I hate them."

"And so you took it upon yourself to improve my fashion sense."

"Someone had to." Crawford tried to draw on his talent to see where this would go, but it didn't always come when called, and this was such a time.

"I see. You're just a total asshole." Schuldig slammed the door behind him as he left.

Five minutes later, Nagi opened the door, closed it behind him, and approached the bed, making Crawford ask, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Schuldig's in my bed," Nagi said and didn't explain further.

He didn't have to.

"You're a telekinetic. Throw him out."

"I have a headache and I'm tired, so my control is shot. If I ever kill Schuldig, I want it to be on purpose. So I can fully enjoy it." Nagi took a side of the bed and snuggled in under the covers, then used his telekinesis to turn out the light.

Sitting in the dark fuming, Crawford reflected that he better fix his relations with his team quickly before petty acts of vengeance against him escalated into outright mayhem.

******************************************************

The door wasn't locked from the outside.

The door wasn't _locked_ from the outside.

It wouldn't be calling him so strongly if he'd still been in the last apartment because he'd lived there in a routine for so long. In that apartment, he spent the night playing with Aya in their room, and his compulsions to kill had barely twinged while he had so much else to see and do. But this place was a blank slate, tabula rasa, and that unlocked door screamed to him.

He could go out if he wanted to. He could. He could kill. He knew that Berlin was full of people who still thought that being a good person and faith in God would protect them, as if God hadn't been the author of the worst atrocities the world had ever known. Full of priests who told mindless flocks of sheep what the word of God meant and full of sheep who trusted men who didn't really know any more than they did to tell them what to believe. Full of nuns, and even in these more decadent modern times some brides of Christ had never known the touch of a man. (If only his mother....) They all needed to be saved from their blindness, and Farfarello knew himself to be just the prophet they deserved. He could show them all about the true meaning of the blood of the lamb.

His puisín moved and murmured against his side. He had a kitten now to think of, and it would be a blow to Aya if he couldn't control his impulses well enough for even one night while the kitten-smitten boy was trying to get them a door that never had locks on it. Compromises had to be made.

But would that mean that he could never take up his sworn mission again? Surely not. Aya had no love for the sheep or their shepherds, but no hatred either, but that was all right because couples didn't have to do _everything_ together.

But running off in the middle of the night on a spree would make trouble. Crawford gave him recreation time during the day. Something about night made Farfarello more brutal and less controlled. He didn't choose his targets or dispose of the bodies as carefully.

The door wasn't locked from the outside.

He found himself standing beside the door, and slowly pushed it open. It swung open easily, almost soundlessly. He breathed the air of freedom and temptation.

The sound of familiar breathing made him turn around to see Aya standing there watching him, and he remembered that unlocked doors could have their own temptations for his puisín. Remembering the new bruises, he touched Aya's arm carefully. Aya had taken some glancing bullet shots, and while the kevlar of his coat had prevented penetration, the impacts had bruised him, not that he'd noticed until he'd removed the coat.

But even back in bed with his lover, the door continued to call, so Farfarello said, "Aya, fuck me." Perhaps the restlessness could be pounded out of him as his puisín filled and moved his body for him.

"Too tired," Aya murmured, and his body supported the claim, because it resisted his touch in ways it hadn't since the early days. Even when the kitten was in "convince me" mode, his body worked along with Farfarello's touches, gradually drawing in that prickly mind. Not now. Now it felt the way bodies did when Farfarello started to torture them.

Disturbing thought. He didn't want his puisín for that.

The door wasn't locked from the outside.

Aya made a soft, deep sound, a little rumbling, then grabbed his arm and started to stroke his wrist hard, right along the main suicide scar. Farfarello remembered how he'd felt as if his body were blooming red and raw that day as his blood had flowed out. Aya's steady, repetitive touches, unvarying, always along the same line, left him completely focused there, unable to think of anything aside from his wrist and the kitten.

Aya knew. Aya understood.

Farfarello purred. "Love you."

For one jarring moment the stroking stopped, leaving Farfarello even more unsettled, but then it resumed and everything became right again. Eventually he fell asleep.

******************************************************

Farfarello's hard, sinewy body had relaxed against him completely, while Aya just about vibrated with tension. He still couldn't believe what he'd heard.

Obsessed with you, maybe. Possessive toward you, no doubt. But love you? What would a homicidal maniac know about love?

What would a sin- and blood-stained assassin known as Fujimiya Aya know about love? Had he ever loved anyone aside from his sister? He didn't even love himself....

He hadn't even loved his sister enough.

"Love you"? This was even worse than earning a paycheck as a member of Schwarz.

Living in damnation wasn't going as planned.

Aya kept stroking the raised scar line on Farfarello's wrist, finding it obscurely comforting, and tried not to think. He'd successfully avoided thinking for days. But he was still thinking and obsessing as he finally fell into an exhausted sleep.

******************************************************

Omi stopped at his computer to see if any more information had come in on tonight's mission. Nothing. But did he have time to check out his new e-mail? Yeah. He opened one up to see a news report and a jpg of a burnt out apartment building. In Berlin. He sucked in a panicked breath. When the hell had this happened?

"Omi-kun, what's up?" Yoji asked from behind his chair.

"That's... one of the two buildings I'd narrowed my search for Schwarz and Aya down to."

"Yeah?" Ken asked.

"Yeah. It has to have been theirs."

"Why? It could still be the other place. Besides, fires happen everywhere," Yoji said, although Ken looked a bit haunted. Ken had his own painful experience as a victim of arson.

"This is it. I'm sure it is." Why didn't Yoji understand that the fire made it only _more_ likely that this had been Schwarz's home? Unless Yoji was just trying to calm him down.

"I'm sure they're alive," Ken said. "They survived everything we threw at them. You think a little fire will stop them? And if they're alive, so is Aya."

"I have to check this out!"

"In Berlin?"

Lately he'd been hacking cash from the bank accounts of "dark beasts" who wouldn't miss it and funneling it into an emergency fund, so they could go. He needed to score some plane tickets--

"What's going on?" Asato asked from the doorway, his sheathed sword in hand.

"Nothing," Yoji answered.

Asato, the new member Persia had shoved on them, was so much like Aya without actually being Aya that none of them could warm to him, which only made the naturally antisocial swordsman even more so, which only further enforced their inability to warm to him. Omi recognized it as a vicious circle that was unfair to Asato but couldn't bring himself to try too hard to change things, not when it would have felt like too much of a betrayal of the member Persia obviously wanted them to write off. Omi wanted the real Aya, not some cheap copy whose very presence reminded him of who was missing.

They also couldn't help wondering if Persia had put Asato, who had no loyalties to them, in as a Kritiker spy.

From the look in his hazel eyes, Asato obviously knew that they were hiding something from him. His mouth twisted. "Fine. But whatever it is better be done soon. We have to get going." He turned and left, making Omi feel a little guilty.

"You can't go to Berlin," Ken said once Asato left. "We have a mission."

Yoji put a comforting hand on Omi's shoulder and added, "Besides, it happened at, what, 10 o'clock our time? Then the news came to your Inbox at about noon. The fire itself happened ten hours ago."

"How many hours difference is there?" Ken asked. "I mean, time zones."

"They're seven hours behind us," Omi said. His search program, set to bring in anything in the news that concerned the targets he'd entered, had worked, but _he_ hadn't. Good as it might be to have something doing this for him automatically, the fact that he hadn't been here to act as soon as it came in lessened its effectiveness. "I should have--"

"Sensed that somebody had e-mailed you while you were at school?" Yoji asked. "And we were selling flowers outside. Ten hours ago, Omi. They're long gone, even now, and if I were them I would have gone into hiding. The plane ride would take even more time, and we don't have the authority to wander around a burnt-out wreck in a foreign country either."

Always that. No authority and not enough power. Omi had to fix that. How the hell could he get anything done when everybody had the power to say no to him? "I won't give up."

"I'm not saying you should. I'm just saying that we do our mission instead of jumping a plane to Europe when we don't have any idea where they'd go next."

They didn't understand! "Yoji, I just feel like he's slipping through our fingers. The longer it takes, the more certain I am that we'll never get him back."

Ken ruffled his hair. "We'll get him back. You don't give up. It's one of the things we love about you."

"And hate about you," Yoji said and dodged Omi's punch to his arm.

Omi went on the mission and tried not to feel like a traitor. Neither the mission nor his effort succeeded.


	21. Aya was wasted on Farfie. Schuldig wanted one all his own.

"Schuldig, wake up."

Comfy. Didn't wanna. "Mah."

"Schuldig."

Schuldig cracked one eyelid open to see Brad. Brad Crawford, bastard control freak. "What?"

"We're going out for breakfast."

Breakfast? Why would he give a damn about breakfast now? "Too early."

"It's the afternoon."

"Too early."

Then Schuldig started to remember all the shit that had gone down during the night, which woke him up more. Fuck, he'd have to hunt Farfarello down and-- He didn't? He did another telepathic check but still found Farfie lying asleep in the room they'd left him and Aya in. Farfie should have left a bloody swath through Berlin's clergy by now. His door wasn't locked.

"What the hell happened with Farfie?" Schuldig asked aloud.

"I want you to find out."

Shit. But-- "We're also going out for breakfast?"

"We don't have any food. If we want to eat...."

"Right." Then Schuldig remembered the shit about his bandannas and bared his teeth at their destroyer. Who gave Brad the right to fuck with his wardrobe?

Brad looked annoyed. "We'll also be shopping today."

Schuldig would not be that easy. Not at all. "Really."

"New things to own."

He wouldn't snap at the bait. Not yet. "I have to change."

"Wake up Aya and Farfarello too. Maybe they'll let something slip for you to read or see."

That made sense, and Schuldig was dying to know. "Whatever. You might want to mend your ways with me, Brad, unless you want to sleep with Nagi again tonight. Or maybe Nagi will decide to sleep with me...."

Brad shot him a world-weary look, then left. Schuldig glared at his departing back, then started to dress.

A little later, Schuldig opened the psychos' door and took a look. The morning light through the barred window painted parts of the room and one of Farfarello's hands in gray shadows and warm, light gold. One arm extended straight over Aya's chest, the rest of his body curled along Aya's side, Farfarello looked young and content, even with the scars and ruined eye. Aya slept but didn't seem to be getting any rest, since his face looked drawn and unhappy even now.

Why was Farfarello still here? He should have been gone. Right now Schuldig would be getting dressed to go find him in some church somewhere, knock him out, clean up the scene, and drag him back. Then they'd stick him in a straitjacket and hang him up somewhere until he came down from his high. This time, Brad would mock Nagi for suggesting that the door could be unlocked, Nagi would get pissed off, and a few things would fly around and break. That was the shitty morning Schuldig had expected to have. He'd mentally prepared for it. Farfarello shouldn't be lying in a bed looking snuggly; it went against nature.

Hell, it still shocked Schuldig to see Farfie lying in a bed instead of on the floor.

Schuldig started to understand why Brad had been freaking out lately.

Farfarello woke up. "What do you want?"

"We're going out to breakfast, then shopping, so up and at 'em."

"Go without us. Aya is exhausted."

Farfie crouched over the sleeping kitten protectively, just about snarling that Schuldig would dare to think of waking him. Something big had happened last night. Trying to read him just brought up something about a door, his wrist, and Aya. Aya stroking Farfie's wrist. It had to mean something more, but Schuldig couldn't tap it.

"Brad wants us all to go, pronto. You both just get dressed and go. Actually, you should gather together any gear you two have that needs to be cleaned by a professional too. Might as well be efficient."

Aya murmured, then opened his eyes. For a moment he felt peace, then he remembered something, and his mind swirled with a new chaos. Schuldig couldn't make anything out of the tangle except that Aya felt like someone had swept his feet out from under him. Farfie alone felt contented and secure.

"Aya--" Schuldig started.

"Dressed, gear, breakfast, shopping. I got it."

"You didn't leave your bank book at the apartment, did you?"

Aya shot him a sour look. "No."

"Puisín, we don't have to go if you're too tired."

Something in Aya's mind spiked, then calmed. "No, I'm hungry." Apparently, he found the idea of staying behind with Farfie to be a bad thing.

Interesting. Schuldig would have to watch Aya carefully. Not that he found that to be a chore. "You don't have time for a bath or shower. We're going straight out."

"Schuldig, leave," Farfarello said. "We don't get dressed as a show for you."

"You used to."

Farfie suddenly had one of his knives in hand. "Leave."

"Fine. Going. See you soon."

In the living room, Nagi sat at his computer, staring at the screen. Schuldig could feel the difference in the kid's telepathy, as if it had been buried for years but was starting to be unearthed now. It called to him.... "Nagi--"

"No. Fuck off," he answered without turning around.

"Somebody has to help you."

"Fuck off. I'm fine on my own."

"No, you're not. You can't possibly train yourself on your own."

"Schuldig, you of all people should know what 'fuck off' means."

"What do you have against telepaths, anyway?" When Nagi turned around and shot him a "What are you, stupid? Oh, yeah" look, Schuldig continued, "All right, the assholes of Eszett and Rosenkreuz--"

"And you."

"--sucked, but you have another weapon here and it would be stupid not to learn to use it, especially since it helped save our lives last night."

"Do you really want to know why I don't want you to train me?" Nagi looked almost malevolent. "It's because I don't trust you. I don't trust you not to deliberately mistrain me to make sure I can never reach your level. I don't trust you not to bury suggestions in my mind that you could take advantage of."

"You know an awful lot about the kind of shit Eszett does to its telepaths." Far too much. Had they fucked Nagi's nascent telepathy over so badly that they'd crippled it?

Nagi simply stared back at him without answering. The kid was becoming less and less of a kid by the day, he was a powerful telekinetic, and he'd never been anything less than strong-willed, even if he'd put the iron fist of his will inside a velvet glove of quiet pseudo-accommodation. Since joining Schwarz, he'd always done what he'd wanted, whether he had to manipulate Brad or go behind his back. Fortunately, his goals had coincided with the team's most of the time. He let them command him to use his telepathy and empathy on occasion but only under duress and only for small things, parlor tricks.

For whatever reason, Aya's presence among them had led to Nagi pushing himself harder, fanning the smoldering ashes of that talent, and Nagi didn't seem to be entirely conscious of it. Was that the answer, the way to make him develop himself?

"Then I won't train you," Schuldig said.

Nagi looked hilariously surprised. "What?"

"I won't train you. I don't have the time and patience to work with someone who would be fighting me all the way. You can train yourself."

"All right." Nagi turned back to his computer, but Schuldig noticed him trying to unobtrusively watch him. Paranoia could be so much fun to play with. Unfortunately, Schuldig only had three minutes to enjoy it, because the others arrived.

"You'll all be on your best behavior," Brad said. "And I'll be paying for breakfast." He turned and walked toward the door, completely confident that they'd follow.

Schuldig smirked. "Enjoy this breakfast, Aya, because this is as close to an apology as we're going to get."

Aya didn't enjoy the breakfast--being too involved in his freakout mode to enjoy anything, though not in a way Schuldig could actually get details out of--but no one else aside from Farfarello seemed to enjoy it either. They ate silently, almost mechanically, and Schuldig knew he wasn't alone in feeling watched. It had to be paranoia caused by last night's home invasion, but the feeling didn't create a jolly atmosphere. He was glad when breakfast was over.

As they left the café, Brad said, "Schuldig, get us new suits. Aya will need a fitting."

Yes, _sir_. "Why me?"

"I'll be taking Farfarello out to get new gear."

"I won't wear the choke collar and leash," Farfarello said.

"You will if you want more toys. They wouldn't demand a leash on you if you hadn't misbehaved so badly that time."

"That was years ago."

"You killed three customers. They don't forget that. Nagi, you're with us."

"No," Nagi said. "I'll do fine on my own. I'll come back to the apartment when I'm done." Then he started to walk away.

Brad considered calling him back but, to Schuldig's surprise, decided it wasn't worth it. Was Daddy learning to let go a little? Brad seemed to have some awareness that he needed to change some things. Who knew how long that would last?

Aya didn't react through any of it, being too lost inside his own head, which Schuldig still couldn't read very well, dammit. "Looks like it's you and me, Aya," Schuldig said with a smile.

Farfie's emotions spiked. "Like hell."

"What, don't you trust Aya?"

Aya seemed to wake up a little. "You're playing a dangerous game, Schuldig." He didn't seem to mind being apart from Farfie for the day, though.

"My favorite kind."

Farfarello spun a knife in his hand, but Brad grabbed it away. "Farfarello will go with me. Aya will go with Schuldig. You'll all shut up. That is how things will happen."

"Did you _see_ that?" Schuldig had to ask.

"Get in the fucking car."

Oooh, Brad. Schuldig took the shotgun seat, while Snow-white and Rose-red took the backseat, as usual. Brad tossed a bag back to Farfarello, who picked it up with distaste and pulled out the chain choke collar and leash. Schuldig could read that Farfie didn't mind them, really, but hated having Brad be the one to hold his leash. He brought out the hooded jacket next, which he hated for the way the hood further cut off his vision. Brandt and Neuber didn't want people walking in who obviously looked like hardcases, so Farfie, with his scars and eyepatch, had to be made less conspicuous. It was a pain in the ass, but B&amp;N's merchandise was worth the trouble.

They left their gear at their favorite cleaner, then Brad dropped Schuldig and Aya off at Bargeld's shop, saying that he'd be back when they were done shopping. Sometimes Schuldig really hated precogs. They could be so damned smug. In the meantime, he could enjoy the opportunity to pick at Aya.

"You need more suits already?" Bargeld asked as they walked in. "Not that I'm complaining."

"It's all the hard living we do. We all need more, while Aya here needs to have his measurements taken."

"What do I need a suit for?" Aya asked.

"Some clients think it's classy, while Americans have this whole Tarantino fetish thing about assassins wearing suits. Go figure." Schuldig pushed him toward Bargeld. Aya snarled at him.

Watching Bargeld take Aya's measurements had to be the most entertaining thing he'd seen here since watching Bargeld taking Farfie's. Looking uncomfortable under the necessary touches and scrutiny, Aya twitched about as often as his psycho lover had. He was obviously trying so hard not to blow up at Bargeld but seemed to be losing the fight. Schuldig made the situation even better by making comments about how Aya should spread his legs more. To his disappointment, Aya made it through the measurements and fitting without exploding.

After that, they went shopping for more regular clothing, though their idea of "regular" was a bit trashier and more fetishy than most folks'. Schuldig gleefully observed Aya's annoyance at being unable to purchase anything that could have replaced his old dowdy sweaters. If you had a body like Aya's, why hide it? Out of a sense of altruism, Schuldig guided him toward things that had laces, straps, buckles, and zippers. Aya liked a lot of that stuff anyway, as evidenced by all the working zippers on his current black shirt.

Still, Aya was too lost in thought to get as all-out annoyed as Schuldig wanted him to, and he still couldn't be read. Aggravated, Schuldig stood behind him as he went through clothing racks and said, "I'm going to take you to a far corner and fuck you." He still didn't react. "No, I'm gonna do it right here, in front of everyone, and I'm gonna shove my cock so far up your ass that you'll feel it at the back of your throat." Aya didn't seem to hear him, although the other patrons had started to stare. "I'll make you beg for it." If Aya had been listening, that would have been a sure-fire prelude to a fight. Aya obviously wasn't listening. Schuldig reached for Aya's ass... and only his super-human speed prevented Aya from breaking his wrist. "_That_ gets your attention. It says a lot about you."

"What the fuck are you doing?" Aya growled.

"Trying to get your attention. What crawled up your ass and died?"

"Can't you just rip it out of my mind?"

No, dammit, and no one should be allowed to be impenetrable and keep him out. "Yeah, but fishing is more fun. Did Farfie threaten to castrate you? Nah, that would be counter-productive." What would really bother Aya? Schuldig laughed. "Did he tell you he loved you?" That scored a flinch, although not one that someone who hadn't studied Aya would notice. "Well, shit. So, are you ashamed that you're with Farfie? Scared of the declaration? Not sure how you feel back but certain you don't deserve to be loved by anyone?" Flinch, flinch, flinch, flinch. "All of the above? Aya, I love you."

"Not you too," Aya answered sourly.

What fun! Aya was wasted on Farfie. Schuldig wanted one all his own. Maybe he should work harder at getting _this_ one.... "So he did the chick thing of telling you he loved you. Not that you should have needed to hear it from him, since anyone with at least one eye could see it. It's not like you have to say 'I love you' back. Farfie probably figures you love him just from how you kill with him and let him fuck you five times every night."

"It's not five times, and it's not like he always fucks me."

"Yeah, being the bottom five times a night would be rough and lead to needing a doctor. Gets boring too. _Do_ you love him? You can't really deny that you lust after him, at least not without making me crack up."

Further shaken up by the conversation, Aya could be read a bit now, and his thoughts showed that he didn't know what he felt. The not knowing and the thoughts surrounding that not knowing felt like a big cold spot or the undertow of a dark ocean. He'd carefully avoided thinking about his own feelings, since what he felt didn't matter. At least, he told himself it didn't.

The very fact that Aya's mind hadn't thrown up an instant, emphatic "no" spoke volumes.

They had him, hooked in. He belonged to Schwarz. It amused the hell out of Schuldig that he'd bonded so quickly with Schwarz despite everything they'd done to him when he still hadn't bonded with Weiß after _years_. Brad's feeling and Farfie's obsessive fixations had steered them well this time. They just had to make sure they kept him. If Eszett tried to use the word, Schuldig wanted Aya to be there to ram it down their throats. Still, he didn't want to take any chances, so he had to bind Aya into the team as much as possible.

It needed some thought.

"I can't respect you if you're wearing that," Aya said.

Schuldig looked at the jaunty black hat he'd picked up while he was thinking. He liked it. "You don't respect me now."

"I'll respect you even less."

"Somehow, I can believe that of you."

"Plus, I'll be laughing at you."

He would too, the bastard. "All right, no hat."

"I can't believe you enjoy this."

"This?"

"Shopping."

"It's the hunt and the kill. All the new _things_ to own...."

"What part of Germany are you from?"

"A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. East Germany." Schuldig grinned. How cute to see Aya taking an interest in his teammates. "You know, I don't even care much if I keep the stuff. It's the getting it that I love."

"Suddenly a lot of things make more sense."

"You sure you wanna start thinking you understand me?"

Aya narrowed his eyes. _So_ fucking cute. Schuldig hoped Farfie appreciated how much self-restraint he was showing in not trying to rewire Aya just a tad, just enough to make him more receptive to devastatingly sexy German redheads. Instead, Schuldig tried to do it through the old-fashioned and not as automatically effective method of ceaseless flirting. Farfarello had no idea what Schuldig was giving up here for the sake of peace within the team....


	22. He had no word for what he felt now, but he sure as hell felt *something*.

Schuldig seemed annoyed when Crawford showed up with the car at almost exactly the moment they left the last store on their itinerary. Aya had noticed that something had strained their relationship, perhaps last night's fight over their too lengthy stay at the last apartment. It made him happy to see them at odds, since they did him more damage as a unified front.

Aya sat in the back of the car with his bags and Farfarello, who sat next to Aya with his arms crossed and his head hidden within the hood of the black jacket. Sometimes Aya could see his lips, which were pursed in a sulk. Crawford said, "Farfarello was fairly well-behaved today. I only had to choke him twice."

Aya found himself feeling annoyed by Crawford's so casual statement and stared out the window to better collect himself. He felt rough fingertips but a gentle touch dance across the top of his left hand on his thigh then slide up to the zipper on his sleeve, making him glance toward Farfarello, who was unzipping it, with only the smiling lower part of his face visible within the shadows of the hood. Aya glanced away again and shuddered when Farfarello stroked the still sensitive scars that went up his left arm. As he rubbed his head against the cool glass in reaction, he heard Farfarello murmur, "First consummation...."

What did he feel? Physical pleasure and lust were easy to recognize. But what did he _feel_?

Loved him, Farfarello had said. Surely Farfarello loved him the way a fickle child loved a new toy. Still....

"Why? Why do you?" Aya asked.

"Not here."

Even without being able to see Farfarello's eye, Aya knew that his gaze had shifted to Crawford and Schuldig up front. Privacy might only be an illusion in Schwarz, but illusions had their importance. At the very least, they could make things more difficult for the eavesdroppers.

So they waited, even though the tension between them crackled. Farfarello kept a hand around Aya's wrist, while Aya took deep breaths and tried to center himself well enough to be able to say nothing until they reached their room.

Once they reached the new apartment, Schuldig had a big smile on his face as Aya and Farfarello walked to their room, and Aya had to fight hard to avoid turning around and trying to wipe the smirk off by force. Aya slammed the door shut, put his bags down, and asked again, "Why?"

"Why? I like to look at you and listen to your voice. I love to touch you and fuck you and play with you. You're mine. And you're coming to know me." Farfarello put down the hood and unzipped the jacket to reveal that he'd looped the leash over the choke collar around his neck. He unwound the leash until only the chain collar remained against his throat, then he held out the end of the leash to Aya.

It stole Aya's breath away. "I could kill you with that." Not so long ago, he would have, without a second's hesitation.

The leather looked soft.

Farfarello had dark bruises around his neck under the chain collar. "Maybe."

Aya was in over his head and drowning. "You don't care?"

"You won't kill me." He moved closer, his eye bright. "I need you to take away the feel of that fucker Crawford holding the end of my leash. I want to connect to you." Farfarello put the end of the leash in Aya's hand and closed his fingers around it, reminding him of how he used to close his sister's hand around her earring. The leash did feel soft and supple, expensive. "I like your scars...." He tapped Aya's earring. "I enjoy your hands and your mouth and your cock...." He pressed himself against the body parts he addressed, rocking and kissing. Aya closed his eyes, wound the leash around his hand, and shuddered himself when he'd pulled it tight enough to make Farfarello gasp and shudder in appreciation. "I need you...."

Words had consistently failed Aya, being too often too small or wrong. As much as he hated it, his reality had always been defined by the things he felt or didn't allow himself to feel. He had no word for what he felt now, but he sure as hell felt _something_.

******************************************************

Crawford turned. "Schuldig, what is going on with--"

His telepath had disappeared. Usually he could at least count on Schuldig staying around for the convenient sex. Somebody must have been very upset with him.

Usually a little flattery or some small sign of appreciation worked wonders. He hadn't pissed Schuldig off this badly for a long time.

Of course, not so long ago Eszett could make Schuldig return by force, groveling to be forgiven for dissenting. Crawford missed some things about their old association with Eszett.

He hated the unexpected. He hated change.

Doubting that he'd get anything useful out of Aya or Farfarello for some time to come, Crawford decided to work on his investment folder and wait for his team to get their heads on straight.

******************************************************

Nagi felt the wave of sex hit his brain in the middle of trying a shirt on. At least he was in a stall so nobody could watch him stumble around from the surprise and his blood flow reroute itself south. Earlier he'd felt someone stroking his wrist.... He concentrated on blocking it all out. If his telepathy kept getting stronger like this, he _had_ to learn to strengthen his shields accordingly. He just doubted that Schuldig would be helpful.

Why did he have to be a telepath? He didn't want to know anything about other people.

Schuldig was talking up a woman somewhere. It looked like Crawford had really pissed him off. If necessary, tonight Nagi would throw Schuldig out of his bed. It was _his_ bed.

And Crawford was a restless sleeper. Who knew?

Aside from Schuldig.

After closing the last buckle, Nagi decided that he liked this shirt too. It made him look older, sophisticated, and a little taller. He even liked the way the fabric felt.

He hadn't set out to entirely revamp his look, but he'd found a beautiful black leather jacket that was so soft that it deserved to be petted as well as worn. In instant lust with it, he'd at first put it back because it wouldn't have matched anything he owned. But then he realized that since last night he didn't really own much of anything anymore. Thus, he'd set out to buy a wardrobe that matched his new jacket. He swore he would never wear light colors or that damned school uniform again. He hadn't even been in a formal school in ages.

Crawford would die of apoplexy at the sight of him.

Good.

Of course, introducing it would take some strategy. If he showed up at breakfast dressed up for the first time, he'd be the center of attention and discussion, which he'd hate. Instead, he changed in a narrow alley--who the fuck would mess with him?--and went on his way. He'd walk into the apartment like this and casually go about his business instead of being subjected to all of Schwarz reacting to him at once.

He decided to eat first and immediately observed an advantage of his new style, because he didn't get any attitude from the host or waiter. Everybody usually assumed he was too young to pay for himself.

It didn't stop people from staring at him, though. At least when he went out with Schwarz, people stared at _them_.

Actually, the waiter was behaving oddly, talking to him too much and too often. Nagi sighed, answered in monosyllables when necessary, and ate faster. He hated people. When the waiter was called away to do his job elsewhere, Nagi took advantage and slipped away to pay his bill.

Then some girl tried really hard to bump into him on the street, because she moved with him every time he tried to dodge. What was wrong with people? He "accidentally" hit her with the bag containing his belt and leather jacket and left while she was trying to regain her bearings.

By contrast, the apartment felt like sanctuary. Even better, he only had to face two members of Schwarz right now. Farfarello sat on the couch sharpening his knives, while Aya sat on the floor and read a book. Nagi smirked as Farfarello sometimes set his knives aside so he could try to unzip the zippers on Aya's shirt or pet his hair and Aya fended him off. Their hands quickly and violently danced in near slaps or near punches.

Aya looked up, noticed Nagi, and said hello. Farfarello took advantage of the chance to mess with a zipper.

Aya glanced at Farfarello and said, "Stop that."

Farfarello toyed with it, zipping and unzipping. "Why else would you wear these things if not for me to play with?" His voice sounded rougher than usual.

"I like them."

"I like them too. So must Nagi, since he's wearing some."

"You look good, Nagi," Aya said.

Nagi smiled. Maybe not all people sucked. "Thanks. Hey, is that a napkin you have in your book?"

"It works well enough."

"Nietzsche?" _Beyond Good and Evil_? Hardly light reading.

Aya glanced up at Farfarello again, who said, "God is dead," then went back to sharpening his knives. Nagi realized that Farfarello had a ring of bruises around his neck. When Aya noticed Nagi noticing, he briefly blushed. Nagi decided not to ask, especially not after he'd put so much effort into blocking it out. He didn't want to know how good a lay Farfarello was.

Shit. He already did, just from a few hours earlier.

******************************************************

Why did Nagi have to notice the bruises? Why did he have to obviously react to Nagi noticing the bruises? Farfarello chuckled and ruffled his hair. "Cute kitten."

Using the collar on Farfarello had affected Aya in ways he hadn't anticipated, because he'd enjoyed it almost as much as Farfarello had. Which made him depraved. Again. But his depravity didn't shock him as much as it used to.

He still didn't know what he felt, though.

Suddenly Schuldig came out of what seemed like nowhere and swooped down on Nagi. "Nagi!" Schuldig put his arms around Nagi and pulled him back against his chest. "I hate those new clothes," he purred. "Get out of them this instant."

Nagi dropped his bags and jumped within Schuldig's grip. "Hands off!"

"You sure you want me to?" Schuldig stroked down the front of his pants.

"Uh, damn...."

"Doesn't sound like a 'no' to me."

Aya debated getting involved to put a stop to it. Nagi looked a bit overwhelmed, and Schuldig was laying it on thick, no longer flirting half-jokingly or keeping his hands to himself. He'd never been so aggressive with the boy before. As good as the new clothing looked, they didn't provide an excuse for this kind of behavior.

"Schuldig." Crawford's voice sounded hard and cold.

Schuldig stiffened, then moved his hands, turning groping into a loose hug and hair ruffling. As if Crawford wouldn't know better. Aya watched Crawford's gaze take in Schuldig, Nagi's new outfit, and Farfarello's neck before they rested on him and narrowed. He wasn't taking the blame for any of this.

Nagi broke free of Schuldig's grip, held out his arms to better display himself, bowed, then picked his bags up and went to his room, carefully avoiding Crawford as he passed him. Crawford's mouth twisted, then he walked out of the apartment with a quick, furious gait.

"What is he, the fucking fashion police?" Schuldig asked. "Going off sulking.... I'll bring him back. But before I go...." He looked at Aya and sent, ~ I fucked Farfie after his last visit to Brandt and Neuber, ~ directly into Aya's brain.

What was Schuldig trying to prove? Not that Aya cared. "So? And get the fuck out of my head!"

~ He took the collar off before he would let me touch him. ~ Schuldig left in a hurry.

Of course Farfarello took the collar off before going to Schuldig, being masochistic but not suicidal. Willingly giving Schuldig power over you would be a mistake, because he felt compelled to use and abuse it.

"They're all crazy," Farfarello said.

"I have to agree. And Schuldig's playing some kind of game."

"He always is."

Schwarz would be useless to Aya if the team imploded. Maybe he should try to defuse the situation. Somehow. He'd have to work on Crawford....

******************************************************

As Crawford walked briskly down the street, he glared at passersby. He was very angry with Aya and Schuldig and Nagi... and himself. He had better control than this, yet he'd gone into such a rage that he'd been forced to leave before he did something stupid or irrevocable. His own talent had shown him several terrible possibilities. Given the sheer destructive power of the people in the room, any one of them blowing up for real would lead to tragedy.

Suddenly, Schuldig stood in front of him. "Brad." Damned speed. Schuldig swept his orange hair out of his eyes, since he no longer had a bandanna to hold it back.

It made Crawford angrier, so he snapped, "Let me guess: You were grooming him."

"You can be an ass after I give my speech."

Crawford stopped walking, since Schuldig would only keep up with him anyway. "What speech?"

"I was thinking. Yes, I do that. I was so fucking angry with you last night and when I woke up. Then I was still angry with you while I was shopping, and I got even more angry with you when you showed up."

"Is this going somewhere?"

"I realized that nobody was gonna force me to stop being angry with you and apologize. I could be pissed off at you for-fucking-ever if I wanted to be. I could leave Schwarz, and nothing short of you hunting me down and dragging me back could get me back. There's no Eszett to put me in the Box and make me grovel at your feet."

The Box? Crawford guessed what that might be from context. But he had more important issues to address. "Are you trying to tell me that you _never_ came back on your own?"

"It started to become a game. How long could I be pissed off and stay away before a cleaner crew came to get me?"

It challenged all of his perceptions of his telepath. If not for Eszett, he might have lost Schuldig years ago? "Thanks."

"You rarely apologize, Brad. Frankly, you can be a stiff-necked ass. I like to be right too, you know, but I'm not as fucking pathological about it. Anyway, Eszett forcing me made it possible for me to come back to the team without compromising my pride, because I had no choice. Now it has to be my decision."

Crawford actually started to see the point buried in there. "It's scary, isn't it?"

"A bit. Cool too."

"You're going to tell me that this isn't Aya's fault, because our departure from Eszett would have caused a change in standard operating procedure anyway."

"Of course I am. It's just that without Aya you wouldn't have a scapegoat."

It wasn't that easy. "If we didn't have Aya with us, Nagi wouldn't be dressing a lot like him or falling in love with him."

Schuldig stopped for a moment, then grinned. "You do notice things."

Much as he wished he didn't have to see some of them. "Damned right."

"Nagi's growing up. It's another source of change. And what a grown-up he's turning out to be. Fuck, I want a piece." He smirked. "Stop fuming and smell the hottie, Brad."

Crawford remembered the stranger being molested within the tight grip of Schuldig's arms. It had taken him a full minute to recognize his telekinetic. "It's Nagi."

"It's hot. So, you gonna apologize to me about me having to fight naked because you had us stay in the apartment too long and about my bandannas, or do I have to do the supreme sacrifice of sleeping with Nagi? You know, since I don't have a bed of my own. It's your own fault for being so cheap that you had us sleep together to save on apartment space."

That wasn't the only reason he'd done that.

"Yeah? Then tell me so," Schuldig answered.

"You don't normally read me so well."

"It's easier when you're angry."

"Which is why you work so hard at pissing me off?" Score one to the American.

Schuldig didn't look happy at having one of his tricks noticed. "Don't get too comfortable."

Crawford couldn't help smiling. "I won't."

"You won't apologize, will you? Fine. I'll be the better man--get that look off your face--and give first, because I can't shove it to Eszett without you guys. I won't forgive your highhanded routine, but I'll put up with as much as I can to achieve my goal."

Crawford decided to give a little to get more. He hadn't slept well last night with the wrong person in his bed. "Schu. I was wrong to burn your bandannas."

"You fucking _burned_ them?" Then he laughed a little. "Must be some kind of karmic thing, since the rest went up in flames too."

"I'm also retooling our strategy. You'll hear about it tonight when I call us together for a meeting."

"That's good. I won't jump Nagi's maturing ass after all."

Schuldig stood close enough now that Crawford could smell lingering traces of perfume and an unfamiliar cologne on him. "You jumped a woman and a man?"

Schuldig smirked. "If you'd felt what Aya and Farfie were up to, you'd need more than one person to satisfy you too. Fuck, they were cooking. Oh, Brad, was that a twinge of possessiveness and jealousy you just felt?"

Crawford sighed, but Schuldig seemed to be happier now. "Don't get too comfortable."

"It's a whole new era here. Freedom. Let's enjoy it."

"Did you find out why Farfarello was still in his room this morning?"

Schuldig grinned. "Best I can tell, Aya did some repetitive stroking that distracted Farfie from his compulsion to go out and kill. Farfie told Aya he loved him. Aya freaked, but didn't spurn him."

The news surprised him into asking, "No shit?"

His telepath laughed. "No shit."

A new era, indeed. If they didn't have to lock Farfarello up or hunt him down, they had more options. Crawford could see new plans taking shape.

******************************************************

While deep in the German branch of Eszett's database, Nagi felt someone walk past his open door, then stop, walk in, and stand behind his chair. Aya. Aya said nothing but waited for him to be done. Nagi figured he knew what this was about, so he took his time in the database before finishing up and sneaking out of it. Once done, he turned away from his laptop and asked, "What?"

Aya looked directly at the school uniform Nagi wore and said, "I figure that you're wearing that because it's comfortable, and this isn't some retreat back to childhood."

"It's none of your business, and what do you care?" It annoyed him and did weird things to his stomach that Aya cared what he wore and why.

"You looked good."

"I'm not going to talk about this."

Aya sat on Nagi's bed, obviously intending to stay and talk about it. "You looked _good_. Attractive without being flashy... or Schuldig-like."

"Not flashy? I attracted too much attention."

"Schuldig is a bit much."

"I became prey to him. I mean, he doesn't care about the age of his victims, but he had some kind of hands off policy on me that suddenly didn't apply anymore."

"He's come on to you before."

"He talks. He always talks. He'd explode into tiny pieces if he didn't. He never just grabbed while talking." His reaction to the grabbing had disturbed the hell out of him. Schuldig hadn't even used any telepathy on him, just _touched_ him, and his will to resist had disappeared.

"Tell him no and make it stick if that's what you want. I do, and I'm not an alpha class telekinetic. If he didn't flirt, he'd die."

Nagi got a mental image off that one that made him smile, then asked, "It's already too late, isn't it?"

"It was too late the moment Schuldig saw you. Crawford seeing you just added fuel to the fire. Nagi, you won't stop getting older, and eventually they'd notice no matter what you did with your clothes or hair. Even Crawford."

True. Very true. "I'll stop hiding, since it won't do any good anyway."

"Good."

"Fujimiya-sensei, did you just give me a pep talk?"

He looked almost embarrassed. "No."

It was so cute! "Yes, you did! If I didn't mind calling attention to myself, I'd tell all the others so they could point at you and mock you."

"You're such a charming group of people."

"We're assassins and anarchists, _evil_, not a social club." Nagi couldn't quite look Aya in the eyes, but he touched Aya's wrist. "Thanks. You know."

Aya looked bemused, then put his hand over Nagi's. It felt warm and strong. "You would have seen it yourself soon enough. Especially once Schuldig started whining that you won't let him see you in your new clothes."

Nagi didn't understand why Aya cared lately. He hadn't even seemed to care much about _Weiß_. When it had first shown up Nagi had passed it off as a weird, initial reaction to being fucked by Farfarello--people often had weird reactions to being fucked by Farfarello--yet Aya hadn't stopped caring after settling into that bizarre relationship. Was this who he really was, or had becoming involved with a sociopath somehow given him back his humanity?

The why didn't really matter to Nagi, as long as the thoughtfulness continued, which was why he wouldn't ask him about it. Why ruin a good thing by making him feel self-conscious about it? He might stop.

"I'll change back."

"Good." Aya stood and left the room. Nagi smiled and started to put his earlier outfit back on. It fit better than his old uniform anyway.


	23. They all had their own ideas of fun.

Crawford returned to the apartment with Schuldig and groceries, having spent a peaceful and amusingly domestic time out with him. As they put things away in the kitchen, Aya approached. "Crawford, do you have some time? I have something important to tell you about last night."

Approving of Aya's respectful manner, Crawford turned to face him. "Yes. Go on."

"I tried the word on the telepath, but it didn't work. He said that Eszett knew that we'd gotten to Amann, so they'd deprogrammed the word out of the minions they sent against us."

Interesting. "That's good to know. Thank you."

Aya lowered his eyes. "In the heat of the moment, I didn't think about trying to get the counterword out of him. I just fought him and killed him. It didn't occur to me until today."

Something about this admission and moment made Crawford feel that Aya was swearing fealty and showing deference to his leader. Warmed, Crawford said, "You did as well as any of us would have in that situation. Perhaps better. Few non-talents can so thoroughly incapacitate a predatory telepath, so I have no complaints about your performance last night. In any case, Eszett sees its talents as tools, not partners, so I doubt that he would have known the counterword anyway." It was nothing but the truth.

Aya nodded, looking formal and respectful and a little surprised. Crawford _had_ been too quick to blame him for the inevitable shifts in his team's behavior. Aya had alerted them to the invaders and taken out their most dangerous opponent of the night. He might be the thing they needed to destroy Eszett. Alienating him helped only Eszett.

"Aya, we have a debriefing to do. I want to inform you all of my plans. Please call the others together to meet in the living room."

Aya nodded again and left to do his bidding. Professional.

"Now that's the smart, calculating Brad Crawford I know and get fucked into next week by," Schuldig murmured.

"Does that mean I won't have to worry about Nagi slipping into my bed tonight?"

"I wouldn't _worry_ about that."

"Schuldig."

"He won't need to find another bed to sleep in," Schuldig purred.

A new era with new rules. Inflexibility had been costly, and Crawford didn't believe in repeating mistakes.

Farfarello sat on the couch's arm. Nagi, still looking like a darkly attractive stranger, sat on the couch and gave Crawford a wary look. Aya stood, leaning against the wall, until Farfarello sighed, grabbed his arm, and pressed him into a seat on the couch. The standing in the background had no doubt been an old habit from his days with Weiß, so Crawford approved Farfarello's move to put him in with the team. Schuldig must have been an accommodating mood, because he didn't sit too close to Nagi. They were actually behaving themselves.

Crawford looked at them and made sure to see them as they were now, not as they had been. Nagi had recently taken the initiative in smoothing over interpersonal team relations the way he always had in his computer work. If Schuldig could be believed, the boy was being less secretive lately. Schuldig had become more helpful, thinking more about the good of the team and less about his personal gratification and whims. Farfarello might not be sane, but he'd been having more good days lately and was better focusing and controlling his violence and compulsions. His plan to convert Aya had been perceptive and long-term--two adjectives seldom used for anything relating to the team berserker--and he'd been masterful in its execution. Aya's presence amongst them had forced them to become a more unified front, and Aya himself might be the key to their plans against Eszett. He was fitting in better with Schwarz than anyone could have expected.

Crawford stood before them and said, "My error that led to last night's events will never be repeated again." He hated to admit to mistakes, but this one had been too obvious. "With that in mind, I'm changing our operating procedure. From now on, we won't stay in one place for as long as we did. Being more mobile and unpredictable makes us more dangerous." It would help confuse Eszett's precogs. If Farfarello didn't need to be locked in at night anymore, prepping apartments and taking down their renovations before they left for new ones would be much faster. The locks on Farfarello and Aya's door might have bought them some time against the assassin squad, but they were a pain in the ass too. He'd see if Aya could keep Farfarello in for a second night. "We'll be more unpredictable in our targets as well, striking in and around Berlin as we choose, refusing to create a pattern but working in a general area that will draw more operatives away from other operations to try to get to us here. We'll slaughter them. We already destroyed Eszett's heads, but the body was still able to function. This time we go after everyone. I want all of Eszett's minions to see the price of working for the organization and decide it's too high. Nagi's work has shown us a wealth of possible targets to hit."

Nagi looked surprised and pleased by the acknowledgement. Good. Crawford didn't have Eszett's threats to keep the team together anymore, so his people needed other incentives to ensure their loyalty. Besides, the boy deserved compliments for his work.

Crawford continued, "I've seen all of you taking on new roles and responsibilities lately. I want you to know that I think your work there has been as exemplary as the rest." He nearly smiled at their blatant surprise. "Our next mission is tomorrow. Thank you." As he left the room, he heard someone following him. Since he knew who it was, he smiled.

Schuldig closed the bedroom door behind him. "You hate change," he said.

Crawford smiled. He loved to surprise Schuldig. "I'm working to change Eszett forever. I claim to be an anarchist. How can I hate change?"

Schuldig smiled back, radiating sex. "Tricky son of a bitch."

"Thank you." Crawford pushed Schuldig back against the door with his body, and Schuldig responded by kissing him hungrily, turned on as ever by a show of mastery and power.

There wouldn't be any more mistakes. Too much was on the line.

******************************************************

Farfarello understood God's plan now, and it was insidious. God wanted him to go out the door and fall to the blissful slaughter. Some people might not believe that God would _want_ someone to butcher His sheep and minions, but God butchered them Himself all the time, so why would He care about that? No, God wanted Farfarello to leave and show himself to be faithless and a slave to his urges. A little illicit freedom now would cost him and his puisín freedom later. God tempted him with that unlocked door.

It hurt to resist. Farfarello knew that such fun waited outside for him, so much blood and pain. Evil God to dangle what a man wanted in front of him and make it wrong. Evil, clever God to distract a man with that so he couldn't follow through on the things he _actually_ wanted most.

Farfarello turned away from the door and returned to bed. Once there, he traced his puisín's ribs, enjoying how they felt so hard under the sleek skin. The ribcage was nature's armor for the heart and lungs, and, like anything created by God, it wasn't impervious to damage.

"What are you doing?" Aya asked.

He felt tempted to answer, "Contemplating your heart and how it belongs to me," but he felt God's malign hand there too. It might be true, and Farfarello might be contemplating how wonderful Aya's heart would feel in his hand, hot and wet and vital, but he didn't need to say everything that came into his head, especially since Aya didn't share his ideas of romance. He knew that this would be another case of having to weigh a brief pleasure against greater returns in the future, because he would only be able to enjoy the kitten that way once, and then there would be no more kitten at all.

Ah, but the fight Aya would put up....

No, the only way he would be able to feel Aya's heart would be if Aya fell before he did in battle, and Farfarello didn't want that.

"I'm distracting myself from the door," Farfarello answered, rubbing his fingers along the dips between Aya's ribs.

Even in the near darkness, Farfarello could see Aya looking skeptical, and that skepticism made Farfarello happy. He liked it that Aya would fight him if he tried to do something dangerous to the kitten, because he didn't always trust himself.

"Are you succeeding?"

"Not really."

Aya sighed, then rolled on top of him. "Do you need help?" His puisín was half-hard.

Only a fool would refuse such an offer. "I could use some help."

He rolled Aya onto his back, then slid down to thoroughly lick and wet his cock, concentrating more on making it slick instead of making him come. Farfarello knew what he wanted to do, and he knew that Aya wouldn't do it without some form of lubrication, preferring a smoother ride. His puisín surged against him and made such lovely gasping sounds, while he thoroughly distracted himself with the scent and taste of hot kitten flesh, all his.

Enough foreplay. He wanted to connect with his puisín again, jerking his cock as he remembered Aya pounding into him earlier today, hard and fast, while pulling the leash taut and collar tight. Giving the head of Aya's cock one last lingering lick, Farfarello pulled away, enjoying the sound of protest his puisín made, then positioned and impaled himself, crying out in victory and pleasure at the burning and stretching rightness of it. Aya felt so alive inside him.... His puisín's first thrust hit that spot that sent sparks shooting through him, making it even better, but Farfarello needed and wanted more, so he grabbed him, held him close, and rolled them off the bed, approving as an indignant Aya made sure _he_ was the one whose tailbone hit the floor as they landed. Kittens _shouldn't_ seek out pain, no matter how well they could bear it.

They ended the roll with him on the bottom, his spine and skull against the floor, and Aya fucking him down hard into it, with no springy mattress to dissipate the force of Aya's hips and cock driving into him. Perfect. He thought he might be chuckling. So satisfied, he further twisted and tangled his body around his lover's, melding them together.

Particular parts of Aya might hold a special fascination for Farfarello, but it was the whole that he truly loved, so he had to be careful of his temptations. Sometimes, in his enthusiasm and passion, he forgot that.

His puisín bit his neck, creating a deeper spark of sensation and giving his necklace of bruises a fine charm for further decoration. Well pleased, Farfarello purred and came. Aya followed three tooth-rattling thrusts later, flooding Farfarello's insides with liquid heat that would thankfully remain even after his kitten pulled himself out.

As they cooled down together, Aya so lightly and gently stroked Farfarello's hair that he could barely feel it, but it still made him smile. Because he knew that Aya had his own ideas of romance.

Eventually, Aya said, "I won't sleep on the floor." Yes, kittens preferred soft places for that, like beds and laps. Though Farfarello's lap was rarely soft.

Sometimes Farfarello missed the certainty and safety of locked doors and straitjackets and the opportunities they gave him to think, but he'd been missing them less lately.

******************************************************

Schuldig enjoyed the lazy afternoon. Tonight they'd kill, and he'd delight in that, but for now he'd happily lounge around the apartment. They didn't have many opportunities for leisure. Brad was doing something involving rows of numbers, Nagi was hacking something, and Farfarello was sharpening the knives he hadn't gotten to yesterday. They all had their own ideas of fun.

Then there was Aya sitting at the kitchen table reading _Beyond Good and Evil_. Schuldig snickered. "Nietzsche? You're such a fucking cliché."

Aya didn't look up. "It was a gift from Farfarello."

"Weird bookmark." It was a pale purple paper crane.

"I found it in there this morning."

"Must be a gift from Nagi." Poor lovestruck kid. "He does origami."

Aya smiled a little and said, "That makes sense," then looked up from his book. "I'm curious about something."

"I might not answer, but give it a shot."

"I was wondering why you and Crawford got together."

Schuldig decided to be willfully clueless. "You've heard of Eszett, right?" Make him ask in detail.

Aya's eyes narrowed. "Why do you sleep together?"

"We fuck."

"_And_ sleep together."

He decided to stop messing with Aya, since he should probably encourage any of Aya's efforts to be more personally involved in Schwarz. "Convenience. Sometimes I get overloaded and need to get my rocks off _now_. Brad, being a guy under all those layers of cold properness, doesn't mind the sex. When I'm that bad, he figures I'm safer if I get it at home."

"Hnh."

"I know it's not romantic, but we can't all be kidnapped by lovestruck psychotics."

"That explains the sex. Not the sleeping together."

"Convenience."

Aya said nothing but thought that what had started in convenience seemed affectionate now. Schuldig shook his head and said, "Leave that kind of judgment to the telepaths. It is what it is. Stop looking at me like that."

Aya returned his attention to his book.

"And get that smile off your face, Aya."

Instead, it deepened.

Schuldig sighed. "I'm missing the days when you were antisocial and didn't care what the rest of us did."

When Nagi walked in for some banana juice, Aya thanked him for the paper crane, and the kid's eyes lit up as he smiled shyly. So maybe Schuldig didn't really miss the days when Aya didn't give a damn about them.

Of course, when Schuldig thanked Nagi for dressing like his favorite wet dream, _he_ was whipped with a dishtowel and threatened with worse to come. He didn't help himself by claiming to like the whipping either.

******************************************************

The last minion of the night ran for the door. Before Crawford could shoot him down, a katana flew across the room like an unsteady javelin and bludgeoned and cut the man down. "You're a lunatic," Crawford told Aya as Aya walked up to retrieve his weapon.

Aya simply shook his head and sheathed his sword, then said, "Don't say it."

"What? I wasn't going to say anything about lunatics who threw their katanas at escaping helicopters." Just because he'd decided to give Aya his just due didn't mean Aya wouldn't be open to the teasing that every member of Schwarz suffered. Quite the contrary.

"I hit my target this time." Aya stalked off to return to Farfarello's side. They truly deserved each other.

"He could really use a gun," Crawford murmured to himself. Giving Aya a weapon that could be used over a distance made sense.

~ He's a damned good marksman. Nagi hacked his firing range scores out of the Kritiker database once, ~ Schuldig said inside his head as he walked toward him. Schuldig's favorite green blazer had been a victim of the fire, so he wore a long black leather coat over a green shirt, black leather pants, and black boots. No bandannas anymore. He looked dramatic, dangerous, and edible. As a whole, Schwarz's fashion sense had taken a turn for the dark and somewhat kinky. If Nagi hadn't followed suit, Crawford would have no argument with it at all.

~ Excellent. We've been sneering over Weiß's medieval choice in weaponry for ages, so let's get Aya a gun. Would you like to do the honors? What? ~

Schuldig licked his lips. ~ Buying a person a gun is so... intimate. ~

Crawford smiled. ~ Buy him two. ~

His telepath shivered. ~ Can I present them to Aya myself? Making sure Farfarello is in the room, of course. ~

~ Of course. Yes. ~

~ You are going to get _so_ lucky tonight.... ~

******************************************************

"He doesn't need these," Farfarello said.

Schuldig had been looking forward to this since last night. He _knew_ Farfie wouldn't like this. "I chose them very carefully." Imagining what Aya would need and want in a gun had been a kinky pleasure.

"I don't care."

"You guys enjoyed the collar." Schuldig noticed Aya stifling a small smile. Victory. "This is practical too. Aya's a good shot, and having a backup is always a good idea. So is fucking with your enemies' heads by changing tactics. Unless you're afraid that the guns and holsters will ruin the line of his coat."

"I would need a coat that doesn't have to be belted in at the waist," Aya said as he picked up one of the guns. From the look on his face and the taste of his mind, he thought it felt good in his hand.

"Yeah, it's all about the line of the coat."

"I'm not that shallow."

"You won't have to throw your sword at anything anymore."

Aya shot him a dirty look, but replied, "I still prefer my katana, but I agree that guns are a good thing to have in reserve."

Schuldig watched him and loudly sniffled, grinning. Aya finally asked, "What?"

"Baby's first guns."

Farfarello narrowed his eye. "Shut up."


	24. "...Farfarello came back with a geisha."

Their destination appeared to be a literal hole in the wall. Aya put his hand on his sword hilt, to Farfarello's amused snort. Of course, Farfarello always had a knife ready.

Crawford had told Aya that Roche might not be as discerning or high end as Brandt and Neuber but had some good stock for excellent prices. Roche didn't mind Farfarello walking around without a leash or keeper either, another plus, though Farfarello did wear a hooded jacket and sunglasses on his way in to look less conspicuous.

Then again, Farfarello hadn't killed anyone in one of Roche's establishments.

Aya and Farfarello walked inside through what could have been a dragon's hoard, if dragons had shown an interest in modern weaponry. Aya could almost sense some kind of system in the deadly clutter, but it still looked chaotic. Large men with killers' eyes watched their passage, and they watched back.

"Roach," Farfarello growled.

"That's 'Roche,' and you know it, you crazy bastard," a greasy little man with a thick accent replied. To Aya's ear, the accent sounded like Parisian French. Slaughtering the broad range of Europeans Eszett hired had given him some knowledge on such matters.

"Whatever. Do you have our pickup ready?"

Aya kept an eye on the guards and admired some of the displayed guns and knives. When he lifted and examined one slender, elegant knife, Farfarello said, "Let me choose a knife for you. I have some expertise in that area."

Farfarello had offered to buy him a knife a while back, and Aya knew that he hadn't taken Schuldig's gift of guns well. "Thank you."

A young man who had an insolent look moved up too close to him, so Aya glared at him. Too stupid to heed the warning, the man said, "Hey, Roche, Farfarello came back with a geisha."

Even before Aya could move to forcefully correct him, Farfarello had grabbed the man by the neck and pressed his head against a nearby dimly lit glass cabinet. "You don't need this little piece of shit, do you, Roach?"

"You can't do this to me," the little bastard gasped.

"He's right. Let go of him," Roche said.

"Why?" Farfarello asked.

"He's my own white elephant, fresh from Khalil's group."

Farfarello pushed down as he let go so the boy's head would bounce against the cabinet. "He'll never learn respect this way."

"I know."

The young man cast a venomous look upon them all and stalked off. Farfarello growled to make him walk faster, then accepted a suitcase from Roche. "Puisín, check this for me."

Aya opened the suitcase, put the rifle together from the disassembled parts, and looked through the sight. "What's my target?"

Later, Farfarello muttered as they walked to the car, "'Geisha.' If he weren't Khalil spawn, I would have carved your name into his flesh with your new knife. Your full name. Western-style so it would be longer and more painful."

Aya could see that happening all too easily. "I'm glad you forbore. I don't want that trash to have my name, especially not when it was written with my new knife." It rested in a sheath, also new, in the top of his right boot. "His blood would soil it."

Farfarello grinned at Aya in what appeared to be approval. "A shame we didn't bring your kitchen knife, then."

"Someone will kill him sooner or later." The man was too carelessly impudent to survive long, no matter whom he had as a patron.

"If Khalil can impose trash on Roche, the balance has changed. Crawford will want to know." His mouth twisted. "If he doesn't already."

Aya put the rifle case in the trunk, then got into the driver's seat. It disturbed and exhilerated him that they so trusted him now that they let him drive the car and go weapons shopping alone with Farfarello. While they'd always allowed Aya to go running alone in the mornings with Farfarello, Nagi's reaction the few times he'd been given the keys suggested that use of the car existed on another plane of privilege altogether.

They trusted him and no longer worried that he'd run away. It made him shiver.

******************************************************

The thought continued to nag at him all the way into the night, leaving him preoccupied, and he stared at the unlocked door. "Thoughtful kitten," Farfarello said as he sat down on the bed too and nuzzled Aya's neck.

"I'm not--"

"Just take. Let me do everything tonight."

If Farfarello wanted to exhaust and distract himself with Aya's body, Aya didn't mind. It erased his thoughts too for a while, and the sex ranged from good to mindblowing. Farfarello seemed to enjoy just about everything about Aya's body and showed his appreciation by touching and tasting every part of it to know it completely. Or maybe it was the other way around. In any case, Farfarello probably knew it better than Aya did.

Farfarello did everything, while Aya just accepted, reacted, and voiced his approval. At other times Aya had tried to remain quiet to retain some dignity, but Farfarello just tortured him with pleasure until he abandoned all decorum.

Sometimes he stayed quiet to force Farfarello to do exactly that.

But not tonight. Tonight he tried to lose himself and his mind completely in the moment, and it worked for a while. But he awoke from the light sleep that had followed orgasm feeling just as upset as he had before. He needed to do something.

Farfarello slept so deeply that he didn't even stir when Aya gently removed his hand from his belly. Even with the scars and the eye socket, he looked so sweet when sleeping after one of their bouts. Aya shook his head and got out of bed, then put on a T-shirt and sweatpants and approached the door, which swung open smoothly and quietly at his touch. He stepped out into the dark hall.

How pathetic was it that this felt like a revolutionary act? What an incredible thing to be free to go outside your bedroom in your own apartment at night. When he walked up to the front door, no one stopped him. Then, overwhelmed by what he doing and the chaos of his thoughts, he froze. What should he do now? What did he want to do now? He hadn't thought it out this far. He hadn't thought at all.

He'd cultivated the ability to do just this in an effort to protect himself from Schuldig's mind probes, and he was now seeing a disadvantage of it.

******************************************************

Nagi instantly transformed from half-asleep to completely awake when he realized that he saw Aya standing near the front door. His urge for a late night snack now forgotten, he ducked back into their small hallway a little to watch. He briefly thought of waking Schuldig and Crawford up but didn't do it, hoping it wouldn't be necessary. A brief telepathic reaching out showed him that Farfarello was fucked out, deeply unconscious. By coincidence or design, Nagi didn't know.

Then again, that was nearly standard operating procedure for them, with Aya usually as tired out by the end as Farfarello. Nagi knew, since he vaguely felt a lot of it.

And, that way, Aya didn't dream....

Aya stood there barefoot but had a T-shirt and sweatpants on, suggesting that he didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, stay or go. Crackling to Nagi's kinetic/empathic sense, he put his hand and then his forehead against the door, his mind a storm, caught between what he felt he should be doing and what he seemed to be doing instead.

If Nagi hadn't agitated for an end to outside locks on Aya and Farfarello's door, Aya wouldn't be able to tremble on the edge of temptation now.

Nagi didn't want him to go and thought of grabbing him. But that would only be a temporary solution, wouldn't it?

Nagi reached out to Aya with his telepathy and reeled. Goals, wants, needs, and fears swirled through Aya's head, all in conflict. He wanted to destroy Eszett. He wanted Farfarello and didn't want to want Farfarello. He felt that he belonged here now, and that scared the hell out of him. He didn't know what to do with himself. He was changing and didn't know if he'd stop.

Nagi didn't know how long they both stood there, but eventually Aya turned away from the door, his decision made. He wouldn't, couldn't, leave Schwarz. There was no turning back. It let Nagi breathe again. Then he noticed Nagi and walked up to stand in front of him.

They stared at one another in the dimness, saying nothing, although Nagi tried to let his gladness speak through his eyes. Finally Aya put a gentle hand atop Nagi's head and ruffled his hair, then went into the room he shared with Farfarello.

Nagi decided not to tell anyone about this. Schuldig might manage to pry it from Aya's brain, if he caught wind of it, but that would be Schuldig's doing. As far as Nagi was concerned, Aya had made the right choice on his own and didn't need to be picked at.

******************************************************

"You're a thousand kilometers away, Aya," Schuldig said as he nibbled on a croissant.

"I didn't sleep well," Aya answered. He glanced at Nagi, who cast him occasional worried looks but didn't seem inclined to expose last night's incident to the others. Schuldig didn't seem to suspect anything on his own, and Aya was using every trick he knew to keep the telepath from reading it.

Last night had been humbling. He'd thought he could have left. Maybe he could have at the beginning, since Nagi might not have been there the whole time. He had the feeling that Nagi had been present by accident, not out of some plan to keep him in. He could have left.

He just hadn't wanted to.

Before, he'd thought only of escape, with that escape being the whole end. He hadn't cared what happened to him after that, since he had no future and suffered from his past. The only thing better than escape from Schwarz would have been escape from living.

Last night he'd put his hand to the door and wondered for the first what would happen after he successfully escaped. Even if he reconstrued everything being in his favor, with Kritiker and Weiß refusing to see him as an unstable traitor, he couldn't see himself returning to his life as it had been. Living alone, sleeping alone. This time he would lack even the pathetic human contact his comatose sister had given him. It would be too hard to behave differently around Omi, Yoji, and Ken to change that.

He would wonder where Schwarz was, how they were doing, whether Farfarello needed to be locked in again at night since he was gone, whether Nagi had continued to declare himself as the person he truly was or retreated into his shell. He would miss them.

He wanted to demolish Eszett, but he couldn't fool himself into believing that to be the only reason he remained. Not anymore.

Would Nagi have stopped him if he'd chosen to go? He had the odd feeling that Nagi would have respected his decision, either way. When Aya had returned instead, there had been so much emotion in the boy's face, and it had looked almost like hope....

They trusted him not to run. Apparently they had good reason to.

Farfarello rubbed soothing patterns into the small of his back. Aya had the feeling that even if he'd escaped, his mind would give him fleeting glimpses of a golden-eyed shadow just from all the time he'd had the actual man as his companion. He'd probably lose his mind fairly quickly.

Would Farfarello even be willing to let him go? Maybe Aya would come to see him as a rescuer....

"Are we finished?" Crawford asked.

Everyone perked up a little. Business. Schuldig popped his last bit of sausage into his mouth, then said, "We are now."

They all obediently put their plates and cups in the sink, then settled around the kitchen to hear what he had to say. When Aya leaned against the counter, Farfarello sat on it beside him.

Crawford said, "Kritiker has been nosing around the burnt out remains of the apartment."

"Is Weiß involved?" Aya had to ask.

"Not this time. They're looking for you too, though probably not for the reasons Kritiker is."

Aya could sense Farfarello's anger at Crawford letting him know that his former team still cared about him, but as much as the knowledge gave him a bittersweet feeling it changed nothing. He was where he had to be. Though he wondered how _they_ were, what they were doing....

Crawford continued, "My sources say that Kritiker thinks Aya has told us all kinds of secrets, so they have an even greater stake in seeing us dead, Aya included."

Aya closed his eyes. He knew that, aside from Weiß, no one in Kritiker cared about him as a person, just as a tool, one that had to be destroyed if it fell into the hands of an enemy. "If they knew anything about Schwarz, they'd know that you wouldn't have to keep me or any member of Kritiker for long to get that."

"Some factions in Kritiker refuse to believe in our abilities. Others know full well what we can do and prefer to keep everyone else in the dark for their own reasons."

"You think Kritiker wouldn't like to have a division of trained freaks?" Schuldig asked. "Aside from us working for them on a freelance basis. They'd love to have a more permanent hold on people like us, and some factions are working toward it. It affects their policy on taking out Eszett, because they don't want to destroy all of Eszett's research, records, and personnel."

It surprised Aya, but it shouldn't. Kritiker had never been honest with him. The knowledge made some of his decisions feel better.

"And now, Aya, you get to find out what you bought the rifle for," Crawford said.

Grinning, Farfarello walked out, returned with a charcoal-colored fedora, and plopped it onto Aya's head. Aya answered, "I'm almost afraid to ask."

******************************************************

The fedora went along with the nondescript clothing Aya and Nagi wore for this mission. It hid his hair a little. Farfarello had chosen it for him with the covers of Aya's now lost detective novels in mind. The comfortable blue sweater and charcoal colored pants Aya wore along with a leather jacket made him happy, since he had an excuse to dress down and Schuldig had been sulky over it. Nagi wore dark colors as well, and the fit of his clothing went along with his new fashion philosophy. Good for him.

They walked past the outdoor stage and watched the preparations with "idle" interest, subtly reconnoitering, and continued the reconnaissance on the area rooftops, deciding in the end that the building Crawford had chosen for them really did have the best line of sight for the stage. As Aya sat down and set his case nearby, he still had a smile on his face from the stealthy flying around they'd done from roof to roof. They'd moved with such speed that he'd been forced to hold onto his hat.

Nagi smiled back, his face a little flushed from the cool breeze, and sat beside him. "What?"

"If I had telekinesis, I'd fly at least once a day." Then Aya gave it more thought. "And probably have a much higher body count to my name, just from my temper."

"I should fly more often, since I like it. I don't know, I just don't think about it." Nagi crossed his arms. "I repress a lot. I have to, or my misanthropy would give me an even higher body count than you're thinking of. Sometimes I have to direct it elsewhere."

Then the reserve Aya preferred for himself was a necessity for Nagi. "That must have its own temptations."

"I've had so many 'accidental' slips of my talent near Schuldig over the years."

"That's handy."

"You have no idea. I'm very creative. It's unfortunate that he likes a little pain now and then."

Aya started to assemble the rifle. He hadn't done a public assassination like this in a while, but the skills didn't atrophy.

Aya's lips twisted as he thought of his target. It sickened him that a member of Eszett could be in public office, even if it didn't surprise him. They needed some kind of governmental support to operate as they did. He put the sight to his eye and shifted his breathing to a slow, even rate, preparing himself physically and mentally. With Nagi as his guard, he could afford to go into a really deep focus. The target was being introduced on stage right now....

He realized that Nagi had been saying something to him. "What?" he asked, without shifting his eyes or aim.

"Nothing, Abyssinian. I'll just sit back and watch an expert in action."

******************************************************

Schuldig sat in a comfortable twist on the couch. "Pretzel, Brad? Salt is good for you."

"Why can't you ever watch these things without food?" Brad asked, sounding and feeling amused.

"I love food and mayhem, so why not combine them?"

"I'll have some pretzels." Once Brad accepted a few, he asked, "Aya's good, Farfarello?"

"You should have seen him put the rifle together and try it out yesterday, so graceful and efficient. Scary." Farfie sounded excited and perched forward on the couch arm to get closer to the TV.

"What a windbag. Damned politicians. C'mon, let's get to the good part!" As Schuldig waited for the excitement to start, he glanced to the side now and then to watch Brad eat a very phallic pretzel, his lips wrapping around the end. Aw, yeah. Right before biting down. Schuldig preferred not to follow through on that part. Fortunately, he was looking at the TV when Kier sprouted a bloody third eye. Beautiful. Schuldig sent his telepathy out there so he could feast on the terror and confusion at the scene. "And the crowd goes wild. This newscast disavows any responsibility for any therapy bills incurred by audience members who have seen this footage.... Gee, Brad, do you think Aya's a good shot now?"

"Unless he was aiming for something else on Kier's body, he is."

Schuldig stuck his tongue out. "You said you wanted it to look like a professional hit."

"It does."

"Pretty," Farfarello said as he watched the mayhem, looking as horny as Schuldig felt. "I can't wait until he gets home."

******************************************************

Aya slowly returned from the icy focus of the kill as he and Nagi walked back. He didn't like what sniper work did to him, but he had to admit that he was good at it.

When Aya reached the door to their building, Nagi kept walking down the street, faster now. "What are you doing?" Aya asked.

"I'm probably better off far away. See you later."

Still lost in null space, Aya didn't understand what Nagi might have meant until Farfarello pounced him as soon as he walked into the apartment. Then he didn't think of anything for a while to come.

Later, wrapped around Aya, Farfarello traced his spine obsessively and sometimes twitched. It kept Aya awake, so he asked, irritably, "Do you _miss_ the locks?"

Farfarello froze. "No. I have everything I need right here." Then, thankfully, he stilled and relaxed.


	25. "That dumpster will never trouble anyone again."

"He's fast," Farfarello said as he dodged.

"Very fast," Aya agreed. Inhumanly so, which was different from the very mundane foes they'd been facing lately, foes they'd chosen themselves as they attacked Eszett in endlessly changing ways. He'd lost track of time lately, lost in days of hunting and killing and the company of partners. Had it been a week? Maybe more. He didn't know, and it didn't matter much.

He was... enjoying himself.

"We're programmed to know you," the boy said. "You can't beat us."

"So you've studied our tactics?" Aya asked sweetly. He had an idea.

"Yes."

Aya caught Farfarello's eye and put his hand on the butt of one of his guns under his coat. Farfarello grinned and leapt forward to keep the boy occupied as Aya undid the front of his coat and freed his guns. He needed to get a new coat.... He snarled as the boy struck Farfarello and sent him into a wall, though Farfarello bounced back from the impact grinning through bloody lips. Very fast, indeed.

"Farfarello!" Aya shouted. Farfarello dropped to the floor, and Aya fired both guns at once, repeatedly, until their opponent's head looked like pulp. The body hit the floor. His "programming" hadn't expected the guns and maybe not even the marksmanship.

"Nice," Farfarello said. "I enjoy a challenge once in a while. But he talked too much."

"I won't complain. It worked in our favor." They rushed to the rest of the team, which fought a small army of the strange youths. "Don't let any of them escape or any record of this fight survive!" Aya said.

"I didn't plan on it," Schuldig said as he fought. He was nearly as fast as the red-uniformed children. Interesting.

"They study our moves and pass them on."

"I noticed, and I think it's very rude," Crawford replied.

They fought hard and didn't clear the room as quickly as usual. Breathing hard, Schuldig snarled, "Some of them got away."

No one ever got away.

Nagi had a gash across one cheek and looked furious. "Can I rip this place to shreds?" he asked Crawford.

"You can if you let us get out first."

"Very funny. I'll wait until we're riding away."

Exhausted, they dragged themselves out to the car. Farfarello limped, while Aya had taken some bad hits to his arms and back. Schuldig and Crawford looked winded and frayed at the edges. Unaccustomed to enemies that could still manage to come up and touch him even though he was working his telekinesis against them, Nagi seemed to be running on pure rage.

As they drove away, Aya watched the warehouse explode into small bits through the back window. Nagi's talent could be even more effortlessly destructive when he was tired. Add anger as a fuel, and there wouldn't be much left of his target.

"Who the fuck were those brats?" Schuldig snarled.

"Something about their speed reminded me of you," Aya answered.

"Eszett was fascinated by your speed," Crawford said.

Schuldig shook his head. "I'm not as fast as these kids are, and a lot of mine comes from telepathic tricks anyway."

"Yours was an accident of genetics. These kids are engineered specifically for it."

"If they're mine, they sure as hell didn't get my looks. Besides, I'm too damned young to be a poppa."

"They could be vat-grown and force-matured." Nagi smiled at the look on their faces. "Now it pays to be a geek."

"Something you discovered while hacking in?" Crawford asked.

"No, but it makes sense."

"Recreational reading, then?"

"You did say I was old enough and smart enough to design my own lesson plans. And there's plenty to read online." Nagi looked more tired now as his anger cooled. As he leaned back into the seat, his knee brushed Aya's. "I think we just met members of Class Z." He opened his laptop atop his knees and turned it on.

"Eszett's cloning program has made vast leaps."

Farfarello snarled. "Then we'll have to hobble it. Little scientists playing God and creating armies of mindless, super-powered sheep."

Aya felt at least as angry. "Throwing children at us." He preferred not to kill children, even ones who didn't behave like human beings.

"Children are their favorite tools," Crawford said. "They always have been."

"Next time we'll kick their asses," Schuldig said.

"Next time will be even harder, since they'll have studied this fight too."

"Then we'll just have to get better at killing the Dollies for next time," Farfarello answered. "We learn too."

They would. For now, Aya felt hypersensitive and keyed up, so he pressed against Farfarello's side and nipped at his ear. The fight hadn't exorcised all of his restless energy.

"Frisky kitten," Farfarello murmured.

Nagi sighed. "Aya, can you at least hold it together until I'm not sitting next to you? You've been a sex fiend lately."

Crawford had been working them hard lately, to the point where Aya's days consisted of fighting, killing, fucking, exercising, eating, and sleeping. He'd set aside his quieter pastimes in exchange for striking blow after blow against Eszett, and the momentum of their activity had left him nearly high.

"Puisín, you won't distract me from checking you for injuries."

"Nothing is bleeding or broken."

Nagi shook his head. "You're as bad as Farfarello. You never really feel these things while they're happening."

"I can judge for myself."

"I want to check," Farfarello said. "Besides, my leg is fucked up. I think maybe I should get it looked at."

"It's bleeding." The blue of Farfarello's pants had been stained a wet red-black on the right shin.

"Like I said."

Schuldig grabbed the steering wheel as the car started to swerve. Crawford shook his head and regained control, then said, "We have to leave the apartment soon."

"Tonight soon?" Schuldig asked, sounding about as enthused about the idea as Aya felt. They were too tired for this now.

"Sometime tomorrow. We're all sleeping in tomorrow morning."

"You're seeing further into the future lately."

Aya didn't know why Schuldig sounded worried about that. Surely they'd be happy about power increases.

Nagi laughed. "No wonder we had to face an army. That warehouse was engaged in a Class Z training exercise. Hush hush, which is why I didn't find out about it. It's in the records I just downloaded."

"Speaking of that, I feel one of the brats," Schuldig said, suddenly looking very feral. "Nearby. Let's terminate him."

Crawford smiled. "Give me the directions."

As Crawford drove, Schuldig gleefully reloaded his gun and told him when to make turns. Aya felt a charged anticipation in the air and was certain that they all felt it. Hunting their prey down. Finally, Schuldig said, "He's in the alley. I can--"

"Shoot him?" Nagi asked. "I'm calling dibs instead."

Aya couldn't see what had happened in the dark alley, but Schuldig must have sensed something, because he started to laugh, while Nagi looked ever more upset. The rest of them waited in growing annoyance. The telepath finally choked out, "I'd love to see how the police explain that death."

"I'm tired. My control is shot."

"What the hell were you trying to do?"

"Squeeze his heart and lungs."

"Out through the top of his head?"

Aya thought that maybe he was better off not seeing what had happened.

Nagi looked embarrassed but snapped, "Fuck off. He's dead. That's the important thing. I'll dispose of the body." Aya, Crawford, and Schuldig winced as they heard sounds like metal being beaten and tortured and vaguely saw a large shape moving in the alley, while Nagi put a hand to his forehead and growled. "Dammit."

"That dumpster will never trouble anyone again. Hey, maybe nobody will question what happened to the body just because they can't get it out of the twisted mess you turned that dumpster into."

"I know, I know...."

"Don't do anything else with your telekinesis tonight," Crawford said.

"Yes, sir," Nagi answered, less belligerently than he usually would have and with a sigh.

"Can you find the rest of them, Schu?"

"Now that I have some idea of their mental shield signatures...." Schuldig closed his eyes and slowly started to smile. "Found the little bastards. Three more out there. Clean-up should be fun."

Schuldig shot the next two from the car window, but the last one was cannier and ran off into a maze of alleys. Incensed, Aya jumped out of the car and put on a burst of speed to follow on foot, Farfarello lagging somewhere behind him. He needed to get that leg patched up. Following flashes of the boy's red school uniform, Aya vaulted over obstacles, some of which had been thrown into his path by his prey, and climbed cast iron fences.

Finally, they hit a dead end. With his back to the wall, the boy bared his teeth in what was nearly a snarl and set himself to attack. Aya briefly debated what weapon to use, then unsheathed his katana. Having seen how Class Z liked to let its targets attack them, easily dodge with inhuman speed, and then put their own shots in, he waited some distance away for his prey to make the first move.

"You're not right!" the boy snarled, looking offended and a little bit winded. "We studied you!"

"People change."

That seemed to make him really angry, because he charged Aya, all speed and no grace. Nor strategy. With the notes on his opponent's ways proven false, the boy had only speed, youth, and arrogance. They weren't enough. Aya dodged the rush and struck out with his katana, severing the boy's spine and part of his neck. The body landed hard, with a meaty thud.

People changed, and Aya's changes helped him win.

Farfarello limped toward Aya at great speed, then stopped at the corpse. "I wanted to cut my own piece off."

"Maybe next time." The cold night air against his sweaty skin made him feel clammy, and fatigue hit him with double the strength as the adrenaline high faded.

Farfarello nuzzled his ear. "Now is the time when all kittens should be snuggled in bed."

Bed sounded like an excellent idea. Once they disposed of the corpse, they went looking for the car, but the car caught up to them first. Looking nearly stoned with fatigue, Schuldig said, "Hey, kiddies. We took care of our bodies too."

"Schu," Crawford growled.

"What? I wasn't loud."

Nagi slept curled up in the backseat, and Schuldig fell asleep in his loose sprawl of fanned out orange hair and black leather sometime during the ride back to the apartment, the telepath looking nearly as young and cute as the telekinetic. Crawford had an almost gentle look on his face as he carried Schuldig inside, while Schuldig, even asleep, somehow gave off the attitude that such treatment was his due. Aya took Nagi and his laptop, since Farfarello was injured and often forgot to be careful of people anyway.

Nagi's wound wasn't as bad as it looked; it had simply bled copiously, the way facial cuts tended to. It needed only cleaning and a little care, no stitches. Without waking up entirely, Nagi stirred and murmured, "No, no...." at Aya's first touch but calmed when Aya told him who he was and what he was doing. That had been close. Aya had felt the hair rising on the back of his neck as the panicked telekinetic had gathered force to strike.

Crawford confirmed that Aya's bruises were only bruises, but Farfarello's leg needed a lot of work, and Aya had to keep Crawford awake through it. Farfarello, bored and impatient, didn't help. Aya didn't worry about him, since he healed quickly. In fact, he healed so quickly and well that Aya sometimes wondered how deep his facial wounds must have been to leave such scars.

Aya felt so tired that everything started to feel surreal, so it didn't surprise him much to lose some time between helping to bandage Farfarello's wound and lying, clean and undressed besides a similarly clean and undressed Farfarello, in bed. He vaguely remembered tucking Nagi in, but that was it.

As much good as it had done them to press Eszett hard, some rest might be a good idea.

Despite his exhaustion, he dozed for only a little while, then woke to relieve himself. Had he dreamed something? He couldn't have, not with how lightly he'd slept....

In the bathroom, Aya looked at himself in the mirror and touched his earring. Her earring. His reminder of why he'd devoted himself to vengeance, a vengeance long finished and lately made useless by her death. He took it out and closed his fingers around it, then looked at his reflection. He looked wrong, unbalanced, and yet also too much like Ran, and he wasn't Ran anymore and couldn't ever be again.

Farfarello put his arms around Aya's waist. "You can go insane if you do that too long. Eventually you don't look like yourself anymore and you wonder who that person is on the other side."

"I already don't." Aya put the earring back in, making himself rightfully asymmetrical again, and flicked it with his finger to make it swing. "Now I'm right again. It's me. It's mine. I bled for it." It made him feel better.

Farfarello stopped its motion with the tip of his tongue. "I want you, right or wrong. Come back to bed, my puisín." He was hard, and he felt good and smelled right.

Aya hoped Farfarello didn't mind him falling asleep as soon as he hit the mattress.

******************************************************

Crawford nearly crackled with tension the afternoon of the next day, snapping at them to pack and clean up faster. It surprised Aya that neither Schuldig nor Nagi bitched about it, but they too must have sensed that something drove him. Perhaps the vision he'd had last night had returned with more detail.

Since they didn't have that much, it didn't take long to finish, yet Crawford didn't relax even as they drove away. About twenty minutes into the ride Nagi jumped and Schuldig whooped. "What?" Aya asked.

Crawford looked a little less taut. "Our recent invaders will never trouble anyone again."

Schuldig looked nearly orgasmic. "Big fucking explosion." Then he opened his eyes. "All right, not all that big. It took out only two apartments, Aya, and no one was home in the other one either. You don't have to fret for innocent lives. If there really is such a thing as an 'innocent life.'"

All of his possible reservations had been turned around before he could even voice them. "Oh."

Farfarello sulked. "You blew them to Hell, and I missed it?"

Crawford said, "Tomorrow we start the mayhem again."

"It's not the same."

Schuldig smirked. "Crybaby."

"I could make _you_ cry...."

"Children," Crawford growled.

The new apartment was on the top floor, and it had no outside locks on the bedroom doors or bars on the windows, to Farfarello's cackling joy. Aya liked it too. It would be nice to be able to open their bedroom window.

******************************************************

Schuldig sighed as the psycho peepshow closed down for the night. Good, since he didn't have it in him for another go.

Nagi's shields had to be improving, since he'd worked away on his computer the whole time, and that was _all_ Schuldig could read from him. The kid had blocked most input and output. Maybe he _didn't_ need someone else to train him. Schuldig had always wondered if Eszett had stifled telepaths by having a one-style-fits-all training system. It probably killed individual quirks. If no two people were exactly alike, why would their telepathy be? Eszett's scientists would have creamed themselves if they'd guessed at how Nagi's telekinesis and telepathy interacted on his vision, but they hadn't, so too bad for them.

Lying beside Schuldig, Brad felt content, and Schuldig warmed himself on it. Brad asked, "Where are you?"

"Checking in on the kids."

Brad smiled a little. "The hellraisers and our prodigy are all where they should be?"

"Yep, and the hellraisers are asleep now, so we can be too."

As Schuldig reached to turn off the lamp he saw the light shine on a little more silver in Brad's hair, and the sight clouded Schuldig's contentment, so he refused to think about it. It just made Brad look more distingushed, that was all. He would be the proud patriarch of their little family of murderous freaks for a long time to come. They would all stay together and be victorious. Schuldig might not be a precog, but he saw that and so it would be, even if he had to murder everyone put in front of him to make sure it happened.

******************************************************

"Dammit!" Omi shouted as he read his e-mail. During the mission... during the mission--which had failed _anyway_\--this news had come in, and that had been hours ago. They had to be gone by now. _Again_.

Asato opened the door. "What's going--"

Omi flung a dart at him, close to his head. "Stay out!"

Glaring at him, Asato yanked the dart from the doorframe, then left with it. Omi knew he shouldn't have attacked, but he wasn't in the mood to explain anything to some unwanted outsider poking his nose in.

He had no proof that this explosion in Berlin had anything to do with Schwarz, though the news blackout around it certainly suggested something fishy. An explosion had occurred in an apartment building, with 13 dead, yet none of the news outlets had covered it. Omi's German source had sent it to him.

Omi knew that Eszett had some support in the German government....

"Sourpuss looks pissed. Is there anything _I_ can do to help you?" Ken asked from the door, his eyes glittering frighteningly.

"No, Ken. Not really." Omi couldn't think of anything for Ken to do here that would involve killing someone.

Omi loved Ken as the closest thing he'd ever had to an older brother, but Ken had been scaring him lately. When had Ken started to become so violent and bloodthirsty?

"All right, Omi. You'll tell us later, right?"

"Yeah. When Yoji's up." And Asato, Siamese, was far away.

Ken knew the rest of it without Omi saying anything. "Good night."

"Not really," Omi murmured once Ken had left.


	26. What kind of owner would miss such a thing?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nagi's on-the-way-to-the-car song is "Gone Ridin'" by Chris Isaak

The knife slid home into the back of the target's neck, and the man gurgled and hit the top of his desk face first. Thus, Aya's new knife was now blooded. He preferred hot battle to these colder killings, but he had a job to do and did it. He also missed Farfarello, whose leg was still slowing him down a little and had been put on wait-and-clean duty at the doors. That way, Farfarello's targets came to _him_.

Assassination shouldn't always be fun.

Aya cleaned his knife on the man's suitjacket, then went to see Nagi. The boy sat crosslegged on a chair at a terminal, typing furiously. And... Aya almost called him "Bombay." Aya swallowed and softly asked, "Prodigy, are we almost out of here?"

What the hell was wrong with him? Give him a mission without Farfarello, and he started confusing his new teammates for his old? Maybe he needed more than one day of rest.

"Two more minutes."

So Aya guarded him until he pulled the CD from the drive and nodded.

They met Farfarello at the door. Rather, Farfarello's sword met Nagi's teke shield. "Sorry," Farfarello said with a dark chuckle, but then he looked worried. "Puisín, are you okay? You look whiter than usual."

"I think I just need more sleep."

"Then you'll get it." Farfarello's expression promised death and dismemberment to anyone who threatened to keep him from it. Aya found that comforting.

******************************************************

As soon as Aya walked into their bedroom, Farfarello cornered the boy in the living room and asked, "What happened?"

The boy backed down not at all. "What?"

"My puisín looked unsteady."

"I don't know."

"You're a telepath."

"You're a pain in the ass. It doesn't mean you're a pain in the ass 24 hours a day."

"What is this?" Crawford asked.

"Nothing," Farfarello answered. If his puisín were having trouble, he'd rather try to fix it himself first.

To his surprise, Nagi also answered, "Nothing. You know how Farfarello gets sometimes. He's pissed off that he couldn't be in the thick of things."

Schuldig looked suspicious, so Farfarello bolstered his mental defenses with some blood-slicked images of his favorite victims. Schuldig might not be squeamish, but he preferred not to wade through the more visceral aspects of murder if he didn't have to. The mindbreaker's lip curled in disgust, and he moved on, so the boy's defenses must have been good as well. Crawford raised an eyebrow at them but followed his pet telepath.

Once their door closed, the boy asked, "Is something wrong with Aya-kun?"

Kitten-smitten boy. This one could be an ally if handled right. Farfarello had forgotten. "Maybe. Don't know. Maybe he just needs sleep."

Nagi looked worried now. "I didn't read anything, but it's not like I go looking. I'm not On all the time like Schuldig is." Then he snapped, "You should take better care of him."

Farfarello bristled. "I do. And that is my concern, not yours, anyway."

"Crawford will see it as his concern, because Aya can't be controlled by the word. Schuldig will see it as his concern just because he sees everything as his concern. And it's my concern too."

The boy was right. "I'll take care of him."

"Good. If I can help, let me know." He left and closed his bedroom door very quietly behind him.

Farfarello saw that he'd have to pay more attention.

He found his puisín lying in a sprawl on the bed, deeply unconscious. Aya had taken off his coat, weapons, boots, belts, gloves, and shirt--and even put them away in their proper places--but his pants and traces of blood on his face remained. His kitten, so fastidious when awake and well and not in rut, would never tolerate blood on his skin as he slept. He must be tired indeed.

Farfarello felt guilty, and not in a good way. Crawford had pushed them hard lately, and Farfarello's lust for his puisín had pushed Aya as hard as usual, and Aya pushed himself hardest of all. A trinity of pushing. The kitten would never admit to fatigue or weakness, and he always kept going until he broke. What kind of owner would miss such a thing? No good kind of owner.

Farfarello had been selfish. Just because Aya kept offering didn't mean he always had to take. Chastened, he stripped down and washed up, then returned to the room to sleep chastely beside his love. While he thought of bringing a damp washcloth to groom his kitten, he worried that washing would wake Aya up, so he forebore. It was past time that he started thinking more of Aya's needs.

He'd resisted the siren call of the door for days and days, but at the cost of his puisín's well-being. Thus, he hadn't successfully resisted at all, merely exchanged one compulsion to wallow with another. Now he would do it on his own. He wouldn't cut off sex entirely, especially not since the kitten seemed to enjoy it so, but he would be more realistic in his demands.

Of course, feeling noble and concerned didn't stop him from wanting to take the hand he had on his puisín's belly and move it lower, and stroke-- He sliced a line on his wrist and nursed at it and the blade. Ignoring the door and his lusts, Farfarello concentrated on the pain and his responsibility and stared at the wall.

******************************************************

"What?" Brad asked.

"No sex," Schuldig answered.

Brad looked almost comical in his surprise. "Something's wrong."

"No shit."

"We'll keep an eye on Aya and Farfarello."

"Yeah."

Brad purred, "Does that mean that we can't do anything?" like he already knew the answer. Of course he did.

Schuldig snorted. "The day I need those two to help my sex life is the day I need a bullet put through my head."

After a good fucking and a nice long rest, Schuldig decided to look in on the Wonder Twins with their power of... psychosis! Form of... long, sharp pointy things! Fuck, what was Brad's American pop culture doing to his brain? No matter. He opened the door--so much easier without all those locks--and dodged at super speed as a knife flew at him. "What the hell was that?" he demanded.

Farfarello seemed to nearly fly out of bed at him, so unexpected that Schuldig found himself with his back against the hallway wall and a hard arm at his throat before he knew it. "You will not wake the kitten. You will not wake the kitten." Farfarello's eye nearly blazed with rage and determination.

"Fine. I didn't have it in mind. Fuck. Switch to decaf tea, you maniac." Then Schuldig smiled. "What, have you been riding him too hard lately?"

Farfarello nearly flinched, then rushed forward, his arm pushing harder. "Yes. But Crawford has been riding us all harder."

Schuldig wanted to sneer but couldn't quite. Still, he answered, "You wish." If Farfie got any more aggressive, he'd get a brainblasting he'd never forget.

Nagi opened his door and peered out owlishly. "Can we save the drama for a later hour?" His eyes looked shadowed. He looked _tired_.

Schuldig answered, "It's 10 a.m."

"What? No! I have to--"

"Go back to sleep."

Nagi shook his head, but said, "I have to go back to sleep." And he went back into his room and did.

That command shouldn't have worked. Nagi was _tired_. Aya was tired. Farfarello was insane, so that didn't count for anything. Schuldig realized that he didn't feel exactly 100% himself.

"Farfie, I'll talk to Brad. I won't wake your kitten."

Farfarello took his arm off Schuldig's neck. "Be sure you do that. And close the door after me." Then he walked back into the room and snuggled with Aya, who murmured something sleepily to him. Farfarello crooned something softly back.

Overcome by the weirdness, Schuldig closed the door and walked back to his room. "Aya's tired," he told Brad.

"So?"

"So? No sex. Aya is tired enough that Farfarello didn't have sex with him. Farfarello nearly took my head off now because he thought I might wake Aya up."

That got Brad's attention. "I see."

"We forget that Aya's not like us, even if he does push himself until he drops. He may have the power of masochism and crazy willfullness on his side, but he tires out faster." He didn't have their greater speed, strength, metabolism, healing, etc. He didn't have their shorter lifespan. Even Farfarello had all of that, even if no one had ever been able to figure out what his talent was. "And it's not just him. Nagi looks like shit."

"You think I've been pushing too hard lately?"

Schuldig got onto the bed and moved forward on his hands and knees, keeping his eyes on Brad's the whole time. "A little, but they have their extracurricular activities. Aya spends a lot of the night fucking Farfie into calm. Nagi stays up late on his computer ferreting out information for us. Yeah, that's extracurricular and not your fault, but you know they do these things and it's important to Schwarz that they keep on with it."

Brad smiled. "It's important to Schwarz that Abyssinian has sex?"

Okay, that _was_ funny. "We should all have such duties, but yeah, basically. Something happened last night that has Farfie worried, and Aya's been weirder than usual lately. Nagi totally lost it that night against that last Class Z kid. Yeah, the little punks had pressed us hard and really ticked him off, but Nagi can take more than that." Schuldig sat on his lap, straddling him. "I haven't been at my best either lately, much as I hate to admit it."

Brad took off his glasses. "You intend to buy some rest and relaxation time for Schwarz from me with sex?"

Speaking of tired, Schuldig had gone into default mode when putting himself here. "Actually, I was hoping to impress and overpower you with my towering intellect and keen deductive reasoning--"

"And appealing ass."

"Is my ass appealing? I hadn't noticed. But the sex was only if the other things didn't work."

"You don't think that's beneath you?"

"You're beneath me right now, sugar. I have no problem with things that are beneath me. Or sometimes on top of me. Depends."

"You didn't realize you were climbing me, did you?" Trust Brad to see right through the bullshit.

Schuldig growled in response.

"I've noticed some of the problems you mentioned. We'll take a break. I wanted us to be unpredictable."

He had noticed? Yes! "And we have killed an _awful_ lot of people lately."

"I could use a break."

Schuldig looked quickly from side to side. "The world didn't end. I'm shocked."

"You have a smart mouth."

"You like my mouth."

"When it's engaged in the right activities."

"Then engage me."

"If Mae West had been a tall, skinny man...."

"Skinny? Then give me something meaty to eat, you bastard."

"It's good to know that you can reel these lines off even when you're half-asleep."

Something hit the wall hard enough to leave what had to have been a mighty dent on the other side and big lump on their side. "Fuck each other and shut up so I can sleep," Nagi growled loudly from his room. "_Somebody_ told me to go to sleep."

Oops.

"I think the team needs a break," Brad said.

"Definitely."

******************************************************

Aya didn't want to move, he felt so good, but he had to get up. As he shifted, Farfarello said, "No."

"No?"

Farfarello rolled on top of him. "You're not leaving this bed."

"Why not?"

"You need rest."

"I've gotten rest. I'm fine."

"Not enough."

"I thought we'd finished with this kind of behavior."

That set Farfarello back for a moment, but he said, "This is for your own good."

Of course. "I want to get up."

"I could tie you to the bed." He had a certain gleam in his eye.

"Really?" Aya purred back. He didn't quite like the idea, but getting the paraphernalia might get Farfarello off him so he could escape. And maybe he could be convinced to like it....

"No," Farfarello said suddenly. "Not really." Somehow, he gave the impression that he would have cut himself to underscore it if he hadn't been so occupied with holding Aya's wrists down. What the hell had happened last night?

Aya realized that he was still dressed in last night's pants and remembered that he'd "cleaned off the blood" by scrubbing at it with his hands, not water. "I need a bath." Farfarello twitched. That was promising. "I need to be clean."

"Later."

Aya growled. "We have to get up for a mission sooner or later."

"Crawford has called a break."

"Just because you think I'm tired?" Shit.

"Nagi's tired too. Tired enough that Schuldig telepathically commanded him right back to bed this morning."

That was bad. "But he's fine otherwise. Isn't he?"

Farfarello smiled and said, pointedly, "He just needs sleep."

"All right. I'll stay in bed."

"Good. We can have a bath later." Farfarello snuggled him, which felt nice but also kept him partly pinned. Aya sighed, yet fell asleep again soon anyway.

After a sensual but surprisingly chaste bath, Aya dressed up a little so Schwarz could go out to dinner, Crawford's treat. Schuldig muttered something about the world ending and smiled as he just barely dodged Crawford's slap.

At the restaurant, Aya ordered for himself. He never expected to like something like goulash, but he'd developed a taste for it. Farfarello fed him half a potato dumpling.

"What?" Farfarello growled at the look Crawford gave them.

"Yeah, what?" Schuldig asked. "It's not like potato dumplings automatically lead to sex."

"Everything automatically leads to sex for them," Crawford answered.

"That's not always a bad thing."

Nagi growled as their waitress walked away from him. "What is wrong with the waitstaff here?" The waitstaff had been very friendly. Excessively so.

Schuldig grinned and sat back in his chair, spreading his legs a little. "They think they've never seen a party so full of attractive men. The girls are swooning, and the other waitresses hate our waitress for getting to serve us. One of the waiters said we must all be gay. One of the other ones _hopes_ we are, and what a delightfully dirty mind he has. He's thinking of an orgy, with us as the stars. Nagi, you could really score here."

Nagi looked a little embarrassed. "I'm not interested."

"You might as well. It's not like you're ever going to get-- Ow!" His head flew forward a little as if slapped from behind. "You little bastard!"

"Don't toy with me."

"Schu, not in public," Crawford murmured.

"Why do I have to be the adult?"

"Because you are. At least in age."

"Brad, are you interested in an orgy?"

"I don't know you," Nagi said.

"I could be convinced," Crawford said.

At Aya's look of surprise, Schuldig said, "I'm helping Brad come out of his shell."

Nagi groaned. "Stop."

"I wonder what time they get off... work."

"I hate you. You're so sleazy, and you always embarrass me in public."

"You need your sleep anyway, kid. No computer tonight."

"You're not my real mother."

"You aren't, Schu," Crawford said.

Schuldig stuck his tongue out at Crawford, then asked, "What about you, Aya?"

Aya stared at him and said, "That was a joke." Farfarello growled.

"You're exotic and pretty, and they're dying to know if that's your real hair color."

"They're not going to find out, because I'm not interested."

"I don't share my puisín with waiters," Farfarello said.

"But you share him with other people?" Schuldig asked.

Aya couldn't help asking, "What's wrong with waiters?"

Schuldig laughed. "Oh, fuck, that's right. Farfie, your kitten was a waiter a few years ago." Then he laughed harder. "Aya, you gotta see this."

"What? No--" But Schuldig had already put something in his head. It was an image of him wearing a waiter's uniform and a dangerous expression while standing near a table of annoying customers. The picture looked flat, not quite three-dimensional, giving it something of a cartoonish appearance. One of the customers complained about cold soup. Aya flung his tray at the man, then pulled out his katana and beheaded him. As blood spurted in a geyser from the corpse's neck, picture Aya glared around the table, daring anyone else to complain. Apparently, Farfarello couldn't see him being successful as a waiter. Amused, Aya answered, "I only _dreamed_ of killing them."

"You were honing your anger," Farfarello said.

"When Farfarello starts referencing _Star Wars_, it's time to call it a night," Nagi said.

"You guys can," Schuldig answered. "Me, I'm going to have some fun and drag Brad in with me."

"The guy thought about an orgy. Doesn't mean he'd actually do it."

"Wanna bet?"

"Never mind."

"I think I can get some of the women in on it too. Variety is the spice of life...."

Crawford handed Nagi the car keys. "Go home and get some sleep. You too, Aya. I'll know if you don't."

Schuldig purred, "Don't worry about us. We'll be getting our own rides tonight."

Nagi glared at him. "I'll have to repress this whole evening."

"Bitch, bitch, bitch. Go home before I get an orgy started and really embarrass you."

Aya, Farfarello, and Nagi walked out into a cool, pleasant night. Nagi twirled the keys on his fingers and sang something in English under his breath, sometimes putting an odd little hiccup on some of the words. Aya made out "Darkness fills the sky / As long as I keep driving / I know that I won't die / And I'm gone, gone, gone / Gone riding...." As Nagi opened the car doors, he said, "If you two start making out, I'll separate you by force. You can wait until you get home."

Farfarello flashed a frightening grin. "We'll be good."

"Like I haven't heard that before."

Yet Farfarello kept his word. He tended to do that. It left Aya a little frustrated this time, enough to seat himself on Farfarello's leg and try to tempt him into misbehavior, but his actions just inspired a big grin.

Once they reached their room, Aya snarled, "I'm not fragile."

"No, but perhaps I've been asking too much."

"How?"

"You are a good kitten." Farfarello kissed his nose.

Aya grabbed him and threw them down onto the bed, but Farfarello rolled him over and pinned him down, then started unbuttoning his shirt to get to his neck and chest. Yes. Farfarello sucked him off and rimmed him and fucked him at a dreamy, narcotic pace, so slowly, dissolving him in an easygoing kind of pleasure. As he rocked into the thrusts he felt something other than lust and the urge to torture him into begging for it radiating from his lover. If he wanted to be soppily sentimental, this felt more like lovemaking than fucking.

Aya had gotten past the "love him or not?" quandary by realizing that he wouldn't know love if it walked up and bit him, so he felt what he felt, whatever that might be, and felt at peace with that. Perhaps he could best answer that question with the knowledge that he couldn't imagine his life without having this anymore. Lying there sated, glowing, and well-used as Farfarello rubbed a pleasantly warm washcloth a little too vigorously over his skin, Aya closed his eyes, smiled, and drifted into sleep.

******************************************************

Feeling the tingle of kisses on his neck and chest, Nagi sighed and strengthened his mental shields. He cast a longing look at his computer but remembered how Schuldig had easily commanded him back to bed this morning and decided he should fortify himself with sleep instead.

Nagi had a dream involving slow sex, someone who loved him, an organ grinder's monkey, and slices of cheese. One of the advantages of not sleeping for more than a few hours at a time was that he usually didn't remember the more wacky dreams he sometimes had. He had to get back to that.

******************************************************

Schuldig lit up a cigarette and surveyed the sprawl of bodies. "Who's ready to go again?" When his new conquests groaned in weariness, he said, "My friend is American. Where's your German vigor? Do you want him to go back and say that we're wimps?"

"I don't think they have anything left," Brad said, looking contemptuous and amused. While the others looked fucked and wrung out, he could have been a king surveying his subjects. In the nude.

"You wanna help me show 'em how it's done, Mr. Crawford?" Schuldig smirked. "_Now_ we get some interest from the kiddies. At least you pusses have the stamina to watch."


	27. He couldn't let his puisín fall into such careless hands.

When Aya and Farfarello returned from their morning run, Aya saw Crawford and Schuldig sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast with Nagi. Aya didn't understand why Nagi had headphones on until the boy blushed fiercely and telekinetically smacked the back of Schuldig's head, at which point Crawford said, "You promised you wouldn't torment Nagi with the details."

Schuldig smirked. "You told me not to _say_ anything. I didn't even open my mouth. Unlike last night...."

Nagi crossed his arms on the table and put his head down on them, obviously defeated.

"Oh, you heard that?" Schuldig asked.

Nagi lifted his head, flipped him off American style, and removed his headphones, probably figuring that he couldn't win no matter what he did.

Aya said, "I need to buy a new coat that will let me have faster access to my guns, so I want to borrow the car."

Crawford looked relieved for the distraction Aya provided. "I approve. Where will you go for it?"

"I don't know."

"I could help you out," Schuldig said. "Show you the best places. You can't get a practical, kevlar-lined number just anywhere. Trust me."

"Trust you? You're joking."

"You liked the coat I bought you before, right?"

"You didn't get that one in Germany."

"Are you so sure of that?"

"Yes."

"You're so cute, Aya. Don't growl at me, Farfie."

"We don't need him," Farfarello said to Aya.

"Do you know where I could shop for a coat?" Aya asked.

Farfarello growled again. Schuldig beamed and said, "I could be ready in about 20 minutes."

"I need to wash up first anyway," Aya replied.

But once he closed the bathroom door, Farfarello pinned him against it angrily. "What?" Aya asked, annoyed.

"He wants you."

"I figured as much. He's not exactly subtle about it."

To be more inconspicuous, at Aya's urging, Farfarello wore dark sunglasses when they went out running. Right now, they hid more of his facial expressions than Aya liked. "You're accepting help and gifts from him."

"If wanting me makes him try to be useful for once--"

"You're leading him on."

Unbelievable. Aya shoved Farfarello away and glared. "Leading him on? You have no idea what I could be doing, what I am _not_ doing. What would you rather I do? If it's sensible I might do it. I have to work with him, so I can't ignore him completely. Sometimes he knows things or can do things I need. So what would you rather I do?"

Farfarello's mouth pursed. "Something else."

"That's very useful. Get out."

"No."

"Get out. I don't want your hands on me when you're acting like this."

"What if I won't?"

"We do this by force, and everything changes." Aya refused to be like some cowed girlfriend who was ever careful of her violent, jealous boyfriend. What self-respect he had demanded better.

They stared one another down, unmoving. Finally, Farfarello made a loud, explosive sound of disgust, then left, slamming the door behind him.

Did Farfarello just accuse him of being a tease and a slut? Yoji would laugh and laugh....

After a fast shower, Aya dressed. He'd thought of wearing the sweater just to annoy Schuldig but then thought that that might be pandering to Farfarello. To his annoyance, the whole thing, wondering about everyone's feelings and reactions, made him feel like a 12-year-old girl.

He didn't wear the sweater.

He breezed past the door to their room, only stopping briefly enough to let Farfarello see that the bathroom was free. Five people with one bathroom could be troublesome. Some members of the team claimed that as a good excuse to shower together. Aya wasn't in the mood for any of it.

Schuldig lounged on the couch and smiled at him in a way that made him want to knock the telepath's teeth out. Instead, Aya said, "I'm ready to go."

The smile deepened. "You don't want to wait for Snow-white?" Being a telepath, he no doubt had a good idea of what had happened.

"I don't have to."

"You don't have to wait," Farfarello said as he walked in with his hair dripping wet. He put his eyepatch on. "We can go."

The ride passed in silence, although everyone shot everyone else appraising looks. Aya wanted to kill them both. He wasn't a prize to be fought over.

He certainly wasn't a prize.

When Schuldig stopped at the first store on his list, Aya stepped out and shoved Farfarello back into the car. "I know what I'm looking for. I don't need either of you."

"I could help you get a better deal, since I know people," Schuldig said. "It would be less trouble."

"I'll do without you."

"What are we supposed to do?"

"Park or ride. I don't give a fuck right now."

******************************************************

Farfarello wavered between rage and admiration as he watched his puisín walk into the store. It had been some time since the kitten had directed that willfullness at him. Farfarello realized that Aya's recent accommodation had made him complacent, and he'd forgotten that the kitten did the things he wanted to do. If their wants coincided, Aya would go along. If not, he'd let Farfarello know, with force if necessary.

This was why the other pets hadn't worked out. They all put up a fight at first but broke so quickly. Toys stopped being fun once they broke. Who wanted to clean up after some staring, drooling thing that didn't even react to you anymore?

Besides, now that he had a pet who could hunt and play and kill with him, he would never go back to a less functional, less versatile pet.

"He's a partner, not a prisoner, now. You can't pull the leash tight anymore and expect him to just fall in line," Schuldig said from the driver's seat as he parked the car. "Not that he ever _really_ fell in line."

Despite himself, Farfarello laughed. Those first weeks had been stimulating, even if they'd been sexually frustrating.

"He's just come to accept that he's Schwarz and your lover. Go back to treating him like a prisoner, and he could blow up in all our faces."

"I don't need advice from you." Not even sensible advice that sounded like something Farfarello intended to keep in mind on his own anyway.

"You don't have to listen to me. You could be a jealous ass and lose him. But Schwarz can't afford to lose him, so I will be right there waiting to make sure he doesn't leave."

As if that would be the only reason. Schuldig was a filthy slut and proud of it, and for some reason he'd shown a special interest in Aya for a long time. "What would Crawford think?"

"He's a practical man, and he knows where my allegiances lie. He might even find it kinky, being something of a voyeur." Schuldig licked his lips. "I know exactly how good a lay Aya is, and I could make him even better. I would flaunt it too."

"He would never accept you."

"It would be better to have him completely willing, but if Schwarz's mission depends on me binding him to me I'll rewire what I have to." He said it so lightly, and with a self-satisfied smile. "He's already a little bit attracted on his own...."

Farfarello thought of Schuldig's dirty fingers in his puisín's brain. "I would kill you first." He could kill the telepath now.

Schuldig would do as he threatened. He enjoyed a bit of willfullness too, but only for a while. Then he broke his toys and played with the pieces until boredom set in. People thought Farfarello to be mercurial, but they just didn't know Schuldig very well.

He couldn't let his puisín fall into such careless hands.

"You could try. Hey, if you succeeded, Crawford would put you down like a rabid dog. You could lose everything." Schuldig looked back at him. "You have to think of what other people need once in a while. What does Schwarz need? What does _Aya_ need? Keep it in mind."

"I will."

Schuldig looked briefly surprised over his quick capitulation. Farfarello wouldn't let God defeat him, and he sure as hell wouldn't let Schuldig either. The kitten depended on him.

******************************************************

Aya walked through the store with the kind of fast, determined gait that discouraged people from getting in his way, since he too obviously knew where he was going and deserved to be going there. One employee almost said something as he reached the back employee door Schuldig had told him about, but she stopped once he shot a quelling look her way. He knocked in the specified pattern and nodded to the man who opened the door for him. The man looked through his duffel bag and briefly touched the guns and katana inside, then handed it back to Aya.

They walked down the stairs in silence. Aya approved of people who didn't believe in wasting time in idle chitchat and hoped that the no doubt armed man didn't do something stupid to make him reverse his opinion. Someone who appeared to be the proprietor met them at the bottom, looked into Aya's eyes, and said, "Yes, you look like you belong here. What do you need?"

Aya waited until his escort walked away, then said, "I need a long coat with a lining of light body armor. I use a katana and two guns. I need easy access to the guns." His knife didn't need to be a part of this conversation.

The man nodded and led him through the racks. "Where do you wear your guns?"

"Shoulder rig. It puts a gun above each hip. I've brought my gear with me to make sure it works out."

"Excellent forethought."

Aya hoped to find a coat here, and not just to spare himself further shopping. The kind of professionalism he saw in this operation should be rewarded.

******************************************************

Aya walked out with his duffel bag and a garment bag and stopped at the car door. Schuldig asked, "You sure you don't want to see the other place before you buy?"

"I'm sure. I'm content."

"Then get in. What took you so long?"

"I tried everything on to make sure it would work with my rig."

"Yeah, yeah." Schuldig looked in the rearview mirror and saw that Farfarello was still trying to drill a hole in him with his stare.

Brad would not be happy that Schuldig's flirting with Aya had led to this kind of confrontation. Like he could _stop_ flirting. Still, he knew better. Farfie didn't have much of a hold on his temper, and he could be insanely jealous. It would be stupid of Schuldig to destabilize Schwarz's fragile relationship with Abyssinian just because he couldn't control his mouth.

It wasn't fucking fair, though. After so many nights of willing and unwilling telepathic eavesdropping, he knew what Aya tasted like, the sounds he made, and how he moved. Knew that he had a small birthmark on the inside of his left thigh. Knew that Farfie had no fucking technique, pardon the pun, while Schuldig could play Aya like the fine instrument he was. Hell, Schuldig was itching to _train_ Aya, because Aya would never achieve his full potential fucking a man who barely felt anything. Farfarello needed his sexplay to be as direct, hard, and to-the-point as a knife to the gut. Farfie would _ruin_ Aya.

What did Aya really feel like to the touch? Schuldig would never find out from Farfie's brain, not with his weird condition muffling the sensations.

Fuck the big picture, Schuldig wanted Aya, and not just for one time because he'd keep on wanting him until he'd tried and felt everything he wanted to. He'd always had shitty impulse control and an obsession with things he couldn't have. He had so many excuses this time. Aya was so pretty and fucked-up. Getting a reaction out of his sullen stoneface mask was a challenge. Farfie was so much fun to yank around. Farfie's successes proved that Aya could be bent and changed. Schuldig had ways he wanted to bend Aya.... All that sex starring Aya that kept invading his mind had been more than Schuldig could take.

It wasn't his fault!

Of course. It never was.

Schuldig even knew that Schwarz would be better off having Aya stay with Farfarello, since Farfie wanted something more permanent from him than Schuldig did. Maybe Schuldig could borrow the kitten?

Like he'd ever get permission for that one.

In the backseat, the psycho couple had space separating them, but Farfarello has a thoughtful look on his face. Schuldig could feel the wheels turning in that cracked head even if he couldn't read anything specific. If they'd make up, it looked like Farfie didn't intend to try it in public. Damn it. Schuldig wanted to watch with his eyes.

******************************************************

Aya appreciated the silent ride and lack of molestation. He wasn't in the mood. But Farfarello followed him into their bedroom and said, "I want to see your new coat."

"I'm not as interested in what you want as I might usually be." Aya wouldn't tell him about the new mission shirt either. With the new coat staying open for better access to his guns, Aya had opted for something that would provide light body armor for his chest.

"I was bad. I admit it. I took out my anger at Schuldig out on you."

"You didn't pin _him_ against a wall."

Farfarello grinned. "I don't enjoy pinning him against a wall the same way I do when I do it to you."

"You called me a slut." Aya was still pissed off and incredulous over that.

"Did not."

"You implied it."

"You inferred it."

"You're trying my patience."

"Aya...." Farfarello moved in to nuzzle his neck, and Aya allowed it. Barely. "I'm vigilant because everyone would want a kitten like you for their own."

"You don't own me."

"Of course not." His tone suggested that he was humoring Aya.

"You don't own me."

"I don't. I take care of you, keeping you bright and sharp...." He seemed to be almost trancing out on the scent and feel of Aya's body, and Aya found the cadence of his voice and rocking to be nearly hypnotic. When had Farfarello enfolded him in an embrace, anyway? "I'll put all the blame on the guilty one, where it belongs. It would be stupid to lose you because I did something stupid out of fear of losing you."

"Good." What else could he say?

"Now can I see your coat?"

"No. I'm not easy."

Farfarello smiled. "Good."

Annoyed, Aya pushed Farfarello aside, hung his garment bag up in the closet, sat on the bed, and took off his shoes. "I'll be taking a nap." As much as he hated to admit it, he'd felt a little rundown lately and could use a little rest. He hadn't gotten much last night.

Farfarello had a look on his face that usually led to mischief. Aya curled up to wait and see.

******************************************************

Farfarello smiled as he looked at the pretty kitten curled up on the bed napping like he should be. While he'd been tempted to say something about Aya obeying him about getting rest, he figured that would lead to an argument instead of a nap and forbore. He also had to fight the urge to pet him, because stroked kittens led very quickly to fucked kittens, not sleep.

Aya's breathing evened out as he fell deeper asleep, so Farfarello walked to the closet. He wanted to see the new coat. As he reached for the garment bag, something felt wrong, so he dodged. A kitchen knife hit the doorframe and quivered. Farfarello glanced back at his puisín, who was still curled up but had his eyes open.

"I told you no," Aya said.

_His_ kitten. _Loved_ him. Farfarello asked, amused and excited, "Why did you keep a kitchen knife?"

"I won't throw my good knife at a wall."

Farfarello bounced onto the bed and snuggled in beside his perfect pet, nuzzling the back of Aya's neck. "I'm napping," Aya said, which meant no sex, which was a shame since Farfarello wanted to be fucked so badly right now, but he would survive.

"Yeah."

Farfarello had worried that using the guns would make Aya smell like Schuldig, a sign of _Schuldig's_ ownership, but they just added another level to Aya's scent instead of overwhelming it. More metal, plus a little gunpowder. Gunpowder right now? Aya must have really worked out in the new coat before buying it.

He wanted to see the coat, damn it.

Aya's body slowly relaxed as he saw that the hand on his hip and nuzzling wouldn't lead to activity that would prevent a nap. Farfarello could be good. When he wanted to be. Sometimes Aya wanted to be convinced to do things, but sometimes he really did want to be left unmolested. He tended to react violently when Farfarello guessed wrong, which could suck or be fun depending on whether Farfarello was in the mood for a good fight, which he often was, but he didn't want to upset his puisín too much so he usually tried to be correct.

With Aya lying sleepy and pliant against him, it didn't take long for Farfarello to fall asleep as well.


	28. "They know a sadist when they feel one."

Throughout dinner, Schuldig seemed to be barely containing himself from saying something. Aya refused to ask him about it, but Farfarello finally barked, "What?"

"Somebody has to say it. You are so pussywhipped, Farfie."

Farfarello just smiled. "I'd be upset if I didn't know how badly you want to be whipped yourself."

Annoyed, Schuldig became even more obviously annoyed when he saw the look on Crawford's face. "You knew he wouldn't get upset, didn't you?" he asked.

"Yes."

"You suck. And not in a fun way." But when Crawford suddenly blinked hard, Schuldig asked, "What is it?"

"Nagi's going to a club with Aya tonight."

"That's not even funny," Nagi said.

"It's not my first choice, but it's a way to keep a powerful young telepath away from Eszett."

If dinner hadn't been over before, it was now. All of Schwarz paid attention now.

"What do we care about that?" Schuldig asked. "We're gonna bring 'em down anyway soon. They won't get much time to enjoy this telepath."

"Little things make a difference."

"You're just annoyed that the others never responded to you," Nagi said to Schuldig. "Idiot. They know a sadist when they feel one. Plus, I'm sure they can tell that you kill people for a living."

"Others?" Aya asked.

"We tried to keep other talents out of Eszett's reach before, but the talents saw us as being exactly the same as Eszett," Crawford answered. "Nagi has an interesting point, and that may be why he's the one who's going to help her shut down."

"Me?" Nagi almost squeaked. "I'm not much of a telepath, but I am a misanthrope, and I kill people for a living too. I haven't got a chance."

"That's why you'll draw on Schuldig's ability."

"What?" Schuldig asked. "Nobody's using anything of mine."

"Go into his head?" Nagi asked. "No. I know where he's been."

"You're a riot, kid. Who says you're worthy to--"

"She manifested recently, and she can't control it," Crawford said.

"Even better," Nagi answered. "We get to be attacked by someone we shouldn't attack back."

Crawford nonchalantly cleaned his glasses. "Nagi, I said that I wanted to send you to a club with Aya. That's where this girl will be. I'm sending you in. With Aya."

Nagi stilled. "I'm waiting to hear the catch. Aside from the hostile, new telepath, because there has to be more of a catch."

"Why me?" Aya asked. "I kill people too."

"She may find the presence of a normal to be reassuring."

"Because Aya is famous for his talent in comforting people," Schuldig said sweetly.

"Whatever. He's there. I see him." Crawford asked Aya, "Do you have anything better to do tonight? Honestly."

Aya had to answer, "Possibly." It was that kind of day, that kind of mood.

"Please, Aya," Nagi said, looking younger as he begged. "I doubt there will ever be another time when Crawford would willingly send me into a club. I have to make it work, because I'll need to treasure this memory for a long time."

He found himself unable to deny the plea. "All right." Aya only hoped that Nagi never realized the power he sometimes had, the way Aya-chan had. The thought made Aya close his eyes, yet the familiar pain gave him some comfort. He must never forget her.

"Thank you! Aya?"

Aya opened his eyes again. He said, "I'm fine," to wipe the worry out of the boy's eyes.

"What will I be doing?" Farfarello asked as he traced slow patterns on Aya's back.

"You'll be killing the crew Eszett sends in before they can enter the building," Crawford answered.

"I like that plan."

"I never agreed to this plan," Schuldig said.

"I agreed for you," Crawford answered.

"What gives you the right?"

"If it works out, you'll get something out of it. Trust me."

"That phrase always makes me want to check my pockets."

"Schu."

"Fine," Schuldig replied, with a sulky look. "I'll let Nagi penetrate me."

Nagi sighed. "Schuldig, I just ate."

Schuldig leered. "I'll have to give you direction, tell you what to do. Who knows where that could lead?"

"You're like my creepy uncle."

"I thought I was your sleazy mom."

"That too. Just makes you creepier."

******************************************************

"Stop fucking blinking!" Schuldig growled.

"Stop sticking a pencil in my eyes!" Nagi growled back. "Blinking is a perfectly valid instinctive reaction to something trying to put my eyes out." And Schuldig's hair kept brushing against his hand every time Schuldig leaned in.

"I'm being kind enough to line your eyes for you. Try to show some appreciation, you ungrateful--"

"I think that Nagi's lashes are long and dark enough that he doesn't need eyeliner," Aya said before walking out of the room.

Aya was looking at his eyes? When Schuldig sniggered, Nagi asked, "Does he ever have anything nice to say about _your_ eyelashes?"

"You and Farfarello are pissing me off...." Schuldig stopped leaning over him. "You're as beautiful as I can make you."

Nagi stood before Schuldig could decide to attack him with the eye pencil again. "Thanks."

"Nervous, sugar?"

Schuldig had been calling him more petnames since his fashion change. It was almost enough to make him miss the once ubiquitous "kid." Nagi sighed. "I have to do something I don't know how to do and draw on your head and some of your power to do it. Why would I be nervous?"

"I always failed at saving telepaths from Eszett, so Brad won't be expecting much."

"That's so wonderfully comforting."

"Get going before the urge to unbuckle you out of that outfit overwhelms me."

Nagi liked this outfit, especially since black made him feel taller. "The great thing about all the buckles is that you couldn't get much undone before I blasted you into the next room."

"Love you too, baby."

Nagi walked out before Schuldig showered any more come-ons and petnames on him. Crawford winced a little upon seeing him but tossed him the keys to the car. Nagi grinned as he caught them, then asked Aya, "You're not driving?"

"I don't have to drive if you want to." Aya leaned against the doorway in a sprawl of black accented with shiny metal, looking effortlessly cool, untouchable, and exotic. Hardly comforting looking. Nagi didn't actually look like the comforting type either right now. Fuck it. This girl would take her salvation in the form it came in or not at all.

"I want to."

Farfarello silently followed them out and settled into the backseat, while Aya sat up front, next to Nagi. Silly to be so excited over going to a club, since he hated clubs, but just knowing that Crawford had to send him gave him a little thrill. Knowing that Crawford sent him out to do something alone with Aya made it even better.

Aya suddenly broke the comfortable silence to ask, "Why would a newly activated telepath with problems go to a club?"

"Schuldig explained it to me once that they're looking for a place that matches the chaos in their heads to make them feel a little more normal. Of course, with all the sex and drug use going around, it's actually one of the worst things they can do to themselves. If you're in a club and you see this one person dancing alone like he's stoned out of his mind, it might be telepathy instead of drugs." Nagi tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. "It's harder if you manifest when you're older. You're not as flexible and you already have all these ideas about how things are _supposed_ to go. If she can get into a club, she's far past the easier ages."

"If she's a telepath, can't she make them let her in no matter her age?"

"New telepaths don't have that kind of control. She'd more likely lobotomize the guy by accident."

"How do we know she won't try to lobotomize us?"

"We don't." Nagi felt a murmur at the back of his head, and they were still blocks away. This girl definitely had a lot of power and no control.

"Wonderful."

"You're killing my buzz."

From the back, Farfarello said, "You sound exactly like Schuldig." Nagi could hear the evil smile in his voice.

"Shut up."

"Make me, kitten-smitten boy."

So Nagi did. Telekinesis could be so useful. Even Aya seemed to be amused by the sight of Farfarello trying and failing to open his mouth. Nagi didn't release it until after they'd parked.

"I know what to do," Farfarello said as he got out.

Nagi felt weirdly nervous as he and Aya approached the line to get in. Maybe the drone of the girl's telepathy could be held responsible for his anxiety, since he'd gotten into a club just fine on his own recently, and now he had Aya. The bouncer immediately let them in, giving Aya an appreciative look as he did so, which made both Nagi and Aya bristle a bit. But they'd made it.

"The bouncer checked you out," Aya said as the door closed behind them.

"Please. He was looking at you."

Aya answered with a tch!

The club hit Nagi harder this time, which made sense if his telepathy were getting stronger. The thoughts and emotions leaked through his best shields. He reached out for Aya, who felt placid inside, if slightly annoyed. It felt like home. Nagi felt more comfortable in this environment this time, maybe because the company helped, and even danced a little as he moved. Thus fortified, he held onto Aya's wrist and cut through the writhing crowd in search of their target, whom he could feel but not see. Why did most Germans have to be so tall anyway?

Then he saw her dancing with the wall. This close, her bleed-off made him want to clutch his own head and scream, but he stayed distant and icy, refusing to give in to such weakness. ~ Schuldig, we see her. We're moving to engage. ~ He hated the feel of Schuldig's mind, the vast, screaming ocean of it. Dark things lurked under the shouting waters. Schuldig's self was a feather riding the hurricane force of humanity's thoughts, and Schuldig didn't know why Nagi didn't want to be a telepath?

~ I'm here. Not that I like it. ~

~ It's not about what we like. ~

~ No kidding. ~

Nagi let go of Aya's wrist. The girl was so lost in a multitude of minds that she didn't notice their approach, drowning in the forest and thus missing the trees. Her mind sounded like a multi-edged riptide, making her painful to be near. Aya stepped behind her, while Nagi moved to face her. Contact made a big difference, so Nagi would have to touch her, skin to skin. He hated this.... He reached up to touch her face, just as Aya stood close enough to her that she couldn't back away.

Contact. Her face felt so hot against his fingers.

She was _pissed_. Nagi didn't see why. She'd had an idyllic childhood full of loving parents, family, and friends. No excessive bullies. No creepy molesters. No being thrown out into the streets, hated for something she'd been born with that hadn't been her fault. Kathe's life had been perfect until a car accident two days ago in which she hadn't even been badly injured... having only lightly struck her head against the steering wheel. She might never have manifested without the scare and the light blow to the head. Now she drowned under the minds of others, and she saw that people were evil things who hid their true debased selves. She read their minds now and knew what they really thought, and the world would never be the same again.

_He_ was supposed to convince her that things weren't like that?

But she was telepathically tearing at him as the first mental invasion she could strike at, and at Schuldig through him. Schuldig told him to stop daydreaming and block or _something_, you good for nothing little shit....

Then she stopped concentrating on him, and the rage became muted under something else. Under... love? Aya had grabbed Kathe from behind and very determinedly thought about his love for his sister as he remembered her in her prime. Sometimes grief crept into the love, making Nagi think of someone fumbling at a piano looking for the right notes, but Aya pushed it away, concentrating on the good times, memories that had their edges sanded off and been polished to a high shine by a lonely, obsessed brother looking for something to hold onto.

She distrusted the love, as the last few days had made her distrust everything, and she tore into Aya's mind, trying to peel it apart, looking for memories that would prove that love to be a lie. ~ Stop! ~ Nagi said, but she didn't listen. How could she want to tear this to shreds when he wanted nothing more than to press close to it and warm himself? She uncovered less processed memories of young Ran being annoyed by his sister following him everywhere, but underneath it lurked affection. She dug deeper, all force, and Aya fought back by throwing more love at her, since all his instincts told him to attack but he couldn't do that as usual here.... Aya breathed hard under the assault but held on to her. She was _hurting_ him.

~ BACK OFF, BITCH! ~ Nagi thundered into her brain. _That_ got a response and a ceasefire.

~ You really are the kinder, gentler telepath, ~ Schuldig said.

~ I never claimed to be. ~

In her surprise, the anger faded, which let what Aya fed them grow stronger, feeding them both. She wanted to know who they were. They were _killers_....

~ There are people looking for you for what you can do now, and they made us into killers. We don't want them to get you too, so we're going to help you hide your talent. ~

She wanted to know if they could take it away completely.

~ No. We can just bury it. You'll have it, but you won't be able to access it. Do you really want that? ~ When Nagi heard whistling in his brain, he said, ~ Shut up, Schuldig. ~

~ Sure, draw her attention to me. ~

~ _You_ already did that. Besides, I'm sure she can sense you, so it's better to be honest. ~

Schuldig grumbled.

She asked what Aya did, since he didn't seem to be a telepath. Having gone through his memories, she knew his names and could see that he was a normal.

~ Tell her what Aya does, sugar. ~

~ Don't mind Schuldig, ~ Nagi said. ~ Aya has his own talents. ~

~ And how. ~

~ Be helpful or shut up, Schuldig. ~

Kathe thought they were funny and relaxed a little, though she wondered why two Japanese men had been sent to her. Not that she was racist, no, just that it seemed strange, especially with the German of the crew elsewhere.

Nagi smiled. ~ It just worked out that way. ~ He blushed when he heard her think about how whomever had sent _attractive_ Japanese men....

Relaxed, she had better control of herself and tuned into them to help drown out everyone else. Understandably, she didn't want to be taken by an organization that turned people into killers. She wanted them to block her access and hide her ability.

~ Back in a minute, Nagi. I have to tell Farfarello where to go. Back. Let the shielding commence. Boost Aya's signal, then tap into me.... ~

Boosted, the love overwhelmed Nagi. How could someone be loved so much for simply existing? It wasn't normal. He wanted it....

~ Focus. Even if _I_ wish I could bottle this.... ~ Schuldig directed Nagi, telling him where to go, what to do, and how to do it. Blanketed in Aya's feeling for his sister, Schuldig's mind didn't feel like such a sleazy pit, and the power flowed between them like as easily and cleanly as water. He could _change_ things....

When Nagi opened his eyes for a moment, he saw a look of transcendent joy on Aya's face and heard him murmur, "Imouto," _sister_, as he went so far back in his memories that Schuldig's language compulsion for German didn't touch him. He was beautiful.... Focus! He closed his eyes again.

~ No, go with that. Add some happy love thoughts to the mix. ~

No, it was too intimate, too much to show. He added the joy of hacking a code, when everything fit and worked, as he shielded Kathe's telepathy from the world and from herself.

~ This could work. I'm coaching you, but you're doing things your own way. No Eszett signature. Fuck, Brad's a genius. ~

Nagi wouldn't go that far, but this sure felt good....

******************************************************

Farfarello waited in the shadows at the back entrance and moved his head to the low, heavy throb running through the wall. The music inside must have been very loud. He was bored. Fortunately, the prey arrived, dressed to dance but with telltale bulges under their jackets.

"We're losing her," one of them muttered into a headset. Good to know that things were working out well.

Farfarello quietly killed one from behind. The other four were well-trained enough that they quickly noticed and attacked him. Not that it mattered. He killed. One of them was probably a telepath, so he divorced his thinking from his actions, confident that his body knew what to do. It did. Killing was fundamental.

Such lovely screaming and bleeding. If only his puisín could be here to share this with him.

Soon enough, nothing else moved, and he had to mop up. He didn't enjoy this butchery as much, but it had to be done.

******************************************************

Almost done. Nagi put the finishing touches on as Ran laughed and tumbled down a hill with his sister. The sun shone.... Nagi felt jubilant, high. Similarly stoned, Schuldig made no comments and offered no resistance to anything Nagi did over their link. Not that Nagi did anything bad to him, being too happy for that. He'd also decided to leave Kathe just enough access to let her suss out people with bad intentions. It would be useful.

Kathe's mind suddenly spiked with panic. Done? You're going to leave? She hadn't felt this good in forever.... She grabbed Aya's right hand and set it on Nagi's shoulder, touching his bare neck. Shit, she learned fast, Nagi thought before he drowned.

He finally rolled to a stop and just stayed like that for a little bit because the sun felt so good, so warm. Laughing, his sister ran over and jumped on him, hugging him. "See? It's fun to get dirty," she said. She had a leaf stuck in her hair, so he plucked it out.

Mom and Dad would kill him for getting their clothes so dirty. He was older; he was supposed to be responsible. But he didn't care, and he wouldn't think about it. Being the good one most of the time should earn him _some_ leeway, and later would never come.

Nagi shrugged Aya's hand off and took a deep breath. Aya did too. He looked stunned, kissable. Cut that out. Nagi took his hands away from Kathe's face. "Done," he said. He felt so weird... bubbly on the inside, like champagne....

"It's so quiet," she said. Looking simultaneously afraid and happy, she snuggled back against Aya, the harlot.

"You'll get used to it again. Let's take you home." At her suspicious look, he said, "To make sure you get there safely. Aya?"

"I'm fine." He looked dazed, but in a blissed out way.

"Could you... put some of it back?" she asked.

~ _Now_ she wants the stuff? ~ Schuldig sounded far too happy and satisfied. ~ Then again, we just fed her the telepathic version of heroin.... ~

Could he do this on his own? Yeah. Nagi put his hand on the side of her face and loosened the shield a little, enough for her to feel but not enough for Eszett to notice. No more bleed-off. Why did he hate touching people? It was great. He wanted to dance, even if the three of them were getting interested looks from the people around them. What were they looking at? Oh yeah, two young men and a girl entwined and rocking with each other in time.

"Yes, let's take her home," Crawford said as he approached. "Keys, Nagi?"

Nagi reluctantly handed them over. Part of him wanted to stay so badly, while another part of him was horrified over how he felt. Kathe didn't look too disturbed at the new addition to her circle, so she must have gotten an image of Crawford from Nagi's head. Scary, but he didn't feel too scared.

"Please follow me, Miss Vogel," Crawford said, so professional, and Kathe was flattered by the seemingly grown up way he spoke to her, so she did. Nagi and Aya followed, and for once Nagi didn't mind getting mildly groped by strangers on his way out.

Crawford, acting the gentleman, offered her the shotgun seat, but Nagi didn't mind sitting in back with Aya. Not at all. Even in the dimness Nagi could see the small smile on his face, even as he said softly, "I'm not sure I like this feeling. It's too much."

"It'll fade, Aya-kun."

How did he end up in Aya's lap? He must have put himself there. Aya felt so good. Nagi didn't do any skin to skin right now, since that would have been too much, but otherwise he felt so comfortable. So comfortable that he stayed there until they reached Kathe's home, at which point he and Aya quietly escorted her to the building's front door. She said a quick, confused goodbye to them, then raced inside.

Crawford sighed as Nagi refused the shotgun seat in favor of sitting with Aya again. Maybe he'd be embarrassed about this when the happiness faded, but for now he couldn't bring himself to give up contact. Besides, Aya idly stroked his hair all the way home.


	29. "To evil."

Farfarello paced the living room. "Where are they?"

Draped on the couch, Schuldig looked languidly pleased with himself. "They're fine." Farfarello didn't like the smile on his face and wanted to cut it off. Schuldig said, "I'm happy, not careless. And here they come now."

Aya was smiling a bit as he walked in, and his pupils were a little dilated. He grabbed Farfarello and held him very close, body-to-body, snuggling in. Nice, but weird, not quite Aya-like.

"Nagi, what did you do to my puisín?"

"What did I do to him? What did he do to me? My face feels weird."

"You're smiling."

"Maybe that's it." The boy had dilated pupils too. "It'll pass."

"What the fuck is going on?"

Schuldig, who'd wound himself around Crawford as soon as he entered the apartment, said, "We had to calm the girl down first. Aya ended up using his love for his sister to do it, we amplified it, and, damn, was that good shit. Endorphins. I don't know. Want a taste?"

"No."

"I feel a little out of control," Aya murmured into his neck. "It's too... too."

"Too?"

"Too much. Too... happy."

If Aya felt out of control, he'd prefer to be so in private. Farfarello led him back to their room and tried to ignore Schuldig's ribald suggestions. He didn't need Schuldig's help.

"You don't even smell the same," Farfarello said.

"I was at a club." Aya sat on the bed, his smile brighter and wider than his usual Aya-smile, and he had an odd light in his dilated purple eyes. It freaked Farfarello out. Aya said, "Come here."

Testing Aya's mood, he said, "I'd prefer to see your new coat first."

"It's nothing special. I just wouldn't let you look before because you wanted to."

"Punishment." Farfarello opened the garment bag, prepared to dodge a knife the whole time. Nothing came at him. This coat too was made of black leather and had some straps, but it wasn't double-breasted, since it was designed to stay open. It reeked of newness, so he wouldn't really like it until Aya wore it for a while. "A shirt too?" He could see that the black, sleeveless, high-necked shirt had a panel of light armor at the front.

"My coat will be open."

Good. Healthy kittens had a sense of self-preservation. He turned to look when he heard chiming behind him and saw Aya playing with the cat collar. The coat abruptly became much less interesting.

When Aya looked up from the collar and at Farfarello, his eyes glinted with wickedness. "Come here."

Only a fool would refuse that kind of invitation. Farfarello crouched in front of him and watched with avid eyes as he unbuckled the collar and placed it around Farfarello's neck, stroking the skin around it as he fastened it. Farfarello rocked a little to make the bell chime. The collar pressed against the bottom of his Adam's apple whenever he swallowed, so he swallowed often.

******************************************************

Aya still felt so strange. While he'd been happy before, it had never been this bright and consistent or lasted this long. It didn't feel right. He should wait this out alone somewhere.

He would, if he didn't have such a need to touch Farfarello right now, and as much as he touched, he wanted more. The skin of his lover's neck felt so smooth and hot under his fingertips. Only a slim pink line remained of the deep gash he'd cut into it. It might not even scar. Aya didn't know how he felt about that.

He put a finger under the collar and pulled Farfarello closer to kiss him. That wasn't enough either. Wanted Farfarello so badly.... "I feel full," Aya said as he pulled his lover down on top of him on the bed.

"Full of what?"

"Full of... feeling." And it left him in a ridiculously snuggly mood, even if he sounded stupid. "Fuck me." At least _that_ came out well. He hoped that Farfarello didn't object so strenuously to his happy self that he refused.

Aya needn't have worried. Smiling, he lost himself under the touches, kisses, and jingling. Later, as Farfarello fucked him, moving on top of and inside his body, connected, Aya felt... more full of feeling, much too full, and wanted to say something, but he still didn't quite know what it was, so he settled on repeating Farfarello's name instead.

"I know," Farfarello answered.

******************************************************

Feeling tired but restless and still happy, Nagi paced. He couldn't possibly work while in this condition. Then the evening sex show started, and he knew he had to get out. Distance would help him.

Nagi let himself out and took the stairs to the roof. The view of the dark but light-edged city below almost let him believe for a dizzy second that he owned the world before he figured, more practically, that he wouldn't know what to do with it if he did. With the moon this bright, he could see clouds gliding across the sky, which gave him the idea of flying as high as he dared. He telekinetically created a pocket of air to travel with him, then shot upwards.

The clouds felt damp as he rose through them, but he didn't mind, though he fastened his jacket to try to ward off the chill. He didn't go _too_ high. As he floated for a little while, he realized that his kinetic sense of sight worked here too, letting him see particles in motion. Could he manipulate them to get the effect he wanted? He knew theories of how these things worked.

Exhilarated, he smiled as he made his chosen cloud let loose a volley of rain and whooped as he created a lightning bolt. Then he fell a kilometer in his distraction but recovered in time, even if he hung upside-down for a bit. He could even make the rain stop on command. When he looked at his watch, he saw that it had taken more time to master all of this than he'd realized, but it had been so much fun that he hadn't minded. And there had to be practical applications.

He just about bounced back into the apartment when he returned home. As he opened the door to his room, he saw Aya walk out into the hall and had to share. "Aya, I made a storm!" He sounded like a lunatic, but it had been such a thrill that he bubbled over with it. Since Aya gave him a "you're so crazy" look, Nagi said, "Come in. I want to tell somebody about it."

"You _made_ a storm?" Aya asked as he walked inside.

"Rain. Lightning. It was great." Then he pounced Aya, who jumped, which made him feel guilty. Nagi let go and backed away, trying to forget how it had felt to rest his head on Aya's chest. "Sorry."

"You're just cold and damp," Aya replied. Nagi was cold and damp, while Aya was bare-chested and sleep- and sex-warm. "And you smell a bit like ozone."

"Understandably. It was such a rush!" Nagi shook his head. "I sound like an idiot. I can't wait until I'm back to normal."

"I understand the feeling," Aya answered, his tone very dry.

"I think I'll sleep the rest of it off. Good night, Aya."

"Good night, Nagi." Aya smiled a little as he left the room. Freaky.

As Nagi changed for bed, he decided that it hadn't all been bad. His happiness had led to the discovery of a new application for his abilities and given him an excuse to jump Aya.

******************************************************

Schuldig woke up half a minute after Brad did and asked, "What is it?" His telepathy rarely gave him access to Brad's visions. At best, he received tiny glimpses.

One of the reasons that Schuldig didn't wrap around him like a snake in bed was that Brad twitched a lot as he slept and twitched more when the visions woke him. Visions interrupted his sleep about twice a week, sometimes more when Schwarz pushed themselves harder during the day, as they had been doing for the last few weeks.

Brad's body felt stiff under Schuldig's arm. "Don't flirt with Aya today."

"Or what?"

"Or Farfarello will lose it and things will become very messy. I shouldn't have to explain this to you or need to have a vision to enforce it. You know better."

"I hate being told what to do."

"I hate having to tell you something that's common sense."

Schuldig hated having conversations with Brad in the dark, since he couldn't read him very well in general and couldn't see his face either. Not that Brad's face was an open book most of the time. Right now, Schuldig could easily hear the anger in his voice and answered, "I know, okay?"

"But?"

"I can't help myself. Aya is so there."

"Schu."

"I want him. Experiencing him secondhand is only making me want him more. If I could just have him for a little while, I could get him out of my system."

"You know that's not going to happen."

Schuldig hated being lectured like some wayward kid, but he knew he had some of this coming. He'd brought it on himself. "Of course I know that."

"I don't want the team to self-destruct."

"I know." Schuldig didn't want that either.

"I rely on you."

That little admission almost made the lecture worth it. Almost. "I won't deliberately provoke Farfarello. I can't promise that I won't set him off by accident."

"I suppose that will have to be enough."

"Damned right. You done?"

"Yes."

"Can you get back to sleep?"

"I haven't tried it yet." Brad twitched, then sighed. "I won't be able to."

"What if I gave you a blowjob?" If Brad didn't sleep, Schuldig wouldn't be able to.

"That might work."

"Well then."

"Does that mean you'll do it?"

"I don't know." When Brad started to roll away, Schuldig amended that to "Of course I will. I just had to torture you a little first."

******************************************************

When Aya opened his eyes, Farfarello murmured, "Good morning."

Aya sighed as he remembered how he'd behaved so weirdly last night. How embarrassing. "Is it?"

Farfarello grinned. "_That's_ my kitten." He still wore the belled collar, the only thing he had on.

Feeling perverse, Aya asked, "You didn't like the sex?"

"I liked it, but I get sex from _my_ kitten too."

Aya preferred being his usual self. Still, last night he had been able to remember the good times with his sister without the shadows of her coma and death tainting them, and for that he was thankful.

When he turned to the night table to see what time it was, he saw another book lying on top of the Nietzsche. He picked it up and looked at the cover. Sun Tzu's _The Art of War_, translated into German. When Aya turned to look at Farfarello, Farfarello's smile had widened.

"You lost so many books in the fire, puisín, and you're getting to the end of _Beyond Good and Evil_."

It was very thoughtful. No wonder Farfarello had been taking interest when they slowed down near bookstores on the morning run. "Thank you."

Farfarello lingered over the bath longer than usual that morning, muttering something about making Aya smell right, which would be offensive if Aya hadn't understood what he meant. Besides, it felt nice to be cared for.

At breakfast, Nagi had an expression on his face more suited to his character. Farfarello grinned and said, "Give me the teapot."

Nagi cast him an annoyed look. "Get it yourself." Back to normal.

"You were so accommodating last night...."

"Then you should have taken advantage last night, because it will never happen again." His cheeks had a slight hint of pink in them, suggesting that he too felt embarrassed over his behavior last night.

"You're saying he could have taken advantage of you then?" Schuldig asked sweetly.

"Fuck off."

Crawford and Farfarello looked very satisfied, and why not? This could have been any good morning amongst Schwarz.

Aya noticed Sculdig getting a look on his face like he wanted to say something, then saying nothing. It happened a few times. Aya asked, "What?"

Looking sour and frustrated, Schuldig answered, "Nothing."

******************************************************

The garden made a nice change from all the warehouses and offices they'd been hunting through lately, though it presented some obstacles that had to be jumped over or dodged. In the darkness, sometimes Aya missed things lying in his path. He saw motion that seemed to be Farfarello running from another direction to intercept the victim Aya chased.

Lightning split the sky and struck their prey dead in a flash and boom, the sight stopping Farfarello short. He and Aya cautiously circled the crumpled body.

"Looks like a success," Nagi said from behind them.

"You did this?" Farfarello asked.

"Yep. This one's nicely crispy and won't bother anyone ever again. I'm more accurate than God." Nagi smirked. "I won't hit you with lightning, Farfarello."

Farfarello looked up at the sky. "No. I just waited to see if you would be struck dead by a lightning bolt."

"Sorry. No such luck. I don't think He's paying attention."

Farfarello smiled. "Good."

The boy truly was dangerous, which relieved Aya. Given his recent experiences, he preferred to care for people who could protect themselves.

******************************************************

Aya had nine new books now. Sometimes one waited for him every morning, and sometimes Farfarello skipped a few mornings. It led to Aya anticipating mornings for surprises. When he'd asked about it, Farfarello had said, "This is more fun than just giving them to you all at once in a box."

In a similar vein, Crawford had slowed the pace of their campaign a little, varying the days, frequency, and kinds of attacks. They killed minions, they assassinated leaders, they ransacked and destroyed labs, and Nagi siphoned funds out of Eszett accounts with his hacking skills. Given chances to rest, the team didn't burn out. Aya approved.

Sometimes Aya realized that he was content.

******************************************************

Aya saw the bullet heading in Schuldig's direction but doubted that the telepath had noticed. It was a ricochet, so no mind had aimed and directed its deadly trajectory in that direction, and there was too much else going on. Aya deflected it a tiny bit with his katana. At the harsh clang of metal meeting metal, Schuldig dodged and turned to see the source of the sound, his eyes widening in surprise. Certain that a snide comment would follow, Aya threw himself into another part of the fight.

Yet no snide comment followed, not then and not in the car. Maybe Aya would save his life again.

******************************************************

As Crawford had predicted, Schuldig asked from the door, "You noticed Abyssinian watching my back tonight, right?"

"Yes."

"We have him. We so have him. That hadn't been instinct overriding his brain. He'd thought that out and decided to protect me."

That had been a sweet moment, the culmination of so much time and work. Very satisfying. Still.... "You shouldn't have missed that bullet." Crawford, who hadn't seen it coming until half a second before it ricocheted, had worried. It drove him crazy when he received visions about events he couldn't affect.

Schuldig made a face at him. "I was concentrating on five other people and _their_ bullets. I'm not omnipotent, as much as I wish I could be."

"I appreciate your restraint in not taunting him about it."

"It wouldn't have been smart." He brought his hands out from behind his back to reveal a bottle of red wine and two goblets that Crawford had known were there. He could be oddly cute at times.

"In a celebratory mood?"

"You know I am. You have that look on your face that tells me you foresaw this."

How annoying. "I didn't foresee you realizing."

"No one's perfect. _I_ wish I could surprise you with more stuff. Don't worry, fearless leader. Only someone who knows you as... intimately as I do would be able to read that look." He set the bottle down on the night table and poured them each a glass, then offered Crawford one. He raised his goblet in a toast. "To evil."

Crawford smiled and touched his glass to Schuldig's. "To evil." Schuldig had chosen an excellent wine. He'd improved his telepath's taste in such things.

"I heard that."

"So? Hear this." Crawford set the goblet down and kissed him, savoring the taste on wine on his lips, and basked in the humid, fresh-from-the shower heat radiating from his body. So good.

"Mmm." Schuldig raised his glass again. "Here's to being alive to enjoy the after-fight sex." He drained it in one swallow, then opened his robe and pounced Crawford. You didn't always need precognition to anticipate Schuldig's moves.

"I heard that too, you smug bastard."

******************************************************

Omi walked the streets of Berlin not so aimlessly, although he certainly felt lost. The Schwarz victims had been coming fewer and farther between lately, though it may have been that they'd been covering their kills more, not that they'd stopped. He had no leads and no proof that Aya was still here, but he couldn't shake the feeling. He'd even been improving his German lately to help his quest.

Was Aya even Aya anymore? Never mind Schwarz and Schuldig's telepathic influence, just being so far from home and everything he'd known, surrounded by the foreign and incomprehensible, had to leave its mark. It had been so long....

Omi had the occasional nightmare in which a Farfarello-like homicidal madman looked at him from inside Aya's body and laughed before eviscerating him.

And if Aya were still Aya, what could Omi tell him of recent events that would make him want to return? The horror of dealing with Aya's teacher Shion and the other Weiß alone made _Omi_ want to forget his own life and run away, especially with the homicidal and insane Shion and the other surviving member still out there. With the last Persia's mismanagement of the organization and death, Birman's torture and horrific death, and the lethal attacks on Kritiker agents, Kritiker was in disarray. Then there was Grandfather....

He wondered what Aya would say about it all. Actually, he _knew_ what Aya would say about Grandfather if Aya were still Aya. He would say that Takatoris could not be trusted, but Omi himself was Takatori, even if he had denied the name long ago. Grandfather seemed sincere, and he was family....

Something had to be done about all of it, but Omi wasn't sure what yet. Aya's life with Schwarz might actually be more peaceful.

Thus, looking for Aya made a good excuse to get away from home and Weiß too, especially as Ken became ever more prone to sudden, volcanic eruptions of rage and Yoji turned ever more withdrawn and secretive. Omi still couldn't warm to Asato, who seemed to be becoming more miserable and haughty by the day as the rest of the team shunned him. Damn Persia's heavyhanded attempts at getting Omi to stop his search. Even after death, the man's mistakes haunted them. And Omi was thinking of bringing new members into this?

At least in Germany if Omi felt estranged from people and his surroundings, as if everything around him were unfamiliar, he had better reasons.

Grandfather wanted him to step into Persia's place, which would mean leaving Weiß. Wouldn't it be better to have someone who knew what it was like being on such a team making the decisions and wielding the power? He could help Weiß. Maybe Yoji and Ken would straighten out under better management, especially if they had the training of two new members to distract them from their problems. Maybe Asato would be happier without the chief person who hated him being around all the time. Omi could end the death sentence Kritiker had put on Aya and devote more Kritiker resources to destroying Eszett. Wouldn't a few sacrifices be worth all the good he could do?

Omi kept walking, but he didn't really know where he thought he was going.


	30. "He looks a little like someone I loved."

"I'm starving," Schuldig said as he walked into the apartment. Sometimes killing left him hungry as well as jazzed.

"We could have gotten something before now," Nagi answered.

"At this time of night and with us dripping blood? Don't think so. Make something for me?"

"Why?"

"Please?" Schuldig sang out. "Please, please, please?"

"No."

As if Schuldig would give up after one "no." "Please, please, please?"

"Fine! You're lucky I'm hungry too." Nagi glared at the rest of the team too. "Anybody else?"

"We're all hungry," Brad said with a faint smile.

"You better be up for stir-fry, because that's what you're getting. Farfarello, chop up some vegetables for me?"

While the rest of them stripped off the bloodiest parts of their outfits, Nagi gathered the meal makings and Farfarello chopped like a fiend at speeds that shouldn't have been possible. No matter how many times Schuldig had expected him to take off a finger like this over the years, it never came to be.

Just to be extra annoying, Schuldig whined, "But I'm hungry _now_."

Nagi glared at him, then telekinetically opened a cabinet and flung a small box at him. "Nibble on these and shut up."

Schuldig and Farfarello had developed a taste for Pocky in their travels, so finding an Asian market near the apartment had been a happy thing. Quick and quiet, flying under the telepathic radar, Aya slipped in and grabbed two sticks, putting the chocolate-covered end of one in Farfarello's mouth. Their lunatic didn't stop chopping, but he smiled at Aya, who put the other stick in his own mouth.

Brad slipped off his glasses and pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose before saying, "We have to relocate tomorrow."

No point in asking why, but that didn't stop Schuldig from complaining. He took a vicious bite from his Pocky stick and said, "I liked it here. A firing range nearby--"

"And a park."

Yeah, the park worked as Schuldig's personal game preserve. He loved the new mothers best--something about their depression, disturbed sleep, boredom, and breasts--but the guys exercising could be fun too. Only a few tweaks had them bending over backward or whatever way Schuldig wanted them to. He got his rocks off, and his victims wandered off afterwards feeling confused, guilty, or both. Delicious.

"Stop drooling, Schuldig," Nagi said as he moved vegetables with his mind.

"I'm just thinking about your culinary gifts. And your other attributes...."

"Sure. With everything else we do, how the hell do you find the time and energy to play your little games in the park?"

"It's my experience that if you really care about something, you make time for it. I'll miss this. This place is so well... placed! Our next apartment can't be as good."

"Are you done?" Brad asked.

"Am I ever?"

"Shoving more food in his mouth might shut him up," Nagi said. "Everybody get a plate and take."

As Schuldig took his helping, he said, "Vegetables aren't going to fill me up for long."

"That's what chocolate cake is for."

Tasty! "How did I forget about the cake?"

Brad sighed. "If you eat that, you won't be able to sleep."

"So?"

"_I_ won't be able to sleep."

"Suffer. And have a piece with me, since you'll be up anyway."

As they ate their stir-fry--which was tasty, even if he wouldn't tell Nagi that unless he needed something from him--Schuldig could feel Aya thinking, yet Aya said nothing. Even after everyone had a piece of Black Forest cake, some pieces larger than others, Aya said nothing. He did rap Farfarello's knuckles with the bottom of his fork when his lover tried to steal a cherry from his plate. Finally, Schuldig said, "Ask him, Aya."

Aya blinked. "Ask what?" He'd taken off his bloody coat before the meal, leaving his arms bare. The sight made Schuldig want to do something....

Instead, he needled Aya. "You know. What you're being so mentally loud about."

Aya set his fork down on the plate. "Crawford, I want to know when we're going after the new heads of Eszett."

Of course he did. Aya was all about the destination instead of the journey.

Brad looked like he expected the query, even though he really hadn't. Brad did things that way. "Soon. Rosenkreuz is in our near future. Weiß will be taking on Eszett's training school in Japan in a day or two, and shortly after that we'll make our move here."

Brad sounded confident but something in his expression worried Schuldig, especially since he'd felt similar. Hell, Nagi and Aya did too. Of course, Farfie expected calamity at every turn anyway. They all felt that everything had been going too smoothly and well lately, yet no one would say anything for fear of jinxing the team.

******************************************************

"I hate it," Schuldig said when he saw the building.

"Shut up," Brad said.

"Are there bars on my window and locks on my door?" Farfarello asked from the backseat.

"No," Brad said.

"Then I like it."

"You have no taste," Schuldig replied.

"You like my kitten well enough." Farfarello rubbed his head against Aya's neck for punctuation. Aya sighed.

"Hey, there's a park nearby," Nagi purred. Who knew that the kid could purr? Maybe he would do it again, with the right inspiration....

"Maybe I'll give the place a chance," Schuldig said. "Just to be nice."

"Great," Brad answered. "Although it's not as if it matters, since I won't choose a different building if you hate it."

"Sweet talker."

******************************************************

Something was wrong. Something was _so_ wrong.

The gunmen came up suddenly, out of nowhere. Schuldig hadn't felt them, and from the look on Brad's face it seemed that Brad hadn't _seen_ them. Schuldig, Brad, and Aya fired and fired but they kept coming and circled them, cutting off their escape. Farfarello snarled, ready to move forward with his blades at the right moment.

~ Nagi! We have trouble! ~ But Schuldig didn't get through. In fact, he couldn't hear anyone except Brad right now, and probably only that because he spent more time in his leader's head than most Eszett's teams' telepaths did. He couldn't mindspeak to Brad, just hear his repeating litany of ~ I didn't see this. I didn't _see_ this.... ~ Brad felt half-blinded. For Schuldig, it was almost like being struck deaf and mute.

Yet something felt even... wronger. Schuldig didn't know what it was.

The gunmen fired. Schuldig dodged with all the speed he had, and Brad used his second-by-second precog ability to dodge as well. Farfarello did... whatever it was that Farfarello did that made it so he was only clipped. But Schuldig realized as he was dodging that one member of the team didn't have any talents besides the ones he trained hard into himself. And he realized that the gunmen had known Schwarz's moves and had never been aiming for the three of them to begin with. Plus, there were gunmen who had a direct line on Aya. A few bullets clipped Schuldig, Brad, and Farfarello, but as afterthoughts, not as the primary targets. Schwarz, being Schwarz, kept firing, but there wasn't much they could do.

Aya was already dropping to the floor on his own, but one bullet took him in the left shoulder and blew out through the back and another clipped his right arm. What kind of fucking bullets were they firing that they went through kevlar like that? Aya's pain blasted through whatever shielding they'd put up to stop Schuldig's telepathy. Aya kept shooting right-handed even from the floor, but his left arm had just flopped.

Farfarello dropped besides Aya as a human shield for the side he wasn't shooting from, but he looked frustrated as well as anguished. With his weapons, Farfie needed to get close to his opponents to really damage them, yet he couldn't leave his lover's side.

Some fucker had really done his homework and expected to get a promotion out of this. He knew that Schwarz needed Aya for his invulnerability to the word. Schwarz's own defensive moves had been used against them.

This might be the end, and this sure as hell wasn't the way Schuldig had wanted to go. Still, they could take as many assholes down with them as possible. He went back to back with Brad, who pressed against him, as close to a goodbye as they would get.

Schuldig felt the hair on the back of his neck rise just before the gunmen exploded into pulp.

******************************************************

Nagi heard a torrent of sound, then felt pain explode in his shoulder, his arms, his face, his legs.... Aya! His whole team....

He saw it through Aya's eyes from the floor, with a red wash at the edge of his vision from blood dripping from somewhere. Bastards. Motherfucking.... He saw the room. He saw the enemies. He knew where Schwarz was.

He unleashed hell into that room.

He could feel some of the screams and the pain but so fucking what? It was Aya, it was his _team_. He unplugged his gear, hefted it into his backpack, and ran. If anyone survived, he would tear their heads off and beat the shit out of them with them.

He tore the door off the hinges with a thought and walked into a charnel house. So much blood. He could taste it as well as smell it. He kicked or telekinetically shoved limbs, bones, and viscera from his path. Trembling, breathing hard, bloodied, Schuldig and Crawford stood back to back, their guns out, still ready for enemies to blow away. Nagi looked for Farfarello, because that would get him Aya. Farfarello crouched on the floor, his body covering something. They were all bleeding.

"I don't want to feel your heart this soon, puisín," Farfarello murmured.

Nagi sped up and dropped beside Aya, who stared up at him with half-closed eyes that didn't seem to recognize him. He was in so much pain, and it throbbed in Nagi's shoulder too. It was hard to tell how much he was bleeding from all the blood around, so Nagi _felt_ around on him and got it. He blocked and put pressure on the wound with his telekinesis to stop the bleeding. After everything he'd already done, it was so _hard_....

"You did this from another room?" Schuldig asked, but Nagi shook his head hard, unable to take the distraction.

"We have to get out of here," Crawford said.

Genius. No wonder Crawford was their leader.

"Boy. Nagi." Farfarello. "We need to move him. We need to move you too. You can't walk right now, can you?"

Not and keep Aya stable. "No."

"I'll pick him up. You put your arms around my neck and hang down my back and _keep him alive_, do you understand me?"

"Yeah. Yeah."

Nagi put his arms around Farfarello's neck and held on as Farfarello stood with Aya in his arms. Then they ran. Nagi tried to hold on better by using his legs at Farfarello's waist too, but the berserker was moving so fast and at a bouncing clip that would be fucking killing Aya if Nagi hadn't been keeping Aya's insides in and using their link to block off a little bit of the pain. He'd do more for the pain if it wouldn't be such a distraction from the more necessary work. Better to have an alive Aya.

He didn't remember much of the run or the drive, but they must have done all of that because he realized that Farfarello was putting Aya down on the bed while Schuldig brought in medical supplies. "I didn't see it," Crawford muttered angrily to himself. "I didn't _see_ it...."

Farfarello put Nagi down on the bed next to Aya and growled, "Hold him. Hold him on to life." Farfarello hovered at the other side of the bed.

They pulled the coat off, which was rough since bits of the coat, holster, and shirt had gone into the wound. Nagi _felt_ them and pulled them out. They had to pry the gun from his right hand before getting the coat off. The holsters and shirt were a little easier once Nagi had pulled everything out. Aya was panting but otherwise making no sound. It amazed Nagi that Aya didn't make any other sounds, because _he_ felt Aya's pain and would be screaming if he hadn't had so many other things to do.

"Nagi." Crawford. "I need to get into the wound now."

Farfarello made a low, animal sound and held Aya's left wrist.

"Yeah." Nagi carefully let go. Fuck, it started to bleed. "You need anything, just... tell me. Okay? Farfarello, if you put your fingers in the wound, I'll rip them off." He really wanted to pass out. Maybe he half did.

While Crawford worked on Aya, _Schuldig_ cleaned and patched up all the other small wounds the rest of them had when he wasn't running for more supplies. The world was ending....

Finally Crawford had Aya stable, bandaged, and doped up. No matter how hard he tried to block out the drugs, Nagi felt dopey himself. Something fell off the dresser. Did he do that?

Farfarello was lying on Aya's other side, crooning to him. "He's out," Nagi murmured. "He doesn't hear you. Doesn't hear anyone."

Farfarello just patted Nagi's hair. Then Farfarello, Schuldig, and Crawford moved Aya and Nagi off the blood-slicked bed, changed the sheets, and moved them back, removing Nagi's jacket, gloves, belt, and boots before putting him back where he belonged. Nagi used what remained of his strength to make sure Aya didn't start bleeding again. Aya looked _dead_.

Schuldig stood at the foot of the bed and smoked. His hand trembled. "That was... fuck. Fuck!"

Crawford grabbed Schuldig's cigarette and took a puff off it before handing it back. "It'll be at least four weeks until he's well enough to do anything strenuous. Though you know he'll be clamoring to go after one week."

"Is that foresight?"

"No. I know him."

"Somebody knew _us_."

"Yeah. But the wound isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It could have been worse."

"Could have been worse. Yeah, we could all be dead now. We can't go up against Rosenkreuz without him. Especially not after this."

"We hadn't planned to yet anyway. There are smaller ways we can raise hell and make them pay."

"They have to pay." Farfarello looked crazier than he had in a long time.

"Somebody will."

"A lot of somebodies will," Schuldig said, then laughed bitterly. "I can't believe that it doesn't feel right to go out fighting without him."

"He's Schwarz," Crawford answered.

Damned right, Nagi thought before he passed out.

******************************************************

As soon as they reached their room, Schuldig threw Crawford back against a wall before descending to his knees, ripping open Crawford's pants, and blowing him like their lives depended on it. Crawford gasped and gripped his soft hair, caught in need and pleasure. His hands skimmed over a few clumsily tied bandages, but the clumsiness didn't matter, not when Schuldig had taken the initiative to do something outside his purview on his own, without being told. Schuldig radiated lust, anger, and terror. They smelled of blood, the sweat of desperation, and disinfectant.

They'd come so close to losing everyone.

"Schu..." He didn't last long but saw no shame in that tonight, thrilled just to be alive. Schuldig came without being touched, probably from riding his sensations, then rested his head against Crawford's belly while Crawford petted his hair. Fine orange-red strands clung tenaciously to his fingers. Almost lost him.

~ They have to pay. They have to pay and pay and _pay_. ~

Crawford remembered that moment when he'd been certain they would die and a torrent of regrets and things undone had flooded his mind. "They will. We'll make them bleed. We'll make them beg." He tilted Schuldig's chin up. "Come up here."

As they leaned together, Schuldig said, "You didn't see it because they blocked you, the same way they wouldn't let me hear or speak...." Shivering, Schuldig nuzzled his neck. "I could only hear you, and I think it's because...." He rocked his hips against Crawford's.

"Not just that." Crawford kissed him and tasted himself on Schuldig's lips, a good metaphor for how they had entwined and influenced one another in so many ways. The telepath had been irresponsible before being taken in by him.

Schuldig smacked him lightly. "Like you reformed me."

Eszett hadn't wanted them to be a close-knit team, because a close-knit team might start to feel more loyalty to its members than to its masters. If Eszett had gotten what it wanted, Schwarz wouldn't have survived tonight.

If Eszett had gotten what it wanted, their demonic master would rule the world now and all of humanity would be its tortured puppets.

"I love you," Crawford said, which he hadn't meant to do, even if the words were true.

Schuldig stilled in his arms, then sent a wash of emotion, deeper and more immediate than words. Crawford knew that it translated to the same. His lover, his.

Schwarz was his, Aya included, and no one fucked with his family.

******************************************************

Aya looked so pale and close to death. Although he could see his puisín breathing, Farfarello put his hand over Aya's heart to make sure it was still beating. He hadn't been able to provide any protection or even wreak any vengeance, not while he'd had to watch over his kitten. He wanted to hurt something so badly.

God must be laughing tonight.

Aya murmured something against his neck, something that might be a stoned rendition of his name. Still alive, but so badly injured.

Nagi mumbled something and burrowed deeper into Aya's side. The boy looked like hell, rumpled and pale. Farfarello hated him. Hated him for being able to protect Aya and keep him alive when Farfarello couldn't. Hated him for being able to annihilate the people who'd nearly killed Aya when Farfarello had been forced to do nothing more than crouch over his puisín's body, helpless.

Hated him for those things, but loved him too, because none of them would be alive otherwise.

Aya looked so diminished, so much thinner and smaller like this. Farfarello growled, "I will avenge you. Every pain you feel, I'll inflict on them tenfold. They will reap what they've sown."

"You've been talking so much more like a normal person lately that I forgot you can get like this," Nagi said.

"I'm feeling very kindly towards you after what you did for Aya, but don't push it."

"I'll push what I like. It's what I do." But the boy didn't look like he could push anything at the moment. He'd done that to himself by saving the kitten.

"Thank you."

The boy smiled a little, then dizzily set his head back down on the pillow near Aya's head. If loving Aya inspired the boy to such heights of self-sacrifice, then Farfarello could tolerate it. With two fierce protectors, his puisín would have to survive this.

******************************************************

Schuldig looked around the club with the air of someone who owned everything he saw, because he _did_. He could have anyone here any way he wanted to, and they watched him like they knew it and wanted it.

"Schuldig!" someone yelled. "Schuldig!"

"Is nothing sacred? What?" Schuldig turned and saw no one. Shit, someone was trying to contact him. He pulled that someone in, and it turned out to be Aya, who was wearing an orange sweater and blue pants. Aya looked dazed. This was a dream. "You-- you ruined it!" When Schuldig knew it was a dream, it never had the same thrill.

Aya simply stared at him, uncomprehending. Well, Aya was doped up in reality. Wonderful.

"I assume you had a reason for calling me. Or you're just not as anchored into your own head as usual. Either way, I want to kick your ass. Get out of that hideous outfit. Schuldig's head, Schuldig's rules." Yet Schuldig's best efforts to put Aya in something more appropriate only turned the sweater and pants black. Stubborn bastard. At least the black made less of an eyesore.

Aya swayed, the image of him wavering. "I have to-- Damn it. I can't think." He closed his eyes and visibly strengthened. "I wanted to suggest something, but I have to know how much Schwarz inadvertently gives away to Eszett's precogs and telepaths."

Schuldig decided to humor him. "Not much. We're strong, and so are our shields. Plus, Brad and Farfie are hard to read even without shields. Precogs get more detailed predictions of near-time events but more cryptic visions and feelings for long-term things."

"Then it might work for a little while. I looked bad coming out of that warehouse." Aya's sweater suddenly took on a darker, wet stain at the left shoulder and right arm, and blood showed bright red against his pale neck. He was a visual thinker, something that made him harder to read. Words could be interpreted by an outsider so much easier than pictures, because with pictures you had to figure out what the focal point was and what things meant. Words had fewer meanings.

Aya's sister had been a visual thinker too.

"Nobody saw us coming out of that warehouse," Schuldig answered. "Nagi killed them all. We disabled the cameras too."

"It's still possible."

Yeah, dammit. "Maybe."

"Either way, this could work. I looked badly injured--"

"Which you are."

Aya was concentrating so hard on being understandable that Schuldig winced at the feel of it. "If there's truth in it, it should work even better. The rest of the team will still be attacking Eszett, right? Even without me."

"Of course." Though maybe not Farfarello, who'd been driven into a state of mind Schuldig had never seen him in before: protective. "More viciously than ever."

"Make Eszett think that I'm even more badly injured than I am, that I might not be able to return to action."

The idea had merit. Let Eszett gloat over its perceived victory and think that Schwarz no longer had someone who could resist the word. Let them become more complacent. It wouldn't work for long, not with all the precogs and telepaths Eszett had, but it could be helpful for as long as it lasted. "I'll run it past Brad."

"Good."

Still looking bloody, Aya swayed again, and Schuldig propped him up. Good, this dream let him feel things, and Aya felt solid and nearly warm. No Farfarello around to get jealous here.

Schuldig smiled. "You okay, Aya?"

Obviously dazed, he answered, "I think my moment of lucidity is over."

Schuldig nuzzled his cheek, and he didn't fight it. "Don't worry about it. Lucidity is overrated."

Aya murmured something and disappeared altogether. After a moment of panic, Schuldig found him back in his own head, so deep in murky, drug-induced sleep that Schuldig couldn't pull him out. Disappointing, but Schuldig had gone farther with him than ever before and woke with a smile on his face.

"What are you smirking about?" Brad asked.

"How can you see me smirk? It's still dark."

"I know you."

Good old Brad. Schuldig said, "Let me run an idea past you."

******************************************************

The wind tried to tear him away and cast him down to his death, but he did not falter. The black stone cut his fingers, but it didn't matter. His arms hurt, but he had so much further to climb. His sheathed katana banged against his spine, yet he ignored it. Aya briefly looked up at a dark green sky, a crazy storm sky, but kept moving.

He climbed and climbed forever. Finally he pulled himself up to the top and saw them waiting for him. His most recent dead, the women he'd failed. As Aya, Manx, and Sakura stood under a cherry tree, the pink and white blossoms whipped off and tumbled around them. He ran to his sister but Manx blocked his path.

When he snarled, prepared to knock Manx aside, Aya asked, "Who is he?"

She... didn't know him? His own sister, his loved one, the person he had sacrificed everything for? It stopped him dead.

Manx said, "That's Abyssinian. He kills people."

Sakura said, "That's Aya. He fails people."

Aya said, "Oh. He looks a little like someone I loved."

His heart broke. He could feel it snapping within him. She didn't know him. Why would she know this bloody-handed killer who'd let innocents go to their deaths? _He_ wasn't her brother.

Then a bright light, surely heaven's light, shone and they were gone, leaving him alone, the way he deserved to be--

"No!" It wasn't a voice that belonged here.

Aya felt a ripping pain and found himself in a room with Farfarello above him, grabbing him, shaking him. "No!" Farfarello said. "I worked too hard to fix you. I'm not letting it be ruined by some fucking drugged-up dream." His lover. The one who wouldn't let him kill himself.

"Damn, take it easier on him, Farfarello." Nagi, who looked like hell, loomed over him from one side. "You're _not_ alone, Aya. Hell, with this team, you couldn't be alone if you wanted to."

"And you deserve us," Farfarello said, his voice hoarse and choked.

Nagi gave him a look. "That sounds like a shitty deal. What did he do to deserve _us_?"

_This_ was real. "I'm not alone," Aya said softly. That thought penetrated even through the pain and dizziness.

"Probably never again," Nagi replied.

"Okay. Thank you." He descended under what felt like deep, dark, peaceful water into sleep, and he felt them beside him, touching him. Not alone.

He didn't dream.


	31. "Get on with the self-sacrifice and feed us already."

He and Brad had made some plans, then returned to sleep, too physically abused to keep going. So why had Schuldig come awake now, at 11 a.m., when he'd always prided himself on his ability to sleep in? He refused to get up, but for once lolling in bed at Brad's side didn't let him go back to sleep. Annoyed, he finally rolled out of bed and put a robe on. It didn't wake Brad at all.

Last night Brad had admitted to loving him. Weird. He'd admitted to something similar and mutual. Weirder. But... true. Schuldig stroked a lock of silvering black hair out of Brad's face, then walked out to visually check on everybody else. Telepathy told him that they were alive, but they were exhausted and in too much pain to be self-aware, and Aya was doped up too.

It looked like a cozy pile from the doorway, from a distance. Up close, they better resembled emergency room refugees huddling together. Farfarello hadn't looked this crazy for a while, with his one gold eye staring into the distance at some vengeance he wanted to achieve in the near future. He lightly, almost mindlessly, stroked Aya's wrist. On Aya's other side, Nagi had nestled in, looking closer to dead than asleep. He had dark circles under his eyes too. Exhausted, and with the usually steady pulse of power drained away, Nagi seemed younger and smaller. In the middle, the team's chief victim was lying almost motionless on his back, eyes only half-open, looking as if breathing was about all he could handle at the moment.

"Farfarello. Farfarello." When Schuldig still received no answer, he slapped the back of the psycho's head and shouted, "Farfarello!"

Farfarello snarled but didn't let go of Aya's wrist. "Schuldig, this better be good."

"You knew it was me?"

"Yeah. I just wasn't listening."

"And here I was going to bring you and the rest of the unholy trio breakfast." Why not? He didn't have anything else to do, and they needed to eat. Eszett won if the team starved. Besides, the look on Farfarello's face made it worth it.

"What have you done with Schuldig, you fiend?" Nagi mumbled against Aya's arm. He didn't look much better with his eyes open.

"You guys look pathetic. I can't properly needle you unless you're at full-strength. It's just too easy. Besides, I won't ever let you forget about my great sacrifice here."

"That's more like it."

Secure in the knowledge that no telekinetic slaps would be forthcoming, Schuldig rumpled Nagi's hair, which brought him in close to Aya too. Aya's eyes, nearly all pupil, looked black instead of light purple. Schuldig asked, ~ Do you remember asking me about something last night? ~

Aya blinked and sent fractured images of the dream club and memories of Schuldig in mesh and shiny black, with a black bandanna in his hair. Brad couldn't control Schuldig's fashion sense in his dreams. Aya wondered if Schuldig had asked Crawford about his idea.

~ Yeah. He thinks it's a good one. When we hit the revenge trail, we'll be playing up how near death you are. ~

Aya felt near-death.

~ Like you said, that'll just make it easier to believe. ~

"Wait a minute," Nagi said. "You can't cook."

"I can so cook," Schuldig answered. "Eggs and toast aren't a problem."

"No croissants? What, there's only one left and you want it?"

Maybe the kid wasn't as disarmed as he'd thought. "I make a nice offer, and you piss on it. Good one, Nagi."

"Get on with the self-sacrifice and feed us already," Farfarello said, showing a little more life.

"Maybe I'll burn your toast," Schuldig said as he left for the kitchen.

The toast nearly burned anyway, even without Schuldig's cooperation. He really didn't cook. That was what minions and teammates were for. Good thing Brad wasn't awake to see his "spoiled" telepath carrying a tray of scrambled eggs, toast, butter, jam, juice, tea, and milk to the layabouts. He'd laugh himself sick and have torture material for years.

Schuldig set it all down on the night table. "You can feed yourselves."

"And I thought the world had ended last night," Nagi said with a small smile. Vengeance could come later, and seeing him perk up a bit made Schuldig happier.

What? Fuck. Getting soft in his old age.

If he had to be in a sentimental mood, he might as well go all the way and admit that it worried him to see Aya so spaced. Yeah, the drugs did it, but Aya felt more like a ghost than a living presence right now. Yet Schuldig could almost swear that under the murk of drugs and the disembodied pain he could sense a faint feeling of peace. Weird.

And seeing them snuggled together on the too-small bed, despite knowing the circumstances, made Schuldig feel... lonely.

Schuldig had to go compose himself back into his usual evil bastard self, had to get away from the unpleasant pain and fatigue here. "Have fun choking breakfast down. I have things to do." Maybe he should go out to kill someone. That always reaffirmed his identity.

He considered prospects as he leaned against the kitchen counter and nibbled on the last croissant. In a city full of worthless suckers, he only had to settle on the right ones.

Fully dressed and composed, Brad walked in and asked, "You made them breakfast?"

"You should have seen the looks on their faces."

"I hope you didn't poison them. We still need them."

"Fuck off." This sounded like a reassuringly normal round of banter, but Schuldig felt a bit of awkwardness. Brad seemed a little uncertain too but hid it under that Brad face that fooled everyone except his few intimates. That whole "I love you" thing hung between them. He and Brad hadn't felt this weird with one another since a few minutes after the climax of their first fuck, when the whole team leader/minion thing started to reassert itself.

Brad stepped up close into Schuldig's personal space and said, "Fucking sounds like a good idea," which translated to "I meant what I said last night."

It felt scary-uncomfortable but strangely exhilarating. "I agree." Meaning "ditto."

When Brad started to hump him against the counter, Schuldig set the croissant down and kissed him. They'd dealt with their post-first fuck awkwardness with more fucking too.

Maybe he could kill someone later today. If he had the time.

******************************************************

Farfarello fed him as if he were helpless. Woozy, with one shoulder and the opposite arm injured, he nearly was. It galled. At least Nagi had left to take a shower and couldn't witness this. He hoped the boy didn't fall asleep in there.

"I know," Farfarello said. Even he looked tired. "It won't be for long. Soon you'll be tearing a swath through our enemies again."

Aya didn't heal as quickly as Farfarello did. "I hate this."

"Yes." He had a patient and almost gentle look on his face.

The painkillers covered the pain, but Aya was still aware of it. It was odd. As the painkillers faded, he felt it all too well. He felt distant and strange, untethered. He kept losing time. Had Farfarello and Nagi actually told him that he would never be alone? Separating dreams, hallucinations, and reality felt harder right now.

"We will be with you," Farfarello said, reassuring Aya even as Aya felt a stab of distant panic over the possibility that he'd been talking aloud.

The plate emptied and Nagi returned all too quickly. Panic returned too. "It's the drugs, Aya-kun," Nagi said softly. "Don't worry. I'm not reading your mind, just the look on your face. And we did promise to stay with you."

He never had any looks on his face. "You don't have to stay here for me, Nagi," Aya said. He knew that the boy needed his solitude. "I know you're here for me without you having to literally be here for me all the time."

But Farfarello said, "Get back in bed," and Nagi sighed but complied. Nagi fell asleep within minutes of complaining that he couldn't sleep anymore and would be bored. It was cozy. But as much as he enjoyed the company, Aya would have enjoyed it more without the drugs and pain.

"Of course," Farfarello said.

He'd also enjoy it more if he could stop mumbling his thoughts out loud.

******************************************************

Aya kept drifting into sleep again, which worried Nagi, even though he knew that drugs could do that. Aya's whole appearance seemed to be changed without his usual armor of annoyance and restrained violence, making him look smaller and not so much older than Nagi. At least the telepathic shields he'd been working on for himself blocked out Aya's pain. Nagi wished he could heal, because he couldn't stand this. Aya had to get better quickly.

Nagi also wished that Farfarello would sleep. Unwilling to leave his kitten unattended, he snatched only quick naps, and it showed in his appearance and maybe the state of his sanity. Farfarello buzzed to Nagi's telepathy, and his kinetic waves compressed and vibrated tightly. Still, Nagi couldn't entirely blame him for his concern, not when Aya's nightmare last night had caused such a flood of despair that Nagi had woken from it with tears on his face.

Farfarello's quick and knowing reaction to the nightmare had led to Nagi wondering something, and watching Farfarello talk to Aya today without Aya vocally saying anything to inspire it only made Nagi's need to question him stronger. And now Aya was asleep....

Nagi decided to be direct. "Farfarello, you were responding to Aya's thoughts earlier." Rosenkreuz had tested Farfarello for talents for years yet found nothing aside from a genetic foundation for having them. No actual talents.

Lying beside Aya, on the side Nagi wasn't lying on, Farfarello glared blearily at him. "He spoke to me."

"Without opening his mouth."

"I know my puisín. I can feel him. Last night, his soul nearly slipped away, but I dragged it back."

"What?"

"His soul was away. It fucking scared me." Farfarello tightened his grip on Aya's wrist. "I must stay vigilant."

His... soul? "Farfarello, tell me what my soul is doing right now." Nagi reached out to Aya's mind with his telepathy but jumped back and nearly fell off the bed when Farfarello tried to smack him.

"Stop that," Farfarello growled, now sitting, nearly burning with anger.

"You saw my soul touching him."

"Felt you."

"You're around Schuldig all the time, but you never talk about his soul doing anything."

"I don't always feel it. When I do, his soul is hanging out all over the fucking place, slut that he is."

"Do you have certain times when you're more likely to feel it?"

"Why are you asking all of these questions?"

"I can't feel souls, so I want to know."

Farfarello made a soft sound under his breath, then said, "When I'm tired. Sometimes just when it's night is enough. I can hear things calling to me and feel the souls better."

Nagi smiled as he felt some past events start to make sense. "You could feel Aya trying to kill you those nights, so you woke up and stopped him. While he was using that piece of glass on you, he blanked all thoughts of killing you out of his mind, and that's why he nailed you. You felt what he was dreaming last night so you intervened before the damage could spread."

"I'm not a telepath. I know my puisín. As for the souls, God wants to torment me, knowing that most people look askance at those who see souls. They tried to drug the knowledge out of me, but merely made it stronger. They put me in straitjackets and padded rooms, but my own soul traveled farther that way. Too far, maybe."

Still translating that into telepathic terms, Nagi asked, "Too far?"

Farfarello grinned darkly. "One day I came back and couldn't feel pain the same way anymore. Their needles and electroshock meant nothing to me. God and his white-coated minions fucked up." Then he looked surprised. "You believe me."

"Yeah."

"No one ever believed me."

Schuldig had to know about this. Nagi had his own ideas of what it meant, but the telepath knew far more about that branch of psi than he did.

Exhaustion finally dragged Farfarello into a nap, and he rested with one hand on Aya's wrist and the other over Aya's stomach. Now would be a good time to ask Schuldig, but when Nagi reached out to the telepath he got a sex show. No way Schuldig and Crawford would want to be interrupted to talk about Farfarello.

But Nagi had to do something. As tired as he still felt, he couldn't sleep here any longer. Aya had told him to go if he needed to.

It had taken years for Nagi to get his own room and his own bed again, having been desperate enough to sleep with anyone he could find for warmth on the streets and living in dormitories at Rosenkreuz when he hadn't been thrown into a bare solitary cell. He didn't want to get used to having another person's body heat around or hearing Farfarello's breathy little snores. Nagi guessed that Farfarello snored like that from having had his nose broken so many times. Aya felt too good to sleep next to, and he knew Aya couldn't ever be his.

He gently rolled out of bed and went to his own room. His own bed felt so big now, and his room seemed so quiet. Horrible that he'd gotten used to Aya's heartbeat as something to rest to. Weakness. Nagi would reacclimatize himself to the privilege of having his own bed.

He couldn't have slept long before someone woke him by slamming the door open. Farfarello stalked over to the bed and tried to grab him, but he grabbed Farfarello with his telekinesis instead and held him still. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Aya's stoned on the painkillers. He keeps thinking that you're not with us because something terrible happened to you." Farfarello snarled. "He needs you."

Nagi let himself bask for a moment, until he remembered that Aya was in torment. "All right. I'll go back. You don't have to drag me."

"I'm aware of that." He sounded pissed off. It made Nagi smile.

When they returned, Nagi saw Aya sitting there staring at the doorway with wide, dilated eyes and watched relief sweep over him as he recognized them. Aya would hate to know how open the drugs left his face, let alone his emotional state. He might not even remember this, and that might be for the best.

"Puisín! There is no sitting up!" Farfarello gently pressed his lover back down, occasionally crooning at him in Irish.

Nagi burrowed into Aya's side and smiled a little as a pale, callused hand settled on his. He would stay for as long as Aya needed him. By then Nagi knew it would kill him to go back to his solitary room, but sometimes sacrifices had to made.

******************************************************

Crawford woke them and said, "We start striking back tonight." To Aya's drugged gaze, he seemed to tower over him. Then again, everyone towered over him while he was lying flat on his back. He hated this, hated being weak and dependent on others.

Farfarello tensed, and Aya could almost feel his struggle. Violence or protectiveness? "Farfarello, you should go along," Aya said.

"You can't even stand up," Farfarello answered. "You need me. I'll stay with you." It galled Aya but seemed to make Farfarello feel better.

"We could use your computer talents, Nagi," Crawford.

To Aya's relief, Nagi looked stronger and more rested now. He cast a torn look at Aya too. Did they both feel that their promise to never abandon him meant that they must literally never leave his side? Aya said, "Go. They need you."

Nagi closed his eyes, then opened them and said, "I can hack. I can't toss trucks around, but I can do a little teke work. Will that be good enough?"

"Yes," Crawford answered.

Good. Aya might not be able to do anything, but Nagi could go.

"Hurt them for us," Farfarello said. "Hurt them more to make up for Aya and me not being there."

Schuldig looked malevolent. "We intend to."

"Tomorrow we pack up and go," Crawford said. "It's not safe to stay in one place for long, not with Eszett knowing that we're injured."

Schuldig snarled, "We'll make them pay for forcing us to move out too."

When they left, Farfarello snuggled against him and said, "They will make our enemies suffer. Trust them in that. Trust in their viciousness."

"I do." Aya tried to wrap his brain around the idea of Schwarz going out to take vengeance for him and tried not to think about how cold his left side felt without Nagi pressed against it.


	32. "The power of their love for Aya made them grow as people and talents."

Schuldig gutshot the head man, smiling at the noises his prey made as the bullet hit and knocked him out of his plush office chair. Last one to go for this night's work. He smiled down at the man, who was struggling feebly with his own chair on the carpeted floor. The shallow bullet wounds last night's battle had given Schuldig on the left side of his waist and right forearm ached now from the workout, but he noticed them only as footnotes. Slaughter had always left him high and detached. He lit up a cigarette.

He spun as he heard something behind him but saw two guards' necks snap. Nagi cast him a frightening look. "I can't throw a truck, but snapping a neck is easy. These two were telepathically blocked off from us just like last night's guys were. If I hadn't heard them coming the old-fashioned way, I wouldn't have noticed them. I still don't know how Eszett blocks Crawford from seeing them, but it works."

"That's good to know," Brad said. "I hate to lambaste myself unnecessarily. Does it bother you that we ran through your people so easily, Braun?"

Braun looked as bad as he felt, gut wounds being the nasty things they were, but put on a show of bravado, not that a man could look very threatening as he bled out onto his carpet. "Where are Berserker and Abyssinian?"

"Good going," Schuldig answered. "Last night just made us more vicious."

"For what, revenge? Careless of you to invest so much in someone who isn't Eszett. But, then, you need him because he wasn't programmed to shut down from the word, don't you? We nailed you. There's nothing you value that we can't tear away."

"That 'we' isn't going to include you anymore soon."

"You'll all be joining me soon."

Brad shot him in the head, saying, "My patience is gone."

"He has a nice bar." Schuldig poured himself a glass of brandy. So many of the classy head Eszett people stocked their offices with liquor. Maybe it helped them live with themselves. "Shame to waste it."

"It won't be wasted, because it should help everything burn."

"True. You got everything we need, Prodigy?"

"Yes. We can burn this place to the ground now." Nagi looked particularly pleased at being able to destroy things tonight.

Brad smiled. "Prodigy, Mastermind, if you would do the honors?"

Happily. Nagi telekinetically tossed the rest of the bar's contents onto the body, then Schuldig flicked his lit cigarette there. The mess went up beautifully, blazing with a happy ferocity, giving off waves of intense heat. As they walked out of the office they made sure to leave the door open behind them. Nagi swept the scores of bodies out of their path with his telekinesis. Kid recovered fast.

It felt too quiet in the car without Farfarello's insanity or lust boiling merrily along or Aya's low hum. Every time Schuldig glanced in the rear view mirror he kept expecting to see Farfarello and Aya in the backseat with Nagi. Damn, he'd become invested.

"Schuldig, today Farfarello told me that he can feel souls," Nagi said.

"Of course he can. You trying to make sure I don't miss him?"

"Yeah? When I reached out to Aya telepathically, Farfarello told me to stop letting my soul touch Aya. He says he can feel souls and hear voices when he's tired."

Even Brad stiffened at that one. Schuldig asked, "Are you asking if he's telepathic?"

"Does it sound like he is? Especially since he can hear Aya thinking right now?"

"Yeah." Hell, yeah.

"He said that he felt Aya's soul leave his body last night. Were you talking to Aya?"

"Yeah. Fuck, I can't believe this."

"He dragged it back."

Figures. Just when the dream had started to get interesting in a way Farfie wouldn't like, too. "Son of a bitch."

"He said something else about how his soul used to leave his body in the institution and how one day when it came back he couldn't really feel pain anymore."

"He might be a projector. Most telepaths stay home in their bodies and reach out to work--"

"Like us."

Schuldig decided not to needle Nagi about including himself with Schuldig as a telepath because it would be counterproductive. "--but others go outside completely. It's riskier for them, but once they get into your head it's harder to see them, because there's no tether to their bodies to give them away." Schuldig lit up another cigarette, abruptly needing one. "Everybody always assumed that you snap back to your body naturally. Well, as long as somebody doesn't destroy your psyche while you're out and about, leaving your body a vegetable, or somebody doesn't kill your body while you're not home."

"But Farfarello was deeply drugged and already dissociative."

"You're thinking what I'm thinking?" Schuldig asked.

"Usually I would hope not. What are you thinking?"

"That one day he left and came back but his mind didn't synchronize with his body right, and that's why he doesn't feel pain as much as he should."

"We _are_ thinking the same thing. That's scary."

"Why would this start showing up now?" Brad asked.

"I don't think it's showing up right now. I think he's been doing bits of it forever, but he saw it in religious terms, which disguised it from everyone who tried to figure out what he could do," Nagi answered. "Telepathy let him know that Aya was trying to kill him those nights. He said that he's more sensitive to it at night."

"Aya fooled even me with that glass shard by moving on instinct to kill instead of thought," Schuldig said.

"Farfarello's exhausted now, and Aya's drugged into being an open book, so he's reading Aya's dreams and hearing some of Aya's thoughts."

Schuldig snorted. "Poor Aya."

"Both of their defenses are down. Aya won't be as easy to read when he's well again."

Brad said, "If Farfarello's not fully attached to his body that might partly explain why it's hard to foresee him."

"Because he's not all there?" Schuldig answered, having far too much fun.

"You're very funny, Schu."

"I know."

"Has anybody who could recognize the signs really spent any time with him before?" Nagi asked.

"No," Schuldig answered. "Still, he can't be very strong if none of us noticed anything."

"He's stronger than he used to be," Brad replied. "He has to be."

"What? Aya has the power to jumpstart talents?"

"Aya's arrival in Schwarz jolted Farfarello and Nagi out of their comfortable ruts and forced them to start thinking of someone outside of themselves. That may have sparked them into opening up more."

"What?" Nagi protested. "Oh, fuck you."

Schuldig snorted. "The power of their love for Aya made them grow as people and talents."

"I hate you both. See if I ever try to be helpful again."

Brad said, "We have to try to train him."

"Try making him see himself as a telepath first. I couldn't," Nagi answered.

"Schuldig."

"What?" Shit, they _would_ put this on him. "C'mon, I just passed off the title of 'Farfarello wrangler' onto Aya. Now I have to convince Farfie of his true self and whip him into some kind of telepathic shape? I don't even like to _touch_ his mind."

"He may be too old to train," Nagi said. "He's set in his ways."

"That's one way of putting it."

"And nuts."

"That too."

"Do what you can," Brad said. "I don't expect miracles."

"I'm glad Farfie wasn't here to hear you use the M word." Still, Schuldig had to admit to some curiosity. He wanted to take Farfarello for a test run and see what he could do. Could it be possible to resync his mind with his body? Would Farfie even want that on anything other than a temporary basis if he could? Schuldig noticed Brad smiling. "I hate you." Brad _knew_, the bastard.

"Have I ever told you that I appreciate your consistency?"

"Only on the few times when I'm being consistent. Usually during sex."

"I hate you," Nagi said and left the car as soon as it parked.

Schuldig soon realized that the kid had ulterior motives for getting out quickly when he saw the bathroom door locked and heard the shower running. "You little bitch."

"Considering what he can do, you're fortunate he chooses such harmless kinds of revenge," Brad said.

"I don't want to hear it. I want my shower!"

Looking superior and mature--and bloody--Brad walked into their bedroom as he waited for his turn. Schuldig decided to do something useful with his time. The unlocked door to the Farfarello and Aya's bedroom opened easily and quietly. Schuldig had only the light from the hallway to guide his steps once inside, but he wouldn't need conventional sight for what he intended to do. Approaching by following the sound of breathing and Farfarello's light snores, Schuldig stopped at the foot of the bed.

"What do you want?" Farfarello asked. Something had brought him awake. Schuldig's presence maybe?

"Just checking in on you guys." Schuldig reached out, seeing with his mind. Now that he knew what to look for, he noticed what scores of experts and telepaths before him had missed. Not only did Farfie have a psi talent, his self writhed in its haphazard attachment to its body like a pinned butterfly desperately beating its wings inside a glass container, a condition previously misdiagnosed as simple insanity. No wonder it hurt so badly to try to read him. Schuldig had been fighting back a headache and nausea the whole time he'd piggybacked Farfarello's head during their recruitment pitch to Aya.

Nobody appreciated the sacrifices he made for this team.

"Do you want something?" Farfarello asked, menace naked in his voice.

"Nothing that can't wait until morning."

"Good," Nagi said from behind him. He looked more like the old Nagi in his pajamas and with his wet hair wrapped in a towel. "We need our sleep." He rubbed his hair dry, set the towel aside, climbed into bed to snuggle on Aya's other side, and set his hand lightly down over Aya's bandaged shoulder.

"Isn't this cozy." How long would this little arrangement last?

"Fuck off," Aya mumbled.

"You woke the kitten," Farfarello growled.

Schuldig sighed. "Going." Tomorrow was another day and all that shit.

"Close the door as you go."

"Yes, sir. You fucking loony."

"Words might not hurt me, but sticks and stones can fuck _you_ up badly."

"We'll talk tomorrow." He couldn't wait to see Farfie's reaction to what he would have to say about the talent. It might be worth tonight's indignity. Schuldig slammed the door shut.

Schuldig heard the shower running. ~ Et tu, Brad? ~ It looked like he wasn't at the top of his game tonight.

~ There's room for two. ~

That sounded promising. ~ Then I forgive you. ~

******************************************************

"I need to wash," Aya said as soon as he woke up that morning. "I feel disgusting."

"You can't bathe. It will have to be a washcloth bath," Farfarello answered.

"You sound far too enthused over the idea."

Inwardly, Nagi agreed but said, "It's about time for a bandage change anyway." He didn't need telepathy to know how much it bothered Aya to have so many people looking at his partially to fully naked body. Aya might be practical enough to know that modesty was a luxury, but it was a luxury he needed.

Having of course never been in the room with them during the infamous baths, Nagi wanted to see what Farfarello would do. He seemed to give some spots on Aya's body more attention than others, stroking the washcloth over the same patch of skin over and over, for no reason Nagi could see, while Aya let him do whatever he wanted. Nagi tried not to watch too closely, concentrating on the wounds and not the naked body that had them.

The bullet wound looked pretty good. Actually, it looked better than it should. Nagi stared at it, then unwrapped Aya's arm to compare the gash's healing progress with the blow-through's progress. The gash wasn't healing as quickly. Why? What made the difference?

Nagi had a bad feeling.

"Please elaborate," Schuldig said from the doorway. They'd locked the door from the inside, but he had a talent for picking locks.

Aya reached to throw something, then made a strangled noise as his body forcibly reminded him why he shouldn't. Farfarello said, "Get your own kitten. This is a private moment." Aya pulled the covers up so Schuldig wouldn't be getting a free show anymore.

"Aya's not a tourist attraction? Could've fooled me. So, Nagi, what did you do?"

His mental shields must have slipped in his moment of anxiety. "Maybe I didn't do anything." But he didn't believe that. He'd been in that wound.

He wasn't a healer, and bodies were too complex to mess with. Shoulders alone had skin, muscles, veins, arteries, bones, sinew, nerves, etc. He would never be arrogant enough to try to mend that with his talent. But perhaps his subconscious had been more confident than the rest of him.

He'd wanted Aya's shoulder to heal, and part of him had started just that.

"Nagi, are you helping my shoulder heal faster?" Aya asked.

"Maybe. Not intentionally."

"Don't stop on my account."

"Aya, you don't understand. I could fuck you up badly. One mistake, and you might never be able to use your arm again. I couldn't live with myself if that happened."

"Let me get my violin," Schuldig said.

"Let me get my knife," Farfarello answered him.

"I won't do any more, Aya," Nagi said. "Now that I know what I was unconsciously doing, I can stop it."

"I'd be happier if you healed it faster, but if you're worried you'll ruin me I'll accept that."

"Thanks, Aya," Nagi said dryly.

"I'd rather be back to what I should be. I hate this."

Of course he did. "I know, but it's just too risky." Nagi glanced at the doorway. "Why are you still here?"

Schuldig grinned. "I wanted to talk to Farfie. You know why."

"Good luck getting him out of the room to talk to him."

"What do you want that the boy knows about but I don't?" Farfarello asked.

"The only way to find out is to let me talk. We could do it here, in front of Aya and Nagi, if you don't want to leave."

Farfarello growled, then let go of Aya's hand and walked out of the room, with Schuldig following. Aya asked, "What is that about?"

"You might be able to hear some of it." Nagi decided to use his ears alone and avoid any telepathic eavesdropping. Who knew where this discussion might go? It could get messy....

******************************************************  
_"Panic in her mind again,   
She can't deal the real.   
Teacher smacks the Good Book   
unto her head, says God is feel.   
What's it like?   
Accidents won't happen   
If you never leave your home.   
Keep that soul like a thoroughbred;   
The first one will let it roam.   
Your mind will snap, it can't be held back.   
Imagination's a mother.   
Time is flowing red.   
What's it like?   
Riverhead."_  
  -- "Riverhead" by Prick  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Schuldig leaned against the wall and said, "Nagi told me that you can feel souls."

"The boy didn't talk so much before." Farfarello spun a knife in his hand. "Surely you don't believe it. I'm insane. Everybody knows that."

"I believe that you don't know what you're really doing. You're a telepath."

"The boy said that too. That's something I don't believe. You need to make everyone you know out to be a telepath--"

"I'm not," Brad said as he walked by.

"You have a little telepathy," Schuldig shouted to him, while Brad waved in an annoyed, bored way and kept walking.

"--and you've brainwashed Nagi into your little cult. In his case, he's actually a telepath. I'm not."

Schuldig knew this wouldn't be easy. "Let me try something. Put down your shields."

Farfarello smiled. "What shields?"

Schuldig didn't know if Farfarello being pissed off affected it, but right now telepathically touching him felt like trying to run his brain through a woodchipper. Taking a deep breath, Schuldig put his hand on the side of Farfarello's neck and went inside his mind.

He had an idea of where to go. Farfarello may have repressed the details of the major turning point of his life, but the true memory remained inside his mind, the anchor under all that water under the bridge that kept him motoring around with his obsessions. Like every other telepath Eszett had set on Farfie, Schuldig had seen it before, and like every other Eszett telepath he'd disengaged when the insanity struck. But what if it hadn't been simple derangement?

There was Sister Ruth, saying the words that would rip sweet little Jei's world apart. Jei didn't believe her at first. It couldn't be true. His parents were his parents. Sister Ruth was a nun; she couldn't be his mother. But she was a nun; she wouldn't lie to him. But she'd been lying to him for years. His parents had been lying to him forever?

He needed to know the truth. He needed to know the truth....

And now came what Schuldig had called the Voice of God Acid Trip, absolute bloody fucking chaos, ending in sweet Jei's bloody fucking slaughter of his family, stabbing of Sister Ruth, repression of what had really happened, and dissociation. After the rush of violent, murderous derangement, Jei's outraged brain made him forget Sister Ruth's revelation and his hand wielding the blade. He willfully forgot those things every time someone tried to contradict his official story of what had happened. God killed his family. He was a victim....

Every time before, the eavesdropping telepath had lost interest or been completely confused and left. This time Schuldig rode it out and used what he knew to make better sense of it, reinterpreting the details, ripping the muffling veil of religious mania away. It made a big difference, because now he saw that Jei's need to know the truth had triggered an out of body experience that had put him in Sister Ruth's mind, where he saw that she'd told him the truth. Even better, he got the whole stew that went with it, all the things she would never say aloud, especially not to a child. Like: She couldn't lie to the world anymore. She loved her son, such a sweet boy, yet every time she saw him she remembered her guilt and sin. Sin, such sin. Unwanted child of her sin.... He was hers but not hers. She wanted him and didn't want him. It was wrong.

It took only seconds for Jei to see everything he'd wanted/hadn't wanted to know. It took only seconds to break him.

Ignoring Sister Ruth's shouts, he ran home and snapped through his parents' heads, receiving total confirmation. They'd all lied. All lied. All of it was lies. How could one of God's servants do such a thing? Unless... God had meant exactly this. God told stories of love to soften His lambs up to make the inevitable betrayal hurt more. Faith was something people used to pretend otherwise, to pretend that they deserved what they got, to pretend that it didn't matter that it was hard to hurt God back.

Jei didn't know who he was. Everyone was screaming at him, all the souls howling in his head. He could see everywhere. God was trying to confuse him now. He had to make them stop. False, all false. He had to make them stop. He felt God's malign presence within him, directing his actions, and he screamed....

Schuldig blinked and swallowed, gasping, "You wanna let go of my neck, Farfie? Besides, holding on to me just helps me."

"Choking you feels good."

"I just got confirmation. You're part of the cult of the telepath. You'd be a lot less fucked up without it."

Suicides, homicides, and dropping dead often surrounded a person's first manifestation of telepathy if the telepathy turned on all at once. Hearing people's unedited thoughts about you for the first time could be rough and often led to the telepath killing himself or/and killing the people he'd thought had loved him. The dropping dead came from some telepaths being unable to deal with the psychic feedback pouring from the dying loved ones and thus following them into death.

Schuldig's telepathy had turned on and up gradually, giving him time to work on his shields and adjust into self-protective misanthropy and cynicism before his talent went nova. Once he hit his peak, he became a disaster until he finally received the training he'd needed, but at least he hadn't been shocked by the kind of horrible things people actually thought.

Blatantly disgusted, Farfarello quickly let go of him. "If that's so, it's been fucking useless so far."

"You've used it more than you think, and it's why you don't feel pain all the way. If you train yourself to use it instead of block it, you might be able to get some sensation back."

"What does telepathy have to do with my pain?"

"I'm guessing that one day when your 'soul' left your body and came back, it didn't snap back in right. That's astral projection, not your soul traveling."

"You say 'potato.'"

"With training, you might be able to fix yourself." Maybe. After so many years in such a state, it might be impossible.

"Having no pain can be useful sometimes."

"You ever wonder what Aya's touch really feels like?" Schuldig purred.

"You're Satan."

"Which in your theology would be a good thing?"

"Satan was created by God too."

Farfie could be such a pain in the ass. "So was your kitten."

"I'm not a telepath."

"Give it a try. If I'm right, you get another weapon in your arsenal. You could be the Unholy Ghost. You might be able to see if Aya's skin feels as good as it looks." Telepathically, Schuldig said, ~ You'd be able to read Aya. ~ With Aya listening nearby, he didn't want to be overheard planting suggestions the volatile swordsman would kill him for later. "And God hates telepaths. If I'm wrong, which I'm not, you don't lose anything."

"My time. My time is precious."

"Bullshit."

"If you're wrong, I get to kill you."

"No."

Farfarello didn't look upset over it. "It was worth a shot."

Schuldig couldn't help smiling. They had a weird kind of understanding, but it worked. "So?"

"Nagi doesn't trust you to train him. Why should I?"

"Nagi knows fundamentals, so he can work on his own. You don't know shit."

"And I barely believe in it."

"That too."

"I'm curious, so I'll try it."

"Don't do me any favors."

"Such martyrdom. As if you won't enjoy toying with me to see what makes me tick."

His teammates knew him too well. "I have to get _something_ out of it."

Farfarello made a derisive sound but smirked.

On to the next bit of business. "Farfie, we're moving today. We'll have to pack, and I have to put your kitten out."

Instant hostility. "Why?"

"Because he'll be unreasonable. He'll want to help. He'll rip himself open. I can go on, but you know him. It's like when I put you out so you wouldn't tear your Achilles tendon worse. Or the time when I put you out so you wouldn't--"

"I lost weeks to those!" he snarled.

"Yet you came out healed and ready to do more damage at full capacity. Same thing here. This is for his own good, and it won't turn him into a morphine junkie. You want your kitten to be well."

Farfarello's lip curled, but he didn't argue. Maybe he figured, correctly, that Schuldig would do it over his objections anyway. They walked back into the bedroom. Before Aya could say a word, Schuldig put him out. Having only raised himself a few millimeters off his pillow to say something, he didn't have far to fall. The drugs and injuries made him much easier to manipulate. He should be this easy all the time.

Aya had wanted to ask about the telepathy, feeling some small horror at the thought of Farfarello being able to go into his mind. It would have to wait. They didn't have time for drama anyway.

"Schuldig!" Nagi yelled, and Schuldig could feel him gathering power to strike in both the telekinetic and telepathic fields. The kid had come far on his own.

"I'm protecting him from himself, like we do with Farfarello. You know what Aya will do to himself if we pack to leave around him."

Nagi's face twisted, and he powered down. "Don't get used to doing this."

"Whatever. You better get packing."

Nagi nearly snarled but left, pushing violently past Schuldig, clipping his shoulder, to go. Schuldig looked back on his own way out and saw Farfarello looking down at Aya and petting his hair. Looks like he'd taken the bait.

Farfarello a telepath? Schwarz became more interesting by the day.


	33. "I've gotten used to having no privacy whatsoever."

"Looks like you're almost done, Brad," Schuldig said from the doorway.

"It's not like we have anything that takes too long to pack," Crawford answered as he turned to face him. Schuldig stood straighter and stiffer than usual, and the tilt of his head…. "How deeply did you go into Farfarello's mind?"

"You can tell?" Schuldig's smile didn't look quite right, melding his usual with a different one. Farfarello's. For all of Schuldig's talk of how painful it could be to go into their berserker's mind, he always synced into it easily. When Crawford wanted to annoy him, he only had to talk about how simpatico they were.

"I can tell."

"Play with me, Brad."

A Farfarello-flavored Schuldig could mean that in a different way than usual, and Crawford couldn't foresee him well now. "You have packing to do."

Schuldig pounced, but Crawford saw the playfulness in it and didn't fight as hard as he might have. With everything being so dire lately, they could use a bit of recreation. They did a dodging dance for a while, but eventually Schuldig's speed and Crawford's baffled foresight led to an inevitable result.

Even pinned against a wall, Crawford played it cool. "He wouldn't be sexually frustrated right now, would he? With Aya so badly injured and semi-untouchable?" His calm could calm Schuldig sometimes. Playfulness was one thing, but calm would be good, considering that he had no urge to overexcite his telepath in the wrong way and see whose variety of sadism of the two kinds currently inside him won out. Schuldig had already been edgy lately.

"I didn't notice." Schuldig rubbed the side of his face against Crawford's. Schuldig's grip didn't hurt, being firm and tight but also solicitous. Maybe kitten ownership had taught Farfarello to take better care. Crawford had gotten bruises in this situation in the past. He didn't mind the bruises.

Schuldig kissed him aggressively, still playful in an enjoyable way. Crawford decided to let Schu work the madness out of his system. Sex could set Schuldig's head on straight, and it wouldn't take _that_ long for him to pack.

****************************************************

Nagi didn't have much to pack--just his laptop computer, toothbrush, clothing, Walkman, and folding papers--so he returned to Aya and Farfarello's bedroom to see if Farfarello needed any help, since Aya would be dead weight. Nagi found Farfarello leaning over the bed looking fiercely unhappy as he straightened the T-shirt he must have put on Aya. Aya also wore a pair of sweatpants now, clothing that would be easier to wrestle onto a slack body. Nagi found himself forcibly reminded of Aya's sister. The lack of expression on their smooth faces looked like absence instead of peace. She too had lain there slack, with no kinetic field at all, thoughts so slow as to seem nearly nonexistent under a dark ocean of coma.

He would never tell Aya this.

With his pale skin and vivid, improbably-colored hair, Aya looked more like a porcelain doll than his sister ever could have. Just a big doll to be dressed, groomed, and posed. Creepy.

"It's not like that," Farfarello growled. Not a telepath? Please. "This isn't my puisín. Just a part of him. A fun part of him, but not all of him, and I want him back."

Nagi couldn't look at Aya. "But you've been like this yourself."

"I had no awareness in that state. I had no idea it was like this. He's so gone, so helpless. I can't feel him."

"You didn't realize we would pose you and take pictures?" When Farfarello merely stared at him, Nagi snapped, "Either have a sense of humor or don't. I can't figure you out." He hated sounding like such a bitch, but he felt a little entitled right now.

"I don't give a shit." Farfarello rested his hand above Aya's slightly parted lips. "Once we reach the new place, I get him out of this and make sure Schuldig can't ever do it again. I just don't know how to do that short of killing him, and he's still too useful to be sacrificed."

"We're telepaths too, Farfarello. We're not weaponless here."

"Is that what this is about?"

"What? Telepathy? No, not really, not for me. Maybe it's just time that we make Schuldig feel a little less secure about his sovereignty in that area."

Farfarello considered it. "I'll do what I have to to defend my puisín."

"It's the smart move."

"All right." Showing a tenderness few people would expect from him, Farfarello gently moved Aya around to put his original Schwarz mission coat on him.

It gave Nagi a weird feeling in his chest and stopped him from asking if Farfarello wanted any telekinetic help with Aya, so he asked, "Are you packed?"

"Yeah. We don't have much, especially not after the fire."

"I could take it out to the car."

"Yeah."

"I could also set the bed on fire."

"I _am_ listening. I just have more important things to pay more attention to."

Nagi opened and closed his hand in a talking mouth "blah blah blah" gesture, but lifted the box and cases to go with his own on his way out to the door anyway. He still hated being a telepath, but being able to check the halls for neighbors before walking out made his life easier and let him use telekinesis all the way out without any fear of someone seeing something he shouldn't. He set everything down in the hall near the outside door and carried it outdoors manually. It still gave him a small thrill to be able to telekinetically unlock the car doors and trunk, something he allowed himself to do since bystanders never noticed. Someday he'd figure out exactly how to hotwire cars with his talent. As he closed the doors for the last time, Crawford walked over with some of his own things.

"Where's Schuldig?" Nagi asked.

"Can't you feel him?"

"Bite me, Crawford."

Crawford nearly smiled, then said, "He's closing up the apartment and making sure no one notices Farfarello carrying Aya out."

While Farfarello came out with Aya cradled in his arms, head resting against his neck, Schuldig followed with a very alert look on his face, as if waiting for an attack. Unusual conscientiousness from the telepath. Schuldig had been weird since the ambush, detached. As Farfarello walked down the steps to the sidewalk, Schuldig closed and locked the door.

Another place they had to leave behind. At least Nagi hadn't gotten a chance to form an attachment here. Right now he didn't care that a routine and complacency could kill you, because he wanted to have a home, at least for a little while.

As usual, Aya sat between Farfarello and Nagi in the backseat, and it wasn't unusual for him to be nestled in Farfarello's grip with his head resting against his lover's shoulder. Everything else about it was just wrong. Meanwhile, Farfarello's mind sounded ever more like a ticking time bomb.... Nagi swore that he wouldn't let Schuldig do this to Aya again.

Moving their things in took almost no time at all, not with all the practice they'd gotten in it recently. The only deviations from the routine came in Farfarello gently setting Aya on a bed before bringing things in and arranging them and Farfarello taking over the parts of the process Aya usually did.

Once finished, Farfarello grabbed Schuldig by the arm and stood him next to the bed. "Wake him."

Schuldig felt... strange, but his smirk looked the same as ever. "But he looks so sweet like that."

"Wake him!"

"Do it," Crawford said.

Schuldig shrugged, and Aya murmured and moved restlessly but didn't open his eyes.

"Finish the job!" Farfarello growled.

"I undid what I did. This is natural sleep. You want me to force him awake?"

"No."

"Good. Ta!" Schuldig waved at them and left the room, Crawford following. Leaving was probably a good idea, given Farfarello's state of mind.

Nagi set his laptop up on the table and put his headphones on, intending to work. Farfarello looked at him, then shook his head and sat on the bed at Aya's side.

******************************************************

When Aya opened his eyes, he noticed that the ceiling had changed. Having perpetually studied the ceiling over the last day, he could tell the difference. They'd moved elsewhere. Schuldig must have done something to him to put him out. He hated being this fucking helpless. As soon as he could stand without wanting to pass out, he would take his vengeance on everyone who'd hurt and taken advantage of him.

"Puisín, you're awake." Farfarello kissed his forehead.

"Obviously. What the hell did he do to me?"

"He put you out so you wouldn't overexert yourself trying to help us move. He's done the same to me in similar situations. I swear to you that we will never let him do it again."

"That's for damned sure," Nagi said as he listened to his headphones and typed feverishly, then he grinned. "These poor bastards make it far too easy for me. They call this security?"

"You scare me sometimes," Aya said.

Nagi grinned harder. "Thank you."

Meanwhile, he was still good for nothing aside from lying on his back staring at the ceiling. His muscles would atrophy.... He needed something else to think about. "Farfarello," Aya said, "I hear that you're a telepath."

"I don't believe it. Shut up, boy."

"Am I saying anything?" Nagi asked.

"Yes, you are."

Actually.... "It makes sense," Aya replied.

"I want people to stop saying that. But you don't mind?"

Did he mind? "Not really. I've gotten used to having no privacy whatsoever." Besides, what could he do about it?

"Good." Farfarello snuggled against him, and he suppressed a sigh.

He could feel the pain stalking him, clenching its claws into his shoulder, but refused to say a word, hating how stupid, vague, and slow the drugs made him feel. He could get well without them, since they treated only pain, not infection. Schwarz didn't seem to be worrying about infection....

Farfarello gave him a look. Shit.

"Nagi, it's time for my puisín's drugs. Get them for me?"

Nagi telekinetically tossed the bottle over. Farfarello took out two pills and stared Aya down.

Aya accepted them in his right hand but said, "I've changed my mind. I hate it that you're a telepath."

"That's a shame, kitten, because I'm starting to see some benefits. Take them. I'm watching you very carefully."

******************************************************

While lying next to his unconscious puisín, Farfarello decided that he didn't really like pain after all. Or perhaps he didn't like his puisín's pain, which he caught some of the echoes of. Perhaps he truly was a telepath.

Thinking of pain and telepathy distracted him from the door. A little.

Out on a mission, Crawford and Schuldig couldn't stop him from leaving this room and inflicting some suffering on God's people in return for his puisín's.

Without mission violence or sex, he might explode. He could touch Aya gently but feared what anything more vigorous might do to his wounds. He also feared that after too long with no violence or sex the first time he tried to fuck his kitten again he might confuse the two, and his kitten wouldn't be able to defend himself as well as usual.

In the darkness, the door yawned wide in his mind, offering escape and an outlet. He couldn't help his puisín here. He couldn't do anything for Aya. Even Nagi could do more. And somewhere God was laughing and being worshipped by mindless morons who would give thanks and praise to a deity that could do something like this to Aya. They deserved to be shown the error of their ways and killed. With the door unlocked, he could leave to do that. And all he had to do was abandon his injured kitten.

He must not. Would not. He had to resist God's temptations.

When he tried to move, he felt an odd weight anchoring his body down. Nagi asked, "Does this help?"

Farfarello had forgotten about their new attachment that currently shared their bed. "It's a nice thought, but staying in means nothing if I don't do it myself." Nagi could see his turmoil?

"Fine." The telekinetic weight disappeared.

Farfarello looked for a knife but couldn't find one nearby. "I moved them away," the boy said.

Fucker. He needed this.... Farfarello set his teeth against his wrist and bit down, feeling a vague, dull tearing, then struggled against threads of telekinetic force that held his wrist away from his mouth.

"Are you crazy?" the boy asked. "All right, that's a stupid question, but stop!"

A hand clasped Farfarello's arm, and Aya grunted. "Stop, both of you."

"Aya-kun, you shouldn't be doing that!" Nagi said.

Was the kitten clasping both of them like that? "He's right, puisín."

"What can I do to help you?" Aya asked.

Since Aya couldn't do anything else, Farfarello said, "Be here. Live."

"Nothing else?"

"Nothing I think you're well enough to do."

Farfarello didn't need telepathy to sense Aya's frustration. "Nagi, give him a knife," Aya said. "He does himself less damage that way. Cleaner cuts."

"Aya!"

"Do it. Or would you rather he gnawed at his wrist?"

"He's ripping himself open."

"I'd rather he didn't too, but there's nothing I can do."

Farfarello felt his throat tighten at the thought of his puisín being disappointed in him. Of course Aya felt disappointment, when his lover couldn't be trusted not to run out the door on him and needed to tear into his flesh as a distraction to prevent himself from leaving.

"The pain is a tool," he explained, but he also knew it to be a crutch, weakness. He shouldn't need it. "I'll do without it." He nuzzled Aya's neck, but his puisín didn't smell right with all the drugs coursing through his body. Tainted. It made Farfarello want to howl, but he said nothing.

******************************************************

Crawford ended his last target's life with an elegant, efficient shot to the head. ~ Schuldig, are you done yet? Schuldig? ~ No answer. ~ Schuldig! ~ Shit. He hadn't foreseen anything befalling his telepath, but Eszett had been blocking some of his visions lately. He ran toward the room where Schuldig would be if everything had gone according to plan. If everything hadn't, at least it made a place to start.

Fortunately, he found Schuldig alive there. Repeatedly pistol-whipping a corpse he held up with his other hand. "Mastermind!" No answer. "Schuldig, what are you doing?"

When Schuldig turned to face Crawford, his blue eyes nearly glittered. The blood spray on his face looked vividly red. "He looked at me funny. I had to shut him up."

On the one hand, shit. On the other, Crawford had been expecting some kind of blow-up from his telepath, even hoping for it so they could get it out of the way. Lately Schuldig had been too detached, too cheery, distracting himself from everything with mission talk, the revelation of Farfarello's talent, and sex.

"He's dead now. It's time to go."

"Not yet." Was this purely Schuldig or some remaining veneer of Farfarello at work?

"Schu. Now."

Schuldig dropped the corpse and kicked it toward the pile. Only a pulpy ruin remained of its face. "Yes, sir, o fearless leader." He used its shirt to rub the blood off his gun barrel.

They would be talking about this later. Especially since Schuldig stayed quiet and idly drew designs on his face with the blood there during the ride home. And especially since Schuldig briefly stopped in front of the door to Farfarello, Aya, and Nagi's room and shuddered before moving on.

In the bathroom, Schuldig stared at his face in the mirror, running his fingers over the dried blood patterns. "The bullet wound didn't scar," Crawford said to distract him out of his trance.

Schuldig moved his fingers to run down his cheekbone. "Yeah, I'm still pretty." He wet a washcloth and ran it over his face. "No, I don't want to talk. What are we, chicks?"

Schuldig complained. At least a healthy one did. You couldn't shut him up. Maybe this time he just needed his pump to be primed. So Crawford asked, "What was that about before? You're a liability if you get distracted in abusing corpses."

"I cleaned my plate first, Daddy. It was safe."

"If someone walked in, would you have known? I called for you, but you didn't answer."

"What are you really asking, Brad? Am I okay?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not. Happy?"

"No."

"You want to know what's eating me? It's more like, what the fuck isn't eating me?"

"Tell me."

Schuldig stared at him through the mirror, refusing to turn to face him. "It used to be that I didn't give a fuck about anything. I had nerves of steel and ice water in my veins. I didn't care about anyone. I barely cared about myself. Now things are fucking spooking me. This shit about the word. Having my telepathy blocked. The ambush, which scared me worse than any near-death experience I ever had before. Watching Aya take a hit, and why the fuck do I care if Aya gets a big hole punched in him?"

"He's not vulnerable to the word."

"I told myself that was it too, but you know what? It's not. I actually fucking care about him and Nagi and psycho boy now. I care about this team and what's good for it."

"That's good." Crawford wanted him invested instead of sabotaging the team through whim.

"No, it's not. I have things at stake now, and it's making me nervous. It's making me care."

"You told me that change is good."

"I told you that it can be good, but either way it's inevitable. You think it gives me a happy to be vulnerable? You think I like sleeping next door to a room full of pain, fear, and frustration? Aya hasn't been this strong and horrific a dark undertow since he wanted to kill himself all the time. As much as I enjoy that stuff usually, it pulls me under in a bad way sometimes, especially if it goes on and on and on. I lose track of myself. Farfie's ticking down to zero, and he's gonna blow eventually. Probably soon."

Some of this Crawford had already known. "You have my authorization to set him off early in a safe direction if he starts to reach the critical mark."

"Thanks, but I was gonna do it when the time came whether you gave me a green light or not."

"I'm not surprised."

"I'm worrying about all kinds of shit I can't change. Like your hair."

Crawford didn't like this direction. "What about my hair?"

"You're going silver fast. You know what that can mean."

It could mean burnout, a shift to possibly maddening high-level alpha talent, or death. Or nothing. "It's my problem."

Schuldig laughed. "When it's you, it's your problem, but when it's me it's the team's problem? You can't have it both ways, baby. I haven't been open about my worries? You've been walled off and glacial."

"You can read my mind."

"With your shields and the way your mind is strung across a few time zones, it ain't easy. You know that. Besides, you're not letting yourself think about that night either, too busy Being Strong for the team when really you don't want to think about it yourself. You buried it. Does 'I didn't see this, I didn't _see_ this' ring any bells?" Schuldig had a gift for finding ways to turn an argument on his opponent.

"What are you accusing me of?"

"The same thing you're accusing me of, you hypocrite."

Crawford wanted to hit or choke him. "This isn't about me."

"You're right. It's about us."

"What?"

Schuldig suddenly turned to face him. "If I have to admit weakness, so do you."

"Like hell."

Schuldig pulled him in close and rested his head against his, warm and living, fragrant with blood and gunpowder and a hint of leather. "Admit to it. I'm standing here all vulnerable and naked, but you're protected with all your shields and arrogance in place while your hair's turning white. I've seen oracles who have hit their pinnacle."

"So have I." He remembered them, drooling, blind from their physical eyes burning out, insane, tuned in to the future of the entire world, too embroiled in visions of what would be to take care of themselves.

"I want you to be aware and careful." Amazing. Schuldig could use even his own vulnerability as a strength and a weapon.

Crawford couldn't help feeling admiration for that. "You're an unprincipled bastard."

Usually Schuldig would answer something like "Yeah, but I'm your unprincipled bastard," but instead he simply breathed in and nestled closer... confident that Crawford would supply the answer for him. When had they become an old married couple?

"Just go with it," Schuldig murmured.

Crawford let himself think about how the ambush had scared him and how Eszett's successes in blinding him to the future had scared him. He let Schuldig see his worry about the unknown personal future hinted at by his graying and how he hoped Aya wouldn't injure himself further in his stubbornness and impatience. It made him feel weak being caught up in events he couldn't effect, and he hated that.

"Yessss," Schuldig whispered.

They'd wrapped around one another. Schuldig's hair always took on the scents around it, and right now it smelled like blood. They'd shower and go to sleep. Maybe Crawford would take Schuldig out to stay at a hotel one night this week to get him away from the miasma of injury in the apartment.

"Don't you feel better now that you've talked it out?" Schuldig purred, then laughed as Crawford smacked the back of his head.


	34. "Sure, and maybe fuse his arm into its socket by accident."

"Puisín, what are you doing?" Farfarello asked as he pushed Aya back down onto the bed.

"Going to breakfast."

"I'll bring you breakfast."

"I don't want that. I want to get up and get the hell out of this bed. While I'm conscious. I'm not helpless!" Aya's voice turned quieter as he thought about it. "I'm not useless." He abruptly turned angry again. "I hate what the drugs do to my emotions!"

He'd been badly injured before, but it seemed worse this time, because they had been so close to taking on the major players but his injury forced them to delay it. His own weakness postponed his vengeance. None of the others had been so badly wounded that night.... Bizarrely, he felt that he had to prove himself to Schwarz, and spending so much time flat on his back, unable to get up even to feed himself, didn't help him do that.

"We're already cutting back." Who would have thought that Farfarello could sound so gentle? Aya hated that he had to. Everyone must carefully humor the invalid....

"Just give it a little more time, Aya," Nagi said.

"You are not weak, my puisín."

"I don't need to be comforted and coddled," Aya protested. He needed to be well and strong and have a sword in his hand. "I can still do things perfectly well right-handed. I _am_ right-handed."

"I'll go get breakfast for everyone," Nagi said before he left the room, no doubt to leave them some privacy to hash out their difficulties. It all set Aya's teeth on edge.

Farfarello curled up next to him and clung. "Now there's no need to go to the kitchen."

"You are the last person who should be getting in the way of me getting up."

"I worsen my injuries all the time, but at least I don't feel it. You would, and you would keep on going, and you would hurt yourself worse. I won't let you."

"_Let_ me?"

Farfarello just held him tightly and quivered.

Forcibly cooling himself down, Aya said, "I think you're overdoing it. Your own condition and your concern for me are clouding your judgement."

"I would rather be safe."

"I feel trapped, smothered."

Farfarello looked desperately unhappy but said, "It's only for a little while. Then you will be well, and we can do all the things we love to do."

Aya noticed that he didn't really have a choice.

******************************************************

"Do you want to go somewhere private to work on this?" Schuldig asked.

"No. My puisín can watch," Farfarello said as he glanced at Aya, who was sitting up next to him with pillows propping him up. "All of you can. I don't give a fuck."

Wonderful attitude. Schuldig sighed. "You're going to at least try to do this."

"Yeah. I like the idea of having another weapon."

"We might also find a way to fix your ability to feel."

"That's a lot to ask. I have no expectations."

Which could be good or bad. Schuldig glared at Nagi, who was smirking, then said, "All right. Do you feel Aya?"

"A little. Not as much when he's sober, like now."

"I'll keep that in mind," Aya said.

"Can you pull back from him or go deeper by thinking about it?" Schuldig asked.

Farfarello frowned. "No. It is or it isn't."

"Try focusing."

"On what?"

"On world peace." When Farfarello seemed to be taking that seriously, Schuldig said, "On your talent. On feeling people."

"All I feel is hungry."

Schuldig noticed Brad shaking his head and trying not to smile. "You think you can do better, Brad?"

"No, but I'm not a telepath."

"You'll get yours later."

"I always do."

"How about detaching your... soul from your body?" Schuldig asked. "You said you can do that."

"When I'm doped up and bored. I'm neither right now."

"You're not even trying!"

"I passed up the chance to train with you?" Nagi asked.

"C'mon, Farfie. How do you feel as it's starting to happen? Recreate that."

"I think I felt stoned. I don't know," Farfarello replied.

"I can't do this. We'll try again when Farfie's serious."

"I am serious."

Schuldig could feel Farfarello's frustration, suggesting that he was trying, but.... "Not in a fucking helpful way."

"I don't know how to do what you're asking for."

"And I don't know how to show you, making me a shitty teacher, just as you're a shitty student."

"Surely they ran into such problems with some of their talents at your training school," Aya said. "What did they do?"

"Some combination of starvation, rape, drugs, beatings, brainwashing, and solitary confinement. Which we're not doing here."

"That's for sure." Aya looked less intimidating in his anger while injured and lying in bed, but not by all that much.

"You're giving up?" Brad asked.

"For now. Until I get a better idea of how to do this." And Schuldig could feel Farfarello's ticking speeding up. The stress couldn't be helping any attempt to hone his talent. That boy would have to release those frustrations soon.

******************************************************

"Stop that," Farfarello said.

"I'm not hurting myself. I'm not even standing up," Aya answered. "These exercises don't stress my shoulder at all. I'm lying down. I don't see why I have to let my body turn to mush while I'm recovering." He actually ached from doing nothing.

"Farfarello, I can watch to make sure he's not overstressing anything," Nagi said, part help and part threat.

"Don't encourage him," Farfarello answered.

Aya heard a murmur at the open door, Schuldig saying, "We don't have to stay somewhere else tonight, Brad. I'm enjoying the feel of this." When Nagi noticed where Aya was looking, he slammed the door shut with his telekinesis.

At least Farfarello let him do his careful stretching exercises for about half an hour before leaping on him and forcibly preventing him from moving any longer. "Time for sleep, puisín."

Despite having done nothing all day, Aya immediately fell asleep, disgusting himself. But he awoke sometime in the night, feeling Farfarello twitching at his side. Aya reached out for his wrist and stroked it.

"I shouldn't need this," Farfarello said, breathing hotly against Aya's neck. "I want to be able to do this alone."

"If I can help, I will."

"Farfarello, would it help if I knocked you out cold?" Nagi murmured, sounding sleepy and annoyed.

"No."

Aya hated being the reasonable one, because he wasn't. "I'm sure stress is making it worse."

"Right," Nagi said. "When Aya's well, things will be better, so can you just let us help you through it now so I can sleep?"

Farfarello took a deep breath, then said, "Knock me out. I can't sleep on my own." Then his body went slack against Aya's.

"I did it gently," Nagi said.

Aya's fingers twined in Farfarello's hair. "Sure."

"Don't blame yourself for this."

"Are you reading me?"

"I don't have to."

Aya hadn't wanted to care about or feel any responsibility to these people, yet he did, and now he was letting them down.

"Aya--"

"I'm dealing with it. Leave me alone."

"Grouchy." Nagi's hair and arm brushed Aya's skin as he moved around.

Aya shuddered. As much as he liked the boy's company, the boy's physical presence left him feeling too sensitive, too raw and exposed. Nagi had similar concerns, or at least he used to, so how was he dealing with this? Was he here only out of concern, making a sacrifice?

"I'm here because I like you," Nagi answered.

"I want everyone to stop doing that."

"Liking you?"

"Reading my thoughts."

"We're trying."

Farfarello might not have been twitching anymore, but Aya still couldn't sleep no matter how hard he tried not to think of anything. It almost tempted him to take some of his drugs. He pulled Farfarello closer and tried to relax. Familiar scent, familiar feel, familiar-- Damn. He felt horny too, and he wouldn't be getting taken care of in that way either with everyone so concerned over how fragile and damaged he was.

"I can put you out too," Nagi said softly, sadly.

"No."

******************************************************

Left arm in a sling, Aya sat there picking at his breakfast. You didn't have to be a telepath to sense his depression and frustration, and you didn't have to be a telepath to feel how near snapping Farfarello was. Shit. Schuldig said, "Get ready to pack, Brad," and Brad tensed, knowing what would follow. "Hey, Farfie."

"Yeah?"

Putting his telepathy behind his words, Schuldig said, "God is laughing at you right now. His sheep are frolicking in the meadow, secure in illusions of their safety. They're all laughing." He threw in subliminal directions to a nearby church, though not a pretty or historic one, since they didn't need to draw that kind of attention to themselves. To his surprise, Farfarello fought the suggestion for a minute before leaping up from the table, picking up his weapons, and running out the door.

"What the hell is going on?" Aya asked.

"Safety valve." Schuldig threw his own utensils down to the table and ran out to follow. Fast as he was, Farfarello outstripped him, his obsession giving him greater strength and speed.

When Schuldig reached the church, pain and terror hit him like the best high. Sweet, so sweet.... Riding the wave, he managed to get inside before he had to slide down the wall to the floor, endorphins kicking in so strongly that he moaned. When he came to, he saw Farfarello kneeling amidst the corpses, everything splashed in vividly red blood. What a dull looking church. The red livened it up.

"I failed," Farfarello said. "God has won again."

Failed? "Did you utterly change your insanity since the last time?" Schuldig asked.

"God works to tempt me away from happiness and my kitten through the lure of carnage."

"You _have_ changed your insanity. Shit, did you do it on your own?"

Schuldig heard a scream and saw a woman near the altar. Farfarello turned and had a knife in flight toward her before he even finished seeing her. It took her in the throat. How did he-- He saw with his mind as well as his eyes. Amazing. No wonder having only one eye hadn't slowed down his ability to wreak mayhem. Farfarello walked over to her and wrenched the knife from her corpse.

"You helped God do this to me," Farfarello growled. "I can tell now. I was being so good, and you fucked it up."

"You were about to explode, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't on one of us. Like, you know, your kitten?"

"I could handle it!"

"You know what you sounded like to me? Tick, tick, tick, tick...."

Farfarello snarled but didn't deny it.

"No violence, no sex, an unlocked door, your kitten radiating pain and frustration.... I don't blame you for it," Schuldig said. "Didn't this little spree feel good?"

"Yeah, until I came out of the blood haze and realized that I left my kitten at the table."

"Your kitten is a grown man, and a fairly dangerous one at that. You could leave him for a while without worrying." Schuldig looked down at the corpses at his feet. 26 people, not counting the latecomer. "You know the drill, Farfie."

Farfarello dragged the bodies into one central spot, then Schuldig ripped pages out of a hymnal over them before setting them ablaze. They'd done this before. Of course, a spree like this usually left them both high and horny, but Schuldig didn't see today's work leading to sex. A shame, that. They'd also toasted s'mores before, but he didn't have the makings with him. They waited for the bodies and building to catch properly before leaving. Schuldig clouded the minds of the people walking past them in the streets so no one would notice all the blood staining them.

At the apartment, Brad greeted them with "Nagi ate the rest of your croissant, Schu." He already had a few bags packed.

"You little bitch," Schuldig said, and Nagi just smirked.

Aya actually looked more miserable but had shut himself off more. Schuldig could barely feel him. He'd withdrawn. Brad must have explained how his emotions and situation had affected Farfie.

Farfarello rushed to his kitten and sat astride his lap. "No, this is not the way. I want to feel you, no matter how you feel. Come back to me."

Schuldig could feel him reaching into Aya. With telepathy. Of course. "I'm a genius," Schuldig murmured.

"Let's not go too far," Brad said.

"Oh, shut up. Farfie started tapping his telepathy to deal with Aya. We just have to figure the right way to use Aya to make him train himself."

"_Use_ Aya?" Nagi asked, a dangerous tone in his voice.

"You know what I mean!" Watching the psycho pair, feeling Aya's frustration with himself, Schuldig had to ask, "Fuck, Nagi, can't you do a little more work on Aya's shoulder?"

"Sure, and maybe fuse his arm into its socket by accident."

"You could differentiate shrapnel from cloth, cloth from leather, kevlar from those, and all of those things from flesh, so I don't see why you can't tell the difference in bone, muscle, and the like," Brad said quietly.

"Are you daring me to mess with him?" Nagi asked. "Wait, is this foresight?"

"You shouldn't try to fix it completely. That would be dangerous. But if you push it a little, you won't hurt him. I see that."

"That's a different story. I'll do that."

"When will you be using this great insight into Farfarello's telepathy, Schu?" Brad asked.

"After we move out and into the new place."

"This time is the last time we're moving for a while. Enough is enough."

"Finally," Nagi said.

"Farfarello, Aya. Suck it up," Schuldig said. "Time to finish packing up so we can go."

"Aya can help pack a little," Nagi said. "If he's careful and doesn't overdo it."

That small sop to Aya's pride had helped a little, but not enough. He looked angry, but the small bits of emotional leakage coming out revealed depression. Hopefully Farfie knew that and intended to work on it. Putting Aya on another suicide watch would suck.

******************************************************

Mamoru smiled a little as he looked at Yoji's report on his desk. He'd thought that putting Asato in undercover as a teacher would be needlessly cruel to students already being victimized by what seemed to be Eszett, yet the sullen swordsman had become a favorite amongst the students and teachers and even the mysterious director. Yoji taught too, while Ken, Sena, and Kyo pretended to be students. Asato even had Sena in one of his classes. It made Mamoru wish he could be there to see it, but he did far more good for Weiß as Persia. Grandfather had been right.

Still, he missed them. Mamoru glanced at the framed photo on his desk, his ever-present reminder of the four of them, his Weiß, in simpler times at the flower shop. The fangirl who'd taken it had caught Aya in a near-smile.

It still galled him that his greater authority hadn't brought him any closer to finding and rescuing Aya. Schwarz was certainly hard at work tearing Eszett down, striking so often and viciously that Mamoru had decided against sending Yoji and Ken after Eszett's German bases for fear of them getting chopped in the crossfire, but the hits came from so many different directions that Mamoru couldn't pin down Schwarz's hideaway. They no doubt changed location constantly. He could deplore their utter lack of morals and remorse but couldn't fault their survival instincts or professionalism. Even Farfarello's outbursts didn't jeopardize them as much as they should have.

When Mamoru checked his e-mail, he started to smile as he read the newest arrival reporting a church fire in Berlin that had a body count of 26 parishioners and a priest. No one could figure out how the fire had so badly devastated the building before anyone noticed it. The bodies had been arranged in one place.... It had to be Farfarello.

Mamoru had to go-- No, he couldn't. Dammit. He had too much going on, too many missions to oversee, too many people counting on him. He had his secretary, Rex, standing behind him and Grandfather to see at dinner tonight. If he disappeared, people would notice. Thus, he would contact some of the Kritiker agents in the area to look into it. If they turned up a more certain lead, he'd find a way to go. In fact, he could start clearing his calendar right now.


	35. Victims as far as the eye could see!

The kitten helped them carry some of the lighter things out to the car, but he still obviously felt unhappy. Farfarello understood too well. If he hadn't been knocked out by Schuldig during the times he'd been seriously injured, he would have felt the same under such circumstances.

As they sat in the backseat together, Farfarello leaned against Aya's good shoulder and said, "Soon you will be well," to draw him out.

"Not soon enough," Aya murmured. "I'm baggage."

"Never." Farfarello looked across Aya to see if the boy would contribute anything as he had been doing lately, but Nagi had his eyes closed and headphones on as he murmured along with a song in Spanish. Good.

"Do you feel better now?" Aya asked.

After his killing spree. "It felt good at the time," very good, "but the aftertaste was bitter. I failed you."

"No."

"Yes. I should have been with you. I promised."

"That wasn't what I asked you for. You don't have to be next to me all the time." His puisín had a very intense look in his orchid-colored eyes. "It makes me feel weak."

That hurt. "Weak?"

"That you think I need this all the time. I don't need this _all_ the time. I know you're with me. Even when you're not with me. I've thought it through." Aya shook his head, which made Farfarello notice that his hair was getting too long again. "I don't say things well."

Farfarello saw it now, and it warmed him. "No, you say it very well. You don't always need my physical presence. You know I'm still with you even without it." He'd forgotten that kittens needed some alone time now and then. The boy shared that kittenish quality, so Farfarello might have his bed and his Aya all to himself soon. The moment Aya could do without the boy, the boy was _gone_.

He could see Aya's relief. "Yes."

So much progress he'd made with his kitten! He nuzzled Aya's neck, noting with some satisfaction that the drug taint didn't have as strong a presence in Aya's scent. His puisín felt a little relieved... and a lot of lust. It made him want to stroke and kiss and bite... and he mustn't. Not yet. Aya snarled a little as he pulled away.

"You're very tempting, puisín."

"Not enough."

"Soon." Knowing that his puisín wanted it just as much as he did made it harder to wait, but he would wait, and it would be worth it.

"Will you go out on missions again?"

"Soon. Not tonight."

That night, Farfarello slept very well at his puisín's side in an unfamiliar bed. The unlocked door didn't call to him even once.

******************************************************

"I'm in a mood to get nasty tonight," Crawford said as they drove to their target.

"I'm always up for a good wienie roast," Schuldig said.

It didn't take long for Nagi to find out what they meant. Thankful that the fumes couldn't bother him at this distance, he used his telekinesis to dump liters of gasoline on the exterior of the warehouse in big splashes. Eszett had placed this warehouse in a secluded, run-down area on the outskirts of the city, its isolation making it possible for Schwarz to get this showy and dramatic. They'd already blocked most of the exits, leaving only one way out, where they were waiting.

Crawford _was_ in a nasty mood. He must have decided to do this quickly and spontaneously, because Eszett's precogs would have seen something this big if he'd planned it farther in advance.

They stood nearly hip to hip as they waited. Schuldig sucked on an unlit cigarette while loading his gun. His face blank with concentration, no doubt looking into the future to make sure their drama didn't cost them their targets, Crawford simply stood with his gun ready. Nagi had been born ready.

"Light it," Crawford said.

Nagi telekinetically tossed a cheap lighter at the building then flicked it on. The gasoline caught immediately in a wave of flowing flames of blue, gold, and orange. The bright, shifting light reflected eerily off Crawford's glasses.

~ Most light does. Someday I have to figure out how he does that. ~

Nagi smirked, then said, ~ Get out of my head. ~

~ If your shields relax, it's not _my_ fault, baby. ~

Against almost any other telepath, Nagi's current shields would have been sufficient. Still, better to be safe than sorry. Besides, he didn't want to feel what would be coming next.

When the first panicked victims burst out the door, Schwarz mowed them down with gunfire and telekinesis. The bodies of the people in front tripped the ones behind them. Nagi could start to hear screaming over the gunfire and roar and crackle of the flames. He covered Crawford and Schuldig whenever they had to reload. Some red-uniformed members of Class Z leaped out the windows in a spray of glass, and Nagi grabbed them and smashed them against the walls.

"It ever strike you that we're more casually and efficiently lethal now that we're not being commanded by Eszett?" Schuldig drawled. Breathing hard, he looked high from the cocktail of pain and terror their victims gave him.

"Only every day," Crawford answered. As sirens started to blare, he said, "Wrap this up, Prodigy."

With playtime over, Nagi fanned the flames higher. Schuldig closed his eyes, then said, "We nailed everyone. I'm so happy you're injecting some more fun into the proceedings, o fearless leader."

"We weren't having enough fun before?"

"There's always room for more fun." Schuldig's high continued all through the ride back to the new apartment, so Nagi had to keep blocking it out.

When Nagi climbed into Aya and Farfarello's bed, it pleased him that Farfarello had gone to sleep on his own. Less work for him. He lightly rested his hand over Aya's shoulder wound and telekinetically felt into it, finding slow but steady repair. Too slow. As Nagi took a deep breath and helped it along a little, Aya murmured in his sleep but didn't seem to be in pain. Satisfied, Nagi nestled in and fell asleep.

******************************************************

Brad sat down on the couch next to Schuldig as he flipped through the channels and asked, "When will your vast new insights into Farfarello's telepathy translate into actual training?"

"I'm putting it together in my head." Brad wasn't a telepath, so he could zip it.

"You tell me how to do my job all the time."

"Who's the mindreader here? Besides, I tell you how to lead. I don't tell you how to foretell the future."

"Are you intimidated?"

"No. It's just that Farfie's an adult, and a fucked up one at that. He already has a lifetime of bad habits. And I suck as a teacher. He might never have conscious control of his abilities."

"I'm confident that you'll do the best you can."

"Thanks, coach. I'll make sure to win this one for the team." Schuldig didn't want to talk about this anymore, and there was nothing on the television, so he sat in Brad's lap and asked, "Is there anything else I could do for the team?"

"I hope you don't do this for the whole team."

"Well, Aya and Nagi won't let me," Schuldig purred.

"Do you time these things so I have to wander into them?" Nagi asked as he walked out of the kitchen with a cup of tea.

"Truth is, baby, I do this a lot of the time when you're not here too."

Nagi rolled his eyes and stalked off. Brad just smiled and said, "I know what you're doing."

"Considering all the times I've done it to you, I would hope so."

"We're only postponing the conversation."

"Anticipation makes everything better." Schuldig wiggled to get himself more comfortable and Brad more uncomfortable. "And speaking of which...."

******************************************************

"Stop fidgeting, Farfarello," Nagi growled. "I know you're happy to be out, but come on."

His first mission in too long. It had bothered him to leave his killing partner behind, as it had obviously bothered Aya as well, but Aya had told him to go hurt Eszett and hurt Eszett even more because he couldn't be there with them.

As enjoyable as it had been to kill God's flock, it would be even more pleasurable to strike at the people who'd hurt his kitten.

They slipped into the building with all stealth, but something seemed to be wrong. Where was everyone?

~ I feel some people in the room ahead, ~ Schuldig sent.

~ Trap, ~ Crawford answered.

~ Duh. ~

~ Let's greet them. ~

They already had their weapons ready, so they only increased their speed. When they opened the door, Schuldig's surprise flowed out into the link. ~ There are a hell of a lot more people here than there should be. Shit! They're blocking me again. ~

Victims as far as the eye could see! Excited, Farfarello fidgeted.

"We know that Abyssinian is recovering," one of the victims at the front said with a smirk.

"It was fun while it lasted," Schuldig muttered.

Farfarello laughed and launched himself forward in whirlwind-of-death mode, laughing harder as the blood splashed and screaming started. How kind of Eszett to give him a proper welcome back to killing them. He hacked and slashed and spun and chopped, pleased that his skills and speed hadn't rusted from disuse. God's flock hadn't presented a challenge at all. Once in a while he heard a gunshot but otherwise only the symphony of pain he caused caressed his ears. He leapt up onto corpses to give him high ground.

Eventually the victims stopped coming at him, leaving him bereft. He looked over toward the door and noticed Crawford and Schuldig standing exactly where they had been when they'd entered. Schuldig clapped. "You took almost all of them. Nice going. We only had to shoot--"

"Five," Crawford said.

"Yep. Five."

He felt so high. "Where's the boy?"

"Prodigy's hacking in."

"Prodigy's done," Nagi said as he walked in.

"Then let's hit the road."

"That's it?" Farfarello asked, disappointed.

"Maybe you should kill them slower next time," Schuldig answered with a smirk.

"No," Crawford said.

In the car, feeling high and floaty and a little disconnected, Farfarello leaned back in the seat. High and floaty and disconnected? He smiled. Perhaps he should try it now. Closing his eyes, he let himself drift, trying to accentuate that disconnected feeling. Then he felt nothing at all, but he could see the inside of the car. Schuldig felt like a castle with a raised drawbridge, his shields still tight and strong after the night's work. Farfarello saw their flaws, but it would take effort to tease his way into them. Nagi's shields had weight to them and felt tactile, as if he used his telekinesis as well as telepathy to guard his mind. Crawford felt like a moat, still and featureless on the top but with things churning unseen underneath in the depths. The visible parts surrounded and protected something in the middle Farfarello couldn't sense.

Farfarello had done it. Better, all those years of prodding Schuldig for details about his telepathy or listening to him babble about it had paid off. Now that he could taste them himself, thoughts didn't taste like honey to him as tormented thoughts tasted like honey to Schuldig. Or, rather, they didn't just taste like honey. They tasted like so many things.

But Farfarello didn't want to explore the people in the car. Once his soul had flown all the way to the cliffs of Dover from an institution near Belfast, so surely he could find his puisín. Sometimes he flew over and sometimes he hopped into minds, touching a dog dreaming of chasing a cat, a girl watching a video, a man cruising the internet, some people dancing at a club....

He found his kitten. Exercising with his katana. ~ Puisín! Bad! ~

At the sudden sound in his mind, Aya snapped into an offense pose with his sword and snarled at the flare of pain it caused in his shoulder. Farfarello felt that flare too, bright and sharp and beautiful. No, not beautiful, not when it came from his kitten. ~ Put the fucking katana down. ~

"Farfarello?" Yet the ever-suspicious kitten kept his grip on his sword and his gaze sweeping the room.

~ I'm traveling. I'm projecting. I'm sitting at the edge of your mind yelling at you for being a such a fucking stubborn, promise-breaking-- ~

"I made no promises about this."

~ You said you would take care of yourself. ~

"I am."

~ Put it down. ~

"No."

~ Be good. ~

"I am."

~ Puisín. ~

Aya sighed, carefully sheathed it because his injured shoulder left him no other choice in how he could sheathe it, and set it down on the floor. "Happy?"

~ Very. ~ Very, very happy, because he could feel Aya's warmth from working out, a low throb of pain, the twinge of his muscles, a flow of pleasure from exertion. Aya felt so good.... ~ Let me in deeper, puisín? ~

"Can't you just come in?"

~ Probably, but I want to be polite. I want to be so deep inside you.... ~

He felt Aya smile at that then the slow loosening of walls. Farfarello flowed in and purred at being immersed, feeling the air on his sweaty skin, the touch of his fingers against his palm, the weight of the sling on his shoulder. ~ Touch yourself for me? ~

Aya nearly blushed at that, creating a tingling warmth in his face. "Touch myself?"

~ You know why. ~

Aya laid down on the bed and undid the sling. "You want it?" As if he didn't feel lust himself.

Stubborn, playful, taunting kitten. ~ Aya.... ~

Aya slid his palm up under his shirt to glide over his skin, drowning Farfarello in impressions of smooth skin, hard muscles, and harder bones. So good, so much.... Then Aya pulled his pants down and started to stroke his hard, slick cock, while slowly moving his left hand up to touch his soft hair. The left arm seemed to have more mobility now. Pleasure melted Aya's bones and muscles. It should be impossible to feel so much pleasure.

Drunk on his kitten, Farfarello whispered obscenities and showed Aya mental pictures of the things he wanted to do to him, everything he wanted to do. ~ Imagine me kissing your skin, biting, fucking you with my tongue, my cock, taking you from behind, from the front, against a wall.... Fingerfuck yourself for me. I want to feel you from the inside. ~

Lost in the erotic deluge, Aya moaned and fumbled for the tube of lubricant. ~ But don't hurt yourself, ~ Farfarello said.

Aya snarled in answer, which made Farfarello chuckle. Once Aya had his slick, he started with two fingers, eschewing gentleness in his lust and desperation, ruthless with himself in the pursuit of pleasure. Farfarello moaned himself at the bright, intense sparks of sensation and the way the feel of them made Aya arch his back and fuck himself harder, faster, adding another finger and another, even as he made a tight ring around his cock with his left hand. Aya's so sensitive body felt even the sheets under it as a multitude of caresses.

No wonder God and the Church hated sex so, if it felt like this. Who needed to worship God when you could reach Heaven on your own?

Farfarello could feel the roar building in Aya's balls and spine and cock. Such an intimate communion they had. ~ Yes, my precious, my kitten. You're so good, so beautiful. Go.... ~ Orgasm turned him inside out. Rapture.

If Aya had felt good before, he felt even better now, hot and loose and sticky and drowsy. Satisfied. Breathing hard, the kitten brought the fingers of his semen-slick left hand to his mouth and sucked at them, letting Farfarello feel the calluses against his tongue. It tasted somehow different to Aya. He stroked his puisín's soul and smiled at how it made Aya writhe. Right now, Farfarello wanted to stay buried inside his kitten forever.

But he shouldn't. It wouldn't be right, and his puisín had a need for privacy now and then. Besides, his own body had many uses.

But now that he knew what this felt like, he wanted it. He might never be so sensitive as his lover, but he wanted to try to get there.

"I'm a mess," Aya murmured. As much as he would deny it, he wasn't at full strength.

~ I'll wash you when I get back. ~

Aya pulled the sheets over himself and burrowed into his pillow. "Mmm. Missed you."

~ Not for much longer. ~

By contrast, Farfarello's own body felt leaden to him when he returned to it. It might have been made of clay, a golem, instead of feeling flesh. He stroked his knife edge along his wrist, parting skin, but felt nothing.

"Not a telepath, huh?" Schuldig asked.

"I was tired and slipped out. Aya was working out."

"What?" Nagi asked. "I should have guessed. I'll have to check him out when we get back."

Farfarello smiled at the thought of what he would find. "Yeah. You should do that." Anticipation made the ride go so much slower.

Yet he couldn't help but decide it was worth it when the boy entered the bedroom and saw Aya lying sprawled and debauched beneath the sheets as the room reeked of sex. Blushing fiercely, the boy said, "I'll wait in the next room until you... do whatever you're going to do." He fled.

"You enjoyed that too much," Aya murmured.

"I enjoyed it just enough." When he stroked his kitten the skin and hair that had felt so textured and alive under Aya's fingers barely felt like anything to Farfarello's. This had to be fixed.

"You're all bloody." Aya ran his right hand down Farfarello's arm.

"I destroyed them. It was wonderful. First I'll shower it away, then I'll clean you and the sheets up so the boy won't be so scandalized upon his return."

The disappointment crossing Aya's face made Farfarello want to laugh. Much as Aya liked the boy, he had begun to want him gone so they could enjoy their bed and each other in peace, even if it did make him feel guilty. If Farfarello could only be patient and avoid pushing them, the kitten and the kittenish boy would decide to move the boy out on their own, and that way it would stick. If he pushed them, their mutual stubbornness and the boy's innate adolescent perversity would lengthen the occupation.

After a quick shower to wash the blood away, Farfarello gave Aya a washcloth bath, then changed the sheets while the kitten sat, drowsy and available and edible, in a nearby chair. Patience. They'd both put on sweatpants in consideration of the excitable boy's tender sensibilities. Aya hadn't been happy with that either. Good. It wouldn't be much longer now.

Farfarello kissed Aya, then said, "I'll let Nagi know he can come to bed."

Aya sleepily kissed him back and waved him off.

The boy hadn't gone to the bedroom that would be his once he left Farfarello's, nor was he in the bathroom. Farfarello found him curled up asleep on the couch in the living room and marveled again at how kitteny he could be. Something about him....

Farfarello used to watch the boy sleep sometimes and try to figure out why and what he wanted to do. If Aya hadn't been so distracting and in the way, letting only the boy's hand show, Farfarello might have watched the boy lately as well. He always watched Aya.

All of Schwarz drew him in that way, though he fought the idea of destiny and fate. Crawford's ability made him very uncomfortable at times, even if Crawford said that God didn't write the future and that fate didn't exist, because the future could be changed if seen in time. Had Farfarello felt something in them even then? Just because he hadn't believed he had telepathy didn't mean it hadn't been working.

It had surprised him so to feel that same magnetism that rainy night when he'd fought Abyssinian, his enemy, Weiß. He'd wanted to keep on fighting, but Crawford had told him to let his opponent escape, because they'd done what they had to do. Which had led to having Aya now. Meant to be.

The boy murmured and moved a little, looking so innocent in his sleep. All of Schwarz looked deceptively innocent in sleep, but the boy looked much younger than the others did and even more innocent.

It had always fascinated him that so much power could reside in such a small, fragile body. He'd been freaked out for weeks after Nagi had brought that girl he'd killed back from the dead. Only the decision to see the action as blasphemous had given him any comfort. Now the boy could wield lightning as well. Farfarello had decided to label that one as blasphemous instead of threatening too.

Yet, despite having the powers of a god, the boy was still a boy, not so far from being a child, and a wounded one at that. His distaste for being touched had been reason enough for Farfarello to do it as often as he could. It amazed Farfarello that Nagi could bear to be touched by Aya, but Aya had become a fount of change since his induction into the team.

Smiling, Farfarello reached out... and barely pulled his hand away in time to escape the sudden bone-crushing force the boy radiated. Never one for idle threats, Nagi had broken some of his bones in the past. The boy asked, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Everything is clean and sanitized, as you'd like it."

The boy's mouth twisted, then he sat up and ran his gloved left hand through his hair. His black leather jacket creaked a little as he moved. Sometimes it struck Farfarello anew that Nagi had taken on a look reminiscent of his puisín's to match a personality that had already mirrored Aya's in some ways. It made Farfarello want things, and sometimes he wondered what the boy would look like in a collar. Wanting couldn't be wrong, since God hated covetousness so much. God always said to be happy with what you had and never strive to have more.

Not that wanting would lead to anything here. The boy trusted very few people, and he didn't trust Farfarello at all. He had some good reasons for that.

"At least I know what you were up to while you were out," Nagi said.

"Jealous?" Farfarello answered sweetly. The boy reeked of want and fear of that want.

"Hardly."

"I could describe it for you."

"You don't need to. I have a good imagination. And I really want to wash my brain out right now. Actually, I have to wash up in general." The boy disappeared into the bathroom.

Farfarello really had to be careful not to antagonize him too far. He might never leave, then.

When Farfarello returned to bed, his puisín snuggled against him, much less stiff than he'd been. As annoyed as the boy's presence made him, the work on Aya's shoulder had earned Nagi more points. Eventually the boy came to bed and settled in on Aya's other side, lightly placing his hand on the injured shoulder, and Aya made a soft sound that went straight to Farfarello's cock. Any help the boy could give in healing Aya faster would be greatly appreciated.


	36. "I'll try not to give a damn in the future."

Crawford entered the store, walked to the back employee door, and knocked in the specified pattern, then nodded to the man who opened the door for him. The man looked through his duffel bag and gave him a questioning look over its contents but when he didn't answer just handed it back.

They walked down the stairs in silence until the proprietor met them at the bottom and asked, "What do you need?"

"A redheaded operative came in here a while ago and bought a kevlar-enforced coat he could use with his katana and guns," Crawford said.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss my clients with anyone. I won't tell anyone about your visit either."

Crawford took out Aya's coat, shirt, and holster and put them on a nearby counter. He picked up the coat and stuck three fingers through the bullet hole, wiggling them.

"What the hell did that?" the proprietor asked as he looked at the hole in the shirt and the shredded holster strap as well.

Crawford carefully put the duffel bag's remaining contents on the table. "A bullet like this and a gun like this. How much would you pay for the opportunity to take them apart and figure out ways to guard against them?" The proprietor stared at him, and he knew the man wondered if Aya had been his compatriot or victim. He also knew the proprietor wouldn't ask. In a mood to be generous, Crawford said, "One of mine wore this gear, and he barely survived. There's also a slash along the sleeve where another bullet clipped him."

"Then I would think that you'd give the gun and bullet to me." Although the proprietor played it cool, he wanted them. Crawford knew.

"We're businessmen. I give nothing away for free."

"I think you can be reasonable."

Crawford smiled, knowing the profit the bargaining would end in.

******************************************************

"An invite to your room? Farfie, I didn't know you cared," Schuldig said. Brad followed him in. When Aya saw them, he set down the light weights he'd been working out with.

"I think I have a better idea of how to detach myself. I don't need to be tired or stoned anymore," Farfarello said.

"Hallelujah."

"Don't start with me."

Schuldig smirked. "Sorry."

"No, you're not."

Sitting on the bed, Farfarello propped himself back against the wall, set his head back, closed his eyes, and slowed his breathing. After about half a minute his body went slack, and Schuldig could feel something tickly and feather-like brushing his mind. "Good try, but I'm too good for that." The feathery feeling disappeared.

Also sitting on the bed, Aya closed his eyes and murmured, "I don't know. All right." After taking a deep breath, he jumped a little, then settled down. Finally he started to lightly but sensually stroke his face, his arm, his hair. That explained where Farfie had gone. Such slow, thorough touches.... It made Schuldig hot watching it. He grinned.

Wait a minute. Schuldig felt something slightly off. That son of a bitch had jumped into his mind after all, taking advantage of the distraction his time in Aya had caused. Snarling, Schuldig hunted him down, but he was a flitting shadow. Aya had such an evil smirk on his face as he watched, and it was a fully Aya smirk. No wonder he'd agreed to let Farfarello come inside for a while.

"Can you get him out?" Brad asked.

"Of course I can."

"We're all waiting."

Wise-ass. "He's fast and slippery." Rosenkreuz hadn't owned many projectors, which made projector removal something new and entirely unprecedented. It took Schuldig ten minutes to fling Farfarello out, way too long, though at least he'd blocked the little bastard from seeing much.

Farfarello jerked as he returned to his body. "That was interesting." He stared down at his wrist, then whipped out a knife and lightly sliced. As he stared dispassionately at the welling blood, he said, "That didn't fix me either."

Brad suddenly said, "Farfarello, I want you to enter my mind."

"How sweet, fresh meat," Farfarello answered.

"What's behind this: foresight, a feeling, insanity?" Schuldig asked.

"A feeling," Brad replied. "Try me."

As Schuldig saw their lunatic slumped against the wall, he said, "I think he's already inside you."

"I don't feel him."

"I only noticed because I'm an alpha class telepath and had some small warning."

Brad's mouth briefly smiled in a very un-Brad-like way, but it sounded like Brad when he asked, "Can you see him inside me?"

Good question. Schuldig saw and felt around Brad. "Wait. Yeah, there it is. A kind of flitting shadow. I wouldn't see it if I weren't looking for it. How about you, Nagi?"

Nagi stared very intently at Brad, and Schuldig could sense him feeling around. "I don't see anything different about him."

Unable to resist, Schuldig said, "Maybe you might if you didn't have all that hair in front of one of your eyes."

"You're the last person who can tease me about hair."

"The very last?"

"How deep should I go?" Brad asked, then looked horrified. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. "Get. Out."

Farfarello smacked his head back against the wall and blinked. "I just asked a question. I couldn't get past your surface."

"I didn't tell you to take control."

"How else could I ask?" he answered, completely blasé. Dangerous. Useful. "It might have helped that you let me in."

"And you're not an alpha telepath, Brad," Schuldig said, ever helpful.

"Farfarello, did you get out, or did I throw you out?" Brad asked.

"A little of both."

"Did you get what you wanted, Brad?" Schuldig asked.

Brad looked thoughtful. "Maybe. I need to think about it." He didn't know for sure, so neither did Schuldig.

"You don't have to worry about me slipping in when you're not looking," Farfarello said. "What I could see of your mind was fucking boring."

******************************************************

Faced with bedtime, uncomfortable, Nagi fidgeted. Lying next to a recovering Aya was completely different from doing it next to an injured and drugged one. The ripples of potential, the tension.... Just Aya sitting on the edge of the bed as he did now reduced Nagi to a mass of conflicting wants and left him unsure of what to do with himself. And he couldn't deal with Aya and Farfarello always being there. He couldn't do this anymore.

"Aya, I have to ask you something." With Farfarello out of the room, this would be the best time. He didn't need to have that lunatic gloating in his face.

"All right." Aya looked so much better now, and his shoulder didn't need much more pushing. It had come far enough that it healed itself.

Besides, Nagi could tell that he was wearing out his welcome here, since Aya had become well enough to want alone time with his lover. He could feel their lust, whether he wanted to or not.

Nagi couldn't see a graceful way to say how badly he needed to sleep by himself again, so he just put it out there. Besides, if anyone would understand, it would be Aya. "Do you need me to stay at night anymore? As much as I like you, if I don't get some alone time I'm going to explode."

Aya nearly smiled. "I understand. I'm close to demanding the same for myself."

Stupid to feel slightly offended that it had been so easy. It should have been enough that Aya had cared enough to worry obsessively about him while doped up.

Nagi wouldn't show his sadness. "Thanks! Good night, Aya-kun."

"Nagi, thank you for staying with me when I needed it. I know it couldn't be easy for you."

It made him smile. "It wasn't so bad. See you tomorrow."

He took his laptop into the bedroom meant for him. It would be his first night there.

He dressed for sleep, then turned down the sheets and settled in, turning out the light through telekinesis. Without their breathing or Farfarello's snores, he drowned in the quiet. It felt so much cooler in here without the heat of Aya's body nestled with his. He missed them... yet he relaxed for the first time in forever. Smiling, Nagi stretched out to take up as much of the bed as he could and fell asleep.

******************************************************

When Farfarello walked into the bedroom, he saw a smile on his kitten's face that made him so hungry. It also made him ask, "Where's Nagi?"

"He decided to start sleeping in his own room again."

Farfarello leapt up onto the bed and basked in lust, his own and Aya's. He didn't need telepathy to sense his lover's ardor, not when Aya's violet eyes looked so hot and intent. They met mouth to mouth, chest to chest, cock to cock. He'd have to remember to be careful of his puisín's bad shoulder, but otherwise he intended to make up for lost time.

******************************************************

Schuldig stopped in mid-stroke, suddenly cocking his head and getting an odd look on his face. Since Crawford has his body twisted in a not terribly comfortable position and Schuldig's cock halfway up his ass, he felt some impatience and asked, "Is there a problem?"

"The psycho couple is getting it on together for the first time in forever."

"Normality."

Schuldig grinned brilliantly, and his eyes darkened. "Yeah." His next thrust made Crawford see stars and hiss in pleasure. Aya and Farfarello's lust always increased Schuldig's, and he had no urge to complain.

******************************************************

Nagi's eyes shot open. Sighing, he strengthened his mental shields and put a pillow over his head.

******************************************************

Aya groaned and thrust up again into the hot, close confines of Farfarello's mouth, his fingers tightening in his lover's hair at the sudden hum vibrating around his cock. "Fuck me." Maybe it made him a slut to want it so badly, but he'd been aching for sex almost as soon Crawford and Nagi had decreased the dosage on the pain medications. He needed _exercise_.

He also needed to be able to fight and kill again, but sex was more attainable.

Farfarello let his cock slide out of his mouth to say, "I don't want to hurt you."

"I don't care."

He kissed the head. "I do."

"You won't hurt me." Aya rocked up against him. "I'm not weak."

"Temptation. You make me want things." Aya could almost see the thoughts flickering through his eye before he said, "All right. On your stomach, puisín."

As he did so, he moved more stiffly than he liked, something he would have to work on. Farfarello smacked his ass and said, "Be good."

"I'm thinking." He didn't like this position either, preferring to be able to see what his lover did, but even he didn't think he could twist and bend in the ways he'd need to to do this face to face.

"You're too obvious." Farfarello smacked the other cheek, then sighed. "It's a shame you don't like that."

"You enjoy punishment enough for the both of us."

"It's never enough." Farfarello arranged pillows under Aya to make him more comfortable, which was annoying and endearing all at once.

Preparation took forever, finger by finger by finger, then when Farfarello finally replaced his fingers with his cock he fucked Aya so slowly, too slowly. Aya tightened his muscles around his lover's cock to try to get more action. "Bad kitten," Farfarello growled.

"Give it to me. It's never enough."

Farfarello moved a bit faster, a bit harder, almost enough. Aya pushed back into it, thrust into the pillows under him, and tried to writhe in an enticing way, wanting more pleasure, more force, more obvious passion. Gaining speed and power, obviously losing control, Farfarello breathed harder and lightly touched Aya's shoulder, saying, "You make me want to do things I shouldn't do. I want to rip you open sometimes...."

It was utterly inappropriate to come then, but Aya did it anyway.

Farfarello keened, then thrust with enough force to make the bed strike the wall. It hurt a bit, but it felt good too. For a small eternity Farfarello stopped completely, breathing hard, and seemed to be trying to regain some control. When he started again, he did so with more of a rocking motion, gentler. Having already gotten off, aching, sex-dazed, Aya didn't mind. He felt so warm....

Farfarello's last thrust rattled the bed in a very satisfying way.

Farfarello considerately pulled him out of the wet spot and held him close. "Such a willful kitten. Happy now?"

Aya just about glowed with contentment, but he wouldn't say that. "Fucking me is a thankless duty?"

"I didn't say that," Farfarello answered as he nibbled on Aya's ear.

Aya woke up in the darkness with the feeling that he'd lost something. Someone. Since he had Farfarello wrapped around him, it couldn't be Farfarello.... He panicked until he remembered that Nagi had returned to his room. As it should be. But he missed the feel and warmth of that small body pressed to his, the comfort of it. When feeling especially afraid for his sister, he would break into the hospital at night sometimes to lie beside her, listening to her breathe and feeling her warmth, comforted by the evidence of her continued survival. He could never stay there long, not with the nurses doing rounds, but it helped him.

Aya didn't know why he worried about Nagi, not when the boy had enough power to tear attackers apart, better able to protect himself than anyone Aya had ever cared about. Yet right now he wished _he_ had telepathy so he could check up on Nagi without trying to untangle himself from Farfarello's grip. It seemed that everyone else in Schwarz had it.

To his surprise, Aya felt a sudden wave of warmth and Nagi's voice saying, ~ I'm fine. Stop worrying so loudly. You woke me up. ~

"I'll try not to give a damn in the future," Aya murmured.

~ I don't mind it when it isn't waking me up. ~

"Even when he's not here, he's here," Farfarello growled. "Kitten-smitten boy, get the fuck out of my puisín's head."

~ Only because I'm in a generous mood. See you in the morning. ~

"He heard me worrying," Aya said.

"He can hear us fucking instead," Farfarello answered then kissed him hungrily.

Having a possessive lover had some benefits, although he didn't like how jealous Farfarello could get over Nagi. Aya didn't feel that way for Nagi.

Farfarello stopped. "I don't think you'd betray me that way, kitten, and I'm not reading you right now. I'm jealous of your time." He nuzzled and stroked. "I want you all to myself."

******************************************************

Seething, Nagi swore vengeance and shoved the pillow over his head again. They didn't usually get _this_ loud, so Farfarello had to be making a point. Nagi had to think of some kind of payback.

******************************************************

"Aside from me waking you up with my worry, did you sleep well?" Aya asked Nagi while on his way to the breakfast table.

"Not really. I have to get used to blocking out the peepshow again."

"Oh." Embarrassing.

Nagi smiled a little. "It's okay. I'll survive. Thanks for asking."

Aya ate his breakfast and waited until everyone's conversations started to wear down before saying, "I need to get outside." Aside from obsessing over sex and being able to fight again, he'd been obsessing over the idea of going outside and having a walk.

"True," Schuldig answered. "You're going to be able to glow in the dark soon if your skin doesn't get sun."

Farfarello crossed his arms. "I don't want him outside alone."

"Who said anything about him being alone?"

Aya shot Farfarello a look. "I was about to."

"Of course you were," Schuldig replied.

"I think it's a good idea," Nagi said. "He's getting better, and sunlight elevates mood."

Crawford answered, "I think it's fine, as long as one of us accompanies you, Aya." Before Aya could protest, he continued, "Accompanies you at a distance. You won't see him. Be glad that I'm letting you know. I could have sent someone after you without telling you."

Knowing that no further compromise would come, Aya answered, "I can live with someone following me from a distance."

"We want you to live," Farfarello said.

Schuldig got up from the table and returned to hand Aya a clip-on belt holster. "You can still shoot right-handed with no problem, and this won't put any pressure on your shoulder. We don't want you out there unarmed."

Aya looked down at it. That had been thoughtful. "Thank you."

Schuldig smiled, then smiled harder as Farfarello growled. It mollified Farfarello a little when Aya told him he'd be taking the knife as well. His teammates could be so sensitive.

Muttering something about sunburn, Farfarello had jammed the fedora down on Aya's head before he went out, but Aya took it off a block later, enjoying the sun too much to be able to stand having a hat on. His hair would shade his face. If anyone from Eszett recognized him and tried to start something, he'd shoot them. He'd welcome the opportunity.

It felt good to move. Once he'd walked when he needed to be alone with his torment away from other people--even in a crowd he'd been alone with his torment--but now he just enjoyed himself. Not even having his left arm still in the sling bothered him right now.

The more time he spent in Germany surrounded by the language, the more he felt as if he actually spoke and understood it on his own instead of using it as something that had been shoved into his brain as a graft. The people around him smiled at him, and he realized that he'd started it by smiling at them first. As he healed, the depression and frustration began to lift, revealing a state of mind that felt brighter than what he'd had before being shot. How odd to be... happy. It had to be all that sunlight.

Finally he stopped across the street from a church and looked up at its one devastated tower. It looked incongruous. Once he would have taken it as a symbol of his mood, with its one blackened ruined piece that had been attached to but didn't really seem to belong with the healthy whole. Right now, it didn't describe him, but it made him curious.

"That's Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church," Farfarello said from just behind him. Aya had noticed him half a minute before. "Berliners call the tower the Rotten Tooth. Bombing in 1943 destroyed the rest of the original church, but the faithful rebuilt around the remnants. It reminds me that God has collaborators and that my mission will never be finished." He laughed. "Vagrants used to sleep around the church, but they got chased off because their piss started to eat through the foundations."

"My tour guide," Aya said.

"It's easy to get Schuldig to talk. I wanted to know about this obscenity the first time I saw it. Getting him to shut up is harder."

"I wanted to be alone."

Even with the dark sunglasses blocking Farfarello's eyebrows and eye, Aya could see that he looked almost hurt as he said, "I wanted to share."

It made Aya feel like he'd kicked a puppy. "Walk with me." When Farfarello brightened, Aya said, "But tomorrow I walk alone."

"With an escort behind you."

"As long as I have the illusion of being alone."

"We can do that. You should wear your hat."

"Won't."

"Stubborn kitten." But he grinned.

******************************************************

He should make Aya wear the hat but couldn't bring himself to, not when his puisín basked so joyfully in the sunlight, his red hair blazing. So pretty. He'd forgotten how much kittens loved the sun. He and his kitten--despite being murderers, fornicators, sodomites--walked together in the light of day as boldly as any of God's flock would. It felt so good.

Tomorrow he would follow Aya from a distance, but today he would walk at his side and lead him. Today they would play at being normal.

Aya looked much better. Soon he would have the vigor to kill and fuck with his usual strength and grace. Farfarello couldn't wait.


	37. "He made me shop."

"Those weights are too heavy," Farfarello said as he watched Aya exercise.

"No, they're not," Aya and Nagi answered together. Nagi continued, "I can monitor his body very carefully, so I know that those weights aren't stressing anything."

The boy spent altogether too much time watching Aya's body and seemed to derive pleasure from reminding Farfarello of it. Nagi grinned at him. Like hell he hadn't intended it to sound the way it had.

"C'mon, kids, time to get ready," Schuldig said as he poked his head in through the doorway. "Butchery waits for no one."

Aya's mouth twisted, so Farfarello said, "Soon, kitten. I can't wait either." Then he added, "If I find out that you were practicing with your sword while we were gone, I'll annoy you about it for days."

Aya nodded, but Farfarello figured that he'd practice anyway and simply try not to be discovered. Kittens could be such a pain in the ass. Rewarding, though.

The night's work barely stirred Farfarello's blood, since the victims had been inept and few. They might as well have thrown themselves on his blade. As tempting as it had been to check on his kitten from the car, he elected against it. Aya would be more loyal if he felt trusted. Besides, Farfarello thought that visiting might lead to sex, and he'd rather have sex with his body than his mind tonight.

As soon as they returned to the apartment Farfarello went to their bedroom to check on Aya. His puisín looked so innocently asleep and smelled shower-fresh. Showering could have disguised many sins. He loved his kitten anyway.

Farfarello sniffing his neck woke him up. Aya half-opened his eyes and asked, "Done for the night?"

"I'll come to bed soon."

Even sleepy, that answering smile had an aura of sex to it that Farfarello thoroughly approved of.

As Nagi left the bathroom, Farfarello gave him a challenging look. The boy's lips twitched, but he obediently went to his own bedroom. As it should be. Farfarello liked having his bed, his bedroom, and his puisín all to himself. Thoughts of frisky kittens running through his head, Farfarello showered the blood off quickly and returned to bed. As Aya grabbed him and kissed him, he thought of things he might do to get Aya to claw him. The marks on his back had faded from so long a time without.

******************************************************

Nagi woke up in a wet spot with his body tingling. Snarling to himself, he rolled away and muttered, "I really need to get my own life."

******************************************************

Schuldig pulled the car up to the curb to pace alongside Aya as he walked. After he rolled down the window, he yelled, "Hey, kitten."

Aya regarded him with suspicion and kept walking. "You don't get to call me that."

"Get in. I have something I need your help to get for you."

"Something?"

"I want to buy you a new rig for your guns. The old one's shot." That was for sure.

"And Crawford sold it at a tidy profit."

"You were never gonna wear it again. C'mon. My treat. Once we get you fitted for a new rig, you can get yourself a coat. Or, hell, I'll buy you one if I like the one you choose."

That made Aya take notice. His sister might be dead, and he might have a small fortune in an offshore account, but the frugal habits burned into him by years of paying her hospital bills remained. Still, he asked, "Why?"

"I love the look you get on your face when I give you gifts." Yeah, Aya got a pole-axed expression Schuldig enjoyed. "It butters my muffin."

Farfarello appeared, as if by magic. "You don't give gifts without strings," he said, his teeth bared over having his territory infringed on.

"I told you, he just has to react. That's my payment." Schuldig smiled. "Aya will be back on active duty soon, and he needs to have his weapons accessible for his own protection."

"You think I don't see your manipulations?"

"I'm being kind by being up-front about 'em. It's a sign of respect. And don't you think Aya could defend his virtue from me?" That put Farfie neatly on the spot. "I'm taking him to Brandt and Neuber. Only the best."

"I'll be fine," Aya said.

Farfarello growled but didn't stop him from getting into the car. It amazed Schuldig that Farfarello had such a good idea of how far to push Aya and when to let him go. It suggested an awareness of long-term planning that the team berserker hadn't always had.

As they drove away, Schuldig saw Farfarello giving him the evil eye. It made him wonder if there would be an attempt at payback later, but that just added to the fun.

"Can you do without the sling?" Schuldig asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"You don't want to announce your weaknesses to B&amp;N's clientele."

"That makes sense." Aya took the sling off and rested his left hand on his thigh. Schuldig enjoyed watching and imagining until Aya said, "Keep your eyes on the road."

Schuldig hit the brakes hard and suddenly just to see Aya brace himself in fear. "Yes, sir," Schuldig said. Aya shot him annoyed looks for the rest of the ride.

Once they parked, Schuldig flipped his red-tinted sunglasses down off his forehead to obscure his eyes. Aya gave him an odd look that he didn't understand until he remembered that Yoji's shades had been almost surgically attached to his face. At least Aya looked strong as he walked and didn't obviously favor his left shoulder and arm. Just because people had a cease-fire agreement while within B&amp;N didn't mean they kept it going once they left.

"Weapons check," the ever bored-looking doorman said.

Schuldig showed off his holster and gun and Aya's other gun in the bag he'd brought it in, then said, "C'mon, show and tell, Red. You just show him where everything is. You don't even have to take it off. They destroy the record after we leave, because they'd get slaughtered by their clientele if they didn't."

Aya's mouth twisted, but he pulled his coat aside to show the holster on his belt. Then he knelt and revealed the knife sheath in the top of his right boot.

"_All_ of it," the doorman said. He had a talent too, a small one.

Aya shot him a surprised look, then took the coat off and handed it to Schuldig. Having the coat off showed that he had another knife sheath strapped over the shirtsleeve on his left forearm. With a kitchen knife in it. It'd be easy to get out while his arm was in the sling. Cute. Sneaky little bitch.

"Thank you," the doorman said. "You can go in."

As they walked in, Schuldig tossed the coat back to Aya and asked, "When did you get that?"

"You don't know everything I do." But he had a tiny smile on his lips as he put his coat back on.

"Not for lack of wanting to."

Birgit immediately walked over. "No collar and leash for this one? A shame. I'm getting a fetish for that. And you're all so pretty. Do you recruit for it? C'mon over into our little private corner."

"This one behaves himself. Most of the time. And of course we recruit for the prettiness." Schuldig smiled at the look Aya shot him as they walked over. Once there, he said, "Birgit, my proud beauty, we're here for a new dual gun holster for Red here. It has to be adjustable or extra padded. I trust you to take good care of us."

Aya looked surprised as he realized why Schuldig had asked for it to be adjustable or extra padded. Yeah, considerate gift giving could be so much fun.

She walked around Aya and looked him over, while he gave her a forbidding stare he used to try to hide discomfort, which fooled people who didn't know him. Birgit didn't let it bother her, since she'd faced far worse. "I'll be back with some specimens, pretty."

While they waited, Schuldig kept one eye on Aya and his mind on everyone in the room, recognizing some of the people there and not wanting to be recognized himself. B&amp;N's had several nooks that gave customers privacy, though they didn't work against telepaths. His nook hid him but his talent ferreted out other people.

Someone from Rosenkreuz checked out guns on the other end of the warehouse. The mental shield signature told Schuldig the Rosenkreuz origin without letting him know the identity of the person. He'd have to see if he could stealthily find out later.

On alert, Aya stood with his arms crossed, his left arm resting on his right. Sneaky way to baby the arm a bit, though it would make it harder for him to go for his weapons, not that they should have to here, but you never knew.... From the look of discomfort hiding under the watchfulness, Aya knew it left him vulnerable too. He set his left hand on his hip right after that, so his right arm could do whatever it had to. He felt some twinges of pain, but not too badly.

~ You're doing well. ~

Aya sent back that he didn't care what Schuldig thought about how he was doing but couldn't hide that tiny spark of pleasure at passing so well. It made Schuldig smirk, which made Aya think about cutting his lips off. Ah, normality.

Birgit returned with several boxes. "You know the way to the changing rooms."

"Sure do, love. I'll take care of the fitting. Don't take offense."

She smirked. "I'm sure."

If only her speculations had been the reality. "C'mon, Red."

Once inside the stall, Schuldig checked for cameras and bugs anyway, while Aya sulked and removed his coat. "I could do this myself, Schuldig."

"Not very well. Not while you're wearing it."

"What?"

"Your rig. Think about it. Let an expert help." Opening the first box, Schuldig nearly blissed out on the heavy scent of new leather.

Aya could have been sucking on a lemon from the expression on his face. Perfect. "All right."

Aya tried the first one on and twitched the whole time Schuldig adjusted the straps, waiting to be groped, prepared to punish. So Schuldig kept his touches brisk and professional, even as he snuck little caresses in and stood closer than he strictly had to, nothing Aya would catch him at. Although he wanted to lick the back of that pale neck, he kept that and his other temptations under control. Somehow. Somehow, even despite the flesh and straps and new leather and body warmth and how good Aya smelled.... For whatever reason, he always got the urge to fuck the people he worked closely with, to taste them and feel them from the inside in the flesh as well as the mind.

Aya clenched his teeth when Schuldig put one of his guns in the left side holster. "Hurts?" Schuldig asked and couldn't help the purr in his voice. He felt the hurt but wanted Aya to admit to it. "Tell me if it does. The next one might not. No reason to waste good money on something that will be uncomfortable. Last thing you want is to be more uncomfortable than you have to be on a mission."

Aya took a deep breath. "It hurts."

"Okay. Next one."

To Schuldig's pleasure, through the trying-on process Aya slowly relaxed under his hands in a way he hadn't done at all while being measured for a suit by Bargeld. It suggested at least some small measure of trust. Sucker. Sweet, though.

"We'll take a little rest now," Schuldig said. "We don't want the ache from the first ones to skew your impression of later ones."

Aya sat on a chair and propped his left arm up with his right one, obviously disgusted with his physical condition. Although he told himself that it would take time, he wanted to be in peak condition _now_.

"You're getting there a lot faster than you would be otherwise."

"Stop reading me."

"Stop thinking so loudly."

Aya pushed his long bangs out of his eyes and said, "It's not fast enough, not good enough."

Parts of Schuldig came to immediately avid attention, as usual, at the show of pain and vulnerability. It made him want to fuck with Aya, in every sense, so badly. He couldn't help being kinked. Actually, he liked it.

He knew he had more in common with Farfarello than he wanted to admit to.

Aya stood. "I'm ready for more."

If only.

The second rig they tried after that worked out well, although Aya tested the next two after that to be sure. It was even black.

Aya wrapped it back up in its nondescript packaging, and they paid for it at the counter. As they left Birgit said, "Bring any other pretty friends you can think of."

"I'll keep it in mind, sugar." Schuldig finally saw the Rosenkreuz minion he'd felt before. Poole, a telekinetic, though not one that matched Nagi's power. Not that many tekes could match Schwarz's own Prodigy. She was scouting out gun prospects for one of her teammates. Schuldig moved so Aya would block Poole's view of him. Hopefully the word on Aya's new affiliation hadn't passed to everyone in the organization. To Schuldig's disappointment, she seemed to be sticking around in B&amp;N, still shopping. Outside, he could kill her with impunity. In here, no.

As soon as he sat in the passenger seat, Aya put the sling back on and his arm in it. He was really hurting, though Schuldig had to chip at his shields a bit to really taste it. Oh, yeah. "Now we get you a coat."

"No. I want to go back to the apartment."

"Aw, why? I don't know if I can borrow you from Farfie again."

"I'm tired, Schuldig." Hurting too.

"Shopping will make you feel better." Not really, though it would sure help Schuldig feel better as the hurting increased. Catching some of Aya's thoughts, he said, "And no, I'm not a woman. You can always check for yourself on that. I invite you to."

"No, thank you." Aya looked nearly dazed from the fatigue and ache. Tasty.

Schuldig clenched his hands on the steering wheel to stop them from straying. The urge to go into Aya's head and increase things almost overwhelmed him. "All right. We'll go home."

Somehow Schuldig drove them back without mindfucking Aya. He deserved a fucking medal for that. Scowling, Farfarello grabbed his kitten as soon as they reached the door and pulled him into their bedroom. Aroused almost to the point of mindlessness, Schuldig nearly followed.

"Schu, what _are_ you doing?" Brad asked. He smelled so good.

"Trying very hard not to do something that will earn me a blade in the gut or a beheading."

"Sounds wise." Brad smirked. "Is there something you want to ask me?"

Fuck asking. Fuck Brad.

Good idea.

Schuldig grabbed him and mashed him up against the door. Being kissed and groped and humped into oblivion usually shut him up nicely. Suddenly something drove Brad into him, and he pushed back. Somebody was trying to open the door to get into the apartment.

"Unbelievable," Nagi muttered from the other side, then locked the door and left. Smart kid.

******************************************************

"What the hell did he do to you, puisín?" Farfarello asked as he helped Aya take his coat off. Oh, wrist sheath. Very nice.

Farfarello had noticed the lusty blaze in Schuldig's eyes and, after some concentration, felt tendrils of the mindbreaker's filthy soul caressing his kitten all over. Something had left Schuldig more excited than usual.

Aya unclipped the holster from his belt and set it on the table, then fell back onto the bed. "He made me shop."

"Bastard." As Farfarello unbuckled and removed his lover's boots--oh, boot sheath, must not lick--he said, "You must be careful with him. He gets off on pain."

Aya nearly succeeded in raising an eyebrow. "I know a few people like that."

"He's subtler than I am."

"I wouldn't let him take me coat shopping after he bought me a new rig for my guns."

"Wise."

"I shouldn't be this tired." His words sounded slightly blurred.

"You're not completely well yet. Soon."

Aya smelled like Aya now, no drugs. This tired, he couldn't do much but didn't mind letting Farfarello undress, pet, and nuzzle him, since Farfarello had successfully rewritten him into an openly sensual creature. As Farfarello gently enjoyed the presence and taste of his puisín's body, he sank into his puisín's mind a little, trying to see if he could notice the mindbreaker's fingerprints. That he found nothing said that either nothing had happened or that he didn't have the training to see it. It nagged at him. Schuldig would have to be monitored.

Aya slept through his departure for the evening's bloody fun and the kiss on his nose. At least he wouldn't have to worry about the kitten illicitly exercising in his absence.

Farfarello killed and tormented as usual, yet he kept some attention on Schuldig the whole time, searching for differences he couldn't find. Finally, the telepath snapped, "What?" at him as they rode home.

He must not have been as subtle as he thought. "Nothing."

"Are you pissed off about today? Fuck, Farfie, take him shopping yourself then."

Crawford looked annoyed, but the kitten-smitten boy looked suspicious. Right, the child had some good features, among them a deep devotion to Aya and distrust of Schuldig. Farfarello had to keep that in mind in case it became necessary later.

******************************************************

"Schu."

Schuldig removed his face from Brad's neck but didn't remove his hands from where _they_ were. "Hmm?"

"Are you ever going to start training Farfarello?"

Brad never could leave business out of bed. "Who says I'm not already?"

"I mean aside from making him telepathically check Aya out from jealousy and distrust of you."

How did Brad know-- Of course Brad knew. He was Brad.

"You just answered your own question." It sounded better than the real reason, and if it worked out that it helped Farfarello become a better telepath, everyone won.

"You nearly jumped Aya today out of an urge to force Farfarello to use his telepathy?"

"Yep."

"You are so full of shit."

"Your distrust hurts me." Schuldig put Brad's hand on his chest, making sure it rubbed his nipples. "Right here."

Brad had a smile in his voice as he answered, "Yes, I can feel how wounded your nipples are by my accusations."

"Exactly! Now I'm going to jump you just out of the urge to jump you."


	38. "I told you that shopping can improve lives."

Aya awoke late in the morning, alone. He couldn't believe he'd slept so long.

Standing at the door, Nagi said, "Crawford had butchery for Farfarello, and I need to get out, so I thought that maybe I could shadow you today. Except I was hoping that I could shadow you a bit closer."

"By being by my side?" Aya asked.

"Do you mind?"

"No. Not really."

Nagi grinned, something he didn't do enough. "Great." He could be good, quiet company, so why not?

Figuring that the pressure on the healing wound had caused the aching, not the freedom from the sling, Aya left off the sling and didn't suffer for it. Nagi seemed to blossom in the midst of daylight and the trappings of normalcy, smiling and behaving in a way that better befitted his age. They took in the sights, enjoying the sunshine, and somehow ended up shopping, though a far less tiring and stressful form of it than Aya had experienced yesterday. Amusingly, Nagi rummaged through stacks of tapes and CDs like a bloodhound on the hunt, being very particular about what he wanted, and even located a few to buy.

In one kiosk Aya found a necklace that looked like barbwire. Its tips weren't sharp, but the necklace felt heavy. Real metal.

"It's kind of tacky," Nagi said with a small smile to soften the sting.

The echo from his sister's 16th birthday made Aya take a deep breath before he answered, "Maybe, but I think he'll like it, even if the tips aren't sharp. The weight should make him happy."

"I think so too. You know what it means, buying him a gift."

"Yeah." Actions meant more than words anyway.

As he paid for it, he noticed that two giggling girls had waylaid Nagi, who was blushing a little. But Nagi walked away from them, alone.

As they left, Aya said, "That looked like flirting."

"Yeah, but nothing can come of it. They're normal." At Aya's look, he continued, "They're normal in a way you're not. That didn't come out right. I mean that you're in the same profession as we are and know what we can do. I'd have to tell those girls that I'm a freak and not tell them what I do for a living."

As much as he hated to be discussing sex with the boy, he had to ask, "Both girls?"

Nagi tried to hide behind his hair. "Uh, yeah. They're a matched set. This kind of thing doesn't usually happen to me...."

Thinking of Yoji, Aya said, "If it's short-term, your talents don't have to be discussed."

"Aya...." Nagi stared at the street. "I can't _not_ use it during sex. I've tried on my own, and Eszett tried to train me out of it."

Aya hadn't thought he could hate Eszett more, but then he heard the tone in Nagi's voice when he discussed Eszett's "training" and thought of how old Nagi must have been, and he found out otherwise. "You're too good. You have too much control for that."

"I get too far into it, too distracted."

"When was the last time you tried?"

"A year ago. Well, actually I picked someone up more recently, but he was an insane serial killer, so it didn't come to that."

Aya decided to ignore the last part completely and simply asked, "Did you ever think that maybe the acts that Eszett considered 'training' might have reinforced this very reaction?"

"Maybe. Are you saying that if I felt like I had more control in everything else involved, the same would go for my talent?"

He hadn't thought of that, but it sounded sensible. "Yeah."

Nagi smiled a little. "I'll keep that in mind for next time and see if it works. Thanks."

Aya put his hand on Nagi's shoulder. It seemed like the thing to do. From the way Nagi's smile widened, it must have been the right thing.

With anticipation over the gift nipping at him, Aya had lost the urge to continue wandering. Although he thought he'd kept it to himself, Nagi gave him a look and said, "I'd like to go home. Are we done for today?"

"I think so. Yes."

When they reached the apartment, Schuldig smirked at him and said, "Farfie's in the bedroom." As much as Aya hated the thought of being that transparent, he also knew that he couldn't do a damned thing about it at the moment, so he didn't even bother to comment.

Farfarello sat on the bed and sharpened one of his knives in slow, thorough strokes. From his wet hair and the color in his face, he must have recently taken a shower. He wore only a threadbare robe. Aya's fingers clenched on the box he had hidden in a deep side pocket of his coat.

Farfarello smiled a little. "Puisín? You want something? Wanting's good."

Aya really didn't know what to say, since he couldn't remember giving anyone a gift in ages, so he just pulled the box out and thrust it under Farfarello's nose. Not very smooth, but Farfarello didn't seem to mind as he set the knife aside and accepted the box. He glanced up at Aya, then opened it in a rush, taking in a deep breath once he pulled the protective cotton aside.

"The tips aren't sharp," Aya said.

"They don't have to be." Farfarello's voice sounded deeper. He held the necklace up to see it better. "Good weight. No one's given me a gift in a very long time. I've been given knives as tools. No one else treats me like you do. Love you too." When he put it on, it mostly covered the faint line that remained of the deep gash Aya had given him with the shard of glass so long ago. If Aya hadn't known to look for it, he never would have seen it. "Wicked. Come here."

Glad that he liked it, Aya sat on the edge of the bed nearby and ran his fingers lightly over the "barbs," which scratched a little, and sometimes touched warm flesh instead. Farfarello grabbed him and pulled him close, saying, "A gift and no sling. It's a very good day. Fuck me, kitten."

Mindful of Aya's lingering injuries, Farfarello didn't demand to be pounded into the mattress, something Aya found very agreeable. At the end, Farfarello wore only his eyepatch, new necklace, and Aya. The tight clasp of his body felt wonderful and necessary.

There could be no turning back, and Aya didn't want to anyway.

******************************************************

"What are you so happy about?" Brad asked as he walked into the bedroom.

Schuldig arranged his body so it lounged in a more provocative position and continued to idly stroke himself. "Aya gave Farfie a lover's gift. We own him. I told you that shopping can improve lives."

******************************************************

Sitting on a park bench, Nagi folded paper cranes by hand, waiting for his teammates to cool down so he could go home. Still, he'd enjoyed the day out with Aya, and Aya buying Farfarello a gift suggested permanence. Nagi didn't have much of that in his life.

Lost in his thoughts, headphones, and origami, he didn't notice at first that he'd attracted a small crowd of children, perhaps drawn by the flock of cranes sitting around him. Some of them had parents or babysitters with them. Careless of him.

People who believed in the pure innocence of childhood didn't remember their own very well. Children were self-involved, violent sociopaths who feared and hated anything different. His so-called peers had tortured him. He remembered all too well how it felt to have stones striking his body. Adults couldn't be trusted to be better. Adults had thrown him out into the street, while other adults had turned him into a killing machine.

His audience scattered in a squealing mass when he made the ground roll beneath their feet. Vermin.

~ It's safe to come back now, sugar. We're all done. ~

~ I'll check for myself, thanks. ~ A cursory telepathic scan backed Schuldig's claim up.

~ See? ~

~ Fine. ~ Nagi packed his flock into a bag, waved at the few wide-eyed children who stared at him from what they thought might be a safe distance, and walked off into the sunset.

~ We're having a quiet night. You know, going out to eat, and then maybe Chinese Checkers, since none of you fucking trust me with cards. Or Brad either. ~

~ Family night in the Schwarz household. ~

~ Like the Manson family, but with more style. And Chinese Checkers. ~

******************************************************

"Brad, please tell me this gets better," Schuldig said.

"I can't tell," Brad answered from his comfy perch on the couch, watching them.

"Bastard."

Nagi grinned around the Pocky stick poking out of his mouth. "Tonight I can foresee the future. I'll keep kicking your ass."

"Aya and Farfie are playing too."

"Nah," Farfarello said as he idly toyed with his necklace. "Mostly we're just playing around to watch the boy kick your ass."

Aya nearly smiled. "True."

Schuldig sulked. With games like this, people didn't plan their moves far enough in advance for him to be able to take advantage of his telepathy. "Game night, Brad? What big, bad Schwarz has come to...."

"We can't kill people every night." He sounded so self-satisfied.

"I'm gonna kick your ass for this."

"You won't. I know that for certain."

"Oh, you can see _that_."

"I'll kiss it better later on."

"My ass? You better."

Nagi scowled. "No fair trying to throw me off my game like that."

******************************************************

Aya?

Mamoru and his agents had spent so much time looking for Aya since his kidnapping, and now they just crossed paths like this?

It _was_ Aya walking across the street in full daylight, and not a single member of Schwarz appeared to be nearby. They let him out on his own? Had he escaped? No, he looked far too casual. They'd let him out on his own in the confidence that he'd come back. Brainwashing? Mindfucking? Stockholm syndrome?

That didn't bode well for Weiß ever getting the Aya they knew back, but Mamoru sure as hell intended to try. "Aya!" he shouted.

Aya spun quickly and with a deadly look on his face to scan the crowd for the voice, his eyes passing right over Mamoru, which gave him a queasy chill until he remembered just how much his appearance had changed since Aya's kidnapping. He didn't even go by "Omi" much anymore. "Aya!" he said again.

Aya's gaze locked on him, then he mouthed "Omi?" and _smiled_. It stunned Mamoru for a moment--Aya smiling! Because of him!--and made him feel young in a way he hadn't felt in months. It also made him do something his new self would never have done. He launched himself at Aya and hugged tightly.

Then he remembered that this was _Aya_. "Uh, sorry. I got carried away."

But Aya hugged back, refusing to let him pull away. "It's good to see you, Omi," he said softly but fervently. Mamoru took advantage of the moment to plant a few tiny tracking devices on Aya's coat.

Aya was hugging him now, and it felt... really good. Weird, though, because Aya didn't hug people. Did not. Or didn't used to.

Mamoru couldn't avoid the realization that Aya had changed greatly. Not that Weiß hadn't changed too--God had they, and not always in positive ways--but Aya was hugging instead of shrugging him off in uncomfortable ill temper and looked happy in a way that he feared couldn't be entirely explained by relief at being found by an old friend and rescued. Having been kidnapped by psychopaths, dragged to a different country, and drafted into cutting a homicidal swath across that country, Aya should be badly scarred, dead-eyed, too thin... or dead, but he looked healthy and content and like himself, even down to the earring. He'd been suicidal before the kidnapping. When Mamoru thought about how totally and frighteningly Yoji and Ken had changed and were changing in appearance and attitude, the contrast bewildered him.

As if reading his mind, Aya held him out at arms' length to take a good look at him and said, "Omi, you look so different."

"I had to grow up eventually. You look the same." Okay, not completely, since the Aya he remembered rarely had this kind of glad light in his violet eyes.

It made Mamoru's chest hurt. He hadn't seen happiness on his own face or anyone else's for a long time either. Seeing Aya like this had undermined the foundations of the rationalizations Mamoru had been living on for months.

Aya looked worried for him. "Omi, what happened?"

Where had his game face disappeared to? If he couldn't stop wearing his emotions out in the open, he might as well tell some of the truth. "It's good to see you again. Things have changed so much...." He couldn't tell Aya how much, not with Aya being Schwarz. How the hell had things come to this? "But you don't have to worry about Kritiker hunting you anymore." Not with Birman and the last Persia dead and Grandfather too interested in the bottom line to waste money pursuing someone who hadn't provided anything important to a group that wasn't necessarily the enemy anyway, not while Schwarz was chopping at Eszett and Class Z. Grandfather didn't care that Schwarz sometimes worked as terrorists, butchers, and had stolen a member of Weiß. Weiß was expendable to him.

"But not for good reasons?"

Mamoru found himself literally unable to speak. This was stupid.

Aya grabbed his arm and dragged him to a sidewalk café table to sit down. A waiter immediately arrived. "Do you want something, Omi?" Aya asked.

"Water maybe."

Aya then smoothly spoke to the waiter in German with no hesitations or searching for a word. Aya hadn't been in Schwarz's hands long enough to be this good. Mamoru's breath caught. It had to be Schuldig's work. How deeply did a mind have to be fucked with to gain a new language that well? Except for Mamoru, who'd started to study the language to aid his efforts to find and rescue Aya, the members of Weiß had only picked up certain German words to make sense of the names Kritiker used.

Once the waiter left, Aya abandoned the German to say, "You can tell me anything you'd care to." He almost smiled. "It's not like I'll tell them that Kritiker is done with me. Not that they'd even believe me."

Them. They. Schwarz. Mamoru probably shouldn't reveal as much as he intended to if Aya truly had been as deeply conditioned as he'd begun to fear, but he had to as part of his bid to get Aya back. "You can return with me with no fear of reprisals from Kritiker. That's over, and I wouldn't let anything be done to you."

"And you have the power to do that?"

Being Persia now, yes. "I do."

When the waiter brought them a bottled water and a steaming teacup, Aya looked up and said, "Danke," then looked back at Mamoru and continued, "I'm not going back."

That explained the wariness that had been under the happiness in Aya's eyes since seeing him. Mamoru had known all along that after all this time, especially in the hands of a telepath, Aya might have been turned irrevocably but actually hearing this felt different. It hurt.

Mamoru leaned in close to whisper intensely, "They're using you to kill people." Even with the language barrier, some things he didn't want to say too loudly in public.

"Kritiker didn't?"

"Not like this! We saw some footage of a few of your jobs."

Aya answered with silence and a very Aya obstinate look. It made Mamoru's heart turn again.

"Aya." He leaned forward and put his hand on Aya's for emphasis, and again Aya allowed the touch. "We missed you and searched for you. I can't believe how hard it's been trying to find you."

"They're subtler than you'd think, even Farfarello." And Aya smiled a little, mysteriously.

"We imagined so many horrible things happening to you. Aya, come home."

Aya turned his hand over so Mamoru's rested in his, and he idly stroked it. Mamoru shivered and hoped that Aya hadn't become so sensual from having been mindfucked over into being Schwarz's fucktoy, because the sensuality was very nice. Either way, they'd deal with it. Aya was Weiß. Family. Theirs. His.

Aya looked sad now, torn. "Omi, it means more than you realize for me to know that you'd take me back, but I won't go."

From behind Mamoru, Schuldig asked, "Aya, has _Omi_ here told you that Weiß is working for the Takatoris now or that he's taken back his original name and is considered their heir?" Where did Schuldig come from? Farfarello just about blazed with hatred behind him too. Mamoru could _feel_ it.

Shit. Mamoru would have broken that news far better. And how much could Schuldig "read" from him? He built up the shields Grandfather had trained into him.

Aya's hand clenched on his. "The Takatoris?" Aya asked softly.

Mamoru had darts ready in his free hand for Schwarz but hoped to talk his way out or at least lull them enough to give himself a chance. "I _am_ the heir. The family isn't what it used to be. I'm still me." His shoulders itched at the feel of Schuldig and Farfarello standing at his back.

"Omi-- Is it 'Mamoru' now?" Aya's voice had no obvious emotion in it. There should be explosive anger there. What was this?

Mamoru said, "My grandfather calls me that." So did everyone aside from occasionally Weiß now, but he could call that last statement a truth. "I have family again, Aya. You understand what you'll do for family."

"I do. Because I have one as well." Aya let go of his hand with one last caress and stood. "I'm sure you believe what you say... Omi. I can't, and that's another reason for me to stay where I am, where I'm happy, which looks to be more than you can say for your life. Give my regards to Yoji and Ken, but please leave me alone."

Farfarello moved, making Mamoru turn to face him, ready to throw, but Schuldig stopped the maniac with a hand clenched on his shoulder. "You heard him, Mamoru Takatori," the telepath said. "You're going home empty-handed, unless you want to try some kidnapping."

Mamoru turned around again and stood, hurting over the anguish on Aya's face and expecting an attack from the other two at any time. "Goodbye, Aya. Take care of yourself."

"We'll be ready for your little rescue mission when it comes," Schuldig said with a sneer permeating his voice.

Mamoru's heart nearly stopped, but Schuldig didn't need to read his mind to know that one, so his secrets might still be safe. "Remember that we love you, Aya."

He carefully walked away, darts still between his fingers, ready at any time, but no attack arrived. Aya's influence on them? From a distance away he turned to look back and saw Farfarello plastered to Aya's back with his arms wrapped tightly around him, possessive and obscene, confirmation of some of Weiß's worst fears. Schwarz had made Aya their bedtoy. Schuldig noticed his regard and grinned at Mamoru.

Grandfather might not care, but Mamoru did.

******************************************************

Farfarello's breath and mouth felt soothingly hot against his neck but provided little relief from his turmoil over Omi being back in the hands of the Takatoris and looking miserable over it. He'd missed Omi, and the thought of the Takatoris trying to control and corrupt him made Aya feel ill, but what could be done?

Weiß still wanted him back. He'd missed the rest of them too.

Schuldig stared at Omi's departing back. "I could have nailed Kritiker's leader just now."

It didn't surprise Aya that Omi had become Persia. "Better to have a known quantity in that position."

Schuldig smirked. "You're _so_ objective. Don't worry, Aya, we heard you turn him down. Brad kind of did too, since he asked me to make sure Takatori didn't try to 'save' you by taking you against your will. And to make sure that Farfarello didn't kill him. Brad feels something for the future."

"If someone took you away," Farfarello breathed into Aya's ear, "I would move Heaven, Earth, and Hell to get you back."

Aya closed his eyes and melted further into the embrace. "I know."

"This isn't over," Schuldig said.

"I know," Aya answered. He didn't look forward to the inevitable fight. No matter which side won, he would lose.

The car rolled up to them. "Get in," Crawford said, looking very serious. Nagi had a similar look on his face.

As soon as Aya sat in the backseat, Nagi closed his eyes and passed his hands over him. Farfarello snarled, to which Nagi snapped, "Shut up." Then, "Aya-kun, move forward a little."

Nagi's telekinesis pulled three tiny objects from the back of Aya's coat, then crushed them and flung the bits out the window. Aya sighed and said, "Omi has always been smart."

"And sneaky."

"Yeah." But he couldn't keep the fondness out of his voice. Farfarello's hand tightened on his right shoulder.

"No more walks, Aya," Crawford said.

"I figured as much."

"Fuck. Do we have to move again, Brad?" Schuldig asked.

"We're far enough away from home base that I don't think it's a problem. Are you--"

"Watching for people following us? Yes, dear. Didn't see this, did you?"

"I don't see everything. If I did, I'd never get anything done about it. My talent's being clouded again too.... Nagi, if you can accelerate Aya's healing any further, do so."

"Yeah."

The work Nagi did in his shoulder felt deeply uncomfortable, almost on the edge of pain, but Aya bore it without a sound of complaint. Now more than ever, he needed to be at his peak fitness. "I'm sorry that I opened you up to this," Aya said.

"It would have happened eventually whether you walked around outside or not. He never stopped looking for you," Crawford said. "Kritiker wanted to bring you in to pump you for information, but they didn't match his dedication in hunting you down."

"He said that Kritiker isn't hunting me for that anymore. Which makes sense if he's Persia now."

"Except that he's Persia, and as the leader of Kritiker his obsession is their obsession," Schuldig said. "Brad, are you sure we can't kill Bombay?"

"Positive."

"Shit."

"I won't let you hurt him either," Aya said.

"That really narrows down our ability to defend ourselves, you realize that, right?"

"We'll think of something," Crawford said. "We always do."

Aya hoped so, but he kept coming up blank.

******************************************************

Even despite what he'd seen of the use Schwarz put Aya to, Mamoru hadn't felt this happy in a long time. He had a lead and a renewed sense of purpose. Whatever had been done to Aya could be fixed; he refused to believe otherwise.

"Sir!"

Mamoru sighed inwardly as the five members of his Kritiker security detail caught up with him. If they could speak German, they'd be useful to him now, but they didn't, so he'd have to call on the local talent he knew to case this part of this city instead, asking people in the area if they'd seen Aya recently and when. If he could figure out the areas Aya frequented most, that could lead to Schwarz's current base of operations. But first he had to get some plane tickets and contact Weiß. They had a teammate to save.


	39. "And even if he is happy with them, you'd never accept that."

For the first time in what felt like forever, Aya sparred with Farfarello blade against blade, and it felt glorious. His shoulder only twinged occasionally, and his exercises had kept him limber. Suffused with what looked like a mix of joy and desperation, Farfarello danced him around the apartment's practice room, pressing him hard on the attacks, but he held his own. If he could continue this kind of intensive practice, he'd more than hold his own soon.

By the time they stopped, they were both sweating and breathing hard, facing off with shivering bare steel in slightly shaking hands. Aya smiled.

"Puisín." Farfarello retracted his blade, then knocked Aya's katana aside and grabbed him, kissing him hard. Writhing, they tore each other's clothing away, desperate to be skin against skin, and kissed and stroked one another in an excited frenzy. Farfarello's hands and mouth seemed to fly across his body, and he came hard, convulsively, with Farfarello's fist jerking his cock and teeth nipping at his neck.

"Let me--" Aya gasped.

"No. I've got it." Farfarello thrust wildly against Aya's belly, between his thighs, before coming. Watching it increased the after-sex shivers running through Aya's body.

Lying spent on the floor pads, tangled together, they rested in charged silence for a while. Farfarello's grip on Aya tightened and he murmured raggedly in English, "They won't take you. They won't. I'm not having it. I'll kill 'em all. They won't take you. They won't."

"You won't kill them," Aya answered in the same as chills ran through him. Aya had come by his English honestly instead of having it implanted by any annoying German telepaths.

Farfarello looked surprised. "Nice accent."

"Ditto." Aya did like how Farfarello sounded in one of his native languages.

"I'll kill whoever I like to."

"Not Weiß."

Farfarello switched back to German. "Do you really think they'll show us the same mercy? Do you think they'll ever leave you alone? You're not that naïve. Don't clench your jaw like that. That's a sign that you're thinking something stupid."

Aya switched too, the language gymnastics diverting him a little from his growing horror over the future. "I'm not thinking any such thing."

"You won't sacrifice yourself in any way to protect them. Or to protect us. We'll all be watching for that. I don't care how much you want to save Bombay from his family."

It was enough to make Aya wish that Weiß would find him quickly just to get the confrontation over with. The waiting and worrying might kill him otherwise.

"Don't even think of it," Farfarello said.

Impossible not to.

******************************************************

As soon as Weiß arrived at the hotel Mamoru had his security detail tell Yoji and Ken to come to him. Sena and Asato didn't need to hear all the details, because they couldn't possibly understand. When he was ready to have Weiß move on the rescue, they would get to hear what they needed to.

By coincidence, Mamoru had found Aya at a good time. After the student takeover of the school and with Kyo and Toudou's murders, the Eszett school they were investigating would be closed for a few days. No one would notice two teachers and two students leaving the country.

Unless that someone knew they were Weiß.

"Since we're in Berlin, you must have gotten a lead on Aya," Yoji said as he and Ken walked into the room.

"I saw him. I talked to him," Mamoru answered.

"I'm stunned that Aya's still alive. How can he still be alive? I mean, this is Schwarz."

And Aya had been suicidal. Yoji didn't have to say that.

"How did you get to talk to him? Like Yoji said, there's Schwarz," Ken said.

"He was out alone."

They knew what that meant. "Shit," Yoji replied. "How does he look?"

"He looks good." Really good. "But they made him... it looks like he's Farfarello's sextoy." It was a struggle to stop imagining what Farfarello did to Aya.

Yoji closed his eyes and took a deep breath that made the end of his cigarette glow brighter. Ken's mouth twisted. "How badly marked up is he?" Yoji asked.

"He isn't."

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"This never made any sense!" Mamoru shouted. Shit. Calm down. But why _wasn't_ Aya marked up? Never mind.

"Is there any point in getting him back?" Ken asked. Mamoru and Yoji stared at him in shock. He continued, "He's been with them for a long time. He's _Farfarello's_ toy. Is there anything left of Aya that we would even recognize?"

God, this was Ken?

"He's _ours_," Yoji answered. "We can't leave him to Schuldig and Farfarello."

Thank you.

"He's not quite the Aya we knew, but I think you'll like who he is now," Mamoru said, which made Yoji raise his eyebrows so high that they disappeared under his bangs. "You'll see."

"We're going after him?" Ken asked.

"Hell yes. Why else would I call you here?" What was the point of being Persia and making all those sacrifices if you didn't have the benefit of making executive decisions?

"Good," Yoji said.

"Unfortunately, they found my tracers, so we'll have to work at finding him. I have some agents investigating his recent whereabouts. I also have some Kritiker operatives who can help in other ways." The operatives had once been Eszett telepaths. Yoji and Ken didn't need to know that until the telepaths came up with a location. The telepaths--one of them, at least--hadn't been happy about returning to Germany, and she didn't like Mamoru's plan for drawing Schwarz out and winning against them, but she had to prove her usefulness anyway. "Aya was favoring his left arm a bit, so I think he was injured recently. He carried a gun on his belt." Mamoru had felt it under the coat when he'd hugged Aya.

"He's good with a gun, but he never used to carry one around on his own," Yoji said as he thoughtfully sucked on a cigarette.

"Does he still have a katana?" Ken asked.

"Not when I saw him, but he had an injury. Besides, he never used to go out armed on his walks anyway."

"As far as we know," Ken said.

"If he's armed, he might be more than a toy to them," Yoji said.

That relieved and worried Mamoru. It would be better if Aya hadn't been _that_ changed that he'd become nothing more than a bedtoy that they occasionally allowed to kill for them, but if they'd made Aya a full partner it would be harder for them to let go. Mamoru had also discovered that Eszett seemed to be very invested in separating Aya from Schwarz, but all of his research hadn't turned up a reason. If it hadn't been Aya, he would have left him with Schwarz just to thwart Eszett, but it _was_ Aya, so he'd have to continue investigating after they got Aya to safety.

"He'll probably fight us when we try to rescue him," Mamoru said.

"And we can't hurt him," Yoji answered.

Before Mamoru could answer, "Of course," Ken said, "Darn." He didn't seem to be entirely joking.

How had Ken gotten so bad? Oh, right, Mamoru was too busy running Kritiker to spend any time with his former teammates. He'd have to be careful now.

******************************************************

"What are they doing?" Sena asked as he stared out the hotel room window at the unfamiliar city.

"Since we're in Berlin, this must be about their missing teammate." So much was. Amazing how he could so hate someone he'd never met.

"Not your missing teammate too?"

"He was with Weiß before my time," Asato said. "I wouldn't be in the group if he hadn't been taken away."

Sena continued to stare out the window. Kyo's death had hit him hard, but he tried to seem strong and cold. Not that Yoji, Ken, or the new Persia cared, not when they had their exclusive club.

It surprised Asato that _he_ cared, about any of it. He could hardly say that he'd been friends with Kyo, but their similar history of victimized brothers had given them some small bond. Kyo had treated Sena like a younger brother, but Sena didn't remind Asato of his brother aside from his youth.

"This must be important to take us away from the investigation." From what Asato could tell, Sena had very personal reasons for trying to uncover the truth behind that school. Kyo had as well.

Asato wondered whether he should say what he really thought or try to keep the boy's morale up. "It is important. When it's done, we'll return to our investigation."

"And we'll have a new teammate?' The boy looked torn on whether he felt angry or happy about the thought.

"If everything works out the way they want it to, yes." Asato had to decide whether he wanted to help or hinder that.

******************************************************  
_"Say hello to everything you've left behind.  
It's even more a part of your life now that you can't touch it...."_  
  -- "The Nurse Who Loved Me" by A Perfect Circle  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once he had his information gathered, Mamoru called all of Weiß, old and new, together in one room. "Our mission is to rescue a teammate who's been kidnapped by a terrorist group that used to be affiliated with Eszett but has since gone off on their own." That got Sena's attention, as Mamoru had intended. "This Weiß member is Abyssinian, Fujimiya Aya, and his picture in your dossiers. In addition to Class Z's strength and speed, certain members of this group, Schwarz, have paranormal abilities. Information on each one is in the dossiers you have." Only Asato and Sena had dossiers, since they weren't familiar with Aya or Schwarz.

Mamoru continued, "Schwarz takes or slaughters everything they can and twists whatever's left. They made a girl who had a crush on Aya shoot him. They set up a scenario to try to make us all kill one another and when that failed murdered someone I cared about very much instead of me. They play with minds, souls, and lives for fun."

"So it's very personal," Sena said.

"We're Weiß. We're all here for personal reasons."

Sena looked down and nodded.

"I don't know how deeply Schuldig, their telepath, may have twisted Aya's brain around," Mamoru continued. "We can't leave Aya with them no matter how happy he claims to be because it's a lie. He just doesn't realize it."

"And even if he is happy with them, you'd never accept that," Asato said.

"We know that you don't care much about teammates, Sourpuss, not after you let Kyo get killed, but we do," Ken answered.

Asato bristled, moving forward to say something, but Sena interrupted him with "That isn't fair! It wasn't Asato's fault, and it wasn't Kyo's! Things happened too quickly, and we didn't have any backup ready." Which put the blame squarely on Ken and Yoji.

Mamoru looked at the divide between the old and new members of Weiß and fought down a sigh. He'd never wanted this. At least he could console himself that it would have been far worse if he'd sent Ken and Yoji to Europe to take on the Eszett factions there while keeping Asato, Kyo, and Sena in Japan.

He needed to stop the bickering. "We have some idea of where they've been living recently, which narrows down our search. Further narrowing down our search is a former Eszett telepath Kritiker recruited. Elena, come in please." _That_ shut everyone else up. Once the tall German woman entered the room, Mamoru asked, "Do you have a fix yet?"

"I should be accurate within a three-block radius. I hope you can work with that." She'd switched to their language and sneered on the last sentence.

"You got free of Eszett?" Yoji asked.

"If Cell 49 could, anyone could, so I went for it."

"Cell 49?"

"You know them as Schwarz. Did you really think they were always 'Schwarz'? Black to your white? A big coincidence."

With Weiß bristling at the arrogant newcomer, they'd forgotten to fight amongst themselves. Mamoru nearly smiled.

The other telepath would be held in reserve. Hopefully they wouldn't need him, and the fewer people who knew about him, the less chance that Schuldig could steal the information.

"Schuldig's good with his telepathy," Ken said. "How could you find him?"

"Trade secret."

"We're supposed to just trust you? I don't think so."

She sighed, long suffering. "I had some direction on exactly where to look, plus I've met Guilty." It didn't sound like a fondly remembered meeting. "I know the taste of him, and he retains some of the Eszett mental shield signature. Give me a very small haystack with a slightly distinctive pin, and my success is insured."

"We'll have Elena and some Kritiker agents as backup," Mamoru continued.

"What can Elena do?" Ken asked.

"Aside from scramble the pathetic excuse for a brain you have? I'm a good shot with a gun too," she answered.

"Does Eszett train for telepaths who get off on pain or just recruit them?" Ken sneered.

"Both."

Mamoru shook his head. "Enough. Our goal is to get Aya away with us alive and unharmed. If we have to kill some of Schwarz to do that, it's a bonus, but killing them is _not_ the objective." Yoji and Ken already knew to keep Asato pointed at Schwarz and away from Aya. "We'll be taking him to a different, secure, location. I'll give you a chance to study the dossiers. Then we go rescue our teammate. Any questions? Good. We leave in an hour." Mamoru walked away to his room to dress for the mission. He already had the tranquilizer darts prepared.


	40. He really missed having two eyes.

Aya didn't know if he could stand another night of staying in. Waiting for Weiß to strike made him edgy, yet what could he do? Suggest that Schwarz go out and kill them? That would end the problem permanently but not in a way he'd like.

Schuldig suddenly looked up from dinner. "Shit. That bitch! Friendly's hanging around outside and broadcasting her location to anyone with telepathic ears to hear."

"Friendly? You mean Elena?" Crawford asked. "She's one of the better alphas. We can't ignore her if she's calling attention down on our area."

"Are you getting any visions on this?"

"No. I'm still being clouded." The very fact that he _looked_ upset showed how disturbed this left him. "Can you tell if anyone's with her?"

"No. She's flaring so bright that anything around her gets lost in the glare. She could have half of Eszett with her for all I can tell." Schuldig lit a cigarette. "Shit. This is not our day."

"We better go out in force, prepared for anything."

"Good," Farfarello said. "I need to beat the shit out of something."

Needing to work off some of his anxiety, Aya felt the same way. They better include him in their plans.

"We have to be cautious," Crawford said. "We have no idea what we'll be walking into."

"If we may be facing an army, you should bring me along to fight," Aya said.

"I watched you practice today, and I think you're ready."

Farfarello grinned. "We kill as a family again."

They all dressed for work and went out, but Schuldig took the lead, far ahead. If he alone could take her out, the rest of them had no need to reveal themselves. They waited around a corner, close enough that they could hear gunshots and a woman's laughter.

"Did you think I'd be that easy?" she asked.

"Friendly, you're out of your league," Schuldig sneered. "You don't have my skills, speed, or power. Go home before you get hurt."

"I have your skills, speed, and power _and_ I have something you don't have."

"Yeah?"

Farfarello pushed Aya aside. A dart hit the wall and stuck, quivering. "Rooftop sniper!" Farfarello growled.

"She has Weiß," Nagi said.

Aya growled as Farfarello backed him into the wall, shielding him with his body. All around them, people rushed out of the shadows from all directions, some regular Kritiker operatives and others finally recognizable as a very changed Yoji and Ken.

"When did they learn how to plan?" Crawford muttered as he started shooting. Nagi threw people aside, but others kept coming, and he couldn't risk any all-out wild throws with his teammates moving around nearby.

"You don't have to worry about me being too gentle with the ones I don't know!" Aya yelled at Farfarello.

"Better safe," he answered as he fought his nearest opponents.

******************************************************

Mamoru sighed as he followed the chaos through his sniper scope and headset. Snatching Aya would have been marginally easier if that first shot had hit and knocked him out. Then again, having Farfarello distracted with keeping his "toy" in place and protecting it might work out.

Mamoru didn't forget that Farfarello had killed Ouka too. He would pay. Mamoru watched the proceedings and waited for his next shot.

Schuldig had maneuvered Elena over to the main battle and fought her while taunting Weiß in their own tongue, saying something about Ken's "hourglass figure and childbearing hips" and Yoji's bare chest with body paint and very low-slung pants. Mamoru had some questions for Yoji too, the first being, "Are you trying to get yourself killed wearing that outfit?" but that could wait.

Elena interrupted Schuldig's mockery by winging his arm with a bullet. She truly had earned her way with this ambush.

Mamoru heard the clicking of a camera taking pictures near him. As much as he hated having security around him constantly, most of them earned their way as well. The photographic footage for Crawford and Nagi's files had to be updated, since Crawford had gone nearly silver and Nagi... Mamoru didn't quite know how to describe what had happened to Nagi.

The telekinetic wreaked havoc on everyone, so Mamoru said over his headset, "Elena, bring your backup in to protect us from the telekinesis." To telepathically confuse Nagi perhaps.

Nagi shook his head and _snarled_ as the Kritiker agents he'd been ripping into suddenly had protective telekinetic force bubbles around them, preventing him from tearing them limb from limb. However, he did pick up the force bubbles and bash them against the walls, no doubt nauseating the agents. Nagi would be a great asset to Kritiker, but Mamoru doubted they could recruit him.

Hadn't the report said that the other Eszett talent was a telepath? He'd have to drill Elena later.

Mamoru couldn't get to Aya, and it frustrated him. Then he had an idea that brought a smile to his face. Mostly covered by his mission outfit and Farfarello, Aya couldn't be shot easily. Farfarello, however, left his arms bare. When Mamoru fired, Farfarello started to dodge--how did he sense these things?--but then jerked back as he seemed to realize that his departure would leave Aya open. He tried to catch the dart but failed. Through the scope Mamoru could see blood dripping from that hand. Mamoru shot him again, and again, both times in the arm, succeeding because Farfarello wouldn't leave Aya uncovered. Mamoru could shoot and score until Farfarello died of an overdose. That would be appealing.

Then Mamoru saw Asato heading on a direct course to Farfarello and Aya. "Siamese, back off! Pick a different opponent!" he shouted into his headset. To his utter lack of surprise, Asato didn't obey. "Siamese, stand down now! Can _someone_ stop him?"

In his current situation, backed against a wall with his captor's body in front of him, Aya couldn't defend himself as well as usual. If the tranqs finally started to work on the berserker, Aya would have to fight Asato, and Farfarello's body would encumber him. Or, hell, Asato could run them both through if they were both still standing.

The temptation to shoot a tranq into Asato and let Farfarello finish him off permanently nearly won Mamoru over. It would solve so many problems. But no.

Mamoru would have to--

"Sir! I think Eszett's arriving."

Mamoru took the binoculars from him and looked at the cars rushing toward the area. Kritiker had an understanding with the local police, so it was probably Eszett arriving a little earlier than expected.

No matter. Weiß would just have to get Aya out of here faster.

Mamoru handed the rifle to a member of his security detail. Up close, the rifle would be useless. "I'm going down to retrieve Abyssinian myself. I won't be dissuaded. You can follow and protect me if you'd like."

******************************************************

"Farfarello, stop taking the darts for me," his puisín snarled. "The only area my mission gear leaves exposed is my head. I can dodge well enough on my own."

Farfarello ripped the darts out of his arm. "I won't take the chance. Besides, I've built up a resistance over the years." Still, he felt woozy. But not too woozy to send another Kritiker agent to the grave.

"I'm not helpless!"

"That's right, Farfarello. Let Aya come out and play."

Farfarello turned to the voice and blocked a sword strike with his blade, switching to Japanese to speak to this new kitten. "No."

"I don't know this one. You can trust me to kill him," Aya said in a low, dark tone of voice that went straight to Farfarello's cock. He already had his katana out and ready. It sounded like he really wanted to fight this one, and why wouldn't he? He hadn't been able to wield his chosen weapon for too long.

"We can all dance," the new kitten said as he fought Farfarello. Part of his attention always remained on Aya, and Farfarello could taste his hate, fascination, and confused lust. This one wanted Aya in a different way than the other Weiß did. He couldn't be allowed.

Yet Farfarello couldn't move with his usual range of freedom, not if he wanted to keep his puisín cornered and safe. They did all dance, Aya moving behind him as he fought, looking for an opportunity to get free. His opponent fought with a rage and intensity and understanding of the way of the blade that so reminded him of his puisín. The Weiß kept eyefucking his puisín, so he sliced the man's arm. Unfortunately, he'd meant the wound to be far deeper than that.

Head starting to spin, Farfarello could feel himself slowing and weakening. Fucking drugs. Aya shouted, "Let me take over!"

"Siamese! Stand down!" a voice redolent with command shouted. "If you don't back off, I'll kill you myself!"

"You wouldn't--" The swordsman winced as a bullet lightly grazed his arm. Teeth clenched, furious, he backed away.

"Omi, stop this!" Aya shouted with a sound of command in his voice as well. The kitten had been their field leader once.

Farfarello saw the former Tsukiyono Omi standing there with two armed men. The boy had a handful of darts. Farfarello liked knowing whom to blame. His gaze flickered between them and the swordsman, Siamese. He really missed having two eyes.

~ Fucking Eszett is here! ~ Schuldig shouted.

The Bombay boy had grown in treachery. No, Persia now, and that breed was steeped in it. "You play a dangerous game, Persia," Farfarello said as he tried to keep his sword from shaking. "Don't give yourself to him, my puisín."

Rage distorted Persia's features, and another dart sprouted in Farfarello's arm. But he would not fall. He refused! He pulled that one out too.

"You'll kill him!" Aya shouted.

"That's not exactly the point, but it wouldn't be a bad thing either," Persia said. "I can see that you think you care for him. Just come with us, and this stops. Schwarz can fight off Eszett without having to deal with us too."

"Omi, don't sell your soul to get me back, especially since I don't want to go with you."

Farfarello couldn't quite feel his legs anymore but held himself up by will. "He said no, White. Be good and listen."

"I'm not Weiß anymore," Persia said.

******************************************************

Faced with a nightmare, Aya tried to split his attention to monitor all the parties involved but knew he'd inevitably miss someone, with Eszett running by, Kritiker agents on several sides of him, the murderous Siamese watching him, Farfarello struggling to stay conscious, and a terribly transformed Omi wanting him. It horrified him to see Omi so fallen to his Takatori background, as if possessed by a demon. Like any Takatori, Omi now ignored anything that didn't follow his wants and intended to do whatever needed to be done to get those wants fulfilled.

If Aya had stayed, could he have prevented this?

No. No.

Eszett agents ignored them, even Farfarello, and ran down the alley after Schwarz. What devil's bargain had Omi struck?

Aya had his coat open. While it hadn't been designed to give him easy access to his guns as the last one had, he could still reach in while he had Farfarello hiding so much of him from view. Yet he didn't see how even two guns would give him an opportunity to get free, especially if he didn't intend to kill Omi. Holding Siamese hostage would do no good, since Omi had ordered his own security to shoot the man. If he shouted to Schuldig's telepathy, he might fatally distract the telepath, and if Schuldig faced his own problems help wouldn't come from there anyway. He knew that Nagi already had his hands full. If he and Farfarello broke free, they couldn't run toward Schwarz, not with Eszett clogging the way and Nagi flinging them around in a deadly whirlwind. They could only run away. If they broke free.

Farfarello's knees started to buckle, so Aya grabbed him around his waist to keep him up. Since he held his katana in his right hand, he held Farfarello up with his left arm. Apparently, his left shoulder hadn't been ready for that kind of duty because it sent a shock of pain through him that he had to bite his lip to hold back.

He was running out of options, and his indecision only wasted more time, with his options diminishing further by the minute.

"--here. Eszett will take care of Schwarz," Omi said into his headset. "LaPerm, here the enemy of our enemy is our friend. We'll fight them again another day."

Farfarello sagged back against Aya. "Puisín. I--" He shook his head like a dog and murmured in English, "Can't think. Drop me. Stop hurting yourself. Must fight."

From down the alley the sounds of metal and flesh hitting stone increased, and Aya could swear he heard Nagi's voice yelling for him under it all. Gunfire....

Ignored by Eszett, the members of Weiß and Kritiker surrounded Aya and Farfarello. Weiß had so changed. Aya couldn't believe that Yoji went out to fight bare-chested, with the slanted cross painted in red on his chest as good as a bull's-eye. They slowly closed in around him.

No longer able to hold himself up, eye closed, Farfarello started to slide, dragging Aya down with him. Aya slowly let him go so he wouldn't hit the pavement too hard, then went into a defensive stance with his katana. Since he didn't trust this Omi enough to make a bargain for Farfarello's safety, he could only fight his way out and hope they chased him instead of wasted the time to finish Farfarello off. His breathing changing, his wants compressing and turning cold, he noted where the people he didn't know stood and marked them off as his initial targets. If he went deeply enough into a haze it might stop mattering whom he knew, but that would take time.

Aya launched himself at the boy in the vest, striking him aside with the hilt of his katana, and chopped down a man with a gun behind him. As he dodged a swipe of Ken's bugnucks--it seemed that knowing people didn't stop _Ken_ now--he heard Omi yelling. He beheaded another Kritiker minion and spun out of the alley into open space, but several people grabbed him from behind, putting pressure on his right wrist in such a way to make him drop his katana. Another arm around his neck cut off his air, but he reached left-handed into his coat, pulled out his gun, and started firing at his assailants.

Tangled up in opponents, he couldn't properly roll as he fell and thus hit the pavement hard enough to knock the breath and sense right out of him. People piled on him, restraining him, holding him down, crushing him. Instinct and memory combined sent a flood of adrenaline coursing through his body, but he couldn't free himself. He kept fighting even as everything slowed and faded, as if he drowned in syrup. Too late he realized what that sting at his neck had been.

He fought the darkness too, but the darkness won.

******************************************************

Hypodermic needle gun in hand, Mamoru let out a deep breath and settled back on his heels. That had been more brutal than he'd expected. Sena stared at Mamoru with horror in his eyes, which Mamoru might have been inclined to dismiss if Yoji hadn't been looking at him with a similar expression. Aya had killed several people, and Kritiker had retaliated by roughing him up far more than Mamoru had wanted. The medical tests he'd intended for Aya would have to check for recent damage as well as past. With Aya unconscious, they knew they couldn't get away with as much in front of Mamoru, so they were conspicuously gentle as they stripped away Aya's coat to remove his gun harness, then put his coat back on and bound his hands. Mamoru picked up and sheathed Aya's katana and put his gun in its holster. Two guns. Aya had definitely changed. They found a boot sheath and stripped that away as well. He stroked Aya's hair out of his face.

One member of Mamoru's security detail put Aya over his shoulder, which would still let him defend himself and Mamoru. They didn't have the time or safety to be gentle. Later Mamoru would make things right.

"We got him. We're on the move," Mamoru sent to the drivers of the cars they would switch to later. To the people with him, he said, "Clear out."

"What about--" Sena started. He had a bruise rising at his temple from where Aya had struck him. The boy had been fortunate not to get the other end of Aya's katana.

"We attack Eszett another day, when they're not helping our cause. Go!"

"What about Farfarello?" Ken asked.

They had to go. They had to leave now. Yet the bastard who'd killed Ouka, clubbed him, and stolen Aya right out from under him was lying defenseless nearby.

"Killing Schwarz isn't the point," Yoji said. He had a bullet hole in his coat from where Aya had just missed him. "We get Aya out first. _That's_ the objective. At least, that's what I remember someone saying."

Yoji was right. His own plan was right. Yet....

"Bombay!" someone shouted, and his voice vibrated in a deeper register. "Or Tsukiyono or Takatori or whoever the fuck you think you are!" Prodigy, Naoe Nagi, stood in the alley with force crackling around him, distorting even the air. "Put Aya down gently and leave. And never come back for him."

"Or what?" Asato ask.

"Or I'll kill you all."

"Time to run," Yoji said.

They ran to the cars. An occasional look back showed stone shattering and sometimes warping from the force thrown at it. One of the cars flew into a nearby building and exploded. They piled into the remaining ones and took off. Mamoru watched one of their cars flip over and _shatter_, while another one just barely managed to pull free of the force holding it. "Good going on the last one, idiot," Elena murmured in German, then switched to say, "Prodigy is being distracted by Eszett agents again. We may get away yet."

They did, although the tension of waiting to die horribly nearly killed them. Ten minutes later Mamoru arranged a meeting point by cell phone. There, they switched cars and drove to the safe house he'd activated.

Surrendering Aya to the doctors hadn't been easy, but the wondering about whether he'd done the right thing by getting Aya out had been ended once he saw the bite marks on Aya's neck. He would make Farfarello and Schuldig pay....

Everything would work out. He'd make sure of it.

******************************************************

They found Nagi kneeling by Farfarello's unconscious body and cursing a blue streak in a hoarse shadow of a voice. Some parts of the nearby walls had holes and gouges in them, while others had been scraped thin. Bricks still fell out now and then and hit with a crash. Schuldig and Brad stepped over the smashed and torn-up corpses and around a dumpster that had been flattened and stretched to look like aluminum foil to get to him.

They really had to get out of here. No matter what deal Persia might have wrangled to keep the police away, all the locals who had to flee the area would attract somebody's attention.

"Schuldig, can you find Aya?" the kid asked. He had so much hope on his bloody face, yet he didn't seem totally human at the moment, more like sheer force barely held in by a fleshy container.

Or maybe Schuldig's migraine only made it seem like that. "No. Friendly and somebody else keep blocking me." And it royally pissed him off. "When I'm fresh I might get him, but right now I'm fucking knackered." He wanted to sleep for a week. He didn't even have any idea how many he'd killed tonight or how long it had taken.

"Somebody else." Shaking with fatigue, Nagi rocked a little, then said, "Some other telekinetic kept trying to baffle me. He did it, a little. His mind felt so strange, so wrong. I can't find Aya either."

"Yeah. Looks like Kritiker picked up some of Eszett's leavings."

"And they're willing to ignore Eszett if it helps them fuck us up," Brad said. He swiped blood off his face with his gun hand. "That's new."

"Sweet little Omi's gone to the dark side." Watching Nagi vibrate, Schuldig said, "They won't hurt Aya, and I don't think they've changed enough to let Friendly rejigger his brain."

"They'll just lock him up and try to rewire his mind the old-fashioned way. No. When we're fresh, we go find Aya and tear them apart," Nagi said.

"No," Brad said.

"No?" Schuldig and Nagi asked at the same time.

Brad took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "They have to keep him for a little while. It will work out."

"A vision or a feeling?" Schuldig asked.

"A feeling."

If Brad had a feeling, Schuldig would give it a chance. Nagi obviously didn't feel the same way, since he shouted, "A feeling isn't good enough!" with his pain blazing out so raw that it scraped Schuldig's nerves. For whatever reason, the little misanthrope really loved Aya.

"You follow orders, Prodigy," Brad answered in his cold, iron leader's voice. "You can wait three days."

"Stockholm syndrome can set in during three days!"

"I'll be kind. If what I've felt doesn't come to pass within three days, we'll go get him."

"I.... All right." Nagi knew he'd gotten a compromise from Brad and had the smarts not to push it.

"In the meantime, we take only the necessities from our apartment, set up at the next place, rest, nurse our wounds, and contemplate our future vengeance."

Schuldig nudged Farfarello's shoulder with the toe of his boot. "We're going to have to keep Farfie heavily restrained during that time to stop him from running after his kitten. He's not gonna be happy."

Brad put his glasses back on. "It's never too soon to put him in the straitjacket and chains." Since he could wake up at any time.

Fortunately they kept that stuff ready in the trunk.

"Don't get me wrong, Nagi. I'm furious over this." Brad said quietly but with intensity. "Aya is ours now, and we'll make them pay for stealing him. Just not in the way they'd expect."


	41. "Save yourselves, then talk to me."

As much as Mamoru knew he should stay away to just let the doctors work, he couldn't help visiting. Aya-kun was motionless on a gurney, only his head visible. Mamoru appreciated it that the doctors kept sheets on him to allow him dignity. When he stroked Aya's red, red hair, he asked, "Where's his earring?" It better not be missing. He knew that it meant something important to Aya.

The doctor said, "Takatori-sama, considering some of the tests we're doing, we couldn't risk--"

Right. X-ray machines. They didn't know how much actual metal the earring contained, so why take the chance? "Of course. Good thinking."

"We have it somewhere safe, and it can go back on when we're done."

Mamoru felt the tension in the room and realized that _he_ made the doctors nervous. "Thank you. I'll await your report."

He set up a private space to use as an office but couldn't really concentrate. His secretary, Rex, had already left several messages asking where he'd gone and what he was doing. Grandfather had to know what he'd done by now and might even be on his way to intervene. He played at being frail, but Mamoru knew better.

Despite his relief at having successfully retrieved Aya, now that he had him he could better see the upcoming problems. Everything had seemed so much simpler when he only had to think of getting Aya away from Schwarz. Now they had to fix and keep him. How would they deprogram him? Mamoru had the wealth to hire experts, but those experts could never be allowed to leave with whatever Aya told them. It complicated things.

And why did Eszett want Aya out of Schwarz's clutches so badly? The Eszett agents had ignored them completely and provided the distraction Kritiker needed to get Aya and get away. Mamoru needed more information.

A woman knocked, came in at his word, dropped a report on his desk, and scurried away, all without saying anything. That didn't look good. Mamoru looked through the summary, then checked some of the results himself, at least the ones he knew enough to interpret. Aya had some old traces of a painkiller in his system, but it could have been for some recent wounds he had. He hadn't been drugged into compliance. The wounds he had could have been from work instead of abuse, and there had been no sign of rape either. The bites and some of the bruises fit with recreational sex. He had come up clean of any diseases. Conclusion: Aya's condition suggested that he was an assassin with a very vigorous sex life and nothing more.

Mamoru's anger dismayed him. Had he really _hoped_ to find horrific damage, disease, a drug addiction? Did he really consider that to be preferable to finding Aya well and healthy?

Aya's body might be fine, but his mind might still be damaged.

Mamoru had to take a walk to think. He actually missed his fish, since they had a calming effect....

He saw Yoji speaking to Elena, apparently flirting. To Mamoru's relief, he'd changed out of his mission outfit. What was he thinking, fighting bare-chested and in pants so low-slung that he might flash the world at any moment? The current pants and ribbed turtleneck were tight but not obscene.

"--but being strangled isn't my thing," Elena said, and Yoji paled.

What the hell was that?

"Sir, I have to ask you something," Elena said to Mamoru. "I need a little cash and leave to take Dummkopf out for a little bit."

The report had said that the other telepath was simple-minded, but.... "'Dummkopf'? What kind of nickname is that?" The report had referred to him as Eszett psi-recruit #10, which hadn't been helpful. It had probably referred to him that way because Kritiker knew what "Dummkopf" meant and didn't want to use the German word for "idiot" as his official name.

"He answers to it. His other name is #121-5a, which lacks style. He's mainly a telepath, but I can get some telekinesis out of him if I ask right." Which let Mamoru know that the report hadn't mentioned the telekinesis because Kritiker's experts didn't feel it could be counted on. Elena continued, "He saved some of your agents from Prodigy and then helped get that other car free during our getaway, so he wants his reward. He wants ice cream." She looked over toward the door, and Mamoru followed her gaze. A soft-faced blond in his late teens leaned against the doorway. He had mismatched eyes, one blue and one green, and very little visibly going on behind them.

Reports said that... #121-5a was one of Eszett's early experiments in creating talents through cloning and genetic engineering. Too simple-minded to be commanded easily, he'd been kept for further experiments and to see how long a natural lifespan he had. Elena claimed that she brought him out of Rosenkreuz with her because he'd promised to alert everyone if she left without him, so she felt he wasn't quite as stupid as everyone believed. Still, Kritiker considered them to be an agent and a half, not two, because #121-5a didn't follow spoken commands or take direction from anyone other than Elena.

"Schuldig called you 'Freundlich,' like it was your name," Yoji said. "That's 'Friendly,' right? What's up with that?" Still flirting.

"You really wanna know?" Her tone said that he wouldn't.

"Now I'm not so sure."

"I used telepathic tricks to get out of sexual indoctrination, but some bureaucrat finally caught me. I used a dull pair of craft scissors to turn the two men they sent to rape me into sopranos. As bad as my punishment was, I think it was worth it. The next guy they set on me, I poked out his right eye with my fingers, and Eszett stopped trying to rape me after that. Anyway, that's how the other talents started to call me 'Friendly.'" She flipped her long braid back over her shoulder almost flirtatiously and smiled sweetly at Yoji, who backed away a little. "So, Mr. Takatori, can I take Dummkopf out for ice cream? You called us in on such a wild hair that I didn't get to exchange my money."

Mamoru gave her the money, saying, "Be back in a half hour. Don't take any chances. Don't get caught."

Dummkopf. He had to at least give the man a codename, _something_.

"Thank you." When she turned to #121-5a, something in her expression told Mamoru that she spoke to the telepath mind to mind. #121-5a smiled, said, "Ice cream" in German, and offered his arm. Elena smiled a little back, which stripped years off her usually hard face. They just about skipped as they left.

"Next time we get near Eszett, can we kill them all for doing things like that to people?" Yoji asked. Now that he no longer wore his once ubiquitous sunglasses, his eyes seemed terrifyingly open and unprotected.

"Yeah." Mamoru felt a little tainted right now.

"You were looking for me?"

"Not specifically."

"I'm hurt, kiddo."

This almost felt normal, like the old days. If he ignored his security detail standing at a slight distance. "Deal with it."

"Aya looks different."

"You look more different from how you used to than he does."

Yoji ran a hand through his short-cropped hair, which he'd also bleached lighter, then said, "Nah. He looks younger. Maybe he's happier."

Yoji would _not_ do this. "If so, it's a false happiness."

"Does it really matter why he's happy as long as he feels happy?" Yoji had a very sad look in his eyes.

Mamoru didn't care. "Yes, it does. What do you want to do: gift wrap him and give him back to the people who kidnapped and mindfucked him?"

"No."

"Yoji, what is this really about? How are things going with Tuji?" Sometimes Mamoru worried that Yoji felt that he had to whore himself out to get information, and Tuji was the latest target in their investigation of the school.

"Fine. It's love." But he looked haunted.

But Yoji always looked haunted lately.

"Your reports are vague."

Yoji put on a smile. "I'll do better, Dad."

"I don't think your current mission outfit meets standards."

"It distracts my opponents." He winked in a very Yoji way.

Mamoru decided to let him get away with it. For now.

The same woman who'd handed him the report walked up and said, "Sir, they've finished the tests and put your agent in the designated cell."

"Thank you." He wanted to be there when Aya woke up. Aya deserved that consideration and more.

Yoji slanted an odd look his way, then shook his head and lit up a cigarette. Yoji would have to be watched.

Nodding to the guards at the door, Mamoru brought his laptop and reports into the room with him, then sat on the chair provided. The rest of the room, behind bars, made up Aya's cell. A lump rose in Mamoru's throat when he saw Aya lying on the bed wearing his orange sweater with an old pair of pants. Unable to trust that Aya didn't have any other lethal secrets hidden in his Schwarz mission outfit, Mamoru had asked Yoji to bring Aya's clothing with him for them to put him in. The neck of the Schwarz shirt had been too high and full of straps to be comfortable to sleep in anyway. His earring had been returned. Occasionally he murmured in his sleep... in German.

How had matters come to this?

Over time, Mamoru heard a change in Aya's breathing and surreptitiously watched him, noticing the not quite right movement of eyes beneath the lids. "I know you're awake, Aya-kun," Mamoru said.

Aya opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling, then put his hand over them and croaked, "You shouldn't have done this, Omi." Not in German. Thank God.

"There's a carafe of water nearby." Made of lightweight plastic, decreasing the chances of Aya using it as an effective weapon.

Aya swayed and winced as he sat up, and his eyes widened slightly as he noticed the sweater. After taking a long drink, he stared at Mamoru and said, "You know this is wrong. I can't magically make everything go back to the way it used to be."

"I know that you can't. This is me trying to make a wrong thing right. You're family. We couldn't leave you with Schwarz." Mamoru almost smiled as he watched Aya struggle not to say something, probably about the Takatori family.

Aya stood, gripped the bars, looked right at Mamoru, and said, "Let me go." Anger and frustration burned in his eyes and sharpened his face.

"I can't."

"You won't."

"You can't trust your own mind. I'll fix everything."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Trust me, Aya-kun."

"Let me go," he answered more emphatically.

"You killed a lot of people." But not Sena. Mamoru found that interesting.

"It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't sent people after me."

"We didn't kill Farfarello," Mamoru said to get a reaction. He watched some tiny part of Aya relax at that and noticed that Aya didn't look away from him. It didn't seem to bother Aya that he knew about them. He didn't see any shame there. "Have you forgotten what Schwarz did to you? They stole your sister! They kidnapped Sakura and made her shoot you! If they hadn't taken her she might still be alive now!"

Aya closed his eyes. "I know."

"Then you see why I can't believe that you'd be with them without a large dose of mindfucking."

"I can't explain it. Omi.... My sister is dead, and I'll never get her back. No one knows who killed her, Sakura, and Manx. The perpetrators might have already died in the collapse. I certainly killed enough members of Eszett to try to make up for it, but nothing I do can bring them back. Ran was crushed in the wreckage of his family home. I can't get back the years I lost or the person I used to be. Yet I'm still alive. In the absence of any constructive thing to do to fix any of my problems, I can only try to make my life as livable as possible."

"You've given up!"

"I _am_ a killer. You're a killer. From what I've seen, you're even more at peace with your sociopathy than I am. I know I'm fucked up, but I'm happy. I never asked for anyone to save me, now or before."

"You only think you're happy, and maybe if you'd asked for our help before you wouldn't be Farfarello's chewtoy now."

Aya had turned nearly white with anger. "Don't force me to get mean."

"This should be good."

"Save me? You're a ruthless sociopath, Ken seems like more of a casually homicidal nutcase than Farfarello is, and Yoji looks like a strung-out whore. Save yourselves, then talk to me."

Mamoru nearly sputtered with rage. How dare he-- But then he couldn't stop laughing, which only made Aya angrier, which only made him laugh more. "Aya," he said as he tried to catch his breath, "if you only knew how many times I wanted you to talk to us, and now here we are...."

Mamoru watched Aya's anger slowly cool. "I needed solitude," Aya finally said softly, "but I regret that I pushed all of you away so hard."

_That_ wasn't the Aya he'd known, but it was one he'd like to know. And Schwarz had brought Aya to this. How? How the hell had they taught him to open up and bend a bit? And not like _that_, he firmly told his dirty imagination, which remained stuck on the thought of Farfarello _having_ Aya. It made Mamoru angry all over again.

"I have to go," Mamoru said as he gathered his things.

"What the hell are you going to do with me? Leave me alone here?"

"For a little while."

"How is this supposed to save me?"

"I'll be back later." It had to be one of the least graceful exits he'd ever made, but he needed to get his head together, and he didn't seem to be capable of doing that in front of Aya.

When Elena passed him in the hall, Mamoru said, "I have to ask you something."

She stopped and gave him a smile that she probably meant to be welcoming but instead came off as somewhat insane and creepy. "Sure, Mr. Takatori."

"Could Schuldig be controlling Aya?"

"Now? No. I extended my shields over all of us. Any strings he had on your teammate would have been cut. You're seeing Mr. Fujimiya as he is. He's not right?"

Right had become such an indeterminate thing. "He's different."

"It's possible that Guilty started out as his puppetmaster but that Mr. Fujimiya has since internalized Schwarz's mindset to the point where he doesn't need to be remote controlled anymore. I could go into his head and take a look." She sounded too eager for the opportunity. Far too eager.

"No. Don't." Thinking further he asked, "How do you think they converted him?"

"Maybe they had Guilty screw with his head. That might or might not have happened. I'm sure they had someone with him at all times and forcibly stopped him from running off. Very time and effort intensive. It was probably Farfarello, since he doesn't feel pain. Mr. Fujimiya would have to knock him out to get away. Guilty probably kept telepathic tabs on him at all times."

Mamoru didn't know whom they had on their side who could take Aya's abuse, stay with him at all times, and keep him around by force. And he certainly didn't trust Elena enough to let her keep a telepathic eye on Aya.

Mamoru had hoped that fixing Aya could be as simple as snapping Schuldig's strings, but if Schuldig had no strings on him Aya had in some ways chosen his current path. Unable to think of that right now, Mamoru instead asked, "Where's... Dummkopf?"

"Napping. He had a little emotional upset while we were out, since he used his telekinesis to drag a bird closer to him and snapped its neck by accident, then didn't understand why it wouldn't fly on its own anymore, which meant that I had to explain death to him again, which sucked. Maybe he'll remember this time. But the fact that he's using his telekinesis on his own is interesting. Facing Prodigy might have given him some ideas."

They had a telekinetic with the mind of a three-year-old hanging out around them. "Interesting? I don't want him to kill any of us. Not by accident or on purpose."

"He'll be fine. The bird thing scared him into some more caution. He follows my orders."

He'd chosen people like these as his allies.

******************************************************  
_"To leave is never easy.  
Perhaps it shouldn't be.  
But return is even harder.  
Yes, to return is harder still."_  
  -- "Helicopter" by Covenant  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aya set his forehead against the cold bars. He didn't know whether he should be thankful or worried that Omi didn't seem to know what to do with him.

Aya knew that his explanation of his current loyalties wouldn't make a difference to Omi, since sometimes he didn't fully accept or understand it himself. Sometimes he still had doubts. But he couldn't imagine going back to being the person that he'd been and never seeing his new team again. It gave him such a sick feeling.

How long would Omi keep him? What kind of "cures" would he try?

It hurt Aya to see Omi so changed by his Takatori heritage, because Omi had always had a good heart. Now that heart had been warped and put into the service of a family of manipulative, megalomaniacal murderers, but Omi didn't even realize it.

One of the guards sat in Omi's vacated chair and said, "You'll be under constant surveillance. There's also another man outside the door. Don't try anything."

Aya saw no reason to answer. He needed to explore the boundaries of his captivity but without appearing openly threatening or hostile. Perhaps he could get his guards to relax their vigilance a little. Of course, he couldn't guarantee any effect on the people Omi no doubt had monitoring the video camera feed. Omi would have at least one camera, if not more, trained on him, and he had to figure out where they'd been hidden.

Surely the guards would expect him to move, so he let himself do so, counting out his cell in 25 paces lengthwise and 7 paces width. Not a bad size. It had a high ceiling and no light fixtures. Light came in from fixtures inside the room but outside of his cage. A drawer set within the barred partition would enable them to give him food and drink without opening or entering the cell. He saw that the bars ran on a track and probably could be opened only after a code had been entered on a keypad he noticed on the wall. Of course, the buttons couldn't be seen from within the cell. The bunk had been bolted to the wall, and it had no sheets, only a pillow that had been strapped down. Aside from the bunk, a sink, and a very simple toilet, there was no furniture, nothing to take cover behind.

He wondered if he could convince Omi to make the guards turn away as he dressed or relieved himself, not that Aya would know if the person watching the video feed looked away. Still, everything had to be considered as he thought of escape.

They'd taken his boots, leaving him socks and slippers. Aya noticed that his sweater smelled of his detergent, so he wondered where Omi had stored it. His sister had bought it for him, and it comforted him to have it back. When he pulled up his sleeve to investigate the stinging at his left elbow, he found the needle marks he'd expected. They'd probably drawn blood for tests. Anger smoldered in his gut. He might understand why they were doing all of this, but he couldn't forgive it.

Everything would be so much easier if they hadn't cared for him more than he'd expected them to.

Yoji stood at the door and asked, "How are the accommodations?" Aya still couldn't believe how different he looked.

"Schwarz let me out once in a while," Aya answered.

"Under guard I'm sure."

"Yoji, let me out of here."

"Can't. What's up with the shoulder?"

He hadn't realized that the ache showed to others. "I strained it a little."

"Does Omi know?"

"I strained it trying to keep Farfarello from dropping to the ground, so I don't think Omi wants to know." Besides, Omi knew more than enough already.

"I saw it, and I still couldn't believe it."

"You, of all people--"

"I'm a ladies man." The statement seemed to deepen and darken the haunted look in his green eyes. Aya had always felt that Yoji's former perpetual sunglasses had been a silly affectation, but right now he missed them.

"You're not always discriminating."

"I'm open-minded."

"Are you?"

Yoji smiled. "Someone taught you to talk."

Tired of the game playing, Aya answered, "Fuck you, Yoji."

"Are you volunteering?"

"Do you want me to?" Aya asked in a dark, nasty purr.

"Nope. I had to talk to you, see what you're like now. I mean, you almost shot me."

"It wasn't personal. You were in the way."

"That sounds like the old Aya, but you're still different in other ways."

"It was inevitable."

"Were you happy with them?"

How many times did he have to say it? "Yes."

"All right." Then Yoji turned and left the room, leaving Aya alone with the guard again.

Aya really wanted to kill something right now.


	42. "Of course you had knives."

Farfarello slowly surfaced from an ocean of thick, dark, drugged sleep and flexed his arms within the straitjacket as he wondered where he was. It didn't look or smell like an institution or prison, though he saw chains attached to his straitjacket snaking out to the walls, where they were bolted in. Feeling heavy and slow and very thirsty, he moved out of his corner a little and tried to think.

Puisín.

Farfarello moved forward so hard and fast that the chains gouged paint off the walls as they pulled taut and clanked. "Farfarello's awake," the kitten-smitten boy called. Schwarz gathered around Farfarello, though at a safe distance.

His puisín had been taken. It had to be. He wouldn't be secured like this otherwise. "Why aren't we going after Aya?" he snarled, the words ripping his dry throat like blades.

"We will," Crawford said as he nursed a cup of coffee. "Just not yet."

"One of your fucking visions?"

"A feeling."

"We're leaving him in their hands because you have a _feeling_?"

"Yes."

"Do you agree with this, Nagi?"

The boy's jaw and mouth tightened. "Crawford says to give it three days. If whatever it is doesn't become clear by then, we go get Aya." Good. As time passed, the boy could be appealed to.

Farfarello pulled and flexed, searching for weaknesses in his bondage, but didn't see any yet. His teammates knew him. His body wouldn't be going anywhere for a while. But his soul....

"Don't even think about it," Schuldig said. "They've kept Friendly around to shield them, and she'd eat you alive. I'm watching to make sure you don't do something stupid. I can do that while I chip at her defenses."

Growling, Farfarello subsided, knowing that he wouldn't get anything done with them watching so closely. He would have to wait.

Nagi gave him food and drink telekinetically, refusing to get close. Schwarz understood what power temptation could give. "Nagi--"

"Don't even try it," Crawford said.

Eventually they wandered off to different parts of the new apartment, out of Farfarello's sight. But that didn't mean that they didn't pay attention, as he learned when he tried to let his soul go and got slapped back into his body by Schuldig's telepathy.

Unable to drift away, Farfarello learned how boring time in a straitjacket could truly be. Weird to realize that he'd been detaching himself for years without understanding what it meant. He flexed and pulled in his straitjacket and against the chains, hoping to create weakness where none existed yet. In the moments of his worst frustration he banged his head against the wall.

He thought about his puisín. God had taken him away, just as He'd taken Farfarello's family, just as He took everything Farfarello loved.

No, not the same, because Aya still lived. Farfarello still had a chance.

While he thought of all the things he liked to do with and to Aya, he felt Schuldig peeping in once in a while, but he didn't mind right now. Let the mindbreaker get relaxed and distracted by erotica.

Night fell and wrapped Farfarello's environs in a concealing blanket of darkness. He vaguely heard the boy typing in his bedroom. Nagi didn't monitor him and wouldn't stop him. Schuldig and Crawford finally ceased their noise and sexual activity, then drifted into sleep. Farfarello waited a while longer, until they'd submerged deep into slumber, then slowly detached himself, watching for Schuldig's attention all the while. When it didn't come, he slipped out entirely.

He vaguely sensed the distant taste of his kitten's soul under something that must have been Friendly's shield. Flying straight and direct would give him away as well as tire him more, so he traveled in shorter hops instead, taking cover in the heads of people along the way, entering their dreams. He stood on a beach, on a snowy mountain, in a dark room with a seated young man as violence raged on the other side of the door, and in a train station. To his surprise, he felt cold on the very vividly dreamed mountain. He rarely felt cold. When he waved to the little girl in the train station, she waved back.

From the shelter of a mind situated near Weiß's hideout, he sat on a horse and contemplated Friendly's defenses, mainly consisting of a shield of substance and a glow. It looked strong, but every thing in God's world had a weakness, and he found it. Grinning, he compressed himself and slipped through the tiny gap.

Lying down, Aya stared into the darkness at the ceiling of his cell and brooded, bored, angry, deeply unhappy, still Farfarello's Aya. It left Farfarello so gleeful. He had to bask in his kitten's soul and tell him that he hadn't been forsaken.

~ What do we have here? So you _do_ have a talent.... I love fledglings. They're so arrogant and incompetent. ~ Friendly sounded entirely too smug.

Farfarello launched himself out of Aya's mind to protect his kitten and himself, but Friendly became a dragon made of yellow-blue flames and effortlessly gripped him with burning talons. It... hurt, badly, eating away at him and scattering his thoughts. He couldn't see through the glare. As he struggled, he felt a sticky presence paw at his soul and crow, ~ Toy. New toy! ~ in a childlike voice.

~ Yeah, baby-mine. We can play with him until he breaks and tells us everything he knows. ~

A wave of angry orange washed over and through Farfarello, pried the talons away, and grabbed him. It tasted like cinnamon. The orange turned red as it hissed and snarled under Friendly's fiery assault, then changed to green as it laughed and rocketed them away into darkness.

Farfarello slammed back into his body and saw Schuldig crouching near him. "Moron," Schuldig growled. "I'm sure Friendly was thrilled to get into a battle of wits against an unarmed man, especially since she had backup. What part of 'eat you alive' didn't you understand? We just asked you to have a little patience. I think I can get in and out tomorrow without her noticing."

Schuldig hadn't said _that_ before. But, still, Farfarello had wanted to talk to Aya himself. "I have no patience."

"Please. I watched you train your kitten. I watched you wait for your chance today. Don't give me that shit."

Crawford turned the light on, glanced at them, then returned to his bedroom. Schuldig remained, still crouching in front of Farfarello, his hair wildly tousled and his bare legs visible where his deep green robe parted. "Congratulations, Farfie. You went into your first psychic battle and got your ass kicked."

Farfarello still hurt, somewhere deep inside. "How could she injure me?" He hadn't known that telepathic battle could be so hard.

"The mind perceives pain differently. She could have fucked you over real good if I hadn't rode in to the rescue."

"Why was she a dragon?" And Schuldig was an amorphous wave of shifting colors.

"Personal iconography. Most telepaths display some."

"I looked like myself to me."

"That's usual."

"What did I look like to you?"

"You had two eyes and a different hair color, but otherwise you were you, knives and all."

"I had knives?" Maybe telepathic battle could be made better.

"Of course you had knives. Even telepaths turned out by the Eszett factory method have their individual quirks, so of course yours are intact since nobody trained you. Friendly's quirks nearly destroyed you."

"You said that I'm untethered when I'm out. She couldn't use me to find us."

"No, not that way, but she could torture the shit out of you to try to get our location. She wouldn't figure out that you don't actually know our location until after she ripped your... soul to shreds. Since you're not used to pain, it wouldn't take long."

"She wouldn't get anything from me."

"Farfie, after enough time you'd be singing out anything she wanted to hear. People who feel pain and laugh at it have snapped under those conditions." Schuldig's voice had gained a purr, and he smelled of lust. "She'd strip your soul down and leave you a vegetable, which we wouldn't like. You're Schwarz. Brad would be pissed if we lost you."

Farfarello realized that the mindbreaker could feel his psychic pain and got off on it. People at Rosenkreuz had often spoken in front of Farfarello as if he were furniture--his famous madness had made him even more of a thing, a mindless killing tool, to them--and he remembered talk of Schuldig's brain chemistry being odd and responsible for his physical response to other people's pain. Something about endorphins. It also explained his sex drive.

"Really? They said that? Bastards." Schuldig grinned. "Of course I can read you. You're wide open right now. She flayed you good. You almost feel like a normal person."

"Fuck you."

"Now, now." Schuldig put a finger on Farfarello's lower lip to shush him, and Farfarello didn't bite only because Schuldig needed to be at his best to reach Aya. "Smart thinking, Farfie. You can leave it to me. I want Aya back too, even aside from that business with the word. Life is so much more fun when you own a kitten."

Farfarello nibbled on the finger, tasting salt and sex. "Not cinnamon." He smirked at the look on Schuldig's face.

"Not even Brad knows what my soul tastes like."

"You make everything sound like a come-on."

"It's a gift. Of course, you screwed us up by letting Friendly know you're a telepath. She may tell Weiß. That's one less advantage we have now."

He _was_ a telepath. He had to get used to it. "My kitten is miserable there."

"That's a good thing. We'd have to worry if he were happy."

Farfarello smiled, cheered. "True."

"Nothing I told you is gonna stop you from trying to get loose again tomorrow to rescue Aya, is it?"

"Of course."

"Just as long as we're clear."

******************************************************

Aya wasn't foolish enough to think that the darkness in the room hid him. Omi would have night vision capable cameras. That's why he let the guards stay in the hall after lights out.

Despite his boredom, Aya couldn't sleep, not when he felt so restless and disturbed. There had to be a way out of this mess, but he couldn't see it at the moment.

He missed Farfarello's presence and the sound of his breathing. Here, Aya heard only the low hum of machinery. Thus, he couldn't sleep, even though he knew he should, to keep his strength up.

Aya gasped as a wave of fierce joy flowed through him and nearly whimpered as it abandoned him as suddenly as it arrived. What the hell had that been? Drugs pumped into the air? Incoming insanity?

After more time spent staring into the dark, he winced as the light suddenly turned on. A blonde woman in a long T-shirt and leggings, sleep attire it would seem, and a teen in pajamas walked into the room, with the guard trailing and vaguely protesting. She stared at Aya for a while until he stood up and snapped, "What?"

She merely shook her head, but her companion approached the bars with a confused and somewhat expectant look on his face. Aya fought the force that pulled him close to the teen but could finally do no more than put his arms up to protect his face as he struck the bars. As his body rung from the impact, it seemed to him that it was horribly unjust to be a normal person, unarmed, facing abilities like this, but life was unjust. The woman shouted, "Dummkopf!" but her companion took no heed, simply touched Aya's face and hair with soft fingers, then said, "Mew?" like a questioning kitten.

Aya understood now that he faced someone who had the mind of a very small child. The thought of being killed by accident instead of on purpose brought him no comfort.

The woman sighed, then had a look on her face that suggested she spoke to the teen mind to mind. He pouted but finally pushed Aya backward onto the bunk. They left the room as mysteriously as they arrived.

"Am I supposed to put up with treatment like that?" Aya snarled at the guard.

The man, who looked very freaked out, simply fled and turned out the light. Wonderful. Captivity only improved with time. With nothing else to do, Aya went back to his bunk and continued to think up unrealistic escape plans.

******************************************************

Being awake at 5 a.m. did Mamoru's temper no good, especially since he still suffered from the change in time zones from Japan to Germany, but that anger could only work for him here. "I'm restricting your access in general. That stands double for Dummkopf," he said as he walked down the hall to Aya's cell. Would Elena have bothered to tell him about her little excursion to see Aya? His staff had wakened him to notify him.

"We found out that Farfarello is a telepath. I'd say that deserves a reward," Elena had the gall to answer.

"You didn't capture him--"

"Guilty got him out!"

"_Don't_ interrupt me. You didn't capture either of them." Farfarello being a telepath opened up an entirely new explanation for Aya's behavior, so Mamoru liked it for that. But.... "In any case, you found out that Farfarello is a telepath before you went to see my teammate and let your boy knock him around. Visiting Aya hadn't been necessary. Brutalizing him certainly hadn't been necessary." The thought of Aya being unarmed against and unable to escape from a telekinetic who killed things by accident made his blood run cold.

"I'm not used to him being proactive with his telekinesis. Here he was just curious."

"About what?"

She smiled darkly. "Farfarello thinks of Mr. Fujimiya as his kitten. Dummkopf didn't think he looked like a kitten, so he wanted to touch him to see if he felt like a kitten. The boy doesn't process metaphors or pet names well."

Sheer rage nearly sent Mamoru's blood pressure rocketing. Kitten? Yet he couldn't let Elena distract him from the point. "Both of you are restricted from seeing Mr. Fujimiya or touching his mind short of protecting him from a telepathic attack unless you have my express permission. If I find out that you went against my direct orders, I'll take appropriate action. You're not my only psionics. I could have you both mind-stripped, then tossed back to Eszett."

She paled, and her mouth tightened. "Yes, sir."

"I don't like to make these kinds of threats, but I don't take it very well when people who are important to me are put in danger by my own subordinates for no damned reason. Dummkopf is a loose cannon and your responsibility."

"Sir."

"And messing with my mind isn't an option either, since I have my own telepaths to watch for that. Dismissed."

Mamoru had the guard turn on the light before he entered the room. Aya, who hadn't been sleeping, just as he hadn't slept all night, sat up and pinned him with a cold, angry glare.

"I'm sorry about what happened with those two, Aya. It won't happen again."

"I'm your prisoner. Anything could happen to me."

"It's not like that. You're not my prisoner, and you're safe."

"You call what happened tonight 'safe'? With allies like those, you dare to fault me for _my_ associates?"

Angry and miserable in his cell, Aya looked and behaved very much like the Aya Mamoru had known, without a trace of the happy and open person he'd met on the street. Keeping him in a cell didn't help, but Aya had never been reasonable. Freed, he would run. He had to be held captive for his own good.

Mamoru had just thought that the captivity stage would be brief, that he only had to quickly snap whatever hold Schwarz had on Aya and he would rejoin the team of his own will. Instead, Aya remained intractably converted, and Mamoru couldn't help but feel that the longer he kept Aya caged the tighter Aya would cling to his new loyalties, just from anger and perversity.

The continuing hopelessness of the situation and Aya's apparent misery made Mamoru feel miserable. "Did they hurt you?"

Aya closed his eyes. "No." But Mamoru saw a new, long bruise where his sweater sleeve left his wrist bare.

"I'm sorry, Aya. They won't bother you again." Mamoru had to leave him again, because he had to formulate a new strategy, one that wouldn't make Aya so unhappy and resistant. "I'll see you later. Good night."


	43. ~ You try dealing with the whining and head-banging he's doing in his kitten withdrawal. ~

Later, the guard turned the light on again and kept it on. Aya supposed that it was a sign that morning had come, not that he knew for sure. At least having the light on let him look at something, even if that something was only the limits of his cage and the guard.

He exercised for a while, but that soon paled. Bored, lonely, Aya wrapped his arms around his knees and rocked a little on his bunk. He wondered what Schwarz was up to.

This was stupid, weak. He'd been self-sufficient once, _preferring_ to be alone.

~ Is this a pity party of one, or can anyone join? ~

Schuldig. Aya almost smiled.

~ Yeah, it's me. You didn't think we'd leave you to your fate, did you? ~

Not really. He actually hadn't entertained that thought for even a moment.

~ Good. Smart you. Farfie's blowing a gasket. You try dealing with the whining and head-banging he's doing in his kitten withdrawal. ~

Then Farfarello was well. Something tight and painful in Aya's chest finally unknotted. He asked Schuldig to tell Farfarello not to bang his head against things. Say that Aya said not to.

~ In the absence of being able to bang you.... ~

Funny.

~ I try. ~

And fail.

~ Bitch. Look, don't worry about anything. Brad says he has a feeling that they'll let you go on their own, no war or bad blood necessary. That's why we haven't broken you out yet, and believe me, Farfie's ready to storm the compound on his own. We've had to put him in a straitjacket. For his own good so he won't hurt himself, so don't get like that! He came by to visit you telepathically last night, but that bitch Friendly tossed his soul right out. He's fine. ~

Crawford had a feeling, not a vision. If his feeling were reliable, Omi wouldn't be letting him go too soon, since he couldn't get a vision too far ahead.

~ Give the fluffy redhead a gold star. Yeah, I know I'm also a fluffy redhead, but shut up. ~

Aya worried. What if Friendly noticed Schuldig?

~ I'm light years better than she is. Worry, worry, worry, you. ~ Schuldig sent him a telepathic caress that made him shiver. ~ I like that reaction. Let me try that again. ~

Schuldig.

~ No fun. ~

Being imprisoned tended to do that to him. He missed them....

~ Stop fretting. Your time will come on this. See you soon. ~

The guard banged on the bars. "Stop that!"

~ They're brighter than they look. Going for now. Ciao! ~

Aya looked at his guard. "Stop what? I wasn't doing anything."

******************************************************

Farfarello strained against the straps and chains in his corner of the room, and the walls started to show the strain. "How is he?"

"He's fine. Bored," Schuldig answered. "He's still our Aya."

"I don't give a shit about 'feelings,' Crawford," Farfarello snarled. "We have to get him out of there. They'll twist things around and mess with his head. We might not get him back."

"The feeling is getting stronger," Crawford replied. "It will happen."

Farfarello snarled again and twisted, and Nagi held his power ready to restrain him again if necessary. "They'll pick, pick, pick at my puisín," Farfarello said. "They're ruthless but think they're righteous. They think they're saving him from big, bad us."

Nagi had to say, "And let's not forget our true rival here: Takatori Mamoru, the former Tsukiyono Omi. He's ruthless but good intentioned, and that makes him dangerous."

"And the little bastard's in love with Aya," Schuldig said with a dark smile.

Farfarello snarled. "Then he will never let Aya go. I wouldn't. Fucking Takatori."

Schuldig's mouth twisted. Neither he nor Farfarello had forgotten or forgiven the beating they'd had to tolerate from Takatori Reiji, not even after the man's death. Nagi had a different perspective on Reiji's treatment of them, since watching the two troublesome members of Schwarz being beaten about their hard heads with a golf club had entertained Nagi more than it probably should have. Still, he understood hatred of the Takatori family very well, since it made up the foundation of Aya's personality. Sometimes he forgot that Takatori Reiji had killed _Aya's_ parents and hurt _Aya's_ sister, not his.

"It will happen as I said it will," Crawford said, "and we'll be ready to move on that very instant."

Farfarello sent a very significant look Nagi's way that Nagi easily read and nodded to. If necessary, they two would be ready to move even before that.

******************************************************

Yoji sat in the chair and asked, "What made you decide against offing yourself?"

Would Ken arrive to grill him next? "Good morning to you too," Aya answered.

Yoji lit up a cigarette. "I just wondered is all."

"Why? Do you have the urge to kill yourself?"

"No."

Liar. It made Aya feel obscurely sad to see that Yoji couldn't even put up a good front anymore. He stood near the bars in some futile thought of making some connection with Yoji by being closer. "I found something to live for."

"Easier said than done." Yoji blew out a long plume of smoke. "That something is Schwarz?"

"Is there really that big a difference between Schwarz and Weiß lately? Aside from how Schwarz seems to be happier?"

"Lately it's probably just the happiness."

"What happened to all of you?" Aya had to ask.

"I don't know how it happened, really. Things just get heavier and heavier until one day you wake up and realize that your life is shit."

"I don't know what that's like. My worst times have always come from sudden changes, particular events. They weren't gradual processes."

Yoji smiled. "You were always about the big drama." He approached the bars and stopped within touching distance.

"Yeah. You know how I am." It surprised Aya, but it really seemed that Yoji did, at least right now. "You know that this," Aya tapped the bars, "won't make me change my mind."

"It wouldn't change my mind either. I'll see what I can do for you, Aya. I won't make any promises." The expression on Yoji's face turned bitter with some secret knowledge.

"That's better than I expected."

"If you wanna go, maybe you should. But Weiß hasn't been Weiß without you."

"That was a remarkably manipulative thing to say." Yet sweet too.

"I play to my strengths. I'll see you later, Aya."

"You know where I am," Aya said darkly.

"Yeah."

After Yoji left, Aya exercised again out of boredom. He'd ask for something to occupy himself with if he didn't feel that Omi would reject his request on the grounds that he could use almost anything as a weapon. After his long recuperation and enforced time of inactivity, being kept in a small space like this, unable to really move, made him a bit crazy.

How long could Omi keep him here? When he thought of Omi's determination paired with a Takatori's refusal to accept anything that went contrary to his desires, Aya didn't like his odds.

The swordsman who'd tried to goad him and Farfarello into an attack entered the room. "Leave," the man told the guards. "I'm armed, and we're on camera. I won't kill him, and he can't get away without someone knowing. You can go for a few minutes."

The guards cast Aya a look, then one called someone by cell phone to ask if they could leave for a few minutes, finally saying, "Thank you." He closed the cell phone and said, "You're cleared, Siamese."

Siamese sneered and watched them as they left. Something about him still seemed hauntingly familiar and made Aya itch to face him blade to blade.

"You didn't strike me as a man who wanted to be rescued from Schwarz. You still don't," Siamese said with hatred and calculation in his cold hazel eyes.

"Who are you, really?" Aya asked as he stood and approached the bars. "You hate me a great deal for someone who'd never met me until less than two days ago."

"I'm not you, and that's been a problem."

Aya looked at him a little closer and better understood that feeling of familiarity. "They wanted you to be me as I was with Weiß? I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

Siamese's mouth twitched. "Not quite. Persia--the one before Omi--put me in with them in the hopes that I'd be close enough to let them forget you. It didn't work for any of us. Your very existence has made my life a misery."

"I won't apologize for existing, nor for the expectations others put on you, not when I had no direct bearing on any of it. What did you expect to get out of meeting me?"

Instead of answering that question, Siamese said, "I can't kill you. Not with the cameras running. Nor can I let you out of here." Maybe he didn't know what he wanted out of this meeting.

Seeing an opportunity, Aya put his hand on the bars without breaking eye contact with Siamese and said, "You'd have to convince them to free me and leave me alone. Otherwise, they'll try to bring me back. I don't think either of us want that."

"I'm hardly seen as an objective bystander."

"True." Still, any support within the team would be welcome. "Have you achieved your revenge yet? The revenge you joined Weiß for?"

Siamese looked startled but quickly covered it with an impassive expression. "No."

"Mine didn't feel as good as I thought it would, and it left me at loose ends. You should have something ready for yourself for when it's done."

"Are you trying to tell me not to do it because you regret yours?" he asked with a sneer.

"I don't regret it. It was a relief to be done, and he deserved it. But I was lost afterward."

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Trying to ingratiate yourself with me."

"I'm only making conversation. It's more comfortable for me than watching you stand there in silence and think about how much you want me dead."

Siamese nearly smiled but said, "You're not supposed to be comfortable."

"I'm not? Does that mean I'm imprisoned instead of rescued? The bars made me wonder."

******************************************************

Omi... Mamoru flinched at those words but only said, "I've never heard Asato talk so much."

Yoji smirked. "Mamoru, does it look like Aya's being... seductive toward him?"

"What? No. He just wants to convince Asato to get him out. It has nothing to do with--"

"He's stroking the bars."

"Uhm."

"Who knew Aya had it in him?" It looked more idle than premeditated, though. Aya seduced because it had became intrinsic to his nature, not out of a plan to snare Asato. No, that intrinsic thing didn't quite work, because he hadn't done that with Yoji.

Thinking about it more, Yoji realized that it made sense after all, because Aya knew him from before and had an established pattern for dealing with him. Seductiveness never had anything to do with their relations.

Yoji sat back and smirked harder when he saw how near to those stroked bars Asato stood. Sourpuss had been drawn in.

The old Aya would have raged or sat in his cell sullenly. He would have annoyed or scared his guards. The new Aya strove to be reasonable and convincing as he tried to make them decide that he was sane and should be freed. He'd already half-convinced Yoji. There was a new peace in Aya that made Yoji envious as all hell.

Sitting here with Mamoru made him feel so nostalgic, since he hadn't seen Omi in a long time. He missed the kid. Actually, right now he still missed the kid, since the Mamoru who'd replaced Omi didn't seem like much of one.

"Farfarello's a telepath," Mamoru said suddenly. "That puts Aya's attachment to him in a new light, doesn't it?"

The thought of the berserker being able to read minds unsettled Yoji, yet he answered, "We'll never win Aya over the way we're going."

"I know."

"Can you guarantee him happiness?"

Mamoru shot him an angry, bitter look. "I can't even guarantee myself that."

Why would Aya want to come back to this?

******************************************************

"You don't want me here, and I don't want to be here," Fujimiya said. "I would like nothing more than to be out of your life. I see no conflict when our desires coincide like that."

Asato could have laughed at himself for his knee-jerk reaction to go against his own desires just because Fujimiya Aya wanted it. He had to be smarter.

It was so odd to be facing the legend at last. He supposed that he could see the boy's attraction, since Fujimiya Aya had exotic looks and an intensity that would appeal to a kid. He'd still love to fight him, blade to blade, to see how he danced.

"I don't know what you think I could do for you," Asato answered. At least Fujimiya gave him the respect of making an open plea for release instead of trying to be sneaky and manipulative.

"You would know better than I would what opportunities would arise. I don't know how Weiß operates now." He sounded so reasonable, and he gave compliments so freely.

He really wanted to get out of here, and he needed Asato's help for that.

"I'll see what I can do, but I can't make any promises." Then Asato left, smiling a little at how he was free to roam while Fujimiya rotted in a cell his own friends had put him in.

"What are you playing at?" the new Persia asked him as he closed the door behind him.

He walked down the hall, not caring whether Persia followed him or not. "What do you think? Have I ever been less than honest about my feelings for him? I knew we were on camera, so I hardly crept in behind your back. I hate him, and _I_ wouldn't keep him in a cell like that."

Persia kept pace with him. "It's not up to you."

"It's a good thing it's not up to Yoji either, because I think he wants to let Fujimiya go too."

Persia's mouth tightened. He still looked like a child, but a dangerous one. "I have a plan."

"No, you don't." What was the worst Persia could do to him? Fire him? Kill him? He didn't really care. Striking at Omi or Mamoru or whatever he called himself now felt too good, especially with Omi providing the ammunition.

"You don't understand anything."

"We'll never understand each other, so why bother?"

"I don't like your attitude."

"I don't care." And Asato kept walking, even after Persia stopped.

He couldn't keep the smile off his face. The great Fujimiya Aya needed _his_ help. Omi couldn't do a damned thing to improve the situation or regain Fujimiya's loyalty. Asato was having a good day.


	44. "Do you really need us to kick your asses as well?"

Eventually Aya's tenseness and paranoia so wore him down that he fell asleep despite himself. He awoke the next morning at the sound of the outer door opening. Not wanting to be taken by surprise by any more visitors, he sat up and turned to look.

As a large thug wheeled an old man in a wheelchair into the room, Aya immediately and automatically sized both of them up for weak points. The old man, who was oddly unsettling, said, "So you're the boy my grandson is obsessed with."

Takatori. No wonder he seemed unsettling. He radiated the very essence of darkness Takatori Reiji had. And this was the man Omi had taken to his heart as family. No wonder the members of Weiß looked so lost and dark. Aya's hands clenched on the edge of the bunk.

"I see that at least some things haven't changed with you," the old man said, making Aya wonder if he'd mouthed that foul name. "I will advise them to let you go."

Aya stood, feeling the need to be on his feet as he faced this ancient evil. "Is this supposed to be reverse psychology?"

"Not at all. You serve no one's interests locked away, and I have no quarrel with Schwarz. I've used their services in the past."

"Omi wouldn't appreciate such a decision."

"He's young and sometimes rash. He will soon see the logic." Takatori smiled. "It amuses me to watch you dispute my attempts to free you. I thought you wanted to return to your new team."

He did, very badly, but the thought of Weiß under the influence of this creature, serving Takatori interests, made his stomach churn. A part of him thought that he might be able to save them.

"I'm simply a businessman, not evil incarnate," Takatori said. "I'm more practical than Weiß is, so perhaps I'll free you myself."

"How would you have explained his absence to me, Grandfather?" Omi asked. "And you should have told me you'd arrived."

******************************************************

As angry as he felt at Grandfather, Mamoru had to fight the urge to smile at the scene in front of him since Aya looked ready to squeeze through the bars or rip them out barehanded for a chance to kill another Takatori. Some things hadn't changed, and it made him feel warm to think of that.

"How long will you keep him imprisoned, Mamoru?" Grandfather asked. "You must ask yourself what the best thing to do is."

The best thing. Not necessarily the right thing.... "We'll speak of this later. For now, I wish to talk to Aya alone." Well, alone under the cameras.

Grandfather inclined his head in assent and gestured at his guard to wheel him away.

"Thank you, Grandfather."

Grandfather was right about the imprisonment. So were Yoji and Asato, damn them all. How long could he keep Aya like this? Until Aya recanted his ties to Schwarz? How long would that take? It hurt to see Aya behind bars and hurt even more to be the person keeping him there.

"Omi." Aya's voice sounded warm and worried. Mamoru had heard him argue _against_ being released. That was a good sign, surely, even if he wanted to stay only to protect Weiß from a Takatori influence.

An influence Mamoru didn't want to be protected from.

"Would you stay if you thought you could save me from him by doing so?" Mamoru asked.

Only someone who knew Aya would see the turmoil and emotions, his struggle, roiling in his eyes as the question put him between the team he'd been conditioned to love and his Takatori hatred and old comrades. Did Aya phrase it now as being between his desire and his duty?

Aya might say that he would stay under such conditions, but would it be honest to let him when Mamoru didn't intend to give up his family ties? He fought _for_ the Takatoris now. Stringing Aya along on the hope of something that wouldn't happen would be wrong. But Schuldig and Farfarello....

Aya didn't look abused. He'd seemed happy when Mamoru met him on the streets of Berlin, something he'd rarely been before.

"Are you happy with them, Aya?" Mamoru asked softly. "Really happy?"

"I told you-- Yes."

It hurt, but.... "Don't worry about it. I understand now. We each want to save the other from something he doesn't want to be saved from." The past was dead. There could be no going back.

Aya looked stricken. He must have correctly understood that to mean that Mamoru had no intentions of repudiating his grandfather. Grandfather might be harsh, ruthlessly focused on the bottom line, and even corrupt at times, but Mamoru could see his own influence having a positive effect. He could make a difference here.

Could Aya follow orders as a member of Weiß when he knew they had a Takatori origin?

"I'm going to let you go back to Schwarz, Aya." Even if it ripped out his heart.

"Why?" Aya asked softly.

"Because I think you would be miserable with us and I love you." Mamoru entered the code into the keypad and swallowed hard as the cell door slid open.

Aya didn't seem to believe it or trust it at first, but then he walked out, even though something in his posture showed that he still expected to be attacked. Once he started to relax, Mamoru hugged him tightly.

Aya stiffened, then asked, "Omi?" in an unusual tone of voice. It sounded more like "Omi, is that you?" Mamoru started to let go, but then, to his relief, Aya loosened up and hugged back.

"Can't you stay anyway?" Mamoru asked, feeling very young and very broken as he buried his face in Aya's orange sweater. He knew that Aya wouldn't, couldn't, stay but wanted to be wrong.

Aya's hands hesitated, then he lightly stroked Mamoru's back. "No, Omi."

"I'll do things differently this time. I'll do it right. No jail cell."

"Still no. But I think we'll see each other again, and not as enemies." Aya let go.

"I'll give you your clothes, then let you go. You could take the time to wash up too, if you want to."

"I do."

"All right, then. Bunji will show you where the facilities are." It hurt, but this was the right thing to do.

******************************************************

Once he finished showering, Aya rummaged through the suitcase the guard had left him and put his Schwarz mission clothing back on, topping it with his coat. This time he'd bring his old clothing back with him. He didn't see his weapons in here, but he wouldn't leave without them.

He still couldn't quite believe that he'd convinced Omi to let him go. If only Omi hadn't finally come to understand him by comparing his situation to Omi's unwillingness to free himself from his murderous family. Aside from making him ache over what Omi was becoming, the comparison cast his own affiliations in doubt.

Guilt and what ifs prevented Aya from being completely joyful over his release. Would Omi and Weiß have fallen into such darkness if he'd stayed? It was surely the height of arrogance to assume that he could have spared them from this with just his presence, but a small part of him felt responsible anyway.

He told himself that if he'd stayed, he'd be dead now.

The guard, Bunji, led him to a room and his former teammates, then left. They stared at each other for a while, with the tension in the room so high that Aya nearly choked on it.

"This is bullshit," Ken muttered. It seemed that anger was his default emotion now.

"Ken," Aya said.

"No. I don't want any part of sending you back."

"No excuse for being rude," Yoji said with a small smile. Had his eyes always looked that tormented behind the once ever-present shades? Aya had the sudden terrible feeling that Yoji would not survive. Worried for him, knowing that Yoji was a physical person, Aya moved forward to hug him. Yoji stiffened in surprise, then relaxed into it and hugged back, saying, "See what being rude loses you, Kenken?"

Aya ignored Ken's muttering about how the real Aya didn't hug, slapped Yoji's back, and said, "Take care of yourself. And start wearing a shirt."

"And disappoint my adoring public?" Yoji answered.

"At least get rid of the hat. Your hair will grow out someday."

"I don't have to take this kind of abuse!" But he smiled an actual smile.

"Omi, I want my weapons back," Aya said.

Ken and Yoji watched with what appeared to be amusement on their faces as Omi handed Aya his katana, two guns in their holsters, and boot knife. Omi said, "We'll drive you out somewhere. Once we're gone, you can contact... your team."

"Omi--" Ken said.

"It's for the best," Omi answered, even if the look in his eyes said otherwise. Aya hardened his heart against it.

Aya couldn't help smiling as they walked out into the sun. It felt like he'd been imprisoned for so long.

******************************************************

Aya looked happy again. Mamoru held onto that even as his heart ached. They got into the van in silence, with him in the driver's seat. He would ferry Aya back himself. As he adjusted the side mirrors, he saw the car behind them that his security detail would follow in.

When he looked out the front windshield he saw Crawford standing in front of the van. "There's no need to deliver Aya to us. We'll pick him up ourselves," Schwarz's leader said.

Farfarello looked in from the side window to see Aya. Nagi stood near the front driver's side door, while Schuldig stood at the passenger side. When Mamoru glanced in the rearview mirror, this time the doors of the car behind them had been crushed in to prevent the Kritiker agents inside from getting out.

Schwarz had effortlessly boxed them all in.

"Aya," Mamoru said. "You can go out to them." With Aya distracting Farfarello, maybe a bloodbath could be avoided.

Aya hesitated only briefly before he opened the door and was swept into Farfarello's tight grip. The madman kept murmuring something into Aya's neck. Mamoru tried not to see the love in it. He failed.

"Takatori," Nagi said, his voice dark but soft. He might have looked like a child recently, but now he seemed older, openly dangerous, and far more compelling. "Bring out Friendly and her pet now. They hurt Aya, and they have to be taught a lesson. If you don't bring them out, I'll go in after them, and I'll tell Farfarello why."

Mamoru refused to give up members of Kritiker on Schwarz's say-so. He might find Elena and Dummkopf creepy, but he would defend them to the death.

Next to him, Ken was a tense presence, ready to spring, and he could feel Yoji waiting for the right moment behind him. They would do what they had to.

"Mr. Takatori! It's not necessary!" Elena said from the door to the compound, with Dummkopf in tow. "I'll face them." She quickly let go of Dummkopf's arm, leaving her right hand free for a moment when she could get away with going for her gun. Her left hand held what looked like a children's book.

She could have hidden and let Schwarz hurt several people looking for her, yet she'd come outside instead. He would keep that in mind.

Of course, she'd have to survive this to see the benefit of his approval.

"You were young once, Prodigy," she said. "I'm sure you made mistakes."

"And I was severely punished for them."

Nagi blocked much of Mamoru's view of his adopted psionics, but he saw Dummkopf suddenly hide behind Elena, staring over her shoulder at Prodigy with wide, terrified eyes. Some kind of telepathic conversation seemed to be going on, with only occasional breaks into actual speech.

"You can feel how he is!" Elena suddenly shouted. "If you have to blame someone, blame me."

"I will."

As Mamoru heard a sharp snap, Elena grunted and grabbed her left arm. The book fell to the ground. Dummkopf keened and tried to pull her backward.

Mamoru started to move but stopped at the feel of a gun behind his ear. "You don't want to do that," Crawford said. But Mamoru heard Aya asking what was going on, which made him smile. How brutal could Schwarz afford to be in front of their newest recruit?

"Very," Schuldig answered.

But the telekinetic distortion, like heat waves, around Nagi started to fade as he crouched down to retrieve the book, then handed it to her. "Teach him right, Elena. If you misuse him as a weapon, we'll know. And we'll take you down. You're getting off easy." Then he turned his back to them and returned to his team ringed around the van, obviously confident that he could thwart any attack Elena and Dummkopf might try. They didn't try to attack at all.

"We'll be going now," Crawford said.

"You're not going to fight us?" Ken asked. Yoji muttered, "Dammit, Ken."

"You've just seen that Aya prefers our company and that we're happier, healthier, and far less dysfunctional than your team is. We've just shown you that we could have come for Aya at any time. Do you really need us to kick your asses as well?"

"No," Mamoru said emphatically, though inwardly he seethed at being condescended to. And at Crawford being correct.

"Eszett doesn't want Aya to stay with us because they know he can help us defeat them. Think on that."

Aya cast one worried look back at them as Schwarz walked away. As soon as Schwarz turned the corner, Mamoru dialed up his people inside to let them know that his security detail had to be pried out of their car and they needed a medic, then got out of the van to check out Elena. "He just broke a bone or two, sir," she said. "I've had worse. Prodigy could have done much worse. I'm right-handed, so it's not so bad." Dummkopf watched it all with wide eyes. Who knew what he made of all this?

"Do we go after them?" Ken asked.

"You first, Ken," Yoji muttered.

"No. We go home," Mamoru said. "We'll be on the first flight I can clear for us."

"You're kidding," Ken said, looking annoyed.

"Schwarz will take on Eszett here, and we'll go after Eszett back home. We use them like they used us to take down Eszett's leaders before. Anything can happen after that."

Ken looked happier with that, but Yoji's expression showed that he didn't entirely buy it. Whatever. They'd do what Persia told them to.

But Mamoru didn't like what he'd seen of what Weiß had become. Reconnecting with Yoji and Ken might do some good. Besides, he'd missed being with them. This time together in Berlin felt like a tease.

Inside, Asato and Sena rushed up to them. "What the hell just happened?" Asato asked.

"We gave Aya back to Schwarz, and we're going home," Ken said flatly.

Asato actually smiled for a moment before he stopped, perhaps remembering that he wasn't ever supposed to smile. Sena looked pleased and remained that way. They didn't understand.

Later, once Mamoru had made all the arrangements to return to Japan, Grandfather entered the room and said, "You made the best decision, Mamoru." Grandfather would be returning on the flight with them.

"I know." And he thought about it. Eszett didn't want Aya with Schwarz, so Eszett must have had some lingering hold on Schwarz that didn't apply to Aya. Aya following his heart helped them complete their mission.

Things might be different once they all ripped Eszett down. Mamoru hoped. Maybe Aya would want them more then.


	45. "You're thinking bad thoughts again."

As soon as Aya got into the backseat, Farfarello wrapped around him, nuzzling, saying, "You reek of Weiß. I have to fix that."

Feeling the lust beating against his brain, Nagi said, "I'll walk home." He slammed the door shut.

Schuldig had a hot look in his eyes but said, "Me too."

"Cowards," Crawford answered.

"If you want me to pounce you while you're driving and make you wreck the car...."

"Fine. Nagi, you do notice that everything worked out in less than three days."

"Yes, yes. Could you go?"

Crawford smiled and got into the driver's seat, then closed the door and drove away. Nagi started to walk and sighed as Schuldig kept pace with him. Schuldig said, "You're walking home, and I'm walking home. There's no reason to walk home different ways."

"Yeah, there is." The lust kept building, and Nagi drowned. Eventually he sat on some steps and vaguely felt Schuldig sit beside him.

As ever, Schuldig talked. "You didn't exactly kick Dummkopf's ass, which surprised me. He may have the mind of a child, but you hate children."

"He's more like a puppy than a child, and I like puppies--"

"There's _something_ you like?"

"--but with a puppy you have to punish him immediately after he does something wrong. If you don't he has no idea why you're doing it, so it seems like random torture to him. I want him to learn. Besides, I told him that whenever you do something, something else happens, and that if he came after us, we'd make him hurt."

Schuldig's smile looked hungry. "Friendly had some look on her face when you snapped her arm."

"Yeah." The bitch had let that damaged kid hurt Aya. She'd _known_ she had something coming.

Another wave hit, and it was more than lust, it was love and wanting, hot and overwhelming. Somehow Nagi had ended up straddling Schuldig's lap, and they were kissing. Schuldig tasted like bitter ashes, but the kissing felt good, and when Schuldig's tongue gently pushed into his mouth it didn't feel like a promise of violation to come, a brutal fucking prior to actual brutal fucking, like it had with those bastards at Rosenkreuz. Instead, it felt like Schuldig just wanted to stroke more of him.

But then Nagi noticed the hand on his ass and remembered who he was and who Schuldig was and how he'd have to put up with _years_ of smugness if he let this happen. This wasn't his lust or Schuldig's love he felt, just echoes of Aya and Farfarello. He felt the vibration start in his bones....

Schuldig gently but firmly pushed him away, saving him the effort. "Okay, I get the point, kid."

"Yeah." Nagi clumsily stood and wandered away to ride out the peepshow in peace. Finally he found a narrow, deserted alley where he could lean against the wall and simply feel. He experienced the sex from both sides and the fierce joy at being together again, building....

******************************************************

Drowning in Farfarello's touch, weight, and voice, Aya had quickly stopped caring that Crawford could hear and see everything from the front seat. He'd missed this too much.

Farfarello's determination and deft hands made short work of the fastenings on Aya's clothing. "I have to welcome you back the right way, puisín," he murmured against Aya's lips as he rubbed his body against Aya's.

Aching with lust, Aya answered, "Don't take too long about it."

Farfarello grinned as they moved in rhythm together, and Aya felt a pang of fear as he realized how much he'd missed this, wanted it, needed it. Touch, another person. Both past and current events had shown him how easily such things could be ripped away from him, which was why he'd protected himself so carefully from caring for anyone other than his sister. He couldn't, wouldn't, push his sister away from him, but he could prevent himself from forming any new connections, and so he had.

Until lately. He'd feared for Farfarello so badly that he hadn't even been able to let himself think that his lover might have died in that alley, just shoved it to the back of his mind and concentrated on freeing himself from his cell. The presence of people he knew had made it easier to be professional, hard, and coldly angry, because he'd always been that way around them. The rage and depression had been... comfortable. Familiar. He realized only now that he hadn't felt quite like that for a long time.

Schuldig saying that Farfarello was alive and well enough to do severe damage to try to get to him had been a great relief, greater than Aya had even been able to articulate to himself.

It was stupid to be this vulnerable, this dependent. Terrifying.

"Aya. Puisín. You're thinking bad thoughts again. If Weiß hurt you, I'll tear out their hearts."

Aya didn't know whether to take him seriously or not, so he said, "You won't," just in case.

"Maybe not. But it's a happy thought. Did they hurt you?"

"No."

Farfarello continued to move, stroke, and kiss in a way that Aya found calming and arousing all at once. "Schwarz kept me bound up, but the boy was ready to free me if he decided we'd waited long enough for Crawford's future to happen. Then we would have neutered the kitties. It hurt inside to be without you." He cocked his head. "That's the problem? You don't like it that I make you hurt through what we have together. Weakness? Did you really hurt any less the way you used to be?"

"I--" Given enough time, a person could become accustomed to anything. Seeing no alternatives, Aya had just lived with things as they had been while working toward his revenge and even felt some small contentment now and then. It had been familiar, known.

But it had been pain and loneliness, worsening once he'd killed Takatori and had nothing more to look forward to, having given up on his sister awakening long before. Once his sister had been kidnapped, at last completely alone, he'd been forced to run on a kind of autopilot out of fear of having a total breakdown, unable to think about what might be happening to her. "You have a point," he said.

"Several and frequently. I want you, puisín." Farfarello pushed Aya's shirt up to lavish teasing kisses on his stomach, working his way down. Soon enough, he was licking Aya's cock with the same devotion, thoroughness, and enthusiasm he licked his knives with before finally sliding his open mouth down it until it hit the back of his throat.

Aya writhed, lost in the wet heat and suction around his cock and tickle of Farfarello's hair against his skin. They'd started this in the backseat of this car with a blowjob how long ago? The passage of time had stopped meaning anything to him. Knowing that Farfarello loved to have his hair pulled at times like this, Aya obliged him and surged upward as his lover hummed in contentment, making the action somewhat less than selfless. He felt his climax approaching quickly, gathering at the base of his spine like a ball of lightning.

When he came, the tension from the last few days drained away too, leaving him limp. Farfarello let his cock go with a last, lingering lick, then climbed up to kiss him. As Aya languidly rubbed against him, he felt how hard Farfarello still was and thought that to be unjust, so he jerked him off with the rough, tight grip Farfarello preferred. A part of him that was still Weiß couldn't help thinking how vulnerable Farfarello was like this and couldn't help whispering, "I could kill you now."

Of course Farfarello came. They were twisted that way.

They nestled together, Aya lightly running his fingers over Farfarello's short, silver hair and the tips of the barbs on his necklace and Farfarello tracing patterns on Aya's stomach. He listened to the slowing throb of his lover's heart and approved the rosy color sex had put into their pale skin. How could he return to Weiß after all of this?

Finally Aya noticed that the car had stopped and Crawford had left. To his embarrassment, he had no idea when any of that had happened. At least the windows had fogged so badly that no one could see in. There was a layer of plastic over the seat that Aya hadn't been aware of, since he'd been lying on his coat the whole time. He also had the door handle pressing into his shoulder hard enough to hurt, not that he'd noticed it before, so he squirmed to try to get more comfortable.

Farfarello raised himself off of Aya and fastened Aya's coat closed to create a semblance of respectability. "You can see the new apartment. I can see our new room for the first time too." He quickly straightened his own clothing, then opened the door.

Crawford read his paper at the kitchen table and ignored them as they walked in. Aya found it to be a relief, since he didn't know how well he'd react to teasing at the moment. In their room he set his weapons and suitcase down on the floor, then collapsed facedown onto the bed. Home. He hadn't realized how tired he felt until now, when it seemed safe. When Farfarello curled around him, warm and possessive, he had the last thing he needed to fall asleep.

******************************************************

Farfarello felt sleepy too, but the need to watch his puisín took priority. To his satisfaction, Aya didn't smell so much like Weiß anymore. Aya sighed in his sleep at being nuzzled, and pushed his head a little into Farfarello's stroking hand as his mind pulsed with contentment and "home, home, home." Weiß had failed. Farfarello wanted to undress him and put a blanket over him, but either would wake him when he obviously needed his rest. Besides, Farfarello would have to let go of Aya to do that.

He felt so light now that he no longer had to worry. His love was still his love. Aya was safe and back in his arms and bed where he belonged.

And he would find out exactly who had put those bruises on Aya's wrists and deal with them accordingly.

******************************************************

"The prodigal son returns," Crawford said as Nagi walked in.

"I expected them to go longer, but Aya was too tired. Works for me."

Nagi went directly to Farfarello and Aya's room, and Crawford, curious, followed. Crashed on the bed, Aya just about wore a very protective looking Farfarello like a suit. The berserker opened his one eye to watch them. Nagi looked at Aya with a rare soft expression, nodded to Farfarello, then telekinetically placed a blanket over them and left the room to go to his own bed. Nagi had been pushing his talent to keep Farfarello from breaking loose eaelier, so he would be understandably fatigued.

As much as it surprised Crawford to see _that_ little alliance, it still surprised him even more to see Schwarz's misanthropic youngest member in love. He'd once thought that the boy had loved Tot, and that had surprised him, but it turned out that Nagi had been more in love with some idea of her than the girl herself. Confronted with the reality of her as someone who couldn't match him in intellect, temperament, or interests, Nagi had wisely cooled down.

This infatuation with Aya seemed different, and Crawford intended to keep a careful eye on it, though at least this time the object of attraction was inside the team instead of an outsider and a conflict of interest. He'd learned from past experience that showing anger and threatening punishment only made the situation worse, so this time he would stay calm and lightly, subtly, guide it.

"Good luck with that," Schuldig said as he closed the apartment door behind him and locked it, then walked over to give Crawford a long, lingering kiss.

"You smell of roses," Crawford said once he had Schuldig's tongue out of his mouth.

"A nice lady asked if she could help me, and I said yes."

"Did you like that kiss with Nagi?"

Schuldig went stiff against him but didn't back down from the danger in his voice, asking, "Did you see that I let him go when he couldn't deal with it anymore?"

"Yes."

"There. If he ever gets past what those fucks at Rosenkreuz did to him, he might have a healthy life someday. It's not right for _you_ to keep him from it forever. He's not even a virgin, you idiot." He actually sounded angry.

It made Crawford smile despite himself. "Sex is that important to you?"

"Duh." Schuldig swept his bright hair out of his eyes with a quick, seemingly careless gesture. He made even lazy carelessness look showy. "But what are you so bitchy about? Your feeling was right, we got Aya back, and we made Weiß look like idiots. It sounds like a very good day to me."

"You're right."

"Of course I'm right."

Noticing Schuldig's restlessness, Crawford asked, "What are you going to do now?"

"I've been telepathically sitting on Farfie for days, so I deserve some time out on the town. A good meal, maybe a movie, maybe pick somebody up. Treat myself."

"Do you want company?"

"I don't know," Schuldig purred, and his stance changed from "a little tired and distracted" to "available and seductive." "Are you going to bitch at me?"

"No. I might even pick up the tab."

"I think the world just ended."

"I'm sensible, not a tightwad."

"I should make some kind of comment about wads and tight things, but I've had a rough couple of days and I'm not up to it."

"Maybe you'll be up to more later."

"See how wonderful a thing optimism can be?"

They enjoyed a quiet dinner in a cozy restaurant and a movie and finally ended their night out with Schuldig, ever flexible, writhing in his lap in the car, gasping obscenities and endearments as Crawford slowly and thoroughly fucked him. If you'd asked Crawford a few years ago if he'd ever find German to be an erotic language he would have given an emphatic no, but he'd learned better since then.


	46. "Better telepathy through children's books."

Farfarello hadn't exactly planned it. He'd just taken advantage of an opportunity when it came. Or, rather, when Aya came.

Aya had looked groggy but content when he woke that morning. Sleeping in all of his gear had left him stiff and achy, so Farfarello made sure to give him an extra long soak in the tub and a thorough massage. But his puisín had felt so good and slick with soap and made such satisfying sounds of pleasure that he slid into the bath himself to give his lover a more intimate massage. Aya didn't complain, not even as their movements sent several small waves of hot water sloshing over the edge of the tub.

With his puisín's hands gripping his waist and hard cock thrusting up deep inside of him, he felt the temptation just to lose himself in lust and the burn, to stop thinking, but the more open feel of Aya's erotically distracted mind gave him an idea. Not an honorable idea, but sometimes he had to do things for the stubborn kitten's own good. As he clenched his muscles hard around Aya's cock, then released, he asked, "Did Weiß hurt you?"

Surprised, coming, his puisín was easy to read, and Farfarello saw Friendly's pet boy pulling Aya hard against the bars of a cell. No wonder the kitten-smitten boy had gone after them.

He had his answer. Now he would have to do something about it.

Aya kissed him hard and closed a possessive fist around his cock. Maybe he didn't have to do something about it right _now_.

"What was that about?" Aya asked later as Farfarello towel-dried him.

"I worry about you."

"You don't have to," Aya answered, but the quirk of his mouth suggested that he liked it.

In the kitchen, the others waited for them with an anticipatory look on their faces. Crawford said, "It's good to have you back, Aya." Smiling, the kitten-smitten boy grabbed Aya's hand and gently squeezed it, then looked embarrassed and let it go, saying, "I'm glad you're here." Schuldig opened his arms for a hug and asked, "What, Aya, no sugar for me?"

"None," the kitten answered, but he gave them all an Aya-smile, obviously pleased.

Farfarello set his plan aside while they ate breakfast, but as they cleared their dishes from the table he prepared to ask Crawford to help him with the next step. He had to think of _how_ to ask for what he wanted.

"You want to know if you can go into my mind again to better train yourself," Crawford answered. Foresight could be useful.

"That's it exactly."

"Yes, you can."

Aya gave Farfarello a confused look, while Schuldig said, "Well, _my_ head is spinning." The kitten-smitten boy was too annoyed at being charged to fix the walls Farfarello had ruined with his escape attempts to care what Farfarello did now. Crawford wanted them to be repaired on a molecular level, so the boy would be busy and annoyed for quite a while.

"I foresaw this," Crawford said. Farfarello wondered if he'd seen all of it. If he had, he must approve, and if he hadn't then the odds of him trying to prevent it lessened.

"Of course you did," Schuldig answered.

Farfarello settled his body on the couch then left it, soaring into Crawford's mind to return to the boring blue-black plane that he'd seen last time. He looked across all of it anyway, noticing now that he did seem to have two eyes here. Crawford used this protective area of cool, quiet blue nothing to hide his inner workings. Farfarello stood on the opaque shield hiding those inner workings right now. He crouched down, then touched that black shell and concentrated on drilling through it. No joy. He thought of it dissolving away, and it began to soften--

Schuldig slapped him. ~ Don't even think about it. Brad's being nice letting you in here at all, so be a good guest. ~ The mindbreaker had arrived as only a presence, not as his avatar self of shifting colors.

"How can I train myself when nobody allows me to fucking do anything?"

~ You'll get your opportunities. ~

He would. On his own, because he would make them.

Schuldig had told him that he carried knives here as in the waking world, so he thought very hard about having them until finally he could almost feel them. Then he unsheathed one and held it. Success. It looked and felt like one of his real ones. Could he transform it into his sword? Yes, he could.

"Now I just need an enemy to use it on." He would get one tonight.

~ Brad has a feeling that you'll get one here eventually. ~

A flash of color and sound roared through before the dim, nearly featureless blue-black returned. "Tell Crawford to do that again."

Schuldig sighed. ~ That was a vision. He doesn't call them up on command. ~

"Why not?"

~ Because he _can't_. ~

"Pity. It was interesting."

Even though Schuldig had no visible presence here, somehow he gave the impression that he'd rolled his eyes anyway.

******************************************************

Finally done with the fucking walls. What Crawford wanted had been intricate, deep work, not simply smoothing the surface down. People who didn't have telekinetics repaired walls just fine with spackling compound all the time, thank you. Not that most people chained their resident nutcases to their walls. How could one straitjacketed human being pull hard enough to fuck them up so badly? Even the load-bearing beams had been badly stressed.

Nagi logged on to check his e-mail. Spam, spam, fellow geek with a tech question, spam... Tot. As he read her e-mail, he started to laugh. Unbelievable....

Aya knocked on his open door and asked, "What is it?" It was so good to have him back.

Nagi waved him in. "Close the door?" Once Aya did, Nagi coughed and said, "Tot just broke up with me by e-mail."

Aya seemed to be struggling to decide how he should react. "Why?"

"She found a Daddy, and he doesn't think it's appropriate for her to talk to me anymore. Not that I blame him for feeling threatened."

"Of course. You're gorgeous."

When Nagi looked up at him, it was impossible to read the nearly blank expression on Aya's face, but he could swear he saw the hint of a smile. "I am. I'm not even allowed to respond to the 'Dear Nagi' letter." Nagi sighed. "I knew this would happen eventually. I mean, I'm not there, and she's always wanted someone to be Daddy to her, and I wasn't willing. I don't even have any romantic thoughts for her anymore. It's just-- It's stupid."

"Maybe not."

"I... liked having someone to write to who didn't demand things from me." He hadn't expected this to hurt. He leaned back in his chair, stopping when his head brushed Aya's chest. To his surprise, Aya started to stroke his hair, sometimes pressing down a little on the scalp, making it tingle. Nagi fought back a groan. "I may have to get dumped every day." Aya had great fingers....

"You're a funny little man."

"Little? _You're_ freakishly tall. Nobody needs legs that long."

"I do. I don't believe that you're serious about getting dumped every day just to get your hair stroked."

"You're doing something to my scalp too that feels great.... I'll pick up somebody new every day and get dumped so I can get sympathy stroking. This is that good."

"I won't do it if I know you're not actually hurting."

"Meanie."

"Stop sounding so orgasmic."

Aya had no idea....

"Won't," Nagi replied.

"You're a hedonist."

"You're the guy with his hands in my hair."

"Only one hand."

"And yet...."

"Her new love won't let her write to you? That doesn't sound healthy." Abrupt subject change!

"Don't worry about her. She wouldn't decide he's a Daddy if he didn't treat her well. If he abuses her, she can always decide he's not Daddy after all and kill him. Don't think she wouldn't. That man has to live up to Takatori Masafume's example for the rest of his poor, miserable life. Ow!" Nagi winced at his pulled hair.

"Sorry. Reflex." Aya soothed the yanked areas with gentle touches of his fingers.

Nagi should have known better than to say "Takatori" while Aya had his hands on him. All right, one hand. "He may have been a horrible human being, but as far as I can tell he treated his women well." Nagi laughed. "I've been dumped by Tot. Schuldig will have the time of his life when he finds out."

"Why should he find out? It's none of his business, and I won't tell anyone."

Warmed, Nagi answered, "I love you, Aya."

"I keep hearing that." And didn't really believe it most of the time, from the tone of his voice.

When the door quickly swung open, Aya already had his hand off Nagi's hair, to Nagi's disappointment. Schuldig's sharp eyes swept the room as he asked, "And what are you two up to?"

"Working," Nagi answered. One of the good things about his new hairstyle was that it looked good and proper disheveled as well as carefully groomed. "Unlike some people."

"That's unfair. I just finished helping Farfie out in his newfound quest to be a well-rounded telepath. He's up and about again. You know, physically. What are you up to, Aya?"

Aya just narrowed his eyes.

"I'll know if you're doing something." Schuldig stood there and listened, then look sour. "You're no fun." He moved on. Maybe he _wouldn't_ necessarily know.

Aya closed the door. "Stroke my hair again?" Nagi asked.

Aya raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because I like it. And because I'm mourning my relationship."

As Aya started stroking again, he said, "I have a theory about your problem with your talent and sex."

"You're thinking about my sex life? Aya, you pervert!" When Aya made an annoyed sound and stopped stroking, Nagi said, "Please feel free to think about my sex life. Really. Resume stroking, please?"

"All right." And Aya did. "I have a question for you. Is sex something you have or something that's done to you?"

"Your theory is a question?"

"No, it leads up to it. Stop pretending to be stupid. It doesn't suit you. Is sex something you have or something that's done to you?"

"Sex is something that's done to me."

"It's something you don't control, you mean. At least, that's how you see it."

"I think I see your point." As a telekinetic and telepath, Nagi understood the power of restructuring his thinking. "Thanks."

"Puisín, I missed you so," Farfarello said as he opened the door. Closed doors in the Schwarz household only provided a few seconds' delay, since nobody seemed to abide by them. Though the closed door gave Aya the time to move his hand away again. "Come with me?"

By making it a request and a plea for more quality time instead of "get your hands away from that scheming boy and come here now," Farfarello didn't instantly set Aya into defiance. Very clever.

When Aya looked at Nagi, one eyebrow slightly raised, well aware of the undercurrents of tension, Nagi said, "Thanks, Aya. I feel much better now." As much fun as it might be to antagonize Farfarello, it was far too dangerous and destructive a sport to engage in just for pleasure, and right now Nagi didn't have enough reason to do it.

"I'm glad," Aya answered. As he left, Nagi thought that really _everything_, not just sex, was about feeling in control of the situation.

******************************************************

That night, Farfarello made sure to exhaust his puisín--as if that were a chore--and didn't go out telepathically searching for Friendly's pet until he felt that Aya wouldn't wake during his outing. Farfarello had tried to look for certain people at random but found out that he had far more success finding people he knew well or had touched like this before. The greater the exposure, the easier he found the person. Thus, he located Friendly, who had charred the edges of his soul the last time, far faster than her pet. Fortunately, they tended to stay together.

But in Japan now. This trip might take a while. He didn't want to be exhausted when he faced them. And he would be facing _them_, he knew. An attack on the boy would draw his foster mommy.

He leapfrogged across the continent mind by mind, taking larger jumps than last time out of excitement and impatience, taking longer rest stops at three different minds along the way. The first two people took no notice of him as he waited in their dreams--perhaps because he mingled in the crowds--but a child in what might be South Korea fled down a dirt road when he appeared, shouting about demons. Farfarello had heard it before.

Feeling around Japan, he got a lock on his dual prey in what he thought might be Yokohama. At least the minds near them suggested that. They'd been assigned away from Weiß. That might make things easier. He could just barely make out the boy within the obscuring glare of Friendly's power.

To his mingled amusement and annoyance, the child whose mind he squatted in returned with a group of angry villagers armed with shotguns. Imaginative boy. Farfarello doubted that the child's true neighbors were that well armed. Since he didn't have the time or energy to waste on play, he jumped toward Friendly's pet.

He threw himself to the side, away, right before a wave of crackling blue-gold fire struck where he'd just been. Sword in hand, he spun to face a familiar dragon. Once again, they faced off in a mist-shrouded, cloudy area, like the lower realms of Heaven on an overcast day.

~ You don't quit, do you, little telepath? ~ Friendly said. ~ Schwarz wouldn't have sent you to us, not untrained, so this must be personal. Go home, fledgling. Prodigy decided that Idiot can't be blamed for what he is, and he already blamed _me_ and broke my arm. Your kitten only has a few bruises. That sounds even to me. ~

~ Prodigy's sense of justice may be satisfied, but mine isn't. ~ It surprised Farfarello that the kitten-smitten boy had let them off so easily. Could he be getting soft?

~ Maybe he sees something you don't. ~

Damn. He shielded his mind better. ~ I doubt it. ~

~ You won't go? ~

~ No. ~

The dragon shrugged. ~ Since I won't let you hurt my boy, I guess I have to fight you. ~

He dodged every river of blue-gold flame she spat at him, but she gave him no rest, no quarter, and no opportunity to get close enough to strike her. How could she be so fast? Fatigue started to weigh on him in ways it never did in his body, so it looked like he'd have to finish this faster. He rolled away from a gout of fire, felt the next one crease his left shoulder and another his right arm in blazes of unaccustomed agony, leapt up, and plunged his sword into her side... and pulled it out melted into uselessness. It hadn't hurt her at all.

As she laughed, smoke drifted from her maw. ~ That never stops being funny. Did wuzzums miscalculate? Here, let me give you another demonstration of what it means to be a trained alpha talent. ~

This close, most of the flames hit him dead on, the excruciating pain surprising a scream out of him. When the whiteout of agony faded a little, he found himself on his hands and knees. He wouldn't kneel to her or anyone! Pushing himself to his feet, he asked, ~ Is that all you've got? ~ He hoped so. That last assault had been ten times worse than the worst electroshock session he'd gotten before his nerves had gone dead.

~ Go home. I don't want to fight you if I don't have to. ~

Farfarello noticed a puppy watching them, a very cute animal with golden fur, big paws, a vibration in it that felt like a shadow of the kitten-smitten boy, and a familiar sticky feel. He ran at it and grabbed it. As Friendly screamed, he manifested a knife in his other hand.

~ Flames, Idiot! Like me! ~ Friendly shouted.

The puppy burst into flames to match the dragon, making Farfarello drop it. Shaking his hand, he decided that he was getting really fucking tired of feeling pain. Pissed off, he tried to think of a weapon that he could use that might hurt creatures made of fire. Got it. Schuldig would laugh at how literal-minded he'd been. Dragons didn't really exist, so why not fight one with a fictional weapon? Thinking hard, Farfarello felt the weight and balance of his sword change and heard a sudden hum. Blue light washed across his face from his new weapon.

~ Luke! ~ Idiot said gleefully.

~ You're facing me with a fucking lightsaber? ~ Friendly asked.

Farfarello ran fast and hard at her and finally plunged the light blade into her. She'd reacted immediately to the incoming pain and dodged a little, so he only grazed through her side when he'd intended to stab her, but her scream still satisfied him. Idiot jumped him and tore into his arm, then fell away yelping as he struck out.

~ Idiot! You're a really, really _big_ puppy! ~ she shouted, and Idiot turned into a giant red dog. A giant red dog made out of flames that towered over him. Shit. While he rolled away from its giant burning paws, Friendly blasted him in the back again.

Shaking with pain, his thoughts scattered, Farfarello decided to flee, no matter how much it galled. Justice wouldn't be served by him getting flame-broiled. His kitten wouldn't appreciate waking up to find him brain-dead next to him either.

He snapped back, retracing his steps, watching for his opponents to follow. They didn't, but that didn't make his way back home easier. Fatigue started to gray him out, weakening his soul and leaving him stuck in a mind somewhere in Europe, in a dream involving some kind of hellish dinner party. As he leaned against the wall and tried to put his thoughts back together, some ancient hag berated a young man at the table about his disreputable guests ruining everything and couldn't he ever do anything right? Farfarello would have told him to stab the harridan through the eye with a steak knife if he hadn't had more important concerns. If he hadn't been so tired he might have gutted the bitch himself, since she wore a cross so openly.

A wave of color and cinnamon swept through him and carried him away. ~ Come along with me, you fucking moron. ~

Farfarello opened his eye to see Schuldig leaning over him. "We're going to talk," the telepath said. "I sent your kitten on a trip deep into dreamland, so he won't notice you leaving. Get the fuck out of bed."

Farfarello couldn't let the mindslut talk to him like that. Spitting orange hair out of his mouth, he said, "I don't--"

"Get!" Schuldig yelled. "What you think doesn't matter worth shit, since you just showed me that you can't think! Do you have any idea how lucky you are that Friendly didn't follow you? You're bleeding off so badly that her pet boy could have found you while blindfolded! If you'd made it back here they could have finished you off, then--if they were still in a really bad fucking mood, which I wouldn't blame them for--they could have fucked with all of us!"

Mentioning that he'd tired out long before he could reach home didn't seem like a good idea, since it would only lead him into more trouble. "They attacked Aya!"

"And you thought it would be a good revenge on them to let them destroy your mind? You may be the master of sharp, pointy objects in the physical world, but I am the master of the mind wars. When I talk, you better listen if you want to step out and make it back as anything other than a vegetable!"

That shouting match hadn't roused Aya, but Farfarello didn't want to do this here anyway. "Yell at me in the kitchen." Even his real body rang with pain, and the yelling made it ring worse, but Schuldig wouldn't be put off.

"Gladly, you stupid fuck." As soon as Farfarello sat down at the kitchen table, Schuldig continued, "Do you have a deathwish? She's a trained alpha talent with backup. You're a schmuck who didn't even know he was a telepath until recently. She could have fucked you up so badly."

"But she didn't."

"Because she was holding back for some reason known only to herself. Hell, she didn't even do anything to Aya."

"Her pet banged him into the bars."

"Friendly and Idiot come from Rosenkreuz. You know what kind of twisted shapes Rosenkreuz beats its operatives into. She could have fucked Aya several hundred times in his head in his sleep. Rewritten his personality. Given him an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Rejiggered him in a way that would leave him seeming to be business as usual until something triggered him, at which point he'd explode in our faces. She's good enough that Persia would never figure out."

Farfarello had never even thought.... "How can you sit there so calmly? How do you know she didn't?"

"I checked him out when I got home last night. Do you really think I'd just trust anything that came back to us from Kritiker?"

"Why didn't you do it immediately?"

"Because you were too busy nuzzling and blowing him. If I'm in his head while he's having sex, checking him for booby traps would be the last thing I'd be doing."

Incensed beyond reason, Farfarello surged to his feet, only to snarl and wince as Schuldig telepathically slapped him. The mindbreaker smirked and said, "She must have scored you up good on the inside if that hurt."

"Fuck you." Why had he ever wanted to feel pain again?

"Maybe later. So, my point is that she didn't do any of those things. You're lucky that she's asexual, Idiot is simple-minded, and neither of them are sadists, though how they avoided becoming sadists after going through Rosenkreuz is beyond me. You're damned lucky that they didn't care enough about Aya to fuck him up for fun. You're really damned lucky she didn't pursue and break you."

"What's the fucking point of psychic battle if I'm weaker there than I am in reality?"

"The pain thing? Can't be avoided. But can you pull a lightsaber out of nowhere in reality?"

"You watched it? You could have stepped in!"

"Why? I have no quarrel with them. Like I said, Aya got off easy. _You_ picked a fight with them. If I'd told you they'd kick your ass, you wouldn't believe me. You had to see for yourself. If you hadn't wised up and made a break for it, I would have given you a little more time before I yanked you out. I wasn't there the whole time anyway, since I was asleep and didn't see that something wasn't right with you until you were well into your fight." Schuldig laughed. "Clifford the big red dog. Better telepathy through children's books. And movies, looks like. Nice lightsaber."

"It worked."

"Yeah. I have to keep that one in mind."

"You told me once that a telepathic weapon is more powerful if both sides believe it will hurt."

_That_ had surprised Schuldig. Farfarello saw it in the expression on his face. "You really listened during all those stakeouts? Farfie, I never knew you cared. But there you go. Belief. Idiot has the mind of a child, which could make him very dangerous. Children believe with a strength most adults can't match. He shouldn't have been able to change his avatar that extensively and quickly, but he believed in Friendly's stage-managing, so he just did it. What I could do with a talent that followed my direction totally...." Schuldig smiled dreamily.

"You'd probably fuck him first."

"And as often as I felt like. But after that...."

Since Schuldig could go on forever about one of his favorite things, Farfarello changed the subject by asking, "Schuldig, when do I stop hurting?"

"Did you fully recover from your first run-in with her?"

He'd felt some echoes of the burning pain even tonight but refused to let it rule him or stop him from going after her again. "No."

"It's an individual thing. It takes however long it takes. But you won't feel the pain permanently." Schuldig smiled. Pain was another favorite subject of his.

"I need to be trained. I know jack shit, and it could've killed me."

"_Now_ you want to learn? Well."

"Yeah. So teach me."

"You have noticed that I suck as a teacher. I'm good at talking and forcing you to teach yourself, but I can't give lessons. I can't explain things well."

"You explained things to me for years."

"I didn't give you any real foundation, just talked off the deep end. I talked to hear myself talk, not to give you anything useful."

"So? Pretend you're just talking at me again."

"Smart-ass. It won't work."

"It helped."

"Not enough."

"You talk anyway. Why can't you talk and actually do something good with it for once?"

Schuldig looked annoyed and amused at once. "Oh, fuck off."

"I'll have to go out and train myself."

"You're not doing something stupid like this again!"

"It's too important for me to do nothing. You'll have to teach me or stop me."

"What the hell is going on here?" Aya asked at the doorway, interrupting their glaring match. Farfarello had been too tired and weakened by his battle to notice him arriving.

"Your boyfriend went out mindwalking to defend your honor," Schuldig said.

His puisín shot him a look that would have withered lesser men. "I didn't ask you to."

"You didn't have to," Farfarello answered, and the kitten's disgruntled, angry look became even more deadly. Answering it, he said, "I have perfect faith in your ability to defend yourself, but you're not a telepath and can't fight one."

"I'm just normal?"

"You're not 'just' anything." He pounced Aya and held him despite his annoyed struggling. Finally, his puisín stilled. "I love you and can't stand the thought of people disrespecting you."

"So he went out to fight Friendly and her pet and risked becoming a vegetable," Schuldig said, his tone bland.

"You're not helping!" Farfarello growled.

"Didn't intend to."

Seeing that Schuldig would have to be convinced or gone around, Farfarello decided to set the argument aside for now and start fresh another time. "I'm going to bed now, Aya."

"Is Aya coming with you?" Schuldig asked, malice dripping from his words.

But Aya said, "Yes, I am," and left with Farfarello. Victory.

Yet he refused all of Farfarello's attempts to apologize through stroking, lying there rigid, radiating anger. Aya always refused to do angry sex. Farfarello hadn't convinced him to change his mind on that. Yet. In any case, Aya, despite his temper, never stayed angry with him. Only temporarily thwarted, he snuggled in close to his puisín to cheat a little and went to sleep, hoping that the deep, scorching pain radiating through the inside of his body would be gone by the time he woke again.


	47. "You can be a stubborn little bitch, Fujimiya. That's a compliment."

Aya felt less angry when he woke. In truth, he'd been more worried than angry before, but he'd long ago programmed himself to transform any emotion into anger, which had seemed the most useful one. It helped him do things, far preferable to being paralyzed with feeling. Thus, worry became anger, and depression became anger, and fear became anger.

Actually, he could transform _almost_ any emotion. He hadn't felt happiness or desire often enough before to learn to switch those over to anger.

Farfarello looked very different without his eyepatch. With it, he looked hard and piratical. Without it, he looked younger, more vulnerable. Prettier too, despite the ruin of his left eye. Aya traced the scar near his right eye until he awoke.

"Do you forgive me, then, puisín?" he asked.

"I don't want you to get hurt pursuing a vengeance that isn't even necessary. I didn't deal with my sister's coma well. I doubt that I could handle it if a telepath destroyed your mind."

"I didn't think of it that way until the odds turned against me."

"You damned well should think of it." Pressing the advantage, using his actual feeling of horror, Aya asked, "Can you imagine what it would be like for me if I woke up beside your brain-dead body?"

Farfarello quivered, then grabbed and held him so tightly that he could barely breathe. "Never! You'll never be rid of me. I wouldn't let it happen. I'll be more careful. I feel much better today."

"What?"

"Nothing." Farfarello kissed his nose. "Now we go to breakfast."

Aya knew evasion when he saw and heard it but let it go for now, knowing that he had no luck in getting Farfarello to confess before he was ready. "All right."

As he ate breakfast, he let himself drift amidst the currents of Schwarz, comfortable but unable to contribute again yet. Relaxing under the feel of Farfarello's hand tracing repetitive knots on his back, Aya let it wash over him until everything started to feel familiar and he could resume the person he had been here.

Sitting across from Aya, Nagi absently twirled one lock of hair around his finger, reminding Aya of yesterday. He still didn't know what had possessed him to start stroking the boy's hair like that, though he'd continued after the first few strokes out of the feeling that it would be more awkward to stop suddenly. Nagi leaning back and accidentally setting his head against Aya's chest wasn't excuse enough.

How soft Nagi's hair felt wasn't excuse enough either.

Later, Aya had decided that his actions had sprung from old talks with his sister. She'd discovered boys at 15 and run to him to reveal each new crush and heartbreak. The way she could swing from celestial highs to abject lows within a day had astonished and worried him, since he'd always been more consistent. She hadn't needed advice; she just wanted to share it all with him. During the heartbreaks, she would nearly crush him in a hug, and he'd always wanted to stroke her hair to try to calm her, but she'd tied it into braids most of the time, making it impossible.

Nagi had certainly reacted well to having his hair stroked. Aya was glad he could help.

It surprised him that he felt so protective of the boy, since he'd never reacted like this to Omi, who actually reminded him more of his sister in temperament. But Omi had been far more cheerful than Nagi and thus hadn't seemed to need the support.

The time Omi _had_ blatantly needed support, Aya hadn't been capable of giving it, not with the red haze of Takatori hatred blanking out all other thoughts and feelings. He regretted that, but he didn't know if he'd be able to apologize to Takatori Mamoru for it.

Nagi needed support more often. Or maybe Omi had needed it too but Aya had more success in reading Nagi.

Factoring other people into matters always complicated them. His life had been much simpler when he hadn't cared about other people aside from his sister.

He didn't recognize himself lately. That could be good and bad....

After breakfast he approached Crawford and waited. Eventually Crawford blinked, looked up from his paper, and said, "We can't attack Rosenkreuz. It's not time yet."

"Before I was shot you said that it would be soon. That was weeks ago."

"Things changed. It happens. Long-term is more difficult. If I planned too far ahead on the attack, Eszett's precogs would be far more likely to see it. I even have four different plans that I'll choose from only on the very edge of needing one."

"It must be difficult to wait and keep your plans nebulous until the right vision strikes."

"It annoys the hell out of me."

Aya smiled a little. "Did you know I would ask just from knowing me, or did you see something?"

"I saw you waiting 15 minutes, getting more annoyed by the second, just to see if I would see your question. You can be a stubborn little bitch, Fujimiya. That's a compliment."

"Thank you." How odd to be looking at Crawford partially with the eyes of a member of Weiß and realizing how much the seer's appearance had changed in the last few months. Schuldig seemed to be worried over how swiftly Crawford had been going silver lately.

Once, Aya might not have noticed that worry. Or cared.

"There's a good shooting range near here. Schuldig could take you. He's always up for target practice."

Aya had wanted to get some gun practice in, especially since he hadn't been able to do it for the last few weeks. "Did you see that too?"

"A little, and I know you."

That left Aya worried and pleased all at once. He let neither emotion show. "I'll let him know you volunteered him."

******************************************************

"_Nice_ shooting," Schuldig said as he admired the shredded targets. Even recently injured, Aya handled two guns at once with impressive ease. Watching this made being volunteered for duty almost worthwhile.

Aya put them in his holsters. "Thank you."

Schuldig put an arm around his shoulders and leaned in close, whispering in his ear, "I do love a man who knows how to handle his weapon."

Aya looked amused and didn't immediately shrug the arm off or try to move away. "You realize that if Farfarello thought you were putting the make on me, he'd rip your head off and shit down your neck."

Once, Aya didn't even let friends touch him, but now he enjoyed it sometimes. It gave Schuldig a warm, fuzzy congratulatory feeling that they'd made such progress with him. "Sure I do. So that's not what I'm doing."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Being friendly. Unlike certain people who are monopolizing certain other people."

"Certain people who will remain nameless."

"Yep. If I were putting the make on you, which I'm not, he might wonder if you're inviting it, and that might not be pretty for you."

"It's more likely that he'd figure you were fucking with my head. Then he'd torture and kill you. What?"

Schuldig couldn't help his grin. He gripped Aya again and tightened it into more of a hug. "I didn't think I'd like you this much." He really needed to talk Farfarello into loaning Aya out.

Aya smiled darkly, but said, "Hnn." He'd... grudgingly come to like Schuldig and felt some attraction. _Interesting_.

******************************************************

The pain from the telepathic battle faded faster this time. Maybe practice did help. If Schuldig refused to teach him, he might have to seek out a tutor on his own. Farfarello suddenly had a wicked thought. Would Friendly be game? Now that he knew that she and her pet could have done far worse to Aya, he wasn't so angry anymore, and they _had_ kicked his ass....

Convincing them might take some work.

He finished his sword dance when he heard the kitten and Schuldig return. Schuldig... felt satisfied, but not _too_ satisfied. Aya seemed amused.

When Aya walked into the room, Farfarello immediately nuzzled him and smelled gunpowder, cigarette smoke, and Schuldig. Aya must have guessed the reason for it because he said, "Schuldig spent most of the time flirting with me."

"How did he like being turned down?"

"He didn't."

Aya unsheathed his katana, his eyes lovingly following the shining line of his favorite weapon. Then he limbered up through some exercises, the steel flashing as he moved. This was something they shared, something that Schuldig could read from their minds but never really understand.

Farfarello stroked the length of his blade down Aya's and shivered at the metaphor and the sound of metal grating against metal. The exercises showed Aya's grace, but fights showed his passion. "Good," Farfarello said. "Let's dance."

******************************************************

Mamoru slammed the car door behind him. Yoji raised an eyebrow and said, "It didn't go that badly."

"Nobody talked."

"I did. You did."

"Ken didn't. Sena didn't. Asato didn't. We're outnumbered."

"Seeing Asato in his teacher's suit with his hair slicked back is always funny."

In an effort to start mending the damage he'd seen in Berlin, Mamoru had taken Weiß out for dinner. It had been a dismal failure, with Sena and Asato looking uncomfortable and apprehensive and Ken being obviously bored. Yoji had tried to help Mamoru with the conversation, but it had only highlighted the awkwardness of the dinner. Having his security detail hovering not too far away didn't help break the ice.

"They see me as their boss," Mamoru said. "No one talks freely in front of his boss."

"Ken doesn't see you that way."

"Ken doesn't take commands from anyone anymore. He barely controls himself."

"You had a good thought. Maybe something else will work."

"Yeah, yeah."

When they reached the door to the shop, Yoji said, "Good night, kid."

Yeah, Mamoru didn't live with them anymore. Right now, he felt the distance keenly. "Good night, Yoji-kun." He returned to his car and security guards.

Grandfather waited for him at his apartment. There was no point in asking how he got inside. "This was foolish of you, Mamoru."

"Happy employees work better."

"It's unwise to be too close to the people you command into battle."

"I used to be even closer to them, and it never stopped me before."

"You don't want to open yourself to charges of favoritism." Grandfather always had an answer ready.

Mamoru missed Aya so much. Aya hadn't cared if people projected the mantle of leadership over him, nor had he discounted any strategies contributed by the team's youngest member. How wonderful a Persia Aya would be, giving out orders with that perfect flair for the dramatic. And few people would ever think to accuse him of favoritism. The thought of the two of them as a kind of tag team Persia would have made Mamoru smile if his grandfather hadn't been there to witness and misinterpret.

Instead, Mamoru toiled as the public and private face of Kritiker while others tried to pull his strings. His grandfather often succeeded in turning him around. Everyone's demands and expectations weighed heavily.

"No, I don't. Thank you, Grandfather." Mamoru needed a new strategy. One that worked.


	48. "He's a fictional character."

The visions and knowing hit Crawford like a cudgel, blinding him with pain and sending his head nearly crashing down to the desk. His face suddenly hurt so badly that he ripped his glasses off in a desperate effort to find relief. Too much information, too fast.... Helpless, he tried to breathe through it. If he could survive to the end, he would be fine. He would survive.

He jerked as he vaguely felt hands on his shoulders and his head being tipped back a little to rest against something warm and soft. He felt a heartbeat as familiar as his own and smelled cigarette smoke and musk and gunpowder. The pain, shared, dissipated a little.

To his embarrassment, he was panting like a dog.

"No shame, Brad. You just faced the equivalent of being hit with a brick and drowned at the same time." Worry in Schuldig's voice. Genuine. How many people would believe the telepath capable of admitting to a genuine emotion that had no connection to sadism?

"Schu." His voice barely sounded like his voice. "We have to get out of here. Eszett's coming for us here tonight. If we attack Rosenkreuz then instead, we can slip in under all the futures and fate in the air without any of their precogs seeing. We can fucking nail them to the wall."

Schuldig let him go an instant before he would have broken away in his need to put himself back together again without leaning on anyone else. Schuldig asked, "You have any traps you wanna set here?"

"No. Let them come in and be complacent about us."

"You make yourself invulnerable again. I'll get the troops moving."

As Crawford sat, breathed, and put the pieces of his mental armor of impenetrability back together, he heard Schuldig barking out orders like a drill sergeant, communicating in a shout instead of his usual insinuating purr. The prospect of taking down Rosenkreuz snapped the others into movement without even a word about how Schuldig wasn't their boss. Crawford changed into his white suit, feeling a little peace settle into him as he buttoned the jacket. It angered him that everyone had finished packing to leave yet he still hadn't regained his full strength or lost the ringing in his head.

"Do it on the car ride. It'll take long enough to get there," Schuldig said. He'd packed their things for them. Crawford put his glasses on and walked out without his telepath's support.

"I can drive," Nagi said when they reached the car. Crawford sighed inwardly at how bad he must have looked for Nagi to offer without being asked.

"No, we need you to look Brad's head over," Schuldig answered. "Aya will drive. But don't drive too fast, Abyssinian. We don't want to attract attention."

Aya nodded. Farfarello beamed, saying, "And I'll sit shotgun."

"How do I get there?" Aya asked.

"I'll insert the directions in your head," Schuldig said.

"Just tell me."

"No. This is faster."

"I hate it when you do that."

"Which is one of the reasons why I do it."

Crawford sat sandwiched between Schuldig and Nagi in the backseat, with Schuldig checking him on a telepathic level and Nagi on the physical. "No obvious concussion," Nagi muttered.

As they drove further and further away from the apartment, destroying the future in which they'd been caught there, Crawford started to feel better, well enough to take better notice of everything around him. While looking at the rearview mirror, he saw that his hair had turned entirely white. It made his breath catch. At least his eyes still looked dark.

"I think it's sexy," Schuldig said. "I can't wait to see if it's gone white everywhere."

"I look like an old man."

"Nah. Before you looked like a prematurely graying young man, and now you look like a platinum blond. They say that blonds have more fun. You remind me a little of Dr. Muraki, just with neater hair and no crazy fake eye. And your suits fit better. He's fucking sexy, though we'd probably end up killing each other."

"I remind you of a murdering, raping, dark-magic-using, insane, fictional doctor?"

He could hear the smile in Schuldig's voice. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"I spend my time thinking of ways to make Schwarz prosper, while you're imagining sex with anime/manga characters."

"So?"

"He's a fictional character."

"What is real, Brad? I mean, really."

"All right, you're imagining sex with anime/manga characters and pondering existential questions." Crawford knew that Schuldig was trying to distract him from his after-vision pain and nervousness over the assault to come, and he appreciated it. It would be a very long drive.

"I'm deep." Schuldig rested his head on Crawford's shoulder, nestled into him, and put his hand in his lap.

"If you try to have sex while sitting next to me, I swear I'll hurt the both of you," Nagi said.

"You ruin all of my fun."

Although they made some brief stops to relieve themselves, they didn't take the time to stop for lunch or dinner, instead nibbling on snacks they already had. From the look of them, they wouldn't have been able to handle a full meal, being too riled up.

Crawford watched his team deal with the anticipation, tension, and anxiety over the long ride. Schuldig smoked and hummed. When he could, like now, he would burrow into Crawford's side. Nagi created and destroyed various origami pieces by hand, transforming sheets of paper into roses and roses into cranes and cranes into turtles and so on until he'd so crinkled the paper that he had to take a new sheet. Eventually he wore himself out enough to nap. Farfarello nodded incessantly, bobblehead style or like very slow headbanging, and murmured mangled prayers in English, a litany that sounded at one point like "Hail Mary, the Lord has fucked thee, hallowed by thy fame, blessed art thou, a monk swimming, if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord to leave me to my fate." Focused and cold, Aya was completely motionless aside from what he had to do to drive, and he refused to take a break. Crawford remembered seeing Aya once crouching, stock-still, in the rain as he'd watched for a car he thought would carry Takatori Reiji. How Aya could jump atop that car after being locked into one pose like that for so long Crawford still didn't know.

Crawford dealt with anticipation, tension, and anxiety by watching the members of his team deal with it.

Some time after night fell, Aya asked, "What is the Rosenkreuz compound like?"

Schuldig answered, "It's a mountaintop estate--"

"Stately Rosenkreuz Manor," Crawford murmured, feeling a bit punchy.

"--up this mountain, in fact, with the main action underground, inside the mountain. It would have been more fun if we had firepoles to slide down and a batmobile, but no."

"It has 12 subterranean levels," Nagi said. "I compiled an up-to-date blueprint from the files I hacked."

"Farfarello, open the glove compartment," Crawford said.

"Blessed are the meek, for they are My favorite suckers.... All right. Ah, we've done this before." Farfarello removed the small box from the glove compartment and put his fingers into it, making the marbles clink against each other. Finally he pulled one out and turned on the light to inspect it. "Blue."

Plan C. "Aya, we'll tell you when to turn off the road into the trees. Don't look so sour. Farfarello is as in the dark as you are, Nagi knows as much as he does only because he did the legwork on the blueprints, and Schuldig is nosy."

"Thanks, Brad."

They parked the car out of sight of the road, then walked, with Schuldig bitching in a low mutter all the way. "We hid the gear for each of the plans while you were playing nursemaid to Aya, Nagi. I had to fucking shovel. I hate shoveling."

"My heart bleeds for you," Nagi answered, while Farfarello said, "You hate work in general."

"Which is a sign of my greater intelligence," Schuldig replied. "Use of tools always is."

"Here," Crawford said. They'd buried their gear about a kilometer away from Rosenkreuz, on the slope. "Nagi, pull it up."

His telekinetic concentrated on the ground until he found the box, then pulled the earth away from it and lifted it out of the hole with his talent. Farfarello smiled as they opened it to reveal plastique, detonators, wiring, grenades, grappling lines, extra rounds, gas canisters, gas masks, flame-thrower.... "Looks like it'll be a good party," he said.

Each member of the team claimed his portion of the gear. Crawford had a shock of déjà vu as he saw Aya with his gun holster on over his coat; they hadn't replaced the one designed to give him easy access to his guns. Of course, Crawford had seen this moment before. Déjà vu was the perpetual and annoying baggage of being a precog.

"Don't fuck with the ice cream man," Schuldig murmured appreciatively as he looked over the cache of grenades Crawford had claimed and attached to a bandoleer over his white suit.

"I'm ready," Nagi said. "I just need someone to watch my back."

"Take Aya," Crawford answered, having seen it. Farfarello shot him a dirty look.

Nagi smiled. "Thanks." He grabbed the rest of his gear and Aya and flew off to set the first stage of their assault. The rest of them started walking uphill toward Rosenkreuz.

******************************************************

Deep in his mission mental space, Aya said nothing as they flew, but Nagi didn't mind, not when he had headphones on anyway. The music would help baffle any listening telepaths; Nagi had become accustomed to working with music long ago and had come to see it as a kind of movie soundtrack to his doings. Since Aya needed to be able to hear the outside world unhindered, Schuldig had supplemented Aya's growing mental defenses with his telepathic shielding. All the members of Schwartz had enough of a Rosenkreuz signature to their shields that no one would think to be alarmed to notice them.

Nagi's telepathy helped them avoid the attention of the guards, while Nagi and Aya's altitude and speed, along with the judicious use of thunder and lightning, brought them through the automated surveillance and defenses.

Rosenkreuz at last. It made Nagi's stomach roil with excitement, nervousness, and apprehension. After years of dreaming, Schwarz's future would be determined in the events of one night.

Planting the bomb on the right exterior wall presented no trouble for someone who knew the building layout so well and could avoid touching the ground and thus the pressure sensitive plates hidden under the sod. This part was so easy that he set up the bomb and levitated himself and Aya simultaneously. His knowledge of the layout brought them into the control room of manor house section so easily that he kept expecting it to be a trap, while his growing facility in telekinetically manipulating weather made fucking with the flow of electricity in Rosenkreuz's systems easier as well. It took very little effort to cut off the intercom system and Rosenkreuz's ability to communicate with the outside world.

He also locked up the area Rosenkreuz kept its talents in, a benefit--to-him--of the automated door and locking systems. Telekinetics and teleporters might be able to get out and help others out, but the next part of the plan would prevent that. Knowing that Aya was too busy watching for intruders and wouldn't know what Nagi was up to anyway, Nagi took the time to scan through the personnel lists until he found the people he wanted. When the time came, he'd know where to go.

Nagi winced as he felt a pain in his head. When he turned around, power at the ready, he saw a man lying on the floor in a pool of blood and Aya crouching beside him cleaning his blade. ~ Aya? ~

No, Abyssinian right now, and Abyssinian let him know that the man had used a surprisingly fast manual override on the door and gotten out the first syllable of the word.

Nagi _had_ been thinking that this was too easy.

~ First stage done. Second stage go. ~ Nagi sent out in a quick burst, and heard Crawford's approval.

More skulking ensued, with Abyssinian quietly following his lead through the halls without argument. Nagi liked that and wanted to have more people doing that more often. Since he'd rarely been allowed into the manor house section, it hadn't started to feel really weird walking around here yet, though he could imagine the mindfuck that would come of the team killing through the corridors of the underground sections, where they'd lived, worked, and been abused.

Finally they arrived at the right room. Nagi snapped the necks of two guards while Abyssinian hacked down the other two. The grill to the ventilation system didn't have any safeguards on it, but he removed it by telekinesis anyway, just to be sure. Nothing. Maybe Rosenkreuz's new management hadn't thought that someone would take a look at the plans... all right, they probably hadn't thought that someone would find and compile all the fragments of blueprint plans various Rosenkreuz members had on their hard drives to map out Rosenkreuz, find this vulnerability, and use it. In any case, only a well trained telekinetic or a really sophisticated machine could make this work the way Schwarz planned to.

Nagi started to send the gas canisters down the shafts, feeling his way by memory of the blueprints and his telekinesis. It was difficult to make sure they went to the proper areas. He concentrated so hard that he could almost feel the texture of the shaft walls with his talent as he felt out the open spaces and turns. One canister here, one canister here, one canister here....

By the time he finished, he was a trembling, sweaty mess. No more fine motor control telekinesis available tonight, but brute force should do for Crawford's plans and his own plans.

"Are you all right?" Aya asked softly, crouching next to him.

"I'll live, thanks." Nagi swiped his damp hair out of his eye and sent, ~ Second stage done. ~

~ In ten. ~

Nagi took off his headphones, then put his gas mask on and saw Aya do the same. Aya straightened his mask for him, then became Abyssinian again.

When they heard and felt the explosion at the other end of the house, they started to move out. Crawford had set off the bomb and canisters by remote control.

******************************************************

Even deep in his killing trance, Aya had moments when Schwarz's rage and viciousness stunned him as they mowed through their opponents. Nagi had left early to see if he could find more Rosenkreuz secrets to download, but the others.... Aya couldn't see their expressions through their masks, and they killed as efficiently as usual, but he could _feel_ it.

Crawford opened doors and tossed grenades in. When not doing that, he shot anything that moved that wasn't Schwarz. Schuldig took advantage of how the sedative gas weakened their adversaries by going into their minds and making them shoot each other. Schuldig never stopped firing his own gun at any time. Farfarello had a flame-thrower. They executed anyone lying unconscious on the floor from the gas.

Three people tried to shout out the word and Aya killed all of them before they could get halfway through.

Aya chopped and shot and chopped and shot, mechanical and repetitive. Sometimes he had to wipe blood off of his mask so he could see. When he had time to think about it, he realized that the gas mask hampered his peripheral vision and made him feel a little claustrophobic, but neither problem could be helped.

They searched for the leaders. To make things easier on themselves, they'd cut off most of the exits. Anyone trying to escape would cross their path.

******************************************************

Once Nagi established the link that would net him any data the main computer had, he left it to download on its own. The door to the talents' section opened at his touch. The thick gas made it hard to see, so he stepped on downed people as he walked. Thankfully, the clouds of gas made this area look less familiar, which stirred fewer memories.

Finally, he reached the door at the end of the hall. The talents who... cooperated the best had their own quarters, cushier than the rest. A quick telepathic scan confirmed that his targets were in there and conscious, since they'd noticed the gas and put cloths over their mouths. As soon as he opened the door he sent a wave of force through it, smiling as he heard screams. The ones he really wanted hadn't been in the way, so he could personalize their deaths. Bullets bounced off his teke shield, and he snapped the neck of another telekinetic who'd tried to throw him and his shield into a wall. Weakened by the gas and distracted by having to protect themselves from it and fight him at the same time, they were no match for him. Besides, he was more inventive with his abilities, while these people were accustomed to using tactics trained into them by non-talents.

That left three telepaths, who were busily trying to break his mental shields. _His_ three telepaths. He telekinetically ripped their vocal cords, just in case they'd had the word deprogrammed out of them and thought to use it on him. Tired, his fine motor control not as good as it should be, he must have destroyed Slovag's trachea as well, because the telepath fell to the floor making odd noises before going still, dead. Not quite what he wanted, but it would do, and he had two more to go.

They didn't look so fearsome now.

"I'm not that easy anymore," he told them as they gagged and choked. "Did you hear what we did to Amann?" They couldn't answer, but he didn't care anyway. They'd helped Amann and others like him, providing telepathic muscle behind his strength and threats as he raped and abused. They'd done more than that to Nagi, though. He telekinetically crushed d'Esternau's left hand and smiled at the choked sounds of pain the telepath made and the horrified look the other one gave him. "For a long time I couldn't figure out why your training crippled my telepathy. You train everyone, so why did you go wrong with me? Then I realized that you didn't go wrong. Rosenkreuz might be in the business of creating human weapons, but I had too much power already, didn't I? I might become unmanageable."

He felt them beating at his telepathic shields, trying to deny, explain, plead, take him out. Since he didn't have the time to torment them long enough to even approach the pain and terror they'd inflicted on him, he just smashed their heads in.

He stared at the corpses for a while. It felt right to kill them, but not enough. It left him feeling empty, and he couldn't tell yet if it were a good empty or bad empty.

He'd deal with it later.

On his way out Nagi found the room holding the telepath/precogs who'd been blocking Crawford's precognitive abilities. As he snapped their necks, he mused that Rosenkreuz's bureaucracy, photo IDs, and obsessive need to catalogue the whereabouts of its talents could be so useful when not being used against Schwarz.

He didn't kill anyone else as he left and closed the outer door behind him. As usual, Crawford had plans. Sometimes he even shared some details with the rest of the team. Nagi had more bombs to plant, a data feed to check, and a control room to monitor.

******************************************************

The gas made killing too easy. It didn't feel fair or satisfying. Aya knew from Schuldig's telepathic data dump into his head that Crawford had given Farfarello the flame-thrower so the ability to burn things would make him less frustrated over the lack of struggling victims.

"This is where the leaders would go for safety," Crawford said as they reached what the data dump said was the final room for non-talented Eszett personnel. Its door looked thicker and more reinforced than the others did. "I'm telling Nagi to open this door. Abyssinian, I want you to shoot anything that moves in there. The rest of us can't afford to go in."

Aya nodded, drew his two guns, and waited. As soon as the door opened, he started firing. Seven men grunted or screamed and fell to the floor. Schuldig and Crawford rushed in to finish them off.

Aya heard a gunshot, then the first three syllables of the word from the hallway. Racing around Crawford and Schuldig as they hit the floor, Aya saw a man in a gas mask in the hall standing over Farfarello's prone body. Enraged, afraid, Aya shot him, and the noise of pain he made broke the word.

Aya knocked him down, sat on him, tossed his guns aside, and brought his katana out and pressed the flat of it to the man's throat. "That's a stomach wound I gave you. You'll die slowly and painfully. If you give me the counterword, I'll kill you quickly and painlessly." When the man tried to say the word again, Aya pressed harder on his neck and allowed the edge to nip into his neck. "That's not the right answer. The counterword."

"Fuck off," he gasped.

Schuldig crouched beside them. "Maybe I can do better."

Under his gas mask, the man bit down hard, making an audible crunching sound, jerked, and went still. Aya asked, "A false tooth containing poison?"

"Yeah. Bastard." Schuldig ripped the mask away. "Waerhaug. He always did have a little more steel in his spine than most of them."

"Do we have any more to go?" Aya twitched as a hand came to rest on his shoulder, then calmed when he saw that it was Farfarello's.

"These are all the ones we know of," Crawford said. As Aya's battle haze cleared, he saw how badly stained Crawford's formerly white suit was. "The European heads were called here for a meeting on how to get rid of us. This truly was the best time to attack. But a few remain in Japan."

"This is _it_?" Aya felt such a sense of disappointment, and he shouldn't. After his crushingly anticlimactic execution of Takatori Reiji, he should have expected as much.

"Until we take on the contingent in Japan. Weiß has already started that." Crawford paused. "We'll have to pull the personnel roster from Prodigy's work."

"Are we going to kill the talents?" Farfarello asked.

"No," Crawford answered. "You'll see what we do with them. We're pulling out of here."

Aya ripped off the gas mask as soon as they reached the outdoors, but at least the others did the same.

Nagi waited for them outside the manor house and walked down with them. At about a quarter of a kilometer away, Crawford stopped, turned to face Rosenkreuz, and pressed a trigger on his remote. Flames shot up from the top of the mountain, and the stone rumbled beneath their feet. Standing behind Aya, Farfarello made a pleased sound. Debris flew in all directions, some of it hitting the telekinetic shields Nagi put up to protect them. Did they just kill _everyone_?

Once the explosive pyrotechnics eased, Nagi shot up into the sky and flew over, then returned and said, "A lot of it has fallen into a crater. I think that several of the highest levels were crushed. The lower levels will probably be fine, though all the exits would be blocked."

"The talents who are strong enough to escape, will," Crawford said. "Eventually."

"And do what? Compete with us?" Schuldig asked. "Without Rosenkreuz forcing their prices on people, the mercenary market will be saturated with cheaper labor."

"Everyone will want to hire talents once they realize that their opponents have them. The better-trained talents will command a higher price. We're the best."

"You are one crazy motherfucker, but I can see it."

"I would have thought that you'd welcome the chance to recruit an army," Aya said. Fatigue weighed heavily on him now that the adrenaline had faded.

"How would I pay for all of them?" Crawford asked. "They'd need food, housing, clothing, and medical care. The overhead alone would kill me. Rosenkreuz operated as a labor of love, perpetually in the red. No matter how much they charged for the talents they rented out, they never made a profit, and that's even with owning the property they lived on tax-free. I'd have to pay them a salary and do administrative work. With a larger force, some delegation of authority would be necessary, and that's always a pain in the ass. We'd have to weed out the willing or well-brainwashed collaborators from the people who just played along with Eszett to survive. Besides, an army, even a small one, would draw too much attention. It's stupid. Flinging the talents out, free and independent, on a world that's not prepared for them will cause much more chaos." Crawford turned away from the burning ruins of Rosenkreuz. "We've spent enough time here. I have preparations to make."

As Aya watched Crawford walk away, he felt Schuldig press up against him from behind. "Truth? Brad's plans don't always make sense to me, but I'm not with him for his plans. At least, not anymore, not now. Precogs are not like you and me. It could be that his plans will make sense eventually, or he could be batshit. I don't care. I'm here until the ride comes to a complete halt." Schuldig stroked three fingers down the back of his neck, then walked away to join Crawford, with Farfarello growling at him for getting too familiar with Aya.

Aya looked back to Nagi, who stood there staring up at Rosenkreuz. "Are you all right?"

"What? Yeah. I'm done here." But he still looked distracted and melancholy as he passed by.

Feeling weaker, Aya stumbled. Farfarello caught him and murmured, "You've had a rough day."

"The rest of you seem to be fine." Dammit.

"We're not quite like you. But watch and wait." Farfarello helped lead him down the hill, which Aya only allowed because it would be too much effort to fight him off.

When they reached the car, Aya saw that Crawford, Schuldig, and Nagi may have changed out of their bloody clothes but didn't look as if they could handle much more than that. Inside the car, Crawford looked tired as he made arrangements on his cell phone, while Schuldig seemed to be napping on his shoulder. Nagi yawned as he handed Aya a large trash bag. "Throw your bloodiest stuff in here so you don't mess up the upholstery. Crawford is wrangling a few rooms for us. Aya, you're _not_ driving. I'm more awake, so I am."

Since he didn't want to kill himself and the others out of misplaced pride, he couldn't bring himself to argue, so he just stripped out of his killing gear and changed into clean clothing. Everyone aside from Farfarello had to be too tired to notice him or care, and Farfarello was changing as well.

When Crawford leaned Schuldig against the car door and exited through the other side, Aya let Farfarello lead him into the back seat while Crawford took the shotgun seat. "We have three hotel rooms waiting for us in Linz," Crawford told Nagi, who started the car.

Aya slept restlessly, dreaming of killing and choking on the taste of blood. He awoke, twitching, with his head in Farfarello's lap, his lover's fingers in his hair, the sound of murmured Gaelic, and Schuldig sleeping behind him, his arm resting over Aya's waist.

When Aya looked up, he saw that Farfarello's eye was barely open. "Sleep, puisín."

"I don't want to." To his annoyance, he sounded like a child. He was a professional killer, with scores of deaths on his hands, yet what he'd done at Rosenkreuz disturbed him now that his mind had cleared. Too many deaths in too short a timeframe, maybe. But it was far too late for regrets.

Farfarello must have been reading Aya's mood or mind, because he said. "Now we can never be taken back there. Ask the boy if that's worth something."

They'd struck a deadly blow to Eszett, and a place that had warped children into vicious killers was destroyed. Maybe Nagi would find some peace now. These thoughts helped settle Aya into a more restful sleep, which lasted until they stopped at the hotel.

Behind him, Schuldig stretched, then snuggled against him and purred, "Was it good for you?"

"If you don't get your hands off him, I'll break them," Farfarello said.

"Somebody has to lighten up."


	49. "I found some of the people who made my life hell and gave hell back to them."

Mamoru watched and listened over the connection as Ragdoll, the Yokohama liaison, told the team, "This time you'll have to utilize Draco and Fenris. If you don't want them, there are several teams that would be happy to take in psionics who can aid them against Eszett's psi personnel."

Koun was a good man and an excellent team leader. Unfortunately, he also had a prejudice against psionics that no one had seen from him until Mamoru had assigned Elena and Dummkopf to his team. In reports, Elena also complained about Koun's tendency to throw the word "retard" around. If Mamoru had to, he'd reassign them, since they were too useful to be wasted.

"Hunters of the night," Mamoru said as Persia over the connection, "deny these dark beasts their tomorrows." Fortunately, his voice stayed steady and stern even as Dummkopf waved to him. He turned off the link and sighed. Why had Elena suggested giving him the codename of "Fenris" anyway? There was nothing wolf-like about him.

"You should check your e-mail," Rex said.

"Thank you."

Sources reported that an estate in Austria had been reduced to a crater full of flaming rubble. It had to be Schwarz at work. If that estate had been the infamous Rosenkreuz, as he suspected it to be, Eszett had just taken an enormous loss. Mamoru smiled.

That smile faltered when he realized that Eszett might start to focus more on the Japanese branch now that it had lost Europe. Kritiker and Weiß had to be ready.

******************************************************

This time when Aya woke, he opened his eyes to see white linens. Farfarello snored behind him. Despite the comfortable surroundings, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. It felt like a vibration along his skin, making the hairs rise.

It reminded him of Nagi.

If he were worrying over nothing and woke Nagi up, the boy would be annoyed with him, but.... Aya moved out from under Farfarello's arm and walked to Nagi's room. At least, he thought it was the right room, since he'd been too tired to keep track of everything when they arrived. Knocking, he called, "Nagi?"

"Aya? Something wrong?" Nagi shouted back.

"That's my question."

When Nagi opened the door, his eyes looked a little too bright, and Aya heard an odd rattling coming from the room. "No, everything's fine here," Nagi answered. He wore a different outfit than the one he'd changed into after the assault, so he looked far better groomed than Aya, his last night's change of clothing rumpled from sleeping in them, did. It suggested that he'd been awake for a while. But he seemed somehow _too_ groomed.

"It sounds like the room's shaking apart."

Nagi tried to close the door but Aya stuck his arm in so Nagi would have to hurt him badly to shut him out, something he gambled that the boy wouldn't want to do. Aya gambled correctly, because Nagi's mouth twitched, then he opened the door the rest of the way. Aya saw that everything in the room was subtly vibrating.

"I can handle it," Nagi said. Emotion bled into his voice, and Aya remembered how he'd stared at the ruins of Rosenkreuz with a lost expression on his face.

"I know you can." Though Aya had some doubts that he put a layer of mental noise over so the boy wouldn't hear them. "But you shouldn't have to. Let me take you somewhere safe where you can... vent."

"It's nothing."

"Do you still have the car keys?"

Rebellion flared in Nagi's expression, then died. "Yeah."

"Then let's go." There had to be some isolated countryside somewhere nearby. He hoped so. When he put his hand out for the keys, Nagi stared at him, then handed them over.

Certain that Nagi would change his mind if given time to, Aya rushed to his room for a pair of boots. While there, Farfarello opened his eye and looked at him. "I don't know when I'll be back," Aya said, "but I'm safe." Farfarello nodded and went back to sleep.

As Aya adjusted the driver's seat, Nagi said, "See? No rattling. Everything's fine."

"I'm always impressed by your control."

That surprised Nagi. "Thanks."

"But we're going out anyway."

The first 20 minutes of the drive passed in silence, with Nagi staring out the side window, until Nagi said, softly, "I didn't spend the whole time working the computers."

"No?" It didn't surprise him.

After a few more minutes of silence, Nagi continued, still talking to the window, "I found some of the people who made my life hell and gave hell back to them."

When Nagi said nothing further for a few minutes, Aya asked, "Did it help?"

"A little. It felt right. Necessary. But they're dead, Amann's dead, several other really deserving people are dead, and Rosenkreuz is a smoking crater, but I still don't feel... free." He took a deep breath. "I'm not a child. I didn't think this would solve all of my problems. I just thought there'd be... more."

"I thought mine would." It still hurt to think about it, but not as much as it used to. "Solve all my problems."

Nagi turned to face him. "You didn't really think that."

"Not really, but I made myself think it." Aya shook his head as he thought of how close Schwarz was to accomplishing the goal he'd originally joined them for--and how little it would mean to him personally now--then said, "I deluded myself to keep going. But when I looked down at Takatori Reiji's body lying nearby the delusion fell apart, even though it did feel right to kill him and he was a very evil man. Like you said, it wasn't enough. My parents were still dead, my sister was still in a coma, and I still wasn't who I used to be. I never would be again. Worse, I didn't have a goal anymore. I spent years focused on killing him and never wondered what I would do when I succeeded. After his death, I was passively killing myself until my sister was kidnapped and I found a new reason to go on."

"So your sister getting kidnapped was the best thing that could have happened to you at that point?"

Aya glared at him. It was nothing to joke about. But Nagi was smiling a little before he said, "Sorry." But he was right, in a way.

"I think this might be a good place to stop." Aya pulled off the road. "Walk."

******************************************************

Nagi knew what Aya had in mind, so he walked with him until they reached an isolated clearing in the woods. "What is this supposed to do?" Nagi asked, unable to see how this could help. It couldn't rewrite most of his life for him. The vibration traveled through his body, where it had taken up residence while he'd refused to let it travel through the car.

Aya didn't look terribly confident as he said, "Maybe you could just release some of it."

"And you're a master of telekinesis?"

"No," Aya admitted as he stopped near a large outcropping of stone. "But it makes sense."

"It makes sense," Nagi sneered. Just release. Easier said than done. Nagi's power was a fist, too tightly clenched to "just release." And if he did release, he might hurt Aya, who was only trying to be helpful. The helpfulness pissed him off, but it was kind of nice too, to have someone concerned for him, and it felt good, cleansing, to let the power roar out sometimes, like it had in that Berlin alley.

If Aya had felt it building up from another room, maybe Nagi did need to do something about it.

"I trust you not to hurt me." That looked like it cost Aya, who was famously paranoid, something to say. "But if it makes you more comfortable, I'll take cover behind this outcropping."

Thus better protecting his own hide just in case. Nagi appreciated that. "All right."

Once Aya took cover, Nagi closed his eyes, breathed deeply, and tried to relax his grip on his power. It felt counterintuitive, because he spent so much of his time holding it back. For brute force, he usually used it in focused bursts as a hammer, shield, battering ram, or grasping hand. For tasks requiring fine motor control, he focused it in a different, smaller, more precise way.

He panicked when he felt the vibration in his bones start to seep out through his skin, and clenched his grip again. But maybe that seeping out was the right way to go. Taking another deep breath, he tried to relax and let it happen. Tuning in to his power, he felt his awareness expand, with the rocks and earth around him feeling slow and stolid, while the air seemed faster and more excitable. It would rain soon. He could sense Aya standing behind the rock, trying to remain still but feeling too tense to succeed. Aya was so alive, with heat and possibility.

Freaked out, Nagi opened his eyes and saw that the stones around him now had ripples in them, which further freaked him out. "This isn't working." At least, not the way Aya must have intended it to. The seeping out had helped leach some of the vibration away but not enough.

Aya peeked out from behind the outcropping. "Perhaps you need to get angry."

"I'm always angry."

"Not really. Annoyance isn't the same as anger. Believe me, I know. How did you feel when you had them in front of you?"

"Cold."

Aya closed his eyes, then opened them and asked, "How did you feel at the time?"

"I don't like to think about that." But part of him had been poking at the memories like a tongue at a rotten tooth, especially since last night's stroll through those familiar halls and face-off with his old tormentors. Amann, Monvel, or Halwic would be fucking him, hurting him, under the guise of training him to control his telekinesis. Of course, with the three telepaths worming around through his head, he couldn't focus his telekinesis against his attackers anyway, so things around the room would break instead. Which, of course, showed that he needed more training....

Two and a half years ago he found Monvel in Salzburg and reduced him to bloody bone meal in a fury. Two years ago he'd scattered pieces of Halwic across Warsaw in a cold rage. Eszett never pegged him for their killer. Amann, the worst of the three rapists, the one he'd always felt the most helpless against, he hadn't even been able to face, leaving his torture and death to Farfarello. Now that he knew that the bastard had used some kind of charm talent against him, it made him so much angrier. The three telepaths he'd coldly executed.

What had he felt? What did he feel? Anger. Fear. Resentment at being singled out. Resentment and rage at being rendered helpless, of never having been given a chance to fight back as it had happened. Anger that killing all of them hadn't changed anything for him. Pain, from the rapes and the backlash of his power being redirected against his will.

And he felt fear every time he thought about Crawford's silver hair....

Nagi's power was his now, to command and use as he saw fit, just like his body. He felt the pressure of one bottled and jammed down hard inside the other, living in its blood, bone, nerves, and sinews. The power lived in everything around him, Aya included. But Nagi had kept too much of it inside himself, and it needed to be free. It needed to be freed.

Nagi screamed with those emotions and opened up, letting the forces inside him roar out... but not indiscriminately, funneling the waves up and out into space. Anything that got in their way out there was just out of luck. He whimpered at how good it felt to let go and laughed a little as he realized that he was experiencing a kind of full body orgasm.

Eventually, he emptied himself enough and dropped to his knees on ground that had been fused into something like glass. He felt hollowed out, rubbery-limbed, and giddy. Seeing Aya standing nearby, untouched, made it even better. He'd let go without hurting anyone by accident.

"Nagi, I think we should go," Aya said. "If anyone caught that on a satellite tracking system...."

"Right." He sounded a little hoarse. When he stood, he ended up leaning on Aya without meaning it. "Sorry. I'm a little...."

Aya took one look at his face, gave him what might be a fond look, picked him up, and carried him to the car. At least Nagi thought they might be heading to the car, but he didn't know since he fell into a deep and peaceful sleep before he could find out for sure.

******************************************************

Crawford's hair _had_ turned white all over, whiter than the sheets they were lying on. "It doesn't look right." Looking down the length of himself, what he saw didn't look like his body anymore.

"Looks fine to me. Same leftward--"

"You know exactly what I mean."

Schuldig grinned, then tongued the head of his cock. _That_ looked familiar. "As long as everything works right, who cares about the color of the hair framing it?"

Crawford writhed as Schuldig licked him in long, hot, wet strokes but still said, "I do."

"Mmm. Remember when I dyed my hair green?"

"Don't remind me. I hated it."

"Yeah, you thought the drapes clashed with the carpet. Well, everything on you matches now. You just went silver. Not everybody who goes silver becomes too powerful, broken, or insane. It's no big deal."

But Crawford had caught Schuldig watching him carefully now and then, with worry showing on his face. It made the telepath look different, softer.

"But I think I've gone blind," Crawford said.

Schuldig shot him an annoyed, sulky look and stopped blowing him. "Asshole. Don't even joke."

As much as Crawford wanted to get back to the sex, he wanted information more. "How bad did I look?"

"You looked fine."

"For someone with such a talent for lying, you're not doing a very good job of it at the moment."

"So I hate it when something that belongs to me gets fucked with. Sue me."

"_Belongs_ to you?" Crawford asked, amused.

"You looked like shit barely warmed over. When I saw you slumped over the table with all of your hair gone white, I didn't know at first if there'd be anything left of your brain or sanity to work with. Happy now?"

As he'd suspected. "Very."

"Freak."

"It was probably worse for having to break through the blocks Rosenkreuz had imposed on my ability to foresee, which won't be a problem now that Nagi has executed the talents responsible."

"You do know that he took care of some personal business while there, right?"

"Of course, and I don't mind. It didn't interfere with the mission."

"And Aya's mopping up the emotional spillover." Schuldig smirked. "Did you ever foresee him becoming our mother hen?"

"I'm not _that_ good. Still, in this case it's a benefit to us that we've harnessed the emotions and loyalty he previously showed only to his sister." Everything had worked out better than he'd expected, so Crawford felt momentarily content.

"And we razed Rosenkreuz down to the ground, just like you promised us. Not only did we win, we made it look easy," Schuldig said, responding to his thoughts. The telepath could be obnoxious that way, and in bed he became even more likely to forget that most people hated it when he did that. Or he didn't care.

Crawford had become accustomed to it. "And you didn't believe me."

"At first! Everybody talks big."

"I'm looking forward to a future without Rosenkreuz." With Rosenkreuz destroyed, the rest of Eszett would fall. Then Schwarz would truly be free agents, able to take what they wanted from the world.

Crawford never ran out of goals or plans. As ever, the future beckoned, and the future always started in the now.

Lying beside him, watching him, Schuldig had a nearly fond look on his face. "It's fun to watch your brain work. Don't ever lose your mind or break, okay?"

"I'm not going to break." Hadn't Schuldig just argued that? Crawford rolled on top of him. "Let me show you that everything still works."

"I don't know. You were such an asshole that I'm not in the mood anymore."

"Please. I know you."

"Are you calling me a slut?"

Crawford kissed and stroked him in answer. Schuldig could be like a particularly big cat: mysterious, moody, self-interested, shamelessly fond of sensual pleasures, prone to playing with his prey, amenable to being persuaded through treats--

"I'm going to kick your ass for that, Brad," he murmured.

Attracted by shiny objects....

"Yeah, I wouldn't want you at all if you didn't have those glasses," Schuldig said.

"Let's test that." When Crawford removed his glasses, the world lost its sharp edges and details, becoming submerged in a haze. He hated that, but at least here he didn't have to see Schuldig well to know what to do with him. Over time he'd memorized his telepath, knowing where everything was, where he'd find smooth skin over a hard body or the raised areas or indentations of scars without seeing it first.

"You romantic, you."

"Shut the fuck up."

"Yes, sir. Zipping my lips, sir. Shutting my mouth, si--"

"I'm going to smother you in your sleep someday."

"You sweet-talker."

Later, buried in Schuldig's body as Schuldig was buried in his mind, he didn't mind it at all when Schuldig panted out encouragement and praised his performance in English with his accent. Who would? But when they both finished coming but continued to rock together, Schuldig quietly clutched him with a tight grip this short of desperate that spoke volumes.

Knowing that Schuldig had worked hard to put on a front of carelessness over recent events for him, Crawford debated with himself whether he should pretend that he didn't understand what that grip meant, to which Schuldig would pretend that he couldn't read that pretense out of his mind. It would be safer.

Fuck safe. Risks made the prize more worthwhile.

Besides, Schuldig knew that he worried about what the silvering meant even if he didn't say anything out loud. Keeping it all unspoken provided only false safety.

So Crawford kissed him and murmured his name until he relaxed and his body regained its usual loose pliancy. He couldn't help thinking that it made them both feel better.

******************************************************

Farfarello watched his puisín lead the kitten-smitten boy to bed. Looking very young, a very sleepy Nagi let out a contented sigh and smiled as he snuggled under his blankets and into his pillow. That illusion of innocence drew Farfarello forward almost as much as want for his kitten did.

Farfarello wrapped his arms around Aya's waist from behind and murmured, "So the boy didn't kill you," as he pulled him out of the room.

Aya leaned back to push against him. "He didn't even try to."

"Good. Then he doesn't have to die."

"He doesn't have to die," Aya said emphatically, fierce. Farfarello loved that.

It relieved him to know at last that he didn't have to worry about his puisín's affections. The boy had Aya as an older brother, nothing more. Unless he wanted to be treated as a sibling, which he most emphatically did not, Farfarello didn't have to be jealous of Nagi.

He could still be jealous of the time with Aya Nagi took from him.

"Come to bed. We have to celebrate the accomplishment of a long-time goal." The killing itself had been dull, even with the fire, though watching Rosenkreuz explode had been very satisfying. Now he felt a great lust that could only be slaked with kitten flesh.

Aya stirred slightly but didn't really cooperate. He seemed to be feeling some lingering guilt, although Farfarello couldn't see why. Stubborn.

Convincing him was always great fun.

It took much more kissing and stroking than usual--not that Farfarello minded, not when he marked his puisín through touch--before Aya fully submitted. At times like these, the sex was like a fight with a worthy opponent, strike and strike and strike in a duet dance until he wore his partner down to get what he wanted.

That didn't sound flattering to Aya at all.

"It doesn't make you angry, does it, my puisín?"

"Hunh?" Aya panted, looking dazed and luscious amidst the rumpled sheets.

Farfarello hugged him tighter. "Good."


	50. "Very sweet, actually. Like a very special meeting of father and son control freaks...."

"Now that we've gotten rest and recreation done with--" Crawford made a show of ignoring Schuldig's snickering, "--we have business to discuss. Nagi has gone through the personnel roster to see what teams were present while we were at Rosenkreuz. Some alpha teams are out on assignment. We may face them in the future. Some of them might not understand the favor we did them and want revenge. We should be careful of all of them just in case. Nagi has printed up a list of those teams and talents for each of us. Epitaph wasn't at Rosenkreuz either. It seems that he or it is in Japan."

"He or it?" Aya asked as he leaned against the wall. Since his lover had such stamina, his "recreation" with Farfarello had taken a lot out of him.

"With what Eszett was into, you never know," Schuldig answered as he lounged on Nagi's bed. The bed's owner looked annoyed over his presumption. Nagi no doubt hated them hosting this meeting in his room, but Crawford had declared it to be the neatest of the three.

"Even the high security files are secretive on what Epitaph is or does," Nagi said.

"So when do we go to Japan to finish the job?" Schuldig asked.

That was the question Aya had been about to ask. It struck him as strange that _Schuldig_ would be so eager.

"Not for a while," Crawford answered.

"What? Epitaph is there. We have Eszett on the ropes. Their European operation is a smoking ruin. We should wipe up the remnants."

"We're waiting for something."

"Weiß," Aya said, suddenly sure.

Crawford smiled a little. "They'll help us get what we want, and we won't have to do anything to make them."

"I have something I want to bring up," Nagi said. Aya had thought that his earlier release would have relaxed him, but he seemed to be strung tight again. "While the rest of you kept me awake, I went through the talent rosters and spent a lot of time thinking. I'm wondering about something. Crawford, are you feeling any impairment?"

"Why?" Crawford asked. Although Crawford had his usual unconcerned expression, Schuldig had tensed a little.

"Your hair went completely white. Did you think I wouldn't notice?" Nagi sounded upset.

"I'm fine. It's not always a sign of--"

"Burnout, overwhelming power, or another chunk of years taken off your life? Not all the time, but often."

"What's going on?" Aya asked.

"When a precog goes silver, it's usually a sign of strain," Nagi said. "Usually from his powers increasing and taking a greater toll on his body."

Aya remembered that Crawford had once described his precognition as a minute-by-minute ability, not something he could use to predict events in the far future. Yet he'd been seeing further and further into the future lately.

"There hasn't been any impairment," Crawford said. "I just went fully white from the strain of breaking through the power blocking my vision. Nagi, _you_ made sure that won't happen again."

"But it started before that, " Nagi answered.

"What good would talking about it have done? It won't reverse it."

"Aya, precogs get some of the worst shit, but the rest of us.... We're all stronger, faster. We heal faster and better than normal people do. But there's a price."

"The candle that burns the brightest, burns the fastest," Farfarello suddenly said.

"Shorter lifespan?" Aya asked. Of course there was a price. There was always a price.

"It's dependent on the power involved, how much you have, and how it's used, but yeah," Nagi answered.

Aya thought of the terrifying amount of power Nagi wielded on an almost daily basis and how it seemed to live inside his body. Then he looked at Farfarello.

Farfarello shrugged. "I can't be that badly off. I'm not powerful, nor have I used what I have very much."

"Your self has been haphazardly attached to your body for years," Schuldig said. "Since you don't really feel pain, you've run your body into the ground. You think you're getting off easy? And, Nagi, Brad's barely admitting what happened to himself, let alone talking to other people about it unless they bring it up."

"You're not helping," Crawford said.

"That's not my job."

"You've been doing it lately."

"Yeah? Well, don't rely on it."

"I never thought that I'd live--" Farfarello abruptly stopped talking.

"You never thought that you'd live long enough to have to worry about it?" Aya asked softly.

"Yes."

"Don't go for the door, Aya," Schuldig said. "Stay. You're Schwarz, so you should be part of the family sniping."

Aya hadn't even realized that he'd begun to do that. He withdrew when upset. It had become instinct over the years.

"Do you know how long you'll live, Aya? Really?" Schuldig asked.

"No."

"What about your sister and your parents? You think they knew?"

Aya was too shocked for words, but Nagi said, "Back off!"

"I'm making a point. We're not dead men walking. We live with what we have. We could all get killed on the job tomorrow. It's sweet that you're so attached to us that the thought of us dying young hurts, but deal with it. We do." Schuldig snapped, "What?" when Farfarello smacked the back of his head.

"It's a great day." Farfarello grabbed Aya and held him. "Aya wants to grow old with us."

"I didn't--" Aya didn't know what to say. He hadn't thought that except that he sort of had. For years, he hadn't expected to live long enough to die of natural causes. Recently, he'd been doing his best to make sure he wouldn't. Things were different now....

Farfarello rocked him and hummed happily. Nagi watched them with a raised eyebrow and what might be the beginning of a smile. Schuldig smirked a little deeper than usual. Crawford's veneer of boredom and annoyance didn't quite cover the calculation in his eyes.

"I think we've run this topic into the ground," Crawford said. "Tomorrow we'll drive to Vienna. Then we fly to Paris. We have jobs we can take on there until Weiß decides to strike."

"I hate the French," Schuldig said with a sigh.

"Of course you do," Nagi answered.

"You hate everyone, so don't sneer. Besides, you'll put wrinkles on that pretty face of yours."

"We're done for now," Crawford said. "Dismissed."

Back in their room, Farfarello purred, "You worry about me."

"You know that I do," Aya said. More now than he had before. He'd taken so many things as they'd come, just looking at the surface instead of thinking about what they meant. That had to change.

Farfarello grabbed him again and twirled him around the room. "I have no intention of dying."

"Me neither."

******************************************************

"Schuldig, you go," Crawford said. "I want to talk to Nagi privately."

"Sure, Brad," Schuldig said as he closed the door. He'd probably eavesdrop telepathically, but Crawford had become accustomed to that as well.

Crawford faced Nagi, noting the boy's formal, professional demeanor, steady gaze, and neutral if slightly guarded expression. If Nagi felt any nervousness, he didn't show it. Very good. His clothing trod the edge with its slightly fetish bent, but if Crawford refused to work with people based on how they dressed he wouldn't work with anyone at all. At least Nagi's attire was flattering and in dark, sober colors. The boy had become a young adult at some point.

Though Crawford would probably think of him as "the boy" well into Nagi's thirties.

"You know that you are a valued member of the team," Crawford began. "Your work couldn't be done by anyone else here. I value your determination and perfectionism, and I trust you to do your job."

"Thank you."

"I wonder why you thought it appropriate to voice your complaint in public instead of privately to me."

Nagi never flinched. "Crawford, it's rare to catch you in a private moment alone. The few you have, you deserve to have uninterrupted. In any case, this is a Schwarz matter, for the whole team. If one member has a difficulty, the others must know about it so they can work with or around it. Aya is a part of Schwarz now, and he must not be kept in the dark on important matters. I waited for some word from you on whether the change in hair color was attached to a change in your health and power, but it didn't come. I thought only of the good of the team."

Again, cool, formal, and professional. Nagi countered him with logic and good sense. Crawford had to look very deeply into the boy's eyes to see the concern underlying it all. It made sense, since telekinetics had as high a burnout rate as precogs, although _they_ tended to go out suddenly in a flash of power, like a lightbulb. Nagi understood the fear.

"In many cultures, it's rude to stare like that," Nagi said, with a touch of humor in his voice.

"I'll take your concerns into account, but I don't want any more surprises in meetings."

"I can't promise that."

"_Try_."

"Yes, sir."

Crawford turned to go, then said, "Nagi. I _am_ fine. If that changes, I'll let the team know."

Nagi bowed a little to him. "Thank you."

In their room, Schuldig lounged on the bed with a glass of wine in his hand and a very satisfied look on his face. "Nicely done."

It left Crawford half amused and half annoyed. "Oh, shut up."

"Very sweet, actually. Like a very special meeting of father and son control freaks...."

"Why do I keep you around?"

"Because I'm fast, gorgeous, and useful, and I keep your cold, skinny ass warm at night."

"Useful. Then make yourself useful."

Schuldig's smile looked like even more of a leer than usual. "Sure. C'mere, Blondie."

******************************************************

Farfarello looked around Crawford's mind. He didn't see any strain or damage among the blue and black here, but he could hardly consider himself to be an expert.

~ What the hell are you doing in here? ~ Schuldig asked.

"I could ask the same of you," Farfarello answered, surprised.

~ This is my home away from home. _You_, on the other hand, don't have an invite. ~

"I'm training myself."

A sudden pulse of hot, cinnamon red threw Farfarello back into his own body. He sulked at the thought of another avenue to training closed and the closer telepathic scrutiny the mindslut would be giving him. Unable to test himself in Crawford's mind, he'd have to wait until Schuldig relaxed his vigilance to approach Friendly and her hound.

******************************************************

The drive to Vienna was usually long and dull, though picturesque, if you liked pretty scenery. They livened it up by switching drivers now and then. When Nagi drove, Schuldig took a particular and adolescent glee in occasionally asking him if they were there yet and in the snappish "No!" that Nagi always responded with. Of course, the problem with Crawford doing the ride as a passenger was that Schuldig perpetually tried to make out with him.

"That's a problem?" Schuldig would ask.

"It is if we don't want Nagi to crash."

"Thank you," Nagi answered.

When Aya didn't nap or drive, he looked out the windows, trying and failing not to look bored. He seemed to see Farfarello's constant attempts to make out with him a problem as well, perhaps out of a lingering sense of modesty and decorum. Nagi supported Aya in that by mentioning that no one wanted to make Nagi crash the car. Farfarello didn't find that a compelling argument and often said so.

Even by Schwarz standards, it was a strange ride. Crawford was very glad when they reached Vienna, and he knew that the others felt the same way.

******************************************************

The night before they flew out, they had to get rid of the car. "We never leave anything incriminating behind us," Crawford said. While it might have been more sensible to have Nagi destroy it alone, they all went along to watch.

"Of course I have to watch," Farfarello said. "I first consummated my bond with my puisín there."

"I didn't know you were so sentimental," Crawford said.

"I come from a sentimental people."

Nagi made an odd sound that could have been a cough or a laugh, then said, "I just have something stuck in my throat...."

Once they found a properly deserted area, Nagi used his telekinesis to ram the car so hard into the corner of a building that it looked like a twisted lump with tires. They all flinched at the impact, even though Nagi had also muffled the sound of the crash. Then he did something to the gas tank that turned the car into a blazing torch.

An investigation would discover the lack of bodies in the car, but they would be long gone by then.

Aya felt melancholy as he watched it burn. Who knew that he could be so sentimental about a car? He didn't miss the Porsche he'd driven as a member of Weiß.

"Of course you feel sentimental. You were reborn in there, and a phase of your life ends here," Farfarello murmured into his ear. Glancing at him revealed a similar melancholy on his face. "But fire is right and good. A funeral pyre for a machine that served us well."

Nagi and Crawford watched it burn with a contented satisfaction, Schuldig with a wild exultation. They all stayed for about five minutes before they walked far enough away to call a taxi. Another car service would pick them up to take them to the airport in the morning.

******************************************************

Of course, Aya found walking through check-in to be a much different experience while conscious. Being conscious meant that he could be nervous, not that a stranger would see it on him. At every point his eyes picked out the locations of all the exits and guns in every room he walked into. Having a small headache from Schuldig removing that German language default setting from his mind this morning didn't help his mood.

Schwarz's most incriminating tools had already been shipped ahead, while the ones they couldn't bear to be too long parted from had been camouflaged and, where possible, disassembled and scattered throughout their luggage. Nagi looked resigned and vaguely annoyed as he took his laptop out of its carry case and turned it on for the guards, just as anyone would. Schuldig obviously had to restrain himself from flirting with or taunting anyone.

Farfarello set off the metal detectors, while his scarred face set off the guards, but he produced paperwork explaining that he'd been in a severe car accident and not all of the metal pieces could be safely extracted from his body. Farfarello smiled a little and said, "I hear that it's far safer to fly." They patted him down more thoroughly than usual anyway, and Aya could see that he went... elsewhere to deal with it without resorting to homicide. Crawford watched closely the whole time. Aside from that, they didn't attract any special interest.

Crawford read a magazine, Schuldig probably got into some telepathic mischief, Nagi played some kind of computer game, Farfarello napped on Aya's shoulder, and Aya read one of his books to get through the dull flight. Going through customs in Paris almost made Aya long to be back on the plane flying, but that was from it being such a long wait, an annoying process, and another thorough inspection of Farfarello.

"Some people pay for that kind of treatment, Farfie," Schuldig murmured to him, then dodged out of the way.

But once they finished there was a car waiting for them, pre-arranged by Crawford, and they drove to their new apartment, also pre-arranged by Crawford. Aya found it vastly comforting to have someone so capable doing these things, so he only had to trust and move forward. For years he'd done everything for himself, not out of any real wanting to but because he knew that no one else cared enough to do it right. Leaving things to other people had produced stupidities like "You should let your sister go, since she can't be saved" and "You should accept that there were things about your parents you didn't know, Ran." If he'd left things to other people then, Takatori Reiji might still be the dictator of a Japan under martial law. But now, he could finally relax a little.

It took a little effort to translate the signs and talk around him, unlike the automatic understanding the German default had given him. Since that felt closer to normal, it pleased him. The French Schuldig had given him while he'd tested Amann's words worked well, though it struck him as so odd to hear Schwarz speak French, maybe because there didn't seem to be a reason for them to know it. But telepathy bridged many gaps....

The new locale left him with an odd excitement. He'd seen more new places in the last few months than he'd seen in his whole life prior to this.

"France," Schuldig said with a sigh, "is so..."

"French?" Crawford answered.

"Yeah."

"I want a room with a good view," Farfarello said as they walked into the apartment.

"You never cared about a view before," Schuldig answered.

"That was when bars always blocked the view."

"Good point."

They settled in quickly and efficiently, no doubt from all the practice they had at it. Expecting the rest of their things to arrive the next day, Crawford declared this night to be a free one. Tomorrow night, they'd work, since he'd already lined up a job for them. He had no intention of the team remaining idle as they waited for Weiß to attack the remnants of Eszett.

For recreation, Nagi combed through the files he'd downloaded from Rosenkreuz, while Schuldig dragged Crawford along on a night out. Aya didn't know what entertainment the telepath had in mind and preferred to remain ignorant.

Farfarello sat at the window seat their bedroom had and stared out at his view, the new city lit up for the night. His fingers toyed with his barbwire necklace, which he'd retrieved from their luggage as soon as they'd started to unpack. He grabbed Aya and pulled him down to be with him. While the window seat hadn't been designed to accommodate two adults, they could share it as long as Aya nearly sat on top of him, caged or supported by his body. The window bled cold air, but Farfarello radiated heat. Entwined, they sat in comfortable silence for a while.

"It's a new life," Farfarello finally said in English as he pressed his fingers against the glass.

"Eszett isn't destroyed yet," Aya answered in the same, easier than he had with the German default in his mind.

"I'm not talking about just that."

Aya thought about the conditions Farfarello had lived in before his arrival: sleeping on the floor or in a straitjacket in a locked room with bars over the window. _Contentedly_ sleeping on the floor or in a straitjacket in a locked room with bars over the window. "Yeah, it is a new life."

Farfarello nuzzled Aya's neck, his lips feeling so hot against the chilled skin. "The world is bigger, and God didn't have a fucking thing to do with it." His fingers felt cold as they crept up under Aya's orange sweater to stroke his stomach.

Aya leaned back and gave himself up to it.


	51. "You were naked and I didn't notice?"

Aya woke up fighting against the hands that shook him. It took him a minute to recognize Crawford with that silver hair and the worry in his eyes behind the glasses. That obvious worry instantly cleared away any lingering sleep fog. "What is it?" Aya asked.

Crawford pulled him out of bed without giving him a chance to dress, and that further evidence of something gone terribly wrong inspired Aya to move faster on his own. Farfarello growled a warning to Crawford, probably at seeing his partner being so manhandled, but Aya waved him off and said, "It's all right."

As soon as Aya reached the hallway, he heard an annoying, repetitive beeping. Crawford directed him to Nagi's room but didn't go in himself.

Nagi was slumped over his desk, his head on the keyboard of his laptop. The abused machine was beeping in protest. As Aya pulled the boy up, he noticed the spasms running through Nagi's limbs and blood at his lips as well as a darkening bruise at his brow from where he'd hit his computer. His eyes were open but saw nothing. It had to be the damned word.

Looking at the file open onscreen, Aya saw where the run of letters from Nagi's fall onto the keyboard had started, and there was the word, nestled in a paragraph of words from several languages put together to make gibberish sentences. Shit. He did the only thing he could think of: he started to read off every word that followed the cursor in the hopes that the counterword had been included as well.

After what seemed like a small eternity, Nagi took in a sudden, harsh breath, then moaned. Aya asked, "Nagi?"

"What was that word? The one I came to on."

"Pomegranate."

"Pomegranate? The fucking counterword is 'pomegranate'?"

"I didn't choose it. You have to admit that people would be unlikely to say it by accident."

Nagi groaned and wiped blood off his lips. "I hurt so much. I bit my tongue. Somebody has to die for this."

Schuldig stumbled in and slapped the back of Nagi's head, then yelled, "You fucking idiot!" as Nagi cried out in greater pain. Schuldig winced himself but tried to attack again.

Aya stepped between them and blocked every blow Schuldig aimed at Nagi. "Calm down."

"He dragged me into it with him!"

No wonder Crawford had been upset enough to let his upset show, since both his lover and his almost son had fallen to the word. "Nagi has suffered enough already."

Farfarello grabbed Schuldig from behind and imprisoned his wrists, smiling a little as the telepath tried to struggle out of his grip. "You know I can't let you attack my puisín. Be nice."

"I couldn't _not_ read it," Nagi mumbled, sitting hunched, his eyes fogged with lingering pain. "I couldn't remember the first syllables, but I felt it coming on and I still couldn't stop myself."

"How could you be so careless?" Crawford asked, looking calm and cool now.

"It's hidden in what looks like a corrupted bit of a kitchen requisitions file."

"Then why did you read it?"

"Because they've hidden important things in mundane files before. I'm an idiot. I know that. I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Schuldig asked. "I hit the floor face-first because you got overconfident."

"Who asked you to be that closely linked with me anyway?"

"This isn't productive," Crawford said.

Nagi took in a breath, then said, "This bit may actually be written in code. We might get lucky and find the way to deprogram the word out of us in here."

"You'll go to bed. When you wake up after at least a few hours' sleep, you can try to decrypt this with Aya in the room. These are commands, not suggestions."

"Yes, sir." Nagi stumbled to the bed and would have fallen if Aya hadn't caught him. Lying down, Nagi unfastened enough buttons and belts to get more comfortable, then pulled the covers up to his chin and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Everyone else leaves," Crawford said. "Farfarello, let go of Schuldig."

In the hallway, Schuldig looked a little less pained and leered at Aya. "Nice."

Aya hadn't remembered his nakedness until now. Trying to cover himself would only draw more attention to it, so he strove to be blasé. "You could have been lying on the floor face-first longer while I dressed."

Farfarello smacked the back of Schuldig's head hard enough to drive him into the wall a little. "Ah. You're not so fast like this."

"Farfarello, don't do that again," Crawford snapped, though he held Schuldig back from trying to hit Farfarello.

"He should keep his eyes to himself. Or I'll rip them out and hand them to him."

"I'll tear Schuldig's eyes out myself if I have to," Aya said as he held Farfarello, who was also naked, back. "But not now. This isn't the time or place for this."

"Sure it is."

"Let him take a shot, Aya," Schuldig said. "I'd love to have an excuse to shove this migraine onto somebody. It's bad enough that even he might feel it."

"This team used to be more of a unified front," Aya said.

"Only when we were trying to browbeat you into submission. This is more like us."

"I prefer the new Schwarz," Crawford said.

"You would."

"Headaches always make you bitchy."

"Life makes me bitchy."

Crawford dragged Schuldig away. "This ends here. You need some rest."

"I want to kick Farfarello's ass first!"

"That won't happen," Farfarello said.

Crawford pushed Schuldig into their bedroom and then closed the door behind them.

"Interesting morning," Farfarello said. "Now we can go back to bed."

"I'm awake now," Aya answered.

"I said to bed, not to sleep."

Aya thought of Nagi slumped in his chair making small choking noises as his body twitched. "I'm not in the mood. I want to go for a run."

"It's not as much fun, but all right. We'd better dress first."

"Yeah, I think so."

******************************************************

"What, Brad? It would have been nice to fight out some of my temper," Schuldig said, nearly twitching with barely suppressed... something. Pain, tension, energy, lust, he didn't know. He'd thrust his migraine into Farfie, who hadn't even noticed, but echoes lingered.

"You've taken enough damage for one day," Brad answered.

"You think I can't take Farfie?"

"Not after what you went through. You saw how easily he hit you."

True. Annoying but true. "He gets so riled up over nothing."

"You know he hates it when you leer at Aya."

"Aya was _naked_. What the hell else was I supposed to do?" Aya had been naked. Why had Aya been naked? Aya didn't show himself off like that. Schuldig looked at Brad and pried a bit, coming up with an image.... "You dragged him out of bed for me."

Brad went stiffer and blanker, sure signs of defensiveness. "You started making choking noises and fell face-first to the floor. Nagi nearly bit his tongue off. It seemed like an emergency."

Schuldig looked at the memory and smiled. "You couldn't even talk to him about what had happened, you were so upset."

"Next time I'll give him the opportunity to dress first."

Pleased, Schuldig twined around him. "No! It's sweet. Besides, it gave me a chance to see him naked in the actual flesh."

Brad relaxed a little. "How are you, Schu?"

"It feels like my skull is a few sizes too small and being hit with hammers from the inside and outside. And that's after getting rid of most of it."

"Farfarello didn't notice?"

Ah, Brad. Schuldig could never settle on whether it annoyed him or entertained him to have someone who knew him so well. "Didn't seem to."

"Does Nagi know how to do that?"

"No. Even if he did know, I don't know if he could. Telepathy isn't the same thing for everyone." Schuldig nuzzled Brad's silver hair and unbuttoned his suit jacket. Schwarz's fearless leader lost his head over so few things, so being able to reduce him to wordless panic suggested that Schuldig had a lot of power over him. Happy thought.

"Go to bed, Schu."

"Thought you'd never ask."

"To sleep."

"Sex is a great pain reliever, Brad. I could use some relief," Schuldig answered, punctuating his statements with a long, luxurious rub along Brad's back and ass.

"The things I do for you."

Score. "You martyr."

******************************************************

As Nagi directed Aya in decrypting that section of the file, he suffered from embarrassment along with the lingering pain. How could he have been so stupid? Of course, it galled that a mere word could reduce him to helpless seizures. Right now, he didn't dare look at the screen as Aya worked.

Annoyed at himself, he went through the events of the morning in his head, partly to do know how to do better next time and partly to punish himself. Hey, wait-- "Aya, were you naked this morning when you came in to save me?" Nagi'd had dreams about being rescued by a naked Aya, and when it happened he hadn't been aware of it?

When Aya glanced at Nagi, he had an expression on his face that mingled annoyance and embarrassment. "Crawford apparently felt that something needed to be done quickly, because he yanked me out of bed."

"You were naked and I didn't notice?" The effects of the word had been powerful indeed.

Aya sighed.


	52. "You better be careful. People might start thinking you care."

As Aya sat on the couch with Farfarello half draped on him, he watched Nagi give his report to Schwarz. The boy looked cool and formal as he stood and gave his news, but someone who knew him well could notice the lingering lines of strain around his eyes. Six hours of sleep hadn't seemed to help much.

"Aya informs me that the word and counterword are in there, as well as instructions to deprogram the word out of us," Nagi said.

"But you don't sound enthused," Schuldig replied.

"Do we really want us to try the deprogramming on ourselves? It might be a trick that could fuck us up worse. We can't even be sure that 'pomegranate' is the word in the paragraph that's the counterword--"

"Pomegranate?" Schuldig asked. "You have to be kidding me."

Nagi shot him an annoyed look. "I didn't choose it. As I was saying, we can't even be sure that it's the counterword unless we were exposed to the word again and Aya tried it out."

"We need guinea pigs," Crawford said.

"That's my thought. It would be safer."

"Our current target has two Eszett talents assigned to protect him. They may have our word."

"Who are we doing tonight, Brain?" Schuldig asked.

"Gustave LaBelle. Head of the richest and most lethal Paris crime syndicate. He's connected mainly to drugs and murder-for-hire and has a small army of his own."

"Deny this dark beast his tomorrow."

"Am I to believe that you'll only be taking jobs to kill evil men from now on?" Aya asked. He'd wondered. Rather, he'd tried not to wonder at the kind of targets he'd be expected to take on as a member of Schwarz.

"We're not prejudiced against killing people you might consider innocent," Crawford said, "but the truth is that 'dark beasts' are more profitable targets. They have more enemies and competitors willing to pay for their deaths. They're craftier, harder to kill. They usually have large security forces. All these factors raise the price."

"We've spent a lot of time killing scumbags," Schuldig said. "The difference here is that Brad's giving you the guy's resume. Before, we got our marching orders without any explanation and went out to do our jobs."

"Or threw a fit about how no one was the boss of you and disappeared."

"Then Eszett would catch me, throw me in a room that's three meters by three meters, blank out my telepathy, and leave me there without food or water until my attitude changed."

Crawford almost looked upset. "I didn't know about that."

Schuldig waved his hand. "You didn't care as long as I came back ready to work. It's been a while. Bygones."

Schuldig had been different since the fall of Rosenkreuz, moodier, more volatile. Of course, that had also been the day Crawford's hair had gone fully white. The telepath kept claiming his current behavior to be a return to his original form and Aya didn't know enough about how Schwarz had acted amongst themselves before his inclusion to argue against that claim, but it didn't feel right, and Crawford seemed to feel the same way about it. Aya looked at Crawford, who nodded back to him, as if acknowledging and affirming his concern.

When had he formed a bond with Crawford?

"Nagi, if we can make a move tonight, are you well enough to be included?" Crawford asked. "Tell me the truth, not what you think I want to hear."

"My head hurts, but I can deal with it. I don't think I can do anything delicate with my telekinesis, but I'm sure I can throw and crush things."

"Can you do some research and hacking?"

Nagi's sneer should have been lethal. "The day I can't do that is the day I'm dead."

Crawford nearly smiled. "That's good. The rest of us will be doing legwork."

"Since LaBelle's Eszett talents are so rude as to put a haze around the minds of his core group, I'm fucking useless unless I can get closer," Schuldig said. "Is this a pure-hearted enough kill for you, Aya?"

"What?" Aya asked.

"Are you in?"

They still wondered about that? "I'm in." He could feel Farfarello smiling against his cheek.

******************************************************

"What a fucking waste of time," Schuldig said as he hung his coat up.

Crawford hung his own up, then straightened Schuldig's. "Now we know where he'll be tomorrow night. We'll smash him then."

As soon as Schuldig went into their bedroom, he tossed himself onto their bed and settled on it a long sprawl, somehow taking up its entire width. "I hate hanging around. I hate waiting."

"Is there something you'd rather be doing?" That usually had a predictable answer.

Instead, Schuldig stared at the ceiling and silently smoked.

Crawford stretched out beside him, lying on Schuldig's left arm for lack of a clear space. "Is there a reason why you're so eager to finish Eszett? Why you've been sniping in the past few meetings?"

"I didn't snipe in the last meeting. Sue me for sharing one of my Eszett experiences with the group."

"Was that the Box? You mentioned something like that once."

"Yeah." Schuldig smirked around his cigarette. "I know this is like pulling teeth getting information out of me, Brad, but have _you_ got anything better to do?"

"I hate it when you just read things out of my head."

"I didn't have to that time."

"I want to know what the fuck is bothering you lately. I have that right."

"As what? My leader? My lover?"

"As those and more besides."

"You want the truth?"

"It would be _nice_."

Schuldig looked very young suddenly. "I don't know why. That's the truth. I just have this vague bullshit blanket anxiety, and it's making me bitchy. It could be mine or somebody else's. I dunno."

"That's it?"

"Maybe I want you to nail your goal too, so I'm goading you forward. Keeping you going. Like I said, bullshit."

Warmed by the admission and the ability to use it, Crawford stroked Schuldig's hair and said, "You better be careful. People might start thinking you care."

"Suck my dick."

Crawford slid his hand down to rest over Schuldig's groin, since the leather pants were too tight for him to slide his hand under the waistband. "I might. Eventually."

"See, teasing like that forces me to goad you." But he grinned.

******************************************************

Legwork. Boring. Lacking violence as an outlet, Farfarello had been forced to leash all of his energy in until they arrived home and he could thoroughly and properly pounce on Aya. Now, sleepy yet still restless, he drowsed in bed at his sleeping kitten's side.

This might be a good time to look into getting a teacher for his ability. He quietly slipped out of his body and checked to see if Schuldig noticed. No, the mindbreaker slept deeply and well, entwined in mind and body with his lover.

This time Farfarello found the jumps and search for Friendly to be easier. Coming to it with greater experience and without any lingering pain must help. He didn't try to be stealthy this time either, since he didn't want to look like he was trying to sneak up on her.

Her blazing dragon form met him in the cloudy between space, and she spat a warning stream of fire at him that he easily dodged. ~ Will you just go home and stay there? You're pissing me off! ~ she growled. A puppy that also blazed with her blue-gold flames appeared on her right shoulder near the wing joint.

~ I don't want to fight, ~ Farfarello said.

~ What _do_ you want? ~

~ I want you to train me. ~

The dragon and puppy stared at him wide-eyed for a while until Dummkopf broke the silence to say, ~ He's crazy. ~

~ Not at all. Elena has more experience than I have, and she's bested me in the past. ~

~ Kicked your ass, ~ she said.

Annoying bitch. ~ Schuldig told me that you could have done terrible things to Aya but didn't. ~

~ Have _him_ train you! ~

~ He's not proving to be very good at teaching. ~

When Friendly snorted, she made little smoke rings. ~ I'm not surprised. But I'm still not helping you. You attacked me before. How do I know you won't take what I teach you and use it against me? ~

As much as he hated to give up the opportunity to attack her later, he said, ~ I give you my word. ~

~ How can I trust your word? You're an assassin. ~

~ So are you! ~ he answered, impatient with this dance.

~ But I'm not trying to convince anyone that I'm honorable. My second objection is that I see nothing in it for me. My third objection is that I don't know what time it is where you are, but here it's 10 o'clock, late morning, and it would look really strange if I just 'fell asleep' in my chair all the time like I'm doing now. ~

There had to be a way to convince her. He just needed to find it. ~ I'll be back sometime. ~

~ Don't rush on my account! ~ she shouted after him.

Back in his body in bed, Farfarello seethed. Were all telepaths annoying or just the ones he knew?

******************************************************

Elena came to with Fenris just about wrapped around her. "That was exciting," she said.

"It wasn't exciting. He hates you," Fenris said.

How glad was she that found a name other than "idiot" that he'd answer to? Very glad. Under her guidance, he was becoming more verbal too. She _knew_ he was much smarter than anyone gave him credit for. No matter what that bigot Koun had to say.

"If I refused to work with people who hate me, you'd be the only person I'd have left."

"Not funny."

Elena turned back to the computer and glared at the report she'd barely started to write that Farfarello's visit had thankfully interrupted. Persia wanted a psionic's account of their missions, and since she was the only psionic here who could write, she had the job. Anyway, Fenris' idea of mission commentary tended toward statements like "The bad guy wore a shiny red ring," which made him less than ideal.

Persia had to know about this visit. She typed, "Berserker showed up in astral space to ask me to train him. I told him no, but he said he'd be back. Please advise," and e-mailed it.

"If he comes back, you won't say yes, right?" Fenris asked.

"Depends on what he has to say." The thought of teaching him left her weirdly intrigued.

Fenris sent a focused burst of fear and worry and impressions of a bloody-handed Farfarello, grinning madly. "No."

"I can take care of myself. Besides, I have to take care of you. Hey, e-mail from Persia. And he writes, 'Please say that this is your idea of a practical joke.'"

"Crazy," Fenris agreed.


	53. "I had to get something out of being helpful. Besides, *I* didn't make you that kinky."

"Have you given any more thought to reintegrating yourself?" Schuldig asked after breakfast. "It doesn't seem like it."

Farfarello glared at him. "You don't want to piss me off this morning. Or ever. But especially this morning." To think, he'd wanted Schuldig to train him.

"Yeah, it looks like something crawled up your ass and died. But I thought you wanted to experience the pleasures of the flesh for yourself." Schuldig glanced at Aya, drawing Farfarello's attention that way. "Plus, the damage your talent is doing to you has to be affecting your life expectancy."

Farfarello hadn't bothered to think of it recently, but he remembered how wonderfully sensitive Aya had been and the longing to feel his puisín with his own hands. Still, it wouldn't do to just hand such a victory over to Schuldig. "I'm not so certain that it's a good idea."

"So? The mission isn't until tonight. Ask Aya if you can hang out inside his body for a while. It might change your priorities."

As much as he hated to think that one of the mindbreaker's ideas had merit, he found the proposal attractive. His puisín had been a feast of textures the last time he'd done this, and he felt so hungry for more. "I'll think about it."

Schuldig smiled as if he already knew that Farfarello had decided to ask. Maybe he did.

Annoyed, Farfarello left him... and went to Aya. "Do you have any plans for the day, puisín?"

"Not really."

"I want to ask you something. Privately."

Aya looked intrigued and followed him away. It pleased Farfarello so much when Aya did what he asked without an argument, and he knew better than to take it for granted.

Though the arguments could be fun too....

In their room, Farfarello said, "I'm a telepath. I know that now. I need to train myself. I want to be inside you for a while."

Aya's pupils dilated, perhaps at the memory of what they'd done the last time. He had beautiful eyes, so beautiful that sometimes Farfarello wished he could take them and put them somewhere safe where only he could find and look at them. "How will that help?" Aya asked.

"It will get me used to using it and maybe inspire me to try harder to fix myself."

Aya looked at him silently for a few minutes, then said, "All right."

Farfarello threw himself onto the bed. "I'm ready."

"You want to do it now?"

"Why not? Besides, we have a job tonight."

"All right."

Farfarello composed his body on the bed, then left it and slid into Aya. It immediately felt different than his, more vivid, more alive. His puisín looked down at Farfarello's body, warm and breathing but otherwise dead, lying on the bedspread, and felt disturbed by it.

There he was. Farfarello wanted, needed, to touch himself. The whisper of a suggestion sent Aya to his knees beside the bed, watching and touching. The cropped silver hair felt thicker and rougher than Aya's smooth, straight strands, while the lips felt softer than he'd expected. He traced the indents of the scars on his face. So warm, so warm. It aroused him, which made Aya hard.

Unwillingly so. "I don't like this," Aya said.

Why not?

Aya looked at Farfarello's body and couldn't get past the idea of it being a warm corpse, unfeeling and unresponsive, and he was no necrophile.

~ This is me being kinky, not you. My lust, not yours. ~ The idea obsessed him now. What would it be like to fuck himself? To be Aya fucking him? What did he really feel like? ~ I'm not dead. And it's not a consent issue. I give mine. I want this badly. ~

"Your body isn't dead, but it wouldn't respond to anything I did. It's not attractive to me."

Farfarello understood now. For Aya, fucking without responsiveness was like how killing without signs of the victim suffering felt to Farfarello: hollow and unsatisfying. Like the killing at Rosenkreuz. He also remembered how frustrating it had been in the beginning when Aya wouldn't admit that he liked to be touched and didn't react right. If Aya needed some signs of Farfarello's body enjoying it, he would get it.

Farfarello slid back into his own body and looked up at Aya. "I could switch back and forth. That way I can give you reactions sometimes _and_ enjoy myself." It made him hard just thinking about it. Arousal and orgasm always came more from his mind than his body.

Aya looked disturbed, amused, and a little lustful all at once. "You really want this?"

"Fuck yes." As he unfastened his pants, he decided that he wouldn't tell his puisín how hot the thought of fucking his own helpless body made him. Aya didn't share all of his kinks. Farfarello took himself in hand and asked, "Can't you tell?"

"I see. But undressing you while you're... out might be tough. You'll be dead weight."

"Your practicality is ruining my fantasy."

"It's how I am."

Farfarello sat up to pull off his shirt, then bent forward to untie his boots, noticing as he did so that his puisín's attention followed the curve of his spine and flex of his back muscles. Maybe this would be easier than Aya kept telling him it would be. He flung his boots away, then fell backward on the bed to better pull off his pants.

Finally, he'd achieved nakedness. "Short of shoving your cock into me myself," which might be close to what would happen, "I couldn't make this easier for you."

Aya's smile had mischief and glee in it. "Thank you." It warmed Farfarello to know that very few people would realize that Aya was grinning.

"Just pretend that I'm asleep and need true love's kiss to be awakened. Or a really good fucking."

"You're ruining the mood."

"What mood?" Farfarello closed his eyes and slid into his puisín's mind, stroking it a little as he did, smiling to himself as Aya's pulse accelerated.

Inside Aya, he saw his body through Aya's eyes. It looked like a beaten and scourged thing, marked by life and struggle, as it should be, yet young and peacefully sleeping too. Some people might have been disturbed seeing themselves this way, but he rarely felt that his body belonged to him. When he saw himself in mirrors, he always had to ask himself at first who that was. His body carried his soul and let him work his will on the world. Otherwise, it had nothing to do with him.

Just being inside Aya's body did things for him. The feel of just the clothing his puisín wore diverted him. How did Aya get anything done with so much sensory information to distract him? If Farfarello lived in here, he would spend all day touching himself, never leaving his room.

That might not be true. He'd go out to see if eating became a voluptuous pleasure too.

~ Touch me, Aya. Please. ~

Aya's hands gliding over Farfarello's chest yielded a wealth of textures and impressions. To Farfarello's excitement, they found scars he hadn't even known he had. Some felt very smooth, others lumpy. Aya liked the way they felt too.

Aroused by Farfarello and himself, Aya got up to straddle his waist, sitting atop him, and the pressure against Aya's inner thighs made Farfarello sigh at how... _much_ it felt. Wanted him naked too.... Their fingers unbuckled Aya's shirt, and his puisín rocked, getting into it, putting on a show of sorts. Once they'd unfastened the shirt--but hadn't removed it--their hands went down to Aya's groin, pressing down on and cupping the sensitive hardness there before unzipping his fly. His puisín's cock felt hot and already a little slick. Aya swirled his thumb around the head a little and moaned Farfarello's moan before bringing his thumb to his mouth and sucking at it, tasting bittersweet.

Aya raised himself up to hands and knees to cover Farfarello and kissed his partly opened lips, dipping his tongue in. It felt soft, which seemed wrong. Aya didn't like this so much, since there was no reaction from the body.

Farfarello slid out to kiss back a little and stroke his puisín's cheek, startling a gratifying shiver out of him. "Just fuck me. I want it. I need it." Aya's buckles dragged along his chest, and he bitterly resented the inability to feel what Aya's fingers knew to be warm metal.

Aya moved backward then sat on his heels at the foot of the bed, his pale body only partially sheathed in matte and shiny black with silver accents, his cock darker than the rest of his body. He looked beautiful and half-wild, overwhelming Farfarello with pride in his ownership of such a rare creature.

"Turn over," Aya said, his voice deeper and darker than usual. "I don't want to have to wrestle and arrange you."

"My pleasure." He rolled over onto his stomach and spread his legs, then slid back into his puisín's body, feeling a moment's dizziness at the sudden change in perspective and range of vision.

Aya's eyes caressed his body, though Aya winced a little at the scratches on Farfarello's back. As much as Farfarello loved to be clawed by his kitten, his kitten had an aversion to the practice and the loss of control it implied and thus trimmed his nails down even further to avoid it. Which forced him to _really_ excite Aya to get scratches. Aya's gaze skimmed over old burn scars on Farfarello's inner thighs that Farfarello hadn't known he'd had, though Aya was apparently familiar with them since he didn't really notice them anymore. They might have been caused by long, narrow hot irons.

Aya wanted to prepare the body before fucking, but Farfarello exerted pressure not to. To his surprise and pleasure, Aya noticed and fought him, saying to trust him. All right. Trust paid off, because the sight of his puisín's slicked fingers sliding into his body ratcheted his excitement higher. The feel of it was incredible too, his body so hot and so tight around their fingers.

Finally Aya finished with the finger fucking and headed on to the actual fucking, thrusting in degrees, working his way in. Once fully sheathed, he stopped for a moment, just breathing, letting himself and Farfarello feel it, before he really started to move. It was glorious. He felt _everything_. Orgasm came too quickly, though it amazed him how it seemed to whip through all of his puisín's body like a tidal wave of pleasure and force, drowning them.

Aya finally curled up beside Farfarello's body, nearly twitching with after-sex sensitivity. Farfarello didn't want to leave... but Aya felt a little depressed by the lack of response from the body, so Farfarello slid back home and petted him. More aware of Aya's mind from having been in there, he felt Aya's sudden burst of warmth from the petting. As good as the sex had been, it had been incomplete, because Aya hadn't been fucking someone he thought of as Farfarello, just Farfarello's body.

Sometimes Farfarello really hated the mindbreaker. Yet he saw more clearly now what he needed to do to get what he wanted.

As a sleepy kitten curled around him, he decided that he would have his talk with Schuldig later. Aya was so fucking cute like this.

******************************************************

As Nagi cleaned himself up with tissues, he realized that the lingering echoes of yesterday's word-induced headache had vanished. He felt great. Who would have thought that kinky sex would be better than aspirin?

He just had to find someone that _he_ could have kinky sex with. Knowing that many people would pay for a full sensory experience like this didn't make the situation suck any less for him.

******************************************************

When Farfarello pushed the door open, he immediately smelled sex. The mindslut lay sprawled, dressed but disheveled, on his back on the bed, smoking with a big grin on his face.

"Was it good for you?" Farfarello asked.

"I had to get something out of being helpful. Besides, _I_ didn't make you that kinky. I assume that you have an answer for me."

"You know damned well."

"Yeah, but saying it means admitting it."

Bastard. "I want to learn to reintegrate myself."

"Of course you do."

"Will you help or just gloat?"

"You're not gonna learn it today no matter what I do. Look, Farfie, my impression of you reentering your body is that you throw or slam yourself back in. No wonder you still don't fit right. I want you to think of how your soul feels as you pull it out and put it back in. Is it like liquid? Threads? And when you go back in, do it slowly and carefully, feeling your way so you fit."

"That's it?"

"It's better than anything you had going on your own."

Farfarello suddenly remembered what sex had been like with the shameless and endlessly inventive telepath, as they'd used each other. Schuldig would have just fucked his vacant body, not caring whether he seemed to be enjoying it or not.

"In a heartbeat," Schuldig said.

"What?"

"You know, you're easier to read after you've been out for a while."

"I didn't know."

Their fucking had just been scratching an itch, or about quieting the voices in his head. Farfarello couldn't imagine doing it now.

"True love." Schuldig sneered.

"It feels good. You should try it."

"You know, Aya's showering right now. It's quite a show."

Sometimes the temptation to lobotomize Schuldig could be overwhelming. "He's not yours to watch."

The sneer became a smirk. "Who said anything about watching? I'm just feeling him right now." Despite the indolent pose, Schuldig quickly dodged Farfarello's striking hand. "Lighten up. If you go back to bed now, you can park your body and take him for a ride yourself."

Not with Schuldig making it seem so wrong. "I've ridden him enough for one day."

"No such thing."

"Leave him alone. I'm watching you now."

"Fine. I'll leave him alone--for now--out of the goodness of my heart."

"You have neither goodness nor heart."

"Yeah. Ain't it cool?"

Farfarello slammed the door on the way out, annoyed that Schuldig's usefulness made it a bad idea to kill him.


	54. "I really have to do everything, don't I?"

As Aya barely ducked another telekinetic strike, Farfarello shouted from across the room, "Use the fucking word!"

"It will take you out," Aya protested.

"Then you can pomegranate me."

"We don't know for sure if that's the right counterword."

"Don't be squeamish. He's wiping the floor with us." Farfarello flew backward into a wall as if thrown by a giant hand but rolled away from the next blow.

The telekinetic said, "I hate to be ignored. I might have to kill you more painfully for that."

Aya shouted the word. Farfarello fell to the floor, but the telekinetic just stared back at him, amused. He either had a different word or no word at all. "Shit! Pomegranate!"

To Aya's relief, Farfarello came to, bounced up to his feet, and threw a knife that the telekinetic knocked away. "This asshole is really starting to piss me off," Farfarello muttered.

Their enemy suddenly shook hard, then turned to face Nagi, who stood in the doorway. Aya couldn't quite see it, but he could feel and hear them throwing force against each other. "Did you try the word?" Nagi yelled.

"Didn't work!" Aya shouted back.

"Go find the other talent. Maybe we'll have better luck there!"

"Stop ignoring me!" the enemy telekinetic shouted.

"All right." Nagi's power tore the man in half. "Idiot."

"Picturesque," Farfarello said as he looked at the remains.

"It's messy but it works."

"We found out that 'pomegranate' is definitely the counterword," Aya said.

"Good to know. Oracle and Mastermind are facing the pyro." Nagi tilted his head. "LaBelle's using the confusion to get away, so it's my job to nail him. They're calling you to see if the pyro shares our word."

They parted ways with Nagi in the corridor and raced through the carnage. LaBelle had thrown a small army at them. Aya didn't even remember killing this many people. It had been so easy.... They didn't need directions to find the others, not with the roar of fire and smell of scorch. Crawford and Schuldig flung themselves out of a room and hit the floor as a wave of flame crackled through the air above them. They rolled out of the doorway and took cover.

"It's about time!" Schuldig said when he saw Aya.

"Will he even hear me over all the noise?" Aya asked.

"It's a she, and perhaps not," Crawford answered. "I can't even see how you'll get close."

"I do," Nagi said. He dropped a body, LaBelle's, at their feet. "I could send Aya in under a force shield."

"You'll have to open it at some point."

"I didn't say it would be easy." Nagi cast a worried look in Aya's direction. "Or safe." Farfarello's grip on Aya's arm tightened.

Crawford said, "It won't come to that."

The flames stopped, although their surroundings continued to burn and smolder. "Have you given up yet?" a female voice asked from inside the room.

"Alsgaard, we've killed LaBelle," Crawford answered. "Your contract is done. There's no reason to fight anymore."

"You're lying."

"No, we're not. Prodigy, display the trophy."

Schuldig said, ~ Message from the boss man. Nagi, you make a teke shield that will block out sound and keep us safe. Aya, you say the word as soon as she starts to go nova and be prepared to jump for cover if it doesn't work. ~

Aya didn't like the risk involved, but he'd done far more dangerous things with less planning and survived.

~ We'll do what we can to make sure you keep surviving. ~

Nagi telekinetically picked up the corpse and hung it in the air in sight of the doorway, then Aya felt a shiver of power along his skin that suggested to him that Nagi had created the shield that would protect Schwarz. The woman let out a fierce growl of anger, and the temperature rose precipitously. Ready to jump to the side for cover, Aya shouted the word.

The temperature plunged so suddenly that he shivered, and he heard a thump from inside the room. ~ She's down, ~ Schuldig said. ~ We win. ~ Apparently the shielding had worked, since Schwarz still stood, conscious and smirking. When Aya dared look inside, he saw her lying facedown on the floor amidst charred, smoldering carpet and badly burnt bodies. Some of her hair smoldered as well.

"Prodigy, please pick her up. It's still dangerous in there," Crawford said.

Nagi had a half-annoyed, half-amused look on his face. "I really have to do everything, don't I?"

******************************************************

Aya sat in a chair behind the pyrokinetic and read the instructions, hoping that they really would deprogram the word's effects out. Given how dangerous Alsgaard's talent could be, Farfarello had objected to Aya being alone with her, even despite the precautions they'd taken. They'd drugged her and shackled her to a chair, with even her head held in place by a collar piece. She wouldn't see him. Schuldig waited outside, ready if Aya shouted for help.

"Pomegranate," he said, then he read through the word strings as the word wore off. When he said the word again, she didn't react to it at all. It had lost its power over her.

"What?" she asked, confused, sounding dazed.

Aya stood and slit her throat with his boot knife, right above the collar piece. As much as it sickened him to so murder a defenseless person, Crawford had very reasonably pointed out how dangerous she usually was. Crawford knew her and knew that she was one of the talents who'd worked with Eszett of her own will. She saw Schwarz as traitors and would only help them to their deaths. In any case, a pyrokinetic could repay your mercy with an agonizing death in a heartbeat. This death sounded practical, necessary.

Still, it felt wrong.

But it was far too late for regrets. He didn't regret that much anyway.

Once Aya made certain she was dead, he knocked on the door and told Schuldig, "The deprogramming worked on her. If we're not too paranoid, we can try it on Schwarz."

"Lovely." Schuldig looked too excited by the blood on Aya's knife.

Aya wiped it off on a towel. "I'm going to go shower." Still buzzing and unsatisfied from the night's work, curious about how the deprogramming would go, he'd worked on Alsgaard immediately upon arriving at the apartment.

"You're not going to deprogram us tonight?"

Aya simply stared at him, too drained to comment, and sheathed his knife.

Schuldig shrugged. "Fine. We've been like this forever, so we can wait until morning."

"Good work, Abyssinian," Crawford said as he arrived.

"Someone else will have to get rid of the body. Good night," Aya answered as he walked away.

******************************************************

Feeling something vaguely wrong, Farfarello waited impatiently for his puisín. Aya could get weirdly moody sometimes. Farfarello would have been much happier if he could have waited outside with Schuldig, but Crawford had been adamant. The seer no doubt worried that Farfarello would do something foolish out of concern.

~ Hey there. ~

That wasn't Schuldig. Farfarello blocked it out, then growled as he realized whom the voice belonged to. Leaving his body on the bed, he sent his soul into the in-between and asked, ~ Why the hell are you here? ~

The dragon smirked at him. ~ It's not as much fun when it's someone paying _you_ an uninvited visit, is it? You said you wanted some schooling. ~ A very disgruntled looking puppy rode her shoulder.

He hadn't expected this. ~ I do. ~

~ One of Persia's seers gave me the go-ahead. He said that it will be important for you to be comfortable with fighting while outside of your body. ~

Persia wanting it almost made Farfarello repudiate her. As he watched her, he realized that she knew that and waited to see which way he would jump. ~ I'm listening, ~ he said.

~ The truth is that I'm not much of a teacher either. I can tell you some things about belief, shielding, and telepathic politeness, but that's pretty much it. You've already picked up some things on your own or from Guilty. The rest is experience. ~

~ At Rosenkreuz, telepathic training took years. ~

~ At Rosenkreuz, the point was more to mold you into what they wanted and make you dependent on your teachers. Training you to use your talent was almost secondary. I'll give you what I can. I just want you to know that it isn't much. ~

~ My puisín is returning. ~

~ Then I'll catch you another time. ~ She disappeared completely, leaving no trail of self for him to follow. Could she teach him that?

This time when he returned to his body he did it slower and tried to concentrate on what it felt like. When thinking about it, he realized that his soul seemed to be made up of threads and that he had several loose ones dangling off himself. Yet he had no better luck putting himself back into his body than he usually did. He felt exactly the same.

Perhaps he should stop expecting to be instantly adept. It might take time.

He hated things that took time.

Then again, he had his puisín lying next to him, and _that_ had taken time. "Brooding again?" he asked.

Aya looked a bit bruised around the edges and not just from being slammed around by that bastard telekinetic. Farfarello sensed a spiritual bruising in him. "The deprogramming worked on her," Aya said, but he didn't sound enthused.

"And then you had to kill her to keep us safe, and that bothered you."

"I'm sure you think that's stupid."

Farfarello nosed his shower-heated skin. "We all have our own beliefs. You did the right thing despite yours."

Aya looked annoyed. So cute.... Farfarello grabbed him and kissed him, stroking the inside of his mouth with his tongue, then sighed as his puisín winced. Damned bruises. Being torn in half had been too good for that teke. Fortunately, bruises faded over time.

"Tomorrow is another day," Farfarello murmured.

"How perfectly obvious," Aya muttered back, a tired and cranky kitten.

"So bitchy.... You did the right thing." Farfarello stroked him in a manner designed to soothe instead of incite and smiled as Aya eventually relaxed into sleep.

Important things were seldom easy.

******************************************************

Aya deprogrammed them all after breakfast. It only took five minutes.

"That's it?" Schuldig asked.

"I just said the word with no effect, so it would seem to be," Aya answered.

"Don't complain," Nagi said. It felt great to be free.

"I gotta be me," Schuldig replied.

"Just not where I have to hear it, okay?" Buoyed, Nagi left to do some hacking.

After an hour of intense work, just as he was about to slip into the final sanctum, Nagi stopped, feeling something wrong. Looking over all the code again, even more carefully this time, he saw that someone had already been in and out of there illicitly. Going in himself after that might have set off alarms. It had been such a beautiful job that he might not have noticed if something hadn't felt slightly off.

It felt like Omi's work.

Nagi slipped away quietly and carefully, then sat back in his chair to think. When he felt the door to his room open, he asked, "Do you see something, Crawford?"

"I think your idea has merit."

As disturbing as it could be to live with a seer, sometimes it saved time. "You wouldn't mind working with Tsukiyono-Takatori even after he stole Aya from us and fed us to Eszett?"

"He's useful. That's why I deliberately waited for him to give Aya back himself, to prevent bad blood between us. I already told you that we'll be using Weiß to help finish off Eszett."

"You've foreseen this, then."

"Bits of it. For a while."

Nagi smiled. "Do I have your blessing to make the offer?"

"Definitely. If you write him now, he'll answer almost in real time, since he's checking his e-mail. Tell him to meet you in another city."

"Rouen?"

"That would be fine."

As soon as Crawford left the room and closed the door, Nagi started typing.

******************************************************

Mamoru sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. The days seemed so much longer lately, and not in a good way, yet he never had enough time to do everything he wanted. He hadn't visited Yoji or Ken recently....

Needing a break, he checked his e-mail accounts. In one of his free accounts he found a message from nekolover@freeserv.net that had the subject "Our Mutual Concern." It might be spam, but he looked anyway, since many of his agents hid parts of their reports in what looked like spam.

He read, _*It looks like I arrived at the party after you left. If I'd gone in, I might have run into some trouble. Maybe we shouldn't be duplicating our efforts like this._

_*Our mutual friend is fine. We take care of kittens very well over here. --N*_

He might be reading too much into it, but it seemed that Nagi wanted to talk to him. Curious about what Schwarz might want from him now, he wrote back: _*What do you suggest?*_

The answer came back within minutes. _*This kind of thing is better done face to face. Be somewhere in Rouen, France at 8 p.m. One of us will find you.*_

Mamoru looked around his office and decided that he could use a break. Besides, he could consider this a business trip. He wrote back: _*I'll be there.*_

******************************************************

To Aya's surprise, Crawford called the team together and said, "Aya and Nagi will drive to Rouen to contact Persia."

"Why can't I go along?" Farfarello asked.

"Because you'll be bored and keep trying to drag Aya into the backseat."

"I don't see a problem."

"I'll have mayhem enough to keep you happy here."

Aya suspected that Crawford saw this as an opportunity to set Farfarello on a task he thought Aya wouldn't approve of. Still, it would be good to see Omi again and have time to think. He worried sometimes that Farfarello had too much influence over him and wanted to see if he had the same mind while away from him.

"Puisín?"

"I'll be fine," Aya answered. "You don't have to worry about me."

"And I won't molest him much," Nagi said.

Farfarello's eyes narrowed. "You're becoming entirely too much like Schuldig."

Nagi answered, "Take that back!" while Schuldig asked, "Why the hell do people always say that like it's a bad thing?"

Crawford handed the car keys to Aya and said, "Divide the driving amongst yourselves however you like. Just leave while you still can."

******************************************************

The long ride didn't dull Nagi's mood, because it felt good to be out doing something on his own recognizance. This seemed like something that belonged to him. He didn't hate Omi anymore since Omi had shown the sense to let Aya go with the people who could make him happy. They two even had some things in common.

Nagi wouldn't call the silence uncomfortable, but he could feel Aya struggling with himself, so he said, "Alsgaard was one of the bad ones. A snap pyro... and a sympathizer too. You had to kill her, because she could've done you in a heartbeat."

"Am I transparent?" Aya asked as he glanced away from the windscreen to look at Nagi. For now, Aya drove.

"Only to the people who know you." It still surprised Nagi how they could put their guards down when alone together. Nagi didn't think he'd ever been so honest with someone in his life.

"It surprises me that you're all so cold to Rosenkreuz's other victims."

"Because we're all talents, you think we should have some kind of freak solidarity?"

"No, but you were all victimized by the same people."

Nagi could see what he meant. "But never in exactly the same way. Eszett was very clever in that. It made sure that we all realized that our bodies and powers didn't belong to us, but it also made sure that we all felt that there were talents above us and below us. People to hate and envy, and people to look down on. If you did what they wanted you to do, you could earn privileges, tiny freedoms. Even when you know what's being done to you, it's hard to fight it. And they always gave us plenty of people to hate. Normals who had normal lives. Normals who thought they were superior. Talents who had privileges. Telepaths who fucked with our heads."

"They distracted you with hatred?"

"You know how distracting hatred can be. They didn't want us to form lasting bonds with anyone. They only ever gave us someone so they could tear that person from us later on. I suspect that the talents trapped in Rosenkreuz's lower levels may work together to get out but that they'll scatter as soon as they're free. Schwarz is unusual. We weren't supposed to feel any loyalty to each other, just to Eszett. What Freundlich did with Dummkopf is unthinkable." Nagi smiled a little. "Yet Kritiker records show that her care of him is turning him into a talent to be reckoned with, even despite his damage, while Eszett was only able to use him as a lab rat. We're seen plenty of limitations in Eszett training."

"I need to know more about how the talents work if we're going to be facing more of them."

"Shit, ask a hard question. Aya, we're all different, even the ones with the 'same' ability. It's like asking how a gunman uses his weapon, because you have to know which man and which kind of gun. Everybody in Schwarz except for you has some level of telepathic ability, yet we all use what we have differently."

"Yet it sounded like you made a generalized judgment on Alsgaard."

"Pyros are easier, since their power is so dangerous that they usually come in only two flavors: wild or tightly repressed. They either love it or hate it too much. Alsgaard was a wild, a snap. She'd spark you for the smallest excuse. Even the repressed ones are dangerous, since that iron control eventually cracks."

"I don't know enough. I don't like being your token normal."

"You're not our token anything, and you shouldn't feel outclassed by anyone. Even Crawford, Schuldig, and Farfarello got their asses kicked by last night's opponents. We want you around."

Aya's mouth twisted. "Even with my inconvenient flashes of conscience?"

Nagi didn't think Aya would be the same without them. "Even with. With or without the word, you're a valuable part of Schwarz." A flicker of expression in Aya's eyes told Nagi that Aya had wondered what difference the deprogramming might make in his status in the team. "Anybody who tried to mess with you would have to take me and Farfarello out too."

"Thanks, though I can take care of myself." Aya's grip tightened on the steering wheel. "I have my moods."

"Who doesn't in this team? The waiting's making you crazy. Me too. I think it's also Schuldig's problem. It's like we're waiting in limbo until we can finish Eszett. But Omi will help. I'm sure of it."

"You're so certain of that?" Aya smiled a little.

"I'm so rarely optimistic that it must have some kind of special power when it does hit me."


	55. "Crawford tends to give more of a 'lick my shoes, scum' impression, even when he isn't trying to."

Smirking over the somewhat sinister sounding instructions, Mamoru walked around, on guard and waiting to be contacted. He pulled his coat tighter around his neck at the sudden small breeze, then turned to face Nagi with several darts ready between his fingers.

"You heard me?" Nagi asked. "You're good."

Even though Mamoru had seen him briefly while... rescuing Aya, he still couldn't believe how much Nagi had changed. How could Mamoru now look about two years younger than his age--still an improvement over appearing to be 12--while Nagi looked like _that_? Mamoru couldn't look mysterious and darkly attractive if he'd tried.

Something about Nagi seemed familiar, but not as Mamoru would have expected. He didn't know what he meant.

"I didn't hear you walking," Mamoru said.

"Because I didn't walk." Nagi smiled a little. "I'd like to take this somewhere a little more private. Can you tell your shadows not to shoot at me while I take you there? Not that I can't defend myself, but I'd prefer to save my energy."

He should have expected to be followed by his own people, and they knew he was good enough on his own to need to have even better people shadowing him. "I didn't bring them. They disobeyed orders. I think they could use a good scare."

"You'll probably pay for this with them later on."

Why did Nagi care? "It'll be worth it. Where are we going?"

"Up." Nagi took his hand and led him into the nearest dark alley. Mamoru heard and saw some of his people starting to run, but Nagi had already whisked the two of them skyward with telekinesis. He must have gone into the alley to make sure fewer people saw them flying.

Because that was what they were doing: flying. Mamoru's fingers clenched on Nagi's hand, but he felt exhilaration along with the fear. When would he ever get to do this otherwise? He fought to keep his eyes open against the wind so he could see everything. Always analyzing, he realized that Nagi held on to him with more than just his hand. Telekinesis, feeling like a layer of solid nothing, held him under the arms and around the waist but left his legs alone to dangle, giving a sense of freedom and a little danger.

Nagi set him down gently on a rooftop, then did an exuberant little spin before setting foot on the roof himself. The wind or flight had put color into his cheeks. Mamoru remembered some of the Eszett files he'd been reading about psionics lately, about how they had shorter lifespans and a tendency to burn out. It soured the moment a little.

Did Aya know about it?

"It's more private here," Nagi said. "Besides, we'll be able to see anyone coming at us."

"Thank you for the flight." Feeling somewhat inclined to be difficult, Mamoru continued, "It was much more fun than the time you tried to crush me against a pillar."

"Bygones, surely."

"Did you bring me up here to offer me all the kingdoms of the world?"

"Not even. If we had them, we'd keep them ourselves."

We. "Crawford wants to combine forces with us to take down Eszett?"

"If by 'us,' you mean yourself and Weiß, then yes. We want nothing to do with Kritiker."

For their own reasons and Aya's hatred of Grandfather, no doubt. "Why isn't _Crawford_ here?"

"It's not out of disrespect. We simply want to give you an impression of friendly partnership. Crawford tends to give more of a 'lick my shoes, scum' impression, even when he isn't trying to. Besides, the two of us are the ones hacking into Eszett, duplicating effort. We can do much more in less time if we pool our resources."

"How can we trust you?"

"You either do or you don't. It's up to you."

Schwarz had done things that Mamoru couldn't forgive them for, yet they had their own sense of honor, of a sorts. They seemed to be treating Aya well, and their present goals matched Mamoru's. Besides, some of his current allies made Schwarz look like principled innocents.

He also knew that Schwarz, at least, wanted to take Eszett down, which was more than he could say for Grandfather. Without the promise of monetary profit for Kritiker in its destruction, Grandfather seemed to feel that Eszett should be free to continue destroying lives as it saw fit. Lately he'd been obstructionist in increasingly open ways and begun to refuse Mamoru's calls and visits.

In return, Mamoru had let Weiß continue its investigations and begun to quietly make his own plans. They were close to having everything they needed to strike, so Mamoru didn't see what harm it could do to give a little bit to Schwarz. The psionics could be useful against Eszett and Epitaph. "I think that joining forces would be a good idea."

"Excellent. I think so too. We let each know what we're looking into and share the spoils. I even came up with some codes we can use."

Nagi seemed to be enjoying this. Once again, Mamoru marveled over how different the telekinetic had become. Mamoru remembered Nagi as being quiet and contained, silent even while crushing the life out of people. His outburst over Tot being killed by his own team had been uncharacteristic.

He seemed more open and relaxed now. Appealing....

"I hear your bodyguards racing up here," Nagi said. "Are you ready to go to another rooftop?"

"Ready."

Nagi grabbed him, and they flew in a rush of wind, movement, and exhilaration. Mamoru realized that no one really touched him anymore. It was over too quickly when a smiling Nagi set them down again about six rooftops away.

"So we're agreed?" Nagi asked. "From now on we coordinate our research and hacking efforts."

"Yes. We're agreed."

"Good. Just making sure."

"Schwarz isn't in Rouen." He knew.

Nagi looked unapologetic. "You hadn't agreed _yet_. We have to have our own protections. But Aya's here and wants to see you."

Mamoru fought against the sudden feeling of warmth in his chest, trying to stay hard-boiled. "Does that mean that you trust me enough to let me see Aya now?"

"You earned it. I'll take you to him."

They'd barely separated, so Mamoru simply put his arms around Nagi again and let him carry them down to the street. Mamoru noticed Aya watching them descend. He looked so good.

"I'm surprised Schwarz didn't have _you_ ask me," Mamoru said.

"They wanted you to agree for the right reasons," Aya answered with a small smile. "Besides, Nagi is our expert. He has a better idea of what this entails."

Schwarz could be useful. Mamoru intended to remember that when the time came for the final assault on Eszett.

Nagi had a look on his face as if he were trying to hear something far away. "Your bodyguards are getting worried. They're ordering reinforcements."

Shit. "I should go before this turns into a small war. I want to see you again, Aya." Sometime when they had more time. At least now he had seen that Aya was well with his own eyes.

"I think you will."

If Mamoru brought Schwarz in, he definitely would. "I'll see you again, then. Goodbye, Aya." Since Aya seemed to be allowing hugs lately, Mamoru hugged him and only reluctantly let him go.

He watched them walk away, waiting until they'd been out of his sight for ten minutes before he called his guard to let them know precisely where he was. When they arrived, pissed off at him but trying to hide it, he said, "I was making some business contacts." He didn't owe them an explanation, so they should be happy with what he gave them.

Later he found a paper in his coat pocket that had the codes Nagi had mentioned with a admonition written in German that told him to burn or eat the paper after he finished memorizing it. He'd never guessed that the telekinetic had a sense of humor.

******************************************************

Happy with his success, Nagi rocked to the music playing and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel as he drove them home. Omi had found his reasoning to be compelling and agreed immediately, when Nagi had been expecting more of a struggle.

It would be nice to work with somebody who understood what Nagi was doing for once. Somebody he could shoptalk with.

"You're adorable like this, you know," Aya said softly from the passenger seat.

Nagi couldn't help smiling. "Oh shut up."

"I think he likes you." Aya sounded more earnest than teasing.

Nagi _would not_ think about that. "Shut up. Nobody likes me."

"I like you."

"Hmph."

"I wish he looked happier." Aya put the blame for that on the Takatoris.

"Yeah." To his own surprise, he said, "Me too."

******************************************************

Exhilarated, Farfarello stood and wiped blood off his mouth. He hadn't run that wild for a while, though he missed his puisín killing at his side. Kicking the remains aside, he looked for more, but Crawford and Schuldig had already taken everyone else. How selfish of them.

Again, he missed his puisín, because he felt such mind-clouding lust running through his veins that he was considering taking Schuldig on. The mindbreaker gave him a hot, wild look that suggested that such action would be welcome, but sex with Schuldig always cost too much one way or another.

And he was not Aya.

"Your loss, Farfie."

He buzzed and rocked in the car all the way back to the apartment and claimed first shower rights. With all the blood dripping from him, he knew they wouldn't fight him on it. As much as he wouldn't mind wallowing in the gore a while longer, he wanted to put his body to bed, and cleaning the sheets was always such a pain in the ass. Sleeping on the floor had some advantages.

He jerked off, then cleaned himself thoroughly but quickly, then tossed himself on the bed and composed himself for travel. It took little effort to find Aya. Contented, Aya lounged half-asleep in the leather seat, smiling a little as the boy just about glowed with happiness beside him. Through his half-closed eyes, Farfarello saw the shadows of trees rushing past in the darkness outside the bounds of the headlights.

Aya stirred a little and asked if he were there. Sensitive kitten. Farfarello stroked him and smiled as he arched a little. He so wanted to caress Aya into a froth of lust, but Nagi would notice, and the boy could telepathically block him.

Unfortunately, he couldn't stay with Aya without doing it, so.... ~ See you later, puisín. I missed you. ~

But he still felt too restless to go back yet, so he looked for Friendly and Idiot. Once he called them out to the cloudy in-between place, he grinned and asked, ~ Wanna play? ~

~ What did I do to deserve this? ~ the dragon asked.

~ You exist. ~

~ Thanks. That's so helpful. ~

But she played with him, matching claws and flames against his blades, speaking all the while of speed and practice and belief. His lightsaber still hurt her the few times he hit her, but not as much as it used to, which told him that she was working on making herself believe that it couldn't.

The disapproving puppy watched it all, ready to defend his mother/owner. Remembering how the boy had transformed himself into a giant blazing hellhound, Farfarello didn't scoff at his ability to protect Friendly.

Suddenly the dragon disappeared. Farfarello turned and found himself facing a woman who had a gun pointed at his forehead. Friendly. She said, ~ If I shot you now, you'd be braindead. I gave you just enough time to register the weapon, and in your surprise you would have taken it for truth and made yourself as dead as any real bullet would. ~

Shit. And the shock of it knocked him out of his battle trance, making him feel the burns on his soul more. ~ I didn't think you could switch shapes. Schuldig said that Idiot could because he was a child with total belief. ~

~ Looks like Guilty's a better teacher than you say. Yeah, not everyone can do this. I'm powerful and I practice. Makes a difference. In your case, your physical self and personal icon are so close that I don't think it would be an advantage for you even if you could change. ~

~ You're saying I should be ready for anything and that the element of surprise is always a dangerous weapon. Good advice. ~

~ Koun's knocking at the door, ~ Idiot said. ~ He sounds more pissed off than usual. ~

~ Duty calls. ~ She saluted him with her gun, then she and the puppy disappeared from the between space.

Hurting but far less restless now, Farfarello flew back and tried to ease himself into his body, and this time he could feel some of the threads of his soul trying to catch and anchor. Although he struggled with it, he couldn't get more than half of them fixed. Finally he sank into himself and slept, waking only when the bed moved and his kitten nuzzled into his side.

"Why are the sheets damp?" Aya murmured. Did Aya's hair feel a little softer against his cheek?

"I didn't use towels after last night's shower."

"Hnh."

"I was too impatient to see you." Content, Farfarello pulled his puisín closer and fell asleep again.

******************************************************

"You're disgustingly happy. Stop it," Schuldig said as he finished breakfast and stood up.

"Deal with my happiness," Nagi answered.

"Nagi, I'd like to speak with you privately," Crawford said.

Schuldig suddenly smiled. "Oh, that has to suck."

"Schu, leave us."

"Yes, sir." Schuldig saluted and walked away, snickering to himself.

Obviously, Nagi wouldn't like whatever Schuldig knew Crawford was about to say. "Do you want to do this in my room or here?" Aya and Farfarello had already gone off to sharpen their blades, so only Nagi and Crawford remained.

"Which do you prefer?"

"How bad is it?"

"It's not exactly bad."

At this rate, the suspense would kill him. "Just give it to me here."

"You won't get a chance to coordinate your hacking with Persia because Weiß will strike at Eszett soon."

That was so... disappointing! It made him want to throw a fit. As usual, he didn't actually do it. "Then what was the point of going to Rouen and talking to him?"

Crawford looked so cool, so unruffled. "I didn't see this until this morning. In any case, your work with him in creating an agreement is actually vital. When Weiß is ready to make its move, he'll invite us in on the assault _because_ you spoke to him. He now sees Schwarz as his natural allies. If not for that, we would have been forced to crash the party and perhaps fight Weiß along with Class Z and whoever else is waiting there."

So his effort hadn't been wasted. "That's good, then." But still disappointing. He'd been looking forward to working with Omi in his specialty.

Crawford smiled a little. "I know you wanted an e-mail friend to replace Tot, but it won't happen."

Son of a bitch. "I hate you."

"Hate isn't productive here. Schuldig doesn't know."

"If you know about that, Schuldig knows."

Crawford nearly smiled. "Not always. Let's get Schwarz packing to go."

"It's that soon, then." As much as the missed opportunity for correspondence galled, Nagi had to admit to some relief at finishing Eszett soon.

"Yes."

They found Schuldig in the bedroom, already packing. Nagi looked at Crawford, who said, "I swear that he doesn't know about _that_."

"Know about what?" Schuldig asked.

"Nothing."

Nagi sighed, knowing full well that Schuldig would be relentless now that he'd been made aware of a secret he didn't know. Had Crawford meant for that to happen?

"Brad...."

"Later." And Crawford walked away, with Nagi and soon Schuldig following.

Aya and Farfarello looked weirdly domestic and cozy as they sat on their bed sharpening their blades. "What?" Farfarello asked.

"You should start packing. Persia will call us in soon for the final strike against Eszett and Epitaph," Crawford answered.

Their cozy ease immediately transformed into the sharp, predatory focus of hunters. Aya asked, "Is this a feeling or a vision?"

"A vision."

_Very_ soon, then.

"Finally," Farfarello said.

******************************************************

Ken smelled the blood before he even entered the door, so he had some idea of what to expect, but the extent of the carnage still surprised him. The broken body of a girl he remembered seeing in Class Z colors last time was slumped over the edge of the hospital bed. That clumsy, too-cute teacher who'd asked Sourpuss out and been turned down flat stared at the ceiling with eyes that would never see anything again. She had a large spot of gore on her chest. Sourpuss was lying on the floor gasping beside her, and he had his own saturated chest wound.

"You're late," he gurgled through bloody lips.

"If you were Aya, you wouldn't be dying right now," Ken answered, stung.

"Fuck you all." Asato shuddered as he laboriously reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a disk.

"Is that _the_ disk?" The one that would give them the last pieces they needed to take Eszett out?

"Probably. The Class Z girl was killed for it. Asami... was just in the way."

Ken crouched beside him and took it, putting it in the pocket of his coat. "Who did this to you?"

"Yoji's... fucking girlfriend."

"Tuji?" Ken had known that she was crooked, but... "You got whipped by a girl?"

"She's engineered. She ripped us up with her bare hand... then jumped out the window."

Ken felt something. He didn't recognize it. "We'll avenge your brother, Asato." He knew it now. This was regret. Asato was an asshole, but they'd _made_ him a bigger one, and now he was dying on the floor, and he didn't deserve that.

"We already changed the school, and you'll... destroy Eszett for your own reasons... so I can trust that."

"We never asked for this!"

"I... never asked...." Asato took one last shuddering breath, and his hazel eyes dulled. Ken left the room immediately, unable to stay a moment longer.

Tuji Mayumi had killed a member of Weiß. Yoji would be a mess. At least, Ken figured he would. Yoji had been weird and distant lately, more haunted than usual. Ken didn't know how he'd react to anything anymore.

But it didn't matter. Asato had to be avenged, and Tuji's fingerprints seemed to be all over the worst of Eszett's plans anyway. Yoji shouldn't have become attached to her, not when he'd been put on her tail to gather information, not fall in love. Though maybe the "love" thing had come as an excuse so he could whore himself out without guilt....

It didn't seem to be working.

Weiß needed this disk. If it contained what Asato had thought it did, they could finally hit Eszett. Ken had been dying for this.

Sena met him at the shop's door. "Ken, what's going on?"

"Get Yoji, and I'll tell you."

"Shouldn't we wait for Asato?"

"Asato isn't coming."

The boy stared at him with dawning realization mixed with denial in his eyes before running off to get Yoji, yelling over his shoulder, "I think he's downstairs." Poor kid.

Ken used to be better with kids. He followed him.

Downstairs, Yoji asked, "You have a reason why you're scaring the kid to death?"

Ken took the disk out of his coat. "This may be what we've been looking for. Asato thought so."

"Where is he?" Sena asked softly.

"I'm sorry. He died getting it." Ken looked away from Sena, who was trying to hold himself together, to look at Yoji. "Before he died, he said that Tuji was the one. She's enhanced and gave him a fatal wound barehanded."

Shock, anger, guilt, and something that looked almost like stubbornness mingled in Yoji's expression. He'd be a problem....

"We have to get an expert to look at this disk," Ken continued. Which would be Omi... Mamoru. He was sure that they had it, though.


	56. "Mamoru missed the old days."

Tension so thick that it could choke a person so permeated the apartment that Nagi brought his laptop out to the living room to work because he could feel it even in his bedroom, so he might as well be with the others. They'd finished packing, so they had nothing vital to distract themselves with. Schuldig smoked and paced. Aya had read what looked like three pages of a novel for the last hour. Wrapped around Aya, Farfarello vibrated. Crawford seemed calm as he read a newspaper, but Nagi could feel his anticipation.

Then Crawford looked up, and Schuldig stopped pacing. "Check your e-mail," Crawford said.

Nagi checked his account and found Omi's e-mail. Once he decoded it, he read aloud to his team, all of whom had gathered behind his chair. "Grandfather is blocking us from completing our mission against Eszett and Class Z, but we're going in anyway. Are you interested in being in on it? Aya, I'm asking this as Omi, and I know you're not surprised. Crawford, I'm willing to provide compensation."

Aya smiled. Crawford said, "Tell him yes. We can get plane tickets immediately."

"I should ask for directions to the party, I'm sure."

"Of course. Ask him about the compensation as well."

"Aya still doesn't have a new coat," Schuldig said.

"I'm sure I'll survive it," Aya answered.

******************************************************

"The disk has the data we were looking for," Mamoru told Weiß. Not quite worth dying for, but at least it meant something.

"Can we finally go after them?" Ken asked. "We backed off when you asked--"

"That was Grandfather asking." Fortunately, even though Weiß had abided by the order to stop investigating, Eszett had continued to come after them.

They all looked at him then. All. If you could count three surviving members of Weiß and his secretary Rex an "all." Right now he keenly felt the absence of a person leaning against the wall, arms crossed, in the background. One of the uncanny things about Asato was that he'd adopted Aya's position and pose during mission briefings without knowing it.

"Grandfather doesn't approve again?" Ken asked.

"He won't even see me. I'm told that he's too ill. I don't believe it." That had brought home the limits of his power, the limits of family. "Thus, this mission will not be at Persia's order. It will be at Tsukiyono Omi's. The mission is to destroy the artificial intelligence system and execute Tuji Mayumi and Shimojima." He always felt a little silly pronouncing this part, but it was a ritual his father had started. "Dark White Hunters, uncover the true colors of the black beasts and kill them!"

Sena nodded and stood, accepting. Of course Sena did, with his family issues and Asato murdered. The boy had always had a bizarre fondness for Asato, one that had only grown after Siamese had saved him from two of the Class Z kids. Ken put his arm around Mamoru's shoulders, more like the way Ken should be than he had been in some time. But Yoji stood in the background... almost where Aya would once have been. Mamoru would have to keep an eye on him.

Mamoru had to say, "We'll be working with Schwarz."

"What?" Ken asked, putting him into a headlock.

Although he didn't have to justify himself, Mamoru explained, because Ken had been a friend. "You've seen Class Z in action. We'll need all the help we can get. And wouldn't it be good to have Aya around?"

Truthfully, Mamoru trusted Schwarz to get the job done more than he trusted Weiß. Yoji had been odd and haunted for too long, and this mission would demand him to help or stand back as the team killed a woman he'd been romancing and had no doubt slept with. Ken seemed to be in a state of nearly perpetual homicidal anger of late. Mamoru had put Sena on the team specifically because the boy was so volatile and set on finding his mother, who'd just barely failed to kill him years ago, that he would behave recklessly enough to draw attention to himself and bring the enemy out into the open. But now that volatility and recklessness could be a disadvantage, especially since President Kisaragi seemed to have a greater role in Eszett than they'd realized and might take a personal interest in her son being on an assassin team sent in to destroy the organization.

Mamoru hoped that Grandfather hadn't called the Crashers team in but suspected that he had. If so, Mamoru had no idea what their orders were.

This whole situation would take careful juggling. "Schwarz will be helpful," Mamoru said.

Ken muttered but said nothing else.

"Besides, I'll be fighting with you."

Ken smiled. Yoji said nothing. Sena simply nodded.

Mamoru missed the old days.


	57. "You robbed me of my sense of closure."

As they watched Weiß rip into the Class Z kids, Schuldig scanned the area and said, "Fuck. Is _everybody_ here? Eszett, Class Z, Weiß, those damned Russells idiots--"

"Russells?" Aya asked as he chopped down one Class Z opponent.

"A team of cheap knockoffs. Designed instead of natural talents. The Crashers team is here too. It's a big night of nostalgia for you, isn't it, Aya?"

Before Aya could express his surprise or answer, he saw the man directing Class Z turn a gun on Omi, but before he could shout a warning Nagi said, "I'm on it," and stopped the bullet.

Once Weiß got over the shock of the bullet stopping in mid-flight in front of Omi's head before dropping to the ground, they turned and actually looked happy to see Schwarz. "You're a little late," Omi said.

"It's the hazard of flying in," Schuldig said. Schwarz had been wound so tightly that they'd made their fellow passengers nervous until Schuldig had calmed them.

The Class Z kids charged Schwarz, but Nagi stopped them too, effortlessly, breaking them whenever they tried to move forward. "If you stay still, you won't get hurt," he told them.

Farfarello shook his head as the leader--probably the Shimojima mentioned in Omi's last e-mail--raved and continued to command Class Z to attack, calling them trash. Then the man spoke of being God's chosen one. Farfarello ran, and Aya followed, having some idea of what would come next. Around them, bones snapped like twigs as the kids tried to obey orders and Nagi did as he promised.

Farfarello stopped the leader's ranting with a blade through the throat and knocked his gun aside easily. "Sick. They're all so sick. Puisín? You worried about me?"

"Unnecessarily, it looks like," Aya answered.

"Don't you have a mission to do?" Crawford asked Weiß.

"Where's Yoji?" Omi asked.

"He snuck inside after spouting some drivel about wanting to forget everything," Schuldig answered, looking bored.

Omi looked pained but said, "All right. Let's go. Sena!"

Ken made an annoyed sound and raced after the boy into the complex.

Schuldig shook his head. "So impetuous. You need to get better control of your kids, Bombay."

"I chose Sena for this kind of thing. We'll cover more ground if we split up to look for Epitaph." Omi ran after his teammates.

"Good idea," Crawford said with a slight smile.

"We'll have to tackle the Russells, won't we?" Nagi asked with a sigh.

"Do you think _Weiß_ can do it?"

"Good point."

"Split up. Schuldig will keep us in touch."

******************************************************

Schuldig will keep us in touch. Good thing for Brad that Schuldig had been finding that easier and easier lately. Team bonding, had to love it. At least in this case.

As he snuck up on and punched the Russells firebug, Geißel, again, he sneered over the antics of these amateurs. So much power, so much arrogance, but no finesse. As hard as Layla, the little redheaded Russells girl, pushed Nagi, she too had only sheer power and force behind her.

Part of Nagi enjoyed countering all that power, the freak, even through the ass-whipping he was currently getting. ~ What is this thing you have for childlike, insane girls? ~ Schuldig asked, and Nagi told him to stop distracting him.

Brad felt wrong, weirdly dislocated, but it never paid to count Brad out too quickly. Schuldig refused to worry. The Weiß kittens scattered all across the complex, their emotions loud and chaotic. Aya really did fit in better with Schwarz. Aya and Farfarello hadn't encountered anyone yet.

Schuldig had a sudden awareness of lightning somewhere and a girlish scream. His bond with Nagi quivered from Nagi's fatigue, but the kid could still send, ~ Schuldig, do as I say. ~

Bossy little brat. But the plan had merits. All right. No more playing. Time to snuff the firebug, especially since Schuldig could feel himself getting a bit crispy. Using speed and the oldest trick in the book, he got behind his opponent while Geißel was busy frying his coat, mistaking it for him. Snapping the stupid bastard's neck felt ever so satisfying.

******************************************************

The darkened, deserted corridors offended Farfarello. "What kind of host fails to provide welcoming parties for uninvited guests?"

"This kind, it seems," Aya answered softly.

"Fucker. I want to kill something. I'm bored."

They eventually found themselves in a vast room. "More cloning equipment, and that one has a toy surprise inside," Farfarello said.

"He's only a boy," Aya said as he looked into the tank's window. He also resembled Nagi to an unsettling degree.

"Not just a boy. He's the son of God," a woman said, as Aya put a restraining hand on Farfarello's wrist to hold him back for now. Nagi's intel identified her as Tuji Mayumi. Not Epitaph, but close. "Fujimiya Aya. Once a Weiß, always a Weiß?"

"This is business and pleasure," Aya answered.

"You're the one who tried to kill himself."

Farfarello snarled.

"Once upon a time," Aya said.

"I could make you forget it all. No more blood on your hands or tragic past. You wouldn't have to stay with a group of heartless killers to feel normal anymore. You could be reborn. You could have eternal life!"

Aya felt Farfarello tense beside him. He bumped his lover's hip with his own and said, "But I wouldn't be me, which would be another kind of suicide. I don't want to be dead anymore." He could almost feel Farfarello smile.

"Neither do I," Yoji said suddenly from behind him. "This is my fight, Aya."

"Is she one of his women?" Farfarello whispered to Aya.

"Probably," Aya muttered.

Tuji sneered. "I offered you a chance to be part of God's army, but you turned me down. You fools. You'll have to die."

Yoji looked at Aya. "I'm not going to get a chance to settle with her, am I?"

"No."

Farfarello had already launched himself at her. She dodged with inhuman speed and strength, but he followed her with all the force of his obsession. "All of science is at your disposal, but you have to turn to religion to justify yourselves? That's the reason I hate you Eszett fuckers the most. You all want to be God!"

She dodged away again, then moved in at high speed to strike Farfarello hard enough to make his head rock to the side. "You're obsolete already!" she shouted.

Since getting between Farfarello and an opponent would be suicide, Aya looked at the tank behind him and banks of computers around him, then smashed down on the computers with his scabbard, smiling as whatever countdown she had going went dead. Yoji smiled and took a disk out of the pocket of his coat and crushed it.

"What are you doing?" she screamed, then coughed up blood as Farfarello shoved his sword into her chest. Still, she fought.

Knowing that Nagi would consider the boy inside to be an obscenity, especially if his DNA had contributed to this... puppet's creation, Aya smashed the window of the cloning tank. When its occupant slid and fell forward, the broken glass punctured his throat. Even knowing that it wasn't Nagi, the sight made Aya wince.

Farfarello kicked the still struggling Tuji off his sword, then decapitated her. "The both of you can try to be God in Hell," he said.

"You robbed me of my sense of closure," Yoji said softly as he knelt beside her body.

"You'll just have to live with it."

Two explosions rocked the building, and they all had to dodge some debris. "What the hell was that?" Yoji asked.

Aya almost laughed. "It has to be Crashers. My old team. Schuldig was right about everyone being here." Aya noticed how Yoji grimaced at Schuldig's name. Well, sometimes _he_ still did that. "We need to find Epitaph."

"And kill him," Farfarello said. Yoji gave him a disgruntled look. Aya tried not to be too bothered by the feel of his two lives uncomfortably struggling to exist in the same place. Yet the three of them raced through the halls looking for the same thing and finally found it in a large room.

"That's Epitaph," Ken said, while Omi uploaded something directly into the giant computer bank. The boy, Sena, and a woman lay in a pool of blood on the floor.

"Epitaph is a computer?" Aya asked.

"A great, big, mind-controlling computer."

That made no sense whatsoever. "You must be joking."

"I wish. It made Sena's mother shoot him. She begged me to kill her." He looked a bit haunted, making Aya wonder if he'd seen Sena die. And where was Siamese?

"My virus is working. Epitaph is burning out worldwide," Omi said. "Aya, your own work in Germany has crippled Eszett. With Epitaph destroyed and Class Z demolished--"

"And Tuji dead," Aya said.

"You got her as well? Good. We've ended Eszett."

This was how it ended? It seemed so anti-climactic. Aya better understood Yoji's whining over being deprived of the chance to face-off with Tuji. It made him wonder how he would have felt now if he hadn't found another reason to live.

Of course, he knew the answer to that one.

*****************************************************

Crawford's head snapped back as Berger struck him again, knowing full well that damage taken to his psychic self translated into damage to his actual body. Trapped inside his opponent's mindscape, he was at a disadvantage, which would have seemed counterintuitive to Schuldig but was true for him. He needed to finish this now.

~ Crawford, get him! ~ Nagi said.

There. With the support of his bond with his team of telepaths he could make out the full length and breadth of the Russells' self, so he _yanked_. As he did so, Crawford sent a pulse to Farfarello asking for assistance, so subliminally that his opponent wouldn't notice, and felt the familiar riptide that was his team's berserker's answer. His feelings had paid off again.

Berger looked surprised at the change in venue, the quiet and the transformation of red "sky" to blue. Unaccustomed to prey familiar with talents who could project themselves, he didn't understand yet that he'd been yanked out of his mind and into Crawford's.

Crawford saw no reason to keep him ignorant of that fact. "Welcome to my mind. I'm having a party." He watched the space behind Berger's shoulder, the way the blue became a black shadow in the shape of a man, then Farfarello. Crawford had never been a physical shape inside his own mind before, this detached from a sense of his body, so he had also never seen Farfarello manifest here before, only felt and heard it. In the mindscape, Farfarello had two eyes.

And many knives.

Crawford couldn't help smiling as his teammate butchered their opponent with no warning or mercy, then saluted him with a knife and vanished. Berger still had a few fleeting moments of consciousness left before death claimed him, so Crawford said, "You were so proud of your evolution, so superior, but evolution is about surpassing yourself. You failed."

When Crawford opened his body's eyes, freed, the pain and fatigue hit him, and he dropped to his knees. Still, he looked much better than the very dead Berger, who was lying facedown on the floor in his own blood and Crawford's.

Schuldig rushed into the room, took one look at Crawford, and said, "I'm going to kick your ass."

Crawford pushed himself backward until he sat with his back against the wall. "I won."

"Yes, your opponent is very dead, but you're bleeding all over the place, you moron."

"It's not that bad. Your opponent?"

"He killed my coat, then I killed him. Stupid bastard fell for the oldest trick in the book."

"What about Nagi's opponent?"

"He fried her with a lightning bolt." Schuldig grabbed Crawford and looked him over, muttering, "I am so going to kill you later."

He loved his team. Their love only made them deadlier.

******************************************************

"We have to get out of here," Aya said. "The Crashers team probably intends to bring this whole complex down."

"You need a scorecard to keep track of all the players," Yoji said. "Aya, Schwarz was dealing with a super-powered team. You might want to check on them."

~ We're fine, ~ Schuldig said, ~ though Brad lost about a pint, I'm a little crispy, and Nagi's a bit wet. Fucking Russells. ~

Farfarello, who had been leaning heavily on Aya's shoulder, made a sound as if waking up. "I never killed anyone in someone else's head before. It was fun."

~ You're a freak. A freak that saved Brad's bacon, but still a freak. ~

"What?" Aya asked.

"I was inside Crawford's head. It was as dark and boring as usual except for the guy I had to kill."

"You deal with this every day?" Yoji asked. He still looked haunted.

"You get used to it."

When the helicopter came to get all of them out of there, Omi made sure Schwarz was taken and cared for as well, especially Crawford, who looked like hell. Aya was glad he had the Crashers' help in removing Schuldig from Crawford to get a look at where all the blood was coming from because he didn't think he could move the upset telepath himself, an obviously exhausted Nagi seemed to be occupied with just breathing and sitting, and Farfarello might have been too enthusiastic.

As the building exploded far behind them, Aya asked, "Do you still want to forget everything, Yoji?" How blasé he'd become. With his time in Crashers, Weiß, and Schwarz, he no longer saw exploding, falling buildings as cause for comment.

"Yes and no. You seem to be doing pretty well with your past lately."

"My program was a bit extreme, especially in the early days. And I'm a very jealous man."

"What the fuck does Farfarello do with you, anyway?"

"If Aya weren't so jealous, I might show you," Farfarello said from behind Yoji.

Yoji obviously had to struggle not to jump in surprise and horror. "No thanks. Really."

"I'll let you kill the next one of your women who turns out to be a hopped-up evil bitch."

"Gee, thanks. Aya, stop smiling. You're scaring me."

"Don't say that, Kudou. It took us forever to get him to smile," Nagi said as he stumbled over and rested against the wall. He looked bruised as well as exhausted and wet. To Aya's satisfaction, Yoji helped steady Nagi. "Thank you."

"You smell like ozone," Aya said, concerned.

"I fried that girl."

"Freak storm," Yoji said.

"Sure it was," Nagi replied with a small smile.

"You gotta be kidding me."

"Lightning can be very useful. I could explain the scientific principles behind how--"

"That's okay. I'd rather not know."

"You get used to it," Aya said again. "Nagi, how's Crawford?"

"The doctors say he'll probably be fine after a small transfusion, but Schuldig wants to know how they can be sure of that when they're not even sure how he started bleeding to begin with. They want to take him somewhere for CT scans, but he's refusing. _I_ think he'll be fine," Nagi answered. Then he looked a bit nervous as he glanced at Aya and then away. "Eszett is as dead as we can make it. We killed the new heads, thinned out the herds, demolished their training centers, destroyed their cloning and genetic engineering programs, and utterly wrecked Epitaph."

Aya knew what Nagi was asking. So it seemed did Farfarello, who pressed closer to his side. Aya pressed closer to him in turn and put his hand atop Nagi's head, flexing his fingers in wet, cold hair. He'd made his decision long ago. "Now we go on to the next mission and plan. I'm where I'm supposed to be." Yoji gave him a sad look, but Nagi lit up with a big smile and Farfarello squeezed him hard enough to momentarily steal his breath.

"It doesn't mean we can't work together again," Omi said as he walked up, smiling. "Together, we seem to make a good team. Maybe I should consider Schwarz for other, future missions."

"It's not my decision to make, but I'd like that, Omi," Aya answered. It might be the best of both worlds.

But since life rarely worked that way, Aya tried not to get too hopeful.

"You can touch down and let us out here," Crawford said as he sat up on the gurney. Blood had caked in his hair and suit on one side.

"You need more specialized medical attention," Omi said. "Scans at least, to make sure there isn't any brain damage."

"We already have arrangements. We must insist."

"And if you say no we have our own way off anyway," Schuldig said as he looked at Nagi.

Omi was obviously aware of how fragile and tense the moment was, because he said, "We'll let you go here. Your compensation will reach you."

"Thank you."

When the helicopter let them out in a parking lot, Omi asked, "Are you sure?"

"We have arrangements."

Omi shook his head, then said, "I'll see you, Aya."

"You will," Aya answered.

Once the helicopter took off, Aya asked, "What are we doing?"

"Waiting," Crawford replied. "Schuldig has notified our ride."

Feeling Nagi shivering beside him, Aya pulled him in closer, hoping to share some body heat. "Thanks," Nagi said softly.

Fifteen minutes later, an ambulance pulled up. "Oracle, you look like shit," the driver said as he got out and opened the back door for them.

"If I didn't, we wouldn't need your services."

"Good point."

Twenty minutes later the ambulance stopped, and they walked into a nearly deserted clinic. Schwarz seemed to be familiar with the place. Aya hated hospitals of any kind and found his breath catching in his throat a little.

A man dressed in a doctor's scrubs met them. "What do you need?"

"We need to check for brain damage," Crawford answered.

"On you, I would imagine."

"Yes."

"Check Berserker out for injuries too?"

"We might as well."

"I'm not injured," Farfarello protested. Aya stared at him. "I think I might have some bruises, but I'm fine."

"You always say that," Crawford said. "Let the doctor look at you."

"I hate doctors."

"I know."

"I'll prepare the machines," the doctor said, then left them.

"What's going on?" Aya asked, and Schuldig answered, ~ We don't trust Kritiker with a look at Brad's brain. This was Eszett's favored clinic in Japan for its talents, so they have experience here. The place is very private and exclusive in general. Lots of mob folks get patched up here. The doctor won't screw us over because he knows I'm watching him and Crawford gave him some tips that made him a lot of money. We pay him well. We don't quite trust him, but while I'm here I have a medical school education--his--and can tell if he's fucking with us. And he knows that. I'll be in there with Brad and Farfie, so you'll have to look after Nagi. It won't take long. A few hours maybe, since we won't leave until we get our results. ~

When the doctor returned, Aya asked, "Can we have a blanket and gurney? A member of our party isn't injured, but he's tired and cold." If Schwarz paid him well, surely he could spare it. When he felt Nagi start to protest, he gently applied an elbow to his side.

"That's no problem." He called a nurse, who brought the requested items.

Aya watched Crawford, Schuldig, and Farfarello walk down the hall until they left his sight, then turned to Nagi and said, "Take your coat and gloves off."

Nagi looked embarrassed. "Aya!"

"They're soaked through." Aya looked for onlookers and cameras. When he found none, he took off his coat, which revealed his guns and sheathed katana. "You'll take them off, get onto the gurney, and put the blanket on. I'll lie down beside you and put my coat over us."

Nagi seemed to fight with himself for a moment, then he did as Aya asked. Aya took off his gun harness before settling in beside the boy under the blanket. He put one arm over Nagi's damp, shivering body and moved closer, sharing heat. Nagi breathed a little easier when he saw the gun in that hand. Aya took no chances.

Once Nagi's shivering died down, Aya whispered to him, "Can you tell me what's going on in there?"

"Sneaky," Nagi whispered back. "Crawford's in the machine being annoyed and bored. Farfarello's being very annoyed, and so is the doctor checking him out. Schuldig's watching everything with his eyes and mind, worrying like hell, and wanting a smoke."

"Are _you_ all right?"

"I'm just tired. Fighting that girl took a lot out of me. But I'm not as cold now."

Seeing how wet Nagi's hair still was, Aya combed his fingers through it a bit, trying to separate it so it would dry faster. He used to brush and braid his sister's hair, when she had been in the hospital.... Nagi hardly protested, since he snuggled closer and drowsed. Watching the hallways, Aya continued to comb with one hand and keep a firm grip on his gun with the other. It distracted him from the white glare and familiar smell of hospital that permeated their surroundings.


	58. "Stew in your own disease, kid."

Bored, Farfarello left the room as the others waited for the scan results and browbeat the doctors. He'd told them he hadn't really been injured, but they hadn't listened and wasted his time and theirs.

He grinned as he saw Aya's head peeking out from the top of a coat- and blanket-covered gurney, looking so kitten-like that he wanted to get a ball of yarn for him. Purple eyes watched everything with an intense but slightly dazed focus.

Farfarello sat beside the gurney and put his hand on the kitten's hair, wishing again that he could feel it better. "I'm fine like I said I was." This close he could see the top of the kitten-smitten boy's head too and felt a surge of jealousy. He should be the one snuggled with his puisín.

"Good."

"Get some sleep. I'll keep watch."

"I promised Nagi that I'd keep watch."

"No need for us to both be awake."

But Aya was strung too tight to listen. Farfarello felt it then, the horror of hospitals and the irrational fear that if he slept his sister would die while he was asleep nearby, just because it would hurt more. The original cause might be gone, but the learned behavior remained. Tired, Aya could be influenced easier, and Farfarello telepathically stroked him into sleep, keeping him there and sitting with him until Crawford and Schuldig returned, ready to go to the new apartment.

******************************************************

Crawford had Doctor Morita's assistant drop them off a few blocks away from the new apartment. They could walk a little way and be more secure. They'd all cleaned up a bit. He'd rinsed the worst of the blood from his hair, and this section of the city wasn't so well lit that people would notice the stains on his clothing. He refused to let the slight lightheadedness stop him.

Everyone chose their rooms in a sleep-dazed trance. Crawford sat on his bed as Schuldig tore through one of their suitcases and came up with a pair of Crawford's pajamas. "Help me get you out of that and into these. Don't fight me on it, because you're so out of it that I can make you do it," Schuldig said.

Pajamas would be nice. He often slept naked when with Schuldig, which was most of the time, but pajamas provided a certain feeling of luxury and security. And his telepath knew that. The suit jacket came off easily, but his bloody shirt stuck to his skin.

"Shit," Schuldig muttered before pulling Crawford to his feet and leading him to the bathroom and tub. The warm water, soap, and Schuldig's hands felt good, as did being dried by a big towel. Clean, even if it hadn't been a thorough clean, and dressed in pajamas, Crawford let Schuldig lead him back to the room and bed.

Schuldig smelled like sweat and char, and so would their sheets and pillows in the morning, but Crawford didn't care right now. It felt too good and comfortable to be here right now, in a soft bed with his hard telepath wrapped around him and muttering that he was 500 kinds of idiot who was damned lucky there hadn't been any visible brain damage. "Gives me a chance to kill you for making me worry," Schuldig said.

Watching Schuldig go into guard dog mode at the clinic had been entertaining but sad too. Sad because Crawford knew that some of that behavior had been programmed in by Rosenkreuz.

"I'm me," Schuldig said. "I protect you because life would be boring without you. And there's no more Rosenkreuz, no more Eszett. You made sure of that. I protect you because you're the guy who knows what happens next." And he finished, ~ I protect you because I love you. ~

"You better." He sighed as Schuldig took his glasses off, then he turned his face so he could nuzzle his telepath's slightly too hot neck. Schuldig's hair felt too dry and damaged against his fingers. "If you hadn't killed that pyro, I would have for this."

"Are you saying I'm not pretty anymore?"

"That was my favorite coat of yours."

"And he burned it like you burned my bandannas. Everybody's a critic. Why, Brad, after all that trouble I went to to get you into pajamas, you're working hard to get out of them."

"I want to fuck you, but I don't think I'm up to it."

"Old man."

"By only five years."

"You're ancient." Schuldig held him tighter. "Relax, and you may live longer. Relax...."

With Eszett dead and his team very much alive, Crawford could rest. For now.

******************************************************

Schuldig woke up first and felt around with his telepathy for his team. Everyone else still slept.

Brad murmured as Schuldig rubbed against him. The silver hair still freaked Schuldig out; every so often he checked it for dark roots, as if the former color might grow back. Brad continued to be lucky, with no signs of damage or impending burnout, no matter how much he pushed himself. Annoyed, worried, Schuldig gently finger-combed it looking for last night's wound. All that gore had scared the fuck out of him. But he still couldn't find the source.

"What are you doing?" Brad murmured. At least his eyes were still brown. His eyes and face always looked different without the glasses, softer and more unfocused.

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"If we were apes, you might be grooming me looking for fleas."

"Tasty. But we're not apes."

"Then you're worrying for no reason."

"I have a right to worry. What are we doing today?"

"Sleeping in. _We_ have that right. We may have finished a long-time goal. I can check to make sure later."

"Of course we're sleeping in. I'm not letting you out of bed. I mean, what are we doing after we sleep in?"

"We stay in Japan for a while. I have a feeling about it." Brad smiled. "I always have a plan. You know that."

And, as ever, it turned Schuldig on. He loved Brad for his mind, though his aura of command, hard and cool prettiness, and air of certainty certainly helped. "Do you have a feeling about what's about to happen now?"

"If I don't now, I know I'll have one in less than a minute."

******************************************************

When Nagi woke up horny from the echoes of Schuldig and Crawford fucking, he realized that his head felt thick and heavy. His nose and throat burned, and his bed seemed to be weirdly lumpy and uncomfortable. When he put his hand to his forehead, his skin felt far too hot.

"Shit, you gotta be kidding me."

******************************************************

"I can't believe you got sick from your own storm! Ow!" Schuldig put his hand to his face, covering the area Nagi had slapped with telekinesis.

Curled up on the couch, Nagi blew his nose again and said, "Sorry, I'm too sick and weak to control my talent better."

"Moody little bastard."

"Moody? Moody? Maybe I could share the feeling of my fever and exhaustion with you. Or how wonderful it is to have clots of mucus flow like some fetid tide up and down the back of my nose and throat, the better to stop me from breathing right. Or the burning agony in my throat."

"Fine, fine. I'm leaving. Stew in your own disease, kid."

"I'm sure I'll feel better after you're gone!" Nagi tried to shout at Schuldig's back, but his voice refused to cooperate.

That Russells girl had been powerful and aggressive, and fighting her had taken a lot of energy. Having pushed himself too hard, Nagi had been weakened and fallen prey to some stupid cold or virus. This was so demeaning.

Worse, he didn't dare take most medicines, not when they could leave him somewhat stoned. A telekinetic on cold medicine could be a terrifying thing. Thus, he tried to let the sickness run its course and live through it. He slept a lot, ate as much as his stomach let him, drank a lot of water and tea, blew his nose often, and snapped at everyone. And watched TV, since his eyes and brain seemed to have been affected by the illness too, jittering around as he tried to read. Right now he watched a game show that currently had contestants in Velcro suits throwing themselves against walls in an effort to stick. It appealed to his sadism, even as he wondered how a person could train for that sort of task.

At least talents tended to speed through the phases of sickness when they did catch something. Hopefully he wouldn't be down for too long.

He coughed again, freeing a fresh clot of mucus to flow up into his mouth. Annoyed, he spat it out into a tissue, then curled up into a tighter ball under the blanket. He was thirsty and miserable. If he had the strength, he'd get up and get himself something or use telekinesis to pick up something. No, he couldn't even use telekinesis because he couldn't see into the kitchen from the living room and didn't want to start messing around blindly.

Aya crouched down in front of him while bearing a tray. Nagi couldn't smell anything very well, but the steam rising from the tea almost smelled nice. He picked up the mug, held it under his nose and mouth for a while, then took a soothing sip. "Thank you, Aya."

Aya put the tray down on the nearby table, then sat on the couch next to him. Between sips of tea, Nagi watched him and wondered.

Feeling the scrutiny, Aya said, "I used to take care of my sister. Before and after."

It made sense now, which set him more at ease with the kindnesses. "So you have all this frustrated tenderness building up that needs to be let out? I imagine Farfarello isn't much on tenderness."

"He has his moments. It's just not a standard kind of tenderness."

So Aya did this kind of thing out of some big brotherly instinct. Nagi could accept that and happily let Aya bleed off his need to take care of somebody on him. Besides, in Schwarz, lusting after your big brother didn't strike anyone as strange. Especially after sharing a gurney.

"I'm glad you stayed, and not just because you take care of me," Nagi said softly. Aya did his almost-smile in response.

Once Nagi finished the tea, he rested his head against Aya's shoulder. Aya responded by picking up a pillow and putting it between them, which made it even more comfortable, then putting his arm around him. But Aya said, "You were rubbing your greasy hair on my sleeve."

Hearing the smile in his words, Nagi smiled too and applied an elbow to his ribs, then dozed in utter contentment. Sometime later, Schuldig broke the peace and Nagi's doze with a purred, "How snuggly you both look," and sat down on Aya's other side. "Cuddle me too, Aya." He rubbed his head against Aya, who gave him a bemused look.

"Find your own," Nagi muttered.

"Yeah? Well, watch--"

"I wouldn't do that, Schu. Nagi will break your nose," Crawford said from the other side of the room. So much for a quiet, intimate interlude.

Still, Crawford looked well. It was a relief.

"You take all the fun out of things, Brad."

"They're dropping boulders on people on TV now?" Farfarello asked as he sat on the couch arm nearest Nagi. Now things were just perfect.

"I think they're made of paper," Aya answered.

"Hmph."

"And another poor sucker gets nailed." Schuldig grinned and snuggled in harder and tighter against Aya, who twitched.

"Puisín, if you don't have your knife handy, I could discipline Schuldig for you."

Crawford sighed. "We've become Schwarz, the sitcom."

Or a particularly incestuous family. Nagi could deal with that.

******************************************************

That evening Crawford called a meeting. Once everyone else sat on the couch, with Farfarello fitting himself between Aya and Schuldig, Crawford said, "So far it seems that we've struck a fatal blow to Eszett. The remaining bits are scattering or panicking. I told you that this day would come."

"Yeah, Brad, your kung fu is the best," Schuldig said, but he sounded affectionate.

"With Eszett destroyed, some of you might think that this team has outlived its usefulness. If so, you're free to leave. But I have no intention of turning idle. There's more than enough work out there, and I still have my goals. I've heard that Aya already committed himself last night."

Although he felt that he'd been put on the spot, Aya said, "That's right."

"My puisín is here, so I am as well," Farfarello answered. "Besides, Crawford, you throw the best parties."

"I would have to fight to reestablish myself somewhere new. You already know my value. I'm with you," Nagi said, still sounding congested but looking better than he had that afternoon.

Schuldig just sat there with his arms crossed, obviously feeling that he didn't have to say anything. For once.

~ I heard that, Aya. ~

Aya thought back at Schuldig that everyone knew what he was like.

"Excellent. Today we have our new beginning," Crawford said. "I intend to keep us in Japan for a while. I have a feeling that it will be to our benefit. In any case, Persia wants to hire Nagi for a bodyguard job for tomorrow night."

"Young love," Schuldig said with a smile.

"Oh fuck off," Nagi said, but he looked a little more flushed than could be blamed on illness.

"Will you be well enough to accept it?" Crawford asked.

"I think so. It would help if I had more details."

"He'll be attending an event. The publicity blitz around it and his attendance worry him. The Takatoris have many enemies who want them dead."

Aya couldn't help snorting at that.

"Case in point," Crawford said. "He needs someone who can check and clear the route he'll travel there by. His regular detail will cover him once he hits the red carpet and gets inside. Then you'll cover his route home."

"I can do it."

"Aw! It'll be good for Nagi to have a friend and fucktoy close to his own age who isn't a retarded girl whose best friend is a stuffed bunny," Schuldig said.

Aya had thought something similar, but not in such demeaning terms.

"I didn't think you wanted to die that badly," Nagi answered.

Crawford sighed. "Children...."

Nagi pointed at Schuldig. "He started it."

******************************************************

Schuldig had gotten their car back from where they'd left it on the night they'd attacked Eszett, so now they could do a little shopping. Crawford had gone for groceries, while Schuldig had volunteered to help Aya get a new coat. Nagi, already starting to recover from his illness, had been desperate to get outside, so he went along.

Farfarello had elected to stay at the apartment for reasons he wouldn't tell Aya. Since wondering what surprise Farfarello might have planned would only worry the hell out of him, Aya decided not to think about it.

"Make a left here," Aya said. "Start looking for a place to park."

Nagi seemed to have some misgivings about being back in Japan, but Aya found himself enjoying his return to Tokyo. Aya had expected the shadows of his former life to haunt him here, but Schwarz's company made the experience too different, too new. He didn't feel the same, and neither did the city.

When they walked inside, Aya was gratified by Nagi's awed gasp. "Aya," Nagi said, "no matter what I say or do after this, please make sure I only buy two jackets here."

"I'll try," Aya answered as he started to look around for a coat he could use.

Schuldig grinned. "Owning a kitten really can enrich one's life. Aya, thank you so much for influencing Nagi's wardrobe."

"I didn't do it for you."

"Doesn't mean I don't appreciate it. Hey, baby, are you buying something new you can wear for Mamoru tonight?"

"Are you asking that because you're suicidal?" Nagi answered.

"You need to get more original threats, sugar."

"You need to stop being so annoying that you make me wear mine out." He looked disgruntled and blew his nose into a tissue.

"And way to diffuse the power of your threat."

******************************************************

"How many jackets are you carrying?" Aya asked.

"Three." He _had_ made Aya promise. "But they're practical as well as attractive." It had been so hard narrowing it down to three. He'd never liked clothing before....

"I see." Aya's expression hadn't changed. Not really. Yet it had, somehow.

"Stop looking at me like that."

"I'm not looking at you like anything."

"You're evil." But he really didn't need three new jackets....

After some agonizing deliberation, Nagi chose one to put back. As he walked away, he heard Aya say, "I really wasn't looking at him like anything," and Schuldig answer, "I'm just glad you're using your powers for evil."

******************************************************

Reattaching himself properly, loose thread by loose thread, was a painstaking undertaking. Farfarello had been so close to getting it several times this morning only to lose it at the end.

He firmly believed in the new beginning Crawford had spoken of and wanted to be reintegrated for it. How wonderful it would be to feel his puisín with his own hands. Only a few more threads left to anchor....

When he heard the apartment door loudly open and shut, he lost them, slamming back into his body as usual. Muttering profanities to himself, he strove to gather enough patience and strength to try again.

"Farfarello?" Aya asked as he knocked at the door.

"I need more time," Farfarello answered and felt Aya, unperturbed, go to the living room to read. It made things easier to have a lover who could entertain himself.

Farfarello simply breathed for a while, gathering strength, then left his body. Looking upon himself like this still gave him an odd feeling. This time when he floated gently back down into his body he felt some of the threads reattach properly on their own that he used to have to force into place. He gathered the loose ones and started to anchor them. This one there and that one here and this one there.... After a while, he had only one more thread left and waited with it, half expecting another door to slam or chaos to fall. Nothing happened. Smirking to himself at having a case of nerves, he stuck the final thread in place.

His eye opened, and he choked back a scream. Pain. It wrapped around him and burrowed through every part of his body: bones, joints, eye, skin, and muscles. His eye socket.... Agony. Sharp and dull and vibrating and throbbing and deep and excruciating and _everywhere_. He couldn't think, just twitch and bite his tongue--another sharp pain--as he tried hard not to howl from it.

"Block it off! Disconnect! For fuck's sake!" Schuldig shouted as he lurched into the room, then slapped him.

The shock of the blow knocked him loose a little, back to his regular state of wooly dullness. He wiped pain tears off his face.

Nagi skidded into the room. "What the hell was that?"

Schuldig looked nauseated. "Farfarello reintegrated."

From the look on his face, the boy immediately understood. "Oh."

In their stupid excitement of discovery, they'd forgotten the very important facts that Farfarello had spent a significant chunk of his life abusing this unfeeling flesh and that being unaware didn't mean that the pain didn't exist. The pain had simply waited for him to notice all the damage he'd done.

He couldn't live like that. Not when he had a choice.

There would be no joyful exploration of a renewed ability to feel and his puisín's body. Instead, there would be more of the same old, just with the slightly increased sensitivity he'd noticed lately.

"I'm sorry," Nagi said, and sounded sincere.

"There are no guarantees in life," Farfarello answered as he sat up. He didn't care, he didn't care, he didn't care.

He didn't believe that.

"What happened?" Aya asked as he rushed in.

"Nothing that will ever happen again," Farfarello answered. He saw Nagi wince. When had the boy started to care?

Schuldig grabbed Nagi's arm and dragged him out, closing the door behind them. When Aya sat on the bed near him, Farfarello grabbed him and held onto him, feeling the kitten as a sense of pressure with some heat and vague textures attached. This was the best he could get.

"Will you tell me what happened?" Aya asked.

"Eventually."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Good."

Eventually they were lying entwined on the bed, with Aya stroking Farfarello's hair in a calming, repetitive way. Then Farfarello said, "I reintegrated my soul into my body, and I couldn't handle it. The damage is too great, too agonizing. I should have expected something like that. I don't expect you to say anything."

"That last sentence is good to hear, because I don't know what I could say."

"Yeah."

"I'm staying."

"Yeah." Farfarello pulled him in closer, smelling new leather, cigarette smoke, and the oddly charged scent he associated with the boy. He had to mark his kitten with his own scent again, which was hardly a chore. "I want comfort sex."

Aya's smile was small and wavered at the edges. "That I can do."

"I want it rough."

"After what just happened?"

"I'm already fucked. I might as well enjoy myself."


	59. "You're the worst mom ever. Or you're my madam."

Mamoru watched with some amusement as Rex and his security detail looked less than thrilled to see Nagi show up at the limo. Of course, the way that Nagi looked younger than they did and the way he dressed probably didn't help, even if Mamoru liked the way he dressed.

He did not just think that.

"Mr. Naoe will cover our driving route against snipers." To forestall objections, Mamoru said, "He's psionic, a telekinetic, so he can do that alone." He noticed one of the people who'd been with the recovery team in Berlin trying not to say that he knew how telekinetic Nagi was. "While I'm at the event, he'll wait inside the limo for me. This is not negotiable."

Mamoru knew he shouldn't be so sadistic to his security detail and secretary, but he seemed to have a passive-aggressive streak he couldn't always fight. In any case, lately he'd started to worry where their loyalties rested, since he couldn't help thinking that his current schism with Grandfather over several issues might jeopardize his safety and lead to someone being "accidentally" a little too slow to protect him. As much as he didn't like to think that Grandfather might be capable of letting him die, he had to be ready for anything.

Some days he really hated his life.

Nagi looked at his security detail as if he suspected them as well. Mamoru found that comforting.

******************************************************

Nagi flew. Fortunately, people in cities rarely looked up. The night, even despite all the bright neon signs, disguised his movements too.

So far Omi's route had been safe. Wait.... Nagi felt something and saw a flicker on a nearby rooftop. He twisted around and flew up behind the sniper. It took only a second to break the man's neck.

Nagi could have sent a telepathic message to Omi, but the normals rarely appreciated it, so he used a cell phone instead. "One," Nagi said.

"Thank you," Omi answered and cut the connection.

Cold, but Nagi was used to that. Even liked it a bit. Nagi took off from the roof again.

He hovered over the building and watched Omi and Rex walk out of the limo onto the red carpet. Nagi tensed as some guy confronted them, then smirked as he read the intruder as being Knight, a member of Crashers. And upset about Aya being left with Schwarz, even if Knight called him "Ran." Aya really had no idea how many broken hearts he'd left behind him. Nagi smiled as Omi very calmly told Knight that Aya was an adult who'd chosen his course, and that kidnapping and keeping him prisoner hadn't converted him back. Then Omi made Knight back down and step aside.

But watching Omi do the fake, pleasant public figure smile and wave as he walked along the carpet with flashbulbs going off around him didn't feel good at all. The part of Nagi that had absorbed too much from Aya hurt to see it. Nagi hurt too.

When the limo moved to wait at the back of the building, Nagi dropped down and walked the last 20 meters to stand next to the car. One of the back doors opened for him, and he got in and closed it. Comfy seats, but it _was_ a limo.

"Thank you, Kono-san," Nagi said. The driver just nodded in answer, looking a little uncomfortable. Standard normal reaction.

Bored and trying to look a little less threatening, Nagi took out his folding paper and started on a rose. At least he could use telekinesis to make sure his nose didn't run, since a runny nose would make him far _too_ unthreatening looking. Kono looked away from the porn hidden within his book as he watched Nagi finish two cranes and a unicorn through the rearview mirror.

Nagi heard something, so he reached out with his telepathy and confirmed that two gunmen were walking upon the limo to fire. "Kono, we're about to have people firing on us, but I'll protect us. No, don't panic and don't move the car."

Withdrawing his telepathy, Nagi put up his shields around the limo a minute before the gunfire started and smiled as the would-be killers murdered themselves with their own bullets. Very efficient. Eventually the noise stopped. It had only gone on as long as it had because the men's dying spasms had continued to press the triggers.

"Are you all right?" Nagi asked Kono.

The driver looked like he'd nearly had a heart attack. "That was insane."

"You get used to it."

******************************************************

Mamoru rushed outside without looking like he was rushing, a skill he'd been forced to develop since becoming the Takatori heir. Rex followed at a slower pace behind him and made pleasant sounding excuses for them. Since a member of his security detail had mentioned hearing gunfire in the alley where the car should be, Mamoru could only think that his enemies had fired on the limo after mistaking Nagi in it for him, since they were both brunet and had similar builds. The telekinetic would be safe if he'd gotten some warning before the gunfire started.

Of course, Mamoru didn't want to find Nagi and his driver dead.

The car looked utterly untouched. The alley walls, however, were badly pock-marked. Two bodies sprawled amidst a litter of spent bullet shells. Mamoru's personal security came forward to wrap them up and take them away for identification.

Nagi opened the door and smiled at him as he said, "I hope you're not leaving early because of this." In the front seat, Kono looked shaken but otherwise unharmed.

Mamoru smiled with relief. "It was dull anyway. I made my appearance, so now I can go." He felt Rex disapproving behind him but didn't give a damn. "This is beyond the duty I expected for you. Is there any compensation I can offer?"

"I'm really hungry."

"I'll make you dinner." Mamoru hadn't made dinner for anyone in ages.

Nagi looked so surprised that Mamoru had to smile. "I didn't expect you to fix that. I figured I could pick something up on the way home."

"I want to."

"All right. I'll cover your route home, like I promised."

"That's fine."

Nagi stepped out of the car, and Mamoru stepped in with Rex behind him. She closed the door. Although she remained silent, Mamoru could tell that she didn't like this, but it wasn't her place to choose his dinner companions. When he sat back into the seat, something crinkled under him. He pulled out a paper rose and crane.

Dinner would be interesting.

******************************************************

His security detail didn't look any happier this time as he addressed them. "I'll be fine alone with Mr. Naoe." Feeling impish, he added, "Besides, given his powers, if he wanted to he could kill me before any of you could do anything anyway."

"Is that supposed to be comforting, sir?" Goseki asked. He could be a smart-ass, but Mamoru liked that.

"Not really."

"Then the only way to protect you from him would be to kill him first."

_That_ crossed the line.

"I wouldn't try it, if I were you," Nagi said. "I already let a group of people kill themselves with their own weapons tonight."

Annoyed, Mamoru said, "We'll save that for our enemies, Mr. Goseki."

"Yes, sir."

"Dismissed."

As Nagi entered the apartment, he said, "I get the feeling that they don't like me."

"They don't know you," Mamoru answered.

"But it would be different if they did?"

"Are you trying to make me regret offering to make you dinner?"

"I thought you'd have staff for that."

"I do. I gave them the night off since I didn't think I'd be home earlier."

"Did you at least get to eat? One of the few perks of bodyguarding the rich and notorious at those affairs was getting to nibble at the spreads."

"I didn't get to eat."

"I'm sorry those assassins didn't wait longer to try to kill me," Nagi said, looking and sounding completely deadpan.

"Yeah, it was inconsiderate of them. But this way I get to eat with you. Can you entertain yourself while I start dinner?"

Nagi smiled a little. "I already saved your limo. I won't break anything in your living room."

"I'll hold you to that."

Turning his back on Nagi to go to the kitchen left him feeling disturbed, but he fought against the feeling and started to think of what he could make. Something simple but good. An elaborate meal would say too much and might make Nagi expect something....

Once he'd done all the chopping and mixing and turned the oven on, he could only wait for the food to cook, so he might as well contact Grandfather about what had happened. He punched the number in, then said to the receptionist, "It's Mamoru. I want to talk to my grandfather."

"I'm sorry, but he's not well and not taking calls."

Again. Amazing how ill Grandfather had suddenly become now that Mamoru was making his own judgements that Grandfather didn't agree with. "His health has been so fragile lately that I barely get to speak with him. I'm going to contact a doctor. I don't think his current one is doing enough."

"That won't be necessary. His own is trusted and respected within his field."

"I wanted to tell him about the attack on me tonight."

"He's already heard about that."

"Not from me."

"You didn't witness it yourself."

"Does Grandfather know that you speak for Kritiker like this?"

The voice on the other end of the line suddenly took on a greater measure of respect. "I'm sorry. It's been a trying night. I'll let him know that you called."

"You do that. Good night." Some days Mamoru couldn't help feeling that Aya had been right.

Curious about what his guest might be up to, he walked into the living room and saw Nagi checking out his video game system. "You like it?"

"I'm sorry. It's a professional habit to check out my surroundings."

"I understand."

"I'm surprised. You seem so much more serious than having this suggests."

"Some days I come home from work with my brain frazzled and really need to shift gears."

"I know what you mean. I have my own methods."

"You left your origami in the limo."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to litter. I had other things on my mind."

"It's all right. Do you wanna play a game later?"

Nagi's eyes lit up a little. "Yeah. I didn't get to play games much."

"All the better."

"Nice evil cackle. Don't think I'll be easy meat."

"I wouldn't dare."

******************************************************

"This is very good," Nagi said. The way he ate everything with gusto supported it. A neat gusto, but it was enthusiasm nonetheless.

"Do you cook?"

"Crawford and I do the cooking. Schuldig could fuck up just boiling water, and Farfarello isn't somebody we want near anything we eat."

"Because he's homicidal?"

"Because he'll put milk, butter, and sugar into almost everything. He also likes fire too much."

"Aya can cook." Aside from taking his turn making lunch or dinner, Aya had gotten up in the morning about the same time Mamoru had and sometimes made breakfast for him.

"First we figured that he'd either refuse outright or poison us. Now we just worry that Farfarello will take too much of an interest in what he's doing."

Mamoru found it weird and disturbing... and interesting to hear about Aya's life with Schwarz. He hadn't wanted to think much about it, but Aya would be involved in simple domestic arrangements as well as murder and mayhem.

Nagi ate in thoughtful silence for a moment, then said, "Meals are important for us. Leisurely. And we don't discuss business during them."

"Why?"

"At Rosenkreuz, we were given 15 minutes to get our food and suck it down."

The more he learned about Rosenkreuz, the more he wished he could have helped Schwarz raze it to the ground. "Kritiker was different."

"Right. You've been with them most of your life."

Not quite the way that Nagi must have been at Rosenkreuz, but it provided more of a parallel than Mamoru had previously realized. "They treated me well. I had a good education and good care. Killing didn't enter the equation until much later."

"What? When you were 12?"

Sometimes Mamoru really thought about his upbringing, and all his gratitude at being saved from his kidnappers by Kritiker turned very sour. Sometimes, when he really thought about it, he resented the hell out of his father/uncle. "Later than that."

"Sorry. This isn't proper dinner conversation. I'm being obnoxious."

"Not really."

Nagi sniffled suddenly, so Mamoru asked, "Do you need a tissue?"

"No, I'm fine."

Mamoru finally noticed that Nagi's nose was a little red. "I won't think you're less of a man for having a cold."

"Tissues ruin the mystery. But, okay, you know, so I'm screwed anyway. I'll accept a tissue."

******************************************************

Nagi looked at the controller and said, "This is so damned complicated. Do you play games with it or launch wars?"

"The more buttons and toggles, the better control you have over your character. But we could play something that doesn't use many. How about Tetris?"

Nagi sneered. "I've played Tetris."

"Not with this controller, you haven't."

Nagi sat cross-legged on the floor, so Mamoru did the same. It seemed like the friendlier thing to do. Sometimes their knees almost touched....

"I'll surprise you," Nagi said.

"I'm sure you will."

******************************************************

Farfarello woke up alone and sighed as he rolled over into the still warm spot his puisín must have recently vacated. The pillow smelled like Aya's hair....

As he'd requested, his puisín had thoroughly worked him over, leaving bruises and scratches, exhausting him. Remembering Aya's strength and flexibility made him smile. Assassins made the best lovers.

But Farfarello had come awake from feeling Aya become upset over something. Their bond always felt stronger after sex.

He walked out to the living room and saw Aya sitting on the couch in front of the TV. "You shouldn't watch the news, puisín. It'll only depress you."

"But not you?"

Farfarello slid over the back of the couch to sit next to him. "I find it entertaining. Crawford sees it as a job bulletin. What's wrong?"

Aya got a stubborn look. "Nothing."

"I could torture you into telling me." At Aya's raised eyebrow, Farfarello continued, "Sexual torture. I'll really enjoy it."

"You wouldn't."

"Enjoy it?"

"Do it. I'd never forgive you, and you know it."

"Hmm. Could you just fucking tell me, then?"

"I saw Omi on the news, which briefly covered the event. He had this Takatori public mask on, with a fake smile and wave."

His puisín had certain predictable ruts. "He's not all Takatori."

"For how much longer? His grandfather is corrupt and greedy and wants to make Omi just like him."

Farfarello had the spark of an idea. He'd have to work on it more before he presented it to anyone, but it definitely had potential. The thought of giving his very good kitten a gift made him smile.

"Nagi will protect your Omi from the physical dangers. Maybe he can be defended from the rest too. But not tonight." Farfarello slipped a finger under the waistband of Aya's silky green pajama bottoms, stroking hot skin. As badly as the full reintegration had gone, his efforts had given him enough attachment to better feel his puisín. That was something. "Come back to bed. Too much TV isn't good for anyone."

"You want more?" Aya's glance traveled down his naked body. "Yes, you do."

******************************************************

"That's not where I placed that piece!" Nagi had this look in his eyes....

"It does that sometimes, and don't you dare use your telekinesis on my machine."

Nagi nearly blushed. It was cute. "It's habit. You take this in stride. You fought us, but you're still more comfortable with the whole talents issue than you should be."

"We have a few in Kritiker. I'm getting used to it." And he'd done some homework on them.

"You know, the 80s dance music soundtrack is amusing the hell out of me."

"Yeah, you're humming along to it."

"While I kick your ass."

"Oh, sure. I've been kicking _your_ ass for hours."

"Wait a minute. It's 3 a.m.? Shit. I have to go." Nagi stood in a rush, then winced as feeling returned to his legs. At least that's what it looked like.

"You have a curfew?" Mamoru asked, standing up too.

"Funny. No. It's just that I called them to say that I was fine and getting dinner at 10, and now it's 3 a.m. I have people who worry about me, you know."

"I don't doubt it." Mamoru missed having that. His security detail was paid to worry, when they weren't already shadowing him, but it wasn't the same.

Nagi smiled a little as he put his coat and gloves on. "I had a good time. Thanks."

"Me too. Do you need to be driven back?"

"No. I'm my own ride. Get that look off your face."

"What look? I think you're assuming that my mind is much dirtier than it really is."

"Yeah? And yet you immediately knew exactly what I was talking about. Good night."

"Good night." Mamoru watched Nagi walk away down the corridor, waving jauntily to the security detail out there. As he closed the door, he realized that he was smiling.

******************************************************

Nagi felt Schuldig sitting in the living room, so he wasn't surprised to see him waiting there when he opened the apartment door. Still.... "Be careful how you move in that robe. Some things I don't need to see," Nagi said.

"You didn't sleep with him," Schuldig answered, sounding disgruntled and showing far too much bare leg. "You played video games. What the hell is wrong with you? Really. Where did I go wrong?"

"Contrary to your own beliefs, everything isn't about you. Or about sex."

"Don't sass me. You go right back out that door, young man, and don't come back until you fuck Persia."

"You're the worst mom ever. Or you're my madam. And somehow I get the feeling that your opinion does not reflect the beliefs of the management."

"Brad didn't wait up for you. I did. Damn, you got so close, then nothing."

"What?" Nagi asked, caught between amusement and annoyance.

"You were out until 3 a.m. doing something with another human being. That's progress."

"I'm often out late with other people."

"Yeah, either killing them or killing with them. Doesn't count."

"Says who?"

"Says me. But you had a date with Omi or Mamoru or whoever the hell he wants to be. You're smiling...."

"I am not smiling. And date? I killed people for him."

"Then he made dinner for you."

Things like this reminded Nagi that he really hated telepaths. Excepting himself, of course. "I was hungry!"

"Sure, sure."

"The very fact that you want me to sleep with him makes me more resistant to the idea."

_That_ got a satisfying reaction. "Don't you dare!"

Nagi snickered all the way to his bedroom.

******************************************************

After breakfast, Crawford asked, "It went well?"

"Yeah. Persia's still alive, and I killed a few people," Nagi answered.

"You stayed out late."

"Persia got me dinner to thank me. No big deal."

"Nothing happened," Schuldig said. "To my great disappointment."

"Good," Crawford answered, then moved on.

"You owe me," Schuldig said.

Nagi shook his head. "For telling him the truth that nothing happened? Right."


	60. "If I had any shame, I'd be embarrassed about losing it in front of Aya like that."

"Kritiker came to your team with jobs," Crawford said as he drove. "Now that Schwarz is independent, we have to go to our clients."

"You'll have to accept that some of our clients are dark beasts who want us to take out other dark beasts for them," Schuldig said with a smile.

"Which makes this not so different from Kritiker after all," Aya answered and smirked a little to himself at their obvious pleasure in his answer. Nagi shook his head and rolled his eyes.

They entered the office building through one of the back entrances to avoid attracting the wrong attention. They'd scheduled this appointment for such a late hour for the same reason.

Farfarello hummed along with the music in the elevator.

Once they faced the prospective client in his office, Aya realized that Crawford disliked the man. Only someone who knew him, as Aya had come to, would see the strain in his manner. "We came as you requested, but I thought we'd settled this already," Crawford said.

The man behind the desk simply gave them a superior look. "I wanted to see your team as you tell me what you can do for me."

Farfarello bristled. Aya put a calming hand at the small of his back.

"We can fulfill your contract by various methods. It can be quick and clean, or very messy. We have experts in messy," Crawford answered as he pointed at Farfarello and Aya. "It's up to you. You can hire one, a few, or all of us, although it would be up to my discretion as to which of us best suits your requirements."

"I prefer to have a better idea of what I'm paying for."

A small, armed group of thugs opened the door. Farfarello suddenly looked much happier.

Crawford made a sound of annoyance. "We're not performers. This will cost you extra."

"If you survive."

"If we survive, you'll have to expect to hire replacements for your little army, because we'll kill them all."

"What will be, will be." He clapped his hands, and his minions attacked.

Schuldig and Aya pulled out their guns, while Nagi just used his telekinesis. They demolished their opponents in three minutes. Farfarello looked very put out at being denied his chance at bloodshed. Then one of the thugs lying on the floor pushed a corpse off of himself. Farfarello gutted him.

"You're hired," the man said

"We don't want to work for you now," Crawford answered and waved at them to leave.

"I'll increase your pay."

Crawford stopped walking. "By how much?"

******************************************************

Once Crawford heard what the job entailed--only killing, no hacking or research--he sent only Aya and Farfarello on it. As they waited in the dimness for their small army of targets to arrive, Farfarello smiled at Aya but Aya only blinked back, the kitten having already gone into his killing otherspace. Since Aya was pretty like that too, Farfarello didn't mind.

Once their victims arrived, they threw themselves into their work, blades bared and flashing. It felt wonderful to kill with his puisín like this again: the two of them against a mass of struggling targets. It had been far too long. This was their element, and they conducted the chaos of gunfire, blood, metal, and screams like virtuosos.

Eventually no one remained, so Farfarello pulled his lover in close to him and licked blood off his pale, set face, which melted him back to pliant humanity again. Aya looked at him with hot, lust-darkened eyes that mirrored his fierce joy but said, "Not here."

"Of course." As perversely attractive as fucking amidst the dead might sound, Farfarello had tried it a few times before and decided that it didn't add much to the sex.

He waited until they'd driven for 20 minutes before he pounced Aya and forced him to park the car. As he held his puisín on his lap, cleaning the blood from him with his tongue and stroking him, Farfarello decided that the inability to reintegrate might gall, but his life was still richer than he'd ever thought it could be.

******************************************************

While checking his e-mail, Nagi saw a message from a familiar address: o-wise1@yahoo.com. Smiling to himself, he read, _*Did you get punished for breaking your curfew?*_

He typed, then sent: _*My mother and father don't have traditional family values. Thanks for feeding me last night.... I didn't expect to get mail from you, but I like it.*_

An hour later, a new message came in. _*You gave me your address, so I figured I would use it. I was almost disappointed that we cracked Eszett so soon.... Are you open to accepting another job?*_

Nagi wrote back: _*I'm open to the idea, but you'll have to go through my agent for that.*_

Five minutes later: _*I'll do that. I enjoyed playing games with you. Do you want to do it again sometime? Or do I have to ask your agent about that too?*_

_*I enjoyed it too, and yeah, I'd like to do it again. You might not want to talk to my agent about that, though. He seems to think that games lead to loose behavior.*_

_*Then, it'll be our secret. I'll contact him about the job.*_

Nagi looked over his shoulder, then used telekinesis to open his bedroom door, revealing Schuldig. Nagi said, "That's rude."

Schuldig smiled and twirled some of his long hair around his fingers. "I just want you to know that I'll do what I can to help young love."

Telling Schuldig that he didn't need help wouldn't do anything useful, so Nagi just closed the door again and smirked at Schuldig's muttered "_I'm_ rude?"

******************************************************

As Aya waited, he wondered what Farfarello might be doing now. The team had separated for this assignment, with Aya and Schuldig bodyguarding one man, Crawford and Farfarello taking on a small army of thugs, and Nagi on a different job entirely, protecting Omi. He should probably get used to this.

~ We're ready to spring the trap. Here he comes, ~ Schuldig said.

Aya heard someone walking toward him with a nervous gait in what might be business shoes. A group of men, Schwarz's potential targets, already waited there. Aya approached them from behind, soundlessly, and felt Schuldig doing the same.

The man they'd been hired to protect told the group that he didn't have what they wanted, nor would he give it to them for any price. His voice wavered, but he didn't crack. Good for him. The group didn't take his statements with grace.

Aya took them in a rush, sweeping his katana through them. Schuldig shot several. Ambushed, the targets fell quickly and easily. Aya didn't like this kind of killing, but preventing the prey from fighting back kept Mr. Kadano safer. Schuldig kicked one of the bodies, which groaned, so he shot it again. Mr. Kadano watched them with wide eyes. He looked afraid... and excited.

"Let's get you out of here," Schuldig said. Then he looked again at the man they'd been hired to protect, shifted his stance, and smiled. Was he flirting? "Is there something else you want, sir?"

"I was told... that you know things without people having to tell you."

Schuldig briefly closed his eyes and took on an exaggerated pose of listening, then smiled deeper. "Do you really want that?"

"Yes."

Aya, who didn't like this at all, asked, "What?"

"He wants us to do other things with his body, Abyssinian," Schuldig said, "and he's willing to pay."

Aya stared at the man, who gazed back hungrily. "You better be joking."

"Coming close to death tends to make people horny, and we are two very pretty young men in prime physical condition. It happens more often than you'd think."

"Not with my old team."

"You're missing out."

Client or no, the man had to be set straight. "I'm no whore," Aya said through clenched teeth. Schuldig already knew that.

"He'd love to have you too, but he got the feeling that you might be that way, so he'd be fine with you radiating chilly disapproval while we fuck. Which shouldn't be hard, since you do that for free."

"Go to hell. I'm going home."

"You can't. You have to watch my back."

Aya shuddered at the thought of watching that back as Schuldig prostituted it. "Like hell."

"Then wait in the car."

As they stared at one another, Aya felt Schuldig's john watching them with a sick, lustful fascination. He knew that Schuldig would not be deterred from this, and he _couldn't_ leave the telepath completely alone to fend for himself no matter how much he wanted to.

"I'll wait in the car." The words tasted bitter on his tongue.

"Excellent. See you in a bit." Schuldig stroked some of Aya's hair out of his eye and grinned as he snarled.

Furious, sick, Aya stalked back to the car. He'd forgotten what Schwarz could be....

******************************************************

Omi hung his coat up as they walked into his apartment. "I really expected someone to attack tonight."

"If you really miss it, I could attack you," Nagi answered, carefully keeping his face blank and serious.

Omi stared at him, then said, "You're really funny."

"That's something I don't hear everyday."

"There are people who think that you don't have a sense of humor? You must have a whole secret life I don't know about."

"Definitely." Nagi started to unzip his leather gloves to take them off and noticed Omi watching a little closer than he had to.

Omi blinked, then said, "Make yourself comfortable on the couch. I have a phone call to make first."

"Sure."

Nagi didn't _try_ to eavesdrop, but he didn't have to. He could hear the conversation easily, the same as the last time he'd been here. Also the same as the last time he'd been here, Omi's grandfather was avoiding Omi.

And Omi was upset about it.

Very upset.

Before, Nagi hadn't cared one way or the other about old Takatori unless he tapped into Aya's violent antipathy to anyone who bore the name "Takatori" who wasn't Omi. Now, Nagi wanted the man to suffer for making Omi suffer.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting long," Omi said as he returned.

"Not at all. Your ass-kicking is waiting for you."

******************************************************

Thirty minutes of seething later, Aya unlocked the door to let Schuldig into the car. He smelled sharp and musky and radiated bloody lust. "Thanks for waiting," Schuldig said, then tried to put his head on Aya's shoulder.

Aya shrugged him off. "Fuck off."

"It's okay to kill for money but not to fuck for money? Your moral priorities are a little skewed. It amazes me that you don't understand the joy that comes in getting paid to do something you'd do for free."

"Get your hand off my thigh," Aya snarled. "Didn't you get enough?"

"You would think so, but you'd be wrong. Kadano-san was a fucking feast, but the kind of feast that makes you want more. The sex was fine, but his shame and lust were exquisite. Bottoming for a foreign man who'd just slaughtered a bunch of people in front of him gave him such a dirty charge that I'm glowing in response." Schuldig breathed hotly into Aya's ear. "You smell so good, rich with blood and disgust. Taste better...." Schuldig's hand slid up.... "You don't wear a fucking cup usually."

Right now his cup provided more protection than he'd expected he'd need. "There's no point to it when I'm killing with Farfarello at my side. Schuldig, I'm about to break your fingers." Weird that he didn't really find this threatening. Schuldig seemed more like an insistently affectionate cat than a sexual predator at the moment.

"An insistently affectionate cat? Should I be insulted?" Schuldig nuzzled his neck. "Fuck me. Or cuddle me. Or maybe both. I don't care about the order."

Schuldig seemed to be high. Aya tried to slow his pounding heart and control the lust surging through him, knowing that they had to be coming from telepathic influence.

"Yeah. This is so fucking cool. Eszett always ran segregated teams. If they had normals attached to talent teams, they were there as handlers for the performing beasts. But you're _with_ us, and we've opened your head up a bit, made you more sensitive to us. All normals have a tiny bit of psi, and you're woven into us...."

Aya didn't really want to think about that. "I'm taking you home." The leather glove on Schuldig's left hand, the hand that stroked Aya's face, smelled of sex and an unfamiliar cologne. No, not unfamiliar; it was Mr. Kadano's cologne. Aya forcibly moved the hand away. "Did you keep your gloves on the whole time?"

"Not the whole time. Don't get too disgusted. Or do get disgusted. It tastes so good."

Crawford could deal with this. Aya shoved Schuldig off his lap and turned on the car. "Can't you deal with me too?" Schuldig asked with a big smile.

******************************************************

Crawford suddenly set the bottle of juice down on the counter and looked off into space before saying, "Shit."

"What?" Farfarello asked as he set his towel down and reached for a knife. "Has Schuldig fucked up and put my puisín in jeopardy?" He'd been expecting that all night. If the mindbreaker survived whatever mess he'd dragged Aya into, Farfarello would kill him.

"Not exactly. And get that wet towel off the chair."

Farfarello stuck his tongue out at Crawford, but picked up the towel and rubbed his damp hair with it again. He threw it back down and picked up the knife when the apartment door banged open. When he saw Aya and Schuldig, he thought that some kind of lever might be a better instrument, since Schuldig was so tightly wrapped around his puisín that he'd have to be pried off. Farfarello struggled to think past the red surge of homicidal feelings. Crawdford grabbed his arm.

He telepathically reached into his kitten a little and found annoyance, reluctant lust, and also a rueful amusement. Aya was still his. It calmed him a bit.

Flushed and badly mussed, Aya snarled, "Crawford, get him off me before I hurt him doing it myself." Pretty Aya, but the mindbreaker would have to go.

Crawford seemed to be fighting back laughter. "I don't know if I should."

"Fuck him, cuddle him, I don't give a damn, just get him away from me. I swear that he has eight arms right now."

"You're complaining about that?" Schuldig asked, his tongue flicking out to touch Aya's ear.

"I'll take him off you." Farfarello had a knife ready for just that purpose.

_That_ forced Crawford into helpfulness. "Don't trouble yourself. Aya, calm down. You're only exciting him more." Crawford helped Aya pry Schuldig off, though Farfarello noticed that the telepath manged to fondle the hell out of his puisín in the process. There would have to be punishment for that.

Once he'd pulled Schuldig off, Crawford kept a tight hold on the wiggling telepath and looked annoyed as Schuldig whined, "But Aya tastes better, and I never had him before...."

"I'll tie you to the bed."

"You really mean that?" Schuldig asked, brightening.

"Yes. And lock the door so Farfarello can't kill you while you're trussed up."

Fuck. Farfarello had hoped that Crawford hadn't noticed his sudden glee. He told himself that it wouldn't be much fun marking Schuldig up when the telepath was this high anyway, because he seemed to enjoy anything anyone did to him.

"Why do you let him whore himself out?" Aya asked as he straightened his coat.

"_Let_ me?" Schuldig asked, his maniacally good mood darkened a bit.

"This doesn't always happen," Crawford answered. "When it does, it acts as a safety release. You don't want to be around for some of the other releases Schuldig has. Besides, I enjoy seeing him with other people. Good night." Crawford dragged Schuldig into their bedroom. Farfarello heard the door lock. Dammit.

Aya looked like he was at a loss for words. Farfarello said, "Sometimes Crawford whores himself out too."

Farfarello had seen Aya's expression once on a man who'd swallowed his own tongue. "You're kidding me."

"No."

"He's so fastidious."

"Everyone except Nagi has. Eszett left little choice." Farfarello drew a line down his bare chest with his forefinger. "This is only a shell anyway."

"I-- Fuck it. Never mind." Trying to fingercomb his hair into some kind of order, Aya asked, "How was your night?"

"Dull without you. But bloody, yeah." Farfarello licked his lips. "Schuldig left you frustrated. I can taste it." At least the mindbreaker could help in some small way.

"Yeah. Do you want to help me?"

They'd never fucked in _this_ kitchen. "Stupid question," Farfarello answered and grabbed him. Being a good kitten, Aya went right along.

******************************************************

"If I had any shame, I'd be embarrassed about losing it in front of Aya like that," Schuldig murmured into the pillow as he idly flexed his arms in their bonds. He felt much more like himself now.

All that, and he hadn't even gotten Aya. Dammit. Though he had gotten himself tied facedown onto the bed and fucked into next week by Brad.

"I think he was more confused by your behavior than anything else. The _whoring_ upset him."

"Such a pure innocent he is. It's too bad he's not game. He could make us a good living as a dom."

"I'd rather not talk about Aya right now."

"What would you rather do, Brad?"

"Make you pay for saying that Aya tastes better," Brad answered, cool and offhand sounding as ever as he traced patterns on Schuldig's back with some object Schuldig couldn't see from this angle. Playing into the game, he refused to use telepathy to find out what it was.

Good old Brad. "I love toy time."

******************************************************

"Have I found your secret weakness somehow? I beat you over the last seven games," Omi said.

Staring at the screen spared Nagi from having to look at Omi, which might have given him some idea of what the distraction was about. It didn't help that Omi sat so close to him or that he wanted Omi on his own, even without outside influence. But he wouldn't jump Omi just because the rest of his team had gone sex-crazed.

Omi, Omi, Omi. Nagi sighed. Hormones made people so stupid.

Strengthening his mental shields, he said, "I'll be better now."


	61. "You people. Nagi, move this. Nagi, kill this. Would you get anything done without me?"

After breakfast that morning, Schuldig approached Nagi and said, "You _still_ haven't fucked Persia. Do I have to intervene?"

"No. And get off my back!" Seeing the sudden look on Schuldig's face, Nagi said, "Stop imagining _being_ on my back, you pervert."

"You're no fun."

Nagi slammed his door shut and settled down in front of his laptop. Needing to calm down, he delved into the cyber world.

Being aroused while sitting next to Omi had felt so hazardous and so exhilarating. Did he want sex with him? Nagi didn't really know.... But he definitely wanted to see Omi again.

Eventually Farfarello opened the door, closed it behind him, and said, "Nagi, I want you to do something for me."

Nagi turned away from his laptop. "Yeah?"

"Stop a man's heart. It's probably about the size of a raisin, and something that small and shriveled shouldn't be any trouble to you at all."

"You people. Nagi, move this. Nagi, kill this. Would you get anything done without me?"

"Is that a no?"

"Not necessarily. I just need to vent now and then. Is this for Aya?"

"It's a Takatori. His death could pass for old age."

Nagi smiled. "It is for Aya."

"Aya can't do it himself, not without alienating his Omi. And his Omi won't do it himself out of deluded love."

"Does Crawford know that you want to do a freebie?"

"It's not a freebie. It's a gift. A gift we don't tell Aya about."

"That works for me. Besides, I like Omi." All of their not-a-dates had been fun, whether they would eventually end in sex or not, and Grandfather deserved to die.

"He's had to kill enough family recently." Farfarello had a strange look on his face, almost as if he'd remembered how he'd started on this path. Almost as if he'd finally set aside his self-protective delusion that God had killed his family, not him.

Nagi wasn't touching any of that. "I'll stop this heart as a gift for Aya and Omi."

"I wonder...."

"Yeah?"

"If capturing and tending to Omi might do him some good."

Naughty, naughty thought. "Like it did for Aya?"

"It's a thought."

Nagi grinned. He _liked_ Omi, and Omi might be even easier to talk to with Grandfather out of the way. "Maybe we could 'join' Kritiker as internationally-based freelancers and exert some influence without the fuss of a kidnapping. Omi's a Takatori, and his disappearance would cause a huge mess, with people hunting for us. Crawford would hate that. Give Crawford the thought of gaining control of a vast resource for wealth and power...."

"And Aya might not have any objections if it's his Omi at the head of Kritiker and not the Takatori creature. He sounded pleased at the thought of taking projects from Omi." Farfarello's expression darkened. "If we joined, even on a freelance basis, Kritiker might try to rein us in."

"They'd have to find out about our bad behavior to do that, and we're too good for that, especially now that you're not out there slaughtering nuns and priests so recklessly anymore."

Farfarello growled, and Nagi smiled at him sunnily. This idea had merit.

Farfarello finally said, "I take your point."

"Besides, Omi's practical, and he's better inclined toward us lately."

"He also loves my puisín."

"Does that bother you?"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't object as long as Aya is mine." Then he grinned, which always looked disturbing. "Ruthless and practical Omi-Mamoru may be, but he would never get the parts of Aya I do."

"So we flesh this out and then present it to Crawford."

"After you kill Takatori."

"Yeah, that's better off finished." They were already in Japan, so why not?

Someone knocked at the door, then opened it. Crawford. "Or you could let me help you kill Takatori."

Farfarello looked disgruntled. "I'm not integrated."

"I didn't read your future. I read Nagi's."

"Great," Nagi said, sighing.

"I'd be more offended at your attempt to work around me if I didn't think your plans had merit."

"All right. How will you help me kill old Takatori?"

******************************************************

Nagi stood at Crawford's side in the midst of various crimelords and carefully didn't smile at the nervous looks they gave him. He'd never realized that he'd attained some small level of fame for what he could do. At least for the telekinesis. If they'd known about the telepathy, they never would have let him in.

They didn't like the dark glasses that hid his eyes. Too bad. They were an important part of his plan. Their host's guards had objected to his MP3 player as well until he and Crawford had heckled them into letting it come in. Nagi adjusted his earplugs.

They all sat down to a formal dinner, then began to discuss business once they finished. Nagi turned on his player and closed his eyes, secure that no one could tell with the black shades in the way. Then, telepathically, he reached out to Takatori's residence about two kilometers away until he found the old bastard. Telepathy made killing from a great distance possible.

The heavy metal pounding through his brain would mask his thoughts and confuse any telepaths Takatori had on the payroll. It didn't have to be heavy music--he'd once killed someone while a continuous loop of "Singin' in the Rain" played--but he felt wild tonight. He'd discovered this use for music on his own, since Eszett wouldn't train its minions to use something it only occasionally gave them as a rare luxury item.

Crawford's plan gave Schwarz an opportunity to establish ties with potential employers while giving Nagi an alibi.

Nagi felt a telepath trying to scrabble at him but getting confused by the music, particularly the English lyrics. Tourist's mind? Yes.

Meanwhile, finding old Takatori's mind let Nagi target him with telekinesis. He felt into Takatori, finding his heart. Old but tough, on its own it would keep him alive to torment his enemies and grandson for years to come.

Nagi thought of Aya, whose family had suffered under the self-centered madness this man's children had rotting in their souls. Aya's parents had been killed and his sister put into a coma by Takatori Reiji, while he himself had been used as a tool by Takatori Shuuichi. Sometimes Aya wondered if Persia really had actually come too late to save the Fujimiyas or if perhaps he'd _waited_, the better to have a pawn to use against his brother. Nagi thought of Omi, who had been left to die and used as a tool and tortured by various members of his family before he'd finally fallen prey to his grandfather, who had taken advantage of Omi's deep longing for kindred. Old man Takatori wanted to eat Omi alive until nothing of Omi remained except a body carrying a Takatori mind.

One corrupt son could be seen as an aberration. An entire two generations of evil had to be _made_ that way. And this man Nagi held in his telekinetic hands had started it all.

Nagi blocked three arteries that fed into Takatori's heart and pressed on the man's vocal cords just enough to prevent him from calling for help. Then he watched and waited, continuing the pressure even after death to make sure. On his mind's way out, he fucked up the door's lock to further delay any assistance from coming.

Nagi nearly swayed as he opened his eyes but successfully fought it. Despite his killer headache, he remained attentive for the rest of the meeting.

Once they'd driven several kilometers away, Crawford asked, "Did it go well?"

"You can't see?" Nagi answered. The cool window glass felt good against his face.

"I don't see everything."

"He's dead."

"You're cranky."

"I have a migraine."

"You killed a man from two kilometers away, and it only took you ten minutes."

"Less time than that. I stuck around to make sure he was brain-dead."

"Even better."

"Wait, was I obvious?" Horrible thought.

"I know you well, and I was watching for it. Otherwise, I never would have known."

"Good. I don't know why you're so surprised about this. You foresaw that I could."

"I'm not surprised," Crawford said quietly.

He was... proud. Nagi could tell. Proud of Nagi's prowess and of the ambition he'd concocted from the seed of Farfarello's much narrower idea. Crawford nearly glowed with satisfaction from how his team surpassed his expectations.

Smiling, Nagi went to sleep.

******************************************************

"I have to speak to Draco and Fenris alone," Mamoru said over the video connection. Grandfather might be gone, but the world continued on. Such a loss could cripple Kritiker if Mamoru took time off to grieve.

"Gladly," Koun said. The splint on his right forefinger looked very bulky. He glared at Elena and Fenris before ushering the rest of the team out of the room.

Mamoru sighed. Of all days, now was not a good day to have to deal with this kind of shit.

"I'm sorry, sir," Elena said. "This has been brewing for a long time, but Koun finally pushed Fenris too hard. Fenris may not be that good with Japanese, but he understands tone of voice and a pointing finger very well."

Fenris had picked up a little Japanese from lessons and the anime that Jun, a friendly teammate, had exposed him to. Mamoru could even figure out one of the titles from the way that Fenris had taken to responding to Koun's insults by yelling "stupid monkey" back at him. Fenris had explained that he knew Koun wouldn't understand German insults, so....

"It's not like I broke his pointing finger _off_!" Fenris protested in German. A little telekinesis could be a dangerous thing.

"Your team leader is demanding your reassignment," Mamoru answered in the same. Part of him felt amused by the whole situation, even despite his grief.

"He's the asshole! Why do we have to go?"

Elena actually blushed. "Sir, I'm sorry that I'm not a better parent... or less foul-mouthed. Fenris, when you do something, you get consequences. He was here first, and he's the leader. If you break his finger, he will make you leave."

"Consequences suck." Fenris looked very unhappy. "We have to go?"

"Yes."

"Jun didn't even get a chance to show me the OVAs."

"I know. I'm sorry, baby. Think first next time. Sir, how soon should we go?"

"A car will pick you up tomorrow," Mamoru responded.

"Maybe you can ask Jun if he'll let you see it today."

"Okay." Then Fenris looked up and directly into the camera. "I'm sorry about your grandfather, sir."

"Yes," Elena said. "Our condolences."

It surprised him, and his throat felt thick. "Thank you," he answered, then turned off the connection. Something felt wrong. He turned around and asked, "How did you get in here?" Rex spun about too.

"You ask that even knowing the company I keep?" Aya asked back.

Mamoru nearly smiled. "I need better security. Rex, please leave us."

She looked ready to protest, then left the office without a word. He'd trained her well.

Aya cast his eyes down. "I came to offer my condolences."

"You're not sorry he's dead."

"I'm not sorry for _him_."

Mamoru let out a shaky breath. Despite Grandfather's flaws, he'd loved him deeply... and Aya apparently knew it. "It was... kind of you to come."

But for a moment he wondered. Did Aya have anything to do with the death? The autopsy had ruled it as a result of natural causes, and Grandfather had been elderly, but.... No. He would know if Aya had anything to do with it just from watching him.

"I had to. No tears anymore?"

"That was a different me."

"I miss him. You're too much like me now."

And Aya looked so sad that Mamoru felt his stoic Takatori mask crumble. Somehow he stood and found himself in a hug that he'd needed so much. "You're not even you anymore, Aya-kun. You never would have come to me like this. That's not a complaint." How could Schwarz heal Aya where Weiß had failed?

"Good."

Under the scent of the leather jacket Mamoru rested his face against Aya smelled different than he used to, but he couldn't identify the scent. It would drive him crazy....

He wanted Aya back. Now that Grandfather couldn't be a source of contention, could he get him?

Did he really just think that? What had he become? He let Aya go and stepped away a little.

"How are Ken and Yoji?" Aya asked.

It encouraged Mamoru to hear Aya ask about his teammates. "Ken's in prison. No, don't get upset! He said he needed some time and space to think and figured prison would help."

"Prison? I never understood Ken."

"I used to. He's just been so angry lately...." It broke Mamoru's heart to see what Ken had become. Whatever Ken needed to get better, he would get. "It might help."

"At least we know he can defend himself."

"Yeah. I have people keeping an eye on him anyway. As for Yoji, I have him doing detective work. He says he's reconciled himself to being Weiß, with all that means, but I can't forget his break during the fight. I would have given him a vacation, but I worried that he wouldn't do well without something structured to do." When Aya smiled a little, Mamoru said, "Yeah, I'm still a mother hen."

"So Weiß is inactive for a while?"

"I'm thinking of creating a new generation of Weiß."

"A new generation?" The thought obviously didn't make Aya happy, although only someone who knew him well would see it.

"Weiß isn't even a team anymore now, since Yoji's unreliable, Ken's off for an unspecified length of time, and you're... elsewhere. Siamese, LaPerm, and Havana are dead."

"I only know one of those names."

"They were Asato, Sena, and Kyo." At Aya's look, Mamoru said, "And I can't really count myself as a member. That mission against Epitaph and Eszett was Bombay's last."

"I didn't meet Kyo."

"He was killed on an undercover mission. Asato was killed getting some data we needed and trying to defend a teacher against Tuji."

"Asato--" Aya visibly turned away from that line of dialogue to say, "If Yoji returned to duty in your new Weiß, he'd be surrounded by strangers."

When did Aya start to care? Had he always cared? "He has been before, when I left Weiß to take command of Kritiker, and he would be now anyway, even if Ken did someday return to active duty."

"It doesn't seem like a good idea."

"I can't afford to be sentimental. You know that." As Weiß's field leader, Aya had been an expert at unsentimental.

"I saw the framed photo of us on your desk. You can't make me believe that the person who said that he'd like to drive all over Japan selling flowers out of a car with us is completely gone."

Oh, Aya. "Maybe he grew up."

"He already seemed very grown up to me."

Hurting, Mamoru asked, "Would _you_ return to Weiß?" That scored a direct hit, because Mamoru saw Aya flinch. He'd just hung Yoji's mental health on Aya leaving the team he'd integrated himself into to return to Weiß, putting the responsibility on Aya. It didn't belong there. "I'm sorry. That wasn't fair."

"It wasn't."

"I just miss you."

Hard and sharp as steel, Aya answered, "Even if I did return, you'd barely see me, not on a personal, face-to-face level. You're Persia now. Nothing is the way it used to be." Then he softened a little. "I miss all of you too. I couldn't let myself think of it at the beginning of all this, not without falling apart completely, but I do now."

"We've all lost so much." Mamoru felt tears starting and ruthlessly stopped them. He'd sworn that he wouldn't cry anymore, because he had too many people he needed to be strong for.

Aya noticed anyway. "Yes, but we go on."

"Aya-kun, have dinner with me? I... need to talk."

"Yes."

When Mamoru took him home to his large penthouse apartment, Aya looked more amused than impressed, which was as it should be. Mamoru made them dinner, and it reminded him of old times at the flower shop and Weiß, which led to them talking about those old times, especially once the saké started to flow. Tsukiyono Omi never would have thought those times to have been simple and innocent, but Mamoru knew better.

He knew that Aya wouldn't care to hear him talk about Grandfather, so he asked him about Aya-chan instead. After some gentle coaxing, Aya spoke in soft and sometimes hesitant phrases about a vibrant girl whose life had been snuffed out far too soon, and in those words Mamoru saw a loving and protective older brother named Fujimiya Ran who had been as badly injured mentally as his sister had been physically that night. It amazed and saddened him that they could have known each other for years without him having this vital piece of Aya's self, the piece of the puzzle that made the picture so much clearer.

Hearing Aya's grief and knowing that he had found his way past it helped. Aya too had lost all of the family he loved. He was being so open tonight, just as Mamoru had always wanted.

Mamoru hugged him at the door as they said good night, and this new Aya hugged back. It shouldn't have led to kissing, but it did, and if he was going to be kissing, he had to touch Aya's hair too. He felt so good.... Loved him so.... As they rocked together, clutching each other tightly, Aya sighed, "Omi," in a soft, lost voice, the way Mamoru had wanted for such a long time, when he'd still been Omi, and Mamoru came like that, still fully dressed.

Came in his expensive pants, having molested a friend he knew was in a relationship with someone else after having plied him with saké, when he knew this friend rarely drank, and prodded him to talk about his greatest loss, rendering him vulnerable. Guilt hit. Guilt hit him hard.

But he felt so good and wanted to do it again, slower.... Had he even gotten Aya off? He wanted to. "I'm sorry, Aya. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

Looking dazed, Aya ran his hand through his disheveled red hair, making it skew in even crazier ways. "It's all right, Omi. It's all right." But his other hand was outstretched in a warding off gesture. Get away, it said.

Mamoru wondered if Farfarello would try to kill him. He wondered if eliminating just that one member of Schwarz would get him what he wanted....

Thus, he appalled himself again. God, he had a lot to atone for.

He had to send Aya away _now_. Aya, looking dazed and disturbed, didn't protest.

Once alone, Mamoru sat down at his kitchen table and rested his head against his hands. After everything he'd done to and thought about doing to Aya, especially tonight, he had to make it up to him somehow, help and protect him. Some of Schwarz's clients worried him, and he didn't see Aya having changed _so_ much that all sense of conscience had vanished.

Aya and Schwarz had expressed an interest in taking jobs from Kritiker. If Mamoru gave Aya assignments, he'd be able to control how much wetwork Aya had to do and how many moral compromises he'd have to make. It was the least Mamoru could do.

And Nagi already felt like a full-time employee... as well as a bright spot in Mamoru's life. He could help Nagi too.

Really, he might as well see if he could hire Schwarz, since they had methods in common and Nagi did such excellent work. He'd have to contact Crawford.

With that settled, Mamoru went off to take a cold shower, but it didn't help.


	62. "Plans don't always go according to plan."

As Aya unlocked the door to Schwarz's apartment, he wondered how the hell he could have done what he'd done. He wasn't that type of person. He'd lost control of himself and taken comforting much too far.

Omi had just been so grief-stricken, alone, and isolated, so small in that large, lonely apartment. And it was _Omi_ he'd spoken to over dinner, not Takatori Mamoru, who'd been so cool and offhand while talking about the dead members of Weiß, so cold while talking about Siamese's death....

Aya had felt a certain fascination toward his replacement and couldn't help thinking that it had been two-sided. Now they would never face off. Takatori Mamoru saw no loss.

It had been Omi in Aya's arms....

Aya wouldn't hide what he'd done tonight. He expected punishment and would do whatever penance Farfarello demanded.

"As if you _could_ hide it in this team," Schuldig said from the living room couch, and Crawford smiled at Aya.

Crawford smiled at him? Disturbing.

Farfarello rushed him as soon as he walked into their room, pinned him against the wall, and pressed his nose to his neck. "You tumbled another kitten," Farfarello said against his skin.

Aya shivered. "Yeah. It shouldn't have happened."

Farfarello gripped his arm and dragged him to the bathroom, then started to run the water for a bath. "Strip."

Gladly. As soon as he achieved nakedness, he stepped into the filling tub at Farfarello's silent, commanding gesture. He half expected the water to be punishingly hot, but it was only hot enough to be a tingling initial shock, and he soon became acclimated to it. Farfarello scrubbed him briskly, making his skin tingle even more, and he swayed into the touches. "Tipsy kitten," Farfarello murmured.

Sometime later, Farfarello said, "Out," and when he got out he was briskly toweled dry, then bent over the bathroom counter. Aya could see where this was heading and didn't mind at all, especially since standing unaided seemed to be unusually difficult with his state of mild drunkenness and advanced arousal. The counter felt cold against his hot hands. Farfarello's arms went over his head and closed something mildly constricting around his neck, buckling it at the back. The cat collar's bell chimed as he shifted. Aya took a deep breath and sighed at the feel of leather pressing just under his Adam's apple.

The sound of Farfarello's zipper coming undone seemed astonishingly loud. "Other people can borrow you once in a while, puisín, but you belong to me." He ran his hand down Aya's bare ass, then pressed exactly where Aya hoped he would, and Aya rode his fingers with a moan. He'd slicked them up already....

"Yeah."

Farfarello's thrust in was long and slow, and Aya groaned the whole way, especially as Farfarello's fist wrapped around his cock. "Can you get this anywhere else?"

It was so good.... "No."

The bell chimed on every thrust. Farfarello drove Aya to mindless insanity with his cock, hands, and mouth, playing him like a virtuoso, touching him in places no one else had ever thought to, and he came quickly, whimpering, blacking out for a few moments, beyond shame. Farfarello kept fucking Aya for a while longer, biting down on the collar, brushing the back of Aya's neck with his teeth, when he hit orgasm.

Feeling vague and warm and loose and lazy, Aya sat curled with Farfarello on the floor, letting the wall hold them up. "Nobody else punishes me like that," Aya said against his shoulder.

Farfarello flicked the bell with his finger to make it chime. "They better not."

******************************************************

Two waves of lust hit Nagi as soon as he walked through the door. "You're all depraved, you know," he said to the two bodies entwined and writhing on the couch.

"Someday... ohhhh... you'll have a sex life too, Nagi," Schuldig said from under Crawford.

"I'll just be more dignified about it. What the hell is that chiming noise? Never mind."

"It's all part of the plan," Crawford said. He still wore his glasses, so the lamplight reflected off them. It made Nagi smirk.

"The chiming noise?"

"Don't be facetious."

"_The_ plan? My and Farfarello's plan?"

"The same."

They went from plan to plan. That was the way of things for Schwarz. Comforting.

"Where are you going?" Schuldig asked as he turned to leave.

Somewhere quieter. A café maybe. "I think I'll find a prostitute."

"Don't say that if you don't mean it, you tease!"

Nagi flipped Schuldig off American-style and closed the door behind him, chuckling to himself.

******************************************************

Farfarello understood that everything had a price. Killing Takatori had led to this. Falling in love led to vulnerability. He didn't mind paying a price for the gift he'd asked for, but he hadn't expected his puisín to pay as well. Aya was so upset....

His puisín had become vulnerable through caring for his Omi. Farfarello had become vulnerable through caring for his puisín.

But Aya was still his, lying sated next to him in their bed. He felt his puisín's confusion, self-flagellation, guilt, and penitence. "I don't understand it," Aya said softly.

"I do." And he did. "Your new self interacted with your old life. You care for him, and the new you allows people to touch you. The new you is more openly affectionate and wanted to comfort." He stroked Aya's hair.

"Is that all?" He sounded angry at himself.

"Still, Omi made you slick, but he didn't make you come."

"And that makes it all right?"

"It makes it better than it could have been." Farfarello understood Aya's upset. Aya preferred to be faithful and in control of himself. This situation had to hurt. "And you were tipsy."

He couldn't be angry with Aya, especially not when Aya was so angry with himself. Farfarello couldn't even entirely blame Persia, which galled. When confronted by such a sleek, glossy kitten, who could resist the urge to stroke?

"He really loved his grandfather."

This wouldn't lead to anywhere good. Farfarello had to stop it now, so he said, "It's like removing a cancerous growth. It always hurts right afterward, but the body is healthier in the end." His puisín cast him a suspicious look. Did Aya wonder if Farfarello had participated in this death? Farfarello said, "Your pain is my pain."

"I'm afraid that I..." Aya sneered at himself, "I led him on."

"I doubt it. And you're the only person hating you right now. Go to sleep."

But Aya didn't sleep well, so Farfarello worried.

******************************************************

"I want details about what happened last night," Nagi said to Schuldig as they shopped for groceries. Nagi had only agreed to help out with this so he could get the story somewhere away from Aya.

They could have done this telepathically, but Nagi hated the feel of that.

"I thought you got the Schwarz porn station," Schuldig answered as he smiled at one of the many people trying not to stare at him. Tall, foreign, and crowned with that bright long hair, Schuldig always attracted attention in Japan.

"I mean the thing with Omi and the plan, and you know it."

"Omi was very depressed about his grandpa."

Nagi felt bad about that, but it had to be done. "Of course."

"Aya went over to give his condolences. They had dinner and reminisced, sharing their souls and all that sentimental rot."

"Which inclines Omi to trust us more?"

"Yeah. Then Omi humped Aya at the door as they said their goodbyes."

That had to be wrong. "What?"

Schuldig grinned. "A little too much saké, a lot of Omi lust, and a tipsy and nearly accommodating Aya led to Omi getting off and Aya getting very confused and angry with himself."

"That wasn't part of the plan!" It hurt.

"Plans don't always go according to plan."

"Did Crawford foresee this?"

"Not until it was too late for us to do anything about it. Farfie bounced him against the wall for it."

How could Omi do that? "I'll kill him for taking advantage of Aya." He'd _liked_ Omi....

"Don't be so hard on him. Death makes people wanna fuck. You know that."

"Shit."

"Brad says that he'll call today about taking us on."

"I don't want to be taken on by him now!"

"Nagi, that was alcohol and comfort sex. It happens." Schuldig looked very serious now. "Don't toss Omi away because a tipsy, grieving kid saw a chance at a long-time dream and took it."

"You just want me to get laid."

"Fuck, yes, but that doesn't mean I don't mean it. Aya doesn't see it as taking advantage."

"Aya's probably blaming himself."

"Farfie's trying not to let him."

"Wonderful."

"This shit happens. Sex always complicates things. That's one of the reasons why I like it so much."

Damn it. It had been a good plan. Why did people have to fuck up a good plan?

"Nagi, don't ruin this opportunity because you're upset for Aya and ticked off that Omi put the moves on someone who isn't you."

"This isn't about jealousy."

"That's right. This is about business. Besides, do you think Aya would want you to punish Omi over this?"

"No."

"Exactly. Stay cool. Everything will work out."

"Do you really believe that?"

"We'll force it to work out."

That was more like it.

******************************************************

Farfarello stayed close to Aya in Persia's office. While he doubted that Persia would try anything under these circumstances, he wanted to send out a message about territory. Farfarello _hadn't_ been angry with Omi, but now he felt like ripping into the interloper, who kept sneaking worried looks at Aya. This was more Persia, Takatori Mamoru, than Omi now anyway.... But he knew the others wouldn't allow him to take bloody vengeance. A plan was a plan.

Besides, if he killed Omi, Nagi wouldn't have anyone to pair with and would continue to gaze on Aya with that damned smitten look.

Life had been much easier and more fun when he hadn't given a damn about what the others wanted. But he hadn't had his own kitten then. Kittens always complicated things.

Nagi had looked angry as he'd entered the room, but his expression had slowly softened as he watched Persia. Kittens really could twist a man's heart around on him.

"Thank you for coming," Persia said. "I'm interested in hiring Schwarz on a freelance basis, as long as you're amenable and don't mind being split up now and then."

"It sounds as if you already have some assignments in mind," Crawford said.

"There's a mission in New York City that Aya and Farfarello would be perfect for."

Interesting. Was it a show of good faith? It would keep Aya with him and far from Persia's lustful hands.

"We would need more details, but it sounds possible," Crawford answered.

"We have several targets in New York, but the main one is a major crime lord who's very well protected. He only has one known weakness. With their looks and sense of fashion, they could infiltrate one of his parties very easily."

"Are you saying that we look like whores?" Farfarello asked, amused.

"Intel suggests that he doesn't pay for his favors, so no. You could pass for a certain kind of performance artist."

"It might be fun. Aya?"

"It's fine." Aya looked like he still felt guilty. He'd have to be worked on.

"I would like to have Nagi work as my bodyguard now and then," Persia said.

"I'm fine with that," Nagi answered, looking a bit distracted.

"I don't have anything lined up for Crawford and Schuldig, although I'm sure that will change. You'd also be free to take other work while I have nothing for you. Compensation would be negotiated on a by-job basis."

"That's acceptable," Crawford said.

"Farfarello, Aya, would you be ready to leave a day from now?"

"Yes," Farfarello said. It actually sounded exciting.

******************************************************

On the way to the car, Schuldig slowed down a little to walk next to Nagi. "So?" Schuldig asked. "I saw your expression change."

"He was so full of emotion that it bled all over me." Listening had been a humbling experience. "Grief, guilt, love for Aya.... He feels so bad about Aya, even as he wishes things could be different between them in general."

"What about you?"

Nagi could give a little. "He wants me too." He still couldn't believe the affection and desire he'd felt there, but he'd _felt_ it.

Schuldig smiled. "It'll work out."

******************************************************

"Farfarello."

Farfarello looked up from the blade he sharpened and said, "Crawford." The man wanted something and would get to it eventually.

Crawford stood in the doorway to the bedroom, not quite entering. "You know that not so long ago I wouldn't have let you go out on this assignment without supervision."

"Aya's not supervision?"

"Be serious."

At least Crawford didn't talk like this in front of Aya. Farfarello would teach him respect eventually, but not now, not when Crawford could stop them from leaving.

"We supervise each other."

"Which should scare the hell out of anyone. Still, I'm not here to denigrate Aya's sanity. I came to make sure you remember your responsibilities."

"Do the job. Kill the people I'm pointed at. Try not to get too crazy in my recreations. I understand that."

"Keep an eye on Aya."

"Do you still doubt him?" Farfarello didn't, and Farfarello should know.

"I don't think he'll run. I just want you to make sure he's well. He's prone to extremes."

As if Farfarello didn't know that. "You didn't foresee Omi's farewell to him, and now you have to deal with the fallout. And so do I."

Crawford's mouth went hard, making his lips look thinner. "I don't see everything."

"I'm sure that's a great comfort to you." Farfarello pointed the knife in his direction. "I keep an eye on him always, and I know him better than you do. You've delivered your message. Aya will be back soon."

For a moment, Crawford simply stared at him. Farfarello stared back, unblinking, until he left.

Farfarello actually felt torn over this assignment. As much as it thrilled and excited him to be out and so far away "without supervision," it disturbed him too. Sometimes he found change threatening. Only lately had he realized that all of his wildness had fit within demanding, obsessive patterns. This assignment in the United States would truly be into terra incognita.

He felt Aya return before he heard him. His puisín was doing that not-thinking thing of fog, which made him worry. It could be Aya wanting privacy or Aya hiding something.

Then he saw Aya in the doorway and had to ask, "Puisín, what the fuck did you do to your hair?" He knew he shouldn't have let Aya go out alone.

"A trim and some henna." Aya put his holster and two knife sheaths down on the night table.

Farfarello leapt up and circled him. "It's brown."

"It's auburn. I wanted to be a little less flashy for this assignment."

"We're supposed to be flashy. Anyway, you're paired with a scarred, white-haired, one-eyed man. How could you be inconspicuous?"

Aya looked self-conscious now. "I didn't think you'd react so strongly. I just needed a change. It's henna, not permanent dye. It's not forever."

It was done, and his kitten could have done far worse to himself. Before, when upset, Aya had gone on hunger strikes and suicide attempts. His hair was still red, just not Red 666 as Schuldig liked to call it, and it had been trimmed, not butchered. Aya didn't wear the orange sweater he tended to turn to when he most needed calm and comforting. Instead, he had that fun, close-fitting black shirt with the zippers that Farfarello liked to play with.

Farfarello would be supportive of the hair. "It smells like tea." Nice, actually. He nuzzled it.

"That's the henna. Temporary."

Farfarello circled around to face him. "Dance with me."

Aya smiled a little, then picked up his scabbard and unsheathed his katana. In moments, Farfarello had his own sword ready. The world always seemed to be a better place when he had bared steel in his hand. They danced around the room, over and around furniture, fast and hard, fighting blade to blade and sometimes scabbard to blade. It amused him that Aya used that scabbard as a bludgeon and shield. With its unpredictability and shocks of impact, he far preferred sparring with Aya to lone sword practice. And he preferred the company. Clanging metal, harsh breathing, and the pounding of his heart became a welcome soundtrack. Sunlight streaming through the window glinted off Aya's earring and zippers and made his hair blaze a warmer red than it had before.

"Had enough?" Farfarello eventually asked as they came in very close to one another.

"Are you getting bored?"

"I want to dance in another way."

Aya's eyes darkened. "Put down our swords?"

"At the same time."

_That_ made Aya smile. Eyes locked, they backed away from one another a little and slowly set their weapons down at the same time. Then Farfarello pounced, grabbing Aya and throwing them both onto the bed. He couldn't help grinning as he feverishly unzipped every zipper on that shirt, sliding his fingers into the slits to caress Aya's heated skin, then rubbed his nose against Aya's neck, smelling sweat, metal, skin, and tea.

"You're so melodramatic," Aya said.

"_I'm_ melodramatic? I'll fuck you for saying that."

"I don't think you're understanding the concept of 'punishment' here."


	63. "You try being an unconscious telepath around thousands of drawling Virginians."

Mamoru fired, then ducked back behind the cover of a dumpster. His bodyguards nearby fired as well. Perhaps he should have expected that certain factions would see Grandfather's death as an opportune time to step up their efforts to kill Mamoru. Certainly, this attack had been well-planned. Blow out one of the limo's tires in a way that looked innocent, then wait for him and his entourage to come out to investigate. He'd have to be far more cautious in the future... if he had a future.

"Don't fire," a voice said from above. Mamoru recognized Nagi's voice and said, "Don't fire!" to his people, who looked rebellious but obeyed.

Their enemies didn't obey, so their gunfire ricocheted right back at them when it hit whatever telekinetic wall Nagi had put up. Once the spray of bullets stopped, Nagi dropped behind them and pushed the survivors into the wall so hard that Mamoru could see their bones crack and bodies warp. The corpses slid down the invisible barrier.

"You're clear," Nagi finally said.

"You weren't on call tonight," Mamoru answered. "How did you know I'd need help?"

Nagi looked almost embarrassed. "I just did. How did you end up pinned out here?"

"My car has a flat tire."

"I could help you change it. You won't even need a jack."

"You have a lot of household and automotive uses, don't you?"

"But I don't do windows."

Of course, Nagi easily lifted the car with his telekinesis, standing back looking pristine and undisturbed as he levitated it. As one of the bodyguards changed the tire, Mamoru said, "This definitely deserves a good dinner. Let me take you out." He could almost feel Rex twitch.

"You don't have to."

"I want to."

"If you want to, I won't say no." The streetlights glinted off the metal rings hanging here and there from his jacket. Mamoru felt the urge to tug on one but didn't give in.

Taking Nagi out to dinner could be the best or worst decision he'd made lately.

"You're done here," Nagi said, then gently put down the limo. "Where should I meet up with you?"

Mamoru almost reached out for his arm but stopped and instead said, "Ride with me. You don't have to fly everywhere."

"It would be presumptuous of me to assume I'd ride with you, but I'll accept an invitation."

Nagi sat next to him in the limo, not quite close enough to touch without making an obvious effort. Rex looked worried, and Nagi flashed a small, not entirely sincere smile at her. The air crackled with tension.

But not all of the tension was unpleasant.

Mamoru chose a small, obscure restaurant and had his entourage park a block away so they would all walk in without the proprietors or locals seeing a limo and outriders. When the Takatori heir went out to dinner, it made news, and he doubted Nagi would be pleased with that kind of attention. Rex didn't like being sat at a different table with the bodyguards, but she was his assistant, not his mother or girlfriend. He spent most of his life with her lately and could use a break.

Nagi noticed him watching the other table, so Mamoru said, "Once upon a time, I hated to be alone. It would be a nice change now." Then he could have kicked himself, since Nagi could very well leave him actually alone.

But Nagi nodded. "There are worse things than being alone," he said, sounding as if he had personal experience.

Their waiter was nice but not fawning, a welcome change. Mamoru had missed anonymity too.

Since their business would not be a good thing to discuss in public, they spoke of their various tech obsessions. At dinner, at play, the stiffness once again melted from Nagi's posture. In the past his eyes had always looked blue, but tonight they seemed to be a deep, warm green. Mamoru was afraid that the metal rings hanging at Nagi's wrists would drag into his plate, but they never did.

"Is there something wrong with my wrists?" Nagi asked, sounding amused.

"I keep worrying about your rings and your plate."

"They're safe. They don't dangle as much as they seem to." Nagi hooked a finger in one of the rings and pulled a little. "Trust me. Or you can tug on one yourself."

"That really won't be necessary." Mamoru didn't know where it would lead if he did.

******************************************************

As Nagi stood in Omi's kitchen, heart pounding, he thought that maybe this wasn't a good idea. Tonight could easily lead to sex--he could feel it and see it in Omi's eyes--but he didn't feel ready for that, despite his mild case of arousal. It hadn't been so long ago that Omi had taken advantage of Aya. And Nagi didn't want Omi to think that he could be bought with dinner. The part of his mind that spoke with Schuldig's voice called him a coward, but he never did something just because someone called him a chicken for not wanting to do it. Besides, he had something he wanted Omi to think about before agreeing to doing anything with him.

"Thank you for dinner, Takatori-san," Nagi said. Omi looked surprised by the sudden formality. "I knew you were in trouble tonight because I'm a little telepathic. Not like Schuldig is--_nothing_ like how Schuldig is--but I thought you should know."

If they went any farther, Omi would have to know. Nagi knew from other people's experience that lovers didn't react well to finding out about the telepathy afterward. Not that he would ever share everything. What happened to Grandfather would be his secret to the grave and beyond, since Omi wouldn't understand that it had been done for his own good.

Omi didn't look disgusted or afraid by the admission. "Have you always been?"

Nagi also had no intention of telling Omi that a kind of telepathy had let Nagi write the letter to Weiß that had implicated Omi as a Takatori spy and called them out to battle the night that Farfarello had accidentally killed Ouka. "It's been stronger lately, though I'm still like a cigarette lighter flame to Schuldig's blowtorch."

"I see."

"I have to go home now, but please feel free to call on me in the future." Nagi wanted to give Omi a chance to think about it.

Omi smiled a little, and he still had that heat in his eyes. "I'll see you later. Good night."

It looked like there would be a later. Nagi smiled back and let himself out.

In the apartment, Schuldig waited for him on the couch and said nothing. Nagi didn't even need telepathy to know what he was thinking and said, "It was too soon."

Schuldig stood. "If you wait too long, you'll be too old to get it up anymore."

"It was too soon, and I don't owe you an explanation."

"Maybe you owe yourself one."

"Maybe you should stop psychoanalyzing me." They stood nearly nose to nose now... and Schuldig licked Nagi's. Nagi wiped at his nose, saying, "Get away from me, you pervert."

"Try a little perversion. You'll like it. Fuck, Nagi, do you need me to deflower you to get you over your stage fright? I'm willing to make the sacrifice."

Nagi abruptly stepped back. "Not a virgin here. And get the fuck away from me."

"I'm talking sex, not a couple of perverted fucks raping you when they need to feel powerful and get their rocks off."

"You're talking about fucking me because you've wanted to for a while now."

"I'm not saying I would be totally selfless here--"

"Good night!" Nagi slammed his bedroom door behind him and collapsed backward onto his bed. He was half tempted to get fucked just to get Schuldig off his case, but that would be such a bad reason to do anything.

Schuldig never got off of anyone's case.

******************************************************

Still sleepy, Aya noticed a little morning light seeping through the closed blinds and felt Farfarello moving next to him. Someone was in the room. "The mindbreaker," Farfarello murmured.

"Don't mind me," Schuldig said softly, approaching.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Farfarello asked.

"Helping."

Aya jumped when hot fingers touched his face and something went snap inside his head. Farfarello leapt over Aya, grabbed Schuldig, and pressed him hard against the wall while Schuldig just laughed. "Speak English for me, Aya!" the crazy telepath said.

"Why?" Aya asked.

"What the hell did you do?" Farfarello asked.

"Just fucking do it," Schuldig choked out, since Farfarello was pressing hard on his throat. "You'll see."

"You might as well, puisín. We won't find out otherwise."

"Fine." Aya switched to English. "What the hell am I supposed to say? I don't perform for people." His accent had changed. "I know English! This wasn't necessary."

"Your accent was goofy."

Freaked out by the changed English flowing out of his mouth and the new way it ran through his brain, Aya switched back to his native language. "It was fine!"

"I liked it," Farfarello said.

"If you're so upset over accents, why didn't you change Farfarello's?"

"Americans get wet for an Irish accent," Schuldig answered. "Aya, now you have American newscaster. Thank me."

"I'd rather kill you for fucking with my head."

"I'll help," Farfarello said.

In the doorway, Crawford said, "There will be no killing of my telepath. He did this on my orders. And thank you so much, Aya, for changing your hair color right before we made a new passport for you."

"We know how much Aya loves to have his picture taken," Schuldig said.

"For all you know, I might," Aya replied.

"For all I know, I know you hate it. Oh, this morning will be such fun."

"Then this afternoon we get on a plane and you can't torture Aya for weeks," Farfarello answered.

"Which is why I'm trying to get it in now."

"Puisín, Schuldig is so upset over accents after a little incident in the United States a few years back when--"

"That's not it!" Schuldig said, then glared at Crawford as the precog smirked.

Crawford shrugged. "It was funny."

"We drove all night," Farfarello said, "through Maryland and deep into Virginia. Sucked. Boring. But when Schuldig woke up in Virginia that morning, we couldn't believe the accent that came out of his mouth."

Schuldig sulked. "You try being an unconscious telepath around thousands of drawling Virginians."

"Oh yes," Crawford said, "the _drawl_...."

"All of you are always trying to ruin my fun."

"Wouldn't that be," Crawford switched to English, "'y'all are always trying to ruin my fun'?"

"You're not getting any tonight."

"Like that will happen."

Schuldig went into a deeper sulk, then asked, "Hey, Aya, are you aware that you're naked?"

Damn it. "You people plan it this way, don't you?" In New York, this wouldn't be able to happen.

"If Farfie let you wear clothes to bed, it wouldn't be a problem."

"_Let_?"

Even with his neck in Farfarello's hands, Schuldig smiled. "Did I say something wrong?"

"There's nothing like murder to start the day," Nagi said from the doorway. He had a camera in his hand. "Don't stop killing him on my account."

"You'll be taking our passport photos, then?" Farfarello asked.

"Yeah, and maybe taking a picture of you killing Schuldig so we can keep it for posterity."

"No," Crawford said.

"Yeah, I'm taking the passport photos. Why not? If they turn out good, fine. If they look awful, they'll seem more authentic. You'll have to put some clothes on for this, Farfarello."

"The photo won't show anything below my chest, so I could just wear a shirt."

"You have to wear pants too. It's non-negotiable."

Farfarello half laughed and half sighed, then looked at Schuldig, who smiled. Annoyed, Farfarello put him down, grabbed some clothing, and followed Nagi out of the room. "I can kill you later."

"You always say that," Schuldig answered in a flirting voice. Once Farfarello was gone, the telepath said, "Hey, Aya, I have to talk to you about something."

"It can wait until after I get dressed."

"Not really. Look, this will be the first time Farfie's been out for more than a day without special supervision in... forever. Just watch him to make sure the freedom doesn't go to his head."

"You underestimate him."

"We prefer to keep ourselves covered," Crawford said.

"Speaking of keeping oneself covered, both of you get the hell out of here so I can dress."

Nagi returned. "Crawford, I want to beat the hell out of Farfarello. I'm looking for either your approval or agreement to overlook it. He's making scary faces at the camera whenever I try to take his picture."

"I'm not making faces," Farfarello said from behind him. "I'm naturally intimidating."

"Get serious or you won't get to go away with Aya," Crawford said.

Farfarello growled, but returned to Nagi's room. Nagi asked, "Can I still beat him?"

"No."

"My mistake was asking, wasn't it?"

"You know the answer to that."

Nagi sighed dramatically then left, presumably to try to take Farfarello's photo. Aya looked at the two remaining people in his room and said, "Get the hell out of here."

Schuldig leaned against the wall, obviously inclined to make himself comfortable and stay, but Crawford said, "Aya needs to dress for his picture. Leave, Schu."

This time Schuldig sighed dramatically before leaving with Crawford, although he turned back to blow a kiss to Aya before closing the door. Being alone with Farfarello in New York City would certainly have some advantages.

Finally Nagi called him in to get his picture taken. Farfarello ruffled his hair and kissed him, then walked out. Nonplussed, Aya stared after him. "He's in a funny mood," Nagi said. "Take a seat against the wall."

"He just messed up my hair."

"Let me fix it?"

Impatient, Aya nodded. Nagi picked up a brush from the night table and applied himself. It actually felt nice, since he did it so gently. "Is everything okay?" Nagi asked.

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Your hair is a different color."

"I can do that if I wish."

The brushing paused for a moment, then resumed. "I'll miss you," Nagi murmured.

"I'll miss you too," Aya answered, and meant it. "It's not forever." He would return to Schwarz afterward. It still seemed strange when he put it into words.

"Yeah. And at least this time when you were naked I noticed. Something to remember you by."

"You're evil."

Nagi darted in to kiss the top of Aya's head, feather-light and warm, then blushed. "The mistake is in asking...."

"It's all right." Aya took out his earring for the photograph, which always made his head feel lopsided and too light, but its absence might help differentiate his assumed identity from him, at least in the passport. It would go back in later.

Still blushing, Nagi put the brush down and picked the camera up. "All we need for your alias' passport is the photo. This won't take long."

******************************************************

As Aya finished packing his suitcase, Nagi tossed a passport and some kind of ID card into it and Farfarello's passport at him. Aya picked his passport up, noting that his new name was Raymond Shirow, and his nationality was--

He stalked out, found Schuldig and Crawford, and shook it at them. "You made me an American!"

Schuldig smirked. "You sound like one now."

"I want my old accent back."

"Not happening."

"I told Nagi to make you American," Crawford said. "When Schuldig boosted and adjusted your English, he also added some knowledge of your identity's hometown. You even have a New York State driver's license. It's all important to your cover."

Which was even worse than going into his brain to change his accent. "I hate that kind of shit!"

"It saves time, and it's already done."

"Do I get to kill anyone now?" Farfarello asked.

"No," Aya answered. It wasn't worth it.

"You're no fun. What did they do?"

"They played games with my passport information."

"I'm happy with mine."

"Just think," Schuldig said, "you won't have to deal with me for a while."

"That's the only thing getting me through right now," Aya answered.

"As entertaining as this is," Crawford said, "we have to leave for the airport soon."


	64. ~ Odds are very good that no one will figure out who you are no matter what you have hanging from your ear. ~

His puisín didn't talk on the ride to the airport at all. The mindbreaker probably figured that Aya would forget his anger by the time he returned from the assignment, but the flighty telepath just didn't understand how Aya could keep grudges for a long, long time. Farfarello thoroughly approved of that kitten trait. Grudges deserved time, attention, and focus.

Or maybe Schuldig didn't care about retribution, since he taunted fate and dangerous people daily.

Nagi sat too close on Aya's other side, annoying Farfarello. The boy taunted dangerous people as well.

Light pouring in through the windows blazed around Aya, giving him a false halo of warm red-gold. A fallen angel, all Farfarello's, stolen from God.

It would be a long trip to New York City, made in public under many cameras and eyes. He wouldn't be able to touch his puisín much under such conditions, and he longed to. With that in mind, he put his head on Aya's shoulder and burrowed close, then rested a hand on his puisín's thigh. Aya looked down at him, obviously wanting to ask what this was for, but said nothing, no doubt to preserve the purity of his sulking silence. He slid inside Aya's soul a little to tell him that he did this because he didn't know how long it would be before they could do this again.

"You two are so fucking cute," Schuldig said.

"You're so fucking jealous," Farfarello answered, which put Schuldig into a welcome silent sulk.

But Aya had taken his earring out some time after getting his new passport. ~ Puisín, you're naked. ~

Aya sighed.

~ Why don't you put your earring back in? ~

Aya thought about being inconspicuous and being Ray Shirow, _not_ Fujimiya Aya. The earring was practically a trademark. He had it packed in his suitcase.

~ We discussed this. _I'm_ not inconspicuous. Our target might even figure out who I am, which won't be a problem with the backup story we have constructed. Odds are very good that no one will figure out who you are no matter what you have hanging from your ear. ~

Aya had been very annoyed to hear that he had no profile in the community, having mostly worked for Kritiker. Outside of Eszett and a few areas of Japan, no one knew Abyssinian or Aya. Weiß weren't considered professional assassins any more than security guards were thought to be police.

Aya preferred to wear the earring. It made him happier. Not wearing it might be part of the same bullshit self-abnegation he'd tried to do by changing his hair color.

~ Wear it for me after we settle into our new apartment. I like it. You like it. ~

Aya told him maybe.

When Crawford parked the car at the curb to let them out, all of Schwarz got out of the car to see them off. Schuldig opened his arms and said, "C'mon, Aya, you know you want to."

Aya answered with a withering look that suggested he'd be far happier sticking a sword in the telepath's gut. Happy thoughts.

"Give us a hug. You know you'll miss us when you're gone."

Aya nodded, stepped forward... and hugged Nagi. The boy squeaked, then hugged back. Once Aya let Nagi go, he cast another dark look at Schuldig and started to walk into the terminal. Farfarello was annoyed by the hug but amused by the style in that dis.

"Try not to miss us too much," Farfarello said to them before he followed his puisín. Once he caught up with Aya, he said, "That wasn't nice."

"But I enjoyed it." At Farfarello's growl, Aya clarified, "I enjoyed fucking with Schuldig’s head. It’s the only fucking he’ll get from me."

"That's acceptable."

"Are you telling me what I can and can't do?"

"I'm telling you what makes me happy."

"That's fine."

Check-in proceeded as it always did, which made Farfarello want to break people's fingers off. All the scrutiny and groping. He'd hated it in the institutions and hated it now. He had to be pleasant to these inquisitive bastards as he lied about his body, which galled as well, when he'd much rather demonstrate how such scars could be accrued.

He hated airports in general, with so many people around him rushing and waiting. They made him jittery. Death would improve them.

Finally the security guards had satisfied themselves, letting Farfarello and his puisín go to the waiting area until the call to embark came. He put his dark sunglasses on to be less conspicuous. When he'd first used them that had annoyed him, but since then he'd come to see that they let him stare at everyone around him as much as he liked without them noticing. Also, seeing the world tinted a purplish-black amused him.

Once they found a pair of seats for themselves and set their carry-on bags around them, Aya asked, "Cain?"

Farfarello understood that it was a question, not just Aya using his assumed name. "I asked for it." They hadn't had any time alone today since getting their passports, so he could understand his puisín asking about it now. "His story resonates for me, especially lately. Do you want to hear it?" It felt good to be speaking in English again.

Aya had an expression that suggested that he expected to be entertained. "All right."

Entertaining Aya could be rewarding. "Once there were two brothers named Cain and Abel who loved God very much because they were naïve and didn't know any better. You would think that an all-seeing, all-knowing God would be assured of their love, but no, God wanted proof. He wanted a sacrifice from each of them. God can be a lot like a teenage girl."

Aya smiled. "Really?"

"I wouldn't lie to you. Abel, a shepherd, killed a fine young sheep from his flock, then burnt its corpse so the scent of blood and death could waft to Heaven. Cain, a farmer, chose the finest of his vegetables to give to God as a show of his love. He might have grilled them, but no one knows for sure."

"Maybe he served them in a nice sauce too," Aya answered, looking mischievous. Hearing the new accent to his English could still be jarring.

Farfarello stilled for a moment, then said, "He loved God so much that he'd want to impress him, but I don't know how gourmet he could have gone. It was the beginning time, after all." A playful kitten should be encouraged. "But God wasn't pleased with his sacrifice because God wanted blood and the murder of innocence. He told Cain that he'd fucked up and had to do another sacrifice, the subtext being that He wouldn't love Cain anymore without it.

"Cain was upset, as you'd imagine, all 'God, why hast thou forsaken me' and all that shit. Then Abel comes up to him. Maybe Abel did nothing but exist and be happy with his successful sacrifice or maybe Abel had been an asshole, but Cain finally had enough and killed him, which you'd think would make God happy, but no, because God's flighty and moody.

"God comes down in full wrath, so of course Cain tries to hide it when God starts angrily questioning him about Abel. He saw which way the wind was blowing. But God knew, marked him as outcast, and exiled him from his family. Though Cain apparently found a woman somehow and started his own people, so it didn't seem to bother him much." Sometimes Farfarello wondered if talents bore the mark of Cain.

"Is there a moral to this story?"

"Cain got framed by God. God is an evil, temperamental bastard who sometimes enjoys murder as much as I do."

"And 'Cain' is a worthwhile name?"

As was "Morgan," the surname they'd given him. "Of course it is, Ray."

Aya's mouth twisted, probably from remembering that he'd been forcibly made an American. "You're very funny."

"Yeah, I am."

******************************************************

"A call has come through with Fenris using the emergency codes," Rex said. "Do you want to take it?"

"Yes," Mamoru answered. What trouble could Fenris and Elena have run into? They hadn't been given a new team or assignment yet.

"Sir," Fenris said in German, sounding nearly panicked, "Elena is _burning_."

"What?" If only public telephones had video connections, he'd have some idea of what the hell was going on.

"Fenris!" Elena shouted. "God! Put the phone to my head. Sir, I'm not burning. My hand is on f-- I seem to be manifesting a pyrokinetic talent for the first time ever, and I can't turn it off."

Kritiker's new psionics were going to make him go gray way before his time. "How so?"

"I have a halo of flames around my right hand."

"Come in. Do you need a pickup?" They couldn't take public transportation while she was like this.

"Wait! I got it! It's out. I don't need anything after all. Sorry to bother you."

Unbelievable. "Come in."

"Sir?"

"_Come in_."

"Yes, sir," she answered meekly. "We're coming." One of them hung up the phone.

Mamoru put his hand to his face, then placed a video connection call to the team that had Kritiker's only pyrokinetic. "I have to speak to Phoenix," he said once the team had gathered.

The pyrokinetic nodded his head. "How can I help you?" he answered in German.

In the same, Mamoru said, "One of the others has manifested your talent. She'll need help controlling it."

"I'm not a very good teacher."

"She's already taken the first step of putting out the flames herself."

"On her own?" The man shook his head. "She's already good. I can't teach her much more than how to throw them. I'm sorry."

Unbelievable. Mamoru had the brief urge to threaten him but figured that it wouldn't do much good. "Thank you." He broke the connection, with a new idea already in mind.

He phoned Crawford.


	65. Who would have foreseen that fervent little Omi would become a mini Brad? Aside from maybe Brad.

Schuldig watched Nagi sit in the backseat, dark shades hiding his eyes, misery apparent in the tight muscles of the lithe young body trying to sprawl out and look thankful for the extra space. Pathetic. But what did that make Schuldig, who also felt pangs of melancholy?

"Also pathetic," Nagi answered.

He had to stop thinking that loudly.

"They're going to the States," Brad said. "They're not dead. And you call yourselves assassins."

"I don't," Nagi replied.

"I don't have as many people to play with," Schuldig said.

"Yeah, that's it," Nagi answered, smirking. Maybe people hadn't been joking about the kid taking some things from him. "It has nothing to do with the kids leaving the nest, does it, Mom?"

"Shut up, you little bastard." The backseat still looked too empty without Snow-white and Rose-red.

Fortunately, Brad's cell phone went off. With one hand on the wheel and without taking his eyes off the road, he unerringly picked it up and answered. "Yes." Long pause. "It's unusual, but not unprecedented." Bastard was keeping his head tightly shielded.... "We can do that. For a fee." Pause. "We're already in the car. We can be right there." Then he disconnected.

"What the hell was that?" Schuldig had to ask. "What's going on, and where are we going?"

"Friendly has developed a spot of pyrokinesis. We're going in to Persia's office to consult."

"Have you forgotten that we hate her? That she handed us right over to Kritiker and Eszett?"

"You're not looking at the big picture, Schu." Brad was smiling that "we're gonna be kings of the world and make lots of money" smile. One time when Schuldig had called it that in front of Nagi, the kid started humming a Pet Shop Boys song, and now that tune always came up in Schuldig's head every time Brad smiled that way. "Kritiker now has a group of talents but very little idea of how they work."

"Just like Eszett."

"Yes, but _unlike_ Eszett, Kritiker is willing to ask some experts for advice. Which could be us if we play it right." He opened up his mind a little, so Schuldig could taste the precision, the planning, the wheels turning. "We could gain a great deal of personal power this way and weave ourselves so deeply into Kritiker that Persia would have to tear the organization apart to get us out." The future blazed brightly, gleaming with promise and power.

Schuldig put his sunglasses on, then said, "Then let's be helpful and earn a paycheck."

It still amused him that Kritiker had to let them right into Persia's office now, especially since the goon squad didn't look happy about it. Persia sat at his desk with his current lady secretary behind him, while Friendly and Idiot sat in front of the desk.

The two talents looked different, more like normal people now. Friendly had bangs and shorter wisps of hair around her face to soften her formerly harsh, utilitarian, too-pulled-back look, even though she still had the braid. Idiot looked less doughy and soft, much healthier. The structure of his face still seemed subtly off, wrong, but he appeared to be maturing into an attractive kid, even with the mismatched eyes.

~ He's force-grown, so he's actually about nine years old, you pervert, ~ Friendly said.

Annoyed, Schuldig asked, ~ You think that makes a difference to me? I'm not prejudiced. ~

~ You're thinking loudly. Fenris can hear you too. ~

~ How does it feel to be a human torch? ~

Idiot... sorry, _Fenris_ sent an image of Schuldig's neck snapping, with sound effects. So the kid really could hear him. He had to tone it down.

"Thank you for coming. Now I want you all to talk out loud for those of us who aren't telepathic," Persia said.

"Sorry, sir," Friendly answered.

Persia winced and said, "Bitte, Fenris."

The kid looked guilty and stopped working the pair of Chinese stress balls in his hand, so the chiming sound stopped too. The noise hadn't bothered Schuldig, but Persia seemed to be on edge. Aw, the kitten missed his Aya. And it was weakening his mental shields.

"Sir," Friendly said, "maybe we should do the whole talk in German so Fenris can understand us. He was there when it happened, so he might have some insights."

"I think the idea has merit," Brad said.

"All right." Switching to German, Persia said, "You told me that a psionic can manifest a secondary talent later, but it's rare. Still, isn't Elena too old for this?"

"I'm 18, sir," she said.

Persia didn't completely cover his surprise. "You look older." He also thought that he might not have let her raise Fenris if he'd known her real age. Hypocrite.

"Thanks, sir," she answered, with some sarcasm.

"It's those heavy Polack bones," Schuldig said.

"Fuck off, Kraut," she replied, then sent to Fenris, ~ Darling, Nagi has you covered, so don't even think of retaliating against Guilty. ~

Fenris turned to see Nagi standing near him, smiling evilly. Friendly's kid sighed. As tempting as it might be to dismiss the boy as too damaged to be truly dangerous, Schuldig remembered that Fenris had used Friendly as a conduit to block Nagi's strikes against the escaping Kritiker agents in Berlin from a distance. Schuldig had heard that telepathy could create a conduit situation, but he'd never seen it before this.

Friendly and Fenris, like Nagi, were experimenting with their talents and finding new ways to be dangerous.

Schuldig took out a cigarette and said, "Give me a light, Friendly."

"I'll give you a light... right up your ass."

"You flirt. Look, sugar, I'm trying to get a look at what you can do. What it looks like, whether it comes when you call...."

"Fine." She walked up to him and popped her middle finger up at him. A slim flame burst into life around it. Schuldig brought his cigarette down to get a light, then put it to his mouth, not trusting enough to put his head near her fire.

Coming in close, Nagi examined her hand and said, "It looks like you have a thin layer of forcefield over your body where the flames are, since not even the heat touches your skin. I wonder if there's telekinesis involved in this that you can manipulate. You might want to see if you can extend the field or punch it out at people."

Persia looked surprised and impressed, since he usually got to see a cuddlier, less coolly professional Nagi lately. Hell, Schwarz's current professionalism impressed Schuldig.

Schuldig said, "You know, Friendly, you might want to consider that a part of you always expected this, since your telepathic icon/alterself is a fire-breathing dragon." It made sense. From the look on her face, she thought so too.

"Why did this happen now?" Persia asked.

"We're away from the bad men and what they believe," Fenris said.

Out of the mouths of imbeciles. Fenris gave Schuldig a dirty look, and this time the projected mental image showed Schuldig's leg snapping before the neck went.

"Of course," Friendly said. "Belief. What the fucking mass of them believed of us made a difference. It sure did in Fenris' case. They saw him as stupid and useless, and me as a single talent."

They probably didn't believe that Nagi's telepathy would be useful or powerful either. Schuldig could see Brad and Nagi thinking that.

"Where did you learn that?" Brad asked Fenris.

Fenris beamed. "I carefully watched all of the battles in the cloud space."

That didn't make sense to anyone except Friendly, who'd smiled in response. Schuldig couldn't figure out what it meant on his own and couldn't read past her shields without alerting her, and it hurt too much to try to read Fenris' damaged mind. He had to content himself with what the kid projected at him.

Brad didn't let the not knowing hold him back. "Pyrokinesis is usually a primary talent, not a secondary, but it being secondary here might be a good thing. Pyros tend to be volatile. Friendly isn't. I suggest that she explore the boundaries of her ability in an isolated, safe area. She should see if she can form fires far away or only near her body. She might be able to shoot flames. Some pyros can affect room and body temperature without fire, so that might be something to look into. "

"If she still wants to carry a gun and bullets," Nagi added, "it's possible that she may be able to. It depends on whether that personal field would cover them as well. If she gives it a try, she should have a skilled telekinetic in the room with her in case something goes wrong."

"I can't think of anything further at this time," Brad said. "If I do, I could give you a call."

"Thank you," Persia said. "Draco, do you have any questions?"

She'd gotten herself that as a codename? Something in her had to have known what was coming.

"Not right now." Friendly's eyes were alight at all the possibilities for mayhem Brad and Nagi had dangled before her.

"Persia, we have a few lucrative job possibilities in London," Brad said. "If there's anything Kritiker wants to have done there, we can consider it."

Schwarz hadn't dared go to London--hell, England--since Farfie's unscheduled excursion into Buckingham Palace. With their militant Irish Catholic madman out of the picture, England suddenly became doable.

"Actually, there _are_ some assignments. Do you have any objections to Balinese being attached? He's our best investigator."

Schuldig felt something--the future, probably--flash through Brad's brain before Brad said, "That won't be a problem on our end. Will it be on his?"

Schuldig _had_ been complaining that he didn't have as many people to play with. Remembering the feel of Yoji's wire wrapped tightly around his throat, he smiled at the thought of retaliatory mindfucking.

"We'll see," Persia answered. "Will Prodigy be going with you?"

Briefly sparking with some emotion before closing his shields down, Nagi looked up and at Brad, who nearly smiled as he said, "We can always use Prodigy, but if you see a greater need for him here and he agrees, he can stay attached to your detail."

"He's the best protection I've had."

Nagi tried not to look too pleased and didn't completely succeed. Maybe he _would_ get laid sometime soon. Schuldig hoped so.

Look at the three of them playing it so cool. And they told Schuldig that _he_ played games.

Who would have foreseen that fervent little Omi would become a mini Brad? Aside from maybe Brad.

"I would like to continue working as Persia-san's bodyguard," Nagi said. Good boy.

"That's acceptable," Brad said.

They annoyed the hell out of Schuldig sometimes, but for now he wouldn't say a word.

"When will you be leaving for London?" Persia asked.

"Tomorrow afternoon."

"I'll talk to Balinese, then call you."

"Thank you." Brad bowed to him. Nagi inclined his head. Schuldig just smoked and looked at him.

To Schuldig's amusement, while Schwarz was on their way out, Nagi and Omi just about stroked each other with their eyes. Maybe they'd work up to eyefucking someday.

In the car, Brad asked Nagi, "Will you be all right, alone?" He sounded half-serious.

Nagi answered with a look of disgust so eloquent that he didn't need to say a word.

"He won't be alone, Brad. He'll be with his true love."

"I won't miss you at all," Nagi told Schuldig.

******************************************************

"Do you think that was a wise idea?" Rex asked him.

"Which one?" Mamoru asked.

From her sudden silence, she might be thinking that she didn't agree with anything she'd just heard. She agreed with few of his decisions lately, but she abided by them.

From the look of concentration on her face and the way the flames dancing around her hand seemed to be trying to gather into a kind of shape, Elena was trying to train herself. In his office. "Elena, please don't play with fire near my paperwork."

She nearly blushed. "Sorry, sir. I was just impatient to see what I could do with it. We'll let ourselves out."

"Be careful."

"Yes, sir. Thank you," she and Fenris said before they left the office.

Alone except for Rex, Mamoru let himself go over the meeting with Schwarz in his head. They'd been helpful. Perhaps he should consult with them on his other talents when necessary... without them gaining too much power in Kritiker for it.

It had seemed wrong not to see Farfarello and Aya with Schwarz. When had Aya officially become a member of that team to him? At least Aya was safe from his darker urges for now. Still, Mamoru wondered if he and Farfarello would face off over their mutual interest someday.

How weird to see Nagi return to the cool, stiff self Mamoru had been accustomed to seeing him be before their rendezvous in Rouen. Somehow, Mamoru had the impression that Nagi mourned Aya's departure as well. He wanted to talk to him....

He should talk to Yoji first. Mamoru punched in the numbers to his cell phone. "Yeah?" Yoji answered.

"That's friendly."

"It gets the job done." He sounded friendlier now. "How are things? What can I do for you?"

"I have a job for you in London. You'll be working with some other people on it."

"A team? I told you I was ready to go back to one." Yoji had been emphatic on that, eager to make Mamoru believe that his break with Weiß in the battle with Tuji had been an aberration. He was fine now....

Mamoru didn't quite believe it. "You're not being assigned to a team yet. You'll be working with Crawford and Schuldig."

After a long pause, Yoji asked, "What?"

"You heard me."

"Why wouldn't we kill each other?"

"Because you're all working on the same side, for me."

"Have we forgotten about Aya?"

"No. We've _never_ forgotten about Aya. And he's on a different assignment elsewhere." Yoji had no idea what had happened that night, nor would he be given one.

Sounding more chastened, Yoji answered, "I'm sorry, but they're--"

"Working for us now." Mamoru put on his Persia tone. "You want me to believe that you can take orders again." He wished he could see Yoji's face as he did this....

"Yeah." Yoji sounded beaten. "Yeah. I hear that. When is this?"

"Be ready to go to airport at 1 p.m. tomorrow."

"I'll be ready."

"Good. A dossier will be waiting in the car. I'm also counting on you to keep an eye on them."

There was no need for him to elaborate on which "them." Yoji sounded happier now. "Yeah. Thanks."

"Be well, Yoji."

"I'm trying."

Mamoru hoped he was making the right decisions here. He called Crawford to say that Balinese was in.

******************************************************

Farfarello fidgeted in the seat next to him and muttered, "Bored." At least the first class seats didn't put them so close that Aya could feel all of his shifting around.

Aya put down his book. "We have hours yet to go."

Farfarello looked disgruntled. "Plus a one-hour layover between. Then a layover after that flight, then another flight."

A private jet would have been faster, but it would look suspicious for two unknown artists to arrive in New York City in a plane belonging to one of Japan's richest families. Raymond Shirow had gone to Japan to visit his family, one that occupied a much lower rung of society than the Takatoris.

The Takatoris shouldn't be so high....

Aya demanded calm and patience from himself. His boredom left him too much time to think.

Farfarello brightened and slipped into Aya's mind a little to say, ~ We could make use of that layover. ~

Maybe. Aya couldn't truthfully say that he didn't find the thought attractive. There had to be someplace secluded in the airport.

~ Men's room. ~

His lust outweighed his distaste. The way Farfarello was currently stroking him on the inside didn't help his thinking processes. It bypassed the medium of flesh and went right to his nerves and brain. Arousal burned through his blood.

They couldn't do this. He'd have to wear these pants for hours yet, and coming in them would make them very uncomfortable.

~ You're too practical. No fun. ~

"You don't have to wear them."

Farfarello grinned.

"If you're really bored, maybe you could sleep... or roam." Boredom afflicted Aya as well, but at least he could read. While this riled up, Farfarello couldn't maintain attention long enough to do that. Aya also suspected that Farfarello started to suffer from eyestrain after a shorter while, even if he couldn't feel the pain.

"Or eat. Here comes dinner. With real utensils, since we're in first class."

Aya wanted him to give the knife back when they finished.

~ You have more of an affection for kitchen knives than I do. ~

In New York, they would be knife-wielding performance artists, since they'd agreed that an audience would find the close work of knives far more riveting than the greater distance and historical association of swords. But they'd have to work on making the knifeplay showy and slower. Aya tended to throw his knives or simply kill with them, while Farfarello moved too quickly with his.

Did it make Aya sick that he looked forward to the practicing?

Farfarello touched his ear, that one that should have an earring dangling from it but didn't. Looking at his passport picture, Aya had decided to try to get into his role as someone else more. Besides, it was just a damned earring, with its original meaning stripped from it since he'd gotten his revenge and his sister had died. He shouldn't be so attached to and dependent on it. It bothered him that he felt so bereft and lopsided without it during the picture-taking and now. He should be stronger.

~ Masochism and self-obliteration. God would approve. ~

Yet Farfarello cutting himself wasn't masochism?

~ It's about focus and anchoring, not the faint pain it gives me. Wear the fucking earring. You've hurt yourself enough over the years. ~

"The fact that you like to play with the earring has nothing to do with anything, right?" Aya asked.

"Applaud my noble self-sacrifice," Farfarello answered, "and wear your scar proudly, where it belongs."

He wanted to. That somehow made it worse. "Maybe."

He'd played these games with himself over the last few years: How much could he take before he had to give in? How much could he pare away and still survive?

Part of him said that he didn't have to do this anymore. A larger part said that it never ends, not until he's dead.

Farfarello growled, and his look was too perceptive. "I will change your mind."

"You can try."

"I'll enjoy doing so."


	66. Aya would need soothing. Farfarello couldn't wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crawford's smile reminds Nagi and Schuldig of the Pet Shop Boys' "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," and Nagi sings along with their "Rent" a little later on.

As Crawford hung up his suit jacket, he felt another flash and tried to interpret it. "Schuldig, did you feel that?" Sometimes his telepath saw his visions better than he did.

Schuldig had sprawled on the bed, taking up most of it. "Yeah, but I couldn't catch it. How did it feel to you?"

"The London trip is important. Balinese is necessary to it somehow. But something... bad will happen."

"These feelings have to be driving you up the wall."

"Of course. I want something more precise. What is the use of feeling farther into the future if it's so vague that all I can do is worry?"

"It is what it is. At least you're not letting it paralyze you."

"So philosophical." So melancholy. "What is your problem?" Crawford figured that he knew, but he wanted to hear what Schuldig would say.

He'd noticed that his telepath preferred to be in larger groups. They never spoke of it, nor did they speculate that it might have something to do with an incident in his past that Schuldig never talked about and Crawford only knew about from Rosenkreuz's records. Though in their earliest years together, at a few times when Schuldig had been at his most telepathically fucked up, Schuldig had called him "Klaus." He knew what the official records taken from what little Eszett had managed to interrogate out of Schuldig over the years said about Klaus, but he needed to know more, like what Klaus had been to Schuldig. Crawford hated to be ignorant of anything, especially anything that involved his telepath's well-being.

"You'll be annoyed or amused if I tell you."

"Two of the usual five reactions I have to you."

"There are only five? I thought you were a more complex man than _that_, Brad."

Five: annoyance, amusement, anger, lust/affection, and pride. With Schuldig, affection always had lust woven into it. "Tell me, and I'll react."

"I miss fucking Farfie."

"You miss Farfarello, or you miss fucking him?"

Schuldig sounded offended. "The second, of course. He was so unpredictable, like riding a tiger. Though he's become so close to sane the last few months...."

Of course. Crawford was amused. "Sex with me is predictable?"

"If I don't shield myself well enough, sex with almost everyone is predictable."

"I think I feel a reaction coming on that isn't annoyance or amusement."

Schuldig's smile looked lopsided, endearing. "Yeah?"

Crawford approached the bed and straddled his waist. "Yes."

"Are you trying to seduce me, Mr. Crawford? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"

Crawford ran his finger along the nearly invisible scar on Schuldig's right cheekbone. "It's only 'trying' if it's not quite succeeding, so only you can tell me that."

Schuldig's sudden smile was one of the few rare ones that didn't contain a smirk at all. Before Crawford could feel smug, his telepath sang, "You've got the brawn / I've got the brains / Let's make lots of money...." in English. Since he was on key, he had to be taking it from someone who could actually sing. Schuldig couldn't sing on key if his life depended on it. At Crawford's annoyed look, he said, "Nagi's listening to that song your smile reminds us of."

That was a song his smile reminded them of? Which smile?

Nagi could sing?

"How many smiles do you have, Brad? And sure Nagi can sing. It's just that he doesn't do it in front of you, since he figures you'd think it's frivolous."

"Your shields seem to be off today." Not completely off, since Schuldig would be a mess with his telepathy completely unshielded, but still.

And it annoyed Crawford to know that people were talking around him without him being able to hear it.

Schuldig pouted. "Nagi _sent_ that. He thought I'd get a kick out of it."

"He didn't send anything when we were driving home from the airport."

"How would you know that, Mr. I Don't Have Any Telepathy?"

"He didn't."

"He didn't," Schuldig admitted. "But, look, we were both melancholy telepaths melancholy for the same reason. That's powerful shit."

"I got the impression that Friendly was reading you too."

"On and off." He looked upset now. "I don't know, all right? I have off days, maybe. Even you do. I hate doing the open door thing, but I can't be a clenched fist 24-7. It's tiring. And I'm so annoyed that I'm mixing metaphors here."

He hadn't meant to upset Schuldig, whose prodigious telepathic power could be a detriment as well as an advantage. "I know. I just wanted to know if something had happened to cause it."

Shifting under him, Schuldig said, "I'm not in the mood for this now," and sounded completely sincere.

"Now you're really worrying me."

Which made Schuldig laugh, as it had been meant to. He shouldn't be melancholy and uninterested in sex--it set the world out of tune--so Crawford trailed kisses up his neck and to his face, which made him sigh and relax. Crawford kissed his left cheekbone and saw a flash of Schuldig lying on the floor with blood on his face and a crazed look in his dilated eyes as he writhed. He had his gun in his hand.... It ended, leaving Crawford with the current Schuldig looking up with him with worry.

"Where was that? _When_ was that?" Schuldig asked.

"I don't know." Once, the limits to his visions had given him some conception of when events would occur. Being able to see farther ahead just meant that he had less idea of when. "We won't let it happen." Schuldig had been wearing one of his black leather coats....

"What? You won't let me wear any of them now?"

"This is stupid," they both said.

"Fuck me," Schuldig said with an unconcerned expression on his face, but it didn't surprise Crawford that the sex that followed had an air of desperation to it on both sides.

Afterward, he stroked Schuldig's left cheekbone. The right one had been grazed by a bullet too recently for Crawford not to recognize a similar wound on the left one in his vision.

He would save his telepath no matter what it took.

******************************************************

As he surfed the web, Nagi murmured along with his headset, "I love you / You pay my rent...." He couldn't quite pay attention to any of it, though, as something seemed to be tickling the back of his mind.

Almost as if someone wanted to contact him.

He turned off his music and turned away from the computer so he could listen. For about three minutes it seemed to be nothing more than the telepathic background noise he'd become accustomed to, but then he made out his name.

It was Omi. Trying to reach him.

Nagi reached out to him. ~ Hello? ~

He could almost feel Omi's pleased surprise that it had worked. Wanted to see him....

~ I can come by. ~

That pleased Omi too, but he didn't want Nagi to get wet either, and it was raining very hard outside.

~ I don't have to get wet if I don't want to. Expect me on the roof. ~

Locked in sex and some kind of sadness, Crawford and Schuldig didn't even notice him leaving. He could have taken the keys and the car, but instead he flew, directing clouds around him so he became only damp instead of soaked through. The lightning, speed, and height thrilled him even as he chided himself to be careful. In any case, he arrived without anything more serious than a brief and harmless slide along the roof as he touched down. The penthouse apartment had a door that led out directly to the roof, and Omi awaited him there under an umbrella, as if Omi were the servant and he the returning master. The thought would amuse Nagi if Omi hadn't looked so sad and small. Nagi rushed inside and closed the door to spare them both any further exposure to the storm.

"Thank you for coming," Omi said. "I didn't even know if you'd hear me."

"I didn't realize I could until it happened." Nagi wasn't that powerful, but they'd been spending a lot of time together of late, so it seemed that a link had formed. He didn't use it now, wanting Omi to talk to him instead of bleed at him.

Omi's kinetic field didn't even vibrate until a second before he moved, when once it had been constantly waving. Nagi didn't know whether to feel sad about that or not, because what did it mean?

"Can I get you anything?" Even though he was still nearly a kinetic flatline, Omi seemed nervous.

So nervous that Nagi decided to be direct for once. "Why did you want to see me?"

"You don't mind the rest of Schwarz being away?"

That wasn't quite the point here, but Nagi played along. "I've been begging them to leave me alone for years, so it should be interesting to see how I like it once I have it."

"Do you know why I sent Aya and Farfarello away?"

Finally. "Yeah. You can't hide what happened from a team full of telepaths."

Omi looked unhappy. "I hadn't meant to cause him pain. Not him, of all people."

"I know." He did. At least, after the initial reaction of purest rage he'd come to see that.

"He was doing so well with you, and now I'm afraid that I've fucked him up all over again."

Nagi was too, but he had to say, "I know that this will sound unbelievable to you, but Farfarello takes very good care of him."

Omi snorted. "You're right. It does sound unbelievable."

"If I thought Farfarello would ever willingly let him come to harm, I wouldn't have let them go." Even despite the trouble it would have caused.

"You mean that."

"Yeah."

"You love him."

Denial wouldn't be believed, for good reason. "Yeah."

"Can you forgive me?"

"I already have." How weird to be direct. How weirdly freeing.

Omi closed his eyes for a moment, then looked a little less tired when he opened them. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For your forgiveness. For letting me know that Aya has someone sane looking out for his best interests."

Nagi nodded.

"Do you want to stay for a while?"

"Yeah." Nagi started to unbutton his trench coat, wincing at its dampness.

"Can I get you anything?"

"Do you have any tea? It was cold out there."

"Sure." Omi put the kettle on. "Are you open to working for me tomorrow night?"

"Yeah."

When Omi took his coat from him to hang it up, Nagi's hand tingled as Omi's brushed it. He suddenly felt warmer and distracted.

Soon. Not tonight, not when they were both depressed over someone they loved leaving them for a while, but soon.

"Hey, is that Pocky over there?" Nagi asked.

Omi smiled and handed him a few sticks.

******************************************************

It had taken them 15 minutes to get to the gate their next plane would take off from. "45 minutes to wait," Aya said as he looked at the monitor.

Farfarello knew that most people hated layovers, but most people didn't have a kitten to help them pass the time. "45 minutes should be time enough." He grabbed his puisín's arm and pulled him along to the men's room. Once inside, he quickly scanned for cameras, then dragged Aya into the last stall in the far corner.

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea," Aya said, but his breathing and the heat in his eyes said that some parts of him liked this idea very much. "What if someone happens on us?"

"We kill him."

Farfarello partly blocked the stall door with their carry-on bags, then pushed Aya against the wall and unzipped his pants, thankful that his coat had already been open. Farfarello might have torn the buttons off it otherwise, having wanted this for hours. He descended to his knees in a position to worship in a way that he liked, to an object worthy of it. Aya, already hard, gasped and arched as Farfarello sucked him in and let his cock hit the back of his throat. Treasuring the tremble in his puisín's thighs and desperate hands skimming over his skull, he eagerly gripped his lover's hips and rode the thrusts into his mouth.

He'd forgotten for a while that his kitten couldn't always take care of himself properly. Aya needed spoiling, petting, and feeding. As part of their cover, they would have to be constantly out in New York City's nightlife, amongst tight crowds and noise and other things his puisín preferred to avoid. Aya would need soothing. Farfarello couldn't wait.

When one of Aya's hands left his hair, Farfarello looked up to see his puisín bring it to his mouth to bite down on it, to muffle the helpless sounds of his pleasure. It made Farfarello slick to see his quiet lover have to struggle to remain silent under his ministrations. In reward, he skimmed his teeth along the underside of Aya's cock and hummed along it. His puisín came with a low, muffled cry and in a hot rush into Farfarello's mouth, thrusting hard, out of control, his face transfigured by the agony of pleasure.

Farfarello licked it a few more times before letting it completely out of his mouth. When Aya's hand dropped, Farfarello could see bloody teethmarks in it, so he took it and licked the blood away, treasuring the metallic taste. Then he stood and pressed close to Aya, smiling at the pounding of his puisín's heart under his hand.

It amazed him that, despite the best efforts of many people and Farfarello's own compulsions, such a pretty, pretty thing as this kitten still belonged to him.

Aya took his sunglasses off, pushed him against the wall, and said softly, "I want to do you the same favor." His eyes were heavy-lidded, dark and mysterious and almost sleepy.

"I wouldn't stop you," Farfarello answered, his voice sounding hoarse after the pounding his throat had taken.

Aya looked at the dirty, dusty tile floor with some distaste but knelt down upon it anyway. He put two fingers in his mouth and wetly sucked upon them, making Farfarello tingle in anticipation, then unfastened and pulled Farfarello's pants down to his knees, leaving his ass completely bare against the cool wall. Eyes closed, an expression of savoring on his face, the kitten licked long stripes up and down his cock before taking it in his mouth and toying with his balls. So pretty watching his hard, insistent flesh disappear between those lips. Farfarello wanted to moan at the hot suction and the sight of that beloved red head bobbing up and down upon his rod but bit his lip to keep it back. The wet, unmistakable, _nasty_ sounds of this act made pre-come shoot through his cock and down Aya's working throat.

Then his puisín's fingers thrust up into him hard, shooting sparks through him, fucking him to the rhythm he used to fuck Aya's mouth. So difficult not to pound into his kitten or pull out that pretty hair in his ecstasy, but he controlled himself... although it became even more difficult as Aya started to speak along his cock. While he couldn't make out the words, he felt the vibration. He came on the next twist and thrust of his kitten's fingers inside him. Once he finished, Aya stood and kissed him endlessly.

Aya felt easier, calmer, against him now. Almost sedated. They were physical creatures, they two, happiest _doing_. Left alone, Aya could shut down and silently poison himself with thinking too much, having no way of letting the toxins out.

Farfarello hadn't been caring for his kitten well enough, hadn't been paying enough attention. That changed here.

Eventually Farfarello mouthed his kitten's ear and asked, "How much time do we have?"

"25 minutes," Aya answered after consulting his watch. He rarely wore a watch since being taken in by Schwarz, but Crawford had figured that someone needed to keep track of time for their flights.

"Time enough."

"For what?"

"For more."

"I shouldn't be surprised anymore."

"That's right."


	67. "He is not my 'love muffin.'"

As he walked down the hall to his room, Nagi heard yelling. Crawford and Schuldig had their door closed, but no one respected that when _he_ had a closed door, so....

"--going to London," Schuldig yelled.

"It's too risky," Crawford answered. They were both naked. Well, opening closed doors had risks. Nagi just ignored them below the waist. He did that as a general practice.

"Where the hell did you go?" Crawford asked Nagi.

"He slipped out to visit his love muffin, didn't you know?" Schuldig replied.

Even knowing how useless it was, Nagi answered, "He is not my 'love muffin.' And he's now a client, so try to be respectful."

"Only to his face. Sometimes. And you haven't nailed him _yet_? What the hell is wrong with you?"

_Again_? "It's not the right time." They had a very nice time playing video games and almost-talking.

"With you, it's never the right time."

"It's prudent to wait," Crawford said.

"_You'd_ say that." Schuldig crossed his arms, but the waves of potential force Nagi saw around him still whipped out. "I am going to London. I might as well. How do you even know that your vision takes place in London? It might be what will happen if you have a vision and we _don't_ go."

Crawford might have died where he stood for how pale and shocky he suddenly looked. Then he returned to normal. "Don't start."

"We'll be waiting for the fucking thing no matter what we do. We might as well go along with our original plan, be careful, and get it over with. Less stress."

"What's going on here?" Nagi had to ask.

"Brad saw a vision of me in bad shape," Schuldig answered. "Now he wants to cancel our assignments in London."

"Wait, you want to work, and he wants to call off a job for sentimental reasons? Did I walk into an alternate universe?"

"You're hilarious, kid. Brad, I'm not going to avoid wearing my black leather coats, and I'm not going to be wrapped in gauze and kept in Tokyo. That's my final word."

"It's not your call to make, Schuldig," Crawford said, his voice chill enough to burn. They glared at one another. Actually, Schuldig glared, while Crawford tried to freeze him dead with a look.

"It's so traumatizing when Mommy and Daddy fight," Nagi said with a sigh, even as he struggled to process what he'd just heard. When had Crawford grown a heart?

Ignoring Nagi completely, Schuldig said, "We made commitments. We have a reputation to maintain."

It always sent a shiver through Nagi to hear Schuldig fight using Crawford's personal business language.

"You don't care about that. You never have," Crawford answered.

"It means something to you, so it means something to me."

And they taunted _him_ for getting mushy? He needed popcorn and a box of tissues right now. At least Crawford didn't get openly soppy back.

~ I heard that, you little bastard, ~ Schuldig said.

Though Crawford had declared himself just by being willing to lose money and possibly a client in an effort to keep Schuldig safe.

~ I know.... ~

"You don't know when or where this is going down?" Nagi asked Crawford.

"No. My expanded talent has only made it more difficult to tell."

"It's going to be bad?"

"Yes." Definite and emphatic.

"It looks like it," Schuldig said.

"Then you have to go and take the chance. You don't know enough not to," Nagi said.

"That's what I've been saying." Schuldig looked very pouty. Exaggeratedly so.

"That look isn't going to work," Crawford said.

"Fine." Schuldig abandoned it completely, putting a more professional look on. "Wondering when it'll happen is making me nuts. Let's just tackle the fucking thing head-on and get it over with. I've taken a dive off the telepathic deep end before and come back."

"You shouldn't have to."

"If it's a telepathic thing, maybe I should come, then." Nagi didn't want to and he did. Life had been so much simpler when he hadn't cared.

"If whatever-it-is is attacking telepaths," Schuldig answered, "you're better off staying here. I have some experience fending off that kind of attack."

"But you're also more powerful and sensitive than I am."

"This is not a democracy," Crawford said. "Nagi will stay here, and we'll go. We'll all honor our commitments. But we'll be very careful." He almost sounded the way he should. Nagi felt himself and saw Schuldig relax a little at that.

******************************************************

Two hours for their second layover. Farfarello enjoyed his beer, but his kitten ground his teeth in frustration. He'd take their edges off that way! This must not be. Farfarello finished his beer in one swig and pulled Aya into the men's room for another relaxing blowjob. Somebody had to be the sane one.

******************************************************

At John F. Kennedy International Airport, all their flying and waiting finished at last, Farfarello and Aya found that Kritiker had a man waiting for them, and he led them to a car. Farfarello all but thrummed with anticipation as they drove along the highway, but Aya looked tired. Neither of them had slept much, even though they'd taken turns napping as the other kept watch. Now they were too wired-tired to rest. The time zone differences didn't help.

Farfarello wanted to stick his head out the window but didn't. Sometimes some decorum was necessary.

Instead of taking them to the part of the city full of tall, tall buildings of glass and metal that tried to reach Heaven, the man drove them to an area filled with far shorter buildings made of stone and brick. Homier here. Persia had set them up with an apartment. The agent helped them take their luggage out, then handed the car keys to Aya before waving and walking away. It seemed that they had a car now.

Another man met them at the door to the apartment. "It's already furnished, so you just have to move in." His tone said that they were fortunate indeed.

Alas, it had to be the most unfortunate looking place Farfarello had seen in a long time. Small, dark, adjacent to a tiny courtyard that stank of cat piss, it had little to recommend it. The grand tour lasted only a few minutes, since the apartment was only a kitchenette, a narrow hallway, a bedroom, and a bathroom. He'd never actually seen anyone's skin crawl until he watched Aya's reaction to that squalid, decrepit bathroom, especially the badly stained tub.

It didn't have a stopper. How were they supposed to take baths? Then again, given the state of the tub, he might not be able to convince Aya to shower in there either.

Farfarello looked up and said, "Our ceiling has a tumor." Ceilings shouldn't have bulges.

"It will be a weeping sore soon," Aya said as he tried to pin the man with his eyes.

It didn't work. The man had no shame. "We'll get someone to fix it."

Somehow Farfarello doubted his sincerity.

"Your sponsor has paid for your utilities and cable. You even have a TV and DVD player." He'd been generous in calling the apartment "furnished," since the furniture consisted of one night table, a bed, the TV and DVD player atop it, and a clock.

"I care less about that than about the possibility of our bathroom ceiling dripping and falling on us," Aya answered.

"We'll work on it."

Farfarello asked the man, "Why are you staring?"

"I'm not."

Farfarello understood. "The scars? I was in a punk band. It's always fun until someone loses an eye." At the man's odd look, Farfarello corrected that to "Car accident." People had no sense of humor.

"Yeah, okay. Enjoy." The man left the keys on top of the sink and let himself out. Farfarello could swear that he muttered something about freaks, but starting their New York stay by killing someone he wasn't supposed to would cause too much trouble.

After casting a look around the bathroom that should have burnt it to the ground, Aya walked into the kitchenette, opened the refrigerator, and quickly closed it again. "We need cleaning products. Immediately. I will not live in filth if I don't have to."

"Insecticide too. We're sharing our space with roaches."

He hadn't thought that the kitten could look _more_ repulsed.

After a shopping excursion, they returned with various cleansers, sponges, scouring pads, paper towels, cleaning brushes, rubber gloves, a few filtration masks, a broom, a mop, buckets, trash bags, towels, a rubber bedsheet so they wouldn't have to trust the mattress, cloth bedsheets, insecticide, and undershirts and cheap pairs of jeans for them to clean in. Ever optimistic, Farfarello bought a stopper for the tub. They would have bought food if his puisín hadn't been so disgusted by the refrigerator, but no matter. There seemed to be ample places to eat out in the area.

They changed clothes, opened the few windows the apartment had, and went to their stations, Aya to the bathroom and he to the kitchenette. He found scouring the refrigerator to be soothing as well as disgusting. Killing roaches was hard and less fun but felt right. Given how difficult they were to damage or kill, roaches had to have some special place in God's plan. He swept and mopped with a vengeance. Sometimes he heard his puisín mutter blistering curses in Japanese.

As physical outlets went, this wasn't anywhere near as much fun as sex or killing, but it purged some of the badness away, even though he hated the acrid reek of the cleaning products, since it reminded him of every institution he'd ever been in.

After a while, Aya came out of the bathroom looking utterly drained and a little dazed, his scent hidden under a bleachy stink. He took off his rubber gloves and filter mask, took a deep breath, and said, "We need some kind of powerful glue. Ten of the floor tiles came off when I cleaned. I'm sure there's a way I should be putting them back on that doesn't involve glue, but I don't know what that way is." Cute kitten.

"I'll go out to buy it," Farfarello said. "I need fresher air."

"My wallet's in the left pocket of my coat. Don't go crazy with it."

He rarely bought anything. This might be interesting. Or not. After washing his hands, he put on sunglasses, picked up the keys and his puisín's wallet, and added Aya's bag of trash to his own to take out.

Once he walked around outside and noticed everyone else, he realized that he should have put a coat on. The flesh on his bare arms rose up in gooseflesh, cold even though he didn't feel it.

Fuck it.

Some people stared at him but not as many as usual. People looked a little eccentric here.

He bought the glue and some bottled water and paid more attention to his surroundings on the way back, picking up some free newspapers once he realized that he could just reach in and take them out. It would help them with their recon of the area. They had to be social as part of their main assignment, after all, and they'd have to eat out somewhere while they waited for their refrigerator to become hospitable.

This didn't feel real.

When he noticed lights, ornaments, and pine boughs in many windows, it confused him until he remembered that Christmas was coming. It amused him how Americans used the Christ's birth as an excuse to engage in an orgy of greed, consumerism, and pretty, shiny objects. If he and Aya stayed here long enough, maybe they should celebrate American X-mas.

When he returned, he found Aya asleep sitting on the floor, propped against the wall. Poor kitten. Out of the sharp cold air, Farfarello felt sleepy himself. When he sat beside his puisín, Aya awoke a little. "Shh," Farfarello said. "You wanna be trying the bed?"

"It's not made. The floor's cleaner than that mattress now. I'm content here."

"You'll ache later."

"No." Aya leaned against him and set his head on Farfarello's shoulder.

How could he refuse that? He took the sunglasses off and rested his head against his puisín's, familiar amidst all the whirling stinking newness. This time, sleep came easily.

******************************************************

His puisín shivered against him. They'd left the windows open to air the place out. Aya watched through half-open eyes as he got up to close the windows then put the rubber sheet on the bed and led Aya to it and the pillows. They didn't have to work for a while, and Farfarello intended to take advantage.

"We stink," his puisín murmured

"Don't fucking care. We'd fall asleep and kill ourselves taking a shower."

Farfarello draped their coats over Aya and nestled around him on the bed, nuzzling the back of his neck. Despite all protests, his puisín fell asleep again.

******************************************************

As Nagi leaned against the car at the curb, he said, "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine with the apartment and the car."

"Now I'm worried," Brad said as he picked his luggage up out of the trunk.

"Our Nagi is nearly an adult. He'll be fine," Schuldig said. "And if he wants to bring any of his little friends in for sleepovers, he should feel free to."

Nagi rolled his eyes. "Subtle, Schuldig."

"I'm all about the subtlety."

"Nagi, don't let Persia pressure you into anything," Brad said, which could be about business but really wasn't. Schuldig had to fight the temptation to taunt the hell out of him over it. If he punished Brad for these shows of concern, they might stop happening.

Nagi smiled a little. "I won't. If he tries anything I don't like, I could break him in half."

"Keep that in mind."

"I will. Enjoy London." Nagi waved, then got in the car and drove away.

Brad looked at Schuldig, who said, "He'll be _fine_. He's as spontaneous as you are."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

As much as Schuldig wanted to grab and muss Brad, now wasn't the time. "Sure, baby."

******************************************************

Yoji read the dossier in the car on the way to the airport, committing the details he'd need to memory, and left it behind when he got out with his luggage. Even expecting to see them, Yoji's nerves did a little jump when he noticed Crawford and Schuldig sitting in the waiting area near the gate their plane would leave from. Crawford briefly looked up from his newspaper as Yoji passed them. Schuldig--hiding behind a pair of mirrored sunglasses, something Yoji knew too well from personal experience not to recognize, especially since he currently wore shades himself--ignored him and continued to slouch and sprawl in his chair. Despite looking like the antithesis of each other, they were so obviously together that Yoji smirked. The businessman and his cheap toy....

~ Takes one to know one. ~

Ignoring Schuldig, Yoji sat a few rows away from them and hoped they wouldn't all be placed together on the plane. There would be enforced togetherness all too soon in London.

Being assigned to work with Schwarz showed him that he hadn't regained Mamoru's trust or earned his forgiveness.

To Yoji's relief, they weren't seated together on the plane. He didn't mind sitting in a lower class if he didn't have to deal with them.

~ Out of sight doesn't mean out of mind. ~

Did Schuldig really think that Mamoru would keep him on if he kept screwing with Yoji's head? It wouldn't happen.

~ I could mindfuck you, then make you forget about it so you can't tattle. ~

But where was the fun in it if he didn't remember it?

~ You're smarter than you look. But I guess that would be easy. Persia said that you'll be riding with us, so you'll have to get over your shyness. ~

Bastard. But Yoji got away from him for a little bit by sleeping through the trip.

At Heathrow, Yoji shadowed them and noticed a man stealthily pass Crawford a ring of keys wrapped in a note, which led them to a car parked, waiting, for them. Without a word, Yoji settled in the backseat and shivered until they turned the heat on. England in December was _cold_. He lit up a cigarette at last, feeling it calm him, and noticed Schuldig doing the same, which stripped the calm away.

They had separate rooms, a distance down the hall from each other. Yoji watched them at the door to theirs, Schuldig putting the key in while Crawford had a proprietary hand at the small of his back. That touch and the way they leaned towards each other all screamed that they were together and left Yoji feeling lonelier.

His hotel room felt too quiet and empty. For a moment he thought of going out to find someone, anyone, to fix that, but that was how he'd fallen into his current problems. He wasn't that big an idiot. Not anymore.

Maybe he'd feel a little better once the jet lag wore off. Yoji took the hottest shower he could stand, then went to bed.

******************************************************

Schuldig gathered together the scattered, disguised pieces of their disassembled guns from their luggage and put them back together in swift, sure movements. They had their first kill tonight. Brad didn't believe in wasting time.

Right now, Brad sat on the bed and watched him with a hungry look on his face. "What?" Schuldig asked, amused, as he basked in Brad's lust.

"I enjoy watching you get ready for work."

"You enjoy anything connected to work."

"C'mere." Brad always seemed more obviously American while speaking English, and Schuldig rather liked that, the change of it.

Schuldig crouched in front of him and ran the barrel of the gun along the side of Brad's face. "Do we have time for this?"

"It depends on how direct we want to be."

Brad was already hard under his hand. "It looks like we're ready to be very direct." Schuldig set the gun down and grabbed him, grinding against him.

It didn't take long at all for Schuldig to end up on his back arching up into Brad's hungry mouth. Direct could be very good.

Schuldig could also see that he was, obviously, a good influence on Brad.


	68. "Unclench a little, Brad."

Crawford knew several professionals who refused to have sex before an assignment for fear of blunting their edge, but that never seemed to be a problem for him or Schuldig. He remained as sharp afterward as before, while his telepath actually benefited from the mellowing effects of sex.

Schuldig settled into the backseat of the car and said, "Drive."

"What are you up to?"

"I need space is all."

Highly suspicious, but he chose to let Schuldig play out whatever he had in mind.

As he drove them to their assignment, he occasionally glanced in the rearview mirror to see if Schuldig had made his move, but nothing seemed to be happening. Once he parked, he looked back and saw Schuldig wearing a black leather blazer, after having started the trip in his green one.

"No," Crawford said. "Change back now."

"No. Look, whatever will happen can't be prevented just by me wearing a different coat. I'm tired of waiting and waiting for this. I say, bring it on. Get it over with."

"Do you _want_ it to happen?"

His blue eyes nearly blazed. "I want to stop fucking worrying about it happening, and I want you to go back to being the blithely confident leader I know and play naughty games with."

Crawford took a deep breath. Schuldig was right, in his way. The coat probably changed nothing. Worrying didn't help them. The best they could do was go into every assignment with greater--but still reasonable--caution. He had to be careful and subtle in his efforts to protect Schuldig....

"All right. Keep the black. But don't leave yourself open to stupid mistakes," Crawford said.

"_Yes_, Daddy."

******************************************************

They actually finished two assignments, since Brad saw an opportunity to do another one. And people thought he couldn't be spontaneous.

Eyes closed, Schuldig slumped further back in the passenger seat. He'd killed a lot of people tonight, and the corrosive thrill still coursed through his body, pleasure and pain and endorphins. It left him feeling good and dirty. "And it didn't happen tonight," he said.

"No, it didn't," Brad answered, sounding very cool. Wrongly cool. It equaled "upset."

"Unclench a little, Brad. It's not like _your_ brains will be scrambled."

Brad didn't turn to face him, but he felt a little of what Brad felt, of why having Schuldig's brains scrambled would be as bad as it happening to him. Amazing to feel and _know_ that he was loved. He'd had it once before, but that had been different and hadn't really been love. Brad wanted him to be his best, but _they'd_ deliberately kept him weak and vulnerable.

Parts of him protested that characterization, saying that they _had_ loved him, to which the ruling part of him said that they'd fed, clothed, coddled, and fucked him, but they hadn't really loved him. They'd loved him like a drug.

What he had now with Brad was so much better.

"Get that look off your face," Brad said, smiling a little. Brad actually did have more smiles than just the "let's make lots of money" smile. There was the "we're gonna fuck you up" smile, the evil "trust me" smile, the after-sex smile... and this smile, which was mostly in his eyes and a little lift to his mouth. The fond smile.

"What look?"

"It's gone now."

"You bastard. What look? If you don't tell me, I'll look in your head for it."

"I'm not sure how to describe it...."

"That's it." Schuldig reached out with his telepathy, and Brad let him into his surface thoughts, the cool blue shell around the part of him that a telepath couldn't easily break into, and saw... "I had a mushy look on my face? Damn!"

"It was cute."

"Oh, shut up."

Brad parked the car and leaned toward him, putting a hand at the back of his neck, under his hair, lightly pressing against his skin. He soaked in the clarity Brad had regained, letting it diffuse through his mind and body. _Mine_, they both thought.

******************************************************

To Mamoru's surprise, when he'd told Nagi to dress a little more conservatively tonight, Nagi had arrived with a pair of glasses on, with his hair slicked back, and in a suit and tie, allowing Mamoru to pass him off to the other clan heads as one of his secretaries. He looked so... mundane.

Though Mamoru noticed that the clan head who'd murmured to a subordinate that Takatori appeared to have switched from using pretty young women to pretty young men kept stumbling into furniture for much of the evening. Nagi must have heard it as well.

Otherwise, Nagi was so quiet, so solemn, tonight. It reminded Mamoru of the person the telekinetic used to seem to be.

Afterwards, in the limo, Mamoru asked, "What were you writing in that palm pilot all night?"

"Notes on each of them. Do you want to see?" Nagi offered the palm pilot in his direction.

"Definitely." The observations listed were incisive and made him wonder how many had come from watching and how many from telepathy. Nagi probably wouldn't tell him that. Mamoru decided to ask something else that Nagi probably wouldn't answer truthfully. "You've been so quiet. Do you miss Schwarz?"

To his surprise, Nagi said, "Yeah, I do. It's stupid, isn't it?"

Mamoru thought of Weiß. "Not really. Teams become your family, eventually. It was a big adjustment for me when I moved out to take on the duties of the Takatori heir. Do you want to stay with me tonight?" _There_ was a noble offer.

"No, I'll be fine." He took off the glasses and put them in a pocket of his suit jacket. "I've been dying for some time alone forever."

Mamoru swallowed down his disappointment. "But let me know if you need anything."

******************************************************

"Honey, I'm home," Nagi said softly as he opened the door. The apartment was so emptied that it almost echoed with it.

Blessed quiet, right?

No one here to walk in on him when he wanted privacy, which was most of the time. No one to sit up waiting for him to ask why the hell he hadn't jumped Omi yet.

Nagi had felt how much Omi had wanted him to sleep over, but he needed to see and feel this for himself, this absence of Schwarz. Nagi could do anything he wanted here while the others were gone. How unfortunate that he rarely had the urge to do anything wild.

At least, anything that Schwarz would consider wild.

He found the silence unnerving. How humiliating.

Nagi took a shower, then went to bed with his MP3 player on to provide some sound.

******************************************************

Aya awoke to unfamiliar surroundings, something he'd become accustomed to lately. This apartment truly was a pit, small and bare, somehow dirty even despite the recent scouring. It reminded him of places he'd lived in while paying for his sister's hospitalization and working toward his vengeance without Kritiker.

At least he had company in this hole. It was _their_ apartment.

Their first apartment.

"What is it?" Farfarello asked against his neck.

"We're living in bohemian squalor in the self-proclaimed capitol of the world. We have an apartment, furniture, and a car."

Apparently, Farfarello got it instantly, because he chuckled. "Our first apartment out on our own, far from home. Our first car. What a mundane couple we are. You need a pet." He nuzzled Aya's ear. "I already have one." He snarled as someone knocked at their door.

They both sprang up from the bed with knives as the lock turned. From the other side of the door, a female voice said, "I'm your liaison. If you kill me, your employer will be pissed off."

They put their knives away, something Farfarello looked reluctant about. As soon as the woman walked in and closed the door behind her, Aya asked, annoyed, "Why do you have a key?"

Unlike Persia's string of young secretaries, this contact was old enough to be Aya's mother, even though she was dressed in a stylish, tailored suit under her expensive coat. "Considering the assassin lifestyle, it's best to have someone around who can clean up your residence if something permanent happens to you. I'm Lark."

"We don't want you just walking in on us."

She smiled. "I don't mind that kind of thing at all."

"We do."

"I knocked." She handed Aya a dossier. "Tonight's target. You were told that you'd be offered little jobs as you worked your way into the confidences of the big fish, right?"

"Yes."

"Good. You have ten minutes to decide on this one. I've heard that the Japanese contingent usually has an audio-visual presentation, but we don't have the budget to install that kind of gear in a temporary living situation like you have here. It's a lot cleaner than it was, though." She talked far too much.

"We cleaned."

"If I were five years younger, one of you would be my ideal man. Both of you, maybe."

"I doubt it."

Farfarello, who'd been reading the dossier, said, "I have no problem with this." He handed it to Aya, who took more time.

"Aren't you going to offer me some refreshment?" Lark asked.

"We just moved in. We have warm bottled water."

"The scary thing is that you two really are like most of the men I tend to date. Except for the cleaning."

"We'll take the assignment," Aya said.

"But next time, you better fucking wait for us after you knock," Farfarello said and moved forward to strike, but Lark had a stiletto tangling up Farfarello's right-hand knife and dodged his left-hand knife.

"I did field work before I became a handler," she said. "Did you think Kritiker would send someone who couldn't defend herself to you? They know you." She smiled. "You do remind me of my former husband. And I love your accent."

Farfarello grinned at Aya, who sighed. Then he detached his knife from hers.

Watching him carefully, she put hers away as well, then handed Aya maps and a small book. "Bus map, subway map, and Fodor's New York City. My cell phone number is written inside the cover of the Fodor's if you need to contact me. I'll be seeing you, boys. I can let myself out." And she did.

Once she'd closed the door, Aya said, "That was surreal." Although it didn't surprise him that she could defend herself. He wondered sometimes if Momoe-san had been more than she'd seemed too.

"I'm hungry. We should shower, then go out to eat." Farfarello kissed Aya and dragged him into the bathroom. "Hmm. Sparkly."

"I took off a layer of filth and probably enamel to get it that way." Now he didn't mind using the tub for a shower, although he'd need special convincing to sit in it for a bath.

As they washed, Farfarello slowly jerked them both off, leaving Aya feeling mellow and tingling. Knowing him, he probably intended to break in every room of the apartment in such fashion, not that the apartment had that many rooms. He'd probably count the narrow hallway as one.... Aya didn't mind at all.

Aya chose a shirt with straps and buckles. Most of the clothing he'd brought here had a bit of a fetish edge, the better to catch the interest of a perverted crime lord. He hated the idea of having to go out on display and draw attention to himself. Being with Farfarello often earned him unwanted notice, but at least most of the observers concentrated on Farfarello.

While Aya dried his hair and was surprised afresh by its new shade, Farfarello thrust his earring into his face. Farfarello himself had put his barbwire necklace back on. Inevitability.... Aya accepted the earring and put it in, trying not to feel too relieved at the familiar weight and swing of it.

Pleased, Farfarello grinned and kissed him, then made the bed with their new sheets. Domesticity from Farfarello always gave Aya a headache.

As Aya put a trench coat on, he saw that Farfarello intended to go out in a light jacket and without sunglasses to cover his eyepatch. Farfarello looked dangerous and rough trade. With any luck, they'd get the right attention quickly, so they wouldn't have to keep doing this.

Walking out alone with Farfarello felt so strange, mundane in a way Aya hadn't earned. They always went out running alone, but that was different, exercise intended to better his endurance for their unusual job, while this was... ordinary life, even in a foreign city, even as he spoke flawless American English. They ate out, alone together, just like any couple.

It didn't seem to bother Farfarello at all. In fact, he appeared to be very happy, talking with animation and devouring his meal with gusto. "This is very good. Would you like to try some?" Farfarello said as he cut off a piece of cheese blintz in raspberry sauce.

"All right."

But Farfarello wouldn't let him just take it, jerking the fork away when Aya reached for it. "Not like that."

Aya sighed and opened his mouth so Farfarello could feed it to him. They were supposed to make a spectacle of themselves.... The raspberry sauce was a bit overpowering, but he'd probably like the blintz with a little less sauce on it. Farfarello watched his mouth hungrily, obviously wanted to kiss the traces of raspberry away, but didn't. At least he had some self-control.

To Aya's surprise, Farfarello followed dinner with a shopping tour, stopping at any shops that caught his interest. "You were never interested in objects before," Aya said.

"Our home looks bare. I have to get you a fish too."

"A fish." A fish?

"One of those Japanese fighting fish should be good. Pretty. A red one."

"We can't get a fish. We move too much and wouldn't be able to bring it with us. It couldn't survive on its own."

Farfarello pouted, then dragged Aya into a jewelry store. Looking down at the cases, he murmured, "No, no, no, no, no... yes." He waved the proprietor over and pointed to something under the glass. "The gold-toned ear cuff. I wanna see it." It didn't match any of the simple stainless steel earrings he wore. He ran his fingers along its surface, then put it up to Aya's left ear. "Good. I'll take it."

"Are you buying me jewelry?" Aya asked.

Looking very pleased with himself, Farfarello grinned and answered, "Aye. I'm decorating you" He'd been smiling a lot over the last few hours. "You don't need a piercing for this. It just wraps around. Say thank you."

He'd never had a lover who'd bought him jewelry. "Thank you."

On the street, Farfarello put it on him. "I like to get you things, and this takes some attention from your scar." That was what Farfarello sometimes called Aya's sister's earring.

Aya understood. Having two earrings in that ear made the hanging one, his scar, look a bit more like meaningless decoration, camouflaging its purpose. Abyssinian had never worn any other jewelry there. He could accept this compromise.

"How much time do we have?" Farfarello asked. Before they had to get ready for the night's work.

"I don't have a watch." While cleaning, he'd taken off the watch he'd worn on the plane. Aside from that, Aya hadn't worn a watch since his days in Weiß. Crawford kept the time for him now. "We'll see when we get back to the apartment."

At the apartment, Farfarello glanced at the clock and said, "Plenty of time," before pushing Aya down onto the bed, kissing and stroking. "Mmm, kitten with raspberry sauce."

******************************************************

Mamoru checked his e-mail addresses one more time before going out and saw a new message from aroundbird@hotmail.com. He'd told Aya-kun's American liaison that he wanted status reports from her.

He read to himself, "Mr. Red and Mr. White have settled into their new surroundings and accepted their first mini assignment. Mr. White made an attempt on me, as you expected. Mr. Red has even made the apartment more liveable."

Wait. What had been wrong with the apartment? He typed something to that effect and sent it to Lark. She'd just sent hers a few minutes ago, so maybe he'd get lucky.

"I thought we were leaving now," Nagi said.

"It can wait," Mamoru answered. "This is important."

In 20 minutes he saw a new e-mail from her, simply stating, "The apartment was filthy and infested with roaches, and the boys cleaned and exterminated. There's nothing they can do about the growing bulge in the bathroom ceiling, though."

"It sounds like I sent Aya to live in a hole," Mamoru said, horrified.

"I've lived in worse," Nagi replied.

"But you didn't have someone who's supposed to be your friend sending you to live there. What if he thinks I'm punishing him...." For what had happened. Horrible thought.

"I doubt he thinks that."

"I think it's time I had a talk with the owner." Mamoru picked up his phone.

"Good. I enjoy watching you twist the screws on people who deserve it."

Really? Nagi had a bland expression on his face but a really appealing and wicked gleam in his eyes. Mamoru felt the urge to touch him again but restrained it. They were both working right now. And Nagi could be so reserved about some things.


	69. "I like to look at pretty things as much as the next guy."

Even despite the cultural differences, Yoji's investigations had gone well. Some things didn't change much from place to place, and here he could add a "fumbling foreigner" act to his repertoire. With luck, he might be able to wrap up his assignment by tomorrow night. But first he had some things to check up on tonight, so he had to get dressed.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" Yoji asked when he opened the door and saw Schuldig sitting on his bed, smirking around a cigarette.

"Just wanted to see how our teammate is doing. Did you have a good day?"

"Get out of here."

"That's no fun."

Yoji lit up a cigarette and stared the telepath down. If he didn't do anything entertaining, surely Schuldig would get bored and leave. After ten minutes of Schuldig just staring mildly back at him, Yoji growled and opened his suitcase to get his uniform and look for a shirt to wear with it. No way he could walk around outside in these temperatures barechested.

"Thanks, Yoji. This way, if your nipples are hard, I'll know that it's for me instead of a sign that you're freezing your ass off."

Ignore him.

"That never works," Schuldig purred.

None of Yoji's shirts looked right with the uniform. They were new looking, while his coat, pants, hat, and shoes all looked old and battered. They couldn't have become that decrepit just recently, so they'd always been that bad. Fuck, when had he started dressing as a bum for missions?

"Yeah, you used to have style," Schuldig said. "For all I know, it wasn't good style, since I'm famous for having no taste in fashion, but at least you didn't look like you lived in a box in an alley. Though I do appreciate the bare chest and low-slung pants thing you do now. I figured that you had to be hard all the time, because I didn't see anything else that could be keeping those pants up."

"Shut up and leave."

"No. Look, Balinese, it's fucking London. Go out and buy yourself something nice."

It felt like Schuldig was crouching behind him, breathing on his neck, but when Yoji turned around he saw the telepath still lounging on his bed. He had to be playing mind games.

"Why would you care?" Yoji asked.

"I like to look at pretty things as much as the next guy."

That only gave him more reasons not to change it.

"Spoilsport." Schuldig stood and stretched, baring a bit of his stomach in the process. "At this rate, you'll be forcing me to take care of you. I don't think you want that. See you later."

Yoji didn't relax at all until Schuldig left. Then he put on a ribbed black turtleneck with his uniform and went out.

******************************************************

"That was far too close," Nagi said as Mamoru dismissed Rex and they walked into Mamoru's penthouse apartment.

"Three assassins out to get me in one night," Mamoru said. "I feel very special."

"I'd be happier if you were less special." Nagi usually looked cool and still, but tonight he seemed twitchy, almost distracted.

Mamoru had felt the sexual tension growing between them, becoming stronger each time they got together. Now, it was nearly unbearable. Something had to happen soon, or he'd explode.

Or he'd jump Nagi and possibly have every bone in his body broken for it.

"Is something wrong?" he asked Nagi.

"Just leftover adrenaline, Omi." Then, Nagi colored a little. Once, not so long ago, he'd looked like a child, but unlike Mamoru he seemed to have grown out of it. "I'm sorry. You're still Omi to Aya, and I just--"

"I could be Omi to you in private." It would be... nice.

"Thank you, Takatori-sama."

Mamoru made an exaggerated gesture like he'd smack Nagi, and Nagi ducked and smiled a little. He found the telekinetic to be good, if quiet, company, not unlike Aya.

"'Omi,'" Mamoru said as he stepped closer.

"Omi." Nagi's eyes darkened.

"Nagi-kun...."

"I find you very attractive... Omi. Omi-kun."

"But I pay you," Mamoru answered, stupidly. Was he trying to make sure this wouldn't happen?

"For this?" Nagi kissed him slowly, exploring. "I don't think you pay me for this."

He tasted good and was being far more forward than Mamoru had expected, both good things. "No, not for this. I want to trade for this." Mamoru's mouth just kept running when he'd really rather it shut up.

"Trade? I do things to you in exchange for you doing things to me?"

"That sounds... fair."

"Good." Nagi grabbed him then, stroking him with his hands and mouth, instantly dominant, surprising, and Mamoru loved it, loved having someone else responsible and in command for once. Loved the feeling of power and force running all over his skin, touching him everywhere. Outside. Inside.... He moaned. Telekinesis undid his buttons slowly. So slowly.

"Please, Nagi. I can't wait. Just rip them off."

Nagi's eyes darkened, and Mamoru heard the tiny noises of threads tearing and felt his shirt open. The buttons made no sound as they hit the thick carpet. God. Nagi's hands and power roamed all over his body as if he already owned it.

If Nagi wanted to fuck him in the living room, he'd be all for it.

"No, I want the bedroom. I want a bed for this...." At least Nagi sounded almost as lost in lust as he felt.

So they moved to the bedroom by feel, occasionally hitting walls and doorframes. The zippers on Nagi's jacket made loud, nearly obscene sounds as Mamoru undid them as he'd been dying to do forever. He stripped Nagi greedily, avid to see all the skin the telekinetic usually hid. At best, Mamoru would get a look at his wrists or the top of his neck. Now he unveiled arms and shoulders, Nagi's chest with its copper-colored nipples, his hard cock.... Mamoru wanted to taste it all, and smiled at Nagi's groan.

Why had they spent so much time dancing around when it could have been like this?

When they found the bed, Nagi tipped them onto it. The power ran over Mamoru's skin like a vibration, raising the hairs, making him squirm with lust. The rest of his clothing came away in swift jerks, with no hands involved, just as the rest of Nagi's had. He writhed under Nagi's hands and arched at the feel of the hot mouth sucking hard at his left nipple, arched more and moaned at the feeling of a smooth force steadily fucking him from the inside, opening him up.

"More," he gasped. "Please...." And more came, thicker, a little harder. He wound his fingers tighter in Nagi's soft brown hair and heard a faint hum, detected the faint, sharp scent of ozone, like the foretelling of a thunderstorm. Power sheathed and vibrated around his cock and balls.... "Fuck me. Please. I... want your cock."

Nagi made a nearly wounded sound and ground against him hard. "Yes."

Mamoru scrabbled for his drawer beneath the bed, then smiled as it opened by itself. He grabbed the slick--

"Protection too," Nagi said softly.

Mamoru had been more than willing to bareback, but Schwarz had a past.... "All right."

Nagi kissed him and continued to drive him insane with his hands and telekinesis, until Mamoru had to gasp, "Give it to me already!"

And he did. And it was so good....

******************************************************

Omi felt _incredible_ to him, pulsing with sensation and possibilities beneath him and hot and tight around his cock. Nagi had experienced the echoes of other people's sex many times before, but they obviously didn't perceive it the way he did. He could taste and feel how much Omi wanted him....

Nagi had discovered that he had to use his telekinesis during sex, because if he didn't direct it it would strike out on its own. But now as he thrust and thrust and felt orgasm building like lightning in his spine and extremities, the pressure and power built as well, becoming ever more impossible to control, just like _they_ had shown him it would. He would not hurt Omi, he _would not_ hurt Omi.... He needed a target. Got it.

Nagi heard the clock on the other side of the room explode in a crunch of wood and clang of metal as he came hard, spilling himself into Omi's willing body in a rush of white-hot pleasure. Crying out, looking nearly agonized even though Nagi could feel that he felt the opposite, Omi hit orgasm in a flood of emotion and zigzagging possibilities of movement, his inner forces reaching completion and spending themselves. Nagi so needed to see and feel him do that when he wasn't sex-stupid himself, so he could fully appreciate it.

He'd fucked Omi without killing him.

Panting, feeling wrung out and quiet and _good_, Nagi rested his head on Omi's hot, sweat-slick chest and basked in the afterglow and relief. Also breathing hard, Omi petted his hair, and he really didn't mind. It felt nice.

Eventually Omi said, "That was...." He didn't finish the sentence.

"I'm sorry about your clock."

"I don't care about that. I will _buy_ things for you to destroy if I have to."

Nagi started to twitch. They were too close, too _much_. Too much contact. Omi let him move away a little in the bed. He felt Omi wondering how someone so inexperienced in sex had such technique.

"It's not like I'm a virgin," Nagi said. "This is just the first time that--" Shit. No way he would say the rest of that.

"The first time you were willing?" Omi asked softly.

There were disadvantages to being with smart people.

Omi wasn't innocent or simple. He could be ruthless but self-deluded. He felt trapped by his family and responsibilities and often let them take the blame for his actions. In the pursuit of "justice," he could order horrors with the best intentions. Nagi had despised people like Omi all his life.

Yet, despite all the blood on his hands, Omi retained a sense of love and sweetness. His feelings for Aya felt so warm that Nagi wanted to snuggle up to them. When he loved you, he would kill for you, and a week ago Nagi had felt him adding Nagi to the list of people he'd do that for. He'd been in this murderous business most of his life, as Nagi had, starting as a killer child. Omi had a beautiful smile. He was smiling at Nagi right now.

Nagi felt what he felt, and it made no sense. Life didn't make sense, and people didn't make sense, so why should affection?

If that's what this was. Nagi really didn't know.

"And I didn't say anything," Omi said.

"Another hazard of being with me. I might read bits of your mind in addition to blowing up parts of your house."

"It's worth it. Stay with me tonight. You don't have to do anything but share a bed with me."

Stupid to feel so warm over that. "Okay. I don't think I'm up to much more anyway. I'm really tired."

"Sure. You did a lot."

More than Omi knew.

******************************************************

"And that's what we call a 'bait and switch,'" Schuldig murmured to himself as he shifted on the bed, his body reacting to the outpouring of young lust.

"Schu, you're being obscure again," Brad said.

"Nagi's getting some."

Brad's reaction was priceless. "Getting--"

"With Takatori Mamoru also known as Tsukiyono Omi. You know, Persia."

It reduced Brad to a sputtering meltdown. He couldn't even get words out.

Schuldig grinned and sucked up Brad's emotional output, then spent the next hour blowing and fucking Brad back to calm. If this was the result, he hoped Nagi got laid more often. Hell, he wanted a shot at the kid, who apparently didn't need to buy dildos, restraints, or gags because telekinesis got him through just fine.

Eventually Brad said, "You felt that. How the hell did you feel that all the way from Tokyo?"

"First, the kid has been a part of me for years." Schuldig's grin widened. "Second, _a lot_ of people are gonna feel this one. Poor Nagi couldn't be quiet about his first time."

******************************************************

Elena sighed. Just as she couldn't implant languages in Fenris' head because he didn't think enough in words yet, she couldn't simply pick up kanji because her mind only recognized written words that were combinations of letters, not symbols. So she had to teach herself the old-fashioned way, and it was going slowly.

She reached for her braid to play with it as she concentrated and sighed again when it took some more reaching to get it than usual. Stupid of her to accidentally burn half of it off.

Then she felt a rush of-- Blushing hard, she tightened up her shields.

Fenris bolted up in his bed. "What was that?"

"Someone slipping. What did it feel like to you?"

Fenris looked deep in thought, but she couldn't read much from him as he did it since he had too much innate damage. "A pinball machine," he finally said. "Elena, stop laughing!"

A pinball machine! Save her from telekinetics.... "Sorry."

******************************************************

When Mamoru woke up, he smiled at the company in his bed. Nagi looked exhausted but cute as he slept. Mamoru's kiss didn't wake him, though he did try to twitch away from it, apparently having Issues.

Awake now, buzzing with energy even as he ached pleasantly, Mamoru decided to check his e-mail before he went back to bed and found one from Lark. Aya's bathroom would be fixed tomorrow. Good.

Mamoru returned to bed and snuggled in next to Nagi, who almost fell off the bed wiggling away from him. In his sleep. This might be a problem.

"Mmm?" Nagi murmured sleepily, his eyes half open now. "Sorry, Omi. I don't sleep well with other people around."

"Just don't kill yourself trying to get away from me."

"I'll try not to." Nagi kissed him, then drifted back to sleep, still cute.

It was a problem they could work on. And Mamoru felt very safe right now.

******************************************************

Nagi opened his eyes and murmured, "What time is it?" It didn't surprise him to see Omi in bed with him, since he'd been aware of him even as he slept. It made him twitch, even though Omi had given him space.

"I don't know. My clock is broken. Right now, I don't care." Omi hadn't smiled like that in a long time, as far as Nagi knew.

The fucking... "...clock," Nagi murmured, still embarrassed.

"I'm teasing you. I don't care about the clock. It gives me excuses to slack off this morning."

Nagi let Omi stroke some of the hair out of his eyes, especially when he read from Omi's thoughts that he'd wanted to do that for a long time now. "But, Omi, you don't slack. You have business to do. Spies and assassins to boss around."

Nagi, who didn't do well with lying around in bed either, wanted to shower and change. He didn't feel right being this... dirty. Not even when some parts of his body felt really good.

"They'll still be there in a few hours." Smiling wickedly, Omi looked like a small storm of arcing possibilities.

Oh. He had no trouble with staying in bed doing something. Maybe he could stand to be dirty a while longer. "Hours? Do you think you'll last for hours?" All right, when had he picked this kind of banter up from Schuldig?

And who knew that it would come in useful?

"Are you threatening me?"

"I'm your bodyguard. It's against my job description. At the worst, I'm making promises." Having given in to lust once, he seemed to feel it stronger and sharper now, now that he knew what he'd been missing. It disappointed him, since he'd hoped that having it would blunt the desire. It seemed that sex was more like a drug than like food....

Still, he knew what Omi's skin tasted like now and had felt him from the inside. He couldn't regret that.

And he wanted more.

From the way Omi arched and purred as he touched him, he didn't seem to be alone in that.

******************************************************

"What's the problem?" Farfarello asked.

"I can't find parking," Aya answered, obviously annoyed.

Farfarello cackled. "A life is saved because you can't find parking?"

"We could pay for a few hours' parking in a garage, but the attendants might have questions if we come back bloody. Garages seem to be brightly lit." Aya's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "We'll have to plan this differently next time. Maybe find parking hours earlier, go home, then use the subway or take a bus on our way back over."

"Doesn't help us now."

"It doesn't help us now."

As much as he loved to kill with Aya and was amused by their current situation, an assignment was an assignment. "Let me out, and I'll do this on my own. It's not a hard job. You can circle a few times to come back for me."

Although his puisín looked put out, Aya answered, "All right. Alert me when you need a pickup."

Telepathy had uses. "Yeah. See you soon, kitten." Farfarello dashed out of the car.

How it rankled to be forced to do this without his partner due to parking difficulties. Having key copies and the codes to the target's security system eliminated even more fun from the job. The killing held little savor this time, and he did it as efficiently and quickly as possible to spare his kitten the annoyance of circling the block endlessly waiting for him.

He hated when reality intruded on his fun.

It took him 30 minutes to break into the building and apartment and kill the target and three of the target's minions who got in his way. Thus, it presented no challenge at all. Maybe Aya had been better off driving. ~ I'm ready to be picked up. ~

When Aya arrived, looking understandably annoyed at it all, Farfarello let himself into the car and said, "I'm hungry. What's the time?"

"12:30."

"We can still go out, then, after I clean up. I'll turn your frown upside-down."

"You're scaring the hell out of me." But Aya smiled a little.

Yet the disappointments continued. Their late meal might have been tasty, but when they arrived at the club, Farfarello immediately saw a sign that said that dancing was against the law there. "What the fuck is a cabaret license?"

"Something that gives customers the legal right to dance, it would seem," Aya answered. "Something this place doesn't have."

"Truly the hand of God is heavy on this town."

The club itself was dead, with only a few people in it, and most of them seemed to be involved in some spiritless, ritualized, rote bondage scene.

He felt bored enough to give them some pointers, but when he moved forward, his puisín caught his arm and said, "We should go. The whole point of this is to be seen, and there's no one here. We can try something else tomorrow."

"New York City sucks."

******************************************************

Mamoru had worried that the newest stage in his relations with Nagi might lead to professional problems, yet they worked together as smoothly as ever. Nagi continued to be solid and calm at his back, deferential when necessary and quietly sarcastic when possible.

The flashes of heat he sometimes noticed in the telekinetic's eyes as he looked at Mamoru were new, but far from unpleasant and unwelcome. Even before, he'd already come to look forward to time alone with Nagi, sometimes cutting official business a bit short to be able to do more with him afterward. Now, sex and intimacy made that stronger. He found himself feeling distracted sometimes, with a slight smile on his face....

Mamoru hadn't felt like this in a long time. Almost young again.

He'd decided to be amused that his cleaning staff had been forced to pry clock bits out of the walls with pliers. There were some very ugly antiques he'd moved into the bedroom that he wouldn't mind sacrificing to the cause....


	70. "If I were you, I'd try to figure out exactly where my sex life took a turn for the unintentionally homicidal."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Schuldig quotes a line from and hums a bit of "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve.

Even though he'd gotten his information with a minimum of murder and mayhem, Yoji just wanted to shower and sleep. Really. The part of him that wanted to go out and find somebody to break the silence with could just shut up. He didn't deserve the company of women.

Maybe now that he'd found some peace over Asuka's death he'd gotten over the personal insanity that had led to him nearly strangling his last few women. Then again, whom did he want to test that out on?

When he opened the door, he saw Schuldig on his bed again and yelled, "Get the fuck out of my room!"

"I'm bored." Schuldig didn't get up from his sprawl, just turned his head to look at Yoji.

"Go bother Crawford."

"He's at some networking meeting, and the people there don't like having telepaths around. As if I need to be in the room to read their pathetic little minds. Anyway, here I am and here you are." Schuldig blew three perfect smoke rings. "You look and feel like a man who needs to get shitfaced. I'm in the mood to help."

"I'm going to clean up and go to bed. You're going to get off of my bed and leave the room."

"How dull. That's not happening. You used to have better fantasies.... You'll clean the blood off and dress. I'll lead you to a pub."

"And get me drunk and take advantage of me?"

"Only if you're very lucky."

"Like hell."

"Do you really think you'll sleep well going to bed in this mood?"

Fuck him. He was right. Yoji clenched and unclenched his teeth.

"You'll give yourself wrinkles doing that," the telepath said. "Your angst is boring me."

"Are you at least going to pay for the drinks?"

"Since I'm in a generous mood, the first three. After that, you're on your own."

Yoji took a change of clothing out of his suitcase, went into the bathroom, and locked the door. Although Schuldig could probably see and hear anything he wanted to anyway, the lock made Yoji feel a tiny bit safer. At least he was trying.

At some point, Schuldig knocked on the door hard and said, ~ Finish up already. Haven't you realized yet that you'll never really be clean again? ~

"Fuck off!" But Yoji rushed more, since the sooner he finished the sooner Schuldig would finish with him and stop being so fucking annoying.

When he walked out, dressed, Schuldig sighed, said, "That will do," and threw his coat at him.

Yoji expected the telepath to take him to a club, but instead they really did end up in a dark pub. They even drank in blessed silence for a while.

At least until Schuldig broke the silence by saying, "You have a problem with women."

"What? I love women." It might not have been quite the attack Yoji had been expecting, but he felt some relief that Schuldig would finally get it over with.

"Maybe you do. The problem is that you don't go looking for a woman who wants to love you or fuck you, you go looking for a woman you think you don't deserve, so you'll feel like the shit you think you are for having her. But then some part of you objects to feeling like shit and gets strangle-happy in retaliation. You're a sick fuck, and you don't even admit it to yourself."

"I-- Shit." He'd already known these things on some level, but somehow it made more of an impression coming from an outside source. Schuldig didn't sugarcoat.

"Yeah, I'm amazing. I'm here 'til Thursday. Try the veal."

What the hell was he supposed to do now that he knew this?

"Totally dependent on Dr. Schuldig now, huh? Break the fucking chain. You're boring me."

"You're with Crawford." Non sequitur much? But Yoji felt himself fumbling for an attack back and vaguely thought that he might be on to something.

"'With' Crawford? In so many ways. You wanna be more specific?"

"You fuck each other."

"Yeah. He's a better lay than you'd think. Besides, what I don't get from him, I get elsewhere. Why, thinking of trying a man?"

"No!"

"Of course not. Maybe you should."

"Are you volunteering?" Yoji sneered.

Schuldig sneered back and put his cigarette out by grinding it against the tabletop. "While you're pondering your next commitment, you can get us both another beer."

******************************************************

"I'm so wasted," Yoji said. "And horny." And needed help getting into his hotel room, which was the only reason why he leaned so heavily on Schuldig.

Schuldig shut the door behind them and tossed the keycard onto the nearest table. "Didn't take much to get you there either. You, Kudou, are a cheap date. Must be the anorexia."

"Fuck you."

"I'm game, especially since I'm feeling your drunken horniness."

"I'm not." But right now he wanted to.

"I'd even be kind enough to make you see me as a chick if I weren't worried about what you'd do to my neck."

"Shut up." Yoji pressed him up against the wall and thrust against him. Even with the long hair, Schuldig didn't feel at all like a woman, but Yoji's cock didn't care, especially not with a partner who kept touching all the right places. Yoji had done a bit of petting with guys before, nothing serious, but never with someone who'd tried to kill him a few times first. "I'm gonna hate myself in the morning."

"You hate yourself now, so who cares?"

Schuldig's hands and tongue seemed to be everywhere, which freaked Yoji out in a drunken way even as it felt incredible. It didn't surprise him that Schuldig's mouth should be labeled a lethal weapon in this arena too. Yoji kissed and stroked him back because it seemed ungrateful to just stand there and Schuldig felt sleek and hard and lanky. He smelled like smoke and beer and musk, as Yoji probably did. Everything moved so fast. They quickly and efficiently stripped one another like experts before the telepath shoved him down onto the bed. Schuldig didn't wear underwear, which was also no surprise.

Though the navel ring _was_ a surprise.

Thankfully, Schuldig didn't talk.

Apparently sober, Schuldig had a condom and lube, the coordination to put them on Yoji, and absolutely no shyness about climbing up on him and riding him hard, shamelessly demanding. Fuck, he was hot, literally.... Yoji could barely keep track of it, let alone defend his virtue. He didn't so much fuck Schuldig as Schuldig used him as a toy to fuck himself with. At least, Yoji kept trying to tell himself that but found it hard to think or assign blame through the rush of pleasure and the relief of letting someone touch him again. He didn't have to be careful or gentle here. In fact, Schuldig seemed to prefer harder thrusts, panting and closing his too vividly blue eyes for them.

So good, too good.... Yoji had missed this, heat and skin and a sense of connecting with another person.

His hands didn't stray toward Schuldig's neck even once.

After the long, self-enforced abstinence and the night's drinking, Yoji didn't last long. Schuldig made a sound like a pleased hum as he rode Yoji's final thrusts and came all over his chest.

For a while, everything felt wonderful. Then Yoji's brain and sanity started to return.

Twitchy and sensitized, overheated on the outside and ice cold shocked on the inside, he blew bright orange hair out of his mouth and tried to move Schuldig off him. The telepath pouted and said, "I would have figured you for the snuggly type."

"Not with people who have tried to kill me." Shit, that had been a miscalculation.

"Do you have brain damage that made you completely forget your last two girlfriends?" At least Schuldig pulled away.

"You made me like the sex," Yoji said.

"Telepathically, no. The old-fashioned way? Fuck, yes." Sprawled out and conspicuously satisfied, Schuldig lit up. "You want one?"

At this point he _needed_ a cigarette. "Yeah." He'd already fucked Schuldig, so what harm could bumming a smoke do? The telepath even lit it for him. "You knew all of my spots!"

"I can't help that. But if you're trying to say that we had lousy sex but I mindfucked you into thinking it was good, you're completely wrong."

"What, you have your slut's pride?"

"You should know."

Crawford opened the door and said, "I could say I was surprised, but I would be lying," then closed it behind him.

Yoji pulled the covers up around him and nearly squeaked, "You _saw_ this?" It gave him the shudders. "And why the hell do you have the key to my door?" Schuldig just lolled around naked, unconcerned.

Maybe he was justified. Crawford was more likely to kill Yoji for this than Schuldig, since Schuldig was more useful to him.

"Of course I saw it." And Crawford looked a tiny bit turned on, which was a relief and horrifying all at once. He didn't bother to answer the question about the key.

Yoji started to say, "Look, I'm not g--"

"We know," Crawford and Schuldig answered.

He should have killed Schuldig when he'd had the chance a few minutes ago. "Just get the fuck out of here, both of you."

"I feel used," Schuldig said, then kissed his forehead and rolled out of bed before Yoji's fist could reach him.

As Schuldig put his clothes back on, he somehow made dressing into a kind of come-on, a weird and quick reverse striptease. Crawford just smirked and took in the scene. Yoji kept the covers up to his neck. Schuldig smiled and stubbed his cigarette out in Yoji's ashtray.

As Schuldig sauntered out of the room at Crawford's side, he said, "We should do this again sometime."

Yoji didn't dignify that with a vocal answer, but Schuldig must have telepathically heard what he thought, because the telepath said, ~ Never say never. ~

Yoji flopped down on the bed and took a deep breath. Damn, that had been stupid. Embarrassingly good sex, but stupid.

Schuldig no doubt expected him to go into a frenzy of heterosexual panic over having fucked a man and liked it. Wouldn't happen. Sex was sex. Yoji just felt panicked that he'd done something incriminating and irrevocable with an annoying bastard who didn't mean him well.

An annoying bastard Yoji hadn't tried to strangle. Women he'd loved, he'd tried to strangle. Strangers he'd picked up, he'd tried to strangle. A killer telepath who was one of the banes of his existence, he'd just fucked?

Why? He needed to figure it out. Or find it out.

Just not tonight, when he was still fairly drunk. Yoji finished his (Schuldig's) cigarette, took a shower, and went to bed.

But it took him a while to go to sleep.

******************************************************

"So?" Brad asked after they reached their room.

Schuldig pulled off his shirt, then shook his head until his hair settled better. "Well, for all his ladies' man talk, he's experimented a bit with men in the past."

"I didn't need you to let him fuck you to figure that out."

"Meow. In other news, he got the leads we need. We can probably tackle Persia's assignment tomorrow night."

"He could have told us tonight."

"Yeah, but I got him drunk and he got himself horny, and between the two his poor little brain didn't have room for business."

"Pathetic. But _he_ got himself horny?"

"It was all him. I didn't _have_ to mess around."

"But you let him work his issues out on your ass." Brad sounded amused.

"His issues didn't actually figure in the sex at all, which surprised me." Schuldig kicked off his shoes. Since he'd planned to seduce Yoji the way he had tonight, he'd worn easy to remove clothing.

"Attribute it to your healing powers."

"Fuck you. And I didn't do this for altruistic reasons."

"Really?" Brad asked, drier than dry.

"You're such a funny guy. Yoji wouldn't have been able to stick with the abstinence for much longer. He would have picked up some chick, and the odds were good that he'd end up with his hands around her neck. Which would end up with him wallowing in the same fucking angst he's already boring me with." Schuldig enjoyed other people's angst but not when it got repetitive. "Me, I could defend myself if he went strangle-happy."

"Which he didn't."

"I wonder when that'll hit him. I wonder how he'll interpret it." Schuldig smiled. "I wonder which spin I'll give it when he comes to talk to me tomorrow."

"I should hire you out as a sex therapist."

"Another way to rent out my ass, huh? At least it sounds a tiny bit legit."

"How was he?" Brad asked.

"Not bad. He has all the working parts. Of course, he was drunk and hadn't touched another person since that whole thing with Tuji, so he wasn't at his best. Fuck, I don't know. You want me to see what he's like sober and with the abstinence streak broken?"

"I'm thinking about it." Brad put an arm around his waist and pulled him in, then nuzzled his neck. "Balinese's taste in cologne isn't as bad you'd think it would be, given how he dresses."

Once upon a time, Schuldig would be the one who'd initiate sex and Brad would be game for it. Lately, Brad had been starting it more often, and Schuldig really couldn't complain about that.

"Yeah, s'nice," Schuldig murmured, lost in the scent and cool water feeling of his current lover, then hummed with pleasure as Brad slid his hand under the loose waistband of Schuldig's pants, down his bare ass, and pushed two fingers up inside him. Schuldig was still slick, and Brad knew exactly where to press.... "Fuck me."

The light glinted, harsh and sharp, off the lenses of Brad's glasses. He looked hard and completely in control and even more distinguished with his silver hair. "Of course."

People could be funny. Farfie loved to get very, very messy with his kills, yet he refused to touch Schuldig if he even smelled of another person, even though Farfie professed a great theoretical love of "harlots and whores." But finicky, fastidious Brad Crawford got a kinky kick out of sloppy seconds and watching Schuldig fuck with other people.

Brad knew that Schuldig might road test other people but would always come back to him to get what he really needed.

******************************************************

In the morning, Yoji took a deep breath as he stood outside their door, knowing too well that he probably wouldn't escape this with what was left of his dignity intact but determined to try. He hated telepaths. Still, he would stick to his plan: go in, tell them what he'd learned, set up their plans for the evening's mission, then leave.

As Yoji lifted his fist to knock on the door, Crawford opened it. "Come in."

At least they were both dressed. Yoji had worried that he might catch them in the middle of something. Impeccably groomed, Crawford wore a charcoal-colored suit. Schuldig sat cross-legged and barefoot on the bed, brushing his hair, but at least he had a shirt and pants on. He had a mellower look on his face, and his eyes lacked their usual hard, sharp, predator's gleam. Yoji refused to speculate on why.

The two members of Schwarz seemed to be comfortable yet ever aware of one another in the room. Weiß had sometimes achieved that on their best days.

Another thing Yoji refused to think about. Instead he said, "I have the information we need to proceed."

"I know. Schuldig read it from you last night," Crawford said. "We can move on it tonight."

Wonderful. This visit had been unnecessary.

"I wouldn't say that," Schuldig said. "We all have to come to an agreement on what time we're going tonight and how we're going to work this."

He hated telepaths.

"Lots of people do."

Crawford smiled. Scary. "I think that it would be best to leave at 10 p.m."

"Have you... seen that this would be best?" Yoji asked. He would never get used to dealing with their powers. Never.

"If I see anything that suggests that it isn't, I'll let you know."

"Good. We'll meet here at 10, then go."

"I may be able to fit some errands around that."

"Brad," Schuldig said, sounding... fond.

"Waste not, want not."

Yoji refused to wonder about them or Schuldig or why his fucked-up killing instinct hadn't gone for the telepath last night when it should have.

"Unless you want to die alone and grossly undersexed, you _should_ wonder," Schuldig said. "If I were you, I'd try to figure out exactly where my sex life took a turn for the unintentionally homicidal."

Yoji quickly turned around to see Schuldig's lover's reaction to this but couldn't see Crawford in the room anymore. He'd been set up for sure. "I don't trust your motives or methods here."

"No? I got you off, and you didn't lay a hand on my neck. Don't you want to figure out what your tripwire is?" Yet he still didn't look as predatory as usual. He seemed... softer somehow.

"What's your interest?"

"I told you. Your angst and frustrated lust bore me. Besides, I'm curious as to what made the difference last night. Was it that I was a guy? That I was the aggressor? That it was all about lust and not love? Some combination of the above?"

"You want to go again."

"One time doesn't tell either of us much, does it?"

Of course Schuldig was playing him. Using him. Still, Yoji had already lost whatever moral high ground he could have taken by fucking the telepath last night and was paying for it. If he had to pay anyway, maybe he should make sure he got his money's worth. He'd already fucked up his own sex drive. If the telepath could make it right, even if he only did it to amuse himself, why not let him try? How much more damage could be done?

The sex had been good. Being able to touch another person had been even better.

"I even made sure you wouldn't have much of a hangover when you woke up this morning," Schuldig said. "Thank me."

"No."

Schuldig uncrossed his legs on the bed and locked them around Yoji's hips instead, pulling him in. When had he gotten so close to the bed? Schuldig had some grip.... "You want me."

Yes. "No."

Schuldig rubbed himself against Yoji's hard cock. His eyes had a needy sheen to them, lusting. "Yes."

"I hate you."

"Yes." He didn't sound upset or surprised. Of course not. He pulled Yoji down on top of him. "But you'll fuck me anyway."

Yes.

But, fucked up or not, Yoji didn't have it in him to be brutal with his partner, at least not prior to his killing instinct unexpectedly turning on, so even as he took control of the foreplay he didn't rough Schuldig up, no matter how much he might deserve it. Yet this time he wouldn't be overwhelmed, no nearly helpless witness to his own ravishing. This time he initiated and Schuldig reacted. It made sense to do it differently, if they wanted to see what made the difference.

The telepath certainly didn't complain, since he moaned and writhed under Yoji's hands and mouth. He had really nice skin, smooth, and fewer scars than Yoji would have expected, something he hadn't been given the time to appreciate before, and Yoji enjoyed baring it, unwrapping Schuldig like a gift.

Last night, Schuldig had been all hard, sharp lust and rapacious greed, completely aggressive. He'd used Yoji like a sex toy. Yoji had felt some connection but been aware all the while that it hadn't been two-way. This time, that unexpected softness Yoji had noticed in him earlier applied here too, and it made Yoji gentler and more earnest in response, made him use more technique and extend the foreplay. Yoji was in control here.

He still could in no way mistake the telepath for a woman, but.... Schuldig wasn't completely passive, since he kissed back, stroked Yoji's cock with a light but practiced touch, and handed him slick and a condom, but....

Yoji knew that fucking a man wasn't the same as fucking a woman, but last night Schuldig had just plunged down on his cock. Still, he had to ask--

But before Yoji could, Schuldig slicked up his own fingers and slid them inside himself, fucking himself with them. It was surprising and so damned hot, especially when the telepath shut his eyes and bit his lip in reaction to how good it apparently felt. It made Yoji ache to watch it.

"Kudou, join me, damn it," Schuldig said softly, his voice throaty, as he slid his fingers out.

Yoji swallowed hard, then put the condom and slick on and carefully thrust in, pleased that Schuldig could arrange his own legs for this. It felt perfect, so good, skin to skin. Connection. Fully alive, he lost himself in heat, sensation, and movement as his partner moved with him, in rhythm with him. It left him feeling thankful and undeserving.

He suddenly felt a tight, painful grip on his wrists. Shocked out of his sex haze, he saw that he had his hands wrapped tightly around Schuldig's neck, while Schuldig gripped his wrists to start pulling them away.

"That was instructive," the telepath wheezed. His gaze was bright and hard again. "Though I didn't even feel you flip over from affection and fucking to killing. Interesting."

"You sick--" Yet how sick was Yoji that he was still hard? He pulled his hands away and felt something twist in his chest as Schuldig took a deep breath. He had a band of red around his neck, shaped like Yoji's hands.

"Better." Then Schuldig started to move his hips, and Yoji's body moved instinctively in rhythm, fucking again.

"You _sick_\--"

"You tried to kill me. The least you can do is get me off."

And how sick was Yoji that he understood that and obliged?

Yoji fucked him and obeyed every time he gasped, "Harder!" Finally, Schuldig jerked himself off and clenched down hard on Yoji's cock, making him come as well.

Fucked up as it might have been, Yoji _had_ gotten off on it.

But, lying next to him, spent, Yoji eventually had to ask, "What the hell are you?" Schuldig's hair felt soft under his cheek.

"I'm a freak." Schuldig lit a cigarette and smoked. Yoji noticed that it was a different brand than the night before's. "I'm a whore. A killer. Con man. Thief. Former mental patient." He grinned. "Amateur sex therapist. I'm a million different people from one day to the next." Then he hummed some tune, off-key. When he stopped, he asked, "You know what this means, right?"

"You being a freak?"

"What just happened with your hands and my neck, moron."

"Yeah." It was the tenderness and affection. The moment he started to really care about and connect with his partner, the part of him that felt he didn't deserve it came out to make sure it never happened again. It probably hadn't helped that he'd been the one making most of the moves either, striving to get the tenderness and affection that some part of him obviously believed he didn't have a right to.

Schuldig had guessed or known, and played to that.

"Good boy. Now you just have to figure out how to fix it."

"Sure. Easy," Yoji answered, all sarcasm.

"Fortunately, fixing you is not my job. Now get off of my bed. I did my bit."

"You have to be kidding me." Yoji figured out for certain that Schuldig wasn't kidding as he was pushed to the floor. Dammit, the rugburn.... "You--" He stopped at the sight of the gun barrel pointed at his face.

Schuldig's voice sounded light, though still harsh from the punishment it had taken. "If you leave nicely, I'll make sure Brad doesn't kill you for marking me up."

"I'm feeling less guilty about doing that by the second."

"Like a good little sociopath."

Fuck. "I'm--"

"Sorry? We both made our beds, and we fucked in them. Now you pick up the pieces and put yourself together better. Somewhere else."

Yoji put his clothes on hurriedly and left. He stopped suddenly near his door when he noticed Crawford watching him from down the hallway. Although he half expected Crawford to know what had happened and react with murderous intent, the seer only stared at him from behind the distance of his shining glasses.

The seer might still kill him for it later.

Shaken by what he'd done and figured out about it, Yoji quickly opened the door to his room and retreated inside. He'd been stupid before. He hoped he was wiser now.

******************************************************

Crawford found Schuldig in the bathroom scrubbing the sweat and come off his skin with a wet, hot washcloth. The bruises on his neck had already begun to darken. It left Crawford disquieted, even more than the sight of his telepath marked up by another man should have disquieted him.

"Experience leaves marks," Schuldig said to the mirror.

"Always." The urge to kill Balinese for this came and went. Schuldig had accepted the risk and could no doubt have defended himself even if the Weiß kitten hadn't stopped. "Was this one worth it?"

"Yeah." Schuldig didn't elaborate.

Crawford put a hand on his telepath's bare shoulder, knowing that the thin, lanky body beneath his fingers had so much more strength in it than it appeared to have. They were all more than they appeared to be.


	71. "You're a perverse creature. A black rain cloud."

Determined to get more than a few small sounds out of his puisín, Farfarello slowly and thoroughly fucked and jerked him off. Aya was playing the silent game this morning, knowing too well that it drove Farfarello to work harder. Although he could taste Aya's soul and _feel_ how much he liked this, his efforts only inspired a few breathy gasps.

Farfarello mouthed one of the knobs of Aya's spine and sucked hard at the salty skin. That combined with the next hard thrust earned him a gluttonous grunt from his hot and tasty kitten. Better.

Some idiot was knocking on their door, distracting Aya. That idiot could rot in Hell waiting. Farfarello redirected his puisín's attention to where it should be by tightening his grip on Aya's cock.

Aya came when the pounding on the door became more insistent, ticking Farfarello off. Someone would _pay_. He couldn't finish like this. Still hard, he kissed the back of Aya's neck and moved off him, put on the loosest pair of pants he'd brought with him, and wrenched the door open. "What the hell do you want?" he growled at the man standing in the hall with his fist upraised who should be thanking his evil God that Farfarello wouldn't murder someone right in front of the apartment he had to live in.

"Uh, I'm here to look at the bathroom ceiling," the man said in a squeaky rush. "To fix it later. Really."

Farfarello grabbed his arm and dragged him into the bathroom. "There it is. See! Now what?"

"Uh, I have to figure out what material I'll need to fix it. The upstairs apartment too--"

"Yeah, yeah. You got that?"

The man looked at him and squeaked, "I think so."

"Good. Come back later with them." Farfarello dragged him to the door and slammed it shut behind him.

Looking tousled and amused, Aya was watching him from the bed. Although the blankets came up to the bottom of his puisín's neck, Farfarello knew all too well what they hid. It made him harder. Impossible, but there was no impossible where his kitten was concerned.

Crouching down beside the bed, Farfarello brushed disheveled auburn hair away from his lover's purple eyes and said, "I'm going to fuck you until I come, no matter how long it takes."

"Is that a threat or a promise?"

"You decide."

Aya pulled the blankets away as enticement and invitation. "Show me."

Farfarello did... for the next forty-five minutes. "So?" he finally asked his gasping, quivering puisín.

"Threat," Aya murmured.

"Hmph. You're made of sterner stuff than that."

For a while they rested, and Farfarello luxuriated in after-sex and the way his scent mingled with his puisín's in the sheets. Eventually Aya said, "It'll be good to have the bathroom ceiling fixed. I hope you haven't chased him away permanently."

"No sense of romance."

"I do have one. I just believe in putting everything in its place."

"Hmm. No Schwarz to roust us out of bed."

"No Schwarz to make breakfast for us."

True. Damn. "You're a perverse creature. A black rain cloud. We have to get dressed and go out for breakfast."

"We have neither groceries nor anything to cook them with, so yeah."

"That must be fixed."

"I guess I'll be cooking, then."

"I cook."

"I suppose you can call it that."

Farfarello pouted. "Nobody likes my cooking."

"You do."

"True. You need to get a sweet tooth."

"You're lucky your teeth haven't rotted out."

"Banter." Farfarello kissed him. "We have to shower and dress. I'm hungry."

He couldn't help feeling smug when he noticed that his puisín moved like he ached a bit. The hot shower soothed some of that away, although all the bedplay had made Aya averse to shower play. Kittens had limits.

They ate breakfast at a small restaurant, then bought some pots, pans, utensils, and groceries. Truly, they had become an American couple. They had things.

Once home, Farfarello noticed that his puisín had a system for where he put things away, and some of it wasn't obvious. Figuring it out kept him occupied.

It all left him so amused.

"We need to practice our show knife fighting," Aya said finally.

"Yeah." Farfarello dragged the box out from under the bed. As usual, they'd shipped their more objectionable items separately. He'd brought some very beautiful and shiny knives for this. They would choose their favorites.

Meanwhile, Aya turned on the TV. "We have to get used to crowd noise, and I need to have some knowledge of current culture."

"Since you're an American."

Aya sighed.

"Choose a knife, puisín, whichever one feels best to you as you move with it. I give you first choice." They'd debated using two each but decided against it, since they were both more accustomed to fighting with the longer reach of swords and doing only close-up murder with knives. Aya sometimes threw the knives he had, but that wouldn't help him here. One knife each would be enough.

Aya picked each up and ran through some exercises. So pretty.... Farfarello struggled not to see this as foreplay. Aya decided on one, and Farfarello picked up his own favorite, the one with the retractable blade.

They faced off and settled into an engagement stance. Their first pass was too fast. An audience would get nothing out of such a lightning-fast exchange of blades and movement. They slowed and put more snap into it. It gained a rhythm, like fucking, and they fell into that kind of trance. With knives, they fought so closely that Farfarello could smell his puisín's sweat and arousal and hear him breathe. It was nearly close enough to let him feel Aya's heart pound.

Hopelessly aroused himself, Farfarello lost track of his purpose. Only his sudden memory of it and Aya's fast reaction saved his puisín from getting a deep wound instead of the light graze along his forearm, a beacon of pale skin and vibrant red blood amidst the black and bristling silver of the sleeve.

Farfarello stared, then grabbed Aya's arm and sucked, moaning at the wonderful metallic taste of his beloved's life. His puisín moaned in response. Finally Farfarello remembered himself and let it go with one final lick. "It's not deep enough to need stitches."

"Hnnh," Aya answered, his voice coming out at least as deep and sexual as Farfarello's. The look on his face....

They would clean and wrap the wound. Then they would fuck. It had to be.

Someone knocked at their door. It couldn't be. Surely this time Aya would kill this idiot along with him and help him dismember and hide the body. As foreplay.

"It's Lark," the idiot called through the door. Dammit. Someone would quickly notice if _she_ never returned from visiting them.

"Come in," he growled. "You have the fucking key."

She opened the door, took one look at them, and went into the bathroom. She returned to toss the medical kit to them and stay far out of their reach. It nearly approached intelligence and suggested that she really had been a field operative at some time.

Aya didn't wince at the sting of disinfectant, and his expression didn't change as Farfarello wrapped the graze. They would still fuck.

"I have a job for you. It takes place in three hours." Her lips twitched. "Though it looks like you might turn this one down."

Three hours might be good. "Let's hear it."

"A certain important businessman goes to a part of town he doesn't belong in to suck some of his profits up his nose. Since he shouldn't be there doing what he's doing, he takes only one bodyguard. It would be simply awful if some homeless nutjob killed them."

"Does the American branch spoonfeed all of its operatives like this? You give us almost everything on these jobs," Aya said. Suspicious kitten.

"Berserker isn't renowned for his ability to plan."

Bitch. Yet true.

"Just Berserker?"

"This job doesn't require two people. In fact, two killers might make it look suspicious, like a hit."

Aya's mouth twisted. Disappointment. And... suspicion? Farfarello asked, "Are you afraid that your incident with Omi has made him see you as the woman, and that's why he's coddling you?"

Damn. From that look Aya was now giving him, maybe there wouldn't be fucking after all.

"Wow," Lark said. "Now I'm offended too."

"You don't matter," Farfarello asked.

"It is what it is," Aya answered. "I may have to talk to him about this. But not yet. Not now." Meaning: Not when he was so freshly pissed off about being left out. "You can take this job if you want to."

While it might require some thought in presentation, since he'd have to pretend to be some mundanely insane street person, otherwise it would be mere butchery. Without his kitten to share with, it would hardly be worth it. "I do not, so I will not. Let him take a lesson from that."

"Fine by me," Lark said. "I just present them. Hey, where did the pots come from?"

"I bought them," Aya answered, his words sharp and clipped. Still angry.

"To cook with? You really are unprecedented, especially in this city. I'll leave you two to work things out." She fled with a little bit of grace.

"It might not mean what you think it means," Farfarello said.

"I know," Aya answered softly.

"You know that he'd never mean to hurt you." Though he did it by accident now and then. It galled to speak well of a rival, especially one who kept hurting his puisín through his blundering, but Aya needed it.

"I know."

If it meant what Aya thought it meant, it would seem that his Omi wanted to try to keep Aya's hands clean. If so, Farfarello almost pitied the boy, who was in love with a fiction, or perhaps with someone who was long dead. Even when he didn't kill, Aya was a killer. That couldn't be changed. Omi would remain ever unrequited with this loved one who didn't exist.

From the downtrodden, brooding look on Aya's face, there would definitely be no fucking now.

What could be done? Farfarello suddenly heard something that caught his interest. "There's a man in makeup on TV who's making fun of the Church of England."

The distraction worked, because Aya's mouth twitched. "We can't miss that."

Farfarello grabbed him and sat with him on the bed, snuggling. Eventually, they even put the knives away.

Farfarello swore that he would make things right. Somehow.

******************************************************

When men arrived a little later to start fixing the bathroom ceiling, he didn't even kill them for encroaching on his time with his kitten.

******************************************************

Mamoru had been looking forward to a new e-mail from Lark but muttered, "Shit," as he read,

_*Mr. White refused the small job when Mr. Red mentioned his upset over being left out of it. They mentioned something about worrying about being thought of as the woman after something that happened that I'm not even going to ask about.*_

Mamoru sighed. How did he misread Aya every single time? He'd have to keep this in mind.

"What happened? I heard your mind scream, 'Arrrrrgh!' from all the way across the room," Nagi said, suddenly standing behind his chair.

"My acts of kindness are deadly."

"Join the club. It's Aya, isn't it? You have an 'I've wronged Aya' face that you put on, and you're wearing it now."

"You're reading my mind. Admit it." He could not have a face for that. It was too terrible a thought.

"I really don't have to." Nagi kissed him.

"Nice distraction, but I'm not going for it."

"Yet."

As much as Mamoru enjoyed Nagi being playful, he kept to his track. For now. "I have to fix this problem with Aya without making it worse."

"I have faith. But if you really fuck him up, I'll have to kill you." Nagi sounded half-serious.

Mamoru couldn't blame him. "Thank you so much."

******************************************************

When Yoji arrived at Crawford and Schuldig's door at 10 p.m., they were ready to go. Although they, of course, didn't have their weapons in plain sight, Yoji could almost feel them on them.

Schuldig's black leather coat left his bruised neck exposed, making Yoji feel even guiltier than he did. Damn the telepath. Damn himself.

But he was already damned.

Yet as he walked to the car with them, he almost felt as if he belonged to a team again, and it felt good. Schuldig suddenly smiled at him, and it looked like a genuine smile.

Unsettled, Yoji sat in the back seat and concentrated on the mission to come instead.


	72. "Sure. Right away. I wasn't really trying before."

_"Can you hear those people behind me  
Looking at your feelings inside me?  
Listen to the distance between us...."_  
  -- "Mind Your Own Business" by Pigface  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Schuldig shot another three people and cursed to himself as the circumstances forced him to go forward. He'd outpaced Brad and Yoji, and now too many minions separated them for him to return to them. Out in front, he might as well hunt down their target.

The world exploded.

_*Joy*_. I can go on every ride at the funfair. There are so many! Where should I go first? _*Corrosive rage*_. That twat. Look at her. She's begging for somebody to fuck her up. Somebody has to. I'll make her beg.... _*Terror*_. Oh God, somebody's in my flat. I can hear him. Oh God, oh God.... _*Despair*_. He hates me. There's no reason to go on anymore. _*Stoned glee*_. I love this place. You come here often?__

Schuldig could vaguely feel himself hitting the floor, but he saw a club, a dark room, his flat, his bedroom, dreams... and pain, the kind of headsplitting flood that had once been his life. Plus, he was caught on a ride through a fractured telepath's bleedout that felt like swimming through a vomit of poison and candy. He didn't know who he was or where. He had to fix himself again.

Someone came up and kicked him. Concentrating on this one person was so hard.... "One of Eszett's best, and Trash fucked you up. Not that she could do that without me. We're not so useless now, are we?"

Null, some small part of the flood said. A talent who could hide the signature of one other talent at a time, not considered useful enough to be hired out. Trash was a telepath unable to shield her mind and so fucked up by her talent that she couldn't do anything other than break telepathic shields and bleed out her torment to other telepaths, but she could only do it close up, and most telepaths sensed her coming from a kilometer away and blocked her out.

Separately, these two had been written off as too limited. But now all of the Eszett talents had been forcibly turned freelance, and someone had teamed these two up.

Schuldig gritted his teeth and fought hard with himself and his shattered shields. Where was Trash? Where was Trash? If he nailed her, part of his problem would be over. He saw her leaning against the wall and shot her in the head, groaning at the influx of death agony and memories and shock, so much stronger with his shields damaged, and that answering endorphin kick that left him nearly high. While Null gaped like a fish on land, Schuldig killed him too and rode out another wave of pain/life/death/pleasure. Panting, he pulled himself to his feet, using the wall as support, struggling to get his head above water. His hair was the wrong color. Focus.... He was _not_ fucking British.

More minions came in, guns blazing. Firing all the while, Schuldig dodged at top speed but felt bullets clip his right arm, left leg, and left cheekbone. The burning pains brought him back to himself a little. Every injury and death he dealt he felt as if they were his own... and he was enjoying it all as it happened. He hit a wall--did he? Yes--and spun around for cover so he could reload, wincing at the bullets still flying near him. Could his enemies just fucking _die_ already?

Angry, in pain and madness, Schuldig struck out at them with his telepathy, shoving his suffering into them. The psychic backlash nearly made his head explode, but it left all of his enemies dead. Shit. Nosebleed. He wiped the blood away. He felt so bad, so good....

Then the target walked in. What luck! Schuldig nailed him with a smile. A well-placed bullet, actually. It almost made up for having a migraine, wanting to vomit, flying so high on endorphins that he could barely feel his knees anymore, and occasionally thinking that he was a nine-year-old Cockney girl, among others.

There was a seer involved! No wonder someone had known to put Trash and Null here. And he looked surprised and pissed off. Now he looked dead, with a bullet hole giving him a third eye. Bastard didn't see _that_ coming. Who knew that unraveling Farfarello's madness would have other practical applications, since seers apparently had problems figuring out Schuldig too when he was this fucked up?

Schuldig skidded down the wall until he sat on the floor and slid further behind cover. Hopefully Brad would look for him harder than their enemies would. He closed his eyes, took deep breaths, and worked through the pain, flood, and confusion. Sometimes the undertow of thoughts started to drag him under, and he had to press on his wounds hard for the pain to bring him back to himself. He far preferred sex for grounding himself back into his body.

This hadn't been so bad, really. He'd lived through and put himself back together after worse. Once he had his shields back up he could strut out and taunt Brad for having worried.

Where was Brad? Don't think about that or him. Brad didn't need distractions right now.

~ Another one. Do you need help? ~ a female voice asked.

Shit. He must have lit up to the area's talents when his shields went bye-bye. ~ No. ~

~ You killed them? How can you be like me and kill them? ~

He wasn't like her. Couldn't possibly be.

~ Shite! He's noticed you! Hide! ~

Who? What?

~ Well, ~ a new voice said. ~ Thank you for disposing of those foreigners. It was distracting having people's heads blowing up nearby all the time. You're foreign too? That's not a problem. I can help you. ~

This new telepath draped influence all over him like honey, warm and thick and sweet. And sticky. The bastard knew exactly how to touch him, stroke him. A longtime practitioner of the "have some candy, kid" method of telepathic attack himself, Schuldig knew exactly where this was heading. The bastard was getting far too personal and digging too deeply too quickly. Shuddering with fear and unwilling pleasure, Schuldig couldn't build his shields back up fast enough to block him.

~ I can help you. You put yourself back together before but I can see the seams.... ~

~ I'm fine, thanks, ~ Schuldig said and tried to fix his shields faster. Couldn't shake him....

~ I've been looking for someone like you. We can do great things together, Emory.... But that's not the only person you are, are you? Not anymore. I can help you fix that. ~

Fuck. If he'd gotten into Schuldig's foundation that deeply, Schuldig was in deep, deep shit. He couldn't get the bastard out of his head. He had to disappear, obliterate himself, to lose this guy....

He knew how he could do it. And it was going to hurt.

He pressed on his arm wound hard and wrote out a warning message to Brad on the floor in his own blood. Then he took off one glove, bit down hard on it, and ripped his shields apart. And drowned.

******************************************************

"Your information was faulty," Crawford said as he kept shooting. Where the hell had Schuldig gone? Crawford hated having him out of his sight lately.

They'd run into so many people here that Balinese had switched from his wire to a gun to dispatch them faster. "My information was good. Something changed."

Crawford felt it then. "They had a precog."

"Had?"

"The precog is dead now. Schuldig--" Crawford saw it then, the chaos and self-obliteration, the blood, his telepath writhing on the floor.... "We need to clear this room now!"

"Sure. Right away. I wasn't really trying before," Balinese answered, all pouting attitude.

It was almost like working with Schuldig. Except not enough. "We're backing out of this room now."

"Why?"

What the hell would reach Balinese? Crawford thought of everything that Schuldig had told him of this kitten. "Our teammate is in trouble. If we don't get to him soon, there might not be anything left to save."

Something sparked in Balinese's green eyes at that. It had reached him. He fought harder now. And as they fought, they moved, clearing a path through will and force, knocking opponents out of the way with their bodies and guns when they had to. Crawford had some small awareness of Schuldig's location that he hoped was correct. If not, they would have wasted precious time.

Still, he would find Schuldig no matter what it took.

They ran. They shot people. They punched and kicked. As they did, Crawford reached and called for any scrap of vision and intuition possible, but his precognition had never worked like that. Foresight came when it felt like it.

But he knew the room when he saw it. Déjà vu was a precog's perpetual companion, and it hit him hard here as he stepped carefully amidst the mass of bodies. Sprays of blood and bullet holes decorated the walls.

"Here's the target," Balinese said as he used his foot to move one corpse onto its back to show Crawford as well.

Crawford felt a moment of bittersweet pride at that. _His_ telepath had done this. Embattled, Schuldig had still accomplished their objective. Then Crawford recognized two of the other corpses. What the hell were Trash and Null doing here? Eszett never hired them out.

Eszett no longer existed. Talents went where they pleased now. Thanks to Crawford's work.

Trash could break telepathic shields and plunge minds into madness. Null could hide a talent's presence from telepaths.

Sickened, Crawford kicked bodies aside as he searched for a place Schuldig would take cover. It wouldn't be immediately obvious. Closing his eyes, he stood still and set aside his iron mental walls for a moment, open. Babble, static, pain....

There, behind the table. Schuldig writhed on the floor in a mess of bright hair, darkening blood, and black leather. He murmured and drooled around a black glove he must have stuffed into his mouth to muffle any cries. His right hand spasmed as it held his gun but didn't press hard enough to fire it. On the floor near that hand was a message scrawled in drying blood, in English: "DON'T SAVE ME YET."

Crawford vaguely heard gunfire in the distance but barely noticed as he put his gun in his holster, put Schuldig's away, and grabbed Schuldig by the shoulders. The telepath occasionally opened his eyes but only rarely did even a flash of recognition light them. Their blue looked nearly neon against the shocky pallor of his skin. The bright red of the graze along his cheekbone also stood out.

Crawford looked upon his nightmare made into messy flesh.

"Schuldig," Crawford murmured as he stroked disheveled orange hair away from that pained, uncomprehending face, but when he tried to press his forehead against Schuldig's the telepath jerked his head away. Odd. Crawford pressed hard on Schuldig's arm wound, trying to get him back to himself by reminding him of his body.

"You're deliberately hurting him, you sick fuck," Balinese muttered behind him.

"He's not one of your damsels in distress. You fucked him twice, and that makes you an expert on telepaths?" Crawford sneered, then turned to look at him, expecting to see revulsion or superstitious fear on the man's face.

But Balinese looked worried for Schuldig, and somehow that made Crawford even angrier. As if the Weiß kitten had the right--

Crawford realized that he wasn't quite rational right now. And that _any_ reaction Balinese could offer would offend him.

Emotional involvement made people sloppy.

Schuldig murmured around the glove in his mouth, "Mummy, I'll be the best little girl. The best little girl. Let me out," in English. His heart pounded, runaway.

Crawford tried to set his hand against Schuldig's face, skin to skin, but again the telepath jerked away before contact could be made. As if he didn't want to be brought back to himself.

Why had he written, "DON'T SAVE ME YET"? It had to be important. Don't save me _yet_?

Crawford saw it then. Schuldig was hiding his mind from someone. Who could scare his alpha telepath badly enough to make this agonizing drowning preferable?

"We have to get out of here," Balinese said, then shot the next person to come through the door.

Balinese was right, damn him.

As much as Crawford wanted to be gentle, he had to think of their welfare too, so he brought out his gun again and put Schuldig in a fireman's carry position on his opposite shoulder. "Let's go."

As they ran through the hallways, Balinese actually proved to be useful and skilled in picking off anyone who entered their path. He didn't have anything stupid to say either.

Outside, at their car, Crawford snapped, "Take my keys out of my coat pocket. Drive."

Rebellion flashed across Balinese's face, but then he clenched his teeth and rummaged through the indicated pocket. Crawford bore it with very little patience but knew that it had to be done. Someone knowledgeable needed to keep an eye on Schuldig and his injuries. While that someone knowledgeable did that, someone else had to drive. Fortunately, he didn't have to bear Balinese's incompetent groping for long.

Crawford tried to arrange Schuldig's body in a comfortable way and cared for his wounds with the medical kit that Schuldig must have left out earlier, since it had been in plain sight. Had he guessed that tonight would be the night?

At one point, Schuldig spat out the glove and said, "If you want to hurt me, it's extra," in German. And at a higher octave. _Not_ his telepath. When he looked up at Crawford, no recognition lurked in his eyes. Upset, wanting _Schuldig_ back, Crawford pressed hard on the wound on his thigh. Schuldig snarled and surged upward to headbutt him. They wrestled, but Schuldig had lost his most effective moves, since it wasn't Schuldig running his body.

"Do you need some help back there?" Balinese shouted.

"No."

Schuldig calmed a little, his eyes and voice his own, to say, "Brad, he's stalking me," then stiffened and started murmuring in the local version of English, back to cycling through Londoners' thoughts, lost again. Suspicion confirmed. Crawford stroked his hair, careful not to touch his skin, hoping that he would have some sign for when it would be safe to bring him back.

Hoping that Schuldig would still be sane enough to know and let him know.

******************************************************  
_"I am the cause to all your problems,  
Shelter from cold.  
We are never alone.  
Coordinate brain and mouth,  
Then ask me what's it like to have myself so figured out.  
Wish I knew...."_  
  -- "Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't" by Brand New  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yoji tried not to look in the rearview mirror again. He didn't know enough to be able to figure out if he should intervene. Watching Crawford being tender--in his sociopathic way--left Yoji disquieted too.

Unwillingly, Yoji thought back to finding Schuldig in that room, seeing it again in his mind. The telepath had been such a broken mess.... As much as he hated the bastard, no one should be left in that condition. Seeing _Crawford_ cracking and so lost....

How did two sociopaths find love when he couldn't? Yoji almost smiled.

"What's going on?" he asked Crawford.

"What do you mean?" Crawford snapped back.

"He's not letting you fix him. There must be a reason."

This time when Yoji glanced back in the rearview, he saw surprise flash across the seer's face. Yeah, that Yoji was more perceptive than he seemed, you bastard.

"None of your business."

"We're a team." They _had_ worked as a team. Yoji had even enjoyed it. He'd killed to protect them, so Crawford damn well better give a little. "That's true for this whole thing, not just when it's convenient for you. Maybe I can help somehow."

"I doubt it."

"Do you have something better to do right now? You fixed him up as much as he'll let you."

From the look on his face, Crawford could have been sucking on something sour. "Someone smashed through his telepathic shields. While they were down, someone else found him and tried to take advantage."

"This is Schuldig's equivalent of crossing water so the dogs will lose his scent?"

"Yes."

"This doesn't look healthy."

"No shit."

The venom in Crawford's answer made Yoji smile again.

"You're right," Schuldig said. But the thick German accent to his English was all wrong. He usually spoke English with Crawford's accent.

Apparently Crawford agreed about the telepath being fucked up, because he put a gun barrel to Schuldig's forehead and said, "Who are you? Vacate him now."

The facial expressions were close but not quite Schuldig's either. "Calm down, American. I am not the wolf he's running from. He couldn't keep the flood going without hurting himself too badly, so he's wearing me like a coat while another part of him rebuilds his shields in secret. Or maybe it is better to say that he wears me like a shroud, ja? Just don't say his name. We don't want to bring the wolf down on us."

Yoji pulled the car over and parked, so he could look into the backseat. If this went bad, he wanted to be able to put his full attention on them. He had his wire ready. "Are you saying he's a... multiple personality?"

"What telepath like him isn't, really, but no."

"That made no sense!"

Crawford seemed to be listening to and watching Schuldig too intently to talk for the moment.

"I am not another person," not-quite-Schuldig said. "I am remnants. Some memories. With the way I died, much was lost. Right now he's using them to be me. Guilty is the mix of a group of such memories, plus his original self. We're lucky to be sane at all. Eszett made a mess of that retrieval operation completely, then tossed Emory into a silent room with his telepathy shut down for the first time in years and the remaining memories of the ten people he'd been closest to who'd been murdered near him crammed into his head."

It sounded horrible. "That's why he's a fucked-up bastard?"

"He could have been much worse. But us.... If we hadn't been addicted to him, if we hadn't been so close to him, we might still be alive. Or perhaps not. A lot of us were junkies and whores." He smiled, pure malice. "Ach, he'll hate that I talked about this, but I couldn't help it."

"Who the hell are you?" Crawford asked.

"I am the remaining bits of Emory's first love, the man you're trying to replace."

"You talk too much," the seer snapped. He looked as if he'd like to dump the telepath off his lap onto the floor.

"You always say that. But you've always wanted to meet Klaus, so you should shut up."

It gave Yoji the shudders. "Maybe _you_ should stop talking. You're not helping yourself. Or your... selves."

"Would you rather Lotte comes out again? I don't know if enough of Emory would be under her to keep speaking English, and you don't know German. Wouldn't be the first time Emory was _under_ her...."

A lot of Schuldig was this man. The parts of Schuldig Yoji hated most.

Schuldig squeezed his eyes shut and murmured, "Shut up, shut up, shut up...." then yelled, "Brad, now!"

Crawford put his hands on Schuldig's face. Feeling an odd compulsion, Yoji yanked his glove off and put his bared hand on Schuldig's. Crawford gave Yoji a look that should have killed him.... Schuldig shuddered, took a deep breath, then sighed. He opened his eyes, looking exhausted and too young.

"Are you you?" Crawford asked.

"Yeah. Yeah." Then he rolled over and retched onto the floor.

"That's class," Yoji had to say. At least he'd removed his hand first. Amazing how his earlier feelings of inferiority didn't exist at the moment. What he'd just seen was more fucked-up than even he'd managed.

"Fucker," Schuldig gasped.

"Did you lose your tracker?" Crawford asked coldly. Seeing him now, no one would guess that he'd nearly gone to pieces when he'd seen Schuldig crumpled on the floor in that room.

"I think so."

Yoji expected Crawford to say something about Klaus and the information that he'd apparently never gotten from Schuldig before, but Crawford just answered, "Good. When you're better I'll expect a full report."

Maybe this _was_ Crawford being angry about that.

"Yeah." Schuldig sounded almost meek. He shivered, which seemed to make Crawford relent a little, since he gently settled his hand on the top of the telepath's head.

Yoji started the car and pulled out onto the street again. He turned up the heat.

Once he parked the car near the hotel and got out, he watched Crawford just about drag a shaking Schuldig out and along. Yoji moved closer and kept pace, giving Schuldig subtle support to lean against on the other side. Why? The telepath seemed so young and vulnerable right now, and Yoji had always been a sucker for that.

Even more of a sucker when he tried to leave them to go to his own room but Schuldig kept a tight grip on his coat and said, "Come in with us. You have to come in with us," and Yoji answered, "Yeah, okay."

Right now Crawford had an expression on his face that suggested that he wished he had the psionic ability to kill with a look. But he let Yoji help him drag Schuldig into their room and didn't toss him out.

Schuldig just about fell backward onto the bed, then awkwardly rummaged through the pockets of his abused coat while muttering, "Cigarette, cigarette...."

Crawford put one in Schuldig's mouth, then lit it. Probably to do it before Yoji could. Jealousy looked odd on the cold seer.

Yoji collapsed onto a chair nearby and asked, "What do you need me for?" He should have asked that before he'd entered, but Schuldig might have slid to the floor if he'd made a fuss.

"When his shields are low, it's too easy for him to get imprinted by the people around him," Crawford said. "If it's just me, I could rewrite him to what I think he is just by being the only person nearby. Your second viewpoint gives him some perspective."

"You don't _want_ to rewrite him to your specifications?"

"I'm still... here," Schuldig said softly with his hand on his forehead and the cigarette dangling from his lower lip. The bandage on his face moved oddly every time his face changed expressions. "Still conscious. Mostly. Wanna die."

"Deal with it, Emory," Crawford answered.

Schuldig flinched, then snapped, "That's only part of the story. I'd kill Klaus if he weren't dead already." But that anger seemed to bring some of his fire back.

Still.... "This isn't the time for this," Yoji said.

"Really." Crawford's cold look looked so much colder now that he had the silver hair. "You fucked him twice, and now you think you're part of our decision-making processes."

Schuldig dragged himself up to sit and face Crawford. "Brad, I seem to remember you being all for that both times. Fucker. Are you like them after all? A hypocrite?"

"Them? The them in your head?"

"Yeah. Me and the ten people deeply linked to me, the collective. A group of junkies, whores, a thief, a con man, a killer, and a damaged telepath. I, being the damaged telepath, was their fucking drug, and the con man you just spoke to was the one who came up with the idea and then was stupid enough to get hooked on his own product. They protected me so well that they never left me alone and wouldn't let me develop shields for the fear that I would shut off the good feelings they wanted. They kept me happy and fucked because I couldn't help feeding anything I felt to them." He nearly spat the words out. "They were inside me. They were me, and I was them, and they loved me like an addict loves his drug. I loved Klaus more than my own life, but I couldn't trust him even when I was so deep in his mind that I thought I was him. Considering that Eszett slaughtered them and I felt them all die as if _I'd_ died ten times, it's not something I like to talk about. Afterward, I had to integrate everyone's surviving memories or go totally insane. Are you happy now? Do you want more fucking detail?"

This fight was awkward and entertaining to watch all at once.

"You're fine with talking about this in front of Balinese?" Crawford answered, all disdain.

Even tired and injured, Schuldig now had that hard predator's gleam back in his eyes, and Yoji could see some of Klaus in that expression but much more of Schuldig. "Fuck it. You won, Brad. Klaus is nothing now but bones, malice, and a few resentful memories. All that's left of Klaus is me, so you can't lose me to him. Why don't you just admit that you're upset that it was Null and Trash who fucked me up because you know that they wouldn't be out on the street if you hadn't let Rosenkreuz's talents survive to go out on their own?"

Yoji saw Crawford stop breathing for a moment.

"I don't blame you for them being loose," Schuldig said. "Trash fucked me up, but I nailed her ass. It wouldn't have been so bad if that powerful local hadn't gone hunting for me."

"I want him dead," Crawford said, at once protective and predatory.

"Me too, but I won't go looking for him. Not when I'm still such a mess and not when he's that powerful."

"How are you?" Crawford asked softly.

"Weak, but I'll live. Nobody can fuck me up for long. See? You worry too much."

And like that, the two members of Schwarz were back on the same side and the storm of anger, pain, and jealousy had broken. It left Yoji jealous himself.

Schuldig rolled his eyes. "You people." Shaking, he stood, walked over to Yoji, and grabbed his arm. "Come to bed with me. No, not like that."

The hell? Looking blasé, Crawford shrugged out of his coat and jacket, took off his holster and tie, then took off his shoes and belt too. They wanted him to sleep with both of them?

"That bed is way too small!"

"You're spoiled."

"Help Schuldig undress." How did Crawford end up next to him with a gun trained on him?

"You people are deeply fucked up," Yoji answered.

"Said like a very proper kettle," Schuldig said, smiling a little, then wincing, obviously hurting.

Sighing, Yoji stood and took off Schuldig's coat and holster, cautious of his injured arm, then the shirt and shoes. His life had attained such an air of surreality that he felt more rueful by this turn of events than shocked.

By the end of the mutual stripping, Crawford wore only his pants, Schuldig pants and bandages, and Yoji his shirt and pants. Crawford probably wouldn't be as good a shot without his glasses, but he kept the gun in hand and had a good chance of nailing Yoji at this range. While nearly puppy-piled they just about fit on the bed. Eyes closed and smiling contentedly, Schuldig snuggled in, sandwiched between Crawford and Yoji. Yoji's shirt would be stretched out by morning with the telepath gripping it so tightly.

He'd wanted company and connection. Whenever life gave him what he claimed to want, it always came with a kick in the ass.

Still, even as he felt physically uncomfortable, there was something cozy about lying here with them like this. He somehow fell asleep, even as he heard Schuldig murmur, "If you touch my neck, I'll fucking kill you, Kudou."


	73. "I am the people parents are warned about."

Tonight's club was better, full of people loudly doing what people did in such places. Chaos. Aya looked annoyed and uncomfortable over the hours they spent there, which made Farfarello unhappy but what could they do? They had a job. Aya should learn to appreciate the opportunity for public humping to music, as Farfarello had long ago. If only he could get his puisín to relax....

Noticing a small group of people watching them, people dressed the right way, Farfarello yelled into his puisín's ear, "I'm getting a beer. You want anything?" They had to yell to be heard over the thundering music and bass.

"Bottled water."

Farfarello went away to get it and stayed away, but he kept a telepathic eye on Aya and smiled as someone approached. He knew that people could find him more intimidating than even Aya. The scars did it, maybe. He should have left sooner, since Aya was so pretty and shiny.

"I've seen you two around lately," the man shouted to Aya. Good. The mention of "two" suggested that the stranger wouldn't try to pick Aya up. He'd live longer that way. "What do you do?"

His puisín felt a bit awkward and was happy for the assistance of being asked their profession. "We're performance artists. Trying to be. We dance with knives." His small smile had a bit of an edge. "Insurance can be a problem. We're good, but we can get carried away sometimes. That's what we want to do. Otherwise, we do little odd jobs."

Farfarello smirked at the sudden rush of fear and arousal from the man but also started to approach them. Leaving the kitten alone with an interested party would be stupid. He put an arm around Aya's shoulder and handed him the water. "Making friends, Ray?"

The stranger jumped a little, startled. Good. "I hope so," he said. Also good. "We're going out to eat afterward. Do you wanna come? Both of you, of course."

Of course. "That sounds good. I'm Cain. This is Ray. I'm sure he hadn't introduced himself yet."

"Our new friend hasn't introduced himself either yet," Aya answered.

"Sorry. I'm Michael. The two guys staring at us are Ted and Alek. You want to go now?"

Farfarello recognized Aleksandar Ciraki as someone Kritiker had told them to watch for as an In. "Sure," Farfarello answered as he put on a smile. "Let me just finish my beer."

The others came over and waited for him and his puisín to finish their drinks. They all yelled to each other at first but decided that it would be better to talk in a place where they could actually hear themselves. Aya drank his water with Abyssinian's focus, deep in workspace, until Farfarello bumped his hip and shook his head.

Once they all left the club, Michael asked, "How did you get here?"

"Walked."

"No way we're doing that. It's freezing out here," Alek said. "Maybe we could take two taxis. Are you fine with that?"

Farfarello thought of the money he'd earned over the years, mostly lying untouched in Swiss accounts until recently. "Yeah."

"I'll go with them so they don't get lost," Michael said. This kind of interest and friendliness aroused Farfarello's suspicions, so he skimmed the surface of the man's thoughts. Ah. He thought they were pretty and intriguing. Two of these three were fashionably bisexual, while the other was a sodomite. Play to that or not?

But Aya mustn't. They were already far too interested in him without it.

"Where do you live?" Alek asked.

"Alphabet City," Aya answered. "Eleventh Street near Avenue A."

In the taxi, Farfarello sat between Michael and his puisín, just to be safe. To his surprise, Michael didn't mind being close to him.

At the restaurant they all sat in a booth and spoke of the weird, inconsequential things that Americans seemed to use to talk to people they didn't know yet: towns and jobs and schooling. Aya looked as lost as Farfarello felt, though when asked where he'd come from before this, he easily answered, "Upstate. I'd rather not talk about it," and toyed with the straw in his ice water.

Something about him seemed so shy and young and vulnerable right now that he made Farfarello's fingers itch. Every time he looked down at the table Farfarello wanted to bite the curve of the back of his neck. Such an innocent lamb.... But he was not. This was an act. A very, very good act. It magnetized the others to him. But it was too much. He had to talk to Aya about this, talk to him without ripping into him in a frenzy.

"Are you really from Ireland?" Alek asked.

"You have a lot of posers putting on accents?" Farfarello answered back. Schuldig had been right about the effect Irish accents had on Americans.

"People can be pretentious."

"Yeah. I'm from Belfast, but I got around."

"You got around to upstate New York?"

"Nah. I met Ray on the Internet. I am the people parents are warned about."

The others laughed, as if on cue. Interacting with regular people--without planning to kill them--was so weird. Farfarello hadn't done much of it in many years. These were in awe of him and Aya. Michael seemed to be stunned that they weren't wearing colored contacts. But they were also worried about Aya....

"I have to go for a moment," Aya said. Hemmed in against the window by Farfarello, he needed to ask permission to get out.

"Yeah." But Farfarello followed him to the back, aware of the stares the others directed at them.

Aya stopped at the door to the restroom and growled, "You're making a scene. I can do this alone."

"Kitten, you have to show more steel to these," Farfarello whispered. "They think you're a small-town innocent and I'm taking advantage of you."

Aya laughed softly. "They think you took me away from everything I knew and reshaped me to be your partner?"

"Not funny. Besides, everything about you screams 'victim' to me right now, and I am trying very hard to seem normal, which is difficult when I want to tear your pure heart from your chest and lick it all over."

"What do you propose I do?" Aya snarled.

"Talk more. Be more aggressive and involved. Especially, stop playing with your fucking straw. It makes me want to kill you slowly to savor your death and makes our new friends waver between wanting to feel your lips around their cocks and feeling guilty over wanting that because you are such an innocent."

If they could have seen the cold glare currently in Aya's eyes, they wouldn't have wanted his mouth anywhere near their dicks for fear of them freezing off. Aya said, "I understand. Now go back to the table before you confirm to them that you're a very possessive master."

_This_ Aya was safe from him. "I love you."

Aya yanked the door open and slammed it shut behind him.

The three men had excessively curious looks on their faces. Since they were sodomites, Farfarello said, "I wanted to tell him that I loved him. Surely you couldn't begrudge me that."

"No," Michael said. "It's just-- Never mind."

Never mind indeed.

"Cain, is that eyepatch for real?" Alek asked.

What? Oh, pretentious people. "Yeah. I'd offer to let you take a look under it, but I don't think you really want to see. A car accident made a mess of me." Since they thought him so scary and Aya so helpless, maybe a show of vulnerability might do well here. "I worried about sending him a picture, but when he saw it he didn't care about the scars. Obviously, since we're here."

A little sweep of their souls told him that he had them. Of course, now they wanted Aya even more, but that seemed to be something Farfarello would have to live with. And perhaps kill people over, but not right now.

******************************************************

Staring at himself in the mirror, Aya sneered. Innocent. How could he have accomplished that? He hadn't thought he could seem innocent even if he tried, and he hadn't tried. A killer as blood-soaked as he was playing at innocence was an obscenity.

He'd simply forgotten how to deal with regular people. The squealing girls at the flower shop had seemed barely human, and he hadn't wanted to be appealing to them. His time in Weiß and Schwarz had left him in a world of victims and dark beasts.

Innocents died. The very fact that Aya still lived should show that he was no innocent.

Though it might be possible to label him as a victim and a dark beast at the same time.

These weren't "regular" people; they were Americans, and self-proclaimed outsiders at that, who would appreciate a bit of freakishness. They certainly seemed to appreciate Farfarello's.

He'd been letting Farfarello carry the weight of the conversation. While that had been working out better than anyone had a right to expect, eventually Farfarello would slip. Aya _had_ to talk more. Since he'd seemed too innocent and soft before, now he must be harder and sharper while still hiding his killing self.

Perhaps he and Farfarello should let these new "friends" see their art. With Aleksandar Ciraki amongst them, it could be counted as an audition, and after they saw Aya wield a knife they should have no doubts that he could take care of himself.

Aya smiled at himself in the mirror. All right, given how frightening that had looked, he shouldn't be more outgoing in a smiling way.

As he returned to the table, he asked, "Has Cain been talking about me while I was gone?"

"I was only telling them about your generosity of spirit," Farfarello answered as he stood to let Aya into the booth.

"Don't let him fool you. I'm a bad, bad man."

Farfarello grinned. Aya put his fingertips on Farfarello's bare neck just above the barbwire necklace and thought very hard about whether it would be a good idea to invite these people back to their apartment to see them do their knife routine. It might be too dangerous to reveal the location of their home, but they had to advertise themselves somehow to get the right attention.

~ Yeah, it's a chance we have to take. You have to win the bout too. ~

So they wouldn't worry about him, thinking him defenseless. Aya sighed and spun the table knife in his hand. As he hoped, Michael asked, "What is this art of yours like?"

Farfarello cast a sidelong look at Aya to indicate that he should speak. More outgoing. Right. "It's never exactly the same twice, because we work by our feelings and our reading of our audience. Not that we've had many audiences. We don't know who we have to contact for a... gig, display, exhibition, whatever you want to call it. We've been going out to try to get a feel for the scene."

"You mentioned insurance and getting carried away. The knives you use are sharp?"

"Of course they are. Dancing with dull knives would make an entirely different statement."

The three nodded as if he'd spoken great wisdom, while Farfarello seemed to be barely holding his glee in. Aya hadn't thought he'd said anything that wonderful, but he figured that he should push further while doing well. "Would you like to see us? It's not something we can explain very well. It has to be experienced. Well, not experienced with us handing you a knife and fighting you. I meant that you have to see us in action." Not wanting to continue that impression of him as vulnerable, Aya didn't apologize for his inarticulateness.

"Fuck, yeah," Michael answered. Alek nodded. Ted said nothing, but he didn't seem to talk much in general. "Don't you worry about yourselves, using sharp knives?"

"We're good enough that at worst we nick ourselves."

"Nobody will notice on me," Farfarello said, while Aya said, "I don't have virgin skin either." And Farfarello _smiled_....

The three had taken them to a restaurant close enough that their new friends didn't mind walking. As they crossed the threshold into the apartment, Aya had to fight his killing instincts down. These three had to be allowed to leave alive.

Aya had to remember not to ask them to take their boots off. "You can leave your coats on the kitchen counter. We don't have a coat closet." While they removed their coats and weren't watching, Farfarello took out the knives from the chest under the bed. Letting these people into their home didn't mean they had to reveal all of their secrets.

"Nice place," Michael said.

"It's a hole," Aya answered, "but the price is right."

"I've seen worse. It's a very clean hole," Alek said.

Aya shot a look at Farfarello warning him not to comment just in time. Farfarello pouted, then threw him his knife. As Aya easily caught it, he nearly smirked at the gasp from one of the three behind him. Ted. So he did have a voice.

"The advantage of living in a barely furnished space is that we have a lot of room to work in," Aya said. "Maybe you could sit on the bed. Whatever you do, you shouldn't come between us or get too close at all. "

Farfarello, who already had his blade extended, circled Aya, who circled as well and did a few more of the knife spinning tricks that had so impressed Michael earlier. Aya started to feel a rhythm beneath their movements and gave himself into it. With his familiarity with Farfarello's moods, body, and style, he knew exactly when the first attack would come and how to counter it. They struck, spun, and clashed over and over, dancing together, moving as a duet. Their audience might as well be movie projections, immaterial, unreal. Farfarello, his body, and the knives that were extensions of each of them were the only real things in the world. The occasional audible reaction from their audience sounded like the softest of murmurs under the clang of steel, the thump and scuff of moving feet, pounding of their hearts, and their accelerated breathing. Aya could feel Farfarello's excitement. Sometimes he could sense their audience's as well, especially when his blade sliced through Farfarello's sleeve and came away lightly bloodied. His lover smiled harder. He smelled blood and lust.

It felt so dirty doing this in front of other people they wouldn't be killing.

Finally, Aya felt the right moment to bring it to a close, even though part of him wanted to go on forever. He saw an opening and took it, spinning behind Farfarello, knocking the knife out of his hand, and putting his knife to Farfarello's neck, just above the barbwire. "Do you yield?" Aya gasped harshly.

Farfarello subtly moved backward, closer to him, deeper in his grip and a little farther away from his knife. "Only to you," he answered softly.

The sound of a sudden release of breath brought Aya out of his trance a little. Michael had done it. The three observers looked as if the lust on display had touched them as well. "Wow. That was... I don't know. That was something."

Alek said nothing, but he had a considering look in his eyes. Yes, consider. Remember them and who might be interested in them.

"It's so late now that it's early. We should be calling it a good night and going to bed," Farfarello said.

"Ray, are you gonna let him go or put the knife away?" Michael asked.

"When I feel like it.... But it would be rude not to see you out." Aya put his knife aside and backed away and tried not to smile as Farfarello rubbed his neck where the knife had touched in a way that could be seen as more of a rough caress.

At the door, Michael asked, "You wanna get together again sometime?"

"Sure."

"What's your phone number?"

"We don't have one."

They looked stunned. "No phone? No _cell phone_? Neither of you?" Alek asked.

Apparently they would have to change that. "Not yet," Aya answered. "We had so many things going on."

"It's okay. We know where you live," Michael said.

Aya's fingers twitched for his sword, but instead he said, "Yeah, definitely. Good night." It probably seemed rude to rush them out like this, but from the looks they gave him and Farfarello they had their ideas of the reason behind it and were amused.

They weren't completely wrong.

Once Aya had locked the door, Farfarello came up behind him and murmured, "You were magnificent, puisín. No victim anymore."

"You don't want to rip my heart out of my chest anymore?"

"Hmmm."

"That response doesn't instill confidence."

Farfarello rested his hand over Aya's cock and stroked it through his pants. "Fuck me."

After that dance, he needed it. "_That_ one does."


	74. "Actually, we were like a cult of sado-masochistic killer junkie whores. I improve any company..."

Balancing being Omi's lover _and_ freelance employee--being dominant in one and subservient in the other--could be challenging at times. Nagi was still trying to find the right balance. Yet he couldn't regret what had happened between them, especially since his talent became less destructive and easier directed with each time.

Schuldig mixed business and sex all the time, but since Schuldig was the king of inappropriateness, he could hardly be used as a model.

All of the time spent with Omi might have become onerous if Nagi had been a full-time employee and didn't have his own home to go to when he wished. Taking other assignments away from Omi and Kritiker's purview gave him much-needed breaks.

The look on Omi's face when Nagi entered his office today made him tense. Even without using telepathy Nagi could tell that Omi wanted something and didn't think Nagi would be initially willing to provide it. Nagi inclined his head and said, "You wanted to see me?"

His glance at Rex standing behind Omi was quick and mild, since she hated him and disliked how close he'd gotten to Omi. As personally annoying as it could be, Nagi didn't entirely want to discourage her lack of trust and tendency to question Omi. Persia needed someone who wouldn't automatically agree with his every whim. Someone who wasn't his lover as well.

Omi's attitude was part his and part Persia's as he said, "I was impressed by your insights into Draco's new psionic talent. You have a gift for analysis there."

"I'm not a trainer," Nagi answered, seeing where this was going.

"You're better than Draco's current mentor. Phoenix is... limited."

Phoenix was a moron with very little control, and Friendly had already surpassed him within the first manifestation of her pyrokinesis. "She let her pet hurt Abyssinian. I broke her arm for it. We're not a good match. In any case, I don't have the time to be her trainer."

"I don't expect you to take over as her trainer. I just wanted you to offer her some advice on the kinetic aspect of her new ability. She recently found out that her personal, protective field didn't extend down the entire length of her braid by accidentally burning half of it off."

Nagi refused to laugh, but he couldn't help letting loose a small smirk. That must have been embarrassing for her. He couldn't help asking, "Is this an order? A job?"

Omi's look was all Persia now, hard and commanding. "If you won't volunteer, yes."

Nagi met cool professionalism with cool professionalism. "That's something you have to understand about us. Psionics don't automatically look after one another like some brotherhood. We're actually rather competitive."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Is this job for now?"

"Yes. She's in a room down the hall. Morita will direct you there."

"Thank you." This lack of equal footing while at work galled and might be a problem later. He hadn't minded so much before they'd become more intimately involved.

This little scene had made Rex happier, though.

It didn't surprise Nagi to find Fenris in the room with Friendly, since the boy seemed to be almost surgically attached to her. Her mouth twitched when Nagi entered the room and Fenris had a look on his face that suggested amusement. It bothered him, but he refused to ask them why. Where once her blonde braid had dangled down to her waist, now it descended to just below her shoulders, so she had no cause to be dismissive of _him_.

Nagi said, "I don't know what I'm expected to do. It seems to me that your problem was accidentally taken care of with your enforced hairstyle change."

"Slipped," Fenris murmured in German, dismissive. He didn't seem to be speaking of Friendly.

"Not now, doll," Friendly said to Fenris in Japanese--probably in some effort to teach him--then looked at Nagi and said, "You're right about that. I've learned to push with my personal field a little on my own, so I don't need you for that either. There are certain ways of thinking that work for kinetic talents as well as telepathy. I can't make Persia understand that, though." She shrugged. "But he means well."

Persia wasn't a talent and couldn't understand. Annoyed, Nagi let his face became more blank. "Did he tell you how long he wanted us to pretend to be doing something in here?"

"No." Looking more thoughtful for a moment, she said, "I wonder how much kinesis is involved in my pyrokinesis. I think I may be moving oxygen around with my mind, pulling it toward me to help the fires burn. That might be why creating fires makes me so giddy. Do you have an opinion on that?"

"It's possible. Try it, and I'll watch."

She cupped her hands, and flames crackled within them. Nagi let his eyes unfocus a little and saw the movement in the room's air, some of it pulling toward her and the rest away. "It looks like it."

Friendly smiled, and suddenly he blacked out. Nagi came to lying on the floor and growled, "You bitch." He stood up and swayed, dizzy, ready to break bones and throw down with Fenris, who looked ready to strike right back at him.

"Peace, Prodigy, Fenris," Friendly said, refusing to even look worried. "I'm sorry, but I wanted to see if it would work. I not only moved all the breathable air away from you, I pulled it out of your body."

"I should kill you." But he didn't yet, remembering how Crawford always said to evaluate a tool's usefulness before discarding it, and this new application of hers could be very useful.

"I could have killed you. I'm a pyro, and even in Kritiker pyros are already famous for accidents. But I didn't kill you. I actually wanted to thank you, since I don't think anyone else would have given me the insight to see what else I could do."

"You have some way of showing gratitude."

"It was also a declaration of sorts. You broke my arm as a threat to Fenris and told me that you could take us out at any time from a distance. Now you know that I have my own version of that. Don't threaten us again. We're on the same side now, supposedly."

"I won't make any promises."

"You weren't in any real danger. I've been testing it out in increments on the guards Persia puts on us. It's scared Morita enough that he's given up cigarettes."

"You smoke."

"I used to. I don't now that I have a kid."

"You're as crazy as Farfarello."

Fenris seemed to be about to say something but closed his mouth at a look from Friendly. She said, "I never went as far with any of them as I did with you, but I knew I could do it."

"You didn't need me to tell you that you were manipulating oxygen."

"Not really. I've been studying a lot of things in my free time." A tiny dragon made out of fire formed in the palm of her right hand. As it grew, its lengthened tail wrapped around her arm without burning her sleeve.

She didn't have the raw power most pyrokinetics could claim, but she had an intuitive grasp of the forces responsible and a control most of them could only wish for. Crawford would want to study her more before dispatching her. Only that saved her right now.

She stared back at Nagi as if she knew that and was ready for him to change his mind.

"Besides, do you think Persia would let me live long if I were the one who'd obviously killed you?" she asked.

So she knew about them. The temptation to kill her came and went. Omi wouldn't be as upset over her death as he might be over his, but still. Supposed allies didn't kill one another over oblique insults.

"You either went once, or your shields got better," Fenris said in German.

What? Oh, shit. Nagi looked at Friendly, who had her hand to her forehead. How many people had heard him that night?

"Not many," she said. "Probably just the telepaths in the area who had the most recent dealings with you."

That wouldn't be many people.

Wait, could they be lying? No. He could tell. They _had_ heard him and Omi.... Dammit. How embarrassing. Only the knowledge that he could tear most of the listeners apart if they tried to humiliate him with it made him feel a little better.

"I wasn't going to say anything," Friendly said. "It's none of my business. But, since it's out now, maybe we should agree not to say anything about us knowing about your trysting or showing that I can kill you."

"I will get you later," Nagi answered. Usually he wouldn't reveal his hand, but right now he felt too upset to be subtle.

She put her hand on Fenris' shoulder to still his bristling at the threat, then replied, "You're too practical for that."

He sensed no smirking or gloating in her at all. She seemed to see this as an attempt to make nice with him. Crazy.

"Aren't we all, in our own ways?" she asked.

He wanted to get out of this room before he tore something apart. "I'll tell Persia that you're making good progress. And that Phoenix shouldn't bother anymore."

"Please do," she answered with a smile. "I'd be grateful. The man's a moron."

Nagi shook his head and returned to Persia's office to say, "She's surpassed Phoenix. There's no reason for her to continue with him. She can study on her own."

"Excellent," Persia said.

"I have some other business to attend to now." Nagi really needed to destroy something and also had to decide whether he'd bother to have sex with Omi later. Right now he needed to be alone for a while. Yet he missed Schwarz too....

Omi looked surprised, then said, "Thank you. I'll contact you later."

Nagi bowed his head and left, driving to a deserted area on the outskirts of Tokyo. Once there, he ripped two deserted warehouses down to their foundations, then reduced the components into even smaller bits. It was less hazardous to human life and thus less flashy than leaving a trail of car accidents in his wake, something he'd barely stopped himself from doing during the ride.

Kneeling amidst the rubble, Nagi said, "I am calm and in control." Then he went back to the car and drove away.

******************************************************  
_"Some old romance taught me how to kiss,  
To smile like that, to sigh like this.   
. . .  
My past, that makes you hate me,  
Makes you love me true.  
I've been in love before... haven't you?"_  
  -- "I've Been in Love Before"  
performed by Marlene Dietrich, lyrics by Frank Loesser  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even with his head pounding, Schuldig smiled a little as he awoke to the scent of cologne, sweat, gunpowder, and blood. Yoji really did wear a nice cologne. Sexy. Schuldig untwined his fingers from the bottom of Yoji's turtleneck and smirked at how badly he'd stretched it. The Weiß kitten should let his hair grow long again and either condition it better or lay off the bleach. Ah, but Yoji was punishing himself, even though he looked peaceful now.

Fingers flexed across Schuldig's stomach, and he knew that touch so well.... He rolled over to face Brad and winced as the wounded side of his face pressed into the pillow and wounded thigh pressed into the mattress. Brad had his glasses on, which meant he'd been watching instead of sleeping. It was so cozy being sandwiched between two attractive killers.

Though Schuldig missed Nagi and Farfarello. They were his.

"Still mad?" Schuldig asked, even though he felt Brad's calm, because he wanted to hear what Brad would say.

"Still insane?" Brad answered, almost lightly.

"Define 'insane.'"

"You're definitely yourself." Brad's eyes darkened. "How do you feel?"

Tired. Ill. Hollow. Raw. "Like someone scoured out my head with steel wool." But when Brad stopped petting his hair, Schuldig said, "Not that it hurts so badly that you should stop doing _that_. Pet me more."

Brad did, but also said, "I overlooked so many things.... You can't sing on key, but drunk you could sing as Marlene Dietrich. I never thought about it."

"It's not like she was a great singer."

"That wasn't you, was it?"

"They all are, now, but yeah, that was Kristiane doing the Marlene impression. She could really sing, but she'd do Marlene for kicks when smashed. Fuck, she was beautiful and had a great voice, but she was on the street selling her mouth and snatch." It hurt to think about, which was why he usually avoided it. "By the end, we were all killers though, since dealers and pimps kept trying to cut in on our action and we had to protect ourselves and I have that little endorphin reaction to other people's pain. Actually, we were like a cult of sado-masochistic killer junkie whores. I improve any company I'm part of. It's a good thing they preferred the cleaner high I gave them from being taken care of and fucked. I have to shut up." Few of the people who made him up had ever been able to shut up when they should have.

Even dead and incomplete, Klaus could be a loudmouthed, jealous bastard, and he wished he could kill Klaus for starting this. Brad didn't need to know his past. Worse, Brad might start thinking that he _understood_ Schuldig now, which would be a total pain in the ass.

"They used you." Brad seemed angry at that. Sweet.

"Some people would consider it the perfect life, to be taken care of and have a harem like that. They got my good vibrations, and I got to live in the heads of only ten other people instead of an entire city's."

"But that wasn't enough for you." It wasn't quite a question. Brad knew the answer.

"No. But I didn't have it together enough to successfully escape. Then Eszett got involved."

"That slaughter of your... cult should have killed you."

"But didn't. The retrieval team was resentful that I killed a few of them, so they threw me in the Box and gave me time in absolute mental silence to meditate on my sins, which should have driven me _absolutely_ insane. Instead, I put all my lives together into a narrative and decided which pieces should be dominant. In this case, the harder-edged bits, since I could tell that Eszett wasn't warm and fuzzy."

"Emory wasn't dominant."

"Emory was weak. I was better off patterning myself on the con man, killer, thief, and whores. Identity fuck is common in telepaths, so I'm not so special. I just have more meat to my identities than most."

"You didn't tell me any of this before because you didn't want to talk about it. I can't blame you."

"Besides, if you'd heard this before Eszett started to crumble you would have decided that I was unstable and untrustworthy and gotten me booted back to Rosenkreuz."

"No."

"Yes. Don't try to lie to a telepath. Or yourself." Brad never had understood how telepaths worked as well as he believed he did, a common flaw of non-telepaths. Brad had a _tiny_ bit of telepathy, which made him _think_ he knew.

Brad stroked his back. "Everything is different now."

"Yeah, you started to care a little at some point."

"We've worked together for years."

"We've been fucking for years."

"It's about time I got to know you. All of you."

"I don't know much about you either, bub."

"If you don't tell me the names of your little collective, I'll start calling you 'Emory.'"

"I won't answer to it."

Brad's hand settled on Schuldig's ass. "I'll still call you it." He felt calm and cool-affectionate.

"It's just that I never told Eszett, isn't it? That's why you're dying to know."

"Partly."

"You're an annoying little bastard, you know that?" The things he let Brad get away with....

"Yes."

Schuldig sighed. "Fine. Klaus, Erich, Bren, Georg, Manfred, Kristiane, Lotte, Ilse, Johanna, and Adriane. And fucking Emory. Which everybody did. Have the doors of perception opened for you now? Do you now possess the secret of life, the universe, and fucking everything?"

"Half of them are women."

"And seven of them were whores, while one more only sold his ass and mouth once in a while. Does that really surprise you much?"

"No, but I'm glad to know all of this." Brad didn't feel any disdain over the content of Schuldig's past; it just bothered him that it had been withheld from him.

"When do I get to find out the almighty secrets of Brad Crawford?"

"When they become important."

Of course. "Bastard." It didn't make him angry--he'd expected it--but it left him annoyed. When he tried to roll onto his other side to face away, Brad's arm tightened around him, possessive but not hurtful.

Brad kissed him, softly but fervently, cooling the hot and raw feeling in Schuldig's head a little. When their lips parted, Brad said, "My past isn't as interesting. I didn't have to overcome anywhere near as much as you did." Then he closed his eyes and twitched a little. Vision. Flash of a girl, flash of Yoji.... "Not now...."

Of course there was a girl involved. This _was_ Kudou.

"Yoji's still important somehow," Schuldig said, feeling it from Brad, who resented Yoji for being necessary. Yoji was also a sound sleeper, to snooze through this heart to heart. They hadn't even bothered to lower their voices. It gave him a wicked idea. He ran his hand through Brad's silver hair, happy that it still hadn't proved to be the harbinger of doom that he'd worried it would be, and said, "We should bind him tighter to us."

"He worried about you." Brad actually pouted a little at that.

Schuldig didn't know whether to "aw!" or laugh his ass off. "I know you worried most and best."

He was obviously trying hard not to smile. "You're a patronizing little bitch."

Schuldig grinned back. "Kiss my ass."

"Maybe later."

"Sweet talker. I'll hold you to that." If Brad hated Yoji for being necessary, there were ways to sweeten the pot for him.... Schuldig snuggled in closer, grinding a little, feeling him out in more ways than one. "You want to watch me with Yoji here. It gets you hot. You... wouldn't mind getting a piece of him yourself. Which gets _me_ hot." Especially since Brad's lust for Yoji seemed to come from the Weiß kitten reminding him a little of Schuldig. "Sex grounds me and makes Yoji our bitch. Win, win, win, it seems. C'mon, after last night we could all use some jollies. Martyr yourself by having hot sex with a good-looking guy--and me too, of course--to make me feel better. You know you wanna."

"It's hard to say no when you put it that way."

Perfect. Schuldig hadn't thought he'd give in so quickly but certainly wouldn't complain. "Of course."


	75. "So you're telling me that you need me to be part of a threesome to fix you."

Yoji sighed and shifted as someone stroked down his stomach, heading toward his cock. Nice dream. Hot redhead.... He opened his eyes completely and nearly jumped. Would have jumped if Schuldig hadn't already been settled on top of him. "What the hell are you doing?" Damn, he'd squeaked again.

Sitting on Yoji's legs, Schuldig grinned, looking loopy and cute even with the gauze pad taped to his left cheek. And the bruises around his neck. "It hasn't been _that_ long."

"We are not doing this again," Yoji answered.

"Yoji...." Schuldig traced gentle circles on Yoji's hardening cock. When had his fly gotten unzipped? "Brad said that you got upset when you saw him pressing on my wounds. He did that because I can get so lost in other minds that I forget my own body and need a reminder. Pain fixes that... but pleasure does too."

"You want me to fuck you back to sanity?" _There_ was a line Yoji had never used on anyone.

"Kind of... but it's not that simple." Before Yoji could get a word in, Schuldig rushed on with "You remember that other thing Brad said about how if I'm open and alone with one person, I can get imprinted by that one person? Well, one-on-one sex would screw me up right now just as much. That's where Brad would come in along with you. Plus, he can help pull you off me if you start to like me too much."

Yoji winced at that, then turned his head and saw an already naked Crawford watching them. Shuddering, he said, "So you're telling me that you need me to be part of a threesome to fix you."

At least Schuldig still had pants on, although the top button of his fly had been undone. "Yep."

He had to stop thinking that his life couldn't get any more insane, because someone Up There seemed to be seeing that as a challenge.

One guy, even if that guy were Schuldig, was almost okay. Two guys at once, especially if one of them were Crawford, was a _major_ lifestyle change. Though having another guy and a girl might be nice.... "No. Not happening. Hire somebody if you have to, but I am not going to be part of this."

Schuldig closed his eyes and looked a little lost and very unhappy. "You've made up your mind, and that's your answer?"

Schuldig was trying to play him. Had to be. Yoji would be strong and cold against his manipulation. "That's my answer: No. You two can do what you want, alone, here, but I'm going to be back in my room when it happens."

"I can't let you do that," Crawford said as he grabbed Yoji's wrist. "I can't let you sentence Schuldig to insanity."

Some grip that guy had. "Insanity? Get real." Still, what did Yoji know about telepaths that he could say they were bluffing?

"He needs people who know him."

"Brad, it's fine," Schuldig said, looking tired.

"It is not fine. We're not expecting that much. I'm expecting even less from him than you are."

"Hey!" Yoji protested, offended despite himself.

"I don't need someone who's unwilling. That would fuck with my head." Schuldig unstraddled him. "I know how much your virginity means to you, Kudou. I'll let you go. Brad, let him go."

Crawford did, though it seemed that he let Yoji go so he could better hold Schuldig in his arms. Yoji stood up and grabbed his coat and shoes, but he couldn't help looking back at them. They were spooned together with Crawford murmuring what might have been reassurances into Schuldig's hair and with his arms around Schuldig's waist. The telepath had his eyes closed and a weary look on his face.

Shit. He couldn't leave. "Look, maybe I could just stick around without, you know, participating in the sex if my presence is helpful."

Obviously annoyed, Schuldig opened his eyes and sat up on the bed, at which point Crawford sat up with him, as if connected to him. "So you won't help, but you'll watch? Are we here for your entertainment? _What_, Brad?"

From what Yoji could see, the seer was smirking into Schuldig's hair. "The hypocrisy in the room just hit a toxic level."

"Oh, fuck you. Whose side are you on?" But Schuldig smiled.

They seemed nearly human like this. Enviable....

"Yoji, get over here," Schuldig said, and Yoji walked over, at which point the telepath grabbed the end of his shirt, yanked him down, and kissed him soundly. Schuldig tasted like cinnamon candy, spicy and sweet, and felt good to the touch.

"I'm not doing this," Yoji gasped against Schuldig's lips.

"I need you, Yoji." Something in his blue eyes looked earnest and a little desperate. "This is something that only you can give me. Fuck, I'm just about begging you...."

Yoji felt Crawford watching them and didn't want to have his head blown off. "Crawford's okay with this?"

"'Okay' isn't the best word," Crawford answered, "but Schuldig needs this for his mental health. Have you ever seen what an insane telepath can be like? I assure you that last night's show was nothing."

Schuldig buried his head into the side of Yoji's neck and made a soft sound, so Yoji stroked his back. It was instinct.

He _was_ going to do this, wasn't he? They were probably playing him, but he couldn't see this and walk away. "Okay," he said softly.

Schuldig kissed him, slowly and gently but thoroughly, nudging open his mouth with his tongue. Even through that whole conversation he hadn't lost his hard-on, and his lust just increased now. Schuldig stroked up under his turtleneck and murmured, "I need to feel you, skin on skin," then pulled away to let him take it off, which he did. "You're too fucking thin...." the telepath said before tonguing and then sucking one of his nipples.

Lost, Yoji found himself lying on his back on the bed under a very amorous telepath without knowing when it happened. The bed was soft, Schuldig's hair was soft in his clutching hands, and his cock was very hard in... Crawford's pumping fist?

Terrified and aroused, Yoji jumped as much as he could and said, "This is two-on-Schuldig, not two-on-me. Got it?"

"If you say so," Crawford answered, blasé, though Yoji could swear he saw some heat in his eyes. Yoji had to fight down some disappointment when Crawford took his hand and the extra sensation away. Damn, he really was a slut. "Schu, you might want to take off more clothing."

"Yeah, the pants are becoming uncomfortable." Schuldig sat up on Yoji and unzipped his fly, releasing his hard cock, which made Yoji feel an answering surge of lust. He hadn't realized before that he was this bent....

Schuldig rolled off him so he could take his pants off. All of his shimmying out of them and the sight of Crawford helping to pull them down nearly made Yoji groan. Fortunately, he controlled himself. He also took advantage of the time to take his own pants off.

"Now we're all more comfortable," Schuldig said brightly, then moaned as Crawford grabbed him from behind, fitting them together tightly, and stroked his cock. "Much more comfortable," he murmured in a deeper voice as his hips moved along with Crawford's in an unmistakable rhythm, dry humping.

If you'd asked Yoji two days ago if the sight of two men getting it on--let alone these two men--could make him hot, his No would have been immediate and emphatic. But as much as he enjoyed watching this, he was supposed to be participating as well, so he moved in closer to kiss and stroke even as he tried to be careful around Schuldig's bandaged wounds. If he touched Crawford by accident at some points and vice versa he refused to think about it. Considering the location of one of Crawford's hands, some of the strokes Yoji felt along his cock and balls might be from--

He wasn't thinking about it. Tasting cinnamon, he let himself get lost in heat and sensation and musk. His body felt so sensitized....

Schuldig could definitely kiss, and his hands went to exactly the right places on Yoji's body, stroking lightly where they should be and harder and deeper where he needed it, touching places most of the girls didn't think of trying. The slick finger rimming him in steady circles felt too good for him to make any complaints or think much about what it might lead to.

Besides, Schuldig stopped doing that once he really started to writhe and squirm, murmuring, "Fuck... God...." obviously close to coming.

"Yes?" Crawford asked.

"You always were... an arrogant son of a bitch...."

"Do you want us to finish you?"

Yoji couldn't help smiling at that.

"Yes!"

Crawford did something tricky and emphatic with his hand on Schuldig's cock that Yoji felt along his too. Eyes closed and making obscene sounds of enjoyment, Schuldig looked lost and ecstatic and somehow sweet as he came. Yoji's hands moved, but the sight of bruises shaped like them made him pull them away from Schuldig's neck. He felt a splash of heat and a rush of overwhelming pleasure that dragged him under for a while.

He came to when he felt the bed rocking and watched Crawford slowly and thoroughly fuck Schuldig. He'd done that himself, but he hadn't thought about what it would look like. On his back, Schuldig was nearly folded in half but didn't seem to be feeling any pain from the look on his face and sounds that he made. His left hand clawed at the sheets in rhythm. Crawford's expression seemed intent and loving. Even with their work-related scars, they looked nearly like art, mobile sculpture, as their lean but well-muscled bodies moved together. How did that feel... from either side?

Even though he'd already come once with Schuldig, Yoji was hard again, so he put his hand on his cock and started to stroke slowly. That was what you did while watching porn.

Suddenly Crawford looked at him. Damn, he was hot. Evil, but hot too. Still looking at Yoji, he quickened the pace a little, smiling as Yoji quickened his stroking in response, unable to resist. Harder, faster, deeper... and Yoji watched and jerked off in time all the way. Still smiling that hot, evil smile, Crawford looked back down at Schuldig and murmured something in German that made the telepath laugh and groan simultaneously. Schuldig writhed as he rode Crawford's thrusts and gripped his lover's arms so hard that he'd probably leave bruises.

Yoji could watch the orgasm travel through Crawford's body on his final thrusts, while Schuldig came again. Yet--even with this show, the reek of sex heavy in the air, and his own hand working himself hard--Yoji couldn't come. The telepath had to have done something to him....

Glowing with post-sex satisfaction, they'd separated and turned to watch him now with hungry, evil expressions on their faces. Even Crawford looked disheveled. Schuldig said, "C'mon, Yoji, grab a piece."

"You look like you're done out."

"Who said you're doing something to _my_ body?" Even done out, Schuldig was fast enough to pull Yoji up into a sitting position and end up seated behind him. Had Schwarz always been toying with Weiß? He breathed into Yoji's ear, "It would make me very happy if you and Brad would get it on."

"This was about fucking you." Even though he needed to come so badly that he ached with it....

"I'm a telepath. I could be you or Brad or both of you at once. If I want to, I can feel _everything_."

Brad-- Crawford sat in front of Yoji giving him a look that should have set him on fire. Fuck, wanted him after all, but.... "He'll kill me when he's back in his right mind."

"If he kills you, it won't be for that. There's no mindfuck involved here, because Brad would kill _me_ for that."

"Crawford _wants_ me to fuck him?" It sounded ridiculous.

"Damn, Yoji, you really aren't that bright. Yeah. You wanna do this, right, Brad?"

"If this continues to be a problem for Balinese, I'll change my mind."

"Do you need an engraved invitation?" Schuldig asked, wrapped around him, radiating lust at him.

"I'm losing interest," Crawford said.

Yoji couldn't think.... "Whatever you're doing, stop it."

Schuldig let go of him. "All right. If you don't want to, you don't want to. I'm in no shape to get it up again, so would a dildo be okay, Brad?"

"The vibrating one."

"Gotcha. I think the suitcase is under the bed."

And people thought Yoji had no shame.

Schuldig would have fallen off the bed trying to get it if Yoji hadn't grabbed him. "Mmm, little dizzy...." the telepath murmured.

"Don't worry about it," Yoji said. "I'll get it for you later." Was this supposed to be chivalry? He was taking it way too far.

"Thanks." Schuldig kissed his forehead. "At least the lube is in reach."

Crawford glared at Yoji. Why? For helping Schuldig? Crawford should have been faster himself, then. His glare faded as Schuldig kissed him.

Yoji shouldn't stay to watch this, but he couldn't leave either. He actually wanted to see it.

Completely unselfconscious, Crawford settled on his stomach and spread his legs. Schuldig slicked his fingers, then moved in to kiss the small of Crawford's back before he slid two fingers in, thrusting and scissoring. From the look on his face, Crawford enjoyed it, yet he didn't look desperate or needy. He could be an emperor receiving his prerogative. Apparently, he didn't feel that taking it up the ass diminished him at all. He made a soft sound of pleasure as Schuldig added another finger and kissed one of his cheeks.

Dammit, they were making Yoji want it. To do the fucking, not to be fucked, but still. Schuldig cast a sly look Yoji's way as he slid in a fourth finger and increased the pace. Crawford was sweating again now and thrusting into the mattress.

It looked so hot and Yoji surely had blue balls from being hard for so long and he could nearly _taste_ sex in the air and Crawford obviously wanted it and this was for Schuldig's mental health, a mission of mercy.... Grinning, Schuldig stopped finger-fucking Crawford to put a condom and lubricant on Yoji's hard, aching cock before saying, "Better get to it. He gets homicidal when people make him wait for it." And Crawford had a "show me what you got" expression on his face, daring Yoji to try him, daring Yoji to do him right....

They were so playing him, but he didn't care right now. They might be using him, but he would use them right back. They all wanted to get off.

Yoji slid into Crawford with one clean thrust, not setting out to hurt him but refusing to treat him like porcelain either. Crawford had no complaints, and he sure as hell didn't _feel_ breakable under Yoji's hands. How crazy to think that Yoji had gained some expertise at this just in the past two days.... It felt so good, hot and tight.

"How do you want it?" Yoji asked, pleased to hear a low growl in his voice. As difficult as it might be to stay still when he wanted to _move_, he stayed still to show his self-control. If Crawford wanted it, he'd have to say how.

Crawford looked back at him over his shoulder and said, "Hard."

He'd asked for it.

So Yoji did him hard, with no worries about being too rough and no fear that his hands would end up around the seer's neck. It was just pure animal fucking, and it felt great. He couldn't help smiling at the banging racket the bed made against the wall. When he thrust forward, Crawford pushed back every time, obviously determined to get the full effect.

When Yoji came, it felt like such a release. Aside from the pleasure rush of orgasm, he felt free, clear, and loose. With his last shreds of thought he figured that he should help Crawford over, since he prized himself on getting his partner off, but Crawford had already jacked off and was coming on his own.

As Yoji lazed through his afterglow, he noticed that Schuldig seemed to be enjoying one himself, looking conspicuously satisfied and almost stoned even before Crawford enclosed him in a possessive grip. With how narrow the bed was, Yoji couldn't help lying close to them, but Schuldig grabbed his arm and pulled him in closer.

"Mmm, thanks," Schuldig murmured. "That was... yeah." Crawford gave Yoji a serene "maybe you're good for something after all" look. Yoji snuggled into their warmth and went to sleep.


	76. "You have two eyes, so you'll do a better job."

Nagi turned off the car and wiped a little more blood off his face. That assignment had turned out messier than he'd expected, but he'd gotten the job done. He'd hoped that taking the car would make him feel more secure, more connected to his usual life, but it had only reminded him of the people he didn't have with him.

Damn, he could be a moody little bitch. He should be better than this.

As he walked to his apartment building he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, and when he turned to strike he saw Omi standing not so far away, looking worried. "Nagi, can we talk?"

"Did you wait for me?"

"Yeah, I didn't know how late you'd be getting home, but I didn't want to miss you." Omi didn't ask him about the job, which hadn't been given to him by Kritiker.

"Come up with me. We'll... talk." Tired, Nagi didn't really want to talk or think about it, but maybe talking would help. After all the mayhem he'd committed today much of the anger had drained away, but it might come back.

They didn't speak in the elevator. Understandable, since most of their personal lives and business couldn't be discussed in public.

"I've never been here before," Omi said quietly as Nagi let him in.

"It's just an apartment, one of many," Nagi answered, also quietly. Something about the big empty rooms encouraged whispering. "I almost feel like I'm sneaking you in while my parents aren't home.... Can I get you anything?"

"No, that's okay. Nagi, I know that you're angry about something, since I saw you and then the report on the two buildings you demolished. Was it me?" Right now he looked younger and didn't have the persona of the head of a large, powerful organization.

"You're my employer. You have the right to give me orders." How the hell did the wives of politicians bear being a subservient appendage? Maybe it helped that _they_ couldn't tear their partners apart with a thought.

"But it bothered you."

"I reacted as your lover instead of your employee. It was inappropriate. I have to compartmentalize better..."

"...or break off relations with me?" Omi went right to the heart of the matter, something Nagi appreciated, since right now he didn't have the energy to dance around the subject.

"I don't know." The problem with autonomy was that you had no one but yourself to blame when a decision had bad results. "I really like you, Omi." But it seemed that Crawford had been correct in opposing this liaison.

Seeing Crawford and Schuldig together had made Nagi think it might be possible for this to work, but they had a completely different power dynamic than he did with Omi. Different personalities too. But Nagi _wanted_ it to work.

"I don't want to break up with you," Omi said as he moved closer and searched Nagi's face with his eyes.

"I don't either." Despite everything. Maybe he could find a way to make it work. He was inexperienced with this. Maybe it needed more time? "We can make it work. It just needs more effort and care."

Omi brightened a little. "We shouldn't give up after one small problem."

"Exactly." Nagi closed his eyes and leaned into Omi's hand on his cheek, but said, "I'm so tired right now."

"So? We don't need to do anything. I just want to stay."

"Your entourage will freak out."

"My entourage probably has this building under surveillance now. Sorry."

Kritiker already knew where he lived. "Whatever."

"You're very bloody."

"None of it's mine. Somebody got in closer than he should have, and I nailed him."

"Let me take care of you."

"Okay."

In the bathroom Omi stripped him and cleaned the blood away with warm, soapy washcloths, with the water in the sink running red. Nagi enjoyed being toweled dry more than he expected. He liked and hated being cared for like this.

Omi stripped down a little too and didn't crowd him in bed, just kissed him a few times and occasionally stroked the fingertips of his right hand. But Omi felt a bit saddened by how bare Nagi's room looked.

"We move around a lot, so there's not much point in collecting things," Nagi answered. "Everything I really care for is in my computer." Or in his closet, lately. It still didn't amount to much, and he could leave it behind if he had to. "That fire in Berlin destroyed a lot of our possessions too."

"You don't have to answer any questions I don't ask out loud."

"You're thinking loudly. I can't block it out as well." Nor could he block out Omi's warmth or the feel of him moving nearby. It distracted him badly.

"I'll try to be quieter," Omi murmured into his ear, then kissed him, then moved away a little, giving him space if he wanted it.

For now he did. "That's good."

And Omi did, becoming quiet enough that Nagi fell asleep.

******************************************************

Mamoru woke with the sudden, horrible feeling that someone was watching him. From the nearby darkness, Nagi's voice said, "I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. I didn't mean to drag you into it."

"It's not your fault. You don't have anything to do with my paranoia."

Mamoru had good cause for his paranoia. Lately, everything he cared for either was ripped from him or slipped through his fingers....

He hadn't thought that mixing a relationship and business with Nagi would lead to so much trouble, but he should have known better than to compare their relations to Nagi's with Crawford. Nagi took orders from Crawford easily, but Crawford was an older psionic Nagi seemed to see as a father figure. Crawford and Nagi were _emphatically_ not lovers.

Whereas sex seemed to have led to Nagi's resentment of the inequality in their professional roles, and Mamoru couldn't really blame him. He also got the feeling that he kept missing important things about the psionics in his employ.

He kept making assumptions about the people that he loved, thinking he knew them best, and every time lately he'd been wrong. Had he stopped listening to them? Had he blinded himself? He swore to watch and listen more closely.

The apartment must be very different with all of Schwarz in residence, but right now it felt bare and empty, a lot like Mamoru's apartment, and at least he had staff there sometimes. Nagi had ruefully admitted to missing the others. He shouldn't have to stay here alone, not when Mamoru kept offering his place, but so far Nagi refused him every time.

"What is your obsession with my hands?" Nagi asked suddenly, sounding amused.

As Mamoru stroked Nagi's fingers again and felt that slight tingle he always got from Nagi's bare skin, he said, "You have so few calluses." He didn't know anyone their age who had such soft hands, although Nagi shared his slightly flattened fingertips, earned through years of perpetual keyboarding.

"It's skin care on the telekinetic program. I don't need potholders either."

Nagi sounded somehow solemn and dark even when he joked. His outfits--with all of their straps, buckles, and zippers--suggested a kind of armor, since it took such effort and time to get him out of them. Even though they _were_ sexy.... Maybe someday Mamoru would figure out why he kept being attracted to buttoned-down people with personal space issues who needed to be lightened up and coaxed out of their hard shells.

They deserved some happiness. They worked and played well together. This had to work out.

Mamoru moved closer and brushed his fingers over Nagi's soft lips, smiling as Nagi kissed them. "As long as you're awake...."

Nagi pulled him close and stroked him with his hands and talent. "I'm glad you asked."

******************************************************

"Hmm. Free cell phone, given out on the street," Farfarello said as he played with it.

Aya took it away and put it in the pocket of his coat, as if that made it _less_ tempting. "It's not free. We have to pay for the service that makes it work." He jumped away a little as Farfarello reached for the phone. "Play later."

"Play always." Then they came near the group of X-mas trees being sold on the sidewalk, so Farfarello decided to run it past his puisín. "I want to celebrate X-mas."

"What?"

"American Christmas. It has nothing to do with the birth of Christ. It worships materialism and gluttony and a fat man in a red suit who subjugates animals and little people weaker than he is to work for him as he flies around the world invading people's homes and spoiling children. A scary fat man who knows when you're sleeping, awake, good, or bad. He enforces society's values by giving gifts for the approved behavior. It's an evil holiday, and I want to celebrate it."

"I see." Aya looked like he might laugh at any second.

Pleased, Farfarello warmed to his topic and continued, "There must be mistletoe and eggnog and cookies. And I want a tree. A living tree that was chopped down and sacrificed, like these. I want to string lights in it and hang ornaments on it. I want it to scent our apartment as it slowly dies for our pleasure, then we'll tie it up and chuck it to the curb as all Americans do."

"Stockings too?"

His puisín _did_ understand. "Yes!"

"It will mean buying more things."

"Of course! That's the point of the whole holiday. I want X-mas, kitten." Farfarello sometimes forgot whether to call him Aya or Ray, since the names were so close, so in public he stayed with the always-safe "kitten" or "puisín." "Want it, want it, want it."

"It looks like the commercials are right about the holiday bringing out the child in everyone."

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"Yes. But not a big tree. Our apartment is small, and I'd rather not be choked to death by a reek of pine."

"I think he's actually selling fir trees."

"Fine. Tree reek."

"I can live with a smaller tree. And now our apartment won't be so bare."

"You _will not_ buy me a fish as an X-mas present."

Sometimes his puisín understood him _too_ well.

The proprietor asked, "Do you have a tree stand? If you don't, I sell them too."

"And so the spending spree begins," Aya murmured.

They needed a stand. And lights and ornaments and tinsel and.... "We'll be back for a tree later," Farfarello said. "We need decorations for it first."

They bought tinsel and garlands and balls and various little ornaments. Farfarello noticed that Aya gravitated toward purples, blues, whites, and reds. Since they shopped in the Village, they even found some things in black. Some ornaments tried to profane the spirit of the holiday by presenting religious themes, and Farfarello avoided those.

"This is not going to be a big tree," Aya said. "We don't need all of this."

"Trees eat ornaments. People say so all the time. You have a lot of ornaments, but somehow when they go on the tree they're still not enough."

"We don't have to get everything now."

True. "All right. Oh, multicolored lights."

"They're tacky."

"You're a snob, my puisín." Farfarello put three boxes of the lights in his basket.

Aya's put-upon look only made him cuter.

They returned to the apartment with all of their goodies, the tree, and a stand. As Aya muttered darkly about the sticky sap now on his coat, Farfarello found a good corner for their tree and handed the skein of lights to Aya. "You have two eyes, so you'll do a better job."

"Bastard." But Aya began to put the lights on. When Farfarello kissed him, he smelled sharp and woodsy, just like the apartment was starting to.

Then garland and ornaments. When they finished off their supply, Farfarello said, "We don't have enough. I told you so."

"We'll get more as we go."

"Good kitten."

Aya even smiled a little when Farfarello applied tinsel like a tornado, flinging it on.

Lark knocked at the door, then unlocked it and walked in, greeting them with "Some kid from Japan called for Abyssinian. He knew my number and the name I've been using for you, so he must be highly connected."

The kitten-smitten boy. Even through his annoyance, Farfarello had to admit that he almost missed the little bastard.

"We have a cell phone now," Aya said. "If you could send him the number so he can call us, that would be great."

"Give it to me. I'm glad you got a cell phone, because I am _not_ your answering service."

After she called to give Nagi the number and a terse message, she said, "That's some tree."

"My kitten thinks that the multicolored lights are tacky," Farfarello had to answer.

"If your Christmas isn't tacky, you're not doing it right."

Lark _could_ be useful at times.

Aya sighed, then ask, "What name have you been using for me?"

"You're Mr. Red. He's Mr. White."

"It looks like Schuldig was right about Americans and Quentin Tarantino." Maybe this knowledge came from Aya watching more cable in the interest of supporting his cover identity.

Farfarello didn't get it but also didn't care.

"Do you guys figure on sticking around?" she asked. "You've picked up a lot of stuff."

"We can leave it for the next residents," Aya answered.

"Or burn it in a great bonfire in the courtyard before we go," Farfarello replied.

Lark grinned. "You really do remind me of my former husband."

"Divorced?" Farfarello asked. With the way she kept mentioning the man, it would come out sooner or later, and he'd prefer to get through it quickly.

"I'm a 'till death do we part' type."

"How'd you kill him?"

She smirked. "You're funny, you are. No, the job killed him. His type, they go out young in a blaze of reckless glory. I would have followed him if he hadn't told me I better live. It's been about ten years, but I'll meet up with him in hell eventually."

Farfarello heard a muffled chirping come from Aya's pocket. "I'll take this in our office," Aya said as he closed the bathroom door behind him for privacy. Damn it.

But Lark was distracted....

Once again she blocked his blade with a stiletto. "Nice try," she said.

He wasn't even trying all that hard anymore. This was just for fun.

******************************************************

"I just wanted to hear your voice, Aya. I know, it's stupid," Nagi said.

Aya leaned against the wall. "Not really. It's good to be remembered. Life is... surreal here." It felt good to switch out of English.

"How's Cain?" Nagi nearly laughed asking.

"Thriving, actually. And there are several churches in the area, but he hasn't visited any of them." The person Farfarello had become here kept surprising Aya. "Though I had to yank him away from a fight he almost got into with a street preacher. Nagi, is everything well where you are?"

"I can't just call?"

"Not really."

"I'm fine."

"But?"

"All right. I miss everyone."

"'Everyone'? Where's the rest of the team?"

"They're on assignment in London with Yoji. Was that a laugh?"

With _Yoji_? Poor Yoji. "No, I'm choking." How would Yoji deal with Schuldig's incessant flirting?

"Sorry."

"Why didn't anyone tell us about this?" It hurt. They were in the United States, not dead.

"Omi didn't?" Nagi started to sound a bit wary.

"No."

"I'm sorry. He must have had his reasons."

He shouldn't be surprised to see Omi picking up Persia's bad habits. What had happened between him and Omi that night probably hadn't improved matters either. Still, the next time Aya saw him in person there would be a reckoning.

And Nagi had an interesting tone in his voice whenever he spoke of Omi.... "How are things between you and Omi?"

"Uhm."

Schuldig would be pleased. Aya didn't quite know how _he_ felt. Relieved yet... not, too. "If you hurt each other, I'll have to kill the both of you."

Nagi laughed in surprise, a good thing to hear. "Yeah, the death threats are harder to direct when you're already friends with both people. The... sex is... not what I expected, and that's even with the peepshows. My talent makes a huge difference."

Peepshows? Oh. Aya blushed a little, happy that Nagi couldn't see it. "Are you happy?"

There was too long a pause before Nagi answered, "Yeah."

"Nagi-kun."

"Aya-kun." Then Nagi said, "Ray, it's not always easy, but we're trying. I think it may be worth it."

"Be good to each other."

"We're definitely trying. Anything else going on in New York?"

"Cain bought a Christmas tree."

"You're kidding me. Did he buy it to torture it?"

"No, we decorated it. He intends to let it die of natural causes."

"Did hell freeze over?"

"He says that American Christmas has nothing to do with God. It's all about greed and rampant materialism."

"He's celebrating Christmas.... Ray, I have to go. I'm glad I talked to you."

"It must be very late where you are."

"Yeah, really. Can I call you again sometime?" He sounded very young.

He sounded like home. "Yeah. Good night, Nagi."

Nagi's smile was almost audible. "Have a good afternoon, Ray." Then he disconnected the call.

"Well?" Farfarello asked when Aya came out.

Aya switched back to English. "He just wanted to see how we were doing."

"Lark has a job for us. For you alone, actually, so your Omi may be learning. Wanna see?"

"Sure." The killing actually provided some continuity.


	77. "Stop. You're making me miss Aya's people skills."

"--hotel's gonna kill us over what we did on and to the bedspread."

"With what we pay, they shouldn't complain. And if they do--"

"We kill them?"

"I would say that you're spending too much time around Farfarello lately if that weren't physically impossible."

"I'm still pissed off at myself for getting sick in the car."

"It's already taken care of. I paid a cleaning crew."

"Brad, you are the man."

Yoji stretched and opened his eyes. Fully dressed, Crawford glanced at him, then returned to his attention to Schuldig, who was still lying naked on the bed next to Yoji. "Schu, what do you want to eat?"

"Room service."

"That's far too general."

"Then hand me a fucking menu, genius. I'm shagged out.... Thanks."

While Yoji appreciated the lack of morning-after awkwardness from Crawford, the being ignored sucked somewhat. But what did he expect?

"Steak and potatoes and beer. That's what I want." Schuldig handed Yoji the menu with a smile. "You have to eat too. Keep your strength up."

Yoji expected a homicidal look from Crawford over this flirting, but the seer simply had a long-suffering expression on his face. It relieved and annoyed Yoji to be seen as no threat. "I'm going to get a shower and dress in my room." He had to get away from the craziness.

"Not much for the morning after, huh?"

"Not really, no."

"Just make sure you eat. Your bones kept poking me. And I'm not going to make the obvious dirty comment here because it would be too obvious."

"I'm learning to be thankful for small miracles." As Yoji put his mission clothing back on, he could smell blood and gunpowder on them. Damn, he needed a shower. "I'll let myself out."

Wearing a vaguely menacing expression, Crawford glanced at him, then looked back at Schuldig. Schuldig blew Yoji a kiss.

As Yoji took a very long shower, he waited for the regrets and recriminations to start, but they didn't. He didn't regret what he'd done, although Crawford might try to make him regret it later on. He just had to live with himself, since his memories were his and a mind wipe like Mayumi had offered him would make him someone who wasn't him, wasn't Yoji. Second guessing himself did him no good.

Great sex _and_ a personal epiphany? He wondered what else the day would bring.

Now, with the assignment completed, he just felt restless as he wondered what would happen next. He got the definite feeling that Crawford had plans to stay on here a while longer to get the guy who'd gone after Schuldig. As freelancers, they could do that. Yoji would no doubt get called back to Japan.

If Persia put Yoji on one more assignment to just tail some nobody.... He didn't even have a partner or team to joke with anymore to break the boredom, and he never did well on his own....

He wouldn't think about it.

As he dressed, he thought that he might order some food after all. He felt hungry, and he could see that he _was_ getting too bony.

As he pulled a turtleneck on, his door opened. "Could you at least knock?" he growled at Crawford, who shouldn't still have a keycard to his door but apparently did.

"I knew you were almost finished. Besides, I've seen it all before," Crawford answered as he and Schuldig walked in. Taking it up the ass made no difference to this guy at all.

"I was pretty much just a human dildo to you, right?" Knowing Schwarz as he did, it didn't surprise Yoji. Besides, he'd used them in return.

"To Brad, maybe. To me, you were a human dildo with a mind," Schuldig answered as he sat on the bed. He wore one of the hotel's robes, and his hair was still shower-damp, which made it look redder. Before Yoji could even finish his thought, the telepath said, "I eat and shower fast."

"Just like you do everything," Yoji replied.

"Ooooh. Down, bitch."

"I know that you have some questions for me," Crawford said. "I'll answer them for you outside."

"In public?"

"We'll use euphemisms. I assume that you've done such before."

"Stop. You're making me miss Aya's people skills." Yoji could almost feel Schuldig's amused grin.

"Come with me. And don't say a word, Schuldig."

"What? C'mon, you're my straight man, Brad. And say it, Yoji. You know you want to."

"I'm staying out of it," Yoji answered.

"You're already in it, kitten. Fine, Brad. You go discuss business with Yoji elsewhere and leave me here all alone."

"Not in my room," Yoji said.

"Our room's being cleaned, while your bed hasn't been slept in at all. I need my rest after my ordeal."

There were several phrases a guy shouldn't use lightly in front of Schwarz, and "over my dead body" was one of them. "No. It's _my_ room."

"Grow up, Kudou. Besides, I could always let myself in after you and Brad left."

"I hate you." But Yoji was accustomed to not being able to win.

"That's what they all say." Schuldig removed his robe and snuggled in, naked, beneath the sheets of Yoji's bed. "Run along."

Crawford looked annoyed at the dismissal too but said nothing as he left the room, leaving Yoji the choice of following to get answers or staying with the naked and irritating telepath sleeping his bed. Yoji followed Crawford.

Silence persisted until Yoji tired of it while in the elevator and softly asked, "Are you staying or going? From what I know of you, you won't leave until you get the guy who wanted Schuldig. After all, Schuldig belongs to you."

Crawford cast an arctic "die, you moron" look at Yoji, but Yoji had formed some insulation from freezer burn after years of living and working with Aya. When Yoji didn't back down from the Look of Death, Crawford said, "If you already know, I don't see why you have to ask. Besides, it's not as if you have to stay. Your assignment is over."

"You're gonna take this guy on alone? Because Schu might have pulled himself back together some, but even I can see that he's still not well."

From the look on his face, Crawford didn't like Yoji using that nickname or forming judgments of the telepath's abilities. "This hunter might interest our employer."

Mamoru _had_ been showing an interest in recruiting psionics lately, and here was this predator gobbling them up.... "Enough for you to get personnel and turn it into a real assignment?"

"Perhaps."

"You'll need someone to find this guy for you."

"We may get just such a person." Crawford's unspoken "And it doesn't have to be you" fell heavily between them.

Yoji didn't even know why it sounded like he wanted to stay and help them. He didn't. They were assholes. They made his life even more insane and complicated than it already was.

But being here felt like being part of a team again, trusted again, and it beat what Persia had him doing before. And somebody scary enough to make Schuldig put himself through hell to escape him deserved to be put down.

Once they walked out into the lobby, Crawford blinked and said, "Stay here," before walking off.

Like hell. The bastard must have seen something. Yoji followed him, at a distance so he wouldn't be noticed.

******************************************************

Balinese probably wouldn't obey--he could be too much like Schuldig--but Crawford had more important things on his mind now. His recent vision felt like it would be happening soon and was far more detailed than the last one that had showed this girl. She would be approaching the hotel now and needed to be stopped.

There. He caught a glimpse of long black- and red-striped hair, too distinctive to be mistaken. If left undisturbed, she would ask their hotel's desk clerk whether someone of Schuldig's description stayed there, claiming him to be a brother she had an important message for. The desk clerk would refuse to surrender such information, but it didn't matter. The knowledge this girl already possessed posed enough threat to justify eliminating her.

The sleeve of Crawford's coat hung low enough to camouflage his gun. Once he walked up close to her, he would shoot her in the chest and walk away in the confusion. There would be collateral damage, but that should add to the chaos. The silencer would still make some noise but would mostly be lost in the sounds of traffic and people. This wouldn't be the safest execution for him, but his intuitions told him that he had to act fast with this girl. Taking more time to plan and maneuver her would lead to his efforts to kill her being thwarted somehow.

It irked him to be forced to work like this, but he'd gotten away with such executions before.

An annoyingly familiar voice yelled from behind, "You can't be serious! She's just a little girl!" That was Balinese and his ridiculous chivalry... when he wasn't strangling his little darlings. Crawford ignored him, showing no sign that the moron was shouting at him. The fool might even provide a distraction.

A little girl. Hardly. She was a teenager, from the looks of her, not that it really mattered. Crawford kept calmly walking, cutting through the crowd on the sidewalk far better than his intuitions told him Balinese did.

Suddenly she stared right at him and shouted, "Don't you want to get the man who went after Guilty? I know where he is!"

A telepath. A telepath willing to give him information he needed. No wonder he'd felt that he had to act fast.

His visions didn't always follow his best interests.

From behind him, Balinese said, "I know you won't say 'thank you,' but I know you feel it."

"Why would I say 'thank you'?"

When Balinese reached Crawford, he whispered, "If I hadn't slowed you, you would have killed her and found out nothing."

"You take too much credit."

"I'm more useful to you alive," the girl said. Talents left on their own usually tended to look wildly rebellious or too normal. This one had gone for a punk, goth style. Schuldig had always preferred an outré look, saying that blatant eccentricity excused many psionic sins in the public's eyes. Crawford had responded that _nothing_ excused green hair.

"It bothers me that you know anything." It also bothered him to have Balinese at his back, ready to defend this "poor" damsel in distress. Once again, he missed his team, who would kill for him without question.

Then again, his team had been questioning lately too.

"I warned Guilty that the wolf was coming. I'm no great power. If I were more, I might be able to take the wolf myself. Is there somewhere we can go to discuss this?" She sounded world-weary. The telepaths who'd stayed sane usually did.

"It might as well be our room, since you already know our hotel," Schuldig said suddenly. When Crawford turned to face him, he waved. He had his hair tied back in a ponytail and wore his pants and one of Crawford's white shirts untucked over it. He looked... wrong. "You could have done more than just warn me. 'Hide!' is not all that useful."

"I offered help. Then I had to cover my own arse, something I'm sure you're familiar with."

"Maybe we should take this off the street," Yoji said.

Yoji spoke sense. The world might end. "Come with us, then," Crawford said. As they walked, he asked, "What's your name? It's helpful."

"There's no need for anyone to know my name."

"Then I'll call you 'Wednesday.'"

She glared at him but said nothing. Schuldig snickered and lit a cigarette. Yoji asked, "Are you sure you want to go someplace private with us? Do you know what we do for a living?"

"I know, and that's why I'm here offering a location."

******************************************************

Yoji felt annoyed, and Brad felt annoyed. The girl, like many self-taught telepaths shielding themselves, was a total blank, as if she didn't exist at all. Any telepath who stood there looking at her would know what she was just from that. Schuldig felt amused by it all.

"Why are we using my room for this?" Yoji complained.

"Our room is still being cleaned," Brad answered, so smooth.

Schuldig knew that Brad was worried about him, which was sweet but unnecessary. He'd worn Brad's shirt because, even clean in the suitcase, it smelled like Brad's cologne and tied his hair back because today he felt like he had too much hair. It happened.

"What woke you up?" Yoji asked him.

"I heard your little drama even in my sleep."

To his amusement, the three of them instinctively settled in different parts of the room--him sitting on the bed, Yoji leaning against the wall to her left side, and Brad standing at a distance away facing her--making it impossible for Wednesday to keep an eye on all of them at once. Without the dye, nose ring, and clothing, she'd be a mousy looking thing. He could see the light brown roots coming in above the black and red. Most kids who did the goth or punk thing had an attitude that shouted, "This is the _real_ me!" She didn't. To her, it seemed to be a costume, camouflage to hide her true reason for freakishness. Most people wouldn't notice that, but some would. In all things, she wasn't as skilled as she thought she was. At least she knew that she wasn't powerful.

And, the more time he spent near her, the more he could start to pick up the soft emanations of emotions that diffused through the big blank she'd made her telepathic shield to be.

"You want us to kill this man for you?" Brad asked. "We kill when we're paid to."

"Didn't he buy his death when he attacked Guilty?" she replied.

Yes, but Brad still played it cold. "Kill him yourself if you want it."

"I can't. I would feel his death, and it would kill me. Considering his power and attitude, it would probably kill several people for kilometers around."

"Could you do that with your death, Schuldig?" Brad asked.

"Yeah," Schuldig answered. "Until I started to get attached to Schwarz, I intended to take out everyone around me I could if I bought the farm. If a regular telepath dies, it might hurt some unshielded telepaths nearby but normals are safe. Only the really powerful telepaths can take everybody, and it has to be a conscious decision. If somebody offed him before he had a moment to even feel threatened, he couldn't do it, but you can't depend on surprising him." He lit up a cigarette. "So when he's killed, somebody needs to put a lid on him to stop a massacre, since mass death would draw a lot of attention. I'm not well enough yet to do it, but we know someone who is."

"You know another sadistic telepath?" Wednesday asked.

"A few. Our school trained for it."

"I figured that a school for people like us wouldn't be like Hogwarts or the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children. Not in the real world."

"I could show you my wand."

"No, thanks." She didn't look amused at all, though Yoji briefly smirked then remembered that he shouldn't be so encouraging of that kind of thing.

"If we agreed to do this, what would we be facing, aside from the man himself?" Brad asked.

"Cameras, alarms, fences, armed guards. He lives in a manor house."

"Is this manor in an isolated location?"

"Yes."

Watching Yoji watch her, Schuldig said, "Don't get too impressed by her nobility in coming to us to take this bad guy down. Being the kind of telepath she is, with the shitty training she has," he smiled at her sour look, "she can feel his victims' pain. This is her taking care of herself. Not that I'm disapproving, but I just wanted us all to be honest with each other. And ourselves."

"Will you kill him?" she asked.

Brad made her wait as he pretended to deliberate for five minutes, then said, "Yes. You do realize that if you lie or misrepresent anything, we'll quickly find out and punish you."

"Yes."

"Good. I have a call to make. Go out in the hall."

She sighed dramatically but obeyed, figuring that she could listen in telepathically. Should be fun to hear what she thought once she realized that Schuldig had blocked her.

Yeah. She was so livid that it strobed out from her blankness. It made him smile. But she remained cool enough not to burst back in and rant.

Brad looked annoyed as some kind of Japanese pop played as he waited on hold. Then, "Yes. We finished our assignment, but we're staying a while longer. Schu was injured. He's getting better, thank you, but he needs time. We've run into a local businessman who hasn't been accommodating. In fact, he's a bit of bully. If we deal with him, it would improve relations here considerably. He's not in my specialty and Schu can't take anything on right now. Could you send us experts to deal with him? I was thinking Elena and Nagi. Yes? Excellent. We can pick them up from the airport tomorrow or sooner, depending on when you choose to commit them. I'll be expecting your call." Schuldig heard some of Persia's responses through Brad's brain and could tell that he'd picked up the information hidden in Brad's bland euphemisms. "Thank you. I'll give Schu your best wishes. Yoji, he wants to speak to you."

Yoji took the phone. "Yeah? Oh. Yeah, I can stay and keep working. Thanks. Do you want to speak with him again?" He looked surprised. "Okay. Good-bye."

That was interesting. Schuldig wondered why Persia wanted Yoji to work with them, Nagi, Elena, and Fenris. He had to have some plan.

Brad opened the door and smiled down at Wednesday with his evil "trust me" smile. "Return tomorrow at 5. Then you'll tell our team how to get in."

She looked back at him with distrust obvious on her face--she could read him a little, after all--but said, "Tomorrow, then," and left. Schuldig telepathically followed her particular blankness until she was blocks away from the hotel.

"They should be done with our room by now," Brad said to him.

"True," Schuldig replied. "See you later, Yoji. And eat something, will you?"

In their room, alone together, Brad said, "I hate the ponytail."

"You know that I have moods."

"I still hate it."

Schuldig took it out, then shook his head. "You think that having Nagi here will help get you the me you want."

"Balinese doesn't know you. Not really. We never let him," Brad murmured into his neck as he ran his hands up under Schuldig's borrowed shirt. "I do like the shirt on you."

"And off me?" The hands and hot breath against his skin made Schuldig's knees go weak.

"Yes."

******************************************************

When Nagi walked into Omi's office, he could feel that something was happening. "Yes?"

It was Persia sitting behind the desk. There was no Omi here right now. "Can you pack to go to London immediately? Draco and Fenris will be going as well."

"Yes." London. Draco. Something had happened to Crawford and Schuldig. Perhaps the thing Crawford had seen? If so, Nagi could set aside his dislike of the two other talents.

He'd thought to ask Omi why Aya and Farfarello were being kept in the dark, if it were a plan, simple negligence, or a habit of "need to know only" that Omi had picked up from the last Persias, but there wouldn't be time.

"Thank you," Persia said. "Draco and Fenris are ready to go. They don't have much to take with them."

"I have my computer and security-cracking equipment."

"You'll be taking a private plane. That should make it easier for you."

So he wouldn't have to be as creative in his packing. Damn, Persia took this seriously. "Do we have much intel?"

"Not much."

But enough to earn a private plane. Nagi inclined his head. "I'll pack quickly."


	78. "Things make more sense when you're here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're interested in getting a look at the fence Farfarello mentions, you can find links to photos [here](http://viridian5.livejournal.com/976339.html).

New Yorkers consented to having much of their public lives on camera, which made assassinations trickier. Fortunately, Aya's prey used a subway station that had many areas of construction in it. When the man left his building to go home, Aya followed him into the station and tripped him from behind when they reached one of the boarded up areas. He hit his head on the wall and then the concrete floor. A very few people in the crowd even noticed, but Aya waved them away as he helped his dazed victim stagger into a very secluded corner. Seeing that somebody else had gotten involved for them, they all lost interest and wandered on.

His prey's standing body and dazed movements disguised the sure push of the knife into the side of his neck and made the awkwardness of doing this with the wall so close worth it. Aya slid the knife back up the sleeve of his bulky winter coat. The bulk of his coat, lack of earrings, knit cap covering all of his tucked-up hair, and brown contacts in his eyes would make identifying Aya much more difficult. There was something intimate and nearly sexual about standing so close to the prey as he killed.... Aya grabbed his wallet before letting him slide down the wooden construction barrier. Just a simple robbery here, with a homicide attached.

Nobody paid any attention. Killing in big cities was so much easier for that.

Aya walked out of the station and wandered the west side of Midtown for a while, taking his hat off after a few blocks. Later, he would dump the wallet and credit cards in separate mailboxes even farther away and give the cash he found to some charity. Maybe something for orphaned children.

He'd agreed to this assignment because it was so far from where they lived and the prey was involved in pharmaceutical trials that hurt and killed innocents. But it had been so easy.... It bothered him when a death took so little time to complete.

******************************************************

Farfarello ignored all the voices as he walked. So many churches in the area, and they all called out for the faithful and him to come in. He made himself blind and deaf to them. Angels and demons and humanity buzzed in his head.

They lived a block away from Mary Help of Christians school. God was truly testing him.

Or Persia was. And perhaps wanted him to fail.

He hadn't been truly alone in such a long time. Being around Aya centered him in a starker, quieter, more linear world. Without the kitten or Schwarz, mania beckoned in such loud voices and rich colors of gold and red. There could be glory and transcendence in the mania, but he had responsibilities right now.

The black metal fence Farfarello put his hand on had been so chilled by the day that he nearly felt it. It was made of fanciful, primitive animal shapes, and even some of the birds had square, blunt teeth. Spikes adorned the fence's top. It protected what would be a garden in greener, warmer days.

Even on such a gray, cold day children played in the park next to it, screaming with joy. Suffer the little children.... He rather liked children, as long as the Word of God hadn't yet taken root in their minds and poisoned them with God's false light.

Aya would tell him that he was mixing his metaphors.

"Hey, are you a pirate?" one shouted at him. A boy.

"Oh, aye," he answered. Talking to them made them specific, instead of a faceless mass of potential victims. "I'm between ships."

"He said 'ships,' not 'boats'! He _is_ a pirate!" a little girl said.

"Don't bother the man!" a woman told them. "I'm sorry, sir." She looked nervous. It made him smile to watch her being torn between wanting to apologize for the children's rudeness about his eye and being afraid because he was so scary, even as she felt guilty over being scared of him for how he looked. Poor young man, probably wasn't even his fault.... Schuldig would have enjoyed it very much.

A good mother sprang to protect her offspring from all danger.

God had taken both his mothers away from him.

His hands clenched into fists as his head ached. "It's all right."

He walked away and had to blind and deafen himself to another church before he arrived at the door to their building, where he ran his fingers over their assumed names--Morgan, Shirow--written in next to the buzzer for their apartment. It steadied him as he unlocked that door and then their door. Tree reek covered their scent, so he flung himself upon the bed and buried his face into the sheets, breathing deeply. It let him sleep for a while.

"Farfarello?"

Farfarello grabbed his kitten and pulled him down onto the bed, the better to touch him all over. Aya mostly smelled like sharp cold now, with one glove smelling like blood, but tearing the coat and gloves off gave Farfarello what he wanted, his puisín. His mouth watered. He wanted Aya inside him, fucking clarity into him faster, although he could already feel the noisy scarlet haze start to fade.

"I'm glad to see you too," Aya said softly.

"Things make more sense when you're here." Then Farfarello looked closer. "Except that your eyes are brown."

"I can take the contacts out--"

"No, it's not important." Little circles of colored glass didn't make his puisín any less his puisín. He hoped Aya would like the X-mas gift he'd ordered from a local artisan today. "I just want you."

"Are you sure? I could make dinner first." But the lift to his lips and spark in his wrongly-colored eyes said volumes.

"Evil, sadistic kitten." For an hour Farfarello made sure that Aya couldn't tease him like that, then they napped. They needed strength for their night lives.

Eventually someone buzzed them from the outside door. "It's Michael. We're going to Downtime tonight. If you're interested, show up after 10."

"Work calls," Farfarello murmured as he stroked his puisín's bare flank. "We'll have to do more drinking and dancing."

"I'm doing Yoji's dream job," Aya said, "and I hate it."


	79. "If Omi turns you off of sex, I'll kill him."

While on the plane, Friendly and Fenris stayed away from Nagi, which made his life easier. Still, he had to stop being such a brat. People all over the world had to work with people they hated. He'd done it in the past and kept an impassive mask on his face the whole time. It had been a necessity for his stay at Rosenkreuz. He'd wanted Takatori Reiji to die horribly even as he'd taken orders from the man.

All of his recent problems were truly _his_ problem, his fault. At some point Nagi had become spoiled and too willful, and it was affecting his work. It couldn't be allowed to continue.

When Crawford, Schuldig, and Kudou met them at the airport, Nagi could immediately feel something wrong in Schuldig, even though he couldn't quite figure out how he knew. Aside from the bandages, Schuldig looked the same, but there was something different _inside_. More noise. More chaos and lines of force. More. He felt _raw_. Still, Nagi kept his impassive face on as they walked to the cars, waiting for the right time to broach the topic.

"I'm fine, kid," Schuldig murmured to him.

"Like hell," he murmured back.

"Kudou will take Elena and Fenris to the hotel in the other car," Crawford said to the group. Kudou didn't look happy, but he should be thankful that his talents weren't in a talkative mood. Elena bent your mind just talking to you.

As soon as Crawford started to drive Schwarz away, Nagi asked, "All right, what the hell happened to you, Schuldig?"

"That was subtle," Schuldig answered. "Fine. Null and Trash teamed up to knock my walls down. That might not have been so bad if another telepath hadn't been wandering by to try to scoop me up while I was open. That's the guy we're going for."

It sounded like nothing when Schuldig explained it like that, but Nagi knew better. "Scoop you up?"

"I didn't fancy being his toy, pet, or snack so I threw him off my scent."

"By deliberately drowning himself in the minds of the London citizenry," Crawford said.

Then this telepath had to have been powerful and scary. "I'm glad you're... fine."

"I'm not _really_ fine, but I'll be as good as new soon," Schuldig answered.

"Better be."

"It's good to have you back."

It felt good to be back with them. "You're lost without me."

"I wouldn't go that far."

Even Crawford smiled a little.

******************************************************

Being too busy sightseeing in the car, the two psionics hadn't talked to him, which gave Yoji some time to think of what he was supposed to say to them. Persia must have something in mind here.... They looked more like regular kids now instead of somebody's barely-cared-for afterthought.

Once he helped bring their things to their hotel room, he said, "This is where you'll be staying. Our local guide will come at 5 to talk about the objective. We'll decide then how and when we'll tackle it. Do you have any questions?" Did Dummkopf understand him at all? Sitting on one of the beds, the kid had taken a book and crayons out of his backpack.

"His comprehension of Japanese is pretty good," Elena said, looking bright-eyed and eager to please, "though he still has trouble stringing his own sentences together. And I'll stop reading your mind, sorry. I've mostly been working alone with Fenris lately, so my manners for normals have degraded. That's what we're calling him now, by the way: 'Fenris.'"

At least it didn't mean "idiot." Yoji hated using that word--or any translation of it--on a kid. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Persia had some intel that he couldn't entrust to you over a phone line. Since we're taking on a psionic Crawford will be the leader on this assignment but Fenris and I will also be reporting to you, sir."

That was interesting. They were his responsibility, huh? "Don't call me 'sir.' It's 'Yoji' or 'Balinese,' depending on the circumstances."

"Got it. My new code name is 'Draco.' Fenris is Fenris. Oh, I also have an ability with fire now." As if she needed to be more dangerous.

"Just since I last saw you?"

"It happens, I guess."

"I'm gone for a little while, and look what happens. Anything else happen lately?"

In Japanese, Fenris said, "Takatori-sama and Nagi are--" then paused in thought, then put his palms together and interlaced his fingers.

"You're kidding me."

But Omi had never come off as straight. Even before he knew that Ouka was his half-sister... or cousin... or whatever the hell, Omi had always looked confused by and uncomfortable with her overtures to him. Even aside from her being a pushy little bitch. Then there was the way he'd dressed....

Maybe Yoji shouldn't harp on the way other people dressed.

Still... Nagi? Yoji couldn't imagine it.

Okay, now he could, and he wanted to wash out his brain because this was _little Omi_.

Who was now Takatori Mamoru and Persia.

He realized that Elena and Fenris were looking at him with a smirk on each of their faces, so he said, "You had more time to deal with this. And you didn't know him before!" He lit up a cigarette and noticed Elena's stare change and become more intent. "What?"

"Mmm. Nothing, sir. Yoji."

"_What_?"

"I gave up smoking so Fenris wouldn't suffer from the second-hand smoke."

_Oh_. "You're fiending for a cigarette."

Fenris said, "Morita--"

"I didn't smoke his cigarettes!" Elena said, her "at attention" stance loosening a little in her upset. "I just... caressed and smelled them. Damn, I'm pathetic."

So the eyeball-popping, fire-throwing, mind-reading devil-child had a weakness after all. Aside from her devotion to Fenris. Yoji stubbed out the cigarette. "I'll try not to smoke around you. I can't promise you that I'll always follow through since I'm a cancer stick junkie myself, but I'll try."

"Thank you."

It might not be so bad, dealing with these two. They were weird and homicidal, but Aya had been too. "So, sit down and tell me all about the things I've missed in Kritiker since I left."

******************************************************

"Leave, Brad. I have to talk to Nagi," Schuldig said.

"This is _our_ room," Crawford answered, amused.

"Then I'll talk to him in his room."

"Is this about his sex life?"

Nagi nearly died. "What?" Had Schuldig felt it too? All the way in _London_?

"Yep," Schuldig answered. "Now we have to dish about it and I have to give you advice. If I left sexual matters to Brad, you'd be stunted for life."

Nagi would not blush. He _would not_ blush. "I hate you. I want to go back to Tokyo now."

"Ah, to your love kitten."

"I'm definitely feeling some concerns about leaving you alone with Nagi," Crawford said. But he looked happy--as happy as Crawford could look--anyway. Sadistic bastard.

"'Bye, Brad. Shoo. I need to do this for my mental health."

"How long are you going to use that as an excuse?"

"Until it stops working."

"I won't be chased out of my own room." Crawford sighed. "Do it in Nagi's room."

"Excellent."

"I'd rather stay with Crawford," Nagi said.

"Not an option." Schuldig grabbed his wrist and dragged him along.

"You're lucky I don't break your hand."

"Luck has nothing to do with it."

As soon as they entered Nagi's hotel room, Schuldig flung off his coat and settled on the bed, following his usual policy of making a mess and claiming the most comfortable place available for his own, while Nagi neatly hung up his coat and set his cases of equipment down. Nagi now noticed that Schuldig had a collar of fading brown-yellow bruises on his neck too.

"So, you and Omi," Schuldig said. "Spill."

"If you heard us, I don't see why I'd need to." Nagi would never recover from the mortification. Ever.

"Just the first time, which makes sense considering all the build-up to it. I'm assuming that there were other times."

"You assume correctly. So you're happy now, right?"

Schuldig watched him for a few moments without saying anything, then said, "If Omi turns you off of sex, I'll kill him."

"What? It's not like that at all." He hadn't expected to be forced to defend himself here.

"You're miserable. He's making you miserable."

"_I'm_ making me miserable."

"I don't buy it. When there's misery in a relationship, there's at least some fault in the other." Schuldig ran his hand through his hair, pulling it back from his eyes. "I told you to fuck him, not get engaged to him."

"I'm not engaged!"

"He's your first. _Never_ settle down with your first, not unless you play the field and then come back to him. You end up with weird ideas about how things are and should be because you have no basis for comparison. Your one and only relationship becomes the norm."

"I've seen you and Crawford and Aya and Farfarello. More of all of you than I wanted, at times."

"Yeah, but none of us are you, not even Aya. Besides, the power balances are different. Aya and Farfarello became equals at some point even I can't put my finger on. I didn't start to get serious about Brad until after the old farts bought it and we freed ourselves from Eszett, because loving a man who could get me sent to the Box if I displeased him would have sucked."

"I don't think he knew about the Box. I know I still don't."

"Not important. Read the context. Anyway, we were sex on convenience until sometime after Brad realized that he now had to talk to me to get me to do things."

"But he's still team leader."

Schuldig smiled. "Do you see him making me do things I don't want to do?"

"No."

"Love didn't start until I felt safe with him and he started to see me as a person instead of a weapon. He's Dad and I'm Mom, nearly equals. Oh, get off it, I know you think of us that way. We're not like you and Omi." He shook his head. "I never should have gone to London. Look how far astray you've gone without my expert advice."

That brought them around to a topic Nagi could attack _him_ on. "You're hurt. I know you're bullshitting Crawford so he won't worry, but I can see it." Attacking let him avoid thinking about the points Schuldig had made.

"My recoveries have never been instantaneous. This is just the first time you have the perception to notice."

"I'm not a child anymore, Schuldig. If it's bad, tell me so."

"It's not so bad. I won't die or go insane. I just need time."

"Okay." Nagi suddenly wished that he were an impulsively touchy person with a history of hugging people, because right now he wanted to touch or hug Schuldig but it would be weighted with too much meaning coming from him.

Schuldig gave him a big-eyed look. "I could use a hug."

"Stop! Chibi Schuldig is not going to work on me!"

"You're almost laughing."

"I don't laugh. Ever."

Using his greater speed, Schuldig snatched Nagi and brought him down on the bed. "Not even under tickling?"

Nagi fended off his hands, but Schuldig had a gift for getting around that. "I'm not ticklish!"

"Fuck, you're really not. That's abnormal."

"If you try to molest me, I'll break every bone in your body."

Schuldig wrapped one arm around him and set his head under his chin. "C'mon. You need a basis for comparison with Omi. From what I got of your first time, you're different from the rest of us in a really kinky, sexy way. Omi can't possibly appreciate what your telekinesis does for him or how you look at the world."

Schuldig had soft hair, and Nagi found himself rubbing his chin on it as he answered, "Thank you so much."

"Brad nearly blew a gasket. You have no idea how much sex I had to give him to calm him down."

"No urge to know either."

"You smell good."

"Liar. I was on a plane for hours."

"Nah. You smell Nagi-like. Sharp and storm-like." Schuldig was definitely in one of his snuggly moods. "Do you always top Omi?"

"Schuldig!"

"What? I know you and your issues."

It wasn't like Schuldig wouldn't find out eventually anyway, so.... "...yes."

"Ha! Thought so."

Being partially wrapped in the tall German made Nagi twitch with the need to get away, but he fought that reaction. Human contact seemed to fix the telepath.

"I guess Omi's doing something right," Schuldig murmured. "I still want you."

"Not having me. Besides, I don't believe that sex really helps you get your head back on straight."

"Balinese did. I had him. So did Brad."

"I _knew_ that a guy who dresses the way he does couldn't be totally straight." Nagi wouldn't ask--

"How was he? Not bad at all. Sweet even. Gullible, which always works well for me. Hey, we went three separate times, so you know he does something right. Why, you wanna give him a try?"

"No!"

"Give me a try?"

"No! Are you trying to annoy me into fucking you?"

"Would it work? I'll do anything that works."

"No."

"That 'no' wasn't as emphatic as the others."

Worst of all, Nagi did feel an interest. Having had sex only seemed to make him want more, like in an addiction. "It would be a wonderful idea to cheat on my boyfriend, who's the leader of a huge, international organization of assassins."

"Not engaged, huh?"

"Most people try to be monogamous, Schuldig."

"Eh. Boring. This isn't cheating. It's social work."

"You have your excuses ready."

"Always. You know, if it makes you feel better, you don't even have to get off yourself, just get me off. There's no way in hell anyone could construe that as cheating."

"Your capacity for self-sacrifice astounds me."

"Me too."

"Crawford would kill us."

"He'd get over it. Next?"

"I don't want to."

"That's only partially a lie."

"I... like being the way we are, right now." It was... cozy, being snuggled together like this. Nagi didn't think he'd be able to keep up this intimate togetherness for much longer, but he liked it for now.

"That's true."

"I haven't been doing well with having sex with co-workers."

"Also true. Dammit."

Nagi refused to screw up another working relationship out of curiosity and horniness. "Sorry." But he stroked Schuldig's hair, which stuck to his fingers from static. Even Schuldig's hair was clingy.

"You're funny, kid."

******************************************************

Crawford approached Nagi's door. He'd given them enough time. More time, and Schuldig might be in the boy's pants. It depended on whether the telepath approached with smarm or kittenish cuddliness. Nagi could resist smarm but had a documented weakness for kittens.

Crawford unlocked the door and stepped in. Better to get it over with.

"This is my room. My _locked_ room. You don't even knock," Nagi said.

It could have been much worse. Nagi was mussed but fully dressed as he was lying on the bed with Schuldig wrapped around him. The boy had good sense as long as he didn't have certain kittens tempting him. But it gave Crawford an odd feeling to see him tolerating this tight hug and stroking Schuldig's hair. Once, Nagi would have been across the room and ready to kill at the very thought of someone touching him.

Schuldig blatantly enjoyed the change, eyes half-closed, smiling with satisfaction, his visible hand nearly kneading the fabric of Nagi's shirt. He was a bright patch of color against Nagi's dark and solemn, yet vaguely kinky, outfit.

"That's Brad's way. Maybe you forgot while we were gone," Schuldig said as he tangled one of his legs with Nagi's. Nagi rolled his eyes.

Schuldig was being annoying... in precisely the way and tone he should be.

"How far should we trust what this local guide has to say?" Nagi asked.

Very professional. Or trying to change the subject. Crawford answered, "From Schuldig's and my estimation of her, she's honest. However, she's also an amateur. She may not have noticed aspects of our target's security that we would want to know about."

"Thus, trust her to a point and always keep ready for surprises."

"The last being standard operating procedure," Schuldig said as he stroked Nagi's hip.

"If you keep that up, I'll stop stroking your hair and dump you to the floor."

"Meanie."

"We all have issues with Friendly and her pet," Crawford said, "but they must be set aside for the sake of this mission."

"Of course," Nagi answered. "I decided on that back in Tokyo."

They were so... themselves, so his team, that Crawford felt nearly warm with contentment.

"Of course we are, Brad," Schuldig said. "Now how about you come over here for a group grope?"

"You wanted him back to this, why?" Nagi asked.


	80. "Maybe next time you can use stickers and glitter pens."

When the cell phone chirped, Aya picked it up. "Yeah?"

"Charming hello," Lark said. "I'm calling to say that someone else will be coming by to give you your next assignment. Some old business suddenly became insistently current for me. He's an asshole, but he's the best I could get on short notice. Sorry. He should be there any moment."

"He's knocking at the door now," Farfarello said as he looked through the peephole. "Tall man in a suit with dark hair and a sour look."

"He's here," Aya told her. "Tall man in a suit with dark hair and a sour look?"

"That's him. Hopefully I'll hand your next assignment to you. Bye."

Farfarello opened the door. "Come in."

The man didn't look any less sour at the invitation. "Your assignment." He handed them a folder.

What was his problem?

"He feels that we're taking jobs away from Americans," Farfarello said.

The man twitched. "You're not supposed to be that much of a telepath."

"I'm getting better all the time. His middle name is 'Eugene.'"

Aya coughed to disguise his laugh and continued to look through the folder.

"Will you take the job or not?"

"It's in a mostly Christian cemetery," Aya said. "I'm fine with it, but are you?"

"The people there are already dead," Farfarello answered. "Nothing more for me to do."

The man looked like he would prefer to be anywhere but here. "Your target is a low-level mob boss. He usually travels with four bodyguards. He's there to visit his brother. It's in Queens. Will that be a problem?"

"I don't see why it would be," Aya answered.

"Follow the driving directions exactly. We've lost people in Queens."

"What, forever?" Aya asked. He really didn't like this man.

"Are you taking the job or not?"

"We'll take it," Farfarello said. "Now get out before I kill you for your rudeness." Aya was amazed by his restraint.

"Gladly."

Farfarello closed the door behind the man hard. "I actually missed Lark, but don't tell her that."

"Your secret is safe with me."

******************************************************

"Nice floor plan, sugar. Maybe next time you can use stickers and glitter pens," Schuldig said as he looked over Wednesday's papers.

"Piss off," she answered. "I didn't go to architect's classes, you wanker."

"That's the wrong insult. I get enough that I don't need to."

"Why the hell did I try to warn you that night?"

"Children, don't fight," Crawford said, sounding bored with them both.

Yoji shook his head as he watched a multinational group of impossible people plot a break-in and execution. How he'd ended up with them he didn't know, but he had to admit that he kind of enjoyed it.

Elena plucked the cigarette out of his mouth and took two long hits off it. "This is a filthy, filthy habit, and damn I miss it." Then she put it back in Yoji's mouth. Damn, he'd forgotten that he'd promised to try not to smoke in front of her.

Still, the kid had no respect. "Why didn't you take Schuldig's?" He might as well smoke while Schuldig was in the room doing it.

"Because you're my leader and supposed to take care of me." She flashed a look of big-eyed cuteness at him.

"Stop the chibi eyes."

"They're puppy dog eyes, but okay." She went back to looking intently at Wednesday's floor plans. Sometimes alternating that with glances at Wednesday's chest. Were any of these people straight?

"We're flexible, but you already know that. If it makes you feel better, she has a little bit of a crush on you too," Schuldig murmured into his ear.

"It doesn't." He'd been there, done that, with the flower shop groupies. Though at least they wouldn't pop out his eyes or set him on fire.

Then again, his partners were safer from him if they could.

Schuldig literally shook him a little. "Stop that. This is a no-brood zone. I like the new coat."

He'd bought the new trench coat this morning and ditched the coat and pants he'd been using as a mission uniform before. Why hold onto things that represented a miserable time in his life? "Damn. Now I have to return it."

"I do have taste. Just not for what _I_ wear."

Naoe Nagi asked some very incisive questions about the manor's security, some of which Wednesday couldn't answer. Yoji couldn't see Omi going for him, but Mamoru might. He could glimpse flashes of humor under the quiet solemnity of Nagi's work persona. The kid had also grown up _nicely_.

Damn, he was checking Nagi out. He'd been thoroughly corrupted.

It was slightly less terrifying having that kind of raw power in the body of a young adult instead of a child's. Slightly less terrifying having those old, seen-too-much eyes in the head of a young adult instead of a child's as well.

"Nagi would be pissed if he knew that you think he's less terrifying now," Schuldig whispered.

"Then don't tell him." Glaring at the telepath, Yoji thought that Schuldig had regained a feeling of... effortlessness that had been missing since the attack on him. "In other words, you feel lazy to me again."

"I aim to please." Then Schuldig put his arm on Yoji's shoulder and growled/purred into his ear, "I _really_ like the new coat."

"Schuldig, vengeance now, sex later," Crawford said.

"He can talk. He has a stick up his ass," Schuldig murmured.

Yoji would not laugh. He had an example to set and kids to be responsible for here.

"You want to train the two mythical beasts? Good luck. Take a look."

"Will you stop poking me!" Wednesday snapped at Fenris, who murmured something back in what might be German. Everybody in the room except Yoji and Wednesday got it and seemed to be amused.

Except for Elena, who got it and wasn't amused. "Fenris, that's rude!" she yelled in Japanese. She'd told Yoji that she would be telepathically translating this meeting for the kid, who didn't understand English, but must have felt that this rebuke needed verbal reinforcement.

"Why does he keep poking my arm?" Wednesday asked.

Elena switched back to English to say, "Your shields make you a big blank spot to telepaths. He sees you standing right there but can't feel you with his mind at all."

Wednesday looked horrified. "So I might as well be screaming what I am to any telepath who sees me?"

"It's a common mistake for a self-taught telepath."

Seeing Wednesday's humiliation, Yoji felt bad for her but didn't know what he could do.

"Not much you can do," Schuldig said softly.

"I'm trying to shield my mind here," Yoji murmured back, annoyed. He didn't seem to be doing a good job of it.

"Yeah, but now that I've slept with you, I have more of an In."

Shit! Knowing that felt like ice in his gut. He'd screwed up again.

"No, Yoji, it's good, it's really good...."

Fortunately, Nagi brought matters back to business by saying, "I think a smaller recon team should go there first. I would notice things everyone else might miss."

Smooth, cool kid. Omi would respect that.

"I agree," Crawford said. "You, Draco, and Wednesday should go and then report back. I'll keep my eyes open."

Fenris said something in German, but Elena shook her head and probably answered telepathically. It made him blatantly unhappy, but he nodded, then trudged over to Yoji. Apparently, he had to stay here and Yoji was his babysitter.

"He won't bite, Yoji," Elena said. "He's housetrained and everything."

He'd wanted to be back with a team....

******************************************************

Schuldig felt so content that he almost couldn't stand it. He had Yoji twitching with annoyance and alarm under his arm, but the kitty _still_ felt healthier than he had just recently. Some sex, company, and new clothing did wonders.

Poor Brad. Dealing with an almost-Schuldig along with the real thing had to be driving him bonkers.

Nagi _did not_ want to be on recon with Friendly, but his face said nothing, as usual. He felt like a cool wind, with some turbulence beneath, so he didn't hate it to the point of homicide, at least. A full-on anger felt like a lightning storm. Damn, he'd turned sexy. Schuldig would maim Omi if the kitten tried to ruin him. Probably start at the kneecaps and work his way up.

Brad was cool, calm water, no ice, happy to be planning and doing things, happy to see payback on the horizon, happy to have his almost-son back, happy to see Schuldig being Schuldig. Thus, Schuldig just had to keep being Schuldig to keep him happy. Though he might be overdoing it a bit.

Having Brad and Nagi where they should be felt so good. Now if only they could get back Farfarello's heat and haze, his whirlwind of knives. Schuldig had his cool, calculating people but didn't feel complete without his source of mania nearby. Hell, he'd come to miss Aya's stark extremes too. His berserkers. There was a balance in having two cool people and two hot ones.

For now, Schuldig used Yoji as an auxiliary.

Yoji actually thought that they wouldn't have sex again. He could be so silly, but that endless capacity for self-delusion was one of the things that made him who he was, so....

When his shields were up on full, Schuldig didn't need the others so much as he did right now. Still, he could feel the pathways healing and rebuilding, especially now that Nagi had rejoined them. He would be out there kicking telepathic ass again soon.

Healing, he could deal easier with Wednesday's blankness, which felt like an empty eye socket, Fenris' innate damage and the weird whimsy that did leak from his head at times, and Friendly... being there at all, being Friendly and having all of her telepathic faculties intact.

"We'll reconvene when Nagi's group returns," Brad said as he handed Nagi the car keys.

Schuldig nibbled the rim of Yoji's ear, making him jump, and said, "Enjoy your babysitting."

"You're leaving me alone with him?"

"I wouldn't want you to get sick of me."

Yoji considered smacking Schuldig for a moment before deciding that it would lead to more trouble than a few seconds of satisfaction would be worth. Good boy. Schuldig gave him another kiss for that before letting go of him and leaving the room with Brad.

In their own hotel room, Brad asked, "Are you happy?" even as his expression told Schuldig that he knew quite well.

Schuldig sprawled out on the bed, and his smile widened as Brad joined him there and put a possessive hand on his hip. "Yeah, Brad. It's not the whole family together again, but it's a start."

******************************************************

Tired of the silence as he played War with a kid who could break bones with a thought but couldn't speak very well, with the next card Yoji drew he said, "Tell me what's up with this new power thing with Elena." Maybe if people prodded the kid more, he would speak better.

"I-- She is.... They are.... Shit!"

"It looks like you have the important words already."

The kid looked frustrated, then rummaged through his backpack until he found paper and crayons. He drew fiercely for a few minutes, then held up his artwork, which showed two heads, one blue and one green, connected by what seemed to be back and forth lines in the same colors. Fenris wanted to try telepathy?

"I don't like doing that." Damned telepathy. He should have guessed that sex with a telepath could make it easier for said telepath to waltz into his head and take a look around.

He hoped Fenris couldn't read his thoughts right now.

Fenris pointed to Yoji, pointed to his own mouth, and took on a defiant look, probably the equivalent of "You're the one who wanted to know." Then he placed a king on the table, beating Yoji's queen.

Yoji wouldn't find out anything this way. If he had to work with telepaths, he would have to be more flexible. He could do that, as long as they respected the boundaries he set.

"All right. Just... beam stuff over. Don't read anything."

Fenris nodded fiercely, then Yoji saw Elena surrounded by a nimbus of fire, Elena with a fiery dragon sculpture sitting on her hand and curling down her arm, objects bursting into flames across the room from her, Nagi gasping for air and hitting the floor, the end of Elena's braid burning like the fuse of a bomb. "Shit," the kid said, and Yoji had the impression that Fenris hadn't meant him to see the last one.

"That's why words can be better. You can hold things back." Though getting an idea of what Elena can do, _seeing_ it, in a few seconds could be handy. "What was that image with Nagi?"

Fenris thought about it, then slowly said, "Elena makes fire. Air makes fire. She moves air to make fire."

"She can move oxygen around to make her fires, so she pulled it right out of him?" That would be handy too.

Fenris clapped and grinned.

"See? I understood you."

"Thank you."

Piece of cake. Yoji pulled an eight, and Fenris pulled a ten. Kid kept beating his ass four draws out of five. "Are you sure you're not cheating?" Yoji asked, teasing.

"Bad loser," Fenris answered with a smile.

******************************************************

Shaking his head to get his wind-whipped bangs out of his eyes, Aya watched their prey from behind the cover of a tree, careful not to move his feet. The dead, frozen grass here had a tendency to make crunching noises. Gun in one hand, katana in the other, he waited for the best opportunity to fire to take the most people out. The rest he and Farfarello would finish off with their swords.

Farfarello watched from the cover of a mausoleum, seemingly unperturbed by his surroundings. Aside from admiring some of the statuary and sneering at the crosses, he hadn't reacted to being in a mostly Christian cemetery at all.

Aya felt more troubled by it than he did. This felt so dishonorable, killing a man as he visited his dead kin. Aya hadn't visited his family's plot during his recent time in Japan. Seeing his sister's name there along with his and their parents' would hurt too much.

Aya saw his chance and took it, shooting two of the guards whose bulky bodies shielded the true target from harm, then cast the gun aside and rushed toward them with his katana, hearing Farfarello's approach from their other side. It felt good to wield his katana again, so much more satisfying than when he used a knife. Different movements, different weights.... He often felt so calm in the midst of such attacks, cool and focused as he dodged bullets and drew blood. The targets were shouting profanities, threats, and racist comments at him and Farfarello. Ridiculous of them, though Aya once again gave thanks that Zuccari's brother had been buried deep within the cemetery, far from any outside streets.

It ended as it had to, although they'd given him a little more exercise than he'd expected. Farfarello stepped over two bodies, then kissed him, his hot tongue a startling and vivid contrast to his winter-cold skin. The sun glinted a little off the black shades that disguised Farfarello's distinctive features. He'd even worn a coat to look more like a regular person.

"Clean up," Aya murmured as he cleaned then sheathed his katana. "It's still too public here."

"Haven't had a good place to play in a long time," Farfarello muttered.

He kept watch over the bodies as Aya drove their car closer and took the long plastic sheets and axe out of the trunk. With five bodies to carry in that trunk, they'd need to make smaller pieces of them to better fit them. Weiß had been spared this kind of butchery, but maybe they shouldn't have been. It brought home the realities of this profession in ways that even killing itself didn't.

Of course, that was no doubt a major reason why Kritiker hadn't made them do it.

He and Farfarello mostly had the cemetery to themselves, perhaps from the cold of the day, though twice they had to stop chopping when they noticed teenagers in school uniforms walking at a distance. They might not be close enough to see much, but the swing of an axe would be attention-grabbing and hard to explain.

Finally they'd finished and packed the grisly results of the day's job into the car. They still had to dump the parts elsewhere. Eugene had said something about a rail yard in Long Island City and given them driving directions. Tired and sweaty under his winter layers, discontent, as Aya put his seatbelt on he said, "I'm sick of these little jobs, being led around on a short leash." He might not want Omi to shelter him, but neither did he want to be a killing automaton. He'd be more content with less spoon-feeding of information and a greater say in the planning process.

Being in Weiß and Schwarz may have spoiled him.

In the passenger seat, Farfarello took off his sunglasses and answered, "It passes the time, but yeah. Is there a way to get closer to our final prize faster?"

"I don't know. I'll think about it."

"Let's come back tonight and destroy things. It would be fun." Farfarello had a dreaming smile on his face. "All those crosses, all those horrified families...."

"We can't," Aya answered. Farfarello had to know he'd say that.

Farfarello looked more pouty about it than angry. "Hmph. Sometimes I miss the carefree days of my youth when I wouldn't have asked."

"Then you'd be put in a straitjacket and locked away for a while."

"Never said they were perfect days, though sometimes I liked that kind of thing."

"I don't understand that."

"It was safe, everything being out of my hands. That is also one of His traps, to give us no choices and make us prefer it that way. Life is different with you, puisín. You give me choices, and I'm loving that."

While the sentiment made his heart turn over, Aya still answered, "We're still not coming back to vandalize the cemetery tonight."

"Hmph." But he grinned.


	81. "Besides, you *like* to let me penetrate you."

Schuldig drowsily opened his eyes when he heard a knock at the door. He always tended to sleep more as his shields healed. Brad opened the door, letting Nagi, Friendly, and Wednesday in. Wednesday felt different, less like an empty socket, a little more natural.

"We may be able to attack tonight, if you want to. I have some ideas I want to run past you," Nagi said. "He'll even be in tonight from what I could tell."

"Whatever you do, I'm not going to be part of it," Wednesday said. "I did my bit, and I don't have your power or experience."

"You do realize that our organization will hunt you down and kill you if this turns out to be a trap," Brad said. "You may be a blank spot, but you're a blank spot that my telepaths can find."

Damn, but it made Schuldig hot to hear Brad threatening people.

"I understand that," she answered, then left without another word.

"She'll be very easy to track," Friendly said. "I tagged her while helping her fix her shields better."

"And that's why I didn't want to be trained by Schuldig," Nagi said.

Offended, Schuldig sat up and said, "I thought you liked her rack, Friendly." Better to needle her than Nagi.

"She's cute, but I don't like loose ends that I can't snip if I need to." A Rosenkreuz alumna all the way.

"Friendly asked her if she wanted to join Kritiker, and she refused," Nagi said. He might sound friendlier to Friendly, but he'd killed people while wearing a sweet smile. His mental shields were up and nearly impenetrable.

"Even after I told her that not everyone who works for them kills people." Friendly shrugged.

"Let's get Balinese and Fenris in here," Brad said. "Given the power of the talent involved, it would be safest to do this tonight. We don't want him to feel something coming together against him."

Vengeance made Schuldig even hotter, which was another good reason to do it tonight. He didn't think Brad could survive all the sex that anticipation would lead to. From the sidelong look Brad gave him, he knew.

******************************************************

Schuldig loved country houses. Yes, give him targets in isolated areas with no neighbors nearby to hear anything. Rich targets did this to themselves all the time. He let the guard's body slide from his hand and smiled as the estate's outer gate slid open from Nagi doing security tricks. As Yoji gracefully unwound his wire from the other guard's neck, Schuldig admired the look of it. It moved at the kitten's will almost supernaturally, even though Eszett's best experts had sworn that Yoji was a normal.

They got back into the car, and Brad drove them in. Nagi had diverted and disabled electronic security from outside, but some people wandered the estate. Schuldig sensed them and directed Brad to avoid them.

Somewhere else, Friendly and Fenris would be sneaking in with Nagi's help. Right now, even Schuldig couldn't sense them. Friendly had a gift for camouflaging her pet. Brad, Schuldig, and Yoji would be the distraction, the center of attention, especially once Schuldig made himself seem like a really tasty treat. Brad hadn't been so happy about that part, but it made sense. The lingering telepathic damage added verisimilitude and made him more enticing. They parked and readied their weapons before storming the house.

The house itself was full of guards, unavoidable. Schuldig didn't mind. Bring it on. He couldn't feel the man Wednesday called the wolf, so mayhem might bring him out. Besides, Schuldig wanted vengeance on something, and he'd killed everyone else from that night already.

Every death felt like _more_ than usual but not as badly as that night, further proof that his shields were healing. Every jolt of pain/fear/pleasure made him want more. Brad's cold, fierce joy in destroying the minions of the man who'd hurt his telepath felt so good as well. Yoji would never admit to enjoying the kills, but that didn't mean he didn't feel it.

Breathing deeply, enjoying the smell of gunpowder and blood, high, Schuldig led the charge up the stairs. All the gunfire and the pounding of his heart left him nearly deafened, but he didn't listen with his ears anyway.

The last guard on this floor twisted as he fell from Yoji's unraveling wire, so Schuldig opened his mind a little and shouted, ~ Here I am! Weren't you looking for me? ~

Sticky-sweet presence and a lover's touch caressed his mind as the wolf said, ~ Emory, you bring me treats and yourself and kill most of my employees at the same time. I'm getting mixed messages here. ~

~ I can't help it. ~

~ I know about the other three members of your party. ~

~ Yeah, but where are they, genius? Don't know? I don't either. ~ Schuldig didn't try to figure out the wolf's exact physical location. That was Friendly's job. His was to be enticing without falling under the wolf's spell. He sighed as Brad's hand tightened on his shoulder, reinforcing reality against the pull of pleasure and mind candy.

A handsome, distinguished gentleman walked into the hall and smiled. Yoji's wire flew out toward him with an eerie twang and wrapped around nothing. Mind trick. Blatantly annoyed, Yoji reeled it in just as quickly.

~ Such toys you bring me. ~

Yoji staggered and fell to his knees, an expression of agonized ecstasy on his face. As pretty as that might be to watch, Schuldig couldn't let that continue. It took very little effort to pull Yoji's mind under his protective umbrella. And the kitten hadn't believed that fucking him could have benefits.

~ _My_ toys. ~

~ Emory, you taste so sweet.... ~

Nobody had ever touched him on the inside like this, leaving him melted against Brad, rocking and gasping, blasted open and mind-blinded by his battle with pleasure. Fuck, _he_ did this to other people and left them with nothing, and he did it _better_, melding truth and fantasy into an irresistible mix. He'd never respect himself again if he fell to this, knowing better. There might not be anything left of him to even decide whether to respect himself or not after this.... Dazed, he felt a vision flash in Brad and watched him pull Yoji over, hiss something into his ear, then push him forward. The kitten dashed down the hallway and turned a corner. Schuldig actually lost track of him, and that was frightening.

"It's all right, Schu," Brad murmured as he wrapped one arm around Schuldig's waist.

Brad had a plan. Brad always had a plan.

~ Where is he going? ~ the wolf asked in honeyed tones that made Schuldig shiver.

~ Don't know. Figure it out for yourself. Or try to read the nearly impenetrable mind of my oracular associate here and knock yourself out. ~

"'Nearly impenetrable'?" Brad asked.

"I know you, so I can do it, but strangers not so much. Besides, you _like_ to let me penetrate you."

******************************************************

Right, left, go down the stairs.... As he ran, Yoji could only hope that he wasn't broadcasting Crawford's directions to their enemy. Crawford had seen something, and Schuldig had seemed too out of it to notice, so Yoji got to pass it along to the right people. Though how successful he could be against a man who read and devoured thoughts remained to be seen. He couldn't help shuddering as he remembered being turned nearly mindless by the wave of lust and pleasure that had swamped him. How could a guy who just had a wire and a gun beat that?

Through teammates, hopefully. Crawford had seen where the wolf was.

Fenris' head peeked out from behind a corner, and he waved Yoji forward. When he reached Fenris and Elena, he said, "Oracle--" A wave of something went through his head as she briefly put her hand on his face. "You did not do what I think you just did."

"It's faster, and this is an emergency," Elena whispered. "Schuldig must really be in deep if I could break into your mind that easily. He's lucky the wolf didn't do it."

That didn't sound good at all.

"Prodigy, Oracle saw the wolf's room and has given us some idea of where it is. That narrows it down better for me to find him," she whispered into her headset. "I'll link you in when I get there." Given the nature of their target, they were saving major and long distance telepathy for the big strikes and relying on headsets for simple communication and speaking in Japanese to baffle anyone listening.

"Ready?" Yoji asked them. "Let's go."

******************************************************

Having commandeered the camera system, Nagi watched each part of his team in separate windows on his laptop monitor from inside their second car a kilometer away. He sneered as the house's security force tried to regain control of their own system. Watching Schuldig struggle against the enemy's temptations got his blood up, made him want to kill. No one threatened his family.

Friendly stopped in front of a closed door on the second floor and nodded. Nagi found the electronic keycode for it and unlocked it. Friendly, Fenris, and Kudou entered in a rush, with Kudou picking off guards with his gun and Fenris through telekinesis.

Since there were no cameras in the private rooms on the second floor, Nagi used the cameras on Friendly and Kudou's headsets to get a look. The smiling man sitting at the desk was their primary target, but he seemed content to let other people die for him at the moment. Friendly murmured through the headset that he looked distracted, probably through his effort to grab Schuldig.

As much as Nagi would love to make his death a slow and agonizing torment, it would be safer to kill him quickly. "Ready?" he said into the headset to Friendly.

"Yes."

He'd been telepathically baffling Nagi prior to this, making it impossible to find him, but now that Nagi had a physical location on him, a spatial awareness, he could telekinetically reach into the man's chest and rip his heart to shreds without a telepathic link. The target struggled and screamed, but Friendly had put a telepathic "lid" on him, preventing him from sharing his pain and death. Nagi snapped his neck for good measure, feeling a bright red sense of satisfaction at the feel of it. Then he withdrew his telekinetic sense, becoming aware of his own body in the car again.

One window showed Schuldig collapsed against Crawford, which worried Nagi. Still, he couldn't do anything about it. Crawford put the telepath over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and said into his headset, "If you don't need anything else, I'm going out to the car." Nagi heard a tiny tremor of worry in his voice.

"We don't," Friendly answered. "This place is about to go up."

"Oracle," Nagi said, "there are four armed men around the car."

"Good," Crawford actually answered. It seemed that he needed to exorcise some aggression.

Nagi followed everyone's progress through the camera systems. Friendly directed an evil smile at the wolf's corpse as she set it ablaze. As she, Kudou, and Fenris ran through the plush halls she regularly ignited a bit of curtain or furniture here and there behind them. Kudou didn't look as disturbed by it as Nagi would have expected. Then again, Weiß had faced Schwarz's talents many times in the past and Kudou had been working with Crawford and Schuldig recently. Outside, Crawford killed people with his usual preternatural efficiency until no one remained, then put Schuldig in the front passenger seat with what looked like tenderness before settling into the driver's seat with his gun still ready and probably the engine on.

Friendly, Fenris, and Kudou ran out to the car and jumped into the backseat. Crawford barely waited for them to close the doors before driving out. He and Kudou picked off two more guards with their guns before they left the grounds.

Nagi used telekinesis to destroy the surveillance tapes from a distance and close and lock the front gate, then loaded a virus into the system to take care of anything else. With all of that done, he waited for the others to arrive.

To Nagi's relief, Schuldig was awake and smiling as they pulled up. "I just went into safe mode when Friendly put the lid on is all," he told Nagi. "You got him good?"

"I shredded his heart and broke his neck, then Friendly turned him into flambé."

"Pretty thought." Schuldig reached through the window to ruffle Nagi's hair. "Good kids."

Nagi put up a teke shield to stop him. "I'll kill you next."

"No, you won't."

Schuldig would be Crawford's problem once they returned to the hotel. Nagi knew he'd have to have his telepathic shields up as strong as possible to avoid a peepshow.

Kudou asked Friendly how she felt, and she admitted to having a headache. Nagi had one as well, but it couldn't cloud his satisfaction.

Schwarz took one car and Kudou, Friendly, and Fenris took the other. A few minutes into the drive, Crawford asked, "Nagi, would you like to inform Persia that the mission is completed and we'll be making arrangements to return to Japan tomorrow?"

What was he playing at? "Sure."

Schuldig lifted his head from Crawford's shoulder to look back and say, "That way you can talk to your honey-bunny."

"I really didn't miss you at all."

"Liar."

"If Nagi thinks of Persia as his honey-bunny, I'd rather not know about it," Crawford said, sounding as dry and serious as ever.

"I do not," Nagi answered.

"I understand that you can't admit to it," Schuldig said.

"I'll never have sex with you. Never."

"That's just mean."

As they walked through the hotel hallway, Nagi started to think that Crawford might have wanted Nagi to make the report just so he wouldn't have to talk to Persia and fend Schuldig off at the same time, since Schuldig used Crawford's tie like a leash as he led him into their room. Nagi locked the door to his own room and strengthened his shields.

He kicked off his boots, sat on the bed, and called in. With his security codes, he only had to go through two levels of flunkies, one of them Rex, to reach Omi. "Hi. It's me."

"Hi, me." It sounded like Omi, not Persia. Nagi had calibrated his greeting in the hopes of getting that result.

"We concluded our business here tonight."

"That was fast."

"We're fast and efficient. It's what you love about us." He telekinetically unfastened the zippers on his coat and shrugged out of it.

"I miss you." Definitely Omi.

Nagi smiled. "I miss you too. We'll be making arrangements to come back after we get some sleep."

"Are you tired?"

"Yes and no. I can't sleep yet. It's late morning for you, right?"

"Yes, I'm at the office. I can't talk to you on the phone the way I'd like to."

"Really?" Nagi couldn't believe that he could purr a word like that. Schuldig had definitely corrupted him. "And how would you like to talk to me?"

"You'll have to wait until you get back for that."

Yes, dirty talk and important discussion would have to wait until they could ensure privacy.

"Nagi, my private jet is still there. I'll contact my flight crew to say that you or Crawford will be in touch later."

"After some sleep." And after Crawford could pry Schuldig off him. "Then I'll see you soon. Good night."

"Good night."

So much for getting a chance at personal talk with his honey-bunny. Sighing, Nagi put on his headphones and opened his laptop.

******************************************************

"So what's in Tuxedo, New York?" Michael yelled over the din of the club as he rubbed his hand where Aya had slapped it.

Aya fought down the urge to kill. When Aya had presented his driver's license at the door, Michael had briefly snatched it and made out the hometown Nagi had given Raymond Shirow. Now he wouldn't let it go.

"Buildings, people, roads. Death." Aya paused. "I think outlet shopping is nearby." Ray had a tragic past to help explain Aya's taciturnity. Aya would reveal it if he had to, just not now.

"You're a nut."

"Leave it alone. I just need to find the time to get a new license to reflect my new address." Would Farfarello just finish talking with that woman and get back here? Given a choice of evils, Aya would rather dance than face this inquisition.

Over time and exposure, he was slowly becoming inured to these places. Or perhaps he was going deaf.

"Kitten." Farfarello grabbed his arm. "I may have gotten us a gig."

"A gig? Knife-dancing?"

"We _intrigue_ her. She thinks she can set up something for us."

"You're sure it's our dancing she wants to see?"

"She did say that her clientele would love to see two good-looking guys get sweaty with one another, but she also likes a veneer of respectable art on her porn. Dance with me. 'Bye, Michael." Farfarello led Aya onto the dance floor and made him move by pushing and guiding him around with his body. It probably looked a lot like sex.

It felt a bit like it.

"We're not actually performance artists," Aya said into his ear.

His arm tightened around Aya's waist. "There's nothing wrong in making our cover look better. Might be fun to do it if we're around that long."

"You're having a good time with this." In another life, Farfarello might have made a good manager.

"Aye. A lack of fear and shame can be useful in business and art as in murder."

"Hey! There's someone you two should meet," Alek shouted as he came up to them. It sounded promising, so they followed him through the tightly packed, writhing crowd as he led them to a roped-off area reserved for VIPs and through men who were obviously hired muscle. Their target sat in the center of associates, sycophants, and bodyguards like a spider in its web. "Mr. Zhulin, these are the artists I told you about, Cain and Ray." Alek didn't have to give Mr. Zhulin's credentials as a rich man of influence, not when it was so obvious.

The man who scrutinized them looked fit and clear-eyed. "You dance with knives?"

"And each other all at once," Farfarello answered.

"Looking at you, I can believe it. I have parties now and then, and I pride myself on featuring unusual entertainment. Topping myself with each one is difficult, so you'll understand that I'll have to see your routine before I decide to hire you." Something about him made Aya's skin crawl.

Aya would love to show him their routine, up close, right now, but they'd never get out of here alive if he tried it. "We understand."

"I have contacts. If I'm impressed with it, I can refer you to people who would be very helpful to you."

"Thank you," Farfarello said.

"Would tomorrow at 5 p.m. be good for you?"

"Yeah. It's good. We're looking forward to it."

"Alek can give you directions to the place in Brooklyn I want you to go to. He says you have a car."

How would Alek know that they had a car? Aya hated the feel of this and the way Mr. Zhulin looked at them as if they were dinner, but they'd already committed to this job and could only take greater caution. "We do."

"Good. I'll see you tomorrow." Then he waved them away, dismissing them.

As Alek led them out of the VIP area, he said, "Mr. Zhulin can do a lot for you. You'll see."

"I can believe it." Killing him would let them return... home. Did he really think of Schwarz as home? Apparently so.

How embarrassing.

Farfarello laughed and put his arm over Aya's shoulder.


	82. "I'm so misunderstood."

Troubled, Yoji couldn't go back to sleep. Things that didn't bother him during missions often came back to him later. Omi's lover could kill a man from a kilometer away. Elena claimed to be no great power in pyrokinesis, but even so she could easily leave a swathe of destruction. Even the childlike Fenris could do a lot of damage just by thinking about it. _They_ hadn't needed someone else to protect their minds against tonight's target. Where did a regular guy like Yoji fit into a crowd of such casually deadly people?

Then again, didn't he do enough damage without psionic talent?

Maybe he did have a place with them, since he'd figured out that Persia intended to set him up in a team with Elena and Fenris. Despite his misgivings over their power, he didn't mind all that much. They had good in them; it just needed reinforcement. He could have done better with helping Omi keep his youth longer, and here he had a second chance.

Maybe they could teach him some tricks.

His mind full and speeding along, his body high on adrenaline, he felt too restless, so he got dressed. He'd go out for a walk. Two hours of sleep would have to do.

As he walked down the hall, one of the doors opened. "Where are you going?" Schuldig asked as he finger-combed his disheveled hair away from his eyes. He wore only a robe and had a line of scab along his left cheekbone. Oddly, the wound didn't detract from his looks.

"Walk. Couldn't sleep."

"Come in."

"I'm not in the mood." Actually, his body was but his mind wasn't.

"I spent about an hour and a half playing with Brad. Your body is safe from me. For now."

He actually found Schuldig entertaining, no doubt a sign of his progressing moral decline. His progressing moral decline used to express itself in more innocent ways. "You really don't know when to stop."

"True."

Further intimacy with the telepath was probably a mistake, but Schuldig had used his In to protect Yoji against their enemy as well as read his mind, so maybe it might not be so bad after all.

Maybe Yoji was just making excuses for himself. Yeah, that worked.

Schuldig grabbed his arm and dragged him in, saying, "That's right. Now you take off your shoes, coat, and belt and I snuggle you." When the door closed, it left them in near-darkness.

"That's how it works?"

"You might as well," Crawford said, making Yoji jump, since he couldn't see him or much of anything.

"You saw that?"

"Yes. Now do what he says, get in bed, and shut up. I need sleep."

"I broke him, you see," Schuldig murmured into Yoji's ear. He smelled like sex and Crawford's cologne.

"Like hell. You shut up too."

"So much for the afterglow."

How did Schuldig manage to get his coat and belt off already? Yoji took off his own shoes, thanks. The bed was still a little too small but otherwise warm and comfortable, far more comfortable than walking around outside on a cold winter's night. Sandwiched between Yoji and Crawford, Schuldig put his arms around Yoji and drew him in, actually snuggling. It took Yoji a while to relax, since he rarely _slept_ with anyone, let alone two anyones, anymore but eventually he became accustomed to hearing other people breathing nearby and having a telepath plastered to his back. He even fell asleep.

Eventually he awoke in dimness to the brush of fingers along his stomach and a murmured, "Yeah, that's good...." in his ear. It felt good....

It took only half a second to figure out what was going on. Squirming in Schuldig's grip, Yoji snarled, "Do you ever stop?"

"Actually, Brad's the one starting this. I'm so misunderstood. Mmm."

"I'm far from broken," Crawford said, his voice sounding deeper, almost like a sexy purr. "It's up to you whether you stay or leave, Balinese. We wouldn't mind having you."

Time to go, because if he didn't he'd get in even deeper with these two. Yoji rolled out from under Schuldig's arm and stood up. "Enjoy. See you later."

Amidst the rustling of bed sheets, Schuldig's amused laughter turned into a groan. As he sternly told himself not to imagine exactly what they were doing, Yoji picked up his shoes, belt, and coat and left before the temptation to stay became too much for him.

******************************************************

"He's such a great mascot. Every team should have a Yoji," Schuldig said as he felt his body loosening under Brad's skilled hands and mouth.

"I wouldn't go that far," Brad murmured hotly atop the head of Schuldig's cock. His hair felt so soft under Schuldig's fingers.

"Your jealousy is so cute." Schuldig bit his lip as Brad deep-throated him and caressed his inner thighs, working his way up with his hands. "But you do things for me he can't. The wolf hurt me, and you made Kritiker kill him for it...."

"Mmmm."

That pleased hum along his cock and the heated focus of Brad's drive to give him pleasure and make him come screaming ratcheted up Schuldig's lust. "You're the one I belong to."

******************************************************

Nagi looked sleepy and shadowed as they checked out of the hotel. "Did you sleep at all?" Crawford asked.

"Yeah."

From the looks of him, it couldn't have been for very long, but Crawford didn't press. Nagi didn't respond well to being cornered. In any case, he could sleep on the plane. A flash later, Crawford knew that Nagi _would_ sleep on the plane.

Balinese put his sunglasses on and glanced at them before walking out to his car with Friendly and Fenris. Crawford's talent didn't say what changes might come of Balinese's recent liaisons with him and Schuldig, but gaining influence with someone Persia personally concerned himself with had to be a positive. He didn't need Schuldig's talent to see that the last few days had humanized them in the Weiß kitten's eyes. Being a sentimental fool, Yoji would treat them differently because of it.

Smiling more than smirking, Schuldig looked content and mellow, lounging jauntily with red sunglasses on and the wound on his face left uncovered. Vengeance had been as effective an aphrodisiac as it always was, not that Schuldig needed one, and he seemed to be experiencing the morning after as one long afterglow. Sometimes when he turned his head it revealed a new bruise on his neck about the size of Crawford's mouth that distracted from the fading handprints already there. Crawford nearly smiled over the aches and marks his fervent telepath had left him with.

The first ten minutes of the car ride to the airport passed in companionable silence until Nagi suddenly said, "Farfarello and Aya are celebrating Christmas in New York."

Crawford immediately decided that he'd misheard. Fortunately, he had Schuldig around to say, "You're kidding me."

Crawford watched in the rearview mirror as a little more animation came into Nagi's tired face. "I'm not kidding. Farfarello believes that American Christmas has nothing to do with Christ, so he's having one. They even have a tree."

"Did you hear that, Brad? Christmas."

Crawford knew from Schuldig's smile that the telepath must have overheard him longing for one at some point. He allowed himself little sentimentality, but somehow he missed having Christmas. Of course, even aside from the irreparable harm it would do to Crawford's reputation, Farfarello's presence in the team had made the idea of celebrating any ostensibly Christian holiday ludicrous. Crawford was enough of a traditionalist to disdain bloody mass murder as a proper part of Christmas ritual.

"I heard that. I'm surprised," Crawford answered.

"You? Surprised?"

"I don't foresee for them while they're far away." It appeared that their berserkers wouldn't rejoin the team for a while yet, because Crawford hadn't received any visions of them lately.

"Aya says that Farfarello is changing," Nagi said.

They all had been lately. "I suppose that it's inevitable."

To Crawford's great satisfaction, having a private jet waiting for them eliminated many of the hassles Schwarz usually had to deal with before flying. Eszett had rarely accorded them such luxury. Didn't want them to start thinking themselves better than they were. Crawford ate the fine breakfast served to them, then pretended to read a newspaper as he actually watched his associates.

Friendly and Fenris sat together, with Friendly reading to better her comprehension of kanji and Fenris happily coloring with crayons and murmuring conversational Japanese along to a headset he wore. Once in a while she glanced up and looked back at him, aware of his scrutiny. They had been useful here, and Crawford knew that they would be useful again.

Nagi fell asleep after breakfast, and for whatever reason Balinese had settled into the seat next to him. Nagi's relations with Persia left mixed feelings. While it could be useful having a team member so close to a personage of power, that knife could cut both ways. The boy's innate good sense could be undermined by affection. It had happened before. In any case, Crawford felt that Nagi was too young to be in a serious sexual relationship. He would have to have a talk with Takatori Mamoru. Forbidding this altogether would no doubt strengthen their resolve and worsen the situation, but cautioning them might do some good.

It felt good to have Nagi back with them again.

Nagi shifted suddenly and rested his head against Balinese's shoulder. Although obviously torn between nervousness and an aw! response--the boy looked sweet and younger while napping--Balinese let him stay there. Good move. Crawford didn't know yet if the Weiß kitten had truly benefited from Schuldig's version of sex therapy, but he seemed happier and more stable, which made him more useful to Schwarz. If only a stronger, clearer vision would replace the vague feeling that a stable Balinese _would_ be necessary. Crawford hated vagueness.

Without panicking flyers to distract and annoy him or to play with, Schuldig had declared himself bored and taken a nap, sprawled out in his seat in complete ease and unselfconsciousness. He had a gift for sleeping almost anywhere at any time. Watching him, Crawford felt a deep satisfaction. The vision no longer hung over them like a sword, Schuldig had come out of the London experience alive and sane, and the wolf had met the end that anyone who tried to hurt and steal him away would earn. Better, Crawford had received knowledge of a piece of Schuldig's past that might not have come to him otherwise.

He felt no disdain over anything Schuldig had done to survive. Rather, he applauded the telepath's tenacious will and drive.

Crawford thought of his two far-away kids, as Schuldig would no doubt term them, working in New York. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't imagine Farfarello celebrating Christmas. At best, thoughts of him storming churches and roasting hunks of carolers over an open fire came to mind. Yet Persia's terse reports on their doings mentioned nothing that sounded like Farfarello's usual acting out, as if he and his not that much more stable paramour had settled easily and invisibly amidst people living regular lives. It should have been impossible. Once, it certainly would have been.

Had Aya drawn him out of his hermetically sealed insanity that much?

Crawford wanted more detailed reports on them. Another thing to speak to Persia about. Aya and Farfarello were his people, and he had to be kept informed.

"Christmas," Schuldig said. "I have to see that. Do you think there's a chance?"

"Yes," Crawford said, suddenly feeling it. "But not yet."

"I hate waiting."

"I know."

~ I want my family intact again. ~

~ I know. ~ Crawford understood that about Schuldig even better than before.

"You're really smug over knowing about my little collective now. Don't get too smug. If you start thinking you understand me, I might have to act up and be completely obnoxious to show you otherwise."

Of course he would. "You're too complex to be understood."

"Exactly." Schuldig's eyes looked warm and bright behind the red lenses, fond. Beloved. "I don't think Omi would be too happy about us putting another stamp in our Mile High Club book on his private jet."

Despite all the sex they'd had, Crawford wouldn't mind more. It still surprised him to feel that way. "I find it hard to believe that you're concerned about that."

Schuldig grinned. "True. But I'm also tired, and I don't like having to make you do all the work."

"I appreciate your thoughtfulness."

"Yeah. 'Thoughtful' is always the first word that comes to people's minds when they think of me. I should know."

"How did my head end up on Balinese's shoulder?" Nagi suddenly growled.

"It's not like I put it there!" Balinese retorted.

Nagi abruptly stood up and went to sit alone on the other side of the plane, his attitude screaming that his dignity had been seriously affronted. Balinese rolled his eyes, then smirked.

Obviously pleased, Schuldig murmured, "The other benefit of large groups is that there are more people available to go into hissy fits, giving me more entertainment."

"And it's all about you."

"It took me years to teach you that."


	83. "If he'd just stayed dead like a good boy, it wouldn't have been a problem."

When Aya carried the tray with their brunch on it into the bedroom, he found Farfarello sitting on his heels on the floor, one of the local free newspapers forgotten near his knee, tapping a bell ornament on the tree to make it ring. He almost seemed to be kneeling there and worshiping the blinking lights that mesmerized him. Aya set the tray down near the paper and copied his posture as he sat/knelt himself. As he watched the lights cast soft colors all over Farfarello's pale skin and hair, he realized that his lover was making the bell ring in time to their blinking.

Aya had to admit that the tree was beautiful as well as gaudy and eclectic. At times in the past, when Farfarello wasn't watching, he too would tap an ornament to make it swing and reflect the lights.

"I'm torn," Farfarello eventually said.

"Yes?"

"I'll miss this, but I also miss Schwarz. Our two styles of living can't coincide. We can't be a couple alone and part of them too."

"We could try." Aya understood, since he saw the appeals of both as well. He loved the privacy and free reign they had here, yet he missed the company and sense of community Schwarz gave him. "Do you think something Schuldig did to us is responsible for our longing for Schwarz?"

"No. And don't you miss Nagi for your own reasons?"

"True." Aya liked Nagi for perfectly understandable reasons.

"I'm not who I was. Neither are you."

"True."

"I'm thinking about the future. Never had one before. Never cared."

"I'm familiar with that." For years he hadn't thought of a life for himself after Takatori's death. Achieving his revenge had left him rudderless and bereft until his sister had been kidnapped, giving him a purpose again. Once she'd been killed, he'd seen no future at all until Schwarz had forced one on him.

"Yeah." Farfarello smiled, looking magical under all the colors.

"Our future comes moment by moment, and that's how we take it."

Farfarello grabbed him and held him close. "So wise."

"Your eggs and tea are getting cold."

"So practical."

"Mine are too."

Moving the tray closer, Farfarello asked, "Are you making some kind of joke by giving me Lucky Charms?"

In a way. Aya continued to take cultural lessons from television programming and commercials. He kept his expression bland as he answered, "I thought you'd like the artificial marshmallows."

"I do. Otherwise I might start thinking that you have a sense of humor, when you're always saying you don't. You could just give me the cereal without the omelet."

"With all the sugar in that shit, I want to make sure you get some real nutrition."

"I haven't lost a tooth from rot yet."

"Yet."

After that they ate quietly by the light of the tree, and Aya wondered what he could possibly get Farfarello for X-mas. There would have to be at least one gift, because getting nothing would violate what he perceived to be the acquisitive purpose of the holiday. Unfortunately, Farfarello wanted very little that could be bought, and what little he did want he tended to buy immediately. Aya could imagine his glee at getting a gift and didn't want to miss that.

Farfarello tapped Aya's long earring to make it gently swing and said, "My puisín has ornaments too. Is this a good thoughtful or a bad thoughtful you're doing?"

"Both." Aya almost welcomed the familiar knock at the door for the break in mood it provided. "Come in!" He moved the trays out of their way.

They both stood as Lark walked in with a slight limp and a blatant air of satisfaction. Farfarello asked, "Where the hell were you yesterday?"

"You would think that if a man has three holes in his torso, a stopped heart, and a big knife wound in his neck, that would be a sign not to try to bring him back. Some EMT decided to play God instead." She smiled at Farfarello's sudden growl. "Thus, someone from my Out box jumped back In yesterday, looking for revenge. Like it's my fault that the asshole lost a kidney and so much of his liver and did three years of intensive physical therapy to come after me? If he'd just stayed dead like a good boy, it wouldn't have been a problem. This time I chopped off his head and torched his corpse." Her expression of dark pleasure turned bland again. "I'm sorry about Falcon. He's a dick, but he was all I could get on such short notice. I didn't want to bring my problems to your doorstep."

"It's appreciated," Aya answered. "We might not be able to take a job today, though, since we have an appointment to demonstrate our art to Mr. Zhulin at 5 p.m. I doubt we'll be able to finish the job then, so this will probably be about recon and gaining his trust."

"Very good. Where are you going?"

"Somewhere in Williamsburg. He's apparently trendy."

"You're a snob, Mr. Red."

"Not really." Aya picked the bar napkin up off the counter. "These are the directions we were given."

Lark accepted it from him and checked them. "Yeah, this _is_ one of his places we know about. I'm glad you told me. This way, if you don't come back alive we have some idea of what happened to you."

"Thank you."

She handed it back. "You're welcome."

Farfarello said, "I read something out of Falcon's mind that I might be able to help you with."

"I didn't think you did that," she said, surprised. It surprised Aya as well.

"I've been working on it. You lost a hacker who was working on getting the Forbin project."

She didn't look happy that he knew that. "Yeah. Lost him rather permanently."

"I might be able to get the files and codes you want."

Aya tried not to let his shock show. Farfarello hadn't said a word about wanting to do this anything like this. It left Aya feeling very unsettled.

"By mind-reading?"

"In a way. By going into the target and making him make the right file copies for us."

"You can do that?"

"I'm not sure. Going in, yeah. Making him my puppet I'm not so sure of. But it's better than your current standstill, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Do you want to give it a try tomorrow?" Lark asked. She kept glancing at Aya, who looked at Farfarello, who looked blandly back at him.

"Yeah, should be interesting."

"I have the mission packet in the trunk of my car. Let me go get it for you. Falcon doesn't know everything about it."

"That I can believe."

She smirked as she left the apartment.

"What is this?" Aya asked him.

Farfarello shrugged. "I've been using telepathy more lately without even thinking about it. It's time I start using it while thinking about it. I've fucked myself up for life from not using it correctly. That's all."

"You're going to slide into this person and take information and command him? It sounds draining."

"That's why I'll ride inside your body to reach him. Less strain."

"You didn't think to ask me about this before making the offer to Lark." The thought of Farfarello hanging out inside his body made Aya shiver. They didn't do it very often, which relieved him. Having his lover so deep inside his mind left him terrified and aroused all at once.

"I knew my plan would worry you, so I did it this way to play on your sense of honor and duty."

"That's wonderful. Thank you for thinking of me."

"I don't have to ride you. It would just be safer for me. Either way, I want to do this. I want to be good for more than muscle and intimidation."

"I want to be told things, and I hate to be manipulated."

Finally Farfarello looked contrite and a bit forlorn. "Sorry. I got so attached to this idea in my head that I didn't think through some of the things I'd have to do to get there."

"All right."

"I want to reach my full potential and all that shit, and I think this would help." His voice deepened, sexy, as he said, "And I enjoy being inside you."

Even as a part of Aya responded with a jolt of lust, his more reliable mouth answered, "That's part of what I'm worried about."

Why wouldn't Farfarello cast his flawed body aside in favor of one that could feel, something he wanted so badly? Aside from terror at being invaded and controlled by and utterly exposed to someone else, Aya worried over this plan because he liked Farfarello's body. Seeing it lying still and unoccupied reminded him horribly of his sister's final years. Having it die because Farfarello didn't feel like living in it anymore....

"My body is useful for interacting with your body. I won't toss it away."

Lark knocked at the door again, then opened it. "I'll leave the folder on the counter. You two can go back to whatever you were doing." She closed the door behind her and left.

"What we were doing? Arguing?" Aya asked.

Farfarello nuzzled his neck at exactly the spot that made him melt. "I didn't think it all the way through. I'm sorry."

He wouldn't allow lust to cloud his better judgment. "Think next time."

"I shall."

But Farfarello was also right that he had to explore his abilities better to avoid further damage to himself, and Aya wanted to help with that. "I will let you hitch a ride in my body for this. This time. In the future, ask me before you commit us to anything." The asking mattered most.

"You're the best kitten a man could ask for," Farfarello murmured as he nibbled the edge of Aya's right ear. "Let's fuck near the tree under the pretty lights."

"We could knock the tree over onto ourselves and get tree needles stuck in bad places. We could electrocute ourselves."

"You're making it more attractive." With a sudden twist that made the world spin, Farfarello dropped them to the floor near the tree, breaking the fall with his body before rolling them to put himself on top. He cradled Aya's head on his arm. "For an X-mas gift I would even be content if you'd sit near the tree with a bow and ribbons on, offering me a camera."

Aya moaned as Farfarello pressed their hips together, then answered, "To take pictures of me like that? Too risky. They could fall into the wrong hands."

"Damn. It wouldn't do to let anyone else see you like that. We'll have to think more. Later." The tree's colored lights painted him as a supernatural creature. When he kissed Aya hungrily, rocking their bodies together, Aya gripped his hair, making him growl happily.

Aya still couldn't believe that he'd allowed him to fuck him on the kitchenette counter yesterday. How did Farfarello make him into such a slut? Something about how the desperate ache of needing to come felt, wanting it to end and not wanting it to end, and the swell of emotion filling him.... Aya would have the bruises from that bout for some time to come.

Speaking of which.... "This floor is very hard and uncomfortable."

"I didn't notice."

"You wouldn't."

"Good point." Farfarello rolled them over again, this time putting himself on the bottom. "Better?"

"Yes." Farfarello felt so right against him, strong. "I love you," Aya found himself saying.

Farfarello's callused fingertips stroked up under Aya's shirt and along his back, rough yet gentle. "And I you."


	84. "I want to know what your intentions are toward my telekinetic."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Ari for Fenris' German here. Translated, it's:  
> "I'm the big dinosaur, and I'll bite your head off. Rrrrr! Yeah? I'm smaller but I'm faster, so I'll bite _your_ head off! Grrrr! You're not so fast now that you don't have a head, are you?"

Mamoru couldn't help feeling a certain satisfaction at having almost everyone back. "You look good, Yoji." He'd called Yoji in first, alone, to discuss his possible reassignment.

"It wasn't all roses," Yoji smiled, "but London had its fun moments."

Mamoru stood next to him, not wanting the desk and his position between them as he did this. "Do I have to take vengeance on Schwarz for anything?"

Yoji regarded him with shrewd eyes, expectant but waiting him out. "They were on their best behavior. For them."

Crawford's terse reports hadn't mentioned any friction, but of course his wouldn't. Still, Yoji seemed a lot more relaxed about them than Mamoru had expected. He'd worried that the two Schwarz members, especially Schuldig, would annoy the hell out of Yoji for sport, but instead Yoji looked unperturbed and happy.

Did Schuldig do something to him? But it didn't seem like the telepath's style to manipulate someone in _helpful_ ways.

"What about Draco and Fenris?"

"They're good kids. Scary sometimes, but they're getting better."

"Do you still want to return to a team?"

"Yeah. If this assignment has shown me anything, it's that I prefer a team. C'mon, what do you have up your sleeve here?"

Mamoru smiled a little, then sighed inwardly as he realized that he'd just tried to make himself cute to better cajole Yoji. Old habits died hard. "How would you feel about joining a new Weiß, one composed of you, Ken, Draco, and Fenris?"

"Ken's back?" Yoji sounded so happy.

Mamoru felt that himself. "He says that he's gotten his head back together, so I discharged him from prison. From what I can see, he seems more at peace with himself now."

"Maybe he finally feels like he was punished enough by his prison stay."

"Maybe." Mamoru hoped it lasted, not wanting to ever see his friend so devoured by rage, self-loathing, and despair again. "He's agreed to the lineup."

"So if I want to work with Kenken again, I have to agree to the mythical beasts?"

"Yoji!"

Yoji laughed. "Don't worry. I like them. Yeah, count me in. Where is Ken?"

"In an apartment over a new shop."

"It's not Weiß if flowers aren't involved?"

"Kind of. I already broached the idea to Elena and Fenris, and they agreed to working in whatever lineup of Weiß I had planned. They're already agreed to move in to their own apartment there. What about you, Yoji?"

"Yeah, my hotel room is so wonderful that I don't want to give it up. Sure, I want to, Omi. Sorry."

"It's okay, Yoji. I've been Omi to you much longer than I've been Mamoru." And he liked being called "Omi," not that that changed anything. He was who he was, and he had responsibilities. He pushed a button on the comm. "Rex, tell Draco and Fenris to come in."

Elena came in smiling. "Is it a yes?"

"It's a yes," Yoji answered.

"Cool! It'll be nice to settle into a team where we already know people." She put her report down on Mamoru's desk.

"Have you already seen Ken?" Yoji asked, glancing sidelong at Mamoru. He might be a tad annoyed at all of this already being in place before Mamoru had brought it up with him.

"No, not yet."

"Glad to hear it."

Mamoru was so going to hear about this later. "Ken's already there. I could have a driver drop you off at the shop, Yoji, while Elena and Fenris get their last few things. It won't take them long, since they don't have much."

"Nah, I'll go with them, and I'll pick up necessities from my hotel room so I can stay the night, too. It should be good for that whole team bonding experience."

That might be good. Maybe. At least Yoji seemed to get along with Elena and Fenris. "That would be fine. A car is waiting for you downstairs."

"Let's go move you in," Yoji said, and Elena _smiled_. _That_ could be good or bad. At least Fenris didn't find anything wrong with it. Nobody wanted to unnecessarily upset a telekinetic that had the mind of a child. "Goodbye, Mamoru," Yoji said as he put his mission report down on the desk.

"Goodbye, Weiß."

Yoji looked happy. Everyone looked happy. It gave Mamoru such a sense of relief. He was doing the right thing.

As Yoji, Elena, and Fenris walked out of the office, Schwarz walked in, and Yoji and Schuldig... changed somehow. Mamoru couldn't quite say how. They looked... looser? Schuldig lingered at the doorway to watch Yoji go.

"Schuldig," Crawford said, his voice stern with command.

In response, Schuldig grinned and pushed his red sunglasses up his nose, then walked into the office and closed the door behind him. Mamoru hadn't thought the telepath actually wore those anywhere except on the top of his head.

Nagi smiled at them, and it made Mamoru happy to see it. Nagi had been so solemn on the job lately, which was the majority of the time they spent together.

It felt so odd to be commanding Schwarz--he'd just gotten used to giving orders to Nagi--but Mamoru refused to let it show and kept his mind as tightly shielded as he could. He sat at his desk to reinforce his role as Persia. "Aside from Mastermind's injury, everything went well?" His independent sources in London reported successes on all fronts, but he liked to hear an operative's account of matter.

"Yes," Crawford answered as he placed his report on the desk.

"Mastermind, the phone report was necessarily terse, so I couldn't get a conception of the extent of your injuries." Though Crawford's phrasing had suggested a telepathic injury. Aside from the graze on Schuldig's cheek, the telepath _looked_ fine, but.... "Do you need any medical or psionic assistance?"

Schuldig had his hands clasped behind his back, and something about the pose suggested a child about to give a recital. "I'm getting better on my own all the time. The physical injuries are healing, and so is the telepathic one. I can still work. I have been working."

"That's good to hear. Oracle, was there any friction with Balinese?"

An evil gleam in his eyes, Schuldig opened his mouth... then closed it and simply smiled. Mamoru probably didn't want to know.

"We worked together well enough," Crawford said. "We have no objections to doing so again in the future."

_That_ was interesting.

Crawford continued, "A local telepath gave us valuable assistance in finding the telepath who troubled Mastermind. Draco offered her entry into Kritiker, but she refused. Draco tells me that she put a telepathic tag on the girl so we can find her later if we need to."

One part of Mamoru found that horrifying, but most of him saw it as practical and useful. "Very good."

"The particulars are in the report I just submitted."

"I'll see if any other questions come to me once I've read it."

"I have a few other matters I wish to discuss with you."

"Yes?"

"The reports I'm receiving on Berserker and Abyssinian's progress are unsatisfying in their terseness. They're my employees and work for you through me."

"If they were more computer savvy, we could cut out the middleman," Schuldig murmured.

"That's something to consider for the future. In the meantime, I must be kept better informed."

Controlling access to information gave Mamoru more power over them, but giving Crawford a little more data might be worthwhile since he could tell that the seer would not bend on this issue. "Schwarz's position in Kritiker is unique, and I'm still working out the terms of it, but I don't see a problem in giving you more detail on your operatives." He could still decide how much to reveal.

"Excellent. The next matter is more personal. I would be speaking not as a freelance operative but as Nagi's guardian."

This couldn't be good.

Nagi looked horrified and angry. "Legally I am my own guardian."

"It wasn't always so. Takatori-san, I want to know what your intentions are toward my telekinetic."

Nagi looked ready to die of embarrassment, while Mamoru could only ask, "Excuse me?"

"Brad, they're teenagers," Schuldig said. "They don't have intentions."

Schuldig was trying to help him? Or was he?

"Yeah, I'm trying to help," the telepath said.

"Don't read my mind," Mamoru answered.

"Then don't shout at me."

Intentions? That wasn't a conversation Mamoru had ever thought he'd have with Crawford. What did he even mean by "intentions"? What was he looking for? They could hardly get married, and there was no chance of an accidental pregnancy occurring. What would Crawford consider a good answer?

"I want to make Nagi happy. I try to make working together an advantageous thing for the both of us. I don't have plans for him, because he has a mind of his own." Crawford's blank expression made him hard to read, but from the slight smile on Nagi's face Mamoru could tell that his speech had been warmly received by the person whose opinion most mattered to him.

The silence stretched, taut. Mamoru refused to be intimidated. Crawford finally said, "That will do for now. Nagi's well-being is important to me. Remember that."

"His well-being is important to me too. Do you have any other issues?"

Crawford nearly smiled. "No. Please keep us in mind for future assignments."

"I'll see you tonight," Nagi said, which made Crawford scowl and Schuldig smirk.

Mamoru took note of their reactions. "I'm looking forward to it."

******************************************************

"I can't believe you asked that! You're not my real father," Nagi said from the backseat. "His intentions! As if he could say that he intended for us to get married and have 2.5 kids!" The humiliation....

"That poor 0.5 kid must be a freak," Schuldig murmured. "Hey, you could always adopt."

"There's no need to make a scene, Nagi," Crawford said, keeping his eyes on the road as he drove.

"I waited until we were in the car. You should be applauding my self-control. Damn. I didn't miss this at all."

"You should think about your future."

Future? Aside from his small rebellion over Tot, he had always done what Eszett and Crawford told him to do and gone where they told him to go. "Since when have I had one? One that was up to me?"

"Since lately."

It shocked him. Would Crawford actually abide by decisions he made about his own future?

"To an extent," Schuldig said.

"Takatori is not who I would have chosen for you," Crawford said.

"Then who?" Nagi asked. "I'm honestly curious." He was.

"I haven't seen that person yet."

"I like Omi. And the sex is good too," Nagi answered, since Crawford had to pay for that scene in Omi's office.

"My baby," Schuldig said, sounding pleased.

"Nagi, I know that hormones can be a potent force," Crawford pointedly glanced at Schuldig, who whistled off-key, "but you have to plan your liaisons for other advantages as well."

Schuldig smirked. "Brad wants you to marry well."

"Omi's heir to a fortune and in a position of great power," Nagi replied.

Crawford shook his head and glanced at him through the rearview. "You're too young. You're both too young."

"I've been an assassin for how long? Besides, you should be happy that he's young. I could have gone for someone 10 to 20 years older than I am."

"Brad's nose is going to start bleeding any second now."

"Just think about it, Nagi." Crawford almost sounded concerned, as if really cared.

It messed with Nagi's ability to be just purely pissed off. "Fine." None of them said anything further as they drove back to the apartment, which was better than fine.

"It's good to be back," Schuldig said as they walked into the apartment. Standing at the doorway to the room he shared with Crawford, he closed his eyes and relaxed completely, then smiled and entered.

Despite everything, particularly embarrassing conversations with and about his lover, it felt good to have them back. The apartment had lost its hushed funereal air as soon as Crawford and Schuldig had entered.

******************************************************

Sitting in the window, Ken watched the car pull up to the front of the shop and his team get out. Having them be familiar faces would help, although he'd met the other two only briefly and hadn't liked them much then. A routine would help, since he'd gotten used to having one in prison and he'd need to ease out of that slowly.

They all had boxes and bags. He should help with those. He'd always felt better _doing_ things.

"Ken!" Yoji said. He looked better than the last time than the last time Ken had seen him.

"Hi!" Elena said. She seemed younger tonight, or perhaps just relaxed, less hard-assed. "What, are we the team of people who can't play nice with other people?"

Yoji gave her a look. "Elena."

"I'm counting myself in there."

"Can I take anything?" Ken asked.

"We want to get everything inside," Yoji answered. "Once we're off the street, Fenris can carry this stuff a lot easier than we can."

And he did. Even seeing Prodigy do it didn't make it less weird to watch this kid walk upstairs with a train of boxes floating in the air behind him. Ken got over it and said, "The rooms are about the same size. I chose mine already. You can take whatever ones left you like."

"Sure!" Elena said. "Fenris will put Yoji's stuff in one of the ones we don't take."

"Yoji, don't you want to be up there to get first pick?"

"Nah. I have something more important to do down here." Once the other two had disappeared, Yoji asked, "How are you doing, Ken?"

He'd been waiting for this, so it felt good to get it over with. "Better. Calmer. I had a lot of time to think. I became somebody I really didn't like for a while and forgot who I should be. That's done now."

Yoji put his hand on Ken's shoulder. "That's great. If you need something, though, feel free to ask me. I can't guarantee that I'll give it to you, but I might."

_Now_ it felt like home. "You're all heart, Yoji."

"That's why everyone loves me. Now let's check on the kids."

"You think they'll work out?"

"They might. I've been teamed with a bubbly kid and a badly socialized sociopath before."

"They're more than that."

"So were Omi and Aya. No worries."

"No worries."

They found Elena and Fenris in a room together, with the boy lying on his stomach playing with two dinosaur toys on the bed. His dinosaurs appeared to be locked in a battle to the death. He growled, "Ich bin der große Dinosaurier, und ich beiß' deinen Kopf ab! Rrrrrr!! Ich bin vielleicht kleiner, aber - ätsch - ich bin schneller, ich beiß' dir _deinen_ Kopf ab! Grrr! Bä~äh, jetzt bist du nicht mehr so schnell, ohne Kopf. Ha-_ha_-ha!"

"Hi," Elena said. "We needed a break from the moving. Fenris more than me, actually. Yoji, your stuff is in your room. We could finish moving you out of your hotel today."

"Maybe."

Ken wanted to make a good new start, so he wanted to get some things clear. "His name is 'Fenris' now?" Poor kid. Nobody deserved what had been done to him.

"Yeah, regular name and code name. It's good to keep things simpler for him where you can."

"Do _you_ have a family name? If we're going to be living and working together, I'd like to know it."

She smiled a little. "Traczyk."

That name didn't sound German.

"That's because I'm not German," Elena said. "Polish."

Ken suppressed a squirming feel of uneasiness. "Could you not do that? Walk uninvited into my head?"

"I'm sorry. Fenris and I do it so often that I forget sometimes. It won't happen again."

"Ken, I heard you are good with football," Fenris said, his mismatched eyes hopeful. He almost looked like a normal teen now.

"What?"

"No. Maybe... 'at football'?"

"Fenris understands Japanese better than he speaks it," Elena said. "He's pretty fluent in German, but you're not, so...." She shrugged. "I can't implant Japanese into him until his brain is more accustomed to setting its thoughts into words, so he has to learn it the old-fashioned way."

To avoid thinking about _that_, Ken said to him, "I'm good at football."

"Elena is good at football. I am... getting good. Can we play?"

"I think that might be fun." A friendly game might be a good start for a new team. "Yeah, let's go."

"You kids have fun," Yoji said.

"No, you're playing too."

He looked so affronted. "What? I don't play. I don't get dirty."

"That's not what you used to tell us."

"What? Oh funny, Kenken."

"C'mon. We'll play. It'll be good for the team." Ken felt a smile starting. "It'll be good for me. You said I could ask you for things."

"You're evil."

"No, I'm not. Not really."

"Fine. I'll play."

"Great! No telekinesis or telepathy."

"None!" Fenris said, then grinned as the ball floated into the room. "None during the game."

He could get used to it. This might work.

******************************************************

So Yoji played. If Ken felt well enough to take advantage of his generosity and offer of help, he _should_ follow through and give it. Besides, he had a bit of fun, not with the game itself but with hearing Elena and Ken trashtalking to each other. That girl had a nasty mind, and Ken seemed to be enjoying it. The longer they went on, the more over the top the insults became, until they were all dying with laughter.

Good company and an opportunity to play the game he loved seemed to be doing wonders for Ken. That Fenris kid was smarter than anyone other than Elena gave him credit for.

Yoji barely dodged a ball, then shook his fist at a smiling Fenris.

"Yoji, stop dreaming! We're slaughtering you," Ken yelled.

"You are not!" Elena answered. "You don't know what slaughtering is!"

"You're going down, Ken," Yoji said.

"I'm terrified. Just look at me," Ken replied with a smile.

Yeah, it was good to be back with a team.


	85. "He's in our room making love to his investments."

After a frustrating fifteen minutes looking for parking, Aya found a spot. He growled to himself as he put the anti-theft Club on the steering wheel, on edge. Farfarello said, "You weren't nervous when we performed for our three new friends."

"I'm not nervous now, and that was different. Here we're on enemy territory in front of our target." Then Aya took a deep breath. "Do I look nervous?"

"Not much. You would look blank to most people."

"Hnh."

Farfarello held the case containing their knives while Aya used the remote to lock the car. To his annoyance, Aya hadn't let him use the remote since the time he'd played with it once for five minutes because it was so much fun to make the car chirp and bark. So what if it annoyed the neighbors? Still, he wouldn't let that get him down today. This audition would bring them closer to their goal and away from the spoonfed, menial hits they'd been doing lately.

They had to walk a block to get to their location. To amuse himself, he kept exact pace with Aya, making their feet hit the sidewalk in time. His puisín had slightly longer legs than he did, so it wasn't quite as easy as it sounded. He found the chill that he could just nearly feel and early darkness of winter invigorating. The buildings around them were mostly dingy browns and grays, so he appreciated the bright colors of graffiti when he saw them. Aya's hair was another source of vibrant color under the streetlights, and it blew in the wind in a very enticing way.

Zhulin's building might have been a factory once from the looks of it. Aya pressed the buzzer near the door. When someone asked their identity from the speaker, Aya answered, "We're Ray and Cain, here to audition as entertainment. We spoke to Mr. Zhulin last night." He opened the door when it buzzed and unlocked.

After a thorough patdown, the guards led them to the eighth floor and a large, open room containing almost no furniture. Very little to take cover behind. It had an incredible view of the skyscrapers across the river, lit up for the darkness. Farfarello loved it when humanity sought to rival God and counteract His works.

"You're punctual. Very good," Mr. Zhulin said. "What do you need from me for this?"

"An open space, which you have right here," Aya answered, "and some idea of your expectations. Each dance has its own rhythm and plot, but it can be adapted. Do you want something quick and brutal-looking or slower, longer, and showier? The first is about speed and ruthlessness, while the second allows more strategy and art." They'd discussed this, and since Aya had no intention of looking vulnerable in front of this crime boss as he inadvertently had in front of their three passports to get here they'd decided that Aya should speak first.

"Something in between."

"Very good."

They removed their coats, letting the guards take them, then Farfarello opened the knife case. Weapons in hand, they paced and circled a little, warming up, building tension and expectation. His Abby kitten moved like his namesake: graceful, sensual, and sinuous. Wanted to fuck him so badly.... When Farfarello's blade extended from its hilt with a metallic click, the guards let out a surprised laugh, probably at the innuendo. Before this assignment he'd never fought for show. To his surprise, it appealed to him.

Zhulin had very strong shields for a normal, so Farfarello wouldn't be able to get deeper without entering him completely, which wouldn't be a good idea here at all, but he caught something on the surface. ~ Kitten, he wants to see you lose. While he enjoys your chill haughtiness, he wants to see your ass hit the floor. ~ Farfarello appreciated innocence in a similar way, as something fun to break.

Annoyed, Aya wondered why the hell he had to deal with that attitude so often but consented to losing.

They circled, slashed, parried, jabbed, and dodged, letting their strokes come close to further involve the audience. The floor sometimes squeaked beneath their boots. Farfarello usually didn't enjoy the scrape and sound of metal on metal because it usually meant that his target had blocked his deathblow, but here he liked the physicality of it, the way the grinding of their knives together vibrated through his hand and wrist, the way it seemed like dry humping through weapons. Today his puisín wore a shirt that laced up in places, and the trailing ends of the laces flew as he moved. Although they rarely touched, he could _feel_ his kitten near him through heat and lust and the scent of Aya's sweat and the sharp tang of Aya's anger at Zhulin, and it made him hard. This was public foreplay. Aya's knife slashed Farfarello's sleeve but failed to cut skin. Chopped free, a length of one of Aya's laces fell to the floor. The expectation in the air felt like electricity along his body.

To Farfarello's amusement, the guards seemed to be betting on the dance's outcome.

From what Farfarello could skim from the surface, Zhulin didn't feel lust for men, but the violence worked like an aphrodisiac for him, like porn. He followed the fight with avid eyes. Monitoring him, Farfarello decided on the right moment to end the dance.

~ Now, ~ he told Aya, and Aya faltered a little to leave him an opening. Farfarello spun the knife in his hand so the blade couldn't touch his kitten, then hit him, pushing him to the floor. As Aya made a good-looking but feeble attempt to turn the fall into a roll, Farfarello followed him down and pinned him.

It was so good, being flesh to flesh with his aroused kitten, even through fabric and leather. Wanted him.... Farfarello spun the knife in his hand again and placed the flat of the blade under Aya's chin to tilt his angry face toward Zhulin for an extra theatrical touch.

As the guards exchanged money, Zhulin said, "Very good. I may have a party next week, and if so I would like you to perform. You can give me your contact information."

Aya was hard, he was hard, Aya was ticked off and lusting all at once.... "Excellent." Farfarello reluctantly stood up and away from his kitten. Aya regained his feet in a showy acrobatic move.

"It's a shame you don't fight with swords. I think you'd be good with them."

Farfarello felt an unfamiliar plunge in his stomach. Was this what an attack of nerves felt like? Never cared about anyone or anything before....

It was an offhand comment Zhulin had made. Surely he didn't know about them. What little Farfarello could skim told him nothing.

"Modern people are more personally familiar with knives," Aya answered, sounding smooth, but Farfarello felt the sharp edges of his worry. "Knives are more immediate to them. Swords would mean something different. They also require a different style and set of skills."

"Of course. Besides, your art is yours. I won't suggest you change it so drastically."

"Thank you." Aya took their coats back from the bodyguards, then took out a slip of paper and a pen from one of his coat pockets to write down their cell phone number for Zhulin.

Zhulin smirked as he accepted the paper. "Do you want to stay a while to cool down a little? I have a private room on the next floor down."

~ Puisín, is he offering us privacy to fuck in? ~ He couldn't tell through Zhulin's shields.

Aya's shock and a rude cough from one of the guards suggested that Farfarello hadn't been alone in thinking this. This situation became ever more suspicious and made him ever more reluctant to put their knives away. Unfortunately, keeping the knives out would arouse the guards' attention.

"Thank you, sir," Aya said, "but we have people we should be meeting, and we have no idea how traffic will be." He tossed Farfarello's coat back to him without looking back, without taking his attention away from Zhulin. Farfarello caught it and quickly put it on.

"Of course. I'll be in touch when I have more news."

"Good night."

The guards stayed close to their backs as they took the elevator down and escorted them to the outer door. Once outside, Farfarello gave them a merry wave and quickly walked away. "Fuck in the car," Farfarello said.

Although Aya had the heat of lust in his face and eyes, he said, "Not in this neighborhood."

Farfarello tested Aya's adamancy and gauged it, quickly realizing that the kitten would not be budged without a long, heated argument. It would probably take less time to drive home through traffic. "When we get home."

Aya nodded, his expression so blank that Farfarello could tell from it that Zhulin had worried him.

~ I don't think he suspects anything, Aya. ~

Yet Aya still felt something wrong here, as Farfarello did. They walked to the car in silence and drove the same way until hitting traffic on the bridge. But worry didn't diminish Farfarello's lust, and this waiting made it unbearable. "We're not moving. We could--"

"No." Then Aya smiled a little. "Besides, if we did, the traffic would start to move at that moment. My luck isn't very good."

Although he'd anticipated such an answer, it didn't help him. Farfarello leaned back into his seat, closed his eye, and detached himself from his body so he wouldn't have to experience the discomfort and goad of his want for Aya. In the midst of so many angry people waiting to get into the city or go home, the air buzzed and sparked with emotion. It felt like floating through a lightning storm. Uncomfortable.

~ Let me in. ~

Aya didn't want to, worrying that Farfarello would try to influence him that way. They _were not_ going to have sex in a car on the Williamsburg Bridge, and that was final.

~ I'll be a gentleman. ~

Farfarello wouldn't know how. Yet Aya smiled a little as he thought that.

~ Look at this as practice for tomorrow. ~

With that in mind, Aya acquiesced. You just had to know how to talk to him.

Farfarello slid into Aya's body and wanted to purr at how it caressed and wrapped around him. As always, he wanted to get Aya to touch himself so he could feel it, but that would tick Aya off right now. Instead, he enjoyed the ride and didn't try to take control away. Aya felt the ache of frustrated lust so strongly that Farfarello squirmed and wanted to immediately stroke Aya off to completion, yet Aya shoved it down into a little corner of his thoughts and continued on. And people called Farfarello a masochist. He wrapped himself around Aya's hot, tasty soul.

Farfarello looked at a sharper, more detailed and immediate world through Aya's two eyes and enjoyed the sensations of sitting and driving. He experienced Aya's annoyance at the traffic, concern for Farfarello's empty body slumped in the passenger seat, mental dissection of their knife routine and how it could be improved, and worry over Zhulin's comments. How many people could be _this_ intimate with someone they loved?

******************************************************

When Mamoru walked into his living room, he found Nagi sitting on the couch. His guards trained their guns on the telekinetic, who looked utterly unintimidated. Of course. Mamoru said, "You know Naoe-san. He'll take over from here. Dismissed."

They looked annoyed but obeyed. He wished he knew a way he could keep them satisfied without becoming completely isolated from other people but didn't see a way. So he must chafe at their protectiveness and near-omnipresence, and they must think him foolhardy.

Once the door shut, Mamoru sat next to Nagi and leaned on him a little. Nagi hadn't minded that in the past. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." Nagi stroked the back of Mamoru's neck with bare, slightly chilly fingers.

"I want to take you out somewhere. We're always staying in."

"You're always the Takatori heir, whose trips out are always reported and dissected by the press and your rivals."

Depressing thought. "Yeah." More bodyguards and all the isolation that went with them.

Leaning close to nuzzle Mamoru's hair, Nagi smelled like Nagi to Mamoru again, sharp but with a tiny hint of cologne. It had niggled him before that something had changed but he hadn't realized it fully until now. Then he realized that the tiny hint of cologne was _Crawford's_. Nagi had stopped smelling like Nagi recently because he hadn't been around the rest of Schwarz. Humbling thought.

"You might hate this suggestion," Nagi said softly.

"What?"

"Don't go out as the Takatori heir. Be unrecognizable."

"I think that's a great suggestion."

"I was about to say that Schuldig would be a big help with hair and makeup."

The thought of a freelance murderer making him up made him shudder. "I really don't like that suggestion."

Nagi was smiling, and the look on his face suggested that he had a very amusing mental picture in his head. "He's good. Do you think he could hurt you while I'm watching? Not that he would try, unless he had a profit waiting on it."

Mamoru had disguised himself for missions. He could do this himself. But maybe not. He didn't know how to make himself look good yet different for clubbing. When had he gotten so old in his mind?

Or they could stay in. And he could feel like he kept Nagi just for sex. No. Maybe it showed him to be a ridiculous romantic, but he wanted to go _out_ with Nagi and be part of a couple with him in some version of public space.

Nagi watched him quietly, awaiting his answer, but Mamoru saw a light in Nagi's eyes daring him. "All right," Mamoru said. He had to work with Schwarz anyway.

"Good. Bring your darkest, tightest pair of pants. I get a feeling that you'll need them. Think of a pair or two of boots that would go with them. While you're doing that, I'll let Schuldig know we're coming."

When Mamoru stood, he looked down at Nagi, who looked amused and nearly relaxed. "All right," Mamoru said, then went off to pack some things he thought might work for what Nagi intended into two garment bags. He shoved a fake ID into his back pocket and put the boots on and wore them as he walked back out into the living room.

"Would you like to fly?" Nagi asked as they put their coats on.

Silly question. "Yeah. Thanks."

They walked outside into the penthouse's garden, then Nagi said, "Hold on to me."

Mamoru had a sudden exciting image of wrapping himself around Nagi face to face, his legs locked around Nagi's waist. His lover must have tasted the edge of that thought, because Nagi was blushing and said, "If you did that, I wouldn't have the concentration to fly."

"I'm young. I get sex thoughts. It happens." Damn, he could have taken that bit from Yoji's playbook. It amused him.

"If you don't want to splatter on the street, you should cool down."

Mamoru then saw a mental image of Nagi's arms wrapped around his waist and groin against his ass. Taking deep breaths, Nagi said, "Maybe we should drive instead."

"No! We can do this. I'll control myself." He'd spent most of his life doing that.

Mamoru put an arm around Nagi's neck and felt one of Nagi's arms go around his waist, putting them side-to-side, hip-to-hip. "Ready?" Nagi asked.

Anticipation gave him pleasant flutters in his stomach. "Yeah."

They shot up quickly, with Nagi's telekinesis holding Mamoru more than his arm did. Some kind of teke shield traveling with them, in front of them, made it so he wouldn't have to squint his eyes against the wind, which took some of the edge off the experience. The air smelled fresher up here and cut the inside of his throat a little. The lights of neon signs smeared into colored trails against the darkness. In his focus on the experience, he didn't even realize how cold his hands and feet had become until they touched down on the roof of Nagi's apartment building. Holding Mamoru, Nagi didn't do any of the spins that he usually did when landing alone.

As they went down the stairs inside, Mamoru smiled as he saw the color in Nagi's cheeks and brightness in his eyes. Apparently, flying hadn't yet become too everyday to be excited about. It was sweet.

Upon opening the door to the apartment, Schuldig scrutinized Mamoru from head to toe, then led him to the bathroom by the arm as if he were still a kid, saying, "It's a shame your hair isn't a really blond blond anymore. It would take color so much better." Right down to the business at hand.

Mamoru didn't deal with that as often anymore, usually having to navigate through several layers of social pleasantries first. Right now he appreciated anything that would get him and Nagi out alone faster.

"But the color would last for days, and my business associates would not appreciate me looking like that." He'd colored his hair for a mission once, and it had taken days for the blue to fade out completely.

Was he really sitting in Schwarz's apartment with a former enemy running his hands through his hair? Schuldig might not have personally killed Ouka--Farfarello had done that by shooting the wrong person while aiming for Mamoru--but he had set up the situation that led to it and tormented Mamoru to get him there.

"That's why we don't let Farfarello use a gun," Schuldig said. "Please, you're an assassin and the Takatori heir. You want me to believe that your hands are clean? Ouka was our employer's daughter. He walloped me and Farfie on the head several times with a golf club in punishment. It's past. We do things for a living, and so do you. Only now, you're one of our employers, and I think you're too practical to kill us when we can be so helpful to you and do your bidding. And Nagi, the other former enemy you let run his fingers through your hair, would be badly broken up over it. Maybe even vengeful."

Schuldig was right, damn him. "Don't read my mind," Mamoru said as he strengthened his mental shields.

Nagi came back with a slight smile on his face and a small pile of clothing. A few gleams of silver could be seen amidst the darkness of it. He seemed to be enjoying this.

Mamoru would play nice. For Nagi's sake.

"Whatever," Schuldig said. "It'll have to be styling products, makeup, and accessories, then. It's a good thing you and Nagi are about the same size."

"Crawford won't mind me being here?"

"Daddy won't mind this. Or notice. He's in our room making love to his investments." Schuldig opened one of Mamoru's garment bags. "Black leather pants. Always a good investment. Mamoru, you can put on black nail polish while I work. Nagi, get your ass back over here. We're working on you too."

"We are?"

Schuldig grinned evilly. "I had a brainstorm on how to further disguise Takatori-sama here."

It didn't take long for Mamoru to figure out what Schuldig intended. The telepath further straightened, then fluffed up Mamoru's hair, putting it more over his eye on his right side. Black eyeliner shapeshifted the look of his eyes. He put on his black leather pants and black boots and a tank top, a leather jacket that had been strategically unzipped in places along the sleeves, and fingerless gloves, all black and all Nagi's.

Schuldig styled Nagi's hair to look more like Mamoru's new style and smudged black eyeliner on his eyes as well, though Nagi complained about the pencil being too close to blinding him. Thus made up, Nagi and Mamoru looked like brothers. They could almost be twins.

Mamoru looked in the mirror and saw his reflection. And he looked at Nagi and... saw his reflection.

It was perverse. And erotic.

Schuldig applied silvery powder to their skin in places, subtly highlighting and contouring to seemingly adjust the shapes of their faces, making them look even more similar. It tricked the eye. Schuldig put an arm around each of their shoulders and said, "You two look good enough to eat. How about it? A master chef should always taste his greatest dishes."

"No," Nagi said. Mamoru just tried not to feel how soft Schuldig's hair felt against his face, like a whisper, but warm.

Schuldig didn't look surprised or too upset. "You're no fun. I'll have you someday, Nagi. Sorry, kitten, but I promised myself that years ago."

"You'll have to get used to being disappointed," Mamoru answered. Nagi smirked and squeezed his hand, making Mamoru remember that he had black nail polish on too.

"I'm an optimist." Schuldig let them go and stepped back to take another look at them in the mirror. The telepath himself looked casually sensual tonight in jeans faded to charcoal, a deep green long-sleeved T-shirt that carelessly bared his belly and navel ring at times, and no shoes or socks.

Mamoru didn't quite believe in it. What he knew of the telepath suggested a man who did everything for effect. This casual and unaware look could be as careful a construction as anything else.

And the black woven leather choker Schuldig wore didn't entirely hide the fading bruises ringing his neck. Mamoru wondered where those had come from.

Smiling, eyes glinting, Schuldig said, "I don't think I can make any more improvements to nature in your cases. Take our car, baby. Any of Takatori-sama's would be recognized."

"Why are you being so helpful?" Mamoru asked.

"Because I want Nagi to have a social life. He doesn't have a Schuldig of his own to stop him from being a stick in the mud, so I have to send him out into the world."

While Nagi took the keys, Mamoru's coat flew over to meet him. He still couldn't get used to the telekinesis. As they left the apartment, Mamoru looked back to see Schuldig leaning in the doorway with a smug expression and an even more smug "Have fun storming the castle, kids."

******************************************************

Even through his focus on number crunching, Crawford could feel Schuldig enter the room. It had nothing to do with Crawford's talents and everything to do with the way the telepath filled more space than his body took up.

"So, you finished making the Takatori boy pretty for Nagi?" Crawford asked, barely taking his eyes from his columns on the computer monitor.

"This helps get them outside, at least. Otherwise they would have stayed home and fucked."

Crawford had forgotten that he couldn't win here. "Why did Nagi have to develop a sex drive?"

"How could he avoid it, living with me?" Schuldig smelled of talc, kohl, leather, cigarette smoke, and lust. More lust than usual. It practically permeated the air around him.

If Nagi and Takatori had done this by their mere presence, Crawford didn't want to know what they'd be up to tonight. "I should have realized that it was your fault."

"Yeah, you should have. You're not in the mood, are you?" Schuldig asked, a rhetorical question since he obviously knew.

"No. I can't now. Not when these figures won't balance. I wouldn't be able to give you the attention you deserve."

"Lately, you have such pretty ways to tell me to take a hike. It makes me feel so much warmer and fuzzier than 'Get out, Schuldig' does."

"I'm glad. Schu, if I find out that someone here is trying to swindle us, their descendants will still be regretting their bad judgment decades later."

"You're not making it easier for me, talking like that. All right, I'm going out."

Out, Schuldig would pick up someone and get the sex he couldn't receive at home. That would be fine as long as Schuldig stayed in the rules.

"Take your cell phone."

"You see something?"

"I feel it." And it could be difficult to contact Schuldig through telepathy when he was in the middle of a club.

"Sure. I'll stay reachable."

"Good. Go. Get what you need."

"I share you with your numbers, and you share me with the world. It works out." He kissed the top of Crawford's head. "I can feel your numbers, so sharp." Then he withdrew, to go to the closet.

Occasionally Crawford glanced over as his telepath stripped and changed, trading the soft comfort of homebody clothing for the dark flash of his clubbing gear. He liked both looks, though. Each felt good as he stroked Schuldig and stripped them away. It made him regretful that he was currently too involved in his work to take advantage. He'd always liked how Schuldig looked in and partially out of jeans.

"Don't stay up too late with this," Schuldig breathed hotly into his ear. "You'll give yourself a headache."

"Enjoy yourself," Crawford said to the swirl of orange, pale, green, and black he saw at the corner of his eye.

"Always."


	86. "I'll approach the people I want and look like an unfaithful slut looking for a one-nighter."

Mamoru had become accustomed to being stared at, but usually those stares exposed greed, resentment, or sycophancy. In the club with Nagi as his twin/lover, the stares directed at him showed surprise and curiosity. And a bit of lust, even from some of the men who would seem to be straight if you judged them by their partners.

With Nagi pressed so closely against him and without the pressure of representing the Takatoris, Mamoru relaxed and let the lights, the music, and his lover take him over. He couldn't really dance, but neither could Nagi. They did it anyway, though it probably looked like foreplay. It felt like foreplay. He wanted to purr at the feel of Nagi's hands and talent stroking him all over even as his own hands roamed Nagi's body looking for more skin to bare and found it once they burrowed up under the back of his jacket and shirt. They kissed and rocked and moved. Nagi's eyes looked darker, lustier, with the black liner around them.

Once, Nagi wouldn't have been able to stay so physically close to him, touching, for such a long time. It made him happy to see that changing.

Damn. Nagi's telekinesis was stroking him under his clothes, raising the hairs on his skin and making him shudder with pleasure. Being intimately molested in public and knowing that Nagi could feel him with his talent almost the same as through his hands made it even hotter. He'd have to settle down with Nagi for life, because the telekinesis had ruined him for other lovers, he was sure.

"I missed you," Mamoru said into his ear. Wanted him so badly, right now....

"We've gone out," Nagi said softly. "We dressed up, we went out in public...."

Mamoru could see where he was going. "We danced."

"We danced," Nagi agreed. "So we went out."

"Definitely."

"We went out. Now I want to go in. Do you want to go in?"

"Hell, yes. I don't think I could make it home, though."

"Do you want to try the men's room, the alley, the car?" Nagi laughed a little, breathless. "I don't believe I'm saying this."

Mamoru hadn't thought he could get any harder or more excited. He felt almost wicked, and maybe it said something about his essentially vanilla nature that this felt wicked to him, but he didn't care. "Let's try the men's room."

Nagi grabbed his wrist and cleared a path for them across the dance floor. No one seemed to notice the light telekinetic shove they'd gotten. Nagi smirked when they reached the men's room. From the smell of sex in the air and the sounds coming from one of the stalls, another couple had thought the same way. It would provide some camouflage.

The lock on the stall door turned with a loud click, then they were all over each other again, a little clumsy and uncoordinated in their lust. As Nagi's hands fumbled with Mamoru's belts, Mamoru felt his already hard cock go so hard that he ached from it. The unfastening of each button on his fly felt like torment. "I don't think I can last." Then he felt a pressure around the base of his cock. "What the hell was that?"

Nagi smiled, and his eyes looked nearly black. "A ring. You don't have to worry about coming too quickly now."

"Ah," Mamoru answered. And the lovers from the other stall moaned in what sounded like approval.

Looking a little dazed, Nagi finally undid the last button and pulled the pants down as far as he could, not far since they were so tight that taking them off required wiggling and special positions. "I'm so glad you didn't wear underwear."

"I don't have enough room in these pants for me and underwear at the same time." Looking at his cock, he couldn't see the ring, but he sure as hell felt it. "Fuck me. Just fuck me. I'm ready."

"Okay. Yeah. Turn around."

Mamoru turned around to face the wall, braced himself, and presented his ass out in as enticing a manner as he could think of. From the sound of Nagi's heavy breathing, he'd succeeded. Certain that he would explode soon, Mamoru breathed heavily himself as he listened to buckles, belts, and a zipper being undone, the rustle of fabric, and the moans, begging, and banging coming from the other end of the room.

He jumped a little at the feeling of cool slick and slight pressure inside and pushed down on it, but it wasn't enough. "I don't need that. I'm ready."

"I see that."

The slight pressure withdrew. Mamoru could feel Nagi approaching, getting into position, like a wave of warmth at his back. Then Nagi thrust in, and Mamoru pushed back to meet him, and it was perfect. Nagi fucked him hard, but he kept asking for harder, more, driven to frenzy by pleasure, the friction inside him, the cool metal under his hands, where they _were_, the ring around his cock that wouldn't let him come, and the audio porn of the other couple. He moaned at the feel of the vibrating sheath of telekinetic force that clung to him like a second skin. In the other stall a stranger was telling his partner to come for him, come for him now. When Mamoru felt a hand wrap around his cock, he looked down and saw one that could have been one of his own from the nail polish and the shape of the fingers, but he still had that _cockring_ on....

"Finish me, Nagi. Finish me already. God...."

Nagi let out a loud breath at Mamoru's ear, then dissolved the ring and thrust hard. Mamoru came, yelling, blacking out for a little while. When he came to, Nagi seemed to be cooling down, rocking into him, idly stroking his cock. Leaning back against him, limp, Mamoru was securely in his grip.

"I have to--" Nagi's voice sounded rough.

"Yeah." Mamoru ached a bit once Nagi slid out of him, but it was a very good ache. Sensitized, with his every nerve sparking, Mamoru was the one to pull away first this time, though he pulled away to lean against the stall wall. Standing on his own seemed to be beyond him at the moment.

Nagi looked thoroughly debauched: partially undressed, sweaty, mussed, flushed, his lips almost red and his eyeliner smudged. "You look at least as disreputable as I do," he murmured.

"But I feel great." Mamoru smiled. "Do you still want to go back to my apartment? I feel like going to bed, and I'd really like some company." The lust had decreased for now to a low, pleasant buzz.

"Sounds good."

They neatened up and left the stall, with Mamoru smirking at the small moans still coming from the other stall. Then he saw the mangled handle on the door out. The door wouldn't move when he pulled on it.

Nagi looked a little embarrassed. "I didn't want anyone walking in on us, but I think I became too excited and went too far, especially when I hit orgasm."

His telekinetic had inadvertently locked them in a public men's room. It might not be all bad, but they'd get hungry eventually. "Can you get us out without ripping the door off?"

"Give me a moment." Nagi closed his eyes and seemed to be feeling into the door. "Got it." By the time he finished, the handle still looked twisted but now the door opened. "I am such a dork."

"What does that make me?"

"A dork lover?

Some guys stared at them as they left the men's room. Nagi whispered into his ear, "They've been trying to open the door all this time, then two small, skinny kids do it from the other side effortlessly."

"Their masculinity feels threatened?" Mamoru whispered back as they walked away.

"Because of that and because some of them think we're kind of hot in a kinky way."

"We are. As long as they don't try to kick our asses and force us to defend ourselves, I'm fine with it."

"Nah, they're too busy trying to figure out what happened."

"We have to go out more often. It makes going in even more fun."

Nagi smirked. "Are you going to talk or get us to the car?"

"Car. Then apartment, then bed." It was good to have Nagi back being Nagi, looking happy.

******************************************************  
_"I calibrate you.  
Could get lost along the way.  
I confiscate you...."_  
  -- "Euphoria" by Collide

_"Addicted to poison.  
The poison is the cure sometimes...."_  
  -- "Ecstasy" by VAST  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yoji leaned against the alley wall and smoked. While he still felt happier than he'd been in a long time, once everyone else had gone to bed restlessness had set in. Some of it came from him being who he was, but part of it had to be from settling into a similar routine. He had a flower shop to work in and a team, so now he was supposed to go out because that was what he did when he had a shop and a team. But he wasn't the same person.

"Nah, I can see how you might need a break from all the weirdly wholesome goodness in that building. Yojilocks and the three kiddies," Schuldig said as he turned the corner. "Are you up for some more adult fun? Some drinking and dancing in the company of grown-ups?"

"Everything we do together lately ends up with me in bed with you." The part of him that didn't see that as a problem could shut up. After all, look how easily Schuldig had just found Weiß's new base of operations.

"Like I needed to sleep with you to be able to do that. Once you realize that we could have killed you at any time, you'll be happier. All right, maybe not happier, but you'd be less deluded." Schuldig took a long drag off his cigarette and smiled. "We don't even have to fuck if you don't want to, though why you wouldn't want to is beyond me. My little deal will work for both of us. You're worried about going out to pick up people while you think you're still dangerous. I realized that it would be a pain in the ass mindfucking people not to see my graze and bruises. If we go out together, you can have fun without feeling guilty about your purpose and I'll be less likely to be cruised by people who think I'm into pain."

"How the hell does the last one work?"

"They'll think I'm with you, so most of them won't approach."

"But you're trying to pick up people." Yoji wouldn't be.

"I'll approach the people I want and look like an unfaithful slut looking for a one-nighter. Still works."

That made sense. Scary.

Suddenly Schuldig closed his eyes and sighed. He looked... aroused. Really aroused. "Those two little fiends. Na, Yoji, maybe I should call a rain check on going out with you and just find someone I can get my rocks off with immediately. I'm not good on self-control."

"That's bullshit. If you weren't good on self-control you wouldn't be able to do anything with yourself." Yoji had learned a bit about the telepathy thing, its strengths and weaknesses.

Schuldig grinned. "Maybe. You're more perceptive than you look. But maybe I just like to let loose wherever I can. And maybe I believe in enjoying free porn when it's beamed directly into my head. The kids are so on fire with lust that they're lighting up the night. Who knew that Persia had such a nice--"

"_Don't_ finish that sentence." Yoji didn't want to think about that. Ever.

"Have it your way. So, does your speech about self-control mean that you want me to go out with you?"

He had to learn to keep his mouth shut. It only got him into trouble. "Yeah. Fine. Drinks and dancing. You'll have to look in a different direction for a fucktoy."

"If you insist," Schuldig answered, looking far too smug.

"I do."

"So. Drive us there. I loaned our car to Nagi. It's a shame you don't have the Seven anymore, because the jeep is just blah, you martyr."

"How the hell did you get here?"

"Walked. Your new shop isn't far from where we live."

The night just kept getting better and better. But Yoji had some cause to smile. "But my jeep isn't here. It's still parked near the hotel I was staying at. I haven't moved out all the way."

"You can't be-- You are. How far is this hotel?"

"Maybe about a 30-minute walk."

"You're grinning over your own idiocy."

"It puts me out, but it puts you out too."

"We could always take Kenken's motorcycle."

"What? That would be--"

"Wrong? Ask me if I give a fuck. Or, better yet, don't waste my time by asking. You've ridden before. You enjoyed it. C'mon, live a little. You know you wanna."

They would be stealing Ken's motorcycle--

"It wouldn't be stealing if I went in and asked him for it. Funny how I know he'll say yes." Schuldig blew out a few jaunty smoke rings.

"That wouldn't count!"

"Sure it would. C'mon, Yoji. There has to be something he's done to you that you can claim this as vengeance for."

"We're not taking Ken's motorcycle."

"Yeah, we are. If you don't, I will, since I'm in the mood for a ride now. If you go with me, you can make sure I don't damage it in my enthusiasm." He had an answer for everything.

"I'm going to hell," Yoji said. "No, I'm _in_ hell."

"Is that a yes?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"You could say no and stay home while I take the bike."

"I don't know where--"

"I know where everything is. Live a little, Yoji. You know you wanna."

"What the hell do you need me for?"

"Legitimacy. Invite me in so I'm not an intruder. I wanna take a look at the new kitty castle anyway."

Schuldig annoyed the hell out of him, so why did he feel happier now? Come to think of, he used to enjoy his arguments with Aya too. "We're not all cats anymore."

"Half cats, half mythical beasts, all fucked up." Schuldig rubbed his hands together. "C'mon, let's get this party started."

Schuldig knew where to find the keys, helmets, and motorcycle. Of course.

Yoji made him wait in his bedroom as he changed into clubbing gear in the bathroom. As nervous as it made him to have Schuldig hanging out in his bedroom, the thought of this former enemy/sometime ally walking unsupervised through his home base made him far more nervous because he kept imagining Ken running into him and reacting in a Ken-like fashion. Even before that boy had lost it completely, he'd owned a hair-trigger temper and tendency to start throwing punches. He'd first welcomed Aya to the flower shop with a fistfight, and his history then with Aya hadn't been anywhere near as long and complicated as his history with Schuldig was.

"Funny you're thinking of Aya, because he has a role in Ken's dream," the telepath said.

Yoji opened the door and walked out. "What?"

"Not like that, you pervert. All of you are in it in the original flower shop. It's surreal but boring. Other people's dreams usually are. Important thing is that he won't wake up soon. Friendly's on the edge though, so we should whip our tails into gear."

They did so. Yoji sat on the motorcycle but before he put the helmet on he said, "Don't let your hands roam too much."

Schuldig tossed his cigarette to the ground and crushed it out under his shoe. "You think that helmet will fit on that swelled head of yours?"

"Shut up and get on."

"Beautiful _and_ charming."

They both put their helmets on, then Schuldig sat behind Yoji and put his arms around Yoji's waist. Perhaps he pressed a little closer than he had to, not that Yoji noticed much through the layers of their long coats, but he didn't do anything outrageous or blatant enough to warrant being yelled at. And Yoji enjoyed the ride, the speed and slight edge of danger, the wind beating at his clothing.

Yoji chose a club he hadn't spent as much time at. He had been away from this life and these places for a while, which was an eternity in nightlife, and looked different, but he'd still rather people didn't match the dapper Yoji of yesteryear with the Yoji bringing a "boyfriend" tonight. He had a rep as a ladies' man to maintain.

As Schuldig stood on the sidewalk shaking his hair out, he had such a pose going that Yoji had to laugh and ask, "What pouty male model are you supposed to be?"

"Says the guy who used to make sure that all of Tokyo knew what his pelvic bones looked like. Who made 'blond' a lifestyle and mindset."

Some people might see that as the truth, and once he took his coat off his pelvic bones _would_ be visible to anyone who looked at him, so Yoji smiled and let the comments slide off his back. "Do you have a point?"

"Do I ever? Let's hit the door."

"There's a line." But Yoji knew what Schuldig would answer to that.

"Lines are for little people. Think bigger."

Sure enough, they walked past the line and the man at the door let them in immediately. Schuldig blew a kiss at the people still waiting just to make it burn more. Telepathy had no doubt made that moment possible, but it still gave Yoji a kick to walk right in.

Lights, music, and familiar scents assaulted him as soon as he entered. He could feel his muscles relaxing in response, his body becoming liquid, more fluid, a sensual object instead of a traitorous killing instrument. Suddenly he noticed Schuldig watching him with a hungry look on his face. In his excitement and pleasure, Yoji just smiled.

They checked their coats, then hit the dance floor. Everyone touched Yoji and he touched them back, enjoying the circuit of pleasure and caresses. Feeling loose and confident, prowling, he danced with anyone near him, women and men, and if sometimes that was Schuldig, he didn't mind. He missed having longer hair that he could shake out as he moved, especially since Schuldig's long hair looked sinuous and beautiful in its movement under the lights.

It surprised Yoji that Schuldig hadn't dressed like a slut. Tight leather pants and a thin soft shirt that pulled up a little as he moved, baring skin only occasionally, sure as hell didn't count as slutty. Yoji showed off more, and he hadn't even come out to pick anyone up.

Schuldig, behind him, put his hot hands on Yoji's bare hips and danced with him. Eyes closed, lights blinking through his eyelids, Yoji smirked and leaned back into it as they moved together. The telepath's soft hair slid across his face.

"Happy," Schuldig purred into his ear. It wasn't a question.

"Mmm."

Eventually Schuldig gave him a kiss on the cheek and spun him out to a new partner before disappearing, probably to pick someone up. Yoji kept dancing until thirst drove him to the bar. Already high, he didn't need alcohol, so he just bought a water, then returned to the dance floor.

When he met Schuldig later, at one of the men's room sinks, the telepath looked conspicuously satisfied and a little less hungry. "Happy I brought you out?" Schuldig asked. He stood so close that Yoji could detect a slight hint of perfume.

"Fishing for compliments?" Yoji answered but couldn't quite keep the smile off his face.

"Just trying to get my due." Music started playing from Schuldig's waistband. "I'm gonna get that little bastard. Messed with my cell phone tune again?"

Yoji assumed that the "little bastard" was Prodigy. "What's the big deal?"

Schuldig took out his cell phone and leaned back against the sink. "He knows I don't like Rammstein, so he reprogrammed the tune to be 'Du Hast.' Shit! Now I have it stuck in my head. Fucking song.... First moment I get, 'Godlike' is going back in."

"Godlike?"

"KMFDM. Don't you have any culture? Could be worse. One time the kid put all these cutesy dangling charms and mascots on it: little cats and some grain of rice with a face or some shit. What is it with you Japanese making plushies of food items and putting little faces on 'em?" Schuldig shuddered, then answered his phone. "Yeah? Hey, babe. Yeah? Yeah, guy bumped into me a few times, and I was thinking of rearranging his face. He is? Well, shit." He smirked, then said, "Yoji, Brad says that you can't beat on this guy in the blue silk shirt either."

"Why would I want to?"

"If Brad hadn't seen ahead, we wouldn't know to avoid this guy, and he would've done something we'd want to kick his ass for, and it turns out that he's connected to the Yakuza and we'd have a bloodbath on our hands. That's all. If we don't mix in, for all we know he might be a client later on." Schuldig listened to Crawford for a little while, then said, "Yeah. Because he's _easy_."

"Are you talking about me?"

"All the time, Yoji." To Crawford, he said, "Yeah.... Maybe. Can't you see it? Yeah. Yeah? I'll have to look her up. I'll see you later. Good night." Schuldig closed the phone and clipped it back to his waistband.

"What do you need a phone for?"

"Sometimes it's easier for me. Sometimes we don't want people to know what I am. It makes a good prop too."

"I don't understand you and Crawford at all."

"We accept each other. That's why he won't kill you for this."

"What?"

"Gotta go, but I'll be looking out for you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Schuldig just smiled and left the room. Yoji muttered, "Great. More things to worry about."

But it didn't worry him for long, because the tidal pull of the dance floor drew him back in. Dancing, he just about made out with several people, some of them men. Why had he worried so much about his newfound interest? It just made more prospects available to him.

At some point Schuldig returned with a truly exquisite woman on his arm. She had deep, dark eyes, flawless skin, and a long waterfall of hair like shining black silk. Examining her clothing and accessories with an investigator's eyes showed her to be either the owner or recipient of vast wealth. She watched him back with hungry eyes. As much as he wanted her, she had "trouble" written all over her.

"I told you that he was pretty, ja?" Schuldig currently used a thicker German accent, making Yoji wonder what he was up to.

"He is," she answered.

"Schu, what's going on?" Yoji asked.

"Mie-san would like to get to know us better," Schuldig answered.

Was he suggesting what he seemed to be suggesting?

~ You bet your ass I am. Mie here wants both of us, and I didn't do a thing to her except hear her mildly wondering what it would be like. Beautiful, isn't she? ~

Definitely. But did he want to do this? With Schuldig? Man of the world that he was, Yoji had been part of a threesome twice, but each time had been with two girls. "I don't know."

"He's shy, Mie-san." Schuldig lightly ran his hands down the sides of her silk-clad body, watching Yoji watch them. "He's also wondering where this would take place."

"I have rooms here," she answered with a secretive smile.

Staring at Schuldig, Yoji wondered who the hell she was.

~ The sister of the owner of this club. ~

Great. They could really get their heads handed to them over this.

"You're thinking too much, Yoji." Then Schuldig grabbed him and kissed him slowly and deeply, expertly, while tracing patterns on his back. Aroused by hours of dancing and foreplay, buzzed, Yoji just about melted into his arms. When Schuldig finally pulled away a little, with a last lick at Yoji's lips, Yoji opened his eyes and noticed Mie watching them with a look that made his hips roll automatically against Schuldig's in reaction.

"I can't do this," Yoji murmured to himself. She was a helpless noncombatant, and he didn't trust himself.

"Trust me."

"You're kidding, right?"

Schuldig pouted, then slid behind him, wrapped one arm around Yoji's waist, and pulled him close. Yoji could get free, but it would cause a small scene. As he pondered it, Schuldig said, "We just have to warm him up."

What? Then Mie walked over, all predator, all desire, and pressed against Yoji and put her arms around them. In all the drama, Yoji hadn't noticed that the current song had a slower, sensual grind, and Mie danced in front of him and Schuldig behind him along to it. Yoji groaned as Schuldig rubbed against his ass, hard, and Mie rubbed against his crotch and looked up at him with such want in her dark eyes. It felt so good to be touched and looked at like that. Her hair felt like silk under his clutching hands.

The music sped up and so did they. They were moving, and Yoji became distantly aware that they were guiding him away from the floor but didn't mind. He needed release, wanted her, wanted Schuldig. He could control his killing instincts.

They ended up in a lush, dim room. When Mie closed the door, Yoji could only hear the music as a dull pounding now, not unlike the pounding of the blood and desire in his veins. His boots sank into the plush carpeting. She guided them to a leather couch and sat on Schuldig's lap while Yoji unfastened her clothing, unwrapping her like a precious gift, luxuriating in her feminine scent and curves, cupping her breasts, kissing his way down her hot skin. Down, down, on his knees, tasting her as she gasped and moaned and Schuldig fingered her nipples and murmured to her in German, playing to her lust for his foreignness. Although Yoji understood only a few words of German, he knew that Schuldig was calling her his little piglet for the noises she made as Yoji tongued her. Schuldig watched him and gently thrust against her in reaction.

"Fuck her, Yoji. She's so slick and ready for you," Schuldig said, and she gasped and writhed in confirmation.

Yoji unbuttoned the fly of his pants, and he was so stupid with lust that it took him a moment to recognize that Schuldig was handing him a condom. When Yoji came up and slowly stroked into her, he groaned at the feel of it, especially as he wrapped her legs around him. He'd missed women so much. Wanting to make this good for her, he used long, slow thrusts and toyed with her clit, using her writhing and gasps as guides. Every movement he made dragged her against Schuldig, who clenched his teeth and thrust back as he watched them. As he felt himself reach the edge, he fingered her more insistently until she started to shake and clench down on his cock, yelling as she hit orgasm. So good, so urgently longed for.... As Yoji came, he and Schuldig stared at each other.

Wrung out, taking in the scent of sweat, roses, and sex, Yoji rested his head on Mie's chest and kissed her skin. He smiled as one small, soft hand and one larger, callused one stroked up his back under his shirt. Then Schuldig grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him away, making him nearly whimper. He wanted to stay here....

Drugged with sex and release, Yoji let Schuldig move him around like a doll and pull his pants down a bit. The last gave him a moment of shudders, but Mie watched with such heated and intent interest that he didn't protest. He found himself on his hands and knees on the lush carpeting, his ass in the air. This had to be bad. He started to move away, but then something cool and slick slid inside him, shocking him, and a strong hand settled on his hip, holding him still.

Burned like _hell_. He knew what this was. Shit, shit, shit.... He squirmed, trying to get away.

~ Wait for it. ~

When Schuldig found the right spot, Yoji let out a sound he hadn't thought himself capable of making. Damn, that had felt good, all the way through his body. Watching Mie finger herself as she watched them improved the situation too. Schuldig worked him until his body begged for more and he probably looked like an utter slut, not that he cared much at the moment.

Then Schuldig thrust into him with something thicker that made him groan with a combination of pleasure and pain. ~ Yeah, genius, those were just fingers before. Relax.... ~

"You're... fucking me. How am I supposed to relax?" Yoji muttered through gritted teeth. How the hell had he gotten into this? Oh yeah, stupidity and his dick.

When the hell had he started to like this?

Schuldig rocked into him in small strokes, getting him used to it, rubbing against that spot that almost made it worth it. Once he started to rock along with it and grudgingly enjoy it, Schuldig changed their position and angle a bit and went faster and harder, which actually felt much better, and wrapped his hand around Yoji's cock, jerking it in rhythm. He couldn't get away, and right now he didn't want to.

He couldn't think under all of the pleasure, and he didn't want to.

He came in a rush of mind-clouding, hot feeling with Mie tongue-kissing him and Schuldig jerking him off and nearly fucking him through the floor. Fortunately, he screamed into her mouth, muffling the sound a bit. Dazed, light-headed, he vaguely felt Schuldig bite his shoulder and thrust into him a few more times.

"Yoji, you're as good as I thought you'd be. We'll take a little break now," Schuldig gasped at him, then bit his earlobe.

Oh. God.


	87. "She had *toys*."

Filled with affection, Mamoru smiled sleepily as he watched his bed partner in the morning light. Asleep, Nagi looked at once innocent and debauched. His expression could be taken for angelic happiness, yet his slightly swollen lips and badly smudged eyeliner suggested the kind of activity that had put such a smile on his face. That he was naked except for a black leather collar no doubt said volumes as well.

Not so long ago, Nagi would have moved to the other side of the bed, unwilling to be too close even in his sleep. Now he snuggled in cozily.

Nagi rarely stayed the night, which made every time he did precious. Mamoru loved to wake up with him, even though he could be cranky sometimes.

Nagi opened his eyes halfway and smiled sweetly. "Good morning."

Mamoru didn't think. "Move in with me." Even as he said it, he knew it to be a mistake but couldn't stop the words from coming.

"_What_? I--" Nagi looked stunned, panicked.

That reaction said everything. Damn. Mamoru knew better than to push anyone this hard, this fast! They'd just started having sex, Nagi had just started to break down his walls against this kind of intimacy, and already he was asking for cohabitation, right after Nagi's father figure had told him to be slower and more careful? Why the hell did he keep making these mistakes with Nagi?

"Forget it. Really."

"I... I can't.... I have to...." Nagi was out of the bed, accepting the clothing that flew to his hand. How he could "call" his own clothing to him or even differentiate it so easily from Mamoru's still mystified Mamoru. Even the items Mamoru had borrowed for the night came to him. "I'm sorry. I have to--"

Mamoru felt his heart sinking. "I know. I'll see you later."

Wide-eyed, Nagi nodded sharply and left quickly.

Mamoru put his hand over his eyes. "_Idiot_."

******************************************************

Yoji woke up blowing orange hair out of his face. Where the hell-- Experience made him keep still and keep his eyes half-closed as he took in his surroundings. Bed. Hotel room. _His_ hotel room. A snuggly Schuldig wrapped around him. Aching, he lifted the covers to get a better look at the full length of the smiling, sleeping telepath cuddling his bruised and nibbled-on body.

Images from last night surfaced through the haze. He remembered sucking Schuldig off, remembered himself on his back on the couch with Mie riding his cock, remembered Schuldig fucking him _again_ as Mie jerked him off.... No wonder he ached. How long had they been there?

"Hours and hours," Schuldig murmured, sounding very contented. "We could barely sit on the motorcycle by the time we were out of there."

"What the hell was your problem? I was the one who got his ass used as a party favor."

"She had _toys_." Schuldig looked nearly starry-eyed at the memory.

Yoji remembered that too now. Yeah, that had been hot and amazing to watch. Who knew that something that big and thick could be shoved up there? Then he'd put a cockring on Schuldig so the telepath wouldn't be able to come until they said he could. Mie was a wicked, wicked girl, just as he liked them.

All the sex acts had kind of blurred into each other by the end of their time together. "Did we really do all of that?"

"You didn't have any complaints at the time."

"You _fucked_ me last night." Yoji fucked. He didn't _get_ fucked.

"Again, you didn't have any complaints at the time. You liked it."

True. Damn it. And he couldn't even freak out about it as much as he felt he should. He should be freaking out all over the place, yet he didn't feel the freakout coming.

"Ha," Schuldig said. "Why don't you just own up to your perversions? You live in the land that created 'butter dog' porn. Anything you dream up can't be much more perverted."

"Bastard."

"It gets better." Schuldig grinned. "Mie is the sister of the guy Brad told us not to wallop."

Schuldig had a deathwish that had become Yoji's. "You son of a bitch! How is fucking the Yakuza guy's sister better than knocking him out?"

"It's more personally satisfying. Relax. Brad didn't see anything bad coming from it. In fact, he pointed me at her."

"Yeah? What if he did it to get the brother to teach you a lesson?"

"He believes in teaching lessons personally." From the look on Schuldig's face, he enjoyed lessons.

Yoji saw his watch on the nearby night table. Maybe he could strangle the telepath after all.

Schuldig grabbed his wrists and pinned them against the mattress, then straddled him. "Without me hearing you think it first? Please. You should be thanking me. I got you laid beyond your wildest dreams, and you didn't go for her throat even once."

He hadn't. And he'd certainly been given enough opportunities to. Had they fixed his problem?

And how the hell could he be getting hard now after the night he had?

"Maybe we've fixed your problem with being strangle-happy. I wouldn't get overconfident about it, but it's a start, na? And you're getting hard again because you're an insatiable pervert, just. Like. Me."

"We're not having more sex."

"No?" Schuldig kissed him, nudging his lips open with his tongue....

******************************************************

"Yoji! What the hell were you thinking? I'll kill you if you ever take my motorcycle again!" At least Ken was yelling instead of throwing punches.

"It won't happen again."

"It better not." Then Ken saw the second helmet strapped to the seat and said, "Impress your girls some other way."

"Uh, yeah." It was fortunate that his coat made sure that nobody would notice the bruises on his hips. He'd _have_ to wear long shirts for while. And shirts that covered his neck. Right now he had the collar of his coat turned up.

Elena and Fenris stared at Yoji, which made him nervous, but they looked more curious than smug or angry, so maybe he'd successfully shielded the worst of the night off from them. Or maybe Schuldig had.... They kept on not saying anything, so maybe he was safe.

He really had to stop doing this. No matter how much fun he had. It would wear him out to feel this good and this guilty at the same time more often.

******************************************************

"If you keep smiling like that, your face will break," Brad said.

Schuldig kissed him, then did a happy spin. "But what a way to go." Yoji was coming along nicely. But Schuldig felt a thunderstorm in the air. "Hey, what's up with Nagi?"

"He came in upset this morning and locked himself in his room."

Schuldig reached out with his telepathy... and winced as Nagi did the telepathic equivalent of slamming a door shut on his fingers. "If you need to talk, I'm here!" he shouted to the kid. The air should have burned from the words the kid muttered back.

"We may have to kill Persia," Brad said. He might not be kidding.

Schuldig read him, and he _wasn't_ kidding. "How about we give Nagi a chance to cool down before we do anything that permanent?"

******************************************************

Aya set the bags down on the floor and took off his boots. As Aya took the bag containing Farfarello's X-mas gift into the bedroom, Farfarello greeted him with a lazy wave of a cookie but thankfully didn't ask why Aya was shoving something onto the top shelf of the closet. With that done, Aya returned to the kitchen and put the groceries away, striving to look casual.

He hoped that Farfarello liked the gift when the time came.

He wasn't used to this kind of thing.

Finally he returned to the bedroom. Watching Eddie Izzard on the TV, Farfarello was lying on his stomach on the bed next to a plate of cookies. Aya sat down straddling his waist and ran his hands under Farfarello's shirt, tracing the indents and raised spots of scars, reminding him that it was good to have a body of his own.

"Where did the cookies come from?" Aya asked.

"I finished the gingerbread and couldn't wait for you to come back, and the Food Network had a special on cookies, so I made some. We had all the ingredients in the house. Have one."

Amazing. Then again, if Farfarello could find the patience to follow a recipe, it would be for something sweet.

They seemed to have strawberry jam in them. Farfarello loved jam. When Aya tried to pick one up, he immediately had to drop it and suck on his fingers. "Too hot."

"Oh. Didn't notice. Sorry." He laughed when Aya leaned back a bit to sit on top of his ass. "Comfortable?"

"Very."

"You have cat hair on you."

"The tortoiseshell at the bodega was very friendly, and I gave in to her. How is the show?"

"_Dress to Kill_ was funnier."

In three minutes, Aya tried a cookie again now that they'd cooled. "It's good," he said honestly. A little sweeter than he liked, but very tasty.

"X-mas is a time of cookies and sweets. I'm glad we'll be here for it. American Easter is about candy. Too bad we can't be here for that. You're nervous."

Aya traced the knobs of Farfarello's spine with his fingertips. "I'm nervous." They wanted to catch their target around 5, when many workers would be going home from the day, and they should leave soon to do so.

"I won't be reckless. We should get going."

Aya wanted to stay here like this instead but knew that Farfarello wouldn't be deterred, so he climbed off him, took the cookies away and covered them with a cling wrap, then knelt beside the bed. Farfarello turned to lie on his back and wrapped his arms over his chest, as if composing himself for a grave, and Aya had to look away.

~ I'm here. ~

Aya glanced at the empty body on the bed only briefly before he took out his earrings, put the brown contact lenses in, and put on his boots, coat, and hat to go.

******************************************************

Farfarello loved riding in his puisín, who moved in a different world than he did. Aya's reality had more depth, temperatures, physical feelings, and textures, and it didn't shout at or cajole him the way Farfarello's did. Yet scents and colors weren't as vibrant. Walking the same route Farfarello had walked many times in the past, he didn't look at exactly the same things. His fingers still stung a little from the hot cookie, and his contacts irritated his eyes.

Aya had shoved his worry down to try not to feel it, so he was cranky instead. The crankiness increased as they entered the subway and the train, since Aya hated the filth. He also hated the press of people and being so closed in but wouldn't admit to that so readily. While Farfarello didn't think that Aya's fear was serious enough to be classified as claustrophobia, Aya did suffer somewhat, which made him annoyed with himself.

~ It's cheaper to travel this way, as one person. ~

Aya _would not_ smile. Absolutely refused to.

~ If you say so. ~

They exited the subway in Midtown and walked to the target's building. ~ Time for me to go. ~ Aya wished him luck and reminded him to be careful.

Farfarello pulled up and out of his kitten's body and roamed the ether until he found his target. At five minutes to five, David Kapur had no intentions of leaving for home yet. Such dedication. Farfarello easily slid right into him. After the trouble he'd had with getting even a slight reading off of Zhulin, such ease made him very happy. Kapur had a good will but not one focused in a way that could stop Farfarello, and he was tired after a long workday. Excellent.

~ Where is the Forbin project? ~

It confused Kapur, probably because his brain had never spoken to him with a slight Irish accent before, but the information came right up in his brain. In their stakeout discussions, Schuldig had called this strategy "The Pink Elephant Gambit." Tell your targets what you want and watch them try _not_ to think about it... and fail. Farfarello took control of Kapur's hands and expertise to open the right computer folders. Despite his panic, Kapur couldn't resist. When he tried to say something, Farfarello stopped him from that too.

No wonder Schuldig was such a smug bastard, when he could play with people like this.

~ Is this all? ~

_Yes_, Kapur wanted to think, but his mind betrayed him. There were more files on the intranet, so they opened that up as well. Farfarello made him grab a CD and put it into the drive. ~ Will one CD be enough to hold all the files? ~

_Yes!_ Kapur thought, but it was actually another No. His brain even estimated how many and which files would fit best on which CD. Copying files and burning them to CD turned out to be very easy when you had an expert providing the steps for you. Farfarello didn't know why he'd found computers to be so intimidating.

~ Is there anything else you think I'd find useful? ~

And Kapur gave those up _too_. Farfarello felt the body smile along with him but also felt it starting to wheeze. What was going on?

Shit. It was a panic attack starting an asthma attack. It felt like he was trying to breathe through thick cloth. Dammit, he had to finish this last CD, which was still burning.

~ Calm down. ~

The target absolutely refused. Instead, he became worse. Farfarello felt his own thoughts scattering as adrenaline hit Kapur's body. Now they both wanted to run away.

"Dave, are you okay?" one of the other office drones asked.

"No!" the target said, taking control of his vocal cords and standing up.

Shit! Farfarello still had enough control of the man's hands to grab the CDs and put them in an envelope to take with him before the body started to run. In the elevator, Kapur sucked on an inhaler and tried not to climb the walls in his panic. He was going insane, insane, and doing it in a way that would get him fired! He needed this job! What the fuck was wrong with him? He had to get out of here before he did something worse! He couldn't breathe! Get out!

It was more terrifying and forceful than Farfarello's fits of mania and compulsion, and it dragged him along. He couldn't think or leave. Scattered and trapped, he tried to call for his kitten.

Kapur burst out of the elevator as soon as it reached the lobby and ran for the outdoors, where he ran into Aya, who held him in place and said, "Calm down, sir. Please." Through the filter of Kapur's mind, Aya looked odd with his snow-pale skin paired with Japanese features. And he was so tall!

The sound of his kitten's voice broke through the whirl and gave Farfarello the strength to take control of Kapur's hands and shove the CDs into a pocket of Aya's coat. Panicked, Kapur never noticed. "I can't, I can't...."

"It's all right."

"Who are you?" Kapur gasped.

Farfarello had the perfect opportunity to jump. But it didn't work. He couldn't get out. Shit. Trying to break free, his soul scrabbled and clawed, and his host screamed at the pain of it, which Farfarello felt as well. Aya looked horrified, then pressed Kapur against the wall, took off his glove, and put his bare hand on the side of Kapur's face. Farfarello felt it, contact, connection. He concentrated on it until his yanking pulled him into his kitten's far more comfortable body.

He felt so tired and stretched thin, but he found the mental strength to murmur, ~ We have it. We can go. ~

Aya let go of their target, who slid down the wall to sit on the concrete. "Take care of yourself," Aya muttered before walking away, trying to appear calm. He could _feel_ that Farfarello wasn't well.

~ I'm just tired. ~ Actually, he hoped he'd have the strength to jump back into his body once they got home. He didn't want to frighten his kitten.

Unfortunately, his kitten had enough awareness of him and his condition to worry no matter what he said. Where usually Aya felt him as weight and presence, now Aya felt him as something faded and thin, diffusing....

Aya's thoughts whirled. Deciding that the train would get them home faster than buses at this time of day, he quickly walked to the nearest subway station. Once inside, he fretted and paced as he waited for the next train to arrive. An old man who'd approached him to ask for change only said two words before the look on Aya's face made him walk on. Under different circumstances it would have amused Farfarello. After the train arrived, Aya stood for the whole ride, unable to stay seated. Lacking the patience to wait for the next train they had to take, the L, he left the station and walked the rest of the way home at a ground-devouring speed just short of a run.

Farfarello didn't say anything about Aya's assumption that putting him back into his own body would help. For all he knew, it might help. But it might not. He stayed silent and let himself drift within the comfortable cocoon of his lover's body, trying to build up strength.

By the time they reached the apartment, Aya's legs burned, and he felt like he had knives in his chest. He slammed the door shut and approached the bed. Although Farfarello wanted to take a good look at his body, Aya wouldn't cooperate, glancing away, lost in flashes of his sister looking similarly alive yet dead in a hospital bed. Whipping off his hat and gloves, Aya climbed atop him and rested his forehead against Farfarello's, making contact, making it easier.

Farfarello tried to pull himself out of Aya's body and back into his own, but it wouldn't work. He might as well have been bound here by infinite restraining threads, and the flesh softly breathing under him didn't have any pull.

Fuck "pull." He was a guest inside Aya, with no right to stay permanently. In any case, he could feel himself stretching, losing cohesion. Could his soul possibly melt into Aya's? He'd rather not find out.

Getting more worried, he had to stop himself from clawing his way out, because he had felt Kapur's agony on that one the last time he'd tried it. Aya noticed his worry and became more worried himself, which fed Farfarello's in an ongoing loop. Aya's heart pounded.

Farfarello pushed and pushed himself. Then Aya clamped his hands down hard on Farfarello's bare arms, and Farfarello broke into his body at last. And screamed as all of the effort he'd put into shoving himself in had thrown him in hard, connecting him completely into his abused flesh with all of its agony. Barely able to think through the pain, he somehow managed to sever enough of the connections to achieve his usual level of feeling. Going from Aya's body to his had felt like going from living in a vital river to living in the fires and torments of Hell to finally living in a block of petrified wood.

Tangled together, now only physically instead of spiritually, they shuddered and gasped. Raw, weak, Farfarello didn't even have the strength to keep his eye open, so he succumbed to unconsciousness.

******************************************************

Aya retained his harsh grip on Farfarello and continued to shake. Farfarello didn't wake. He just continued to lie there like a dead thing.


	88. "I'll shove a paper crane up your ass."

Schuldig picked up the phone. "Schwarz." It better not be Omi trying to reach Nagi again. Stupid fucking kid. Nagi would talk when he was ready, as Schuldig had said three times before. Stupid, _suicidal_ fucking kid. Brad would murder him if he kept calling.

Moving in together. What kind of possessive crap was that? The kids barely knew each other. Nagi had been right to bolt. _Never_ settle down with your first and only.

"Schuldig. Good. I wanted to talk to you," Aya said. Aya? Aya speaking in German no less, with the Berliner accent Schuldig had last given him.

Aya wouldn't call him just to be friendly, especially not after the snit he'd thrown over having his English adjusted, so there could be only one reason for this contact. "What happened to Cain?" Schuldig answered in German. Farfarello must have done something wrong with his telepathy. Given Farfarello's recklessness, this call should have come earlier.

"He pushed himself too hard. I felt the strain, his weakness.... He almost couldn't get himself back in. He's sleeping now. He's sleeping a lot." Aya's voice sounded exhausted and almost choked. Anyone who didn't know him would think him tired and mildly perturbed. Anyone who knew him well would hear worry and reined-in panic.

The poor kitten was lovestruck indeed. Schwarz had him. They _so_ had him. Triumph felt almost as good as orgasm, and it seemed to flow through Schuldig's entire body. His smile nearly devoured his face.

His Schuldig instincts told him to gloat and taunt, because that was what you did when someone showed weakness, even if that someone was one of your own, but he refused this time. In his fear for and concern over Farfarello, Aya had already swallowed his prodigious pride in coming to Schuldig like this. They both knew it. Rubbing salt into the wound would be overkill.

Schuldig so wished he could reach out and _feel_ Aya, to better calibrate his response, but Aya and Farfarello were too far away for him to do that this very instant. He wanted to stroke them and make it all better.... Instead, he would have to rely on his tone of voice for now. As a telepath, he knew the effectiveness of a voice very well.

Sounding as soothing as he could contrive, Schuldig answered, "Red, sleep is a good thing. It helps the healing. Cain's tough. You wouldn't believe how tough. How long has he been sleeping for?"

"Perhaps two hours, but he never sleeps this deeply. He's utterly unresponsive. If something were really wrong, I wouldn't know...."

The pain in Aya's voice made Schuldig's mouth water. Made him hard. It made his voice deeper, helping him use it to vocally stroke Aya into calm. "Healing sleep is often deep. Entangle your body with his, kitten. Touch him. Ground him. That helps."

"All right. I've been doing that."

"Good. It's a long distance, but I'll see if I can reach him myself later to take a little look-see. Not too soon though, because he needs time to settle."

"That would be good." After a pause, "Thank you."

"No problem. Now if you're not already there, get into bed with him right now. I'll check on him later. 'Bye, baby."

"Yes. Goodbye."

Schuldig put the phone on the receiver, leaned back, and closed his eyes as he put his hand over his hard cock and wondered if Aya was letting himself cry from worry and frustration in that faraway apartment where no one could see him. Breathing hard, Schuldig couldn't help imagining Aya's pain and worry and self-disgust, the salty tracks of tears on that usually chilled or angry face, the twitch of tense muscles under scar-studded pale skin as he fiercely wrapped himself around Farfarello's body amidst rumpled sheets....

Schuldig opened his eyes and smiled as Brad entered the room. "You're just in time, sugar."

"I see," Brad answered, ever so amused.

He looked less smug when Schuldig grabbed him, lust lending him even greater speed, but didn't complain about the results.

******************************************************

Aching in unfamiliar ways, raw, Farfarello drifted in darkness and dust. Ashes, ashes.... Somewhere beyond the catacombs his puisín waited for him, but beyond reach. Farfarello couldn't move, as if the darkness straitjacketed him.

Somewhere nearby colors rippled, blues and oranges crackling and moving like flames or electricity. He smelled cinnamon. The colors tried to talk to him, but he couldn't hear them. They tried to approach and failed, blazing red and purple-blacks in frustration. Pretty. Farfarello watched for a while until it became obvious that the Schuldig wave couldn't reach him, which made sense. After all, Schuldig always had difficulty breaking into his head. Then he closed his eyes--because he had two eyes in his mind--and went back to drifting.

******************************************************

Wrung out, dulled, Aya held vigil with half-opened eyes and his body tangled with Farfarello's. Would he know when Schuldig visited? Probably not.

There was nothing he could do. He should be accustomed to that by now.

~ Aya, he's deeply under, but I think he'll be good with a little time. He just got too overconfident and pushed himself too hard with too little experience, ~ Schuldig said, and his mental voice sounded faint.

He'd traveled a long distance.

~ You don't look good yourself. Get some sleep. He knows you're here. I'm going now, since this _is_ a long distance. ~

But Aya couldn't sleep. He might miss something.

~ I'll help. ~

Aya felt something stroke him from the inside, and it felt good but shouldn't be there. "Don't do that."

~ You're a mess. Let me-- Ow! Fucking-- ~

The stroking and sense of presence disappeared. Confused, worried, Aya sat up. "Schuldig?"

******************************************************

Wounded, in pain, Schuldig turned around in the astral plane and faced Farfarello's telepathic avatar. ~ A lightsaber! What the hell, Farfie? ~

A red-haired, green-eyed, scarless, _enraged_ Farfarello wielded a humming lightsaber that had a "blade" that was the same tarnished gold color as his real life eye. ~ Leave my kitten the fuck alone! ~

They never should have let him watch the _Star Wars_ movies. But why had he manifested that as a weapon here instead of one of real-life swords or knives? He'd been relentlessly literal-minded in his past telepathic wanderings.

There could be only one answer. ~ You've been training! You fucker! Who's been helping you? ~ Schuldig barely dodged another thrust of the lightsaber. ~ I was trying to help Aya! ~

~ You're the lord of lies, you are. Always! ~ Farfarello didn't look like he'd gotten back his full strength, but this definitely was an improvement over the thinned-out wraith floating aimlessly in nowhere. ~ Picking at him while he's tired! Do you think I don't know what you want from him? ~

~ He's so worried about you that he called _me_. Think about that one. And your being pissed off now got you moving again, didn't it? ~

Green eyes narrowed. The different hair and eye color amused Schuldig and made him wonder. Brad said that the Farfarello avatar he'd seen in the battle with Berger had had green hair, but Schuldig had always seen the redheaded version. Did Farfie's colors change with his moods, as Schuldig's did, or did the avatar look different to different people?

Damn, Farfarello looked hot in black leather and bondage pants, without or with scars, no matter what colors he had going, but with two eyes and without scars he looked younger, prettier. Breakable. But he held that lightsaber ready to cleave Schuldig in half. Telepathic damage still hurt, and an avatar self destroyed or killed would leave a body brain-dead.

This distant from his own body and already wounded, Schuldig couldn't put up as good a fight as he normally would. He had to turn Farfie aside. ~ You can fight me, Farfie, or you can comfort your worried, sleepless kitten who's flashing back on his sister's condition. ~

Farfarello stiffened, thinking, then said, ~ You leave first. ~

As Schuldig bowed, he briefly wondered how that would look to Farfie, who saw him as a wave of colors, then flew home. Conscious of his own body again, he groaned at the dizziness pounding through his head, and he still felt the burn of that first saber strike.

"How are they?" Brad asked as he rolled over to face Schuldig.

Schuldig stroked up and down Brad's arm as he answered, "Better than they deserve to be."

Aya had been tired and weak and in need of comfort, ripe to fall into Schuldig's hands, but Farfie had noticed his advance and fended him off. Farfarello had been training with someone. Possibly a few someones. Schuldig wanted names.

"You were doing something you weren't supposed to do, weren't you?"

"Define 'weren't supposed to do.'"

"And someone slapped you down for it."

"Hardly!"

"Hmm." Brad stroked him slowly and almost meditatively.

It made him shiver and wiggle a little in pleasure and put him into a better mood, although it didn't dispel his curiosity at all. "Farfarello is using his telepathy more. He got overconfident here. He'll be fine."

"Good. Expanding his skill set makes him more valuable."

"Aya's freaking out over poor widdle Farfie's telepathic injury. He is so ours."

Brad's current smile combined his fond smile and his "we're gonna fuck you up" smile. "We'll all be together again soon. I can feel it."

"I thought you couldn't pick them up while they're so far away."

"I'm picking us up."

"Ah."

Brad felt pleased, pleased, _pleased_, and that and the stroking washed Schuldig's bad temper away. Too bad his trip had left him too tired to fully show his appreciation.

******************************************************

Feeling Farfarello's fingers move within his grip, Aya looked down at his lover, who had opened his eye. "Puisín... I'm glad you're here. You help me so much." Farfarello looked weary but better than he had.

Relieved, lighter, Aya draped himself halfway atop him and held him. "I'm here."

"Yeah, I feel you. Let's just rest a while."

"Yes." Calmer at last, exhausted, Aya finally closed his eyes and let himself go.

******************************************************

When Mamoru's bodyguard opened the door to his apartment, Eguchi looked in and shouted, "Stay back, sir!"

What? His other bodyguard pulled him back into the hall.

"Please. They're origami. They won't hurt anybody," Nagi said inside the apartment.

After a well-placed elbow freed Mamoru from his guard, he rushed to his door and looked in. Origami cranes in red and white littered the apartment. They nested on tables, chairs, shelves, and the floor. The sight amazed him. "Are there a thousand?" Mamoru asked. There sure as hell could be.

"Probably. I've been working on them for a long time," Nagi answered, looking much calmer than he had the last time Mamoru had seen him. With his hair in its usual style and without eyeliner, he looked like his usual, only mildly kinky self. Though he still had the black nail polish on.... He smirked as Eguchi threw his crushed gun to the carpet.

A thousand cranes. Mamoru wondered what Nagi had wished for with them.

Unable to resist, Mamoru asked, "Does this mean we're engaged?" then said, "I'm kidding! Really!" in reply to the annoyed look on Nagi's face. Trying to keep things light, he asked, "Could you try to avoid destroying my employees' equipment from now on? I pay for it, you know."

"Fine. Can you get rid of them?"

Mamoru's bodyguards looked disgusted but left at his command. Once they left, Mamoru carefully cleared several cranes off the couch to sit next to Nagi. "I'm glad you came." He still heard paper crinkle as he moved.

"Schuldig told me when you called. Each time."

"I was worried." An understatement.

"It was brave of you to call. Or stupid. Schuldig had to stop Crawford from answering the phone and giving you a piece of his mind and a promise to kill you."

"It was a risk I had to take." Not that Schuldig had been much friendlier in their conversations. Schuldig had called him a stalker and a moron at one point.

Nagi looked rueful. "Omi, I didn't react well, and I'm sorry for that, but I'm still not going to move in with you."

"I guessed that." He'd known that even as he'd asked. It had been too much, too fast.

"Even when we're involved, I need space. And don't say that you'll give me my own room or an apartment of my own on this floor."

"Okay." Damn. Nagi had apparently thought this out very thoroughly.

"Yeah, I thought about nothing else for hours. I... like my current living arrangement, as much as it pains me to say it. At some point they became my family, and I haven't had one in a long time."

"I understand that from personal experience. I know that I've been moving way too fast with you."

"Yeah."

"You didn't have to agree so quickly."

Nagi nearly smiled.

"I get stupid when I'm around you," Mamoru said.

"Maybe it's not good for us to be together if I do that to you." But Nagi didn't sound entirely serious. He was fishing for a reaction.

"I'm told that affection can make people act this way." Mamoru didn't say "love," having already pushed so hard.

"I heard the 'love' anyway."

"Nagi!"

"I'm sorry! You're very close to me and you were shouting." Nagi pushed his hair out of his face with one hand. "I... don't mind the love."

Becoming cautiously optimistic, Mamoru smiled. "It sounds like you did a lot of thinking."

"Yeah. Omi, I enjoy being with you. I just need a home I can return to afterward."

"All right." This had worked out better than Mamoru had any right to expect. He'd worried that he'd frightened Nagi off by being too clingy. He'd also wondered if he'd have to start watching out for a murder attempt by Crawford. Of course, even with this settled, he might still have to watch out for Crawford. "Are you up for a game of Tetris?"

"Then sex?" Nagi smiled.

"Sure. I'm not going to turn down sex."

"You're on."

"Where did you bury the controllers?"

When a small flock of paper cranes lifted up and glided across the room, Mamoru almost laughed in childlike wonder. While he'd seen Nagi use his talent many times before, the whimsy here made this time somehow more special. Nagi stood and retrieved the controllers by hand, a dark figure of blue and black amidst all the bright red and white. "Did you like that?" he asked, looking almost flirty.

"I'll admit that it was cool."

"Maybe we could play with the origami later too."

Nagi seemed to be in a very good mood. It gave Mamoru hope.

******************************************************

"Kitten, you're still in your coat and boots."

"Hmm?" Aya asked as he drowsily lifted his head to look at Farfarello but saw nothing more than his outline in the dimness. Looking at the clock in the cable box, Aya saw that it was 3 a.m. In the aftermath of the fright and adrenaline rush of what had happened to Farfarello, Aya felt leaden and very tired.

"And you have your contacts in."

"How do you know? You can't see me much better than I can see you."

"Because your eyes hurt."

"I'll have to leave the bed to take them out. And turn on the light."

"Do what you must."

Aya untangled himself from Farfarello, got out of bed, and turned on the light. Farfarello still looked wan and tired but much better and watched with interest as Aya removed the contact lenses and put eye drops in to try to lessen the irritation. As he removed his coat, Aya found the envelope of CDs in its pocket and gave thanks that the coat had been thick enough to protect them as he slept on them.

"Schuldig visited," Aya said. "It sounded like something attacked him. I'm--" Worried? He didn't want to say that.

"_I_ attacked him." Farfarello sounded very amused. "He's fine."

As Aya bent over to take off his boots, he had an odd feeling. When he turned his head to look at Farfarello, he noticed his lover watching him with heated interest. Somehow it felt reassuring. While he'd feel ridiculous doing a striptease, he _could_ take a little more time undressing than he strictly had to if it would make Farfarello happy. He'd intended to return to bed in his jeans and sleep that way, but instead he took them and his underwear off as well, taking extra time on the buttons at the fly. He sighed when taking his turtleneck sweater off over his head turned his hair into a staticky free-flying mess of red strands.

"C'mere," Farfarello murmured once he'd stripped completely.

Fortunately, he didn't have a long walk to the bed, and he could turn off the light first. Wandering around naked had always made him nervous, and having an audience made him self-conscious. Besides, the heat had dropped, and the cold air in the room did him no favors.

Remembering how much Farfarello's earlier condition had frightened him, feeling cold, Aya burrowed in close next to him under the covers. Farfarello set Aya's hand under his waistband, but stroking didn't get the strong reaction it should have.

Farfarello made a sound of annoyance.

"We'll have to actually sleep instead," Aya answered, although he kept his hand where it was.

"No fun." But he seemed to be dozing already.

Aya closed his eyes and let his breathing slow to match his lover's. It relaxed him enough to let him sleep again.

******************************************************

Mamoru wiggled around on the couch until the origami stopped poking him, something he hadn't given a damn about a few minutes ago while he'd been thoroughly distracted, and stretched in contentment. Partly on top of him, Nagi looked down at him and grinned, smug, endearing, and Mamoru smiled back. Loved him....

"But if you ask me to marry you now," Nagi said, "I'll shove a paper crane up your ass."


	89. "It looks like insanity given form."

"--can't see it, but it hurt him. We'll have to be taken off active duty for a while," Aya said. When Farfarello opened his eye, he could see his kitten's robe-clad back standing near the door.

"If these CDs have the Forbin project on them," Lark answered, "he'll have done more good for us in an afternoon of copying files than in a few days of executing targets." She thought that Aya looked very fetching in his black robe and with his hair mussed. Farfarello growled softly to himself.

"We'll let you know when we're ready to work again."

"Good. See you later."

Farfarello felt much better with her and her roving eyes gone and felt even better when Aya joined him in bed. His soul wanted his puisín so badly, but his flesh still couldn't get to it. Bodies were truly gag gifts from God.

"You're still tired," Aya murmured.

"I don't want to just lie in bed. It's fucking dull." But he didn't feel up to moving around much. "Mmm. I could wrap gifts."

"Then you'd have to unwrap them for inspection as we went through security to get on a plane going home, since I doubt you could fit them all in your suitcase."

"Fucking terrorists ruining it for the rest of us."

"I... didn't get anyone else any gifts." Aya looked a little embarrassed. "I didn't think to, and they're not going to be with us for the holiday...."

Aya had a narrow focus, one of the many things they had in common. "We're a couple. We can give gifts as a couple. Besides, Schwarz never used to give gifts for the holiday. They won't be expecting anything from either of us." He couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces. "I still don't have anything for Nagi."

"Maybe something related to music?"

"Do _you_ know the extent of his collection?"

"No."

"Yeah, exactly. Hmph. I really wanted to wrap the gifts here."

"Sorry."

"But I wrapped yours already, and you'll be opening it here, so...." Just thinking about it made him want to give it to Aya now.

"I still have to wrap yours."

"You have a gift for me? What is it?"

Aya looked sly. "What's today's date?"

"The 23rd?"

"Precisely."

Farfarello pouted as he saw his kitten's point. "Fuck that, I can't wait two days."

"You'll have to."

His body betrayed him again, as his growl became a yawn. "Shit."

"Sleep. I have some errands to run, and I'll be right back." Aya kissed him and slid out of bed again.

Without his kitten there, he saw no point in staying awake. So he didn't.

Farfarello awoke when he heard Aya setting bags down and taking off his boots. _Bags_. Aya picked them up and set them on the bed. "You bought groceries yesterday," Farfarello said as he sat up.

The cold had put red into his puisín's pale cheeks. "Yeah."

Farfarello opened one bag and found garlands, mistletoe, stockings, more ornaments, and strings of lights. Another held candies and cookies... and "fur"-trimmed Santa hats. Cackling, he set one atop Aya's head, where it looked awful against the kitten's hair color and very funny. Aya gave him a half-hearted glare, which made it funnier. He put his own hat on. The last bag contained a largish present, tastefully and beautifully wrapped in red paper. He knew immediately that Aya had wrapped it himself, just elsewhere so Farfarello couldn't catch a peek. He had to bite his lip to fight down the urge to tear into it now.

"You can set this by the tree next to yours," Farfarello said.

As Aya did so, he said, "My gift has to be jewelry."

Damned small box. Very small box. "It doesn't have to be."

"What else could it be?"

Fuck. Farfarello just stared at him.

"I see." He had his ear cuff and earring back on, the long bar swinging as he bent to set Farfarello's present at the foot of their tree. Aya didn't look like Aya without his hanging scar.

"You're humoring me today."

"I'm humoring you. You said you wanted more lights around the apartment." Sweet, sweet kitten. Aya's chill, prickly exterior was a shield over his soft heart.

"You told me the ones we already had were blinding you."

"Now that I'm blind, it doesn't matter anymore."

Fuck, he must have really looked like shit if Aya had gone to this much trouble.

Aya looked uncertain suddenly. "If you don't want to--"

"I want to. I have the strength for this, definitely."

They hung garlands, lights, and stockings with care and breaks for eggnog and cookies. To Farfarello's amusement, the new ornaments Aya had bought were cats. Yet even his "tacky" decorations walked the border toward tastefulness. Farfarello appreciated the attempt, knowing how much it cost him.

He also appreciated how Aya fellated a candy cane. It probably took Farfarello twice as long to string lights up while he had that sight distracting him. The kitten kept stretching to put things up and bending to pick up more. The kitten was either developing a nice evil streak or completely unaware of his effect.

Curious, Farfarello brushed Aya's soul. Ah. Unaware of his effect. If Farfarello had fully recovered already, he would have fixed that right now.

Once they'd emptied the bags, Aya plugged everything in, transforming the dingy apartment into a magic place of colored light, vibrant ribbons, shiny foil, and dark green pine boughs. Well pleased, Farfarello smiled and leaned against him. "_Rage_ against the dying of the light."

Aya stopped sucking on his candy cane to say, "It looks like insanity given form." But he smiled a little too, and Farfarello wanted to taste his mouth. The smile faded as he heard knocking at the door.

Every time he heard a knock at the door, Farfarello half-hoped that it would be Jehovah's Witnesses. He'd heard about them, and the idea of victims knocking right at his door and introducing themselves struck him as something funny he had to see for himself, but he didn't know if he'd be able to control himself. Killing in your own home had its risks.

Aya opened the door a little, enough for Farfarello to see two young women outside. Unless the media were inaccurate in their presentation, these were not Jehovah's Witnesses. They looked like harlots instead in their tight clothing and colorful hair. Farfarello liked harlots.

They giggled, then the redhead said, "Your doorplate fell off. We wanted to make sure you didn't lose it. The landlord can be an ass about this kind of thing."

"Thank you," Aya answered neutrally as he accepted it from them. And said nothing else, just looked at them.

Eventually they seemed to realize that Aya would not be more forthcoming and looked a little disappointed. Finally the blonde said, "Okay. I'm Luisa, and this is Irina. We're your neighbors, so we might see you around. If we don't see you again by then, have a merry Christmas." They cast another disappointed look at Aya, then left.

To Farfarello's amusement, Aya immediately closed the door. "You were mean to them, kitten," Farfarello said.

"They might have taken the doorplate off themselves to give them an excuse to talk to us."

Farfarello reached out to touch their souls and laughed at what he found. "How did you know?"

"The flower shop fangirls provided an education." Aya set the doorplate down on the counter. "I'm glad I stifled the habit to yell, 'Buy something or get out' at them. Under the circumstances, it only would have encouraged them."

"They wanted you."

Aya shrugged, but who wouldn't want him? He looked wonderful in black. Wonderful in general too, but especially good in black. He'd worn that shirt that had the zippers on it and left them unfastened, revealing bare skin. Put a piece of candy in his mouth for him to suck on, and he only became more tempting. The Santa hat provided a touch of adorable irony, the harlots had thought.

To Farfarello's surprise, the harlots had found him intriguing as well, eyepatch and scars and all.

"How do you feel?" Aya asked.

"Much better. Well enough to take some vengeance for all the teasing you've been doing with that candy cane."

"I wasn't teasing."

He hadn't been, truly, Farfarello could feel that, yet he still had plenty of reasons to pounce Aya. For one, he wanted to lick his kitten's sticky-slick red lips clean. So he did and drowned in peppermint sweetness.

"Wait," Aya murmured, though his slow writhing didn't encourage waiting. He backed them up to the counter and picked something up. Farfarello smiled when he recognized the belled collar. Aya put it on, then went back to kissing.

Having a pet really did improve your life.

******************************************************

Enjoying the cold air, Aya smiled as they walked through the crowds. He'd successfully kept Farfarello in the apartment and in bed for most of yesterday, and now his partner looked much better. But after that _Aya_ had needed to get out and move around, so they'd taken the bus uptown for new scenery and because Farfarello wanted to see the holiday window scenes. Everything was lit up now in the early evening winter darkness.

"St. Patrick's Cathedral," Farfarello half purred and half growled.

Aya grabbed his arm as he started to leave the sidewalk to cross the street. "No."

"I have to hurt them. It's St. Patrick's Cathedral!"

"No."

"Hmph." Farfarello put his arms around Aya's waist and rubbed himself against Aya's ass. "Can we go over there and give them a show that will make them put their own eyes out, then?"

"No. I don't do public shows."

"I get a little better, and you lose your cooperative spirit."

Aya broke free of him. "I have some pride. Wearing a Santa hat yesterday was sacrifice enough."

"I'll take that image with me to my deathbed."

A boy was running through the crowd towards them. Aya moved to the side so the child wouldn't hit him, but the child shifted to exactly the same side. Dueling politeness. Aya shifted again, and so did the boy, the same way. He shook his head. They were going to collide....

Farfarello made a sound. His arm was in front of Aya, and it had a knife _through_ it. Growling, Farfarello knocked the boy wielding it out cold and pushed him at Aya before running forward through the crowd, bashing people out of the way. What the hell had that been?

The boy he'd been trying not to collide with had planned to stab him, while Aya had been too trapped in the thought of him as an innocent stranger to defend himself. Only Farfarello's intervention had prevented it. It left him feeling cold and enraged. Someone had sent a _child_ to kill him! And Farfarello had injured himself stopping it. Aya held onto the child and tried to figure out what to do with him. People were staring at them....

"Get in, Rose-red!" a familiar voice yelled.

Aya looked to the street and saw a black car with one of its back doors open. Nagi sat there, waving to Aya. Schuldig was at the wheel up front. Aya threw himself and his unconscious attacker into the back and heard the door slam shut behind him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Aya asked.

Driving, Schuldig said, "That can wait until we get the one-eyed wonder in. I don't want to explain twice."

Crawford must have seen something.

"That's why we keep you, Aya: your genius."

Despite the help Schuldig had been recently, Aya couldn't help smirking at his snappishness. It seemed that this trip to the United States had annoyed him.

"A lot of people saw the attack," Aya said.

"They won't remember it after what I just did to them."

"Aya!" Nagi said. "Are you hurt?"

"No. Farfarello took the shot for me." The knife had been lodged in Farfarello's forearm. It should have ended up in Aya's gut.

Nagi pulled his attacker away and surprised Aya by hugging him. "I'm glad."

It surprised him but didn't annoy him, so he hugged back. Still, he had to say, "Farfarello's injured."

"So I'll fix him. It's not like he feels it."

"Nagi...."

Schuldig stopped the car and yelled out the window, "You lost him, didn't ya, Snow-white?"

"He disappeared," Farfarello answered, his voice dark and low with annoyance.

"He disappeared to me too. Whoever we're dealing with has some experience with talents. Hop in. Are you aware that you're way more telepathic than you used to be?"

"I suspected." Farfarello got in and moved over Aya to sit next to Nagi, their medic. Incidentally, it also put him between Aya and Nagi, separating them. The knife was lodged deeply in his left forearm.

"At least you didn't use your right arm," Nagi said. "Crawford could see ahead enough to know that I can accelerate the healing without damaging you, so I'll do that a bit to close the wound and minimize blood loss."

Farfarello grunted when Nagi pulled the knife out with his telekinesis and said, "It hurts more going out than coming in."

Nagi telekinetically wrapped the knife in plastic and put it away. "You might want to see if you can let yourself feel some pain in that arm to remind you so you don't use it too much and do more damage."

Farfarello took off his jacket to let Nagi get at the wound. "It doesn't work like that."

"Have you tried?"

Farfarello growled. Then he looked at the child attacker lying unconscious on the seat, turned, and lightly smacked the back of Aya's head with his right hand, saying, "That is not a child. That's an enemy."

Aya accepted the smack. He'd become complacent, and Farfarello had taken injury for it.

"Right now, he's a paperweight. I have him in a shield," Nagi said.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Farfarello asked Schuldig.

"You and the kitten are getting too much alike. You think I wanna be here? Brad saw this while we were in the _middle_ of something and got Persia to put me and Nagi on a private plane."

The middle of something?

Smirking, Farfarello asked, "Did he at least finish you?"

"What do you fucking think?"

Ah. No wonder Schuldig was so pissy. Aya said, "I pity the other people on the plane."

"It was a private jet, just Nagi and the Takatori-hired crew. I couldn't mess with any of them."

"Poor you."

"Poor Brad. I heard his thought about how it's not like he'll never have sex with me again. He's gonna pay. Now where the fuck do you two live?"

"Downtown. I'll call out directions."

"No need. I just pulled them out of your mind."

"Get out of my head." For all the good protesting ever did him.

"Make me, flowerboy."

"He's been like this the whole time," Nagi muttered as he wrapped Farfarello's wound.

"I heard that."

"You were meant to."

Aya hadn't expected to get Schwarz back in his life so soon, let alone be squashed inside a car with them as they bitched each other out. Yet... he didn't find it entirely unpleasant. It was somehow comforting.

He'd truly lost his mind.

"If my pissiness bothers you, Nagi, you could always take care of me to put me in a better mood. You or Aya. Or Farfie. I'm an accommodating guy."

"That's giving up far too much," Nagi said.

"Go to hell," Aya answered.

"Fuck off, mindbreaker," Farfarello said.

"I offered."

"Is Crawford here?" Aya asked.

"Not yet. He said he had something he needed to do. Yeah, probably didn't want to be seated next to me on the flight over."

Farfarello leaned forward, closer to Schuldig. "Tell me, was he inside you when the vision came? If so, perhaps having one of my knives shoved up your ass might help fill the void."

"You're kinkier now that you have a steady."

"Don't harass my kitten."

"Sure, sure."

Once they reached Aya and Farfarello's neighborhood, Schuldig had a new complaint. "Where the fuck do you park around here?"

"You'll have to drive around," Aya answered.

"Son of a bitch."

"We'll get out with Nagi and the child here while you look for a spot."

Schuldig started to curse in German, probably because it sounded nastier. Nagi almost smiled, then said, "I'm enough of a telepath to do a little obscuring so people don't pay attention to Farfarello's arm or the kid you'll be holding, Aya."

"Good," Aya answered, although he didn't feel really safe until they were inside the apartment, where he put his attacker down on the counter.

Nagi, looking around, said, "It's--"

"Bright?" Farfarello asked.

"A hole?" Aya asked.

"Homey?"

"Gaudy?"

"One of those," Nagi answered. "You actually have a tree. I can't believe it."

"Do you have luggage?" Aya asked. "Aside from your laptop bag."

"Yeah. It's in the trunk."

"Crawford must have seen this far in advance to fly you over here in time. Why didn't anyone call us?"

"If he called, you might not have gone to the spot and your attacker wouldn't have been drawn into the open."

Crawford's priorities didn't match Aya's. "Farfarello took a knife through his arm!"

Farfarello put his uninjured arm around Aya's waist and pulled him close.

"Who told him to use his arm as a shield?" Nagi stared at the child. "Something's really wrong about this. You know, I don't sense anything from his head at all. He's not there."

"His partner was ahead of us," Farfarello said as he tugged at the edge of the bandage wrapped around his arm. "We didn't see anyone tailing us because no one tailed us. They were waiting ahead for us. Yet we'd never walked over there before."

"Our enemy has people with talents. Perhaps a seer," Aya said. "And stop ruining your bandage."

Someone knocked at their door. Aya picked up a knife, but Nagi said, "It's just Schuldig."

"How did he get past the outside door?"

"He probably convinced someone to let him in."

Aya opened the door for Schuldig and said, "Don't mess with our neighbors' heads anymore."

"Please. It would be an improvement for some of them." Schuldig looked around the apartment wide-eyed.

"What?"

"It's small, but I like it."

"Stop trying to scare me."

"Where's our luggage?" Nagi asked.

Schuldig sneered. "In the trunk because 1] I am not your servant and 2] we are not staying here."

"They were attacked."

"Yes, out on the street. This is inside their small apartment. We have a hotel we'll be staying at."

"I didn't invite you to stay with us," Farfarello said. Nagi looked upset and rebellious.

"We'll be fine," Aya said.

"Fine? Our enemy has talents working for him," Nagi answered.

"Yeah?" Schuldig asked.

"The way the other guy disappeared, the fact that he and the boy were waiting for Aya and Farfarello to arrive, and the fact that the boy now seems to be brain-dead all suggest it."

"Brain-dead? Let me take a look."

"Be my guest. He's on the kitchen counter."

"For that homey touch?"

Despite his curiosity, Aya almost had to look away when Schuldig put his hand on the motionless boy's slack face. It was unsettling. Schuldig closed his eyes and simply stood there for a few minutes but gradually he started to frown. Finally he took his hand away and shook his head. "Brain_wiped_. There's nothing left in there for me to look through. Total erasure. The body's still breathing but everything that made this kid the little assassin he was is gone. Hell, everything that made him a person is gone."

"That's disgusting," Aya said. Someone had thrown this child at him and then thrown the child away.

"That's life. Somebody knows we could use telepathy to find out about him and the kid's mission."

"What are we supposed to do with... the body?" It was still breathing. It still looked like an innocent child.

"I have suggestions," Farfarello said with an unsettling smile.

"I'm sure you do," Schuldig answered, "but we wait for Brad."

"When will he get here?"

"I don't know." A tune started to play from somewhere within Schuldig's coat. "You little shit. 'Larger Than Life'? You've descended to using boybands?"

"I was bored on the plane," Nagi answered. "I notice that you recognized the tune."

"I'm a telepath. I hear a lot of things I wish I didn't. You're gonna pay." Schuldig pulled out his cell phone and answered, "Yeah? Well, it's about fucking time." He paused. "We don't need anyone else to look at him. I'm an expert, remember? Yeah, I'm pissed. I have plenty of reasons to be. Fucker. An hour? Fine. See you, you bastard." Glowering, he closed up his phone and shoved it into the pocket of his coat.

"What did Crawford have to say?" Aya asked.

"He's bringing Friendly and Idiot to look at our boy. Hell, all of Weiß will be here."

"There's a new Weiß?" Aya couldn't imagine it. No, he could. He simply didn't want to.

"Yeah. It's Yoji, Ken, Friendly, and Idiot, and they'll be here. Brad couldn't get into detail over the phone, but I think Persia's pissed about this attack on you, seeing as how you're so special."

"I'm not looking forward to seeing Friendly and Idiot either." Though he would if he had to. It looked like he would have to.

"Oh, Idiot is 'Fenris' now. And Friendly's a low-level pyro."

Aya actually felt better about the boy's new name, since he preferred not to call people idiots unless their immediate behavior warranted it. It made more impact that way. "Many things seem to have happened without me and Farfarello hearing of it."

"Yeah, funny that. Make the kid a Persia, and suddenly he's all secretive."

Nagi looked unhappy. "I was going to talk to him about that, but everything became too busy and crazy."

"It's all right," Aya answered. Omi was the one to talk this out with.

"So, what are we gonna do until Brad and company arrive?" Schuldig asked. "Orgy?"

"You know better than that."

"It was worth a shot."

Farfarello looked thoughtful, then took out a box of cookies. "We have food and TV. Take your coats off."

"You guys really are becoming Americans. It's so cute."

"You're not cute."

"You're hurting my feelings, Farf."

"Be thankful that's all I'm hurting. You can sit on the bed and watch TV."

"C'mon, Nagi. We have a bed to despoil."

"What? Hell no," Nagi answered.

"Give the couple a moment alone, would ya?"

"Oh." Nagi let himself be dragged into the bedroom.

Aya sighed at their antics, then looked at Farfarello. "I'm sorry you had to defend me."

"The boy was right. I didn't have to use my arm like this to do it." Farfarello nuzzled his neck. "I used to hurt myself worse."

"I should have taken care of the attack myself." He'd become complacent, and Farfarello had suffered for it.

"I like to protect you."

"You shouldn't have to protect me."

Farfarello nipped at Aya's neck. "Be bloodthirstier next time, and we'll call it even."

"Do you guys need lube over there?" Schuldig yelled.

Aya could hear Nagi murmur, "If they did, we'd know."

"Riiight. Never mind. Carry on!"

"I missed Schwarz," Aya muttered.

"Yeah," Farfarello said. "Maybe next time we'll hit them."

"Let's join them before they start yelling to us again."

"Agreed. We must be hosts."

Schuldig had his feet on the bed but, thankfully, taken his shoes off first. "How the fuck do you work this setup?"

"You're useless," Nagi said as he wrested the remote away and turned the TV and cable box on.

"Hardly. Why should I do things when other people are willing to do them for me?"


	90. "Stupidity that doesn't benefit me offends me."

"T, you moron!" Schuldig yelled at the TV.

"I'll take a P," the contestant said.

"You stupid fucker! Tell him off, Pat." Schuldig waved his cookie threateningly at the screen.

Farfarello briefly opened his eye, then went back to drowsing on Aya's shoulder, wrapped around him from behind. Aya looked content, something that, not so long ago, Nagi never thought he'd see. Not so long ago, Aya hadn't even liked to be touched. Watching this gave him a bittersweet pang, but not as sharp a pang as he once would have felt. Maybe he did feel settled with Omi.

Which didn't stop him from being struck stupid every time Aya smiled. He hadn't gotten over Aya _that_ much.

It felt good to be together again. Sitting all on one bed, no less.

"You sound personally offended," Aya said. "Why?"

"Stupidity that doesn't benefit me offends me," Schuldig answered. "Anyone with two brain cells could see that the phrase is 'Eight tiny reindeer.' English isn't even my first language, and I can see that."

Sitting here speaking English as they watched American game shows struck Nagi as so weird, since Schwarz hadn't done it in years, not since that job in Washington D.C. Increasing the surreality of the moment, Aya had turned on all the Christmas lights, transforming the tiny apartment into a den of colors and soft shadows. Nagi still couldn't believe that they had a _tree_. But it was all... nice. He felt so comfortable that he had to keep reminding himself not to lean against Schuldig.

"I'd like to buy a vowel," the next contestant said. "An A."

"Oh for-- These morons are lucky this show tapes in California," Schuldig said.

When a buzzer sounded, Aya stood up, murmured apologies to Farfarello, and went to the door to buzz Crawford in. Crawford entered the apartment, took a look around, and said, "Lovely. And where is our young murderer?"

"On the kitchen counter," Schuldig answered, looking put out.

Nagi nearly gaped at the person who'd entered with Crawford. Omi. "I didn't expect you to come."

Omi smiled and came to stand next to him. "It seemed important." They both looked at each other, both obviously uncertain whether now would be a good time to hug, then looked around at their company and decided against it.

"Omi," Aya said.

"It's good to see you. You look good," Omi answered softly.

Yeah, Nagi definitely wasn't alone in having an unrequited _thing_ for Aya.

"I would have preferred to get more news while here," Aya answered, playing the hard-ass. Or maybe actually being the hard-ass. Nagi couldn't quite tell.

"I'm still feeling my way around our new arrangement." Then he colored a little. "I didn't mean--"

"I know." Aya sounded kind. Good.

"Can we get to business?" Crawford asked, the lights reflecting off the lenses of his glasses, hiding his eyes.

"You're such a prude," Schuldig said. "If we left them all alone, we might get to see something more entertaining than _Wheel of Fortune_."

"Life isn't about entertaining you, Schuldig."

"Keep that in mind when you're not getting any."

Crawford asked, "Where is Weiß? They left the airport the same time we did."

"How are we supposed to know?"

"You could check."

"Why would I want to?"

"I could kill you."

"You don't want to do that."

Fortunately, the buzzer sounded again, and Aya let Weiß in. Kudou entered asking, "Crawford, how the hell did you find parking so easily?"

"Precognition."

"Well, excuse me all to hell. Hey, Aya."

"Yoji." Aya smiled a little, one of his small but potent smiles. "You're looking well."

Kudou looked surprised and pleased. "I'm always looking well. I just look even better now."

Oh yeah, Kudou was straight. Sure.

"Give it a break, Yoji," Hidaka said with a sigh. Friendly and Fenris followed him in. Then he looked around the apartment. "Aya, you're celebrating Christmas? You always hated Christmas. Didn't want anything to do with it."

Aya actually looked a little guilty. Before Nagi could say anything, Farfarello suddenly said, "I wanted X-mas, and he went along." When had he left the bed?

Hidaka looked a little freaked out."_You_ did?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

Farfarello looked at the two people standing behind Hidaka. "Friendly," he said, his voice flat and chill.

He and Friendly stared at each other. Nagi felt Schuldig's anticipation. Finally she said, "Farfarello," and walked away, with Fenris looking thoughtful behind her.

"That's it?" Schuldig asked. "Farfie, her pet boy threw Aya against some iron bars. Don't you want revenge?"

"Not anymore," Farfarello answered. "Do you want revenge, kitten?"

"I don't care," Aya said, and it looked like he didn't. Nagi could feel him thinking that Friendly and Fenris didn't even look like the same people anymore.

"So I won't bother."

Something had happened between Farfarello and Friendly at some point.

~ And their minds are shut down tight about it. Dammit, I want answers, ~ Schuldig said. ~ Wait... I wonder.... ~

~ What? ~ Nagi asked.

~ Nothing. ~

~ Schuldig! ~

~ Heh heh heh. ~

"It's a kid!" Hidaka said as he looked at the attacker. "He can't be more than eight years old!"

"Thank you for sharing your keen powers of observation with us, Siberian," Crawford said.

"Oracle," Omi said, "inciting Siberian's temper doesn't help here."

It amused Nagi that Crawford looked annoyed at being chided but said nothing. Aya cast a wry look at them, then said to Hidaka, "He may be a child, Ken, but he intended to shove a knife into me. I'm alive because Farfarello stopped it. We need to find out who sent him, but his mind has been erased."

"Erased?" Hidaka asked. "Who would do that? That's horrible."

"I agree. We're trying Weiß's two telepaths on him in the hope that they'll find something Schuldig didn't see."

Schuldig muttered something under his breath. When Nagi smirked at him, he smirked back.

As the two teams of assassins crammed into the small kitchenette, standing room only, Friendly and Fenris stood next to the counter with the boy on it, each putting a hand on his face, and linked their own hands. Then they closed their eyes. Nagi saw Hidaka watching them with an unsettled but also curious look on his face.

After a few minutes, Friendly opened her eyes and said, "I can't find _anything_ in there."

"I can," Fenris said in Japanese instead of German, probably so everyone would understand him. "Something small and broken. Small... very small. Somebody has to be hurt for this." His vehemence surprised everyone.

"Is it a useful small thing?" Crawford asked in the same.

"What is useful?"

"Give me strength...."

"It's a valid question," Friendly said. "All right. Maybe I can have Fenris feed me what he's seeing, then _I'll_ pick through it. Fenris?" Smiling, he linked his hand with hers again and closed his eyes. She also closed her eyes, and different expressions flitted across her face as she processed. "His first name. Useless. A face? But no ID, so useless. Or... hmm. Useless. Useless.... I've gone through everything and found something that might be _something_. Yoji, would you be willing to sketch a face or two for me off my directions?"

"Yeah, sure," Kudou answered. "It might take a while, since I don't usually work this way. Aya, you got paper and a pencil in here?"

"Yes. Here."

"Let me see the faces," Farfarello said, to everyone's surprise. "I might know them."

"Okay," Friendly said. "I'm going to touch your face for a better connection."

"Yes." After she did so, his face took on a thoughtful look, then he said, "The second face... that man was with Zhulin that night at the club."

"Zhulin isn't supposed to be aware of psionic talents, not according to the intelligence we have on him," Omi said.

Farfarello shrugged. "This man in his circle had contact with our mindwiped killer lamb. The odds then are good that Zhulin knows as well."

"The Americans have to be informed. I'll contact Lark."

"Should I still do a sketch of the guy?" Kudou asked.

"Yeah." Omi took out his cell phone. "That might be useful. If you can do quick sketches of the others Elena picked up, that would be great too."

"Can I have a table to sit at?"

"We don't have one," Aya answered.

"Great. I'll be doing this standing up and leaning on the counter next to the kind-of-dead kid."

"What are we going to do with the kid?" Hidaka asked.

"He's just meat now," Farfarello said.

"Fenris just proved that there's something still in there."

"Is it enough to do anything with? I don't think so. Besides, he tried to kill Aya."

"He's never going to try to kill anyone again."

"It's not mercy to leave him alive like this. This is existence, not life."

"I want to take him to a hospital," Hidaka said. "There has to be a way we can drop him off without being noticed."

"I could do that," Friendly said.

On the phone with the American liaison, Omi cast Hidaka a fond and slightly exasperated look. Nagi felt him think that _this_ was the Ken he remembered. Aya looked deeply uncomfortable. He _would_ since his sister had been in a coma for years.

Watching the two teams interact left Nagi very distracted. He saw lines of possibility and connection flying and knotting all around them, some lines one-way and others two-way.

"Lark will take the boy into custody," Omi said as he put his phone away. "They have medical staff and want to examine him."

"What will _they_ do with him?" Hidaka asked.

"We're in their jurisdiction. If we don't play nice with them, there would be repercussions. I'm sure he'll be fine. Lark is coming to pick him up. Elena will help Yoji perfect his sketches."

"Elena, you just beam them into my head," Kudou said. "That should be more accurate."

"Sure. You're adapting to the use of telepathy very well."

Kudou looked a little embarrassed. "Uh, sure."

"She's such a suckup," Schuldig muttered. "And he's--"

"Schuldig," Crawford said, sounding amused. Nagi wondered what that was all about.

"Zhulin has people who know where we live," Aya said suddenly.

"I won't be chased out of my home on X-mas Eve," Farfarello answered. "Anyone who comes for us here will be slaughtered with extreme prejudice."

"I knew that letting those three come here would lead to trouble."

"It was a necessary risk."

"I suppose that we can take turns on watch."

"I'm staying here to help," Nagi said.

"We're starting this again?" Schuldig asked.

"You don't need to stay here," Farfarello said.

Farfarello just wanted privacy so he could do whatever he wanted with Aya, Nagi was sure. Meanwhile, Crawford seemed very amused and Omi looked like he had a headache.

"We'll settle who stays where doing what in a little while," Omi said.

"Michael called yesterday," Aya said, "and I told him that you weren't feeling well."

"You think that they thought us to be easier meat for that?" Farfarello asked.

"Perhaps."

"Bastard. I'll introduce him to his internal organs."

"He might have just told Alek, and Alek passed it on."

"Or perhaps Ted." Farfarello smiled sweetly, something that looked terrifying on him. "You have to watch out for the quiet ones."

"You're very funny."

"Are they teasing each other?" Kudou murmured to Hidaka as he sketched.

"Sounds like," Hidaka answered. "Scary."

"It's tight in here," Schuldig said. "You guys couldn't get a bigger kitchen?"

"We didn't figure we'd be throwing parties in here, and we hardly had our choice of apartments," Aya answered.

Omi's headache was getting worse. Nagi surreptitiously rubbed the back of his neck and received a smile as a reward. "We don't all have to be in the kitchen," Omi said. "Yoji needs the counter and Elena so he can sketch, but the rest of us can move out a bit."

"Can I stay in the kitchen?" Fenris asked. He appeared to be offering crayons to Kudou.

"Sure."

As soon as everyone else moved to the bedroom, Hidaka grinned and said, "I never thought you'd be living in a Christmas wonderland, Aya."

Aya looked like he wanted to turn invisible. "It wasn't my idea."

"Except for the parts that were," Farfarello said.

"You're not helping."

"I was supposed to be?"

Hidaka continued to investigate the decorations, which would take a lot of time considering how many there were. Schuldig immediately claimed the whole bed, sprawling out on it, and pointedly ignored Crawford, who stood near him and looked amused and annoyed. The longer this went on, the more he'd get annoyed, but Schuldig knew that and had his traditions. He'd have to make Crawford suffer for a while. Farfarello sat on the floor and pulled Aya down to sit with him. Nagi didn't see any blood staining his bandage, which was a good sign. He'd done careful work on that wound. Sitting in the corner, Omi watched them all, so Nagi sat down next to him.

"I didn't expect you to come," Nagi whispered.

"Once I decided that both teams should go, I wanted to come along," Omi whispered back. "You mentioned that your team has become family. I understand that from my own experience."

"Yeah."

"And I wanted to be with you."

Which gave Nagi a warm feeling, but he said, "You better not let that have any say in whether I stay here tonight to help guard Aya and Farfarello."

"I won't. The fact that I want to take you to my hotel room and have my way with you won't affect my decision at all."

"Good." Because as tempting as that sounded, Nagi had a higher calling.

"All the lights are very pretty. How the hell did Farfarello start celebrating Christmas?"

"He decided that American Christmas is about materialism and treats instead of Christ."

"Okay."

"Aya has changed him a lot."

"Hmm."

A definite sore spot. Nagi watched Omi watch Farfarello wrap around Aya. Omi could be practical to the point of ruthlessness, but Farfarello had killed Ouka in such a way that she'd died in Omi's arms, and he'd knocked Omi out to steal Aya out from under his nose. Spilled blood and injured pride could be hard to overlook. That, despite everything, Omi still wanted Aya for his own didn't help either. Lust and guilt could make even smart people do stupid things, and Omi had been a classic example of that lately.

Nagi still felt a little annoyance and hurt over Omi jumping Aya that night, because grief didn't give enough of an excuse.

"I'm sorry," Omi said.

"What?"

"I'm with you, Nagi. You don't have to worry about me and Aya."

Had Omi assumed that Nagi had been reading his mind and not liking what he saw? Nagi didn't, couldn't, read everyone around him all the time, but Omi thinking he did could be convenient. Then again, what _had_ Omi been thinking that he felt the need to apologize? Probably imagining Aya naked and Farfarello dead, which Nagi couldn't completely condemn without being a hypocrite since he'd harbored such thoughts himself in the past.

If only they could bring Aya in for a threesome. That would solve a lot of problems. Too bad Aya wouldn't agree.

When someone knocked at the door, Aya disentangled himself from Farfarello to answer it. "That's probably Lark."


	91. "Do you hire for prettiness overseas?"

Two men with a stretcher entered with her. "Looks like the mothership has landed," Lark said as she looked at the crowd. "Do you hire for prettiness overseas?"

"It just works out that way," Aya answered.

"Damn, your attacker _is_ young. Mindwiped?"

"It would seem so. Are talents common over here?" To Aya's surprise, Omi hadn't said a word yet, letting him carry the conversation instead. Perhaps he wanted to get a feel for how Lark operated first.

As the medical technicians moved the child to the stretcher, she answered, "Not really. There are some in our line of work, there are even some in my division, but they're self-taught. If there's an American training facility at all like Europe's Rosenkreuz, I haven't heard of it, and I hear a lot. I heard that somebody wiped Rosenkreuz out recently and that its operatives are scattering and picking up new employers all over." She had a shrewd look on her face.

"I've heard that too." He'd be happier with the boy out of his apartment. The boy's condition looked too much like coma, too much like his sister's condition.

"What are you going to do with the kid?" Ken asked.

"Have our experts take a look at him. If he's as gone as you say, there might not be anything we can do for him. But we're not barbarians."

"Didn't think you were," Yoji said. He and Friendly both gave Lark nearly identical looks of what might be lust. Aya didn't get it. Lark was pretty, kept in good shape, and dressed well, but she was too old for them, especially for Friendly. She had to be in her late 30s.

"Nice work," she answered as she looked down at his sketches.

"These are done. Here ya go. It's just a little something I do. I have other things I'm better at."

At least Friendly's eye rolling distracted her from her lust. She and her pet almost looked like normal teenagers now, more human. Fenris looked smarter now. Being in Weiß seemed to agree with them, a stark change from the condition of the team Aya had seen in Berlin and then at that final battle with Eszett. In fact, Ken and Yoji looked healthier and less troubled as well. Yoji was growing out that unforgiving haircut and looking less skinny. Omi looked... sweet with Nagi and might be even sweeter when out of professional mode and away from the eyes of his employees.

It made Aya happy.

"I'm sure you do," Lark answered with a smirk.

"I'm Yoji." When Friendly nudged him hard, Yoji added, "And this is Elena. Fenris is behind her."

"I've never heard of hippie parents naming a kid after a character in the Old Norse vision of apocalypse."

"Fenris is kind of unique."

"I'm Tess."

"Pretty. Irish?"

"Part."

"Yoji," Aya growled.

Yoji smirked. "I'm being friendly!"

"You're being a pest."

"Just because you're never friendly doesn't mean that the rest of us can't be."

"There was an attempt made on my life today. I didn't think I'd have to remind you of it."

"Do you guys need backup from us?" Lark asked. At least she could be professional. "Now that it looks like Zhulin may know what you are, the situation has changed."

"He may also know where we live," Aya said, still disgusted with himself over that.

"That would suck. Do you want a safehouse?"

"I'm not fleeing my home during X-mas," Farfarello said. "Not tonight, and not tomorrow."

"I hear that. I can put some agents on watch near your building." When Nagi made a small sound, she asked, "You don't trust us?" but didn't sound annoyed about it.

"You're just not us, that's all," Nagi answered, sounding very young. Deliberately, Aya imagined. Omi used to bring up objections to certain people with exactly the same "I'm just a kid" manner to get them out in the open without causing offence. Then Aya or Yoji could apologize for the rudeness of youth but still get their answers.

"I get that. Would you like some of us around in support to your own team members you have here?"

This was awkward. Aya didn't know whether he should look to Crawford or Omi for an answer to that. Omi said, "That would be fine. Thank you. I'm Persia." He extended his hand.

Without giving any reaction of surprise at his youth, she shook his hand. "It's a privilege to speak with you in person. Thank you. Will you be staying?"

"For a bit, though not in this apartment."

She nodded. "All right. Will your operatives start looking into this matter tomorrow?"

"No," Farfarello said. "I'm having my holiday. If they come for me here, I'll kill them, but I'm not letting him ruin my first X-mas."

"Drawing him here may be a good idea... and not your intention, I get that, but it still might work out."

"We're ready to go," one of the medical technicians said. They had the boy strapped in.

"Good. Red has my contact number if you need me. Try to enjoy your Christmas Eve."

Once they left, Yoji asked, "You have her contact number?"

"You're kidding me," Aya answered. But it was so _Yoji_ that Aya felt a moment of relief.

"I think she's interested. Worst she can say is no."

"She's over ten years older than you."

"A mature, confident woman can be very sexy."

"She's still in love with her dead husband. The one who died ten years ago."

"That actually makes some things easier."

Aya sighed, reached for his phone, and brought up her number out of its memory. "Here. You pervert."

Yoji wrote it down, then swooped in to kiss Aya's cheek. "You're sweet." Yoji had often draped himself on Aya's shoulders but never kissed him before. It was odd.

"You're dead."

Yoji was already across the room ostentatiously pretending to hide behind Ken to escape Aya's wrath. Aya refused to smile.

"Who's staying?" Aya asked.

"Nagi professed an interest," Omi said, though he didn't sound happy about it. Aya could imagine why.

While Farfarello growled, Aya said, "We don't have many amenities."

Nagi shrugged. "If your car is parked within sight of the building, I can keep watch from inside it. I slept a bit on the plane, so I'm good to stay up."

"Good," Omi said. "I have rooms booked for the rest of us at a hotel."

"Very good," Crawford said.

"Tomorrow afternoon will be the X-mas party," Farfarello said. "You'll want to come back for that. Even Weiß can come."

"This I have to see," Schuldig said. Aya wondered what had happened to the side of his face. Surely he hadn't been shot again.

Stupid question.

At last, everyone had their coats and shoes on and started to leave. Nagi and Omi couldn't quite let their eyes meet as they said their goodbyes, which only screamed out their involvement despite their best efforts. It truly was sweet. He watched Omi give Nagi a keycard and whisper something in his ear. Aya picked up a blanket and followed Nagi and the others outside. Schuldig handed Nagi his suitcase just before leaving with Crawford.

Once everyone had left, Aya opened the car door for Nagi and gave him the blanket and keys to the building and the apartment. "If you need anything, come back in and we'll get it. Will you be all right in here?" Aya asked.

He smiled. "I've lived much rougher than this. Don't worry about me."

"It's cold--"

"Get back inside before I pick you up and toss you in there."

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you." Nagi closed the door and opened his laptop.

Aya shook his head and returned to the apartment, to find Farfarello surrounded by rolls of wrapping paper. Farfarello said, "I have gifts to wrap. I even know what I can give Nagi now."

******************************************************

"It impressed me that Takatori had Nagi stay to guard them no matter how much he'd prefer to have the boy with him," Brad said as he drove.

"Yeah, you each have wonderful anal fortitude," Schuldig answered. "I hope that's a great comfort to you both while you're both not getting any tonight."

"How long will you be punishing me for getting that vision to send you here?"

Schuldig decided to be honest. Why not? "It's not the vision. You can't control when the powerful ones come. It's not your fault that the really powerful ones make you go soft--"

"Schuldig." Brad sounded so annoyed.

"I know, I know, not even your dick should dare to defy your will, but what can you do? So it's not even really the interrupted sex that has me pissed at you. Pissed at God or fate or whatever the fuck you want to credit, but not you. It's the thought that came to you while you were ordering me to go."

"You're punishing me for a _thought_?"

"I punish all of humanity for their thoughts, so why should you be different?" Schuldig sneered. "Besides, you're so in control of every aspect of yourself that it would gall you to say that you have none over your thoughts."

"Will you at least tell me which thought?"

"'It's not like I'll never fuck Schuldig again.' Does that sound familiar?"

"It's the truth."

"It offended me. I may be easy but I'm not desperate. And it's not like you're the only person who can satisfy me." It sounded small and petty when he put it into words, but it didn't change how he felt. He felt pissy, and when he felt pissy he refused to put a nice face on it. Brad could order him to do Schwarz things no matter how he felt but had no authority in this arena.

Brad's annoyance and frustration bled out through his shields. "You're driving me insane. I hope you realize that."

"I feel how I feel." Schuldig crossed his arms. "Right now I'm not in the mood to do anything with you except torment you."

"What the hell do you expect me to do? Never think again? You can be such a woman sometimes."

"Is that supposed to be an insult?"

Brad sighed.

"I need to go out and fuck something or kill something tonight," Schuldig said.

"It's Christmas Eve. Your pickings should be sparse but interesting." That sounded like resignation.

"I thought the same thing. That may be enough to fix things for me."

"Yes?"

"Maybe." It never paid to let Brad off the hook too soon.

******************************************************

"Aya looked really... comfortable," Ken said from the back seat. "It was unnatural."

Out of the corner of his eye, Yoji saw Omi... Mamoru twitch. Yoji said, "There's nothing wrong with being happy."

"With Farfarello? How is that possible?"

"I have no idea."

"He believes in taking good care of his kitten," Fenris said as he briefly glanced away from the window.

Mamoru twitched again and said, "Keep going straight here until you reach 17th Street, Yoji." Poor kid.

Then again, Yoji wondered too why Weiß hadn't been able to do jack shit to get Aya to open up and let himself be happy but that a team of psychos accomplished it in no time flat with no hint of brainwashing. It was humbling.

"We're actually going to a Christmas party tomorrow," Ken murmured. "_Farfarello's_ Christmas party.... It's insane."

It'd be insane but it might be fun. "Like our lives," Yoji said.

"Are you going to call Tess, Yoji?" Elena asked. He glanced at her through the rearview mirror, this tall, sturdy, butch blonde girl with a challenge in her eyes. He hadn't missed her interest in the American liaison.

"I might." He'd liked Tess' glossy dark hair, pale skin, green eyes, irreverent attitude, and confidence. She moved like an assassin, someone who could defend herself.

"Tonight?"

"It's Christmas Eve.... I haven't decided."

"You're always on the make," Ken said.

"Yeah, but there are advantages to putting the moves on someone who's in the business and already knows what line of work I'm in. You should get out there yourself, Kenken. You're a cute guy. You could score."

"I'm looking for the right person, not whoever's in front of me."

Meow, clawboy. But Yoji heard the teasing in it and teased back. "You're so cruel to me, Ken."

"You love it."

"You're so full of it."

"You both make me want to retch," Elena said sweetly.

"I don't understand," Fenris said.

"Count yourself lucky, sweet."

"It's just Yoji being Yoji, Fenris-chan," Ken answered.

"And Ken-chan being an ass," Yoji replied.

"You're corrupting his mind," Elena said.

"_I'm_ corrupting his mind?"

"Make the turn here," Mamoru said. At least now he sounded amused.

******************************************************

"Do you really have to go out? It's cold," Crawford said as he sat on the bed and stretched a little.

"Yeah. There has to be some action in this city." Schuldig wore dark green velvet and black leather, with his orange hair and some silver at his wrists and neck relieving the darkness, and he had an almost dreamy look in his blue eyes.

Schuldig had moods, partly from his talent, partly from his brain chemistry, and partly from his personality. At his worst, he could be pure chaos. It made Crawford smile that he had as much control over Schuldig as he did. The telepath might complain and defy him in small ways, but in the end he did as Crawford ordered him to do.

Once, Eszett and Rosenkreuz had disciplined Schuldig into obedience to make him take those orders. Now, Crawford didn't need them for that.

Just as Farfarello needed an outlet for his urges when they became too overwhelming--whether through murder or Fujimiya Aya--so too did Schuldig. Small releases of pressure did a better job of keeping the two of them professional than denying them and facing the inevitable, messy explosion did.

Rosenkreuz had tried to correct Schuldig's brain chemistry and make him steadier through drugs, but they'd crippled his telepathy and even his speed when used. He somehow _needed_ to be changeable. He'd once called himself a weathervane....

Crawford couldn't imagine living that way. Fortunately, he didn't have to, just make some necessary allowances for his second, his lover, who did. So he answered, "I knew you would say that. I called a cab for you. It will be here in three minutes."

"You can be sweet in such odd ways." Flirty, Schuldig nuzzled his right cheek. He always felt oddly hotter to the touch when in such a mood. "Can you see when I'll be back?"

"No."

"But I can see that I won't be ticked off at you anymore by the time I come back. Don't wait up for me."

And so Crawford would be forgiven for... thinking. Just by letting Schuldig go out without a fuss. He didn't understand it, and he didn't try. They were very different people, but they worked well together.

"I won't." But he would wake when Schuldig returned, no matter how quiet he tried to be coming in. It always happened.

His lover would return in an expansive mood tonight, and tomorrow they would attend a Christmas party. Then they had bloody vengeance to plan. Crawford felt quite content.


	92. "Good thing I don't have a gag reflex left."

Nagi lifted his hands from his keyboard to blow on his cold fingers, but it wasn't so bad, really. He'd lived far harder than this, and he'd been starved down to a stick figure at the time. Now he had a good car, a thick blanket, and warm clothing.

Barely anything stirred out here at the moment, though once in a while he felt one of Lark's men at the edge of his senses. It might be the early morning hour, the cold, or Christmas.

He'd be attending a Christmas party with his boyfriend today. Freedom seemed to lead to surreal situations.

Finally he had to go inside for a little bit. Keeping his senses open, he turned off the computer, hid it under the blanket, got out, locked the door, and let himself into the building and the apartment. He brought his suitcase in with him to leave there. They'd turned off much of the Christmas lightshow, leaving the rooms shadowy with occasional spots of soft color. Farfarello and Aya didn't comment as he entered, but Aya waited at the door for him as he left the tiny, decrepit bathroom.

"Let me give you tea," he said. He looked sleepy.

It was a sweet gesture but-- "It'll fog up the windows. Besides, the cold feels worse to me when I'm hot inside."

"Is there anything I can give you?"

Dangerous question. Nagi had a number of possible answers, some of which Schuldig would have been proud of. He simply answered, "A bottle of water. And maybe a gingerbread cookie."

"All right."

"What are you still doing up?" It was about 3 a.m.

"Farfarello had some presents to wrap. We'll be going to sleep soon."

Presents? As in _gifts_? From Farfarello? "I don't have anything for anyone."

"I don't have much more than that," Aya replied with a small, wry smile as he handed over a bottle of water and a small bag of cookies. "He doesn't expect you to. You just bring yourself."

"That's not much of a gift." At Aya's frown, Nagi continued, "You have me around whether it's X-mas or not."

"Is the boy being difficult?" Farfarello said from the bedroom.

"A little," Aya answered.

"Smack him a little."

This was not any Schwarz Nagi had ever expected. "I'm not being difficult!" he protested.

"You're keeping Aya from coming to bed. Don't make me come out there."

"All right, I'm going back out."

"Don't mind him," Aya said softly.

"No, it's fine." Nagi jumped up to give him a quick, brief kiss on the cheek, murmured, "Merry Christmas," and rushed out the door before Aya or Farfarello could react.

It would be an interesting day.

******************************************************

The feeling of movement in the room and the soft thump of boots hitting the floor woke Crawford up at--he blinked his less than perfect eyes at the clock's glowing numbers--3:10 a.m. "Schu?" he asked, even though he knew. He could _feel_ Schuldig, mellow and contented but ready for more, in the darkness.

"You can go back to sleep."

"You can come to bed and tell me about your night." They'd done this before, and Crawford was getting hard just from remembering.

"Mmm." Schuldig climbed into bed, settled under the sheets, and rested his arm over Crawford's waist. "Naked? You are an optimist." His hot breath brushed Crawford's neck, and he didn't smell as much like cigarette smoke as expected. He did smell of sex and liquor and a little of faded but expensive perfume. His leather and velvet provided an interesting contrast in textures.

Crawford stroked and explored Schuldig's body. "Maybe."

Schuldig skimmed his hand up and down Crawford's spine. "My night.... On an instinct, I had the cabbie drop me off on the Upper East Side. That's where I saw her. She'd just left her mother's apartment and was thinking that her life was utterly unfair. In a different mood, I would have shown her how unfair life can be. Tonight...." It still amazed Crawford sometimes that the English Schuldig spoke was _his_ English, the American English that Crawford had so carefully stripped his original accent out of so long ago. Even in London Schuldig had sounded like an American until his shields had been ravaged. "To be fair, her mother is a nasty old bitch, though she'd hardly be even a minor demon by Rosenkreuz standards. But mommy has the purse strings so she can make her little girl visit her on Christmas Eve." He cupped Crawford's ass and pressed himself closer.

"Was she pretty?"

"The mother?"

They played such games. "The daughter, idiot."

Schuldig made a soft, derisive sound, hot against Crawford's skin. "Bought beauty. The best that dentists, orthodontists, plastic surgeons, fashion consultants, and expensive hairstylists and colorists can give you." Schuldig had a great contempt for the rich. It came from working as a bodyguard for them for years and perhaps some childhood Communist influence. "She had a fake blonde, but a good, professional fake. Green prescription contacts over eyes that were more brown than green."

"Noted." He unbuttoned Schuldig's pants and reached in to stroke, smiling as Schuldig arched. His pleasure and anticipation combined.

"Mmm, you're good. But she was pissed off and wanted to do something her mother wouldn't approve of, and there I was. It surprised her that she found me attractive." To someone accustomed to breeding and plastic surgery, the attractiveness of Schuldig's quirkiness would be surprising. The features of his face shouldn't look good when combined together, yet they did. "I thickened my accent," and he did it here again, "and told her that I was new in town and looking for some fun." He returned to Crawford's English but purred it, stroking Crawford with his words. "I was unthreatening and perfect, someone she would never have to see again, someone almost exotic. I told her that I needed a guide and she was so pretty.

"I led her, though, for a bit of walk through a night that was cold but sharp and clear. Her high heels bothered her, but she had a gym membership and was looking for adventure, so why not?" Schuldig _would_ notice that her shoes hurt. "She asked me about Germany.... We found this funky little place, far from a dive but so foreign to my little rich girl. Considering the night, the crowd ranged from the weird to the already-drunk to the bitter and lost. She felt so daring, especially after I helped get a few drinks in her. You'd think she'd invented slumming tonight.

"I fucked her in the women's room. She was so hot and wet as I thrust up into her, banging her against the door. She had her legs wrapped around my waist and clawed my back while I growled the filthiest shit I could think of at her in German and sometimes switched to English to ask her what would happen if someone tried the door. I told her that I hadn't locked it, that people could hear us even in the hall...." Crawford put his free hand up under Schuldig's shirt and felt the raised welts on his back, traced them and felt Schuldig twitch. "She was such a loud little slut. I got her off four times, twice with my hand, twice with my cock, every time reading her mind for the right stuff. You've never felt orgasm the way a woman does, how deep and long it can be."

Schuldig never used raw language at these times, knowing that Crawford wanted some of it left to the imagination. And Crawford's imagination was rich, especially since he'd watched his lover fuck other people so many times in the past. He knew how Schuldig's muscles would flex, exactly how his eyes would gleam, the set of his mouth, the precise roll of his hips as he slammed in deeply....

"How did you leave her?"

They writhed together, and Schuldig's deft fingers rimmed him with a light touch. "She looked well-fucked by the end, utterly used, hair wild, makeup smeared, lips swollen and wet, dress rucked up. She'd broken a heel. I kissed her and told her that I would never forget this vacation, then departed, leaving her sitting on the floor wondering where the hell I'd picked up my tricks and why none of her other men had been that good."

It sounded like ridiculous boasting, but his telepathy could make Schuldig an incredible lover when he felt like doing it. Crawford knew and said, "Left her shattered." He could feel Schuldig smiling in the dark.

"Oh, yeah. Nobody will ever compare to me. Then I came home to you." Schuldig kissed him deeply, searchingly. "You're so hot and slick against my stomach...."

Lust overcame Crawford. In his own way, he'd been as annoyed over the interrupted sex as Schuldig, and he wanted to finish what they'd started.

Alert to the change, Schuldig stripped off his leather pants in fast, harsh movements. They didn't even bother removing the velvet shirt, since it didn't block anything important, and the telepath had the lubricant and a condom ready, an ever-prepared boy scout in the matters that mattered to him. After a little preparation, the barest minimum, Crawford thrust in deeply and sighed in satisfaction at the way all of Schuldig's body moved to accommodate him, fitting around him in every way. Schuldig hadn't even needed to be opened up, a fortunate thing since at the moment Crawford didn't want to take the time. Needing it fast, needing it now, they moved almost harshly, pushing together, making the bed thump against the wall. It felt wonderful, and Crawford let his shields down a little so Schuldig could feel how good it was.

In response, Schuldig spurred him on with his heels and panted, "Needed this so much."

"Then why did you get a woman?"

"Needed it from you."

Crawford came hard, white hot, and smiled fiercely as the feel of his orgasm made Schuldig come as well. As they cooled down, Crawford sucked hard on the side of Schuldig's neck just above the silver torque, tasting salt and metal. It was a vulgar display of possession, but Schuldig appreciated certain vulgar displays, as evidenced by the nearly purring sound the telepath made as he did it.

"Brad Crawford: man of contradictions. Lets his lover go out and fuck other people, wants to hear about it as a bedtime story when he gets home, then marks him as property."

"Is that a complaint?" It didn't really sound like one, but Crawford had to tease.

"Fuck no. And neither is this: We ruined another one of my shirts."

"In a good cause."

"It took me years to bring you around to my way of thinking."

In the darkness, as he idly fingercombed Schuldig's long hair, he couldn't see how debauched Schuldig looked, but he didn't have to. He had plenty of memories and he could listen to Schuldig's heavy breathing and feel the liquid contentment in his lover's long body.

Crawford had needed this himself. It always galled him when the visions struck during sex and put him out of his own control. But this bout had exorcised that feeling of literal impotence. Better, the rest of his people were close by now, and there was something primal and very satisfying in it. It felt like being complete.

"What are the others doing?" he asked Schuldig.

"Mmm. Nagi's on guard in the car with his computer and feeling mushy about everything, which is ticking him off a bit. Farf and Aya just went to bed after some gift-wrapping. All I can get from Farfie's sleep is dreams of red. Can't make out any more detail than red and that he likes it. Aya is dreaming that he'll have to get more food for the party. For a guy who could go completely irrational just hearing the name 'Takatori,' he's so damned practical in almost everything else. Omi's dreaming about flying with Nagi on a sunny day. Good thing I don't have a gag reflex left. The beasts and other kitties, even Yoji, are snug in their beds sleeping and trying to adjust to the local time. Wimps."

All there. Yes, Crawford felt very satisfied. He looked forward to hunting down Farfarello and Aya's attackers and destroying them with full force.

"But, first, Christmas party," Schuldig said.

"Actually, ‘but first shower and sleep.’"

"How about shower sex and sleep? Fucking and being able to clean ourselves right up afterward is very economical."

Schuldig really amused the hell out of him sometimes. "You're insatiable."

"Is that a no?"

"No, it's not a no."

"Excellent."

******************************************************

As Aya went through the cupboards and refrigerator to help him put a shopping list together, he suddenly heard Farfarello yell, "Aya!" from the bedroom. He sounded annoyed.

Aya walked over to see him glaring down at Nagi. The boy had apparently fallen asleep right after his shower... curled up like a kitten on their bed. He still had the towel wrapped around his hair. He murmured in his sleep and curled up a little tighter, making his pajama top lift a little and reveal more of his pale back. Staying awake all night had caught up with him.

Aya fought back a smile. "You told me I needed a pet. Nagi is cute and housebroken."

"He is also yappy and gets into everything. Including our bed."

"It's a good thing for you he wasn't awake to hear that. He'd throw you into the next state. Besides, he's not so much in our bed as on top of it. He's on the bedspread." Aya put a blanket over him, which muted the unbearable cuteness of the scene somewhat.

"Hmph." Farfarello picked at the edge of the bandage on his arm again, then stopped as Aya glared at him. "I'll let the boy live this time."

"Good."

"But if you pet him, he'll be dead at my hands."

"I don't like threats."

"Hmmph." Farfarello was nearly pouting, but as silly as it looked it didn't make him any less dangerous in his jealousy.

"I mean it."

"Fine. But I'm still going out shopping with you. It's not safe to be out there alone."

Unfortunately, Aya couldn't argue with that. "I'm almost ready." Besides, it mollified Farfarello somewhat.

Aya compiled a list to take with them and wrote out a note he placed under Nagi's hand, then he and Farfarello went outside. Almost immediately, someone waved to them and yelled, "Wait a moment!" The man looked young and very earnest, completely unthreatening. In certain American movies, he would be the guy who would say things like "Aw, shucks." Aya distrusted him immediately, and he and Farfarello kept their distance.

"Excuse me?" Aya asked.

"Where are you going? We have everybody watching the apartment."

"We have more people than we expected coming, so we need more food."

"That's it? Give me a list, and I'll send one of the guys."

"You're joking," Aya said. Farfarello smirked next to him.

"No joke. Lark would string me up by my own intestines if I let you two go and something happened."

"Would she?" Farfarello asked, excited.

"She did it on one of her jobs. In the morning his family found him hanging in the foyer with the dog licking blood off his foot." The admiring tone and detail of the dog made it more believable.

Apparently it worked for Farfarello too, who said, "Give him the list, kitten."

Aya sighed and handed Lark's man the grocery list. "Cool!" he said. "We'll get someone working on it right away. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Aya replied back softly, nonplussed, as Farfarello happily dragged him back into their building.

His happiness didn't last. "That boy is still sleeping on our bed."

Insanity had come to feel almost normal to Aya. "We can prepare for the party. And make cookies."


	93. "He only laughed when I told him that he could have pizza and fried chicken and like it."

Nagi felt very comfortable, so he burrowed under the blanket a little more, but frowned as he heard the murmur of voices and rattle of plates nearby. He should help make breakfast for the team.

When he opened his eyes, he had no idea where he was for a moment. Then he recognized the Christmas decorations. And the bed. Embarrassment struck. As he quickly sat up, the damp towel wrapped around his hair slid off. At least he had pajamas on.

Aya must have prevented Farfarello from killing him in his sleep.

The TV was on, set to a station that showed a burning log. Nagi had to shake his head in confusion at that.

Nagi folded the blanket that Aya must have put on him and placed it at the foot of the bed, then ruffled his hair with the towel to dry it further. He returned the towel to the bathroom. You'd think he lived here or something.

In the day, Nagi felt more confident leaving security to the locals. They'd proven themselves competent last night. And... one of them was in the apartment right now setting bags on the counter and helping unpack them.

Farfarello asked, "Do you work in shifts?" as he seemed to be carefully watching something in the oven. He was in a good mood. And an apron.

And wearing a red Santa hat trimmed with white fake fur, which really made Nagi goggle.

"Yeah. Mine's up in three hours."

"Come in and pick up some food if you want to. You helped get it."

The man beamed, which made him look very young. "Thanks!"

Looking annoyed, Aya clipped his cell phone to his belt under his apron. "Crawford will have someone bring us a table."

"Chairs?" Farfarello asked.

"No chairs. He understands that we don't have the room. Someone has also been hired to make and bring a cooked ham and a turkey."

Farfarello cackled. "And probably more besides."

"He has very definite ideas about what an X-mas meal must have. He only laughed when I told him that he could have pizza and fried chicken and like it." Looking annoyed, Aya sighed. "I'd gotten used to more independence."

To Nagi's surprise, they spoke in English all the time here. He'd noticed it last night as well and spoken back to them in the same. English was Farfarello's first language but not Aya's, and Nagi didn't think that Schuldig had forced an English default on him.

"Take advantage of the good stuff he imposes and throw a fit over what you don't like. Right, boy?"

"It's what I do," Nagi said.

Aya put his hand to his face and said, "Shit. Now we have to get fried chicken." The sleeves of his purple sweater had been rolled up to his elbows, exposing the knife scars on his left arm.

Nagi stared at him. "You were already going to have pizza?"

"Farfarello loves pizza."

"Since when?"

"Since I first tried it," Farfarello answered.

"Yeah, but isn't the sauce... uhm...."

"I know the difference between blood and sauce, although both are tasty. Hey, Lark's man."

"Yeah?" the guy answered.

"Is there any place we can order fried chicken from open today?"

He smiled. "I can find out and bring you some. How much do you want?"

"Family package."

"Doable."

"You won't be strung up by your entrails today."

"Then it's a good day. See you later." He waved as he left.

Okaaaay. Nagi asked, "How long did I sleep?"

"An hour and a half," Aya answered.

"Sorry."

"Not a problem."

"I had to stop Aya from putting a collar on you," Farfarello said.

The very thought made Nagi twitch. He tried very hard not to imagine what kind of collar Aya might put on him. Maybe a simple blue band. Or, given Aya's taste in coats, something in black leather with silver embellishments. Nagi could imagine Aya's slim, callused fingers putting it around his neck, brushing his skin.

He really had to stop thinking about this.

"That's not true," Aya answered.

"Almost was. Nagi, after so much time spent with kittens, you're becoming one yourself."

Nagi refused to let himself blush. "I doubt that."

"Our bed is not for you to cozily curl up on."

Aya said, "Crawford will just have to be happy with our paper plates and thrift store candy plates," no doubt to change the subject. Thankfully.

"He will be," Farfarello said, making it sound like a certainty instead of a threat. "He wasn't born tasteful. Made himself that way."

"How do you know that?" Nagi asked.

"I took a walk through his head and I'm observant."

"Schuldig can't dig very deeply into him unless he allows it."

"I'm special. Make yourself useful. Set out some candy and cookies on the plates."

"Shouldn't I get dressed first?" Barefoot and dressed in a plain cotton pajama set, Nagi hardly felt ready to face the day.

"Usefulness first. My home, my rules." He grinned, which looked very disturbing with his scars. "I like the sound of that." He shoved a small pile of plates, some glass and some porcelain, at Nagi.

"Fine."

As Aya rummaged through the items that had come in the bags, he said, "Good. They remembered the ashtrays. Although Schuldig didn't smoke last night."

"If he's in a room of non-smokers and doesn't want to piss someone off or make a point, he doesn't smoke," Nagi answered. "Though for some reason I don't know, he does smoke in Crawford's company. Habit maybe, since he spent years working to piss him off."

"Yoji will be here."

"Better put out the ashtrays. I think Schuldig likes to compete with him. Aya, you're making a cake?" Sponge cake, with strawberries and whipped cream....

"Constructing it, more like. It's not like we have an Oto-san to bring a cake home to us. Keeping Farfarello out of the whipped cream and strawberries has been a chore."

"Oto-san is too busy making someone bring us ham and turkey," Farfarello answered with an evil smile.

"Crawford is not now nor will he ever be my father." Aya's cell phone chirped, and he answered it. "Hello. Omi. We figure about one o'clock. You don't need to pick up anything, because an unknown quantity of food will be arriving." For this, he spoke Japanese. "No gifts are necessary either. I have to admit that we didn't get you anything. We didn't expect matters to work out like this. Sorry. It's fine. Nagi wants to talk to you."

"What?" Nagi asked, then jumped as Aya handed him the cell phone. "Hi, Omi."

"Hi. How was last night?"

"Cold. Boring. I missed you." Nagi noticed that Aya had grabbed Farfarello and was making him watch Nagi talk on the phone, probably to reinforce the idea that Nagi had a boyfriend and wouldn't pounce Aya. Right.

"I missed you too." Omi laughed a little. "I actually dreamed about you."

Well, well. "Hold on a moment. I'm taking this into the bathroom for privacy."

"It wasn't that kind of dream!"

"Still." He grabbed his clothes and went in, figuring that he might as well dress at the same time. Telekinesis could be very handy, since it gave him the opportunity to hold things with his mind as well as his hands. "This is going to be such a weird day."

"Weiß seems to be excited about it, although I think they're partially expecting it to be a train wreck."

"Which has its own fascination."

"Of course. Will you stay with me tonight?"

"I'd like to." Damn, but he sounded coy. Who'd hijacked his voice?

"Someone else can guard. I don't want to get any one person overtired anyway."

"Yes, it makes perfect practical sense to take your lover off guard duty."

"You can be such a brat." But he sounded amused.

"I'm a perfectionist in everything I do."

"Nagi, are you undressing while on the phone with me?"

Eep. "I'm only changing out of my pajamas!"

"That's a shame," Omi purred in way that went straight to Nagi's cock.

Okay, they really needed to spend the night together. "I'm not going to have phone sex in Farfarello and Aya's bathroom. Farfarello would kill me. Maybe Aya would too. I don't find unnecessary risks arousing."

Omi laughed. "Sorry. I'll see you in a few hours."

Nagi could only hope that they'd be able to keep their hands to themselves in public. "Yeah. See you soon." He had a smile on his face as he closed up the phone.

When he came out he found Aya and Farfarello moving a table around in the bedroom. They'd already shoved the bed against the wall for more room.

"It even has a tablecloth," Nagi said, switching back to English to match them.

"A good thing, since we don't have one because we don't have a table," Aya answered.

"Should we put anything on it yet?" Nagi asked.

"We should keep as much on the counter as we can, since we have no idea how much food Crawford will bring."

"Good thinking." Nagi noticed Farfarello's grin. "What?"

"I'm having fun."

"You know, Japanese Christmas is usually more commercial than religious too."

"Hmmm. I'll keep that in mind."

As they returned to the kitchen, Aya said, "I'm not cooking for a horde for New Year's Day."

Schwarz never had holiday traditions. Nagi asked, "You don't want to make New Year's wishes?"

"I just have no intention of making so much food. Of course, we might not even still be here by then."

Farfarello grabbed them and said, "Stocking time. I can wait for tree gifts, but I need something right now."

Nagi remembered the stockings hanging near the TV, which put them close to the screen picture of the burning log. Farfarello strove for a kind of authenticity. As Farfarello grabbed his stocking, Aya said, "I'm giving some of the stocking gifts with reservations. Don't abuse them."

Farfarello grinned. "Pixy Stix!" He broke one open and poured green sugar into his mouth.

"That is so dangerous," Nagi said.

"I'm trusting Farfarello," Aya answered.

"I have to be responsible? That takes the fun out of it." Farfarello pulled out more candy, a brace of very small knives, and an orange.

"Mayhem and an orange?" Nagi asked.

"Candy isn't a dangerous substance for most people," Aya answered.

"You know better. I'm just wondering about the orange."

"He needs nutrients and likes oranges."

"Puisín, yours now," Farfarello said.

Aya's stocking held ginger candies, Swedish fish, and a small bag of green, purple, and blue foil fish. Nagi asked, "I'm missing an in-joke, aren't I?"

After Aya popped one of the red Swedish fish into his mouth, he said, "Farfarello wanted to get me a pet."

"Fish, huh?"

"I refused." He looked at the foil fish. "These are pretty, but I don't know what to do with them."

"Me neither, but they were pretty," Farfarello said. "They each have a small hole punched at the mouth.... Give me. I think I have an idea."

Aya raised an eyebrow but handed them over.

"Scoot, puisín. You must have some kitchen things you're wanting to do."

"Are you getting rid of me?"

"Yeah."

"All right." Aya left the bedroom.

"You have him trained," Nagi said, half-sarcastically.

"If only. Then again, I like him spirited. I'll need your help, boy." Farfarello pulled a box out from under the bed. When he opened it, Nagi saw wire, bits of glass, pliers, needles, beads, scissors, paints, glue, feathers, a lighter, and scraps of material. It could have been an artist's box. Farfarello shrugged. "They were pretty. Arts and crafts times at the institutions made the day go faster. But they never gave me scissors, pliers, a lighter, or pens and pencils, so I had to keep my art ambitions small." He picked up "gold" beads and a coil of gold-toned wire. As he pulled apart the wire coil, it looked like a spiral. ~ I want to make a spiral fish necklace, but one that won't scratch my kitten up or choke him. The fish can't all slide down to one place. Cap the ends of the wire with a bead each so the ends can't cut or scratch either. ~

Nagi could imagine the end result, and telekinesis _would_ make it easier to shape the materials the way he wanted. Working on this would be like giving Aya a gift. "Okay. Music would help.... I could compile an MP3 playlist for the party too."

Farfarello grinned. "I'm glad Aya stopped me from killing you."

Nagi snorted. "Yeah, me too."

******************************************************

Eventually Aya heard Farfarello come up behind him, so he set the vegetables aside and his knife down and started to turn to face him, but Farfarello said, "No, puisín. Stay where you are. I have something for you." Aya jumped a little when he heard a sound reminiscent of the one Yoji's weapon made. "Calm." Aya stilled.

Farfarello's hands uncoiled a shining line and gently wound it in layers around Aya's neck. It felt odd and constricting at first, especially the part that rested just beneath his Adam's apple, but it didn't tighten too much to strangle him nor did it scratch him. He turned to face his decorator. He probably looked ridiculous.

"No," Farfarello answered. "Just a little eccentric." He sent Aya a telepathic image of him in the improvised necklace. From a distance, a person wouldn't know what shape the colorful, shiny protruding pieces actually were. The necklace looked like gold razorwire, but with fish. Eccentric, but pretty. From the look in his eye, Farfarello seemed to think that Aya looked wonderful, which made Aya's mouth quirk. Such nonsense.

Apparently happy, Farfarello pressed him back against the counter and kissed him. His lover's mouth tasted sharp and sweet, with a strong tone of citrus, no doubt from the green sugar powder. Wrapped in Farfarello's arms, hard against his body, Aya parted his legs to ride Farfarello's thigh a bit. Farfarello kissed along the side of his face and finally nipped the rim of his left ear, murmuring contentedly all the while. This had been the X-mas they'd planned: sex, pizza, candy, gifts, and cookies. Quiet, except for whatever sounds the sex inspired them to make.

Instead, he felt so fucking stressed at playing host to Schwarz, Weiß, and whoever else dropped in to their small apartment, because he had the feeling that more people would just appear. Schwarz and Weiß had never gotten along, although they'd been civil last night, so they would have to be watched and manipulated where necessary. Too many people to be careful of.

He'd hated Christmas through New Year's Day for years. While in Weiß he'd spent as much time visiting his sister or wandering the streets, away from the team and their high spirits, during the holiday season as possible.

"We don't have to let them in, and we can toss the boy out," Farfarello murmured into his ear.

Aya refused to let stupid anxiety prevent him from doing anything. "No, it's fine. I can do this party." It was just a party.

"We can still toss the boy out."

"Farfarello."

"He helped with the necklace, but he cramps my style."

"You have a style?"

The door buzzer went off. Aya kissed Farfarello once more, then disentangled himself to get it. As he paid for the pizza, Lark's man walked up with the fried chicken as well. "I'll be back later, when you have things going. Oh, yeah! I'm James. I know I didn't mention it before," he said.

"Thank you, James."

James saluted, then departed.

"Right on time," Schuldig said, and Aya whirled, prepared to wallop him with a bag of chicken. "Yeah, that would hurt. I might bust something laughing."

Crawford, standing at Schuldig's side, asked, "Did you order enough for everyone?"

"I didn't know how much food your people are bringing." It remained a sore point.

"A ham, a turkey, some vegetables, and a few sides. It will arrive in 20 minutes."

"Is that all?"

"It will be enough." Crawford and Schuldig brushed past him to get inside.

"Please come in. Make yourselves at home," Aya murmured to himself with only half the sarcasm he actually intended, then followed them.

As he set the bags and pizza box down on the table, he saw Crawford watching everything with what might almost be a smile on his lips and Schuldig placing more gifts around the tree. More gifts?

"No mistletoe?" Schuldig asked. Otherwise, he seemed to be inordinately pleased about the apartment.

Farfarello whipped off his apron to reveal the sprig tucked into the buckle of his belt. He explained, "People are supposed to kiss under it." At Aya's amused/annoyed look, Farfarello said, "It's tradition."

Schuldig almost exploded into laughter. "Oh, fuck, why didn't I ever think of that? I'm ready to give you that kiss, Farf."

"I'll go into the kitchen and hide," Nagi said, and he did so.

Aya wondered if they'd actually do this. He'd realized a while ago that Farfarello and Schuldig had some kind of sexual history but hadn't been able to figure out the parameters of it, how long it had lasted, or if there'd been any love included in the lust.

As Crawford and Aya watched and Farfarello looked amused, Schuldig knelt in front of Farfarello, looked up with a wise-ass smirking grin, mouthed and kissed the fly of Farfarello's blue jeans, then nuzzled and pulled away. The sight left Aya surprisingly buzzed. Then again, his sexuality had thrown many surprises at him over the last few months, so he should cease to be surprised at anything. Schuldig's current smile looked dreamy and more genuine.

Then he said, "Aya's turn."

"What?"

But Schuldig moved so fast that Aya found himself enclosed in a hug before he could even react beyond letting out that one word. Aya expected groping, but he was only hugged. It felt welcoming and affectionate. It felt like... something. Aya couldn't describe it. Some sensation of connection. He could feel that Schuldig was half-hard against his hip, but the telepath was always at least partially aroused from what he could tell.

Aya's time in New York had been like some strange fall into an alternate universe even more than his initiation into Schwarz in Germany had been. Here he'd lived alone with his lover, gone out _partying_ at night, and killed at times for an organization that didn't feel like the Kritiker he'd known. It had been very good as well as bad. Some days he half-believed half of their cover story. Sometimes this apartment and city nearly felt like home. Yesterday had been a fever dream. This morning Nagi could have been the younger brother Aya had never actually had.

Right now, in Schuldig's arms, with the buzz of familiar telepathy enfolding him and the scent of Crawford's cologne in the orange hair brushing his nose, Aya felt himself back in Schwarz and back as what he was, an assassin with a family. Even Crawford's power play over the dinner hadn't brought that back to Aya as strongly.

Being Schwarz again was at once annoying and comforting.

Aya smacked Schuldig's hands once they descended to his ass. "Too far," Aya said.

Schuldig grinned at him, then grinned at Farfarello, whose expression had turned dark. "Welcome back, Rose-red. Our food's arriving."

The door buzzer went off. It gave Aya a good excuse to get away from Schuldig's clingy hands.


	94. "This is so incredibly tacky. I'll treasure it always and wear it in good health."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can see Schuldig's Christmas card [here](http://viridian.shriftweb.org/happysanta.jpg). [](http://archiveofourown.org/users/jmtorres)[](http://archiveofourown.org/users/jmtorres)**jmtorres** made me an LJ icon based off a moment in this chapter:   
> 

"Come in," Aya said, and Mamoru entered the apartment with Weiß behind him. Aya looked great in his purple sweater and black pants and some kind of odd necklace.

Inside the apartment, Mamoru was assaulted by good smells and saw decorations and plates of food everywhere. Until the paper cranes had landed, Mamoru's large apartment had been spare and harmonious. And somewhat cold. He'd gained an appreciation for clutter.

Playing the good host, with a wry look, Aya accepted their coats. When the very excited looking Fenris handed his coat over, Mamoru saw that he wore a T-shirt with the words "Departure to the New World. We Are All Fuzzy Robots" on it in English. Since Elena knew the language, it had to be a deliberate choice. He and Elena scurried off to set gifts under the tree.

She'd already apologized to them for not having something for anyone other than Fenris and said that she hadn't known whether they celebrated the holiday. Weiß had been reformed so recently and so occupied with other matters that they hadn't done anything for Christmas and had no plans for New Year's Day.

"I don't think I ever saw so much food in my life," Yoji said.

"We had a bit of a war over the refreshments," Aya said. "Crawford wanted his way, and I wanted mine."

"I can eat," Ken said. "Aya, are those _fish_ on your necklace?"

Aya's little smile made his eyes gleam too. He put one finger under a coil of gold wire and toyed with it. "Actually, yes."

It made Mamoru feel a little better that Yoji had sprung to lustful attention over that display as well. He shouldn't be the only one frustrated. Nagi kicked his ankle and handed him a Coke.

"That was immature," Mamoru said with a smile.

"I feel young today," Nagi answered.

Mamoru heard Ken say, "You have pizza!" followed quickly by "And you already ate most of it!"

"New York pizza is tasty," Farfarello said. He wore a black T-shirt, blue jeans, a sprig of mistletoe in his belt, and a Santa hat.

It was only slightly less traumatizing than seeing Crawford wearing an apron over his suit as he carved the turkey and ham.

But Mamoru hadn't become accustomed to Crawford's silver hair either. Most research suggested that going white was a sign of a psionic talent spiraling out of control, yet Crawford seemed to be in his prime. Standing behind the precog, Schuldig smirked at Mamoru and waved.

"Yoji," Ken said, "do you really want to bust on Oracle while he has a big knife in his hand?"

"But... apron!"

"Let it go, man."

"Omi--" Nagi said.

"Why does Nagi get to call you 'Omi'?" Yoji asked. "And Aya too. But we can't?"

Nagi gave Yoji a dazzling smile. "Because we're _special_."

"You're funny, kid." Yoji turned back to face Mamoru. "Do you know how hard it is to remember to call you 'Mamoru'? You're still Omi to us."

Mamoru noticed Ken watching them carefully too. "Fine. If it's too hard to use my name, you and Ken can call me 'Omi' when we're talking on a personal basis." Mamoru expected Nagi to look upset over his privilege being a little less exclusive, but Nagi looked happy. He supposed that he should be relieved and stop looking for trouble.

"Thanks, Omi," Yoji answered with a smile.

"What did you want, Nagi?"

"Just to warn you to stay away from Farfarello if you don't want to kiss him under the mistletoe."

"The mistletoe is in his belt."

"I really do love you for how smart you are, Omi."

Mamoru, Ken, and Yoji got it all at once and backed up toward the door a little. Elena murmured, "Fenris just kissed his belt. I have to have a talk with that kid...."

Aya said, "We've decided to have some dinner first, then open presents. The food will stay out throughout, so feel free to take what you want after the meal too. We don't have chairs, but the floor is very clean."

"It wouldn't dare not to be," Farfarello said.

The floor _was_ very clean Mamoru discovered as he set his paper plates and can of soda down and sat. Schwarz had put out a large and varied feast, so Mamoru took a little bit of everything. He noticed that Ken had nabbed two slices of pizza despite his complaints. Fenris sounded almost reverent as he said, "Mashed potatoes and gravy!" in German.

As everyone sat, ate, and occasionally interrupted their eating to talk, Mamoru saw Farfarello whispering into Aya's ear and Aya smiling, which made Mamoru's stubborn hopes die a little more. Aya was _happy_. Interfering in that happiness would be the height of selfishness.

"It can be hard to watch sometimes," Nagi said. He understood.

Anyone who truly loved Aya would want him to be happy, no matter who made him that way. "He looks great."

"Yeah, he does." Nagi smiled a little and took a dainty bite of his fried chicken. "Do you like the necklace?"

"What _is_ that?"

"Wire with foil fish. There's a 'gold' bead on each side of each fish so the wire won't rest directly on Aya's neck all over. Farfarello wanted something that looked like barbwire or razorwire, so we made it that way."

Mamoru had noticed Farfarello's "barbwire" necklace, but he had to ask, "Are you saying he designed it?"

"Yeah."

"Today is really messing with my head."

"Every day in Schwarz messes with your head." Nagi briefly rested his head against Mamoru's shoulder, which felt nice.

Once everyone had stuffed themselves for the moment and Aya had made everyone throw their used plastic plates and cups in a trash bag, they gathered around the tree for the gifts. Ken said, "Sorry I didn't get you anything, Yoji."

Smirking, Yoji asked, "You couldn't have made me anything in prison?"

"Nothing you'd _want_."

"I didn't get you anything either. You just got out of prison, and what could I get a jailbird aside from a nail file?"

"That was the birthday gift you gave me."

"See? So getting another for you for Christmas too would have been rude."

Mamoru felt very guilty now. He'd known he'd forgotten some things.... At best, he could claim the reinstatement of Weiß as a gift. They'd gotten out of the habit of gifts recently. Nagi leaned against him and whispered, "It's okay. You did better than I did here."

"I've been very good and I'm the host, so I pick the first gift to be opened," Farfarello said. He picked up a small box crazily wrapped in blue foil paper with tape everywhere and a sprig of silver foil streamers on top of it and handed it to Aya.

As Aya struggled to unwrap it, he asked, "Could you have taped this any less?"

"Never did this before. Hold on." Farfarello pulled out a switchblade and sliced the paper and tape off to reveal the box.

"Oh," Aya said as he opened it. It held a gold earcuff that had some kind of engraving on it.

"What's on it?" Mamoru asked.

"Roses and barbwire intertwined wrapping around it." When he presented it to everyone interested in seeing it, Mamoru noticed that the roses had thorny stems, so they didn't look as dissimilar from the barbwire as they might have. It was beautifully done. He couldn't figure out quite what emotion Aya had showing on his face, but it was obviously very strong.

Farfarello said, "You wear gloves on the job, so I didn't think a ring would be a good idea."

"Damn, Farfie," Schuldig said softly. Nagi's fingers had tightened on Mamoru's wrist. Ken looked surprised, but Yoji had this odd expression on his face that almost looked like satisfaction. Crawford's expression definitely showed satisfaction. Elena and Fenris just looked interested.

Aya closed his eyes, then said, "It's your day for decorating me, it seems." He took off the earcuff he already had on his left ear and moved it to the right, then set the new one in its place. This... engagement cuff? wedding cuff? sat on the same ear he kept his sister's earring in. "Thank you very much. It's beautiful." They kissed, lingering at it, then Aya coughed and said, "It's time for your gift. It's not as...."

"It will be good. I know it," Farfarello answered as he dove for a gift wrapped in red paper, then ripped the paper away.

"Oh well, wrapping is like cherry blossoms. Its transitory nature makes it all the more beautiful," Schuldig said. "Isn't it great that I lived in Japan long enough to be able to spout that kind of bullshit?"

"Cherry blossoms can signify death," Aya answered.

"Appropriate for this crowd."

Farfarello yanked the top off the box. As he pulled the tissue paper away, tiny multi-colored foil stars flew everywhere. "Puisín, they're great!"

"I figured that the paper was tasteful enough that I could throw some of the dazzle you like inside."

"Ah!" Farfarello pulled out a black leather jacket with a faintly reflective yellow strip that went along the shoulders and down the sleeves, a little like the strips on Yoji's past mission coats. Then Farfarello laughed. "Perfect."

The yellow strips had "CAUTION   DO NOT CROSS" written in black in English down them, as if they were crime scene tape.

Farfarello put the jacket on and rolled his shoulders. "Roomy. Good. Practical. I can work in this." He kissed Aya. "I love it. And you worried."

"I didn't worry. I was concerned."

"Hmph. And those are _my_ stars, puppy," Farfarello said to Fenris.

"They're so pretty," Fenris answered.

"Aye, they are. Don't take any." Farfarello was scooping them off the floor and into the box.

"All right."

"For being good, I'll let you and Friendly open your gifts next."

That offer surprised everyone except Elena and Fenris. Elena unwrapped a CD that she exclaimed over, which Fenris said Jun had helped him buy ages ago. At least their time in that team hadn't been a total waste. When Fenris unwrapped his gift, it looked like he'd nearly died on the spot, then he flung himself at Elena with a yelled "Thank you!"

Laughing, she said, "Well, you're getting older all the time."

"What is it?" Ken asked.

"_Saiyuki_ DVDs!" Fenris said. "You know, where Goku was in jail for so long, then Sanzo got him out and they went and did important things together. And Hakkai reminds me of people I know, and Gojyo is the big brother, and the dragon is cool, and they all kick ass!"

"I think your Japanese is getting better all the time," Yoji said with a smirk.

"Gojyo reminds me of you too."

"Uhm." Yoji looked confused, embarrassed, and pleased.

"I quit smoking when Fenris told me that I smoked as much as Sanzo does," Elena said.

"Wholesome family fun," Schuldig said. "Now can we open my gifts to people? Farfie first. _Card_ first."

"Hmph." Then Farfarello cackled as he pulled the card out of the envelope.

The card showed a cute, cheerful Santa on a rooftop in the chimney. At the bottom were the words "Happy Santa! Sliding down your hole a Christmas!"

"I knew you'd appreciate it. Maybe it was done by the same people who made Fenris' shirt."

"Happy Schuldig," Farfarello murmured with a smirk. Then he unwrapped and opened the box and looked inside in confusion.

"What?" Nagi asked.

Farfarello pulled out a headband that had furry black cat ears with pink centers. "This is for me?"

Schuldig grinned. "What color is the headband part?"

"Red."

"Then who's it for?"

"You're giving me Aya's gift?"

"You're going to die," Aya said.

"Maybe, if you don't die of embarrassment first. I gave it to Farfie because it's my gift to him. You're just involved since you'll be wearing them, kinky kitten that you are, as part of the gift."

"I'm really wondering if we should be here for this," Ken murmured, actually blushing.

"Nothing will happen right _now_, you wimp," Schuldig said. "Unfortunately."

Farfarello didn't seem to be displeased with the gift. Aya seemed to be contemplating murder.

"And now Aya's gift." Almost faster than Mamoru could see, Schuldig leaned forward and put his hand to Aya's face. Aya shuddered, then recovered and knocked the hand aside. Schuldig said, "And there it is."

"What?" Aya asked, obviously annoyed.

"Gaelic."

Farfarello whipped around to face Aya, then said something completely incomprehensible. Surprised, Aya answered with a similarly incomprehensible string of words. Farfarello grabbed him and nearly crushed him in his joy.

"I am the king," Schuldig said. He handed a wrapped box to Nagi. "This is for you and your kitten. Since I have _some_ small sense of discretion, I won't expect you to open it in front of other people. Wait for tonight in your hotel room."

Nagi nearly _blazed_ red in his embarrassment. "Schuldig!"

"No need to thank me. Brad gets his gift tonight too."

"I've seen it," Crawford said.

"What? Shit! Fucking talent...."

"It was cute. Perhaps not original, but cute."

"You're messing with me."

"I saw it very clearly, particularly the green ribbon tied around your--"

"Fuck. Now I have to see if I can think of something else by tonight. And no peeking, you bastard."

"Your gifts now, from me and Aya," Farfarello said, in Japanese again. "Crawford, for you."

Crawford unwrapped the box very neatly. His mouth twitched as he opened it and looked inside. "Ah. A ball gag."

"I can't do anything about the telepathy, sorry."

Ken's eyes widened, while Yoji snorted.

Crawford's voice sounded very light as he said, "Strangely enough, every ball gag I've ever bought has disappeared."

"Yeah," Schuldig answered, pouting, "just like my bandannas."

"Schuldig, for you," Farfarello said as he handed Schuldig a box.

Schuldig grinned fiercely once he saw what was inside. It was a metallic silver bandanna. "This is so incredibly tacky. I'll treasure it always and wear it in good health."

"It's made of synthetic fiber, so it might be toxic if burned."

"Even better."

The expression on Crawford's face might almost be a pout.

"Nagi."

Nagi accepted the thin package, then unwrapped it. "It's a newspaper? No, it's not even a whole newspaper, it's part of a newspaper." He sounded annoyed. "What is this?"

"What part of a newspaper?"

Nagi read a little. "Club and music listings."

"If there's a band you want to see or a place you want to go in there while we're here, I'll pay for you and whoever you want to take with you."

Nagi looked surprised and pleased. "That's... a very nice gift. Thanks."

"Now it's my turn," Crawford said. "Eszett had bought and stolen a variety of art treasures over the years. With its destruction, those pieces were open to new ownership. I didn't know the market well enough to sell them myself, but I referred them to interested parties that did in return for a substantial fee and a percentage of the sales. These bankbooks are your shares of the fee and profits so far." He handed each member of Schwarz a bankbook.

Aya, Farfarello, and Nagi looked surprised when they opened theirs and saw their totals, while Schuldig looked smug and said, "Thank you, Daddy."

"Now we have food and dessert and music," Farfarello said. "You better enjoy yourselves."


	95. "Have I told you recently that I love you for your mind?"

Aya leaned against the wall and watched the party go on around him. Most of the people here talked, though Friendly and Fenris danced. Nagi's idea of party music seemed to be dance, industrial, and the occasional Christmas song. His choice of Christmas songs had tended to be excruciating so far. Aya had been tempted to throw something at him when "Chrissy, the Christmas Mouse" started to play. Farfarello had developed a fascination for that song recently and wanted to add it to his torture repertoire, so Aya had heard it more often than anyone needed to.

"Relax. Everyone is being good," Farfarello said in Gaelic.

"I know. I know," Aya answered in the same, still stunned that he could do so.

Farfarello laughed suddenly. "Your Gaelic is probably better than mine."

"I love the earcuff." It was beautiful and meaningful. Far better than his gift. He wanted to say more but couldn't find the words in any language.

Farfarello nipped the rim of his ear near it. "I hoped you would. I loved your gift a lot too. It'll make me more likely to go out in more than my shirt or vest in the winter."

"I hope so."

"I can't wait for tonight. I _will_ get you in those cat ears."

Farfarello probably would by the end, but not without a fight. "Like hell."

"Mmmm. Looking forward to it." Farfarello closed his eyes. "Lark's here." The knock on the door and her entrance followed.

"Nice party," she said.

"Help yourself," Aya answered.

"Thanks." Lark picked up a plate and food. "I did some research on the folks in the sketches."

Omi and Crawford had been drawn over. "What did you find out?" Omi asked.

"The man the kid remembered is one of Peter Popov's most trusted people. Popov is Zhulin's lieutenant and doesn't take a shit without asking Zhulin first, so there's no way he attacked Red and White without sanction. Zhulin may know who you guys are."

"We're ready for that possibility."

"So are we. Our data and research guys are working on the other faces and to see if they can figure out who the psionics in Zhulin's organization might be. Me, I have the rest of the day off."

"You'll spend it with family?" Yoji asked, no doubt drawn over by the possibility of scoring.

"No family. I lost most of mine, which is how I got into this business. Cesare killed most of his after he escaped from the institution they committed him to, and I doubt they'd see me as family anyway."

Yoji didn't so much as blink an eye. "You can stick around here if you'd like, right, Aya?"

It actually relieved Aya to see Yoji on the make again. Sad. "Yeah."

"Stick around, Tess."

"All right," she answered.

"That's great!" Friendly said. "It'll be good to have you. You look wonderful today, by the way."

Omi and Crawford went off to confer elsewhere. That combination sent a certain shiver down Aya's back. Then the door buzzer went off, with James at the outside door, so Aya let him in as well. Then Luisa and Irina, Farfarello's "harlots," knocked at the door, no doubt drawn by the music and men, and Ken and James were so enthused to see them that Aya let them in. Fortunately, the harlots took to Ken and James in return. Aya had noticed Luisa eyeing Farfarello's mistletoe, and if she had taken it any farther than that he would have been forced to intervene. Ken wasn't as fluent in English as Aya and Yoji were, but it didn't seem to be getting in his way.

"Puisín, dance with me," Farfarello said.

"To 'Jingle Bells'?"

"We can try."

"In public?"

"You dance in public all the time now."

"In front of strangers, most of whom will never see me again."

Farfarello sighed, but he had a fond look in his eye. "Can we rock together to 'Jingle Bells' in a secluded corner?"

"We can do that."

******************************************************

As much as Yoji hated to leave Tess alone with Elena, nature called. "I'll be right back." With a pointed look at Elena, he said, "Very soon."

Elena grinned, kissed her hand, and waved to him, to Tess' obvious amusement. It looked very much like a gesture a person might use for a final goodbye. Damn, competing with women for women....

Yoji hadn't expected to enjoy himself here, the party had good food, weird but fun music, weird but engaging people.... He'd be making a play for one of the neighbor girls if he hadn't already set himself on Tess. Schwarz was being friendly. To Yoji's relief, Schuldig wasn't being _too_ friendly. Yoji stayed away from Crawford to make sure this state of affairs continued. Farfarello hadn't exploded into a fit of bloody mayhem. Aya looked happy when he didn't look overwhelmed, and Omi seemed to be very content in Nagi's company.

On his way out of the bathroom, Nagi, alone, waylaid him and said, "I don't know if you'll see this as a gift, but I figured there's something you should know."

That didn't sound promising, but Yoji answered, "Lay it on me, kid. Just do it quick, since I have something going on."

Nagi looked rather solemn. "You're a telekinetic. Not a powerful one, but you have some small talent, which is why you can do those things you do with your wire."

"_What_? Is this some kind of joke?"

"No joke. I don't joke that way. The first time we saw you use your weapon we asked Eszett if you were, but they swore you weren't. Recently we've started to see that Eszett had some major blind spots where talents were concerned, and you're one of them."

Telekinetic? With everything else he'd seen in the last few years, it sounded all too possible. Still, _him_? "I'm just really good with the wire, that's all."

"You make it defy the laws of physics. Kudou, I watched you during the mission in London to kill Schuldig's attacker. You were uncanny. But I was too tired to be bothered thinking about it. Here, I'm awake and near you. Now that I'm looking for it, I can see it in you."

"You're seeing it because you want to."

"You think I care if you're talented or not? It really doesn't make any difference to me. I thought that you might find it useful to know yourself better, but if I'm mistaken... whatever."

Nagi might just be buzzed on eggnog, but Yoji wanted to at least hear everything before he made his own judgment. "Not very powerful?"

"You couldn't pick up a person with it, let alone a truck, and you won't experience the tactility I have with it. I doubt it affects your vision much either. But you can do small things with it if you try. Just from using the wire you should know how dangerous something small can be."

"Wouldn't _I_ know what I am?"

"Some people have talents all their lives without knowing that they have a talent they're using until an expert comes along and sees them. Yours doesn't have to change your life at all if you don't want it to."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You can do more with it than just use it on the wire. It's up to you. Being able to know yourself--" Then Nagi shook his head. "Shit. You would have been happier not knowing this. I can see that now. I'm sorry I brought it up."

"Nah, that's all right. It's done," Yoji said. Nagi seemed to be an okay kid now, somebody Yoji didn't mind Omi seeing. "I have to think about it. It's... a lot, you know?" Yoji didn't have anything against psionics. Elena and Fenris were all right people now that they had better influences, and Schwarz had its moments. If Yoji had been using it for years himself, what right did he have to be intolerant?

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

Nagi looked so downtrodden that Yoji felt the sudden urge to pat his head, which would probably just earn him some broken fingers so he didn't do it. _Nagi_ hadn't been given the possibility of ignoring his telekinesis.

"Yoji, I was starting to think we needed a search party," Elena said as she walked up, with Fenris following. Nagi took advantage of the opening to leave him, which was probably for the best.

"It hasn't been that long," Yoji answered. "Tess was missing me?"

"A little. I yield the field to you for today."

"What?"

Elena shrugged. "It's Fenris' first Christmas, so I want to focus on him more. Plus, Tess thinks I'm a really sweet _kid_. So for today, I'll give you an unobstructed shot at her. But tomorrow she's taking me shopping, so I may gain on you there."

"Shopping for what?"

"Clothes. It's hard finding things I like in my size in Tokyo. My height, shoulder width, and breast size keep working against me."

"Your breast size seems fine to me." Damn. Some part of his brain worked on automatic.

But she smiled, which made him remember that Schuldig had told him that she had a crush on him. "Me too, but.... Anyway, enjoy today, because tomorrow I may show her that I'm not a kid after all. Good luck."

Tess had a fond little smile on her face when she saw him. "Hey, Yoji. Welcome back."

"I couldn't stay away. You wanna go somewhere quiet? It's loud and crowded here." Yoji needed to get out and think for a while, and from what he could tell Tess would be good, calm, sexy company to do it in. He needed it enough that if she didn't go with him he might leave without her.

"Sure. I just want to say my goodbyes to Red."

"Good idea."

Once they found Aya, Yoji said, "Great party, but I need to get out for a while."

Tess said, "Thanks for inviting me in."

Aya gave them a shrewd look, then answered, "If you come back and the party's still going, please feel free to come back in."

Aya really had changed. Why couldn't he have done that sooner? "Thanks!" Yoji said.

Once outside, Tess grabbed Yoji's wrist and said, "This way."

He grinned. "Where are you taking me?"

"My car and then my apartment, if that's okay with you."

There were definite benefits to going with an older woman. "Lead on."

******************************************************

It had been stupid of him to tell Kudou that. Was Kudou supposed to be happy to find out that he was a freak when previously he'd lived his life just fine not knowing? Nagi preferred to know things, but not everyone did.

He'd actually driven Kudou from the party. That took talent.

Omi snagged his arm. "Dance with me and tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong."

Omi put an arm around his waist and moved him around a bit, until they could almost be dancing slowly. "No?"

"I'm just not good with people."

"You're good with me."

"Most of the time."

"What did you do?"

"I let Balinese know that he has a small telekinetic talent. He wasn't enthused. He probably would have preferred to go on in ignorance."

"Are you kidding? Of course you're not. Wow. That's something."

"Are you plotting?"

"No?" Omi smiled at him. He must have had some look on his face. "I'm thinking that it could be useful, and that Yoji needs training." Omi definitely had his Crawford moments.

"I doubt he'll want it. It's not a big talent. He won't be dangerous to himself or others without training."

"In that case, I guess it should be up to him whether he gets training or not."

"You _guess_?"

Omi pulled him in closer, and it felt nice. "I think you did the right thing. Now Yoji has a choice."

"I guess."

"I know. So cheer up. Enjoy the party. Look forward to opening our present tonight."

"I'm gonna kill Schuldig."

"He has his uses."

******************************************************

The apartment apparently had exactly one chair in it, so Crawford had claimed it, seeing no reason to sit on the floor if he didn't have to. Schuldig sat on the floor at his right side with his head resting against Crawford's thigh, very cat-like, very contented, very happy to get his hair stroked. Sitting like this as he watched his minions socialize made Crawford feel like an arch-villain in a movie, which amused him.

"Have I told you recently that I love you for your mind?" Schuldig asked in low, throaty voice.

"Not recently."

"Mmm. I do."

"You're stoned."

"Most of my people are happy. You're content as the patriarch and ruler of our crazy clan. It's bliss." Schuldig stretched and rubbed his head against Crawford's thigh. "Sure, Yoji's fluttery, and Nagi's a bit down about Yoji's reaction to being telekinetic, but otherwise it's all good."

"Balinese is telekinetic?"

"Tiny bit. The wire is at last explained."

"Eszett should have listened to us."

"Of course."

"Candy?"

"Yes, please." Schuldig delicately took the chocolate mint from Crawford's fingers with his teeth, then licked the melted chocolate remnants away in deep, thorough strokes that made Crawford shiver a little. "Tasty."

"I have to get through to get a soda," Siberian said.

"No one's stopping you," Schuldig answered, his voice light and sweet, but his expression must have been something else, because Siberian flushed, grabbed a can, and dashed away.

"What was that?" Crawford asked, amused.

"Just gave him the look of love. Or lust. Either works."

"Do you have to add him to your stable too?"

"Anyone I want should be added to my stable. Kenken has a certain rough, youthful charm, and he's cute. Poor guy's been a practicing straight since he lost Kase, his one gay love, the first time. Though that didn't stop him from having naughty thoughts about Aya once in a while, and who knows what might have happened with that Akira guy if he hadn't been brutally murdered. Somebody has to get him back up on the horse."

"Is there anyone in Weiß who didn't lust after Aya? No, don't answer. I already know."

"So then Aya goes to Schwarz, where everyone except you is lusting after him." Then Schuldig looked up and grinned. "But that's not _quite_ right, is it?"

Taking Aya from Farfarello would lead to strife and destabilize the team so Crawford saw no point in wanting him, but.... "I wouldn't toss him out of my bed if I found him in it."

"I'll keep that in mind. Too bad he's so stubborn and Farf's so protective. I'm not having any luck thinking of a replacement gift for you."

"I'm annoyed about that vision myself. I would have said nothing and acted surprised when the time came if you wouldn't have read it out of my mind anyway."

"You're sweet. I'd ask you to fuck me right here if I thought we'd get more than one-minute's peace in this crowd."

"Later."

"Damned right."

"It's been a good day." Aside from the having the pleasure of getting Christmas for the first time in years and having his team back together, he felt satisfied with the plans that he and Persia had started to make for their vengeance. No one threatened his people and lived to tell of it.

Schuldig had gone almost boneless. "Yeah."

It confirmed something Crawford had suspected for a while. "Schu, the more content I feel, the happier you feel as well, so why did you spend so much time baiting me over the last few years?" Schuldig would pick at him, he'd snap back, and Schuldig would get bitchier and pick at him even more in some vicious cycle. "Why do that to yourself?"

"Hey, I get some pleasure out of other people's anger...." Suddenly, Schuldig closed his eyes. "You want the truth?"

"I asked."

~ I resented the hell out of you sometimes. You could be a high-handed prick, and you had no problems handing me over to Eszett or Rosenkreuz to discipline me. Giving you the happies would have felt like rewarding my own jailer for abusing me. And I know that by Rosenkreuz standards you weren't that abusive, but it was the principle. ~

Had it really been that bad? Crawford hadn't thought so.

~ Sometimes, yeah, ~ Schuldig answered.

~ You struck back at me even though it helped make you more miserable. ~ Sobering thought.

~ Yeah. Though, like I said, I get a bit of a rush out of other people's anger. ~

~ Was it worth it? ~

~ At the time, yeah. You've gotten a lot better since then. And... I'm more intertwined with you now. I feel you more. Back then, not so much. Things are different now. That doesn't mean I'll stop questioning you, just that I won't be questioning you just to get a rise out of you. ~

~ Sometimes your questioning is useful. ~

~ _Sometimes_? ~ Aloud, Schuldig said, "We're different people now."

"True."

"Sorry you asked?"

"No, I'm not." The past was past, something to be learned from but not brooded over. Here, he'd won.

"I like to think that I won too."

It was even true.

Crawford still had a question. "Why do you work so hard to tick Farfarello, Nagi, and Aya off?"

Schuldig grinned up at him. "1] I'm not as connected to them so it's no problem. And 2] it's so much fun! Now pet my hair some more."

"Would you like another piece of candy as well, Master?"

"Cookie this time. Chocolate chip."


	96. "Are you feeling *ignored*?"

"Why did you go with me like this, Yoji?" Tess asked as she drove. "You're in a foreign city you don't know very well. You know that I kill people for a living. Why are you letting me drive you somewhere alone when you don't know where we're going?"

Yoji went cold for a moment, then relaxed. "I'm armed, and you know I have very dangerous people looking out for me who saw me leave with you." He didn't mind that much if she toyed with his head, since at least it took him out of his loop of wondering about Nagi's accusation.

Though if Nagi was right, Yoji _was_ always armed, even without his watch. That could be handy.

She smiled. "True."

"So why ask?"

"I'm trying to figure you out better," she answered as she looked at him sidelong. "Going with me could be a sign of trust or indifference to your own safety. You come off as this guy who's trying to hide his angst under a light, partying exterior, and some women go stupid for that. I want to see if that's you."

"Do you go stupid over that?"

"I plead the Fifth."

"Huh?"

"I like what I've seen of you, Yoji. I'm just wondering what you're expecting out of this."

"I'm not expecting. Hoping maybe."

"Good answer, but I'm a little worried about you."

"I'm going to be really upset if you try to mother me."

"So? I'm concerned." Her smile deepened. "But my concern doesn't mean that I don't want to do things to you that no mother should do to a kid."

Aw, yeah. But.... "We are talking sex and not torture and death, right? With the crowd I'm with, it's best to ask."

She laughed a little. "No torture and death."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"Since you know Mr. White, I'm not going to see that as a strange question."

Mr. White? Then Yoji got it. "I'm glad to hear that too." He'd expected to have to do more sweet-talking, and he felt guilty besides. "I have to warn you about something."

"Yeah?"

"I've been having some... assassin-related problems lately. If I do something you don't like, feel free to say no and stop me. By force, if necessary."

"Uh-huh. I'll keep that in mind. Anything else you want to tell me to dissuade me from doing this? I mean, do you have trouble getting it up?"

"No!"

"Are you a hermaphrodite? 'Cause I'm open-minded."

"What?"

"Guy and girl parts at once."

"Hell, no!"

"If you don't want to do this, you don't have to. I'm not going to tie you up and force myself on you." She paused. "Unless you're into that."

Maybe...? No. "I'm trying to be fair to you."

"You think you're fucked in the head enough to attack me? Okay. I'll keep it in mind. I've dealt with that kind of thing before."

"You _have_?"

"We're killers for hire. It's not a profession of rainbows, cotton candy, and fluffy bunnies. Your angst and insanity aren't uncommon." She shrugged.

"I think I'm insulted."

"You'll just have to live with it." She smirked. "But, you know, my husband died slowly enough to give me some last words. He told me to live and that he didn't want me to be lonely. I actually like you, Yoji, and at the risk of sounding crass, I have to admit that you are one nice piece of ass and that it's been a while for me."

That was more honesty than he was used to. "Uhm."

"My last guy wasn't in the biz, so I spent a lot of time lying to him about my weird working hours, absences, emergency phone calls, scars, and injuries. Poor bastard was observant enough to notice that the tattoos on my lower back are there to try to camouflage the area where one dirtbag carved the word 'WHORE' into me and that the scars around my left middle finger are decorative and meant to be a kind of ring. There was only so far he could believe that I was a former heavy metal chick who grew up in a bad neighborhood. See? We can both overshare."

"Apparently." He was _horrified_ over her recitation, but.... "You really don't need my protection, do you?"

"In the right circumstances and in a teamwork way, maybe, but otherwise, no, I take care of myself. I don't need a knight."

That took a weight off him. "To be crass, I think you're pretty and a nice piece of ass too."

"Isn't it a good thing when people find things in common?"

"Definitely. You won't need to force yourself on me."

"Good. I like to playact sometimes, but forcing myself on people isn't really my style. So, your place or mine?"

******************************************************

"Please relax. You're stressing me out," Nagi said.

"Then by all means I should calm myself so I won't trouble you," Aya answered. Farfarello tightened his arms around him and rocked them a little more emphatically.

"That's the spirit. Everybody's happy, Red," Schuldig said from his seat on the floor, his head on Crawford's leg. At some point he'd put the silver bandanna on. "The food's demolished, the desserts are going fast, people are chatting and dancing, and you hooked Yoji, Ken, and Opie up."

"Opie?"

"James. The American guy. I applaud your pimping skills." He seemed to think he was complimenting Aya.

"It's not like I procured the women for them. They simply arrived."

"Yeah, that's exactly what you should say." As blissed out and distracted as Schuldig looked, maybe he might not be fast enough or listening well enough to dodge Aya's kick. But the telepath said, "Not on the best day on your life, Aya."

"The cake's very good," Omi said.

Farfarello rocked a little more insistently and said, "It's getting late."

"It's not that--" Then Nagi really looked at them. "Oh." He turned off the music.

Schuldig laughed. "I agree. Bed sounds like a great idea."

"I have decided that the local agents seem to be diligent enough that we don't need to leave one of our own to back them up on security," Crawford said. "Do you agree, Persia?"

"Yes. They seem to be professional."

James walked up with Irina in tow. "This has been a great party, but Irina and I should be moving on." He smiled winningly, while she looked very coy.

With Farfarello just about purring in his ear, Aya answered, "That would be fine. Thank you for coming." He did succeed in rewarding Schuldig's laugh with a little kick. He also realized that he'd been switching languages like a pro lately.

"I had a great time. 'Bye!"

"Ken!" Omi shouted, also in English. "Is Luisa taking you anywhere?"

She whispered something in Ken's ear that made him blush a little and answer, "Maybe?"

"Could you talk to her about it outside?"

It took Ken a moment to get what Omi wanted. "Oh, sure!"

"We'll be leaving soon, so...."

"I got it. Oi, Luisa, did I tell you that my birthday was two days ago?" He left the apartment with her. Even though she didn't know Japanese, it made no sense to have her there as they plotted. Aya figured that Ken would be briefed in the car. Or whenever he returned to Weiß, if he followed Yoji's lead.

"Our campaign starts tomorrow," Omi said. "We'll do recon and start shaking people up to see what comes out. Nagi found a band he wants to see tomorrow, and that'll be part of it as well since I don't want Aya and Farfarello to be in hiding."

"We're going out?" Farfarello asked, sounding satisfied. "I want to kill a lot of people."

"Yeah, but you're going out nightlife-wise first. I want to know what he wants. If we just start mowing them down, they'll attack us back because they have to."

"I don't care why he tried to have a knife shoved in my puisín's gut as long as he pays for it."

"He will. Just not immediately. We need to get these people out in the open and see how far they're willing to go."

"I can't wait to open them up." Farfarello let go of Aya so he could demonstrate a little through hand motions. "I'll show patience, but it chafes."

"We all want them to pay for attacking Aya. Count on that."

"Today we'll have rest and recreation," Crawford said.

"Tomorrow, we'll have fun another way," Schuldig said. "Me, I can't wait for the killing to start. These warm fuzzies are nice, but I'm getting restless."

"We'll definitely be in touch."

"Good," Aya answered. "Everyone, please take desserts with you. Farfarello will eat them all otherwise."

"Depriving me of my rightful sugar fix...." Farfarello muttered.

"You have Pixy Stix."

"Doesn't mean I don't need variety."

"Any more planning to be done?" Friendly asked.

"We're fine for now," Omi answered.

"Fenris and I will go outside to see if Ken's still there. If he is, maybe we can embarrass him."

"Good times," Fenris said.

Before Aya could say anything, Elena answered, "We have our presents in Fenris' backpack." They waved as they went out the door.

"I'm glad to be working more directly with you again, Aya-kun," Omi said.

"And this way you'll _have_ to be more forthcoming," Aya answered. He wanted to make sure that Omi understood this.

"I'm working on it. I keep trying to do the right thing for you, but it hasn't turned out right yet."

"I'm glad that you're trying." At least his heart was in the right place.

"I'm there to help keep him on the right track," Nagi said, and Omi smirked at him. They were cute together.

Off to his side, Aya could hear Farfarello say, "You feel more like Legion now than you did before."

"You feel that?" Schuldig asked.

"Always did, a bit. Saw it as evidence toward me possibly being insane."

"I'm not possessed, just multifaceted. Several people in one and all. You know, Farf, you really need training."

"Nagi didn't."

"Nagi had the basics. He's not jumping into people and almost getting trapped in there."

"Nagi couldn't jump into people."

"And that's why he doesn't need training."

"That argument loops back on itself."

"Hey, I like it. Who gave you the basics?"

"What basics?"

"You did a little bit of training with someone. I can tell."

"Nope."

"Farf. I know better."

"Not telling."

"Schu," Crawford said as he took Schuldig by the arm, "you can badger him more another time."

"Riiight," Schuldig answered. "Good night. I'll drill you again later. After Brad and I drill each other." He grabbed the mistletoe out of Farfarello's belt and dangled it over Nagi and Omi's heads. "Kids?"

"I'm not kissing Omi just because you have a plant over my head," Nagi said.

"Yeah," Omi answered. "He doesn't need an excuse."

"Schuldig, I just don't want to kiss in front of you because you'll get off on it."

"How is that a bad thing?" Schuldig asked. "Fine. If you're going to be selfish about it...."

"Thank you for hosting us," Crawford said as he dragged Schuldig toward the door. "It was a good day." Omi and Nagi followed, with Omi waving at Aya like the open-hearted teammate he'd once been.

Thankfully, they'd all taken some food.

With everyone gone, the apartment regained its quiet, though it retained its mess. As Aya started to tidy up a bit, he could feel his focus snapping back into place. Working to keep an eye on everyone had left him distracted, his nerves jangled. He smiled as Farfarello joined him putting things back in their proper places. It was good to have someone who understood him somewhat.

******************************************************

Yoji was hard, Tess was hot for him, yet Yoji was having _tea_ with the American assassin chick? Damn, it must have been too long since the poor bastard had scored on his own. Did he need Schuldig to hold his dick for him and put it in? Tess _wanted_ Yoji. Did she need to give him an engraved invitation? Did she have to tie him down and-- Ah, she'd already offered to do that.

"I presume that the two neighbor girls aren't Zhulin's operatives. Because if they were, you would have said something," Brad said.

"Yeah. I checked," Schuldig answered. "They're just two horny chicks who lucked into some attractive, in-shape guys. Who happen to be assassins. Hey, I'd fuck 'em, so who are we to judge?"

_Finally_, Yoji. Make with the mouth and the hands already. He knew how.

"Where are you?" Brad asked, sounding amused.

"If I can get Yoji back into his old lifestyle, I might not have to go out so much. _Yes_, it's always about me. In this case, I want Yoji to be happy so I can get some happies. And we have liplock! Finally!"

"Could you not do that?"

"What?"

"Watch Balinese."

"You do remember who I am, don't you? And you're one to talk."

"I don't want to watch Balinese." He had a small smile on his face. The Christmas party had left him happy and mellow due to some past family thing. Sappy. It was almost cute.

"I'll keep watching for a while. It's fun. Like a spectator sport. Once we hit the hotel room, I'm all yours."

And Yoji was liking her scars too. Kinky kitty. He'd had some weird ideas about women in the past. Probably would have blown his mind to find out what they were really like.

"I'll stop talking now," Brad said.

"You want me to share the experience?" Schuldig smirked. "Are you feeling _ignored_?"

"No, it's fine."


	97. "I want you to wear the kitty ears."

Blushing fiercely, Nagi sat on the bed with the opened box muttering, "I'm going to kill him."

"What did Schuldig give us?" Mamoru asked as he sat next to him to try to look into the box. Nagi kept moving it away from him. "Dildos? Lubricant? Furry handcuffs?"

"Don't joke about the furry handcuffs. They own a pair. In leopard print, to prove that Schuldig has a truly diseased mind. No dildos, no cuffs. In his _note_, he explains that he knows my telekinesis makes dildos, handcuffs, cockrings, and butt plugs unnecessary."

"So what did he get us?"

"Lubricant in several flavors, condoms, a few kinds of vibrators, a string of anal beads, some unidentifiable _thing_, and a hand-written guide to further spice up our sex lives."

The handwriting didn't look consistent throughout the pages, something common to certain kinds of telepaths. "As if we need a guide."

"I can tell you that there are things in here I never thought to try. For good reason."

Mamoru had trouble reconciling a helpful Schuldig--albeit one who was too helpful and in an embarrassing way--to the one who'd toyed with him, contributed to Ouka's death, and made Sakura shoot Aya. It was too weird. Schuldig seemed almost harmless now. All right, not _harmless_ but somewhat domesticated. Useful.

"Don't get too comfortable with him. He hasn't changed that much," Nagi said.

"Please don't do that."

"Sorry. You're close and loud. Schuldig's still a ruthless, horny son of a bitch. He's just doing it in ways that look out for other people a little more now. You pay him, and he's decided that he wants me to get laid regularly. That's it."

"This is how I work with him at all after what he's done."

"Okay, just don't delude yourself too much. We're dangerous and self-interested. That hasn't changed."

"But Schwarz has changed." Just seeing them celebrate the holiday almost as a family showed it, though somehow Mamoru got the impression that they hadn't always been like that. They even seemed to be willing to bring Weiß in as a kind of extended family.

"Being free from Eszett helped us. Taking Aya in also forced us to change the dynamics of our group, though you probably don't want to hear that."

He didn't really want to hear that, but it _did_ add a piece to the Schwarz puzzle. He'd been going through the files he'd stolen from Rosenkreuz and Eszett looking for information on Schwarz and its members. Once he'd compiled a comprehensive set, he figured that he would hand them over to Nagi, who might not have seen all of it before. Finding the self-control to avoid reading them in their entirety was difficult.

With German sex words running in his head, Mamoru picked up one of the vibrators and turned it on, smirking at the whirring sound it made.

Nagi blushed even more. "Don't _do_ that."

Mamoru turned it off, then sat behind him and pulled him back against him. "Anything else I shouldn't do?"

"I'll let you know."

He put his arms around Nagi and breathed in. "You smell good."

"I smell like food."

Like a home-cooked meal with family.... "I like food." Mamoru nibbled at his neck. "You taste good too."

Nagi smiled and wiggled a bit in what certainly looked like contentment. "You're insane."

Mamoru slid his hands down lower to stroke and cup. "Does that mean you won't let me have my wicked way with you?"

"I would have to be insane to say that."

******************************************************

"That bandanna really is incredibly tacky," Crawford said as he closed their hotel room's door.

"Isn't it just? Farf has a knack," Schuldig answered with a smile. Crawford could tell that his telepath now devoted all his attention to him and no longer spied on Balinese. "I gave some thought to your Christmas gift."

"What did you decide?"

"You don't know?"

"Thankfully, no."

"Good." Ostentatiously casual, Schuldig took the ball gag out of his coat pocket and let it dangle from his fingers. "I'll wear this for you."

After watching Schuldig in the car, Crawford had been thinking up some way of vividly reminding him of where his attention _should_ be, but this offer blew all those thoughts away and made them unnecessary. It was a major concession for Schuldig to make, and once upon a time Crawford would have given anything to make him shut up. Now, somehow, it didn't seem right to have him silenced. When had he started to enjoy listening to his telepath talk?

"You don't have to."

Better, he'd surprised his telepath. "I _don't_?" He had a cute look of shock on his face.

"You don't."

Schuldig stared into his eyes for a minute, then took off his bandanna and set it and the ball gag down on the table. He had to shake his hair out of his eyes afterward. Crawford had noticed that Schuldig's haughty-looking headshake actually came from efforts to get his hair away from his eyes. Even though Crawford had considered the bandannas to be eyesores, they had kept Schuldig's hair a little more manageable.

From the look in Schuldig's eyes and the way he breathed, Crawford could tell that he was very aroused and wanted Crawford to make the first move. They varied on who would be aggressive depending on their mood. Sometimes Crawford wanted an insistent slut and other times got off on having his rebellious, impertinent minion accept whatever he chose to do and _want_ him to make the choices.

Lately, Schuldig had a better, immediate reading of what best pleased, which perhaps showed that the unusual structure of Crawford's precognitive mind didn't frustrate his telepathic efforts as much anymore. It might be cause for concern.

Later.

Crawford's left hand brushed feather-light over Schuldig's wounded cheekbone, and he smiled as Schuldig sighed and closed his eyes. Schuldig looked younger, sweeter, when voluntarily taking on the passive role, and right now Crawford liked that very much. They kissed slowly, thoroughly. It was a day for being slow and thorough instead of fast and desperate. Crawford saw no need to rush.

His lust felt like warm honey. Pleased, he smiled as he gently pushed Schuldig down onto the bed, and Schuldig fell with a peaceful look on his face and his arms outstretched, his coat spreading out under him. Crawford hadn't removed his either. He had more important concerns, which he addressed by undoing Schuldig's fly. To his surprise, his fingers encountered velvet when they reached into Schuldig's pants.

"When did you do this?" he asked as he stroked the loops of the bow, feeling soft, textured material. The velvet felt warm, while the skin of Schuldig's cock felt hot.

Looking indecently pleased with himself, Schuldig answered, "Last bathroom break. I don't give up. I surprised you, didn't I?"

"Yes." Once, he'd had no tolerance for surprises. Now, he enjoyed some of Schuldig's.

******************************************************

Yoji moved atop Tess, thrusting, lost. It felt so good. Her eyes were as green as his, although she had them closed right now. She kissed him and urged him on with every roll of her body and clutch of her fingers. Wanted him, almost understood him....

He felt something inside him recoil and clamped down on it hard. His hands had settled on her shoulders and didn't move any farther up.

Her eyes opened suddenly and stared up at him. "Is there a problem, Yoji?" Her voice sounded deep and amused.

"No. Everything's great." He'd felt it coming on and stopped himself. The relief and triumph felt hot, bright, and sharp in his chest, almost painful. He was smiling so hard. "Let me show you."

******************************************************

As Yoji's joy and redoubled sexual efforts hit, Schuldig bucked suddenly and laughed. "Sorry, Brad. I couldn't avoid feeling that one." Go Yoji! Make Schuldig proud....

Then Brad started to fist him, which brought his attention back completely.

******************************************************

Farfarello figured that they were almost done cleaning and held onto patience a while longer, since he understood that just as he banged his head against walls or cut himself, his puisín organized things around him. Compulsion led to comfort eventually, but in the meantime there would be itchiness and fraying nerves. That might be why Aya preferred to own little.

If he didn't own it, he didn't have to take care of it or keep it safe and in its place.

Farfarello could feel that the thought of the kitty ears left Aya annoyed, intrigued, and caught in a kind of expectation, since he didn't know how his lover would try to get him in them. Anticipating, Aya was aware of him at all times, which left the air buzzing with the kind of charge that sometimes came before a lightning storm. Farfarello felt it on his skin and mind. That storm sense increased when Aya noticed Farfarello setting the ears and the belled collar down on the table by the bed. This would be fun.

A plate pressed against the wound on Farfarello's arm, making it hurt intolerably, joining the chorus of his body's aches. He'd taken the boy's advice and found a way to feel it more to protect his arm from unthinking overuse. The pain told him when he demanded too much from and went too far with it. Unfortunately, he couldn't make only his arm more sensitive, so he felt _all_ of his past damage more keenly. It fucking _hurt_, yet his kitten had done amazing things while in the grip of far greater pain, so he lived with it. It would make him stronger.

But he didn't put himself up at full feeling. That would be stupid and insane. He'd never get to see his kitten wear those ears if he were writhing helplessly and gasping in agony on the floor.

Besides, the feel of his kitten in his arms had been ambrosial at this level of sensitivity. What a complex knot of sensations Aya was: soft straight hair, fuzzy sweater, stiff wire and pliant foil fish, mostly smooth warm skin mottled with scars. It almost made the sharp pain of his arm and deep aches of the rest of his body worth it.

_His_ puisín. Aya had accepted his band of gold. Better, Aya had accepted it in front of family and friends, making it public. All of them now knew that Farfarello had staked his claim and his claim agreed. The dangling bar earring might be a mark from Aya's sister, but his necklace and two ear cuffs came from Farfarello. It made waiting for his puisín now even harder.

At last the apartment looked neat. In the bedroom, conveniently, Farfarello took Aya in his arms and turned him to face him. Eyes dark with wanting, Aya breathed deeply, and his body declared his receptivity in every way, pressing and melting against Farfarello's, his cock hard and insistent. All the unexpected feeling overwhelmed Farfarello and made him groan.

"You know what I want," Farfarello said.

"Tell me," Aya answered, his voice wonderfully deep.

"I want you to wear the kitty ears."

"I won't." Yet Aya's voice and stance let Farfarello know that part of this may be pride--that Aya would feel silly in them--but much of it was play, teasing, wanting to be wooed and convinced. He didn't need telepathy to know that.

"We'll see."

Farfarello unwound Aya's necklace from around his neck, then brushed his lips against the faint pink marks it had left, feeling his kitten's pulse just under the skin. Possession. After his telepathic injury, he hadn't enjoyed his kitten anywhere near as much as he liked to, so he had to make up for lost time. From the fast and efficient way Aya stripped him, Aya felt the same. Not to be outdone, Farfarello quickly undressed his puisín, throwing the interesting-feeling clothing aside so he could wallow in touching what he truly wanted: Aya's bared body. He stroked, kissed, tongued, and sucked whatever bit currently claimed his fancy and smiled as his kitten writhed and began to sound a little desperate under the onslaught, making little gasping sounds he probably hated to make. Yeah, he did.

Aya's mouth tasted sweet, like whipped cream and strawberries. He stroked around the edges of the bandage on Farfarello's skin so carefully. His skin had such a wonderful texture and stretched so nicely over his muscles and bones. Farfarello had to take off the rest of his clothes--he'd distracted Aya from finishing it--so he could be skin to skin with his puisín.

Farfarello descended to his knees and hissed at the discomfort, something he hadn't felt while kneeling since childhood, but worship _should_ hurt to emphasize the sacrifice. In his current state his arousal felt more intense too, but he refused to let it rule him, wanting to achieve more than just orgasm. He grabbed Aya to pull him closer, then kissed along his hipbones and stomach, sometimes rubbing his face against the side of Aya's hard, insistent cock. It could insist all it liked; he wouldn't indulge it until he got what he wanted, no matter how much his sensitized body insisted as well.

"Farfarello...."

Farfarello looked up at him and smirked at the blush under his skin and glaze of his eyes. "You know what I want."

Aya did that thing with his mouth that signaled that he would continue to be stubborn. That could be fun too.

Breathing hard, gaze intense, Aya reached for the collar on the table nearby. It jingled as he unbuckled it, set it against his neck, rebuckled it, and flicked its bell to make it ring again. X-mas lights made the rhinestones sparkle in many colors, and the black leather looked wonderful against Aya's pale skin. Farfarello's mouth watered, and self-control moved further out of reach. Wily kitten. At some point he must have learned that the right concession could be an offensive. It had to have happened since he'd joined Schwarz.

It still surprised and pleased him that Aya liked the collar. That Schuldig's gift, given in malice, had really misfired. The ears had been given in mischief and what might almost be affection. Farfarello didn't see that as an evolution that could be trusted, not when self-interested Schuldig was Legion, possessed by various moods, turns of mind, and people.

Farfarello stood and toppled Aya onto the bed, then climbed atop him to kiss and stroke. His puisín looked very self-satisfied, no doubt thinking that this meant that he'd won, that there would be no kitty ears in his future. Yes, he thought precisely that. Farfarello would have to prove him wrong.

Farfarello set his left fist tightly around the base of Aya's cock to prevent him from reaching release too soon, then intensified his mouth and right hand's assault, using every trick of his kitten's body to drive him beyond reason, kissing behind his ear, stroking his inner thighs and forearms. He'd have to get a cockring for his puisín sometime so he could do this two-handed. Trying to get Farfarello off to end this before the ears came in, Aya stroked back, and they nearly sparred as their arms clashed. It combined two things Farfarello enjoyed. Quivering, sensitized, Aya closed his eyes and panted, rocking and jingling under his touch.

"If it's too much for you to bear, say so," Farfarello said. Unlikely to _ever_ admit such a thing, Aya glared at him in a way that should have burned a large hole through his head.

Schuldig would demand that Aya ask to put the ears on, but Farfarello wasn't such an asshole. There was no need to break his puisín, and Farfarello couldn't bear to wait long enough to get such a concession from his lover, not while he was this sensitized and felt fatigue more keenly.

When he deemed Aya ready, he reached for the ears with his free hand and set them on his puisín's head. They looked so funny and cute. The black "fur" looked a bit odd against the kitten's auburn hair but better matched the crimson roots so slowly coming in. One ear bent down a little, giving it a rakish air. Aya looked indignant as well as lust-glazed yet didn't take them off. Victory.

"Fuck me," Farfarello said.

"You... did all this, and now... you want me to fuck you? I won't last long."

"Do your best."

Another look of lust and indignation came from Aya, who would make himself rise to challenge. He could be so easy to manipulate sometimes. Farfarello let go of his kitten's cock and whooped as Aya surged up with a triumphant jingling and rolled him onto his stomach. He wouldn't see his kitten with those ears on this way, but considering how funny they looked that might be for the best.

Aya didn't try to prepare him, just thrust in, maybe with some lubricant, and it _burned_ in ways Farfarello hadn't expected. He felt full to bursting, and Aya's cock nudged something that sent sparks of pleasure through him. It was wonderful and put him so close to coming. Aya stopped and took a deep breath, then said, "You're different."

"I'll explain later. Controlling yourself?"

"Trying."

Aya thought of the flower shop accounting books and fangirls to cool himself a bit, and it worked. Connected to him in such a deep physical way, Farfarello could read his mind easier.

Aya started to move, fucking him with speed and thoroughness, his bell jingling on each stroke. While the pleasure distracted from the general ache, the repetition of movement and sound put Farfarello into a blissful trance. Aya bit Farfarello's neck when he came, and that brought Farfarello to orgasm and a kind of bright, loose-limbed peace.

Finally, Aya said, "You felt that more." He'd snuggled in at Farfarello's side, still wearing the ears and collar. It felt like... too much, and thus precious. He looked so fucking cute.

And some bastard had tried to stick a knife in his guts and end him forever.

"I took the boy's advice to let myself feel the wound in my arm so I wouldn't overuse it. Don't worry. I didn't go overboard." Farfarello kissed him. "You gave me a good X-mas. Love you."

"I love you too."

******************************************************

"That was great, but Sanzo really should have shot Kougaiji here," Fenris said in German as he lolled on the bed.

"Oh yeah," Elena agreed in the same. They had the DVD stopped for the moment.

"Why do they keep saying that Gojyo's hair is blood-colored? It looks more like... I don't know."

"Fruit punch?"

"Yeah! What curse comes with that?"

"The curse of tasting very sweet?"

"Bad! You made me snort lemonade up my nose!"

"Sorry." Not really.

"I heard that." He set his drink on the table and rolled over on the bed so he could better see her. "Is my brain good enough to get a shot of Japanese yet? I hate sounding so stupid to everybody."

"I'll take a look." She put her hand on his face to get a better, easier read and felt into him. "You're improving on thinking in words. I can upgrade you a little." So she did. "Feel any different?"

"I don't notice anything. We'll see on the next episode. Elena, could you give me some English too? I want to be able to talk to Lark a bit."

"Sure. You know, you don't have to go if you don't want to. Shopping can't be all that appealing to you."

"I want to see your makeover as it happens."

Elena laughed. Tess had been so funny, saying that nothing could be more of an American experience than a makeover. "Sure. I don't think it will be all that exciting, though."

"You didn't have to give Yoji an open field on Lark."

Interesting. "She sees me as a kid, and she's mainly into guys. If I get involved with someone I want something more permanent than a bit of sex before we let an ocean separate us again. Besides, he needs her more." Unable to resist, she asked, "Why? Do you want her as another mommy that badly?"

Surely he hadn't learned that hand gesture from _her_.

******************************************************

"Where are you going?" Yoji asked sleepily.

"I'm thirsty and getting something to drink," Tess answered. "You want something?"

"Water?"

"Sure." She put a robe on and left the room.

Feeling great, Yoji stretched and burrowed into the warm covers more. He'd almost forgotten that it could be possible to have sex and not feel guilty about it afterward.

They'd left one small light on in the bedroom, which let Yoji finally notice a framed picture on the nearby night table. Despite the dark red hair and dramatic makeup and clothing, Tess was easily recognizable in it. That look better fit the tattoos she still had. She had her arms around a slim, dark man. He had dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes. Dark soul. Even in a photo of him looking with love at his girl, he had this edge and attitude to him that told Yoji that he was a killer.

"You can tell I wasn't expecting company. I still have photos of the ex out," Tess said as she handed Yoji a glass of water, then scurried under the covers with him.

"How did you go from looking like that to doing your current look?"

"It wasn't as much fun once my favorite audience for it was dead. Once I made Lark, I saw that my instructions had more weight if I didn't look like a young punk."

"I can understand that." He knew the power of appearances very well.

"You can stick around if you want to. I'll be going to your hotel in the morning to pick up Elena and Fenris anyway. Or go now. No pressure."

"You're making this very easy."

"We all have enough stress in our lives already."

"What if I want to stay?"

She smiled. "I'll be a good host and keep you entertained." The way she looked at him left no doubt as to the nature of the entertainment involved.

"I'm definitely staying."

"Good. I'm not ready to call it a night yet."

******************************************************

In the middle of Schuldig's afterglow, he felt another bolt from the blue. "And Yoji still hasn't hurt her," he said. Ah, how wonderful to be a _successful_ sex therapist. He had another career waiting for him if he wanted it.

"Stop doing that," Brad answered, reminding him who the center of his universe is supposed to be.

Poor Brad. "Yeah? Or what?"

"Or I'll make you stop."

"That could be fun. Give it your best shot."


	98. "We'll kill them together."

Farfarello awoke to agony, so he yanked his soul loose of his body more and sighed regretfully as the feel of his kitten's body lying partly beneath him lost some of its vivid complexity. Still, wonderful kitten, wonderful day.... As he basked in Aya's warmth and sucked meditatively on a lock of his red hair, he thought of how close he'd come to losing this.

He found a kind of comfort in having Schwarz nearby, but if they stepped in the way of his justice he would fight them without mercy. They'd better support him instead.

"What are you doing?" Aya murmured. He wore neither ears nor collar now.

"Planning."

"Good. They hurt you. They'll pay for that," he answered in a sharp, steel voice.

No one had as wonderful a kitten as Farfarello did. "We'll kill them together."

******************************************************

Humming to himself, content, Yoji wiped steam off the mirror to better see himself. A shame he had to get back into his dirty clothes after his shower, but it was a small shame. He towel-dried his hair a bit.

He'd rarely stayed for a morning after. It made him wonder how he should behave and worry that things might be awkward. At least Tess seemed laidback. Among other things.

Hope felt unfamiliar. Almost painful. He'd spent an entire night with a woman without a German telepath being the thing stopping him from helplessly hurting her. That deserved a celebration.

When his head poked out through the neck of his sweater, he frowned at his drying hair. Growing it out would be a bitch. He really hoped he wouldn't end up with a 'fro. Having it be two different colors wouldn't help either. Maybe he could have the bleached bits dyed to match the color growing in. He'd been applying enough product to it lately to change it from fried to slightly crispy, so it might survive some dye.

Some change fell out of a pocket of his pants as he picked them up. After he put them on, he picked up the coins and wondered. He chose the largest one, then flipped it. Heads. This time when he flipped it in the air, he thought hard at it: _Move_. Nothing happened as it fell back into his palm. The Schwarz telekinetic didn't know what he was talking about.

Then again....

Yoji pulled a length of wire from his watch and went through some exercises with it, just the standard stuff, not giving it much more thought than he usually did. After so many years, he worked it on instinct, and it obeyed his control almost like another part of his body. But, now, when he was paying attention, he felt _something_ at work. He flung the wire straight toward one of the lamps and thought: _Move!_ And it did, changing directions a bit without so much as a flick of his wrist or hand. He pulled it back into his watch and picked up the coin again. This time when he flipped it up, he thought at it the way he'd thought at his wire and watched it wobble in the air in an odd way before it hit his palm again.

Cool. He had to do something with this.

"Yoji!" Tess shouted. "You're pretty enough! Come to breakfast already."

He pocketed the coin and walked out. "You made breakfast for me?" Scrambled eggs and toast, actually, with a coffee and a glass of juice on the side.

"Sure." She wore something severely stylish yet respectable. You'd never guess that she had several tattoos and various scars as mementos of attacks that should have killed her. "Usually I pick up something on the street, but you're my guest so...."

"You don't usually cook? That's not encouraging."

She pointed a knife at him. "Eat it and like it."

Smirking, he sat down and took a sip of what turned out to be pineapple juice. "Yes, ma'am."

"Brat."

******************************************************

Schuldig beamed at the world. Actually, he beamed at anyone who passed them in the hotel hallway. He'd had a good Christmas, great sex, and cake as breakfast in bed. Thus fortified, he could take on anything.

When Schuldig and Brad met with Kenken, he backed away a bit and went into a defensive stance. It amused Brad more than anything else, and he let the kitten see it in the twist of his mouth as he said, "We're on the same side now. I'll let him know that you're back." Seeing as how Ken still wore yesterday's clothing.

"I'll report in later," Ken said as he walked away.

"Was she any good?" Schuldig yelled after him. When that just made Kenken walk away faster, Schuldig murmured, "Meow. Wonder what we did to him to make him so mistrusting. Oh yeah, we kicked his ass and made Weiß look like idiots all those times."

"Now, now, Schu," Brad answered. "That's all in the past for now."

"You see something?"

"No. I'm just being a smart-ass."

"It's a good look on you."

"Thank you." Brad knocked at Omi's door, having seen ahead that Omi and Nagi would be done and up by now.

Usually Schuldig would have liked nothing better than to walk in on people in the middle of fucking, but Nagi could be temperamental and skittish, so not this time. Didn't want to make him less likely to have sex.

Nagi, fully dressed, opened the door for them. "You can come in."

"Did you check to see who we were?" Brad asked as he walked in, Schuldig at his heels.

Nagi sounded annoyed. "Telepathically. I'm a professional. That doesn't stop just because I have a boyfriend."

"Speaking of your boyfriend, did you both enjoy the Christmas gift?" Schuldig asked, and Nagi glared at him in answer. That would probably be a yes. "I don't expect thanks. Just knowing that I'm expanding your horizons is enough for me."

Omi smiled. Maybe the kitten was okay. Schuldig said, "Good morning." He could be sweet when it served him.

"Good morning."

"Any news on our enemies?" Brad asked, while Schuldig picked up the part of a newspaper Farf had given to Nagi to determine his Christmas gift.

"If Zhulin knows where they live, he's playing it cool. No one has made a move on them. We'll do some investigating today, then have them go out tonight to see if it gets anyone out into the open."

Schuldig said, "The Genitorturers are playing tomorrow. I wanna see them instead."

"It's _my_ gift," Nagi answered.

"The wuss next to me fainted during the last show." Facedown onto Schuldig's shoes, and Schuldig had kicked him off. "He couldn't handle it when she started stitching her slave's mouth shut."

"I don't care that you like them. She kept trying to give me things! Meanwhile, I'm shaking my head No at her because I didn't want one of the clothespins she'd taken off her slaves' nipples."

Thanks to Schuldig's powers of persuasion, Nagi's young age had never been a problem to getting in anywhere. Yet Nagi never had appreciated it, the little ingrate.

And speaking of ingrates.... "Schuldig, find Popov and Zhulin for us," Brad said. "Do your job."

"Loosening Nagi up _is_ my job." But Schuldig sat on the bed like a good boy and cast his mind out. He _could_ do it while standing but why should he? "They're both shielded. Professionally. Zhulin more than Popov or the other lieutenants." If he hadn't been able to cruise the minds around those people, he wouldn't have found them. "They definitely have at least one telepath working for them, a good one."

Brad didn't ask if the telepath had noticed Schuldig because he didn't have to. If he didn't know what the opposition had on its side, Schuldig always went out stealthily and carefully. He only announced himself when he knew the odds and knew he could beat them. Thus, he announced his presence _a lot_.

"If I get in close," Schuldig continued, "I'd have a better shot at reading at least Popov quickly and getting out of his mind without anyone knowing. Or I could try to crack him from here, but that would take more time and be riskier. I'm leaving Zhulin out because I get the feeling that he's watched more carefully. I could try for him, but that would take even more time and have even more risks. It's up to you. But I'm hoping for a chance to go in. It's been too peaceful for me lately."

"Wouldn't that be riskier for you?" Omi asked.

"If I'm small and localized, no. I can sneak into anywhere I want to get into. It's safer than being far away from my target and having a telepathic string an enemy can follow or cut." He could wear his new bandanna to keep his hair out of his eyes while out of Brad's sight.

"You're the expert."

"I'm glad you remember that. Oh, Ken came back from his one-night stand and Lark's arrived to return Yoji and pick up the mythical beasts as we speak."

While Omi thought that Schuldig's manner could stand some improvement, he had to admit that the telepath could be useful. It made Schuldig smirk. Yeah, _use_ him. Once you've had freaks, you never go back.

Of course, Omi should already know that, since all that telekinetic sex had to be spoiling him.

"Schuldig could use his telepathy to slip in unnoticed while Nagi takes care of the cameras," Brad said.

"We've done it many times before," Nagi said.

It made Schuldig happy to see that Nagi liked the idea. The kid really had a hate-on for the people who'd tried to kill Aya.

But.... "Farf's not gonna be happy about sitting this out," Schuldig had to say. Farf didn't always see the value in patience and would want a high body count immediately.

Brad did this sudden, small head movement that only someone who knew him really well would notice. It signaled a vision in progress. "I could go to him and Aya and convince them. Balinese could drive you and Nagi."

Omi looked a bit surprised but said, "I can ask him."

"He's your subordinate."

"I'll _ask_ him."

Lofty, Brad did this little "if you insist, but you're being foolish" head incline that made Schuldig smirk. Omi did this withering "you're not funny" look in return. Ah, territorial pissings of the alpha dogs. Crawford towered over little Omi, but Omi might be his equal in treachery.

Schuldig would gleefully watch this little bout when they didn't have more important things on their plate to be taken care of first. "Do you want me to tell Yoji to get in here so he can be asked?"

Omi had a moment of misgivings--smart of him--then said, "Yes."

~ Yoji, get your ass up to Omi's room. He has a job for you! ~

Yoji thanked him for the news then told him to get out of his head. Pretty snippy for a guy who got laid recently. People really needed to adjust their attitudes or they'd never be happy.

"He's on his way," Schuldig told Brad and Omi.

"I'll be on mine," Brad said as he walked to the door, and Schuldig watched him until he left. At Rosenkreuz he'd been told that he would be given to Oracle to obey him in all ways, and he had fought that for years. In hindsight, he figured that he'd been told that for the express purpose of making him perpetually rebel in the hopes of preventing Schwarz from becoming a cohesive unit that might one day turn upon its masters.

Yet now that Rosenkreuz and even Eszett were ashes, Schuldig _was_ fixated on Brad, of his own free will. Funny how life turned out.

Then again, Schuldig had a history of getting obsessed with people.

Yoji knocked at the door. "Blondie's here," Schuldig said, and Nagi opened the door from across the room, nearly pulling Yoji in with it.

"Warn a guy to let go of the handle first," Yoji said, looking relaxed and laidback, radiating a good mood. That freshly-fucked glow looked good on him too. He really had to take care of himself more often.

"That's boring," Nagi answered.

Omi flashed a long-suffering look, then said, "Schuldig's going in on reconnaissance, and Nagi will be taking care of their security. I was wondering if you could take care of the driving."

"Sure, but you trust me with Schuldig? You trust Schuldig with me?" Smart-ass.

"What would you do with Schuldig that you're afraid of?" Omi asked, not entirely innocent. Little bastard. Schuldig liked that.

"It's Schuldig you're talking about. It could be anything."

"If you feel that you can handle him, I trust you."

_Handle_ him? Schuldig liked the sound of that.

"Down, boy," Yoji said to him.

"You sure that's what you want?" Schuldig answered.

"If you both can't be professional, can you at least pretend when you're in front of me?" Nagi asked as he packed up his laptop.

"Sure. I can be generous."

"I just need to change my clothes," Yoji said.

"I think you smell just fine, tiger."

Yoji smirked, but Nagi said, "_That_ must stop."

"Yeah, yeah. How does your boyfriend do anything with you when you have such a big stick up your ass?" Schuldig asked.

"If you have to kill each other, do it outside my room," Omi said. He might make a decent partner for Nagi after all. At least until Nagi got tired of the ball and chain and played around a bit the way every kid should.

******************************************************

Aya let Crawford in. It impressed Crawford a little that Aya had taken the time to clean after the party--if only certain other members of his team could be so fastidious--but he also knew that Aya tried to impose order on his surroundings to try to impose order on himself, a kind of crutch, which was less impressive. Being with Schuldig had given him a higher tolerance for chaos, but Schu's chaos had more consistency, while Aya was a field of buried landmines. Still, at least Aya made attempts to control himself, and he seemed to be a stabilizing influence on Farfarello.

"Why are you here?" Farfarello asked, direct and rude.

Crawford answered, "I know you want to go out and wreak havoc, but you have to wait for the right moment."

"I say that the right moment is now."

"Aya will be hurt if you do. I've seen it." In truth, he saw Farfarello's attacks making the survivors more cautious and harder to reach, with Zhulin most difficult of all. Even then, Schwarz would get him eventually--they always hit their target--but it would involve far more work than it should have to.

Farfarello obviously didn't want to believe him about Aya but didn't quite dare dismiss it. Aya shot Crawford a skeptical look but said nothing. Perhaps he wanted Farfarello to stay in as well and was willing to lie by omission to ensure it. It showed maturity, something Crawford had once despaired of ever seeing in Abyssinian.

"We have to go out," Farfarello said.

"For what? You have enough food to last a while. There's no need to go out."

"Maybe I want to go to Ryan's for a pint."

"What?"

"It's a local pub," Aya answered. "I don't keep him in a box. Sometimes he even goes out on his own."

It was an incredible thought. Out on the streets loose and alone, Farfarello should have left a wide swath of carnage... yet hadn't.

"Once he gave us no choice about locking him up," Crawford said. It had cost them quite a bit of money, time, and effort too.

"I know."

"If I leave, Farfarello will go. I see that. Thus, I'm staying." Since they both looked annoyed at that, Crawford continued, "You can do what you usually do around me. You simply can't leave the apartment until tonight."

Farfarello appeared to be ready to erupt into invective and violence, but Aya simply asked, "Do you want me to call Zhulin's creatures to tell them that we'll be going to Downtime tonight?"

"That's an excellent idea."

"I don't really like this idea of drawing them in while we're at a club. Anyone could hit us from within a crowd."

"If I hadn't already wanted to pull Zhulin's entrails out through his mouth, the way he's made my kitten shy of public dancing would have been reason enough," Farfarello said with a snarl.

"I'm sure that Aya will be willing to take his chances in the crowd for an opportunity to bring justice to the people who stabbed you," Crawford said.

Aya glared at him but picked up the cell phone to call. His point made and accepted, Crawford found his chair and pulled out today's _Wall Street Journal_.

Crawford half-listened to Aya talk on the cell phone and noticed that his voice sounded a little higher, a little lighter. Farfarello put his arms around Aya from behind and nibbled at his neck as he spoke. The earring and ear cuff on Aya's left ear, his meaningful jewelry, glinted in the Christmas lights. Many thought Crawford to be cold and unfeeling, which might be slightly true, but he wasn't insensitive. He wouldn't be able to lead a team without some awareness of other people's feelings. His awareness watched their comfort with each other and saw it as something foreign to Schwarz as it had once been but healthy. It was a good thing, a good match.

"It looks like Zhulin knows who I am," Farfarello said.

"That's the impression we're getting," Crawford answered. "We thought it might happen." But Schwarz's presence in the city remained a secret. Schuldig had been adjusting bystanders' minds not to see the rest of Schwarz entering and leaving the building. Only the Kritiker people on guard would recognize them. This time Crawford had walked in as himself, but he was hardly distinctive, even with white hair.

If Zhulin had uncovered Farfarello's identity, the plan had been for Farfarello and Aya to kill him sooner and more directly. That was the current plan, with the update of Schwarz working as support.

"In that case, we don't have to stay with the performance artist angle. We can spar with swords."

Aya straightened suddenly in Farfarello's arms. He _was_ a pretty thing, and excitement added to his allure.

"Yes," Crawford answered.

Farfarello and Aya grinned fiercely at each other and went for their weapons, finally battling each other with intensity and great joy. Crawford read the paper throughout. The clang of sparring blades provided a harmonious counterpoint to his morning news.


	99. "I have a big... heart."

Schuldig ruffled Yoji's hair before he left the car. "Forget about it. You look beautiful, so drive," Nagi muttered just as Yoji was about to finger-comb his hair back into some kind of shape. Yoji manfully resisted the urge to stick the tongue out at the kid as he pulled away from the curb to find a place to park that would put them at some distance from Popov's place.

Even with the risk of Popov's people discovering them or Schuldig, Yoji found the wait in the car to be almost restful, which surprised and confused until he realized that it came from listening to Nagi clattering at his keyboard keys and murmuring directions like "Right," "Left," and "Stop" to Schuldig in Japanese. It provided a kind of déjà vu. Yoji had missed having Omi around in his old capacity as computer expert and directing voice. Ken used to get annoyed when Yoji referred to Omi's voice over their headsets as the Voice of God.

Yoji had nothing to do until Schuldig asked for a pickup, so he took out a coin again and tried to shift its flight path with his mind. Pushing at it telekinetically gave him a headache, but he could definitely see improvement in power and control. On his tenth try it flipped over entirely.

"You're pushing too hard," Nagi said suddenly. "It's more strain and unnecessary. Make it flow instead. That has to be what you usually do with your wire."

When Yoji glanced into the rearview mirror, Nagi was staring at his laptop. Had he been watching Yoji or somehow feeling it?

"Yeah, I think it is more of a flow thing ordinarily," Yoji answered. What he'd done this morning with the wire had been an obvious telekinetic intervention, making it turn aside on an angle, where usually it moved in smooth curves.

Without looking up, Nagi answered, "Pushing or throwing is easy to do. It's also easy to overdo, expending more power than you need, and I've seen people burn themselves out that way. Subtle is better."

"More elegant too."

Nagi smiled slightly. "Yeah, more elegant."

While Nagi could tear him to shreds with a thought.

Funny as it might sound, that thought reassured Yoji that Omi would be safe with this kid. Despite having more raw power at his command than any human being should have, Nagi believed in restraint and elegance. At least until you threatened people he loved, at which point he'd rip things apart, as he had when Schwarz had killed that Schreient girl. Omi would be safe in general and defended in bad situations.

"You're not upset about the telekinesis anymore?" Nagi asked, then murmured into his headset, "Left."

"Nah. It's not so bad. I'm glad you told me."

That earned him a slightly bigger smile. The kid needed to do that more.

"Thanks," Nagi said. "It means a lot to Omi that you don't mind about me."

"Don't mind? You're the best match I've seen for him in a while." Which would have been much scarier once.

"Yeah, sure. Practice your coin tricks a bit more and stop blowing smoke up my ass."

Yoji couldn't help answering, "When I start blowing smoke up your ass, believe me you'll know," and Nagi actually blushed a little. Who knew that having Schwarz around would mean having more people to play with?

"Shit. He's giving Popov a lap dance," Nagi suddenly said.

"What? You're kidding me."

Nagi turned the laptop around. He hadn't been kidding. And this POV from Schuldig's head camera made it particularly hilarious to watch. But Nagi turned it back around.

"Hey, I was watching that," Yoji said.

"Some of us have work to do. I hope that's what he's doing too."

******************************************************

Recon showed that the easiest, least splashy way in would be through the front door and the three goons guarding it. Schuldig could easily make them overlook him even when he was standing right in front of them but getting them to unlock and open the door for him would be a little trickier if he didn't want to draw the mystery telepath's attention. It needed to be subtle and natural. Thus, goon #3 suddenly had the overwhelming urge to piss. That worked every time. Alas, the bastard wanted to do it in an alley nearby, so Schuldig had to feed him thoughts of the horrible things that could happen to a man with his dick out in his hand in an alley. The other two goons called him all kinds of names but let him go to follow the call of nature, so Schuldig walked inside right behind him.

Being overlooked and invisible to the people inside was even easier for him, because they weren't expecting to see a stranger. Even a low-level telepath could make people's minds refuse to notice something they don't expect to be there. Hell, people did that to themselves.

As Schuldig moved, his headset camera sent back images to Nagi, who could then deactivate or divert the cameras and techie security measures. Once he cleared the area, Nagi gave him the go-ahead through his earpiece, buzzing directions. Schuldig wondered how pissed the kid would be if he came out of here calling him "Nagi-bee."

Schuldig constantly passed people without anyone noticing him. Happily, the door to Popov's room didn't have locks on it, which saved Schuldig the effort of picking them, and the man himself was alone. Schuldig opened and closed it and stood in front of Popov, who sat at a posh business desk looking deep in thought. Deep in thought? Actually, he was fantasizing about some new stripper he wanted to get a piece of, and that bled right through the shields the mystery telepath had put on him. Sex made most people stupidly vulnerable. Schuldig had originally started putting the moves on Brad in the hope of it working on him.

It had worked. Kind of.

Schuldig could carefully chip at the crack Popov's erotic fantasy had provided, in time breaking in without alerting anyone. Or he could break in fast without drawing any alarms if he were willing to compromise himself a little. That made it a choice between working harder or making the job easier. The usual won.

Popov was bulkier than Schuldig liked. So many big men tended to be either too impressed with themselves or overcompensating for other insecurities. Too bad.

Schuldig unbuttoned his coat and sat on Popov's lap, facing him, drawing the trappings of a big-breasted blonde stripper named Brandi over himself. _Named_ Brandi? Her name was Brandi like his was Schuldig.

Popov's fantasy could really use his help, since the man had no imagination whatsoever. His little daydream had been nearly colorless, like a dog's erotic dream, and lacking in several sensations. Not anymore. Schuldig ground down on him and started to ride. Lost in illusion, Popov humped him and put his hands on Schuldig's hips and gripped him. No technique at all, but the thrusts rubbed all the right spots. Multi-tasking, part of Schuldig enjoyed the feel of it all while most of him shot right through the shields into what Popov called a brain. Placing the side of his face against Popov's made it even easier.

Yeah, Farf's identity had been discovered, all right. And Zhulin had an interest in people with psychic powers in general and Schwarz in particular. Son of a bitch. The attack on Aya had been carried out in the specific hope of drawing Schwarz here. Did Zhulin really think he could just scoop them up in a net once they arrived? He'd been pissed off that half of his killing team had returned to him with no knowledge of how well things had gone until he'd realized that the very absence of information suggested that the attack had been successful in drawing someone with power out. Schuldig took other information about his people and favorite places too. Brad would want them to destroy Zhulin for his impudence, so he better take a thorough tally. They would make him pay for threatening their family. Popov knew that Zhulin had some kind of mindreader working for him but didn't know who the mindreader was, having never seen him or her.

Popov nuzzled Schuldig's neck as he whispered obscenities to his stripper fantasy. How sweet. For his attentiveness Schuldig let him come, then gently put him into a satiated nap. He'd be taken down hard later with the rest.

Of course, that left Schuldig with an unsatisfied hard-on, but he wasn't desperate enough to get himself off here. Prey to people's passing moods and lusts, telepaths learned to work while having blue balls.

He made it outside even faster and walked a block until Yoji picked him up. Settling into the shotgun seat, Schuldig said, "I have what we wanted."

"The view from your camera nauseated me," Nagi said from the backseat.

"Popov isn't your type?"

"He was drooling."

"Of course he was. It was me directing his little wank fantasy, and I'm an expert."

Yoji snorted as he pulled out of his parking spot. "I'm sure he was honored."

Yoji would do. "Hey, Yoji--"

"Not in the car."

"You didn't even know what I wanted to ask you."

"You have that gleam in your eye, and you're obviously hard. Besides, you did a lap dance."

Wait, not in the _car_? "But later is fine?"

"Ask me later," Yoji murmured, feeling a bit of lust himself.

Score! Yoji was coming along nicely. Every team should start an adopt-a-pet program. Grinning, Schuldig leaned back in his seat and lit up a cigarette.

"Great," Yoji said. "Now I want one."

"Take mine. I'll light up a new one." Schuldig put it into Yoji's mouth, and the kitten accepted it. Hmm. Yoji smoking his cigarette. That was kind of hot. When Nagi sighed loudly, long-suffering, from the backseat, Schuldig asked, "Looking for loving, baby? I have a big... heart."

"No thanks. Really."

Work should always be this much fun. As Schuldig lit up a new cigarette for himself, he said, "Drive us to Farf and Aya's place, Yoji. I have to report in to my team leader."

"You should tell Persia first," Yoji answered.

"Please. That is _not_ standard operating procedure, not for Schwarz or Weiß. Team leader first. Who leads Weiß now, anyway?"

"I do," Yoji said. When Schuldig cackled at that, Yoji answered, "Fuck you."

"_You're_.... When did you become responsible? Oh wait, you're the best pick of the current litter." Maybe Schwarz could rehabilitate Ken too. He was cute in his jock way.

"You're not helping yourself with me."

"Fine, fine. I'm sure you're wonderful."

"Try to sound a little more honest."

"Can't."

"I liked it better when you two were trying to kill each other," Nagi said.

"You're too cute, Nagi-bee."

"_I'll_ kill you."


	100. "I got the information by sitting on his lap while pretending to be a stripper named Brandi."

Crawford let them in to Aya's apartment. Yoji saw his posture subtly change as Schuldig walked in, as if Crawford could tell that Schuldig was lit just by looking at him. In answer, Schuldig took off his silver bandanna and put it in his pocket, then put his arm around Yoji's neck and leaned against him. "Hey, Brad."

Damn. It didn't help Yoji's raging libido at all. His response to being pushed was to push back, but here pushing back might get Schildig into his pants again, and he couldn't even fully believe that would be a bad thing. He might even say yes later if Schuldig took him up on his tossed-off offer.

Crawford stepped aside, but even Yoji could _feel_ his attention. "Successful?"

"Quite." Schuldig rubbed his head against Yoji's face, and just that made him harder. The telepath _radiated_ something. It had to be. He wanted it, so Yoji wanted it. Driving him and Nagi back from Brooklyn had been torture.

Meanwhile, Crawford seemed to be looking hungrily at _both_ of them, as if Schuldig had made Yoji part of the package by grabbing him and making him his prop. As much as seeing Crawford look at him with something other than the usual disdain made Yoji want to smirk, it also made him uneasy.

"Can we just get in already?" Nagi asked from behind them, sounding very annoyed. The kid's presence would help keep Yoji's virtue intact.

~ Not likely. ~

Yoji told Schuldig to get out of his mind.

~ Such as it is. ~

Shut up.

Schuldig just grinned and leaned more, making Yoji half-drag him deeper into the apartment. Crawford--damn him--looked highly amused.

Schuldig let go of Yoji as they took off their shoes but immediately latched back on as soon as they stood up. Yoji had been so close to getting away too, but he couldn't disengage now without causing a scene since Schuldig clung like a leech.

Aya and Farfarello ranged across the bedroom as they dueled. The speed and brutality of their strikes made it look like a real fight, but it couldn't be. Yoji had seen Aya practice in the past, but they'd all been lone exercises with precise and slow movements, silent aside from the sound of Aya's breathing. This was sound and fury.

Aya had never grinned like a madman during his lone workouts either nor looked so happy. Sweat glistened on his bare arms and darkened his hair at the roots. His dangling earring swung. He looked really fucking sexy.

Schuldig smiled against Yoji's neck, letting him feel a brush of teeth. ~ I've been trying to get Aya into an orgy, but he and Farf weren't game. Won't stop me from still trying. ~

Yoji had noticed himself noticing people again now that he'd gained more control over his problems. He'd also realized that he been subtly noticing men all along; now it was just amplified and more obvious.

"Farfarello, we have a guest. Time to stop," Aya shouted.

"So?" Farfarello pressed and fought harder, not looking at all inclined to stop.

Aya leapt back, then tilted his sword down, offering no defense. Horrified, Yoji reached for his watch, but Schuldig tightened his grip on Yoji's neck and grabbed his arm to prevent him. Farfarello grunted in annoyance, pulled back, and retracted his blade.

~ They have each other trained. ~

"Sure," Yoji answered while he tried to slow his heart rate.

Aya--who should be _dead_ now--gave Yoji a measuring, suspicious look. Well, Yoji had Schuldig wrapped around him. At least Aya hadn't noticed him checking him out earlier.

"Brad, I need to tell you what I found out. Let's go into the bathroom." Schuldig dragged Yoji along, completely ignoring Yoji's "What? Wait! Hey!" Yoji, of all people, should have known better than to let someone get a hold around his neck--twice!--so he cursed himself for an idiot. Crawford followed, looking utterly blasé, and locked the door behind them.

Schuldig finally let Yoji go and flung him away to better plaster himself against Crawford. They blocked the way to the door, so Yoji watched them, waiting for his chance to get out.

Despite the severe cleanliness of the bathroom, it looked shabby and a bit squalid with its ancient, slightly cracked and chipped white tile. It could have been a porn location.

Okay, Yoji would start to think of something else right now.

"What _have_ you been doing?" Crawford asked, sounding amused, as he held onto the obviously content and lightly writhing telepath.

"I got the information by sitting on his lap while pretending to be a stripper named Brandi. He got off. I didn't." Schuldig nuzzled Crawford's neck. "Then Yoji told me 'not in the car.'"

"Really? Did he now?" Crawford answered, his voice dark and low.

Hard to tell whether that had made Crawford happy or annoyed. Was Yoji expected to keep his hands off Crawford's telepath or to be Schuldig's on-call sextoy? Yoji kept the end of his wire between his fingers just in case.

"Really." Schuldig closed his eyes as Crawford stroked and tugged at his long hair. "Zhulin had Farf and Aya attacked specifically to draw Schwarz in. He has a fascination with psychic powers and knows who Farf is and his affiliation to us. He wants us."

"So he attacked one of us? Hardly conducive to gaining our allegiance."

"Maybe he's an idiot. Maybe he's arrogant. Maybe Popov doesn't understand his plans. I dunno. You have to admit that it piqued our interest and brought us to the States. I cherry-picked information about his people and bases too."

"He wants us? He'll get us. Just not the way he'd want to get us."

"_I_ want you. Give me what I want or give me time to get myself off."

"You brought Balinese in here with us for a reason. As bystander? Participant?"

Yoji _was not_ getting hot hearing that. Not at all. His only recent threesome had been to help Schuldig out. All right, his only threesome with Schuldig and _Crawford_ had been to help Schuldig.

"What would _you_ like, Brad? It won't take me long to get off, but I want you to have a good ride too."

"Do I get any choice in this?" Yoji said, annoyed at them and himself.

Schuldig opened his bright blue eyes and purred, "You won't say no."

"I will."

Crawford and Schuldig shared a long, hot, heavy look, then Schuldig pulled away from him and launched himself at Yoji so quickly that Yoji's brain couldn't keep up. All it saw was a blur it didn't understand until he caught the telepath in his arms instead of clotheslining him with the wire, which dropped from his hand and retracted back into his watch. Surprised, Yoji had his mouth open and soon had Schuldig's tongue in it as the telepath wrapped around him like a snake and rubbed against him insistently, overwhelming him. At least Yoji's long coat remained closed, preventing more contact.

Then Schuldig's lust unfolded and exploded around him, pulling him under. What he'd absorbed from the telepath before had been only the dimmest shadow of this. But shot through that lust was warm affection. To his surprise, Schuldig _liked_ him. It cut through Yoji's resistance. His hand snaked under Schuldig's open coat to settle on his ass and grip. Schuldig hissed and undulated, then pulled out of Yoji's arms despite his efforts to keep him there and hopped up onto the edge of the sink. Breathing hard, flushed, he sat there with his mouth open and lips swollen and wet, staring at Yoji with hot eyes, blazing with lust. Then he grabbed him in and wrapped his legs around his waist, not that Yoji resisted. They humped each other convulsively, with Yoji grinning from how good the friction felt and the way Schuldig repeatedly gasped his name.

Moaning, Schuldig threw his head back and shuddered in a way that told Yoji that he'd come. The sudden wave of pleasure helped show that too. Yoji nipped at his bared neck, making him shudder and radiate more pleasure again. As he heard a deep noise nearby, he felt a sudden wrenching and Schuldig clutching him harder, clinging as he backed up to see the sink hanging from the wall lower and at an odd angle.

Schuldig started to laugh like a madman. "We broke the fucking _sink_. By fucking!"

"What the hell are you doing in there?" Aya yelled as he rattled the door handle.

"We'll replace it," Crawford said through the door. Yoji had actually forgotten he was there. Crawford had loosened his tie and collar a little and turned a fevered gaze back on him and Schuldig. He'd been _watching_ them, which made Yoji almost come then from terror and the hotness of it.

"Replace _what_?" Aya's voice should have been able to cut through the door.

"Later, Abyssinian."

"Crawford--"

"_Later_," Crawford said, his voice like steel, and Aya actually let him get away with it by not saying another word. Amazing.

Schuldig let go and slid off Yoji. "I'm... good. A bit of a mess, but good. You guys go at it." Still breathing hard, he sat on the toilet seat cover.

Yoji felt weirdly exposed without Schuldig plastered to him and freaked out a bit as Crawford strode purposefully toward him, not that he let it show. When pushed, he pushed back. Yet Crawford stopped to stand in front of him, not touching. Damn, the man was tall. Yoji rarely met someone taller than _he_ was, yet he had to look up at Crawford, who no doubt enjoyed looking down on the world. The seer's silver hair and steely look made him seem older, and his whole posture shouted that he expected Yoji to try to impress him.

Yoji refused to be intimidated, not when he could tell that Crawford was as hard as he was. They both wanted, needed, to get off. Yoji pushed his sunglasses higher up his nose with one finger.

"It's the battle of the reflective lenses!" Schuldig said. "Will you two stop staring at each other? You have bodies, so use 'em. Mouth, tongue, hands, something." He had his pants open and a washcloth in his hands. Yoji looked away from him.

"I don't recall asking for your instructions," Crawford said.

"I wouldn't be instructing if it didn't look like you needed it."

"Are you going to let him talk to you like that?" Yoji asked Crawford.

"I fight him on the important things," Crawford answered.

"What are you complaining about, Yoji?" Schuldig said. "You want to get off, right? Okay, Brad, unbutton Yoji's coat."

"_This_ is important. No. I won't. It's demeaning."

"Unfastening my coat is demeaning?" Yoji asked, putting a note of annoyance into his voice. Of course Crawford would think that.

"I'm not your servant."

Unbuttoning his coat himself, Yoji walked right up into Crawford's personal space. "What, is it too... hard?" Yoji smirked as he heard Schuldig laughing.

"Two of you." Yet Crawford didn't look dismayed by the thought. Not at all.

"You didn't foresee this?" Yoji opened his coat and skimmed the sides away from his body. In the winter he wore less-revealing clothing, but his sweater and pants fit _very_ nicely.

~ Winter forces you to dress subtler and more classy. ~

Said the guy who walked in wearing a metallic silver headband. And did Schuldig want Crawford to get laid or not?

~ Your point. ~

Still, the more dignified clothing gave him a mental edge with Crawford, who wore a tailored, very proper charcoal gray business suit. If he'd stood here in a skintight, midriff-baring outfit, he knew that Crawford would be smirking at him and thinking him cheap.

Schuldig made no comment of yes or no and just watched them with focus.

"No, but I'm not displeased," Crawford answered. From him, that was almost a declaration of deep affection. He unbuttoned his suit jacket and vest and undid his dark blue tie, letting its ends dangle down the front of his white shirt.

It seemed only fair to continue stripping in return. Yoji shrugged his coat off and let it drop onto the edge of the tub. Anticipation and lust felt like electricity in the air, heavy and charged, making his skin tingle. Or Schuldig was radiating. He didn't know. Right now the origin didn't seem important, because he wanted to enjoy this.

Crawford took his hand and removed its leather glove, then placed the fingertips against his warm, dry lips, making Yoji shiver, surprised and turned on by it. He wondered if Crawford could feel the faint scars on them. Sometimes Yoji had desperately needed to use the wire while barehanded. Crawford did the same to the other hand, stripping it of leather and marking his fingertips with his breath, then set the gloves down on top of Yoji's coat.

Was this a seduction? He half expected Schuldig to make a comment, but the telepath remained silent and rapt, actually vibrating.

Yoji moved his hand out of Crawford's grip a little to lightly stroke from his lips to his cheek and then down the side of his face, catching only a tiny hint of stubble. He could just see it, a glint of silver like the rest of his hair. Crawford's eyes behind his glasses focused on him like lasers. This felt like some stylized dance that Yoji didn't quite know the choreography to. Or a play maybe: Kid Yoji and the Pervy Businessman. Which was ridiculous, since they were about the same age. Uncomfortable, he unbuttoned the fly on his now too-tight pants.

"Hold him, Brad."

To Yoji's surprise, Crawford did pull him in close as commanded, and Yoji felt his hand move up under his sweater and tank top to ghost over the skin of his back. It really freaked him out to have to look up at someone and made him glad that he had his shades to hide behind. Still, he figured he was doing well for a guy who'd only recently started doing guys. Crawford felt hard against him, and he could smell his arousal.

Enough of being intimidated and letting Crawford set the pace, especially while Yoji really wanted to come. To speed things up, he set his palm on Crawford's stomach, then stroked down to cup him before undoing his fly and reaching into his briefs. _That_ took some of the focus out of those hard brown eyes. He was already slick in Yoji's hand. No disdain _now_.

~ Taking the fight to him. You have good instincts. ~

"Are you going to do something back or just stand there?" Yoji asked.

Crawford smirked and swept his hair out of his eyes with his hand. Weird that a man who did himself up so controlled and impeccable otherwise had that longer hair at the top that could get into his face, but Yoji imagined that it probably looked very dramatic blowing in a wind. Crawford was as vain as Yoji was, just in a different way. Then Crawford started to jack him off, and Yoji stopped thinking anything other than "Damn, they're _both_ fast" since he hadn't even noticed him reaching. Damned skilled with his hand too, though he _had_ to get good at this if he'd spent years being the target of Schuldig's appetite.

At some point Yoji had been backed up against the wall, but he didn't care as they jerked each other and Schuldig watched them with such intensity that his gaze had weight and heat on Yoji's body. With how close to the edge Yoji had been even at the start of this, it didn't take long for Crawford's callused, skilled hand to wring orgasm out of him. Barely thinking, Yoji stretched upward to suck hard at the pale skin revealed by Crawford's open collar, and Crawford came in his hand. And looked furious once the daze of climax passed, while Schuldig chortled.

Maybe Schuldig would help defend him if Crawford tried to kill him for marking him, since Yoji felt too good and dopey to do a good job of defending himself alone. Still, it had been worth it.

It was too easy to have sex with these people.

Leaning against the wall, boneless, Yoji heard a click of metal and the hiss of a small flame. He turned his head to see Schuldig lighting up a cigarette while looking almost obscenely satisfied.

~ I'd defend you. Fuck, that was funny. Didn't foresee that one, did he? ~ "He got you off, Brad. You can't kill him."

"I could." Was it a good or bad thing that Crawford sounded so controlled?

"You won't." Schuldig came over, handed Yoji his cigarette, and licked Crawford's fingers. "You don't believe in wasting assets. Besides, your collar will cover it."

"Two of you."

"Your own harem."

"Let's not take this too far!" Yoji protested.

They both smirked at him, utterly unrepentant. Of course.


	101. "Your escape is my foreplay."

"I'll kill them," Aya muttered again as he paced at the door. Crawford first, since he'd basically commanded Aya to stifle himself the way a master would command a puppy. They were having sex in his bathroom and destroying it while he was right outside being forced to listen to it!

Having it in front of Yoji, no less. The man might be a pervert, but surely even he would be scarred.

"Schuldig's been threatening another threesome," Nagi said with a sigh.

"What do you mean by 'threesome'?"

"You know, in the way that you do when three people have sex together."

"_Yoji_?"

Nagi looked surprised. "You didn't know? Okay, maybe that's unfair since for the longest time _he_ didn't know...."

Aya would kill Yoji too. Then again, Yoji wasn't as worldly as he pretended to be, while Schuldig and Crawford were steeped in treachery and mind games. Did Yoji really know what he wanted? Had he ever? He'd been looking healthier lately, and it would be terrible for him to face a setback.

Nagi stared at him. Aya asked, "What?"

"Nothing."

Finally Aya could hear the door unlock, so he turned the handle and burst in. Crawford looked as impeccably groomed and dressed as ever, while Yoji and Schuldig were dressed but somewhat debauched looking. It smelled like an orgy in here. Aya strode right up to Yoji and asked, "What the hell were you thinking? You know where they've been!"

He looked dazed, and his red-tinted sunglasses were slightly askew. "Aya...."

"I won't hear it. Out of my bathroom and their clutches."

Yoji started to smile, the bastard. "I'm fine, you know."

"Out!"

Still smiling, he picked up his coat and gloves and walked out.

Aya turned around and saw the sink. It hung lower and badly crooked. Water leaked from an exposed pipe down the wall and onto the floor. The sight made his head pound. He didn't have to ask what had happened.

Farfarello coughed a laugh and said, "You were wise. You said that would happen if we tried anything on it."

Crawford and Schuldig watched with such great amusement. Aya said, "Make yourselves useful and get someone to fix this."

"Persia should give you better accommodations," Crawford said.

"Call." His voice sounded like gravel being run through a grinder to him, so he hoped it sounded that bad or worse to other people.

"Your high horse is getting shorter all the time," Schuldig said.

"Unless you want to help clean, get the hell out of here."

"Why clean? The repair guy will just mess it up again."

"I won't have someone come in here while it smells like a whorehouse, so get out."

"Hey, Aya, got a pair of pants I can borrow? I messed mine up."

Growling, Aya grabbed Schuldig and pushed him out of the room. Wiser, Farfarello and Crawford left on their own. Aya slammed the door shut behind them.

They'd desecrated his bathroom.... They'd even used the washcloths!

Aya grabbed rubber gloves along with cleansers, sponges, and buckets. There was no way he'd touch anything in here with his bare hands.

******************************************************

"What are you smiling about?" Nagi asked.

Was he smiling? Yoji answered, "Aya was worried about me." Imagine that. Concern from the ice prince.

"Of course he worried," Schuldig said. "You were alone with us, and we're so wonderfully evil and all." Gleeful satisfaction rolled off him in waves. "Good thing Aya's not the telekinetic."

Farfarello grinned. "He's feisty. I love that."

On his cell phone, Crawford said, "I know that finances were an issue, but that sink was a hazard. All we did was lean against it."

Finances. Nice way to say that Aya and Farfarello had a cover as nearly-starving artists to maintain. Somehow Yoji doubted that Omi would believe the story about them leaning on the sink. He wasn't that innocent.

Damn, it felt good to be able to call him "Omi" again.

"It's leaking water down the wall and onto the floor. It's a hazard," Crawford continued. "He deserves better. I'm sure you agree." The edge of the hickey Yoji had given him showed just above his collar. He looked annoyed when he noticed the direction of Yoji's gaze. Yoji smirked back at him in answer. Knowing that Crawford currently wasn't wearing any underwear from coming in them from Yoji's talented fingers made his smirk even smirkier.

In the bathroom, Aya stopped his low, steady stream of curses to mutter something about living in a circus. Schuldig said, "As a telepath, I can almost see the black haze of his anger creeping out through the cracks around the door. It's trippy. Yet as much as he worried about you he still left you out here alone with us."

"He didn't have to worry about that," Nagi said. "He knows that I'm here, and nothing is going to happen."

"You know that I see that as a challenge, don't you?"

"You know that I can keep you telekinetically pinned to a wall for several hours, don't you?"

"You love me." Schuldig brought out two bottles of water and gave one to Yoji. Being Schuldig, he waited until Yoji had taken a big gulp before asking, "Yoji, how does it feel to be part of Brad's harem?" Bastard blatantly enjoyed watching Yoji's spit-take and near-choking. "Damn, but I'm having a good day."

"I hate you," Yoji answered.

"That's what they all say." Schuldig went to Aya and Farfarello's bed and sprawled on it.

"They are so going to kill you," Nagi said.

"Again, that's what they all say."

Aya stalked out of the bathroom smelling of sweat and harsh chemicals. "Nice hickey," he said to Crawford, whose scowl now matched Aya's, then directed a strong "Get the hell off my bed!" to Schuldig.

"You can join me."

Suddenly, quickly, Farfarello grabbed Schuldig and dragged him off, dropping him on the floor. "Don't taunt my kitten."

"You went too far, Schu," Crawford said mildly as Schuldig rushed to his feet. "If you retaliate, you'll be surprised by the severity of their response."

"I hate you," Schuldig answered, although he didn't look as upset as Yoji would have expected. "But I won't let any of you ruin my day."

"You keep that in mind," Aya replied.

Watching Aya talking to people, interacting, taunting Crawford, Yoji had to say, "I like you this way."

"Did they drug you too?" Aya shook his head. "I'll be taking a shower."

"I'll take it with you," Farfarello answered eagerly. Yoji _would not_ get used to that.

"Shouldn't you turn off the water instead?" Crawford asked.

"Perhaps," Aya said, "but I need a shower. And I don't know where the turn-off is."

"I do," Schuldig said, "but I'm not telling."

"Of course."

"The repairman will be arriving soon," Crawford said. "In 45 minutes. Persia apparently has some pull."

"Did you see that?"

"Yes."

"Thank you." Aya took a stack of clothes into the bathroom with him. Farfarello followed with an evil smile.

Yoji _really_ could not get used to that.

"You're going to leave Yoji with us?" Schuldig shouted after Aya.

"I'm still here to protect him," Nagi said.

Thankfully. Yoji knew he wasn't doing a good job of that himself.

"What are you, the morality police? You suck," Schuldig said, right before grabbing Yoji and pulling him down onto the bed with him over his very vocal protests.

"No sex," Nagi said.

"I can molest a little." And he did. How many hands did Schuldig have?

"No. And you can fight harder, Kudou."

"Uh, yeah." Any minute now. Why did it have to feel so good?

"I could separate you."

Yoji had a sudden mental image of him and Schuldig being pried apart and flung to opposite ends of the room. _That_ made him move and squirm harder, which made Nagi smirk, but Schuldig had an iron grip. Finally, he wiggled enough to get free. Standing up and looking back at Schuldig, Yoji asked, "What are you smiling at?"

Smiling, Schuldig answered, "Your escape is my foreplay."

Straightening the hem of his sweater and redoing the top button of his pants, Yoji said, "I'll be at the other end of the room." Aya and Farfarello could be done any minute and seeing him being undressed for ravishment on their bed. He didn't want to give them an excuse to kill him.

"No fun. Aya! Get back in there! It's too soon. You're still pissy!"

Aya walked out, damp from the shower but dressed casually, with a disgruntled looking Farfarello in his wake. "I'm not going to do anything while you're in the next room waiting for it," Aya said as he ruffled his hair with a towel.

Thankfully. Yoji still couldn't deal with the idea of Aya having a sex drive, let alone a lover, let alone a lover who was a one-eyed guy who licked knives.

"You're all out to ruin my day."

"You're back on my bed."

"Yeah. Funny how that happened."

They all had something to do as they waited for the repair guy. Nagi did something on his laptop, Crawford read a newspaper, Aya read a book, Farfarello sharpened knives, and Schuldig napped or planned world domination with his eyes closed. Yoji couldn't tell on the last one. He just knew that he was bored.

Lighting up a cigarette, he walked to the kitchenette with the idea of searching the fridge. He'd been hungrier lately. If he didn't watch himself, he'd get fat. But a snack couldn't hurt.

"You're smoking on my food," Aya said quietly from behind him, making Yoji hit his head on the freezer's handle.

Rubbing the top of his head, Yoji answered, "We need to put a bell on you or something."

"It's already been done. Are you looking for something in particular?"

"Nah. I just need to nibble."

Aya went into a nearby cupboard and pulled out a box of Pocky.

"Strawberry?" Yoji asked.

"Strawberry."

"Cool."

Of course, Aya waited until he had a stick of Pocky in his mouth before asking, "When did you become bisexual?"

Yoji bit down in surprise and snapped it in half. Fortunately, he grabbed the dangling end before it could hit the floor. "None of your business." It couldn't help but sound defensive. "When did your hair change from crimson to auburn?"

"Recently. It didn't hit you after you started working with Schuldig, did it?"

"He's your teammate."

"Yes. I know him."

He had a point. "Yeah, but I'm getting it even when he's not around. And it looks like I've been cruising men for years without thinking about it."

"You flirt with _everyone_. You flirt with inanimate objects. I doubt that you intend to have sex with those. At least I hope not."

"I flirted with you."

Aya nearly smiled. "You flirted with me. I was aware of it. Some of the time."

This was a whole _conversation_ with Aya here. "You seem happy now. I'm glad of that."

"Now hug, you bastards!" Schuldig yelled from the bedroom.

"You're ruining our moment here!" Yoji yelled back.

"Ruining? _Enhancing_. Aya needs stage direction on the mushy, emotional stuff."

"I don't," Aya answered.

"If this keeps up, I'm running away from home," Nagi said without looking up from his laptop.

"You'd disappoint your Uncle Yoji," Schuldig replied.

As if he belonged to their crazy family. "When did I become a part of Schwarz?" Yoji asked.

"I'm wondering the same," Crawford said.

"We're inclusive," Schuldig answered. "We're all about the brotherhood of man here."

"I'm going to retch," Nagi said.

"My boredom is apparently dangerous to others," Yoji said. "Aya, you got any books that aren't mathematical or existential?"

"I have some noir-like detective novels."

"So much for no existentialism. Fine. Gimme one of those. I can nitpick it."

"We don't all have to stay here," Crawford said. "It might be better if we don't. Schuldig has a report to make to Persia anyway."

"Gee, thanks, Brad."

"I'll stay to make sure that Farfarello doesn't move too soon."

"That's really not necessary," Farfarello answered, almost growling.

"I disagree."

"Fine," Schuldig replied. "Hey, kid, you can spend more time with your boyfriend."

"We'll be working," Nagi said as he closed up his computer.

"Of course. I'm constantly working."

"You're all assuming I'll leave too," Yoji said.

"Do you have any reason to stay? Aside from ogling Aya, that is."

At Farfarello's snarl, Yoji answered, "I'm not ogling Aya." He wasn't. Aya was just there, and it would be rude not to look at him.

"Whatever."

Yoji didn't actually have anything to do in his hotel room either. But maybe he could get a nap in. He hadn't slept much last night. At the very least, he would get away from Schwarz. They kept bending his mind. "I'll drive."

"Far be it from me to threaten your manhood by suggesting otherwise."

"Crawford, do you have that gag with you?"

"No. With his telepathy, he can't be shut up anyway."

"Schuldig, you don't mind Crawford talking about you like that?"

Schuldig shrugged. "It'd be pathetic if I could dish it out but couldn't take it."

******************************************************

Even with that very serious look on Omi's face, part of Schuldig felt the temptation not to take him seriously. He wasn't as cute looking as he used to be, but he still looked so young. The far smarter parts of Schuldig knew better. This kid was a killer leading an organization of killers, and he had vast wealth and power. Whether he used them wisely or not all the time made no matter, since adults could screw that up too. Look at Eszett or Takatori.

Destroying them had been fun.

Schuldig reported, "Zhulin ordered the hit on Aya and Farf to fetch Schwarz. He didn't want them dead--though he wouldn't shed any tears if they didn't survive--but he figured the attempt would bring us in. He wants a stable of psionics. I didn't hear about any other psionics than the telepath I already knew about."

"Does he know that Aya and Farfarello survived?"

"The other guy came back confused from what I did to him, but Zhulin knows. I'm sure he also figures that it succeeded in drawing Schwarz in."

Omi nodded. "Does he know anything about Weiß or Kritiker?"

"To the best of Popov's knowledge, no. Keep in mind that I read Popov. I doubt that Zhulin tells him everything. _I_ wouldn't."

"We'll go ahead with our plan for the club tonight."

"You and Nagi would be going anyway." When Omi shot him a very Crawford look of "you're getting too familiar and casual with me, your leader," Schuldig, being Schuldig, let it slide off. "I have names and locations. I'll put them together on a list for you if Nagi will loan me a computer and printer." Being a mini-Crawford, Omi actually had a printer and a non-Nagi-owned computer in his room.

As Schuldig pulled information out of his brain and typed, Yoji left. He could feel it, as he'd felt Yoji watching him during his recitation. Schuldig had developed a kink for being watched. No surprise. It felt good. Finally Schuldig could say, "Knock yourselves out," and leave.

He could go to his room, but he didn't have anything waiting for him in room. But Yoji's room had Yoji. Smiling, he unlocked Yoji's door and walked into the darkness. Once his eyes adjusted, he could make out Yoji's bed and his shape under the covers. Sleeping. He'd had a busy night with the American.

Schuldig didn't believe in sleeping alone when he didn't have to.

He took off his shoes and coat, then peeled back the covers and joined Yoji, who started to wake up from the intrusion until Schuldig telepathically soothed him back to sleep. Good assassin instincts. He'd live longer.

With the blankets covering them both, Schuldig could soak in the warmth. Yoji had changed to a tank top and silk pajama bottoms. Understandably, since the pants he'd worn earlier were too tight to comfortably sleep in. The silk felt soft and smooth when Schuldig put his arm over Yoji's waist, so he had to fight off the urge to molest. Yoji needed rest. At least he didn't feel so stupidly thin anymore. He felt vaguely content, with no nightmares. Snuggling in, Schuldig closed his eyes and let the sound of Yoji's deep, steady breathing lull him to sleep.

******************************************************

Yoji slapped his alarm to turn it off. Didn't want to get up. Too warm and comfortable.

But he seldom woke up with anyone, while right now he had someone wrapped around him and breathing on his neck. He _knew_ he'd gone to bed alone this time. Wiggling didn't get him loose. Not only did it not get him loose, it made him more aroused.

"Time to wake up already?" Schuldig asked.

Unbelievable. No, _too_ believable, where Schuldig was concerned. "You're so totally in the wrong room!"

"This is your room. So it's the right room. I was lonely."

Give him strength. Lonely? Please. "I'm not your stuffed toy."

Yoji could swear that he felt the brush of teeth at the nape of his neck. "Not _stuffed_...." Schuldig said. "Not yet. I behaved myself."

"You broke into my room. You're in my bed, wrapped around me. That is not behaving."

"I didn't break in. I have a key. I also didn't molest you when I easily could have."

Yoji wanted to beat his head against the headboard, but he couldn't reach it while wearing Schuldig. Given the level of his frustration, he probably had a look on his face that would rival one of Aya's vintage "how much more could my hatred possibly be honed?" looks.

"Why would you want to do that? It would hurt."

"We have to get dressed to go out."

"Right." Schuldig let him go and got up. Yoji could dimly make out his shape stretching. "We have to do this again sometime."

"NO."

"If you say so." Schuldig waved as he let himself out.

Yoji sighed and started to jerk off to relieve the pressure. Schuldig made him insane....

Once he finished that and then finished dressing for the night, he left his room. "Yoji!" a woman shouted, so he turned to see what he was up against.

That couldn't be Elena.

Right now, she wore a red halter top with strings of beads dangling from the bottom hem, tight black pants, and high-heeled boots. She had her hair down, and it had been trimmed, styled, and given flattering highlights. She wore _makeup_. While she still looked like a solid young woman, she'd suddenly become attractive. The smile helped.

~ Down, boy. Remember that she castrated two men with craft scissors and popped out another one's eye for coming on to her. ~

Yoji turned to see Schuldig leaning against a nearby door. The telepath had dressed to entice and provoke. Other people might call his look "rentboy" but Yoji wasn't that big a hypocrite.

He reminded Schuldig that the people she'd mutilated had been trying to rape her at the time. Aloud, he said, "You look great, Elena."

"I have a whole wardrobe of clothes that fit now!" she replied. "Fenris got some things too."

Fenris nodded shyly to Yoji. His hair had been cut and spiked, and he wore slightly more stylish clothes than usual, his T-shirt, cargo pants, and sneakers looking a little more hip than geek. The studded leather collar around his neck added a hint of attitude.

"Yeah, we all look beautiful," Schuldig said. "Now let's get this show on the road."


	102. "You're lucky it's me they set on you."

Standing near the bar, Mamoru watched his people. Ken and Yoji worked different ends of the dance floor, getting friendly with the patrons. Schuldig had offered to improve Ken's English, an offer Ken had immediately declined, although Mamoru suspected that he might let Elena do it later. Elena and Fenris danced together, obviously having a good time. With telepaths in your group, you never had to worry about being turned away at the door for your age. From the number of people Elena had turned down tonight, her Lark makeover had been very successful, and Mamoru had to say that she did look good. She also couldn't stop smiling, which increased the effect. To Mamoru's surprise, Crawford sat at the bar alone and watched Schuldig, who was dancing almost obscenely with a woman he'd picked up.

~ Crawford doesn't like to dance as much as he likes to watch. This isn't the first time they've done this, ~ Nagi told him.

Crawford wore a black suit and tie with a white shirt and somehow made it look like a parody, a performance costume. With complete focus he watched his lover dance with another person.

Aya looked as uncomfortable out on the dance floor as Mamoru would have expected, with his moves seeming to be mostly determined by how close other people were getting to him. It looked as if he expected an attack at any moment. Farfarello seemed to be annoyed with that and tried to move Aya around with his body. Mamoru felt Nagi's hand close around his arm and realized only then that he'd started to move forward.

"I'm not going to get involved," he shouted to Nagi.

"Good."

Farfarello wore a sleeveless top that showed off the bandage circling his injured arm. He and Aya wore black punctuated by the occasional silver gleam of a buckle.

He was trying to forcibly direct Aya's dance movements with his crotch.

Nagi put his other hand over Mamoru's eyes. "I won't do anything," Mamoru insisted, pushing his anger at Berserker down. He grabbed Nagi's wrist and gently pulled the hand down and away, then turned to face him.

Looking as close to relaxed as he ever did, Nagi idly swayed to the music as he sipped his water through a straw. The other members of the teams were there to work, but Mamoru had made it clear that Nagi was here to enjoy his band, which would be coming on in about 30 minutes. Aside from the black eyeliner and nail polish, Nagi had dressed as he usually did, which fit in fine at this club. The lights glinted off the silver rings hanging off his black jacket. Mamoru had dressed to match him again, though not so much so that they looked like twins.

"I'm sorry," Mamoru said. Standing right next to his lover, he'd been watching another man. It shouldn't be tolerated.

Nagi smiled. "You're an idiot."

"I'm sorry. Doesn't mean I'll let you insult me."

"Come here."

Instead, Mamoru pulled Nagi close and put an arm around his waist. In this crowd, in a foreign country where almost no one knew who he was, Takatori Mamoru could get away with this kind of behavior in public as long as Nagi went along. Nagi did, leaning into him a bit.

Weiß and Schwarz had arrived in waves: Aya and Farfarello, Mamoru and Nagi, Crawford and Schuldig, then finally Yoji, Ken, Elena, and Fenris. No one should realize that they were all together. Unless someone knew who they were.

"We should go to the stage," Nagi said. "I want a good place."

"Sure." Mamoru liked this. This was as close to a normal couple life as they would get.

******************************************************

"Michael, Ted, and Alek are nearby watching us," Aya said, which distracted Farfarello from his annoyance that Aya no longer let himself go in public. "They're approaching."

"Let them come."

"What happened to you?" Michael asked. "Performance injury?"

"This?" Farfarello answered as he lifted his arm while still dancing with his kitten. "It happened on the street."

Alek looked too interested. While skimming his thoughts, Farfarello read his guilt. _He'd_ betrayed their home's location to Zhulin. Michael and Ted had no idea, but they associated with such a person, so they should pay as well. Farfarello's hand itched for one of the knives he'd secreted on his person. He never went out without at least one. Alas, this was far too public a place to mete out justice in. From his puisín's posture, Aya had figured out their betrayer as well.

People had begun to stand close to the stage in anticipation of the band starting. While Farfarello didn't care about the performance, he and his kitten had a role to play, so he said, "We're going to our places now."

"Hey, us too."

Their enemies would be close, then. Once they settled into their chosen places, Farfarello made sure to stand between them and Aya. Aya looked annoyed, but he could live with it. No one could be allowed to threaten his kitten. It made his skin twitch to have an enemy so close, but at least this way Alek couldn't plot against them out of his sight. Persia and the boy stood closer to the middle, about five people away from Aya.

******************************************************

Mamoru smiled at the excitement in Nagi's face as the sound team left the stage and the band members took their positions. "Omi, keep an eye on me. I'm going to relax, and I don't know how vigilant I'll be able to be."

When the music started Nagi sagged a little, which made Mamoru stand behind him and hold him up. Nagi smiled back at him, then went back to swaying and sometimes slightly headbanging to the music. To Mamoru's surprise and concern, Nagi's heartbeat and breathing accelerated.

~ No, look. ~ Nagi reached into his mind and let him feel what he felt. The music felt like force and potential, a physical thing, sound and feeling. The band and the crowd all made connecting strings of movement and force, like a net, and he and Nagi were immersed in it. Mamoru could see it and feel it against his skin. How could Nagi do anything when everything looked like this, so distracting and interesting?

~ I concentrate for a more normal view, but this world is getting stronger and more visible the older and more powerful I get. Fortunately, the very nature of my hacking forces me to focus. ~

Drowning in sound and force, his arms around him, Mamoru moved wildly with him, lost in his exhilaration. Nagi's hair brushing against his neck left the impression of moving hair and movement and the possibility of more movement to come against his skin. Everything felt _more_. It almost felt like sex. Mamoru couldn't hear himself think. He could barely think. Nagi's thoughts didn't come across as words either. The crowd seemed like one massive organism, and they were part of it.

It also amused him that whenever the moshers flew toward them they bounced off a wall of telekinetic force and back into each other. He noticed that soon enough few moshers approached them.

******************************************************

Grinning as he watched Nagi grind and gyrate, Schuldig wanted to congratulate Farf on his gift-giving prowess. Anything that aroused him even more made him happy. He kept a passive telepathic eye out on the crowd as he danced so closely with his partner that he molested her just by moving. His hands cupping her ass helped. Knowing that Brad watched them, just about feeling it, made her as hot as it did Schuldig. He'd chosen her for that and her flame-red hair. Seeing Aya again had reminded Schuldig of how much he wanted a piece of him.

As her hands slid possessively over him, lights glinted off the lenses of Brad's glasses as he watched them. He didn't move at all, just sat and surveyed his territory. Wait, he had his hand resting over his crotch, and his lips curved up slightly. Yes. Feeling expansive, Schuldig gave her an image of Brad fucking him as he fucked her, letting her think it was one of her own dirty fantasies, and she groaned gratifyingly. Looking at Yoji, he directed her to look that way too, then gave her the memory of Yoji going down on Mie while hazing Mie herself out a bit, making her any woman. Let her see Yoji's hands on her open thighs, his blond head between her legs, his talented tongue lapping at and stroking her most private parts.... Damn, he wanted to come.

She was hot and ripe for fucking, and Schuldig wanted to oblige her, but Brad reminded, ~ We're _working_, Mastermind. ~ Damn.

******************************************************

Linked into Nagi, Mamoru had a sudden awareness of something wrong, of some part out of place, discordant. It felt like petting a cat against the grain of its fur. Wrong. Someone moved out of rhythm.

Someone was heading in Aya and Farfarello's direction.

Nagi noticed it too, and Mamoru felt him reach over with telepathy, then heard, ~ He has a hypodermic needle. His mind is shielded a bit, but I can read that his target is Aya. ~

Obviously, this couldn't be allowed to happen. He told Nagi to set Elena and Fenris on him and tell them they could break him. They were allowed to be obvious in their power. Let Zhulin's telepath know that someone was in town. Whatever they left could be delivered to the Williamsburg area to be found.

Nagi liked that idea very much and contacted them. Elena and Fenris started to move discordantly out of rhythm too, heading in the man's direction. Suddenly the man jerked and started to follow them. Once this would have unsettled Mamoru, but not now. Not when this man had threatened Aya.

Besides, all of this was amazing.

******************************************************

Their target struggled, and some outside telepath tried to intervene, but nothing broke Elena's hold on him. He followed, even though he jerked once in a while. Once they found a semi-secluded place nearby, she stopped him.

"Fenris, hold him against the wall, but not too closely. I need enough air next to him to keep a fire going," she said in English, and he complied. The good thing about giving him that shot of English was that they could say these things in front of the target and have him understand.

From the look on the man's face, he knew that pyrokinesis could be done. Zhulin had definitely gone talent hunting. Elena let the fire dance across her palm. His sudden terror made it easier to get into his head. She tried to get some decent information, but the target knew very little on the surface and not much more under the shields Elena cracked open. He _was_ Zhulin's, though. As soon as she finished, she telepathically hid herself and checked Fenris' camouflage as well. Let the telepath wonder and fret.

They would have to scurry back inside once they finished this, since they hadn't had time to grab their coats. Fenris might not notice the cold--one of his inborn deficiencies like his being half-deaf in one ear--but she did, especially since her outfit left her shoulders and back bare. Once she finished her fire, she would be left even colder.

"You're lucky it's me they set on you," she said. "I'll just kill you. A few of the others would fuck you up very badly before you died."

******************************************************

Lost in his power, relaxed, yet still efficient, Nagi smiled. In the midst of music he enjoyed and surrounded by his teammates and his lover working toward vengeance, he felt very content. It was like a working vacation. His smile only widened as Omi kissed him.

******************************************************

An hour later Nagi's band finished their set, and Aya and Farfarello left the club and the three locals behind. The Americans would watch over them as they walked back to their home. Mamoru told Nagi to let everyone know that they could go their separate ways. Just about orgasmic, Nagi himself wanted to stay, so Mamoru would oblige him. Being out in public with his lover like this gave him such a thrill anyway. Weiß would take the car with its grisly cargo to Brooklyn before going back to the hotel. Crawford and Schuldig could do whatever they wanted to do, as long as it didn't impact negatively on Kritiker.

******************************************************

Schuldig found them a fairly secluded spot outside and went right to the main event, since he and Red had been making out for hours in the club. They were lost in a thick miasma of lust. He complimented her on her thigh-highs with garters, since it made his life so much easier. She wasn't a real redhead, which was just _such_ a huge shock. Nobody had hair that color naturally except Aya. As Brad watched him from behind, Schuldig fucked her against the wall and eavesdropped on her thoughts shamelessly, using her self-knowledge to give her the ride of her life.

She couldn't believe how good he was, how his fingers seem to go to the best places, how he fucked her at the perfect pace, and she shivered under the intense stare of the older gentleman. Needed to get off so badly.... The heavy scent of sex mingled with the smells of garbage and burnt meat. It gave her a guilty shudder when she heard a police car, siren blaring, speed by not so far away. She felt so dirty here out in public with her dress hiked up above her waist and a stranger between her legs.

Schuldig came and made her come too just by his telepathic bleed-off, then gave her another orgasm with his fingers. Finally, as she leaned against him gasping, he telepathically suggested to her that she blow Brad. She liked the idea.

"Hey, Brad, she wants to give you a blowjob."

Ah, so sweet to surprise Brad. It didn't happen often enough. And Schuldig watched _him_ as the girl's red head bobbed and he struggled not to grab her by the hair. Brad must always maintain control. Or at least try to. Fuck, it was hot to watch him struggle.

At the end, satisfied, Schuldig didn't even fuck her head over. Maybe he was getting mellow in his old age.

******************************************************

"Drop me off at the hotel," Ken said. Fenris put a hand on Ken's shoulder, which made him smile a little.

"Sure, Ken," Yoji answered, since they hardly needed four people to drop off a corpse. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

Yoji would have to keep a watch on Ken. It was a Weiß tradition to suffer silently without letting any of the others know.

"Yoji," Elena said, "you don't have to go either. I can drive."

"I'll worry less going. Not that I think you can't do it on your own. It's just that, being team leader, I'd feel better being there." Ah, responsibility.

They dropped Ken off and headed to Williamsburg, hitting traffic at the bridge. Glancing in the rearview mirror, Yoji saw that Fenris looked happily down at his hand. "What are you doing, Fenris?" Yoji asked.

"The man at the door stamped my hand so people would know I should be there. Nobody did that before." His Japanese had improved dramatically since Christmas Day. Yoji suspected that Elena had helped him telepathically and wondered if Ken would take her up on her offer to help his English after refusing Schuldig's.

Smiling faintly, Elena seemed to be lost in thought. She wore a long black coat that had been designed to cinch in at the waist and bell out a bit below that, feminine without being fussy or girly. It didn't surprise him that Tess would suggest it or, once he thought about it, that Elena would go for such a style. "Tailored" existed not that far away from "butch."

Elena had told him what neighborhood to do the stop and drop in. He parked the car, then Fenris used his telekinesis to take the plastic-wrapped bundle out of the trunk while Elena used her telepathy to haze the minds of anyone who might approach them or look out the windows.

"They'll know who this guy is?" Yoji asked.

"I didn't touch his face," Elena answered, which gave Yoji the shudders but not as much as it once would have.

Fenris telekinetically carried the bundle, even though it _looked_ like he held it in his arms from how he'd positioned it. Yoji could actually feel it a little. "I have a little telekinesis," he said.

They beamed at him. "That's cool!" Fenris said.

"Just a little. I can't do much. I just found out yesterday. Well, day before yesterday now."

Then Fenris' face fell a bit. "Poor Ken. We all have powers except for him. I'll have to be extra nice to him."

Yoji hadn't thought of that. Kind of Fenris to do it, though. "You're a good kid."

Fenris smiled.

Finally Elena told them to put the package down and they returned to the car. Before getting in, Yoji tapped his fingers on the roof of the car. It was a cold night but also crisp and beautiful, and his body still thrummed from the club. He didn't feel tired at all. As usual when he partied but didn't drink, he felt ravenous. "Are you guys up for food? I'm starving."

"Yeah!" Fenris said, while Elena answered, "I could eat."

"Let's go eat. Then maybe we can drive for a while. I'm so awake."

"There's a Ukrainian place Aya and Farfarello like in their neighborhood that's open 24 hours," Elena said. "You'll love it, I swear."

Setting aside the idea of Aya and Farfarello going out to eat foreign food like any romantic couple, Yoji said, "We can stop back at the hotel to see if Ken's still up."

"He is," Elena and Fenris said. Another use for telepathy.

If they could get Ken to come with them, it would be a whole family outing.

Later, Ken's eyes lit up a little at the invitation, then he went back into his room to change out of pajamas to go with them. When he came back into the hall, he put his arm around Fenris' neck and tried to ruffle his hair, which Fenris apparently enjoyed, though the ruffling didn't go as easily as usual due to the gel that currently spiked it. Elena told Ken that he might like the fried pierogis, given his love of fried dumplings.

Life had been pretty good lately. It kept surprising Yoji.

******************************************************

Still feeling the echoes of their earlier link, lost in the awareness of motion as well as the motion and friction themselves, Mamoru moaned into the pillow and murmured, "Harder," as Nagi fucked him. Telekinesis shivered along his sensitized skin and jerked his cock. While he hadn't had many lovers, all of the others had treated him as someone young and fragile, someone to be treated very gently and wrapped up and muffled for his own protection. But Nagi knew that he could take anything.

Nagi's next thrust was _perfect_, and Mamoru hit orgasm shouting and shuddering. "Oh," Nagi gasped as he came.

Mamoru drifted in a blissful haze of nothing for a while, completely unable to think or worry about his responsibilities. Once his brain started to return, he kissed Nagi's palm.

"Omi," Nagi said softly, his voice sounding husky, "if you ever wanted to... if you ever wanted to fuck me, I'd let you."

Some people might get hung up on being "let" to do something, but Mamoru understood the meaning of the offer too well. Nagi didn't trust anyone and had faced some past abuse that had involved rape. In his relationship with Mamoru, he was always top, at least physically, during sex, which Mamoru liked. But now the thought of fucking Nagi, of doing something that had been forbidden to him previously, of being so _trusted_, turned Mamoru on beyond words.

Unfortunately, their recent sex had left him in a state not unlike pudding. "Thank you," Mamoru said. "But I won't do it now. I can't move right now."

Nagi looked a little apprehensive, but he smiled, and that reaction made Mamoru even more determined to show him how good it could feel. Nagi _trusted_ him.


	103. "How could anything be wrong when I kick ass so well?"

Feeling something wrong, Farfarello rose out of the deep, dark waters of sleep. Someone was knocking at his mind, trying to break in. Fully awake now, he grabbed that someone and threw it and himself out of his body. He could taste its surprise. It could expect to be more surprised, since he didn't fight like your standard telepath.

On the cloudy plane he faced a large bird made out of fire and golden metal. Somebody had been watching too much _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ perhaps, since it vaguely resembled the phoenix form of the Winged Dragon of Ra. He'd have to tell Aya that watching that show had some uses after all.

This telepath thought to attack him in the form of a god? Now even more angry, Farfarello tightened his grip on his lightsaber in one hand and sword in the other. ~ You're rude. What do you want? ~ he demanded of the other telepath.

~ You don't react or fight like anyone I've ever met! ~ it responded in a voice that hissed like fire.

~ While you feel like Rosenkreuz. ~ So the shape couldn't have come from a recent anime.

The phoenix roared. ~ So you know Rosenkreuz. ~

He'd just revealed more than he'd wanted to, hadn't he? He growled.

Smelling cinnamon suddenly, he watched as a haze of colors started to limn the lines of his body and weapons. He could _feel_ it. What the fuck--? What kind of attack was this?

~ I wouldn't leave you to face Zhulin's bitch alone, ~ the colors whispered. ~ I've been waiting for her to try this. We'll take her apart and pick over the pieces to see what we can find out. ~

Farfarello grinned. He hadn't seen any proper mayhem for too long a time.

The phoenix looked upset and mystified. Probably at him refusing to behave like the usual telepath again. He wondered if she could tell that she faced two telepaths now. Funny, but since Schuldig had called her "her," Farfarello could tell her gender on his own. Her avatar was big, much bigger than his, but he'd fought and trained with Friendly and her pet boy, two telepaths at once. And Friendly's dragon shape was bigger than this phoenix thing.

~ So it was Friendly you got your training from, ~ Schuldig whispered.

Fucking busybody.

The telepath tried to blast him with flame, and he dodged. To his eternal annoyance, his bouts with Friendly, whose avatar was also made of fire, had always been more a matter of survival than victory for him. Her avatar form could hurt him badly every time he approached to try to strike with his weapons, forcing him to settle for glancing blows with his lightsaber.

He needed something long-range that would allow him to score from a distance, but such weapons didn't come naturally to him. The last time he'd used a gun, he'd missed his target completely. He had more success throwing knives, and a large target like this telepath would be easier to hit, but by nature he still preferred to come up close to his enemy, and in the astral plane--where will and proclivities determined success--that preference hobbled him.

Schuldig whispered, ~ Throw your sword. I can ride it and guide it. ~

But it would melt.

~ Still too literal-minded. I can help matters. You'll see. ~

~ Are you insane? ~ the phoenix roared.

~ Yeah, ~ Farfarello answered, then threw his sword at her, taking her by surprise. It flew point-first like a guided missile, its hilt trailing colors. When it hit the phoenix, Farfarello screamed. It _burned_, all through him. Too late, he remembered a conversation with Friendly in which she'd told him that in the astral plain his weapons were just as much a part of himself as his body. At least Schuldig screamed in pain as well before his wave of colors slid into the wound the sword had created, using the sword as a needle to pierce his enemy and thread him through her. The phoenix's roar turned into shrieks as the colors started to diffuse throughout her body and eat her alive from the inside, snuffing the flames, making her vanish bit by bit.

Even through his pain, Farfarello grinned. He forgot sometimes that Schuldig could be such a good huntbrother.

Finally, only a rippling haze of blue, purple, and silver remained. ~ Mmmm. That was finger-licking good, Farf. She may not have been as bad-ass she thought she was, but she was _tasty_. I have all kinds of information for our fearless leader now. ~

Only the hilt of his sword hadn't been melted. To his surprise, when he put his hand out, it jumped into it. Then again, it was part of him. ~ Asshole. I hurt. ~

~ Aw. ~

The colors swarmed him, caressing. It felt... weird. Maybe good. Farfarello couldn't tell. But it annoyed him to be toyed with so. ~ Back off. ~

~ You don't wanna-- ~

~ No. ~

~ Spoilsport. See ya! ~ The colors evaporated, fizzing away with a ticklish feeling.

Farfarello still felt odd when he returned to his flesh body, vacillating between that weird goodness and the raw burn. It made him restless and unsettled, and he didn't want to be alone like this. At the edge of the bed, Aya slept deeply, so deeply that Farfarello couldn't justify waking him. But he dreamed.... Farfarello closed his eyes and jumped in.

******************************************************

Aya snarled in frustration as his keycard refused to work in this door too. He'd tried ten doors in this tacky hotel, yet none seemed to belong to his room.

"Puisín?"

It sounded like Farfarello but didn't look like him. Not quite. The shape of his face might be right, but he had two eyes and no scars. His hair was red, but a light shade that Aya himself hadn't had in years, and his eyes were purple. It smacked of narcissism. He looked young and pretty and hurt, and he was dressed for a fight in singed black leather. Even his barbwire necklace had a slight patina of char.

Was this a dream?

"What happened?" Aya asked, still cautious.

"Telepathic war against our enemy. I'm still a novice, and Schuldig is too closemouthed about the important things."

It unsettled Aya to watch Farfarello look at him with two eyes. He felt weirdly exposed.

Farfarello took the keycard and swiped it, getting a green light. He opened the door and staggered in. "I don't feel well."

Concerned, Aya brought him to the bed. "How badly are you hurt? You just started to get over--"

"Nothing permanent. I'll be fine." Farfarello pulled him down to sit on the bed, then leaned on his shoulder. "I'm good now. This feels nice."

"You can feel this?"

"Hmm." This quasi-Farfarello's dreaming smile looked sweeter and more innocent when it didn't have facial scars pulling near it.

"What should I do?"

"Just what you're doing now."

If so little could make Farfarello happy, Aya could let himself be used as a prop. His dream had improved.

******************************************************

Crawford sighed as Schuldig's restless movement woke him. "What is wrong with you?" He pondered turning the light on and decided against it, since then he'd have to get his glasses to really make it worth it.

"Wrong? Nothing. How could anything be wrong when I kick ass so well?" Schuldig's voice and speed of delivery sounded like Farfarello's while on a sugar high. "Zhulin's telepath is pining for the fjords. She is an ex-telepath. I ate her with fava beans and a nice Chianti."

"She attacked Farfarello?"

"Just like you figured. With his unusual training and skills and my expertise, we destroyed her. It didn't even take much time. If the shock didn't actually kill her, she's staring blankly into space brain-dead somewhere. She was Zhulin's lover. We definitely declared war on him tonight. I milked her for all kinds of information."

"Then you should set it down somewhere."

Schuldig's hair whipped against him. "You want me to get out of bed and, what, write it down? Type it into your laptop?"

Crawford smiled. "The laptop is a good idea."

"You are such an asshole. I'm comfy. I'm horny."

As much as Schuldig always wanted sex at these times, indulging him could be dangerous. Only Crawford's precognition had saved him from being hurt by Schuldig's enthusiasm.

"You have a duty. You might forget things by tomorrow morning."

That had happened before when Schuldig had drained a telepath. It was too much for even him to retain for long. And sometimes he crashed suddenly as the high of power and sadism wore off, which made him useless and troubling to be around.

Schuldig pulled the covers down almost violently, the better to expose Crawford to the cool air. After Crawford pulled the blankets back up, he could hear the shush of silk as Schuldig pulled a robe on, then the click and whir of the laptop turning on. It always amazed him how well his telepath saw in the darkness, to the point where he wondered if nightvision was another side gift like the hyperspeed. Now he could see Schuldig's dark shape at the center of the light coming off the screen.

He wondered what language his telepath would write the report in. Probably English. They'd been speaking English while in private since coming to New York.

Crawford felt... content. It worried him. He'd been driven by dissatisfaction and distant goals all of his life. Keeping his plans secret from Eszett had been a perpetual challenge, and he'd always been pushing his team to be ever better. Now he had no more overlords to stealthily disobey, his team members improved themselves on their own, and he couldn't help feeling satisfied with his personal life.

Abruptly he realized that the clacking of keys had stopped. Schuldig said, "If life isn't challenging enough for you anymore, I could defy you more often."

"That won't be necessary. You do it enough as is."

"It wouldn't be any trouble for me."

"I'm sure, but no."

Not so long ago, Schuldig wouldn't have been able to read much out of his mind without obviously breaking in. This time, Crawford hadn't felt it at all.

"Scared of me?" Schuldig asked as he got out of his chair and approached the bed. "Scared of _us_, together?"

"Concerned that we'll become complacent. Concerned that we already have." Crawford had to smile at himself. "I know that I'm splitting hairs."

"So we keep in mind that we have to avoid getting too satisfied with ourselves. Still, part of achieving success is fucking enjoying it. What do you want, Brad, really? You never told me. That whole anarchy thing is good for a laugh but anyone who knows you knows better. I'm amazed that Nagi kept a straight face when he told the last geezer about it. 'With our powers, we can survive under any conditions.' But why should we have to face adversity we caused ourselves? It's stupid. No wonder the old bastard was scared. We sounded like lunatics."

"You're right. True anarchy never lasts long. A power vacuum is soon filled with contenders."

"Duh. So?"

Why not tell Schuldig some of his thoughts? "I don't want to be king. Kings attract criticism, envy, death threats. They rise and fall in favor. Kingmakers have more power and control. When a king falls--"

"--or gets dragged down...."

"--a wise and unblemished kingmaker can bring the next contender up. I want power and control. Security for us. It's what I've always wanted. I've simply refined my thoughts on how to achieve it over time."

"Being the power behind the throne sounds smart to me, and making inroads into Kritiker sounds like a smart way of working toward it. What's the problem then? Feeling too happy? Too mellow? Do you miss the perpetual adrenaline pulse of worry that came from trying to stop Eszett from figuring out what we were really up to?"

Could that be it? He'd kept Schwarz too busy after Eszett's fall for any of them to reflect on the change in their circumstances. He'd also kept himself too busy. Now, given leisure time to reflect, had it finally hit him? When you live in the midst of a storm all your life, peace and quiet could seem daunting....

"Do you regret me?" Schuldig asked, and while the tone was light and mocking, Crawford could hear vulnerability under it. While Schuldig might have an easier time reading some of Crawford's surface thoughts now, Crawford had gained an ability to better read Schuldig's voice, expressions, and body language. Schuldig's hard shell might be thick, but he wasn't hard all the way down to the core.

"I don't regret you." Personally and professionally, they fit and worked together so much better now that Schuldig defied Crawford only on the things that mattered most to him instead of almost everything. Now, when Schuldig balked on something Crawford knew that he had to pay closer attention to the circumstances. It meant more.

It would have shocked the hell out of Eszett to know that Schuldig's greatest contribution to Schwarz might not have been his telepathy after all.

"Of course you don't." The light from the monitor illuminated just the left edge of Schuldig's smirk.

"Come here."

"Does that mean I don't have to type out in the cold anymore?"

"Did you finish the report?"

"I really should have kept my mouth shut."

Crawford felt a surge of warmth that he ruthlessly throttled down. "I've said that before."

"Sometimes you prefer me with my mouth open."

"Were you almost done?"

"Almost. Hell, I'll just finish the damned thing. I don't want you getting snippy and passive-aggressive with me."

"I don't get snippy and passive-aggressive."

"Would you accept 'regal and expectant,' o concerned one?"

"I would."

Several minutes later, Schuldig turned off the computer, returning the room to darkness, and returned to bed, snuggling in against Crawford. Schuldig put out a lot of heat, probably due to his faster metabolism, which made him an excellent bed partner in the winter but a problem in the summer. Right now Crawford welcomed the heat and accepted the comfort and pleasant drowsiness it brought.

"Do we go after Zhulin tomorrow?" Schuldig asked, sounding eager.

"Perhaps. I'll consult with Persia. It will make him feel important."

When Schuldig chuckled, Crawford could feel it. "Has to be soon. Farf's getting itchy, and you know what that leads to." His voice changed slightly, shading into not-Schuldig.

His team had quirks, and the ones that did no harm he accepted. It added more challenge to his life. He'd long ago come to tolerate his lover picking up on different people, including dangerous ones like Berserker, at times. It came with dealing with telepaths. "I know. I'm keeping it in mind." Crawford stroked Schuldig's hair, enjoying the feel of it as ever. "Have I told you recently that you're a valuable member of the team?"

"Love you too, Brad."

******************************************************

Sunrise had painted the skyscrapers in vibrant colors as they'd driven over the bridge back into Manhattan, and the air seemed clean and golden. Yoji tried to avoid being awake at this time of day as much as possible, but it had its beauties. Ken half-dozed sitting up in the backseat with Fenris curled up asleep beside him with his head resting on his thigh. Elena slept with her head resting against the window. At least Yoji imagined she slept, since all he could see from the driver's seat was the back and side of her head. Even in the rush hour traffic, he felt peaceful.

Once he parked the car, Elena roused, and she and Ken helped wake Fenris up. As Weiß dragged itself into the hotel, they all looked tired but happy, so the meal and drive had been a good idea. Yoji figured that he was getting the hang of the other aspects of this leadership thing.


	104. "I want him scared before he dies."

Having spent the night in Aya's dreams with his puisín, Farfarello awoke happy, even despite the lingering pain of his telepathic wounds. At some point the hotel had ended and turned into a train trip. They'd continued to sit together, now in seats. It had been interesting.

He could feel Aya that way. That had been wonderful. Could this be a solution to his problems?

Aya groggily opened his eyes and murmured, "Good morning." So cute.

Excited, Farfarello asked, "Did you enjoy the dreams?"

"Dreams?" Aya looked genuinely confused. That didn't bode well, since his kitten never teased that way.

"I spent time with you. We were in a hotel together and then on a train."

"I think I vaguely remember a hotel. Being with someone. You were actually in my dreams?"

"Yeah." Something that had been meaningful for Farfarello was a dim memory to Aya. Dreams could be like that for the people dreaming them.

Farfarello would not feel disappointed and discouraged. He would not feel hurt. He refused to. God pulled this kind of shit all the time.

"I could try harder to remember," his puisín said.

"No. If they're not there, they're not there. Maybe we can move on Zhulin today."

That put a spark of excitement into Aya's purple eyes. "Yes." Then he looked thoughtful and worried. "But are you all right?" He probably didn't remember Farfarello telling him about the telepathic battle either.

"I'm fine." Not hurt at all.

******************************************************

"Who's knocking at the door?" Crawford asked, then foresaw it. "Never mind."

"Sometimes you take the fun out of life," Schuldig answered as he brushed his hair.

Crawford opened the door to let Persia and Nagi in. If he'd felt inclined to comment, Schuldig would no doubt say that they looked freshly-fucked, because they did. "Good morning," Persia said.

"You don't need to spend any more time on pleasantries if you don't want to," Crawford answered.

"Good. Nagi said that Schuldig interrogated and killed Zhulin's telepath last night."

That could be a problem with allowing Nagi to sleep with the head of the organization they sometimes accepted jobs from. The air of mild defiance Nagi held as Crawford looked at him would be another. Crawford's look promised Nagi a discussion on it later, while Nagi's answering unimpressed expression could have been taken from Schuldig's repertoire.

"I sucked her brain," Schuldig said. "She won't threaten anyone ever again."

"If we want to, we could move today," Crawford continued.

"That's good. I'd like to wrap this up. I have something I want to run past you first."

"Yes?"

"I want Schwarz and Draco to pay him a visit, since our research suggests that if we take him and his highest men out, the organization will fall to squabbling for power. I don't want Abyssinian as a part of this attack."

Crawford could understand the logic in sending only the talented against a man who wanted to own some, and it amused him that Persia had quietly come to him first instead of suggesting this in front of all of Schwarz and Weiß. It also amused him to see Persia using codenames and other distancing tricks. "He won't like to be protected and left out, and Berserker won't appreciate the absence of his partner. Abyssinian was the one specifically attacked."

"Exactly. I want Zhulin confused as to Abyssinian's purpose and final fate."

"You think Zhulin will survive this encounter?" Crawford himself hadn't seen anything either way.

"I want to be covered. If members of his organization survive, I don't want them to know our full power." Persia's expression turned even harder. "I want him scared before he dies. Draco's with you because her pyrokinesis is flashy."

"Just Draco? Where's Fenris in this?" Schuldig asked. Good catch. Also, he didn't seem bothered by Friendly's inclusion in this plan, which surprised Crawford.

"This is also a way for me to test Berserker and Fenris," Persia answered. "It's good for them that they have partners they trust and work well with, but field conditions split partners all the time."

Crawford had been wondering the same about Berserker's stability and seeming triumph over his compulsions. Over the short term he might be fine, but how much of his sanity now rested in Aya's presence and would suffer during a long absence? This wouldn't be long enough to become a concern, but Crawford kept the idea in mind. "Berserker may see this as being retaliatory on your part."

"If so, we'll remind him that Friendly has also been deprived of her partner. That might help."

"It may. A little. Aside from Draco, Weiß won't be part of the assault?"

"No. Zhulin hasn't heard of them," Persia's expression turned wry, "and let's keep it that way if we can. With her talents, Draco could pass as a member of Schwarz to someone who wasn't intimately familiar with you."

"Balinese isn't getting a private head's up?" Balinese led Weiß, after all.

"Balinese and Weiß will follow my orders, while Schwarz is freelance. I came to you to make sure there was as little friction as possible. Given the situation with Berserker, I thought it best."

Crawford didn't have to be a telepath to feel Schuldig's amusement. "Thank you."

"I've called everyone in. Weiß is in the hotel, while Abyssinian and Berserker should arrive soon. The meeting will be in my room. You said that Schuldig had information."

"He typed it into my computer. I'll bring up the file for you."

This should be an interesting meeting.

******************************************************

Next to Brad, Schuldig leaned against the wall and surveyed the room, noting where everybody was. Standing well within Aya's personal space, Farfarello didn't seem to be feeling any lingering effects of last night's telepathic excursion. At least not to the eye. They were near Omi. Kenken stayed far away from any member of Schwarz. Friendly and Fenris stood neutral between Yoji and Kenken, while Yoji sat on the bed, which put him close to Omi and Nagi. They were all dressed for war.

"The assault on Zhulin will be made today," Omi said.

"At last," Farfarello murmured. He wore the jacket Aya had given him as an X-Mas present. Having seen Farf's avatar just last night, Schuldig kept getting another image of him as a redhead, almost like a flicker. He'd have to get more sleep tonight.

"Schwarz and Draco will go in to take him out."

"What about the rest of Weiß?" Yoji asked.

"You'll sit this one out, on reserve."

"Fine by me. We had a long night."

~ Lazy-ass, ~ Schuldig said to him, and Yoji lazily flipped him an obscene gesture in response.

"What about Fenris, sir?" Friendly asked. Wearing clothing that actually fit her made her look thinner, more attractive, more feminine. She had her hair in a braid again but wore a little makeup.

She'd helped train Farfarello. It boggled the mind but made Schuldig a little better disposed toward her. A trained Farfarello might resist him but could also defend himself against enemies.

"He's staying with me. I'd like to see how he might use his telepathy in this kind of situation, when he's not on the scene."

Thus Omi laid the groundwork by keeping Fenris out of it first. Smart. Farfarello wouldn't have as much to fight back with when Aya's turn came when it was already obvious that they weren't being singled out.

"He's done that before. In Germany," Friendly answered. Ha!

"I have reasons."

"All right, sir."

"When do we leave?" Aya asked.

"In a half hour," Omi answered. "But you're not part of it, Abyssinian. You'll be staying here."

Schuldig felt a sudden flare of interest come from Yoji. _That_ was interesting. What did the kitten have in mind? When he tried to read into it, Yoji flicked him an annoyed look and closed off his mind more. If Schuldig wanted to read more, he'd have to chisel, and that would be a declaration of war if he got caught. In a room full of telepaths who knew him, he might get caught. Had Friendly taught Yoji that? Schuldig felt a bit less well-disposed toward her now.

Aya had to hold Farfarello back. But he didn't sound much calmer when he said, "I thought we already went through this and resolved it."

"We want to keep him off-balance."

"Alek saw me out last night, so Zhulin probably knows that I'm alive and uninjured."

"Zhulin wants psionics. Let's show him that. Most of the fighting will probably be done with telekinesis and pyrokinesis, which means that you wouldn't be able to do much either."

Beautiful. Farfarello had to hear that subtle suggestion that Aya would get hurt in this battle if he went in, which would prod his strong protective streak. Sure enough, Farfarello looked more concerned now.

"I refuse to stay," Aya said.

"I agree with Persia's reasoning," Brad said, and Aya shot him a betrayed look. Schuldig wanted to snort in amusement but controlled himself.

"This is such shit," Farfarello growled. "Of all of us, Aya has the most reason to go in to hurt him."

"That's another good reason to keep him here. This isn't about personal vengeance," Omi said. "The vengeance just makes it sweeter. I don't have to worry about you slipping out without orders, do I, Aya?"

Aya stiffened even more. If he stiffened more than this, he might shatter. "No. I'll follow orders."

"Good. Abyssinian, I have the utmost respect for your abilities, but not every job requires every team member. You know that."

"Yes." Aya sounded annoyed at being reminded of it.

"It would be good if you stayed around here, in easy distance if something comes up."

Brad's eyes narrowed, and Schuldig shared his suspicions. Did Omi have some lingering ideas of convincing Aya to come back to the Weiß fold? Keeping him here amidst the original members of the team could lead to those nostalgic conversations. Nagi looked a bit suspicious too. Good to know the kid didn't let his heart and dick do all the thinking for him now. They'd have to see if Omi pulled any tricks.

Not that Schwarz couldn't destroy Weiß and grab Aya right back. It was just that Aya might be upset seeing his old friends and team members getting ground into the dirt and snuffed, and an upset Aya could be more trouble than fun.

Farfarello didn't fight any more, just stewed. Rosenkreuz and Brad had knocked some discipline into him over the years.

"You have your assignments," Omi said.

"No 'hunters of the night, deny these dark beasts their tomorrows'?" Yoji asked.

"I always thought that was over the top."

"Besides," Schuldig said, "we're hunters and dark beasts all at once."

******************************************************

Borrowing Yoji's hotel room, Aya ran through his katana exercises, trying to let the katas calm him. With only the sound of his breathing in here with him, he could vaguely hear parts of a conversation taking place outside the door.

"...the only one... no powers now?" Ken was asking.

"You're cute. That's your...." Yoji answered.

"Funny. But... Aya... can't I...."

"We don't... to gang up on him, crowd... you know...."

Aya sighed. They were tiptoeing around him, just like in the old days. Aya had liked that then. Now it just made him feel sad.

He hoped they weren't discussing Weiß business as well as him in the hall. That would be foolhardy.

Finally Yoji came in alone and sat on the bed to watch. They'd all done that before. While all the members of Weiß had been killers, each one had a very different weapon, with a distinctive style necessarily attached to it. It had always fascinated Aya to watch Yoji practice with his wire. Such an elegant and eerily precise weapon, it seemed incompatible with the loud and laidback front Yoji showed to the world. In return, Yoji had seemed to be as fascinated by Aya's sword exercises. Out of respect, they'd always stayed silent until the practices ended. With that in mind, Aya decided to wind it up earlier.

When Aya finished his exercises and sheathed his katana, Yoji said, "That knife marked you up badly."

Aya had taken his coat off, and his shirt revealed his arms. He didn't have his arm sheath on either, though he had still wore his two-gun rig. "It's the last time I duct-taped a knife to my arm. I learned my lesson."

"You seem happier lately."

"What are you fishing for?"

"We worry about you."

"I'm happy, so you worry?"

"You're happy but still not healthy all the way."

"Farfarello is a killer, but so am I. So are _we_."

"He's insane. We don't do it because we enjoy it."

"Don't we?"

Yoji's expression clouded, and he stood. "No. We don't kill for fun."

Aya tried to breathe through his anger. "Why are you pushing this? How dare you pass judgment on me? You fucked Schuldig and Crawford."

"Just as sex, a fling. You've given yourself completely to Farfarello and Schwarz. You seem to be happy, but you're living from moment to moment."

Aya's hand itched for the hilt of his katana, but he didn't let it move. "Maybe that's why I'm happy."

"That's not healthy."

"You son of a--"

When Yoji _hugged_ him, the urge to kill struck so strongly that it nearly blinded Aya, but he kept breathing it down. This close they could kill each other easily. "Aya, if you're happy I'll back off. I won't completely understand it, but I'll back off." Yoji's voice sounded so soft, so reasonable, so understanding. One of his hands rested at the small of Aya's back and the other at the base of his neck, light and gentle, light enough that Aya wouldn't feel trapped and could break away easily. "But I don't know if you really want it. I don't know if you know whether you really want it. Have you thought about it, really? If you decide that you're not really, that you were just swept up in the insanity and want to come back to us, we'll take you in with open arms. You don't have to feel like you have to stay with Schwarz."

Aya's chest hurt. How could Yoji leave him so angry and upset and touched all at once? "Schwarz would kill you," Aya said into Yoji's turtleneck, right against his collarbone. At some point Aya had put his arms around Yoji too. He didn't know when. Yoji smelled like cigarette smoke and familiar friend and a miserable time of Aya's life.

"We have Elena and Fenris now. We'd put up a better fight than you think. We miss you. You're one of ours. Talk to us."

"I love Farfarello." He did. He'd thought this through already.

Yoji flinched a little but said, "Okay. Is it enough?"

"It has been." But it didn't seem so simple and clear-cut now. Damn Yoji for this.

"Does he cut you?"

"Never on purpose." Aya wouldn't tell Yoji that sometimes Farfarello asked to be cut. It wasn't his business and he wouldn't understand. "Schwarz is family now."

"Let me and Ken take you to lunch. He's doing so much better now. I know you have a cell phone, so Omi could call us if he needs something."

Aya had worried about Ken in Germany, and he seemed to be better now, but it would be good to see for himself. There had been too many people and too much going on at the Christmas party for Aya to tell. Aya had missed Weiß.

But he knew what they intended to do. "I won't let you confuse me."

"I won't do anything evil. We just want to see you. How long has it been since you've been out with people without a member of Schwarz nearby?"

"Since Weiß captured me in Germany."

Yoji colored a little at that, as he _should_, but recovered with "I mean _out_, as in outside. With people who aren't part of Schwarz and no Schwarz people anywhere around."

It was an embarrassingly long time. He could hardly count his lone assassination assignments in New York City.

Aya said nothing, but Yoji sensed his answer and relaxed. "Let us take you out. We can make up for Germany. Besides, you invited us to your party, and it was a great party."

Left alone, he would worry about Farfarello and stew over being left behind. And he did want to see how well Ken supposedly was. Besides, his current record made it look as if he were still Schwarz's prisoner instead of a trusted member in his own right. "All right."

"Yeah! You disarm yourself a bit, and we'll go out. It'll be fun."

"It'll be a disaster," Aya murmured.

"Some things never change."

******************************************************

"Sir, I'm confused about what you want me to do," Fenris said as he stood at attention much the way Elena did when in Mamoru's presence. "You know I can do remotes." His Japanese had gotten much better.

"I have my reasons." Taking a good look at Fenris' face, Mamoru asked, "You don't trust that at all, do you?"

"If you grew up the way I did, would you?" It was an honest sounding question, with only a tinge of snark.

"No. I wouldn't." Mamoru still had some lingering bitterness that he'd had to find out for himself that he'd been rescued and recruited into Kritiker by his uncle--who'd turned out to actually be his father--so he understood how trust could be hard to find. "This is actually part of the reason why I separated you from Elena. You'd never talk like this to me in front of her."

Looking annoyed at himself, Fenris answered, "She believes that people in charge don't need to know everything about you. She's wiser than I am. But I'll tell you one more thing about me. Not everything I have was... born with me. They didn't like how I turned out so they kept trying to add things. It was very... painful. Nobody should have to go through that. So I made sure to keep silent and show no... improvement. None. I made myself seem more stupid instead. I think I saved other people."

"I understand what you're saying."

"Good. I feel this very strongly but don't like to have to say it over and over."

Mamoru had to ask, "Did the additions make any improvement?"

"I can pick up bigger things with my mind and see a bit better, but I have less sense of taste and can't hear good out of one ear. I also have numb spots on the back of my head where they fucked up putting things in." He looked fierce, and his voice sounded a little deeper. "Maybe they could have done it better. But they didn't care enough. Care, sir. Care hard." He'd been looking less like a child lately, less... doughy, and now he looked like a dangerous near-adult.

Mamoru didn't flinch, even knowing that Fenris could break most of his bones with a thought. "I do care. Very much. I want to make things better."

Nagi could reduce him to a paste in half a minute. It changed one's perspective on threats.

"You're telling the truth." Fenris lost that crackle of menace.

"Yeah. Where are they now?"

"Still in the car driving. Elena's worrying about Farfarello snapping and thinks Guilty is worrying the same."

On one level, Mamoru worried about the information but on another he worried about how Fenris had gotten the information. "You can read her that easily?"

"We spend enough time meshed that we can do that without anyone else noticing. She keeps a... channel open for me, and she knows you want me to listen now anyway. Guilty wouldn't find it, and he's very good."

That assuaged Mamoru's worry on one count, but.... "Keep watch."

Mamoru had wanted to test Farfarello and Farfarello's relationship with Aya while also giving Aya a chance to be with Weiß. Farfarello breaking down hadn't been anywhere in that plan, though it did answer one question.

"Kitten-Aya will be upset if Farfarello gets broken," Fenris said.

He sure would, and that was the last thing in the world Mamoru wanted.


	105. "We’re subtle. Everyone says so."

In the backseat, Nagi and Friendly bookended Farfarello and gave him uneasy glances, although Nagi was sometimes making origami animals while Friendly pretended to look out the window. Schuldig didn't blame them for their nervousness, not with Farfarello just about wrapped in a stormcloud of anger, hurt, and frustration. It hurt a telepath to be around him, like being rubbed with lightning and broken glass. The broken glass feeling didn't usually whip out to mug the people around him. His hands kept clenching and unclenching, and he stared at his wrists as if he'd like to rip them open.

~ This might not have been the best time for Omi's little test, ~ Schuldig told Brad. ~ Farf's upset about something else too, and he took some telepathic damage last night. We need to get some mayhem going soon. ~

~ Agreed. ~

"Don't talk about me as if I'm not here," Farfarello said.

Shit. But he didn't look upset enough to have actually heard the content, so maybe he'd just heard mindspeech happening.

"I want to go in seemingly alone so I can give my speech about retirement," Farf said. At the planning stages of this assignment, they'd worked out a story for him to give if Zhulin figured out his past. "I worked on that speech."

"I see no problem with that," Brad answered.

"Without Zhulin's pet telepath around to notice, I can fuzz out the rest of us from their minds so they won't see us as Farf does his performance," Schuldig said.

"That's what we'll do."

They parked and walked to the building at a slow, steady pace. Schuldig felt the pre-fight focus and anticipation build and crackle among them, and his hand nearly itched for his gun. Farfarello swung his arms out and back, as if loosening his shoulders. The yellow strips on his black coat set his eye off well. With the wind blowing, pulling at their hair and coats, they'd look pretty damned bad-ass to any onlookers, like something out of a John Woo flick... if anyone had been able to see anyone aside from Farfarello. Schuldig knew his business well.

Farfarello stopped in front of the men at the door and stared them down. "I'm Cain. Mr. Zhulin will see me." Only a fool would argue with him.

Case in point. "You can't--"

In a smooth, fast motion Farfarello grabbed him by the head and smashed it against the doorframe a few times, then dropped him. "Maybe you didn't hear me," he told the stunned other guard after he sucked the blood from his fingertips. "Mr. Zhulin will see me. We have business."

"I--" He flinched at the shadow of Farfarello moving at him. "I'll call ahead." He just about ripped his cell phone off his belt.

Farfarello stilled. "Do that."

"He says he's been expecting you." He opened the door quickly.

"I figured."

They all walked in with Farfarello, who smiled at the guards in the hall. They made motions for him to come over so they could pat him down, but he snarled at them until they gave up. The elevator wasn't big enough for Farfarello, the two guards, and all of Schwarz and Friendly, so Schuldig and Nagi went up with him while Brad and Friendly waited for it to come back to take the next ride up. Friendly could keep Brad telepathically cloaked while they waited. Schuldig watched the guards watch Farfarello nervously and carefully. Well they should. Nagi sure did, and Schuldig knew that Nagi was as ready to use his telekinesis on Farf as on their opponents if it proved necessary.

As soon as the door opened, Farfarello pushed the guards out ahead of him and walked out, while Schuldig and Nagi followed a short distance behind.

"Cain. You didn't make an appointment," a man Schuldig's purloined memories identified as Zhulin said. He had a whole goon squad around.

"You've been expecting me," Farfarello answered. "I would have been here sooner but I had to make sure of some things. One of your people tried to kill Ray. What did you think I would do?"

"If you were just an artist, maybe you'd go to the police. But you're not, are you?"

"I'm whatever I want to be."

"You're distinctive. It didn't take much work to link you to your real identity. Who sent you after me?"

Schuldig felt his spine loosen a little as he heard Brad and Friendly's elevator car arrive. All the players had arrived. For the first time in too long, Schwarz was working in its nearly complete form. They just needed Aya in the mix.

"No one sent me after you," Farfarello spat. "I retired, you asshole. I grew up, I changed, I fell in love, I wanted to have a fucking future. I retired to make a life with my love away from killing."

"Ray? If that's his real name. His paperwork all checked out, but when someone went to Tuxedo, NY to ask about him, no one had ever seen him, and with his looks someone would have noticed him. I know you did work in Japan, so I figure you met him there."

This guy had sent people upstate to fucking Tuxedo? How obsessed was he? Schuldig touched his mind and found a light shield, the remnants of what must have been much stronger and thicker when he'd had a professional to set one for him. For someone of Schuldig's skill, it barely presented an obstacle. Oh yeah, Zhulin wanted psionics badly. Kinky freak. If he hadn't attacked one of their own, Schuldig might have toyed with him recreationally.

"You tried to kill him!" Farfarello said.

"I wanted to bring your teammates in."

"You had no assurances that they would know or care!"

"But you protected him."

"What if we'd just been two artists?"

"But I knew you weren't."

"You brought Schwarz back on my ass!" Farfarello growled. "They'd let me go, but now they're back and I have a fucking debt to them again. I was retired, and you fucked that up for me."

_That_ was off-script and vehement enough to sound like truth. And parts of it almost were. Maybe Farfie had been living off Schwarz's leash alone with Aya for too long. Schuldig would try to unravel it later.

"We will never work for you," Farfarello said.

"The telepath your telepath killed was very happy to take direction," Zhulin answered, sounding angry now.

"What a shame that she was killed after you sent someone to kill my love. My heart bleeds that your lover died after attacking us. But your heart will bleed more."

~ Schuldig, now, ~ Brad said.

Schuldig let them become visible and enjoyed the goons' shocked reactions. Gun ready, Brad said, "She was happy to work for you, but she was a weak fool. We are not."

Zhulin shouted, "Attack--" but Farfarello jumped him and shredded him with his sword, working so quickly and viciously that Schuldig's eyes couldn't keep up with the carnage. There was a repetitive motion to the strokes that reminded Schuldig of Farfarello's bouts of obsessive-compulsive gestures, like the way he would sometimes bang his head against a wall over and over.

Nagi put up teke shields that reflected the goons' bullets back at them, protecting Farfarello. Friendly set people on fire, little fires, but effective at killing and confusing. Some of them screamed and dropped guns that had suddenly gone hot enough to brand their hands, burning flesh down to the bone. Crawford and Schuldig shot anyone who still came for them. Fuck yes. Schuldig felt their victims' lives pop and break like the little bubbles in bubble wrap, fun and loud and satisfying, with an edge of pain.

~ More people coming in the elevator, ~ Schuldig told Nagi, who snapped the elevator cables with a thought. The elevator car hit the ground floor with enough force to make the floor even up here shake a little. Schwarz would be taking the stairs out.

"We don't want too big a mess," Brad shouted.

"We're subtle. Everyone says so," Schuldig answered. "Hey, Popov, Brandi says hi!" He grabbed the man by the collar of his jacket and threw him to Farfarello, who filleted him.

Schuldig noticed cold spots in the room where the air also seemed to be a little thin, then realized that Friendly was snuffing out her fires, making sure they didn't spread out of control. Most pyrokinetics didn't think to do that. Hell, most wouldn't know they could. Did having Nagi as her occasional consultant make that much of a difference?

~ We have more goons coming down the stairs, ~ Schuldig said as he felt it.

"Good. I haven't had enough yet," Farfarello answered as he wiped blood out of his eye. He looked like a gory mess, but none of it seemed to be his.

Better to let him work his pique off. Brad obviously agreed, because he said, "Berserker, you have first shot."

Farfarello stationed himself at the side of the door to the stairway. A hail of gunfire blew through the door for about four minutes, then stopped, leaving only shreds hanging in the frame. As soon as people kicked it out and came through, Farfarello started chopping, shearing heads and limbs off and letting them fly. Friendly shot two fireballs up the stairwell. Nagi tripped the ones at the top to make them fall over the side or on top of the men underneath them, then snapped bones on whim.

Schuldig, who remembered being helpless once, got such a huge thrill out of being part of a powerful wrecking crew like this. Who wouldn't?

"How many more can we kill?" Farfarello asked. It looked like he needed more. It felt like....

Schuldig shied away from what it felt like. He didn't want to get dragged into that.

"We took out all of his people in the building," Schuldig answered.

"He must have more people elsewhere."

"He has two more lieutenants," Brad said, "but we want them alive to fight it out for the title of head man."

"They have minions," Farfarello said. "They always do. Which man do we prefer to win?"

"Mannino." Brad looked thoughtful and somewhat open to more carnage. Maybe things had felt too peaceful lately for him too. "We can thin his rival's herd a bit." Brad looked to Schuldig, who nodded emphatically to confirm that Farfarello _needed_ to kill more.

"More?" Friendly asked. "I'm game. But the stairs are going to be a mess to use."

Nagi sneered as he telekinetically pushed the bodies aside, compacting them where necessary. "But watch your step. You don't want to slip on any remaining blood."

"At least I'm not wearing my new boots."

******************************************************

The rival, Meilak, had his own telepath, but a not-very-powerful one who could only strike out, not read people, which was how Schuldig had missed him during his sweep yesterday. Still, getting hit with blinding bursts of telepathic pain and high-pitched noise while you tried to also defend yourself against gunmen could be dangerous enough. Nagi and Brad seemed to be most vulnerable to it. But Farfarello, who _could_ feel telepathic pain, just clenched his teeth and ran forward, lopping off any body parts in reach, as he raced on a straight course toward the increasingly panicked telepath. The pain and noise increased to something on the level of nails on a chalkboard being amplified to the level of an air raid siren, but Farfarello just screamed and threw himself forward, sword first, cutting hard, shearing through bones like a hot knife through butter. Blessed silence at last. Some of the goons fled after Farf's performance, but Schwarz chased them down until no one remained at this location.

~ Is he satiated yet? ~ Brad asked.

Schuldig skimmed Farf's mind. ~ No. In fact, hell no. I think we're going to have to take him to a church. ~

~ Wonderful. If we must.... ~

******************************************************

"Elena's pissed," Fenris said. "Farfarello's gone a bit nuts, so Schwarz is feeding him victims. She's Catholic, so she hates this. She's trying to steer them away from going to a church for it, telling them that they're going off-target and this is in... in...."

"Inefficient?" Mamoru provided, despite his horror over what he was hearing.

"I think so. Inefficient. They're not having it. At least she steered them away from places that have people worshipping in them right now."

Mamoru would not feel responsible and guilty for this. He would not.

******************************************************

"Wow, he made a bigger mess of them than usual," Schuldig said as he looked at the remnants of the two priests. "We may need to burn--" He winced as he felt a telepathic smack to the back of his head and turned to see the fury in Friendly's face. Catholic, obviously. Who would have thought? It might be like how some Italian and Latin American gangster types could go to confession, then go right out and kill people.

At least she'd had the smarts not to say anything in front of Farf or try to stop him too obviously, couching her objections in terms of mess, trouble, and inefficiency. Not that she could have stopped him when he was that fast and focused.

The different parts of Schuldig's self had violently opposing views on churches, part of why he didn't like them much. It seemed to have intensified since his breakdown in London. Maybe he should get over his dislike of peace and quiet to go away for a little bit and integrate himself better. But what would Brad do without him?

A scream pierced the air. A young girl scream. Schuldig knew these things from a connoisseur's experience. How'd she get close enough to see anything? Well, they were all tired.

"Witness," Farfarello growled and twitched in a way that would lead to him jumping her.

The girl hit the floor in a faint, and Friendly stood between her and Farf. Fire flickered over her hands as she said, "I just blanked the scene from her head. There's no need to kill her. Back off!" Friendly would brainblast him if he tried anything too, though Farf might be too far gone to remember that she could until it happened. There'd be mutual damage.

She had guts. They might be on the floor soon. Farfarello might end up as a burnt vegetable.

It could be interesting, but really they'd let Farfarello run on too long. Enough meat for the beast, already. Schuldig said, "Your kitten would hate to hear that you killed a young girl when you didn't have to."

Score! Some sense returned to Farf's face. Looking troubled, he took a deep breath and put his knives away.

"No fire either!" Friendly said. "I swear that I will put out anything you set."

"We may be able to accommodate you. Berserker used knives," Crawford said, though he looked irked over Friendly presuming to say how they should manage a scene. Still, her thoughts here would be close in line with Persia's view on this. "The damage would be harder to explain as a simple, deranged robbery if he'd used his sword. Nagi?"

Nagi telekinetically smashed open the collection boxes, then took out the cash. They'd do something with it later. He looked thoughtfully at some of the gold chalices on the altar, but Friendly's angry stare nearly had a telekinetic weight of its own and dissuaded him.

Nagi said, "I've also blocked the entrances so no one else can arrive unannounced."

"Why are you looking at me?" Schuldig asked. "Friendly could have seen the little girl too."

"I was too busy blocking out Berserker," she said as she put the girl down in one of the back pews.

Schuldig should have been paying more attention, but he felt so tired and dazed from all the running, killing, fighting, and 'pathing, but also from the glut of emotion and death he'd worked under. It felt like he'd overeaten badly.

"We're done here," Brad said with an expression of distaste. He didn't mind mess when it made a point, but this carnage had to seem like waste to him. "Prodigy, drag Berserker along if you have to."

"I can walk out on my own," Farfarello answered, sounding subdued. His mind felt like hot broken glass lying around. Pretty much like usual.

As they left, Schuldig asked Friendly, ~ How the hell can a Rosenkreuz alumna still believe in God? ~

~ God had nothing to do with Rosenkreuz, ~ she answered.

~ Amen, sister. ~


	106. "They should be able to control him without using Aya as a pacifier."

Aya had thought that his time in New York City with Farfarello had been disconcertingly like normal life, but he'd apparently forgotten what normal life really was, because this lunch out with Yoji and Ken was truly mundane. He didn't have to worry that someone's cross would set his table partner off while far too many people wore crosses simply as fashion statements. _No one_ stared at them sitting here, not at all. They spoke of the new flower shop and settling into their new home.

It was quiet. Pleasant. Dull. He hadn't socialized much with Weiß while he'd worked with the team, and it seemed that he hadn't missed much.

But he took a certain pleasure in seeing that old light back in Ken's eyes and hearing him sound enthusiastic about something that didn't involve violence. Yoji looked good too, less weary and jaded, pleased with life, though the restaurant's smoking ban annoyed him.

It left Aya feeling almost sedated. He listened more to their voices than their words as they walked back to the hotel, although snippets occasionally rose to his attention.

"--said he wouldn't spike it because I can't ruffle it when it has hair gel in it," Ken was currently saying.

"That's either sweet or a crush at work," Yoji answered, smirking around his cigarette.

"Not everything is about sex."

"Just most things."

"He's sweet, okay? He really is, Aya. I know that he tossed you around once, but now that he and Elena are with us, they've been much better."

"They're under better management," Yoji said.

"I don't mind them," Aya answered. He didn't really. Fenris had been too obviously a victim for him to be an easy target to hate.

"That's good," Ken said, sounding happier about Aya's words than they warranted. Did he think that Aya might return to the team if he didn't mind Weiß's two new members?

Yoji had told Aya to think about his situation with Farfarello and Schwarz. Being alone with Yoji and Ken felt so different from life with Schwarz that at moments Aya could barely believe that the last few months had happened. Away from Schwarz he could easily see their debits, their psychoses, their bloodthirst and ruthlessness, yet it felt so different from the inside. Special. Safe. They knew him for what he was yet still liked him. Farfarello loved him. Nagi loved him too, in a different way. He loved them in return. Having Schwarz reunited here felt right. Despite the circumstances, it had made him so happy to see Nagi, Schuldig, and Crawford again.

Weiß had been attached to him but hadn't really liked him. He certainly hadn't given them cause to. Omi had been drawn to him for reasons Aya still didn't know and probably wouldn't understand if he'd heard. It looked as if Yoji lusted after him, but Yoji lusted after a multitude of people. His lusts waned. Ken... was Ken, someone Aya had never really understood. How could someone with so much love in his heart have such a ridiculously short temper? But it was good that Ken was Ken again. Somebody should be.

He felt fond of Weiß, but they didn't need him. Schwarz needed him. Farfarello needed him and wanted him with an intensity that left him touched and overwhelmed.

To Aya's surprise, he was walking alone with Yoji in the hallway outside the rooms now. "You didn't even notice Ken leave, did you?" Yoji asked with a smile. "At least you murmured goodbye at him. Don't worry about it. I had your back."

Yoji wore his watch everywhere, a good and prudent move. If his katana had been easier to hide, Aya would carry it everywhere as well. Instead, right now he had to content himself with the knife in his boot. He would have worn the arm sheath as well but hadn't known if they would have to take their coats off at the restaurant.

"I was deep in thought," Aya answered, disturbed by his lack of attention. Only a few days ago he'd been attacked on the street, yet he walked around today on autopilot?

"That's what I asked you to do. What did you think about lunch?"

"It was nice."

"Nice?"

"It was dull," Aya replied, annoyed at being pressed.

Yoji had the nerve to laugh a little. "That's what life is really like. It's not all sex and violence and angst and excitement all the time. Sometimes it's passing time while the minutes drag. Damn, you worked in the shop with us. You know all about it."

That was true. It seemed so far away. "In my new life, I'm rarely bored."

"I guess I could see that." Yoji had a faraway look on his face, dreaming. It was a good look on him, far better than the perpetual come-on. He could be appealing when he wasn't laying into his current lust object as if it were a bombing target. "Aya...." His voice sounded so warm.

Aya wanted to step back from him... and didn't want to as well. Yoji had been right about Aya's lack of outside contacts. While Aya had never been the type to have a wide circle of friends, not even before the savage attack on his family that had changed his life, he really should have _some_ people who weren't Schwarz. A reality check of sorts. And Yoji was offering himself.

He certainly was offering himself, from how close he stood.

And Aya didn't know what to do. It was comical. Once he would have immediately retorted with angry, withering words and perhaps a push away. Now that seemed like overkill, and he didn't know how to behave around Yoji.

But then Aya heard something. "Schwarz is back."

"Are you high on something?" Yoji asked.

But then they _were_ there, walking in bloody and tired yet triumphant, with Friendly behind them muttering emphatic words in a language Aya didn't know, although he could guess the meaning from her tone. Schuldig had to be doing a telepathic cloak on them, because no one would have let them in looking like that.

Blood-splattered, Farfarello rushed up to Aya and held him tightly, murmuring, "I want to go home." He sounded so lost. "I missed you so much."

And what had been cloudy and uncertain became completely clear. His mind instantly settled. This was where he was meant to be.

The door to Omi's room opened, and he said, "I want to see all of you."

"Of course," Crawford answered.

Farfarello held on to Aya all the way. Aya noticed Yoji giving him odd, thoughtful looks... and Schuldig doing the same. It unsettled him. Farfarello's breath steamed against the back of his neck, making him it hard for him not to fidget, since he'd developed instincts and expectations about what usually followed that.

Once the door closed, Omi said, "I didn't want that much mess."

"We were attacked," Crawford said. "We could hardly leave people there to shoot at our backs or identify us."

"That might explain the people in the first building you stopped at, but it doesn't explain the casualties in the second building or the priests in the church. Fenris kept track of everything going on."

Priests? Aya wondered, while Crawford cast an annoyed look at Fenris, who looked back, unflinching.

Farfarello hands tightened on Aya. "I lost control," he murmured, sounding unhappy. "You're upset."

"Yes," Aya answered. "There's no justification for... there's no justification." He didn't kill innocents.

Expressionless, Yoji leaned back against the wall. Then he cast a look at Aya that all but said, "This is what you belong to?" As much as Aya bristled at the thought of Yoji passing judgment on him and Schwarz, he also bristled because Yoji had some justification.

Farfarello had been getting better... and Aya had flattered himself to think that he had some role in that.

"Sometimes you have to make some sacrifices to prevent a larger, less controlled mess later," Crawford said.

"Next time I'll give you more detailed directions," Omi said, his eyes intense and chill. "I don't know if your other clients want a bloodbath. I generally don't. I don't appreciate the collateral damage either. We avoid killing bystanders. We avoid looking for bystanders to kill."

"We made it look like a robbery."

"I know." Omi looked and sounded so cold and disgusted. Aya knew what that felt like from the inside, though not as much lately. Right now he did, but not for quite the same reasons. "I'll take the money and donate it to a charity."

Looking conflicted, torn between his family and his lover, Nagi handed over a shopping bag of money.

"We accomplished the objective," Crawford said. "Zhulin and his most trusted lieutenants are dead. The remnants will fight amongst themselves. We've eliminated the psionics he hired and taken vengeance."

"Then your job here is done. You should prepare to leave the country."

Aya involuntarily winced as Farfarello's hands tightened on him.

"How soon?" Crawford asked.

"As soon as possible, especially considering that Zhulin's organization knows where Abyssinian and Berserker live and Schwarz just killed two priests."

"I don't think it's a good idea to leave so soon," Nagi said suddenly, looking at Farfarello and Aya as he did so. "It would look suspicious. Besides, I think we need a little rest time."

Crawford looked surprised, then abruptly didn't. He must have seen something. "I concur."

"All right. You should start preparations, though."

"We shall."

"All right. Dismissed."

"Prodigy will drive Abyssinian and Berserker back to their apartment. Mastermind and I will remain in our room here and neaten up."

After an initial look of surprise, Nagi nodded and caught the car keys Crawford tossed to him. "Let's go."

As Schwarz separated into two groups out in the hall, Schuldig said to Aya, ~ Watch out for him. He's not at his best right now. ~

Obviously. Farfarello clung to him.

~ I'll keep fuzzing people's perceptions of you during your walk to the car. It'll be up to Nagi from there. ~

~ I don't tell you how to do your job, ~ Nagi said.

~ So nasty. Did Omi satisfy you last night? ~

~ We're leaving! ~

"I need to get the rest of my gear, then we can go." Usually Aya would smirk inwardly at the banter, but not now. He worried too much now.

******************************************************

"Hey, Fenris, could you get Ken in here?" Yoji said.

"Yah!" Fenris nodded. "He's coming now."

"That wasn't what I-- Never mind."

Hands clenching and unclenching, Elena paced. "I hate working with them. Sick fucks. Farfarello's out of control, so they're standing there calmly figuring that they could calm him down fastest by throwing him a few priests."

"I'm not pleased either," Omi said softly, obviously blaming himself for keeping Aya out of it.

"They should be able to control him without using Aya as a pacifier," Yoji said to him.

Fenris had a horrified look and a slight blush on his face.

"Not like that! Did I say anything about anyone sucking anyone? No. I'm not talking oral sex," Yoji quickly said.

"For once?" Ken asked as he walked into the room. Yoji and Ken both had keys to Omi's room.

"I didn't know that Fenris was a pervert."

"I'm not," the boy said.

Now that they were all here, Yoji decided it was time to ask Elena about his suspicion, which also would change the subject. "Elena, I saw something weird with Aya and Farfarello out in the hall."

"Is there ever a time they're not being weird?" Ken asked.

"Funny, Kenken. I mean a telepathic weird, though."

Aya had been hesitant, wavering, but Yoji had _had_ him in the hallway before Schwarz's return. But once Farfarello showed up, Aya's expression and posture had suddenly changed. Watching the madman cling to and hang on Aya, while Aya welcomed it and didn't even notice the blood now on his face, had chafed and worried Yoji badly.

And how had Aya heard Schwarz coming before they'd even arrived?

"How do you mean 'weird'? They're bonded," Elena answered. "That's pretty normal for telepaths and their close companions."

"Bonded?"

"Purely involuntary, but it's there and it's getting stronger. Actually, stronger than most."

"You didn't think to say anything about this?" Omi asked.

"It's pretty obvious," she replied, and Fenris nodded.

"To you," Yoji said.

"Sorry, but c'mon, Schwarz uses a lot of telepathic bonding to work like a team. They 'talk' to each other a lot in a fight. It's part of what makes them so fast, efficient, and deadly. Fujimiya-san and Farfarello's is just tighter, more intimate."

"What kind of bond are we talking about?" Omi asked with a slight shudder. The word "intimate" probably hadn't agreed with him.

"Farfarello has been a telepath--of a rare kind too--for years without being diagnosed, plus his first manifestation seems to have led to the snapping of his sanity. Without Fujimiya-san, Farfarello seems to receive a lot of noise, more now than he did the few times my path crossed his at Rosenkreuz since he seems to be getting more powerful. Fujimiya-san's thoughts run in ruts, which would be calming when compared to someone whose mind is a tornado, so he acts as a kind of white noise generator and an anchor for Farfarello. In some ways Farfarello is using Fujimiya-san's mind to think. What?"

"This is a look of horror we're wearing," Yoji said, since Omi and Ken had expressions on their faces that matched his. Only Fenris hadn't found anything odd or wrong with what she'd just told them. "What does this do to Aya?"

"He's more aware of Schwarz's presence, but mostly the bond seems to combat his depression, which also helps him think clearer."

"What?" Omi almost shouted.

"If you could feel someone constantly loving you and being happy that you're around, what effect would that have on your mood? That's what he gets, whether he's conscious of it or not."

"Would this influence make him more ruthless and sociopathic?"

"Because ruthlessness and sociopathy always follow feeling loved and appreciated, sir?" She shrugged. "We're all assassins."

"_We_ don't toss priests to a meat grinder."

"Okay, I get that. Maybe it does affect him that way a little. But I think he's had an effect on them too. Today would have been different if he'd been there, even aside from his direct influence on Farfarello. What, Yoji?"

"I just had the terrible thought that the nicer, friendlier Aya who lets you touch him only exists because Farfarello's pressing on his brain." Which had to be one of the wrongest things ever considered.

"That had an impact, but it's not like he'll turn into a cold bastard if taken away from that influence. He's changed on his own."

"Can that influence be severed?" Omi asked. Of course.

"Maybe. Depends on the situation. But if you think I can do it without damaging Fujimiya-san when neither of the bond members want to be rid of it and I'd have to be stealthy against Guilty finding out what I'm doing, I'd say that the chances are nil."

"Would Aya want to be free of it if he knew about it?"

"Maybe," Yoji answered. "I can't predict him on this. He actually seems to be in love with Farfarello."

"Or thinks he is," Ken said.

"He has slighter links to everyone else in Schwarz too," Elena continued. "Then again, Yoji and Schuldig have a link and--"

"What?" Yoji asked. Schuldig had just claimed to have more of an In, not a link!

"I had to tell you that? C'mon."

"Since when have I had this?"

"I first noticed it in England."

Damn. Of course. He was an idiot. An idiot getting suspicious stares from Omi.

"Since England?" Omi asked.

"You think I knew? I didn't know," Yoji answered. It had to have happened that night he stayed to keep Schuldig sane. Though, for all Yoji knew, that might have been a line of shit. It couldn't have been from the first time they had sex. If Schuldig formed a lingering telepathic link with everyone he'd fucked with, there'd be a web of links all around the world.

_That_ was a scary thought.

Of course, having sex with him a few _more_ times probably hadn't helped Yoji.

Yoji desperately wanted a cigarette, but Elena would probably pounce him if he lit up. That wasn't the kind of hunger he wanted to be the target of.

"How did this happen?" Omi asked.

"I think I have some idea. Schuldig took a bad hit telepathically, and he was a mess. Didn't know exactly who he was, didn't have any shields up.... He wasn't faking either. He asked me to stick around to help keep him steady," Which sounded a lot like what Elena had said of Farfarello and Aya, didn't it? "and I did. I think it happened then."

No one here had to know about the recuperative sex Yoji had provided, although he wondered sometimes if Elena had guessed.

"I want to break that too," Omi said.

Why did something in Yoji hate the sound of that? Hell yes they should free him.

"I have less of a chance here than I would with Farfarello," Elena replied. "Schuldig's very powerful and aware. If I tried to do this, he would figure it out and fight back. I might win or I might not, but we'd be declaring war on Schwarz."

"I don't like Schuldig having his fingers in Yoji's brain."

"Hey, he hasn't done anything to me," Yoji had to protest.

"That you know of," Ken said.

"Telepaths do this. Does this have to be a bad thing?" Fenris asked.

"You said that you don't trust easily, with good reason," Omi answered. "We don't either, especially considering our past history with Schwarz."

"Do you think they're playing us?" Yoji asked.

"I want to keep on my guard."

Yoji resisted the urge to ask how well that worked in bed, since as team leader he had to be more mature. At least Omi would be less likely to get away with a snide comment over Yoji sleeping with the enemy if he ever found out about Schuldig and Crawford.

"Do we declare war on them by trying to break the links or not?" Yoji asked.

Omi breathed out. "We think about a wise, careful way of doing it."

"You think they won't notice the absence? Schuldig might not, since I'm not his soulmate, but Farfarello will be immediately different if his link is broken. Even if he doesn't notice, his teammates will."

"I'm aware that it won't be easy." Omi gave Yoji a melancholy look that somehow made him seem suddenly young again. "You're really fine?"

"I didn't even notice it. Do I seem okay?" Yoji asked it half-seriously.

"Yeah. You've been better since England."

"This isn't going to be some deal where _Schwarz_ fixes each of us, is it?" Ken asked. "Because that's just insane."

"No," Omi said.

But Yoji wondered what Schwarz really wanted out of this.


	107. "Sorry. The phrase 'take by force' just brought me to a happy place."

"Can you stay, Elena?" Mamoru asked her as the rest of Weiß left.

"Sure, sir." She stopped and Fenris stayed with her.

"Telepathic bonds are common?"

"Sure. As a telepath, you're constantly reaching out to the people around you, consciously and unconsciously."

"You mentioned Yoji and Schuldig."

"Schuldig's a slut," Fenris said with a shrug.

"Telepathically?"

"And otherwise," Elena answered with a roll of her eyes. "But you're not really asking about them, are you?"

No. Surrounding himself with smart people had its disadvantages. "Does Nagi have one with me? A longstanding one, I mean." Last night's temporary one had been... something, but so fleeting. Did he want one? He couldn't decide whether it would be romantic and loving or weird and creepy.

"No, there isn't one."

Could he ask, "Why not?!" without sounding like a petulant 12-year-old? He didn't think so, so he didn't ask.

But Elena must have felt some of that feeling, because she said, "Prodigy is the most self-contained telepath I've ever met. He probably figured that it wouldn't be polite, or it would invade your privacy and his privacy."

That sounded a little better. "What do you mean by 'self-contained'?"

"Mmm. Telepaths are kind of like... like sweaters."

Fenris giggled. "Sweaters?"

"Shush, Kind. Yeah, sweaters. The more and longer they use the telepathy, the fuzzier they seem, like their edges soften and unravel a bit."

"Aren't there products that cut down on that?" Fenris asked, giggling harder.

"Ignoring you.... It's a light haze. Then some have pulls and snags-- Will you stop that?"

Fenris had buried his face against her arm as he shook. "Pulls!"

"Schuldig is all over the place. I'm amazed that he has his own personality at all. But Nagi's solid. Almost no haze at the edges. He might as well be wrapped in plastic."

"And stored with moth balls!" Fenris said.

"I think I see," Mamoru said. Her description of Nagi made sense.

"I'm glad, because I think I'm going to have to take Fenris back to our room and dump the ice bucket over his head."

"Thanks."

"Sure." Elena dragged Fenris out with her. As they left, she asked, "What was that about? It's a good simile!"

"Just... _knitting_.... What color sweater is he, anyway?" The door closed, cutting off the rest.

Mamoru sat down and thought about it. Did he really want a link or just feel left out? He'd spent the last Weiß meeting talking about breaking everybody else's bonds with Schwarz, and now he felt bad that _he_ didn't have one?

But Yoji wasn't even _with_ Schuldig, and he had one.

Nagi had already shown his love and trust in so many ways. What more did Mamoru need? What the hell did he want?

"Grow up," he sternly told himself.

******************************************************

"Talk, Schuldig," Crawford said as he undid his tie.

Schuldig's coy look might have fooled some people. "About what?"

"About why you were staring at Farfarello and Aya throughout the debriefing. About why Farfarello went almost uncontrollable this time when he's been all right without Aya in the recent past."

"You watch me that closely?"

"Sometimes."

Schuldig smiled, utterly sensual. "The things you say." His bright hair looked wild and messy, making Crawford want to stroke it out of his eyes.

"Talk."

Schuldig crossed his arms. "It wouldn't have been this bad if Farf hadn't been hurt in our telepathic battle with Zhulin's telepath."

"Were you also hurt?"

"Please."

Crawford took that as a "yes."

"Asshole," Schuldig answered.

"Don't lie to me about injuries."

"Fine, fine. The other thing is that Farf's more tightly bound to Aya than he used to be. It might be living alone together as a couple. It might be that mishap he had a few days ago when he tried to overreach with his telepathy and stumbled badly. Whatever it is, they're tighter now."

"Tighter? When did this _start_?"

"You remember the days when he first slept in an unlocked room with Aya. All those compulsions had to be hard to resist, so he focused his attention elsewhere, outward, to get away from them."

"On Aya."

"Of course on Aya. Nothing else as interesting around. Aya has all the hard and squishy bits a Farfarello could ask for."

"You have a gift for picturesque phrases."

"That's one of the reasons why you love me. Anyway, that's when it started. It worked real well too. Farfarello can pass for sane most days, and Aya's more entangled with us than ever."

"Farfarello didn't know he was a telepath then."

"Hell, _I_ didn't know he was a telepath then. Once I figured out that he was, I noticed the fledgling link too and realized when it must have started."

"You should have told me about it."

"It happens. It's not big news. Besides, it helps keep Aya with us." Schuldig shook his head. "Brad, it won't always be this bad. Farf's just injured and upset. Before, we had to keep a tight leash on him almost all the time. He didn't have as many good days. Now he doesn't even cut himself much anymore."

Crawford hung up his suit jacket on the bathroom door. It would need professional cleaning to get the blood out. "We have to break it."

"What?"

"It's a vulnerability. Anyone could take Aya away from us and do too much damage."

"No one will take Aya away from us." Schuldig backed this up with a tone and look of total, insane conviction. It made his eyes seem brighter and his skin paler.

"We just won't let anyone take him, is that all?"

"This is better than how things were before. I admit that it's partly my bad that things went this far, but it's not like there's any fucking literature about how to train people with Farfarello's kind of talent. I can teach him to tone it down and get along better on his own, but I will not break it."

Schuldig's vehemence made Crawford's "Why not?" a completely honest question, because he wanted to know.

"It's a telepath thing. If we tear it apart now, it will be like maiming him. He'll be worse than before. Worse. I won't let anyone do that." Schuldig closed his eyes, softening a little. "Besides, they're so fucking cute together."

"So this is actually about _your_ personal issues."

"It's always about me. And this is also useful because Aya's aware of us, almost like a proper member of the freak nation. It makes him better than just some headblind normal as a member of Schwarz."

"Weiß will try to lure him away from us."

Schuldig smirked. "They were trying today. Aya won't go willingly, because we offer him too much more than they do, and they won't take him by force because they tried that already and it was a disaster. We won't lose Aya."

"That's a particularly evil smile you have right now."

"Sorry. The phrase 'take by force' just brought me to a happy place."

"We might lose Aya if he finds out about this link."

"Maybe, but I doubt it. Aya's type mates for life."

"His type."

"Romantic, dutiful, self-sacrificing, masochistic...."

"I see. You _will_ train Farfarello to control this and work on his own better. He can't lean on Aya as a crutch this hard."

"Of course."

"The last time you promised to train him, you let him flounder about on his own."

"And look at how much he learned and taught me that way. And I object to the word 'flounder.'"

"Schu, I mean it. If his situation doesn't improve, I start looking into ways to break the link again."

Schuldig looked annoyed but said, "All right."

Crawford saw a flash of Schuldig and heard a snippet of conversation that made him ask, "You think you'll need to leave for a while to put yourself together better?"

It obviously surprised Schuldig, who muttered, "Shit. I wasn't gonna ask today. Bad timing."

"Is it that bad?"

"I'm not Sybil or _When Rabbit Howls_ bad, but I'm getting a few too many perspectives at times. Slows down my decision-making processes when I'm of a few minds on an issue. Farfie's been thinking of me as 'Legion' more lately, and he's right to. I need to reintegrate a bit better. I figure that I just need a day or two to get away into peace and quiet, with no distractions."

"You hate peace and quiet."

"Shit yeah." He smiled a little. "See what I do to be a better member of Schwarz?"

"I don't want you to go." Once, his team members had been simply tools to him. If he lost one, he'd be annoyed at the waste of years of work to customize that tool, but it wouldn't grieve him. Once, he'd had sex with Schuldig as a parent would give candy to a fussing child. It simply kept his telepath off the streets. He'd liked the physical release but never initiated the encounters, because he hadn't needed them. Now Schuldig's body drew him like a magnet, and the thought of being without him for a few days seemed intolerable.

He wished he could blame this all on Schuldig, but self-delusion was self-defeating.

"I don't want to go," Schuldig answered softly, then closed his eyes as Crawford leaned into him and put his fingers beneath Schuldig's pointed chin to tilt his head up. "But you're all so distracting." He sighed as Crawford slowly stroked beneath his chin with one finger. Good to know that the power in this didn't run only one way.

"You read minds. Everyone and anyone around you could be distracting." Crawford moved in closer, holding Schuldig in place against the wall with his body. "Stay. I'll help you. I want you sane and healthy. At least, as sane as you ever are."

"Bastard. You think I don't know that you're manipulating me?" But he smiled and rubbed against him.

"So?"

"It's sweet that you're putting the effort in."

"Stay," Crawford said with his mouth against the delicate rim of Schuldig's ear, enjoying how it made his telepath shiver. "I'll make it worth your while."

"All right. But if it gets bad--"

"We do whatever we have to do to fix you."

"Yeah, you're good at fixing me.... I feel so dirty, Brad." Schuldig smelled of gunsmoke, roasted meat, and blood, not that Crawford minded. "And I'm so tired that I might not be able to reach all the dirty parts."

"Showering together is never as efficient as it should be," he answered with a smile.

"Yeah, but if you do it right and with the right company it's like a quick vacation. Saves time and money." Schuldig almost sounded sincere.

"It worries me that you know how to talk to me."

"See it as flattery instead."

******************************************************

His kitten was disappointed in him. He was disappointed in himself. He'd fallen to compulsion so easily.

Once he'd loved the rush of it, the headlong plunge, the feeling of himself in the hands of a power higher even than God. Once he started, nothing could stop him, and that felt glorious. Now that he saw God's plan behind it after all, it galled and turned to ashes in his mouth.

So many things had changed with the arrival of his puisín. He'd never worried before. There had only been past to be avenged and present to be survived. He had been alone and self-contained, safe, with no hostages left that God could use. He had been a blade in the hand of vengeance, as he had been since finding his family dead...

...and the blade... in his own hand....

And himself the only surviving victim.

Now there were consequences and a future. Complications. It was huge and wonderful and terrifying, and it made him _think_, new thoughts, which forced him to reevaluate a past that wasn't as concrete as he'd once thought, and how had he thought that there couldn't be any more torment possible in the past because there was... there _was_....

"Farfarello!" Nagi shouted.

Farfarello had his hands around Aya's neck, trying to squeeze, while Aya snarled and tried to fight him off, shoving his head up with one hand, which Farfarello didn't even feel. Fortunately, Aya had a reinforced collar piece that helped protect him. The car had stopped, and the boy looked ready to break them apart by telekinetic force if necessary. Farfarello peeled his hands away and watched Aya let him go and the hot blaze drain from his violet eyes.

"I'm staying at your apartment for a while," the boy said, his meaning clear: He didn't trust Farfarello with the kitten.

He might not be wrong about that.

"At least you didn't go for your knives," Aya said.

Shame had no bottom and no end. The Church was correct in that.

Farfarello grabbed Aya differently this time, lunging forward in a rustle of plastic beneath, and somehow his puisín knew his good intentions and didn't struggle. Nuzzling into Aya's straight, blood-red hair, Farfarello smelled the tea scent of his kitten's shampoo but also the cigarette smoke of the Weiß slutkitten. Between Balinese and Schuldig, Farfarello had come to associate cigarette scent with unwanted Aya-lust. Any brand would do, since the mindbreaker switched depending on his mood. Still, the slutkitten might have wanted, but he hadn't taken. Aya hadn't let him. Farfarello could tell.

Once inside the apartment, Farfarello parted from his kitten and said, "I need to clean up." Actually, Aya did too since Farfarello had rubbed blood all over him in his need for contact. Fuck, that thought made him hot. He could lick the blood of his victims off his lover's body....

No. Wrong. There shouldn't have been that much blood. Farfarello slammed the bathroom door shut behind him, closing himself off from temptation.

His X-mas gift was stiff with blood and would need professional cleaning, but Aya would have expected such. Farfarello petted the leather jacket as he hung it from the shower curtain rod but couldn't feel it.

They had a life here and a pleasant routine. Favorite restaurants, even. They'd have to leave that behind. Aya would never again come back to him with a fine coating of ginger and white hairs from the friendly cat at the bodega he bought their groceries from. Aya claimed that the cat had black hairs too but never shed _those_ on him.

The new sink, so out of place amidst the bathroom's otherwise crumbling tile, mocked Farfarello. Crawford had used his picture phone to take a shot of the damaged sink, which had let the repair people know that it had been too damaged to simply be reaffixed to the wall. Their apartment--_their_ apartment--had a new sink, but they wouldn't stay to use it. He and Aya would be back in the kiddie room down the hallway from Schuldig and Crawford, the pretense of a normal life gone, independent no more.

Independence exhilarated and terrified Farfarello. Free will. God offered free will as a gift, but it was an illusion. If you pulled enough of the curtains away you eventually found a puppetmaster. Farfarello liked the people pulling his strings to be close and obvious.

What the fuck was he thinking? His brain gnawed at itself like a rabid animal. How could anyone think through all this noise? Angels and demons gibbered at him. He needed to clear his head. Reset.

His forehead struck leather instead of tiled wall. Gloved hands. His puisín cradled his face with those hands beneath his jaw now and watched him intently.

"I have been nothing since my parents and sister were murdered. Nothing. And happily so," Farfarello told him. "That changed recently."

"I understand."

"Aye, ye would, if anyone would. I was nothing. I was vengeance. How did you survive when you finished yours?"

"I almost didn't," Aya answered softly. "At the moment I had it, it was everything I'd dreamed of. Takatori even had a sword, even knew how to _use_ it. It was a fair fight. When he said that he couldn't die because he still had so much to do, it felt so right because my family could have said the same. But then he was dead, and I'd finished the task it had taken me years of work to get to, and I had nothing left." An idiot might mistake that twist of Aya's lips for a smile. "You were smart to seek vengeance on God. That's a task you'll never finish."

Farfarello shook his head fiercely. "No. It's changed. I misinterpreted all along, and the rules aren't the same anymore. It doesn't satisfy. He fooled me." Did he feel as panicked as he sounded? He couldn't tell.

His puisín looked so worried. He had to pull himself together and straighten himself out. He grasped at clarity, but it eluded him more than usual, so he grasped harder.

Tiny stress lines formed on Aya's face around his eyes and mouth as he did his little face scrunch of pain. Farfarello asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Like hell."

"Nothing...."

As Farfarello pulled Aya close, he could see his kitten's muscles locking up a bit. Stress, definitely stress.

"It's so loud," Aya murmured. "Why is it so noisy?"

"It's not, aside from the boy watching TV."

"That's not it." Then Aya looked concerned as well as in pain. "Why is your hair red?"

_Red_? "It's not."

It shocked the hell out of Farfarello when his puisín tossed his head back to bang it against the wall. "Better," Aya murmured and tried to do it again, but Farfarello's fingers cushioned him.

Aya did not do this.

"Nagi!" Farfarello yelled, afraid, especially as he could sense some of the edges of what ran through his kitten's mind.

******************************************************

Was this a migraine? Aya's head pounded, and he could hear voices all around him, loud and red and _bright_. They were talking about him and telling him to kill. Shoving his head back hard against the wall interrupted the steady flow of pain and voices, so he kept doing that. It really did help. Afraid, he looked to Farfarello for help, but overlaid on Farfarello was a second image, like a haze, of someone with red hair and purple eyes, Aya's own coloring but Farfarello's features.

This wasn't a migraine. He'd just gone utterly insane at last.


	108. "...and maybe he won't notice that Schuldig and I borrowed one of his cars."

The only book he could find around the apartment that didn't involve digging through their things was _Sein und Zeit_ by Martin Heidegger, and right now Nagi didn't feel like reading heavy-duty existentialism, particularly not in German, so he'd been reduced to watching television instead. He missed his computer so much. If he'd known he'd be staying awhile, he would have brought it. Farfarello and Aya seemed calm to his ear and telepathy right now, so he had to find something to do.

It amazed Nagi that people watched this shit. It also amazed him that he hated this show even more in English, not that it hadn't already been awful in how it presented these creatures that were trapped, imprisoned, and forced to fight other creatures for the greater glory of their young slavers. Pikachu, aside from being insipid, was so the house slave. These were the good guys? The little monsters should turn on their "trainers."

He could switch the channel, but everything else seemed to be court shows, reality shows, soap operas, news, and old sit-coms. How could there be several hundred channels but nothing good to watch? Wait, British people snarking at each other as they renovated someone's backyard. He found that weirdly compelling.

Something tugged at Nagi's attention, making him turn around on the bed to look around. What had that been? He did a quick telepathic scan but they seemed to be okay. Upset and depressed, but okay. If Aya felt joyful and carefree, _that_ would be wrong.

But there was that something.... Then it became somehow worse, even as he still couldn't define what "it" was. And suddenly Aya radiated pain.

"Nagi!" Farfarello shouted.

Nagi almost slid across the length of the apartment he jumped off the bed and ran to the bathroom so fast. He saw Aya leaning back against the wall and Farfarello's right hand, striking his head repetitively backward against Farfarello's fingers. Farfarello's left hand cupped Aya's face and seemed to be trying to stop him from moving. Aya had his right hand pressing against his forehead and a look of pain on his face.

"What am I doing to him?" Farfarello asked, his eye wide in confusion and horror.

Holding him up against the wall and stopping him from hurting himself, obviously. "What do you--" Wait. Nagi looked at them telepathically and saw something very different. "You're... telepathically pulling on him. Really hard. You have to stop it." They were woven together in places or something.... To Schuldig, Nagi yelled, ~ Schuldig, get to the apartment. We have a big problem! ~

~ What are you-- Oh shit. And after I stood up for him to Brad about this. Coming. ~

"I don't know what I'm doing."

"Whatever it is--" Nagi started, then realized that Farfarello had his bare hand on Aya's face. "Let go of him! You're making it worse!"

"What?"

"Skin contact strengthens it."

"He's sliding down the wall when he's not trying to relieve his head against it!" Relieve? Oh yeah, Farfarello himself used head-banging as a corrective maneuver.

So hold Aya up by his shirt, nimrod, but Farfarello wasn't thinking that well so Nagi just held Aya with telekinesis. "I have him. Let go. Schuldig's on his way to help."

Farfarello bit his lip hard enough to draw blood and let go.

Aya suddenly looked a little better, though still pale and dazed. "I'm _fine_." Like hell. Nagi could still feel his pain and confusion. Farfarello looked a little crazier but seemed to be struggling to control himself.

~ Good move on the skin thing, sugar. I just capped Farf a bit to help too, but there's something woven through Aya that I would be better off looking at close up and skin-to-skin myself. ~

~ Excuses, ~ Nagi answered.

~ You wound me! You think I can't find better ways of getting my hands on Aya? ~

~ You protest too much. ~

~ Whatever. You'll be happy to see me while I'm saving Aya's bacon. ~

"Come with me," Nagi told Aya. They had to make him lie down.

"I'm not going anywhere," Aya answered, like the early days in Germany all over again. It worried Nagi.

"I'm not holding you up forever. You're going to lie down."

"I don't need to." Probably because lying down suggested that something was wrong with him, which he refused to admit to.

"Then you're going to _sit_ down."

Aya took in a shaky breath. "All right." From Aya, that said a lot about how bad he must feel.

Nagi followed him into the kitchenette, right at his side in case he stumbled, and kept a watchful eye as he sat down on the one chair in the apartment. Silent, yet loud and intense about it, Farfarello sat on the floor near Aya, staring at him, and started to trace a knife along his right forearm, putting enough pressure on the blade to raise welts and sometimes draw a little blood. Farfarello had always freaked Nagi out for how messily physical he was, injury and mortality incarnate. The tank top he currently wore revealed few recent cuts, suggesting that prior to now Aya had broken him of his self-injuring ways.

"Stop that," Aya said, looking down at Farfarello.

Farfarello just looked at him. Nothing special.

Suddenly Aya blushed a little and breathed a bit harder. "Stop _that_ too."

But Farfarello couldn't be sending Aya anything. Schuldig had capped Farfarello, and Nagi couldn't feel any flow. Unless.... As much as Nagi disliked using the telepathy, especially to pry, he had to contain the situation until Schuldig arrived and needed more information. To make it easier, Nagi set his bare hand against the side of Aya's face, snapping, "Stop that," when Farfarello looked pissed off over it.

Aya sighed. "Nagi--"

"I'm helping." Feeling hopelessly voyeuristic, he felt around inside, finally finding links so deep that the cap couldn't touch them. No wonder Aya still looked disturbed and squirmy.

Even with the cigarette smoke scent in his clothes and hair, Aya smelled good. Balinese had to back off. No way Schwarz would give Aya up. Shit. Nagi shouldn't be doing this right now. He pulled away from Aya and contacted Schuldig. ~ Aya's still getting spillover because they're linked on a very deep level. Right now Farfarello's molesting him without even having to move. ~

~ I'm proud of the last thing, at least. How is Farf? ~

~ Close to what used to be normal for him. ~

~ Shit. ~

~ Aya's still in some pain, though he won't admit it, of course. Inside, he's sternly telling himself that angels and demons are _not_ talking to him. I'm no expert, but I think he's absorbing some of Farfarello's craziness. ~

~ I figured that, but still, double shit. Buzz me in a moment. Brad's finding parking. Good job on keeping all this talk on the down-low. ~

The praise warmed and offended Nagi all at once. Of course he'd kept it quiet. He saw no need to let any area telepaths and especially Friendly and Fenris know what had happened. Weiß didn't need to find out about this and use it as an excuse to grab Aya back.

When the exterior door buzzer sounded, Nagi pressed the release button telekinetically from across the room, then let Schuldig into the apartment. Never so much as breaking stride or slowing down, Schuldig tossed his coat to the floor and walked to Aya and Farfarello, finally coming to a stop behind Aya's chair and descending to his knees. His hair was messy from the hood he'd worn and damp.

"The things I do for you, Aya...." Schuldig said with a smile.

"Don't do too much," Farfarello said, radiating threat.

"Is that any way to talk to the guy who will fix your kitten after you fucked him up?"

"I'm not fucked up," Aya said, although the pain in his eyes and vibrations of his mind said otherwise.

"Yeah, yeah. Now sit still so I can touch you and scan you better. I know that you don't like to admit that something's wrong, but you can still feel it. I have to get in there. This would be best if I sat on your lap facing you, but I know you'll never allow that, even to save your sanity."

Aya breathed in with an angry huff but didn't give Schuldig permission to sit astride him, which made the pervert sigh in overdone frustration. As Schuldig rested his hands at the sides of Aya's face, Aya's silky auburn hair spilled over Schuldig's slim fingers, eye-catching. Nagi swallowed down a sudden surge of lust. They were beautiful together, even if their hair colors clashed violently. All of Schuldig's movements lately seemed to be more sensual, and Nagi didn't know if that came from a change in Schuldig or a change in his own perceptions. In any case, it disturbed him.

~ Such a prude. ~

~ You have something you should be doing right now. ~

~ I multitask. ~

"Aya isn't here for your lusts, mindbreaker," Farfarello said.

"Yeah, yeah.... But look at how my work has relaxed him a little."

Aya did look a little less tensed with pain, but he said, "Just get on with it, whatever it is."

"I'm going in deeper. I love saying that."

******************************************************

As Schuldig filtered through the black and red and blue depths of Aya's self, he winced at the noise, synaesthesia, and fractures. Aya could have been a fledgling light telepath for the crap he seemed to be picking up. But he shouldn't be, since he wasn't a talent himself and Schuldig had put a cap on Farfie's talent. The pain was from Aya feeling Farf's pain and because Aya's body wasn't designed for the telepathy-by-proxy it was experiencing.

Then Schuldig noticed the threads that Nagi had mentioned. Although they'd been haphazardly placed, obviously without conscious knowledge or intent from either party, they had deep hooks. Fuck, Farf and Aya had _meshed_. Schuldig hadn't seen a link this intense since he'd met those telepathic twins. And what a party they had been, if you didn't mind their creepiness. But you didn't see this kind of interconnection in people who hadn't been born and raised together.

Then again, he'd never met Farf's style of telepathy before. What had that lunatic done to his kitten?

Schuldig blocked off the threads one by one but didn't cut them, not knowing what damage that might cause and not wanting to leave Farfie utterly bereft. After the crisis point passed, they could decide the threads' final fate. Schuldig's surroundings lightened a little, feeling less tense and foreboding and clenched. Pictures didn't flash by as fast and broken as they had, and the noise faded. After-echoes of pain lingered, so Schuldig caressed Aya's pleasure centers a bit to take the edge off and make his own trip out more comfortable.

******************************************************

The noise and colors and pain stopped, leaving a low hum behind, but Aya squirmed at the odd shudder of something still inside him that didn't belong there. As grateful as he felt to feel nearly normal again, he couldn't wait to get Schuldig out of him.

Then he drowned under waves of thick pleasure, helpless. As far as he _could_ think through that, he thought that he was going to kill Schuldig.

******************************************************

Seething, lost in a maelstrom of sound and fury, Farfarello could barely think. Not even the taste of blood from his arm could break through. The mindbreaker hung onto his kitten, currently cheek to cheek, with a blissful and dreaming expression on his face, while Aya had his eyes squeezed shut and looked lost and hurting. And all the while Farfarello felt his kitten becoming ever more distant from him, unreal. It hurt the way a wound was supposed to. Then Aya melted a bit in his seat as he made a small sound that Farfarello knew well.

With a growl, Farfarello rose to his feet, knife in hand. Schuldig would pay. But a force dropped him back down to the floor.

"Look at what he's doing, boy," Farfarello said as he fought to stand, to rise at all.

"I know, but this isn't the time!" Nagi replied. "You don't want to hurt Aya. Control _yourself_. Control yourself without using Aya."

That broke through the haze. Had he been using his puisín? He'd caused this.... Taking a deep breath and letting it out, trying to force the glory and frenzy out with it, Farfarello said, "I understand. I'll try. You don't have to press down on me anymore."

"I think I'll keep pressing for a while."

Crawford said, "Schuldig's nearly done." Before Farfarello could sneer, Crawford continued, "I can tell."

******************************************************

Schuldig returned to consciousness of his body and the feel of Aya's soft hair and smooth skin. As far as ways to come to went, this had an entry at the top of the pleasant list, especially since Aya had kind of melted against him from having his mind caressed.

"I hate you," Aya murmured.

"You love me."

Farf struggled to throw himself forward but snapped back. Good Nagi. Nagi looked concerned when he looked at Aya and annoyed at the rest of them. Brad stood there, radiating smug superiority, and asked, "What have you learned from this, Schu?"

"Not to defend something until I've thoroughly researched and looked at it first? Though _you_ wanted to break it without knowing _anything_ about it."

"What happened here? You said the link was safe."

"It was, since it had been there for a while. Thing is, now Farf got stressed and felt himself sliding into craziness, so he put a _death grip_ on his kitten's mind to support himself in the more sane manner he'd become accustomed to. It makes the feed stronger, louder, and crazier."

"Give me my kitten back," Farfarello said.

Schuldig saw no reason to take his hands off Aya until he had to, especially since he was currently propping the poor kitten up in his seat. "Not until you calm down. If I take the blocks off when you're crazed, you'll just hurt Aya again. So, Farf, how did you get your hooks _this_ deeply into him? I've never seen anything like this."

"You're the expert." Farf's gaze didn't leave Aya's slumped and dazed self.

"Were you inside him completely for a long time recently?" When Farf shifted in what might have been guilt or discomfort, Schuldig pressed with "Well?" and stroked Aya's hair just because he could and Farf couldn't move to do anything about it. Aya pulled free and glared at him.

"He brought me home," Farfarello replied.

"That made no sense to anyone who isn't you or maybe Aya."

"Read it out of my mind then." Oooh, testy.

"You got stuck inside somebody recently. Did you get stuck inside Aya too for a while? Afterward?"

"...yeah."

"I was wondering why Aya felt a bit weird to me afterward." Schuldig had been so thrilled by Aya going to him for help that he hadn't pried for more detail, while Farf had chased him out of Aya's mind before he could find anything later that day. "There you go, Brad. They already had a link, then Farf was _inside_ Aya's body for a while while in a weakened state and couldn't get out. I figure that Farf just kind of diffused all over the damned place in there." Schuldig tapped the top of Aya's head and dodged as Aya tried to deck him for it. Now that he didn't have his hands on the kitten, he stood to give his poor knees a break. Damned floor had no carpeting. "You have to calm down, Farf, or you'll hurt him more."

Talk about Catch-22. Farf had to calm down before he could be allowed telepathic access with his kitten, but telepathic access with his kitten calmed him down the best.

"Is he all right?" Aya asked suddenly. Aw! And they call it kitten love....

Farfarello looked so damned hopeful that Schuldig nearly laughed. Apparently Aya's question made him feel that he might not have alienated his kitten after all. "Am I all right?" Farfarello asked Schuldig.

"As all right as you get. You'll need training. Which I'll have to provide, unfortunately."

"As you said you would how long ago?" Brad asked.

"I was! This is something new!" Meanwhile, Schuldig had an issue he needed to force. "Of course, this brings up a new question. Does Aya want to keep this link?"

Poor Farf. Regular junkies didn't have to worry that their drug of choice might refuse to be used. But Schuldig had a purpose here.

All the color drained out of Farfarello and Aya's faces, and that was saying something. Nagi shot Schuldig a "what the hell are you up to?" look, while Brad just watched intently.

After a long moment of troubled quiet, Aya asked, "This link had been helping him lately?"

"Yeah. He leans on you a bit to help control his telepathy and urges, and you get a heightened awareness of him. With training, him getting this upset won't have him yanking your sanity right out."

"This is why he's not as much of a slave to his compulsions."

"That and love for you, yeah. He doesn't need to be bound and locked up. He doesn't cut himself."

"I find it hard to believe that none of that happened from his own self-control."

"Some of it is that, but the link makes it much easier."

"Can he use it to control me?"

"No." Schuldig almost said that for Farf hurting Aya would be like hurting himself, but Farf _liked_ to hurt himself, so that might not go over well. Though Farf did not like to hurt Aya. Not at all. Whatever, it would just be too complicated to go into. "Can you feel him at all?"

Aya looked surprised. "You said that you blocked it off."

"I did, but not all the way. That would be a huge shock to him."

Closing his eyes and crossing his arms, Aya sat and semi-meditated, reaching for the link. Schuldig watched a slow, small smile flow over Aya's face. "I feel it."

"What do you feel?" Farfarello asked, leaning forward as much as Nagi's force would let him.

"Your upset, your worry, and your love. I feel them."

Farfarello pushed at Nagi's telekinetic force, then growled, "Let me go to him. I won't hurt him."

Nagi looked to Brad--who looked to Schuldig and nodded in response to the encouraging look Schuldig gave him--then turned off the force field. Farfarello sprang forward, stopped suddenly as his bare hands almost touched Aya's bare arms, then dropped to his knees to put his head on Aya's lap and hold him around the waist. Aya stroked his back and petted his hair. So fucking sweet.

"I want to keep the link," Aya said softly.

Schuldig smiled, since his presentation had worked out as he'd wanted it to. "I'll open it up a bit again now. The rest comes as Farfie learns to control himself better." He could see the difference in Farf's body as the link opened more. So much stress and tension bled away.

"Can I touch his skin again yet?" Farfarello asked.

"Yeah."

He sat on Aya's lap and kissed him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do this."

"I know...." Aya answered back.

Nagi had that look in his eyes and clenched look on his face that meant he held back tears. Such a softie. Schuldig pondered teasing the hell out of him, then decided not to so Snow-white and Rose-red could have their moment.

"Are we okay here?" Schuldig asked.

"Yes," Aya answered, while Farf nodded. They both felt much calmer.

"Good, because you two interrupted something."

Nagi rolled his eyes. "If we couldn't contact you while you were doing that, we'd never be able to get you."

"Now, now. I don't fuck all the time."

"You just think about it all the time," Brad said.

"Baby! You know me."

"We're going back to the hotel." Then Brad looked to Nagi. "And you'll do something with Persia."

"What?" Nagi asked, looking wary.

"Rollerblade, if he'll agree. I know a place where you can get the skates."

"What? Why? And I have never done that in my life!"

"He needs to be distracted from the events here and less inclined to leave immediately. Farfarello and Aya need more time to calm down. Also, if you're doing something fun and silly with him it seems less likely that you're plotting something and maybe he won't notice that Schuldig and I borrowed one of his cars. Schu had to hotwire it."

Looking resentful, Nagi asked, "This is about me telling him some of the information Schuldig dug up last night, isn't it?"

"Yes. I wanted to choose my time for that, but you took the decision out of my hands. He's your lover, but we're your team, your family."

"All right. Look, I was just excited that we'd gotten so much information so quickly--"

"...and you were in bed with him and horny...." Schuldig said.

Nagi shot him an annoyed look, then said, "I blurted out that we had it, then I had to go into more detail because it would have looked weird if I said we had it then refused to share."

Brad nodded, the very picture of solemn paternal forgiveness. "I understand how that could happen, but keep this in mind for next time. You know, Omi enjoys rollerblading, but he hasn't had time or company for it since becoming Persia. Schuldig told me so."

"I hate you both." But he was going to do the rollerblading. Or at least try to. Too bad Schuldig wouldn't get to watch him flop around.


	109. "We could be passive-aggressive little bastards about it if we wished."

"We're almost out of here, Ken," Elena said. "You know, you might enjoy this trip to the video/DVD section more if you let me give you a boost on your English."

"No. Really." Look at what had happened to Yoji. Ken didn't want to get started with that kind of thing.

Elena smiled suddenly. "Geek boy powers activate. Fenris is showing off in the anime section."

"How so?"

"Saying that the original Japanese is always best, and _you_ have to read subtitles? What a brat. He should be spanked. He's doing pretty well with English, though as usual he picked up the curse words first."

Fenris ran up to them. "I need to buy a DVD! That guy said that the English dubs for the early _Saiyuki_ episodes aren't exact translations, and they're fun that way."

"You're not that good with the English. Besides, you don't need another version of anything this early in your DVD-collecting career."

"Elena...." He took on a pleading look. His eyes even looked wider.

"One DVD. And choose wisely, young apprentice."

"Thanks!" He ran back to the shelves.

"What?" she asked Ken.

"You're really cute together."

"Bite me."

As they walked up the avenue to their hotel, Elena suddenly had a sad look on her face, so Ken asked, "What?"

"Those people over there are speaking Polish," she answered.

"Go over and talk to them!" Fenris said.

"Sure, I'll go be the crazy stranger that asks them to talk at her. No. I haven't spoken my own language much in... forever, really. Rosenkreuz took me when I was five."

"Five?" Ken asked. He'd had a good childhood. She must have had almost none. He knew Fenris had been deprived and abused.

"Yeah. My family tried to fight, so Eszett burned down the entire block. People were trying to jump out the open windows, but hit invisible barriers. The fire brigade poured water on it, but it wouldn't stop burning...." Her mouth twisted. "I didn't know any German and wasn't a strong enough telepath then to pick it up, so they told me straight to my brain that this happened because of me and this is what happens to people who fight them. That's when I learned that some people deserved to die, though not how Eszett wanted me to."

"Now you can make fire. That has to be really disturbing." Since they were speaking in Japanese, Ken felt that talking like this on the street might not be so bad. This is the most Elena had ever told him about her life.

"No, it's great, because now _I_ have the power to start fires or stop them. I have the power to protect or destroy. My choice." She put her arm around Fenris' neck. "It would take a hell of a lot to make a victim out of me now."

Fenris suddenly looked confused. "Something's going on with Schwarz. I don't know. Are you getting anything?"

"No, but I've been blocking them out since that shit with Zhulin's people and the priests."

Something bad had happened earlier today, and it annoyed Ken that no one would tell him what it had been. Whatever, it had left Elena shaken and closemouthed.

"They're... unsettled," Fenris said. "But I guess that makes sense after how nuts Farfarello went."

"Farfarello went crazy? Crazier?" Ken asked. Of course he had. He was a psycho.

"He got better once he was back with Fujimiya-san," Elena answered.

Because of the mind link. Ken sighed. Life would never be anywhere near normal again. How could they save Aya when he didn't want to be saved?

That had always been their problem with Aya.

******************************************************

"I never meant for this to happen, puisín," Farfarello said as they walked to the bathroom.

"I know," Aya answered, although the feeling of the link still distracted him. It had been there, stronger even, for a while, but he hadn't been aware. Not that he knew he couldn't see how he'd missed it.

He would never be truly alone again and didn't know quite how he felt about it. His ambivalence about other people being nearby had been a problem for a long time. But he'd chosen this life, over and over.

The new sink looked wildly out of place. It looked like the start to a renovation they couldn't stay around for. "I'll miss this apartment," Aya said, "even if it is a shit hole."

"Yeah."

"Maybe we could still get our own apartment. Two apartments with an interior connecting door couldn't be too hard to arrange, given the money we all seem to have."

Farfarello looked utterly surprised, then smiled. "Do you think they'd go for it? They might, but...."

Of course, someone who'd recently lived in a straitjacket in a bare room with bars on the window and a locked door might be unaccustomed to asking for more space and getting it. "We can ask. We could be passive-aggressive little bastards about it if we wished."

"You're very good at that."

"Thank you. I practiced for a long time." Aya hung Farfarello's leather jacket on the doorknob, unbothered by how stiff with blood it had become. He'd known whom he was giving the gift to. In any case, the leather cleaners they knew could do wonders.

He didn't like the welts on Farfarello's arm, but he could treat and wrap them after Farfarello's shower. At least they didn't look deep. He had the power to stop his lover from doing that at all in the future.

Aya rubbed at the dried blood on the edge of his jaw, then gave up, deciding that he could just shower with Farfarello. He started to strip, which made Farfarello smile.

"I'm glad you're with me, puisín."

"I'm... glad to be here."

******************************************************

When Mamoru opened the door, Nagi gave him a weird, almost embarrassed look and said, "I'm about to suggest something that will make me look like an idiot."

"Now I'm really curious."

"Wanna go rollerblading? Schuldig had said once that you used to do things like that, and it intrigued me, because I never got to do anything like that."

"Like that?"

"Like... play. And you've been so prematurely aged lately and solemn. We had a good time last night, and I wanted to do something for you to show you how much I appreciated it."

"Rollerblading?" He hadn't done it in ages, yeah. A sweet offer... or a manipulative one. Was this Nagi's way of trying to make up for the mission this morning? What was this? "This is about wanting to stay here longer?"

"Aya and Farfarello need some time without the stress of packing and leaving. We could fly out tomorrow, right?"

"You've never been rollerblading?" The idea of teaching Nagi to skate intrigued him now.

Nagi looked rueful, cute. You'd never guess that he belonged to a group of killers who'd thrown priests to their most crazed member. "Never. It looked like it might be fun if you know what you're doing."

"You have somewhere in mind to do this?"

"Yeah."

This had been such a terrible day, but maybe they could salvage it. "Then yeah."

******************************************************

~ He'll never realize that I hotwired it. I'm just that good, ~ Schuldig told Brad as they walked down the hallway.

~ We'll see. ~

~ So mean. Omi took the bait. Can you believe that Nagi's talked himself into trying to enjoy this? Something about not having a childhood and making up for it a little. No wonder Omi went for it. ~

~ Truth twisted within the manipulation and lies. ~

~ Just like I taught the little tyke. ~

~ That was some risk you took by putting Aya on the spot about the link in front of everyone. ~

~ If we let him slide, he might slide right out. There was no risk in how I played it. I knew that if I had everyone staring at him, put Farfie's sanity in his hands, and glossed over how Farf was pressing and pulling on his mind, he'd fall right into place. I would have consulted you first if I hadn't known that you'd want me to act fast. ~

~ You're very funny. ~

~ It worked! Since when has Brad Crawford argued with success? ~

Schuldig caught a flash of deep green eyes within the space of a partially opened door to his left. Smiling, he dashed over and opened it all the way. "Yoji! How's it been?"

Yoji looked annoyed, since he obviously hadn't been planning to say anything to him, but put on the spot he answered, "I have something I'd like to talk to you about. Not out here." He looked cute with his hair growing out kind of curly and fluffy.

"There's talking and then there's talking. There a reason why you want to talk to me in the privacy of your own room?"

"I didn't originally want to talk to you anywhere, but since you're here, I will. I don't think it's suitable for the hallway is all."

"You could talk to Schuldig in our room," Brad said, very helpful in his amusement.

"Why would I go to your room?" Yoji asked.

"We're allies right now. We'd hardly hurt you."

"Injuring me is only one of the things I have to worry about you two doing to me," Yoji said dryly.

"We'll try not to make you have sex and like it," Schuldig answered.

"Forget about it," Yoji said and started to close the door.

Brad grabbed the door. "We'll behave."

Brad was playing along? Brad was horny too, since they'd been interrupted in the shower.... Good. It made Schuldig grin. Yoji would never believe "We'll behave" coming from _his_ mouth.

"If you want to talk to us, come to our room," Brad said.

Brad had his own gift for manipulation. Now that Yoji had pushed the issue on talking to them, he'd feel dumb backing down just because of the room and Brad being daunting. No way he wanted to admit how uneasy or intimidated he felt. Pride made people do things they _knew_ were stupid.

"Fine." And Yoji followed them to their room. He wore his watch but no gloves, and he had no training and not much juice as a telekinetic. Either of them could wipe the floor with him.

If that was what they wanted to do with him.

"So?" Schuldig asked.

Yoji looked resentful about the whole situation. "You put a telepathic link in me. I don't want it. So remove it."

He had to find out eventually. "How would you know?"

"Elena and Fenris noticed it. They see the one Farfarello put on Aya too, and we're not happy about that one either. Does he even know?"

He does now. "Yeah, he knows. We gave him the chance to have it shut down, and he refused. He knows how much it would hurt Farf to lose it."

"Hurt _him_? Elena says that sometimes he's using Aya's brain to think. How can that possibly be good for Aya?"

Interesting way to phrase it, but close to accurate. Schuldig had no idea how they'd slipped the recent meltdown past her. If Friendly had noticed it, Weiß would know by now.

"It's under control." Now. "Farf wouldn't hurt Aya. Farf loves him."

Yoji obviously didn't like to hear that. Not at all. Schuldig smiled at the thought of Yoji and Aya getting it on. That would be so pretty....

"Aya's never been good at self-preservation. I want my link gone. I didn't ask for it. I don't want it."

Schuldig didn't want to cut himself off from Yoji, so this would take some fancy talking. Once he could have gone in and made Yoji forget about it by force, but Weiß had their own psi talents who would notice even subtle tampering.

But he didn't mind that much. He loved to talk people around.

"I didn't do it on purpose." Schuldig kept his voice soft as a plea instead of a snotty rejoinder. But not too soft. Overdoing it would make Yoji more wary.

Yoji's expression changed a bit as he remembered that night. "I know."

"But I don't regret it. I'm not linked like this to many people, you know. And of those, Nagi's uptight, Aya's... Aya, and Farf's a fucking lunatic with sensory issues."

"What about Crawford?"

"My talent makes it impossible," Brad said, sounding very blasé and Brad-like. Perfect. "My mind exists in the present and future. At best, Schuldig can pick up some of my surface thoughts. The rest he can't reach. The kind of deeper link he has with you is impossible for us."

A lot of times Schuldig loved that Brad provided a quiet zone that he couldn't get from most people. But sometimes Schuldig missed the ability to literally blow his baby's mind. Right now he concentrated on that inability alone.

"You wonder why sex is so intense with me, Yoji?" Schuldig asked. "It's because your link lets you feel what I'm experiencing. It amplifies your pleasure, and I feel that, which amplifies my pleasure, and it just keeps building. I can't do that with Brad. Not ever. He's my partner, but he's closed off to me."

Schuldig could almost see how the words went into Yoji's heart like hooks. Hell, he could feel it. Yoji did the shallow and disinterested routine in self-defense, because he cared about people too easily once he got to know them. Empathized with them, in the human instead of the psionic way. Now he thought about what it would be like to be able to have a deep emotional and sexual communion with anyone _but_ the one you loved most.

Loved most? Shit, did Schuldig come off as Brad's bitch? Whatever. It worked for him for now.

Schuldig wondered sometimes if Brad had any idea of how sex _could_ have been for them if not for the interference of the precognitive quirks of his mind. He hoped not. Brad might not be enslaved to physical pleasure, but he hated to be gypped out of something other people could have.

So the sex could have been... more in some ways, yet Brad still kept him satisfied. Did Schuldig love Brad _because_ he couldn't be read completely, sustaining some mystery?

"You feel so good to me, Yoji," Schuldig said, pushing his voice lower. "You're so sensual. Like silk along my mind...."

Yoji hardened his expression and wrapped his arms around himself in an effort to look unimpressed but couldn't hide the shiver. So vulnerable to words.... Schuldig got off on this as much as he did on sex.

The charge of lust and anticipation kept growing, becoming heavy in the room. Schuldig could see Yoji's posture changing in response, while Brad stood like a cool automaton but could set the room on fire with the intensity of his gaze as he watched. Yoji made such a good pet; he relaxed even Brad. Brad should be thankful that Schuldig had helped him recognize this kink of his, since it made him much less boring and stressed.

"I don't want to lose you," Schuldig continued, knowing that his words would be translated to "I _need_ you, Yoji."

"You don't mind this?" Yoji snapped at Brad in an obvious attempt at redirecting the conversation.

"It makes him happy," Brad answered as if he didn't need any other reason. And what softhearted Yoji could argue with that?

Though Brad had verged on overdoing it a bit. Someone listening to him might almost have heard some warm emotion in there, and that would make Yoji suspicious.

Schuldig _liked_ Yoji, his sensuality and defensive arrogance and kindness and crazy guilt. The Weiß kitties tended to overdo it on the guilt so Schuldig had to tend to them to keep it in the right tasty proportion. He liked how Yoji saw people as opportunities, though not quite in the same way he did. They had other parallels between them. With a little less conscience, Yoji could have been a partner in crime or archrival. But then he wouldn't be as amusing to play with. Yoji had enough sexual experience to be willing to try things but not so much that you couldn't have fun shocking him. It could be cute how he tried to act so cool but could be such a big dork sometimes. Hell, the guy was almost family, though if it came down to a situation where it was either Schuldig or Yoji, Schuldig would choose himself every time.

Right now Schuldig was dying to touch Yoji, who looked so sleek now with his healthy weight and healthier mind and a little, endearingly awkward with his bleach job and short haircut growing out. Schuldig had never had a regular piece he could telepathically touch so deeply, and _knowing_ Yoji gave the lust an extra pull. He knew Yoji's Spots and weaknesses and the things that made him scream from muscle memory, not just from pulling it out of the kitty's head.

Thrumming with lust, Schuldig couldn't wait any longer. Had to go in for the kill. "I love feeling part of you inside me. I don't want to take the link down." He put his hand to cup the side of Yoji's face and stroked with it a little. "Don't make me take it down. I'd miss you."

Yoji shuddered. "I'm not doing this again." But he sounded shaky, obviously teetering on the edge.

"I wouldn't hurt you, Yoji. I want you to feel good. Haven't I shown you that?"

"You... like to make me feel good when it makes you feel good."

"So you know that my motives are true."

"You... you make me insane."

Schuldig couldn't help grinning as he replied, "Likewise," and put his hand up the back of Yoji's sweater, then grinned even fiercer as Yoji jumped at the feeling of cool fingers tracing up the warm skin of his back right to one of his Spots. Even with the light scarring here and there, he had nice skin. The sweater, cashmere, felt good too. Go Schuldig for making Yoji treat himself better. His kitty smelled like lust, cologne, and cigarette smoke, good stuff.

He had Yoji shaking with desire from a few touches and suggestions and Brad on fire watching them. Power always made a heady aphrodisiac. Schuldig grabbed Yoji and brought him in closer for an extended hug, grope, and stroke session.

Breathing hard, Yoji said over Schuldig's shoulder, "I can't believe you're just standing there through all this. Aren't you going--"

"To help?" Brad answered. "I believe that I will." He moved up so close that Schuldig was cheerfully sandwiched between them, cupped the back of Yoji's head, and kissed him like a conqueror taking a city. Happily, Yoji's mind pretty much went boom at that point and shifted over to pure sensation.

Life was _good_.


	110. "Please don't terrify me by sounding like Schuldig."

"I'm not supposed to notice that you're not really skating?" Omi asked with a laugh, smiling.

"Do you know how many times I would have been on my ass by now if I hadn't been cheating?" Nagi answered, defiantly continuing to levitate.

"Hmm." Omi gave him a look that would have earned a gold star from Schuldig. Of course, Omi skated as if he'd been born with wheels on his feet.

"I don't get how this is supposed to be fun."

"The speed and exertion make it feel good."

"This is _not_ speed. And physical exercise? Is so medieval. If evolution had any justice, we wouldn't need the meat much longer."

"Sometimes you enjoy using the--"

"Please don't terrify me by sounding like Schuldig."

"Good point." Omi looked wicked. And happy, but mostly wicked. "You love it when your brain is working at top speed, unraveling problems. It's the same basic idea." Omi took him by the wrist. "Okay, first let your wheels actually touch the pavement."

Sighing, Nagi answered, "I'm only doing this because I love you." And nearly fell as soon as he stopped telekinetically holding himself up, but Omi put an arm around his waist to prevent it. "I'll just drag you down with me."

"Like I haven't heard that before."

Nagi couldn't help smiling himself at all the verbal evidence of Omi's happiness. And it felt nice having Omi's arm around his waist, even though he could barely feel it through their coats.

"I'll teach you," Omi said, as if it would be fun. In the face of his enthusiasm, Nagi had to give it a try.

******************************************************

At those times when he could think, Yoji wondered how he could be such a stupid slut. He'd come to them to talk about getting rid of the link, and instead they'd gotten him into this. Which felt pretty damned good, unfortunately.

It annoyed him that Crawford made him feel so stupidly young. They weren't that far apart in age, but Crawford seemed like an adult and made Yoji feel like a punk kid. Yoji had always been the oldest member of Weiß and used that seniority to give him a kind of mental edge over the others. They all knew that he'd built a life and career for himself before tragedy had stepped in, that he had more experience, while they'd barely started. Crawford stripped that advantage away from him.

Crawford also kept giving him these "I'm the tiger, you're dinner" looks that made him have to even the score by staring fixedly at the part of his neck that had Yoji's hickey decorating it, which really annoyed Crawford. Yoji had become an expert in the art of obnoxious challenges to the extent that he could do it silently with just a look. Having spent years honing that art on Aya, he considered himself a master.

When had Schuldig and Crawford taken off his sweater? Yoji shuddered at the feel of Schuldig's fingertips and mouth gliding across his bare skin. And Crawford kept looking so smug. In retaliation, Yoji looking even more fixedly at Crawford's neck and took on a smug expression of his own.

Suddenly Crawford grabbed him and turned him around, which prevented him from doing the challenging stare anymore and put his ass flush against the seer's body. Crawford was still wearing his coat, given him the mental advantage of being dressed. He retained a tight grip around Yoji's waist. Did Crawford think he'd try to escape?

Had Crawford seen something to make him think that?

"Don't go there. That way lies madness," Schuldig said with a smile, then flicked his tongue against Yoji's left nipple. "I don't think you're a slut."

"You wouldn't."

Schuldig's hair looked messy instead of simply flyaway, and the clothes beneath his coat could have been thrown on from how they looked mismatched. Had he and Crawford run out earlier in a hurry for some reason? Yoji's detective instincts twitched to life.

"You're thinking too much," Schuldig said, then licked his way down Yoji's front and unzipped his pants. "There we are...."

Yoji surged upward at the feeling of Schuldig's hot tongue on the head of his cock, then the feel of wet heat engulfing his cock entirely. Thinking too much, huh? He had to keep thinking.

Needing to control this, his hands reached for Schuldig's bobbing head, but Crawford grabbed his wrists and wrapped them around his middle, saying, "That's not for you." He could see a wave of silver hair as Crawford looked down at the top of Schuldig's head. "Inspiring sight, though."

Yoji had to bite his tongue at the feel of Schuldig's chuckle and the touch of Schuldig's hair against his crossed and pinned arms. He would _not_ whimper. Not in front of these two.

Schuldig sucked harder, sending a wave of lust, amusement, and affection through Yoji. Shit. He couldn't think, and it felt too good, and he couldn't keep himself from moaning, especially as Crawford rocked against him from behind.

******************************************************

Aside from the sheer physical pleasure of all the touching and being touched, Schuldig had enjoyed watching Brad being smug and trying to intimidate Yoji and Yoji responding to it by being outrageous and sarcastic to show how unimpressed by it he was, just showing one of the many ways Yoji could be considered Schuldig's brother under the skin. Now everybody felt so good that no one had to think or bothered to. To Schuldig's great satisfaction, Yoji let himself be swept along by their lust.

Schuldig figured that it wouldn't take much to convince Yoji and Brad to do a daisy chain.

******************************************************

"It's hard to pack. I want to take everything," Farfarello murmured against Aya's neck, draped on his back. "Never cared about _things_ much before, and I only bought them because it was America and you have to, but now I don't want to leave anything behind."

"We may be leaving in a private jet, but we can't take everything," Aya answered as he put another book in the box. He didn't want to leave his books. "Things can always be taken away from you, so I don't put much value in them." But he couldn't say that he'd completely adhered to a policy of nonattachment, since it would grieve him to lose his sister's earring or his katana.

"If we can get an apartment out of Crawford and Schuldig, we'll need things like plates."

This was _Farfarello_. "I can't believe we're having this conversation."

"Haven't had much to call my own in years."

That could explain it. "We'll take what we can and leave the rest."

"Yeah. A bonfire doesn't seem as attractive now that they're _my_ things."

"I'm sure that the local Kritiker agents will find everything a good home."

"But you are my most treasured thing."

His breath caught as Farfarello nipped and sucked at a spot on the back of his neck. "So you own me?" Aya asked.

"We own each other."

That might even be accurate.

******************************************************

They were skating together now. Nagi did it slower than Mamoru usually would, but he was actually skating now instead of telekinetically pretending to. He even had a small smile on his face.

As Mamoru had guessed, Nagi didn't mind physical things if he felt that he did well in them. Perhaps he'd been awkward as a child and gained an aversion to putting himself out physically for fear of looking foolish and weak.

Given what Mamoru had heard and read of Rosenkreuz, that might have been a sound survival strategy.

Right now, the cold wind ruffled Nagi's dark hair and put color in his pale cheeks. It made Mamoru smile and clasp Nagi's hand a little tighter.

******************************************************

Lost in sensation, Schuldig smiled and sucked harder on Yoji's neck, smiling even more as Yoji moaned. With Brad fucking him as he fucked Yoji, he felt like sex itself, fucking and being fucked at once. Brad was almost fucking Yoji through him, using his cock. Plus, he floated in his kitty's pleasure too, being filled by Schuldig's cock and thrusting almost mindlessly into Schuldig's grip. Altogether, the three of them couldn't get any rhythm or coordination going, but multiples weren't about that. Just enjoy the chaos and uncertainty and feelings and flesh.... It surprised him that Brad liked this, but he couldn't argue against the faint sensations he received from him and Brad's teeth nipping his neck and Brad's hands on him and Yoji.

Brad fucking them both as if they felt like the best thing he'd ever experienced.

"Harder," Schuldig groaned, and Brad obeyed, which made him drive harder into Yoji's willing flesh. Yoji gasped and lolled against him, then came, shuddering, clenching around Schuldig's cock, filling Schuldig's mind with light and pleasure and a faint and tasty tang of shame, pulling him over the edge as well.

"Feels so good," Schuldig gasped, although he couldn't quite feel his knees anymore and Yoji sagged against him.

"I'm not quite done yet," Brad said, a smile in his voice, and kept thrusting into him, which made him keep thrusting into Yoji and felt like so _much_ with how sensitized he was right now.

"Brace yourself, Yoji," Schuldig said.

"Gotta be kidding me," Yoji groaned but obediently put his hands to the wall and tried to keep upright.

Rhythm, expectation, lust, sensation, Brad.... When Brad came, Schuldig and Yoji would have tumbled to their knees if Brad hadn't grabbed Schuldig and Schuldig hadn't grabbed Yoji.

"Well," Brad said, sounding very smug.

"Fuck you," Schuldig replied, while Yoji muttered, "Shut up, Crawford."

******************************************************

Taking a break from packing, Aya read, boring Farfarello. While he knew that his puisín occasionally needed some time left to himself, this activity presented no entertainment for him. Thus, the door buzzer going off came as a welcome disturbance.

When Aya answered the door, he and Farfarello saw Lark standing there, which didn't surprise them. "Hi," she said. "I heard that you're leaving tomorrow. I'll miss you."

"I think I'll miss you too," Aya answered. "Kritiker is welcome to anything we leave behind. You and James should get first shot."

"Thanks." Once she walked inside, she asked, "Hey, will you be going after the precog?"

"What precog?" Farfarello answered.

"You don't remember either? That's interesting. I forgot too until one of our research guys mentioned the precog. You know, the one who knew where you'd be walking so Zhulin could set that kid with the knife waiting for you."

"Telepath," Farfarello spat.

"Do you think the work that made all of us forget was something done by someone you already killed or someone out there now?" Aya asked.

"Hard to say. For all we know, the precog might also be a telepath."

"You want to nail this precog before you go?" Lark asked. She looked as if she already knew the answer.

"Of course. Aya could have been killed because of him."

"Or her."

"We know nothing about this person," Aya said, sounding frustrated. "Not gender, name, location.... Unless the research guy you mentioned came up with something?"

"No. He's looking into it as a lead."

They couldn't leave before they tore this person's heart out. Farfarello wouldn't let them. Crawford had to be told.

The kitten had already gotten to that thought. Aya said into his cell phone, "Lark came by to tell us about someone else involved that we all forgot. Or were made to forget. Thus, we missed someone important, this person is still out there. Talk to us about it when you can." Once he turned off the phone, he said, "Crawford isn't answering."

Farfarello tried reaching out with telepathy for the mindbreaker but snorted at what came back to him from Schuldig. "He won't get back to you for a while."

"What? Oh." Aya sighed. "Perhaps we should contact Omi, then."

Sometimes Aya still thought like a White kitten. "No. Team leader first, always. Besides, Crawford punished the boy for ignoring the chain of command by making him rollerblade."

"I don't understand how that's so awful. Is there some kind of Schwarz-wide rollerblading trauma that I should be told of?"

"You've rollerbladed?"

"I'm not allowed to rollerblade?"

"Before or after you became Aya?"

"Hmph."

Cute puisín. "You left a message. Crawford will get back to us."

"Then we'll get back to you," Aya told Lark.

"Sure. Maybe I'll get to see you again. Good night," she said as she left.

Farfarello felt immeasurably more cheerful now, happy to have an excuse to stay longer. With this news, Lark had earned some affection.

******************************************************

As much as Crawford hated to admit it, he had to say that Schuldig was correct about the relaxing properties of sex. It eliminated muscle tension very well.

Crawford did not laze; he caught his breath and bonded with his telepath in bed. That Balinese, napping after they'd wiped him out, shared that bed with them gave him something to think about. He supposed that he could see the Weiß operative's appeal for Schuldig, since Balinese was physically attractive, easy, fairly open-minded, very little threat to them, and currently conveniently located. Having an in-house sextoy made it unnecessary for Schuldig to go roaming.

He enjoyed watching Schuldig with other people partly for the act itself but also to see whom the telepath became. With Balinese, Schuldig became softer, gentler, while still retaining some wickedness.

Schuldig uncurled against Crawford's side and looked annoyed. "I do not become 'softer.'"

"All right."

"Now you're just humoring me!"

Torn between amusement and annoyance, Crawford answered, "I can hardly stop _thinking_ around you."

Schuldig continued to pout, then suddenly smiled, which didn't bode well. His words confirmed it: "We're so close to where your parents live. Why don't you give them a call?" As ever, Schuldig responded to being poked in what he considered a weak spot by poking your weak spots back harder.

"You don't know anything about my family." Thankfully.

"They might still live in Flushing. It wouldn't take much to find out."

When had Schuldig dug _that_ out? Perhaps just now. "That would be foolish."

"I can't pick up much on it, but I don't feel any anger or resentment around that memory. It sounds like you actually liked your parents."

He had. But he hadn't seen them in over 20 years and saw no reason to infringe upon them now. "Leave it be."

"Everybody I am had to run away from or was thrown away by family. You don't have any trouble with yours but you won't take advantage. I don't get that."

He refused to be manipulated. He would not get in touch with his family just because his lover's parents had thrown him into an insane ward and the other aspects of his self had been street kids. "I won't."

"I could contact them."

"You don't know anything about them."

"You'd be amazed what you can find out about people on the internet." At Crawford's look of alarmed surprise, Schuldig grinned and said, "C'mon. I've lived with Nagi for years. I've absorbed _some_ useful talents from him."

"I forbid it."

"Sure, sure."

"You won't stalk my parents."

"Ha. So you do care."

"I'm not having this conversation with you, particularly not while a member of Weiß is sleeping in our bed."

"So you call them from the bathroom. Privacy is what bathrooms are for."

Horribly, now that Schuldig had brought them up, Crawford did feel an urge to find out how they were. Christmas had brought back some memories.

No doubt feeling him weakening, Schuldig snuggled in closer and murmured, "You know you want to know. You always want to know everything."

Dammit. "You know how to find them online?"

"Oh yeah. Give me their names and watch me go."

"You found it because I've been thinking a little bit about them over the Christmas holiday."

"I'm sure it helped. So?"

Crawford sighed. "Do it."

Schuldig beamed and climbed over him to get out of bed. "This will be great. Fuck, parents. For years I thought you were born from sea foam or spawned or some shit." He threw on a robe and sat at the computer.

Crawford put on pajamas and a robe, preferring not to be naked while thinking about his family. He was really going to let Schuldig get away with this?

"Names?" Schuldig asked, thankfully unable to rip those from Crawford's mind, it seemed.

Yes, he would do this. "Thomas and Evelyn Crawford."

In two minutes, Schuldig said, "This looks promising. Names, address, phone number. They're still in Flushing."

"They're a few blocks away from their old address. That's stupid."

"Not all of us had our paranoia honed by Rosenkreuz."

"Their son was stolen right out of his school. They should have moved across the country after that. Stop laughing."

"Are you upset that they might have been in danger or that you think they're stupid?"

"Both."

"Call. That's the whole reason why I did this."

They stared each other down until Crawford reached for his cell phone. Looking at it, he said, "I have a message from Aya."

"Excuses."

Aya's message said, "Lark came by to tell us about someone else involved that we all forgot. Or were made to forget. Thus, we missed someone important, this person is still out there. Talk to us about it when you can."

Another talent, someone who'd been erased from their memories? This person would have to pay. He called Aya back and spoke to him in Japanese. "We'll let Takatori know that we want to stay until this is resolved."

"I figured as much. Thank you." Aya ended the call.

"He's so abrupt," Schuldig said with a smirk.

Persia didn't pick up his cell phone, probably since he was still out with Nagi, so Crawford left a message: "There's at least one more talent still out there. We're not leaving until we address the issue."

"So forceful," Schuldig said. "Now family."

"You don't command me."

"Anyone could stalk your family if they really wanted to, so you might as well contact them. Besides, we crushed Eszett, so you don't have to worry about them anymore."

He'd never thought of contacting his family, and he'd certainly never thought of calling them from a hotel bathroom.


	111. "I suppose it was a bit like prison, but probably not like that show on HBO, Mom."

Brad looked so annoyed as he stood in the bathroom and punched the phone number into his cell phone. A softer Schuldig, huh? Schuldig didn't think so.

He hoped these were the right people, since he'd been dying of curiosity for years. Besides, Brad came from a place called _Flushing_! In Queens. Oh, the indignity Brad felt. It made Schuldig want to giggle, but that wouldn't be dignified. Though dignity was elusive when one sat on a toilet seat cover in one's robe.

Hell, dignity was overrated.

When someone answered the phone, Brad looked very surprised, then asked, "Dad?" A pause. Then, "This isn't a joke. Would a stranger know about the call I made to you two days after they took me away?"

After another pause, Schuldig could vaguely hear what sounded like an excited voice from the phone, although he couldn't make out the words. Brad nearly smiled. "I'm good. I'm free of them now. They'll never steal another child again. We made sure of that. Mom? Two phones on the same line, I see. Yes, I'm eating well. I can't come see you. I doubt I'll be in town much longer. I'm here on business. I was kidnapped to Germany and have been working in Europe and Asia. Most recently, Tokyo. Mom, I don't take pictures."

Schuldig heard very strongly from Brad's mind that Brad's mom considered herself to be fully American, just of Japanese descent. "Nagi does photos," Schuldig said with a smirk.

"Since when?" Brad put his hand over the bottom of the phone.

"For years. He just doesn't take them often, and they're always of places and things, not people. He took some of the apartment during the Christmas party. Hell, for all I know he might have some of Tokyo on that digital camera or in his laptop. And _you_ could take photos. You have one of those picture phones."

"I use that feature for business only."

"You used it to take a picture of the busted sink."

"We're not having this conversation."

"No snappy comeback, huh?"

Brad heard something from his phone, then took his hand off the bottom and said, "That was Schuldig. He's on the team of consultants I work with." He paused. "He's also my lover." Not one to pull punches. Then his mouth did this funny movement, and he said, "I suppose it was a bit like prison, but probably not like that show on HBO, Mom."

Schuldig lost it, to the point where he was doubled over laughing. Glaring, Brad shoved the phone at him and said, "They want to talk to you."

Excellent. Schuldig took the phone. "Hi. It's me."

"Your name is 'Schuldig'?" Mom asked.

"My name is Emory Disl, but everyone calls me 'Schuldig' or 'Schu.'" Schuldig grinned at Brad's surprise when Brad realized that he'd just heard Schuldig's family name. "We met in Germany. I was stolen too."

Mom made a kind of "aw!" sound, while Dad said, "Your English is very good."

Sigh. But Schuldig just answered, "It should be. It's Brad's." Literally. Meanwhile, they had the somewhat nasal accent that Brad's English took on when he was really tired.

"What did he grow up to be?"

"Successful. Very wealthy. He works hard. He's very handsome. Which of you does he take after?"

"Both of us," Dad said.

"Now I really want to see photos. His hair went white, though." Schuldig waved back when Brad made threatening gestures at him. "But he's very healthy!"

"Did his hair go white because he can see into the future?"

That shocked the hell out of Schuldig. "You knew about that?"

Mom answered, "He called us two days after they kidnapped him to tell us not to keep fighting and looking for him because we wouldn't be able to rescue him and the people who stole him would kill us. He felt it. He'd always had a talent for that, and we believed him."

"But that time it was the hardest thing we ever had to do," Dad said.

Eszett had ways of making sure that the precogs it wanted never saw them coming for them. Brad's surface thoughts remembered briefly managing to escape to make that call and feeling all the ways Eszett could recapture him as he tried to stay free before finally surrendering to the inevitable.

"Tom has a tiny bit of it," Mom said, "but not like Brad did."

"You knew and it didn't matter to you...." Schuldig murmured. He couldn't imagine.

"Did it matter to yours?" Mom asked, a warm tone of worry in her voice.

"Yeah. They had me locked away in a ward for reading minds."

"We would never do that to a child of ours," Dad said. "Never."

"We can't meet you yet," Mom said, "but can we have an e-mail address for you and Brad? I want pictures."

Thanks for the subject change, Mom. "Sure! Nagi has e-mail. Nagi's this Japanese teenager who's like us. We're like his parents." Seeing Brad about to have a heart attack, Schuldig put his hand over the phone and said to him, "It's not like you're working on giving them grandkids."

"Give the phone back to me."

"You _gave_ it to me. Give me a few minutes."

"What's Nagi like?" Mom asked. Yeah, she'd definitely seen the substitute grandkid angle.

"He's very smart. Aside from his taste in clothes, he's trying to be a mini-Brad. Though he's in those difficult teenage years now, so he can be a bit unpredictable. Send us e-mail through prodigy134@yahoo.com. What's yours?"

"Use tcrawford11385@yahoo.com."

"Thanks. Now Brad wants to talk to you again." Showing his most innocent smile, Schuldig handed the phone back to Brad, who yanked it away with an annoyed look.

Brad listened for a moment, then said, "Christmas made me think of you. It was the first time we were able to celebrate, since we only recently destroyed the organization that used us. We had ham, turkey, several sides of vegetables, pizza, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yes, really, Mom." He smiled a little. "It was very traditional in that respect, although my team members can be somewhat eccentric. I have a brother and sister?" He looked annoyed. "Since when?"

Poor Brad. Not an only child anymore.

"You'll have to send us pictures of them," Brad said. "I have to go. Yes, we'll look forward to your e-mail. I... love you too. Goodbye." He ended the connection.

"So?" Schuldig asked, very happy.

Brad looked disgusted. "They _like_ you."

"What? Is it that you wanted them to disown you for fucking a guy or is it that they like _me_? Don't worry about them possibly not having any taste. It's not like they've _met_ me."

******************************************************  
_"How can everything be justified by you?"_  
  -- "Drugstore" by Stabbing Westward  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yoji woke to the sound of a door closing. Should he be thankful that he awoke alone? Maybe. Damn, he ached.

Damn, that had been good. It worried him how good it had been....

He'd gotten some things aside from very good sex. He knew that Schuldig didn't want to remove the link. While he couldn't trust the telepath's stated reasons, he got the feeling that Schuldig wanted to keep it for reasons other than just to deny Yoji something he'd asked for. Weiß would have to ponder that. Stripping, Crawford had revealed that he'd gone out in just a shirt, pants, socks, and shoes--without a suit jacket, vest, and undershirt--which was underdressed for him. He and Schuldig had to have left for somewhere in a big hurry. Yoji wondered where and why. It might be nothing. But it might not.

To think, if they hadn't cornered him into another round of sex, they could have walked right through with no one the wiser.

When Yoji got up to get his clothes, he noticed that Crawford's laptop was open. It was off right now but still warm. Did that have anything to do with the conversation going on in the bathroom? From the bits he could make out, it sounded like they were talking to family, which seemed unlikely. Yoji had no shame about listening in. Hell, in his original career he'd snooped on cheating wives and husbands and various other people all the time.

Everything here sounded innocent, but it could be code. Yoji told himself to remember the two e-mail addresses. If the addresses he heard weren't letter-perfect, Weiß could try variations.

This wasn't fucking Schuldig and Crawford for information. Yoji had slept with people expressly for that purpose for Weiß and hated how whorish it had made him feel. This time, he'd just been here and something had presented itself.

He'd come to get the telepathic link removed, but the less said about that right now the better.

Of course, the others would probably understand this... _thing_ with Schuldig and Crawford better if he could say that he did it to get information, but he didn't think he'd prefer "Yoji's a whore" to "Yoji can't keep it in his pants," not that either sounded flattering.

Yoji heard the bathroom door open and Schuldig ask, "What are you doing?"

"Getting dressed. Even you do that sometimes."

"But we're not done with you."

"I am," Crawford said. While Schuldig just wore a robe, Crawford had cotton pajamas on beneath his robe. "I have work to do."

"Just me then," Schuldig said with a big smile.

"You can work in here while he's doing whatever?" Yoji asked Crawford.

"I've reached the point where I can work through anything." He sat at the table in front of his laptop. "Enjoy yourselves."

Like a big cat with a mouse, Schuldig tackled Yoji down to the bed. "I'm happy and horny." Amazing how heavy Schuldig became once he pinned you.

Instead of talking to Crawford, Yoji really should have run. He knew that now. "You're like a two-year-old on a sugar high," Yoji answered as he tried to squirm loose. Schuldig running at regular Schuldig speed could be too much to handle.

"I don't know if it worries me or turns me on that you'd know what sex with a two-year--"

"That is not it and you know it! Look, I'm tired." Kudou Yoji begging for less sex. Stop the presses. "What the hell do you do when you don't have a possible partner around? You must control yourself then."

"I deny myself, yeah," Schuldig murmured against his neck. "But why should I when I have you, pretty kitty?"

Trying for a distraction, Yoji asked, "What brought this on?"

"Do I ever need reasons to jump you aside from me wanting you?"

"Not usually, but you've hit a whole new level of manic."

"Can I tell him, Brad?"

"You're asking for my permission?" Crawford asked.

"I'm being sensitive here!"

"Fine. Go ahead."

"Yoji, I have Bradparents now!"

That actually had been them talking to Crawford's parents? Kritiker didn't have records of known family for him. Besides, Yoji couldn't help believing that the seer had been spawned or hatched or something.

~ Sometimes, I thought the same thing, Yoji, ~ Schuldig said.

"They're not your parents, Schuldig," Crawford said.

"Thus, 'Bradparents.' But, you know, everything I see is mine," Schuldig answered with a wicked glint in his eyes and a kiss for Yoji.

This time Yoji's push had more force to it, and he slid out and rose to his feet while Schuldig looked at him with what seemed like amused surprise. "I'm done. See ya." Having just freshly snooped around, he didn't want to take the chance of leaving his mind spread open. Schuldig would have to work for it. Yoji grabbed his shoes and remaining clothing and left at high speed before he could be convinced to do anything he shouldn't do.

******************************************************

"Did he just use telekinesis on you?" Crawford asked.

"Yep," Schuldig answered.

"Cute."

"So cute that I decided to let him go."

"You may regret that."

"Brad." Schuldig drew the name out to five syllables.

Crawford turned around. His lover sprawled out on the bed in waves of orange hair, green silk, and long limbs. "No," Crawford said.

"You suck, and not in the way I want you to. I'm going to smoke and pout."

"Go ahead."

Schuldig smoked and pouted very decoratively. He made a very pretty picture, particularly with the soft gray smoke wreathing him.

Crawford turned back to his laptop and away from temptation. "Still no."

"I'll just take care of myself, then."

"I can block out the sounds. I've done it before."

"You take so much of the fun out of it. Fine. I'll just order room service."

That surprised Crawford. "All right. Just don't attack the help."

Schuldig smirked and reached for the phone. Crawford said, "I can't believe that you're refraining."

"Why not? I have some self-control. Besides, I've gotten so much satisfaction lately that I don't have to be a glutton. And I'd like to eat right now. You want anything?"

Solicitude? "Order something meal-sized for me. You know what I like."

"I sure do," Schuldig purred, which Crawford found a reassuring indicator of the Schuldig he expected.

His parents _liked_ Schuldig. At least over the phone they did. It bothered him that they'd so quickly fallen for his telepath's flirtatious, huckster charm, yet _he_ liked Schuldig much of the time, so what cause did he really have for complaint?

Hell, it bothered him that he had siblings, a reaction that also had aspects of childishness. Were they supposed to be so broken by his absence that they'd never have another child? Perhaps it bothered him that they'd put themselves in danger by having more children Eszett might want. Or did he just resent no longer being the only one?

It wasn't as if he had any intentions of personally meeting them. Corresponding by e-mail was a great concession on his part. Meeting would only lead to dissatisfaction on both sides. He hadn't been the son they remembered for a long time.

Just speaking to them had made him feel ridiculously young again.

But it would be fun to hear Nagi protesting anyone trying to take photos of him as the honorary grandson to send out.

Of all the times to establish any contact with his parents, surely this was the least risky. Schwarz had decimated Eszett and destroyed its files on them. They still had enemies but few with the international reach and breadth Eszett had had.

His parents must not have worried too much, since they hadn't even moved out of their neighborhood after his abduction. He couldn't believe they'd stayed in the area.

He wondered if his father had gotten a feeling on that.

Crawford shook his head. Swearing off distractions, he returned to his work.

******************************************************

Once they entered the hotel room, Mamoru let himself check his cell phone, figuring that his break from work had ended. After listening to his messages, he said, "Lark says that there's still one more psionic out there."

"Who?" Nagi asked. He hadn't been far from Mamoru all afternoon.

"The one who predicted where Aya and Farfarello would be so they could be attacked on the street."

"How did we forget that?"

"We were forced to, it seems."

"I have to see if I can network with the person or people the locals put on this. We can't leave this person alone," Nagi said.

"I figured that you and Schwarz would feel that way." Not that Mamoru could blame them. "Besides, it lets Aya and Farfarello stay in the city longer."

"That's a pleasant side effect."

Mamoru called Crawford's cell phone. "Yes?" Crawford asked.

"We're staying to find this person."

"Good. Anything else?"

"Right now, no. Good night."

"Good night."

There was something satisfying in dealing with someone who didn't demand the long dance of courtesies and pleasantries before and after business. While Crawford could do the dance--Mamoru had checked up on people who had hired Schwarz to find out more about their style of operation--he preferred not to.

Mamoru closed up his phone. "He would have found a way to stay if I'd said that I _didn't_ want to pursue it, wouldn't he?"

"Yeah. Schwarz can't leave that kind of threat unpunished. And we're freelancers. We're not as under Kritiker's thumb as Weiß is."

Mamoru decided not to be offended, but he still had to tease, "That's an interesting way of looking at it."

Schwarz was not Weiß. If he were ever in danger of forgetting that, he could wait for them to remind him, as they did every so often.

Nagi shrugged. "I could have been dishonest."

"True."

"Schwarz became a cohesive unit in self-defense against Eszett. We don't let people score against our members. Besides, Crawford has his pride."

Which Mamoru could understand.

"Could we stop talking about Crawford now?" Nagi asked with a small smile.

"Sure. I had a good time this afternoon."

"Me too. Even though I had moments when I looked like a total spazz."

"You're allowed that on your first time."

"What if I still look like one on my second time?"

"You want a second time?" Mamoru asked, surprised and pleased.

"Yeah. It was almost fun. Maybe it gets to be more fun when you're better at it."

"'Almost'?"

"I'm very set in my ways. Besides, you liked it."

"I like you."

"Which proves that your taste is good much of the time, so there has to be something more to rollerblading that I haven't seen yet."

"Funny."

"I like to think so. Would you think I'm really perverted if I said that near the end I started to see skating with you as a kind of foreplay?"

"If that makes you perverted, I'm a pervert too."

"Good. When perverts date outside their species, the relationship never lasts."

When Mamoru kissed him, Nagi tasted like winter wind. "I'm not going anywhere," Mamoru said.

"Neither am I."


	112. "That I'm the protective part of him that's good with a knife is all you need to know."

Schuldig ate his chicken and sighed, feeling kind of lonely while Brad made love to his work. Once in a while Brad mechanically ate the dinner Schuldig ordered for him, but for the most part his mind had gone somewhere else. They might as well be in different rooms. They might already have been from how it felt to a telepath.

And Schuldig had a craving for bonbons now that he didn't want to dress and go out for. Regular people got earworms stuck in their head but telepaths got mindworms: other people's songs, other people's cravings, other people's compulsions, other people's sex scenes. Most of the time he could take or leave bonbons but right now he had a strong longing he couldn't get rid of.

Plus, Nagi was having sex, which gave Schuldig another longing he couldn't currently do anything with.

Schuldig felt someone kind of telepathically flailing near his head. Recognizing the taste, he asked, ~ Yeah, Farf? ~

~ I have a question. ~ He didn't sound happy about being forced to ask Schuldig something. Poor baby.

~ _Yes_? ~

~ Earlier, Aya said that my hair was red. Do you know what was going on? ~

Red, huh? ~ Since he was deeply linked to you, he might have been seeing the afterimage of your avatar. Its hair and eyes don't have the same colors to everyone who sees it. ~

~ Why? ~

Schuldig hated to admit when he didn't know something.

Farf jumped on it gleefully. ~ You don't know. ~

~ I know more than you know, which admittedly is not that hard. ~

Farfarello sent a thick, acrid, red haze. Some people couldn't take criticism.

~ Does he still see you as a redhead? ~ Schuldig asked.

~ He hasn't said, but I don't think he does. He seems to be better now that you closed off our bond. ~ Farf's resentment burned yellow.

~ You were pulling and squishing him too hard. ~

~ Aya needs a light touch, ~ Farfarello agreed.

Schuldig knew exactly the kind of touch Aya needed.... He winced and smirked as Farf telepathically slapped him. ~ Was I thinking that too loudly? Ah. Almost forgot. We're staying in town to nail that seer. ~

~ Of course we are. Crawford would not let such effrontery go unpunished. ~

~ Your vocabulary frightens me. ~

~ I try to make sure that everything about me frightens people. ~

~ Good work, then, Farf. See you later. ~

"Who was that?" Brad asked.

"Farf had a question about telepathy. You know, I have to train that boy in contacting me from a distance when I'm not already in receiving mode. He was pretty pathetic. You know those comic girl slapfights where their arms are flailing and windmilling around? That's what it felt like he was doing."

Brad looked pained. "I'm never going to get rid of that image now."

"I aim to please."

******************************************************

Nagi had so much tension in the muscles of his back that it surprised Mamoru that they didn't break his spine. All that bare flesh looked enticing but Nagi might send him through a wall if he dared try to touch it.

"I won't do this if you keep reacting this way," Mamoru said as he pulled away.

"I refuse to be scared of anything," Nagi nearly growled back into the pillow. It was kind of hot.

"I don't want sex with me to be something you have to suffer through to make a point." Mamoru wanted to come so badly he ached, and the thought of fucking Nagi made it worse, but he wouldn't do it like this.

"It's just-- dammit."

"Maybe we're trying to do too many things at once." Mamoru really preferred it when Nagi did most of the commanding around in bed, but in a good cause.... "Roll over onto your back. You're flexible, right?"

When Nagi turned over, he looked at Mamoru with a wicked glint in his dark blue eyes. "Yeah. You know I am."

Mamoru stroked Nagi's tangled hair away from his face. "You don't like having people behind your back."

"I'm a fucking assassin."

"Hopefully."

"Damn it, I'm keeping you far away from Schuldig."

"Actually, that's my sense of humor a bit too."

"Life really does suck."

"Yes, assassins, but we don't have as big a deal with it as you do. So...."

"Face to face?" Nagi, still tense though not quite as much, squirmed as Mamoru's slick fingers lightly rimmed him.

"Hmm. We have several vibrators close by. One might help you relax."

Nagi's breathing quickened. "All right. But don't ever tell Schuldig."

"I'm smarter than that."

******************************************************

"Relax, relax," Omi had murmured at first, looking intent and aroused, and Nagi had tried despite how wrong it had felt to have something sliding into him. He knew how much the others enjoyed penetration, so why wouldn't he?

Once it nudged his sweet spot and Omi turned the vibration on, relaxing stopped being a problem. Thinking became a problem. The pleasure came from different places.... He writhed against Omi, who kissed and stroked him almost desperately.

He felt Omi's lust and how close he was to coming already, driven by the thought of what they were doing and how obviously and vocally Nagi enjoyed it. Nagi didn't feel quite ready yet, but if he waited longer there wouldn't be anything left to enjoy for a while.

"Omi, fuck me," Nagi gasped and smirked when Omi had to clamp his hand around his cock to stop himself from coming at those words.

"I'm-- This is going to be--"

"Do it. You won't traumatize me no matter what."

Omi gave him an "I should smack you for that" look as he removed the vibrator, then arranged Nagi's limbs and thrust in. It was a bit awkward, and it hurt and burned a bit, but it felt good and satisfying in a way that made Nagi's second-hand experiences feel like pale shadows.

"How are you?" Omi gasped.

"Good. Just move."

Movement made it so much better, of course. Movement was life.

It also provided friction.

They'd fucked front to front before, but this was a photo negative of that, Nagi receiving instead of giving. It felt so good.... So close to the edge, Omi had no rhythm and wouldn't last long, which gave Nagi the amazing realization that they could do this another time and it would be even _better_.

"Love you," Omi murmured as his lust and affection flowed over them. Nagi couldn't quite manage words.

There had never been any pleasure in what Amann, Monvel, or Halwic had done to him, unless you counted their pleasure in his pain and helplessness, and Nagi did not count that. Sometimes what they did had brought unwilling physical arousal, the flesh's reaction to stimulation, but there had never been pleasure in it. He always left with bruises and abrasions, since they had a special fondness for bending him over things and pressing his face down. Amann had a sick fetish for fucking his victims over wooden school desks, which had sometimes left Nagi with splinters as well.

Omi cared how he felt and if he enjoyed this as well. This was sex. Amann, Monvel, or Halwic's fucking had been about establishing power.

He doubted that they'd appreciated the irony when their victim had come back to show them how little power they could have just before killing them. Nagi hadn't killed Amann himself, but Farfarello had been a former victim too.

The feel of anyone's sweaty flesh rubbing against his once would have disgusted him, but now he loved the feel of Omi's body against his and the feel of his cock moving inside.... "Love this," Nagi managed to gasp.

Omi came, and his orgasm and relief were so strong that they pulled Nagi over with him. Distantly Nagi heard something smashing but felt too good and sex-stupid to care more. He might be glowing with it.

Eventually Nagi started to push at Omi's slick skin, aching to untwist himself. Omi, who looked wiped out, smiled and helped.

Once they separated, Nagi noticed that every light bulb in the room had shattered.

"I can't help but feel smug," Omi answered. "Do you want to do this again sometime?"

Nagi kissed him. "Bet on it. Next time I'll try not to destroy anything." He hadn't destroyed anything in a long time.

"I kind of like it when you destroy things. It lets me know I'm doing my job."

******************************************************

Restless, Farfarello pressed the red marker down on the paper harder as it made arcs. He felt too restless to read, an activity that had become more tiring since he'd taken out an eye. Aya sat on the bed and read, distant, so distant.

Farfarello hadn't realized how much he'd felt from his puisín lately until Schuldig blocked it off. Hadn't realized how much he'd depended on it. Aya might be in a different room now for what Farfarello felt from him. He would have to float out of his body a bit and scratch at Aya's edges to get the feeling that before had flowed unconsciously.

His paper had become completely covered in red and torn in places. Some parts were dark, dark red and damp from where the arcs and angles had intersected again and again. He saw patterns warped into chaos. He needed to feel his puisín, one way or another.

"I'm done," Aya said, putting his book on the nearby small table.

"Bed?" Farfarello asked.

Aya looked back, not quite real, hard to read. "Yes." He turned off the light.

Farfarello turned on the X-mas lights. He thought that he might always want to live in spaces lit this way. Instead of the bright, merciless starkness of institutions or heaven, they gave off colorful and dusky points of light that flattered and concealed, making magic where none existed. His puisín's pale skin showed off the colors so nicely.

As Farfarello walked to the bed, he became aware again of the bandages wrapped around each of his forearms. Balance. Their white showed colors off as well.

He could almost imagine that the blue and green bits of Aya's skin tasted cooler than the yellows or reds as he kissed them. The pink-purples had a flavor all their own. "Fuck me, kitten," he said, hearing his voice rumble out like falling stones. "I want you back inside me."

As Aya breathed in and closed his eyes, he began to taste like lust. He still existed, real. Victory. "Yes."

******************************************************

Crawford awoke in darkness.

Crawford awoke in near-darkness to a horrible, throbbing agony in his gut and tasted blood at the back of his throat. It spilled into his mouth, and he felt it flowing out over his lips. The weight atop him seemed to drive the pain deeper.

"Didn't see this, did you?" a voice asked in German. It belonged to the weight.

Crawford tried to ask a question, but it came out as a gurgle.

The German weight understood it anyway. The voice almost sounded familiar. "Greedy little American. It's not always good to get what you want after all. He told you what he needed, but you didn't care about that. Now he'll go heal himself. What you want won't matter anymore, since you'll either become part of the collective or be dead."

"Who the fuck are you?" Crawford pushed past all the blood in his throat.

"That I'm the protective part of him that's good with a knife is all you need to know."

In the darkness, Crawford grabbed his gun and launched himself out of bed, rolling as he hit the floor and coming up with his gun ready. His pajamas protected him from rugburn, one of the reasons he preferred to wear some if not distracted by sexual matters. Controlling his breathing to be quieter, he heard a rustle from the bed and the soft impact of something else against the floor from the other side.

He didn't taste any blood nor feel any stabbing pain. Stabbing pain. That was almost funny. Vision. It had been a vision.

It had been a vision of Schuldig killing him, stabbing him as he slept.

"Turn on the light, Schuldig," Crawford said, keeping his gun up.

~ Turn it on yourself. ~ Using telepathic speech made Schuldig's location in the room harder to figure out. ~ What did you see? ~

~ I saw you insane, killing me, ~ Crawford answered, for the same reason. He had no idea how far into the future he'd gone, and just today Schuldig had mentioned a need for some time off to reintegrate himself.

Time off that Crawford had talked him out of taking, which evidently had angered and worried someone inside that overstuffed brain.

Evidently, Schuldig had been right to be concerned about his mental state.

That last time Schuldig had tried to kill him in bed, Crawford had foreseen it very early on, and the telepath had been so awkward that there had barely been a fight. The shadow of someone else had been inadvertently piloting Schuldig's body.

This, this had been a part of Schuldig.

A wave of denial poured from Schuldig, then cut off. ~ Once you would have just shot me. ~

True. Once, if Crawford had seen the slightest hint that Schuldig would actually kill him he would have removed the possibility preemptively and completely. Now, he didn't want to shoot Schuldig. He just also didn't want to take the chance that Schuldig would make an attempt on him. ~ I won't shoot if you don't give me reason to. ~

Schuldig probably had a gun ready himself. They had similar instincts for middle of the night surprises.

~ That's ambiguous. ~ But Schuldig sounded upset, not sarcastic. ~ I'm going to go out for a walk. I think it will do us both good if I'm not here for a while. ~

Don't go, Crawford wanted to say but couldn't quite. He had his pride and the memory of a knife turning deeply inside his gut preventing him. He hadn't even recognized Schuldig's voice in the vision.

Crawford nearly fired as he heard what had to be Schuldig's speed, but the door to the hallway fortunately opened and closed too quickly. Schuldig was gone. Crawford could feel the difference.

He sat on the bed and turned on the light, turning the world into a bright haze. Putting his gun down on the table, he picked up his glasses and put them on, sharpening his surroundings. Some long orange hairs glinted on the white pillow.

"Shit," he said. In time he would go after Schuldig. Just... not right now.


	113. "I'm trying to be comforting here."

"Shit," Schuldig murmured to himself as he dressed in the hotel foyer. The telepathic haze he'd put on to confuse the desk clerk would make sure no one bothered him.

Finally, he buttoned his coat and walked out into the cold. For a few moments he'd contemplated going to Yoji's room but decided that tonight would not be a good night to test Brad's tolerance.

Insane. Killing Brad. The precognitive bastard couldn't have provided more detail? It could have been almost anyone within the collective.

Brad had shut his mental shields down tight by the end, preventing Schuldig from reading anything. Making himself untouchable.

How long would it take Brad to cool down and strengthen his resolve not to kill Schuldig? Better to give it at least a few hours.

But the whole situation left Schuldig... scared. He had things at stake here even aside from his sanity.

He walked. It was so cold that the air felt crisp and sharp, cutting at his throat and lungs, but not too cold for him to deal with. He'd survived much worse wearing much less. He walked, with different local clubs' songs running through his mind as he moved into and out of their range. But walking gave him time to think and stress weakened his shields--

"Hey!"

Schuldig stopped and turned toward the voice, happy for distraction. "What?"

Was this one of the infamous Chelsea boys? The open coat made a small concession to the cold and didn't hide his muscular physique. He had a fake blond, open, kind of bland American handsomeness. No character. He thought himself to be a bad-ass top and hot shit. Fuck, he was even named _Chad_.

"You look like you're looking for something." He'd waited until Schuldig had turned his face into the light of the open bar door before making his offer because he didn't fuck ugly people. Oh goody, Schuldig had passed his little test.

Some people just begged to have their little minds scrambled.

Schuldig didn't believe in turning aside a gift horse when it neighed in his face. "I was. Maybe I found it." He unbuttoned his coat and brushed it away from his body a bit, feeling a moment of déjà vu. It revealed his slim body, tight pants, and hastily buttoned shirt. He looked like he'd just rolled out of someone's bed.

Truth twisted within the manipulation and lies.

"You found it. Come in." Chad imagined holding onto Schuldig's hips as he pounded into his body endlessly against a bathroom stall wall. Too bad Chad wasn't a precog.

Schuldig leered at him and walked inside. The bar's cacophony of music and conversation sounded like the inside of his head. Chad took hold of his wrist and led him through the bar right to the men's room. Chad wouldn't even buy him a drink? Cheap bastard. The place reeked of sex. Ah, atmosphere. Chad commanded another couple out of a stall he wanted and the wimps actually left. It just made Schuldig melt into a little puddle of goo over what a big, strong man Chad was.

Once they had the door closed--as much as it would close, as if Schuldig cared--Schuldig slammed him face-first into the wall and pinned him there. "Hey!" Chad said. "I don't--"

Schuldig pulled off Chad's coat and chucked it to the top of the stall wall. It wasn't like he'd be needing it soon. Chad had a colored handkerchief in his back pocket. How cute! Schuldig pulled it out and stuffed it into the guy's mouth. "I didn't ask what you wanted. The only time you should open your mouth is to give head, but I don't think you can be that well-trained in the time we have, so we'll make do." Normally he'd talk his victims around in circles too, but Chad just didn't have the wattage to make it worth it.

Chad jumped and made an outraged noise as Schuldig pulled his pants down. It took some time to do it, since they were so tight and poor Chad was actually hard, which blew Chad's tiny little mind. Even better? Schuldig hadn't fucked with his head to make it happen. Chad struggled but Schuldig had the advantage on him in technique and experience even though he had the greater bulk. His gym muscles didn't have as much flexibility. And... the struggle made them both more excited.

Schuldig nipped the back of Chad's neck and put his cold hands on the gym bunny's bare ass, making him jump and try to curse through the fabric wadded up in his mouth. "Nice ass," Schuldig hissed into his ear. "Wonder how tight it is. Have you really been saving it just for me?"

Chad's outrage, helpless lust, and hint of fear made Schuldig so happy and very impatient. Schuldig kept him pinned with one hand as he undid the fly of his pants. Just when Chad started to work up enough indignation to think of rebelling, Schuldig stroked his cock or teased him with little finger touches along his spread-open thighs, going up....

Enough about Chad. It was Schuldig time. After taking lubricant and a condom out of his coat pocket, the pocket that didn't have his gun in it, Schuldig told him, "Put them on me. And do a good job. You know where it will be going."

Cowed, Chad didn't even need much of a telepathic reinforcement on the command. Disappointing. No challenge and almost no effort required. Where was the sport in this? Still, the feel of thorough yet shaking hands on his cock couldn't help but feel good.

With the game so disappointing, they'd have to go straight to the fuck. Several internal voices offered their opinions of what to do next, but he ignored them. Once Schuldig felt that Chad had applied enough slick, he spun him back around to face the wall and purred into his ear, "I'd usually prepare a guy, but you're so tough that I think we can go right to the main event." He took another moment to savor Chad's confusion, fear, and helpless lust before slamming in. The guy was _tight_. So virginal. It made Schuldig want to snicker.

Chad made a harsh sound through his gag and surged upward with him, giving off pain and pleasure. Schuldig fed on them eagerly, enjoying his feeling of control, and rode him hard, just as Chad had imagined doing to him. "Do you like it?" Schuldig said to him before grabbing his cock. "Yeah, I can feel how much you like it." Chad whined when he let it go.

It was good, but it wasn't enough.... Schuldig put his hands around Chad's neck and squeezed and released in time to his thrusts. Much better. Being able to breathe only through his nose since he had a gag in his mouth, Chad was getting lightheaded much faster and felt like his head would explode. His fingers scrabbled in terror against the pitted, painted metal of the stall wall. But he'd also never been so hard and aroused in his life, which gave his pleasure and incredulity a strong flavor of shame.

Oh, yeah....

Schuldig squeezed hardest of all on his final thrust as he came, then let go. To be nice, nicer than Chad deserved, he jerked Chad off to get him off too. Chad _really_ liked that, so Schuldig feasted on it. Finally, Schuldig rested for a while, still pinning him to the wall, then pulled out and chucked the condom in the toilet.

Again, to be nice, he held Chad up against the wall with one hand since the guy would have slid to the disgusting floor otherwise. Of course, that only lasted until he'd gotten Chad's wallet out, at which point he needed two hands. As Chad stared up at him, dazed, he went through the wallet, ignoring the credit cards to instead liberate about 50 dollars and a MetroCard. While he'd thrown together a good pile of clothes, shoes, and gun, he'd rushed out without money. He chucked the rest into Chad's lap, patted the top of his lay's head, cleaned himself up with toilet paper and fastened his pants, washed his hands at the one working sink, and left.

It was good work. He'd pushed around, topped, and nearly strangled a guy who considered himself a dom top and made him come harder than he ever had in his life. Chad's self-image was a tattered wreck. In flaming ruins. And if he got together enough spine to report the theft--ha!--he would find out that he hadn't even remembered Schuldig's face properly.

Chad was lucky that Schuldig hadn't rewritten his memories to make him think that he'd been topped by a woman with a dildo in a harness.

Still, this didn't feel as satisfying as it should have, which sucked. He'd gotten off and screwed up this guy's head for life, what more did he need?

He missed Brad. Would Brad even want to hear the highly embellished story Schuldig could tell him of this?

He had to stop fucking panicking. Brad hadn't shot him. Brad would calm down, get logical and cool again, and tell him what he saw. Then they would make sure it never happened.

Schuldig would stop reacting like a teenage girl who'd lost her first crush.

He didn't want to go back yet. Unable to feel Brad's mental state, he could only make a guess as to whether Brad had regained his calm cool yet, so it would be better to give him more time. But it was too fucking cold to stay outside.

The lit subway entrance beckoned, and lucky Schuldig already had a card. Even better, the map in the station showed that one subway line actually had a stop named "Flushing-Main Street" in Queens.

Brad would kill him.

That wasn't even funny right now.

But Schuldig felt the burning need to see these people, Brad's family. Left to himself, Brad would never go. Besides, maybe one of them had Brad's steel-trap mind, which Schuldig found so comforting. His session with Chad had helped a little, but Schuldig could still hear... things howling at the edges.

He went through the turnstile and waited for the train. The wait gave him some time to do a bit of personality and shield patchwork.

******************************************************

Having dressed and paced for a while, Crawford felt calmer. Now he could think, and now he realized something that had eluded him earlier. The future Crawford in the vision hadn't seen the attack coming. He'd been surprised and confused, in shock. His attacker had even said as much.

Yet Crawford had just seen this. The future had already shifted. It would shift more. He'd make sure of that.

Now he had to get Schuldig back. He opened his mind a little, an invitation, but his lover didn't contact him. He refused to worry yet. Perhaps Schuldig had thought to give him space.

Or had been so discouraged by the wall that he'd stopped trying.

Once upon a time Crawford would have given thanks for space and quiet.

Schuldig was Schwarz's tracker. Farfarello had some uncanny hunches when the target was nearby, but Schwarz needed Schuldig to find missing people who might be anywhere.

Crawford's headache worsened. His occasionally unstable lover was wandering the cold, dark streets of an unfamiliar city without taking telepathic calls. Schuldig could take care of himself....

Crawford would have to wake Nagi up.

To his annoyance, the keycard he'd gotten for Nagi and Persia's room didn't work. Good try, boys, but he had no intentions of letting anything get in his way. At least the room would be dark so he wouldn't have to see Nagi in bed with Persia. He raised his fist--

A very rumpled looking Nagi opened the door. At least he wore pajama bottoms. He looked maybe 13. "You look worse than you felt."

"I look fine." He always made sure to check that he presented a put-together appearance.

"Not to a telekinetic whose door you were about to bust down. You looked like a hurricane of possibility, which is not your usual. This better be good." Then Nagi's expression changed. "Where's Schuldig?"

"Exactly. I need you to come with me." It remained unspoken that Nagi should concoct a cover story to tell Persia. Crawford trusted the boy enough to know that on his own.

"Give me a few minutes."

Crawford returned to his room alone and pushed his talent, trying to grab whatever bits of future might be waiting, but saw and felt nothing. It was intolerable. Why couldn't he have gotten a talent that worked on command?

Nagi entered the room dressed in what could be casual wear for him now: black pants, boots, and a sweater with leather strips with silver snaps down the sleeves. Once again Crawford cursed Fujimiya's influence and taste in clothing but had to admit that Nagi could have gone far worse. At least he didn't look sloppy. He had his laptop bag with him.

"Can you find him?" Crawford asked.

"I'm not a very strong telepath, and I don't have a large range. I tried tracking him, but only received a brief impression of movement. I don't think he's in Manhattan anymore. Crawford, New York City has an extensive subway system."

Of course. Schuldig could have hopped a train. The movement and loss of self-determination made finding a mind and locking on harder. More than that, on the subway a person didn't even have to have a destination in mind, just ride, perhaps switching lines now and then.

And Schuldig thought Crawford never listened when he rambled on about telepathy.

"Crawford, is he trying to avoid you?" Nagi asked softly.

He didn't think so, but he wished he could be certain. "He might be."

Thankfully, Nagi didn't dig for more, certain that he would say more if so inclined. "I don't think he's hurt. I didn't realize it until much later, but I had a bad feeling that night he was attacked in London although I didn't understand why at the time. I didn't feel anything at all tonight."

"That attack in London was major trauma. I doubt you're sensitive enough to pick up smaller events."

"I'm trying to be comforting here."

How odd. "You won't be able to feel him--without him being traumatized--until he returns into your range?"

"Probably."

"If Schuldig doesn't want to be found, he won't be. We'll have to wait until he's ready." Which galled. Crawford hoped that he was unreachable by his own choice. "You don't have to stay."

Nagi had someone waiting for him in _his_ bed.

"I want to."

"I'll be working."

"Me too. I even told Omi as much. It's too bad that New York City has far too many surveillance cameras around to make sorting through them realistic."

"Thank you, Nagi." It didn't cost that much to let his team members know that he appreciated their efforts.

Nagi smiled a little and set up his own computer. Crawford worked. He even accomplished some things. But he couldn't stop worrying.


	114. "I always thought he was adorable in the sailor's costume."

Getting street directions from sleeping minds could be such a drag, but Schuldig had experience, skills, and determination, so he did it. And made it look easy, thank you.

A tall man awaited him at the door to the apartment building. Even without a telepathic confirmation, the man's resemblance to Brad and age told Schuldig his identity. Thomas Crawford opened the door a bit, saying, "I felt you coming." That explained his presence here and why he wore clothing instead of pajamas. "I don't generally get feelings this strong."

Schuldig didn't make any of the smart comments that he'd usually answer "I felt you coming" with. This was Brad's dad, after all. Didn't want to scare him too much. "I was pretty set on it. Didn't really think this far into it, though."

"You're Brad's... partner." He sounded a little uneasy about it but not totally against it. That was pretty much how he felt too.

"In so many ways. You gonna let me in?"

Dad opened the door all the way and stepped aside as Schuldig entered. "Did you have to come so early in the morning?" he asked.

"Good. I was starting to think that you didn't seem anything like Brad."

"What brings you here?" He sounded wary and vibrated to Schuldig's telepathy. Jittery.

"I was awake and wanted to visit."

"Brad doesn't want to visit, does he?"

"He's not ready to visit. Maybe he will be someday."

Schuldig narrowed his eyes as he caught a whiff of relief, then guilt. Relief? No way he wouldn't get the story of that out of him before leaving.

Dad let him into a nice apartment. Not big, but not really small either. Not posh at all, but it had the look of someone with taste and an eye for comfort directing things. For example, the Christmas tree decorations mixed taste with tackiness, making the tree perfect. It was a nice place. Telepathy gave Schuldig enough of an American perspective for now to feel confident in his judgment. Given Brad's occasional attitude about his past, Schuldig had expected something unrelentingly bourgeois or perhaps even trashy. This wasn't Brad's childhood home but it had some things in common. Schuldig took off his shoes at the doorway.

"Someone has taught you some manners. It eases my mind. Please come into the kitchen." Disobeying that tone was not an option. Evelyn Crawford was _tiny_, maybe 160 centimeters. At most. But she had a sharp, orderly mind and a core of steel that made her someone you didn't think of discounting. In her forties, she still looked striking, as she should. Prettiness would have been an insult to her.

Feeling the force of her personality, Schuldig couldn't quite call her "Mom" anymore in his usual dismissive, too-casual way.

Schuldig wanted to curl up at her feet and just bask for a while. _This_ was Brad's primary parent. Except for the height, Brad even looked more like her. Schuldig felt so much calmer and clearer in her presence.

Buns and a pot of tea waited for him on the kitchen table. The kitchen itself looked efficient and very clean but not quite sterile. It had some funky magnets--cats and plastic fruit and alphabet letters--on the white refrigerator.

"Please sit," Evelyn said.

She taught high school students. That explained some things. "Yes, ma'am." And he sat, which let them sit too. Maybe it would get easier to act up once he became more used to her.

"Tea?"

"Yeah. Thanks." Schuldig noticed Dad smirking a bit, probably used to his wife's effect on people.

"It's good to have you here."

"You were curious."

"Who wouldn't be?" Dad asked.

"You're prettier than I expected," Evelyn said. To Schuldig's amusement, it didn't sound entirely complimentary.

"Thanks?" Schuldig answered with a small smile.

"Evelyn, Schuldig said that he doesn't think Brad is ready to meet with us yet."

"I half-expected that." She squeezed his hand.

They just about oozed guilt and nervousness. Even the Iron Lady. That made Schuldig instantly more comfortable. He took a bun and leaned back. "He had to make himself cold to survive. I talked him into calling you."

"You warm him up?" Evelyn asked, her tone not entirely innocent.

Schuldig smiled a bit more and licked icing off his bottom lip. "Somebody has to. You know, he's upset that you didn't move far after his abduction. He doesn't want to think you're stupid." Sitting here near them, Schuldig felt some things fall into place. "Eszett wouldn't allow you to move."

Dad's teeth clenched, and Evelyn's expression took a harder edge. "What do you know?" she asked.

"I have guesses. You don't seem guilty or slick enough to have sold Brad to them, so I imagine that they took him and made threats."

"They took him from school," Dad said. He sounded relieved to talk to someone about it. "We had no idea what was going on so we reacted as any family would, going to the police and the news. It didn't get us anywhere. Then he called, and we knew that something was really strange here. He told us not to try so hard because we would get killed and he still wouldn't be free."

"We respected his vision but tried harder anyway," Evelyn said with a small smile. It faded as she said, "Then the accidents started."

"Directed at Evelyn mostly," Tom said, sounding angry. "The brake lines on the car wore out suddenly. An air conditioner fell from a 15-story window and nearly hit her. She tripped in front of a bus...."

"The driver had good reflexes," she said flatly. "Then men came to see us. They told us that things would get worse if we continued. They had interest in Tom as genetic stock but I was expendable."

Schuldig breathed in Dad's rage, which still burned.

"We were not to move far away, or they would track us down and punish us," Dad said. "If we didn't have more children, they would take me away and force me. Insane shit, but we didn't doubt them for a moment. If you'd seen them, you'd know why."

"I'm familiar, yeah," Schuldig replied.

"They threatened Evelyn."

"They were armed," she said, to refute his unspoken anger at how he'd felt impotent against them. She remembered sitting in a different kitchen and thinking of things nearby she could use as weapons before deciding that nothing she and Tom could do would take out all four of their visitors and would thus only get them killed.

Brad's mom. Definitely.

"Afterward, Tom told me that I could leave him to protect myself. Idiot." That "idiot" sounded loving but very sharp as well. "We worried about having children that might be taken from us but we wanted them ourselves and refused to live in total fear."

"I was relieved when Kenneth and May didn't show any ability," Dad said. "After May, we stopped. The last pregnancy had been a risk to Evelyn's health that we only went through because she wanted another child so much. We were surprised that we didn't face any reprisals."

"You're lucky you're Americans," Schuldig answered. "Eszett is mainly based in Europe, with some outreach to Asia, mainly in Japan, and even smaller outreach in South America. It means that they don't try as hard with Americans. And they hate your attitudes. When you threw two blanks in a row, they might have figured that Brad was all they could get out of you and not to bother further. But we destroyed Eszett. Some people survive but nobody big. The organizational structure is gone. You weren't a major priority before and you definitely won't be now."

"We never stopped looking for him. We just did it quietly," Evelyn said.

"It's amazing to finally be able to talk to somebody about this without them thinking we're crazy...." Dad said. "How do you think Brad would react to what we told you?"

"He might be contemptuous. He doesn't have much patience for what he sees as weakness... and he might not remember that we're a professional hit squad and _we_ played Eszett's game for years until the perfect opportunity came along." Schuldig felt some satisfaction as they reacted to the words "professional hit squad." Brad didn't believe in sugarcoating. "His logic breaks down sometimes when he gets really emotional, not that he would ever admit it. Thing is, there's not much you could have done. They took him to Germany. Most of their operatives here have diplomatic immunity or are so far down the chain they don't even know that they take orders from Eszett."

"He was in Germany? Bastards. No wonder we couldn't find him."

"Even if you could find him, you couldn't have gotten him back. I have to think about how to tell him, because if he finds out much later he'll be really pissed."

"We worried, especially when we heard that you read minds," Dad said. It made Schuldig realize that, despite that, they hadn't been uncomfortable around him, even knowing what he was. Being welcoming of an ability to see the future was very different from welcoming someone who could read your mind.

"You'll help us?" Evelyn asked.

"I made him call you. I'll help." He liked them, and they made Brad uncomfortable in a fun way.

"Please eat some more. You're so thin."

"Brad likes it."

"Did you bring pictures of the family?"

"Uh, no." Would they ever show pictures of Farf to Brad's parents?

"It was rude of you to come in the middle of the night without pictures."

"Brad wants people to believe that he doesn't show up on film."

"We have proof otherwise. Tom, would you get the photo album?"

"Of course," he answered.

"You have baby Brad photos?" Schuldig asked, feeling the dawning of evil glee.

"Of course!" Evelyn answered.

"I love you. Especially if there are any of him in really cute outfits."

"I always thought he was adorable in the sailor's costume."

Glee! "Does he have a little hat on?"

"Yes." She sounded offended that he thought she would consider it to be a sailor costume without one.

"Beautiful. Bring 'em on." Schuldig felt someone approaching the kitchen but relaxed a little as he tasted sleepiness and comfortable femininity, not a threat. Brad's sister.

"Mom?" she asked as she walked in, blinking in the light. "We have company?" She wore a flannel nightshirt and pajama bottoms, very practical and utterly unsexy. Awake, groomed, she would be a babe. He'd have to tell Brad that sometime.

"Schuldig, this is our daughter May, home on break," Evelyn said.

"Home from Harvard," Dad said proudly.

"Dad...."

Despite the shadow of Eszett hanging over them, they were... normal, the way Schuldig had heard that families were supposed to be, in that they had a home and loved each other and lived unspectacular but mostly contented lives. Going from something like this to life at Rosenkreuz must have been really difficult. When the other kids spoke of being on the streets or in mental wards, had Brad felt smug or...?

Schuldig decided not to think about it. "Hi, May."

She had a version of Brad's "explain this to me now" face going. Apparently reacting to the awkwardness, Dad put an open photo album in front of Schuldig and said, "There he is."

Schuldig had to grin. "He had such a chubby baby butt. With dimples!"

May upgraded to the "explain this _now_" face. Although obviously not intimidated by it, Evelyn answered, "Schuldig here knows Brad and is giving us news of him. We may meet someday."

"My other brother?"

"Don't worry," Schuldig said. "He's too old to move back in or start sponging off your parents."

She opened her mouth, then spun around. "I'm going back to bed." And hoping that things made more sense when she woke up again. Good luck on that.

Then the sailor boy picture came up and Schuldig had more important things to concern him. Even in the ludicrous outfit, Brad had an ultra-serious expression on his chubby toddler face, which made it even funnier. This stuff would be blackmail material for years, maybe even for the rest of Brad's life.

******************************************************

At the door, Dad gave him an American man hug: the grab, spine- and rib-breaking squeeze, and back pat. All very manly. No feminine sentiment here!

"Send pictures!" Evelyn said as she handed Schuldig a paper bag full of muffins and wrapped a deep blue scarf around his neck.

"Scan baby pictures and send them." Schuldig grinned at the thought of how Nagi would react to seeing them. The kid could be wonderfully cruel.

"Keep us informed of how things go."

"Yes, ma'am."

"You're Brad's chosen. You can call me 'Mom.'"

Hopefully Brad would be calm enough not to want to shoot Schuldig on sight anymore. "Yes, Mom." Schuldig felt great, certain that he'd done a good thing here.

The feeling of peace and triumph faded by the time the train came in. Then he spent all of his concentration on keeping his own and the other voices at bay. The change came so abruptly that it felt like being hit in the head with a club. He'd gotten cocky in that apartment as Brad's mom had kept his mind orderly just by being there. Now he didn't have a crutch anymore, and he had to get through the commuting crowds, so many tired muttering minds bent in the same general direction, workward, drudgeward. The fast shield and personality patchwork he'd done on the ride over crumbled under this assault.

Schuldig made two people get up so he'd have enough room to put his feet up and curl in upon himself a bit. Right now he _was_ disabled, so he deserved this seat. Seats. Whatever.

He'd been doing fairly well, but that thing with Brad last night had scared and stressed him into losing it. He really needed time away from people.

He used to take advantage of punishment time in the stark, extreme quiet of the Box to maintain himself. That still left days of nothingness to burn through, but it kept him occupied for a while.

Thinking under the loud choir of muttering and murmuring minds gave Schuldig a splitting headache. Go back to the hotel? He could nestle under warm covers and demand pampering. Of course, seeing as how he'd be demanding pampering from Brad, he wouldn't get much, but he would take it gratefully and not whine too much about all the Brad-bitching it would come with.

Except that Brad probably wouldn't be in a pampering mood now.

Schuldig couldn't go back yet, but he needed some kind of relief. Self-medication seemed like a good idea, so he'd find a bar. Inebriation made Nagi dangerous beyond belief, but it just muddled Schuldig and blocked things out a tiny bit. At the very least it elevated his mood. He really wanted a beer right now. Hell, several.

Why the hell wouldn't the train move? Reading a mind nearby told him that this was the last stop the 7 made. Everybody off if you didn't want to go back to Queens. Schuldig lurched to his feet and departed in search of a downtown train. He'd know the best place to get off the subway for a bar.


	115. "...you could give me a clue which one of us killed you so I can make sure it doesn't happen."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here Schuldig is singing "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics.

Nagi cocked his head, listening. "I feel him. He sounds like a crowd. A crowd of people with migraines."

Hours of waiting finally over. "We're going to pick him up."

"He's still moving. He's not coming here."

"Why not?" He couldn't help sounding outraged.

"I'm lucky I could make an ID. Even when he's off his game, like right now, he's very difficult to dig into. I can't grab the reason why he's not returning. So we'll have to go get him. I downloaded a subway map to my laptop, which will help me direct you."

"I have a color printer here."

"Even better. Right now all I have as a location is 'downtown.'"

As Crawford sat in the driver's seat, he foresaw heavy traffic. When he thought of a different route, he foresaw heavy traffic there too. "Shit."

"What?"

"Traffic."

"Schuldig isn't in immediate trouble. His mind's not that great, but we don't have to get to him right now. Don't burst a blood vessel. He always lands on his feet when he's out of his head."

"_What_?"

"Every time he goes to ground for any reason he ends up in a bar eating bar snacks and getting money and drinks out of people. Since I haven't detected any movement or alarm and I can still feel him, that's my guess as to what he's doing."

They hit rush hour traffic fairly quickly. Even worse, they were behind a large SUV that blocked their vision and made it impossible to see what was ahead. After three green lights passed and they'd only moved about ten feet, Crawford muttered, "I'm getting ever more tempted to leave the car and walk."

Looking bored in the passenger seat, Nagi answered, "I'm not walking around downtown looking for Schuldig."

"Where did you get this attitude from? Oh, yes. We're looking for him right now."

"We'll be taking a right three blocks down. If we ever get there."

Nagi might think Crawford was overreacting, but he didn't know everything about Crawford and Schuldig's relations. Nagi knew that Schuldig would run off every so often and have to be brought back by Eszett after some disciplining but hadn't realized that if not for Eszett Schuldig could have very capably made a life out there and disappeared. The telepath was that good at blending in, when he wished to be. Eszett stepping in had been a boon for Crawford.

Now they did everything by free will. If Schuldig decided that it would be safer and better for them if he stayed away, Crawford wouldn't force him to return.

Crawford couldn't see what would happen here, who Schuldig would be or how he would react. The suspense wore at his nerves.

Eventually Nagi told Crawford to stop and they found parking. Nagi pointed to a graffiti-scarred awning. "He's in there."

"_Why_?"

"He's Schuldig."

They walked down the few steps and through the striped door into something that smelled like a basement and looked like someone's tiny rec room. They heard Schuldig before they saw him.

Flipping back his hair, Schuldig sang into a mic, "Who am I to disagree? / I travel the world and the seven seas...."

"It's worse than you thought," Nagi said softly. "Karaoke."

"He's singing on-key, in perfect English." Better than the grammatically deficient English of the lyrics scrolling on the nearby TV screens.

At least Nagi knew what trouble that could mean. Schuldig could not sing on-key. Not as himself. Nagi had seen him sing, drunk, in German and deeply accented English without realizing that he was hearing the remnants of a dead girl performing.

When Schuldig finished his song, a nearby group of beer-drinking Chinese women congratulated him. Not in English. He answered them in the same.

Perhaps Crawford should have Schuldig do Cantonese and Mandarin implants for him. China was a large country, full of opportunity if you could work around the government.

Schuldig said something in what was probably Cantonese to the bartender and looked angry at the results, then called in German, "Brad, I can't figure what fucking accent this machine wants me to enunciate in to give me a high score! I'm still getting 'You've nature to sing,' which is okay, but I _want_ a perfect 100 and 'You've genius for singer.' I've fucking earned it." He looked overly happy and sounded buzzed. With Schuldig's metabolism, it took a lot of alcohol to get him drunk.

Relief struck, then the urge to strangle Schuldig. "I thought you might be dead in an alley somewhere," Crawford answered in the same.

"Instead you've fallen into a karaoke den," Nagi said.

"Nice, ha?" Schuldig said as he walked up to Brad and leaned on him. "Cheap beer too."

"You were singing."

"Yeah. I got tired of everyone busting on my singing so I pulled what was left of Kristiane closer to the surface and melded her in. The music's all that's left of her, poor kid. She'd want me to share."

Nagi did a dramatic look around the tiny place. "Good start."

Crawford was horrified. "You're messing with your personality over something so tiny?"

"Who do you think I got my love of performing from anyway? They're mine and I can do what I want with them. Chill." But then Schuldig put his head on Crawford's shoulder and rubbed a little. "Sorry. I'm glad you came to get me. Didn't know whether you'd want to."

"I let down my shields hours ago."

Schuldig brightened. "Yeah? Aw! Couldn't hear you over the roar."

This was not good. But at least Schuldig seemed happy to see him.

Nagi asked, "Can we get out of here before that lady starts trying 'Karma Chameleon'?"

Before Crawford could say anything, Schuldig said, "Yeah, I'm done here now." He chugged down the last of his beer, set the mug on the red bar, and picked up a small paper bag.

"How much?" Crawford asked the bartender in English and paid Schuldig's tab.

"Feel free to come back. You're very entertaining!" the bartender said to Schuldig in English.

"I'll see what I can do, Tsang." Outside, Schuldig murmured, "You're still worried about me, Brad? That's sweet. It would be helpful if you could give me a clue which one of us killed you so I can make sure it doesn't happen."

Crawford could now. "He said he was the protective one who's good with a knife."

"Shit. Has to be Bren. Crazy motherfucker. We were too scared of him to chase him away. Bren doesn't even try to take over unless we're really threatened and he thinks he's the best shot. Being a 'ghost' just riding along inside me appeals to his weird sense of humor. He always expected to die by violence, so he barely had any psychic shock when he did. He's almost intact."

"Psycho with a knife?" Nagi asked, obviously listening very closely.

"Yeah. Part of the reason me and Farfie get on so well. Bren only gets out when I'm really out of it and my shields and will are bad. I will make sure he never sees the light of day, Brad. I swear."

Crawford had given this a great deal of thought. "Schuldig, I'm going to give you your break to get your mind together."

Looking greatly hurt, Schuldig said, "Yesterday you couldn't be without me for even a day!"

"Don't turn this into something about me not loving you! I'm doing this because I care!" It just burst out of him, and he couldn't stop it.

Schuldig and Nagi stared at him with wide eyes. So did two bystanders. "Get into the car," Crawford said softly.

Schuldig sat in the shotgun seat and with one hand toyed with the fringes of a blue scarf Crawford had never seen him wear before while clenching the fingers of his other hand on the top of a small paper bag. Nagi sat in the back looking as if he wished he had popcorn to go with the show.

Knowing that Schuldig would be inconsistent and emotional right now, Crawford chose his words carefully. "Schuldig. He told me that you needed this so badly that he would kill me to make sure you got it. I want you with me, but not at the expense of your health or sanity. I want you to take as much vacation time as you need for this. If you need to do this completely alone, I will abide by that. If you want me somewhere within driving distance, I will do that."

Schuldig's eyes looked very wide. "Wow. Uh, thanks. I'll take some time. With you somewhere within driving distance, if that's okay. After we clear up this thing with the missing precog."

Crawford felt immeasurably better now. "Good."

"I think I felt her. Precog with some telepathy. I saw Farf's face in her head too, which means she might be the one. The way she felt kind of slippery gives another clue. I was on the Q somewhere between the Prince Street and Canal Street stations. Somewhere in there. I think it was closer to Prince Street. Q rides right past that one. She was too slippery and too set on her morning routine for me to read much."

"You found her?"

Schuldig grinned. "I think so."

Half out of his head and wandering, Schuldig had tracked down someone they'd been looking for. Chance might have been a strong part of that, but Schuldig had been open to chance. ~I love you. ~

Schuldig grinned.

"Nagi," Crawford said, "I need you to take the subway to get a tighter lock on her."

That took the almost mushy smile off Nagi's face. "_What_? Why me?"

"You have a better spatial awareness due to your telekinesis, so you can better pinpoint her location. You're also sober and not having a mental crisis."

"Thanks, Brad," Schuldig drawled.

"I _hate_ you," Nagi answered.

Schuldig took a bran muffin out of the paper bag. "Would a breakfast muffin from the Crawford residence help? Mom Crawford wants her family to eat right."

Nagi took the muffin. "Uh, what?"

"You were unstable and you went to see my family?" Crawford asked, too stunned to even get upset yet.

Still, he should have expected this. He _knew_ Schuldig, who wouldn't be able to resist this dangling nearby.

"You have family?" Nagi asked Crawford.

"Oh yeah, kid," Schuldig answered. "His parents know he's a seer and love him anyway. They didn't mind me being a telepath either."

"And he doesn't contact them?" Nagi knew him well.

"He called them yesterday. We mentioned you as a kind of adopted son of ours."

"I have grandparents." Nagi seemed to be in too much shock to know how he felt about that.

"I wouldn't kill them, Brad. There was this one guy last night I could have killed but didn't, and he _deserved_ it. Your parents are safe from me. They love you very much, Brad." Schuldig set the bag of muffins down next to him. "They wanted you to have a better breakfast. They worry that you might still be eating too much Count Chocula. I didn't have the heart to tell them they were right."

"You're trying to make me go soft," Crawford said.

"You're so full of shit. I work on making you _hard_. Idiot. They like me, even after meeting me." Schuldig sounded wistful. "Your mom gave me this scarf. She feels so much like you in her head. Except for the whole precog thing, of course."

Schuldig used even his weaknesses as a weapon. "They look well?" Brad asked.

"They look great. Especially your sister. She's a babe."

"I would break all of your fingers."

"No fun. We're coming up on the Prince Street station. Nagi should pick up the downtown N or the R."

"I _hate_ you," Nagi said.

******************************************************

Cursing internally to himself, Nagi waited with the crowd for the train. The reasoning behind this might be right, but he still resented being in this dirty, stinking hole with people everywhere around him.

Some guy drummed on some big empty plastic containers, creating a drumming racket that echoed and bounced oddly off the walls and ceilings in ways Nagi couldn't help seeing. He wondered sometimes if other telekinetics felt and saw music the way he did, but Rosenkreuz hadn't allowed music except as a rare reward so asking anyone there would have been useless, he didn't know if he could make Fenris understand even the question, and Balinese didn't have enough talent to be aware of these things.

Nagi put a bubble of force inside one container and smiled as the sound changed. The drummer looked surprised but kept on playing. Then Nagi put a different sized bubble of force in one of the other ones.... For the next five minutes he played telekinetic three-card monte with the containers, driving the drummer into a froth of confusion and frustration. Nagi only stopped when the train arrived, creating its own maelstrom of noise and forces bouncing everywhere. He dropped a dollar into the man's cup right before the crush of people pushed him onto the train.

He didn't get a seat, of course, and all the poles were already covered with commuters. To his greater annoyance, he'd have to stretch his arm up and out to hold onto an overhead bar. Tall people shouldn't be allowed to design public transportation. A teke shell around his body kept anyone from getting _really_ intimate with him, but if that guy behind him with the overstuffed backpack didn't get a clue soon he'd get that backpack shoved up inside his ribcage.

Nagi locked his hand on the bar, closed his eyes, and felt outward and upward with his mind, scanning. Finally he found the seer, slippery as Schuldig had said, as she was on her way out the door to her day job. As Schuldig had also said, she read as being ruthlessly focused on the right-now, something some precogs did to differentiate the rest of their lives from the part of them that sifted into the future. Nagi felt outwards with his telekinetic sense to get the lay of the area so he could find it later topside.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself on the tips of his toes hanging forward above a seated and very worried looking woman. Aside from hoping he didn't fall on her, she was partly concerned for him over how out of it he'd looked and partly worried that he might be one of those fabled "sick passengers" who led to entire subway lines being held up as the authorities tried to get them out.

"I'm getting off at the next stop," Nagi said.

He left the crush at Canal Street station and quickly realized that Schuldig had made him get on at Prince Street to make sure he got on the right train, because Canal Street station was a knot of various subway lines linked by damp, decrepit, piss-scented tunnels that seemed to go all over the place. If Nagi had entered the subway system here, he would have quickly traced his way back outside to tell Crawford and Schuldig to go fuck themselves. Finding an exit was marginally easier than finding the right train here.

Finally he returned to the relatively fresh air outside. And waited.

And waited.

Of course. They were probably stuck in traffic.

They were so going to die.

******************************************************

"Nagi's going to kill us," Schuldig said as he looked out the passenger window and ate a blueberry muffin.

Crawford wished for a fiery end to SUVs everywhere. Aside from the occasional flash of foresight, he couldn't see around the damned things. "Patience is a good trait to have."

"Sure. He'll pass the time by thinking of ways to kill us."

"Is there another blueberry muffin in there?"

"Yeah." Schuldig handed one to him. "You know, your parents still tried to find you."

"After I told them not to."

"And even after Eszett tried to warn them off by threatening your mother."

Crawford's hand clenched on the steering wheel. Fortunately, he remembered not to do the same with the one holding his muffin.

"Eszett also told them not to go too far away, or they'd be tracked down and your dad taken in for stud service," Schuldig said. "Your parents were ashamed that they hadn't fought back better, but I told them that you'd know that they had no choice. Hell, I said, we're a professional hit squad, and _we_ didn't do our rebellion for years."

"You didn't really say I'd understand. You told them the truth, that I'm a judgmental bastard." Crawford took a large, particularly blueberry-studded bite out of his muffin. "I have to give you points on how you presented it to me, though. Did you really refer to Schwarz as a 'professional hit squad'?"

"Yeah, though I might have been better off saying we're bodyguards. I keep forgetting that regular people seem to think that it's safer to be a bodyguard than an assassin."

When, in truth, being a professional bullet-catcher, a bodyguard, was far more hazardous. "How did they react?"

"Surprise. A little 'oh no.' Not too bad. They're very unprejudiced. It keeps shocking me."

"I don't feel contempt for them over anything they had to do to survive Eszett. You're right that they had even fewer resources than we did."

"You ever gonna tell them that yourself, champ?"

"Maybe." But he didn't have to yet, not when he could pump Schuldig for information. "You're really invested in me keeping in touch with my parents."

Schuldig finished his muffin by popping the rest in his mouth then shrugged. "They're good people, and they don't have anything against the talented. I like them. Your mom feels like you to me. Your dad's cute about his pride in how Ken and May made it into good schools."

"Did they?"

"Ken's at MIT and May's at Harvard."

Crawford felt a small glow of pride. "Good."

"Yeah, though a degree from the Rosenkreuz school of hard knocks is far more impressive on a resume to some people."

"Where do you want to go for your vacation?" Where his telepath and lover would be putting his personality back together. Calling it a vacation made it sound less dire.

"This couple in our hotel was going to go on to a quiet bed &amp; breakfast in Vermont next. It wouldn't take much to have them call Gary and Janet to have their old pal Schuldig stay in that room instead."

Crawford couldn't help smiling a little at that. "Will they pay for you as well?"

"Nah. I'll give them a little break. I already stole their cozy winter getaway. And no, this is not getting soft. This is being selective."

"I'm glad you're getting selective. I've been trying to train that into you for years." Crawford wouldn't mind Schuldig being "soft" toward people in his extracurricular activities since he saw no purpose in being sadistic to random people. His own sadism always had a plan and/or a paycheck involved.

Schuldig stuck his tongue out at Crawford. Since they were stopped at a light anyway, Crawford put the car into Park and kissed him, tasting blueberries and beer. Some elusive but familiar scent clung to Schuldig's hair and scarf. Tea. Schuldig smelled a bit like the tea Crawford's mother had favored. Which made Crawford nuzzle him.

~ You're getting kinkier. ~

"You have a sick mind."

"I'm working on making it better."

They both jumped at the sudden honking. The traffic _would_ start moving once they became otherwise occupied. Crawford let go of his telepath to go back to driving.

Schuldig took Crawford's cell phone off the charger. "I'll give Snow-white and Rose-red a call."

"Tell them to be ready to be picked up."

"When?"

"Whenever. They should be ready for us to show up at any time."

"You can't see it?"

"Bite me, Schuldig."

"Ooooh, I'm such an influence on you. Oh, hey, Aya. Get yourself and the little maniac dressed. We'll be picking you guys up in the next hour or two for a Schwarz and probably Weiß meeting. I may have found our seer. Yeah, Farf will be the one who gets to take a crack at her. See you soon." Once Schuldig hooked the phone back up to its charger, he rested his head on Crawford's shoulder. Crawford let it stay.

When they stopped for Nagi, as he got in Nagi gave them an annoyed look, then said, "You're both really lucky that you're still too useful to kill."

"We do that deliberately," Schuldig answered.

"I'll tell you where to go. Then I'll give you an idea of where the precog lives."

"Rim shot please."

"You're disgusting."

"_I'm_ disgusting? I was thinking about drums and cymbals, you little perv." Then Schuldig beamed. "Aw, you're learning from me."

"Not even."

"Taking instruction at the feet of the master."

"In your lurid dreams maybe. Crawford, turn right here."

Schuldig had to get well. Crawford had no intention of losing the family he'd created.


	116. "That was the point when I became very intimate with a nearby wall."

As Schuldig watched Nagi walk down the block to match his subterranean impression of the precog's location with the topside landmarks, he had to be amazed all over again at how suddenly Nagi had come to look like a young adult instead of a child. Although he huddled a little into his leather coat from the cold, he looked confident. Then the wind stopped blowing his hair around and he looked less cold. Telekinetic cheater. The sun gleamed on his dark hair and black leather. Luster....

Schuldig had a sudden memory image of Kristiane walking down the street in the snow one gray winter day, and he didn't even know whose memory it was. Her ragged skimpy clothes didn't have any luster, but she'd made anything she wore look almost theatrical instead of desperate. Her clean, dark hair did shine a little, and she was smiling....

Schuldig fought against the lump he suddenly felt in his throat. Stupid sentimentality, wanting to cry over a girl who'd been dead for years. Such emotions were weapons he used on other people, not his weaknesses.

What remained of her had been so happy to sing for an audience this morning.

Yeah, he was screwed.

But at least Brad wasn't shielding against him and didn't want to shoot him anymore. In Brad terms, that made a declaration of undying affection. Schuldig could _feel_ him again and basked in the affection and the cool, clean lines of a calm Brad as much as he basked in the sunlight coming through the windows.

Brad looked good with the silver hair, somehow distinguished and sexy at once, but his ability to pass unnoticed at all times had been compromised. The color made him more visually distinctive. Schuldig wanted to nuzzle it.

Brad had come looking for him.

Brad watched Nagi too and marveled over how grown-up he looked now, how healthy and contented. Understandably, he felt a bit of paternal pride. Nagi would never be tall or broad-shouldered, but he'd come a long way from the starved, pinched little thing he'd once looked like.

For a few minutes Schuldig watched the content/wistful/proud expression on Brad's face, an expression a layman wouldn't even recognize, then said, "You know, one time I was being me and asked him when he'd get a lover. Dunno how old he was."

"Eight?"

"Funny. Not that young. Anyway, he said he never would because he hated people and didn't want to be any closer to them than he had to get just to live among them." Schuldig paused for effect. "And that it would never work because he had a huge head."

Brad made a sound that could have been cough or a choked laugh. "A huge head?"

"That was my response. He was all 'yeah, tiny stick body and huge head.' I told him that he'd be proportional by the time he finished growing. I also said that having a huge head might even come in handy while he was giving head. That was the point when I became very intimate with a nearby wall. I'm glad you taught him restraint at some point."

Brad did a Brad-smile. "Somebody had to. He wouldn't learn it from you."

"So Nagi went from a kid who figured he'd be a spinster due to a hatred of humanity and having a big ol' head to somebody who tops Persia on a regular basis. What?"

Looking a bit uncomfortable, Brad answered, "On the last bit I'm torn between being happy for him and thinking that I was just given far too much information. On the first bit... you used one of my father's phrases."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Dad would say something like 'Hey, Brad, look at that big ol' dog over there. You wanna pet him?'" Brad had even done the accent. "To which I'd either answer that I did want to or that I foresaw it biting me."

"What was his response to the last one?"

"'Well, you'd better not then.'"

Schuldig had to laugh, having noticed himself that Tom Crawford weirdly alternated between being Zen or overly caffeinated. "I can see that." Remembering his own parents' reactions to any signs of his talent, he had to give the Crawfords a lot of credit.

Then again, if Daddy Disl had a touch of telepathy, things might have been different. A lot different.

What would Emory be doing right now if he'd been able to live a normal life? Schuldig couldn't imagine it.

The smile left Brad's face. "Schu, I can't see them. I have to be hard to do what's best for Schwarz."

For _his_ family. "They don't have a hope in hell of softening you up. It'll be fine. But take it at the rate you have to as long as you go see them _someday_."

"I noticed that you gave them Nagi's e-mail address instead of mine."

"I figured you'd appreciate having a buffer. Besides, Nagi enjoys corresponding with people, though he'd deny it to the death if you accused him of it." And this way Nagi would get to see the baby and sailor pictures before Brad did. That had turned out really well.

"Thank you."

"I know how you guys are. I just decide whether to use my knowledge for good or evil." Schuldig tapped his fingers against the cold window. "You don't have to come to Vermont with me if you don't want to. I want you there, but you don't have to go. I could make the nice couple I'm screwing out of their Vermont vacation drive me there too. That would be pretty funny."

"I thought that having people who knew you nearby helped you."

"Under the right circumstances, yeah. I thought it worked, but it's starting to look like London wasn't the 'right circumstances.' There was the damage he did me, then the damage I did to myself hiding from him. I haven't been touching myself up as often I used to either, so don't start blaming yourself for London."

"I won't." Though he'd been about to. "I blame myself for stressing you last night."

"I fucking killed you, Brad. I don't blame you." Schuldig toyed with his scarf some more. "So I'm going to have to go off alone to tear everything down and rebuild." He hated being vulnerable, and he didn't get much more vulnerable than when he was doing that. He'd let the people keeping an eye on him through cameras in the Box get their jollies in exchange for having a locked door and armed guards interested in keeping him alive as he broke himself down.

Schuldig almost jumped at the flash of emotion he briefly felt from Brad and asked, "What?"

"It sounds risky," Brad answered.

Clear as day, Schuldig suddenly read that Brad worried that he wouldn't get the same Schuldig back afterward. "Don't worry about me. My obnoxiousness is pretty hard to bury. I'll come out as improved but not new. I have an interest in surviving."

"Good. I want to go along with you. I'll stay at another hotel." It reassured Brad only a tiny bit. "You look tired, Schu."

"So do you."

Brad had smudgy shadows under his eyes. Somehow it brought out their amber color more. "I was up all night."

"Ditto." At least the rush "hour" had trickled to an end, so he didn't drown in what had been feeling like a hive mind of commuters anymore. People's varying experiences once they reached their destinations made his own boundaries more obvious. Schuldig didn't look forward to the hell he'd have to put himself through to fix himself, but once he finished he wouldn't be so damned porous, distractible, and emotional. "I'll grab some sleep after our meeting with the kitties. Wanna join me? You know you don't run at peak efficiency when you're tired."

"I'll join you."

Schuldig successfully resisted the urge to swear out loud not to stab him.

"Why haven't you been... touching yourself up as much?" Brad asked.

"I used to do that when Eszett was punishing me, which they don't get to do anymore. And I've been happy and didn't want to mess with that."

Nagi knocked on the window and got into the backseat. Schuldig said, "Took you long enough."

"I was done ten minutes ago. I saw that you were having a Moment and decided to leave you to it." Nagi rolled his eyes for further effect.

The kid managed to be a weird mix of misanthropy, brattiness, and sweetness. Schuldig still didn't know where the sweetness could have come from.

When they picked up Aya and Farf, Aya cast him an almost worried look, while Farfie settled behind him and gently tugged on a lock of his hair. Having a kitten had made him a little more careful and gentle. "What do you know?" Schuldig asked.

"Farfarello's worried about you," Aya answered.

"Don't waste a perfectly good hate-on with sympathy, Red."

"I don't hate you. I just don't trust you very far."

From Aya, that was a huge concession.

"He's a wise kitten," Farfarello said.

"I miss you, Farf," Schuldig said, feeling stupidly sentimental all over again. Prior to getting a kitten, Farfarello had talked to and fucked around with him more, which had kept them both more stable. If Brad hadn't warmed up so much recently, Schuldig would have really missed Farfarello.

They'd never thought that Aya would last long, not with Farf's typical attention span and ability to tolerate people. His predecessors certainly hadn't. They'd all ended up in dumpsters, usually in pieces.

"Things change," Farfarello answered as he finger-combed some of Schuldig's hair. ~ Now that I've had my kitten, I can't be content with just sex anymore. I want my lover's soul as well. ~

It made Schuldig shudder a little to think about it. ~ I'll keep that in mind. ~

Did Brad have Schuldig's soul?

Schuldig said, ~ I thought God loved monogamy. ~

~ Shows what you know. God's morality is situational. In the right situation, He thinks it's fine for daughters to fuck their father or fathers to throw their daughters to an angry mob. Monogamy's only good when it's useful to Him. ~

"During our meeting with Weiß," Brad said, "we'll mention that we've found the precog and that Farfarello will go after her, then say that Schuldig and I will not be returning to Japan yet due to an assignment I'd lined up. In truth, Schuldig and I will go to Vermont to give him time and peace to recover in."

"Do you think they'll believe your story?" Aya asked.

"I'm good," Schuldig said, "but Friendly and her boy will know. Omi may guess." Yoji would know.

"We're going to lie just to fool Ken?"

Interesting how Aya didn't count Yoji in that. What did he know? He had no reason to think that Yoji had been anything other than an occasional fucktoy.

"I don't feel that I need to account for what we're doing at all times to someone who is only one of our employers," Brad said. "If he doesn't believe us and only Hidaka thinks that we're actually on vacation, I don't care."

"It just seems wasteful when only Ken might believe it."

"Ken wants to know as little about us as possible," Nagi said. "He's hoping that if he pays no attention to us, we'll reciprocate."

"Ken needs a little more work," Schuldig said.

"What is this: 'Collect them all'?" Nagi asked.

"I can improve his life."

"I'm going to pretend that you never made me think of Ken with...." Aya shook his head. "I'm not thinking about it."

"He's cute!"

"He's Ken! He's either cute in a kid-friendly way or insane and murderous. Either way, a thousand times no."

"Did you just say he's cute? Aya, I never guessed you had a thing for Ken."

"I don't have a...! I was wrong earlier. I _do_ hate you."

"Schuldig, does Crawford's mother know you're a slut?" Nagi asked, probably to save Aya.

"Crawford has parents?" Farfarello asked.

"Two. It seems that they don't mind precogs or telepaths at all, yet Crawford didn't contact them until Schuldig bitched him into it and probably has no intention of meeting up with them."

Schuldig grinned as Brad started to look annoyed over the feeling of having everyone in the backseat staring at him. Nagi had been kicked out by his parents, Aya's had been murdered, and Farf had major parental issues since he'd slaughtered his whole family in a fit of insanity, then killed his birthmother-the-nun years later. Hearing that Brad had living and supportive parents but didn't want to see them was a kick in the head for them.

In self-defense, Brad threw in his own distraction. "They'll want pictures of us. Especially of you, Nagi, since we claimed you as a kind of son."

Nagi opened and closed his mouth, then said, "No one takes photos of me. Not if they want to keep living."

"I was thinking that you could wear eyeliner in them to better fit the part of the rebellious teenager."

"Are you making light of my self-expression?"

"They'll be expecting to get children from ye," Farfarello said. "Continue the line."

"They'll have to be disappointed. Children are loud, messy, and evil, and I'm not having any. Ever."

Besides, Nagi worried that any children of his might be even more powerful than he was. He'd had a bad enough time at his level.

"Not even adopted?" Schuldig asked because he had to.

"Not even."

"Your Omi might want some," Farf said.

"Too bad."

Schuldig couldn't help grinning at how good it felt to have all of his people together being themselves, which made him more himself. Maybe he wouldn't need to go away.

But he knew better. If he didn't build himself back up, he'd never be self-sufficient. As Emory, he'd seen what being forced to depend on the presence of other people led to.

"So, Schuldig, does Crawford's mother know you're a slut?" Nagi asked again, for the same purpose he'd asked before.

"Nope. But she does think I'm too pretty."

"Too _pretty_?" Brad asked.

"She doesn't completely trust me because of that."

"She doesn't trust you because of your prettiness." Brad sounded incredulous.

"It's amazing, since there are so many other, better reasons not to trust you," Nagi said.

"Wow, you bottom one night and look how sharp your tongue gets."

Nagi _blushed_, then put his gloved hands over his face. Brad and Aya both looked as if they wished they weren't in the car. Farf cackled. The morning was looking up.


	117. "Pity nipping."

It still bothered Yoji to watch Aya walk in with Schwarz while looking like such a part of their team. They comfortably moved together like a unit.

"Good morning," Omi said. "Things went well last night?" Definitely fishing for something.

"We found the precog," Crawford said.

Weiß had found out about that loose end and how it would delay their departure for Japan from Omi. Yoji got the feeling that several aspects of that situation had been hashed out before his team had heard a thing. You'd think that having Omi as the leader of Kritiker would put Weiß more into the loop on information, yet it didn't seem to be working that way.

~ Bitchy, bitchy, ~ Schuldig said to him. Schuldig didn't look quite right. Worn out and faded, kind of. For that matter, only Aya and Farfarello looked fresh.

"We figure that Berserker is the best person to send after her," Crawford continued. "It's very difficult for precogs to see him coming."

"You know this from personal experience?" Omi asked.

"Yes. Mastermind says that she'll probably come home sometime around 7, so Berserker will attack then."

"Does Weiß do anything in this other than look pretty?" Yoji asked. Elena smiled.

"But you look pretty so _well_," Schuldig answered.

"_Can_ you do anything, Balinese?" Crawford asked. "My own team will be on standby in case Berserker needs backup, but otherwise we'll stay out of it. If there are any talents Weiß can contribute here, I would be open to hearing abour them."

~ Rowr, hiss, ~ Schuldig contributed, and Yoji could feel him smirk. Schuldig didn't... _feel_ quite right either.

Yoji glanced at Elena and Fenris, both of whom watched Schuldig with looks of puzzlement. At least Yoji wasn't imagining things.

"I'll think about it," Yoji answered. Ken shook his head and smiled a little.

"If all goes well, we may be able to wrap this up tonight," Crawford said.

"I'll keep our American component up to date," Omi said. "Weiß will also be on standby in case Berserker needs backup."

"Mastermind and I won't be returning to Japan with you after we eliminate the precog. We have an assignment here and will catch a flight once we finish that."

Bingo. Something was wrong.

Omi looked suspicious as well but said, "All right."

"Prodigy is authorized to accept or decline assignments for Schwarz."

The kid was? But it made some sense: Farfarello wasn't leadership material and Aya hadn't been brainwashed for all that long. At first Yoji thought it odd that Aya didn't mind having some kid deciding his employment for him before remembering that he hadn't minded Omi making a lot of decisions for Weiß. Aya wasn't as much of a hard-ass as he liked to pretend.

"Any other business?" Omi asked.

"No. We're done," Crawford said.

"I have nothing to add," Yoji replied.

Nagi's gaze flickered between Schwarz and Omi before he went to Omi's side as the rest of his team left the room. No one who wasn't familiar with the kid would have noticed. It surprised Yoji that _he_ had. He wondered if Omi had seen the struggle and calculation as to whether it would be best to go with Schwarz or stay with his lover.

Or if Omi had noticed Nagi's worry directed at Schuldig.

Hell, Schwarz, now minus Nagi, formed a kind of protective bubble around the telepath as they left. Yoji said, "Schwarz was kind of weird."

"They're always weird," Ken answered.

"Schuldig's weakened," Elena said.

"He's tired," Nagi immediately said. "The three of us had a long night, although he did the most work. But it worked out, since we found our last target."

"Nothing's happening until tonight," Yoji said. "I say we enjoy our last day here. I'm off."

"Yoji." But Ken was smiling, probably seeing this as a return to Yoji's more light-minded, carefree self in earlier Weiß days.

It had been a façade then too.

Nagi gave him a perceptive look, and he nodded back before leaving the room. As he approached Schuldig and Crawford's room, the door opened before he even had the chance to knock and let him hear Schuldig ask, "What is this? Pity petting?"

"If you'd like," Farfarello answered.

"I like."

Yoji walked in and didn't feel any surprise when Crawford closed the door behind him. Farfarello appeared to be hugging and stroking Schuldig, who cast Yoji a wicked, bright-eyed look over the madman's shoulder before nipping into his neck above the "barbwire" necklace.

From Farfarello's shudder and murmur, he seemed to like it. With his eye closed and pleasure on his face, the scars no longer camouflaged how... pretty he was. And was Yoji thinking Farfarello was attractive? That was so wrong.

"What was that?" Farfarello asked.

"Pity nipping."

"Do that as much as you like."

"Your necklace is so scratchy."

"I know. I like it."

Aya watched them with his arms crossed and eyebrows raised, so Yoji had to ask him, "You're okay with your boyfriend doing this?" He asked in English since everyone else here was speaking it.

"You really are a troublemaker," Aya answered, also in English. Yoji noticed again that Aya didn't seem to be using his own accent.

Aya must have been worried about Schuldig to be allowing Farfarello and Schuldig to climb all over each other. While Aya had never had a lover in all the time Yoji had known him, his behavior in other things suggested him to be the jealous, possessive type. Probably fiercely monogamous too.

"You're having an orgy and didn't invite me?" Yoji asked.

"Aya's invited to join in," Schuldig said. "I'm giving and generous that way."

Farfarello snagged Aya's arm and yanked him in close, then nuzzled the side of his face. To Yoji's surprise, Aya let Schuldig stroke him a little bit, though he shied away from anything more than the lightest touches.

All of these liberties only confirmed Yoji's surmise. "You're fucked up, aren't you?" Yoji asked Schuldig.

"Fucked up how?"

"Your head. Your telepathy. That's what this 'assignment' is really all about."

"It's an important assignment," Crawford answered.

"So your assignment is, what, to get Schuldig better?" Yoji noticed everyone's careful non-reaction and said, "I'm right."

"Are you concerned about me, Yoji?" Schuldig asked before grabbing him by his belt and yanking him in close.

"No." But it felt nice, warm and cozy, to be so close to them.

"This isn't going to become an orgy," Aya said.

"If only," Schuldig answered. "I'm tired. I had a long night. Brad and I were going to take a nice nap, but then Farf was in a mood to cuddle and you gotta strike when the Farf is hot on things like that."

Shit. Yoji just remembered that Crawford hadn't left the room and in fact stood there watching them doing whatever the hell they were doing.

Aya grabbed Yoji's wrist. Firm grip that boy had.... "I have to talk to Yoji outside."

Schuldig smiled and let go of Yoji. "Sure, sugar. He's all yours."

Bewildered and a bit amused, Yoji let Aya drag him out into the hallway. "So?" Yoji asked.

"Don't let him do this to you," Aya said.

"Do what?"

"I know that it looked like I barely paid attention to what anyone else in Weiß was doing--"

As much fun as it would be to taunt Aya with that, Yoji had to say, "No. We knew you noticed some things."

Aya looked surprised, then continued, "I did watch all of you a bit. I know things about you, Yoji. You have a weakness for people in trouble. They usually tend to be women, but I think Schuldig's playing with you a bit on that. Don't let him take advantage of you."

"You think he's fooling here?"

"He's not fooling," Aya said flatly with what sounded like utter certainty, "but manipulation is part of his nature. Being weakened does not make him _less_ manipulative. He'll use you. If you 'nap' with them, when you wake up it will lead to sex. "

"Who says I don't want it to?" Yoji answered just to tick Aya off.

Gritting his teeth, Aya replied, "Are you sure?"

Bad question. Once you went down the road of questioning how many of your decisions were your own while you were around a telepath, you never found the exit. To get off that topic, Yoji said, "I saw you giving some snuggles there."

"I'm worried. Touch seems to help him. But it will only go as far as I let it."

"While you're out here with me, your boyfriend's probably being thoroughly groped right now."

Looking thoroughly frustrated and nearly hurt, Aya said, "I'm starting to wonder why I bothered doing this for you."

"No, Aya. Thanks. It's nice that you're concerned. I appreciate it." Yoji never would have believed it possible once. "You do realize that Schuldig's a telepath and can 'hear' everything we're saying out here, right?"

"I know. I could go miles away, and he still could hear me. He spoke to me here from Tokyo once. It just seemed rude to warn you about him in front of his face."

The Schwarz idea of politeness. They were insane. So was Aya.

"Nothing I said made any difference, did it?" Aya asked.

"It did. Whatever I do, I'll do it with your warning fresh in my mind."

"That's so comforting."

"Aya, you're so worried about me with them, but you're around them constantly. Don't you worry about yourself?" Yoji got the bad feeling that Aya still didn't have much of a sense of self-preservation.

"A little. Sometimes. I'm fortunate that they don't have anything I want to tempt me with."

"They have Farfarello." It still freaked Yoji out that Aya wanted... that.

Aya looked worried for a moment, then smiled a small, almost evil smile. "Not as much as they used to."

Interesting.

"Now can we get back in there before Schuldig strips Farfarello?" Aya asked. "Since you're not going to listen to me anyway?"

"All right."

Schuldig hadn't stripped Farfarello but did have a hand up the back of his shirt and seemed to be scratching, something Farfarello appeared to enjoy. "Aya, you're not rough enough with this boy."

Seeing Aya _vibrate_ at that, Yoji put a "down, boy" hand on his shoulder. To his pleased surprise, Aya didn't rip it off.

"You have a nap to get to," Aya said. "We'll leave you to it."

Farfarello twisted free of Schuldig and picked up his coat, then asked, "Do I come to you before the hunt?"

"Yes. Show up here at 6:30," Crawford said. "Then we'll send you out."

"Good. She helped them make an attempt on my puisín's life. Nobody gets to do that."

Aya glanced back at Yoji for a moment before leaving with Farfarello. Yoji turned back to Schuldig and Crawford and said, "I'll leave you to your beauty sleep."

"You won't stay?" Schuldig asked.

"You don't need me here for that. Besides, I'm sure you two would like some time alone." Yoji noticed the suddenly suspicious look on Crawford's face, as if Yoji had said something about something he shouldn't have known anything about.

This was so cool. For so long Yoji had been depressed and fucked up, and his skill at reading people had gone to shit. Lately everything felt clearer again.

Schuldig smiled suddenly and hugged him. "Good for you, Yoji."

Okay, Schuldig was in major trouble. "Uh, yeah." Maybe he should stay....

Schuldig let him go and gave him a push toward the door. "I'll be good with Brad. Run along."

"Yeah. Have a good rest," Yoji said as Crawford closed the door behind him.

That might have been the strangest moment he'd had recently. He'd have to keep an eye on Schuldig.

******************************************************

"You let him go," Crawford said. It surprised him, especially since he could see that Balinese's soft heart had nearly convinced him to stay.

"All part of my master plan," Schuldig answered as he unwrapped the scarf from around his neck. He took off his coat and shoes then dropped onto the bed, otherwise completely dressed. "Besides, I wanna be with you. Come to bed with me."

Crawford could almost hear the "Promise I won't stab you" at the end of that. "All right."

He stripped down to shirt and pants before lying down next to Schuldig and pulling the covers up over them. Schuldig snuggled in close to him and murmured against his neck, "It was nice of the twins to come by to let me pet them. Of their own free will, even."

Crawford petted him. "It was."

"I'll miss them while we're away. It was rough them being in New York while we were in London and Tokyo. Now we have to split up again. Not fair."

"We won't be away for long." Then Crawford had a thought. "Will we?"

"Not long. A few days at most." Schuldig curled up tighter against him. "I'm glad you'll be close by. It can be tough doing everything myself. Or manipulating people to do it for me."

******************************************************

Once Hidaka, Friendly, and Fenris left, Omi asked, "Nagi, what's going on?"

"We found the precog last night. No big deal," Nagi answered.

"Did Schuldig get hurt last night?"

Shit. "No." In the strictest sense that could be considered the truth, since last night had been about lingering damage from Schuldig getting hurt a while ago. "Please don't pick at me, Omi. I'm really tired."

Sometimes Nagi felt both sides pulling at him as they wanted disparate things from him. Sometimes it felt as if they thought he couldn't be loyal to them both at once.

Occasionally he wondered that himself.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to." Omi kissed him so sweetly.

It made Nagi feel so much worse about everything. "Can I take a nap here? I didn't get much sleep last night." A ghost of a smile flitted across his face. "And I'm a little sore."

Omi smirked back. "Sure."

"A little sleep, then I have a loose end of my own to snip."

Looking disgusted, Omi asked, "We missed someone else?"

"Someone small, but I feel he was vital. He gave Aya and Farfarello's personal information over, and he's shady in other ways."

"I approve."

Yeah, not many people survived the mistake of menacing Aya while Omi was around. Aleksandar Ciraki would join the list.

Nagi undressed a bit and smiled when Omi helped him get his gloves off. "Me napping here isn't a problem for you?"

"I can work in Ken's room. Sleep in heavenly peace." Omi kissed his forehead and tucked him in. Maybe if Nagi had had parents longer that might have disturbed him, but instead it was just nice. Almost as soon as Omi closed the drapes, casting the room into near-darkness, Nagi fell asleep.

******************************************************

It worried Mamoru to see Nagi so upset and trying to hide from him. But maybe Nagi really was just tired.

Or maybe he really did see Schuldig as a kind of mother and was upset over whatever was wrong with the telepath.

Yoji swept by, grabbed Mamoru's arm, and said, "Turn that frown upside-down, kid. We're going out."

"We are?"

Weirdly, Yoji seemed nearly manic. What was going on with people today? "Yeah! You, me, Ken, and the kids. It'll be team-building. I'm thinking shopping, eating, shopping, more eating, drinking.... I won't take no for an answer!"

"It's the will of Yoji?"

"Bow before the master."

"I have work--"

"You'll always have work."

"If I say no, will you kidnap me?"

"If I have to. Nobody knows you here. You can rub elbows with the common folk without paparazzi pursuing you."

Yoji might seem a bit manic, but he was grinning and Mamoru wanted to support that, at least. Besides, it might be a good idea to socialize with Fenris and Elena, and Mamoru hadn't spent much time with Ken lately.

"You don't have to kidnap me. I'll go. I don't know if the others will, though."

"How can they resist the two of us?"

"You're right. They haven't got a chance. Let me just leave a note for Nagi."

Nagi looked simultaneously young and care-worn curled up under the blankets. As much as Mamoru wanted to, he didn't stroke Nagi's hair away from his face because even the lightest touch out of nowhere would wake him up. It almost hurt to look at him, Mamoru felt so much.

Mamoru left the sticky note on the alarm clock near the bed and his laptop on the table, then left.


	118. "We must *not* break the sink."

Farfarello leapt up to sit on the new bathroom sink and let his legs dangle and swing. "Here. We have to fuck right here, or it's not worth getting this fixed. We won't be here much longer." There was an edge of what seemed almost to be desperation to his lust.

"Is it really true that I'm not rough enough on you?" Aya said. "I don't like to injure you." In love as well as at work, sometimes he found it hard to control himself once blood had been drawn, so he strove not to put himself in that situation with Farfarello to begin with.

"You could be a little rougher at times, but I have no complaints. Schuldig's just starting trouble again. Come in closer."

Once Aya did, Farfarello touched him all over in way that suggested that he needed to be reassured that Aya was really there. This had been going on since yesterday. What that in mind, Aya asked, "Do we need Schuldig to reopen the link?"

"No! Don't even think about it!" Farfarello wrapped his legs around Aya's waist, trapping him. "I almost lost you yesterday."

His pride stung, Aya answered, "It wasn't that bad." He had the strength to deal with pain and madness, no matter how frightening they might be. And that had only been an echo of what Farfarello experienced. He could survive it.

If he sometimes had the impression that Farfarello had a ghostly, working violet eye where his eyepatch was, Aya could deal with that as well.

"Why are you asking this?" Then Farfarello growled softly. "I told you not to worry about me at the expense of yourself. Defend yourself from me if it comes to it, because if I tried to kill you the person I am now would be dead anyway. And I worked too hard to keep you alive in Germany to let you ruin it now."

"What the hell is wrong, then?" Aya just wanted to figure out what to do, how to fix matters....

"I don't feel you like I did. I've only had you for a short time and the ability to be so aware of you for an even shorter time, but already I need both. Having that awareness by hurting you would be a stupid thing."

"I'll help as much as I can." At Farfarello's scowl, Aya continued, "As long as it doesn't put my sanity or life at risk. You need help, but Schuldig can barely take care of himself right now."

"He's not as bad as that, but he doesn't have the patience or strength to lend for other people right now. Maybe I should talk to Friendly. She helped before."

"Friendly?"

"She has before. But in the meantime, sex makes me feel closer to you. Fuck me, kitten."

With hot breath in his ear and his lover grinding against him, Aya barely managed to say, "We must _not_ break the sink."

"I make no promises."

******************************************************

When some waitresses approached with a piece of cake on a plate as they sang "Happy Birthday," Mamoru barely restrained himself from hiding under the table. "Yoji, I hate you!" he whispered.

"What? C'mon, it's not for you," Yoji answered. "You never appreciated any of my public birthday surprises."

"Especially since most of them occurred on days when I wasn't having my birthday."

"Bitch, bitch, whine. I hate to waste 'em on people who don't appreciate them, so someone else is the lucky recipient."

The waitresses settled around Fenris, who grinned as they and some of the other customers sang and the candle flame atop his piece of cake flickered. Ken clapped, while Elena and Yoji sang along.

"Make a wish!" one of the waitresses said. Fenris closed his eyes for a moment then blew out his candle. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Thirty-seven!" Fenris promptly answered in English.

"...oh."

Once the bewildered waitresses left and Fenris had a moment to stare down his laughing and choking teammates, he said with great dignity, "I like the way 'thirty-seven' sounds. Besides, it's not like I have a real age or birthday."

That sobered Yoji a bit, although his "Too true, kid" sounded light.

"Do I get presents?"

"You got cake!"

"I'm not sure you'd want Yoji's presents," Elena said.

Fenris' look turned thoughtful. "Yeah. I don't know what I'd use strawberry-scented slick stuff for."

"Strawberry-flavored too."

"Yoji, don't kids grow up too fast already?" Ken asked. "He doesn't need your help."

"Omi had my help. Look how he turned out."

During their stroll through two different adult stores Yoji had told Mamoru that the only reason he wasn't buying a gift for him there was that he figured that Schuldig's Christmas gift had taken care of that. Mamoru had smacked him.

"Yes! Chocolate!" Fenris said happily after his first bite.

Smiling, Mamoru decided that he was having a nice afternoon.

******************************************************

Something blocked the time from Nagi's bleary eyes. He ripped the note off the alarm clock and smiled a little as he read it. Omi _should_ go out with his family now and then.

And Nagi would be doing this killing alone.

His internet research had pulled up an address. A bus gave him the necessary transportation, and it made him very happy that it wasn't too crowded. Telepathy let him know that Aleksandar Ciraki was home. Telekinesis would make the locks on the building's door and Ciraki's apartment door laughable, but Nagi didn't intend to go inside. Instead, he put a quarter into a pay phone two blocks away and called Ciraki's number.

"Hello?"

"Is this Alek Ciraki?" Nagi asked, although he knew it was.

"Yeah. Who is this?"

"Justice calling." Perhaps overly dramatic, but how could Nagi avoid it, given the company he kept?

It took very little to end a life. Nagi telekinetically pressed on Ciraki's trachea until death was irrevocable. He made it slow for Aya and Farfarello and all the friends and acquaintances Ciraki had betrayed to his boss over the years. The man's own practices had ensured that few friends would remain to mourn him.

Without a mission to focus on anymore, Nagi found it harder to stand the bus ride. A quick scan showed that Omi hadn't returned to the hotel yet... and found him at a restaurant with the rest of Weiß. Feeling a little wicked, Nagi went there and smiled at the surprise and glee on Omi's face. And Hidaka's "he's Schwarz but he's a kid Omi's dating" conflict didn't stop being funny.

"Sit down!" Omi said. "Are you hungry?"

Nagi did and answered, "A little. But you look like you're almost done here."

"We were looking for an excuse to use to convince the waitstaff to let us sit around. When I'm in my hotel room with everyone, I feel like I have to work. Here I don't."

"Not working can be a good thing. Sometimes."

"You two have to try it more often," Kudou said.

"We can't all coast on our good looks," Nagi answered.

"He got you there, Yoji," Hidaka said, unable to resist, even if a Schwarz had provided the zinger. Schuldig would approve of Nagi's stealth campaign.

"His mouth won't be so smart once we start stuffing food in it," Kudou answered. "We're getting Nagi a menu."

******************************************************

Crawford woke to a dim and fuzzy world and his telepath curled up near him, facing away. Sharing a bed with Schuldig hadn't felt so dangerous in a long time. Being reminded of one's mortality tended to do that. He knew that Schuldig could kill him.

For a moment, part of him thought of removing that threat forever.

It was a short moment.

"If you hadn't thought of killing me, I would worry," Schuldig murmured as he rolled over to face Crawford. "You wouldn't be you."

"How long have you been awake?"

"Maybe five seconds."

"Thoughts like these keep me from seeing my family."

"Brad, your sweet, innocent mother thought of killing the Eszett agents who threatened her and your father and only didn't do it because she recognized that she and Dad were outnumbered and outgunned. She has your ability to kill and your practical streak. You're a chip off the ol' block."

Crawford couldn't help feeling proud of her for that. A son didn't want to think that his parents were weak fools.

"So quit making lame excuses." Schuldig stretched. "I made that couple call the bed &amp; breakfast to tell the owners that they can't make it this year so they've given their reservation to a dear friend who really needs the peace and quiet."

"If I call in an hour I'll be able to get a room at a hotel that's a few miles away." Crawford put his glasses on and turned the light on, wanting to see clearly.

"Good." Obviously sleepy, Schuldig had his eyes half-closed. While he usually had a hard, sharp brilliance to him, right now he seemed more like a banked fire, warm.

"And you don't think you're a romantic," Schuldig purred.

Of course Schuldig felt more tired than Crawford did. While Crawford had sat at a table working through the night, Schuldig had been out walking, fucking, pestering Crawford's parents, drinking, and singing karaoke. It was nothing to worry about.

"Damned right," Schuldig said.

"Why aren't you still sleeping?"

"You're awake."

Crawford didn't like the sound of that, so he changed topics with "If you'd pushed a little harder earlier, you could have had an orgy." It had surprised him that Schuldig hadn't.

"It wasn't a convenient time for me. I'm about quality sex, not quantity. It's not like I'm desperate. But I'm kind of in the mood now."

"Farfarello will arrive in about ten minutes."

"What? Is it that-- Shit, it is that late. Wait, did you see that?"

"Aya's with him. I foresaw for Aya."

"Ten minutes?"

"I thought you were about quality."

"Fine. Leave me frustrated. It's so unfair." Schuldig sighed dramatically, then hummed happily and snuggled closer as Crawford rolled his long hair through his fingers. "Mmm. That feels great. I don't want to dissuade you from doing great things to me, but if Farf and Aya are coming I'd figure you'd want to straighten up a bit and Crawfordize. You're sexy-mussed right now, and I don't know if they could deal with it."

It was a thoughtful and unselfish gesture. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"This is the thanks I get for being nice?" Schuldig put on an exaggerated pout. "Looks like I won't be doing _that_ ever again."

Crawford kissed him. "Thanks. I'll Crawfordize."

"Get out of bed before I change my mind and keep you captive here. I could do it."

"No, you couldn't." But Crawford got out of bed, as much for his resolve as Schuldig's.

By the time the knock at the door came, Crawford had combed his hair and put on a clean shirt and pants. He let Farfarello, Aya, and Nagi in. They all looked very serious and professional. They'd all dressed for work. He'd expected Aya to be prepared to work on the precog tonight but not Nagi. He didn't see everything. It amused him that they all wore black and mainly leather at that, making them match.

~ They look like a murderous, kinky fetish group. I'd do them, ~ Schuldig said.

Farfarello said, "The boy has given me the address and an idea of where downtown it is. Specific directions might give me away to her, so I'll find my own route and arrive in my own time. Nevertheless, she won't escape."

Nagi said, "Aya and I will go a bit downtown in the car as backup. We'll park but not too close, also to prevent her from foreseeing us."

"Nagi's telepathic enough that he can sense if Farfarello runs into trouble," Aya said.

It was a good plan and it spared Schuldig from having to get involved. On one level, the presumption of them planning without his direction or involvement annoyed Crawford, yet he couldn't help feeling pride in them as well. Schwarz was strong and smart and wasn't completely dependent on him.

"You're all a credit to me," Crawford said and noticed that they looked pleased.

"Farf, get over here and give me a greeting. I'm not dead," Schuldig said from the bed. Of course, the moment Farfarello did so Schuldig yanked him down into bed while saying, "Now _this_ is a greeting. Chill, Rose-red, his virtue is safe. I'm just having fun."

Aya still growled, but at least he didn't jump onto the bed with his katana drawn. Still, he watched carefully.

"I don't want you giving my kitten a coronary," Farfarello said as he struggled to untangle himself.

"You two are so fucking cute that I could just eat you alive."

"I'm sure," Aya growled.

"Schuldig," Crawford said, "let Farfarello go so he can do his job."

"Yeah, yeah." But he obeyed.

Farfarello climbed out of the bed and left. Nagi nodded at Crawford as he and Aya departed.

"Cute kids," Schuldig said as he took his shirt off, then stretched.

Crawford's mouth watered. "I'm in the mood."

"Yeah?" Schuldig's smile turned lazy and teasing. "Dunno if _I'm_ in the mood anymore."

"I'll see what I can do to help you decide."

******************************************************

Yoji was bored. He kept considering picking up the phone to call Tess, but he didn't do it, because he didn't know what she'd wanted out of their night together. She might have wanted a one-night thing and think him clingy if he asked for more. Shit, this was why he tried not to sleep with people he worked with. The second-guessing and tiptoeing around other people's expectations could be lethal.

He wasn't worrying about Schuldig either.

A knock at the door saved him. He opened it to see the smiling faces of the rest of his team. "We're going to a football bar!" Fenris said, who never had to worry about being blocked from places for being too young. "Do you want to go too?"

No wonder Ken looked so pleased. "Football bar?" Yoji asked.

"Yeah," Ken answered. "If there's a live game going somewhere they play it, and if not they play tapes of what they think the best games were. They encourage arguments about that."

"Ken even accepted an English boost for it," Elena said.

She _was_ a wily thing. Yoji glanced at Ken, who flashed him an "I _know_" expression.

Yoji asked, "How the hell did you find this place?"

"The internet's good for more than just porn, Yoji," Elena answered with a smile. "So, do you want to go?"

As much as he liked Ken, he heard enough about Ken's sport from Ken without going to a bar for it. He wasn't _that_ bored. "Nah. There's only one real sport where I'm concerned."

Elena rolled her eyes, while Ken shook his head. Fenris asked, "What sport?" Then he said, "Oh."

"Enjoy yourself, Yoji," Elena said. "Though tonight it looks like you'll just be playing with yourself."

"Hey!" Yoji protested while Ken snickered. He didn't get any respect. "Oh, get the hell out of here."

Grinning, they waved and walked away. Yoji saw Aya and Nagi, who both looked like hot death walking, approaching. "What are you two up to?" Yoji had to ask.

"We're Farfarello's backup," Aya answered. Of course.

"You got room for one more?"

He'd shocked Nagi, who asked, "Why would you want to go?"

"Bored."

Aya looked annoyed. "Don't think that because we're parking you'll be getting any action."

Weiß, with real double entendre action. Yoji loved it, even when they directed it at him. "Maybe I don't like standing around doing nothing. I can do more than look pretty."

Aya and Nagi looked at each other, then Nagi said, "Yeah, sure. But don't get in our way."

"I'm not the one you have to worry about." Yoji grabbed his watch and new coat and followed them out. He didn't like to admit it, but he got a bit of a rush out of missions.


	119. "This is much more interesting than watching sports with a look of polite interest on my face."

_"Gotta new life, gotta new plight, yeah,  
And it's going nowhere.  
On a mountaintop, like a pin drop, yeah,  
No God, no thought, I don't care.  
Every one of you could be the same.  
Every one of you can play this game.  
Gotta new life, gotta new plight, yeah,  
And it's going nowhere._

_You know the best things in life aren't for me.  
You know the best things in life aren't for free._

_Gotta new find, gotta new crime, yeah,  
And it's going nowhere.  
Like a global path, like a car crash, yeah,  
No cop, no stop, he don't care.  
Every one of you are just the same.  
Every one of you will play this game.  
Gotta new find, gotta new crime, yeah,  
And it's going nowhere...."_  
   -- "The Best Things" by Filter  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Farfarello took the subway some of the way down, then got out and walked through the winter darkness, savoring the cold. While he didn't know exactly how to get to where he had to be, he didn't worry because that only helped him approach her by surprise. Nagi hadn't been able to find out much about her during his computer searches aside from the barest basics. The lack of information raised red flags.

This bitch had helped Zhulin get the drop on them. Aya could have been killed, and Farfarello had been injured saving him. She had to be punished.

Farfarello found the street and walked down on it. Maria Echebarria, his prey, stood on the step of one building about to open the front door. Maria, named for the Virgin Mother.... She wore a business suit and high-heeled pumps, hardly clothes she could put up a fight in. Good... and yet, too bad.

She stiffened suddenly. Shit. She'd _seen_ him.

Farfarello threw his dagger, hoping for the best. His lack of depth perception made pinpoint targeting harder. He never should have taken out his left eye. She dodged the dagger, but it lodged in the door near the keyhole. She ran for the street. No, she ran for her _car_, parked nearby. What person who lived in Manhattan owned a car? He sped up his run, but she coolly inserted her keys in the door to unlock it and got inside, then smashed her way out of the spot, crumpling the bumpers of the cars in front of and behind hers.

Rosenkreuz-trained. Definitely.

He leapt onto the hood and thrust another knife hard through it. Today's cars were made out of lightweight, shit materials, unable to resist his strength. He used that as a foothold and smashed his sword through the windshield. As she ducked and dodged his pokings inside, she swerved the car from side to side hard and accelerated. As she reached traffic she kept finding ways around and through, obviously using precognition second by second, as Crawford did while punching. It hurt to read her, as the visions and feelings kept hitting her brain like a series of small explosions. Boom, boom, boom.

The next flying turn nearly threw Farfarello off but he held on. She accelerated again, making the car move at dangerous, exhilarating speeds. The wind felt like knives as they sped through the streets, lights smearing around them. Farfarello laughed with glee.

Precogs could be hard to mindread, but Farfarello made out a little from the part of her brain that didn't reach into different times. Rosenkreuz had trained her as a driver, for getaways and deliveries. Adrenaline now focused her talent.

Since he doubted she could hear him through the remnants of the window and with the wind, he sent directly to her mind, ~ Did you think you'd escape the consequences? You bitch, you helped them try to kill my love! ~

"I don't want anything to do with any of you people anymore! I didn't want anything to do with you in the first place! I just want to live a normal life!" she yelled, which he heard only because it reflected through her mind. "I work with fucking stocks! I'm going to see the thing that will let me strike it rich and retire somewhere no one will ever find me again. You did me a favor by killing Zhulin! I'm done!"

~ You're done when I say you're done. ~

She stopped the car so hard that the tires squealed and the car swerved. Farfarello felt himself start to fall, so he grabbed the hole he'd punched into the windshield, stopping him from plunging off the front of the car. His gloves protected him a little, but he still felt the bite of glass. Annoyed, he punched his sword into the car's interior harder, and she screamed again, then stomped the gas pedal hard. His face nearly hit the windshield. Angry, he threw a knife at the front tire, trying to cripple her vehicle/weapon, but she must have seen that coming as well because she swerved so it would miss. Other drivers swerved aside to get out of her way.

At least telepathy gave him some idea of what she would do next, not that he could see the visions himself. If not for the telepathic snooping, he would have been thrown off a while ago.

So much for killing her quietly and unobtrusively. There would be chastisement for this, so he might as well enjoy it as much as he could.

He kicked more glass in, enlarging the hole. In response, she sideswiped another car, the force of which almost threw him off.

Inside, lit from underneath by her dashboard, bleeding from countless cuts, focused on survival, she looked maniacal and beautiful. He would really enjoy killing her.

She began to growl in frustration as she made the car swerve this way and that but every movement led to visions of her eventual death. Grinning, Farfarello kicked more glass in and brushed the side of her head with his boot in the process despite her best effort to dodge.

~ Even if you escaped me, this wouldn't be the last time. We'd hunt you to the end of your days. Better to die now. ~

Laughing maniacally, she yelled, "You think you won? If I have to die, I'm fucking you up!" Visions exploding in her head, she stomped the gas pedal all the way down to the floor, and Farfarello's head hit the roof, although he retained his perch.

The visions peeled off until only one remained, so clear and overwhelming that Farfarello could see it: some kind of giant stone planters, a glass building, impact.... He had no time as the car hit something so hard that its whole structure crunched and twisted in a scream of metal and rubber and he was thrown backward. Instinctively, he tried to twist his body to stick a good landing but he hit a plate glass window first, then what might have been a table, then something else, smash, crunch, snap, snap, snap, his body crumpling.... Even he screamed before he passed out from the pain. The last thing he heard was alarms going off.

******************************************************

Schuldig _screamed_. Crawford grabbed his wrists and pinned them to the bed as he writhed and clenched his teeth. "Notify Aya, then shut down!" Crawford said, wondering if he'd have to find something to put into Schuldig's mouth so his telepath wouldn't bite off his tongue.

"He already knows," Schuldig gasped.

******************************************************

"Aya, you have to stop fidgeting," Nagi said as he sat in the driver's seat folding paper into various animals. Kid had a gift. Sometimes he even did it with telekinesis instead of his hands.

Aya _was_ fidgeting. On most people it wouldn't be a fidget, but for Aya's minimal body language it screamed impatience and worry. Yoji said, "You didn't use to have nerves."

"There are a lot of things I do these days I didn't use to do," Aya answered, sounding very annoyed. Yoji couldn't argue with that. As Yoji shook his head and tapped a cigarette out of his pack, Aya snapped, "Don't smoke in my car."

"Some things apparently _never_ change." Yoji put the cigarette back into the pack, seeing no need to antagonize Aya while he was already hair-trigger.

"Aya, maybe I should teach you origami," Nagi murmured. "Since we don't have flowers for you to arrange."

Aya responded with an obscene gesture. Entertained, Yoji snickered. To think, he could have been watching Ken in full jock fetishist display instead of this. The thought gave him hives.

Aya stiffened suddenly and made a choked sound that scared the hell out of Yoji. "Aya! Aya! What's wrong?"

As if Yoji couldn't guess. Elena had mentioned a link between Aya and Farfarello. This scared the hell out of him.

"I feel something," Nagi murmured, then said, "Shit!"

"I don't know where he is!" Aya shouted, sounding strangled and frustrated. "He doesn't know where--"

"I have some idea of where," Nagi said as he put the car into Drive and peeled out at high speed. He even ignored some red lights, probably using telekinesis to prevent cars from hitting them.

Yoji had the bad feeling that they were getting closer by the police cars that suddenly started to appear the farther downtown they went. Also, their surroundings looked a bit like a demolition derby from the damaged cars and tangles of traffic. Nagi pressed the horn hard and yelled out the window but couldn't drive through the mess. Pushing through with telekinesis would draw way too much attention with all these bystanders.

If they couldn't get the car through and Farfarello was too injured to move, how would they get him away from the scene?

Aya yanked his door open and dashed out into the night. "Aya!" Shit, just like the little maniac. It was "Takatori, die" all over again.

"I'm going after him!" Yoji yelled to Nagi.

"I'll look for a way through," Nagi answered. "If I can't drive, I'll run and carry Farfarello out telekinetically. Go!"

Yoji went. The smoking didn't do much for his wind, but he was in good shape otherwise. He ran. Sometimes cops at the accident scenes yelled at him to stop, probably figuring that a guy running who wasn't dressed as a jogger had to be up to something suspicious, but he kept going. At least they were too busy to follow him.

He hoped they were too busy to call ahead about him. Or about Aya.

Aya could _move_. Well, Aya went running for fun. Yoji kept his eyes on light-struck red hair and the flap of a black coat. Following and focusing on Aya helped distract him from the burning pain in his throat, nose, chest, and legs. Shit, winter wind felt like shards of ice going down as you breathed it. Yoji wanted to yell at him but decided to save his breath.

To Yoji's knowledge, this was supposed to have been a simple kill in one location. How had it turned into a joyride and demolition derby?

Even if Aya hadn't suddenly stopped dead, Yoji would have known that they'd reached the place, which appeared to be a bank. A crumpled, twisted thing that could have been a car once had rammed a row of the giant, anchored planters some buildings had as a barrier against terrorists and nutcases driving a car through their front doors. How fast had it been going when it hit? Right now, cop cars shielded it from the street, and an ambulance arrived as Yoji watched. Cops could be seen through the large broken window on the ground floor. EMTs went in, while others had tools to try to pry the driver out of the demolished car. Yoji couldn't believe anybody in there could still be alive.

At least Aya still had enough sense not to go running in. Trying to get to Farfarello through that would cause a huge scene.

The lights flashing from the tops of the police cars painted Aya in red, then blue, then white, highlighting his lost and horrified look. "I can't feel him."

The thought of Aya being able to feel Farfarello horrified Yoji, but he still answered, "He might just be out cold." Yoji wanted to give him some kind of comforting touch, like a hug or a hand on his shoulder, but he looked so close to the edge that Yoji didn't dare.

"This is such a huge mess," Nagi said. "The cops are closing the street down. I parked a while back because they wouldn't let me get any closer. There's no way this won't get major media play."

"We need to get in there and get him out," Aya said, becoming cold steel now that the immediate shock had worn off and he had a clear objective.

"We'll contact Schuldig for some mindclouding."

~ Or you could let Guilty rest and allow me to do it, ~ Elena said. ~ I felt Yoji's emotions spike and decided to check things out. Glad I did. This is much more interesting than watching sports with a look of polite interest on my face. ~

Suddenly, all the cops and EMTs wandered over to the car. Aya walked into the building with far more confidence than Yoji, who kept expecting everybody to notice them, did. Nagi liberated a wheeled stretcher, backboard, and neck brace from an ambulance, then used telekinesis to grab a knife and sword out of the wrecked car. The knife and sword looked badly battered themselves. The cops and EMTs didn't notice.

The lights flashing in made the scene almost resemble a dance club. Red, white, and blue flashed rhythmically off the shards of glass on the furniture, floor, and crumpled body. In the lights, the shards almost looked like spangles against black leather and fabric and red-splotched white hair.

Aya yanked one of his gloves off with his teeth and crouched beside Farfarello, then growled, "I can't get to skin without moving him!"

And moving him would be bad when they didn't know what kind of trauma he had.

"He's alive," Nagi said. "You don't need to check for a pulse."

"I know." Aya's voice sounded small and miserable. It looked like he just wanted to touch his lover.

Yoji heard small explosions from two corners of the room. Looking very detached, Nagi said, "I destroyed all the cameras here. Before I did that, I felt where they fed to and destroyed any footage there." After looking down at Farfarello, he said, "His spine isn't damaged. He hasn't broken his neck. Broken lots of other things, though. But I'll put him in the brace and onto the board in case a more professional diagnosis proves me wrong later. Aya, back away please."

Despite his stubborn look, Aya obeyed.

Nagi had figured all that out just by feeling around with his power and now carefully moved Farfarello around using the same. How the hell had Weiß ever gotten out of any fights with Schwarz alive?

Schwarz had been letting them live.

Before Nagi put the neck brace on, he gently took off the cheap barbwire necklace Farfarello wore and passed it to Aya, who treated it with undue reverence as he slipped it into a pocket of his coat.

Glass glittered within Farfarello's swollen, bloody face. That would be hell to get out.

"Who the hell was this target?" Yoji had to ask.

"Somebody really good at hiding," Nagi answered, looking upset. "Damn it, this one made us look like amateurs. At least she's dead. I'm not getting anything out of the smear in the front seat of that car."

Yoji didn't have to be a telepath to see that Aya desperately needed something to hit, something he could _fight_. But he couldn't do anything here. Aya set his fingertips on Farfarello's face and pulled them away bloody, then sucked on them. Yoji's stomach turned at the sight, then he felt a sharp sting of alarm as blood quickly welled again on Aya's fingers. He'd cut himself on Farfarello's face.

And now, looking almost entranced, he was reaching toward it again.

Yoji grabbed his wrist. As Aya glared, Yoji answered, "Look but don't touch. It's healthier for both of you." Aya yanked his hand away but didn't try to touch again.

Nagi watched with what looked like satisfaction on his face. It looked like he had no problem letting Yoji be the bad guy here.

They wheeled Farfarello out, with Nagi sometimes using telekinesis to get the stretcher over some especially littered patches of floor and sidewalk and over the planters. Although Yoji expected the cops and EMTs to notice them any second, Elena's telepathic clouding continued to work.

Nagi glanced at the cop cars, then looked away with an odd expression on his face, prompting Yoji to ask, "What was that?"

"They had recording devices. Now they're useless and erased. I called Omi on my way here. There should be an ambulance waiting for us a few blocks away."

At least having the stretcher on wheels meant that they just had to push Farfarello there. Nagi looked a little tired, and they might need him for other things. Aya pushed the stretcher and seemed to be trying very hard not to think.

They found the ambulance quietly waiting, lights off. Soon after Yoji asked Elena to stop cloaking them, one of the EMTs noticed them and said, "Mr. Naoe. We can take over from here. One of you can ride with us, but we don't have enough room for all of you."

"Nagi, you should go," Yoji said, earning a burning look from Aya but agreement from the kid.

"Aya, I can look out for him." Meaning Nagi could use telekinesis to help if he had to. Nagi tossed Yoji the car keys. "I parked the car on Broadway near Liberty. I'll call you to tell you where to meet up with us, okay?"

"All right," Aya answered, but it took him half a minute to uncurl his fingers from the side of the stretcher.

Yoji gripped his shoulder and directed him away from the ambulance. Aya let him for a while before shaking loose and walking on his own. They traveled in silence, with Aya seeming disinclined to talk and Yoji not sure what to say. It appeared to suit Aya just fine but left Yoji uncomfortable.

Finally Yoji said, "He'll be fine," even though he knew it was inadequate.

But Aya said, "Thanks, Yoji," softly. Followed by "We're being followed."

Yoji kept step with him so they could lower their voices. "Are we going to have to kill all the criminals and psionics in New York before we can leave?"

"Right now, that doesn't sound so bad." Aya had a homicidal and impatient look on his face as he drew one of his guns and kept it close to his body. "Our car is nearby. If we can get in before they attack, we can use it as a weapon as well."

"It's a rental, isn't it?"

"The American Kritiker loaned it to me and Farfarello. They had to see the possibility that it would be used like this. The car's nearby."

"We could run for it."

"I could run for it. I don't know about you."

"Aya, you're teasing me. I feel better about your state of mind."

"Don't."

"We'll run."

"We'll run."

They did. In a few minutes bullets started to whiz past. Yoji used the remote to unlock the car doors and flung himself into the driver's seat. Aya had to run to the other side of the car, leaving him more open to being shot. Yoji saw a bullet heading right for him and screamed, "Aya, duck!" But it was all happening too fast.

The bullet bounced off an invisible barrier or something just in front of Aya's face and hit the street instead. Aya looked surprised for only a moment, then returned fire before ducking into the car. "Go! Hit anybody who gets in the way."

Yoji put the car into Drive and floored the pedal, knocking two attackers out of the way and seeing another go down in the rearview mirror as Aya shot through the open window. He also narrowly missed another car and ran a red light, but at this point he gave himself allowances.

A few blocks later he didn't see any other signs of pursuit and noticed Aya deflating a little at the lack of enemies. Aya's cell phone chirped. He opened it up, listened for about a minute, then put it away, saying, "We have a destination."

"Then share it with me." Weird to hope that Farfarello would turn out okay, but Yoji only hoped for Aya's sake.


	120. "I may not be able to do anything else for him right now, but I can hurt for him."

Aya wanted to stop thinking about it, but he still felt nothing from Farfarello. Nothing at all. His lover might never have existed, if not for the awareness of empty places inside his head and chest. He'd seen Farfarello take major injuries, but he'd never felt it and then _not_ felt it before.

It was amazing how crumpled bodies tended to resemble other crumpled bodies, as if the damage robbed them of individuality. His sister had curled in on herself similarly after Takatori had run her down.

At least it wasn't raining tonight. That would have been over the top.

Farfarello would regain consciousness. The alternative was not an option.

******************************************************

At the private clinic, as soon as Aya saw Crawford he asked, "How is he? What are they doing with him?" His face had that particularly hard, set look it took on when he didn't want to show his feelings. At least that was Yoji's guess through watching him over the years.

"It's too soon to know the full extent of the damage." Damage. From the sound of that, Farfarello could have been equipment. "It mainly seems to be gashes and broken bones. Sedation is keeping him under for now, but he's expected to recover fully. No one is allowed in because the staff needs room to work on him. Schuldig tells me that Farfarello dissociated as he passed out, which is why you can't feel his pain."

Dissociated? Whatever that meant, it seemed to relax Aya a bit. At least his body loosened up a little. The problem with relaxing Aya in the middle of a rage/obsession fit was that the rage/obsession kept him upright and once it faded he started to look as if he'd slide down to the floor. Yoji could almost see him lock his knees to stop the descent. To be helpful, Yoji stepped up closer to subtly brace him if necessary, and Aya shot him a look that mingled annoyance and thanks.

Standing nearby, Schuldig had his eyes closed and a familiar look on his face. Recognizing it, Yoji said, "You're getting off on Aya's suffering!"

"Aya will suffer whether I taste it or not. Someone might as well get something out of it." When he opened his eyes, Schuldig's gaze looked a bit wild and not entirely sane. "You know, Red, I can drain off some of your torment."

"It's my torment. I may not be able to do anything else for him right now, but I can hurt for him," Aya answered.

"You just enjoy the angst. Admit it."

"I don't have any patience for you right now."

"So mean."

"Where's Nagi?"

"He's the one taking out the glass shards. With his talent, he can find all of them, able to know the difference between glass and flesh like a maggot knows the difference between live and dead stuff and just eats the dead." Schuldig cast a glance at Crawford. "Yeah, that was disgusting, but it got my point across, so shut up."

Unless he wanted to seem superior, Schuldig let people talk before he answered them, maybe out of an attempt to pass for normal. Yoji got the impression that the telepath hadn't realized that Crawford hadn't spoken aloud, so he had to ask, "How are _you_ doing?"

Schuldig looked surprised then smiled. "You really mean it.... I had some rocky moments when it happened, but once Farf let go of his awareness of how fucked up his body was, everything hurt less."

That had to be the thing about dissociation. Freaky.

Omi walked in and went right up to Crawford, saying, "That was a debacle. It's all over the news."

"I know. That's why we're not charging you for the completion of that assignment."

Omi twitched. "This hasn't been the best showing from Schwarz over the past two days."

Crawford's expression turned sour. "Agreed."

"Elena, Fenris, and Ken went to the target's building to take the knife out of the door. There may be more scattered around Downtown for all we know."

"If so, they don't have any fingerprints on them," Aya said softly. "He wore gloves. I also doubt that he threw any of his more distinctive knives."

"That's something at least." Then Omi went up to Aya. "I'm sorry about your partner's injuries." He sounded as if he meant it. "This is the local Kritiker's exclusive staff. Farfarello will be taken care of. There's a private room so you don't have to stand out in the hall to wait."

"Thank you."

There was a very "comforting the grieving widow" air to it all. Yoji didn't know whether to be appalled or amused.

Omi looked uncertain suddenly. Maybe he wanted to touch Aya but didn't know if it would be welcome. "I have some business to take care of, but I could stay." From his brief looks at Crawford and Schuldig, Omi didn't see them as good company for Aya at a time like this.

"I could stay," Yoji said. "I figured on staying." He couldn't leave Aya at a time like this, especially not when Aya wasn't pushing away for once.

Omi's professional face had improved even more since becoming the Takatori heir, because the annoyance, guilt, and uncomfortable relief flashed across his face so briefly that Yoji wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't known Omi and been watching. Poor Omi. His thing for Aya didn't seem to be fading, and he obviously felt bad about it, given that they both had lovers. "Should I stay anyway, Aya?"

"If you have business, you should attend to it. I'm fine." Of course Aya would answer that way. That's what he did if you asked him if he needed something.

"All right. Call me if you need anything."

Sounding very calm and reasonable, Aya said, "I think that this city has become too hot for us to stay in, but I doubt that Farfarello will be able to fly in his condition."

"You're right, and we'll figure out something. Maybe we could have the locals finish packing and moving your things."

Aya's mouth twisted a little. "I don't like it, but it makes sense. Most of the things we're taking with us are already packed. Only clothing and toiletries remain. The finished boxes are gathered together. The trunk is the most important item." It probably contained their weapons.

"Make sure they're armed," Crawford said.

"All right. Crawford, you'll keep me up to date on how Nagi is doing," Omi answered.

"He'll be too busy sleeping after this to be good company."

"In any case, I want to know." As Omi left, he glanced back a few times. Nobody wanted to stay during times like these, but you always felt like you should.

"Where did Schuldig go?" Yoji asked, suddenly noticing his absence.

"I'm sure he's gone to get closer to Farfarello," Crawford answered.

"I thought the staff needed room."

"When he sets his mind to it, Schuldig doesn't take up much space." But he looked a bit worried, though even that faded to cold professionalism as he said, "Go take a seat in the waiting area. Someone will tell you when you can see him. You may even feel it yourself."

"Where will you be?" Aya asked.

"I have some business that can be attended to by cell phone. I'll be outside doing that. You have Balinese with you." He smirked as he left, probably over the idea of "Kudou Yoji, comfort assassin." Then again, the bastard smirked a lot in general.

"C'mon, Aya," Yoji said, "let's stop blocking the hallway." Thankfully, Aya quietly followed.

The private room was done in pastel shades, probably intended to be calming. Instead, all the deliberation at work in the room's décor set Yoji on edge. Aya maintained his level of edge despite obvious fatigue and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

That familiar pose gave Yoji such a pang of _home_, but he still said, "Sit."

"I don't want to."

"Don't be a stubborn ass."

"It makes me feel better."

"Standing or being a stubborn ass?"

Aya's mouth twitched. "Both."

The room had a coffee machine with a hot water option, so Yoji made himself a coffee and put a teabag in a cup of hot water for Aya. Accepting the tea forced Aya to uncross his arms.

"You saved my life," Aya murmured. "How long have you been consciously using telekinesis?"

"Huh?"

"You deflected a bullet away from my head."

"Heh. I was wondering if that had been me." Since Nagi hadn't been around. "Didn't give it much thought at the time with everything else going on."

"You didn't deliberately save my life?"

"Don't be like that. I _want_ to save your life. I just didn't know I could do what I did. Wait a minute, 'consciously'?"

"I've watched you use your wire for years, Yoji. Once Schwarz came in and proved that such abilities exist, I was certain that you had something."

"Sounds like a disease."

"I'm not making any complaints about it." Aya glanced at him, then sat down. Humoring him maybe. Yoji didn't care as long as it took Aya off his tired feet and gave Yoji an excuse to sit as well. Sitting right next to Aya would help warm them both up as well as provide comfort.

They sat in silence for a while, sipping their hot drinks and warming their hands on the cups, before Yoji said, "We've done too much of this over the years. I know, I know, you especially."

"You would think I would get a knack for this, learning to wait, but it doesn't work that way. You don't ever get used to it. And shouldn't." He sounded lost.

"Let me see your fingers," Yoji said as a distraction.

That put more life into him. "What?"

"You cut your fingers on glass. I want to see how they're doing."

"They're fine."

"Then you shouldn't have a problem with me looking at them."

"I'll kick your ass."

Yoji really had missed Aya. "I'll keep bothering you until you let me. You know I will."

Aya made an annoyed grumbling sound, then thrust the injured fingers at Yoji. They were warm from the cup, and the small cuts had already scabbed over. Yoji held them up to the light to see if he could find any glass in them, something they should have done earlier. He could ask Nagi when the kid regained consciousness. Finally Yoji said, "They look good, but I want Nagi to see them later."

"I told you."

They sat again in almost companionable silence, with Aya seemingly trying to meditate and not succeeding and Yoji bored out of his mind when he didn't feel worried over Aya. Eventually, Aya looked up, stood, and said, "He's awake. I'm going."

"I'm going with you."

Aya didn't even seem surprised to hear that, and it pleased Yoji that Aya didn't protest.

******************************************************

Groggy, Farfarello dragged his eyelids open and found himself in a bright, smeary world. As everything focused better a wave of orange suddenly crossed his field of vision. "Ah, Satan," Farfarello croaked.

"Welcome back," Schuldig said. He felt brittle and loud. "I'm glad you woke up, since I'd feel like an asshole going to my Vermont vacation while you were still out."

"But you would go anyway."

"Yep. You know, if you didn't wake up, Aya would be a mess."

"I know." He'd become more careful of late for precisely that reason.

"Thanks for dissociating. It would have been a real pain blocking your pain out."

"Yeah, I did it for your comfort." Farfarello felt absolutely nothing right now. When he cautiously pulled his soul closer into his body, he felt a different kind of nothing. Ah, drugs. "What's wrong with my vision?"

"It's probably screwed up from all the drugs they pumped into you. Painkillers are in there too, though we said you didn't need 'em. Aya's at the door."

Then Aya was standing at his side, known and beloved even as a body-shaped haze of black, dark red, and white. His soul tasted good and steadying, and the urge to slide into him to commune with and feel him from the inside nearly overpowered Farfarello. It would be so easy... but not good for his kitten, no.

The slutkitten stood nearby, protective of Aya, and Farfarello had an idea. He slid into Balinese and clenched his hand on his puisín's shoulder as a gesture of support. It felt wonderful. The slutkitten was a sensitive instrument indeed.

Aya looked worried about Farfarello's unconscious, mangled body, then surprised when he turned back to see Balinese. "Are you in there?" Aya asked in Irish. He knew! He could tell the difference!

"Yeah," Farfarello answered back in the same and smirked at Balinese's confusion and panic. Might as well take full advantage. He used the slutkitten's bare hand to stroke the side of Aya's face, luxuriating in the warmth and light grain of skin and the brush of soft hair.

Aya's eyes fluttered closed and he melted into the touch, but he murmured, "This isn't fair to Yoji, and it will confuse him."

The sudden thought of Balinese taking Aya's receptive reaction here to mean that he could take liberties provided an excellent incentive not to do this, so Farfarello returned to his own deadened body and opened his eye. "You're right."

"What the hell was that?" the slutkitten asked.

"Farfarello possessed you for a little bit," Schuldig said. "How was it?"

"You can't do that!"

"He just did."

"I told him not to do it again," Aya said.

Balinese crossed his arms and shook his head. "You're freaks."

"So are you," Schuldig purred.

"You're not freaks for the psionic stuff."

"Again, still, ditto."

Aya put a calming hand on Balinese's arm, which made Farfarello seethe with jealousy. _He_ wouldn't be able to feel the touch of his puisín's hand right now. "What are Farfarello's injuries?" Aya asked.

Schuldig answered, "Two cracked ribs, three broken fingers, four slashed-up fingers, a lot of contusions. His left leg is broken in two places. Nagi removed a large portion of a plate glass window from Farf's body. Farf was lucky, considering. He'll also look a lot better once all the swelling starts to go down."

Shit. He'd fucked himself up badly. A lot of that would take time to heal.

Aya felt relieved, having imagined far worse, as he often did. "Where _is_ Nagi?"

"Sleeping in a bed in another room. Now that they've seen what a really sensitive and trained telekinetic can do, the doctors want to keep him."

Crawford came in. "My feeling was correct. The Kritiker agents who went to the apartment to move Aya and Farfarello's gear out were attacked."

"People are touching my things?" Farfarello asked, alarmed.

"None of your things and no one in Kritiker took damage."

"They're mine...."

"How did the attackers get in?" Aya asked.

"Through the window facing the courtyard. Very sneaky."

"My things?" Farfarello asked.

"Intact. They packed the clothes and remaining items lying out and brought the boxes, suitcases, and trunk out. Everything is sitting in Persia's hotel room."

They'd probably left the tree decorations. Depressing. It didn't help his mood that he was a bit stoned right now. "So it's not safe for my puisín to stay at the apartment anymore."

"It doesn't matter. I'm staying here," Aya said.

"No. I love you too much to let you."

"_Let_ me?"

Stubborn kitten. "I would be far happier knowing that you weren't waiting in an environment that fucks with your head so badly. I would worry about you if you stayed."

"There's no reason to worry about me."

~ I would worry. Besides, we can always talk like this. ~

"You would worry?"

"Aye."

"All right. I won't stay here." But he didn't look happy about it and felt guilty.

~ I feel better for it. Do it for me. ~ In any case, Farfarello was discovering to his surprise and amusement that he had some vanity after all, since he didn't want Aya to see him so swollen, scabby, bruised, and bundled in bandages.

"You could always stay with us," Schuldig purred as he put his arm around Crawford's shoulders.

He would _not_.

"I have more room," the slutkitten said.

Did everyone want to molest his puisín? Ah, but Balinese would still be a better choice as roommate, more cautious and caring, more inclined to be content with a little petting instead of trying to get everything. Besides, Farfarello could look out through his eyes without him realizing, although he couldn't do that for long in front of his so watchful and sensitive puisín.

~ You can stay with Balinese, if you'd like. ~

He'd surprised Aya with that. Aya didn't want him taking Yoji over anymore either.

~ I won't. Promise. ~ Watching at times didn't count, because it didn't mean taking the slutkitten over and making him do things. "Aya can go with Balinese."

Balinese had a "he _can_?" expression on his face but wisely said nothing in protest. Schuldig looked amused. Of course, the telepath had probably felt what Farfarello had done with the slutkitten earlier.

Schuldig shrugged. "Whatever. I'm actually staying to guard Farfarello anyway."

It appeared to surprise Crawford as much as it surprised Farfarello. The telepath had tilted onto a different course again. Still, it would be good to have someone to help him defend himself since Farfarello doubted he could do much with his bandage-, splint-, and cast-muffled body.

"Please leave," a new voice said. "Your operative needs rest, which he won't get with an entire party in his room. And, yes, I know what you all are, but if I let myself be intimidated by that I wouldn't get anywhere in this job. Please leave, or be escorted out." Doctors came in only a few flavors.

"Go," Farfarello said. "I'll be fine." Especially since the doctor didn't seem to notice Schuldig sitting down in the seat next to Farfarello's bed.

His so-sweet puisín looked back many times on his way out as everyone left and guided him along with them, but Aya would be better off out of the hospital. The kitten had a simple hate and fear of hospitals, the kind that led to despair, but Farfarello had a more complicated and conflicted view of them, seeing them as safehouses _and_ prisons.

~ I just hate them, ~ Schuldig said as he cradled his gun.

~ Then why stay? ~

~ You're family, and I'm going to be gone and very selfish for a while. ~

~ You're getting soft. ~

~ People keep saying that. Of course, I could leave you here alone and helpless. You don't even have a roommate that might confuse someone coming in to kill you. ~

~ You're softer than you were but still cruel. ~ Reassured, Farfarello let the drugs drag him under to rest.


	121. "All of him is scary."

~ You should take Nagi with you. He doesn't have the strength to fight off a fly right now, ~ Schuldig said.

Crawford wanted details. ~ If he stayed here, would he have to fight something? ~

~ Maybe. It's too soon to tell. ~

Schuldig didn't have precognition, but his telepathy gave him some awareness of what he called currents. He could feel people thinking toward things as he tapped into the collective consciousness and unconsciousness on an instinctive level. Crawford had learned to judge when to trust Schuldig's sudden changes of mind and long ago come to terms with the knowledge that Schuldig _couldn't_ be as deliberate as he was, not when his telepathy put him in an ever-shifting world and his preternatural speed forced him to make split-second decisions. Sometimes the decisions led Schuldig into trouble or blind alleys, but he said that the alternative was never moving at all.

~ Should I come back afterward? ~

Schuldig took a moment, perhaps to consider it, then answered, ~ No. It's not here yet. No sense in both of us going sleepless. The Kritiker folks are on alert. If things change, I'll let you know. ~

~ I'm sure. ~ Crawford entered the room Nagi had gone to rest in.

~ Bitch, bitch. ~

"Wuzzat?" Nagi mumbled in Japanese as he shot up in his bed, mostly asleep but prepared to defend himself with whatever he had left.

"It's Crawford. I'm taking you to Omi."

"I'm fine." Nagi rubbed at his eyes. He still wore everything, even his boots and coat. "Don' need to be carried. I'm grown up."

"Nagi."

"Hate you." But he consented to being picked up, which Crawford promptly did, and put his arms around Crawford's neck.

He still didn't weigh much, not as much as he should, and he still seemed to be a heavy head and mostly long limbs with very little torso. Crawford couldn't help smiling a little as he remembered Schuldig's story about Nagi's big ol' head and how it would lead to spinsterhood.

Crawford or Schuldig sometimes had to carry Nagi after some battles, when the young telekinetic had pushed harder than his body could take. Farfarello had offered, but his tendency to look at the boy as if he'd be something good to slice up and gnaw on had led to them refusing him.

"The doctors love you."

"Everybody loves me," Nagi murmured into Crawford's neck. "Where's Schu?"

"He's staying to guard Farfarello."

"Why?"

"He wants to."

"He's the scary one now?"

"All of him is scary."

"Know what I mean."

Yeah, the Schuldig he'd left in Farfarello's room wasn't the same one Crawford had enjoyed in his bed a few hours earlier. "I do know." But sometimes you had to let Schuldig do what he had to do.

"Okay." Nagi dozed in his arms.

In the past, he'd seen people's expressions soften as they watched him carry the boy away, but tenderness had very little to do with this. It would be futile and a waste of time to force Nagi to travel under his own power when he didn't have any power left to do so. Why punish the boy for expending himself in their cause? If people thought Crawford to be a doting father showing kindness and caring toward his young son, he would use that.

Of course, a man carrying a teenager away would get different looks anywhere but in this hospital.

On his way out, Crawford opened the door to Farfarello's room and tossed a clip in to Schuldig, who slouched in a chair near the bed with his gun resting in his hand. He might need more ammunition. Looking cool, focused, and ruthless, Schuldig nodded to him as he caught the clip. Farfarello sometimes called this Schuldig mode "snake time." Usually Schuldig came across as very pettable, but in snake time he gave off the impression that if you tried to touch him your hand would bounce off an invisible force field. Crawford tossed him a chocolate bar next, which briefly put a smile on his face.

Nagi woke up only long enough to slither into the car once Crawford set him down to open the door. Crawford carried him into the hotel as well. Persia looked surprised to see them there like that at his door and quietly moved aside so Crawford could set Nagi down on the bed. When Crawford turned to see him, he noticed Persia looking at Nagi with such love in his eyes that Crawford might feel a pang if he had to kill him later. Might. Of course, if it became necessary he'd turn Nagi against Persia first.

"You might want to take Aya's suitcase into Balinese's room," Crawford said. "That's where he'll be spending the night."

Persia looked curious but only answered, "Good night." The boy had more restraint than many people Crawford could mention.

Alone in his room, Crawford changed into his pajamas and tried to nap, but the bed seemed too big and quiet. Annoyed with himself, he put on a robe and picked up some accounting work.

******************************************************

With the threat of death and coma past, Aya felt almost giddy. Almost. The ache of absence was definitely gone. Farfarello would heal, although it would take time. Aside from relief, Aya's wild good cheer could probably also be attributed to fatigue, since worry had badly worn him out. He tried to keep the almost giddiness off his face for dignity's sake and because Yoji would no doubt think him insane if he visibly gave in to it.

Yoji was good company and less annoying than Aya remembered him being. The smoking was still annoying, but Yoji hadn't smoked at all during the time at the hospital so Aya let him do it now as he drove.

The car hadn't been too badly damaged earlier. It could pass as a victim of a car accident.

"Does Farfarello ever do that to you? Jump into your body?" Yoji suddenly asked.

"Sometimes."

Some note in Aya's voice must have been telling, because Yoji raised an eyebrow. "So it's like that?"

"Sometimes."

"I guess I should have figured that Farfarello would be kinky."

"It's none of your business. And we use it for work too."

"Sure you do."

"I'm sorry he did that to you. He had no right." Aya had a sudden thought. "Stop off at my apartment."

"We can't. Killers there, remember?"

"I'm sure they're gone by now. There are things I need that I doubt Kritiker packed for us. I'll get out of the car whether you stop or not."

"With a choice like that, how can I say no?" Yoji sighed, but he had an almost fond look on his face. Aya could see that now. "I'll give you ten minutes inside."

"Thank you."

Yoji dropped him off in front of the building and drove off. That was safer. Aya had his hand at his gun as he walked inside, uncertain whether the feeling of eyes upon him came from enemies or residual Kritiker watchers. He unlocked the apartment door and walked into chaos, a sea of broken things and puddles of blood. If there had been corpses--and all the blood suggested that there had been--they'd been carted away. Glass crunched beneath his boots. He wondered if Farfarello would see the bloody destruction as a profanation or improvement.

The tree had been knocked over. Careful of broken glass, keeping one hand on a gun the whole time, Aya searched it for Farfarello's favorite ornaments but, to his frustration, didn't find them. He did find a red paper crane, which made him smile a little, and he put that and a few other ornaments in his pockets. He took the remaining candy canes as well.

With the window broken, it seemed oddly colder in here than outside. The bathroom had been cleaned out, leaving no personal items. The thought of strangers in here made him squirm. Aya saw that the boxes and trunk had been removed, as well as the suitcases and clothing. His copy of _Sein und Zeit_ had either been packed up by Kritiker or lost. Aside from the remaining, mostly mangled, decorations, it no longer looked like their apartment. They would not return. Feeling pangs of melancholy, Aya closed the door behind him and rushed down the hallway.

Looking alert, Yoji waited in the car outside. As Aya got in, he asked, "Get what you wanted?"

"No." Aya handed him a candy cane.

"Sorry. At least you didn't get killed. Hmm, cinnamon."

"Better for you than cigarettes."

Yoji looked a bit comical as he sucked on his candy cane. "That's a matter of opinion."

After the destruction in the apartment, friendliness and comedy made for a welcome change. "Thank you, Yoji."

"You're thanking me? You can't be Aya. You live with _Schwarz_ and you get manners? I don't believe it. Get out of the car."

"No."

"That's more like it."

******************************************************

Yoji couldn't keep up with the changes. Once there had been Weiß, and none of them could see an end to that, and not because they were realistic enough to know that they might not survive the next mission. Being realistic hadn't been something they'd done often. Rather, they'd just seen days and days and days of the same, as if they'd never change or get old. Then Aya had been taken by Schwarz and chosen Schwarz over them, and it had seemed that they'd never see him again. Now Aya, not quite Weiß yet not quite Schwarz at the moment, stood in Yoji's bedroom as a prelude to spending the night after members of Schwarz had encouraged him to stay here. Cocky bastards. They had to be confident in their hold on Aya and dismissive of Yoji's persuasive abilities. Still, their bad. Yoji didn't believe in passing up opportunities just because he'd gotten it through someone underestimating him. Hell, he'd played to that much of his life.

Right now Yoji couldn't get the memory of that moment when he'd touched Aya's face out of his mind. Yeah, he'd been scared to death as his mouth made foreign words and his body moved at someone else's command. Over that, he'd seen his hand approaching Aya's face without being able to stop it and thought that Aya would kill him for this no matter who had forced him to do it. But Aya had melted into the touch and felt so _warm_. You'd think he'd feel cold.

Yoji knew that Aya had been reacting as if Farfarello had touched him, yet he couldn't get the reaction or the expression on Aya's face out of his head. He wanted to see more of that.

Like that would happen. Aya had given himself to a psycho.

Watching Aya disarm could be a trip. Two knives, two guns, and a katana? "Do you have enough weapons?" Yoji asked.

"Not really. I could always use more."

Without his coat and knife sheath covering them, the scars on Aya's left arm from his near suicide-to-be over his sister's corpse could be easily seen. Yoji gave thanks again that Omi had been watching Aya so carefully that day. Yoji had been watching him too but watching his face and shoulders, missing the slow drip of blood down the arm he'd taped his intended suicide weapon to.

This was trust from Aya, this disrobing and disarming. Weiß hadn't seen that from him until he received his first medium-level injury and couldn't take care of himself. The light injuries he'd nursed himself, while the major ones had been the domain of Kritiker's medics.

Tonight, trusted, Yoji tried not to watch but couldn't help having his eyes caught by the contrast of black gloves against the pale skin of Aya's arms, marred by scars here and there. The longer wisps of Aya's hair trailed across his black-clad shoulders, fading red against more black. The auburn dye job had faded to the point where it looked significantly lighter than Aya's true hair color. The romantic low light here gleamed off it.

When Aya unbuckled the straps of the collar piece of his shirt, loosening it and pulling it down, Yoji could suddenly hear a bit of muffled jingling. "What's that?" Yoji asked.

Aya actually blushed a little, briefly. "It's my necklace."

"The fish didn't sound like that."

Aya sighed, then pulled the shirt away from his neck more. He wore a black leather collar... studded with rhinestones! And it had a "gold" bell. A fucking _bell_. Aya said, "With the protective collar up and fastened, the bell doesn't have room to move, so it doesn't make much noise. I figured I wouldn't be sneaking up on anyone tonight anyway."

Yoji still couldn't quite get his brain back in gear. "They _belled_ you." He'd joked about doing that for years but he never would have thought to-- Schwarz had done that to Aya. That was a _cat collar_ Aya wore.... "That's so... _hot_."

Aya stared at him, then briefly laughed. "That's hot," he mimicked.

"Shut up. My brain just turned off." Greatly daring, Yoji darted in and flicked the bell to make it ring.

Wide-eyed, almost vibrating, Aya looked scandalized but also aroused. Then his expression hardened and he started to walk off, his "I felt something that wasn't anger or hatred. Run!" response having kicked in. When Yoji snagged his wrist, he said, "Let go or lose the hand, Kudou."

When flight or the stoneface didn't work, Aya went right to being an asshole to drive people away. It could have been a year ago.

Yoji let go and said, "The bell was so there. I couldn't help myself."

"So it's my fault that you can't keep your hands to yourself?" It was vintage Aya. But then he said, "I'm off-balance. I overreacted."

It was almost an apology. "Sure. I understand. You had a tough night." Yoji would be more than happy to comfort him and couldn't help feeling that Aya wanted him to do the comforting. That scared the hell out of Aya, thus the fleeing and cold shoulder and assholery.

Aya looked nearly wry. "I'm wearing a cat collar."

"It's hot."

"Shut up."

Aya started to unbuckle the collar, prompting Yoji to say, "Don't do that!"

"This isn't for you. And it's apparently too much temptation." Once Aya removed it, jingling the whole time, he closed his eyes and rubbed his neck with the other hand, sensual.

"The collar's not the only temptation." It came out sounding low and rough, giving away more than Yoji had wanted to.

"Do I have to remove myself as well?" Aya sounded part annoyed and part flirtatious, obviously feeling the charge in the room as well.

"No. I can control myself."

"I could also kick your ass."

"Don't be so sure of that."


	122. "They were happy to be there and be part of it."

~ How am I supposed to rest if the fucking nurses keep waking me up? ~ Farfarello asked. It made him even unhappier that he wouldn't be allowed to kill one. Not even one.

~ With all the knocks your head took, they want to make sure you don't have a concussion. You know the drill. You do this enough, ~ Schuldig answered. Unseen by everyone else, he'd openly ogled the nurses.

Along with the buzz of his injuries, which he could feel a little now that he'd reattached his soul better, Farfarello felt a kind of mild, vibrating discomfort of the emotional kind. It didn't seem like his, so he should check on his puisín. Before the link had been blocked off, he would have noticed the feelings sooner.

Once Farfarello slipped out of his body and slid into Aya's, he felt the guilt and lust much stronger. Aya was attracted to the slutkitten and felt guilty for it. In some ways, this lust could be blamed on Farfarello, who had gotten Aya into a routine of post-mission sex. It calmed them and bound them closer together. Tonight Aya had fought and killed, getting his blood up, but lacked the rest of the ritual. He'd also had a scare and worried about Farfarello. Once he would have gone off to lick his wounds in private, but Schwarz had dragged him into the open and taken away that response. Thus, right now he needed a few varieties of comfort, and here was Balinese, ready and eager to provide. Aya found him physically pleasing as well. While Farfarello would have liked to snarl about opportunistic claim jumpers, when he slid over to Balinese he could feel the genuine affection and concern. Balinese honestly thought that putting his hands all over Aya would help.

Farfarello could just imagine Schuldig saying something like "They like each other, and they're both good looking. Of course they want to jump each other."

Worried that his puisín would notice him in Balinese's body, he slid back to his puisín's... and was discovered anyway. Aya could feel him. It made him proud, happy, and deeply annoyed all at once. He stroked the inside of his puisín's mind a bit to make him shiver. Feeling even guiltier, Aya wanted to know how he was doing.

~ I'm used to being immobile. The drugs are all right. I want to kill a nurse. ~

Aya smiled over that a little but told him that he shouldn't do that.

~ I know. Sometimes the mindbreaker entertains me. I know that you won't cuckold me, puisín. ~

That made Aya feel more miserable, which Farfarello hadn't intended at all. While the action would have been far worse, Aya felt terrible that some part of his body even contemplated it.

"Aya, what's wrong? Are you talking to one of them?" Balinese asked. Not as stupid as he looked.

"Yes. We're fine."

Farfarello slid over to Balinese for a glimpse at what he thought and found things that surprised him. Aya was _beautiful_ to Balinese's eyes, a feast of light and shadow, black and color, curves and angles, _depth_, with gold glinting at his ears. The slutkitten had the eyes of an artist. Of course, he also had two eyes. Farfarello had seen Aya through another man's vision before, but that man had been panicking, terrified, and a stranger. Balinese saw Aya with affection and under romantic lighting.

Aya had taken the collar off. Good kitten. That was a toy just for they two. He'd also taken his gloves off, suggesting informality and familiarity.

While Balinese didn't understand Aya's love for Farfarello, he saw that it _was_ love and felt bad for them that Farfarello had been messed up so badly that they could barely even touch. An image of Aya cutting his fingers on Farfarello's face accompanied that thought. Farfarello would look for those injuries. Balinese felt that Aya needed to be touched and comforted but wouldn't allow him to do it, which made him feel frustrated and helpless. He wished he could help them.

Farfarello remembered how wonderful Aya had felt to Balinese's fingers.

"Farfarello, get out of him," Aya said, sounding protective.

~ I'm just watching. I'm not making him do anything. ~

Balinese didn't become as afraid as Farfarello would have expected him to at the news that he'd been possessed. Maybe.... Letting only Balinese hear, Farfarello asked, ~ It doesn't worry you that I can feel you lusting after my kitten? ~

Balinese stayed cool and responded that if Farfarello killed everyone who lusted after Aya, there wouldn't be many people left in his vicinity. And he'd have to start with most of Schwarz.

True, unfortunately. ~ You want him. What would you be willing to do for that? ~

Balinese didn't know what he meant.

~ He's my lover and he needs me, but I can only touch him from the inside right now. Like this. ~ Farfarello stroked him and smirked at how it made him shudder with pleasure. ~ Which can be very nice, but I think he needs something more substantial. You're here, and you're willing. ~

Balinese understood immediately and didn't believe he could be serious.

~ I am. He _needs_. I would have to be riding along inside you the whole time, but I wouldn't make you do anything. I would just watch. ~

Balinese found the thought creepy and erotically fascinating all at once.

Aya grabbed Balinese's arm, and it felt like so _much_ that Farfarello wanted to purr. "Leave Yoji alone."

~ I'm not hurting him. ~

"He's just talking to me," Balinese said as he looked down at Aya's hand on his arm. "No hurting, no threats."

"What about?"

"He has an idea."

"Don't let him use you for anything."

It stung Farfarello to see Aya defending Balinese against him when Aya should be on his side always. Ah, but he'd chosen a fierce, stubborn kitten for his pet. He'd known that from the beginning.

Balinese pounced on it. Evil kitten. "You're saying he uses you?"

"No. I'm talking about how I let Kritiker use me. I may have gotten some things I wanted out of the deal, but they used and misled me."

It made Farfarello want to cackle. Even better, the slutkitten couldn't argue the point, since he felt that Kritiker had treated him the same way. In many ways, Kritiker had made things easier for Schwarz.

"What is this idea Farfarello has that he wants to use you for?" Aya asked.

Balinese shrugged, trying to be casual. "Sex."

Farfarello felt that he could have been subtler and maybe talked Aya around into it, but he'd promised Aya that he wouldn't control Balinese, so this was what he got.

"What?" Aya demanded. "This is your secret discussion? Do I get a say in this at all or just give myself over if you reach an agreement?"

That definitely could have been done better. Still, his puisín was so pretty blazing with indignation.

"If I weren't willing, there wouldn't be any point in bringing it up at all," Balinese said.

"Are you?"

"I'm tempted. I want you, and I want to make you feel good. This may be the only way I can get you."

Aya looked surprised, then said, "No, we don't do this. Farfarello, I like Yoji too much to screw things up like this. It'll just lead to confusion. And I refuse to ignore or dissociate myself from him in the future just to make sure you don't feel threatened by him."

Aya thought _far_ ahead. Balinese felt a little offended by the part about sex with him being a screw-up but very pleased that Aya liked him, thought so highly of his feelings, and wanted to continue to associate with him. Thus, Balinese wouldn't press his suit on Aya.

Farfarello wanted to smash their heads together. Trust Weiß to make sex complicated! Didn't the fools understand that not pressing Aya led to all the problems? Left to determine his own destiny, Aya would be alone and miserable out of masochism, pride, and low self-esteem. Farfarello still didn't understand how the pride and low self-esteem existed hand in hand, but he'd come to expect such from his puisín. You had to force things on him for his own good. He needed to be taken care of.

Still, Farfarello had to admit that if they did have sex, he would have preferred it if Aya never looked at or talked to the slutkitten again. It would be safer. Apparently, he shouldn't expect that to happen.

Still, his body wasn't good for much now and possibly for days to come, he wanted his puisín, and his puisín needed this. He could make allowances. He would make allowances.

The more Aya talked, the less willing the slutkitten would be. So: ~ Grab him, Yoji, ~ Farfarello told Balinese.

Balinese had no intention of doing such. Just look at Aya! Aya would kill him.

~ He barks a lot, but he doesn't actually kill people for this. ~

Balinese thought that unlike some people _he_ could feel pain and would prefer not to.

~ Who's his lover here? I am. I know him. Grab him. ~ Farfarello _pushed_.

Balinese grabbed and pulled Aya in close to his chest, holding him there as Aya growled and squirmed, apparently unwilling to use more force on a friend. Farfarello used Balinese's hand to trace a familiar pattern on his puisín's back. Aya's shirt felt soft over his hard muscles.

Aya froze, then said, "You said you wouldn't do that!"

~ Just to calm you, ~ Farfarello said so they both could hear. ~ I don't want you to hurt Yoji. ~

Even as he felt guilty, Aya _was not_ amused. Balinese smiled at that about the same time Farfarello did. ~ Let me feel you.... ~

Aya felt wonderful against Balinese's body and in his hands. So real, so _there_. Balinese stroked his back and smiled as Aya squirmed and shivered in a way that spoke less of discomfort than savoring. Soft, warm red hair rubbed against the skin of Balinese's neck. Farfarello could feel that they were both hard, and the way it felt as they rubbed together lit him on fire. Rubbing had never done so much for _him_. There was a certain appeal in being taller than Aya, giving Farfarello the fancy that he could wrap around him and protect him. Take him inside and never let anything get to him.

~ You feel _so good_, puisín.... ~

Aya shuddered and closed his eyes. Farfarello slid into him to taste the air of his mind, see how he felt. His puisín felt utterly aroused and guilty for it and torn. Balinese's body felt solid and resilient but also slim, like the wire he used as a weapon. He mostly smelled of cigarette smoke, more than Schuldig did, but his mouth smelled of cinnamon. His lips looked red and slickly sticky. Candy. Farfarello had Aya kiss them and lick the spicy sweetness away. Moaning, Balinese opened his mouth a little, and they kept kissing, deeper. Yes, so sweet like candy, but with wet heat. Balinese's hand settled into Aya's hair and brought his face closer.

Drunk. Farfarello felt so drunk and overwhelmed. Sex for him was mostly in his head, with most things happening _despite_ his body. Here, his body made its own demands. It wanted to be taken care of _now_. He switched to Balinese's body and experienced that same sense of urgency and being at lust's nonexistent mercy. Balinese had wondered what Aya would be like, but this surpassed it....

"No," Aya murmured against his lips. "No. This isn't right. This isn't right for Yoji."

"I know what's going on here," Balinese said. "I know that you'd be having sex with your lover, not me. I don't mind."

"That's-- _I_ mind. This isn't fair to you."

Balinese's affection for Aya felt like a warm fullness in his chest and only grew with each time Aya said that they mustn't have sex. Stupid, masochistic kitten. At least he kept petting, taking advantage of the cuddliness Farfarello had trained into Aya. He had some sense of strategy.

He also had some thoughts of getting Aya to make love to _him_ as opposed to Farfarello in his body. That wouldn't do. Farfarello smacked him telepathically--enough to be felt but not enough to damage him--and smiled at his grimace.

"You know, Aya, there have been people who've had sex with me without any regrets at all."

Aya smiled a little. "Really. None?"

"No regrets at all. I swear it to you. They were happy to be there and be part of it."

Farfarello slid back over to Aya and asked, ~ What's wrong? This isn't cheating on me. You're the only one unwilling here, and you're only partly unwilling. ~

Aya remembered the last time Farfarello had been inside someone for a long time and how he almost couldn't get out. It had scared him.

~ This is different. That time, I ran that man like a puppet as he fought me, which is tiring. Here, I'm simply riding along, and I'm switching off now and then. Besides, Balinese is unusually easy to ride. I don't feel tired and trapped at all. There must be more to your worries than that. ~

Aya felt that he'd already given his reasons and didn't want to repeat himself.

Just like he didn't want to enjoy the way Balinese nuzzled the side of his face and neck. Farfarello felt far less conflicted in liking it.

So close together, their bodies danced a little with each other, rubbing and interlocking, speaking their own language. Everything felt wonderful, and Farfarello didn't want his puisín's misplaced morals and loyalty to ruin it. He clenched Aya's hands in Balinese's soft and probably expensive sweater, easy when Aya wanted to do it at the same time he didn't want to. As hoped for, the slutkitten took it as encouragement and did more holding, caressing, and nuzzling. He could feel Aya's will bending against the lust, affection, and pleasure.

Balinese dropped them both down onto the bed, and the unexpected softness of blankets and sheets left Farfarello utterly dazed. The way Balinese looked at him, as if he were something inexpressibly precious, didn't help.

No, not at him. At Aya. But it was hard to separate it at the moment.

"I have things I could say to try to convince you, but I don't want to manipulate you," Balinese said softly. What? And since when? Farfarello slid back inside him to smack him. "Ow! Psycho fucking telepath...."

"Farfarello...." Aya gave it a serious warning tone. Then he asked, "What would you say to me if you _wanted_ to manipulate me?" This had promise.

"I would say that I wanted to see if being with you would break Schuldig's possible hold on me."

"Only Schuldig could break that. And if you were questioning the origin of your sudden bisexuality, I would have to point out that there's another evil telepath who wants you to fuck a man involved here, so this wouldn't be a good test."

Evil? His puisín could be so sweet. Still.... ~ No actual fucking of my kitten is allowed to take place here, ~ he said to both of them. ~ Hands and mouth are fine, but you don't get to _have_ Aya. ~

"But it's okay for him to fuck me?"

That sounded like a good idea. When he slid over to his puisín, he heard Aya guiltily think so as well... not that Aya would do it! No! But his puisín's hands still gripped the slutkitten's sweater even without Farfarello's influence.

"Sorry I asked." The slutkitten didn't sound sorry. He didn't sound as if he would really mind. "You know, Aya, I've been watching you since the first day I met you, and I never realized why until recently."

_That_ surprised the hell out of Aya. He'd worked so hard to be aloof and unlikable. The kitten underestimated the power of his appearance.

Balinese's hands glided under Aya's shirt and along his back, easing tense muscles. Everything felt so warm here: Aya, the bed, the affection, the low pulse of desire that stretched between them, Balinese. Farfarello noticed and appreciated light, almost teasing, touches that would have passed unnoticed in his own body. Aya was melting in some places and hardening in others under the intensity of Balinese's gaze, and Farfarello couldn't blame him. He also couldn't take it, so he slid back to the slutkitten.

They twined together more, rubbing and rocking a little, with Aya feeling wonderful moving against Balinese's body and breathing against his neck. Aya's mouth might say No but every other part of him sighed Yes, and Balinese noticed, which increased his wanting. He was so close....

Time to push his puisín a little. Farfarello slid back into Aya and rolled him on top of Balinese. Maybe instinct made Aya grab his wrists and grind against him a bit once he straddled him. Which led to Balinese coming, far too soon. Shit. Farfarello should at least get something out of this, since he doubted they could keep Aya going now. He entered Balinese's body and lost himself in the waves of pleasure and feel of release, the thrill that this was _Aya_ on top of him, and the way every part of him felt completely alive and turned on, even down to his toes. It was incredible. Aya looked mussed, wild, and very surprised. Balinese wanted to touch the red hair that swung and dangled, but his wrists were pinned, and the thought of that wrung him out completely.

Once they could think again, they looked up at a very amused kitten, and Balinese blushed. "Aw, shit."

"It was very flattering," Aya said.

Farfarello smacked Balinese. ~ No staying power. You won't get any sex out of him now. ~

Mournful and embarrassed, Balinese agreed with him. And his pants were becoming very uncomfortable, so Farfarello slid back into his puisín to get away from it.

Aya felt relieved that Balinese had come already, because if they'd kept going he would have relented, so Farfarello had cause to curse Balinese anew. But Aya felt... better, more peaceful, aside from the pangs of lust he kept burying. That was precious.

"Aya, I'm not going to leave you unsatisfied." At least Balinese kept trying, even though he and Farfarello figured it would be a lost cause.

"I'm satisfied."

Balinese had a comical look on his face. Good thing he couldn't hear Farfarello cackle. "I don't think so," Balinese said. "I can feel otherwise."

"You've given me things to think about."

"Aw, shit." Balinese looked miserable.

"Good things." Aya kissed him softly, lingeringly, while Farfarello burned with jealousy. "You've made me feel better."

Obviously reassured, Balinese asked, "You sure? This doesn't seem fair."

"It's fair." Aya rolled off him. "You might want to change your pants."

"Yeah, really." Balinese cast a look Farfarello couldn't interpret back at Aya before he closed the door.

Content, Aya buried what remained of his lust and changed into a pair of sweatpants for bed. Confused, Farfarello said, ~ Sometimes I don't understand you at all. ~

"Yoji cares for me. I kept to the course I set for myself yet still helped you get off. I'm content." He snuggled under the covers, warm and comfortable. Farfarello wanted to put his arms around him and snuggle too.

~ If you are content, then so am I. Sleep. ~ Farfarello could feel his puisín's drowsiness.

"I could stay up to keep you company."

~ You need your rest. ~

Farfarello stayed until Balinese returned and got into bed, lying close to Aya but not too close. Good. There was a big difference between giving comfort and taking liberties. Aya slept.

When Farfarello returned to his body and hospital room, he smelled sex. It hadn't been him, since he hadn't kept much connection to himself, so.... ~ Enjoy the show? ~ he asked Schuldig.

Schuldig looked bright-eyed and satisfied. ~ If you'd gotten Aya, I would have declared you the master, but no. Still, you came damned close. Of course, this way you avoided the possible emotional repercussions. ~

~ You were there and said nothing about that. ~

~ Duh. Given a shot at Aya, I wasn't going to ruin it. ~

~ You're linked to Balinese. ~ No wonder the slutkitten had been so comfortable and easy to ride. He'd been primed already.

~ Yep. I have to remember to pin him by the wrists next time. That should arouse him and freak him out all at once.... I keep trying to talk Brad into letting me keep Yoji as a pet, but he won't have it. Things were easier before we did this freelance thing with Kritiker. Then, we could just be unambiguously evil and take him and tell Weiß to go fuck itself. Not now. ~

Remembering how Balinese had felt and that Aya liked him, Farfarello saw some merit in the idea. He'd wanted to better feel his puisín and to get his puisín a pet. Still, Balinese and Aya liked each other a little too much. Aya had a will of steel--Farfarello knew that well--but could even he withstand that melting gaze?

Schuldig snorted. ~ You poor thing. Yoji seduced you. ~

Annoyed, Farfarello said, ~ You used to seduce me all the time. ~

~ Nuh-uh. I came on to you. I'd grab you and either give you a stupid line or a 'let's fuck.' Yoji does the soft touches and the 'you hot, precious thing' looks. _Big_ difference. It's funny-- Shit. ~

Schuldig removed Farfarello's IV line and the slings that kept him tethered to the bed. Had to be trouble. Schuldig picked him up and set him carefully on his stomach on the floor behind the bed, so anyone opening the door wouldn't see him though he could see the door, and handed him a few knives. Farfarello might have only two thumbs and a pinky undamaged and free of bandages, but he could still use knives. Years of being straitjacketed had taught him several tricks.

Feeling out a little, he said, ~ They have telepaths. ~

The mindbreaker took off his trench coat, put it on the chair, and set more of Farfarello's knives on top of it. His fingers lingered over the knives as if longing for them, a not-Schuldig thing, before he took out his gun instead.

~ They're fucking importing them. I'm deeply pissed off. They're about to clamp the lid down. I'm calling Brad. ~

~ They might hear you. ~

~ I'll do it all subtle-like. Then I warn the staff here. ~

******************************************************

Crawford was shadowboxing when he saw and felt a burst of green the shade of Schuldig's favorite blazer. Nothing came attached to that color, but nothing needed to.

Now that the call had come, every trace of nerves vanished, leaving only a calm cool. Crawford quickly dressed and armed himself. Foresight prevented him from being surprised at seeing Friendly and Fenris, dressed for work, waiting outside the door when he went to leave. Friendly said, "We were told to be your backup during the meeting. I'd say this qualifies."

"You felt this happening?" Crawford asked.

"I saw a little bit of green, and it was cinnamon-scented," she said, and Fenris nodded.

While he didn't know what she meant by the last part, he knew that their talents and her gun would be useful. "You follow my orders here."

"Yes, sir."

"Then come along."


	123. "I'll use whatever tone I want to."

Schuldig just shot the invaders who tried to come into the room. Kritiker could fend for itself. He had his assignment.

The killers had several telepaths mucking things up enough that Schuldig couldn't call out or hear much. At least they couldn't do anything themselves while they had the murk going. Killing people without getting much of their death agony or feelings kept messing with his head, though. It made it feel like he played a video game.

Schuldig only had a second's flash of _something_ before he spun away from the door and yelled, "Farfarello!" without knowing what he was warning about. As he saw someone teleport in near Farfarello, it came clear.

The teleporter screamed as Farf hamstrung him. Lying on the floor, swaddled in casts and bandages, with only three available fingers, Farf could still do damage. Schuldig finished the attacker off with a well-placed bullet.

"Teleporters? That's just not fair," Schuldig said.

"They must want something bad to throw teleporters at us," Farfarello answered as he shimmied out from under the corpse.

"Yeah, really." Since trainable teleporters were rare and valuable. Too many of them died because they couldn't direct themselves out of a long-distance 'port safely. Rosenkreuz had to chip them out of the walls. "These aren't Zhulin's people. And at least half of them are talents."

"Joy."

It looked like Schwarz had made too big a splash here and attracted all kinds of attention. Vermont sounded better all the time.

The pigeons kept coming, and Schuldig was running out of ammo badly enough that he started pondering a run into the hall to grab a gun off a corpse. The risk came in not knowing which guns still had most of their ammunition. Like hell he wanted to get shot at only to grab a useless gun.

Some guy had suddenly just appeared in his face, and Schuldig pistol-whipped him but he kept coming, his helmet taking most of the blow. Fucking attackers had their cute little black army stealth getups going. As he felt something rising up in him, Schuldig reached back for the knives on the chair. He spun one in his hand and lunged right for the small part of his enemy's neck that didn't have a protective covering, slashing deep, feeling the blade grind against bone. Spitting his hair out of his mouth, he grinned. He'd forgotten how fast this body was. Schuldig needed to get a haircut, though.

"Do you have any of my braces handy, Bren?" Farfarello asked. "That way you can keep them on you and handy. It's not like I can use them now."

And people thought that the god-hater was insane. Schuldig shook Bren down a bit but put on the brace and put the knives in it. At least this corpse had a gun with ammo, so Schuldig could avoid relying on anyone else to do his killing for him for a while longer. Most of the bodies he'd nailed while they were still in the hallway.

******************************************************

"These aren't Zhulin's people," Friendly said as they shot their way inside and Fenris flung people around. How fortunate that the enemies wore uniforms that differentiated them from Kritiker. "It's another faction with a lot of talents."

That annoyed Crawford even more. No one swooped in and poached his team members. "Can you tell if Schuldig's still in Farfarello's room?"

"The murk is starting to clear, so yeah. I'm hopeful that it means that we've been killing a lot of them off. He's still in there. Wish I could do a flamethrower in here."

"Too risky."

"I know. Same with messing around with the oxygen. Still, it would have been fun."

They killed their way down the hall with the help of the defending Kritiker people. Crawford shot the last attacker dead himself.

The doorway to Farfarello's room no longer had a door in it. The room itself didn't appear to have living people in it unless you looked very carefully and saw Farfarello on the floor peeking out through spaces under the bed. Farfarello said, "Crawford's here. I think it's clear."

Schuldig moved from his position hidden at the side of the doorway to stand in it instead. "I'm glad you got my invitation."

He wore knives and blood splatter. Crawford refused to worry, especially since they would be leaving to fix Schuldig today. "Of course I did." The truly important thing was that Schuldig and Farfarello hadn't been injured.

"Friendly."

"You guys throw the best parties," she said.

Holstering his gun, the doctor walked in and said, "Everyone out. I have to check my patient. I'm sure he's done himself some damage. In any case, we have to put him back on the bed."

"I can do that," Fenris said, picking him up and flipping him over to lie on his back. Farfarello looked petulant about the whole thing.

"Good," the doctor answered. "Now everyone get out."

"That's bedside manner for you," Schuldig said, but he left with the rest of them, although they all came to a stop in the hallway right outside. They didn't really trust anyone.

In an obviously snuggly mood, Schuldig leaned a little on Crawford. At least he seemed to be himself.

Schwarz needed to get out of this city, but Farfarello couldn't fly in his condition. A van with enough room for him and whatever medical accoutrements he needed would work and be less conspicuous than an ambulance. Crawford also had to decide where to send him, Aya, and Nagi. They would need new identities too.

First he would rent a van. Crawford took out his cell phone.

******************************************************

Nagi vaguely heard music, then Omi softly saying, "He's still asleep."

While Nagi would prefer to go back to sleep, this sounded important, so he mumbled, "Omi, is that a call for me? I'll take it." He might as well. If he didn't wake up now he might keep sleeping for a week.

Fully dressed, Omi handed him the cell phone. Omi had gotten out of bed and dressed without him being aware of it? Damn, he hated being this wiped out.

"I'm glad that you're conscious," Crawford said.

"Yeah, well, I'm tougher than I look," Nagi answered.

"Schwarz has to leave the city today. Another faction arrived to try to take Farfarello last night, and they seem to have a high number of talents."

"There was a fight last night and you didn't tell me?"

"How much good do you think you would have been?"

He hated it when logic refuted his arguments. "Yeah. All right."

"Schu and I will follow our original plans. You, Aya, and Farfarello will drive elsewhere. I'll tell you where when you get here. Bring your things. Come here with Aya. I'll be giving him a wakeup call in 25 minutes."

"All right. I can dress in that time. I'll see you soon." Nagi gave the phone back to Omi. "Did you know about the attack last night?"

"Elena and Fenris told me before they left."

Everybody had decided that he wouldn't be able to cut it. Wonderful. He didn't need to be coddled.

Omi asked, "Would it make you feel better if I told you that we let Aya sleep too?"

"A little." Especially if he got to see Aya's meltdown over that. "Wait, are you going back to Japan?"

"Yeah. I've been away too long as it is."

"I don't know how long we'll be here, but they need me. Farfarello heals faster than normal, so we don't want a regular doctor checking him out. We don't need to keep killing doctors once they start asking awkward questions or getting research ideas."

"I understand. This is important, and it's for your team." Omi smiled, but it had some aspects of the brave smile in it. "We're both professionals."

Besides, it would be good to get away from Omi once in a while to prove that they didn't have to be connected at the hip for life to feel right. Nagi didn't want to become dependent on having a lover, especially not after seeing Aya lose it last night over Farfarello.

Nagi kissed Omi. "I'll miss you." How much remained to be seen and analyzed.

******************************************************

While Crawford called half of creation to put his plans in order, Schuldig went outside for a smoke, needing to be away for a little bit. When he found Friendly standing in his intended spot under the awning he almost went elsewhere but hell if he'd let her get in the way of something he wanted. Besides, he could toy with her.

She cast him a look of annoyance as he lit up. The annoyance grew as he lit a second cigarette and let the first one dangle in the hand closest to her. "Oh, look, it's burning now," he said. "If someone doesn't claim it, it'll go to waste."

She crossed her arms and looked away, while he savored one cigarette and let the other steadily burn down between his fingers. He could have blown smoke at her but figured he didn't need to go that far. She held on for about a minute before taking it and putting it in her mouth, muttering, "Asshole."

"And proud of it. Where's the puppy?"

"Off getting a snack. We give each other space once in a while." Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. "You're a mess right now."

"You're not."

"I'm not as porous as you are."

"I'm spongy? Oh, that's nice."

"You know what I mean. You're more permeable, on and open all the time." Her sudden smile had an edge. "That has to suck."

"Not as open as you'd think."

"Usually."

Two years ago, Brad bought a compound in some Midwestern state like Montana or Wyoming or something. If the world went to hell suddenly Schwarz would just go to ground wherever they had to, but if they had time to see it coming they'd go out to his bunker. They'd kill the people doing the caretaking, and then settle in. It had freaked Schuldig out finding out about the place, because he wondered if Brad had _seen_ something, but Brad had answered that he just preferred to be prepared. They might not actually have plans to throw the world into anarchy, but if anything survived of Eszett there might be others who did.

Brad knew that Schuldig, no matter how good his shields, wouldn't survive a genocide with his mind intact, but Brad didn't _know_ it. Not really. Schuldig saw no point in trying to hammer the idea through.

Friendly threw the cigarette down to the sidewalk and ground it out beneath her heel. "Enjoy your vacation," she said as she went back inside.

******************************************************

Yoji woke up with someone wrapped tightly around him. At this rate he might get used to it. The hot breath against his neck felt good. When he opened his eyes to dimness, he looked down a little and saw red hair, which brought last night crashing back on him. Yay for having been that close to having Aya, but his cheeks burned at the memory of how he'd gone off too fast like a kid.

One late night Weiß had wondered how their mysterious, stick-up-the-ass teammate might sleep and decided that he would sleep rigidly on his back with his hands folded over his chest. If he found himself in bed with someone, he would lie as far away on one side as possible, keeping a no-engagement zone between them. They never would have thought Aya to be the heat-seeking, invasive, snuggling type.

Omi's eagerness to ponder these issues had just been more proof to Yoji that the kid would end up gay. Hadn't been wrong.

Had Aya always been this potentially snuggly in bed if he had a partner? Yoji couldn't see it as something Farfarello could have taught him. Whatever, it felt damned good aside from his left arm being asleep. When he tried to shift Aya off his arm, Aya sleepily made a grumbly growling sound and held on tighter, which was kind of cute.

He wondered if Aya thought he was lying in bed with Farfarello.

This morning after might be awkward, so Yoji would keep it low-key. Low-key while he would try to see if they could have sex that got Aya off too, but low-key like. They'd come close last night, and it filled Yoji with optimism. Also, he could tell that Aya had feelings for _him_. He hadn't just been a body Farfarello could use as a toy.

He could also swear that Farfarello had switched off between them at times, which was hot and scary all at once. Was it worse to make love to Farfarello who was in Aya's body or have Farfarello in his body as he did it to Aya?

Telepathy made life way too complicated. Kinkier, though. He couldn't say if that made it worth the complication.

He did have to wonder if Aya would still be alive right now without it.

Aya had a bad scar from an exit wound on his back. Bullet from some kind of high-powered gun must have gone right through his shoulder. Yoji didn't remember him having as many scars as he had now. It might be cause for concern.

Aya really had soft hair. With the natural wave and unnatural color, Yoji's tended to dry out and frizz more easily lately, but he was working on it.

And, yeah, Yoji was gently petting Aya. Who knew if he'd ever get the chance again?

Aya murmured and moved his head, nuzzling, which affected Yoji's morning wood in the predictable way. Aya pulled away a little and blinked at him, almost killing him with the unbearable cuteness.

If he called Aya "cute" to his face, he actually would die.

"Yoji?" Aya murmured.

"Hi," Yoji answered, pulling up his list of morning-after excuses and justifications for when Aya really woke up. He tensed, ready for anything.

"Mmm. Hi." Aya detached himself a little and put a little space between them. A little. They were still close enough for Yoji to feel the heat of his body. He didn't get angry or withdraw totally.

Okay, Yoji hadn't been ready for that.

After all of Yoji's worry and preparations, the actual reaction almost disappointed him. Then he called himself ten kinds of idiot and told himself to take the blessings given to him.

"How do you feel?" Yoji asked.

"I'm fine." Then Aya said nothing else, apparently content to stare at the ceiling and peaceably drift.

Which felt awkward to Yoji. He didn't find silences comfortable. "Mmm."

Aya's lips curved up a little. "I'm not going to kill you, Yoji."

"Are you sure? You might be saying that as a way to get my guard down before you kill me."

"I hadn't thought of that. I have to keep it in mind as a tactic for later."

"We're going to end up in bed again?" Yoji asked. At Aya's raised eyebrow, Yoji said, "Yeah, that was pushing it a bit."

"Definitely."

Yoji had wondered if Aya would know that Farfarello wasn't inside Yoji looking out through his eyes, but Aya did seem to know. How, Yoji couldn't figure. It made him feel better, though part of him mourned the loss of the possibility of Aya assaulting him to have sex with Farfarello.

Yoji gave thanks that Aya couldn't read minds. Aya was murderous enough on his own without being given more incentives to kill.

"The stroking was nice."

On the one hand, shit, he'd noticed that. On the other, score! "You're going to give me ideas."

"You don't need my help to give you ideas. You do it all on your own."

This was comfy, lying warm in bed with Aya taking verbal shots at each other. If he could only get off, it would be perfect. "When did you learn to banter with people?"

"Schwarz is full of wiseasses, and I tired of taking hits all the time. What time is it?"

"7 a.m."

"You're awake at 7 a.m. without even an alarm clock?"

"Maybe my body's screwed up by the time zone differences."

Aya's coat chirped, and Aya sighed and got up out of bed to answer it. His sweatpants rode low on his hips. Yoji was going to end up doing something that would get him killed this morning, he was sure of it.

"Yes. What?" Aya looked abruptly more awake and switched to English. "How is he? Something happened, and you didn't call to tell me? I could have helped! Oh, I'm your token normal. That _is_ what you're saying. This is unacceptable. I'll use whatever tone I want to."

This sounded interesting. Yoji could guess the other side of the conversation but wished he didn't have to guess. He also wondered what kind of euphemisms Crawford used when discussing a fight over a cell phone.

"I can be ready in a few minutes. Yes. We'll talk all right." Aya closed the phone with a vicious snap.

Looked like there wouldn't be a second seduction attempt or any more comfortable lying around this morning. Damn. "Is Farfarello okay?" Yoji asked.

The look of surprised pleasure on Aya's face made the question worth it. "Yes. Schuldig protected him." He walked to his suitcase and started pulling things out. "I have to go."

"Yeah, I figured that."

"No, I mean I really have to go. Weiß will probably fly back to Japan today--"

"--but Farfarello can't fly right now." Damn. "Did they tell you how long they expect you to stay in the United States?"

"No, nor where we'll be transplanted to. But it makes sense not to reveal that on the phone. I have to dress to go." From how Aya slammed the bathroom door, he still felt angry with his team.

There might be some opportunity to work on that another time, but for now it looked like God or Whatever was slapping Yoji's hand away from the cookie jar. What a tease.

Aya finished quickly, put his things into his suitcase, armed himself, and put his coat on. Yoji said, "Hey, Aya, knock 'em dead."

Aya smiled a tiny bit, then walked over and kissed his forehead. "Thanks, Yoji."

On the one hand, very nice. On the other, Aya was killing him.

Aya grabbed his suitcase, opened the door, and glared at Nagi, who immediately said, "Don't turn that on me! They just woke me up too."

"All right. I'll see you, Yoji."

"Yeah."

Almost as soon as they closed the door, Yoji slid his hand down under his pajama pants to take care of himself. It wouldn't take much right now, especially with Aya's scent still on the sheets and pillows. So of course some idiot knocked on his door. Damn it. And wouldn't go away no matter how hard he tried to ignore all the knocking. The disadvantage of being famous for sleeping late was that no one believed you were out of your hotel room by 7 a.m., and even during his craziest clubbing nights he never returned later than 6.

Someone would have to die.

Yoji yanked open the door. "What?"

Ken looked a little intimidated. Faced with Yoji's rage, the scent of musk, and the tent in Yoji's pants showing what he'd interrupted, he damn well should. Then Ken stood straighter, putting some steel in his spine, and said, "We have to talk. There's a big problem, and it's Schwarz."


	124. "What are you gonna do, Farf? Challenge me to a thumb wrestle?"

"They didn't wake me either," Nagi said.

"Yes, but you'd wiped yourself out being the most valuable member of the team. You needed sleep. I only fought a little and worried. I was still fresh," Aya answered as he drove. While he'd snuggled with Yoji, the others had protected his lover from killers.

"I was not wiped out."

"You disabled several cameras, moved Farfarello around, and found and plucked tiny bits of glass from his body. You worked hard."

Nagi looked pleased and annoyed at once. "I was not wiped out."

Not knowing what Crawford had planned, they left their bags in the car. Seeing him, Aya felt a surge of annoyance. "You should have called me in." A weight settled in his chest at the familiar hospital smell.

"There wasn't time. I had to come quickly," Crawford answered, his tone suggesting that he saw Aya's protest as a small and petty thing. Eyes closed and looking excessively casual, Schuldig leaned against the wall next to him. Sometimes Schuldig's open coat revealed glimpses of a stained shirt and pants. It would take hard work to get the dried blood out.

"I want to see Farfarello."

"Of course."

Farfarello looked pretty much the same as he had last night, but it struck Aya harder in the morning light and with a few hours' sleep in him. Swollen, bruised, scabbed, and buried in bandages and white sheets, Farfarello barely looked human. The old scars didn't seem nearly as bad as this fresh damage. Scars meant survival....

This abused lumpen flesh couldn't be Aya's lover. But he'd had moments when he couldn't believe that the body on the bed had been his sister, let alone could still be his sister.

Someone had taken out all of Farfarello's earrings, which revealed countless holes banding the edges of his ears. It had probably been done for the skull X-rays or CT scans or MRIs. The IV had been put into the arm that hadn't taken a knife strike meant for Aya days earlier. Swallowing down the lump in his throat, Aya castigated himself for his shallowness and approached the bed.

Farfarello opened his eye, which was a flare of bright color amidst the dull, dark brown of scabs and dull, dark purple-brown of bruises. "Kitten, don't feel bad about it. I've seen myself through Schuldig's eyes. I repulse myself right now. This goes too far."

"I'm that obvious?" Even worse. Aya put his hand near Farfarello's.

"I still feel you a little."

"I'm sorry."

"I might worry if you liked me like this."

That put a rosier tone on Aya's gut reaction than he was willing to accept, but he went along with it in the face of Farfarello's worry over him. "I went to the apartment but couldn't find the tree ornaments you love best. I saved some others."

Farfarello's right brow drew down a little, then his expression turned a little happier. "I packed my most favorite ones yesterday. I had a moment of horror because I forgot that last night. Did you pick up on that somehow?"

"I don't know."

"Don't worry. But you're a thoughtful puisín. Thank you."

"Good. The apartment is a disaster."

"It saddens me that we can't make them pay for that."

"I agree." They'd invaded his _home_.

"You still smell like the slutkitten."

"I came here in a hurry. You were the one who made sure we were all over each other." Wait. "'Slutkitten'? _Slutkitten_?"

"It's accurate."

Aya felt torn between defending Yoji and having a good laugh. Could he do both? "You don't call him 'slutkitten.'"

"Not to his face, no. But I can tell through smell and telepathy that you didn't succumb to him this morning when I wasn't there, so I'm happy."

Aya felt annoyed, amused, and outraged at that, especially since Farfarello sounded smug. Aya had behaved well, of course, but he liked to have _some_ privacy, retain some secrets. It showed trust in him.

Crawford entered with Schuldig and Nagi, then closed the door. "We don't have much time," he said. "Schuldig has a check-in he doesn't want to be late for."

"Way to make it sound like you're institutionalizing me," Schuldig murmured.

"I want to get out of here as soon as possible," Farfarello said, probably for Aya's sake.

"We have a large van that has the necessary medical equipment for Farfarello in the back. It also includes a motorized wheelchair for when he's more mobile."

"How long will we stay in the States?" Nagi asked.

"Farfarello can't fly while he's so close to immobile. The risk of blood clots is too high, particularly in his broken leg, and he wouldn't feel them coming on. You'll have to determine when he's safe."

"Even with his quick healing, that could be weeks!"

Aya could understand him being upset. It felt as if they hadn't been home in years. Nagi had the added problem of being separated from a lover.

"It will take as long as it takes."

"Have you seen whether I can push his healing forward faster?"

"Yes. You can do it a little. Be careful. I know you don't want to damage him out of impatience."

"Where will we be?"

"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania."

"Why there?"

"Why not?" Schuldig asked.

"It has an airport nearby," Crawford said, "and it's not an obvious choice."

Nagi appeared to be working hard to keep a rein on his temper. "Will there be work there?"

"Yes."

"At least there's that."

"I've rented a small home there for you. It has wheelchair access." Crawford handed Nagi a small bag. "Here's your identification in passports, driver's licenses, and social security cards."

"I never have a driver's license," Farfarello said.

"You still don't. No one would believe it, not when you have no depth perception. There's a non-driver photo ID in there for you in addition to your passport."

"You made Aya my brother?" Nagi asked as he looked through the ID. Some tone in his voice caught Aya's attention. Dismay? Something.

"It's not like that stopped you," Schuldig said with a smirk.

Nagi briefly blushed. What? No. Aya didn't believe it. Was Nagi... attracted to him? Couldn't be.

Aya twitched at the feel of something scratchy against his fingers. It was the edge of one of the splints on Farfarello's fingers. He didn't know how Farfarello would handle being dependent and so close to immobile over the course of weeks.

"I can put Farfarello out," Schuldig said.

"No!" Aya and Farfarello both answered.

"Shit. Just trying to help."

"You're all American citizens, most recently from Philadelphia," Crawford said. "Someone on the staff here recently moved to New York from Philadelphia, so Schuldig will pass on some of his memories to you to help you get by."

"I don't want Schuldig going through my head like that," Nagi said.

"Bitchy, bitchy," Schuldig replied. "I have to anyway. We have talents after us, so I have to put something on the three of you to hide you better. I have to go in whether you like it or not."

"Shit."

"Blame our enemies, not me."

"Why are we moving to Pittsburgh?"

"You're young and bored, plus you have bad memories."

Crawford said, "I strongly urge you not to draw much attention to all of Farfarello's medical equipment when you arrive. If anyone asks about his appearance, he was in a car accident."

"Handy things, cars," Farfarello said.

"How long do you figure the drive there will take?" Nagi asked.

"About nine hours, depending on traffic and road conditions. I haven't foreseen anything about this trip."

"It's longer than our trip to Vermont, but what can you do?" Schuldig asked. "We're just better than you."

Aya knew that he should be the one challenging Crawford and Schuldig and shooting out questions, but he felt so lost and adrift, small and helpless, standing next to his badly damaged lover in a hospital room so like the purgatory he'd spent years in with his sister. Over that time he'd been a different person while in the hospital than he was elsewhere, soft and open instead of hard and cold. Now it came back again to bite him on the ass.

Aya didn't even notice Schuldig move before the telepath stood behind him with his hands on Aya's face. "Shhh."

Aya moved to fight, but the jolt and rush hit him first and dragged him under. When he came to, he realized that Schuldig held him upright. "Fuck, you're tasty," the telepath purred. "And you smell like sex and Yoji."

Although Aya broke free and glared, he had to sit down hard on Farfarello's bed, unable to stand. He realized that Farfarello and Nagi both looked ready to kill Schuldig. Meanwhile, images of and facts about places he'd never been before swam through his head. "Don't touch me again," Aya said.

"Never again," Farfarello growled.

Schuldig smirked. "What are you gonna do, Farf? Challenge me to a thumb wrestle?"

"Oh, yeah," Nagi said, "I want Schuldig to mess with my head after that."

"Telepaths set on 'seek' will have a hard time finding him now. Go ahead, Nags. Give him a try."

Nagi's expression soured. "You're right."

"Even when I'm almost off my head, the power and skill are still there. Who's next?"

"It's necessary," Crawford said.

"I hate you," Nagi told Schuldig.

"That's a shame," Schuldig answered, "because I _love_ you."

******************************************************

"Could this have waited until I was _less_ comfortable?" Yoji asked as he pushed Ken into his room. No need to give the whole hotel a show.

"I just saw Aya leave with Nagi," Ken answered.

Resigned to not getting off any time soon, Yoji put on a robe and sat on his bed. "So you're watching my room now? If I didn't know better, Kenken, I'd swear you wanted me."

"Pervert." But Ken said it affectionately. "I'm worried, okay? When did we become Schwarz's backup? We're Kritiker, while they're freelancers."

"It's just for this."

"It's just for our whole time in New York, which keeps becoming longer."

"It's over now. Schwarz is splitting off, while Omi will probably send us all back to Japan."

But that didn't defuse Ken at all. "Yeah, but that only defers the problem. It's still there. We just won't have to deal with it for a while. What happens when Schwarz comes back to Japan? Do we watch their backs for them again? I'm worried about their influence."

"None of us trust them." Even those members of Weiß who might be sleeping with some of them.

"Does that matter when they have telepaths? Look what they did to Aya."

"Yeah, they made him more open and happy."

"Because that makes it easier for them to deal with him. He's being fucked by Farfarello. He switches from one language to another without even thinking about it. Do you really think he knows who he is anymore? Tell me that you don't want to save him from them."

Shit. "I can't."

"So?"

"Ah, but I'm selfish. He's one of ours, and I want him back. It just doesn't seem like he's being abused by Schwarz."

"He's been brainwashed. Do I have to worry about that from you too? You went out with them last night."

"I went out with Aya."

"Who was accompanied by Nagi, and they were out there to backup Farfarello. It was a Schwarz operation, and you were helping. It looks like they made a big mess of it too." Ken sounded gleeful about that.

Yoji would have been the same if he hadn't seen Aya's reaction to Farfarello's broken body. "It's over now, Ken."

"Aya's so tangled with them that we'll never get him out. Omi's sleeping with Nagi. Every time we're in the same room, Schuldig looks at us like we're something good to eat."

"At least he looks at everyone like that. Are you objecting to Schwarz being remorseless killers or them being sex fiends?"

Ken didn't take the bait. "It's not over."

"Omi is Persia now, and he's always had a practical streak. Do you really think Omi wouldn't put a bullet in Nagi's head if it turned out to be necessary? He would feel regretful that he had to, but he'd do it."

"Same as Nagi would to him. They're just kids."

"They're not that much younger."

"That's not really the point. Isn't that... sad?"

"Yeah, it is. But that's how things are. I'm just saying that you don't have to worry about Omi being Schwarz's lovestruck puppet."

"Schwarz called Elena and Fenris in to help him for whatever happened last night."

Okay, _that_ was news. "They did?"

"They didn't wake you, huh?"

It rankled, but.... "Omi told us all to do backup."

"Omi, who's sleeping with Nagi."

Seeing this going in circles and annoyed by it, Yoji asked, "Are you just annoyed that you don't have a Schwarz fuckbuddy?"

"Yoji!"

"Well?"

"Do _you_ have a Schwarz fuckbuddy?"

He'd walked right into that one. Fortunately, someone knocked at the door. When Yoji went to answer it, he saw Elena and Fenris. "Hi," she said, "we're back from the job. Are we missing anything?"

"You're a telepath. You don't know?" Yoji answered.

"I try not to pry. Hi, Ken."

"Hi, Elena," Ken replied. "How was the night out with Schwarz?"

It didn't ruffle her at all. "Bloody and tiring. If we're going back to Japan today, we'll be sleeping on the plane."

Some of the glances she shot at Yoji right now suggested that she hadn't shown up at his door at exactly that moment by accident. She knew, and she'd decided to protect him. Or just decided to keep his secret about how he'd slept with over half of Schwarz.

He could barely figure out how it had happened. Four out of five guys! Yeah, he hadn't gone all the way in one case with two of them, but he'd gotten close.

Damn, he _was_ a slut.

He wondered why she'd stepped in. She seemed to like him, but she didn't like Schwarz.

For a guy who got accused of thinking with his dick, he sure spent a lot of time tying himself into mental knots overthinking things.

~ You're an adult, ~ Elena said. ~ You can make your own decisions. And having your ties to Schwarz out in the open would cut your legs right out from under you where Ken's concerned. But I am worried that they're all interested in you. ~

Yoji told her that maybe it was his sexual magnetism at work, but he didn't totally believe it either.

~ I'm watching out for you. ~

Really?

~ Not like that! I'm not that much of a pervert. ~

Keeping it secret from Ken bugged Yoji on some levels. He hadn't set out to have secret liaisons with Schwarz or anything, but they kept happening unexpectedly. It had started when Ken hadn't been in the picture at all. If he told now, Ken would think Yoji had been sneaking around. And how the hell did you bring it up out of the blue? The only openings Ken provided were along the lines of "Schwarz is a bunch of killers and sex fiends trying to mold us in their own image." Answering that with "Funny you should mention Schwarz, sex, and us, because...." would be a disaster.

"Was there a meeting called?" Omi asked as he showed up behind Fenris. Unbelievable.... "You're not plotting against me, are you?"

"No, everybody decided to have an impromptu party in my room," Yoji said. "Is there something I can help you with?" Anything to get them _out_.

"We're returning to Japan today, so everyone should pack to go."

"Finally," Ken murmured.

"That's all."

Yoji doubted that, but it seemed to be all for now since Omi walked away as cool as you please.

"Yoji--" Ken started.

"It's on my radar. You made your point. Now can everyone get out?"

"I'll let you go back to what you were doing," Ken replied with a smirk.

"You're a guy. You should understand. And vengeance will be mine. You'll never see it coming. Why don't I get respect?"

"I think it's how you show your belly to everybody," Fenris said, which made Ken laugh. "I like it, but I think people react to it."

Was that Fenris' inherent oddness talking, or would he end up being into men like almost everyone else Yoji currently knew?

"I'm glad you don't go out on missions bare-chested anymore," Elena said. "It was distracting."

"It was meant to be!" Looking at that mission outfit later, Yoji could peg it as a show of his self-destructive impulses. He was much better now. "I don't dress like that anymore."

"We'll leave you alone now," Ken said. "C'mon, kids."

Left in blessed solitude at last, Yoji just couldn't do it anymore. The sexy, lazy mood had passed because they'd killed it with the suspicions and friendly hazing. _He_ liked his clothes.... Growling to himself, Yoji decided to take a shower.


	125. "I'm sorry, Aya, but you're hot."

They stayed around until the kids, as Schuldig called them, hit the road. It had taken a while, since they had to pack their belongings into the back of the van as well as the medical equipment, set up Farfarello's care and strap him down to the locked-wheel gurney for the trip, and examine and bandage Aya's fingers. Farfarello had been adamant that his kitten be checked for glass splinters. Schuldig had implanted some memories and adjusted Nagi and Farfarello's mental shields.

"You think they'll be okay with the map?" Schuldig asked with a smirk once the van pulled away and he stopped waving jauntily.

"I think they don't have a choice," Crawford answered.

"That's one way of looking at it. My shirt is fucking sticking to me. The blood and gunpowder smell might be a problem too. I need a wash. Do we have time?"

As a telepath, Schuldig could make their greeters at the bed &amp; breakfast see and smell whatever he wanted them to, but if Schuldig wanted a shower so much Crawford could go along with it. It would take only a little time and save telepathic effort later. "We'll have to find the time. You can't check in looking like this."

"Flatterer."

"I need one too."

Given the opportunity, Schuldig took obscenely long showers, preferably with a partner. Today he finished it in ten minutes, with most of that time probably spent on his hair. Crawford went in after he finished. Taking showers together didn't save time. When he left the bathroom he saw an already dressed Schuldig blowdrying his hair with a focused intensity and sense of urgency. Schuldig rarely used one, saying that it made his hair too dry.

"I doubt we'll be that late," Crawford said, concerned. "In any case, you could always use telepathy to make them allow us in."

Schuldig turned the blowdryer off. "Of course. I just want to get the repair work started and over with as soon as possible. It's really not fun."

Schuldig strove to sound casual but seemed nervous and almost afraid. Crawford didn't like this at all.

"No, Brad. You promised to let me do this. It needs to be done. I've done it before. I just did it when you couldn't notice or pass judgment on it."

"If I said no, what would you do?"

"I'd either go anyway or stay and get worse and worse until some part of me really went off the deep end. I might even stay then take off." Schuldig shrugged. "It changes."

Schuldig had come back from all of Eszett's reeducation bouts more outwardly obedient and quieter for a while, and that was all Crawford had cared about. He'd never made an effort to see if any other personality changes had occurred. He didn't know if Schuldig had changed after any of those other times he'd mentioned, and Schuldig probably wouldn't know. Now the idea that he might not get the same person back after this obsessed him.

This was the Schuldig he knew, the one who'd adjusted to him and to life after Eszett. He didn't want a rebooted version. It would be less effective.

Yet he had to admit that he'd been seeing less and less of _his_ Schuldig lately. Sometimes he felt that he lived with several people, all occupying that one body. It made Schuldig dangerously mercurial. The telepath had told him that it would only worsen. Crawford didn't need to be precognitive to see that taking that road would lead to the disintegration of the one he wanted to keep.

Repair work now might save Schuldig. In any case, it would save more of him than letting him unravel would.

It also helped prevent a future in which Crawford woke up with a knife in his gut.

"We're going," Crawford said.

"You're so wise." Schuldig put on his coat and looped the blue scarf around his neck. As he toyed with its fringe, he said, "I love my Bradmomma. If only I could get you to go see her later...."

That sounded more like Schuldig. Crawford said, "It's more realistic to try for one concession at a time."

"You always told us to be ambitious."

Schuldig fell asleep almost as soon as he'd finished fastening his seatbelt. Good. He needed it. Unfortunately, that would leave Crawford with a lot of quiet driving time to brood during. Schuldig's incessant chatter, wheedling, and sleazy flirtations could be annoying, but they kept Crawford from thinking his own dark thoughts. Now he had nothing.

Looking at Schuldig curled up in the passenger seat, trusting and vulnerable, made something inside Crawford ache. He resisted the urge to stroke some of that orange hair out of Schuldig's sleeping face and started the car instead.

The news radio station he turned on didn't provide enough distraction.

******************************************************

As the hours dragged on, Aya was terribly bored as he drove. The scenery on the highway they were on didn't seem to change much from mile to mile, especially as the van reached snowy areas. They wouldn't have to exit for a while to come, so he didn't even have to pay strict attention to the signs yet. There was nothing good on the radio, and they didn't have cassette tapes. His own thoughts didn't provide light entertainment either.

Nagi had been keeping a check on Farfarello's IV and condition until Farfarello had gone to sleep. The painkillers no doubt helped. Given that the back of the van had no windows and Farfarello was strapped down, sleep had to be the only palatable option anyway. At that point Nagi had come up to the passenger seat and settled in with his laptop.

Eventually Aya couldn't stand it anymore. He was bored and something had been preying on his mind. It might be a mistake to ask, but he'd hit a desperation point. Surely any reaction would be better than just sitting here driving.

"Nagi, I have something I want to ask you," Aya said.

Nagi didn't look up from his laptop. "Yes?"

How could he even phrase this? It was stupid. He should just go on being bored. "Never mind."

"_Aya_, just ask," Nagi replied, finally looking up.

"Are you... are you attracted to me?" Aya asked. Nagi twitched. That couldn't be good. "Forget it. It's a stupid question."

"How could you not know that? Haven't I been embarrassingly obvious?"

"No."

Nagi shook his head. "Yeah, I'm attracted to you."

"Why?"

Nagi smiled a little. "Fishing for compliments?"

"Mystified is more like it."

"So many people are attracted to you. Why is it a shock that I am too?"

Aya stared at him then looked back at the road. "No, they're not."

"What world do you live in?"

"Farfarello, yes, but otherwise? Schuldig would fuck anything. Yoji flirts indiscriminately, although he does like me, which is still a surprise."

It had been nice waking up with Yoji this morning. Comfortable. Aya had only moved away because Yoji had tensed up suddenly. Still, he had been better off that way. He didn't want to become too comfortable in Yoji's bed.

"Omi."

"Omi?"

"I know about...." Now Nagi seemed tongue-tied. "That time."

Of course all of Schwarz knew about that. It still bothered Aya how he'd lost control that night and bothered him more to know that everyone knew about it. "He was grieving, and we were drunk. He needed some kind of physical comfort, and things got out of hand. I take responsibility."

"Things got out of hand on his side but _you_ take responsibility?"

"He was in a vulnerable state of mind, and I'm older." Then Aya really thought about what Nagi was saying. "Omi's attracted to me?"

Nagi looked a bit queasy. "You didn't know?"

"No!" Omi was so young! All right, not as young as he used to be, but he remained young in Aya's mind. Omi... wanted him?

Some moments in Germany made more sense now.

"I really shouldn't have said anything. I thought you knew."

"If I'm not supposed to know, I won't tell him you told me."

"It's not that you're not supposed to know, it's that if you didn't know Omi should be the one to tell you."

"All right." Aya was still in too much shock.

"Ken wants you, even though he won't admit it to you," Nagi said, obviously trying to move on. "Or to himself a lot of the time."

"That's not even funny."

"Crawford is too."

"I can't see that. Ever."

"Schuldig told me about it."

"And you trust him?"

"To be willing to score a point on Crawford? Yeah. Besides, I've seen him look at you. I'm sorry, Aya, but you're hot."

Aya really didn't know what to say to that.

Nagi shook his head. "You really do live in your own little world, don't you? Random people on the street want you!"

"They don't even know me."

"Some of them might see that as an advantage."

It took a moment to realize that Nagi was just teasing. "That's... mean."

"I'm sorry, but you're hot."

This was why he tried to never ask personal questions. "I get the point. Please stop."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, that I'm hot."

"No, I mean I really am sorry that you're upset. I have to make it up to you or something." Nagi turned on the radio. "Huh, country music." He switched the channel. "Country." Again. "Country." By the sixth channel, Aya had begun to say it with him. Finally Nagi said, "That's it, you need real music."

"I think that _is_ music. Just depressing music about being on the road away from your wife and kids."

"Or drinking. Or about loving the USA. Damn, who the hell has a vehicle that's only equipped with a radio and tape player these days anyway?"

"We do."

"We're stopping at the next place that comes by. You need music."

"_I_ need music?"

"I have music. But my Discman doesn't have the cigarette lighter adaptor anymore, so we can't hook it up. My other cables won't work."

"It's kind of you to care."

Nagi smiled then said, "Of course I care. You're hot."

"You're lucky I'm driving."

"Or you'd what?"

"Don't tempt me to start thinking about it."

"You'd don't scare me."

"I should."

They pulled in at a truck stop since the van could use some gas anyway. Aya took off his earring and earcuffs, tucked some of his hair behind his ears, and buttoned his coat back up. The van had become so warm from the heating that he'd been forced to strip his coat away a bit. He put a hat on to cover his hair more. They didn't want to be any more conspicuous than they had to be.

He and Nagi stepped out into a snowscape and immediately started shivering. Everything seemed colder out here, with the added feeling that the earth radiated it as well. The sky seemed longer and closer to the ground as well, while the air felt thinner and crisp.

Nagi gave the cashier some money while Aya started to fill up the tank. For whatever reason, Nagi returned to watch, huddling in his coat as snowflakes whipped around them. Once they found a parking spot for the van, they went into the convenience store for a men's room break, sustenance, and cassette tapes.

Aya worried about leaving Farfarello in the van but couldn't see a way around it. Anyone trying to break in would get the shock of his life if he succeeded, which might give them the time to run out and attack. He'd left a window cracked open for fresh air and tried not to feel like he'd left a dog in his vehicle.

Inside, as Nagi spun the display rack Aya asked softly, "If this is on every station, why do you need to buy a tape of it?"

"Maybe you'd want to hear your favorite."

"You'd have a favorite?"

"There's the Sex Pistols. I wonder how _Never Mind the Bollocks_ ended up here."

"Maybe a rip in time and space."

A burly man walked by muttering something about "fucking college students." Nagi smiled at Aya. They had their hook. They could be college students. Then the man tripped and fell suddenly, spilling coffee and bags of potato chips. Aya narrowed his eyes at Nagi.

~ You must not have heard him sneer about fags. ~

He and Nagi faced some curious looks but no other outwardly hostile people. Everyone else seemed polite. They each bought a hot soup and a bottled water and ate in a booth. Aya bought more water and a soup in a to-go container for Farfarello, who'd damaged his head and face enough that the beef jerky and chips he favored would be even less of a good idea than usual. Farfarello enjoyed soup hot or cold.

~ Farfarello is fine. Still sleeping. I just checked up on him. Now eat. ~

"Thanks. Would you like a Swedish fish?" Aya asked. He had a small bag in his pocket.

"That was one of your X-mas gifts, right? Yeah, sure. Oh, damn these things are chewy. Tasty in a sharp, burn-your-tongue way though."

"Are you making fun of me again?"

"No. Can I have another?"

Once they finished their meal they crunched through the snow back to the van. While Aya checked up on Farfarello, who still slept, Nagi turned on his laptop. Music started to play. "I have enough computing power to play MP3s and work at the same time. Behold the power of technology."

With the teasing and the kindness, it was almost like actually having a younger brother. A younger brother who thought he was hot.

As something that sounded industrial played, Aya drove them out of the lot and back to the highway.


	126. "My important piece is bigger."

Elena and Fenris fell asleep almost as soon as their butts hit the seats. Yoji lingered awake a while longer, enjoying the comfort of using a private plane. Legroom and comfy seats made him happy. He snuggled under a blanket and closed his eyes.

Yoji found himself sitting on a comfy, slouchy couch in what could have been some dim, low-key lounge somewhere, though this one had its music muted. His tight black pants, knee-high boots, black work gloves, watch, and long-sleeved, midriff-baring black vinyl shirt with reflective white stripes down the sleeves made him wonder what kind of party he was in for, but, at ease, he settled back and lit up, waiting for the inevitable company.

Schuldig sat down next to him, close enough to touch, and put his bare feet up on the low table next to Yoji's booted ones. He wore a loose white shirt unbuttoned at the collar and tight green pants. "I didn't get to say goodbye last night. We won't be seeing each other for a while."

"Tragic," Yoji answered on a long puff of smoke. Still, life would be a lot quieter without the telepath around.

"You know you love me. Light?" Schuldig moved in close to light his cigarette off Yoji's, then settled back.

"Nice place."

"I can't take all the credit. It's _our_ dream."

Uncomfortable thought.

"You're unhappy," Schuldig said.

"Things're fine."

"You don't like being Weiß's leader, and you don't think they respect you."

Yoji sank lower into the couch. "I'm not going there." It never paid to forget that Schuldig tormented people for fun and profit.

"You know you're not an authority figure. You don't have the stick up your ass or that 'do it my way or suffer the consequences' way about you. You're the guy the team goes to when they need to snark about the authority figure. You're the fun guy and, yeah, the kind of weird guy, like the uncle who's a magician."

"Why are you here again?"

Schuldig shrugged. "You're not happy."

"You think you're helping that?"

"Being the leader sucks. It's much better to be us."

"Us?"

"The ones who stop the leaders from getting too complacent and full of themselves. The fun guys who remind people that the emperor isn't wearing any clothes. Speaking of which, I like yours."

"Now? This outfit is so over the top."

"In general."

"You're not the endorsement I'd go looking for."

Schuldig nuzzled his neck. "So mean."

Something about the way the telepath sounded, soft and dreamy, made Yoji ask, "Did you actually come looking for me, or are you molesting me in your sleep?"

"Am I dreaming that I'm molesting you and thus actually doing it? How existential. Maybe even deep. You're more than just a pretty face, kitty."

Having Schuldig kissing and murmuring at his neck and nearly climbing into his lap felt warm and good the way having Aya in his bed had felt warm and good, but Yoji couldn't let this happen, not after the morning meeting he'd endured. "I can't let you do this and still respect myself."

"Self-respect is overrated. It doesn't feed you or shelter you or get you off. Yoji, let me--" Then Schuldig just disappeared. Woke up?

Yoji didn't know whether to feel relieved or disappointed.

A black feather duster smacked his boots. "Get your feet off the furniture," Aya said.

Yoji looked up and holy shit. Aya had real, Aya-proportionate black kitty ears, not plush ones. Right now they rested down almost flat against his crimson hair, showing annoyance that went with his glare. His pupils looked like narrow slits. A dangling gold bell tied with red ribbon to the end of his black tail matched the bell dangling from his rhinestone-studded collar. He had a short, ruffly black apron on along with the black sleeveless shirt, pants, boots, and gloves he wore for missions. Red hair, black clothes, black fur, and pale skin made a tasty combination. And he held the feather duster in his right hand.

Had Yoji or Schuldig been responsible for this bit of cute and weirdly sexy insanity? They each had the sense of humor and disturbed personality that could make this possible.

Grinning up at kitty Aya, Yoji said, "Make me."

"Don't toy with me, Kudou." Actual kitty claws extended from the fingertips of Aya's free hand. "I'm not unarmed."

It just made Yoji's grin bigger. This could end up frustrating, erotic, or humiliating. He'd just have to work hard to make it the right one.

When Aya's belled tail lashed with a jingling sound, Yoji couldn't help laughing. Glaring, kitty Aya pounced.

******************************************************

"Mmm," Schuldig murmured. "That was a nice dream. Sucks that I woke up when I did."

Something about the look on Schuldig's face suggested that he'd been dreaming about Balinese, which made Crawford need to ask, "What was it about?" Usually he didn't care. Other people's dreams bored him.

"We were chilling out, and he was unhappy about being the kitties' leader. They'd said mean things about his clothes too. Though the outfit he wore in this dream...." Schuldig smirked. "I was in his lap starting to comfort him when I woke up. If I had been awake and scheming, I would have told him that Schwarz would never complain about his clothes."

Had to be Balinese. "He's on his way back to Japan now." Thankfully.

"Jealousy looks good on you. You think I don't dream about you too? Wonder what he's up to." Schuldig's mouth opened a little, then he burst out laughing.

"What?"

"He's dreaming about Aya, but Aya has cat ears and a tail with a bell on the end to match his collar. And he has an apron on. They're _wrestling_, and it's cute and ridiculous and sexy as all hell. This is why I love me some Yoji: he's entertaining even when I'm not doing anything to him. Brad, you have to see this!"

He hadn't seen Schuldig this gleeful in a while, and the mental picture of Aya being provided made him unavoidably curious. Cat ears and a _tail_? Balinese and a cat-like Aya entwining would certainly be picturesque. "I can't drive and watch at the same time."

"Then find some place to park! Who knows when you'll get to see something like this again?"

True. Crawford pulled off the highway onto the shoulder and set the emergency blinkers on. "All right."

Schuldig's grin nearly devoured his face. "All right, here we go."

******************************************************  
_"I want a pet so bad I can just taste it...."_   
  -- "Sweetmeat" by Pigface  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fortunately, Aya's claws were too blunt to draw blood. They just hurt enough to be... stimulating. Aya and Yoji wrestled and rolled on the floor, both strong and flexible but in different ways from their different fighting styles. Eventually Yoji ended up with Aya straddling him again and his wrists pinned. This time a happily and hypnotically waving belled tail distracted him as Aya did a little grind against him.

As he jingled from the neck and tail, Aya smiled an evil, small smile that revealed sharper than normal teeth. His kitty ears had perked up. "You're a mess, Kudou."

Yoji could be trying to harder to escape but didn't. "You like it."

Aya licked the side of Yoji's face with a rough tongue before ending up at Yoji's lips. As they kissed, they rocked against each other. Aya sat back, undid the button of Yoji's fly, and lightly ran the blunt tips of his claws down Yoji's trembling belly before "soothing" the hurts with his tongue. The tips of his hair brushed Yoji's skin as well, tickling. When he reached Yoji's fly he cast a dark-eyed look up, asking and teasing. His pupils had dilated enough to almost cover his purple irises.

"God, Aya, yeah." When Yoji stroked Aya's kitty ears, they felt like warm velvet.

"Don't use His name," Aya murmured against Yoji's belly before pulling down the zipper with his sharp teeth.

Could he survive the touch of that tongue on his cock?

Aya blew hot, humid breath on Yoji's cock, then opened his mouth and flicked it with his tongue. Yoji almost came from the sudden shock of sensation but managed to hold back.

"Aya, you're killing me here," Yoji groaned.

"Hardly." Aya had a wicked look on his face. "I want to fuck you, Yoji."

He refused to come just from Aya _talking_. "_I_ want to fuck _you_."

Tail waving and jingling jauntily, Aya said, "I doubt you have the patience to get my pants down. The tail goes through a hole in the back. We'd have to carefully pull the tail all the way through. Whereas yours," Aya stroked him to make him buck up and then pulled his pants down to his knees, "are easy."

So unfair. "_I_ can't even get my pants down that fast. Not when they're this tight." And it was his dream too.

"Is it really so bad to have me fuck you?" Aya pulled off his apron and unzipped his fly, revealing what thankfully looked like a regular aroused human dick. If it had been furry or had spines, that would have been it for Yoji. Too freaky. Game over.

"Even in my dreams I don't get you."

Aya kissed him, then said, "You're just not looking at it the right way. You'll be getting an important piece of me."

"My important piece is bigger."

Aya's ears flattened, and he unstraddled Yoji. Dammit. Fortunately, Aya unstraddled him to better bat him around until he was lying on his stomach with a pillow under his hips. Ah, the advantages of dreams. But Aya did say, "I should punish you for that comment. Besides, it's untrue."

"Mine's longer."

Aya smacked the back of his head and pressed his cock against Yoji's ass. Had to be his cock from the heat and wetness. "You don't know when to stop."

Yoji pressed back into it. "I can go all night long." As much as he wanted to fuck Aya, it wouldn't be bad at all to be fucked by Aya. Hell, Schuldig had taken him sometimes, so he could hardly cling to some claim of virginal purity. From how turned on the feel of Aya rocking against him made him, he really couldn't complain. He wanted to come already.

"I may have to test that."

From the feel of leather and a faint bit of roughness along Yoji's ass, Aya still wore his gloves. Continued foreplay would kill him, so Yoji said, "Just give it to me, Aya. Ride me hard."

"What happened to 'all night long'?" Aya sounded amused.

"I didn't mean that I'd do one go lasting several hours! I'm good for several goes."

"Hmm."

Then Aya slid into him in one smooth thrust that rubbed the right places. Good, so good. Aya started out with slow, long strokes that gradually picked up speed. It sent shivers all over Yoji, especially once they found a rhythm and exactly the right angle for the fucking. The rhythmic jingling made him grin, as did Aya's rumbling purr. He could feel the vibration of it everywhere Aya touched him. Finally he had a foolproof thing that told him if Aya liked something. Aya's gloved hands stroked along Yoji's sides and down his arms.

Eventually Aya really was riding him hard and fast, perfect, and gasped, "Yoji, so good...." and Yoji came in perfect bliss, warm whiteout. When he came back to earth he found Aya contentedly draped on his back purring drowsily. Everything felt so good. Definitely bliss.

Wait, what was that? Yoji put his hand to his watch.

******************************************************

Damn, but Yoji had a gift for sweetly bizarre kink. Aya made such a wicked and willing pretty kitty boy. Schuldig wanted one of his own. The working ears, purr, and bell on the tail made nice touches. Good use of imagination. Plus, Yoji had the shoulder-length honey-colored hair Schuldig preferred paired with that slutty outfit. They made a pretty picture.

Watching Aya and Yoji writhe all over each other on the floor without any inhibitions left Schuldig nicely stimulated even before the fucking started. Brad looked affected, a little hot under the collar, too.

When Aya and Yoji did their little hip dance, then melted together in postcoital delight, Schuldig wanted a cigarette. Since it was a dream, he had one at his lips, lit, just from thinking about it. Brad cast him an amused look.

Yoji stiffened suddenly, then he lashed out with his wire while Aya shot at Schuldig and Brad with a gun that had come out of nowhere. Despite his shock, Schuldig pulled up a shield to deflect them. How the hell did Yoji sense him?

Yoji, who often seemed to work by dream logic even in real life, of course had himself and kitty Aya dressed and ready to kill in seconds. Too bad. Would have been fun to see them defending themselves with their bits out and dangling.

Schuldig deliberately appeared to them now. Might as well salvage the situation. After all the work he'd done on Yoji, he didn't want to inadvertently make him more paranoid. To defuse the situation a bit, he dressed Brad up to put Yoji more at ease.

Yoji's outrage and violence turned into coughing laughter, while Aya's kitty ears swiveled adorably as he stared in what looked like disbelief. It took Brad about a second to know that Schuldig had done something. Once he looked down at himself, he growled, "Schuldig."

"You look hot, Brad!"

He also looked completely out of character in black leather chaps with blue jeans, a white T-shirt, black boots, a leather jacket, and a leather cap. His sunglasses were still his own. "Change this immediately."

"Sure, sure." Schuldig put him in a nice suit.

Yoji still looked pissed at them being there but not as much as he would have without seeing Brad in an embarrassing moment in return. "What the hell are you doing here?" Yoji asked. "Your timing sucks. Or it's too good."

"I wanted to check in on you."

"You already did."

"Yeah?" Yeah, the lounge they stood in looked a lot like the one he'd seen in his dream. Shit, he'd gone out mind-wandering in his sleep. "No reason I can't wander in again."

"Now get the hell out. I deserve some privacy."

"I get that. I'd rather be alone with wet dream kitty Aya myself. You couldn't think of anything else to do with the feather duster, though?"

Yoji pulled his wire taut in an "I'm gonna strangle you so much" gesture.

"You're so cute. But maybe we should get back to traveling anyway. See you around. I'm only a thought away, Yoji."

"Joy."

Schuldig came out of the dream laughing, especially since Yoji woke up soon after and thus wouldn't have another go at his kinky kitty porn. Schuldig took the sting out of it by blurring the end of the dream for him so he'd just remember the porn, because he wanted to encourage this kind of Yoji behavior. More porn!

Yoji noticing him there still bothered him but not enough to kill the hilarity of the image of kitty Aya he'd been treated to. He'd be fixing himself soon anyway.

Even Brad had an amused twist to his lips. Of course, he had no idea that Yoji shouldn't have been able to pick them up. As Brad turned off the blinkers and drove back onto the highway he said, "I'll never look at Aya the same way again."

"I have to decide whether to tell him about this." Schuldig used the glee and possibilities to distract him from the work he'd have to do on himself soon. He'd be in the middle of that soon enough.

******************************************************

Yoji woke up blushing and grinning, satisfied and a little embarrassed. Fortunately, he'd put a blanket over himself before going to sleep and everyone else seemed to either be sleeping or working. It let him slink off to the restroom to clean up a bit without anyone saying anything or even seeming to notice.

At least he wouldn't be seeing Aya for a while. Yoji didn't know how he'd face him with the dream memory of being fucked by kitty him fresh in his mind. Damn, that had been good fun.

And Yoji was hard again. He might as well take advantage of already being in the restroom....

******************************************************

"Thanks for being willing to switch like this. Erin and Dan wanted to come, but they were worried about me and wanted to help me get away to somewhere peaceful and welcoming. They said you were great people," Schuldig said as they walked up the stairs to the room. "They said they feel like they're cheating on you if they don't vacation in Vermont at this inn."

"They're frequent guests. You're welcome here," the woman answered.

Schuldig seemed younger right now, almost waiflike. Actor that he was, he managed to suggest cheerfulness with an undertone of trying to be brave, of smiling yet being in pain while not wanting other people to notice. He didn't even seem to be using telepathy to reinforce the impression. Crawford only received the edges of this performance and could see the effect being the focus of it had on the proprietors. Schuldig would definitely get special treatment and babying here.

"Everything we serve for our breakfasts is organic. Do you have any special dietary needs?" the woman asked.

"Just good food. None of the doctors know what's wrong with me," Schuldig answered with another brave "I don't want to be any trouble" smile. "I may sleep past breakfast. I've been sleeping a lot lately."

Crawford suppressed a smile at the "Aw! You poor thing!" look the couple gave Schuldig. The suckers. The man asked, "The third floor will be okay for you?" Considering the stairs.

"It'll be fine. Fewer people walking past the room, right? I could use the quiet."

As the couple opened the armoire to reveal the TV and showed them around the room, Crawford quietly approved of the surroundings. Everything looked new--although it had been crafted to simulate antique country furniture--and clean. Schuldig would enjoy the king-sized bed and soaking tub as well as the heated bathroom floor.

"This is great, thanks. We just wanted to check in," Schuldig said as he set his luggage down. "Brad here will take me out to dinner, then I'll come back."

"That's no problem, Christian. You can let yourself in with your set of keys anytime tonight. If you don't like the pillows here, we have more downstairs you can choose from."

"Thanks. See you later."

In the car, Crawford asked, "Christian?"

Schuldig grinned, looking sly and no longer like an injured puppy in need of mothering. "Farf's not here, so why not? Did my little performance back there worry you?"

"Not for a second."

"Hmph. I don't know whether I should be flattered that you have so much trust in my strength or upset that my acting didn't fool you."

"I know you." But he had worried. A little.

Schuldig's grin deepened as if he'd heard that thought. "Did you notice that I have the 'Sweet Dreams' room? Isn't it precious?"

They drove to Crawford's hotel in neighboring Woodstock so he could check in. The interior and room looked far more posh but also impersonal. Given Schuldig's reaction to Crawford's parents, the friendlier, homier atmosphere at the Maple Leaf might be welcome. Then again, given what he'd come here to do, it might come to seem like hell having strangers so interested in him. Hopefully he would be able to control himself enough not to make a mess of anyone.

Eyes glinting, Schuldig looked back over his shoulder at Crawford, so Crawford walked up to him and grabbed him. They kissed hungrily, feverishly, stripping off clothes as quickly as they could. The near violence of it felt right. They moved quickly and desperately, scrabbling at each other possessively. It didn't take long for them to be face to face on the bed with Schuldig twisted up under him as he thrust all the way in.

"I won't accept anyone other than you," Crawford said as he fucked him hard and fast. Schuldig felt so good to him and fit him so well. "I won't take a stranger in your place. It took forever to train you."

"You're trying to make me promise something while I'm distracted?" Schuldig gasped, grinning wickedly. "Nice to know... that you love me for my mind."

"I mean it. I enjoy your body, but bodies are cheap and easy to come by."

"I can... promise that I won't... deliberately commit psychic suicide. Mmmph. Harder. Can't... make any other promises. I don't know... exactly what'll happen. But I'll fight. I always do."

It wasn't enough, but it would have to do.

When Crawford bit Schuldig's neck, Schuldig came, clenching his body tightly around Crawford's cock and yanking him over as well into a perfect state of sensation-drenched oblivion. But eventually thought returned. Physically Crawford felt better now, but the sex hadn't changed his worry or feeling of powerlessness. He couldn't foresee anything about what Schuldig would have to do.

Still deep inside his telepath, he asked, "What should I expect?"

Panting softly, Schuldig answered, "I don't know how long it'll take. It's not an exact science. But you shouldn't see me while it's going on, and not just because it could screw me up by fixating me on you and your way of thinking. I'm going to be moody and bitchy and a mess. I'll be wildly inconsistent and say things that you'd want to kill me for. I may ask you for things that you shouldn't give me." He shuddered. "I hate it."

"Is it always like that?"

"Yeah. Every fucking time. The guards just ignored me. Or took advantage, depending on what was going on. It'll be okay. I'm safer this time."

Schuldig was comforting him. It rankled. "You're strong," Crawford answered. "You'll put yourself back together."

"Of course. And you're always just a thought away."

Schuldig complained incessantly about thousands of little things but turned stoic for the large ones. Thus, his blasé tone here worried the hell out of Crawford. But the risk here had to be taken.

"We're starting to stick together," Crawford said.

"Can't let that happen."

Crawford felt colder without the heat of his telepath around him and radiating into him, so he stayed at Schuldig's side and petted his wild hair. He could deal with feeling sticky for a little while. Looking blissful, Schuldig closed his eyes and sprawled out, letting his long whipcord body take up a ridiculous amount of space. Despite being taller, Crawford could never rival him there, not when Schuldig seemed to have the ability to break the laws of physics.

"You said you would feed me," Schuldig murmured.

"That's what room service is for."

"No wonder you're our leader."

"I'm glad that you recognize my talents."

"I love you."

Crawford might never see this Schuldig again. "I love you too."


	127. "You weren't supposed to be the permanent... pilot"

Farfarello awoke to confusion and pain. It also seemed that the van had stopped moving, which gave him some consolation. Annoyed with his treacherous body and the fading drugs, he dissociated himself more. Must have slipped further into himself in his sleep.

Uncertain of where they were, he didn't move, waiting for a sign. Then he remembered that with telepathy he didn't have to wait, so he sent his mind out to his teammates. His puisín and the boy approved of the wheelchair ramps and other accommodations and turned on the lights and the heat. Nagi noticed his touch and greeted him with a ~ Get away from my head! ~ As Aya made one of the beds with clean sheets, he sighed over the empty refrigerator and the thought of going out to get groceries after the long drive they'd done, although he comforted himself with the thought that this house didn't require the thorough cleansing and sterilization the apartment had.

Farfarello just wanted to get inside and have the straps taken off him. The last thing surprised him, since once he hadn't minded restraints so much.

When they returned to the van, Aya started to undo the sling keeping his leg elevated, while the boy unlocked the wheels on the IV stand. "How are you?" Aya asked. He wore a black winter cap. Cute.

~ Impatient. ~

"Why are you talking with your mind instead of your mouth?"

"He's holding a small blade under his tongue for protection," Nagi answered. He'd rolled his eyes when he noticed it while tending to Farfarello earlier but said nothing.

"How the hell did that get under there?"

~ Bren inserted it. ~ Put his fingers in Farfarello's mouth and lodged the blade beneath his tongue.... It had almost been erotic. Would have been if the drugs hadn't dulled him so much. ~ He understands knives and protection. ~ Demon or ghost, Bren could still be gentle and thoughtful. Farfarello sometimes suspected that their religious beliefs sharply diverged, but Bren never tried to impose them on him.

"Who's Bren?"

"One of Schuldig's residents."

Aya shook his head, making his earring swing. "Someone will have to tell me later. For now, I don't want to move you while you have something sharp under your tongue."

~ The blunt side is the side resting against my-- ~

"Out. Now."

Aya worried. Sweet.

Farfarello gently spat it out, aiming for the cover over his legs. If threatened, he would have spat it hard at his opponent while aiming for an eye or the trachea depending on how strong he felt and how clear the drugs had left his vision. While Aya pocketed the blade, Nagi used telekinesis to move the gurney out. The boy used telepathy to help cloud them from any possibly nosy neighbors as he and Aya wheeled Farfarello and his equipment out through the night and into the house and shut the van doors.

As they moved him into a room on the ground floor, undid his straps, transferred him to a bed, and set up the slings and IV again, he noticed how tired and dazed they looked. Aya said, "We have to get food, and I have to heat up Farfarello's soup, but I don't want to leave you alone."

"I could go out for food," Nagi said.

With how they looked and sounded, he didn't want them to leave the house. "I'm not hungry," Farfarello said. Actually, he burned with hunger, but it could be borne. "It can wait for tomorrow."

The boy shot him a "you liar" look but didn't have the strength to endow it with his usual heat and venom, while Aya said, "You need to eat, especially with all the drugs you're on."

"You said you had soup. It was probably cooked once so it's not dangerous. I can eat it cold."

Aya actually looked lost for a moment before leaving the room and returning with the container. They must have stopped at a convenience store along the way. Kneeling beside the bed, Aya carefully and neatly spoon-fed him, which he enjoyed very much, while the boy leaned against the wall and tried to look alert. He didn't enjoy taking the antibiotics and painkillers nearly as much but took them without complaint.

When Aya finished, Farfarello murmured, "King-sized bed. Big enough for company."

"You're hurt. I don't want to crowd you."

"I want you to. It comforts me so. You can crash here too, Nagi."

"Why?" Nagi asked.

"You've done good things for me, and I don't think you could make it that far out of the room."

"I'm staying," Aya said. "You can too." Yet Farfarello sensed that some attitude in Aya had changed where the boy was concerned. Some kind of innocence had been lost, and caution had crept in. Ah. Aya had realized the boy's interest in him and had it confirmed. This might become interesting.

Or a problem. Farfarello would have to watch Nagi.

"All right." At least the boy didn't look gleeful at having an opportunity to snuggle up with Aya. He probably felt too weary for glee.

Aya and Nagi stripped off their boots and winter gear and snuggled under the covers with Aya directly against Farfarello's side and Nagi on Aya's other side. The boy turned out the light, then sighed and rustled the blankets a little.

"If I come too close or get too heavy, shrug me off," Aya murmured. "Don't let me worsen your injuries."

Farfarello had made him cuddly and would never complain. "You wouldn't mean it."

"Regardless."

"Yes."

"Good."

It was torture having his kitten so close without being able to really feel him through the dissociation and drugs. Still, he preferred having his kitten nearby. And Aya's hair smelled good.

******************************************************

Mamoru set his bags down in the bedroom of his large apartment and didn't sigh only because Rex stood behind him. Amazing how empty it could seem when he actually had staff and Kritiker employees wandering through it constantly. Amazing how quiet. He could almost hear the beginnings of dust falling.

In his absence the paper cranes had been removed from the chairs, bed, and floor and set in precarious piles on various tables. They'd collected a fine layer of dust that the rest of the apartment never got a chance to, not with the diligence of his staff involved.

He wondered what Nagi was doing right now.

Mamoru had just come off a working vacation with his lover and... family. Of course he would feel depressed now without them.

He had to return to real life sometime.

"Rex, give me about 30 minutes to freshen up, then come back with pressing business. I'm sure I have a lot of people to see, appointments to make, and papers to sign."

The hell of it was that he might hate all of this, but he was damned good at it.

******************************************************  
_"Stripping my skin  
Over again.  
Back when they were teaching me to color in between the lines   
In the cushions of my soul, I found a remote   
And now it's changing time.   
Peeling layers, layers, layers...."_   
  -- "Layers" by Kidneythieves  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

It snowed as Schuldig and Brad drove back in a taut silence, having already been as thoroughly mushy in the hotel room as they allowed themselves to get, but they exchanged a long look as Schuldig left the car. He could feel its weight and make out Brad's outline in the dimness.

A little stray light from the parking lot's lights glinted off Brad's glasses, making Schuldig smirk. "I'll call you when everything's settled," Schuldig said, then closed the door and walked toward the inn, crunching through the snow. Lights had been left on in the front rooms, and the other windows each had an electric "candle" in them. How sentimental.

He stomped his feet at the mat in front of the door to knock the snow off and went inside. As he walked through he glanced into the front room where the proprietors left books, videos, games, and toys. They'd traveled extensively and put the things they brought back home there. Schuldig couldn't help smirking at the thought of what his keepsake room would contain if he had one.

The rest of the inn was dim, everyone else asleep. Schuldig hadn't intended to stay out so late, but it hadn't been easy to leave Brad. There had been food and sex and warmth, and Schuldig's girl parts had been aglow at the romance of it, while other parts of him wanted someone to check the temperature in hell. Brad being kind and romantic. He must be worried about what would come back to him after this. Whatever the reason behind it, Brad had been seductive and time had passed.

Schuldig looked at the big bed in his room. He wouldn't be using that tonight. Like hell he would sweat and writhe on sheets he'd like to use later. The room came stocked with a lot of fluffy white towels, so he set them down on the bathroom floor to make a kind of nest. He changed out of his clothes and into the terry robe provided by the establishment, then put on the silver bandanna that had been Farf's X-mas gift to him and the ball gag that had been Farf's X-mas gift to Brad. No need to disturb any of the other guests with screaming. It might get that bad. The gag would also stop him from biting his tongue.

Schuldig ignored the hollow feeling in his chest and the instinctive "can't breathe!" gut flutter of panic. Damned deviated septum made breathing out of his nose difficult, which put a bit of challenge into being gagged or blowing anyone. The inability to breathe very well added a certain spice and feeling of risk to giving blowjobs, but he couldn't deal well with a gag. Takatori walloping him with a golf club several times had made his nose worse, so he'd been all "Takatori, die" right along with Aya, but he'd had problems before that. He dealt with the breathing problem and never let on to anyone. Revealing weaknesses just got you killed.

He knew that surgery could fix it, but he wouldn't let anyone touch him while he was drugged up and vulnerable for anything less than a life-threatening wound, so it would never happen.

Once he finished wrapping his hands in a towel to make sure he couldn't claw at himself, he curled up in his towels on the floor and blocked off the links so none of his nearest felt what would come next. His light link to Nagi had significant blocks already in place on Nagi's end, nothing a master of telepathy like Schuldig couldn't get around. His link to Farfarello was lighter than his link to Aya because who wanted to touch that mess? Right now they all slept. In one bed. Schuldig had to miss that? He blocked off his link to them. Brad's precognitive mind structure prevented a really good link from even being possible, so Schuldig actually had stronger telepathic ties to Yoji than he did to his own partner. Brad sat on the disheveled bed in his hotel room trying not to be moony and not completely succeeding, while Yoji felt happy to be home in Tokyo but missed Aya. And Schuldig. Heh. And _Nagi_? But he didn't miss Nagi the same way, thankfully.

Then again, that would be an interesting pairing.

Schuldig blocked off Brad and Yoji too, leaving his head much quieter. He didn't like it. Taking as deep a breath in as half his nose would let him, Schuldig closed his eyes and plunged himself down into his own mind.

As Schuldig walked through a familiar building, one that had been abandoned until they'd taken it over, he fought against the realness over it, tearing at the solidity of the scene and its smell. If he became too enmeshed in the physicality of his surroundings, his mind might translate it all as real and experience actual pain and damage when they inevitably attacked him. Where a hole in the floor had existed in reality, his telepathy covered the space over in a show of power and mastery. He walked on it.

At this stage he started to see and feel the wisps of personalities. Parts of some people's minds just clung to him over the years. They followed him now. The further he walked, the more form the remnants had, manifesting as eyes, a hand, a wave of hair. These had more to them, more substance and awareness, and hoped to spook him into a moment of weakness. He refused and continued walking, meeting more.

Finally he met with the remnants of his collective. Except for Bren and Emory, they stared at him hungrily. Some were wispy and barely there, nearly transparent. Bren looked the most complete and solid. A half-transparent Klaus put a possessive arm around an even more transparent Emory, who shook it off. Emory looked more like the suggestion of a person than a person. It would probably surprise Brad to find out that the host personality barely existed anymore, having been shattered during the murder of the others. Most of Schuldig's Emory memories came secondhand from the collective, which had tasted them during their living time together. The memories of being institutionalized had been particularly fresh.... The other remnants gathered behind Schuldig, cutting off easy escape.

"So you're calling us together again," Klaus said. Klaus had always been arrogant, but having some time in control in London had obviously made him worse. "What do you want?"

"What do I usually want when I do this?"

"I figured. You're falling apart again. Why should we let you retain control? You weren't supposed to be the permanent... pilot, but here you are dictating to us. We have no life but what you allow us to have. You don't allow us to experience things or gather and organize."

"My reasons are obvious."

"Your reasons mean nothing to us."

The collective swarmed him as they always did, male and female, all greedy for more life and more time, and the other remnants helped. They tore at him in a mass of grasping hands and teeth. No matter how low he dialed down the physicality of these encounters, they hurt. If they tore him apart by force, they would probably turn on each other, each wanting to be the one in command. Bren and what remained of Emory tried to tear the attackers off him, but there were too many. Schuldig mastered and shoved them down one at a time, but it took so long and he hurt so much.

And some of these people some dim part of him had loved.

He saw a remnant of Yoji at the edge of his vision, not attacking but not helping Schuldig either, just watching with an indecipherable expression on his face. That refusal to help actually stung Schuldig a bit. After all he'd done for Yoji...! At least this piece looked like an old one of Yoji, before the kitty had become more entwined with him. He had to remember that not so long ago Schwarz had spent a lot of time kicking Weiß's ass and Schuldig had experienced the bite of Yoji's wire around his neck. Besides, this was a ghostly, incomplete Yoji, barely there, cold and trauma-flavored, nothing like the warmth he gave off through the link while it was open. Schuldig grabbed him and pushed him under with the rest of the vanquished.

It felt like it took him years of struggle to win. Klaus lasted the longest and fought the hardest. Klaus had been the foundation of Schuldig's personality, the selfish schemer that had helped him survive Rosenkreuz. Emory pushed Klaus in for Schuldig's coup de grace.

"He'll remember that the next time I have to call all of you together," Schuldig gasped.

Emory shrugged, apparently unconcerned, although he tasted as if he felt some pain. "He always hurts me."

Only Schuldig, Emory, and Bren remained now. The others wailed and beat at the barrier the three of them stood on, as if they were fish trapped below a layer of ice. Schuldig looked at Bren, who said, "You don't have to put me down. I'm obedient. I helped save you and Farfarello."

"You killed Brad."

"In a future that won't have to happen now." But Bren grinned. "I'm going down, aren't I?"

"Oh yeah. I can't have you just popping up whenever you feel like it."

"Feel free to absorb anything from me that you could use."

Like hell. He'd take only what he needed and not much of that since he didn't want Brad to identify anything of Bren's as Schuldig in case Bren rose to murder again. "I'll keep it in mind."

Bren smirked and passed down through the floor. That left Schuldig with the person he felt most conflicted with. "I hate you," Schuldig said. "You're weak."

"Not really. I'm necessary," Emory answered, "especially lately."

Emory was his heart. A lot of the memories might have been lost or diffused to other people, but the emotions remained. Emory had been the self-preserving drive that had created a new pilot personality from scraps after their capture. His resentment at being used by the collective had formed the basis for Schuldig's independent spirit and refusal to truly capitulate to Eszett or anyone. He responded most to the possibility of family the Bradparents provided, and he loved Brad and his new family of Schwarz with a consuming fire.

Schuldig had fought Emory's mushier aspects all his life, particularly during the Rosenkreuz years when mushiness would have gotten him killed, but his recent contentment had given Emory a foothold. Yet the people who were the recipients of Emory's devotion loved Schuldig for it. Of course.

"You're stuck with me," Emory said with Schuldig's smirk.

Schuldig set the fingers of his right hand under Emory's pointed chin. "Don't get too smug." Then he set it atop Emory's head and gently pushed him under.

Weary, Schuldig sat back on his heels and looked into his ocean of captive souls, now under control. Time to decide what to be and where to get it from. Since he liked being able to sing well, he'd tap Kristiane harder than he used to. Drunk off the tiny adulation of singing in public recently, what remained of her had fought harder this time. Like the others, she'd never bothered to think that she would have to live in a telepathic man's body if she had somehow won. Insane, Bren could deal with the pain and confusion of being telepathic for short periods by ignoring them completely, but even he hit a breaking point. Klaus had been okay in London because Schuldig had still controlled the telepathy, even buried as deeply as he had been.

Thus, Schuldig didn't worry about anyone inside him taking over permanently. He worried that they'd pop up unexpectedly and get him killed.

Kristiane struggled when he first touched her but quieted. With the possibility of taking over completely taken away, she decided to work with him. After all, he was a part of her.

******************************************************

Aching and tired, damp with sweat and tears, Schuldig came to curled up in his nest of towels on the floor. He felt like hell. Head pounding, he unwound the towel from his hands and sat up carefully, then took out the gag and tossed it into the tub, grimacing at how the edges of his mouth felt raw. The reshuffled pieces of his self butted painfully as their edges ground together and tried to settle. It would take time.

His mind felt sore and open. He was a sleeping guest, a deer, a rabbit, a creature so small it didn't have enough self-awareness to tell him what it was aside from hungry... which made Schuldig hungry himself. He'd brought food with him but nothing with nuts, and right now he was _dying_ for something with nuts in it. The bed &amp; breakfast had a snack closet with an honor jar. How quaint. He might even leave some money. Snack, then shower, then bed. Had to be a shower because he'd kill himself in the tub. Definitely sleep after the shower. Sleep helped the healing sometimes.

No, shower first, then snack, then sleep. If he ran into anyone in the hallways looking the way he did right now he'd have to erase the image from their minds and that would be work. Good thing this place didn't accommodate kids, because he had no idea what level of perversity kids would inspire in him, especially while his shields were spotty. It was never a good idea to shit where you eat.

The shields would rebuild and fine-tune as his personality did. Meanwhile, he'd have to weigh his new self and calibrate as he went along. Debug. Nothing was perfect on the trial run.

Being in the Box might have protected him from being attacked, but it had also left him in deafening telepathic silence and completely isolated from any outside judgment of his new self. Even feeling like a forest creature was preferable to that.

So tired. He needed sleep, he needed a cigarette, he needed a fuck, he needed Brad, he needed his gun....

Shaking his head to make it hurt more and stop his train of thought, Schuldig stripped out of the terry cloth robe and his bandanna to take a shower. Showering alone was so boring no matter how good the hot water felt. Reaching out, Schuldig felt Brad sleeping, his dreaming mind a bit looser and chaotic than his waking mind but not by much. As ever, it was cool, hard, sharp, partitioned, and familiar. Some parts of it Schuldig couldn't touch even now. Just tasting it imposed some order on Schuldig's fevered mind. It felt good and homey.

Schuldig could use it to cheat if he wouldn't mind being dependent on Brad for life.

So he backed away and went back to showering with all the other beings taking up space in his head instead. He would calm and straighten himself out. Self-preservation and his own sense of pride demanded it. But it would be so good to be in bed wrapped around Brad with his hands around that stiff neck....

Schuldig rested his head against the tile wall. He definitely had more work to do.

Later, dressed in the other terry robe and a towel wrapped around his damp hair, Schuldig just about flew down the stairs and yanked the door open to see bottles of water, some snacks, and enough candy to put him over the moon. He paused and waited for the various voices to start arguing about what to take but heard only his own "candy!!!!" voice duke it out with his "I'm already close to climbing the walls" voice, which was about what regular people had when they argued with themselves over the best course of action. Smiling, he took a Snickers bar and opened the money tin. He could be a good Schuldig and leave money, be a bad Schuldig and leave nothing, or be a very bad Schuldig and rake in a lot of small bills and change just to be evil.

As much as the thought of stealing people's candy money put a Grinchy grin on his face, he paid up. You don't shit where you eat, especially not with so few other suspects around. It would be damned stupid to have to rewrite a bunch of people over something so small and petty.

Schuldig devoured his Snickers on his way to his room and licked his fingers clean, but then he felt really thirsty so he washed it down with cold tap water from his bathroom sink. Of course he found it hard to sleep after all of that, no matter how comfy the big bed was or how wiped out he felt. Or that it was 4:47 a.m. He had sugar coursing through his blood and didn't have the right voices in his head. At least his shields had healed enough to block out the local woodland wildlife.

His bed felt too big and empty. He wanted to reach for his family but didn't dare, not while he was this vulnerable. He wanted Brad around so he could suck on him like a pacifier. He hadn't slept alone in... he couldn't remember how long.

Pathetic. Schuldig burrowed into his pillow and tried to sleep.


	128. "It's a nice ass, but it belongs to me, so don't touch it."

When Nagi woke he felt part cold and part hot. Feeling around with his eyes nearly closed, he noticed that someone had kicked the blankets down, leaving him partly exposed. Omi would pay. Nagi yanked the covers up telekinetically and rolled over more to burrow against his lover's back.

This was too broad and muscular to be Omi's back. But it could be Aya's. Nagi wondered if he might be dreaming and opened his eyes to a field of black fabric. Not helpful. He slid his hand down the firm body in front of him....

"It's a nice ass, but it belongs to me, so don't touch it," Farfarello said, which woke Nagi up completely.

Nagi shot up and saw Farfarello's profile over the mountain of Aya's body. With Aya in the way and Farfarello's eyeless side facing him, Farfarello must have known through telepathy. Damn it. Any excuse to feel Aya up a bit was gone.

Did he really just think that? He'd become lecherous in his old age.

"It's too hot," Aya murmured sleepily as he opened his eyes, and he appeared to be sweating.

Nagi got out of bed and felt Farfarello's forehead. "Yeah, your healing's kicked up, and so has your temperature." A lot of the scabs on Farfarello's face had fallen off or shrunk already. "Open your mouth for the thermometer." When Nagi took it out, he read, "40 Celsius. You're up there but still safe. Still safe for you, at least."

Looking more awake now but still attractively disheveled, Aya asked, "What are you talking about?"

"When he gets serious damage he has to heal, his body temperature increases along with the healing. The serious stuff actually heals faster than slighter, more common injuries."

"You did feel a little hotter after you took that knife through your arm," Aya said.

"Nagi did a lot of work on that, so it didn't have to kick in much," Farfarello said.

Aya looked thoughtful. "It's an unconscious process?"

"Yeah."

"Have you given any thought to trying energy work to consciously direct healing? Like Kiko or Qi Gong?"

Interesting. "My education is European and American," Nagi said. "I never thought of those. Do they work?"

"I don't know. I have no personal experience of them."

"If meditation will heal me faster, I'll try it," Farfarello said.

"You already seem to be healing faster," Nagi said as he looked into Farfarello's bones and checked out the flesh around the stitches. "Maybe being conscious makes a difference."

Aya and Farfarello both shot him a fiercely triumphant look at that. It _would_ be fun to tell Schuldig that knocking Farfarello out in the past had slowed down the healing process.

Nagi's mind slid away from thoughts of how Schuldig might be feeling and what he might be doing right now. "I can look online for information on Kiko and Qi Gong."

"Because information online is always accurate," Farfarello said blandly but with a wicked glint in his eye.

"Unless it compels you to seek out some expensive fraud as a teacher, I don't see what harm meditation and visualization could do to you. I'm sure those are the big components. You do worse to yourself when you're bored. We can't go to a person while you're running what would be a dangerous fever for anyone else anyway."

"With my kitten around, I'm rarely bored. But right now I'm very hungry."

"With all the energy you're expending on healing, it makes sense. I'll go out for groceries." Nagi knew that Aya would want to stay with Farfarello.

"Thank you," Aya said.

He'd woken up snuggled against Aya, and it had felt damned good. Too bad Farfarello had noticed and put a stop to it. He better leave before he started to blush.

"I must shower. You have to wrap me up right," Farfarello said.

"The shower has a chair and handrails. Crawford thought of everything," Aya said. "I'll be in there washing Farfarello and making sure he doesn't fall."

Nagi would not imagine them in there naked. He had to shut off his imagination right now. He really did. "Farfarello, do you really have to shower now? You didn't use to be so fastidious."

When Farfarello pouted it was almost cute, even with his scars. "Sweat and blood from good work is acceptable, but this is not. I'm unclean. In a bad way."

~ This is about Aya, isn't it? ~ Nagi asked. Farfarello hmmphed in reply.

Nagi disconnected the IV line from the drip and taped the tubing down to Farfarello's arm, then covered that and his cast and bandages with plastic wrapping to keep them dry. Nagi used telekinesis to move him to the shower stall and help position him on the chair, then fled before Aya could take off Farfarello's hospital gown and strip to join him in there. Life could be so unfair sometimes.

******************************************************

The boy had become a pervert. Farfarello supposed that it had been inevitable when the boy's foster parents were a slut and a voyeur. And when his "mother" was sleazy and actually a man. Still, it made Farfarello wonder. Aya felt more solid and... awesome to Nagi than he had to Balinese, and Farfarello wouldn't mind experiencing more of that. To Nagi, Persia was smaller, rangier, and not as much in fighting shape as he once had been, while Aya felt like something imposing sculpted to hunt and kill.

Farfarello mournfully wondered when he'd be back up to hunting shape himself. Where once he could run and kill, now he couldn't even bend one of his knees and had to be awkwardly levered around by other people. Injured ribs happened all the time, and injured fingers annoyed him but could be worked with a bit, but injuring a leg incapacitated him. It was extravagant and stupid.

When he marked himself to release pressure, he usually made sure that the wound wouldn't slow him down or incapacitate him. Only in his greatest mania did he seriously damage a limb.

Taking out his left eye looked stupid in hindsight, but it had really offended him at the time. He hadn't been able to help himself.

The hot water eased some of his pains and aches, so he reconnected himself a bit. Besides, Aya stood behind him and he wanted to feel that.

As Aya lightly ran his soapy fingers along Farfarello's battered body, he sometimes followed the sweep of some of the scars. It made Farfarello wish he dared deliberately create more scars so he could direct his puisín's touches always, but Aya would throw a fit. The fits could be fun but the lingering chill afterwards was much less so.

Farfarello wanted to be clean again, getting rid of the fever sweat, hospital stench, and oil in his hair. Besides, he had a fastidious kitten to appeal to.

It felt better when his puisín washed his hair, since a lot of the swollen spots on his head had significantly healed. It felt intimate too and made him harden.

Aya's fingers curved down the rims of Farfarello's ears. "I want to put your earrings back in."

"I would like that. They look naked without the metal?"

"Yes."

Aya felt too quiet and reminded Farfarello of something he'd wondered over. "Puisín, what would you do if I died?"

Aya's hand tightened on his shoulder but his voice sounded light as he said, "I would get vengeance for you."

On people if someone had killed him, on God somehow if Aya could find no one human to blame. Farfarello liked that answer but needed more. "What would you do after that? If I were in hell contented with what you had done in my name? What next?"

"I would live until I died. What do you want to hear?"

Farfarello had a sudden mental image of Schwarz as a team of four, with their current Berserker a badly scarred and dead-eyed Aya. Thankfully, Farfarello was no seer, just a worried lover. "You made your sister your whole life once. When she died, you saw no reason to go on. It gratified me when I convinced you to make me so important to you but now I wonder what will become of you if I died too. I don't want you to follow me." He wished he could see Aya. All he could do was see from inside Aya's head, and Aya had a wall of static up, determinedly not thinking. "Yes, get vengeance for me. Get revenge by living to spite our enemies and God."

"What brought this on?"

"Being touched by mortality and infirmity makes a man think."

"I can't make promises about something in the far future."

"Try."

"I'll try to live."

"Good."

Aya walked around and crouched in front of his chair, looking up at him. The running water darkened his hair to near black and added shine to his pale skin and sculpted body. Pretty thing. No wonder the boy couldn't think around him.

Aya had felt so interesting to Nagi. Should Farfarello encourage touching a little to get another taste of that or would it be too risky to encourage him at all?

Aya put his hand on Farfarello's uninjured thigh. For a moment Farfarello, knowing himself to be anything but pretty right now, worried that Aya did this to make a point and punish himself, but, thankful that he was alive and would heal, his puisín felt genuine heat and affection right now. Aya saw his arousal and wanted to address it.

It was torture to have plastic covering his stiff fingers when all he wanted was to touch his puisín's hair as Aya suckled him.

******************************************************

The part of Pittsburgh Crawford had sent them to stay in looked nearly suburban. All the hills already annoyed Nagi. He walked up the steep incline from the driveway to the house with six bags of groceries in his hands. Doing things manually when it would be faster and easier to do them telekinetically annoyed him too.

Hearing the shower still going, he went to the kitchen and put the food away instead, then turned on his laptop. He had an e-mail from a tcrawford11385@yahoo.com? Could that be one of Crawford's parents? It had an attachment. Yep, the body of the e-mail was addressed to "Brad" and his team. After a virus scan and unzipping, Nagi opened the attachment. And started laughing.

Sailor outfit. _Sailor_ outfit. With the hat. And little anchors embroidered on the top and hat. And Crawford looking so serious and "don't mess with me" in his chubby baby way. Oh fuck. Nagi laughed so hard it hurt. He hated being out of control like this but couldn't help it.

Schuldig had to be responsible for this somehow.

"Nagi?" Aya asked. He wore only a towel around his waist, but Nagi barely noticed when he couldn't look away from the pictures of Crawford as a chubby but serious-faced infant. Very Baby Stewie of him. Aya must have seen the photos too because his eyes widened in disbelief and he asked, "Crawford?"

"Yeah. From his parents."

"What the hell is going on?" Farfarello yelled from the bathroom. Then he started cackling, so he must have started looking through Aya's eyes.

"I really need to send a reply to this," Nagi said when he could breathe again. The pictures had put Nagi in a happier mood. Seeing Aya nearly naked put him in a mood he couldn't do anything about, so he'd have to get Aya out of his sight as soon as possible. "Do you need help getting Farfarello out of the shower?"

"It would be appreciated."

"Sure."

******************************************************

In bed, Farfarello hummed in contentment as Aya ruffled his damp hair with the towel to dry it more, then combed it. "This is much better," he said. To Aya's relief, he looked much happier.

"I'm glad. Do the earrings go in any particular order?" Some were utterly plain, while others had a bit of a design on them.

"No. I always just shoved one in when I felt the need."

That explained the odd angles some of the holes had been placed at. Repressing a shudder, Aya started picking up the various small hoops and putting them in. Farfarello's fever heat worried him, but Nagi approved it as a safe temperature....

Farfarello already looked significantly less injured than he had originally. It amazed Aya and made him wonder again how serious the facial wounds and eye gouging must have been to leave such major scars.

Right now Farfarello didn't wear his eye patch but it barely made an impression on Aya. He'd gotten used to it.

The drying, combing, and decorating helped distract Aya from the conversation they'd had in the shower. He'd really like to have some time when he didn't have to worry about someone important to him dying. He didn't think it was so much to ask.

How depressing that he struck people as being so fragile and unstable that he'd die immediately without outside intervention, but, truthfully, he didn't know what he'd do with himself if Farfarello died.

"Puisín," Farfarello kissed him, "stop thinking."

"I would if I could." Aya still needed a distraction. "Are you hungry?"

"Starving."

"I'll make something."

"You don't have to."

"I want to." When he walked into the kitchen he saw Nagi attempting to take a digital picture of himself by holding his camera up and pointing it at his head. "Why are you doing that?"

"Crawford's parents sent us baby pictures of him, so I have to send them something in return." He wore dark, smudged eyeliner, as Crawford had suggested. "It's fair after all the mirth they've given us."

Aya still couldn't believe those baby photos. Part of his brain repressed that moment out of shock. Still.... "That won't be good enough. I'll take the photo."

"I didn't want them to actually be able to make out much of me!"

"Give me the camera."

Nagi grumbled but handed it to him. "I'm only doing this because those were damned funny baby pictures."

"I know." Aya turned the camera over in his hands, trying to figure out how to make it work. "Sit on the couch."

Nagi sat. "At least it's you. If Schuldig took the picture, he'd say stuff about me making love to the camera. Or to him first, then the camera. I won't have to hear 'work it, baby!' either."

"I could do all of those things."

"Really not necessary."

"You should do that pouty thing now."

"Very funny, Aya."

"Can you just smile already? I have to make some food for Farfarello."

"You are so dead."

"No, I can get away with it." Aya couldn't help smirking. "Because I'm hot." He didn't believe it, but Nagi had been so vehement about it, so why not use it?

"You have no idea how much I'm going to kill you. But first I'll get to take _your_ picture."

"No one's taking pictures of me. I don't allow it."

"Omi has a photo of you with the flowerboys."

"And it looks so bad that I swore to never again knowingly allow anyone to take my picture."

"The apron wasn't flattering."

"You're missing the point. There won't be any pictures taken of me. You volunteered, but I didn't."

"Fine, fine." Nagi smiled. "Whiny bitch."

"Do you ever want to see this camera in one piece again?"


	129. "I need a jailbreak so bad."

9:15 a.m. Crawford had overslept. It annoyed him. It also annoyed him that he missed his usual bed company.

He exercised, showered, shaved, and dressed, then turned on his laptop to start working. His Inbox showed two new e-mails from Nagi, both with attachments, one of them a forward. From the forwarded message's subject heading of "Brad," it had to be from his parents.

The message's crisp and straightforward style suggested that his mother had written it. She'd enjoyed meeting Schuldig. Crawford still felt the need to wash out his brain over that. She spoke of her and his father's career paths and of Kenneth and May and how proud he'd be of their academic achievements. He _was_ proud, actually. She said that she hoped to hear back from him and that he might visit someday. She also hoped that he enjoyed the photos attached.

One photo showed his parents and siblings, who really did resemble him. The other photos.... A _sailor_ suit? That was even worse than the nude baby photo his mother had also included.

Crawford had an almost overwhelming urge to yell, "Schuldig!" over his shoulder, and he almost heard answering snickering. His telepath had instigated this. He could bet on it.

Not that his mother could be held above blame for dressing him like that when he had been young and helpless, then creating and keeping evidence of it. Sadistic. They truly were related. Worse, now that it had been scanned and circulated it would take a lot more effort to destroy any record of his chubby baby years.

Then he remembered that the e-mail had originally gone to Nagi's address. Crawford would be stunned if the boy hadn't opened the attachment, looked, and had a good laugh. He would never live this down, especially not if Schuldig instigated. And Schuldig always instigated.

Crawford opened Nagi's other e-mail to him and discovered that it actually had his parents as the recipient, with him blind CCed on it.

_*Crawford-san and Schuldig are on assignment in another state so I don't know when they'll get back to you. Hopefully you won't mind an answer from me, not after Schuldig introduced me as your honorary grandson. I'm with the rest of the team right now, helping take care of a member who was badly injured in a car accident.*_

They'd used car crashes as an excuse several times on various occasions over the years. This time it was actually truth.

_*I'm Naoe Nagi, and I'm the computer specialist and emergency medic for the team.*_

Surely that had been calculated to make any grandmother proud.

_*I'm told that the schools Kenneth and May have been accepted into are very prestigious. I've been doing independent studies on my own for a few years now._

_*You asked for photos, so I've sent you some. I don't have any of us because I don't take pictures of people very often. They never look right. The people don't look real when they don't move, and I'm always aware of the medium the image is on, whether paper or on a screen. However, I attached some of Tokyo, as per your request, and two of me. You should consider yourselves very blessed to have the photos of me because I never do this.*_

Crawford had to see this.

One photo had to have been taken at close range by Nagi's own hand because it just featured part of his face and one eye. To Crawford's amusement, he'd used eyeliner. The flash had bounced off his pale skin, making it glow nearly white. The other looked more like a traditional amateur portrait. Nagi sat on a brown couch and leaned forward with his arms crossed. The pose gave a mixed message of eagerness and reserve. Light bounced off the mirror on the wall behind him and the shiny buttons of his black coat. He looked a little bit uncomfortable and annoyed but also... pretty, almost to the point that he could have been a professional model. He'd grown from a pretty but also somewhat odd-looking child--Schuldig and Nagi himself had remarked on the size of his head in proportion to the rest of his body--into an attractive teen on the verge of adulthood. He wondered what impression his parents would get of the boy from these pictures.

The others, photos of rooms and outdoor places, he set aside for later. For now, he resumed reading.

_*I put on eyeliner because Crawford-san thought it would better show me as a rebellious teen striving for self-expression. Or something like that.*_

Wise-ass.

_*I don't wear it usually. I would have given you just the extreme closeup of my face but Aya insisted that I send something that at least showed all of my face. The living room I'm in looks tacky, but the place came to us already furnished. Aya, one of my co-workers, can be seen a little bit in the mirror behind me. Sneaky, huh?*_

Aya showed up in the mirror as a blue, black, and red shape, his face covered by the camera and flash.

_*Aya's almost like a brother to me.*_

On one hand, Crawford had to stop a moment over the shock of that statement, that the Weiß swordsman had become so important to Nagi. On the other hand, he had to smirk at the kind of thoughts Nagi had about his "brother." Not many families had one brother lusting after the other.

_*But he's shy. He also threatened to kill me if I tried to take his picture. You may have to content yourselves with the blob in the mirror. Enjoy the photos of Tokyo.*_

Nagi's other photos had an odd tension and the unsettling effect of somehow giving the impression that something was about to happen in the scene. They showed hotel rooms, streets, Tokyo Tower, skylines, a blur of neon advertisements, and the view from one of the windows of Takatori Reiji's office.

_*I hope you don't mind me writing you. I've just never had grandparents before. Please let me know if I've been too presumptuous._

 

_Kind regards,_

_Nagi*_

Ended with a manipulative flourish. Schuldig would be proud.

Crawford went back to work, but in the back of his head he started to think of a way to answer his parents' e-mail. And of a means of revenge for sending those baby photos.

******************************************************

Schuldig woke up. Had somebody yelled his name? No. He was alone in the hotel room.

10:35. He hadn't slept long. Unfortunately, he couldn't get back to sleep now. Lazing around in bed awake didn't have much appeal when he didn't have anyone around to laze with. Encouraging Brad to be slothful was so entertaining. But he didn't have anybody right now.

Stressed, he really wanted to smoke, but he'd chosen a non-smoking facility to put himself back together in. Brilliant. Grumbling, he got out of bed to put his clothes, boots, coat, and scarf on. He shoved his red sunglasses into his pocket.

It was so quiet without the barrage of voices offering opinions on every move he made. He didn't really like the silence. But his head would get noisier when he unblocked his links to his team.

When Janet saw him walking toward the outer door, she said, "I'm sorry you missed breakfast, but we still have rolls and hot cider."

"That sounds good, thanks."

She smiled, motherly, pleased to be helpful. She and her husband worked hard to run and maintain the inn but loved it and each other. They'd been together for years on years. How sweet. Schuldig wondered how much it would take to poison or break that love....

Annoyed at himself, he shook his head. Sadism could be useful, but not when you shot it out at anyone who happened to be around you. He loved his games, but he knew that sometimes he loved them too much, to the point where he got hung up, caught, and hurt on the gilded curlicues of his own plotting. That whole shit with that Ouka girl dying in one of his schemes hadn't turned out badly for Schwarz once Brad had put the right spin on it for Takatori, but in the meantime Schuldig had been forced to let Takatori beat the shit out of him in vengeance for it. So he had to keep a leash on the sadism-for-personal-entertainment urge. The urge felt stronger again now, so he'd have to fix it.

He could do that as he smoked. For now, he slathered butter on warmed rolls, drank his hot cider, and flirted with Janet, who was uncomfortable with it.

Sadism came in many forms, some less risky for him than others.

Once done, he found a spot on the covered porch near the back to sit, lit up, closed his eyes, and started to rummage through his head, touching and tasting bits to figure out what they were. Kristiane's gift for song had anchored well already, probably because he'd laid the groundwork for that in New York City. A lot of the rest had settled quickly too since he hadn't grabbed much new stuff, just mostly reinforced what he had. Ah, a little more of Klaus' sadism had crept in than Schuldig had wanted, so Schuldig drained some of it off. The collective could be sneaky. In punishment, he went down to the barrier, grabbed Klaus, and kicked him around a bit.

Schuldig realized that someone was approaching him outside, so he resurfaced and looked up at a guy in his 40s. "Sorry," the man murmured.

His name was Roger, and he'd thought that Schuldig was a woman. Still wasn't sure either way. Through Roger's eyes, Schuldig saw his long, bright hair blowing in the wind with snowflakes in it and how the long coat, scarf, and sunglasses helped obscure his gender. Schuldig didn't mind it when people confused him for a woman since he could use it as one more route to fuck with their heads.

In the midst of a midlife crisis, Roger had embarked upon an affair with a girl half his age. Upon finding out, his wife had been pissed off, as wives tended to get in such situations, and divorced him. His lawyer had sucked, so wifey had gotten a big payoff and Roger had been forced to sell the house. Now he'd come to this inn to put his head together.

This inn that had been a favorite of his wife's, full of memories, and was a non-smoking facility.

It was hard not to be contemptuous of humanity when you got a brief history of their recent stupider decisions to add to your first impression of them.

"Don't be sorry," Schuldig answered. "I was bored. I came here for rest and quiet, but they don't seem to be agreeing with me. I'm Chris."

"Roger. Are you in a band?"

Ah, the hair. Roger had decided that Schuldig was male. Kind of. "I'm the singer for Guilty." Schuldig smirked as he heard Roger trying to figure out whether someone who was hip would have heard of the band. "It would amaze you how an American band that can be unknown in the States can be huge overseas. I had some wild times." He smiled. "Maybe too wild."

_That_ grabbed the interest of a bored guy with a midlife crisis. "Like what?"

"Parties, easy women, skuzzy clubs. In Tokyo, I was at one of those places where the sushi platters are naked women." Not that Schuldig had been able to partake, being a bodyguard. Besides, some of the human sushi platters kept thinking things that cracked him up. "Stuff like that."

"So, what, you have a disease now?" Roger asked, feeling clever.

"No, just exhaustion from performing and partying. I was careful about diseases, at least. But I'm so bored, and they didn't even let me have money or a car. My manager comes around once in a while to take me out for a meal. I need a jailbreak so bad."

Bored and lonely and not terribly bright, Roger took the bait. "Wild stories, huh? I could get you out of here for a while."

He could make Roger do it but having him agree of his own free will just from Schuldig talking him around made it so much more fun. "So I tell stories in exchange for food and booze?"

"And freedom."

"Sounds like a deal to me." Why inflict his updated self on Brad when he could test it on someone nobody cared about? Roger was also in good shape for a man in his 40s, attractive, and thought Schuldig was pretty, so who knew what else Schuldig could get out of him?

******************************************************

"I'm going out for some fresh air," Yoji said, needing a break.

"You're going out to the alley to smoke," Ken said.

"Same difference. Give me about 15 minutes, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Once outside, Yoji leaned back against the wall and lit up. The new flower shop didn't have as big a crush of underage fangirls, but it had enough for him to need an occasional escape. It was hard work being charming yet harmless for such long stretches. Once the girls had realized that their florists had returned from their long "vacation," they'd come in a rush and been more demanding than usual. Besides, Yoji already had this weird, embattled feeling he couldn't pin down.

The time difference was kicking their asses too. Over ten hours!

"How's the self-loathing working for you lately?" Elena asked softly, sounding sad.

Damned telepaths. "I've gotten good enough that I'm not turning it on other people anymore, just quietly on myself. No putting the hurt on anyone." No more strangling lovers. Actually, he hadn't felt the urge to go out looking for lovers lately, maybe because he'd gotten some so often in New York. Too much in New York. "Or maybe not so quietly after all."

"You're gotten better at blocking yourself off. I didn't notice it. Fenris did. He's more empathic."

"What, so I'm hurting Fenris?" Couldn't a guy quietly hate himself anymore?

"Not hurting, not really. He's just aware that you're feeling really sad and wants to help you. He doesn't get the complexities of emotion, so to him you're sad with this hard, bitter smell to it."

"If he can't separate well, how did you figure it's self-loathing?"

"I, uh, took a peek."

No privacy anymore, and he'd gotten so used to it that he couldn't even get a good mad going. "Elena."

"I'm sorry, but given your recent history and what happened to Fujimiya-san, I really worry. Hell, with what Ken had been doing previously I worry. Weiß doesn't seem to have my cushion of sociopathy to help them through."

Yoji had to laugh. How else could you answer that?

"Fenris and I want to help make things better, Yoji. We like you and Ken, and you're our home."

"I don't know what you could do. I don't know what _I_ could do." Becoming codependent on a self-injuring, knife-licking psycho wasn't an option for him like it had been for Aya. He missed Aya. "Tell you what. I'll think about it. In the meantime, how are things going with you?"

She shot him a "you don't fool me" look but answered, "The customers have been hating me. Coming back from New York looking more stylish seems to have made me a threat. Would I be that insane if I'd had a normal life?"

"Hard to say."

"I told Fenris not to wear the plastic collar he got. As much as he likes it, it would only encourage the customers to treat him more like a pet than they already do."

"That's a shame."

Weiß let Fenris do the simpler tasks around the shop like sweeping and cleaning up. He'd also surprised them by having a gift for knowing how much and when to water the various plants. They'd worried that customers might be cruel to him, but most seemed to see him as something cute, a kind of pet. It didn't bother Fenris, but it annoyed Elena, Yoji, and Ken. Still, it beat the alternative.

One person had asked Ken what was wrong with Fenris over and over with Ken answering that Fenris was "uhm, simple" and not to bother him. Overhearing--one way or another--Fenris had just smiled and said that yeah, he was simple since he had fewer moving parts. That kid might not be quite right, but he wasn't stupid.

What would it be like living like that?

"Yoji, they're eating us alive in there while you're out here keeping Elena from working too," Ken said as he opened the door.

Yoji really couldn't figure out why he'd dislike himself when he had such positive reinforcement all the time. "When did you become Aya?"

Ken's eyes and mouth went wide. "Uh."

"And I've been delinquent over half my life, so chill out," Elena said. "I'll go back in there and get glared at soon enough."

It always felt good to have backup.

"Fenris got hold of the glitter jars," Ken said.

That put Elena into action. "Shit. This will get messy. Why didn't you stop him?"

"He was using telekinesis! Not so other people would have any idea what it was, but he was using it."

They raced inside to a transformed shop. Glitter in various colors dusted every available surface, including the customers. Customer reaction ranged from amused to annoyed. Mostly amused. They wouldn't be the ones to clean it up. It looked like a club promotion gone horribly overboard. At least a lot of the flowers were in the refrigerators.

"Now everything's prettier," Fenris said with a big smile. He did a little martial arts move and exclaimed in English, "Snowstorm of shininess!"

"Yeah, your ultimate fighting move sure is shiny," Elena said. "You're cleaning this up. "

"Sure. Later."

"And if you do something like this again, I'm cutting off your access to _GetBackers_. Especially if you try using it as a guide to pronouncing English."

"Elena!" he whined.

"You know English?" one of the schoolgirls asked.

Fenris looked freaked out. "A little. Yes."

"That's great! I'm learning English! I can practice on you!"

"Elena!" he yelled, meaning, "Save me!"

"Brought it on yourself," Elena answered. "Sorry."

Yoji sneezed on some glitter but couldn't help grinning, especially when Ken started to apologize profusely to the few annoyed customers and told them to come back in an hour to give them time to clean up. The glitter scatter was pretty in a gaudy way, and he enjoyed a bit of chaos now and then.

He did, didn't he?

He would have to have a talk with Omi about this leadership thing, because it wasn't him. He wasn't that guy. Ken wasn't either, though. After a moment, Yoji knew whom he could suggest for the job. It wouldn't even change Weiß's lineup.

Of course Omi would have to approve it and Ken would have to go along with it, but altogether Yoji felt much cheerier.

Once they cleared the customers out and pulled down the security gate to prevent outsiders from looking in, Ken said, "I'm sure that was fun, Fenris, but it made a big mess and wasted money." He'd gone right into kids' coach mode.

"No waste! I can pick it all up, easy."

"It'll be dirty."

Fenris looked proud. "I can separate it. Glitter feels special."

Kenken had his "yeah, sure" face on, but Yoji said, "Nagi can do it. He can feel the difference."

"Prodigy's much more powerful," Ken answered.

"Give Fenris a chance," Elena said as she laid out newspaper on the table.

"All right."

Glitter flew up out of the open places and gathered in a mass in the air. As sweat broke out on Fenris' face, dirt fell from the bottom of the mass while the glitter continued to float. Finally he put the sifted glitter down on the newspaper. He took more time and care lifting glitter off the plants to avoid damaging anything.

"Good?" Fenris asked when he finished.

"Actually, yeah," Ken answered. "Good job."

"I'm a genius!"

"Don't get too smug," Elena said.

When had Yoji and Ken gotten used to displays like this? Not that Yoji should bitch too much, since he had his own small telekinetic talent. Besides, it could be cool to watch.

Yoji took advantage of the break to call Omi to schedule a meeting. Getting matters moving left him feeling better.


	130. "All right, whose life did you ruin?"

"There is a lot of crap online," the boy said as he put a few printer pages down on Farfarello's chest. "I did research for you, but a lot of the sites are trying to get you to buy a book or a course or some shit. Then there are the totally crackpot ones. I don't think you have a solar angel."

"If I did, I would kill it," Farfarello answered.

"Yeah, that's about what I figured. I can't see you chanting, 'I am the Soul / I am the Light Divine / I am Love / I am Will / I am expanding design' either. Anyway, I browsed and put together a summary of the sensible-sounding, most repeated stuff. Enjoy. I have work to do." Nagi left the room without a glance back, probably figuring that he'd wasted enough of his valuable time on the research already.

Farfarello braced the papers between his thumb and the splint on his forefinger. "Small type."

"I could read it for you," Aya said.

"Yeah, read it for me, then go out. You look like you need a run."

"I'm fine."

"You're almost vibrating. In a bad way."

"Hnn."

"You are."

"Not."

"If I could run, I would go out for a run." Fucking broken leg. Why did bodies have to be so easy to break? Right. Because God was a sadist. "Besides, I'd feel foolish with you watching me do this."

"All right." Aya read but looked skeptical at what he read, although he approved of the breathing exercises.

Farfarello loved the low rumble of his voice. Once his puisín finished his recitation, Farfarello said, "Now go."

"You'll remember all of that?"

"I retain what I want to retain. Go."

His puisín looked at once reluctant and eager to leave. Aya seemed to have as much trouble dealing with Farfarello's injuries as he did, and the misplaced guilt Aya felt left a slightly sour taste. Maybe a run would cleanse him. That worked sometimes.

Once Aya left the room to change into sneakers and winter garb, Farfarello straightened his spine as best he could in his condition, anchored himself a little more into his aching body so he could feel any changes, and started to breathe deeply from his belly, concentrating on inhaling and exhaling thoroughly. Breathe strength in and breathe the toxins and darkness out. Anyway, breathing better gave more power and energy by itself.

It left him feeling more refreshed but didn't give him the sensation of flowing heat he'd hoped for. But he'd gotten some tingles at the base of his spine. He thought. Fuck. The bit about channeling ki balls into his hands had been so interesting too....

He chided himself over his disappointment. He shouldn't expect much from a first try. If he still didn't get results after a few more times over the next few days, then he'd give up.

******************************************************

Aya ran. He tried not to see it as a metaphor for the way he usually dealt with problems.

He couldn't help feeling relieved that running in an unfamiliar city forced him to pay more attention to his surroundings and gave him less time to think.

******************************************************

Schuldig drank maybe half as much as Roger did and ate more. Fixing his head left him hungry. He just had to pretend to listen to Roger as payment, and his time in Eszett had developed his talent for it. Besides, if a person thought you weren't listening and objected to that he had thoughts of what he'd just said foremost in his head to let Schuldig know what to say. Easy.

Roger really did love Joyce, his ex-wife, and couldn't understand why just one affair could have made her divorce him. Schuldig could have told him about jealousy, preemptive strikes, and anger over being lied to, but Roger wanted sympathy, not answers, so Schuldig gave sympathy. When Roger wanted stories of depravity overseas, Schuldig provided generously, telling tales of skuzzy clubs, easy women, human sushi platters, and wild parties. The drunker Roger got, the more Schuldig slipped in tales of sex with men, but by that point Roger didn't care as long as it involved fucking.

Damn, it was nice to have someone listen to his stories with such rapt attention.

All the while Roger's vision of Schuldig flipped between male and female, as if he looked at one of those pictures that had two images in it, without Schuldig having to do anything telepathic. Lust started to build....

Eventually Roger got so drunk that Schuldig convinced him to hand over the keys to his car so he could drive the grieving lush back to the inn. He also had to half carry him into the inn and up the stairs, giving Gary and Janet a combination of his waif thing and a good Samaritan air as he passed them. Watching him, Janet thought that he couldn't possibly have been flirting with her earlier and she must have misinterpreted his friendliness.

He so enjoyed toying with people's heads.

Roger's room had a fireplace. Why didn't Schuldig's room have a fireplace? Schuldig didn't have much time to ponder that question as Roger held him tighter. Joyce had always put out more on vacations, so Pavlovian reaction plus the beer fog made Roger more ardent. Schuldig's shields held up so well that Roger's lust barely touched him. A good fix.

"Who do you think I am?" Schuldig murmured as Roger kissed his neck, hitting some of the good spots by sheer luck.

"Chris." Roger didn't see his wife or chippie fling, just an attractive convenient person.

Funny. Schuldig looked at it the same way from his end. "Good."

Roger kissed him hungrily, pleasantly tasting of good beer, and unbuttoned his coat, then rubbed against him. Then stopped when he could feel how hard Schuldig was.

"Are you going to be a tease?" Schuldig asked, deliberately sounding low and throaty.

"I've never."

"Been a tease? Good. I fucking hate people who promise things but don't deliver." Schuldig reached down and stroked him, sometimes pressing his fly hard against his cock. At that point Roger's little head took over more and panic over potential homosexuality became less important. They kissed harder while they tore off their coats and unfastened each other's clothes just enough to get to the important bits. Schuldig rolled the condom onto Roger's cock and enjoyed how Roger's movements and kisses become more forceful.

Schuldig occasionally liked it rough. Brad supplied it sometimes due to his own mood, which could be good, but Schuldig never asked for it from him when he wanted it but wasn't getting it out of the worry that Brad might make assumptions about Schuldig wanting to be mastered or some shit. Asking your leader to dominate you in bed was asking for trouble.

Brad could be nicely manipulated through certain shows of weakness, but he must never see that weakness as a permanent thing.

Perhaps dimly sensing Schuldig's sudden distraction, Roger introduced some tongue into the kissing, which got Schuldig's attention back. Drunken lust could be focused and overwhelming, but Schuldig felt only the buzz of it through his shields, which meant that he'd done good work. He took from Roger only what he wanted, despite the close contact.

Playing with lust could be playing with fire sometimes. With some men, once the cock took over the brain just about stopped, which left Schuldig without one of his weapons. Toying with but controlling that kind of force without telepathy could be a very satisfying rush.

There had been times when he'd come across a victim in the middle of fucking and the man _literally_ couldn't stop fucking to save his own life, just kept pumping away as Schuldig put a bullet through his head. Fascinating stuff. Tasty too, since the fuckees were always more traumatized that way. He'd had to kill a few of them too just to stop the screaming. Spared them from having to remove a dead man's cock from their snatch or ass, at least, so he'd done them a favor.

Schuldig spun away a bit and landed stomach-down on the bed, bared ass displayed. He cast a challenging look back over his shoulder. Roger had some curiosity about back door sex but Joyce had never been able to relax into it enough to enjoy it and the chippie hadn't been interested at all. Seeing it being so blatantly offered now increased his lust.

Schuldig tossed him a tube of lubricant and said, "Be careful and slow with me. You're so big...." His ability to keep a straight face served him well. Hell, he could have been an actor.

Or maybe a porn star.

Watching Roger slick himself up stoked Schuldig's lust and anticipation higher. Roger might be fairly stupid, but he looked good and had an older man's solid, somewhat stocky width that Schuldig enjoyed sometimes.

Fucking hell. Roger intended to just plunge in without opening Schuldig up at all first. Idiot. No wonder Joyce couldn't enjoy anal sex. Schuldig exerted telepathic pressure enough that even through Roger's sex haze he got the picture, slicked up his fingers, and used those first, with Schuldig moaning encouragement and rubbing himself against the bedspread. His fingers were wide and rough.... Roger couldn't find the patience to do that for long, but he did it long enough.

Impatient, Roger thrust in forcefully, though not as forcefully as he would have without Schuldig exerting pressure on his remaining thought processes. Biting his lip, Schuldig luxuriated under the friction, movement, weight, and burn of vigorous fucking. It felt good and right and helped purge some of his simmering violence. Even with this, his shields kept Roger's lust at a comfortable distance. Perfect. Now, knowingly, Schuldig opened himself up to it, swimming in it, smirking at Roger's low, uneasy awareness that this wasn't a woman he was fucking but felt damned good anyway. So tight.... Well, Schuldig did exercises to make sure he stayed that way.

With Roger's rocking and thrusting and Schuldig's grinding down against the bed it didn't take them long to come, orgasm hitting Schuldig like a rain of pleasurable sparks all over his body and Roger like a ton of bricks. Once finished, Roger pulled out without much grace and lay on his side, half-conscious and dazed. Classy.

Schuldig rolled away from the wet spot and considered him. Kill him? Nah, it didn't seem necessary. Besides, he felt too lazy and satisfied to take the trouble right now. He'd gotten his rocks off. Roger would be leaving tomorrow morning, so why bother dispatching him?

He pulled up his pants so he wouldn't trip on them and washed in the bathroom, returning with a damp washcloth for his drunken conquest. When he returned, Roger looked at him with more sobriety and a touch of horror in his eyes and said, "I can't believe I did that."

Schuldig smiled in a way that wouldn't reassure at all and answered, "We were bored, drunk, and horny. You were lonely too. It was inevitable. And it was pretty good. You wanna go out and smoke?"

Vaguely traumatized, Roger stared at him and said nothing. Since Roger still had the condom on his cock, Schuldig dropped the washcloth on Roger's bared belly, picked up his coat, and let himself out. On the scale of kindness to discarded lays, this behavior was close to the high end of kindness.

Feeling good and strong, Schuldig hummed to himself as he walked upstairs to his room. His shields held. His sadism didn't overwhelm his common sense. He didn't have a small army incessantly offering opinions on his every move in his head. Was he ready to face Brad?

Yeah, he could see Brad. He wouldn't unblock the links yet, but he could socialize. He jumped onto the bed, picked up the phone, and dialed. Schuldig wanted to hear Brad's actual voice.

"Hey, Brad."

"I expected you to call now," he answered, sounding so utterly Brad-like that it almost took the sting out of his call being foreseen.

Almost. "You take the fun out of things."

"Not everything."

"Not everything," Schuldig agreed with a purr.

"All right, whose life did you ruin? You sound altogether too pleased with yourself."

"I spiced up this one guy's boring old divorce and midlife crisis by adding a sexual identity crisis."

"I'm sure he's thankful."

"He should be."

"So you think you're well enough to talk to me. Are you well enough to dine with me?"

"Just watch me."

"My hotel has a nice restaurant."

"'Nice' as in you like it, or 'nice' as in fancy? I need to know if I should dress up." Then he could decide whether he would bother or not.

"Define 'dress up.'"

"Now you're just being a wise-ass."

"'Nice' as in somewhat fancy."

"Then I'll put on something more elegant."

"I shudder in fear."

"Can't foresee my outfit?"

"I never foresee any of them. That can be a relief."

"You're so mean! This better be a damned good meal."

"It will be."

"You see that?"

"Yes."

"I'm holding you to that. See you here in an hour?"

"Yes. Be ready, Schuldig."

"I was born ready. See you later, Brad." Schuldig put the phone down and went to shower to wash Roger off him. How nice of housekeeping to replace all of his towels.

About an hour later, as he walked down the stairs, Janet met him with "Thanks for bringing Roger back. His troubles with Joyce hit him hard."

"He's so depressed," Schuldig said. "I tried not to let him get very drunk, but he wouldn't stop. The least I could do was drive him back."

Poor Janet so wanted to pat his head fondly. "You're a good person, Christian."

"I try."

"You look better tonight too."

Schuldig smiled. "Maybe I just needed to get out to the country all along."

******************************************************

"I'm glad you could schedule me in so quickly," Yoji said.

"No problem," Omi answered as he sat behind his desk. Although Yoji thought of him as Omi, this dark, still office was every bit Persia's, Takatori Mamoru's. "Is this business or personal?"

"It's Weiß, so it's both."

Omi glanced at Rex, who stood at his side. Looking somewhat annoyed, she left the room. Damn, but Yoji missed Manx. Even Birman had been more personable than Rex.

Yoji still hadn't gotten over their deaths. Bad enough for them to have been killed, but to have been tortured so badly first on top of it....

The new Weiß seemed so much more lighthearted that Yoji had nearly forgotten the past darkness. He could stop thinking of it for stretches of time. In here, the past weighed. It tasted like poisoned dust.

Dammit, Omi, open the blinds. Get some air. Light. The fish tank seemed to be the major light source.

"I'd like to resign as Weiß's leader," Yoji said. "I'm not really the leader type. I know it. They know it. I think I'd be better used as an adviser to Weiß's leader. I suggest Elena for leader instead. She's smart and hard. She's already Fenris' leader, and Ken respects her. I can be devil's advocate and her heart for those circumstances where her own doesn't work. You and Aya juggled the top slot between you."

Omi looked surprised and thoughtful. "I felt that you were maturing into the leadership role."

Yoji fought down his "_Hey_!" reflex. "I'm not stepping aside to dodge responsibility. I just think I'd better serve the team with a different responsibility."

"I always thought that as long as some of us were in Weiß, we would lead it." Omi glanced at the picture on his desk of Weiß in earlier days.

Omi really needed to get out of this office and stay out.

"We haven't been that team in a long time. I'm not a leader. Neither is Ken. We're aware of that and at peace with it."

"You won't change your mind?"

"If Ken won't accept Elena, I'll stay in the role, but I won't be happy with it. Still, I don't think he'll have a problem with her as long as he knows that I want her there and wasn't pushed out under duress."

"Then I'll pose it that way to him. Yoji, I have no complaints with your performance as Weiß's leader."

Yoji smiled and inclined his head. "Thanks. That means a lot. I'll be even better as the team's Uncle Yoji. You'll see."


	131. "You could admire me a little more, but I'm starting to get restless."

The lights dimmed again as Nagi made his bed. He had a surge protector for his computer, at least. He'd have to poke Crawford about this. Sure, the house had wheelchair ramps and other aids already installed, but did the power work consistently? No.

"I hope you didn't feel that we were about to chase you out of our room," Aya said softly from the doorway as he exuded melancholy, cool and dark. Feathery puffs of snow studded his hair, making Nagi long to touch it more than usual. He must have just come back from his jog.

"I know. I'm doing a pre-emptive throwing out. Besides, I know how tempting it is to molest me in my sleep," Nagi answered. Of course, _his_ virtue wasn't the one really in danger if the three of them shared a bed. Unless he meant "virtue" as "I'm too good a person to do things to Aya in his sleep."

Schuldig would tell him to revel in his evil.

Nagi sighed, thinking that even when Schuldig wasn't here, he was around.

"Only if I want my neck broken," Aya answered. "Not so tempting."

"I don't do that."

"I've risked my life tending you while you were half-asleep, so don't tell me that."

"Don't worry. I don't feel left out."

"Good. I just wanted to make sure you were... okay."

As Aya obviously was not. "Come over here."

"Why?"

"Come on."

Looking confused and a bit annoyed, Aya walked over. Nagi said, "I'm going to touch you." Aya shook his head but allowed it.

Aya's hand was _cold_. He remembered the snow softly falling outside, drifting, indiscriminately covering everything under a stilling blanket of oblivion.

"You've completely perverted snow," Nagi said, amused.

"You shouldn't say I 'perverted' it. I'm not Schuldig."

"Okay, not perverted, but that may be the most morbid view of snow I've seen in a while, and I'm a depressed teenager. You see everything through a dark haze of depression, don't you?"

"It's the way life is."

"It makes me shudder to think about how you interpret everything around you, even the cute stuff, like... I don't know, fluffy baby chicks."

"They mature into chickens and are killed for their meat. Their eggs are stolen from them." But Aya smiled a little.

"You make _me_ look cheery."

Nagi saw the two-way link that Aya and Farfarello had both leaned on, and it remained clamped down to a trickle, as Schuldig had left it. With the link on full, Aya seemed much happier and Farfarello saner but was a crutch like that really such a good thing to use? Shouldn't they strive for self-sufficiency?

Was self-sufficiency even possible for them after what they'd done and what had been done to them?

All of Nagi's psych training had been focused on manipulating and breaking people, not healing them. He might make things worse if he involved himself. Aya helplessly lingered on the wrongs, the once was, and could have been. It hurt Aya to care, but he couldn't stop caring, so he hated himself. Nagi didn't know what he could do about that. Besides, Aya might be obsessive and have a dark way of looking at life, but he also had a frustrated and seriously injured lover, thus more cause to feel that way than usual. Being deprived of work to distract himself with and familiar surroundings didn't help either.

"Nagi."

Nagi realized that he still held Aya's hand. Worse, he seemed to be rubbing little circles on it. Sitting on the bed as Aya stood in front of him would have given him some interesting views if not for Aya's bulky coat. "Sorry. You should have worn gloves." He let go.

Still radiating chill, Aya sat down next to him. "I've been thinking about the link. I don't like being dependent on Schuldig to adjust it."

Nagi had just been thinking about self-sufficiency but not like this. "I can understand that." Schuldig had... whims. Nagi had refused to take training from him for fear of what Schuldig might slip into it or Nagi's brain. "But I don't have the power or skill to remove the clamp."

"Another reason to be unsatisfied with Schuldig's power over us. I hoped that if I proved myself proficient enough at controlling the flow on my own, he'd remove it and leave it up to me."

"Honestly? I doubt it."

"That really wasn't what I wanted to hear." He sounded understandably unhappy about it.

"Maybe I can help you pick up some blocking techniques anyway. Right now you have the shields Schuldig installed--"

"What?" Hadn't known, obviously.

"They're rudimentary, just enough for someone who's not looking specifically for you to miss you. Anything more than that would leave his signature, which he was avoiding. You also have your not-thinking thing, your willingness to wallow in masochism, and a visually oriented way of thinking going for you."

"I'm beginning to regret that I asked."

"I think it would do you good to train yourself to put up walls. You can use them to keep people out or regulate your link with Farfarello. Why don't you like that idea?"

"I haven't said anything."

"I can feel your resistance to the idea." Plus, Aya's waves of potential had become very agitated before being pulled taut and in, forcibly stilled.

"I don't have faith in the protective power of walls."

That made some sense, considering all the explosions with building collapses Aya had been in. "You're also a little claustrophobic, aren't you?" Nagi refused to back down from the dark look Aya shot him.

"I'm not afraid of enclosed spaces. I become concerned if the space I'm in starts shrinking for whatever reason, which is good sense."

"So, try walls with a door. You decide how far to open the door to let things in. It's not like you can get out as well as stay in, being a normal, but the thought should help."

"You're not expressing this in ways that give me any confidence."

Yeah, he'd just explained it in a way that would make it entirely unappetizing to a claustrophobe. Great. "I'm not as good at blowing smoke up people's asses as Schuldig is."

They looked at each other for a moment. Then Aya cracked a smile that went with Nagi's smirk.

"Sorry about the mental image," Nagi said.

"It feels strange not having his link up. That's pathetic."

"Huh?"

"Schuldig cut off his link to me. He may have to you too for all I know."

"He... did. I spend so much time blocking it from my side that I hadn't noticed."

He shouldn't worry. Closing down the links as a precautionary measure made perfect sense. It was thoughtful of other people in a way Schuldig generally didn't bother to be.

"I think Farfarello finished meditating," Aya said.

Schuldig had put a clamp on their link, but Aya still felt things like that. Well, the side effects of Farfarello's kind of telepathy kept surprising them. Nagi just hoped it didn't surprise them in a way that hurt Aya.

"I wonder if he got it to do anything."

"Come see."

Since Aya didn't invite just anybody into his private space Nagi felt a small thrill of warmth but answered, "You're trying to distract me from getting you to visualize a wall for yourself."

Aya shook his head. "No. I'm going to try it. If it works, it would be a good thing. I just think it'll take time to get any results. I'm not a telepath, and I don't have any kind of prior training."

"I don't expect you to be an instant expert."

"Good."

In the room, Farfarello pouted. "At best I felt a little tingly."

"That's something," Aya said. He closed his eyes as Farfarello dusted the snowflakes out of his hair with his palm. "It might lead to better."

Unwilling to be in the middle of anything, Nagi left them alone. He didn't need the temptation, and he had work he could do.

******************************************************

Aya's soul tasted like cold ashes. "Puisín."

Aya put a small smile on. "The surrounding area is actually rather pretty. There's a large university library nearby I might check out another time."

It _hurt_, but Farfarello said, "You don't have to pretend for me. You can't do a good job at it."

His kitten sighed. "I miss having secrets."

Farfarello put his arm out, and Aya snuggled in next to him and put his head on Farfarello's shoulder. "You're cold." Snow melted against his arm.

"You're hot."

"I got a little tingly. The breathing felt good." He would make himself heal faster, for his puisín's sake as well as his own.

******************************************************

Crawford had foreseen that Schuldig would look healthy as he waited for Crawford to arrive, but seeing it and _seeing_ it were two different things. His visions didn't always pay attention to the details he wanted. He could tell that his telepath knew he stood there and let him watch, making a show of examining the contents of the bookshelves to give Crawford a good opportunity to look.

Schuldig had decided to dress up in one of Bargeld's beautifully tailored suits. It was a charcoal shade, and he'd matched a medium blue shirt and dark blue tie with it. Crawford had always ordered suits in neutral shades for Schuldig for fear of his preferences in color matching, although Schuldig often got around it by wearing a spectacularly ugly or tasteless tie. The ensemble fit him beautifully, unlike the boxy white suit the elders had put him in for functions.

It fit his body at least. When Schuldig wasn't acting, he never wore a suit like it belonged on him. Instead, he somehow wore them with an impudent, mocking air. He'd sometimes said to Crawford, "This doesn't work for me at all. You should take me out of it. Right now."

Crawford wondered if he wore a vest tonight as well.

His hair gleamed in the light, bright and lively against the mellow dark and medium colors he'd chosen. It still looked a little wild, but nothing short of hair ties or industrial strength gel could make it lie flat. When short, it spiked by default.

"You could admire me a little more, but I'm starting to get restless," Schuldig said. He had dark shadows under his eyes but a contented and slightly wicked expression on his face. "What, no corsage?"

He _was_ Schuldig. The relief of it made Crawford breathe easier. It might be possible to fool him on the phone but not in person, not like this.

"I'm not taking you to the prom," Crawford answered.

"There's no limo outside either? That sucks."

"I'm paying for dinner at a nice restaurant, so I expect you to put out."

"You make me feel so cheap."

"I didn't think anything could do that." This close, Crawford couldn't resist the urge to touch Schuldig's hair. Freshly brushed, it crackled a little.

"I thought that I might have to tie my hair back for a _nice_ restaurant but thought you might have a heart attack if you saw it."

The air almost seemed to crackle too. "If they don't like your hair, they can take it up with me. I like it very much."

"Fuck everybody else, then."

Crawford hadn't intended to pull Schuldig in closer and kiss him. He hadn't felt the urgency of lust. This was desire instead, thick and heavy and inexorable, as their lips moved slowly together.

When Crawford pulled away just enough to separate their mouths, Schuldig licked his lips and said, his voice husky, "Maybe you won't need to buy me dinner to get me to put out." He had a wicked gleam in his blue eyes.

"We're having dinner anyway." He felt no rush. Schuldig was his, and the slow buildup of anticipation added to the experience tonight.

"Are you sure you want to eat in public?"

"Positive."

But he didn't really remember dinner afterwards. They ate in near silence, as the expectation kept building. Taking Schuldig to expensive restaurants never really paid off, since he had little appreciation of food aside from whether it tasted good, although he could be amused by the artistic presentation. It wasn't that Schuldig seemed uncomfortable in such places, just that he didn't give a damn. At least he enjoyed a good wine. He seemed thoughtful tonight, but not in a negative way. Sometimes he flashed a wicked smile at Crawford.

As fast as their last bout in this hotel room had been--just yesterday?--this time was leisurely, almost narcotic. They set each other on fire slowly, in no rush.

Schuldig wore a vest. "You have strange fetishes, Brad.... It's lucky for you I like that."

Schuldig took so long fucking him that if he'd been the type to ever beg, Crawford would have. Even his patience had its limits.

******************************************************

Schuldig awoke suddenly. What had he heard? He dressed and left Brad sleeping. Outside the cold felt like knives of ice. Drawn, Schuldig walked through the snow. Somebody was crying. Somebody was gloating. Somebody was keeping him awake.

Off the road Schuldig found a car parked amidst the trees. He felt the gloater coming a moment before the man tried to hit him with his gun. Idiot. Guns were for shooting. Schuldig snapped his neck. That showed him.

He took the car keys out of the side pocket of the man's coat and opened the trunk. A gagged and bound little boy stared up at him in terror. In the moonlight the tear tracks on his face shone.

"Shhh," Schuldig said, then shot him in the head with the gloater's gun. After the shock of death, everything quieted. Schuldig leaned against the bumper and had a smoke.

Brad walked up to him, looking like snow and shadow himself with his white hair and dark coat. "We'll have to get rid of those."

"I just wanted a smoke."

"You're not well yet."

"No shit, Sherlock." He hadn't had a choice _at all_.

"Have you done anything like this near your inn?"

"No. You don't shit where you live."

"Not even little acts?"

Schuldig thought of the honor system involved with the snack closet. "No."

"I think that the inn you're staying at is _too_ nice and nurturing. Your shields don't get any stress there, so they're not rebuilding the way they should."

"Who died and made you a master telepath?"

"You'll stay one more night, then I'm keeping you with me."

"Because you're not nice and nurturing at all? You're fucked up."

Brad's thoughts whirled as he figured and added events his own way. "We're returning to New York City."

"It's a huge city full of minds. And we're being hunted there by people using talents."

"What you told me suggested that you were born in a pressure cooker, so it may be good for you now. After all, every time you did this before they'd kick you back out into Rosenkreuz for a little while afterward. You love a challenge."

"No, I don't. You're full of shit. I always want the easiest way."

Brad smiled. He had something in mind, something Schuldig couldn't quite see. "It will work. But first we have to dump these bodies."

Brad didn't ask who they'd been. Didn't care.

The gloater and crier had been father and son. The father was getting back at his bitch of an ex-wife who thought she could keep the kids away from him. Who the fuck did she think she was? He _owned_ them. He'd show that cunt.

Scott had never quite trusted his father, but what kid says no when Daddy comes by? After a long time tied up in the trunk he started to learn differently.

They'd both been _too loud_. Schuldig didn't care about their fucking stories, their stupid, mundane drama. He'd just wanted his afterglow sleep.

He tossed Dad into the trunk with his boy and closed the lid, then found a deserted, overgrown area to hide the car in. Since he'd put gloves on as he went outside, he hadn't left any prints on the bodies or car. He had to remove a few long orange hairs from the driver's seat and trunk, though. It took a bit of work to disguise the tire tracks in the snow. Fortunate that Dad had a shovel in the trunk. At times like this Schuldig really missed Nagi.

Brad drove him back to The Maple Leaf in silence. What could Schuldig say that he hadn't already tried? Brad had spoken. He might even be right that Schuldig needed an environment that was trying to break him for him to rebuild himself properly.

But Schuldig could pout. Brad couldn't stop him.

But there might be something to Brad's crackbrained hypothesis because the moment Schuldig let himself into the inn he got hit with a wave of horror over what he'd done. He'd killed a _child_. For no reason. The boy wasn't more than six.... Horrified, guilt-stricken, Schuldig had to clamp his teeth down hard and put his hands in front of his mouth to muffle his sudden sob.

Through his torment he heard a sudden thumping at the door. Brad stood outside. Schuldig yanked the door open and threw himself into Brad's arms, murmuring, "They're judging me, it's judging me, I'm judging me...." like an absolute fucking lunatic. Wonderful Brad with his cool, sadistic turn of thought. Then he realized that Brad was pushing him inside. "What are you doing?"

"You're staying here. So am I."

"Hell no. I don't want to go back inside."

"You have to."

"Son of a bitch--"

"You don't want to wake Gary and Janet, do you?"

Shit. No, he didn't. Oh, screw that! He woke whom he wanted! It didn't matter how nice they were!

Brad put a hand over his mouth and whispered, "I don't want to wake Gary and Janet either. Let's go upstairs."

Schuldig sighed and walked upstairs with him. The taste of Brad's casual ruthlessness blunted the force of the inn's ambiance judging him to be a child killer. Who knew that Schuldig's conscience could grow teeth? Who knew that he even had a conscience?

Of course, it wasn't really his. He'd just borrowed it against his will.

Inside the room Schuldig stripped out of his suit, put a robe on, and settled down to sleep on the far edge with his back to the center of the bed to show his displeasure. Brad snuggled right up behind him and stroked his shoulder over and over. Like Schuldig was a pet.

"Piss off," Schuldig said, hating the feel of Brad's smugness and the taste of his own weakness. He never should have waited so long to back himself up.

Then again, now that he'd gotten so closely involved with Brad he couldn't exactly take off for a few days without Brad wondering and maybe looking for him. Before, Brad wouldn't have cared as long as Schuldig didn't blow off a job for it.

"I can't. You need me," Brad nearly purred.

Bastard.

******************************************************

Finding Schuldig lost in a murderous compulsion at the car and nearly in tears downstairs worried him, but he found something oddly appealing in Schuldig's vulnerability... as long as it didn't jeopardize him or Schwarz. Against their enemies, he wanted his people to be strong, but he didn't mind at all if they had some weaknesses in front of him. It emphasized his own power.

"I'm going to kick your ass into the next state for those thoughts."

"Not tonight."

"Hate you."

"Maybe."

His own reactions surprised him. When he thought it through, he figured that, while he had been proud that Schuldig had fixed his problem so quickly, he hadn't quite believed it. Having flaws and blind spots come out now, under more controlled circumstances, worked out well.

He also had an idea of a cool-headed yet vaguely nurturing environment in New York he could take Schuldig to. If he tried hard enough, maybe he could keep his idea hidden from his telepath. He wanted it to be a surprise.

Schuldig had to strengthen his shields against "good," moralistic vibrations as well as darker ones. It would be easier to return to Crawford's inn with him, but easy wasn't always best. He would never be strong if he coddled himself.

Now Crawford faced a stiff, terry-clad back. Schuldig's efforts to snub him amused the hell out of him. He hardly needed any more sex tonight. All Schuldig's pose made him want to do was spank Schuldig's ass.

"I would _kill_ you."

Crawford couldn't help chuckling a little. Schuldig usually wasn't this cute when he was being petulant.

"I hate you," Schuldig growled as he pulled the covers up over them.

"Not really," Crawford answered as he stroked some of Schuldig's hair out of the way to kiss the back of his neck. Schuldig melted against him, then stiffened as he remembered that he was supposed to be withholding sex. "Everything will be better in the morning."


	132. "How many times did I make fun of your gigolo cowboy mission outfit?"

The only person who looked more surprised by Persia's announcement than Ken was Elena. "Me, sir?" she asked. Then she looked at Yoji.

"I suggested you for it," Yoji said. "I'm not really the leader type. I'm better at picking at other people's plans, which I'll continue to do. If everybody agrees to the change."

Yoji did look happy about it, so Ken replied, "I don't have any problems with it."

"Elena, can I call you 'boss'?" Fenris asked.

"Once in a while," Elena answered. "Just don't wear it out too much. Hey, there isn't something about this nobody's telling me, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Yoji said. "Every so often we have to sacrifice a leader to our eight-legged death god. Sorry, Elena, you can't back out now."

"Funny guy."

"I'm not hanging you out to dry alone. I'll still be contributing. You won't be able to get me to shut up."

"No reason for you to change now."

"Is it official?" Persia asked. Would have been nice to be able to see Omi's face during this, but he still used the traditional shadowy silhouette when contacting them for missions this way. It had been nice to have an in-person Persia with a visible face in New York.

"Yeah," Ken said, since he seemed to be the only person who hadn't thought of Elena as a leader before Persia mentioned it.

"Good. I have a mission for the white hunters."

Persia presented a fairly, obviously, simple mission for them, something to let Elena get her feet wet before they really went hardcore. She didn't appear to mind. As they did the initial planning and role assignments, Ken watched Yoji throw in suggestions at times but not enough to overshadow Elena. This looked like it would work.

Afterward, Ken took Yoji aside. "What made you do this?"

Yoji smiled. "I'm not a leader, Ken. Half the time when I gave orders I had to fight the urge to make sarcastic comments about my own performance. This way, I can be involved without feeling like I'm acting out a role that doesn't fit me."

"You seem happier now."

"That was the idea."

"Where are you going?" Partying? Ken wondered if the old Yoji would come back now.

Yoji gave him an "I heard that" look that made Ken nervous. He spent too much time around telepaths these days. But Yoji just said, "Getting a dye job. My hair looks trashy with the roots coming out. I'm getting it done to match my natural color. Do you have a problem with that, Kenken?"

Kind of the old Yoji. "Nope. You don't want to disappoint your panting public."

"Exactly."

"Besides, I never liked the bleached blond look."

"I didn't know you cared, Ken," Yoji answered, sounding a little flirty.

Fortunately, Ken had gotten used to that ages ago. "It's not like it mattered to you. How many times did I make fun of your gigolo cowboy mission outfit?"

"It was not-- Like I trust _your_ fashion sense."

******************************************************

Crawford awoke first. Schuldig's comfortable warmth lying next to him gave him an idea for a test of his telepath's shields. It would even be pleasant.... Crawford didn't touch him at all but let himself lust.

Schuldig murmured and started to breathe deeper, moving a little, responding. Then his eyes opened and he quickly slid out of the bed. "I'm glad I entertain you," he snapped.

"You're still not right."

"I have to tell you something, Brad. Even at my best you could have gotten through to me with that. There are other telepaths as powerful as me, and a lot of them lie in beds drooling because they can't deal with it."

"You never let on before." It made Crawford suspicious. He knew that some telepaths were so powerful it made them helpless, but he'd never seen his telepath overcome unless badly attacked.

"You think I'd show you while you were reporting to Eszett? Show weakness? I might as well put a target on myself. I'm only doing it now because you think you're some kind of expert judge on my abilities. Telepathy breaks down barriers between people. In fact," Schuldig's expression turned hard and malicious, "you've been more of a playful sex fiend lately. Maybe I'm rubbing off on you."

It made Crawford feel cold. "If I really thought that, I would have to end this." He would miss some things about his relations with Schuldig, but he had to remain purely himself, without outside influence.

"Or it might not be me. Emotions change. People change, even you. It's not always my doing. I can't always tell. I'm me, but the me I am is influenced by the people around me. Some times more than others. That's the way it is. Maybe we started fucking because part of me responded to some part of you that wanted me to out of the thought that I'd be more controllable if I got attached to you. Maybe I only feel... anything for you because you want me to. I can never be sure. So you might want to think twice before you toy with my emotions."

Crawford wanted to think that this wasn't Schuldig talking, but he knew better. Schuldig played at being shallow, affable, and malleable, but at his core he was steel. Crawford appreciated that most of the time. Schuldig seemingly bent and went along with things--although much of the time he actually manipulated people into doing what he wanted anyway--but people sometimes hit that steel core, at which point they couldn't push him anymore.

And if you poked him, he poked you back harder.

"I have to take a shower," Schuldig said and went into the bathroom.

Crawford followed. "I don't toy with you. I test you to keep you strong."

"You piss me off because you think it's funny. I'm not here for your entertainment. You might also realize that sometimes you might not like the answers your tests get you." Schuldig turned to face him. "I'm curious. Would you prefer to think that I love you because telepathy made me, or just because I love you?"

"Can't you just read it?"

"Not if you don't already know it yourself."

One way meant that Crawford had unintentionally imposed his will on Schuldig, while the other meant that something in him had appealed to Schuldig. Looking at it that way, the answer came easily, although it made him squirm a little to say it. "I'd rather you just loved me."

"I would too, but I'll never know for sure."

And now Crawford wouldn't either.

"Now get out. I have to wash the night off me." Schuldig's expression was hard, unyielding.

"All right." He needed to reevaluate his strategy here. Especially in light of Schuldig slamming the door shut behind him as soon as he left the bathroom.

This would be a perfect time to set his plan in motion, since Schuldig couldn't telepathically eavesdrop as well while showering, something about the water hitting his skin distracting him and keeping him grounded in his body. Crawford's cell phone didn't always work well in Vermont, so he used the landline to call his parents. "Hi, Mom," he said once he heard her hello.

"Brad! What do you want?"

"I have to want something?"

"Brad, I love you, but I can tell you're avoiding us. Therefore, if you've stopped avoiding us you must have a reason."

She had to be so sharp. If he'd gotten his father on the line, Dad wouldn't have given him such a difficult time. Of course, Dad would suspect something, but there wouldn't be this inquisition.

"I want to come see you. Schuldig has been working on me about it."

"Will anyone else be coming?"

"Just me and Schuldig."

"Not that intelligent and very sarcastic adoptive son of yours? I want to see if he's that pretty in person."

It really was a whole new world he was living in. "He's still in Pennsylvania. And you will pay for those baby pictures, Mother."

"'Mother'? I'm in for it indeed. When do you intend to stop by?"

"Would tonight be all right?"

"All right, what's wrong with your young man? He's not dying, is he?"

"No!"

"It's not cancer, is it? It would be horrible for him to lose all of that hair."

"Mother, stop toying with me. You don't believe any of that for a second." He could hear it in her voice.

"All right. But there _is_ something wrong."

"Yes. Schuldig is having a problem that some people with his specific talent occasionally get. He's safe to be around." Crawford would make sure of that. "He just needs a stern but loving environment."

"You can't provide that?" She sounded curious instead of smug.

"I'm not quite what he needs. I'm told that I have control freak tendencies, and I suspect that they're becoming a problem here."

"You don't want to break his spirit."

"No. It's one of the things I like about him."

"Good."

"But don't coddle him, Mom. If you give him an inch, he'll take 500 miles."

"I reserve the right to fuss over the both of you somewhat. It's not like you can stop me."

"Some fussing. I'll tell you when it becomes too much."

"Yes, you can come here with your young man. Give us a call once you get in-state so we have some idea whether you'll be making it for dinner or not."

He didn't remember if he'd liked her cooking. "Thanks, Mom."

"I can't wait to see you. Your father will be so happy too."

"I'll see you later. Goodbye." He felt... nervous. It was ridiculous. Taking a deep breath, he pushed it all to the protected parts of his mind, easy since his mind already labeled it as part of the future. Schuldig would figure it out sometime on the trip, but Crawford wanted to keep it a surprise as long as possible.

"What are you excited about?" Schuldig asked as he walked out, towel-drying his hair.

"Getting on the road."

Schuldig looked like he didn't believe him but not like he knew the real story. Good.

Gary and Janet gave them some curious glances when they walked downstairs but said nothing. They even gave Crawford breakfast and coffee too.

Janet looked concerned over Schuldig, who sat quietly as he ate. "You can stay longer if you need to. You could even stay in the same room."

"I have to go, but thanks. It's been great here. Breakfast too. Right, Brad?"

"Breakfast is excellent," Crawford said.

She said nothing further then, but as Schuldig checked out with Gary she took Crawford aside and said, "Please make sure he takes care of himself."

Despite his amusement over Schuldig's maternal fanclub, Crawford made sure he sounded very grave and serious as he answered, "Of course I will."

After Crawford checked out of his hotel and they hit the road, Schuldig said, "You're plotting something." He didn't look entirely displeased by the thought.

"Always."

******************************************************

Farfarello looked better again this morning. The shallower cuts had faded to pink, and Nagi said that he might be able to remove the stitches from Farfarello's fingers tomorrow. The broken leg and fingers and cracked ribs would take longer and thus continue to be a problem, so Farfarello had decided to work on his meditation again today. Aya went to the kitchen to give him privacy for it. It seemed to be an opportune time to try to put up the walls Nagi had suggested.

Closing his eyes, Aya imagined brick walls, which went up quickly and encircled him very well... and made him want to claw his way out. Feeling trapped, he immediately threw a door with a knob onto one wall, which didn't help calm him much. This stupid, instinctive reaction made him feel so _weak_.

Maybe he was trying to be too ambitious. He could ease into this. With that in mind, Aya changed the brick walls to frames holding sheets of heavy rice paper.

Why did he see the glow of flames through them?

"Aya!"

He came to and opened his eyes. Soft hands rested at the side of his face, skin to skin. "Nagi?" he asked.

Nagi immediately let go. "Sorry. I had to get you out fast."

"Were the flames my imagination?"

"No. Somebody's telepathically looking through the city."

"I thought walls were supposed to protect me, not attract attention."

Nagi perched on the edge of the kitchen table near him. "You seem to be an exception to a lot of things. I think I pulled you under the radar."

"You _think_?"

"I can't promise. This country apparently has a lot of talents in hiding. I can't believe how quickly you put those walls up, then changed them."

"They didn't save me."

The lights flickered again. "This is really getting on my nerves," Nagi growled.

"I'll go out for a run and try not to attract any telepathic attention." He needed some air.

As he ran, he passed Hillman Library. Floors of books. But it was connected to a local university, the thought of which sent another useless pang of cold darkness through his heart. He had to grow up already. He was an assassin, whose only remaining "family" was a group of assassins. There would never be a chance at higher education or some shadow of a normal life. The sooner he put that into his thick head, the happier he'd be.

But he didn't visit Hillman. He couldn't handle it today.

******************************************************

Aya needed a job, he really did, but Nagi didn't feel comfortable looking into the local work scene and making a commitment when he had no idea how long they'd be here. Crawford's e-mail yesterday hadn't given any indication of how long Schuldig would be out of it, which made sense because how could you estimate time on something like that? Instead there had been brief, concise sentences about how nice the hotels they stayed at were and how much work he at least was getting done in the peace and quiet. Reading between the lines, Nagi could tell that Crawford missed Schuldig's noise, thought Nagi's e-mail to his parents had been entertaining, and intended to devise a painful revenge for Schuldig and his mother over the baby pictures. Heh. The baby pictures.

But Nagi hadn't heard anything from him since, and something about the silence worried him. His years in Eszett and the business had given him something of a storm sense. Schuldig hadn't reestablished a link, and Nagi didn't have the power to reach Crawford telepathically. If the silence continued, Nagi would call soon.

"Nagi!" Farfarello shouted as Nagi walked past his room. "Come in. We have to talk about something."

This should be entertaining. Or frightening. And Farfarello had used his name instead of "boy." What could he want? "Sure."

Farfarello turned off the TV with his remote. With his fingers as they were, that was one of the easiest things he could do for himself. He could also balance a pen against his splint if he wanted to write things. Not that he needed fingers to write, since he had no qualms about putting a pen in his mouth and bending over a piece of paper. Years in and out of straitjackets had taught him how to do things without his hands and given him an oral fixation.

"I don't remember you ever healing this quickly," Nagi said. Farfarello looked much better already.

"Yeah. But not fast enough, so I'm still working on it. I felt some heat moving through my body on the last tries."

"You know, when they talk about ki balls they don't mean that you'll be able to fire energy from your hands. It's just about putting more power behind your blows."

"I know that. It's disappointing, but I know about it." Farfarello's stitched fingers drummed on his blanket. "My kitten is depressed."

Now they got to the real deal. "Yeah. He needs something to do."

"I can't distract him as well as usual in my current state. My condition adds to his sadness."

"True."

"You're smitten with him. You have to help."

"I'm not-- All right, I will agree that something should be done to help him."

Farfarello's aura of force and probabilities spasmed, then forcibly stilled. "I can't satisfy him as well in my current state."

No way. "You can't be suggesting what I think you're suggesting. I'm not a pacifier you can shove in Aya's mouth!" Thankfully, Schuldig hadn't been around to hear that gem.

"You like him. You even molest him at times without my permission. Why is it objectionable now that I've asked you to?"

"I'm trying not to molest him. I'm trying to get over this little infatuation. I have a lover."

Yes, Omi, whom he cared very deeply about. Even though he hadn't thought of him much since arriving here. Well, Nagi was independent.

"He's not here. Besides, _he_ had Aya."

"Don't make excuses for me!"

"This is a really bizarre conversation."

"You're telling me? I touched him because I wanted to before. Now it would be creepy and artificial."

"I never thought of that." But he beamed, probably thinking he could discourage Nagi from Aya that way later on, when he _wasn't_ allowing people to give sex to his starved kitten.

"I'm not offering myself to Aya to try to cheer him up. Not that he would accept me in that role anyway."

"He can be difficult." Farfarello took on a fond look. "But you don't want him to be depressed."

"My answer is no. I'll try to keep his spirits up in other ways." The conversation was over as far as Nagi was concerned, so he left the room. Did becoming more telepathic automatically make people more fixated on manipulation and sex?

Schwarz would drive him crazy at this rate.

Feeling vaguely guilty, Nagi went to his room and computer. Calling Omi rarely got him through all the levels of bureaucracy and security unless he could legitimately claim an emergency, so he sent an e-mail to Omi's yahoo account under the subject heading "Too Far Away."

_*I miss you._

 

_Love,_

_N*_

What else could he say? Damn, he really didn't have any social skills. He sent it.

******************************************************

Intent on making a nice dinner, Aya returned to a quiet house with bags of groceries. He put everything away for now, then went to the bedroom. Farfarello greeted him with an enthusiastic "Kitten!" and lightly brushed his fingers, faintly scratchy from the stitches, along the side of Aya's face.

"I'm glad you're home," Nagi said, looking weirdly fidgety and uncomfortable. "I was thinking of calling a search party."

"After all the trouble we take to avoid them? I bought groceries."

"That's good." Still fidgety, he left the doorway. Meanwhile, Farfarello had an excessively innocent look on his face.

"Get back here," Aya said.

Nagi returned to the doorway. "What?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Aya knew that some of his expressions had power over Nagi. He hoped that his stern yet concerned look would work here.

Nagi made a sound of annoyance, then said, "Farfarello said that I should cheer you up by acting as your sextoy."

"I did not say that," Farfarello said.

"Meant it. I turned him down."

Aya pinched the bridge of his nose. "He did this with Yoji too."

Nagi's eyes widened. "What? He had you use Yoji?" His gaze glazed for a moment, probably imagining the scene, then he shook his head and said, "Great. Now I really feel special."

"I didn't 'use' Yoji."

"True. He got Yoji off in a completely affectionate way," Farfarello said.

Nagi choked.

Aya colored. "Yoji got himself off."

"You helped."

"You were inside him at the time, and I still didn't have sex with him."

"This is... you guys are insane, you know that?" Nagi asked.

"I know. Come over here," Aya said. "Now."

Incredulous, annoyed, and perhaps turned on, Nagi's expression looked very young as he walked over to Aya. Aya put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Farfarello means well. He didn't think he was asking you to prostitute yourself."

"How can it be prostitution when there's no money involved?" Farfarello asked, aggrieved.

"It's not like it's unbearable to touch you," Nagi said. "It's just that his offer made me really self-conscious of it. I felt dirty in a bad way."

"I don't want you to feel self-conscious," Aya said. He rather enjoyed Nagi's friendly touches. Nagi was attractive but a _kid_. Who was attracted to him. Damn. "You can touch me without me taking it the wrong way." Nagi could read between the lines.

"Taking it the _right_ way," Farfarello murmured.

"You're the one encouraging him," Aya shot back. "Are we okay, Nagi?"

"Yeah."

"I'm trying not to be so moody. Without sexual intervention."

"If I can do anything to cheer you up, Aya, please feel free to ask."

Farfarello snorted. Nagi glared at him.

Aya cuffed Farfarello's head, which unfortunately made him happy. So Aya sighed and said, "Let's make dinner."

"I want to watch," Farfarello said.

"Since when does he have an interest in cooking?" Nagi asked.

"Since we had the Food Network in New York City," Aya answered.

"I made my own cookies," Farfarello said.

Nagi had a "my brain is bending and it hurts" look on his face. "Sure. I can carry him into kitchen and prop him up."

It seemed that a crisis had been averted. Aya hoped. Maybe his embarrassment would eventually fade too. Did he come off as sex-starved or was Farfarello just attributing it to him? He didn't need it so much. It annoyed him that in Schwarz sex seemed to be the answer to every problem that violence couldn't solve.

Nagi probably figured he'd feel better if he went out killing things.

Unfortunately, Aya couldn't say for sure that Nagi was wrong.


	133. "Wow. That was more self-reflection than I expected from you."

Some days, running Kritiker and the family's businesses left Mamoru's brain absolutely fried. At those times he had to take a little break. He took advantage of Rex being gone to indulge in a little online first-person shooter action. Unfortunately, he kicked everybody's ass a little too quickly. Bored, he looked through his e-mail accounts and found a message from nekolover@freeserv.net titled "Too Far Away" in his Yahoo box. So what did Nagi have to say?

_*I miss you._

 

_Love,_

_N*_

Nothing about Pittsburgh, Aya, Farfarello, or anything else that might be going on. No avowals of thwarted passion. Just "I miss you" and "Love" as the closing.

It was so utterly Nagi that it made Mamoru smile. He wouldn't give out details in an unprotected medium. Besides, that "Love" was a big thing from him. From what Mamoru could figure, being in Schwarz had trained Nagi out of using any language that might be seen as mushy. Had to be a perfect little sociopath.

Mamoru typed and sent:

_*I miss you too. Come home soon._

 

_Love,_

_O*_

******************************************************

Schuldig laughed. "I can't believe Nagi sent them a picture of him. I want to go check the temperature in hell. I also want to see the picture for myself. I'm sure your memory doesn't do it justice."

"I'm sure he did it in payment for sending those baby pictures of me. There will be a reckoning for that, Schu. I know you were involved," Crawford answered.

"It'll still be worth it."

"You might not feel that way afterward."

"Need to call your parents?" Schuldig asked with a smirk as they parked in the McDonald's lot on the side of the highway.

"How long have you known?"

"I heard it about the time we crossed the Vermont border. You were too gleeful to hide it for long."

It couldn't be helped sometimes. "Order some food for us while I call."

"What do you want?"

"You're the telepath."

"Bitchy, bitchy." But he smiled.

While Schuldig ordered, Crawford stayed outside to talk on his cell phone. He preferred to have his arguments away from other, uninvolved people. He'd usually do this in the car, but at the moment he needed to pace.

"Hey, Son," his father answered.

Crawford went straight to the point. "Dad, I just saw Kenneth and May at the table with us." They'd looked about as annoyed as he felt too.

"Great. We didn't know if they'd make it."

"I didn't agree to come knowing that everyone would be there."

"Brad, you have to meet your brother and sister."

"Actually, I don't." It was enough going to see his parents after about 20 years' separation. Meeting siblings he hadn't even thought he'd had until a few days ago pushed too far.

Sipping soda through a straw, Schuldig stopped next to him and did a "give me the phone" finger wiggle. Bemused, Crawford handed it to him. If his parents enjoyed Schuldig so much, they could suffer for it.

"Hi! It's Schu. You have to pardon Brad. He's been an only child all his life, so it's a bit of a shock to have a brother and sister. Only-child syndrome. He'll come around. He's selfish too...."

Crawford grabbed the phone out of his hand. "I'll deal with it," he told his father. "I just don't like surprises. Do they know what I do for a living?"

"We felt that it should be your decision whether to let them know, so we told them that you do security work overseas."

It made Crawford smile. "Very clever." His parents had sense.

"We try. They know that you were kidnapped. We updated that to add your recent escape."

"Do they know about our talents?"

"Your brother and sister asked me for weather reports and whether their dates would work out, so they're comfortable with precognition. They knew I wouldn't always know, but they had no problems with asking. I told them that you share my ability, but I didn't tell them about what Schuldig does."

The urge to say, "Dad, you can't even begin to know what Schuldig does" tormented him, but he fought it down. "All right. Thanks."

"How are you coming in?"

"We'll go back to crawling on 95 soon." Fortunately, Schuldig's shields had been strong enough to block out road rage, Crawford's included, since precognition didn't help much when every major highway was congested. His telepath had mostly napped.

"Then the Hutch to the Whitestone?" His father paused, then said, "Yes. Good. You'll miss the city that way. You don't want to go through there, especially today."

"Why?" Today was December 31.

Shit. Shit! He'd known it was December 31 but forgotten what that meant for New York City.

Crawford looked over at Schuldig, who serenely ate Crawford's fries, having already finished his own. "New Year's Eve," the telepath said, looking neither surprised nor worried.

Was he suicidal or insane?

"Brad, what's wrong?" his father asked.

"This might be a problem for Schuldig." Might be? Crawford was taking an injured telepath right into the heart of New Year's countdown central. There could be half a million people all thinking the same basic thing at the same time in Times Square alone. "I have to talk to him. I'll call back."

"All right, Brad."

Crawford closed up the phone. "Schuldig, you know what this will mean for you. You have problems with this sort of thing even when you're at 100%."

"I don't want to go back to Vermont."

"It's safer for you. Fewer idiots counting down nearby."

The look in his eyes didn't match the excessively casual air he had on. "You're right about the pressure cooker."

"Maybe, but you don't need this much of a pressure cooker."

"I don't want you using me as an excuse not to see them. I'm thrilled you're going to see them."

"I used you as an excuse to see them!"

"Wow. That was more self-reflection than I expected from you."

"I'm not going to let you break your sanity just so we can have dinner with my parents and siblings. That's not acceptable."

"If you're worried, your dad has a good liquor cabinet. I can ride into the new year the way most normal people do: blind, stinking drunk and passed out. We're not going back to the country."

Had Schuldig been aware of the new year's countdown during their argument about going back to New York City last night? No, he couldn't have been. He would have used it.

Schuldig seldom kept track of dates on his own. He must have picked up on it today while surrounded by other people driving or riding back to New York.

"If I refuse to drive you any further?"

"We could have a big super-powered battle over it, or I could just be obstinate and stay here. Connecticut is close enough to Times Square for me to get reception."

What would he do if Schuldig snapped completely or burnt out? Once, that situation had a simple answer. Crawford would have given Schuldig to Eszett and accepted a replacement telepath, never bothering to wonder if Eszett had killed him or studded him out or used him for experiments.

"I'm stronger than I look," Schuldig said. "The day you see me as helpless is the day I better move on anyway. Call them and tell them that we're coming. Or I disappear right here."

Crawford didn't waste time with an answer like "You wouldn't" because he knew that he had hit Schuldig's core of steel. The telepath wouldn't be pushed any further. Even without ID or luggage, Schuldig would leave and survive. Being Schuldig, he might be able to take those items as he went.

"This borders on suicidal," Crawford said.

"It's more like maniacally confident. You're familiar with that one yourself. It'll be rough but I'll get through."

"Why do you have to fight me?" Fortunately, Crawford succeeded in making his tone more annoyed than petulant.

Schuldig shrugged. "You've been agreeing with me on your own so much lately that you're forgetting how much we fight."

There were several stupid things Crawford could say, such as "If your mind breaks in front of my parents, I'll kill you." He didn't say them. Instead he opened up his cell phone again to make the call. "Hi, Dad. We're coming. If I see a definite arrival time, I'll call to let you know."

"We're looking forward to seeing you," his father said.

"I'll see you soon, Dad." It felt so strange to say. Regaining his blood family had never been part of any future he'd seen.

Having won, Schuldig's whole posture loosened. "You still have a few fries left. Do you want some?"

"Nice of you to offer me the remnants of my own fries. You might not survive to reach my parents' home."

"Other people's fries are always tastier. It's scientific fact. I ate my fries, then yours, so I can back that up. My chicken sandwich gets eaten next."

"I trust that you haven't inhaled my Big Mac."

"Hell, no. I don't trust the secret contents of the special sauce. You can poison yourself alone. I always eat everybody's fries first. They suck when they're cold."

******************************************************

In his lifetime Nagi had been in a number of surreal situations. Still, cooking with Aya while Farfarello offered suggestions ranked high on the list.

"The mashed potatoes need more salt," Farfarello said from his seat at the kitchen table. Watching him balance his cup of tea with his few uninjured fingers as he sipped from it provided some suspense, although he hadn't spilled any yet.

"How could you know? You haven't tasted them!" Nagi protested.

"I know."

Nagi waved a spatula at him. "When you can offer more than complaints, then you can have a say in our cooking. Until that time, shut up and enjoy."

Aya smiled. It was good to see. "You can season them to your taste while you eat."

"But they're _my_ potatoes."

"I'm having some too."

Farfarello beamed. "Good. You need more meat on your bones."

Nagi shuddered at the sudden mental images. "I'm never going to get rid of the thoughts I just had. They're burned into my brain for life."

"I bite my kitten sometimes but never gnaw."

"Thankfully," Aya murmured.

Their dinner would be a mishmash of tastes. Aya had found soba noodles and a dipping sauce that passed his approval, but no mochi rice cakes. Nagi wondered if Aya brooded over the thought that everything he wanted for this dinner would be easy to find in the area of New York City they'd lived in but didn't pry. From what Nagi could tell, Aya had developed a love/hate relationship with that city. The rest of the meal would be a roast, the mashed potatoes and gravy, mixed vegetables, and bread, with chocolate cake for dessert.

Cooking kept Aya busy and thus happier. Nagi smirked at the thought that Aya just needed someone to keep him in the kitchen, then felt thankful that Schuldig wasn't here to catch that, Aya couldn't read minds, and Farfarello had to make an effort to get through Nagi's shields.

"What do you think they're doing right now?" Nagi had to ask.

"Crawford's working, and Schuldig is behaving like a lunatic," Farfarello answered.

"And you have personal experience with lunacy."

"It's like an old friend of mine." Sometimes it could be difficult to offend Farfarello, usually at the times when you _wanted_ to offend him.

"Schuldig's better off out of New York during the ball drop," Aya said softly.

"All those tourists in Times Square," Farfarello sneered.

It amused the hell out of Nagi. "As if you two are native New Yorkers."


	134. "If you become a vegetable in my living room, you don't want to know what I'll do to your body."

Crawford pressed the buzzer. "Yes?" his mother asked over the box.

"Mom, I'm here." How odd to say that.

"Come up, Brad." The door buzzed as it unlocked.

"I know exactly where their apartment is," Schuldig said, smiling, gleeful. "You can follow me."

"You're looking forward to my suffering."

"Hell, yeah. But I think this will be good for you too."

"Yes, it'll remind me why I didn't contact my family on my own." He wasn't nervous about this at all. He'd faced far worse.

"Show a little positive thinking."

"I'm positive I'll hate this."

"Aren't you curious about your brother and sister?"

"They're my brother and sister, so they'll resent me. I had a vision on the drive over that confirms that thought."

"This _will_ be a fun dinner." He wasn't being sarcastic.

"Sadist."

"That's why you pay me the big bucks."

Crawford knocked on the door. In moments, it opened to reveal his parents. Of course, they looked smaller and somewhat grayer than he remembered. At some point he'd become as tall as his father. Seeing them reiterated the point the photo had made, that Crawford hadn't remembered their faces correctly.

Smiling, Mom grabbed his arm, yanked him inside, and hugged him, while his father put his hand on his shoulder. Once Mom finished, Dad hugged him too. He really didn't know how he felt at the moment.

Finally they settled down a bit. Dad said, dabbing at his eyes, "We won't always be grabbing you, Son. It's just been 20 years is all."

"I... don't mind it. Just don't make a habit of it." Crawford elbowed Schuldig to get the smirk off his face.

"You look so distinguished," Mom said. "The silver is flattering."

"Schuldig says I'm blond now."

"Hello, Schuldig." She hugged him too.

Did his mother just rest one of her hands on Schuldig's ass?

"Hey, Mom. Hi, Dad. I brought him back, like I told you I would," Schuldig answered, snuggling her a bit. "Where are Ken and May anyway?" Bastard. Collaborator.

Mom really could let go of Schuldig now.

"They're in the kitchen," Dad said. "We didn't want to overwhelm Brad with family at the door."

"He might flee," Mom answered. "Kenneth! May! Come here and meet your brother." _Then_ she let go.

Judging on looks and the expressions on their faces, they certainly were his siblings. May looked annoyed and resigned. Well, she had met Schuldig already. Kenneth looked annoyed.

"The looks on your faces," Mom said. "How will you get anywhere in the business world if your feelings are out there for everyone to see?"

That made them look more pleasant. At least his mother didn't have any delusions of instant family bonding.

"It's good to meet you too," Crawford said dryly.

"They've heard a lot about you," Mom said.

"Likewise," Crawford answered, which surprised Kenneth and May. Mom was right. They did have to learn to control their faces better. "Mom told Schuldig a lot about you, and he told me."

Kenneth twitched, then twitched again as Schuldig waved and said, "Hi there. Oh, Mom, thank you so much for the scarf."

"It looks good on you," she answered. "I'll take your coats, and once you both take your shoes off you can come in to dinner."

She didn't say anything about Schuldig being "Brad's partner." From how Kenneth and May looked at Schuldig, they knew. It seemed to amuse May but bother Kenneth. Too bad.

~ May feels superior because she's met me before and is more used to me. ~

Dinner tasted as good as it smelled. Mom had made roasted chicken, three vegetables, and salad. As she and Dad asked Kenneth and May about their coursework, buttering them up before they focused on their returning son, no doubt, Crawford listened with half an ear and took advantage of the time to survey the apartment from his seat. His parents were comfortable, though not prosperous, and they had taste. Hardly an environment to be embarrassed of. The Christmas tree in the corner displayed a mix of ornaments, some of them seemingly handmade by children. Amidst the mostly traditional American trappings Mom had put in some bamboo near the door.

From the conversation, it sounded as if Kenneth and May were smart and worked hard in their studies. Good. He would hate to be related to utterly stupid people. Book smarts might not be everything, but it was something.

~ Here it comes, Brad. ~

It relieved Crawford to hear Schuldig mixing in. His telepath had been quiet over the course of the dinner so far.

"It's a shame you couldn't bring your adopted son," Mom said to Brad. "I get the feeling that he's different in person."

"He's quieter," Crawford answered.

"Yes. Has he ever considered going into photography? His compositions are striking. He has an unusual eye."

You have no idea, Mom. "He hasn't. He probably considers it a frivolous hobby. I hadn't even known that he took pictures until he mentioned it in response to your request for pictures of Tokyo."

"Boys interested in computers and medicine often don't think in that direction, Eve," Dad said.

"They should," Mom answered. "Convention is so limiting."

"Maybe it's better that he didn't come since May thinks he's cute."

"Dad!" she protested, taking years off her age. "That would be so wrong."

"He _is_ an attractive boy," Mom said.

"Mom!"

~ Kenneth's wondering if we're making Nagi gay the way we are. ~

Crawford almost coughed.

"Aya's the prettiest one of us," Schuldig said. "Maybe you'll see him someday. And, Ken, Brad and I are bisexual, not gay. We don't believe in limiting ourselves."

"Why are you singling me out?" Kenneth asked.

"Because I can read your mind."

Kenneth scoffed, then didn't and started to look horrified. The son of a seer couldn't afford to dismiss telepathy as make-believe. May didn't look like she felt well herself. Mom looked... darkly entertained. Dad sat back and waited to see how things would come out.

"Brad and I were taken from our families for a reason. So try to keep a clean mind, for your own sake." Although Schuldig's voice stayed light and pleasant, he looked hard and sharp. "Don't worry about Brad taking over either. Our business is based in Asia and Europe for the foreseeable future. We won't be around here much. Tonight we'll have a nice dinner, then your family obligation will be over and your mother will let you go to your parties and friends. You can be good to Brad for the space of one dinner at least, because you had a family and a normal life while he was being whipped into shape by a bunch of sadists who wanted to use him."

"These people didn't do the same to you?" May asked.

"Not until my early teens. I had a regular life a few years longer than he did."

"Do you have brothers and sisters, Schuldig?" Mom asked.

"Yeah. Not sure how many, but yeah."

Kenneth's mouth twitched at that, but May didn't look all that surprised. She seemed to be taking all of this well.

"I love your cooking, Mom," Schuldig said with a smile, making Kenneth twitch more, as he'd no doubt intended.

Once they finished dinner, Mom stood and said, "I'll take care of the plates. The rest of you should get to know each other. There will be cake later."

It _could_ get worse.

Schuldig bounced up. "I'll help!"

Much worse. Crawford said, ~ I'll get you for this later. ~

As Schuldig took his plate and utensils, he answered, ~ It's not like you'll be suffering alone. Your dad'll be with you. Besides, I wanna dish with your mom. ~

~ Girl talk. ~

~ Said by somebody who has no idea how dirty girl talk can get. I'll leave you to Kenny's rampant jealousy and homophobia. ~

~ Jealousy? He's more of an idiot than I thought. ~

~ He's envious that you share a gift with your dad. ~

~ Like I said: He's an idiot. ~

~ I'm not saying he's not. Play nice with your sibs. ~

Crawford could swear that Schuldig was putting extra sway into his walk. If so, it had to be an effort to make Kenneth's blood pressure rise. It seemed to be working.

Once Mom and Schuldig left for the kitchen, Crawford, Dad, May, and Kenneth sat at the table staring uncomfortably at each other in some annoyance. Just as Dad started to say something, Kenneth said, "Your girlfriend's very loyal, Brad."

Irony.

"I don't know you," Dad said, sounding disgusted. "I certainly didn't raise you."

"Kenneth, my 'girlfriend' could break your neck in a minute," Crawford answered placidly. "I'm not joking. We often work as security." How weird to see this face that resembled his facing him. But Kenneth was soft where it mattered. "Didn't you see that it would work out this way, Dad? I did."

Kenneth twitched and something sparked in his gaze. Well. Schuldig had been right. He often was. It could be very annoying.

"Does that have anything to do with you going silver?" May asked.

"May!" Dad protested.

But it provided such a neat opening. ~ Schuldig, did you goose my sister? ~

~ Such lovely imagery.... On her own, she was thinking of asking. ~

~ Don't do it again. ~

~ Sure, sure. Meanwhile, take advantage of my beneficence. ~

"Yes. My talent is somewhat stronger than Dad's. Sometimes I have to pay for it. I'm better now."

"Of course, you're fully silver now, so how much worse could it get?" Her smile wasn't completely malicious.

He might like May. "Burst blood vessels and headaches can be a result of really strong visions." The occasional resulting sexual dysfunction was none of their business.

Dad looked worried. "Does that happen often?"

"Fortunately, no. Still, there are psychological side effects. Have you ever interacted with someone you know will be dead soon?" He'd become accustomed to dealing with dead men walking over the years.

Yes, Kenneth looked less jealous now. Dad shook his head.

******************************************************

"Do I need to rinse these first?" Schuldig asked as he scraped leftover food off the plates into the trash. Damn, but he felt so domestic.

Dinner with the in-laws! Uncomfortable family silences! Who knew this could be _his_ life? It was all so exotic to experience it personally.

"Do I seem like the kind of woman who'd be stupid enough to buy a dishwasher that's so weak I'd need to wash my dishes before putting them in?" Mom asked.

"From your wording and tone, I would guess 'no.' Cool."

"Have they killed each other in there yet? I know you're listening."

"How would you know that?"

"You can't help yourself." She was focused, clear-headed, strong, and manipulative.

He liked her a lot, even though he had times when he wanted to roll over on his back and bare his belly in front of her mastery. Metaphorically. Or maybe not so metaphorically.

Yeah, Kenny was being an asshole who needed to be taught some things. Poking May to provide a conversational opening would help Brad do it.

~ Schuldig, did you goose my sister? ~

~ Such lovely imagery.... ~ That would be such fun. ~ On her own, she was thinking of asking. ~

~ Don't do it again. ~ Of course.

~ Sure, sure. Meanwhile, take advantage of my beneficence. ~ To Mom, Schuldig said, "So far it's Brad 3, Kenny -1."

Her mouth twisted a little. "Kenneth wasn't always like this. College hasn't done him any favors so far. He's become arrogant. His girlfriend is a doormat, no challenge, and I suspect that's just the way he likes her."

With the dishwasher loaded and running, Schuldig sat up on the kitchen counter. Mmm, vibration. "He needs a spanking."

"Are you volunteering?"

"Mom! Please. Brad wouldn't forgive me if I broke his brother, even if he doesn't like him."

"I suppose that should comfort me."

Schuldig swung his feet. "You think he should pair up with someone who's a challenge?"

"One's partner should really be a partner. Someone who challenges you and helps you grow. If everything is too easy, it's possible to stagnate." She smiled a little. "That's why I don't mind Brad taking up with you. You must drive each other crazy."

"All the time. Sometimes it's fun."

"We have a convertible couch for you and Brad to sleep in tonight, but there will not be any sex in my living room."

"Not even if I invite you and Tom to participate?"

She blushed a little! Ha! But she didn't mind the thought of messing around with Schuldig. Only the incest set her aback.

"You're a filthy-minded slut toying with an old woman."

"I'll agree with half of that. You're not old."

"Is Brad-- I don't even want to ask."

Schuldig knew what she wanted to ask. "It's an open relationship. We like to play. Me more than him, really, but he enjoys my stories. He knows... that I always come back." To get out from under the weight of the statement, Schuldig continued, "But he's not kinky enough to get it on with his parents. What else do you want to know about your prodigal son? I'm game to dish. Especially about the embarrassing stuff."

"It's not like I want to know what side he dresses on."

Schuldig laughed. "It's a shame he doesn't like his suits tailored close enough to let you just see."

"I like the tailored suit very much."

"He has taste. He's with me, after all." Schuldig stretched a bit to better show off his actually very mundane blue jeans and simple long-sleeved shirt. If he'd known when he dressed that he'd be coming here, he would have worn tighter, flashier clothes.

"I worry that he went silver. He looks good with it and seems healthy, but I worry."

"It's nothing."

She shot him an offended look. Very "I'm not an idiot."

"I worried too," Schuldig admitted. "But he hasn't shown any signs of burnout. He was pushing himself very hard leading up to that, but now he's taking the visions as they come instead of trying to yank them out of wherever they come from."

"What does Nagi do? Oh, don't look at me like that. He has to do something if those people took him too."

Nobody expects the inquisition. "You're a dangerous woman."

"Thank you."

"Telekinetic."

She nodded. "That must be frightening and exhilarating."

"You know what it is?"

"I read popular fiction. I'm not a stuck-up academic. Besides, I saw _X-Men_. I thought it was crap, but it had some interesting ideas. I also know enough about popular ideas of telepathy to figure out why Brad was worried about bringing you here tonight. Were you that desperate to get him here?"

"He decided to come here on his own and everything."

"You make a mother very happy."

"That may be the first time anyone's said that to me."

"But I also worry about you."

He refused to get all mushy about that. "I'll be fine. What's the danger in a few billion people nearby counting backward in sync in my head?" Differing time zones made it a little easier at least. "You guys do have a good liquor cabinet, right?"

Mom raised an eyebrow. "If you become a vegetable in my living room, you don't want to know what I'll do to your body."

"You're just making the thought more attractive. I'll be fine. Everybody worries so much." Schuldig refused to worry. He'd committed. What good would worrying do?

"What does Aya do?"

"Looks pretty and suffers, mostly. He's a charity case we took in after we broke away from Eszett."

"Charity? The fact that you mentioned his prettiness suggests that charity had little to do with it."

"You do know me. He helped us destroy Eszett too."

"Is there anyone else in the family?"

"Such nosiness."

"I want to know about Brad's life. I'm his mother."

"There's Farfarello. I'm not sure how to describe what he does. He dabbles in a lot of things. He's kind of frightening looking, but we hold his leash and Aya helps keep him in line."

"So they're seeing each other?"

"They see a lot of each other. Every bit, actually."

Mom looked amused. "Do you all prefer men?"

"We travel a lot, so it's easier to keep it in the family. Nagi's seeing a boy right now, but his last love was a girl. A totally unsuitable girl, but definitely female. Brad had a fit about the magnitude of her unsuitability."

"Which just made Nagi cling to her even more."

Schuldig remembered Brad socking Nagi in the face over his disobedience. "He doesn't have your parenting experience."

"Who's Nagi seeing now?"

"You'll love it. He's involved with the head of a multinational business."

"An older man?" Some disapproval vibrated in her tone and mental aura.

"Not by much. Omi inherited it young, but he's smart and works hard." Nagi better appreciate him buttering up his grandparents.

"Good."

"You know that Brad's going to kill us over those baby pictures."

"It's a parent's prerogative to take embarrassing photos of their children when they're too young to know better and use them to shame and blackmail them later on. It's too bad Brad won't get to know that joy with Nagi. Speaking of which, how are my children doing?"

Schuldig had been monitoring all along, so he immediately said, "May's asking Brad for stock tips. Kenny's sulking. Brad's wondering why he couldn't remain an only child. Tom's hoping the floor swallows him up."

"I think we've left them to suffer long enough."

"Where other people's suffering is concerned, there's no such thing as 'long enough.' Considering what you just said about taking pictures, I figure you'd understand that."

"Regardless, you wicked creature, let's go in and save them."

"'Wicked creature'? I'll blush."

"Inside."

"Yes, Mom." Schuldig slid off the counter and followed her into the dining room.

"Kenneth," Mom said, "you're lucky you're too old to take over my knee."

Schuldig coughed, then grunted as she elbowed him. Sharp elbows on the little lady.

"I'm not doing anything wrong!" Kenny protested.

"You're being an ass to your brother. You couldn't be civil for the brief time you were here?"

"How would you know? You were in the kitchen." He then cast a look of severe dislike Schuldig's way, which just made Schuldig smirk at him.

"I have a mother's telepathy in addition to his at my service."

"Whatever. I'm going. I have a party to go to. With my friends."

"I don't like them much either."

Sulking, Kenny stood and went for his coat. May said, "More cake for the rest of us." He growled, put his shoes on, and left with a curt "Good night, Mother."

"It's amazing how I become 'Mother' whenever any of you don't like me."

"Will there be cake soon, Mom?" May asked. "Since Brad won't help me conquer the stock market, I need chocolate to console myself."

"Yes, cake please," Schuldig said.

~ Stop looking at my sister like that. ~

~ You're so mean. I'll just keep looking at your mother like that. ~

~ _She_ can defend herself. ~

~ You may be right. ~


	135. "Are you *trying* to kill him or would that just be a pleasant side effect?"

"Mom, even if I didn't have a party to go to, I wouldn't play any games with two seers and a telepath," May said as she finished her piece of cake.

"That's just discrimination," Schuldig replied, then took a sip from his rum. Crawford had never seen him drink rum before. It had to be Dad's influence.

"Like hell."

"May," Mom said.

"I'm in college, Mom."

"That's no excuse for sounding trashy."

Ah, the things Crawford had missed.

"I'll sound trashy somewhere else. Goodbye, everybody. Good night, Brad." She took her coat and shoes and left.

Crawford felt very thankful that his family didn't believe in hugging each other all the time.

They all looked at each other for a moment, then Schuldig asked, "What do you guys do if you don't have anything to talk about?"

"We watch TV," Dad answered.

"We didn't have TV in Rosenkreuz. Brad, they deprived you of your American cultural heritage in ways I hadn't even thought about!"

"We don't watch that much TV in _this_ house," Mom said. "I want to hear about the places you two have been. I've never gone overseas."

"Keep it clean, Schu," Crawford said.

"What? We're all adults here."

"These are my parents."

"You missed my kitchen conversation with your mother."

"I'm sure I have fewer emotional scars that way."

Mom and Dad had this look on their faces as they watched him and Schuldig, as if they thought they made a cute couple. Terrifying.

Fortunately, his cell phone vibrated. "I have to check this. It might be business. Or Nagi."

"Or Nagi with business," Schuldig said.

"If it's Nagi, I'd love to talk to him," Mom said.

Why not? It would be payment for the boy's no doubt gleeful reaction to the baby pictures. "Of course, Mom. And it is." Crawford answered it. "Yes?"

"It would be nice if you'd check in. I wondered what happened to you," Nagi said. He'd worried, although he wouldn't admit it.

"Our plans changed suddenly, so suddenly that I didn't have time to contact you. Not that I have to."

"I keep hearing that we're a team." He sounded very annoyed.

"You don't take that tone with me."

Nagi sighed. "Fine. You're obviously all right. Next time I don't get an update I won't bother."

Crawford supposed that the boy should get something back for the show of loyalty at least, even if he hadn't expressed it judiciously. "We're in New York again."

"'We'? Are you _trying_ to kill him or would that just be a pleasant side effect?"

"He swears he can handle it."

"Let me talk to him," Schuldig said with a gleam in his eyes.

"Why not?" Crawford handed him the phone.

"Hey, baby. You're missing me and concerned? That is so sweet. It must be love. Sure. I do it all the time. Well, I love you too. I want to show it to you." Schuldig grinned. "_I_ didn't teach you that kind of language. I'll have to hand you over to Mom." And Schuldig did.

"Nagi, are you misbehaving?" Mom asked. "I know you worry but you have to show it appropriately. You're almost grown."

"Not that he'll ever be tall," Schuldig said.

"I know. You can call me 'Grandmom.' I want to see you." She listened for a while. "So many excuses. Schuldig has told me a lot about you. I'm sure he doesn't lie _that_ much."

Just the side of the conversation he could hear amused the hell out of Crawford.

"Let me hand you over to your grandfather."

"Eve, I don't know what to say!" Dad protested but took the phone. "Hello, Nagi." He smiled. "Actually this is awkward for me too. We enjoyed your letter and photos. If you ever want to come by, please do. We consider you to be our grandson, our first. We would love you for that even if we didn't appreciate your obvious talents."

Knowing that Nagi wouldn't be able to take much more of that, Crawford said, "I want to ask him about the others, Dad." The boy had probably been rattled enough.

"Sure, Brad." He gave Crawford the phone.

"Don't do that to me again," Nagi said, sounding flustered.

"That will depend on you."

"You're cruel."

"How are they?"

"Brendan's healing very quickly. Being conscious seems to help. He's also been trying some Qi Gong techniques we found on the internet."

Being with his family had given Brad the idea that with his own team he was, by contrast, more in control of his destiny, master of his own domain. He must have been insane.

"That's either useless or really dangerous." Had Aya seen how Farfarello healed and suggested energy work? Crawford admitted to some curiosity as to whether it would affect anything.

"I know. But we had to do something. We're going out of our minds here. Especially Trent."

Aya didn't deal well with having too much time free to think. "I said that you could pick up work."

"We don't know how long we'll be here, so I don't want to make any commitments we can't keep. Besides, someone's sort of watching over the whole city."

"It's Pittsburgh."

"Pittsburgh can't have any native talents? Trent noticed him. Or her."

_Aya_, their token normal, had? There was a conversation they had to have on this, but not on an unprotected line. "All right. Do you think Brendan will be okay to travel soon?"

"I think the stitches can come out tomorrow. Maybe he can get a modified cast for his leg. It would be easier for him and Trent to deal with anyway."

"Keep me updated."

"Yes, sir." Nagi sighed. "Say goodbye to... Grandmom and your father for me."

"I will." Crawford closed up his phone. "Mom, Dad, Nagi wanted me to say goodbye for him."

"He's really very cute," Schuldig said.

"He must be a handful," Mom said.

"They always grow up so fast," Crawford said.

"Now, Schuldig, I want some stories about Tokyo."

"Sure, Mom. There's this bar in Tokyo...."

"Schuldig!" Crawford protested.

"It's a clean story."

"You don't have any clean stories about bars. Or almost anywhere else."

Schuldig stuck his tongue out.

"I'd like to hear this, Brad," Mom said.

Schuldig was going to force him to think about sex and his parents in the same sentence.

"No, you _love_ me, Brad," Schuldig said in answer to his thoughts.

******************************************************

"Feed me cake," Farfarello said.

"You ate dinner fine on your own," Aya answered.

"Yeah. I just want you to feed me cake."

"Not in front of Nagi."

"_Thank you_," Nagi said.

Crawford still hadn't called or e-mailed. It upset Nagi so much that he hadn't enjoyed dinner much. Aya said, "Call them."

"When did you start becoming aware of other people?" Nagi asked.

"When they're being obvious."

"You're being pathetic," Farfarello said.

"Not even. Fine. I'll call."

Crawford answered with a nonchalant "Yes?"

Bastard. "It would be nice if you'd check in. I wondered what happened to you." Leader or not, Crawford had responsibilities to his subordinates.

"Our plans changed suddenly, so suddenly that I didn't have time to contact you. Not that I have to."

Nagi used to just accept that. Not anymore. "I keep hearing that we're a team."

"You don't take that tone with me."

Why had he worried? Teach him to care. Nagi sighed. "Fine. You're obviously all right. Next time I don't get an update I won't bother."

"We're in New York again." Nice of Crawford to throw out a few crumbs.

Wait. "'We'? Are you _trying_ to kill him or would that just be a pleasant side effect?" Not that he cared about the state of Schuldig's already cracked sanity.

"He swears he can handle it." Then there was a murmur and Crawford asking, "Why not?"

"Hey, baby," Schuldig said over the phone. He certainly sounded fine. "You're missing me and concerned? That is so sweet. It must be love."

"Not really. I was just questioning Crawford's sanity."

"Sure. I do it all the time. Well, I love you too. I want to show it to you."

Yeah, he definitely sounded like Schuldig.

"Ew. No, you sick bastard. I don't want to be one of your fucktoys."

"_I_ didn't teach you that kind of language. I'll have to hand you over to Mom."

Mom? He didn't want to know what the hell Schuldig was doing. "No! You don't have to do that."

"Nagi, this is Brad's mother. Are you misbehaving?" a woman's voice asked. "I know you worry but you have to show it appropriately. You're almost grown."

How much deference should he show here? He wasn't a blood relative. He'd never met her. Yet she was Crawford's mother. "I need information to work on. Considering our lives, no word is usually bad news."

Wait, Crawford and Schuldig had gone to the Crawfords' home? What had Schuldig done to Crawford to get that out of him?

Perhaps Crawford worried less about people hunting them now that the team members who'd invited the most attention had left the state. Nagi hoped it was that and not a fit of the maniacal and not always justified confidence Crawford sometimes displayed.

"I know." She sounded so... something. Understanding yet stern. Deep. Solid.

He didn't know. It left Nagi intimidated. "Uh, ma'am, what do I even call you?"

"You can call me 'Grandmom.' I want to see you."

He didn't want to see her and he did. He hated that. "I'm really far away. And we have to stay far away for a while. We don't know how long. It wouldn't be a good idea for us to come to New York City."

"So many excuses. Schuldig has told me a lot about you."

"I bet. You should believe maybe half of it."

"I'm sure he doesn't lie _that_ much. Let me hand you over to your grandfather."

Compounding the awkwardness. "That's okay. You don't have to--"

"Hello, Nagi," Crawford's father said.

"Uh, hi." How could they make him feel eight years old just with their voices?

"Actually this is awkward for me too. We enjoyed your letter and photos. If you ever want to come by, please do. We consider you to be our grandson, our first. We would love you for that even if we didn't appreciate your obvious talents."

Shit. What could he say to that? "Uh."

"Sure, Brad."

Nagi could hear the phone being passed along again. When he heard what sounded to him like Crawford on the other side of the line, he said, "Don't do that to me again," and tried to make it sound like a threat instead of a plea.

"That will depend on you," Crawford answered, almost purring with evil satisfaction.

"You're cruel."

"How are they?"

Shit, what were the cover names again? "Brendan's healing very quickly. Being conscious seems to help. He's also been trying some Qi Gong techniques we found on the internet."

"That's either useless or really dangerous."

The situation did sound worse that way. "I know. But we had to do something. We're going out of our minds here. Especially Trent."

"I said that you could pick up work."

"We don't know how long we'll be here, so I don't want to make any commitments we can't keep. Besides, someone's sort of watching over the whole city." Talking without saying anything incriminating could be challenging.

"It's Pittsburgh."

"Pittsburgh can't have any native talents? Trent noticed him. Or her."

"All right." That "all right" sounded very like "you better tell me later." Nagi didn't blame him. Crawford continued, "Do you think Brendan will be okay to travel soon?"

"I think the stitches can come out tomorrow. Maybe he can get a modified cast for his leg. It would be easier for him and Trent to deal with anyway."

"Keep me updated."

"Yes, sir." Nagi sighed. "Say goodbye to... Grandmom and your father for me."

"I will."

Seeing Aya and Farfarello watching him, Nagi said, "They're fine. In New York."

They looked surprised, then Farfarello said, "I wonder what the mindbreaker did to piss him off that badly."

"He claims that Schuldig will be fine. It's not in our power anyway." Nagi hoped they knew what they were doing. It would be creepy having to deal with a new teammate in Schuldig's body. He'd had to reacquaint himself with a few people like that in Rosenkreuz. "Schuldig bends instead of breaking." To forcefully change the subject, Nagi turned on the TV. "You ever notice how anything called 'rockin' seldom actually rocks?"

******************************************************

Crawford watched Schuldig knock back alcohol for hours during the stories. And watched it fail to get Schuldig past the deeply buzzed level. It wouldn't provide enough insulation. He also watched his parents watch Schuldig with growing concern, especially as it reached 11:57 and Schuldig's discomfort started to show in his face.

That Schuldig had hidden it for so long said a lot about his personal strength.

Crawford vaguely remembered that his dad had enjoyed watching the ball drop on the TV, but they hadn't turned on the TV at all. It was a small act of consideration, but Crawford appreciated it.

At 11:59, Schuldig said, "Be back in a bit," and left at a fast walk for the bathroom.

Crawford couldn't see ahead.

Mom threw him a set of keys. "In case he locked himself in."

His mom wouldn't live in a home where she didn't have the ability to enter every room at any time. Holding them, Crawford walked quickly.

Schuldig hadn't locked the door. Crawford saw him curled in on himself atop the toilet seat, his eyes clenched shut and hands in his hair. Crawford sat on the floor--thankfully his mother had a rug down--and grabbed Schuldig, pulling him down into his lap. Then he kissed him, tasting alcohol and chocolate. Schuldig slowly loosened up, and once he put his hands down Crawford put his hands in Schuldig's hair and pulled at it a little, trying to ground him. He shifted his thoughts into German and tried to block out the roar his telepath bled at him. 10. 9. 8. 7....

Crawford lingered on the most pornographic thoughts he could muster and smiled against Schuldig's lips as Schuldig laughed. They kissed open-mouthed, aggressive.

Schuldig went through some version of this every New Year's Eve, although he usually wasn't this vulnerable. Crawford had let him go out somewhere or hide in his room, seeing it as none of his business.

Crawford knew when midnight came by how Schuldig felt rigid for a while, then went limp against him. Yet they still kissed.

"Thanks for the porn, Brad," Schuldig murmured finally and rested against him.

He sounded like himself.

Someone knocked at the door, then Dad opened it and asked, "Is everyone okay?"

"I think so," Crawford answered.

"Your mother is pulling out the bed. Should I carry him?"

"He doesn't look like much, but he weighs."

"Mean bastard," Schuldig said, then stood. He swayed a little but stayed on his feet. "I can make it on my own."

He did, too. Of course, he made it just to drop down out cold on the bed. Blocking anything that powerful and pervasive always knocked him out.

Mom asked, "Is he all right?"

"I think so. He's strong." He believed it. "I think we'll go to bed now."

Mom kissed his cheek. "You know him best. Good night, Brad."

He hadn't foreseen that at all. In fact, he felt so stunned that he could only watch his mother and father go to bed with his mouth slightly open. Family left him feeling so out of control of his life.

He realized that he had some orange hairs wound around his fingers. Weirdly reassured, he undressed a little, then pulled the covers up over him and Schuldig and went to sleep.


	136. "You're definitely Brad's mother."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Go and vote in [The "Glass Houses" Addicts Anonymous and Compulsive Binge Readers Poll](http://www.livejournal.com/users/viridian5/785036.html) if you haven't already. It's fun and mental.

"Kiss me," Farfarello said.

"You're very demanding tonight," Aya answered. "I'm not going to kiss you just because it's midnight."

"Mean kitten."

"I'll kiss you because I want to."

"I'll leave the room," Nagi said with a sigh.

But Aya snagged his wrist and reeled him in to hug him. Farfarello would get a kiss but Nagi got a hug. Typical. Condescending.

Kind of nice, actually. It was a full hug, body to body, with Aya's hair brushing against the side of his face. It couldn't be considered a sex hug at all, but it said, "I really like you a lot." Coming from Aya, that meant more like "I love you but not in _that_ way." Aya showed emotion in minimalist code.

"What's this for?" Nagi murmured to him.

"It's New Year's Eve, Omi isn't here, and I don't want to leave you completely out."

"I'm _fine_."

"That's my line."

Nagi finally pulled away and noticed Farfarello looking disgruntled and hopeful all at once. "You have a problem?" Nagi asked. Push him at Aya, pull him away from Aya... Farfarello should decide on a strategy.

"Life was simpler before I had a kitten."

"I agree. But a lot of things are better now."

"True."

"Do you need to be carried back to bed or do you want to snog on the couch? I'm being very kind here so you better take advantage while you can."

"Bed," Aya said, which made Farfarello smile for understandable reasons and Nagi sigh.

******************************************************

"Are _you_ sex-starved?" Aya asked once Nagi left the bedroom. "I assumed that your gift of Nagi was meant for me, but perhaps you wanted some vicarious--"

"I wouldn't say 'starved.' I just miss some things."

"Keep this in mind the next time you get reckless."

Farfarello wanted to chop off the damned leg, which, in its bulky cast, got in the way of so many things. It forced them to be acrobats when they tried to fuck. Aya had nearly hurt himself a few times and kept careful watch to make sure _he_ didn't injure himself. His puisín could service him by hand or mouth, but the damned leg circumscribed his ability to get his mouth near his kitten's cock, while his sutured and splinted fingers took Aya to that "this is part of my damnation" mindset that made Farfarello smack the back of his kitteny head. Farfarello refused to be the tool Aya used to inflict torment upon himself.

The irony killed Farfarello daily.

They could have used toys but he didn't want a toy. He wanted to feel his own kitten in him or around him.

So regular fucking was out, the only way Farfarello could blow his love was if his love very carefully positioned himself and did a lot of the work, and he couldn't touch his love with his hands. Aya professed himself to be content with this, which Farfarello could feel he was to a certain extent, but Farfarello could almost explode from frustration. He wanted to do things for his puisín.

The lingering pain forced him to dissociate more, which severely cut down on his sensitivity. The drugs screwed up his sex drive. He lusted only because he _should_ lust and _should_ want to do things with his kitten, not because he actually felt it as much.

Thus, he worked faithfully at those exercises. He thought he'd felt warmth and tingling in the leg and his fingers during his meditations.

The part of him that sounded like Aya asked if that really was a good thing.

Aya kissed him, then asked, "Do you want anything now?"

"I want my leg back."

"Aside from that."

"Hmph."

"I could read while you sulk."

"Show some appreciation. I'm sulking over your suffering."

"If you say so."

"Don't believe me?"

"That all of that sulking is for me and not at all for yourself? I find that a little hard to believe. Are you sure there's nothing I can do for you instead?"

His puisín offered himself so sweetly, yet Farfarello knew that he would be thinking all the while of the things they _couldn't_ do. Thinking too much at times was a disease he shared with his kitten. It took so much joy out of life.

"Sleep with me," Farfarello said. "Just sleep."

"All right." Aya turned off the light and nestled beside him, warm and welcome. Then Aya started to stroke along the main suicide scar that lined Farfarello's wrist, repetitive and comforting.

It made Farfarello feel very loved.

******************************************************

Aya and Farfarello weren't having sex. Somehow it seemed emblematic of something wrong instead of a relief.

Although he'd been spared the expected sex show, Nagi felt almost lonely. A misanthrope feeling lonely was ridiculous. Farfarello would surely see it as one of God's sadistic jokes.

Nagi sat at his computer and wrote an e-mail to Omi. Most people just Instant Messaged each other to see if friends were online, but he and Omi moved invisibly through the world 'net. He didn't like Instant Messaging and chat rooms anyway. They had such an odd rhythm. He sent a message under the subject heading "At the Turn of the New Year."

_*Are you there? Everybody else here is getting a New Year's kiss...._

 

_Love,_

_N*_

Nagi worked but kept the e-mail window open. In five minutes he received a reply.

_*They're neglecting you? That's not right. If it helps...._

_::kiss::_

_I'm on and working. I'm sure you're surprised. And doing the same thing._

_Do you think you'll be home soon?_

 

_Love,_

_O*_

Nagi smiled and started to type.

_*I hope so....*_

******************************************************

Crawford woke to his parents walking into the living room and sunlight beginning to brighten the windows. Of course. Mom always woke to see the sunrise on New Year's Day. When he sat up and pulled the covers away, she smiled. Silent, they all went to the window and watched. Dad had his arms around Mom. At some point Crawford felt a warm presence at his right side that turned out to be Schuldig, who leaned heavily and sleepily on him.

"Welcome to another new year," Mom finally said. "A new start."

Schuldig murmured something about wanting a pony, which was probably more about him still being mostly asleep than being damaged. If the countdown had broken him, he wouldn't manifest it with thoughts about ponies. Crawford hoped. He didn't need a telepath who thought he was an eight-year-old girl.

"Done?" Schuldig asked softly.

"Yes," Crawford answered.

Schuldig lumbered back to the pullout bed and emphatically pulled the covers up over his head. This was far from his preferred time to wake up, so it warmed Crawford that he'd made the effort. Then again, the family being awake might have pulled him up.

"Brad, do you want to go out for a bagel and coffee?" Dad asked. "We used to do it all the time."

"You _did not_ give him coffee," Mom said.

"Not then, Eve. Please."

"All right, Dad," Crawford answered. "Let me just take a shower."

Judging from his damp hair, Dad had already had his. Dad nodded.

20 minutes later, Crawford walked out with his father, something he hadn't done outside of a rare dream in two decades. Dad walked a little slower than he did but with similar long strides. So early on the frigid morning of New Year's Day, the streets and sidewalks were nearly empty. The sun struck so brightly that he switched to sunglasses.

"This seems familiar," Crawford said.

"We didn't move far from your childhood home. I've been going to this deli for coffee and a bagel or roll for longer than you've been alive. Like I said, you used to go with me."

"I remember that. But we're going to exactly the same place?"

"Exactly the same place. Brad, don't worry that you'll run into someone who knew you. No one's still working there from then."

"I didn't worry. It's just annoying and time-consuming to explain things to people who don't have to know anyway."

The deli had good bagels and excellent coffee. Well, there had to be reasons why his father had come here for about 30 years. Dad looked far more alert and alive after a few more sips.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a problem?" Crawford asked dryly as they walked outside.

"Coffee? I'm just like every other native New Yorker. Your mother complains sometimes, but she doesn't want to give up her teas."

As they finished their bagels, Crawford saw a flash of the future. "Dad, let's go back this way instead." He remembered this area well enough to do that at least.

"Brad, what's going on?" Then Dad blinked in a way Crawford knew from the inside. "If you just foresaw Robert talking to us too, we are not going to take another way home. We're going to talk to him."

"I've mentioned how it's annoying and time-consuming to talk to people who used to know me." Crawford knew from his memories that Mr. Ryan was the type of older man who liked to slap backs as well as ramble on, and his vision showed that the man hadn't changed.

"He was very supportive of us after you were taken. I can't count all the dinners Barbara made for us. You're free now, and he should be told. Then he'll tell her, which will save us time. If you think he can talk, you don't remember her."

"That explanation almost makes sense."

"It's the least we can do."

"He did nothing for me, Dad."

Dad took Crawford's wrist. "Here's Mr. Ryan now. Robert, how are you doing?"

Crawford could have gotten loose easily if he hadn't minded making a scene and possibly hurting his father. He sighed.

"I knew you'd be out here," Mr. Ryan said. "A day off from work and you're still getting up at the same time."

"It's habit. Robert, this is Brad. He's back. He got away from those people."

"Brad? Oh my God, Brad! You're as tall as your father now! You're lucky you didn't take after your mother that way."

There would be no profit in killing this man for being too loud and friendly. "Good morning, Mr. Ryan."

"You, ah--"

"I grayed early."

"Ah, yeah. Tom, you must be so happy to have him back."

"Brad's not here to stay. He works overseas, so he's just visiting," Dad said. "But it's good to know that he's alive, well, and very successful."

"Successful! Good boy!" He slapped both their backs. "What do you do?"

Crawford found himself missing Schuldig very much. The telepath had a gift for shooing away people who'd outstayed their welcome. "I plan security for multinational companies. I head a team that protects data, goods, and personnel."

"You sound so professional."

He should. He was nearly 30 now. "Yes, sir."

"We have to have you over for dinner."

Hell no.

"Brad's not staying long," Dad said, "so we're being selfish and keeping him to ourselves. Sorry. In fact, Evelyn is probably getting impatient right now."

Disturbingly, Mr. Ryan winked. "I hear you. That is one woman you don't want to disappoint. I'm glad you're all right, Brad. Your father and mother went insane worrying about you."

"I know, and I wish I could have escaped sooner. Have a good day, Mr. Ryan."

"See you around, Robert." Dad actually kept his grip on Crawford's wrist to help direct him away. Once they turned the corner, he let go and said, "You should trust your father."

Amused, Crawford answered, "I don't trust anyone."

Dad didn't look amused at all. "Something else I owe those bastards for."

******************************************************

Nagi opened bleary eyes and yawned. Falling asleep sitting at his computer always killed him the next day. His back hurt like hell, so he stretched and winced. What time was it? 7:45 a.m. Nagi reached out a bit telepathically and found Aya awake and Farfarello asleep but both in bed. Maybe Aya might want some conscious company.

When Nagi toddled into their room, Aya looked up at him. The dark blue of Aya's T-shirt and sweatpants looked good with his coloring. Speaking of coloring, Nagi couldn't wait until Aya's hair grew out. The auburn-dyed strands had faded and... blonded to what looked like a coppery honey color in the morning sunlight. It didn't look right for his personality. Nagi smirked as he wondered what Farfarello's darkly poetic mind made of that shade, which didn't look shadowy or like blood at all, but maybe he could do something with the darker red roots showing. Maybe as "a rising tide of blood" or something.

Their talents were wasted as assassins when they could both write goth song lyrics.

"I watched the sun rise," Aya said softly. "It's a new year."

A new year. Aya was with Schwarz now. A new life. It cheered Nagi a great deal.

With the casts, splints, and sutures, Farfarello still looked injured, but he'd healed so much in such a short time that the people at the hospital a few days ago would be amazed if they saw him now. His face only had its original scars marking it now, no swelling remained, and the older knife wound on his arm had healed completely. As Nagi approached, Farfarello opened his eye and asked, "Time for the checkup?"

"Sure." Using telekinetic senses, Nagi saw that all of the sutures could be removed and two of the fractured fingers had healed completely. The ribs were good. At this rate, Farfarello might be out of the leg cast in a few days. "Some of this can go." Nagi kept his medical tools in this room, so in moments he snipped the stitches and took them out. Looking pleased, Farfarello remained very still as he did it. "Your ring finger and pinky don't need to be splinted anymore. We don't have to wrap your ribs again either."

Farfarello sucked blood off the fingers Nagi had just pulled the stitches out of. Wincing, Nagi said, "That doesn't help you."

"I'm too happy. I can touch my puisín again."

Nagi felt his mouth twitch upwards at Farfarello's obvious joy and Aya's relief. Damn it. He refused to get mushy in his old age.

Especially when he was getting mushy over something that meant that Farfarello would be molesting Aya more often again.

******************************************************

Schuldig hadn't slept that much longer after Brad left, but it was the principle that counted. He felt good, a little buzzed, as if from last night's drinking.

Last night had stressed him but not broken him. He'd even gotten his first New Year's Eve kiss from Brad ever. Content, happily lazy, he stretched in the bed, putting his arms all the way over his head and even feeling it in his toes.

"You have a navel ring," Mom said, sounding somewhat disapproving but also intrigued.

His shirt had pulled up from his blue jeans, exposing his stomach. Huh. He really was lying on his back, wiggling, showing her his bared belly. "You can touch it if you'd like."

She raised an eyebrow but sat down on the mattress near him and put her hand on his stomach. It felt good, especially since her fingers were warm from gripping her morning mug of tea. She--

Shit. Oh, shit. He really had gotten too soft staying at The Maple Leaf.

She must have felt him tense, because she asked, "You see it now, don't you?" But she didn't remove her hand.

He'd thought she was being remarkably friendly and flirtatious last night but wrote it off to her trying to relax everyone more and make sure the evening worked out for the awkward reuniting family. It had been nice that Brad's mom liked him and playfully flirted back.

Last night she'd used pieces of herself and of the truth to create a mask he wouldn't see through. In her way, she'd mirrored him, showing him what he wanted to see. She'd been testing him and watching him.

She was truly Brad Crawford's mother.

Were his little feelings hurt?

"Brad said that you were injured, so I acted in ways I thought might help keep you stable," she said.

"Thanks." It came out sounding tight and pinched.

"I also wanted you to confide in me about the son I haven't been able to see in two decades. I liked you but didn't trust you. I needed to see how you were together and how much influence you have over my son, as a person and a telepath."

"And now do you see that he's not someone I can steamroll over? Your son is a strong, determined man."

"Good." She lightly stroked his skin, which now made his skin crawl a bit. "I've been doing some reading."

"Books on telepathy by people who have never actually seen it at work?"

"From reading between the lines during my conversation with Brad, it sounds to me like you're more open to influence than usual." Her voice sounded cool, even, and practical, like her mind. Like Brad's mind, most of the time.

It hurt. It shouldn't. "You're going to rewrite Brad's boyfriend for him? Even if I were that malleable--which I'm not--do you think you can be precise enough to get exactly what you want? Do you want to mess with the dynamics of a team Brad spent so much time molding? If you turned me completely submissive Brad would drop me out of boredom. Do you think he wouldn't notice? It's a shame, because I actually believed your talk about partners and them challenging each other." He'd been a fool.

His newly mundane life even had the cliché of the interfering in-law. This was what he'd wanted.

"No, I meant that." She had; he felt that. "You brought my son back to me. For your own reasons, but you did it. As his mother, I needed to see that you love each other, and I have. I think that you love him so much that it makes you go against your own basic nature at times. Out of respect for you and for Brad's feelings for you, I'm letting you know that I tested you, and you passed. I'm being honest."

Finally. But he had to wonder if she'd have said anything if he hadn't read her little trick out of her mind.

"You're definitely Brad's mother."

"Then we understand each other."

"Oh yeah." As he sat up, she took her hand away. "Thanks for your honesty. I'm going out to smoke." He rolled off the other side of the bed.

As he put his coat and shoes on, she said, "I do like you, Schuldig."

Funny how that didn't mean much right now. "Yeah, I get ya. You have to look out for your own. See you later."


	137. "I can smite my enemies!"

Schuldig stood outside the building, smoking in the cold, and something in the set of his face made Crawford's heart clench. As if he had a heart.

"Did Mom kick you out?" he asked lightly.

"Nah. Frau Crawford had some tests for me. She's definitely your mother." Schuldig sounded brittle. "After that I needed some air."

They'd been getting along so well, almost _too_ well. What could have happened?

"I'll talk to her."

"Do what you like. Make sure she knows that I let you."

Testing _and_ accusations that Schuldig was influencing him? Explained that crack about her definitely being Crawford's mother. "I'll talk to her. Let me in, Dad?"

"Sure, Brad." Dad handed him the keys. "I'll stay outside with Schuldig."

Crawford hadn't expected his first talk alone with his mother to include something like this, but that was life. He really wondered why Schuldig seemed hurt as well as angry. The telepath usually sneered over such things. Then again, he had seemed to be getting along _very_ well with Mom. Maybe he'd put his guard down.

Maybe he still wasn't quite himself yet.

Crawford hated this. Schuldig's instability made everything more difficult to pin down.

~ She hoped she could rewrite me a bit. ~

Crawford felt a flash of annoyance at Schuldig intruding on him like this, unannounced, then really thought about what Schuldig had just said. ~ What made her think she could? ~

~ She said that she figured out that you were bringing me over due to some telepathic injury and that I'd be more malleable with the right influence. ~

~ Now _I'm_ pissed. ~ The only person allowed to rewrite his telepath was _him_.

Schuldig _should_ be angry, and if Mom hadn't been Crawford's mother Schuldig might have lobotomized her for her effrontery. He'd done things like that in the past.

Crawford's telepath was vulnerable and a little more trusting lately, and his mother had led him on, then stomped on him. Part of Schuldig's anger was probably directed at himself for falling for it and then feeling hurt. Players hated to be played.

Mom must be very good to fool Schuldig last night, an intimidating thought. Then again, Schuldig wasn't at 100% and recent events had left him softer than usual. For whatever reason, he seemed to want family very badly lately.

Schuldig was insane.

When Brad walked in, Mom said, "Your father isn't with you." Obviously, but she used the statement as a conversation opener.

"He's staying outside with Schuldig. He could tell that I wanted to talk to you alone. Mother, I won't let you interfere with my lover or team again."

She looked serene. "What did he tell you?"

"That you accused him of influencing me, that you tested him, and that you told him that you wanted to rewrite him more to your liking. Did he misinterpret anything? Considering that he reads minds, I don't think so."

"No, he didn't. Brad, he can make you think and believe things. How can you know what's really yours?"

His mother threw his own doubts right in his face. "How can you know what you would or would not have done if you hadn't married Dad?" Was he really taking the other side of yesterday's argument?

"Good reply, but it's not the same thing."

"Dad tries to convince you of things."

"At least I'm aware of it as it happens."

"We influence each other. It goes both ways." Crawford smiled darkly. "You have no idea how much I've tamed him over the years. It works."

"I shudder to think of what he used to be like," she said dryly.

"You may truly be concerned for me, but interfering here is not the right way to show it."

"I'm your mother. It's natural for me to want to intervene."

"I won't tolerate it. In the end, we'll return to Japan. Whether we ever contact you again will be determined by your actions now."

She nodded. "You _have_ grown into a strong man. I'm proud of you."

Crawford had a flash of a minute ahead that told him "You were _testing_ me?"

"Of course. I barely know the man you've become."

It burned. Testing. Schuldig was right. She _was_ his mother, and _he_ was a pain in the ass. Not that he would admit that last one to Schuldig.

"I'm glad I could satisfy you. We'll be leaving now, Mother."

"Brad, take it gracefully. You and your young man have met my exacting standards. I'm satisfied. No more tests." She looked like a petite, gently aging woman. Yet her stance and the look in her eyes showed the steel in her.

"So you say."

"And I mean it."

"Eszett, the organization which kidnapped and abused us, used to test us all the time too."

_That_ made her flinch a tiny bit. Good. "I meant the best for you."

"I think Schuldig had started to trust you." That inn had definitely softened him up too much. Crawford hadn't trusted his own mother even before this incident. "I don't think he'll do that again." To Crawford's relief.

"I'm sorry about that, but it couldn't be helped. Have some tea with your mother."

He nodded stiffly, sat at the kitchen table, and accepted the tea, knowing it to be a sign that he'd accepted a truce. She sat across from him, and they remained in meditative silence, considering their next moves. At least Crawford did, and it wouldn't surprise him at all if his mother did the same.

He hated it that she'd made him see Schuldig's side of yesterday's quarrel so clearly and distrust his own arguments. Seen with today's insight, it looked like he'd wronged his lover yesterday. He hated to be wrong.

******************************************************

"She's very protective," Tom said, almost in apology.

"Yeah, yeah." Schuldig threw his cigarette down to the sidewalk and crushed it under his shoe. "Vacation's over."

Tom resembled Brad so much usually, but his current look of confusion decreased the effect. "You're being very obscure."

"It makes sense to me. That's the important thing."

Schuldig leaned back against the wall, closed his eyes, and sank into himself a bit until he could discern the clamps he'd put on his mind links, then removed the clamps one by one: Brad, Yoji, Nagi, Farfarello, Aya. Immediately he felt bigger, realer, deeper. The world shifted from two dimensions to three. In Brad's case, he almost grasped four dimensions. Schuldig was home.

Schuldig opened his eyes and smiled. "Time to go back inside."

******************************************************

Feeling something shift suddenly, Crawford sat straighter, prepared for an attack. But it didn't feel like an attack. It felt like someone had his back now.

It felt like Schuldig rallying. Crawford smiled.

"What happened, Brad?" Mom asked.

"Something good," he answered, then took another serene sip of tea and said nothing more. That would bother her.

******************************************************

Yoji felt a sudden rush of warmth that left him feeling strangely... full. But good.

~ Balinese, eyes on the prize. You can deal with the returning mind link later, ~ Draco said.

Returning? Shit. He hated it when she not only knew things he didn't know, but casually let them slip as if he should have known. When had the mind link left? Then again, he had been feeling a bit moody the past few days. It might have been a reaction.

Schuldig _would_ turn it back on while Yoji was in the middle of a mission. Still, it could have been worse. Yoji could have been in the middle of strangling someone or running from a bunch of guards instead of waiting for a signal.

******************************************************

Aya felt an itch at the back of his head. From the looks Farfarello and Nagi had, they felt similar. Farfarello said, "The mindbreaker is back."

"As if we missed him," Nagi said, but he seemed relieved. The doorbell rang. "Who the hell would be ringing our doorbell?"

"I don't feel anyone there," Farfarello said.

"I don't either," Nagi answered as he started to look annoyed.

Aya grabbed his guns in their shoulder holster and didn't need to be a telepath to feel Farfarello's frustration.

Nagi had his eyes closed and a look of concentration on his face. Aya asked, "What's going on out there?"

"A mental presence just popped up at the door," Nagi said. "It sounds normal and neighborly, but it wasn't _there_ a minute ago, so that's a cloak. Somebody's trying to telekinetically undo the lock on the back door. I can feel the talent at work but not the mind behind it."

Aya and Nagi moved backward to stand near the bed, the better to protect Farfarello, who looked pissed off over the necessity. Farfarello had knives ready in his healed hand anyway. They waited.

Nothing happened. They waited in silence, the tension building as nothing continued to happen. Aya moved forward as he felt something move behind him and heard someone curse. Then he heard someone _scream_ and turned to see Farfarello's hand shoot electricity into the man who'd tried to grab Aya from behind. The lights in the room dimmed a little, then resurged.

Farfarello looked delighted. "I can do a ki-blast after all. I can smite my enemies! I think I can heal myself better this way too." The lights dimmed again while Farfarello's smile brightened. "Oh yeah."

"Just don't hurt yourself," Aya said. He'd given up on being shocked by anything anyone in Schwarz did. Now Aya just worried that electricity coursing through Farfarello's body might be hurting him but he wasn't aware of it.

"One teleporter down. He went right for you. Dead now."

"The people trying to force the door feel pissed off now," Nagi said.

"You're sensing them better."

"No, they're just getting emotional. I think they know you killed someone and they didn't expect it."

"Can you kill them or knock them out with precision from in here?" Aya asked.

Nagi shot him a withering look. "Of course. I just wanted the right opportunity. You have a preference?"

"Knock them out. We can always decide to kill them later. Besides, maybe we can get some information on what they want from us."

"Good thinking."

~ You didn't have to kill him! ~ an unfamiliar voice protested loudly.

Nagi answered back, ~ You didn't have to invade our home and try to carry off one of our people! You're telepathically cloaked to make sure we don't know your intentions either! ~

~ You use him the way you do, but you claim to care about him? Or is it just that you don't know what the other one is doing to him? ~

"Is this about _me_?" Aya asked.

"Isn't everything?" Nagi answered him, then answered the other side's negotiator with ~ I don't know what you're talking about. Leave us in peace. If you don't, we'll be forced to defend ourselves. ~

"Tell him I have no intention of leaving with them," Aya said.

"Damned right," Farfarello murmured.

~ Maybe you think this is a rescue, ~ Nagi told them, ~ but you're wrong. He wants to stay with us. ~

~ He would, after what's been done to him. ~

~ What the fuck are you talking about? ~

~ What am I supposed to be doing to him? ~ Farfarello demanded.

At times like this Aya really wished he could contribute to conversations instead of hopefully thinking loudly or asking the others to say something for him. He felt like a piece of furniture to be moved around and traded at the will of others.

~ You really don't know? ~ the voice asked, sounding dubious at the prospect.

~ No! ~ Nagi and Farfarello both said.

~ You insinuated yourself all through his mind, pulling on him. ~

It didn't sound good at all, but it wasn't like Aya hadn't known about it.

"He's right," Nagi said.

"No," Farfarello answered. "The mindbreaker said there was one link. One." ~ _One_ link! With a clamp on it! ~

~ No. Several small links. All over him. ~

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Aya said. "These people will never trust that I'm with you of my own free will because they don't think I have free will anymore, so they'll keep trying to 'save' me." It was condescending of them.

"Do-gooders," Farfarello sneered.

"We terminate this conversation and possibly our enemies right now. No, we should just knock them out cold and make sure they stay that way until we're gone."

But Nagi gave him a considering look and said, "We're going to have Schuldig take a look at you."

"I'm fine!"

"You always say that. I'm opening the door for them."

"Why?"

"So we can knock them out inside the house instead of leave them lying outside where people can see them." Nagi closed his eyes and winced.

Aya heard several meaty thuds outside the room. When he looked outside the door he saw a mass of bodies lying sprawled, some at odd angles. As he raised an eyebrow at Nagi, Nagi said, "I couldn't see them from the next room. Give me a break. They're not permanently damaged."

"Hmph. No fun for us," Farfarello said.

Aya had to agree. It had been over too quickly and easily. "We need to get out of here."

Nagi smirked. "That's for sure."

"Take my cast off first. I'm healed," Farfarello said.

"We have to pack."

"Cast first. Then I can help pack."

"All right. But I'm making sure the bone actually healed before I do anything."

While they did that, Aya picked up his cell phone and dialed Lark, who sounded understandably surprised when he said, "Hello. It's Ray."

"Never thought I'd hear from you again. What's up?"

"Does Krit have a chapter in Pittsburgh?" He felt somewhat silly using what sounded like a nickname for the organization, but he could hardly talk openly on a cell phone.

He could almost hear gears turning in her head as she answered, "Yes. Is there a problem?"

"We need a cleaning crew. There's a bit of a mess at the house. The people involved were very talented. In fact, they're still here."

"That'll save time," Nagi murmured.

"I can take care of that for you," Lark replied. She sounded quite happy, which made Aya remember Schwarz saying that Kritiker had an interest in gaining more agents with talents. "Just give me the address so I can relay it to them."

Once Aya finished giving it to her, she said, "It was good to hear from you again."

It surprised him. "We won't be here when they arrive."

"I know. Feel free to keep in touch."

"Aya, Farfarello is actually healed," Nagi said. "I want to get him checked out by an expert, but yeah. He looks fine."

Farfarello grinned. "Told you so."

Nagi had taken the cast off, to Farfarello's delight. The splints had come off as well. Unencumbered, he looked wonderful, lithe, slim and fluid. He took obvious pleasure in putting his boots on for the first time in days and the chance to wear the jacket Aya had given him for X-mas.

They packed in a frenzy and obscured fingerprints where they could to leave less work for Kritiker's cleaners. They hadn't unpacked much to begin with, which saved time. Farfarello's medical equipment took the most time. It felt good to be moving and doing things again.

It _was_ a new day.

As the final touch, Aya left their house keys under the front doormat, which made Nagi's lips twitch into a near smile. Aya went to the van's driver's side door, but Farfarello touched his arm and said, "Let the boy drive. I need you."

"Here we go," Nagi said with a sigh. "You might as well. He'll be impossible over the drive otherwise."

"So I should give myself to him as if I were a pacifier or a lollipop?" Aya asked even as he shivered under the heat and hunger in his lover's gaze.

"Mmm," Farfarello rumbled, sounding very happy thinking of Aya that way.

"Whatever it takes," Nagi answered. "Just don't break each other, okay? Maybe you could put blankets on the floor, because if you try anything on the gurney you'll kill yourselves at some point." He looked directly at Farfarello. "Don't break Aya."

"I have no intentions of breaking Aya."

"That doesn't mean much."

"I swear."

"Fine. We're on our way to New York. Try not to scream too loudly." Nagi took the keys from Aya's hand and climbed into the driver's seat, then slammed the door shut.

Farfarello pulled him into the van through the back doors and slammed them shut, then tore the blankets and sheets from the gurney to scatter across the floor for cushioning. That sense of urgency infected Aya as well, so he stripped off his shoes and clothes and threw them to the floor as well, then knelt down to join them there. Farfarello growled as he removed his own boots and clothing with fingers fumbling from recent disuse or his current lust, then he just about threw himself at Aya.

Aya groaned at the feel of cool, shaking hands and the skim of the edge of Farfarello's teeth along his skin. The shaking especially undid him, since it suggested that his lover was at the edge of his control, desperate with lust and impatience, yet trying so hard not to hurt him. It was frightening and arousing to be so wanted and so cared for. He hadn't felt Farfarello's hands or... momentum on him for too long. Farfarello could _move_ again.

The rub of Farfarello's hard cock against Aya's thigh drove him insane, so he detached himself from Farfarello's grip, turned himself onto his stomach, and spread his legs in invitation. To make sure he was understood, Aya said, "Fuck me. I need you to." Despite the cushioning blankets and clothing, the floor felt hard beneath his elbows, knees, and hips. He could feel the vibration as the van's motor as it drove. "Fuck me hard."

Farfarello let out a loud, shaky breath. "Puisín, you're such an incitement to sin...." Aya heard him scramble through things before he returned as a heavy presence waiting between Aya's legs.

His slick, cool fingers pushing inside should have hurt, but now hurt felt wonderful. Aya pushed back to get more, to get those fingers in deeper. Farfarello knew where to press, and Aya cried out helplessly as the almost-hurt turned into molten pleasure. Normally he might remain quiet and tease, but now he needed to show what he wanted and liked for his own sake as well as his lover's, even knowing that he sounded like a slut and Nagi could hear everything from the front seat. But Nagi had heard them before, and they'd first consummated their bond in the backseat of a car with several witnesses nearby.

"Wanted... wanted...." Farfarello murmured.

He was so hard, so desperate. "Give it to me."

Farfarello's fingers pulled out a little too quickly, but Aya scarcely cared in his anticipation of what would replace them. The first thrust in lifted him off the floor a bit and made him grunt, but it was _right_, perfect. It filled him with sensation and fire. The feel of Farfarello's body, all hard muscle and bone, along his back and rocking into him made him groan. The feel of Farfarello's cock inside....

"Aya...." Farfarello murmured at the back of his neck before biting down and groaned as Aya writhed.

Then Farfarello fucked him hard and fast, just as he'd demanded, the thrusts moving him across the floor a bit. He pushed back to meet each one, to make it go deeper. He knew he would have bruises and abrasions after this but couldn't care. Farfarello had been so frustrated with being nearly immobilized. Now he was a force again, and Aya felt him revel in it.

Lost in the movements and sensations and the overwhelming beat of Farfarello's lust, Aya didn't need much more to come. Farfarello's fingertips along his cock threw him over the edge. After one more hard thrust Farfarello followed him.

Beyond thought, still tangled up with his lover, Aya panted and stared into space. He couldn't move if he'd wanted to, and he didn't want to. It felt too good to stay here like this, and he would wallow as long as he could.

Still buried deeply inside him, Farfarello nibbled on his ear and murmured, "Puisín."

"Yes." Everything felt right now.

******************************************************

Nagi adjusted himself after the moaning and thumping stopped. Aya didn't usually get that loud. Although Nagi could really use some alone time right now, he had driving to do.

~ Can I help? ~ Schuldig asked cheerfully, making Nagi jump in his seat.

~ I almost drove us off the road, asshole! ~ Nagi answered.

~ Your shields are shit right now. Tighten 'em up once I take my little umbrella of protection away, okay? Hey, everything all right aside from you having to listen to the Wonder Twins get it on behind you? I felt something before. ~

~ We took care of the something. Now we're on our way back to New York. Farfarello can heal himself and wield electricity now, by the way. ~

~ No fooling? Eszett would shit itself. If it still existed. Brad'll be pleased. ~

~ I want Farfarello checked out by a doctor. ~

~ Probably a good idea. ~

~ And Aya checked out by a telepath. ~

~ I'm a telepath. ~

~ Like I don't know that? ~

~ What's wrong with Aya now? ~

~ The people who attacked us said that he has several small links insinuated through him. In New York he only had one, and you clamped it. Farfarello honestly didn't seem to know what they were talking about, but still. ~

~ Sure, kid. I'll give Rose-red a look. It's fun. ~

Nagi didn't like the sound of that. ~ You sure we can't find another telepath to do it? ~

~ Funny. He does feel a bit different now.... ~

~ We're on our way to Flushing. Give me directions. ~

~ Sure. But I may redirect you en route. ~

~ Why? ~

~ She really is Brad's mother. ~

That really sounded like a story Nagi wanted to hear. ~ Let me know when you know, okay? ~ He briefly closed his eyes as the address uploaded into his brain. They would need to stop eventually, and he could look at the maps then. Maybe he could get a good wireless connection going somewhere and look online too.

~ Sure thing, baby. I can't wait to see all of you. ~

~ Are you okay now? ~

~ I'm _back_. Ah, here's the second round. It's Farfie's ass on the line this time. ~

More sex? Nagi sighed and strengthened his telepathic shield against Aya and Farfarello as he heard the sounds start up again. He _did not_ glance back in the rearview mirror. ~ I hate you all. ~

~ You're just not getting enough. You'll be better when you return to your mini-mogul. ~

Short jokes. Truly the last refuge of a simple mind.

~ I heard that, shorty, ~ Schuldig answered. ~ See you later. ~

******************************************************

As Aya thrust into Farfarello's body, filling him, Farfarello reflected that it felt good but also important for them to claim each other again. He'd felt his puisín drifting away into darkness these past few days at a time when he couldn't clutch at him. But now he was whole and mobile again and more powerful than he'd started, and Aya was _his_.

No one else could understand their bond, so there was no point in trying to convince them. Anyone who tried to separate them would die, by his blade or lightning. Or both.

Life was good. He had his kitten, they were on the move again, and he could smite people. Sucking the electricity into his body and shooting it out had been... interesting. It had rubbed and sizzled like static. And he'd felt his bones knitting. He would have to play with this more in the future.

Aya's next thrust drove him so hard into the floor that his head rang. "Didn't mean to do that," his dazed kitten gasped, but Farfarello just laughed and said, "Give me more." Aya had been so indifferent about sex lately that he'd started to worry.


	138. "You just suggested that my parents have the kind of sex life that requires lubricant."

When Schuldig walked in with Dad, he had a spring in his step and a twist to his mouth that made Crawford smile a little. Something had cheered his telepath up.

Schuldig crouched next to his chair, kissed his cheek, and said, "The kids got attacked but fended their attackers off. They're on their way here. Should take about six and a half hours."

"They're fine?" Mom asked.

"They're more than fine." To Crawford, Schuldig said, ~ Farfarello has learned how to heal himself and shoot lightning. ~

Their Berserker became more valuable all the time. ~ They're on their way _here_? ~

~ Yes. But I told them that we might change their path. ~

~ We might indeed. ~ Crawford stood. "Mother, as you tested me, in my way I've tested you. We're leaving."

Her eyes narrowed. "You won't stop me from seeing my grandson."

"I can. Watch me. You toyed with me and my lover. Worse, you did it knowing he was injured. I don't want to expose Nagi to you." He barely said the last statement with a straight face.

"Evelyn," Dad said, sounding angry. It almost gave Crawford a warm feeling to have his father helping him like this.

"What do you expect me to do?" she answered, also sounding angry.

"Earn my good will," Crawford said. "I doubt you can earn my trust." He could almost feel the satisfaction radiating from Schuldig. "I'll let them come here, but I'll be watching for any sign of manipulation on your part."

Smiling, oozing vengeful pleasure, Schuldig kissed his cheek again and said, "I really have to shower."

"I'll join you. I feel somewhat dirty now."

From the looks of annoyance on their faces, Mom and Dad knew full well what he intended to do in the shower with his lover in their home and knew that they'd--at least Mom--had already pushed him too hard to say much about it. Not that protests would matter much to Crawford right now. If Schuldig were any happier, he'd be literally glowing with glee and malice.

Schuldig picked up his clothes and products out of his suitcase, then strutted into the bathroom. Crawford followed and shot his parents a brilliant smile before he closed the door.

Laughing, Schuldig started to strip. Full of static electricity, his hair flew about. "Oh, yeah, poor innocent Nagi might not be able to survive your mother, the barracuda. This is the same kid who used to pick up and break rapist/serial killers as a hobby."

Crawford removed his clothing with more care. "She was able to hurt you."

That statement only dimmed Schuldig's mirth a little. "Only because I opened myself up enough to let her. That's not happening again."

"You didn't deserve it."

"Nice of you to say so."

"Nobody hurts what belongs to me, no matter what their intentions are."

"She scored a hit on me, so you threatened to cut her off from her son and grandkid. I feel special." He tilted his head to the side a little. "Your dad's pissed and letting her know it. While you guys were out he said something to you about trusting them?"

"He did."

"Heh. He's letting her have it right now about trust. They're kind of hissing at each other since they don't want to raise their voices. Neither of them is backing down, but she's not as cocky as she was. Tom's so easygoing that you don't think he'd do this, but I guess he'd have to be able to stand up for himself. Otherwise your mom would use him as a doormat."

"She used to talk about enjoying challenges."

Schuldig's mouth twisted. "She still does."

Crawford took a lock of Schuldig's hair and rolled it between his fingers. "The ends are splitting a bit. You should get a trim."

"I'll get to it when I feel like doing it. I swear you get more use out of my hair than I do. So, what sex act should we use to spite your mom?"

"There will be more considerations to it than spiting my mother. I won't let her dictate the kind of sex I have."

"There's a tube of lubricant in the medicine cabinet."

"Don't tell me whose it is or how it's used."

"I won't, but only out of generosity. You're trying to avoid thinking something."

"You just suggested that my parents have the kind of sex life that requires lubricant."

"I said it was in here. The sex stuff came out of your own perverted brain. Besides, when women get older their bodies don't--"

"Don't finish that statement."

"But that's not it. Something that happened when you talked with your mom." Schuldig grinned and leaned in close. "What _are_ you keeping from me, Brad?"

Perhaps sharing a little of the truth might camouflage what he left out. "She told me that she was testing me too."

"Sucks, doesn't it?"

"When unmerited."

Schuldig rolled his eyes. "But now you understand my side a bit better now, I hope. You're a smart man."

Understood better than Schuldig realized, and not inclined to admitting aloud to having been wrong during their argument yesterday morning. "Yes. Now get in the shower."

Nude, Schuldig leaned over to turn the taps on, making sure all the while Crawford had a good view of his ass. "Tell me what you want to do first."

"Nothing that requires my parents' lubricant."

"And you consider yourself a practical man."

"I have some limits."

******************************************************

When they reached a truck stop to refuel and eat, Aya found Nagi and felt compelled to apologize. "I'm sorry. I used to have some sense of shame."

It bothered Aya. What Farfarello saw as freedom, he saw as a lack of control. Aya refused to cede all responsibility for his actions, but sometimes he wondered if it were natural to feel so desperate at times for Farfarello's touch. In the moment, his wanton behavior made perfect sense, but later he thought upon it and regretted how ridiculously needy he'd been.

It was cruel to Nagi as well, who had to listen to it while driving.

"I understand. He's hard enough to resist when he isn't blasting lust at you." Nagi looked concerned for him. That talk with those enemies in Pittsburgh had fed fears that Aya knew Nagi had had for him even before that.

Aya couldn't entirely discount them. Did he deny the possibility of Farfarello being his puppeteer from it being unlikely or because he didn't want to think it true? "Surely it goes both ways."

"I think you're right. He took his recovery much calmer than he would have before."

"That was calm?"

"We knocked him out because we couldn't deal with him. Old-style Farfarello would have screwed up his leg much worse _after_ the break out of impatience with it."

It was a nice thought. "Maybe. It's kind of you to say."

"You can't take a compliment worth shit."

"You're using a map."

Nagi let him change the subject. "Yes, a map on paper tacked to a wall, as if I were a Luddite. There aren't any public connections here to hook up and I'm not getting a decent wireless signal for my laptop, so I'm doing this the old-fashioned way."

"We can stop again somewhere once we're out of the mountains. You might do better."

"Yeah, that would be good. I can't get a good feel for the streets we'll need near the end of the trip off this, and I refuse to buy a map."

Farfarello had a smile on his face and a near strut in his walk as he approached them. He wore blue jeans, black boots, his X-mas present jacket, a black knit hat covering most of his hair, and blue skier's sunglasses. The shades made his facial scars more noticeable. He looked damned sexy. "It's been very interesting."

Aya hoped loudly he hadn't been out there draining truck batteries to practice. He also hoped that Farfarello hadn't dissociated so much that he wouldn't feel it as he did himself damage.

~ No. Just the store lights here and there. I'm getting better at it. Don't need to meditate and focus so hard. But if I don't use the power somehow, it drains out on its own. I'm not dissociated too much either. Not even dissociated as much as I usually do when well. Maybe I'm improving myself. ~ A wave of hope and lust accompanied the thoughts.

Retaining some sense of propriety and caution, Aya resisted the urge to lean toward him. Farfarello grinned harder, while Nagi sighed and said, "I can't wait until you two can get a room."

******************************************************

Satisfied, nearly limp, Schuldig said, "We should have sex in your parents' home every day."

Smug, Brad smiled and nibbled on his ear. Brad could be sweet as sin when he felt like he was getting away with something or taking vengeance. Right now sex in his parents' shower qualified as both.

Brad was hiding something about his tiff with his mother from Schuldig. Schuldig could tell, even though he couldn't see what it was. It itched at him. It was probably something that had struck at Brad's pride. That made him most defensive.

It would come out eventually. For now, Schuldig basked in the afterglow, rocked a little against Brad's body, and enjoyed how the hot water felt against his sensitized skin. "Should I walk a bit funny when we get out?" Schuldig asked.

"Not unless you managed to hurt yourself."

"Hardly." It had just been highly satisfying frottage.

"They can think whatever they like. Their imaginations will probably be worse than most of what we'd actually do." He sounded so gleeful over it, though in a Brad way.

It annoyed Schuldig that he couldn't take much vengeance on her, seeing as how she was Brad's mother, but Brad seemed to be handling the vengeance just fine, which made it less galling than it could have been.

When they returned to the kitchen and Brad's parents, Schuldig had to smirk at the uneasy looks on their faces and how they tried so hard and failed not to imagine what their son and his lover might have done to each other. Unsurprisingly, Mom Crawford had a better idea of what two men could do together than Dad Crawford did.

Smiling an evil smile, Brad said, "I'm taking Schuldig out to breakfast. We'll be back in a bit."

Brad's mom knew full well that they would use that time out to strategize and bitch about her. Schuldig enjoyed taking vengeance on smart people because they allowed you to be subtle yet effective, doing most of the mental work themselves. Tasty.

On their way to the car, Brad said, "You're paying for yourself."

If Brad had offered to pay, an out-of-character move, Schuldig would figure that Brad thought him to be more injured by all this than he actually was, which Schuldig would have found insulting. "When don't I, master of the obvious?"

"I just want to make sure we're clear with each other," Brad said lightly as he buckled himself into the driver's seat.

"Do you know where we're going?"

"Of course. I want to see if a diner I remember is still there."

"Of course. Can't foresee it?"

"Unfortunately no, and I'm hardly going to strain myself for something like this. You know, with Farfarello healed we don't have to stay much longer."

"Looking forward to it." If anyone had told him years ago that he'd miss Japan, he would have laughed. And killed that anyone.

"We need to work again. I know that idleness doesn't agree with you."

In the absence of trouble, Schuldig tended to make some. "Sure. The only thing better than a murder/mayhem combo is getting paid for doing it." Contented, he wanted to purr. He was still ticked off at himself for falling for Mom Crawford's trick and then feeling upset that she wasn't what he'd thought she was, but the present and future looked so much brighter that the anger barely touched him now. Life was good. "Maybe we can get a private jet ride from Persia."

"It's tempting.... No, I don't want to ask for petty favors."

"Petty? Not having to deal with other passengers isn't so petty when you're me." Schuldig hadn't really expected to win on this one, but he had to make an effort.

"We have to maintain our autonomy. I don't want him to start thinking he has us on a leash and owns us."

"It's not as if he can make us feel indebted to him."

"But he might think he could, and I don't want to encourage him to think things that don't serve our interests."

"I hate commercial flying."

"I'll find a way to make it up to you."

Brad _was_ in a good mood. Schuldig would have to milk it for everything he could get.

******************************************************

"No," Aya said. He'd been wanton enough for the day.

Farfarello, crouching behind his seat, stroked his arm and breathed on his neck. "I'm bored, and I want you."

Beating back the temptation, Aya answered, "I've had enough public sex and scarred Nagi enough for one day."

"A back of a van with only the boy listening is hardly public."

"I'm not doing it again."

"Please."

"If you want to make the time pass," Nagi said, "I could always knock you out."

"You're both so mean." Farfarello settled into the back of the van and sulked. Someone with so many scars and an eye patch shouldn't look so... cute while pouting.

"Be strong," Nagi murmured to Aya.

"I am strong."


	139. "I figure that you have far more experience at that than I do."

When they returned to the apartment, Crawford smiled and said, "We'll be flying back to Japan early tomorrow morning. We'll stay at a hotel tonight along with the others."

Dad was _seething_ as he shot looks at Mom, who looked unhappy and uncomfortable. "You don't have to leave so soon," she said.

"We really should get back to business."

Schuldig combed his fingers through his hair and asked, "Do you like my trim, Mom? Brad said I needed one, and his wish is my command." Smirking, he gave Crawford a look of nearly mindless adoration, briefly turned to enjoy Mom's annoyed reaction, then returned all of his attention to Crawford, who had to struggle to keep a straight face. "The boys won't arrive for at least another three hours. What do we do 'til then?"

Time to relent a little on Mom. "I thought that you and Mom could play Chinese Checkers." His and Dad's precognition gave them an unfair advantage, but Mom had some childhood nostalgia about the game.

"We play to amuse you?" Schuldig asked.

"That's an added benefit."

Mom nodded to him, showing him that she understood the offer for what it was. "I accept the challenge," she said.

"Do you?" Schuldig purred. "Why not. You're going down, lady."

"I figure that you have far more experience at that than I do," she answered with a small smirk and no sound of malice.

Crawford's brain bent at the sound of his mother trash-talking, but Schuldig laughed and answered, "Jealous? Bring it on."

Crawford said, "No telepathy."

"Telepathy would take the fun out of it."

******************************************************

"Hey, Elena," Yoji said as she walked into the kitchen. "Good mission."

Elena smiled. "Yeah, it worked well. Thanks. Of course, it was deliberately easier than usual."

"It's never a good idea to throw a new leader into the deep end of the pool on the first try."

"I agree."

"We wait for the second mission to do that."

She sat down across the table and looked at him. Just looked at him.

"What?" he finally asked.

"You're still not happy." She sounded unhappy about it.

Yoji didn't want to have this conversation. "That's not your responsibility. And stop peeking into my mind! Don't tell me I'm assaulting you with it either, because you're better at blocking people out than that."

"I'm watching you now because I'm a friend and your team leader. Weiß seems to have this weird mental disease where they deal with unhappiness by attempting suicide one way or another like Fujimiya-san or getting crazy violent and doing freebie kills."

"The freebies offend you?" It sounded ridiculous.

"It grabs police attention and wastes time and effort. Besides, don't you care about innocents?"

Yoji remembered all the women he nearly strangled. "Yeah. I'm better than I was."

"How do you know? You don't go out anymore."

So she was saying he didn't strangle his dates anymore only because he didn't have the opportunity? "I haven't felt like going out. I'll go out tonight."

"Not because I made a comment!"

"Elena, what do you want from this talk?"

"You're happier now that you've passed on the leadership."

"Yeah."

"But that's not the whole problem you're having."

"Again, yeah. I guess I'll just keep chopping away at crap until I nail the thing bothering me."

"If you need help, please ask for it, Yoji. Fenris is helping Ken through."

"_Ken_ asked for help?"

"No, but Fenris is giving it anyway." She smiled. "Ken's fairly easy. He likes to feel like he's helping people, enjoys spending time with kids, and misses playing his sport. Fenris gives him an opportunity to do all of that, and it lets Fenris be a kid too."

"Do you ever think that we don't like to be manipulated?"

"I think of it strategically. Fenris just likes Ken and wants to help him out. Fenris is a good kid."

"So Fenris is a good kid but you're a puppeteer, and you guys aren't manipulating Ken, just me?" Yoji really wanted a cigarette but lighting up in front of her might lead her to think he was saying something he wasn't or just taunting her with her addiction. Then again, as an intrusive telepath she should know that he just wanted a smoke.

It gave him a headache. He regretted every moment he'd used to wish the others could just know how he was feeling.

"I want to help. I'm told that friends do that. I'm concerned that your mood plunged after we separated from Schwarz."

Remembering Aya's situation, Yoji answered, "It concerns me too." To lighten the moment, he said, "I actually miss them. Isn't that sick?"

"Especially where Guilty is concerned. But that might not be your fault."

"So he shut off the link, then turned it back on recently?" At least it seemed to mean that Schuldig had gotten through whatever he had to do and was okay now. "I don't feel depressed right now, just kind of restless."

"Like there's somewhere else you need to be instead, say, at Guilty's side?"

"You're funny."

"I'm thinking. Look, Yoji, don't go out just because you think it'll make me shut up. That's no good. Do what feels right. Just think about why you're doing things." She stood up. "And I like your hair color," she said from the doorway before she left.

He'd been lectured by a kid. How annoying.

Did he want to go out tonight? Nah. The whole scene just seemed like time-wasting bullshit lately, everything boring and the same.

Maybe he was becoming more mature.

Horrors.

The way he saw it, the only way to figure out what was his own thing was to confront Schuldig when the telepath returned to Japan.

"Hey, Yoji," Ken said as he walked in and sat down at the table, an earnest look on his face.

Oh, no. "The suicide watch can end. I'm not that bad," Yoji answered.

"I guess Elena just came back from talking with you."

"Having a teenager tell you not to be so moody is just wrong."

"I think a lot of it is Schuldig. I've seen the way you look at him."

"I look at him a certain way?" That sucked. Yoji had thought he was smoother than that.

"Lust with an edge of fear."

"Fear? I do not look at him with fear."

"You're not denying the lust? But, yeah, fear. It's spooky, and it's not... you. Before him, the only guy you ever looked at with anything like attraction was Aya."

"He doesn't count?" Yoji asked, amused.

Ken shrugged. "When we first met him...."

"Yeah." Aya's slenderness, hair, prettiness, bulky sweaters, and coats belted in at the waist had made it hard to tell what he was at times. Over the years his shoulders had become broader, but he still had moments of ambiguity.

The first day Aya had shown up at the flowershop--and gotten into a fight with Ken that had left them both knocked out--Yoji had picked him up off the floor and taken him to his bed to recover. No wonder Schuldig had laughed at his avowals of total heterosexuality. Aside from how Schuldig laughed at everybody about everything.

After that night in New York, Yoji had incontrovertible proof that Aya was a guy, but Ken probably wouldn't consider attraction to incontrovertibly-a-guy Aya because Aya was Schwarz and therefore kind of attached to Schuldig. Which, to Ken, might make Aya part of Schwarz's evil plot to turn Yoji gay.

Yoji refused to even mention Farfarello to Ken. No need to go there and drag that in. Besides, that was more Schwarz and thus didn't apply.

"So Aya isn't a good indication that you're still into guys when you don't have Schuldig prodding you," Ken said.

Yoji smirked. "Ken, I'm shocked!"

"What? Hey! You're such a pervert."

"Are you suggesting something?"

"Try it out with someone else."

"Like...?"

"Me."

Yoji gaped at Ken, who was blushing a tiny bit, which made it more likely that Ken had really offered what Yoji thought it sounded like he'd offered. "We are talking sex, right?" Yoji asked, actually _squeaking_. Dammit. "You and me? Together?"

Defensive, Ken shouted, "Yes!" and couldn't quite look Yoji in the eyes.

Did everybody think that if you just gave him sex he quieted down and became content? That was pretty insulting. He had more things that mattered to him than that. He could be thoughtful, dammit.

"So you'd _give_ yourself to me?"

"It's not like it's a big sacrifice and I wouldn't be getting anything out of it," Ken said, looking intently at the wall instead of Yoji.

Oh. Ken actually had a thing for him? A lust thing, probably, but a thing? Yoji had known that Ken wasn't entirely straight, couldn't be from how he talked about Kase and had looked at and mourned Akira, but Yoji hadn't thought Ken's not-entirely-straightness would ever affect him, especially since Ken rarely practiced his not-entirely-straightness.

Now Yoji felt awkward. How could he explain this without offending Ken or convincing him even more that Yoji was only interested in Schuldig? "You're cute, but I love you like a brother."

"Smooth," Ken finally said, looking a bit upset.

"I'm sorry! I don't do well when family members come on to me!"

"Family?"

"Yeah, Ken. Family. You've been family to me for years." Yoji couldn't imagine doing Ken, who was too close to him and wasn't his type. It seemed like the wrong-bad-wrong incest, not the hot kind. Yoji liked him too much to just use him when he didn't really have that kind of interest in him.

Ken looked suspicious and flattered at once. "But Aya isn't?"

"Aya isn't. Never was. You know that."

"He didn't let us be," Ken answered, nodding sadly.

Remembering Asato and the weird insights into Aya that Asato's presence had brought, Yoji said, "I think there were problems on both sides, but yeah."

"So you don't want me."

"You deserve more than whoring yourself out to me to cheer me up and keep me with the team."

"It sounds terrible like that!"

"If you're going to go for guys too, you should take advantage and get one who shares interests with you. Like one who would watch sports with you."

"You've done that."

"And _enjoy it_. Losing a bet doesn't count."

"What kind of guy doesn't like watching sports?"

"My time is too precious to waste it watching men pass balls around. Don't say it, Ken. Perversion doesn't look right on you."

Ken smirked. "Fine."

At least he'd taken the rejection well. It suggested that the offer _had_ been shallow interest and curiosity.

"I'm sure the man or woman of your dreams is out there." Yoji didn't say anything about finding The One. He'd found and lost his One and wouldn't wish it on anybody. "Outside of this kitchen."

"Is that a hint? Okay. But cheer up, Yoji. If you keep looking so down I'll have to offer myself again."

"You offering yourself to me isn't so bad. It does wonders for my ego."

"Your ego doesn't need that much help."

******************************************************

Watching Mom and Schuldig play with such competitive focus provided a lot of entertainment, but when Dad went to the kitchen Crawford followed. As soon as they were alone, Dad said, "Your mother meant well. She doesn't always think about how it comes across to other people."

"I don't appreciate being tested to see whether we're deserving of her love and regard." Rosenkreuz had taught him hypocrisy long ago.

"She knows now. You don't have to stay away tonight and leave tomorrow."

"I know. But I would prefer to look over my team members, and all three of them can't stay here comfortably while we're here as well."

"I understand. Soda?"

"No, thank you."

"She actually likes Schuldig, even if she doesn't trust him." Dad poured some Coke for himself. "She's always been attracted to tall men with a bit of a edge to them, not that she'll make a move on him in this case."

"Mmm." Crawford didn't know what part of that to wish he could unhear first. She _had_ been flirting with Schuldig when she hadn't been trash-talking him? Hell, sometimes she'd been doing both at the same time.

"I wasn't always so mild. We met when I drank her date under the table. She stepped around him as we left together." Dad grinned.

It seemed that Crawford had taken his sadism from both sides of the family.

******************************************************

"I didn't expect you to be so hurt by it," Mom murmured, trying to get back in their good graces. As if they had any.

For Brad's sake, Schuldig decided to play along. "I'm human. I want to be liked and I hate to feel stupid."

"I do like you." Which she did, thinking him fun if a little too wild, but Schuldig also caught a sexual flash involving him that would have made Brad want to put his own eyes out. Heh. Mom and Tom might not be deeply kinky, but they weren't vanilla either, especially now that the children had left the nest.

Not that Mom would ever really try to make him her bitch as she occasionally fantasized about, since she was a married woman and Schuldig belonged to Brad. Too bad. It might have been fun.

Being Brad's mother, she might have let Schuldig catch a glimpse of that on purpose, but even scanning her more intently he couldn't quite tell. She wanted him to know but also didn't, hiding behind complexity of emotion and strategy. Dangerous woman. Liking her made it hard to hate her.

Fortunately, he had no problem doing shit to people he liked.


	140. "I figured he was just molesting the redheaded boy."

"You're nervous," Farfarello said as they waited at the outside door in the cold darkness. Night fell too early in January.

"I'm not nervous, just focused," Nagi said. Schuldig had said that she was definitely Crawford's mother, but how exactly did he mean that? How touchy was she? How sadistic? "You're just two guys Mother Crawford's son works with. I'm family. His parents might converge on me. I might have to dodge."

"You've faced worse," Aya said. "I've seen it." Kind of him to say that with only a tinge of sarcasm.

"Whatever. I'm ready."

A man who resembled Crawford so much that there could be no doubt about his identity came to the door and opened it for them before they could even buzz the intercom. But he smiled. "Hi. Brad foresaw you arriving. Come in. You must be Nagi."

"Yeah. Hi," Nagi answered as he looked way up. Crawford had apparently gotten his freakish height from this man. While walking inside Nagi said, "This is Aya and Farfarello. Farfarello's the one with the visible scars."

Mr. Crawford nodded, seemingly not bothered by Farfarello's appearance at all. "Evelyn's looking forward to seeing you."

Walking with them, Nagi couldn't wait to be back in Japan for a while and among more reasonably sized people. When he stayed abroad long enough he started to feel short. Rosenkreuz had been the more humbling for it.

Mom Crawford had the decency to let him get inside and take his coat and shoes off before approaching and saying, "At last I get to meet the brilliant grandson." She was intimidating in person too. At least she was closer to his size.

"'Brilliant' might be taking it a bit far," he answered.

"Modest too." Then she smiled. "I see that my son has taken advantage of you as a distraction."

Crawford and Schuldig had disappeared with Farfarello and Aya, probably for a debriefing. With what Farfarello could do now, Nagi couldn't blame them for their need to know more. Still, bastards. "Dangling a shiny new grandson in front of you apparently wasn't as distracting as he thought it would be."

"It was a good try."

"I'll have to think of a suitable vengeance on them."

"I approve. So, tell me about this boy you're seeing. I need details."

"How much did Schuldig tell you?"

"A great deal. Some of it might even be true."

He'd have to make Schuldig's death especially slow and painful. "I'd rather not talk about my love life."

"Good man," Crawford's father said, and Mother Crawford cast him a definite "you're not helping" look.

"If we can't discuss whom you love, perhaps we can discuss your career," Mother Crawford said. "I worry about what I'm hearing. You were attacked. Can't you do other work? You and Brad are so intelligent, and Schuldig could do well in many professions. The people who trained and forced you to be criminals aren't a problem anymore."

He could figure out the most politic thing to say and dance around the truth, but why? He'd been thrown to the wolves here. Let Crawford iron his own family expectations out. "We could, but we get bored. I know that doesn't sound very good, but we do. We'll never have the patience for a normal life." You missed the adrenaline, thrill, and feeling of superiority that flouting the rules got you. "I guess you can't go back to being a dog on a leash once you've been a wolf." But, relenting a little, Nagi said, "That may change as we get older. Priorities shift."

Though Nagi doubted it. Crawford enjoyed the power and freedom of working outside the law too much, while Nagi had never found a security system that hadn't tempted him to break in. Farfarello and Schuldig saw laws as stupid things that other people lived their lives by, although Schuldig at least worked to escape the law's notice on his acts while Farfarello mostly didn't care. Aya occasionally tortured himself with the possibility of a mundane life, but a lot of his torture came from his certainty that he could never return to it. He'd changed too much.

"It's a shame that you'll all be going back to Japan tomorrow," Crawford's father said.

Tomorrow? Crawford had to bring him into the loop. Being this ignorant annoyed him. Still, it would be good to see Omi again.

"You're smiling. Your young man must be there," Mother Crawford said.

"I'm not smiling. I never smile," Nagi replied, while Father Crawford just smiled and said, "Evelyn."

Fortunately Crawford and Farfarello returned and provided a distraction. Farfarello looked anxious and annoyed, and Nagi noticed that Schuldig and Aya hadn't come out with them. The telepath better stay on his best behavior with Aya.

"Mom, Dad, this is Farfarello, one of my coworkers," Crawford said, and Farfarello smiled in a way that made him look crazier and more intimidating. The Crawfords instinctively backed up, then looked a little annoyed and moved back to their original spots.

"It's good to meet you," Farfarello said. "We were all curious. Couldn't imagine what you'd be like, since we always thought Crawford had been spawned, not born. We couldn't imagine him as a child, so he must have formed as an adult."

"Thank you, Farfarello," Crawford said, sounding long-suffering.

"What kind of name is 'Farfarello'?" Mother Crawford asked.

"Literary. It's my work name. It makes people think I'm Italian, but I'm Irish. I enjoy sowing confusion."

"I wondered about the accent," Father Crawford said.

Farfarello inclined his head. "Yeah."

In between worrying about Aya, Nagi wondered whether Farfarello was deliberately trying to seem weird but mostly sane.

******************************************************

As Aya stood around and watched Crawford and Schuldig look Farfarello over, he understood one of the advantages smoking gave Yoji, in that smoking gave you the appearance of doing something while you were standing around. A non-smoker, Aya could only stand there and feel weirdly self-conscious. Being in a very small bathroom with three other people and the door closed didn't help.

He wouldn't mind killing Crawford and Schuldig with secondhand smoke. Or at least annoying them.

Sounding amused, Schuldig said, ~ You really are one of a kind, Aya. ~

Thankfully.

"You look good," Schuldig said to Farfarello.

"You'll be looked at by a doctor when we return to Japan," Crawford said. "You may look good, but I want a better idea of what's happened to you internally. You don't want to damage yourself more."

Schuldig smirked. "You have a kitten to live for, after all."

"I don't forget that," Farfarello answered.

"Even your movements are a little looser, like your body's not as tightly wound. Is it just me seeing that, Brad?"

"I think you're right," Crawford replied.

While Farfarello beamed like a child, Aya noticed Crawford and Schuldig watching _him_. He'd expected this. They would want to know what that enemy team in Pittsburgh had sensed in him. Hell, he wanted to know himself. That team had thought that whatever had been done to him would be dangerous to him even aside from how it supposedly made him Farfarello's puppet. The possibility of people attacking Schwarz for Aya's sake would make Crawford need to know more.

"Farf, do the thing with the electricity," Schuldig said. "I wanna see it."

The bathroom lights dimmed as a small ball of electricity formed in Farfarello's right hand, seemingly pulled up from his palm and fingers. He let it crackle for a bit, then seemed to absorb it back into his body. Crawford and Schuldig smiled like sharks.

"Take that, Rosenkreuz," Schuldig said. "It's a shame there's no one in Eszett left alive for us to gloat at."

"Our potential is limitless," Crawford said. "Eszett held us back."

They were playing Farfarello, buttering him up. It made Aya want to growl. Schuldig glanced at Aya with a cat-in-cream look, then looked away and said, ever so casually, "Now I have to look at Aya to make sure _he's_ okay. He feels different than he did just a few days ago."

"He's fine," Farfarello snarled.

"You're too close to him to be objective," Crawford replied. "You also don't have the level of telepathic training and power Schuldig has."

"You want to make sure Aya's safe, right?" Schuldig asked.

"Don't even pretend that I don't care about his welfare," Farfarello asked. "I care about it so much that I worry about the mindbreaker playing with him."

"I also worry about your motives, Schuldig," Aya said.

"I can make sure you're okay and enjoy the contact at the same time. Everyone wins," the telepath answered with a smile.

"Like hell," Farfarello answered.

"Who else is gonna do it? You're not skilled enough. Nagi's not skilled enough. Maybe you think you can ask Friendly when we return to Japan? We all love and trust Friendly so much. After all, she helped teach you."

"No. I don't want her touching Aya."

"Or you can leave it alone and hope it's nothing, you think."

"Leaving it alone and hoping it's nothing is not an option," Crawford said. "We were attacked over this. I won't be left in the dark as to why."

As much as Aya hated the thought of Schuldig pawing through his mind again, he had to admit that he wanted an expert opinion on the changes the Pittsburgh team had seen in him. "I'll be all right, Farfarello. This is something that has to be done." From the look on Crawford's face, Aya's words had surprised and pleased him. Whatever.

"We'll leave them alone together," Crawford said.

"Like hell," Farfarello answered.

"I wouldn't have to tell you to leave if I didn't worry that you'd overreact to anything that happened. You could hurt them if you interrupted a mind link."

"I can take care of myself," Aya told him.

"I'm only allowing this because Aya says he can handle it," Farfarello finally said.

"Good." Crawford opened the door. Farfarello lunged over to Aya for a quick kiss, then left with Crawford. The door closing behind them seemed very final.

Schuldig smiled. "You might want to have a seat on the floor. Mom's floor is super clean, and you can sit on the rug a bit. I'll be going so deeply in that I'll have to put you out, and you'll need the support."

"You're disgusting."

"_I_ wasn't the one with the perverted thought."

Aya sat on the floor with his back against the tub. He started to rise when Schuldig sat astride his legs, but Schuldig said, "I need to be close for skin contact, remember? I'm going to touch your face. We've done this before."

"But you're an opportunist."

"Guilty as charged."

At this rate, Aya's legs would be asleep soon. Unable to see a way around it, Aya said, "Just get it done already." He hated this.

"With pleasure."

Everything went dark.

******************************************************

Really, Schuldig had a great life. How many people had a good excuse to sit in Aya's lap and stroke his face? Someday Schuldig would fuck him. He swore it to himself.

But right now he had a job to do. Even without going in, he could taste a difference in Aya, who still did the "not here, not thinking" thing to try to keep Schuldig out of his thoughts but now also had a tinge of Farf's flavor and static, making him harder to read. But skin-to-skin contact still made things easier.

As soon as Schuldig went in, he had to wonder what the hell had happened in here in just a few days. It looked like Kingdom of the Spiders from all the slim threads littering Aya's self. His link with Farfarello still had Schuldig's clamp restricting it, but that hardly mattered when he had a spider web of new links to the little nutcase up. What a mess. It would be some job trying to control or clamp all of this. Farfarello needed to get his ass kicked.

But some of the threads tasted like Nagi? The kid already had his slim link to Aya, subconsciously created back when, and would never do something that looked this messy and unfocused.

What the hell had happened?

******************************************************

Farfarello shivered convulsively. Something had just felt really odd. He'd never felt its like before.

Schuldig had better not be doing something stupid to his puisín.

Nagi started suddenly and had a look of slight confusion in his eyes, so Farfarello asked, ~ Did you feel that? ~

~ Like somebody just caressed me with a cold hand, ~ Nagi answered. ~ You too? ~

Felt more like two, but Farfarello answered, ~ Yeah. ~

"Is there a problem?" Crawford asked.

"Hard to say yet. I'll wait a little while longer to see. It might just be Schuldig doing something he's supposed to," Farfarello replied, trying not to be overprotective. But not much longer.

******************************************************

What was this? Neither Farf nor Nagi would do this, not this way. Even Farf had more focus. His link to Aya that Schuldig had clamped a few days ago had been clean and strong, firm and clean threads, not this splintered mess of threads of varying strength and width flung everywhere and tangled. Even a completely untrained telepath or empath working subconsciously could do better than this.

No telepath would make this kind of mess using telepathy. Which left...

Shit, no.

It left a _non-telepath_ somehow using telepathy.

It left Fujimiya Aya subconsciously pulling on the connection Farfarello had made with him. It broke several laws, which might have been part of what chafed those Pittsburgh talents so badly, but Farf did that all the time now. Without Rosenkreuz restricting him, he sailed over boundaries he didn't realize were there. Without a strong, trained telepath such as Schuldig riding herd on him, he blundered and created something new.

Created something possibly dangerous, to Aya and Schwarz.

Maybe Aya wasn't really a normal. He seemed to have an innate talent for throwing a wrench into the works without even trying.

~ Farf! Nagi! Get in here! ~ Schuldig called. Still, Aya was reaching out to them of his own will. That had to be a positive. Schuldig would be sure to mention it to Brad when he made his report on the rest of this disaster.

******************************************************

~ Farf! Nagi! Get in here! ~

Nagi twitched. Farfarello twitched harder. Nagi said, "Excuse me," what had she wanted him to call her? "Grandmom-san. Schuldig needs our professional opinion on something."

"I figured he was just molesting the redheaded boy. Aya, is he?" she answered. Nagi stopped himself from gaping at her.

As Farfarello growled, Crawford said, "He needs no help for that, Mom, but that's not what he's doing. Go see what he wants."

If Farfarello had growled at Mom's innuendo, the sound he made when they opened the bathroom door to see Schuldig sitting on and leaning into Aya defied description, although it had something in common with the sound of rocks being grated. Nagi held him back. "Not now."

"You don't command me."

"If you break them apart you could hurt Aya. Let's go in and see what's happening, okay?"

They closed the door and sat on the floor, and Farfarello's body went completely slack as his self left it. It creeped Nagi out that it looked dead aside from the faint, slow breathing. He closed his eyes and went into Aya's mind.


	141. "Cool your jets, Darth Farf."

~ Aya is not a tourist attraction! ~ Farf said, looking younger, unscarred, and scrumptious. He worked that black leather, and red hair and green eyes looked good on him.

~ Cool your jets, Darth Farf. I called you and Nagi in for a reason. ~

~ Were all these threads here when you arrived? ~ Nagi asked, sounding curious instead of accusatory. He looked exactly like himself--which some telepaths, especially the weaker ones, did--but wore a black version of his old schoolboy uniform tricked out with silver zippers in interesting places. Damn, Schuldig wanted to see him wear that in reality, even if he had to commission the outfit himself to have it made.

~ Yeah, they were, ~ Schuldig answered. ~ I wanted you two to see this. As far as I know, this is a first. Aya, a non-telepath, subconsciously drew on Farf's telepathy to maintain links to you two. The reason why this is a mess of threads is that he's a non-telepath and lacks the focus and vision to use it properly. ~

Shocked, they blinked at him. Weird to see Farfarello do that with two eyes. ~ That's impossible, ~ Nagi finally said.

~ Apparently not. Farf bound himself to Aya that closely. It's like they're wearing one sweater together at the same time and each pulling on it. ~

~ Are you on crack? ~

The sweater analogies never got any respect. ~ You can disrespect my similes all you want, but the truth stands. Aya is awkwardly using it and is now peppered with a mass of the sloppiest links I've ever seen. I'm going to clean up in here. ~

~ Were you touching them earlier? Farfarello and I felt something odd. ~

Aw, shit. That made things far more complicated. How could he take these out if even touching them affected Farf and Nagi?

Farfarello, looking annoyed at the universe, said, ~ I didn't know a wave of colors could stamp its nonexistent foot. ~

~ Wave of colors? What are you talking about? ~ Nagi asked.

~ Schuldig. ~

Nagi just shook his head.

~ That's what Schuldig looks like. ~

Maybe a little distraction would give Schuldig time to think, so he asked, ~ Nagi, what does Farf look like to you? ~

~ He looks like Farfarello, just like you look like you. C'mon, stop playing games. What do we do about Aya? It sounds like somebody could hurt us just by going after him. ~

The kid was too smart for his own good. And he apparently didn't see Schuldig or Farfarello's avatar forms, which could be to his advantage or disadvantage, Schuldig didn't know and didn't have time to wonder about it right now. ~It might not work like that, and if it does work like that it might be fixable. ~

~ It has to be fixed, ~ Farfarello said, looking agitated. ~ You know what kind of target he'd become if people figured out that they could nail us by getting him. ~

Aya wouldn't be allowed to fight at Farfarello's side either anymore, something that would occur to Farf soon if it hadn't already. Schuldig stroked one of the threads that tasted like Farf and watched him shiver in response. This would be a really great toy if it weren't so dangerous.

~ You know, Farf, he's using your telepathic power. Maybe _you_ can clean this up without hurting yourself or Nagi. ~

Farf drew a knife and threw it at Schuldig, who ducked. ~ I don't know what the hell I'm doing! You never bothered to train me, remember? ~

~ I did stuff! ~

~ You left me to fumble around, looked at the results, and either approved or said, 'Looks like that was a mistake'! ~

~ You got some pointers from Friendly. ~

~ For battle on the psychic plane, not for anything like this. I am not going to experiment on my puisín. I don't want to hurt him. Is it even a good idea to try to get rid of these? ~

~ Yes. All this stuff lying around isn't a good idea for him either. ~ It'd be much harder putting a clamp on every strand here if Farf's influence and pull became too overwhelming as they had in New York. ~So touch one and see what happens. ~

~ That sounds dangerous, ~ Nagi said. ~ If I disappear, it'll be because I ran for home. ~

~ Coward. ~

~ It's prudence. ~

~ It's annoying, ~ Farfarello said. ~ Both of you shut up. ~

~ Actually, ~ Nagi answered, ~ I think I should get out and keep a watch on everybody outside. It's not like you need me here. ~

Since Farfarello was already freaking out over the possibility of fucking up, which would be entertaining if not for the actual possibility that it _could_ lead to Aya being lobotomized, Schuldig said, ~ If you can't take the heat, Nags.... ~

Nagi flipped him off, then disappeared.

~ Okay, Farfie, touch the threads and try to absorb them back into you, like you did with the electricity earlier. ~ That trick with the electricity made Schuldig wonder what Farf's earlier electroshock treatments might actually have done to him. ~ Do they feel like anything to you? ~

~ No. It doesn't feel like anything. ~ As Farf closed his eyes and gripped the threads harder, they faded. Once only the ghosts of them remained, he took his hands away and said, ~ That's it. ~

~ That can't be it. They're not totally gone. ~

~ What remains isn't mine. ~

~ Then who-- ~ Shit. Schuldig had a headache. ~ The remainder must be Aya's. ~

~ Someone who isn't a telepath can do that? ~

~ Nobody knows. Because nobody has seen this happen before. I'll go get him and see if I can get him to reabsorb his parts. You stay put. ~

~ Where are _you_ off to? ~

~ Where Aya is. Dreamland. ~

******************************************************

Sitting on the counter, Nagi kept watch. Schuldig and Aya twitched and moved a little, while Farfarello's body continued to sit there slumped like a dead weight. Aya and Schuldig's hair looked bizarre meshed together, long orange around and through shorter faded copper. With how heavily Schuldig leaned on him, Aya would probably hurt once he came to. Aya suddenly twitched more and struggled a bit, making Nagi slide down to the floor to help if he could figure out whom to help. Fortunately, Aya soon stilled and looked more peaceful. Nagi put a towel as a cushion between Aya's back and neck and the tub. Schuldig looked so cozy where he was that Nagi let him be.

"What's going on in there?" Grandmom demanded, sounding impatient. She tried to open the door, but Farfarello's slumped body blocked it securely.

"Telepathic stuff," Nagi answered. "I don't know when we'll be done. And please stop that with the door. You're probably marking up Farfarello's spine."

"Telepathic _stuff_?" Crawford asked, sounding amused.

"It's not like she'll know what we're doing even if we told her in detail."

"'She' is still here," Grandmom said. "We're going out to dinner tonight. I need an idea of when the reservation should be for."

"Have fun at dinner."

"This is dinner for _all_ of us."

"You're taking us out?" She had to be insane.

"That's what I said. Perhaps you're not as brilliant as I thought."

"No need to get sarcastic, Grandmom-san. I'll let you know when they're done."

Out in public to eat together. Like a big, extended family?

Maybe things would become normal again in Japan, but Nagi doubted it.

******************************************************

"I told you that it wouldn't do any good," Crawford said. "They'll be done when they're done and not a moment before." But he could understand her annoyance and impatience, since it worried and annoyed him that _he_ didn't have a good idea of what was going on.

"It was worth a shot," Mom said.

The front door opened, and May walked in. "Good. I'm not too late to go out to dinner with you."

Dad raised an eyebrow at Mom, who said, "I wanted family to be here. Kenneth declined, which he'll pay for later, but May agreed to come."

"You just want to see how she behaves around Nagi, since you think she finds him attractive," Crawford answered back softly. "You really are a sadist."

"I find it hard to believe that you won't find it entertaining too."

"That's not the point."

"Give up, Brad. Your mother lives for this kind of thing," Dad said.

"As if you don't enjoy it, Tom," she answered.

This should be interesting. Nagi, embarrassed, could be fun to watch, and from what Crawford heard sisters existed to be tormented.

******************************************************

Schuldig found himself standing in a flower shop devoid of customers and Weiß. Only Aya was here, and he was seated at the counter concentrating on an arrangement, placing each flower with careful, deliberate, and graceful movements. A small smile graced his face, and he wore faded black under his green apron. Being alone and working was a happy place for him? Ew. Then he looked up and shouted, "Schuldig!" As he stood, he pulled his katana out of what seemed to be fucking nowhere.

"I don't have time for this," Schuldig said. "You're not Weiß anymore, and your sister is no longer an issue. Farfarello, your boyfriend, has run into a spot of trouble and needs your help. I'll take you to him."

Aya cooled down and looked at Schuldig a bit differently, obviously back up to date. "He's not my 'boyfriend.' That sounds so inane. He's my lover."

"I don't care if he's your dog. Right now I'm taking you on a field trip." Schuldig grabbed his arm and shifted onto a different level of Aya's mind.

Farfarello looked surprised and amused to see Aya in the flowerboy drag, while Aya just looked surprised and asked, "Farfarello?"

~ Puisín. Glad you could make it. ~ Farf gestured at all the threads. ~ We have a mess to tidy up. We have to absorb these threads together. ~

"My last dream made more sense."

~ Touch and absorb those ghost threads to your left. ~

Looking a bit put off, Aya did as commanded, and the threads Farfarello had partially dissolved disappeared completely. They _had_ somehow been Aya's, spun out and then taken back in by a non-telepath. Eszett would have creamed itself over the possibility of creating quasi-telepaths out of normals and broken countless people in experiments to better refine and find offensive uses for it.

All Schwarz had to work with was Aya.

~ Good, ~ Farfarello said. ~ Come here. ~

"Are you going to explain this?" Aya asked.

~ Later. Please come. ~

Shaking his head, Aya walked over and let Farfarello enfold him in his arms, with Farfarello standing at his back. They reached out for and worked on the same threads together, and this time the threads disappeared completely. It didn't take as long as Schuldig figured it would because some of the mess was a few long threads instead of lots of shorter ones. Once finished, Farfarello nuzzled Aya's neck and Schuldig noticed the two of them dissolving into each other, forms blurring....

Shit! Schuldig telepathically knocked Farfarello out of Aya's mind before more damage could be done. Glaring at him in a way that suggested Farfie more than himself, Aya drew his katana from out of nowhere again and charged him. More out of a fear of hurting Aya than getting hurt himself, Schuldig jumped out of him.

******************************************************

Nagi heard what sounded almost like a howl as Farfarello lunged forward and threw himself toward Schuldig with knives in hand. Mindful that they were in their leader's mother's bathroom, Nagi put a force bubble around Farfarello instead of just a shield around himself and the others. Less damage that way. Raging, Farfarello started throwing sparks around inside his bubble, which seemed to hurt him a bit but in such a state he only had contempt for the pain. Nagi shrunk the bubble and condensed the telekinetic force enough to block Farfarello from continuing to drain the room's electricity. In an extremity of emotion, Farfarello kept beating at his container with his fists even though he could see it did no good.

~ Calm down, ~ Nagi told him. ~ You'll exhaust your oxygen supply. ~

~ Fuck off! ~

When Schuldig came to, breathing hard, Nagi asked, "What the hell did you do to rile him up so badly?"

"Later," Schuldig panted. He looked exhausted. He looked worse when Aya came to and headbutted him, so Nagi had to restrain Aya too.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Crawford demanded as he opened the door with his mother, father, and some girl behind him.

Nagi figured that Schwarz made quite a sight now, with Farfarello hovering in the air, red-faced and beating at something around him the Crawfords couldn't see, Aya struggling as another invisible something held him back against the side of the tub, and Schuldig lying on his back on the floor looking dazed.

"We were just catching up," Nagi said.

"Neaten up. We're going out to dinner."

Farfarello growled, "I claim--"

"You claim nothing," Crawford answered in a voice like steel. "Take control of yourself. You will behave yourself in front of my family. We'll settle it later."

"Now!"

"You're overemotional now. I won't tolerate this."

Aya had calmed a bit, so Nagi asked, "Can I let you go now?"

"Yes. I don't know why I did that... aside from how Schuldig generally deserves something like that," Aya answered.

"You're hilarious, kitten," Schuldig answered as he sat up. "How do you feel? Fine?"

"Yeah. Farfarello, calm down," Aya said as Nagi took the force pressure off him.

"You don't know what he did!" Farfarello answered.

"No, I don't. Nor do I think this is the best time to get into it."

Farfarello turned his head to look in the direction Aya was nodding in and noticed the pretty girl. "Hmm," he grumbled, but at least he stopped writhing.

"This is my sister, May," Crawford said, sounding sour about the scene they'd made.

"Hi," she said. At least she'd stopped gaping at them. But she kept looking at Nagi, which he found disturbing. "Brad, are they always like that?"

"No, most of the time they're better."

"Sometimes we're worse," Schuldig said.

"You're not helping."

"Brad, why is that one guy levitating?" May asked.

"Nagi wanted him to stop misbehaving. Are you calm now, Farfarello?"

"I'll hold my peace. For now," Farfarello said, sounding utterly grudging.

Schuldig opened his mouth to make a comment, then shut it. He probably figured that everyone in Schwarz knew what he would have said anyway.

When Nagi let Farfarello go and put him down, Farfarello scrambled into Aya's lap and held onto him tightly. "Puisín, I can't feel you anymore," he said, while Aya looked worried and confused.

Nagi noticed it then. Schuldig had blocked Aya off to all telepathy, the equivalent of putting him in an airtight jar. Nothing could get in or out.

~ I put Aya into lockdown quarantine, ~ Schuldig said over what he called Radio Free Schwarz. Of the team, only Aya, currently blocked off, wouldn't be able to hear it now. ~ You didn't see Farf and Aya blending and blurring into one another. You would have obliterated your kitten and yourself if I hadn't tossed you out, Farf. I don't know what kind of personality would be left over in your two bodies, but I doubt it would be sane. Then again, since you weren't in your body, it might have been one melded personality in Aya's body with yours left a vegetable. ~

~ Souls are infinite, ~ Farfarello answered, sounding bereft.

~ Then whatever would be inside Aya would be a bigger infinity. This is as much a test as a protection. I want to see if he still reaches out or retains any ability to form telepathic links while he's cut off from your power. ~

~ _Aya_ was using Farfarello's telepathic ability? ~ Crawford asked. He hadn't seen anything.

~ Yeah. Ain't that a kick in the head? ~

~ You think that's why the Pittsburgh talents tried to capture him. ~

~ Right again. You are so smart. ~

~ You are such a wise-ass. ~

Nagi had a sudden thought. ~ Aya's influence helps keep Farfarello more level. He's cut off from that influence now, but we're going to take him out to a restaurant for dinner? Plus, you know he's going to be all over Aya trying to make up for the lack of psychic contact. ~

Crawford said, ~ Farfarello has been touting his greater control. It's time for him to prove it. ~

~ I will, ~ Farfarello snarled. ~ I won't assault him in public, and I will regain telepathic access to him in a way that is safe for both of us. This I swear. ~ He also shot a look at Schuldig that suggested revenge to come. Sitting on the floor, Schuldig stuck his tongue out at him in response.

~ Does Aya know what happened? ~ Nagi asked.

Schuldig shook his head. ~ No. He's a normal and has no self-awareness of this kind of thing. I had him take out the messy links while he was dreaming. He might remember part of the dream or he might not. It wouldn't seem real to him if he did remember. ~

"This is very rude," Grandmom said.

"I agree," Aya murmured darkly.

"It's business, Mom," Crawford said. "My team will discuss it privately later."

"We'd better," Aya said. "I'm a member of this team and deserve to be privy to its plans. It makes me very paranoid when you won't let me hear anything."

"We'll go into detail later. Now is not the time."

"Is this a fancy place we're going to?" Nagi asked, trying to defuse the situation with a distraction. "The three of us are dressed casually."

"It's casual," Grandmom said. Nagi could tell that she really wanted to know what was going on. Crawford's father and May looked bemused, and May's eyes kept sliding to Nagi, which confused and worried him. Did he have something on his face?

"Let's go, then," Crawford said.


	142. "It's been educational meeting the loins from which our leader sprang."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the flower shop Fenris has Weiß dance to 50 Cents' "Shake That Ass."

"Can we play some music?" Fenris asked as he worked on a small arrangement, though never a commissioned one. He did colorful little offbeat ones that some of the younger customers liked. "We haven't had a customer in hours."

"Only two hours," Elena answered.

"That's hours!"

"Okay."

"Do you have something in mind?" Ken asked.

"Yeah!" Fenris said. "Something I picked up in New York."

"Really," Elena answered, the look on her face suggesting that she expected some kind of mischief, although Ken didn't know why.

"It's like one of those songs where they tell you how to do a dance," Fenris said, his face glowing with innocence. Okay, now Ken saw it.

"Right."

"It's easier for the guys, though. They just put their hands up in the air and maybe sway."

Elena raised an eyebrow. "And what do the girls do?"

"It says that they have 'to put their back into it,' which I don't understand."

"And the rest of it?"

Fenris grinned. "Shake, shake, shake that ass, girl!"

"It's hip-hop, isn't it?"

"Don't know, but I want to see you shake that ass. Girl."

Ken coughed. "I have to see that too now."

She looked darkly amused. "I'm not even going to ask Yoji."

Yoji looked up from the arrangement he was working on. "What? I'm automatically a pervert? I'm hurt."

"Yeah, yeah. It looks like I'm outnumbered. But if I have to shake my ass to this thing, I better see your hands in the air and swaying."

"Of course," Fenris answered, beaming.

"Why not?" Yoji answered.

Fenris put the CD in and played the song, a slow grind with a voice rapping in English about thug life. Elena did a slow booty shake and twist, part sexy and part joking, with her hands in the air at the parts that told her to. Really, all guys had to do was put their hands in the air and sway to the music sometimes. Ken felt a bit ridiculous but noticing Yoji's smile made it worthwhile.

Depressed, Yoji shrank and faded. Ken had seen it after that disaster with Neu and then after they'd returned from Europe. He saw it again recently.

Yoji had perked up after his mission in England but really come alive during their time in New York. Seeing Yoji that way just underscored how wan he'd been prior to that. Now he'd dimmed again.

As genuine as Ken's offer had been, a big part of him was glad Yoji had turned him down. Performance anxiety. While it could be hard to tell how much of Yoji's talk was just talk, and Yoji had only recently started looking at guys the way he looked at women, Yoji still had to have more experience than Ken did. All Ken had done with Kase had been hand stuff. Maybe a bit of nuzzling, on Ken's side. Kase had always said that it was just friends taking care of each other and didn't have to mean anything, and Ken had contented himself with that. Years later, when Ken had finally seen how Kase had cold-bloodedly betrayed him and tried to get him killed multiple times, just coincidentally ruining his life too, he'd understood the real meaning to Kase's talk of their relations not meaning anything.

And it might be awkward being around Yoji afterward, especially if Ken hadn't been good. Yoji liked to tease, and sometimes he could be obnoxious in it.

Still, it would have been... interesting. Yoji was so smooth, so flexible, and he had a great smile when he gave you one of the genuine ones. Yoji had a great smile now as Weiß danced. Well, as Elena danced and the rest of them, even Yoji, swayed with their hands in the air, some of them holding flowers. Kidding around like family.

Ken was happy in the new Weiß, and he wanted Yoji to be happy too. He wanted Yoji to be happy here, and Yoji could be without enemy telepaths playing with his head. Losing Aya to Schwarz had been bad enough, especially since Ken didn't like how obsessive and possessive Schwarz's craziest psychopath was over him. Losing Yoji, who also had self-destructive tendencies, to them as well would gall.

Ken couldn't be that insulted over Yoji turning him down, because he knew he wasn't Yoji's type. Yoji liked 'em pretty or exotic, while Ken knew himself to be the good-looking guy next door type.

Schwarz was full of pretty and exotic people.

"Put this rose between your teeth, Elena!" Fenris said.

"Take the thorns off it first," she answered with a smile.

******************************************************

Drenched in tension, dinner was a quiet and very uncomfortable affair. Aside from soft requests to pass the salt or butter, no one spoke to anyone. Looking for clues as to what had happened, Aya noticed that Farfarello desperately wanted to cling to and molest him but kept holding back, Schuldig and Crawford were annoyed at Crawford's mother, May Crawford was smitten with Nagi's looks and trying not to show it while Nagi worried about her attention, and Crawford's father looked long-suffering.

Aya knew that something had happened to him but couldn't feel much difference. The euphoria and lust that had swept him up earlier had vanished, which was a bit of a relief, and his Pittsburgh depression hadn't returned to supplant it, which was another relief. In all, Aya felt a bit melancholy and mysteriously lonely, even despite being surrounded by company. He'd often felt alone even in a crowd but not as often in the last few months.

It could just be that Schwarz was keeping something big from him and Farfarello looked scared for him. He tried not to speculate, but his imagination and paranoia went a bit wild. His thoughts see-sawed through the idea that they kept something from him because they didn't trust him or see him as Schwarz to the idea that they kept it from him because something was horribly wrong with him and they didn't want the trouble of telling him.

Actually, he didn't feel simply melancholy and lonely, because he suffered from a growing fear as well.

Schuldig stood suddenly and went over to grab Aya's shoulder. "I need to smoke. You're coming with me." Schuldig bared his teeth in a snarl that matched Farfarello's.

While Aya didn't like going somewhere alone with Schuldig, especially since the troubles had started after being left alone with Schuldig in the bathroom, he didn't want to stay at this table right now either. He could only hope that his face hadn't showed much of his feelings, because he worried that Schuldig had seen some look on his face that had inspired this action. "All right," Aya said as he shook the hand off, stood, and left with him.

They stood under the awning, with Schuldig lighting up, as the gray-brown-purple night sky dropped rain upon the world. Shivering at the chill and damp, Aya gave thanks that he'd taken his coat with him. "Why?" he asked Schuldig.

"That's a bit broad. Why what?"

"Why bring me out here?"

"You're too thin. We can't get any meat on you if you're too busy worrying over what we're not telling you to eat. Got tired of watching you pick at your food as you scrutinize everyone at the table looking for clues. I like you better when you're kind of oblivious as usual."

"That way I wouldn't notice that whatever you and Crawford are angry with his mother about concerns you. It's in the way he keeps looking at you."

"Really? That's special," Schuldig answered, sounding languid and unconcerned.

"What did she do?"

"She lied to me, hurt my feelings, and tried to interfere in our relationship."

"It's annoying when it's your turn."

"I really want people to stop fucking saying things like that." Schuldig violently blew out a large puff of smoke. "I'm being nice to you and get this in return? Some thanks."

"You haven't told me anything yet."

"You had a mess of telepathic links in your head that _you_ subconsciously put there by drawing on Farfarello's ability."

Aya suddenly felt very cold. "I can't do that."

"Congratulations. You're the first non-talent ever to use someone else's telepathy without his knowledge to screw yourself up. I made the both of you clear them out. So, yay, crisis delayed, since we still have to find a way to stop you from doing it again. But then you and Farfarello started to melt into each other. If I hadn't separated you, you wouldn't be two people anymore."

"Oh," Aya said very softly. He couldn't imagine what that would be like and didn't want to.

But it explained the odd dream he remembered fragments of. He'd been in a dark place full of glowing lines with Farfarello, and together they'd killed most of the light. At first Farfarello had held him, but then Farfarello had become a part of him, an ever-growing part. It had been terrifying, yet a part of him that hadn't felt quite right had welcomed it.

That didn't explain why Farfarello had red hair and two violet eyes _before_ they'd started to meld.

"So I put you in the telepathic version of a jar so you two can't pull on each other or melt into each other. I'm convinced that your deep depression in Pittsburgh was the concentrated sum of your and Farfarello's frustration over your mutual inactivity and his injuries. You're not all that stable to begin with, kitten."

"What now?" Really, what the hell did they do now?

"Now you know and can stop imagining what the big secret is. You can also stop trying to smash through the jar to reach Farfarello. It's giving me a headache."

"I'm not doing any such thing."

"Really."

"Really."

Schuldig's smile had a sharp edge of malice to it. "Then let's remove the jar and see what happens. If you're not doing anything, nothing will happen. If you are doing what I say you're doing, there should be fireworks."

Despite feeling disquieted by Schuldig's words, Aya answered, "Nothing will happen."

"All right."

Aya drowned. Sound, colors, words, flashes, pictures, flare, flare, flare....

He came to pressed against the brick wall by Schuldig's body and kiss. From how awkwardly positioned he was, he might have been trying to slither up the wall to get away from something. "What are you looking at?" Schuldig suddenly yelled at someone off to the side.

Embarrassed, head splitting, Aya pushed him away and panted. "You did that. The chaos."

"No. I took the jar off, and you subconsciously reached out and yanked Farf's telepathy like a junkie with the heroin in reach."

"It didn't feel like that before you messed with me!"

"It was bad this time because you were in a panic and were restrained from doing it for so long. It was like pulling a muscle from exerting yourself too hard. Before, it was just there and you reached over."

Aya did feel a kind of lurking disquiet. "I hate being contained by anything."

Schuldig looked surprised, then his mouth began to twitch. Suddenly he started to laugh.

"What the hell is your problem?" Aya asked.

"You're so claustrophobic that you can't bear being inside your own head without a door open and _that's_ how you started pulling on Farf's talent. Wow, are _you_ fucked."

"I am not claustrophobic!" He wouldn't think of how he hadn't been able to bear shielding himself behind walls in Pittsburgh.

"Of course not. You just can't stand being in enclosed spaces. You claustrophobe."

"It is not that broad and simple."

"You have a phobia."

"I only worry about dangerous situations, which is prudent."

Schuldig's amusement abruptly faded. "Shit. You're both gonna need training, and who the hell are we gonna get? What you're doing is something I don't think anyone's seen, and Farf's brand of talent is so rare that I don't think we'll get much joy there either."

It seemed daunting and impossible, but at least the telepath was looking into resolving the situation. After his recent experience Aya could no longer doubt that he'd been tapping into Farfarello somehow, because the clamor and chaos had tasted like him and like that time he'd been overwhelmed in their apartment. Still.... "What was your excuse for kissing me?"

"You were making weird noises and trying to climb up the wall on your back. I had to give people a better excuse for your behavior than their probable guess of insanity. Touching you let me shut you down faster, and I could muffle your whimpers with my own mouth." Schuldig took a long, smug drag on his cigarette. "I found it pleasant."

"You would. I'm surprised none of the team came out." They had to have "heard" that, especially Farfarello.

"Brad and Nags are keeping him from making a scene. They're leaving the telepathy to the expert, namely me."

"I felt better before you described what you did to me as putting me in a jar." Cut off from the world and especially his lover. No wonder he felt a bit hollow. No wonder Farfarello had seemed so bereft and desperate to touch him. It had to be torment. "And, no, I don't think that's an atypical reaction."

"You're the king of denial, baby. Damn, but I wish I could have been the one to watch what happened instead of being forced to lock you down and restrain you again. We could've learned something from the experience if I hadn't been so busy keeping you sane. If Eszett still existed and they found out about you two neither of you would see the light of day again. Still, the writhing was nice."

"You put me in a _jar_."

"Hmm, maybe I did overshare there, considering what I know of you." He closed his eyes, then opened them. "How does it feel?"

"You put me in a telepathic box with air holes? What the hell is that supposed to achieve?" It didn't sound like anything that could protect him at all. "Wouldn't telepathic influence go right through?"

"No. And the air holes prevent suffocation and overreaction. I'm the telepath; I know best on this stuff. Buck up. It could be worse. I could have said that I put you in a telepathic jar."

It didn't bear thinking about. "We're going back inside," Aya said. Before anything else happened. Farfarello had to be worried.

"You're no fun."

******************************************************

Instead of eating, Farfarello kept his hands in his lap and traced the scars on his wrists to strive for calm. He felt hollow, incomplete, and far too distractible. Now that he couldn't feel Aya, having him out of sight and reach was maddening. Anything could happen to his kitten! The mindbreaker certainly couldn't be counted as a protector. He wanted to dash to Aya's side but felt a warning telekinetic weight on his legs.

Farfarello felt crazy, precarious. Everything could tip over at any second. He used to live like this--no telepathy, no puisín--without thinking twice about it. At the very beginning he'd only had his kitten's flesh and not so much as a taste of his mind and soul.

Now he didn't want to settle for less than everything his kitten could give, and he'd become accustomed to a certain level of personal stability. At Aya's side he could tolerate and even be amused by these little public social dances but now, without the other crutch of being on the job and focused on _that_, they wasted too much time. Talk, talk, talk. So small. Meant nothing. Not even the sight of Crawford's baby sister trying not to stare moony-eyed at Nagi, to Crawford's mingled amusement and annoyance, could entertain him.

Baby sisters should be cherished and protected. He'd failed with his, losing her to God and Takatori. Crawford didn't even try.

The world broadened and the colors brightened. Flare! His puisín reached and called and screamed, overwhelmed by the glory. Farfarello tried to lunge to his feet but a telekinetic hand at his neck cast him back down and kept him pinned. He glared at the boy, wishing for a look that could truly kill.

"Aya will be fine," Crawford said, ostentatiously unconcerned. "He has Schuldig with him."

"That's only part of my worries!"

The world narrowed again, muffled, as the mindbreaker cast Aya back into the jar. Farfarello felt so damned lonely.

He and his kitten would touch soul to soul again, and safely. He swore it.

"You have such a lively crew, Brad," Crawford's mother said.

"They're certainly live ones," May Crawford murmured.

"You really don't mind Schuldig's proclivities at all, Brad?" the mother asked.

"No," Crawford answered lightly. "Why do you ask?"

"He looks at that boy like he wants to devour him. Yes, he gives that look to many people, but not all with such intensity."

"He gives that look to you, Mom."

"Yes. It's a shame that Tom wouldn't be interested in a threesome."

Crawford's father nearly choked on his Coke. "Evelyn, please," he finally gasped. "He's not _that_ girlish."

They flirted and bantered while Farfarello's heart had been cut out. He wanted to kill.

While May Crawford shook her head in what might have been pain, Crawford looked somewhat horrified and said, "I didn't mind until the two of you said _that_."

"If they did get together like that, would that make Schuldig your other father?" Nagi asked.

"No, he would still just be a slut and everyone should stop talking about this now."

"I'm used to people talking about me when I'm gone," Schuldig said as he returned. "I get insulted if they don't." Looking wan and almost nauseous, Aya followed him.

"Schuldig," Crawford's mother murmured.

"What? Oh no, Mom, if I did that to him he'd be glowing, not desolated."

Farfarello put his hand on Aya's wrist as his kitten sat down and felt the pulse race. Schuldig must have told him what had happened and no doubt put a spin all his own on it. Farfarello would have to talk to Aya about it later.

"Can we finish this farce of a dinner now before I'm driven to kill someone?" Farfarello asked. One of the many advantages of his prominent scars was that they made people more inclined to take such a statement seriously.

"Yes, please," May Crawford said, no doubt because it would keep her from having to not stare at Nagi any longer.

"Awkward as this dinner may be, I don't want it to end soon," Crawford's mother said. "Tomorrow my son will be leaving me again, and I believe that I know him well enough to expect that he won't keep in touch well."

"I expected us to leave you and go to the hotel after this," Crawford said. Cold man. Also, that statement would make his mother want to hold onto him now even more.

Farfarello contemplated doing violence with his fork and butter knife. He'd noticed Nagi telekinetically sliding the steak knife away from him almost as soon as it had been set on the table. He would have to use more force to do damage with those. Wait, he could swear that his kitten wore his boot sheath this evening. That had potential.

Aya grabbed his wrist and stroked, leaving them with their arms crossed, holding on to each other's wrists. It amused and calmed Farfarello. Aya sat straight, looking ahead with his stone face on so no one else would know what they did. Although the boy might.

_Love you_, Farfarello wanted to say to his kitten, but his sendings bounced off the shield. No matter how hard he scrabbled and clawed, everything he did slid off it, as if he tried to reach Aya through a mirror, able to see him but not touch him. It was maddening.

"I don't want you to leave with bad feelings between us," Mother Crawford said.

"I have to decide whether I've tormented you enough over it yet."

The mindbreaker grinned. Nagi asked, ~ Do you think they'll let the rest of us know what the hell is going on here? ~

~ I told you, ~ Schuldig answered.

~ Not enough. ~

~ Did you realize that May has a crush on you, Nags? ~

The boy turned even paler, then said, ~ Stop changing the subject! ~

~ She does. ~

~ I hate you. ~

~ Get me out of here, ~ Farfarello said, ~ before I hurt someone. My patience is gone, I have no support, and my puisín is having a crisis. If you and Crawford have to play your stupid fucking cat games with his mother, do it alone. I want to be out of here. And my kitten has a knife in his boot sheath that I can use. ~

Crawford must have been privy to the conversation because he said, "But we have to end dinner soon. Most of my team needs to recover from a difficult morning and a long drive."

Mother Crawford nodded. "As long as you, Schuldig, and Nagi stay longer. I have things that might be better said in private, amongst family, anyway."

Crawford nodded. Thankfully. The boy looked resentful, while Aya's pulse started to slow. The mindbreaker appeared to be enjoying himself immensely. Farfarello let Aya listen to Crawford's instructions on finding the hotel and getting their room. When he pulled his puisín to his feet to leave, Nagi shot them a "take me with you!" look that he gleefully ignored.

Farfarello nodded his head to the Crawfords. "Good night. It's been educational meeting the loins from which our leader sprang."

While most of the party laughed or choked, Crawford said, "Leave while you still can."

"Thank you."

The night air, wet and cold, felt marvelous. He wanted to fling his kitten up against the wall and melt into him, but Aya said, "The hotel." Yes, they'd never get away from here if Farfarello started with him now. Besides, Farfarello didn't know if he'd be able to touch his kitten without hurting him, not when he felt so mad and ravenous.


	143. "Mother, please stop molesting my lover."

"Chicks dig blonds," Yoji said as he smiled at another woman they passed.

"They certainly do," Elena answered with a smirk.

"Hey, if you nab a lesbian, I want a piece of that action."

"Ew, messy," Fenris said.

"Not like that!"

Ken shook his head fondly at Yoji being Yoji. Still, it wasn't quite the old Yoji. This one didn't seem to be as eternally and desperately on the make, which made it more relaxing and less embarrassing being out with him. Elena shot a smirk at him that made him resent having telepaths on the team all over again. She looked less smug then and mouthed, "Sorry."

Ken just hoped that Yoji's new attitude didn't mean he'd given up on finding someone to be happy with. Asking him to settle down with someone was a bit much to expect.

Something suddenly jarred Ken and some of the groceries went flying. Once he got his head and bags together, he noticed a pretty woman picking up far more groceries than he'd dropped. It must have been a collision. "I'm sorry. Let me help you with that," Ken said as he carefully put his bags down.

"Thank you," she said.

As he crouched down he heard Fenris say, "Look, turtles. I have to go see the turtles, Ken," and Elena say, "I have to go with him to make sure he stays out of trouble" as she grabbed the groceries and Yoji say, "Good luck, tiger," before they all left together at high speed. Subtle. Very subtle.

"What was that?" the woman asked.

"My co-workers. They're all insane."

"They're also very subtle."

"Yeah, I noticed that. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I don't mind so much. You're cute."

That sounded promising. "I'm Hidaka Ken."

"Yamaguchi Riyo." She really was very pretty and had a great smile.

"Let me help you bring these home."

******************************************************

"I'm into men too," Yoji protested as he closed the refrigerator door. How the hell had he come to this, arguing that he was something he'd spent a lot of time denying?

"The only thing your experience so far has proven is that you're Schwarzosexual," Elena answered, and Fenris snorted.

"I enjoy doing men. And being done. Not just Schwarz."

"My poor, raw ears," Fenris said.

"I think you mean 'tender' or 'innocent,'" Elena answered.

"Those too!"

"It sounds like we're back to me picking up some guy to prove myself to you, which I'm not gonna do," Yoji said. "I like having some real emotion in my sex, so I'm not picking someone up just to make a point."

"That's healthy!" Elena replied.

"Damned right."

"And convenient."

"I hate you with the burning heat of a thousand suns." He couldn't win. "Stop bothering me about my social life."

"Or lack of one."

"Elena, I'm gonna kill you."

"Nah, too messy."

"Once upon a time my team would have been thrilled that I'm not going out as much."

"What can I say? They were fools."

******************************************************

Small talk. Boring, so boring. Nagi hated small talk and didn't contribute much that exceeded one syllable. Family gatherings apparently featured a lot of small talk, so he felt glad again that he didn't really have a family. Japan looked better all the time. In an e-mail correspondence, you could skim for the good stuff and ignore the rest.

He didn't feel like such a maladjusted freak usually.

Was it better when May Crawford pointedly didn't look at him or worse? Nagi couldn't tell. Either way sucked.

No, he decided that the not-looking sucked more. He preferred it when people didn't look at him because they didn't notice him. _She_ didn't look at him out of being all too aware he was there, and he could _feel_ it.

Besides, in the Crawford family dynamics she was kind of his aunt.

~ Poor Nagi. Too pretty for your own good ~

~ This dinner better be over soon, or I'll play the psycho card like Farfarello just did. ~

~ You feeling okay? Normal, like? ~

Schuldig asking that put a chill down Nagi's spine. ~ I think so. Why? ~

~ Snow-white and Rose-red took down the amateur links Red had put up connecting him to you, and I want to see if it made a difference. ~

~ I don't notice a difference. ~ Nagi hadn't felt a sense of loss until Schuldig had mentioned they'd been there but weren't anymore, but he doubted that meant the same thing.

~ Good! ~

Nagi felt the urge to drop to his knees in thanks when Crawford's father called for the check. Or perhaps he just wanted to crawl under the table to wait until everyone else left so he could leave alone.

In the parking lot, standing in front of everyone's cars, Grandmom-san said, "I'd doubted that I would ever see my son again, but here you are. I'm so happy to meet all of you. You help keep him alive."

"You wouldn't have gotten any contact with him if I hadn't nudged him," Schuldig said.

"I'm aware of that. I apologize for hurting your feelings."

But not for whatever it was she had done. Interesting.

"Sure."

"I think you make Brad happy and help keep him sharp."

Schuldig looked less annoyed now. "Thanks."

"Nagi, please come over here."

Shit. He knew where this was heading. He walked over and stiffly endured the hug she gave him and the fast, manly clasp from Crawford's father. "It was good to meet you, Nagi," the dad said, which was fine, but Grandmom-san said, "I expect more e-mail letters and photos."

Damn. "There are a lot of things I can't tell you about."

"I understand. You can tell me about family things and your young man instead."

He'd spam her in vengeance, but she'd probably decide to find that amusing. "Yes, ma'am."

"You're all free to e-mail us."

"Goodbye, Nagi," May said, sounding completely and carefully neutral.

"Yeah. I'm sure you'll be fine as my aunt."

She rolled her eyes. "You're all so subtle."

"We try."

"I'm glad I met you, Mom," Crawford said.

"Now he knows that it's not _all_ Rosenkreuz's fault," Schuldig said. "Don't elbow me again, Brad."

Grandmom-san hugged Crawford, who endured it, then Granddad-san hugged him as well and said, "Don't be a stranger. With the money you make you can come visit sometime." Schuldig got his shoulder clasped by him.

Schuldig and Grandmom-san faced off like two opponents trying to stare each other down, which looked humorous with the extreme difference in their heights, then he put his hand out for her to shake. Nagi's telekinetic senses made what happened next no surprise because he could watch her kinetic field go into motion. She grabbed Schuldig in a hug, and he jumped suddenly in her grip in a way that gave Nagi a good guess as to where her hands had settled. If anybody deserved it....

"Horny old lady," Schuldig murmured in her arms, but he smiled.

"Maybe you're as irresistible as you think you are," she answered.

"Mother, please stop molesting my lover."

"Yes, Brad."

There were final goodbyes and waving. May looked as relieved as Nagi felt when they split off to their two cars. Crawford let his family's car leave first, then said to Nagi and Schuldig, "Tomorrow we go back to our lives."

Normality would be a relief, even though most of the world wouldn't accept Schwarz's daily life as normal.

******************************************************

Vibrating, Farfarello broke away from Aya as soon as they entered their room, saying, "I want you, but I can't _feel_ you and I worry that I might hurt you."

Aya being in a... telepathic box with air holes--and how the hell did that protect him against anything?--seemed to be bothering Farfarello more than it did Aya. It merely left Aya feeling moodier than usual. At least he thought he might be feeling moodier than usual. He'd been moody for years. But Farfarello appeared to be bereft, ravenous, and unstable without their link. It amazed, scared, and flattered Aya that Farfarello had become so dependent on him in so short a time.

Being out of control now would only make Farfarello feel even more out of control. It would create an ever-worsening loop. Aya needed to halt that right here. "You can control yourself, but you're so stressed that I don't think it should be all up to you."

Farfarello looked confused and a bit angry.

Aya sucked at talking to people. He undid his belt and pulled it off, then set the belt through the buckle again to make a loop. "So it won't all be up to you. I won't let you hurt me."

Farfarello's eye lit up as he understood. "So wise, puisín."

"Go into the bathroom and strip. I'll follow."

Once in the bathroom Farfarello stripped quickly and emphatically, and Aya watched with an increasing lust. He'd worried before that his desire had been something that bled to him through the link and thus wasn't his own. Now, without the link, he felt his lust grow on its own, all his, as he watched Farfarello unveil his scarred but strong and lithe body. His. All his.

When Farfarello achieved nakedness, Aya put the loop of belt around Farfarello's wrists and tightened it to fit closely enough to be noticeable even to him but not enough to cut off all circulation, then cinched it. In truth, it wouldn't hold the berserker for long if he really wanted to be free, but Aya didn't intend to truly restrain him, just remind him to use restraint.

They both knew that. Aya could tell from the pleased twist of Farfarello's mouth.

"You're bound now," Aya said. "You won't hurt me."

Farfarello's vibration looked different now, excited instead of stressed out, calmer. "I'm bound."

Aya unzipped his pants. "I'm going to fuck you."

Grinning, Farfarello somehow looked young and dangerous at once. "How do you want me?"

"Face the wall."

Farfarello did, bracing himself against the tiles with his bound hands, leaving his bared, whipcord body looking vulnerable.

They had their games, some of which others might consider kinky, but Aya rarely did bondage and domination with Farfarello because it made him feel self-conscious and ridiculous. That time with the choke collar might have had Farfarello wearing the collar and being choked, but Aya had been... submissive to his will throughout.

It had been such a relief not to have to lead anyone anymore. For years Aya had done everything for himself and commanded others in the fear that his life and what remained of his sister's would fall apart if he didn't. He hadn't trusted anyone else to do anything.

And his sister had died anyway.

In Schwarz, many times decisions were made for him, and many of those decisions had turned out well. The world hadn't ended. They took care of him, and he could let them. Lately he had the choice of taking command or not, as the situation or his own needs demanded.

Now he had to take care of his partner, and if being bound and told what to do would accomplish that for Farfarello Aya would do that for him.

"Afterwards we'll have a bath," Aya said as he ran his hand down Farfarello's taut back, making sure to exert pressure.

"So wise." Farfarello almost purred.

******************************************************

In bed with his warm and freshly bathed kitten, Farfarello reflected that he might not be able to touch Aya's soul anymore--for now--but he could feel Aya's body better. His energy work seemed to be gradually fixing his damage. The new sensations left him drunk and even more besotted. As he rubbed himself against Aya's body, fascinated by the feel of his skin and hair, he wanted to feast on him, fuck and be fucked endlessly. Aya was so _alive_. Farfarello set his teeth at the back of his neck, nipping lightly.

Even without the link, Aya loved him and wanted him and _knew_ him. He'd been handled, maneuvered around, and calmed masterfully. His kitten had felt wonderful fucking him into the wall and felt wonderful again now as Farfarello thrust and rocked into the tight clutch of his body. He could swear that he felt the faint stirrings of Aya's soul trying to reach out to him even through the barrier, scrabbling, scrabbling.

Thinning the barrier by scratching away at it from the inside.

Farfarello wanted that and feared it at once but couldn't stop from his side. He hungered too much. It relieved him when a telepathic wave of colors got in his way because it stopped him from continuing and gave him someone he could scream at.

******************************************************

Schuldig felt his shielding on Aya start to melt as it was attacked by both sides. How the hell did Aya do these things?

From what Schuldig could make out, Aya reached out to Farfarello, so stopping Farfarello would stop that. Going into the psycho's shattered glass and steel-wool mind was never the most appealing option, so Schuldig yanked on Farfarello to get him out and onto the psychic plane, which didn't take that much effort with how Farfarello didn't completely stay in his body usually. Besides, Schuldig had links to him and knew shortcuts.

Farf paced in agitation. ~ You! Fix this! ~ he yelled. ~ You told me to embrace my talents, that they would give me gifts, but everything I gained from them is yanked away from me and now I'm losing even what I had before! First I couldn't touch my kitten with my soul, and now I can't even _touch_ my kitten without fear of obliterating him! ~

Farfarello's hair looked a darker red now and the green of his eyes didn't look the same either. Had Farf actually changed, or did Schuldig see him through a filter of worry? Schuldig still didn't know how the avatar's color schemes worked, just that everyone saw a different version.

~ I'm working on it! ~

Farf stalked past him, up to a translucent wall. Schuldig saw a ghostly imprint of Aya behind it. Although Aya seemed blind, his groping hands seemed to follow Farfarello's motions as Farf walked back and forth in front of the barrier. As his hands touched the barrier it stretched out a bit, more like plastic wrap than something solid. Lacking telepathic sight of his own, blocked from Farfarello's talent, Aya appeared to be working with something more primitive and subconscious.

Aya's strong will and single-minded focus could bend reality and laws on the psychic plane. That he didn't actually have the talent to allow him to see or manipulate anything on a conscious level made him dangerous to himself and others. Funny that _less_ power made him such a hazard.

Aya opened his eyes, which here were purple edged in gold. He looked confused and upset.

~ Work faster, ~ Farfarello said, ~ or I swear to you that my kitten and I won't be the only ones suffering. ~

It sounded like Schuldig had done as much as he could do here, so he let go of Farfarello and returned to himself. "Trouble?" Brad asked.

Schuldig sat up on the bed. "I have to go out. The kids need help, I have to look into it, and I don't want to take the chance someone will track me here while I'm doing it."

"It sounds risky." He sounded simultaneously wary and intrigued.

"Not so much. I'm just being cautious. I'll take the car. Don't wait up, since I can lose all track of time."

Brad tossed him the keys. "Have fun storming the castle."

"You _do_ care."

They'd chosen a hotel close to the airport and highway, which made this easier. Schuldig simply drove along the highway until he found a good shoulder to stop at. The travelers provided static and noise that would help mask him from people trying to track him back.

Schuldig closed his eyes and went off into the ether on the hunt for likely teachers. Farfarello and Aya were _his_ and weren't allowed to self-destruct.

******************************************************

Aya was enjoying himself very much until Farfarello stopped moving and fell heavily atop him. Given what they'd been doing, it was very uncomfortable and awkward, and he tried not to think of how mortifying it would be to have his corpse found in such a state. Aya stretched to grab a knife from the night table, although he had no idea what he could do against a psychic attack. The sudden strong scent of cinnamon suggested something uncanny at work.

Farfarello would be all right. He had to be. Farfarello went "dead" just using his talent.

Still, Aya breathed easier when Farfarello started to move again.

That Farfarello moved again to move _away_ left Aya feeling agitated again. After what had happened, he didn't feel aroused anymore either, but Farfarello had withdrawn from him.

"What happened?" Aya asked as he rolled onto his side to face his lover, who stood beside the bed now.

"We nearly merged again. I don't dare touch you."

Aya moved closer. "That's ridiculous!" He hadn't felt anything. "We just--"

"You don't know. You're not aware. I have to protect you."

Aya would not be shut out. How could this be salvaged? Aya smacked him lightly across the nose. Farfarello's eye widened in disbelief, then, forgetting himself, he dashed forward to strike back. In the middle of his move he remembered, but then Aya grabbed him and flipped him down onto the bed, snuggling him by force as he struggled.

"Puisín! This is dangerous!"

"You get so upset so quickly sometimes that you don't think it through."

"I have cause!"

"I know that I'm similar, so I'm not judging you. But think. Not so long ago, I fucked you in the bathroom with no ill effect."

Farfarello stilled. "That's true. But you don't even know when you're reaching for me."

"We just have to figure out what's safe." How Weiß would laugh if they could see him being the reasonable one. "We'll save ourselves."

"Hmm." Now Farfarello snuggled back, warm and welcome, relaxing. "Good. But it's good to have backup too. I told Schuldig to find someone to help us."

"That's where you went."

Farfarello's fingers drew patterns on Aya's skin. "He pulled me away and I gave him a piece of my mind."

"I don't trust him to save us."

"Me neither, but it's good to have options."

"It's like a contagion." Maybe an STD. Farfarello hadn't shown any sign of talents when they'd first gotten together, and now even Aya started to show tendencies. It was ridiculous.

"There are advantages. I miss feeling you."

"I rarely felt what you did." It left him out.

"Maybe that can change. If we can learn control, we don't have to shut ourselves off completely." Farfarello traced the length of Aya's spine. "Perhaps we can make you more conscious."

Aya appreciated goals, even ones that scared him a little.


	144. "So, do the glasses still flash light even when someone else wears them?"

Finding a teacher for Snow-white and Rose-red wouldn't be easy. They needed a do-gooder who'd want to help them out of kindness and not for advantage and who wouldn't try to slip any nasty sleeper commands in, yet not the kind of do-gooder who would hand assassins over to the authorities. That narrowed it down a lot. Narrowing it down even more was finding a telepath who had any experience with or ideas about Farf's condition and how it had created Aya's. Farf himself was rare and Aya rarer. A lot of telepaths had gotten such rigid training that they couldn't apply what they knew to situations they'd never seen before.

It made Schuldig tune his psychic beacon very carefully. So carefully that he didn't get a single nibble.

He felt a sudden presence. ~ No one will help you, ~ the telepath said. ~ Your leader is famously protective of your team's secrets. Anyone who came close enough to you to fix a problem would know too much to be allowed to leave alive. ~

Schuldig faced her. ~ Like Chuck isn't protective, Betts? ~

She had armor on, suggesting that she thought she'd need some protection from him. All of Chuck's telepaths, no matter how powerful, looked like Barbie or Ken dolls, smoothed-out human shapes without the sexy bits, nude unless they put armor on to face threats. Training that homogenized could be a disadvantage and a limiter. Not that they saw it that way.

~ He doesn't murder people, ~ Betts said.

~ He doesn't when he's in his right mind. You're not exactly lily white yourself. We don't want your side's help. I already have one overly controlling bastard in my life, and at least mine puts out. ~

~ You've already had our help. We've taken on some people who were gunning for you before they even reached you. ~

There had been even more than Schwarz had handled? They had to get out of this fucking country. ~ So my teammates are screwed? I'll just have to sit back and watch them melt into each other? ~

~ I didn't say that. It's a linkage and boundary problem, with some identity and body confusion thrown in? That's what your beacon sounded like. I have some experience in that. ~

~ Yeah, your avatar doesn't look as Anglo anymore. I'd wondered about that. ~

~ It's a long story you don't need to know anything about. ~ A box formed in her hand. ~ This is what I know. It might help. ~

Taking that box might incorporate that knowledge right into Schuldig's self. If she lied about its contents, it might hold a kind of telepathic virus. It could do anything. Of all of Chuck's crew, she was one of the grayest.

~ It's your choice to trust me or not, ~ she said smugly. ~ But anyone you took in to teach them would have to be trusted to some extent. ~

With any teacher or teaching brought in, Schuldig would be the first line of defense and the first one affected by a mistake.

Focusing carefully, Schuldig put a protective layer on and took the box from her. She shook her head, making her long purple hair swing, saying, ~ It's amazing watching you do that when you don't have limbs. ~ She was probably also surprised that the box hadn't sunk into and made itself a part of him. A weaker telepath wouldn't have had the choice of saving it for later; taking it would mean automatic integration and taking on the risk of everything it might contain.

~ I have limbs like this. You just have to be more open-minded. ~ He would examine the box at length in private. He just hoped that he could judge its contents without actually sucking them in first.

~ I suppose that there's no point in trying to convince your team to our way of thinking. ~

~ Quite. Though we are killing _evildoers_ for money now. ~ Only Farf killed the occasional priest. Then again, some of those deserved killing. ~ Thanks, Betts. I hope you realize that if this gift is a trap my leader will find out what happened and who's responsible and start a war. ~

~ Of course. But you don't have to worry, since I'm one of the good guys, ~ she answered with a smirk.

~ Right. Oh, too bad you didn't make it into the movies, Betts. ~

~ The movies and comics aren't accurate, ~ she answered, but she sounded pissed anyway. Heh. ~ They're camouflage so people think we're fictional. Nobody knows the school really exists or can even find the place unless we let them. ~

~ Sure. Good night, honey. ~

Schuldig withdrew from Betts, who left, and scanned the box. It definitely held knowledge and not that much of it, but he couldn't get a better idea of what it was without actually assimilating it. Damn.

~ Brad, you're so famous for shooting people who know too much that I couldn't get anyone to agree to teach, but I was given a telepathic packet of what might be useful information. I'm giving you a head's-up that I'm opening it. ~

~ You're warning me. ~

~ No one else can do this. ~

~ Keep in mind that you just repaired your shields and psyche. You might not be at full power and expertise. ~ Brad's worry bled into the message. Aw. ~ I don't want you coming back as someone else's pawn. I'll put you down if I have to. ~

~ Noted. Here we go. ~

The thoughts tasted like tea and shadows, and they slid into new homes in Schuldig's mind as they sought similar information to link up with. As he tracked them, he saw that they appeared to be what she said they were.

Her stuff on personal shielding might not be helpful to Aya, with his claustrophobia. Nagi might know. Schuldig got the impression that the kid had tried to help Aya out that way in Pittsburgh, so he should ask.

~ I'm still me, Brad. ~

~ If you weren't, you would probably say the same. ~

~ You missed your calling in standup comedy. I'm coming in. ~

When Schuldig unlocked their room door, he had Brad's gun pointed at his head and his own immediately up to reciprocate. "I could have killed you," Schuldig said with a grin.

"I could have killed you as well."

Schuldig put his gun down. "If I were somebody's pawn, my master wouldn't care if I died and would see it as a good trade."

Brad smirked. "And you call me a romantic."

"You are, Brad, you are."

Brad put his gun back in its holster. "You won't shoot me. I foresaw it."

Schuldig did the same. "You take some of the fun out of life."

"Was anything in the packet useful?"

"It'll need time to settle. I have to ask Nagi something, then I'm all yours."

"Oh joy."

"I'll make you pay for that later." Schuldig let himself fall backward onto the bed. ~ Hey, Nags. ~

~ Don't distract me like that! I was in the middle of something sensitive. If you calling made me screw it up, it would have brought some major heat on us! ~ When bored, Nagi often redirected funds from other people's accounts to Schwarz's to pass the time. Of course, Brad supported it, thinking it was one of the funniest things ever.

~ You're too good for that. ~

~ What do you want? ~

~ I want to know about Aya and his personal shielding. I'm trying to help him and Farf. ~

~ All right. I tried to get him to put up his own, but he couldn't deal with knowing he was inside walls. He was fine when he didn't have a realistic metaphor for the light shielding you'd given him. ~ Nagi hmmed. ~ We attracted their attention when he tried to put shielding up on his own. Before that we were under their radar. ~

Interesting. ~ His own will coming into it made him become a person to them where before he was background noise, just part of a crowd. Wouldn't happen with most normals, but I bet he sucked some of Farf's talent over to work on his shields. ~

~ I think he might have. Their kinetic waves are often tangled, but I think I saw a small surge that shouldn't have been there. I didn't think much of it at the time, so I don't know if I'm reading too much into it now. ~

Right. Nagi could see kinetic potential. Schuldig had gotten a nausea- and headache-inducing taste of it from him a few times but still found it intriguing. ~ You're so exotic. Do you have any idea how much I want you? ~

~ Unfortunately yes. You're hardly shy. Hmm. Aya didn't have those spidery links when I first suggested he make his own shield, so they must have gone up afterward. ~

That little tidbit of information gave Schuldig a better idea of timeline. ~Thanks. ~

~ That's all I can think of to tell you. Do you have any questions? ~

~ Not right now, but I might come back to you later. ~

~ Right. Then leave me alone now. ~

~ Bitchy, bitchy. ~

Nagi flipped him off through the link, then broke contact. Schuldig wouldn't mess with him so much if he weren't so entertaining.

Schuldig smiled up at Brad, who sat next to him and stroked the ends of his hair. "Couldn't wait?" Schuldig asked.

"The trim was a good idea. I'm glad I thought of it." He had his happy smirk on. "Your ends were getting ragged, which hardly looks professional."

"While having all this hair hanging down my back is?"

"It would depend on the profession."

"Very funny. You just added another thing to kill you for later." Schuldig grabbed his tie and pulled him down.

******************************************************

"What woke you up?" Aya asked, a shape and familiar scent in the dark.

"What woke _you_ up?" Farfarello answered.

"You did."

"Sorry, puisín. I was thinking."

"About what?"

"I can smite, but my ability heals too. Some of the material says that it can heal other people. I want to try it on you." Farfarello wanted to see if it might make up for the loss he felt.

"I'm not hurting."

"Then I just want to see if I can make you feel good."

"I don't want to get an electric shock."

"It doesn't have to be like that. You'll see." Farfarello rubbed his hands together, then slid one arm under Aya's body and set it over Aya's heart, barely touching his skin. Where Farfarello's instinct was to grab the energy he felt within Aya's body, here he gave some of his own and just communed with Aya's. It felt good. "How is that?"

"Just warm. I think it tingles a little."

"Good tingles?"

"So far."

His kitten, the perpetual pessimist. Farfarello slid his hand down to rest over his puisín's navel. "Still?"

"Warm and tingling."

Farfarello used his other hand to massage Aya's testicles and grinned at the sound his kitten made. "Here too?"

"...yes," his puisín answered, pushing into his hands a bit. "You can... continue doing that if you like."

The other hand he moved from place to place: heart, gut, cock. Aya melted against him.

Earlier they had both strained against the telepathic barrier. But if he exhausted and distracted his kitten, that might not happen again.

It had been so unfair to Aya to leave him unfinished earlier. Farfarello wondered if he was still slick inside. There was an easy way to find out.

******************************************************

Schuldig pulled back a bit but remained in Crawford's lap. "I have so many attractive features. Why the hell are you concentrating on my scars?"

"You don't even notice them if you're not looking for them."

Schuldig had one on each cheekbone, faint lines the same color as the rest of his skin. One was a little higher than the other, asymmetrical.

"Then why are you looking for them?" Schuldig grabbed Crawford's glasses off his face and set them atop his head as he often did his sunglasses. Everything around Crawford blurred at the edges and softened in that way he hated. "So, do the glasses still flash light even when someone else wears them?"

Yes. "No."

"Liar. You're so damned distracted. It's insulting."

He appreciated it that Schuldig was so different from him. It let him vicariously experience things he wouldn't want to commit to doing and being himself. Besides, another person like Crawford in the team would inevitably lead to a death match. There wasn't enough room for two of them.

He couldn't stop thinking.

"A lot happened today." It had been good to see his father again. He didn't feel all that angry with his mother anymore now that he'd made his point clear about her respecting his property and he had some distance from her. They had qualities in common. "You know, if you'd had sex with my mother, I would have killed you."

"If anyone would have been taken advantage of there, it probably would have been me. She's no innocent."

"She's my mother."

"Case in point."

He would have to e-mail his mother and father once in a while. The siblings he didn't care much for.

"You really are too distracted." Schuldig set Crawford's glasses back on his face. "I'll go bug Nagi."

"You'll wake him up for that?"

"Nah. He's keeping himself up tonight." So he could sleep through the plane ride. Nagi did that sometimes.

"Stay with me anyway."

Schuldig grinned. "_Really_? And do what?"

"Whatever." Crawford felt his jumbled thoughts trying to cohere, and for whatever reason he had the intuition that keeping Schuldig here would help jog them into the right order.

"If you're not going to entertain me, I'll sleep." Of course, Schuldig said nothing about having given in so quickly and easily on visiting Nagi. He removed his robe with little of his usual teasing flare--so maybe he'd decided to give Crawford some space to work out his roiling thoughts--slid under the covers, and turned off the closest light. "I'm sleeping now."

"Sure, Schu."

"I'm getting the feeling you don't believe me."

"Part of it might be that you're still talking."

"You're so picky." But Schuldig, able to sleep almost anywhere under any conditions, fell asleep two minutes later, leaving Crawford alone with his thoughts.

So much had happened lately. He'd never intended to reunite with his family, yet he'd quickly taken the excuse of doing it for his lover's sake. It didn't make him feel that he'd been weak, at least, but it did make him seem somewhat sentimental. He'd surrendered to his curiosity.

It dismayed him that his life had been so easily airbrushed into a socially acceptable and even commendable path. He was a self-made man in a position of authority, independently wealthy, known and respected in a growing field. He had a helpmeet/lover and a kind of son. It made him seem somehow mundanely successful, which bothered him.

Yet he couldn't regret any of it. He remained as ambitious and vicious as ever. And why shouldn't he have parents? Most people did. Meeting his parents and siblings had somehow underlined how his team had become a family itself over time, and now he had an extended family aside from Schwarz.

Once upon a time Crawford had made the same mistake Eszett had made with them and seen them only as tools to be commanded. Having been given a bit of freedom and a stake in the team, they now performed better and became ever more powerful. Their input actually made them more efficient.

Aside from the scare over Schuldig's sanity, which seemed to be finished from how Schuldig-like the telepath was again, life was good. Having taken Eszett out, Crawford had made a good life for himself and his dependents.

Speaking of which, he would have to talk to Nagi in the morning. The boy needed to cultivate healthier sleeping habits. Staying up this late to finish a mission was fine but wasn't worth it for hobbies, not even hobbies that provided a monetary gain to Schwarz.

Thoughts settled, Crawford turned out the remaining light, took off his glasses, slipped in beside his lover, and went to sleep. He woke up with his arm draped possessively over Schuldig's hip and his hand on Schuldig's hard cock. Schuldig then rolled over to face him and kept him happily engaged in bed for quite a while longer.

Schuldig's law of the conservation of sex was that sex could never be lost, just deferred.


	145. "Only as long as it makes us absolutely nothing to each other."

Under the morning sunshine the psycho twins looked remarkably peppy considering that Farf had been talking as if all hope had died last night. He'd have to do something for them when he had more time to put his insights together but got the feeling that they'd managed to do some things for themselves. Aya colored a little under Schuldig's interested and speculating stare, then got annoyed at himself and looked away, carefully not thinking. All Schuldig could pick up from his thoughts was tingling warmth, but the blush suggested that the toxic twins had indulged in some great sex last night even after Farf had bitched Schuldig out.

Nagi had dark shadows under his eyes and yawned. Brad must have noticed too because he said, "You have to get more sleep."

"I was working."

"On a private project."

"It benefits the team."

"You'll stunt your growth," Schuldig couldn't stop himself from saying.

Nagi pointed at Brad. "You are not my father." Then he pointed at Schuldig and said, "And you are not my father, mother, uncle, or madam."

Schuldig asked, "Can I be your father's brother's uncle's cousin's former roommate?" The Schwarz was with them always.

"Only as long as it makes us absolutely nothing to each other."

"Nagi, you will try to get more sleep," Brad said.

"That's what plane rides are for," Nagi answered.

"You know what I mean; don't pretend that you don't. Ignorance doesn't look right on you."

Poor kid didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or a smack to the back of the head. Of course, sleep deprivation hadn't left him all that sharp.

"We'll go into the airport separately and be seated separately," Brad said. "If Farfarello is challenged at the metal detector as he always is, Aya will have to present his medical papers. Aya and Farfarello will board together, Schu and I will board together, and Nagi will be alone."

"Maybe I _am_ sleeping," Nagi said. "This is like a wonderful dream."

"So don't forget your travel buddy, kids," Schuldig said. "Except for Nagi, who's mature enough to be on the airplane alone."

"And don't you forget it."

"Aya and Farfarello's boxes have already been picked up and loaded, although I have no idea why they're bringing so much back."

"We'll talk about it in Japan," Farfarello said.

Aya and Farfarello turned so smug and cozy that Schuldig could read a little of their separate apartment scheme, a place of their own apart from Schwarz but adjoining, from them. Kids grew up so fast these days. Brad would have a fit. Schuldig wouldn't like it much either, having a stouter door with a better lock between them. Then again, if Brad did give in Brad would no doubt find a way to have a copy of the key made, which meant Schuldig would have access as well. That would be all right.

"That should be interesting." Brad looked bored. That wouldn't last once he heard their plan later. "Aya, Farfarello, and Nagi will use the identities prepared for them for Pittsburgh. It should be safe. We'll park the cars in the lot. Kritiker will pick them up. Any questions? No? Good."

Schuldig never had trouble passing security so he went through first and monitored everyone else, partly to be careful against an attack, although their enemies would have to be damned desperate to go for them in a public airport, and partly from boredom. He slid his red sunglasses down over his eyes to make people less likely to notice if he looked a bit vague as he scoped the area's people out.

As Brad turned on his laptop to prove it harmless, the guard watching him saw the silver hair and thought him to be older than he was. The fool. Still, that wouldn't be something to mention to Brad unless Schuldig _wanted_ to tick him off. Nagi might be dead tired and a little dull-eyed under the dark shades he'd put on, but he was dressed sharp and walked with a straight, confident gait that complimented his pretty looks and turned heads. Schwarz's pint-sized bombshell. Schuldig would have to mention the attention to him later to watch him get flustered.

Looking annoyed, Aya presented Farf's medical papers to security after the metal detector had gone off as usual. The guards didn't know what to make of the two of them but didn't find them threatening. They thought Farf seemed too healthy to have the damage described but his facial scars helped support him. Grinning, he also lifted his sunglasses to show his eye patch and started to lift his eye patch too before Aya put a hand on his wrist and told him that would be unnecessary. The energy work seemed to have given Farf more vitality. The woman guard thought Aya's coloring was exotic and very pretty, while one of the guys sneered that it had to be colored contacts and hair dye so Aya had to be a fag. The white-haired freak was probably his boyfriend. Well, even stopped clocks were right twice a day.

Schuldig didn't think Aya was so much homosexual as so fixated on his sister being the only woman who had fully existed that heterosexuality didn't even occur to him. The other women were victims or villains, not sexual beings. Sad. Schuldig couldn't see cutting himself off from half the world that way. Then again, Aya had been _asexual_ until Farf had started messing with him. Came from being too focused on his self-appointed mission to save his sister. With the sister dead and people forcing him to notice them....

"You're so nosy," Brad murmured as he walked over to Schuldig. Since going silver, he wore suits in shades like navy and charcoal more often, and Schuldig thought he looked sharper that way. Pinstripes drove Schuldig wild in ways he couldn't even explain.

"It's fun."

Brad blinked and looked annoyed. "Dammit. They have to be kidding."

"What?"

"Farfarello and Aya intend to ask me for their own apartment."

Heh. "It's not a totally bad idea. They're thinking there could be an interior door connecting the apartments that locks from their side. I'm sure you could find ways to get past that. It gives them an illusory feeling of privacy. We could still invite them to meals. Maybe we can guilt Aya into cooking over there for us."

"Did they tell-- Of course they didn't. You were nosy."

"It's not like people go to _me_ before they ask things of big, bad daddy. Though it would be a good idea to."

"We would have to move."

"It's not like our current place in Japan is home. We didn't spend much time there. Our life has been all about moving."

"I'll think about it."

"Since you're expecting it, you could make them suffer as they ask."

Brad smirked. "I might or might not. I'll decide on the flight."

"At least _you'll_ have something to do with yourself. I think I'll sleep through it. I'll be less homicidal if I don't have to listen to all the idiots on the plane."

******************************************************

Nagi smiled as he put his headphones on and settled back into his chair. Crawford had gotten business class seats for only himself and Schuldig, but Nagi didn't have their ridiculously long legs and didn't feel as uncomfortable as they did in a lower class. Tradeoffs were inevitable when one wanted to be alone. At least he had a window seat. Of course, he'd have a stranger seated on one side of him, but if he could survive sitting next to Farfarello he could survive that.

He fastened his seatbelt and closed his eyes to nap, tuning out even the murmur of the flight attendant's "in case of emergency" speech. In case of emergency he could save himself without needing oxygen masks or flotation devices. Hell, he might be able to bring the whole plane down safely. He hadn't really pushed himself in a while.

Someone was kicking his seat. Kick, kick, kick. Even through his headphones he could hear the little bitch whining to her mommy about how she wanted her juice and her cookies and her bear and when was the plane taking off--

Children. Worse, _American_ children. They made his skin crawl.

If he injured her, a medical crew would crowd the area to check on her and then get her out, and the flight would be delayed. Instead, he damaged her seatbelt, took off his headphones, and waited, gritting his teeth at every kick in the meantime.

"Oh!" a woman shouted.

"What, babe?" a man asked.

"The seatbelt is fraying! It's about to come apart. We can't let Meghan sit here. Get a stewardess. We're moving."

"Can't we just switch seats?"

"Do you want to be the one sitting in the seat with the bad belt?"

"No." The man got up, which meant that Nagi wouldn't have to sit through a lot of the argument with the attendant over changing the seats.

Nagi swore that he would never be that compliant to a partner's will without serious profit to himself. The guy's wife couldn't possibly give him anything that made this worth it.

Kick, kick, kick. Maybe he could break her toes? No, that would call too much attention.

"--look at this!" the man said once he led the attendant back. "We can't sit here."

"I'm so sorry. I'll get you moved. Please be patient."

"I want us moved before takeoff," the mother said.

In two minutes the attendant came back with new seating for them. The airline wouldn't want these people making a loud disruption in front of other passengers over shoddy safety gear. After that, the seat stayed empty.

Content, Nagi put his headphones back on and went to sleep.

******************************************************

Farfarello had his head resting against Aya's shoulder and his fingers circling Aya's wrist. Cozy. "When we're in Japan again, we ask for our own place."

"And if he says no?" Aya murmured.

"Then we pout and be petulant until we really tick him off, then we stop. We bide our time for the next opportunity to ask, then ask again. We keep doing this until he breaks. It's like water torture."

Aya couldn't help being amused by the thought. That amusement carried him through the rest of the boring trip and all the way into the apartment. It made him nearly smile as the moment arrived.

"Crawford," Farfarello said, "it's time for us to talk to you about our stuff."

"Yes?" Crawford looked far too smug. He either knew nothing of what would come or knew far too much.

"We want our own apartment. It could have an adjoining interior door to yours, but we want our own place. We are adults with a need for some privacy and space."

"I see."

They all watched Crawford. Schuldig started to smile maliciously, which didn't bode well. Finally Crawford said, "You may have it, but there are conditions. You must look for this marvel yourselves. I wish you luck in finding empty, adjoining apartments in Tokyo, but I have faith in your abilities."

Aya saw where this was heading. "We don't have your connections."

"Of course not. No one does. I must approve any apartment set that you think is an actual contender after you've gone to see it, which means I have to see the rooms before you make any commitment. If we agree, you will pay the rent for your part out of your own pockets. The responsibility is yours. I won't remind you when it's time for you to pay your part."

Farfarello looked very disgruntled. "You've taken all the fun out of this." And made it much harder.

"This is an inconvenience for me. It's your job to make it less so."

He'd given in and punched them in the teeth at the same time, yet in a way where they couldn't really protest without sounding like petulant children. "Very clever," Aya said, while Schuldig snickered.

"I'm sure you won't mind having your boxes in your room and living amongst them in the meantime. They're stacked in there now."

Schuldig suddenly looked very distant, then muttered, "Shit," and put his coat back on.

"Where are you going?" Crawford asked.

"Yoji's in trouble, he's a teke, and he's so drugged up he might burst a blood vessel struggling to get himself out of it. They pumped some nasty shit into him, so nasty I barely recognize him."

"Can I help?" Aya asked, knowing that he didn't understand all the danger to Yoji here but worried.

"Nagi would be more useful. Kid?"

"Why not?" Nagi answered. "He's entertaining."

"Schuldig," Crawford said.

Schuldig sighed. "Think of it as earning brownie points from Kritiker instead of a freebie. Besides, I have a link to him."

"Do you really miss fucking him so much?" Crawford shook his head. "Go."

"Persia will be grateful," Nagi said.

"He better be."

"I don't know if we'll be in time," Schuldig said. "Yoji's building up fast."

******************************************************

Yoji came to bent in half with his head on his knees, his ankles bound together, and his arms shackled at the wrists behind his back. Serious shackles, which covered more than just his wrists and kept his hands fastened close together. If he had shackles on his wrists, he probably didn't have his watch anymore, a disadvantage he faced with keeping his weapon inside it. They'd taken his coat. This didn't look good.

Despite his reputation, he didn't see anything more than light bondage as fun, and he got the feeling that he hadn't been put in this position for anything he'd consider playtime anyway. But it wasn't like him to feel this anxious, with his thoughts racing and his heart and blood pounding and tightness in his chest and throat. He decided to feign unconsciousness a little longer and try to get past the dizziness and galloping panic.

Too bad someone grabbed his hair and yanked his head up anyway. "You're not fooling anybody," somebody said.

With his head up, Yoji could let his gaze flick around his surroundings to figure out what the hell had happened to him. He appeared to be in the back of a limo and had a thug on either side of him and two across. Across from him also sat Takehito Han.

Shit. The mission had snagged. They'd planned this one thoroughly, but sometimes even thorough planning ran up against chance or fate and got its ass kicked. Yoji wished Elena had gotten a few more successful missions under her belt as leader before something had snagged this badly.

He hoped he survived this to tell her that shit could happen.

Why hadn't his telepaths found him yet? Now that he'd regained consciousness he should be back on their radar. Then again, panicked as he felt, he barely recognized the pace of his own thoughts. Maybe they couldn't either.

"They sent such trash against me?" Takehito said.

Yoji really didn't know how to answer that. Besides, his throat felt too tight. The thug next to him who wasn't holding him by the hair slapped him across the face. Bastard was wearing a ring. "I sent myself," Yoji said sullenly.

"You'll be more cooperative soon enough." Takehito had the look of old money, old corruption, old ways, old thoughts, and his sneer said that Yoji's blond hair and green eyes had already locked in his opinion. "The drug in your system will only make you more and more terrified."

"Some people have pissed themselves," the thug yanking his hair said. And Yoji had figured that the plastic crinkling on the seat under his ass had just been for blood.

"Who sent you?" Takehito asked again.

"I sent myself." Yoji dodged the slap to the face but didn't see the punch to the gut coming in time. The punch made it more difficult to breathe for a while and increased that stalking feeling of panic.

The limo had blackout windows. No one could see anything going on in here from outside. Though Takehito-sama's wealth made it so few would challenge anything he did to entertain himself anyway.

Yoji would have to find some way to minimize damage to himself to give the rest of Weiß a chance to arrive. If asked again, maybe he should say that Sobu, Takehito's main rival, had sent him. From the way the number of thugs had suddenly increased exponentially midway through the mission, which had started Weiß's snag, Sobu might have made his move at last. But would bringing Sobu's name into it give Yoji a reprieve? Takehito might become more abusive.

"Were there others with you?"

"No." Yoji felt the ring cut open his face more during this slap. One of the thugs across from him looked much more excited now. Shit.

Takehito glanced at the man, then began to smile evilly. "You're still so difficult, but Mr. Chiaki has ways to make people talk that I prefer not to use on more accommodating guests. It might work here, but from the looks of you you might enjoy being brutally sodomized by the objects of his choice. I've been horrified and amazed by the things he can shove inside a human body, but it might be usual for you to use things like brooms and gun barrels. We'll have to try it and see."

Yoji's flesh crawled, and he felt very thankful that he didn't do the bare-chested thing for his mission outfit anymore because he currently felt vulnerable enough in his tank top. He had to get the hell out of this. All the while, Takehito smugly watched his face and drank in the look on it, so Yoji struggled to keep his expression blank, but the damned drug-induced panic made it so hard to control himself.

He wanted his wire. He wanted to tear into Takehito's neck, rip it, squeeze it, snap it....

One of the thugs next to him slapped the back of his head hard, and he felt some of his hairs get yanked out into the hand gripping his head by the hair. Head ringing, Yoji gritted his teeth against making any sounds of pain. They all laughed a little, amused by him.

Takehito started to choke. "Sir!" the rapist next to him shouted, looking helpless.

Oh yeah. Choke and _die_, old man. Let's see how stoic you can be when you're hurting.

Takehito made a cry of pain, and his face started to change color. Beautiful. His thugs didn't know what to do.

One thug shook Yoji by his hair. "You must be doing this! Stop or I'll--" He gagged, and blood spurted from his mouth. Yoji couldn't really see what had happened but hoped it hurt. Better, it loosened the man's grip, so Yoji quickly threw himself down to the floor, turned around, and kicked the nearest thug in the face with his feet.

Damn, he'd never seen a skull crunch inward like that. No way he was that strong. What the hell was going on?

Was he using telekinesis again?

Go with it.

Two of the thugs tried to shoot him, but their bullets were deflected and hit the other thugs, though not fatally. Not terribly bright, the thugs kept shooting in the effort to get it right. The limo didn't look anywhere near as pretty now.

Gasping, Takehito had his head down on his knees. Just die already. His throat ripped open.

Fuck. Yoji would be very happy if he never had to see that happen again.

In a few minutes, Yoji was the only survivor. Head pounding, blood-splattered, he wiggled out from under the arm holding him down and put his legs up to try to get a look at what bound his ankles together. Rope. Just ordinary hemp rope. In a mood to experiment, probably in shock, Yoji concentrated at it and saw it break a little. But he couldn't get it to go further than that, and he felt a stabbing pain behind one of his eyes, so he snapped it the rest of the way just by leg strength. He couldn't see behind his back to work on the manacle for his wrists and didn't want to take the chance of fucking up his hands or arms anyway. Tasting blood in his mouth, he rolled over so he wouldn't be lying on his arms.

The limo kept traveling. Had the cab been soundproofed? Did the driver have any idea what had happened? Yoji needed to stop this car. He had no idea where it was heading, but he knew that if more thugs waited at the destination he'd get the kind of reception even a mildly telekinetic guy couldn't walk away from. Could he talk to the driver? Would the guy even listen? He had to stop the limo.

Yoji's head hurt.

Yoji started to feel the limo drift, as if it were rolling on momentum instead of being driven and directed. He had the bad feeling that he might have somehow accidentally killed the driver with his mind.

Elena! Now would be good!

Maybe the limo would decelerate a bit before it hit anything. Maybe it would roll to a halt.

Maybe it would hit the side of a building or go off a bridge.

When the limo stopped suddenly Yoji slid forward and hit his head on the bottom of a seat. Ow. Still, not as bad as it could have been. One of the limo doors started to unlock. Yoji pushed himself up in a position where he could hopefully throw himself out the door and run. His legs felt like overcooked noodles but the adrenaline coursing through his system might keep him upright for a bit.

The door opened, Yoji sprung forward... and was stopped in midair. Schuldig smiled at him. "Anyone ever teach you not to play with your food, kitty?"

"Guess not," Nagi said.

"We're here to rescue you. Where's our hero's welcome?"

Yoji passed out.


	146. "Weiß can kiss my ass one by one."

Nagi telekinetically undid the wrist shackles and put Yoji on top of the plastic on the backseat of their car. "With more enemies, he might have kept going and injured himself worse."

Schuldig saw the drying remnants of a nosebleed on Yoji's face. "Even with the mythical beasts in the team, nobody thought to start training him."

"Kudou has a small talent. People always underestimate small things. Besides, he wasn't really interested in his power because it freaked him out. He used it unconsciously or for party tricks."

"That'll change." Schuldig stroked blood-spattered honey hair out of Yoji's face, pleased that the kitty had dyed the rest to match his roots. Yoji stank of blood and adrenaline, mayhem, mouth-watering. "One of us now."

"I've shoved the corpse of the driver over."

They had to get out of here, move their mobile crime scene. They could comb through it in safety and secrecy later. ~ We have a limo and six bodies to get rid of. Yoji's missing some of his gear, and it might be hidden in here. Destination? ~

Brad answered, ~ This is one of Kritiker's deals, so let them puzzle it out. Bring it to one of their depots. ~

"I'll drive the limo," Schuldig said. "You follow me to the location, then we all go home in the car."

Nagi's mouth twisted with amusement. "All?"

"All."

"Weiß will be pissed."

"Weiß can kiss my ass one by one. C'mon, baby. Let's roll before they get here."

"I am not your baby."

"Honey? Sugar? Sweetie bear? Magic mouse?"

"Don't force me to kill you."

The limo driver had a jaunty little limo driver hat that had avoided being hit by the spray of blood from when its wearer's trachea had been ripped out. Yoji had his neck fetish. Schuldig placed the hat atop his own head, grinned, and started the limo.

They drove to a darker, rundown area on the outskirts of the city. Schuldig stopped the limo and got out and stretched, waiting for the Kritiker sleeper agent who watched this garage to come out.

The man didn't look happy to see him but did know him to be one of Kritiker's operators. That saved time. "This will need to be cleaned," Schuldig said as he threw him the keys. "Mission completed. Oh, if you find what looks like a digital watch in there, hand it on to Persia. It's more than it seems to be." Schuldig didn't bother to ask them to look for Yoji's coat, since he had no idea what coat the kitty had worn or how badly bloodied it might have been. Anyway, coats could be replaced. "Good night!"

"Wait!"

"No time. We have an injured teammate." With one hand on his hat to keep it on, Schuldig sped off to their car and got into the front passenger seat. "Home, Jeeves. We have a kitty to care for."

"You sound ridiculously happy."

"I'm having a good time."

Aya waited outside at the door to their building, concerned about his littermate. How did Farf feel about that? Schuldig caught a taste of annoyance but no fear. Nice to see Farf being rational, since Aya hadn't jumped Yoji even while Farf egged him on to do it.

"How is he?" Aya asked. Schuldig wondered if he could influence Aya into doing as Yoji had, dyeing the rest of his hair to match the incoming natural color at the roots. Fading red didn't suit Aya.

"Alive. Sane as he ever was. Most of the blood on him isn't his," Schuldig answered. He put out some telepathic brain fog so none of the neighbors would notice Nagi telekinetically lifting Yoji out of the car.

"You stopped to shop?"

"You like my hat?"

"No."

"Weiß will be here in about ten minutes," Brad said as he opened the apartment door.

"Welcome back to you too," Schuldig answered. Ten minutes. As much fun as it would be to have Weiß find Yoji in a really compromising position, there wouldn't be enough time. The kitty needed care first.

"Find a way to make this worth my while. And get rid of the hat." Jealous, bitchy Brad.

"I will make it worth your while, but I'm keeping the hat. Nagi--"

"The bathroom. I know." Nagi telekinetically slammed the toilet seat down, then propped Yoji up seated on it.

"You're not undressing him," Aya said.

"He stinks of fear," Farfarello said.

"They shot some nasty shit into him," Schuldig answered. "Messed with his emotions."

"He needs a bath."

Aya shot a sudden look at Farfarello that made Schuldig want to laugh, especially when Farfarello replied, "Not like that!" Yoji caused chaos wherever he went.

"That's what I thought," Aya answered. Liar. Good thing for him he hadn't seen how moony Farf got after the near-sex with Yoji in New York City.

"He has small cuts on his face. They look like scratches from the jewel on someone's ring." Farf grinned. "I want to try healing them."

"Farfarello...."

"They're small! I'll be careful and stop if it looks like I'm fucking him up."

"That's supposed to fill me with confidence?"

"You experienced my healing touch last night."

"Someday I'm going to rupture my own eardrums in self-defense," Nagi murmured.

"Won't help," Schuldig answered with glee. "You'll still be telepathic."

Apparently unwilling to wait, Farfarello rubbed his hands together, then set them near Yoji's face and concentrated. In moments the small gouges closed. Farf brushed the dried blood off them to reveal faint pink lines, mostly healed. "I can do better."

Looking annoyed, Aya said, "Farfarello, don't push--"

Yoji opened his eyes and yelled in fright, which made them all jump back. "What the hell are you doing to me?" he asked.

"Helping you out," Schuldig replied as he quickly put mental blocks in to stop Yoji from being able to access his telekinesis. Farf's little ki trick had leeched out some of the drug, but caution would be best.

They really had to look into Farf's new talent more. It saved Schuldig from having to take a crack at dispelling the drug's effects himself.

Yoji took a deep breath and tried to run his hand through his hair, looking disgruntled when it wouldn't go through from his hair being matted with blood. His wrists didn't look as bruised anymore. "Where am I?"

"Schwarz's bathroom," Aya said.

"How the hell did I-- Then... everything did happen, right?" He looked tired and beaten suddenly. "Did I kill the driver too?" He hadn't meant to.

"Yeah," Schuldig answered. "You're gonna need training. Right now, you need a bath."

"I'm not washing up here."

"It's a nice tub," Farf said.

"I'm going home. My team has to be worried about me."

"They'll get here soon." Schuldig didn't see a need to tell Yoji that Schwarz hadn't sent for them. "Do you want them to see you looking like this? They'll worry more."

"What do I look like?" When Schuldig sent him an honest image, Yoji said, "Aw, shit." Yoji often used his weapon from a distance, so he didn't usually get as messy.

"Yeah, you look like you crawled through a slaughterhouse."

Aya brought over a wet washcloth and started to dab at Yoji's face. "Thanks," Yoji said, sounding a bit choked up, while the rest of Schwarz stood there with their mouths open in surprise. Schuldig doubted even Brad would have expected this one.

"No problem. You used to do it for me."

"Only when you were so out of it you couldn't hit me."

Brad came to the door. "I hate to break up this touching exchange, but Weiß will be here in a minute. I intend to just let them in, since it will confuse them if we don't fight."

"I'm sure you have a plan," Schuldig said.

"No. This is your mess. I expect you to make it right."

Stubborn bastard. "We can't just give him up. He's too dangerous."

"What?" Yoji asked.

"Here they are." Brad unlocked the building's exterior door for them. Schuldig could feel Weiß's confusion and Ken's baffled anger. All of Weiß was pissed off but Ken especially.

"This is bitchy even for you," Schuldig said, annoyed.

"I have reasons." Brad show-cleaned his glasses. ~ Persia will arrive two minutes afterward. ~ Seeing so many future events in a short time often put Brad in a snit since he hated to have his day interrupted in general.

~ How nice! I've always wanted a "welcome home" party. ~

"What do you mean, I'm dangerous?" Yoji asked.

"I'll explain it when Weiß gets here. Wastes less time. Let's get Yoji out in the living room, since there's more space there." Time to start talking soon. Fortunately, Schuldig had a great talent for it.

******************************************************

Yoji's head ached, but not as badly as it had before. At least his face would be clean when the others came by. "Aya...." he murmured, glad to have Aya at his side as the shit hit the fan. He really didn't want anyone fighting over him.

He didn't want to be dangerous either. He'd killed people with his _mind_ tonight.

"I don't know," Aya murmured back. "Being in Schwarz doesn't automatically make me privy to everything."

Schuldig had been able to find him when his own team couldn't. It made sense, since he'd always figured that Schwarz's telepath had more power than Elena did, yet it didn't seem quite right somehow.

"Have a seat. You look exhausted," Aya said.

"Put down some plastic first," Crawford said.

"I'll stand. Where's my watch?" It suddenly seemed vitally important.

He might still be in shock.

"We don't know yet," Schuldig said. "And here we go." Nagi opened the apartment door to Weiß.

Weiß just about vibrated from the force of holding back their urge to attack. It always surprised him when Fenris looked fierce, as he did right now. Weiß's eyes flickered over the room and its occupants. Elena settled her kill glare on Crawford and said, "We're glad you found Balinese for us. Now please hand him over."

"My telepath tells me that I can't yet, for Balinese's own safety and yours," Crawford answered, smug as ever.

"Your telepath can explain it, and we'll see if we agree."

"Not until Persia arrives in a few minutes. It's best to do this all at once."

Elena looked strained but said, "All right. We can wait a little while." Fenris and Ken looked far less patient. "Yoji, how are you? We worried about you. You look like you got into a bit of a mess." Elena tossed him his watch.

"Not as much of one as Takehito wanted to put me into," Yoji answered, trying to keep things light. Having his watch back made him feel much better, and he immediately put it on. "But, hey, I completed the mission. He's really dead."

At a signal from Crawford, Nagi opened the door before Omi could knock. "Hello," Omi said, looking annoyed. "Nobody thought to tell me that you were back in town? I had to find out from some guy who'd gotten a really messy limo back."

Nagi inclined his head and closed the door behind Omi. "With how things were going, I didn't want to tell you I'd be here until I was _here_. Our time in the United States was unpredictable."

"And I had my own reasons," Crawford said coolly, which made Nagi briefly blush. Nagi straddled two teams too.

Not like that.

Schuldig took off his hat then said, "Now that we're all here, I'll lay it out for you. Yoji is telekinetic. Yes, you knew that. But tonight he killed six people with it, one of them accidentally."

Suddenly Yoji became the center of attention, and it sucked.

"I'm keeping blocks on him so he doesn't do it again, but it's draining. He needs some emergency training."

What? Only Schuldig was keeping him from doing it again? He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to.

"We didn't think he had enough power to kill people," Omi said. Thanks, Omi.

"He didn't think to use it for much before. Tonight, Takehito drugged him up and knocked his inhibitions down. A drugged and scared telekinetic is not somebody you want to cross."

"His talent is small," Nagi said, "but it doesn't take much to kill people. It takes very little to deflect a bullet. It's possible to tear out a person's trachea barehanded if you know where to grip, so it doesn't take much talent to do it telekinetically."

"It might be safer for everyone if we kept him with us for a while," Schuldig said.

"I want to go home," Yoji said, because he did want to go home, and Crawford was pissed off at him and Schuldig besides. He had the sudden thought that he might be made to sleep at the foot of their bed like a naughty pet.

~ Mmmm, Yoji. Pretty.... ~

"Leave Yoji alone," Aya murmured to Schuldig, who looked as surprised as Yoji felt. "Don't get too excited. I _know_ you."

"We have a telekinetic of our own," Elena said. "We're hardly inexperienced."

"Fenris is mostly a smash and grab teke with some training. Yoji could kill people by accident now that he's gotten the knack," Schuldig answered. "And he can be subtler."

"I don't want to hurt anyone," Yoji said.

"We don't want you to either," Schuldig purred.

"This is bullshit," Aya said. "I don't believe that Yoji is that immediately dangerous."

"What do you know about telekinesis?"

"Enough to ask Nagi. Nagi, if Yoji isn't having his life threatened and he gets some rest, do you think he'll be dangerous?"

Nagi shrugged. "He might not be, if he's not being pushed. I'm no oracle."

"I don't see anything," Crawford said as they all looked to him. "There are ways of trying it out. Schuldig can take the blocks off. With so many skilled talents in the room, we should be able to protect ourselves. Kudou knowing better now might help as well."

Schuldig bristled. "And if that works right now, we can take it on faith that it will keep working?"

"We can send Nagi with him and Weiß tonight to give him a little touch up training. He'll have to return at times for more."

"Why the hell is it always up to me?" Nagi asked. "Misanthrope, remember? I steal, destroy, and kill. I don't want to teach."

"Perhaps you can see Persia afterwards if you like."

"...oh."

"I wouldn't mind," Omi said with a small smile. Yoji could just about hear the wheels turning in his tricky, too-smart-for-his-own-good head. He had to be calculating Crawford's goals for all this. "I haven't seen you in too long, Nagi."

"Getting a bit desperate, Guilty?" Elena asked, sneering.

"He likes Yoji and wants to keep him around," Aya answered before Schuldig could snipe something back.

"Take off the blocks, Schuldig," Crawford said.

"Fine," Schuldig growled. "I hope there isn't anyone in this room you secretly want dead, Yoji."

"No!"

"All right."

Yoji didn't feel any difference at first, but then he felt the knowledge tugging at the edge of his mind. He could reach for it and _do_ things. The room vibrated with tension from every direction. He didn't want to do anything to any of the people here and refused to reach.

Nothing happened.

"You folks are lucky," Schuldig said, petulant.

Crawford looked less ticked off and more smugly pleased. "Nagi, are you ready to go?"

"I haven't even unpacked yet," the kid said, looking annoyed and pleased at once. Complicated. This kid would be training him in his scary new abilities.

It just hit him. Aya had saved him. Yoji grabbed him to hug him, then remembered it was _Aya_ and let go. As Farfarfello growled, Yoji said, "Thanks."

Aya just ducked his head, unable to deal with that kind of thing well.

Schuldig looked so sour, and even though the telepath had just tried to keep Yoji here for less than noble reasons Yoji liked being wanted and kind of felt bad for him, so he said to him, "Thanks for the rescue."

"You call that thanks?" Schuldig grabbed and kissed him, hard and with tongue.

Yoji melted for a bit, then remembered the huge audience and pulled away. "Uh, yeah." He didn't know what the hell he was doing.

~ Like that's something different for you? ~ Schuldig looked a bit happier and a little less thwarted now.

Ken took Yoji's arm and led him out, with Omi and Nagi directly behind him and Elena and Fenris taking up the rear, obviously not trusting Schwarz at all. Damn, he needed a bath and sleep. Maybe tomorrow he could deal with what he'd become.

******************************************************

Looking really pissed off, Schuldig crossed his arms. "That was--"

"Perfect," Crawford said with a smile.

At least someone was happy. Aya still felt unsteady from facing off with Weiß and his digression from what had seemed to be Schwarz's plan. "Perfect?"

"That's the question I want to ask," Schuldig said.

"Perfect," Crawford answered. "Persia and Weiß can't deny that we're reasonable people who can be dealt with. They see that I am not a dictator--"

"Even though you _are_."

"--and that Aya has a voice in our decisions. We have access to Kudou for later and don't have to deal with the messy business of calming him tonight."

"I was rather looking forward to calming him."

"I doubt I could call your intentions for him 'calming.'"

"Depends on how you do it."

"Sending Nagi with them means that I don't have to worry about him sneaking off by night. He'll also see this as generosity on my part."

Schuldig started to look a little less petulant and a little more amused. "Especially since the thought of him having sex with anyone, let alone one of the kittens, freaks you out."

"This was a game to you?" Aya asked, annoyed. Yoji had been terrified. He'd seen it. He could almost feel it.

"It was a strategy with a few risks," Crawford said.

"Risks." Aya all but spat the word out.

Farfarello's hand on Aya's shoulder also sparked a bit with tension. Obviously he thought of Crawford's game about the apartment earlier. Aya put his hand over Farfarello's and tried to let some of his emotion flow back, because Omi's presence here tonight had given him an idea on how to play around Crawford's rules and win. Farfarello's "mmm" sounded pleased, so perhaps something had gotten through the barriers.

"You are such a bastard," Schuldig said to Crawford, but the twist of his mouth had a touch of amusement, maybe even a little admiration.

Farfarello spoke for Aya as well when he said, "We'll go to bed and leave you to your flirting."


	147. "Business didn't used to be so personal."

"You have to learn to take responsibility for and control of your talent," Nagi said. "Right now you're either trying too hard or using it subconsciously. With telekinesis, you control it or it controls you."

"No demonstrations in the car, please," Ken said as he drove.

"I'm giving him some fundamentals."

"Still, no telekinesis in the car."

"We'll be good," Fenris said. Fenris sat on Yoji's other side and listened as intently to Nagi as Yoji did.

Nagi said, "I know it's difficult training yourself in this when you're so old--"

"Hey," Yoji said.

"But it's necessary. Damn. You can't even tell me how you feel it."

"There's an easy way to find out," Elena said.

"Not interested."

"It would help Yoji. That's what you're here for."

"You're asking to get your ass kicked."

Yoji finally understood what she was suggesting. "Kid, I don't want you in my head any more than you want to be there."

"You couldn't possibly. Unfortunately, she's right."

Shit. But Yoji remembered killing the limo driver without meaning to. "Do whatever you have to do. Just be gentle, okay?"

"I'm not going to be in there any longer than I have to."

"It would be better if you touched him," Elena said.

"Will you stop it?" Nagi and Yoji shouted at the same time, which freaked them both out.

"And I thought we had weird lives before," Ken murmured.

Nagi didn't touch Yoji; he closed his eyes and seemed to go slack for a moment, then said, "You do feel something. You just don't recognize it for what it is. Look, the main thing is that before you didn't think of doing things telekinetically because you weren't used to thinking of yourself as being capable of it. After tonight, you know better. You're really only limited by your grasp and imagination. Don't try so hard that you hurt yourself, but don't let your subconscious decide for you either. Own your own talent. Practice with it. Don't be such a wuss. Your mind is like another hand you could use."

"Thanks, kid. Do you wanna kick me a few more times?" Yoji answered, stung.

"I'm doing you a favor, Kudou. I could let you flail around on your own and be a danger to yourself and others. I could have let Fenris try to explain it to you, even though your talents have developed differently. Instead, I'm here trying to explain something important to someone who doesn't want to bother listening."

"I am listening."

"Good, because I hate wasting my time. Are we there yet?"

"That impatient to get some private time with Omi?"

Nagi's glare should have withered Yoji. Would have if Yoji hadn't spent years making himself impervious to Aya's. Yoji wondered if the kid had shown that kind of talent before meeting Aya, king of the "kill you" glare. Either way, Aya had probably encouraged him to develop it.

Much the way Yoji had to start developing his telekinesis. Dammit, he'd liked being kind of normal.

"I suck as a student," Yoji said, "but I know this is important so I'll try, okay?"

"Good." Nagi did look happier to hear that. "But you shouldn't try anything tonight anyway. Your nose started bleeding on its own, didn't it?"

His nose had been bleeding? When he swiped under it now, it seemed to be fine. "I don't know."

"Did anyone hit you in a way that could have caused a nosebleed?"

"No. Why?"

"Nosebleeds are a warning sign that you pushed too hard and started to hurt yourself. Did you get a headache or a stabbing pain behind your eyes? Don't lie."

Shit. "Headache and a stabbing pain behind one eye. But I feel pretty good now! Just tired."

"Is Yoji going to be okay? I mean, are you talking about brain damage?" Ken asked.

"I don't think he hurt himself too badly," Nagi answered. "What he has can probably be healed if he just takes it easier for a while and doesn't do any big uses of telekinesis. Treat it kind of like a strained muscle."

"That'll be tough, since I'm juggling cars everyday," Yoji replied, being sarcastic to try to avoid thinking about hemorrhaging or brain damage.

Nagi shot him a look that suggested he wasn't fooled at all. "You didn't hurt yourself too badly. All telekinetics push too hard sometimes. You didn't go too far. There's nothing to worry about."

"I'd rather not do any of that ever again."

"Now that you know how, you won't be able to help yourself. You don't exactly have a safe job, Kudou. You'll be hurt or unarmed or you'll see one of your teammates in trouble and you'll reach for anything that could help you. Or you might not, but if you ignore it and, say, Hidaka died because you were too pure to use telekinesis to save him, you will hate yourself. Telekinesis is a tool you can use to help yourself. Learn how to make it serve you."

"What did I do to get stuck with so many kids who are too smart for their own good?"

Yoji could almost swear that Nagi blushed for a moment, but he couldn't be sure in the dimness inside the car. "It must be luck. You certainly don't deserve us."

When Ken parked, Omi's car and then his entourage's car pulled in behind them. They all hurried Yoji into the building, which made sense given how bloody he looked.

"Will he be okay?" Omi asked.

"Sure," Nagi answered. "I've given him some pointers, and he can start to practice the day after tomorrow. I think you'll be fine for tonight, Kudou."

"That's not what Schuldig said," Yoji said.

"He had his own reasons for wanting you around."

"Great."

"You would have been safe. Your virtue might not have, but otherwise you would have been safe. Do you have any questions?"

He could just about feel the hunger between Omi and Nagi, greater on Omi's side than Nagi's but definitely present. "Nah. If you say I'm safe, I'll be okay."

"No one else will threaten you tonight," Elena said.

"Good. I've been threatened enough already. Good night, guys."

"Good night, Yoji. Feel well," Omi said.

Once all the young lust, with entourage, left, Yoji breathed easier. It had been a depressing reminder of what he wasn't getting lately.

"Do you want anything?" Elena asked.

"Just a shower. Which I'll do for myself, thanks." As she smiled a little, he continued, "Elena, nobody could have foreseen what happened tonight. It was a good plan. Sometimes good planning gets its ass kicked by fate."

Solemn-faced, she said, "We could have lost you, Yoji."

"It's the nature of the business, right?"

"Business didn't used to be so personal."

So he hugged her. With how he felt, he'd been dying for a hug all night. Elena hugged back. Fenris asked, "Me too?" Elena let go of Yoji so Fenris could hug him.

Fenris felt kind of strange. "Why are you vibrating?" Yoji asked.

Fenris' mismatched eyes widened as they looked up at him, then Fenris held him tighter and murmured happily, "One of us."

Bemused, Yoji looked to Elena, who shrugged and answered, "Maybe it's a teke thing?"

Trying not to think about it, Yoji asked, "You want a hug, Ken?"

"No, that's okay. I'll be manly over here."

"Bite me."

"Do you want someone to stay with you?" Fenris asked.

"I think I can shower by myself, kid, but thanks."

Leaning against the wall in the shower, scrubbing at the blood dried and caked on his skin and hair, Yoji tried to control his resentment. He'd very happily ignored the telekinetic thing, but it looked like it refused to let him do that anymore. He was a freak and didn't have a choice. A freak living amidst freaks, but still not normal. Fenris and Nagi were good kids, but....

Could Yoji even dare to get drunk again after all this, when he could kill people just by thinking about it and letting down his inhibitions was an invitation to mayhem?

But he might be dead or seriously injured now if he hadn't been telekinetic.

"Shit," he murmured.

******************************************************

"It feels like months since I've been here," Nagi said once Mamoru's staff left them alone in the apartment.

"To me too." So long that he'd almost forgotten about their quarreling over Nagi refusing to live here. At least he'd forgotten it until now. But it didn't seem as important tonight.

Besides, most of the people around him didn't dare disobey him, so it would be good to have someone nearby who had a backbone. It was a reality check.

Mamoru watched Nagi smile at the sight of the stacked paper cranes. "I'm surprised you left these sitting out," Nagi said as one floated up to rest in the palm of his hand.

"I like them. They add character. My cleaning staff has learned to respect them." The show of telekinesis made Mamoru ask, "Yoji really will be all right?"

"Every teke gets at least one moment of overshooting his limits. It's the nature of the beast. He didn't go too far over, so he'll heal quickly."

As guilty as it made Mamoru feel, he didn't really want to concern himself with Yoji right now, not with Nagi so close again for the first time in a while. Nagi looked tired but very dear to him. Mamoru had missed his softly voiced but caustic asides and the feel of Nagi standing at his back guarding him. His skin hungered for the stroke of Nagi's power running along it.

He wanted to be fucked so hard and thoroughly that he'd still feel it tomorrow night.

Nagi's eyes seemed to darken, and he gained a faint, slightly wicked smile. "Is there something you want?"

"You." He didn't kiss Nagi so much as devour his mouth. From the way Nagi kissed him back, it seemed that wouldn't be a problem.

******************************************************

"I'm still annoyed," Schuldig said as he stretched. "He was scared and bloody and angsty. Tasty. You didn't give a damn about _my_ needs."

"Are you still going on about that?" Crawford asked, annoyed.

"I shut up for a while."

"Your mouth was too involved in other things to talk."

"That counts. Brad, I did have a reason for wanting to keep him here aside from him possibly being physically dangerous. Right now he's thinking that he's a freak. If he'd stayed with us, he'd be too busy having sex to worry about it."

Crawford wanted to sigh. "You didn't say anything to me."

"If I brought it up in front of everybody it would be sure to happen. If I didn't say anything, there was a chance that Yoji would bypass the whole freak thing entirely tonight."

"You could have said something _telepathically_."

"You were too busy knowing what's best and blocking me out. I could have broken through but I know that you hate when I do that for anything less than an emergency. Since you were being blockheaded I decided to wait to see how Yoji did on his own. Unfortunately, the kitty _sucks_ on his own."

Did Crawford really care how Kudou Yoji _felt_? One of the great things about letting Weiß take Balinese was that Crawford wouldn't have to deal with any messy residual trauma from what had happened and what had almost happened to the man tonight. Weiß could sop up the mess.

He should have realized that Weiß would be incompetent at that. Look at what a disaster they'd all become on their own. Without Schwarz's intervention, Aya and possibly Balinese would have taken their own lives already. Crawford could also hardly expect Nagi alone to do anything, since emotions were not the boy's field of expertise.

They weren't really Crawford's field of expertise either. Emotions only concerned him as far as they affected his plans. "Is there something you want me to do about this?"

Schuldig grinned, winsome and cute and thus dangerous. "We go get him."

He wasn't agreeing to this. He just wanted to hear what crackheaded plan his telepath had in mind. "Sweep in and take him?"

"Or sweep into his room and take him there. Think how much fun it would be to fuck him right above Weiß's noses. I know that appeals to your love of feeling smug. He needs to be distracted from his angst. Look how much happier Aya is with regular distractions from his angst."

Balinese was convenient. Having him available made Schuldig less likely to wander. Truly, any consideration of Balinese was actually a consideration of what Crawford could get from Schuldig through how they treated Balinese. Schuldig had enjoyable ways of paying back favors.

Schuldig's smile widened. He could probably hear Crawford looking for some practical benefit that could be gleaned from going after Balinese. "If you're smug it's a definite no," Crawford said.

"I'm not smug. I'm humbly requesting your go-ahead. Please. Please. _Please_\--"

"Fine. But you're going to him. I don't want him here tonight after I went to so much trouble to get him away."

Grinning madly, Schuldig tightened his grip on Crawford. "You're so good to me."

"Remember that the next time you complain."

"Yeah, yeah. Gotta get dressed...."

Crawford expected some first-class gratitude for this.

******************************************************

"Mmmm. Nagi, _harder_," Omi moaned as he pushed himself back to take Nagi deeper. Nagi really didn't know where the hell Schuldig got his ideas that he topped Omi from, because Omi was an insistent little bastard. Not that Nagi had many brain cells left to complain with.

What brain cells remained fought to control his talent and ran in circles of brooding. He shouldn't like what they did together, no matter how good the animal sensation could be. He shouldn't want it. It was messy and too intimate and too vulnerable. It devoured his mind and left him dangerously close to letting go of his hold on all the destructive force he could unleash. He wanted to be careful and gentle but Omi begged for harder and more without understanding what that could lead to even though he'd _felt_ that power beating him around and crushing him in the past.

Nagi could _shatter_ Omi in an unguarded moment.

But Nagi couldn't deny Omi much or give him many firm and final Nos either. Crawford would be livid. Schuldig would tell him it was past time to move on to a new conquest.

While away, Nagi hadn't given Omi much thought. There had been too much to do. Right now, in this room, in this bed, skin to skin, he felt like a junkie, enslaved. His mind stopped being the master of his body. He touched Omi with his body and talent and wanted more.

"Nagi...."

Omi came first, as ever, in a swirl of pleasure and possibilities, motion, while Nagi held back and fought for control. As sensation and compulsion increasingly clouded his mind, Nagi felt his power slipping the leash, looking for the same sense of release his body chased. Coming, losing it, he held back the power he could and fielded the rest of it to the side, far from Omi, finally hearing something shatter. He blacked out.

Thought returned gradually, accompanied by the sensation of Omi stroking Nagi's hair out of his eyes. "Sorry," Nagi said softly.

"About what? The lamp? I started putting all the ugly stuff in my bedroom." Omi grinned. "Break as much as you want. It lets me know that I'm getting to you." Then he turned a little more serious. "You look like you ran a marathon."

"The urge to answer with a sleazy line is almost overwhelming. Almost." He really didn't want Omi to know how much he struggled sometimes. This time might have been worse for how long it had been since he'd last had sex or let loose a bit, not that he would ever say a word to Schuldig. "I'm going to sleep now."

Omi kissed him as he faded out. He wouldn't let himself get used to how nice it felt.


	148. "He's tired and isn't in the mood to play your little reindeer games of who's top dog."

Tired yet wound up, Yoji couldn't sleep. The phone ringing provided a nice distraction from staring into the darkness even as he wondered who the hell could be calling this late. "Yeah?" he answered it once he fumbled it into his hand.

"Yoji."

"Schuldig? What do you want? Why the hell are you calling me?" Dumb question. Why did Schuldig _ever_ contact him?

"I'm calling for an invitation inside. I hear that it's the polite thing to do. No hard feelings about earlier, right? I wanted to keep you around to make sure you didn't freak out."

It sounded nice, but-- "You scared the shit out of me."

"Didn't mean to. I got too swept up in being back. I went through some hell after you went home to Japan."

Yoji remembered Schuldig losing himself, which was another facet of how it sucked to be a freak. At least Yoji wasn't a telepath. "You're better now, right? You seemed like yourself."

"I'm better. I missed you."

Yoji refused to read too much into that. "That's nice."

"Cruel fucker. Are you going to invite me up or not?"

"You could get in here at any time."

"But I get more points with you if I ask and get an invitation. That makes it your choice."

He could say no. Sometimes he forgot that. Remembering the "thank you" kiss, Yoji asked, "What would you do here?"

"Play chess. What do you think we would do? What do you want, Yoji-kun?" Schuldig purred. "You went through some hell tonight, and I want to make you feel better."

While adjusting himself, Yoji asked, "It's about what I want?"

"Yeah, sugar."

"Crawford didn't seem pleased about you holding on to me."

"You don't have to invite him in too unless you want to."

"My choice."

"Your choice."

"Then I don't want him here. I'm too tired to play stupid power games with him."

"But you do want me?"

Did he? His choice. "Yeah."

Yoji vaguely heard something on the phone, then Schuldig sounding muffled as he said, "He doesn't want you tonight, Brad. He's tired and isn't in the mood to play your little reindeer games of who's top dog." Murmur. "I know those are two different animals. Anyway, you're not invited up." Murmur. "So I'll get a cab home, you big baby. It's not like I'll have a breakdown if I walk out and don't see the car here anymore."

Suddenly Yoji heard Crawford, though muffled, say louder, "Balinese can hear you even with your hand over the phone."

"Really? Oops." Schuldig didn't sound repentant at all.

"I see him laughing at us."

Grinning, laughing a bit, Yoji said, "I feel a little better already. Tell Crawford that if he's willing to play nice, he can come up too." It felt good to have some power over things. "He doesn't have to decide right now." Let him stew a bit.

"Nicely done, kitty," Schuldig said, sounding malicious. "Brad's pouting right now. I'll come in alone. Maybe he'll show up later. See you soon."

"Too bad for him. How soon is 'soon'?" After thinking about it, Yoji asked, "You're parked across the street, aren't you?"

"Heh."

They were all insane. He counted himself in that. "I'll let you in. I'm sure you could get in on your own, but I'd be happier if you didn't start messing with our security."

Amazing how much better mildly humiliating Crawford made him feel. Yoji really didn't know why Schuldig had put so much effort into holding on to him tonight and messed with Crawford to do it, but it was flattering. After his long dry spell, sex would really be appreciated....

If Schwarz could go through life with such malicious glee in what they were, Yoji could find the strength to deal with his small talent.

******************************************************

Schuldig smirked. "You better hope your face doesn't freeze like that."

Brad sighed. "I see that you've decided to get back at me for planning without you earlier. This is immature behavior, Schuldig."

"I haven't begun to get back at you yet. What's so wrong, sugar? You didn't even want Yoji tonight. Of course, that was before he decided he didn't want to deal with _you_ tonight." That had been so funny! But it made sense. Yoji never got to see Brad's more pliable side, and who'd want a fight when you're tired and just want to get laid as soon as possible?

"I'm chauffeuring my lover to see his other lovers. Some people would consider that strange."

"Some people would consider that whipped, but we're not 'some people,' are we?" Seeing that Brad was really about to blow up, Schuldig said, "But you know I love you best."

"You're pushing it." But it was more a show of anger than real anger.

Just as Schuldig had felt a wave of admiration for Brad's manipulation skills earlier, Brad felt something similar now. Of course, Brad would make him pay for this at some point.

"Are you going to go in and play nice with the frazzled little kitty, sit out here and stew, or leave?"

"I think I'll sit out here, cool down a bit, and see how I feel then."

"You're such a reasonable guy."

"You're pushing it, Schu."

"I hope you decide to come in. It's more fun when you're involved in playtime." Schuldig kissed him, then left the car and just walked to the flower shop without any attempt at stealth or illusion. It felt weird being obvious.

Opening the door for him, Yoji had such a sweet smile on his face. It made him cuter. "Hi."

"You look better already. Now let me in. It's cold."

Schuldig had his gun out seconds before Friendly said, "I could make things much warmer for you." She stood near the stairs with small flames around her right hand casting a warm glow over her pissed off expression.

"Shit," Yoji murmured. "Elena, I invited him."

"Why? I know, booty call, but other than that, why?"

"Yoji invited me of his own free will," Schuldig said.

"Like you're a vampire."

"He needs someone to help him through the night."

"We offered."

"Maybe he wants adult company instead of the kiddie contingent. Of course, he also likes his women to be feminine, so he won't be interested in you and your crush on him won't get you anywhere."

"He appears to like his men feminine too."

"Guys. Guys," Yoji said. "Elena...."

"Was that an attempt at an insult?" Schuldig asked. "Lame."

"Meow. Hiss," Fenris said as he walked up behind Friendly.

"Anybody else on your team want to mix in?" Schuldig asked. "Oh great, Kenken's on the stairs." This was turning into some kind of bizarre farce.

"I wasn't going to come downstairs and get involved!" Ken yelled down. Poor guy seemed to be afraid of what might happen to his sex life if Schuldig literally got his hands on him. Like Ken should be _afraid_ of that.

"You just stay up there. We can all go to Yoji's room and have an orgy."

"No way! I have a girlfriend!"

"Since when?" Yoji asked. "Wait, are you seeing that girl you knocked down?"

"Yeah!"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"We knew," Friendly said. "But we only knew because he thinks so loudly about her sometimes."

"That's not buddies, Ken!" Yoji protested.

"What? I didn't want my relationship with her getting tangled into some kind of crazy mob scene," Ken yelled down. "Like this one. And I do not think loudly!"

"Or at all," Schuldig said.

"Who asked you?"

"Orgy?" Fenris asked.

"Guilty was being sarcastic," Friendly said.

Schuldig felt something intriguing from the kid. "Unless Fenris is really interested...."

"Yes?" Fenris answered.

"No!" Yoji and Friendly both said.

If he hadn't wanted sex so much right now, this scene would be entertaining the hell out of him.

******************************************************

Crawford refused to be amused over how his telepath had maneuvered him around. It set a bad precedent. He intended to be angry over how his smugness had been deflated. He also refused to be manipulated into behaving a way he didn't want to behave to get sex he hadn't really wanted in the first place. Crawford would leave and let Schuldig find a ride home.

He was aware that no matter what he did he'd come off as somewhat childish, and he hated that.

Then he had a vision of a scene in Weiß's kitchen that made him feel smug all over again. Weiß was such a mess that it could skew even Schuldig's best plans. Wanting to see some of the argument in person, Crawford got out of the car, went to the flower shop, and let himself in.

******************************************************

Yoji wanted to shrink into the floor, especially after Crawford arrived. So much for having privacy and a love life that didn't resemble a three-ring circus. With everybody all over the room arguing, he felt his attention being stretched in too many directions. It gave him a headache.

Schuldig was saying, "I could have snuck in here with my mad telepathic skills with nobody realizing I was here--"

"Like hell you could have," Elena said.

"--but instead I did everything legit and aboveboard and look what happens."

"When the hell did Crawford get here?" Ken yelled from the stairs. Apparently the stairs had a better sight of the door than Yoji had realized.

"Yeah, Friendly? Brad just got in right past your incredible talent," Schuldig said.

"Only because I was busy arguing with you."

"Look," Schuldig seemed genuinely annoyed right now, "I came here to help de-stress Yoji and you morons have turned it into the exact opposite."

Everybody, Crawford included, then looked at Yoji and seemed to remember that he was a bit of a loose cannon who'd killed six people with his mind tonight out of desperation, which reminded Yoji of that all over again. "Yeah, I'm a time bomb. Better step back before your necks blow up. I'm going back to bed. You can keep on fighting it out without me."

"See? You bastards," Schuldig said.

"You too. I'm out of the mood. You and Crawford go home, Ken and Elena can go back to bed, and Fenris can stop wondering what an orgy would be like and go back to bed."

"I can't go back to bed after that," Fenris protested.

"Yoji...." Schuldig looked unhappy. Whatever he'd planned, it obviously hadn't been this.

Everybody looked unhappy, except for Crawford, who looked interested in what might happen next. Yoji couldn't really see Ken, but he better look unhappy too. What a crappy night.

Subdued, Elena said, "Yoji, I don't know what the hell you see in him, but if he can cheer you up I'll step back tonight."

Crawford grabbed Schuldig's arm when Schuldig opened his mouth, probably to stop him from sniping since that's what grabbing him seemed to do.

Ken said, "I don't give him permission to be in here tonight. He's the enemy, remember? He's playing with your head."

"That's not the only thing on Yoji I like to play with," Schuldig answered. "Is _that_ the problem, Kenken?"

"It's a shame the rest of you missed seeing Siberian doing the Kermit the Frog arm-flail of panicked horror throughout your conversation earlier. Hmm. He's doing it again now," Crawford said.

"I did not! I am not!"

"You're not even sure what I'm talking about."

"Enough!" Yoji yelled. "I'm going to my room. Good night. Get out."

But now he _really_ couldn't get to sleep.

******************************************************

Watching everyone argue almost felt like being back with his own family. Right now they engaged in a moment of unhappy silence over Balinese's upset departure, but it couldn't last. Schuldig made the tactical error of saying, "He was smiling when I arrived, but now...."

Crawford smirked as that broke it all open again and settled back to watch his telepath try to get his way through words alone, no influence. Friendly would notice telepathic influence.

Friendly said, "I _bet_ he had a smile on his face."

"Are you saying I'm taking advantage of his weaknesses?"

"We're saying we don't want you treating Weiß like your personal candy jar," Siberian said, coming down the stairs a little, probably to see everyone better while still staying out of Schuldig's contaminating reach. As if the telepath needed to touch him to get him.

"What pretty images you kittens come up with!" Schuldig answered. "But you'd be happier under our management, you know."

"Because Schwarz is the model of mental health?" Friendly asked. "Nagi hates most of humanity and barely lets people touch him. Farfarello cuts himself, though he doesn't do it as much now that he has a member of our team that you stole to help keep him steady. I don't have much faith in your management."

Schuldig glanced back at Crawford with an "Are you gonna let her get away with saying that?" look. Crawford told the truth: "Your opinion means very little to us, Friendly."

"Yoji's an adult who can make up his own mind," Schuldig said.

"Unless you're making it up for him," Friendly answered.

"Have fun, Schuldig," Crawford said as he went to the door. "I have better things to do. Stay or go?"

"What? Hey!" Schuldig protested.

"Go," Friendly and Siberian said.

"I can see that you're not going to let me give Yoji a restful environment, so I might as well go." Schuldig shrugged but looked annoyed. He looked even more annoyed as they slammed the last door shut behind him. "Rude little bastards. And you were no help."

"I was there to smirk, not help."

"You do realize I'm coming back when everything calms down a bit."

"Of course. That might not happen tonight, though."

"We'll see. Would be nice to come back tonight. Note to self for the future: sneaking in is always best."

******************************************************

"Yoji?" Fenris asked through the door.

"Yeah, kid?"

"Everybody downstairs is snarling and fighting with clever words, which I can't really do, so I decided to come talk to you and try to cheer you up since you're sad. I could talk to you through the door. Or I could leave...."

Too awake anyway, Yoji let him in and patted the edge of the bed to show him to sit. "Sure, kid. Cheer away."

Fenris started with "It's not so bad being a freak."

Dammit. "I know too many mindreaders." It wouldn't be fair to him or them if he could think of himself as being a freak without it being denigrating to the people who could hear his thoughts.

"It really isn't, Yoji, not when you have the right company, and you do. It can be really cool to move things with your mind. Like, I don't ever need oven mitts or a remote control. I made Ken pay for eating that last bean cake I told him I wanted by changing the channel in the middle of his game. It was one of the big plays too."

Yoji had to smirk. "You're not as innocent as you look."

"Or when you play cards, though if you did it in front of me, I would notice. Or you can unzip people's clothes and still do other stuff with your hands. That idea's more for you than me."

Yoji refused to blush. "It's good getting a look at what you think my interests are." The kid had a good imagination, though.

"You make your wire move so pretty."

"Yeah, that is cool."

"You have to find out what you can do! There might be a lot more cool stuff."

"All right, all right."

"I don't think it will do bad things to your, uhm, lifestyle. Nagi has to be more careful than you do. He has so much power. He could crush people by blinking an eye! You can't do that."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Is it any better now?" Fenris looked so hopeful.

"A little."

"Good. Everybody else chased Guilty away, though."

He'd be back. But Fenris.... "You're really interested in orgies?" Fenris was a kid!

"People spend so much time thinking about sex that I wanted to see what it's like for myself."

"That's not a good reason. Besides, Elena would kill you."

"I would have to find a way around that."

Yoji should not be the one giving this talk. "When you're ready, which is not now, you should try one on one first. I'm just saying."

"Okay. You're the expert!"

Sometimes his reputation really sucked.


	149. "You're such a picture of perfect mental health that you can determine that? Blow me."

"I'm not a good teacher. It would be cruel to me and to the poor unfortunates you make me tutor," Nagi said with his arm placed dramatically over his eyes.

"You're a great teacher," Mamoru answered. "All the other pyrokinetics are amazed by Elena's oxygen trick. No one in Rosenkreuz ever thought of using it that way."

"She thought up the oxygen manipulation routine herself."

"After you gave her an introduction on thinking about the kinetic possibilities of her talent. Most pyros are just trained to create and shape fires."

"Omi, I'm a telekinetic. Of course I'm going to look at her talent that way."

"You're a good teacher."

"I'm good with theories, but I hate people. I think people are stupid and I have no patience with them. I also don't feel comfortable having this conversation naked, especially when you're naked next to me."

Mamoru had to grin, not that Nagi could see that right now. "Are you afraid I'll take advantage of you?" Surely his inner Yoji voice guided him to ask, "Are you afraid I'll sex you into agreeing to my plan?"

"'Sex' me into it? I'm never letting you near Kudou again."

"'Letting' me?" Mamoru never realized how much fun talking in bed could be.

"I agreed to give Kudou some tips during a bout of temporary insanity, but I didn't agree to doing a teaching course for Kritiker's other talents."

"Maybe not a course for the rest. Maybe a seminar?"

Nagi sighed. "One-time only. Kinetics only."

"Sure."

"I get to verbally abuse the students if they deserve it. That's my sticking point."

"A lot of them are Rosenkreuz alumni, so I'm sure they're used to it."

"Damn. I hoped to send a few of them crying out of my presence. Weed out the mass a bit. I'll have to try harder, then."

"You talk a good game, but I doubt you're really that mean to people who are your allies."

Nagi cast him an incredulous look. "You've seen me with Schwarz."

"That's just teasing."

"If you say so."

******************************************************

Farfarello woke as his puisín did and grinned. "Good morning. We can have baths again." Aya's body in Farfarello's arms screamed out yes and no simultaneously before Aya stilled himself, so Farfarello asked, "You want a bath and you don't want a bath?"

"We're living with Schwarz again. I enjoy the baths, but they started as a part of our life in Germany, when I was a prisoner. I've become accustomed to more freedom again, so I don't want to fall back into the existence I had then."

"We no longer fit in that box, even if they tried to make us."

"Us?"

"Us. I'm used to more freedom now too. We are paired, and your concerns are mine anyway." Farfarello nuzzled the back of his kitten's neck, pleased that all the energy work he'd done lately had started to heal his insides enough to make it easier to feel this. "Yesterday you had a thought about getting around Crawford's trap on the apartment."

"I did, but I'm not sure I should try it. In the light of day, it looks more like using someone I care about."

"Maybe this someone might want to be used in such a noble cause?"

"I don't know."

"You can ask."

"By asking, I might create obligation."

"Or might not." They had many thought processes in common, but they differed in that Aya could make the simplest things far too complicated, binding and tangling himself in threads of what if and guilt. Only when Aya made things black and white, as Farfarello preferred to do, did he completely escape a feeling of paralysis. Abyssinian was a very successful black and white thinker. "Perhaps if you gave me some details and took this conversation out of the rhetorical I could be more help."

"Last night I spoke of lacking the connections to find us a place that Crawford has in abundance, but I wasn't quite accurate. I do have a powerful contact."

Farfarello started to see. "The Persian kitten. If you explained the situation the right way, he would help."

"But it could also seem like rubbing his nose in the fact that he will never have me back."

"He might want you--"

"Did everyone see that except me?"

"Yes. But he knows that he can't have you. Given the option of at least helping you gain more freedom from the people who took you from him, he will certainly try to help you."

"I won't lie to him directly or by omission about whom I'd be living with in it."

"He can be practical. He may see right out that it would be better for you to live with one than the whole bunch, particularly the ones who command you like a parody of parents. If he doesn't, you can convince him."

His puisín rolled over to face him. "That easy."

"Yeah."

"I'll give it some thought. Perhaps while I'm in the bathtub."

Farfarello grinned. "No one can stand against us because we'll beat them down by force or stealth. You'll see. But first, a bath."

He let Aya out of the bed because they'd never get to the bathroom if he didn't. As his kitten rummaged through their luggage and he enjoyed the view, Farfarello said, "Choose the shirt with all the zippers. Then we can stay in and play with them all day."

"And you call _me_ a kitten."

"The best way to play with a kitten is to play _like_ a kitten. Besides, now that my hands are healed I need to play. They need exercise."

"If I see Omi today to ask my favor, I probably shouldn't wear something so provocative."

"You have to call him to make an appointment first. He might not be able to see you today. Wear the shirt for me. I was a nearly crippled invalid just yesterday morning."

Aya picked up the shirt to bring with him. Life was good. It had to be a sin to feel this pleased.

They put pajama bottoms on to walk through the hallway to the bathroom. Schuldig didn't need encouragement. It was a bit early to worry about the mindbreaker being up, but Farfarello preferred to keep his kitten safe from unnecessary leering looks.

Such pleasure to bathe his kitten. It had been weeks without. Now Farfarello could feel Aya's hair and skin better, but he worried.... "I have to be careful in my meditations. I don't want to risk losing my scars."

"Is it making that much of a difference?"

"Too soon to know. I'm anticipating in the hopes of avoiding it."

Aya smiled a little. "I'd find you attractive even without the scars."

"Now you're fucking with me."

Aya had some wonderful scars, knife wounds and bullet marks, the tracks his continued survival had left on him. Farfarello traced the front and then back of the mark left by the bullet that had almost taken his kitten from him. Aya sighed and closed his eyes. His hair looked darker wet, and the light gleamed off the water on his skin. So pretty.

Farfarello wanted to know what his puisín was thinking, having gotten spoiled by having telepathy. Once he'd had to content himself with his kitten's body, heart, and mind but for a while he'd touched his kitten's soul as well. Now he was cut off again. Yet he'd felt some things last night as he'd touched Aya. He sought it again, touching, pushing mentally, feeling the edges of Aya's feelings as Aya leaned back into his hands....

The bathroom door crashed open. "Are you _trying_ to destroy him?" the mindbreaker yelled, then dodged Farfarello's thrown knives.

Frustrated, Farfarello started to build up a charge to attack with until Aya yelled, "No!"

Shit. That had been stupid of him.

"You would have had Kentucky Fried Kitten, which I doubt is finger licking good," Schuldig said. "Even before you tried to electrocute him, you came really close to devouring him again, Farf."

"Are you making any progress on helping us?" Farfarello answered, angry that the mindbreaker was right.

"I wouldn't have to if you'd stop being so fucking invasive. You want to crawl under his skin and live in there?"

Seeing Aya looking disturbed by that thought, Farfarello asked, "What about Aya reaching out to me too?"

"What about Aya being in the room?" Aya asked.

"You look great," the mindbreaker said. "If you want to stand up and show me more, I'm all for it. What the hell is up with you letting him do that? You're a stubborn bastard."

"After stealing me from my team and country and taking even my own clothes away from me, you should be in favor of me letting him do things to me," Aya snarled back.

"Is this a new aspect of your death urge coming out?"

Farfarello didn't like the directions this was headed in. "You're nastier than usual, and you don't look like you slept well. What happened?"

"I'll only let you distract me from the topic for a little bit. I didn't sleep well because I spent the night waiting for Friendly and Siberian to go to sleep so I could go in and calm Yoji down. Never happened. I'm frustrated as hell. Think of all the good I could have done him last night!"

"I don't think he'd find you very calming," Aya said.

"He invited me in."

"You could have made him do it."

"He invited me in of his own free will. Does even a former Weiß get the same script?"

Trying to yank the conversation back where he wanted it and away from antagonizing Aya into doubting their relationship, Farfarello asked, "How will you train Aya to control his reaching out?"

"Shit. I don't know. Nobody has ever trained one of the mindblind to use telepathy. It never had to happen as far as anyone I've ever absorbed knows. I don't even have a decent analogy for what it would be like. He can't even see or feel the stuff I'd be trying to get him to control. Unless I get a major brainstorm, all I can say is to try not to reach out if you're even aware you're starting to do it."

"Brilliant," Aya answered. "But 'don't do anything' sounds anti-Schwarz."

"It does, doesn't it? I don't know. I'm still thinking about it."

Farfarello noticed the mindbreaker watching Aya with obviously lascivious intent. The kitten's water-beaded skin faintly glistened, while Schuldig loved shiny, pretty things. But the mindbreaker wouldn't get the chance to own, so Farfarello toyed with him by running his hand down Aya's arm, gloating as Schuldig's eyes followed the movement. Annoyed, Aya slapped his hand away. Observant kitten.

"I'm going to call Nagi to breakfast. It'll be like old times," Schuldig said, and Aya shot Farfarello a "see?" look.

"It will never be old times again," Farfarello said. "Times are better now."

Schuldig looked almost thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe. I have a kid to call home. Aya, if you feel like standing up and giving me a show before I leave, please feel free."

"No, thank you. Get the hell out of here," Aya answered.

"You don't appreciate me."

"I appreciate you more when you're gone."

"Oh, the pain! You're so cruel to me. See you at breakfast, kids."

******************************************************

~ Nagins. Are you awake? ~

~ I am now, you bastard. ~

~ Goody. You're invited home for the family breakfast. ~

Nagi opened his eyes more. It _had_ been a long time, and he'd missed it. Not that he would admit it to Schuldig. ~ What, and you want me to cook? ~

~ Nah, Brad's cooking. Just bring your cheerful little ass over here. ~

~ Don't make comments about my ass. ~

~ I _love_ your ass! ~

Nagi cut the conversation off there. Turning over, he realized that Omi had already gotten out of bed. How tired had he been to sleep through it? Omi wasn't _that_ stealthy. Reaching out, Nagi felt him standing in the kitchen. Nagi put his pants on, ran one hand through his hair to neaten it, and went out to meet him.

Already dressed for work, almost ready to go, Omi smiled at seeing him. "You looked so tired last night that I wanted to let you sleep longer. I know how jet lag and time differences can hit. I would have left a note."

"Thanks." Feeling oddly awkward, Nagi didn't know what to do with himself or what to say. "I can let myself out and fly home. Have a good day at work." Dork.

But Omi seemed surprised and pleased. Completely heedless of Nagi's morning mouth, Omi kissed him lingeringly, then waved as he left.

It left Nagi feeling oddly like some chippie bimbo watching her salaryman lay go off to the office. Shaking his head, he got dressed, figuring that showering only to go back to his dirty clothes would be stupid. He let himself out of the penthouse through the outside door, waving to the Kritiker agent who watched the roof, then jumped off the railing into space. When he had an audience, he enjoyed being melodramatic. Smirking, he waved as he flew away.

As Nagi walked past their kitchen, he saw Schuldig pouting near the kitchen table while Crawford made pancakes. Without stopping he called in, "I'll take a shower and change before I come to breakfast."

"I'm sure you smell yummy," Schuldig answered.

"And that's part of the reason why I'll be taking a shower and changing."

Just before he closed the bathroom door he could hear Farfarello asking to have pancakes shaped like hearts and clovers and Schuldig asking if he wanted moons, stars, diamonds, and horseshoes too.

******************************************************

"Food's done," Crawford said as he removed his "Fear the Cook" apron. "Help yourselves."

Despite Farfarello's protests, Aya served himself. His lover would load his plate up with pastry if given the chance.

"Still sulking?" Crawford asked lightly from behind his newspaper.

"You being so damned smug rubs salt in the wound," Schuldig answered as he took a savage bite out of his bun.

"I can't avoid it. It's too easy. You're putting a lot of effort into someone who's a hobby, Schu."

"I hate it when anyone tells me I can't have something I want."

"Yoji's better off without you," Aya said. It relieved him that Weiß watched out for Yoji. Farfarello smirked as he drowned his pancakes in syrup.

"You're such a picture of perfect mental health that you can determine that? Blow me. No, really, blow me."

Crawford smirked and went back to reading his paper in between spoonfuls of Cocoa Puffs.

Aya had worried that this breakfast would feel like Germany all over again, but it didn't. Crawford seemed more engaged with the others, Schuldig softer, Nagi less annoyed, and Farfarello happier. They didn't watch him as closely, waiting to seize on his misery or mistakes. The group had changed. He had changed.

~ Softer? Are you so sure about that? ~

Yes.

~ Hmph. I doubt it. ~

Aya hoped that Schuldig had softened enough to treat Yoji well, because he would protest and get involved if he felt Yoji was being abused. Schuldig should know that he meant that.

~ Farf wouldn't be happy to hear that. ~

If Farfarello had any inkling of Aya's personality at all he would already be aware of that and, even if not supportive of it, know that it was something Aya had to do to still be himself. Aya had intervened last night, after all.

~ I'm still pissed off about that. ~

Schuldig could just deal with it. Somebody had to keep Yoji's mental health in mind, even if that person didn't currently seem to be Yoji.

~ Still pissed. ~

Aya knew that Schuldig had helped Yoji with some problems recently, so Schuldig had to agree to some extent that Yoji was more enjoyable when he wasn't depressed and declining.

~ Hmm. ~

Once upon a time, Schuldig wouldn't have bothered to even pretend that he gave Aya's opinions any thought.

~ You _should_ feel blessed about this. ~

Once they finished eating and had cleared the dishes away, Crawford said, "I'm looking for work for us and discreetly put it out that we're back."

"Finally," Schuldig replied, grinning.

The sense of excitement Aya felt at the thought of getting some action also underscored how he'd changed.

******************************************************

When Yoji woke at 11 he stretched in bed and wondered why he felt so weird, as if he'd just gotten over a panic attack. Then he remembered last night and how he'd never be even remotely normal again.

Never getting out of bed ever again sounded good but he knew that no one would let him get away with it so he got up and dressed. To his surprise, he didn't have any scabs on his face from that thug's ring, just a few pink marks. He could swear he'd been cut. Then again, why quibble with good fortune?

He felt weirdly let down that Schuldig hadn't made another attempt to visit him. He was an idiot.

Ken and Elena looked tired and seemed irritable when he came down to the shop, so he had to ask, "What's up with you two?"

"We stayed up to stop the incubus from coming back," Elena answered.

It made Yoji feel better to know that his friends cared about him (even if they didn't trust him to make his own decisions) and that Schuldig had been _kept_ away (and might not have lost interest). He liked to thoroughly check his clouds for silver linings.


	150. "If you're not, I will hunt Persia down and kill him slowly, starting by breaking his fingers."

It annoyed Mamoru that he felt so distracted. He'd wanted to ache today and he did, but that ache reminded him of Nagi and last night, which were far more interesting than anything he dealt with now. He'd liked Nagi being home as he left.

It felt wrong to have someone tall guarding his back, yet he had to wonder if having a lover as his bodyguard would really work out well because did he really want a lover to protect his life above his own? He didn't. Besides, bodyguard work often bored Nagi. Mamoru could tell.

Mamoru didn't want to be too clingy. Nagi would flee clinginess.

Looking somewhat disapproving, Rex walked in and said, "Abyssinian is on the line." Although she understood why he did what he did, she saw Weiß as one team among many and felt that he showed them far too much favoritism.

She didn't understand that this was one of the ways Mamoru stayed more human. "Transfer him to me, please."

"Hi. If this is a bad time for you, I can call you another time," Aya said.

Bad time? Mamoru hadn't been accomplishing much today anyway. "It's not a bad time. Hi. It's good to hear from you."

"You saw and heard me last night."

When Aya had taken on Schwarz for Yoji's sake and won. "Yeah. I was glad to."

"Hnh."

"Is something wrong?"

"I have a favor to ask of you, but I'm uncomfortable. I'm not good at idle talk, and I feel like I'm buttering you up before asking for something. I hate that."

Mamoru hadn't been such a pervert once upon a time. He set such thoughts aside and said, "You can ask me. Is it business related?"

"Almost." Aya sounded relieved to be at the point.

Intriguing. "Could you meet me for lunch? I haven't seen you outside of the mob for a while." Alone, Aya seemed more like Aya and less like an extension of Schwarz.

"All right." Aya sounded hesitant but wouldn't refuse, not when he had a favor to ask.

"You can ask me there." What could Aya want from him? It left him curious. Besides, this was great. He wanted Aya to be able to ask him for things.

******************************************************

"Presentable and not provocative," Aya said as he adjusted his sweater. "I couldn't wear the zipper shirt for a private meal with him."

"Sound thinking," Farfarello said from behind him.

Aya needed to do something about his hair soon, since dark red roots with the faded-out length looked trashy. He never realized that red dye was so vulnerable. Yoji had fixed _his_ hair, but wouldn't matching the rest to the crimson roots just work for a little while until the crimson dye faded?

"You look beautiful," Farfarello said.

"Funny. I'm nervous." He hated to ask people for things.

"At worst, he'll say no."

"I shouldn't dread having lunch with a friend."

"This is a friend who once got you drunk and humped you to his satisfaction despite knowing you were already taken. I say you have reason to dread. He also kidnapped you and stuck you in a cage for a while."

They didn't sound like things Omi would do, yet he _had_ done them. "When you put it that way...."

"It's a gift." Farfarello kissed him. "You'll be fine. If you're not, I will hunt Persia down and kill him slowly, starting by breaking his fingers."

"Thanks. I'd rather that didn't happen."

"Me too."

But.... "_You_ also kidnapped me and kept me under guard."

"You were suicidal and we saved your life. Weiß took you from a happy home."

"I see."

As Aya put his coat on to leave, Schuldig asked, "What are you up to, Rose-red?"

He'd hoped to avoid Schuldig and Crawford. Nagi probably wouldn't ask questions. Aya answered, "I'm working on finding an apartment," as he carefully didn't think.

Lounging, Schuldig grinned. "If it makes Brad less smug, I'm all for it. You don't have to sneak around on that."

"That's what you say today."

"Yeah, yeah."

"If the plan works, Crawford will be less smug."

"Then I wish you the best of luck. Do you need the car? I can throw you the keys."

"Thank you, and no thank you. Someone's coming to pick me up."

"Remember to use protection."

"You're so funny."

Aya waited outside for only five minutes before the limo, with its entourage of cars, showed up on time with Omi beckoning him inside. He didn't like the feel of it but got in anyway and sank down a little into the seat. Once the door closed they were sealed in, isolated from the rest of the world. Limos felt so excessive and... Takatori to him. They reminded him of the event that had destroyed his family and shattered his life, but he had to find a medium between coddling himself from and wallowing in the past.

Flexing his arm let him feel the sheath strapped to it, which comforted him. Hopefully Omi's security would continue to leave him armed.

"Is there a problem, Aya?" Omi asked. Omi didn't know. Aya had only given Weiß a few details about that night and then mostly under duress or out of necessity.

"I'm fine. I've just spent the past few days being hunted. I may be a little... twitchy."

"You? Never." Omi smiled. "I'm glad to have you back."

"It wasn't all bad. I enjoyed some aspects of my time away." Was this the time to ask? "It's related to what I want to ask you."

"You've whetted my curiosity, but telling me now won't get you out of having lunch with me. I had my staff make you something I know you'll like."

"We're eating at your apartment?" That hadn't ended well last time.

Omi blushed. "Nothing will happen. I swear to be on my best behavior. Look at this meal as my apology."

As always, Omi took far too much on himself. "I was hardly defenseless or blameless."

"I can argue that point, but let's just say that we'll both be on our best behavior."

Omi seemed younger and less shadowed when alone with Aya. Aya was thankful for that, since Takatori Mamoru seemed old before his time and weighted with too much responsibility. Maybe the family was cursed. The history of the past two or three generations of them certainly suggested as much. Aya wondered how Omi was when with Nagi, then quickly backed away from that thought.

While with Weiß Aya hadn't shown it, but he'd appreciated Omi's enthusiasm as well as his intelligence. He'd like Omi to find happiness.

"The favor?" Omi asked with a smile.

"While in New York, Farfarello and I had a space that belonged only to us, and we became accustomed to a certain degree of freedom."

"I'm amazed that you kept him in check so well. I hadn't thought that assignment would run as long as it did."

Aya wanted to take offense, but he had to admit that Farfarello still had trigger points. "He's saner than you think. A lot of his problems came from misdiagnosed and unchecked telepathy. He says that my presence helps him a great deal." Having no urge to explain to Omi that the two had merged enough to be an almost hybrid being in which Farfarello could draw on Aya's mindset and Aya could blindly and haplessly use Farfarello's telepathy, Aya continued with "Now that we're back here, we're living in one of Schwarz's bedrooms as if we were children under parental watch. It chafes badly, especially since we have the archetypal peeping tom living in the next room."

"You want your own apartment. Of course."

"It would have to be very near the rest of Schwarz. An adjoining apartment would be ideal... but also difficult to find. Crawford has given us his generous permission to go looking but obviously believes that we'll fail. I believe that he'd find our failure very entertaining."

With Omi, Aya knew he wouldn't have to spell it all out. On his own Omi would see the opportunity to hoist Crawford on his own petard, frustrate Schuldig's perversions, and even remove Aya from Nagi's lust-struck proximity. The last assumed that Omi was aware that Nagi found Aya hot as Nagi was aware that Omi did, but it was possible. The thought of both of them being attracted to him made him squirm. He still couldn't understand it. They _knew_ him. Aya's awareness of that attraction made him feel more self-conscious while sitting here.

"It sounds like a difficult task."

"I think he's counting on that. He also expects to have final judgment on any place we choose, since he'll be living next to it."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you. We only need leads, Omi. The rest we can do ourselves. In fact, I intended to start looking on my own today."

"Aya, it's fine. My position comes with so much responsibility that I should take the advantages as well. I think it's a great idea for you and your partner to have your own place." Professional that he was, Omi didn't even hesitate on the "your partner."

"I appreciate it very much. Though I doubt Crawford will feel the same." Aya couldn't help smiling a little at the thought, and Omi smiled back.

"He's an adult. He can deal with disappointment now and then. But aren't you worried that he'll foresee what we're doing?"

"I'm fully within his rules. If he fights or obstructs me on this.... I can't explain it, Omi, but I know he won't do it. It would be going back on his word in a way he doesn't like to do. He hates to feel outsmarted or outdone, but he appreciates it when his team shows a good strategy. Besides, Farfarello is annoyed enough with the backhanding generosity of this offer. If Crawford further violated the deal, Farfarello might act against him, with my support."

"Schwarz dynamics."

"They're not the same team they used to be."

"I'm seeing that more and more."

******************************************************

Aya appeared to be enjoying the meal. Well, definitely the food. Living with a person for a while made it easier to tell your staff what to prepare. He seemed a bit nervous, probably from having to ask a favor, but still happier and lighter than he had once been. His sister's earring still swung a little when his head moved, but he also wore the golden ear cuffs his lover had bought him. It still freaked Mamoru out to think of Aya as being nearly engaged, let alone nearly engaged to Farfarello.

Today Mamoru's lust didn't have as sharp an edge. Was it that Aya seemed so happy? To his shame, Mamoru had to admit to himself that his attraction always seemed greater when Aya was angry or depressed, dark with emotion. It said terrible things about him. Or it could simply be that Mamoru didn't like the dulled, growing-out dyed hair and was simply shallow. It would be better if the attraction faded, since Mamoru preferred to be Aya's friend without all this guilt attached, but he wanted it to fade for good reasons.

Mamoru wanted Aya to feel safe here, with him. That last time had been such a disaster. The sex.… Mamoru had wanted their time together, if it were to happen, to be good and special for both of them. Instead, he'd gotten them both drunk and then humped Aya against the doorway until he quickly came. He doubted Aya had gotten any satisfaction from it at all. After that, he would have to work to regain Aya's trust, especially since Aya didn't trust easily.

Aya's request brought opportunities, but Mamoru didn't dare do as much with them as he once would have. Nagi had too much invested in and cared too much about his family for Mamoru to try to deliberately drive wedges between the members of Schwarz. Schwarz imploding wouldn't drive Nagi into his arms. More likely, it would drive Nagi into a destructive rampage to work out his pain. The only question would be whether he would destroy openly or subtly. Nagi had a twisty mind. It was one of the things Mamoru loved about him.

But Nagi would probably enjoy watching Crawford be twitted by his own rules and seemed ambivalent over his feelings toward Aya. That would help here.

Mamoru had hoped that the New York assignment would inspire Aya to reach for more independence but hadn't expected Farfarello to go along with it. Seeing how they were together during Christmas should have made him realize how besotted the berserker was with Aya, but there had been so much going on that it hadn't sunk in. Now Mamoru saw it clearly. Too bad he couldn't be sure whether it was a good or bad thing. He couldn't help expecting Farfarello's kind of love to hurt.

"Am I such poor company?" Aya asked softly but with a bit of teasing in it.

"I'm sorry. It's not you. I'm just feeling thoughtful. This morning I woke up with my lover and had a goodbye, 'have a good day at the office' kiss, and now I'm having lunch with an old friend. It almost seems like an ordinary life."

"Our lives are ordinary for us."

Schwarz's idea of an ordinary life would probably seem odd indeed.

"Did Nagi make all of those?" Aya asked as he nodded toward the pile of paper cranes.

"Yeah. They were something like an apology. He says there are at least a thousand in there."

"Does that mean you're engaged now?"

"That's what I asked! I don't think we are. Nagi panicked a little too much when I jokingly suggested it."

"He has issues with intimacy," Aya said with a completely straight face. Just as Mamoru started to helplessly snicker, Aya continued, "I should know. What?"

"You're just... so much more open now. And you have a sense of humor."

"I always had a sense of humor. I just thought it was a waste of time. I think being more open comes from living with people who can read my mind. If they see a lot of what I'm thinking anyway, I might as well say it."

"Like last night?"

"Someone had to stand up for Yoji. If you let Schuldig run your life, he will. I don't think he even intended malice this time; he just wanted what he wanted and ignored Yoji's fear."

"Or got off on it."

"I don't know. He's a little less of a sadist than he used to be, but he still does things I find reprehensible."

Mamoru didn't ask why Aya stayed with Schwarz if he felt that way. Been there, done that, gotten thoroughly repudiated.

Mamoru's cell phone vibrated. He barely moved in response, yet Aya raised an eyebrow, noticing. The number for Weiß's new flower shop came up, but this wasn't part of the emergency protocol.... "Can you excuse me for a moment?" Mamoru asked. Aya nodded. "Hello."

"They're coddling me to death, Omi, but not in any of the good ways. They're making me work but not letting me do anything else."

Mamoru couldn't help smiling. "It can't be that bad, Yoji."

"It's worse than you can imagine. I have to get out of here. Maybe I could have a fit of weakness."

"I'm not condoning it, but they might let you get away with it."

"Sweet. I thought that me being dramatic might cheer up your dark office."

"Actually, I'm out having lunch with Aya."

"Lucky you. Hey, does he have the afternoon free? I want to do something for him to thank him for last night. Make sure he knows it's not in a perverted way."

To Aya, Mamoru asked, "Do you have anything planned for this afternoon? Yoji wants to thank you somehow for last night, no perversions involved."

"Is he capable of that?" Aya asked.

"I heard that," Yoji said in Mamoru's ear. "Out of the kindness of my heart I'm going to fix his hair, and this is the thanks I get."

"He wants to fix your hair," Mamoru told Aya.

"Himself?" Aya asked.

"Professionally!" Yoji said.

"Professionally," Mamoru said.

Aya looked darkly amused. "There's something wrong with my hair?"

"I'm coming over there to kick his ass," Yoji said, which Mamoru translated to Aya as "He thinks you're very funny."

"All right," Aya answered.

"He really agreed?" Yoji asked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," Mamoru said. "Come by for him in an hour."

"Later!"

Once Mamoru closed up the phone, Aya said, "I feel somewhat like the baton in a relay race."

"He'll pick you up in about an hour."

"To get my hair fixed."

"It doesn't look very good now."

"Thank you. You do wonders for my self-confidence."

They spent the rest of the time eating and talking about small things. Aya actually had many things he'd enjoyed about New York City, to Mamoru's pleasure. It made him feel like he'd done something right. When Yoji arrived downstairs and it was time for Aya to go, Aya said, "I enjoyed this, Omi," and sounded like he meant it.

"I did too." He missed Aya. "I'll be looking into apartments that would suit your needs. I think it's a great idea for you to have more privacy."

"I do appreciate it."

They didn't hug goodbye. That was too much to expect. But Mamoru felt lighter and more hopeful.


	151. "You want to feel yourself coming?"

"You look good, Aya," Yoji said as Aya settled into the passenger seat. "Except for your hair. I'm paying for the fix. It's the least I can do after you saved my ass last night." Yoji felt full of gratitude and the urge to help.

Besides, Aya looked so much sexier with good hair, and all people deserved to look their best.

"You're not taking me to the place that cropped and fried yours, are you? I won't go," Aya answered.

"No, I'm going to my good place."

"That bleached out one was a punishment style?"

"Like what you did to yours wasn't punishment?"

"It was cheap and fast. It's also preferable to bleaching out my hair, cutting it all off, and going out to kill people bare-chested except for a target painted on."

Aya went right for the throat. Yoji grinned even as he protested, "That was a cross, not a target."

"It worked like a target. You also looked as if you'd stolen the pants, hat, and coat from a homeless man, so don't chide me about _my_ masochism."

"That's all in the past now. Now we take care of ourselves and each other."

"You realize that the two of us going out to get our hair colored professionally like this is very gay."

"It's just you."

"Today."

"All this arguing is getting me excited." Which was sad, but true.

"Everyone around me insists on terrifying me every day."

"You love us all, Aya." It felt great to get out of the flower shop semi-illicitly--through fast talking and yanking on his team's sympathies--and flirt with Aya. A guy who killed people for a living shouldn't get such a charge out of doing something "naughty," but Yoji still did.

Kaori took them right in. "He wants his hair to match his roots coming in," Yoji told her. "He's a good friend of mine, so treat him accordingly."

"That's his real color?" she asked. Looking at Aya, she asked, "That's your natural color?"

"Yes," he answered in a low monotone.

"Why do so many men with great hair feel the need to torture it? But don't worry. I'll fix it. I fixed Yoji's."

"You did indeed," Yoji answered.

"Disasters like what you had are what happen when you cheat on me."

"I don't see much point in this," Aya said. "It'll just fade like the last one did."

"We'll see about that," she answered. "Sit!"

Surprised, Aya sat down as commanded, then shot a look at Yoji, who answered, "Don't worry. I won't leave you alone at her mercy." He sat down in a nearby chair to show that he had Aya in sight.

Besides, he liked to watch people getting their hair played with. Kaori didn't do his hair quite the way a lover would but she always handled it more personally than most, treating him like a friend instead of an inanimate head bearing money. She was also good enough that she became a bit less personal when she noticed Aya mildly freaking out over being touched like that. Yoji wouldn't have thought that anyone who didn't know Aya well would see it, but the best hairdressers were part psychologist.

Maybe Aya just needed a good hairdresser, then. Yoji smirked.

"That better not be over me," Aya said.

Watching Aya getting combed and manipulated by the very pretty Kaori, who sometimes pulled his head back to bare the long line of his neck, Yoji had to shift in his seat a little. "Not at all."

But when Aya snapped something like that again while under the heat lamps, Yoji had to admit he was laughing over what Aya looked like and asked if he wanted a manicure while he had to sit there. Who knew someone could throw a magazine so far and make it hurt so much when it hit? Ingrate.

******************************************************

Crawford separated the incoming offers into desirable, possible, and not a chance in hell. His team deserved good money but shouldn't ask so much that they priced themselves out of the market. With their savings they hardly needed to work steadily, but they liked to, getting restless without the exercise. Right now they needed a team assignment. It strengthened bonding and morale.

Sometimes he heard a thump from Farafarello and Aya's room. Without his pet to play with, Farfarello exercised and sparred alone. Crawford knew that Aya had left to find a way to win in the apartment situation. Aya was welcome to try. Crawford also knew that Schuldig had wished him luck, which amused him. His telepath could certainly sulk....

His telepath caught up on lost sleep in their bed. A little sleep always did him wonders.

Nagi slept as well, in his own room. The boy needed to keep more regular hours. More sunlight would be a good idea as well, since his pallor would achieve a glow soon if he kept it up. Having learned from past experience that pushing often earned him the opposite of what he wanted, Crawford contemplated ways to work his will on the boy in these things without inspiring rebellion instead.

Schuldig came over and crouched next to his chair with an arm over his shoulder. Being near him now felt like sunbathing in lust. "You're about to see how Yoji can be useful, Brad. He's on his way, and he's done some of my dirty work without me having to do a thing to his mind at all."

This should be interesting. And right now Crawford wouldn't mind a little recreation.

******************************************************

"Stop looking at me," Aya said as he emphatically stared out the passenger side and didn't look back at Yoji.

"I would if I could."

Kaori was an _artist_. She'd done more than create a good match; she'd improved on nature. Aya's hair had a beautiful sheen now. The red-approaching-black color looked _vibrant_ and made his eyes somehow seem more purple (when Aya looked at Yoji for more than a second at a time). He didn't look washed out at all anymore; he looked _hot_ and from the more focused way he sat he knew it.

His hair looked even better than it had in Yoji's kitty Aya dream, and thinking of that dream didn't help the state of Yoji's cock at all.

Yoji wanted to pull over to the side of the road and pounce him. From the way he breathed, heavier, more open-mouthed, Aya felt that. From the way he had his hands clenched against his legs, he fought back his own body's response. His long coat hid what would have been a more blatant display of reciprocated desire. The lust between them could have been a thick, taut string.

"Stop looking at me," Aya said softer.

"Uh, yeah. I'm bringing you home." Where Farfarello would reap the bounty of Yoji's generosity. Damn.

But somebody might have a different recipient in mind, because Schuldig lounged in the door to the building with an expectant, cat-that-ate-the-canary grin on his face. Yoji figured that a good part of that was for _him_ but like hell Schuldig wouldn't try to rope Aya in too if he could. An Aya that was already good to go would be too tempting a target to pass up.

Yoji would just have to go in with Aya to make sure he made it safely to his room. If Yoji wouldn't get a taste, Schuldig damn well wouldn't either.

Aya looked surprised, then alarmed as Yoji walked him to the door and Schuldig. "I worked hard to get you _out_ of the apartment."

"You took away their lame-ass excuse. Now I come and go as I please."

"I wouldn't be so sure."

"I'm coming in to keep your ass safe from Schuldig."

"You can't expect me to believe that's the only reason."

"Okay, no, but it's the most important one right now."

"You really don't want to be saved."

"You're familiar with the idea."

"I never should have agreed to let you do any of this."

Aya really did care. Grinning, Yoji put one hand on his shoulder and squeezed, then smirked as Aya twitched. Sensitive. "You're sweeter than you want to admit."

"If I hadn't agreed to this, you wouldn't be walking back into the lion's den _and_ you wouldn't be staring at me." Aya looked at him sadly. "Yoji...."

"I'll be fine. You don't have to protect me." Though it gave Yoji a kick that Aya wanted to.

"Yoji, I love what you did with him," Schuldig said as his eyes gave Aya a thorough look-over. Aya bared his teeth in response. "Coming to visit?"

"To _visit_," Aya said.

"Yeah," Yoji answered.

"We love guests," Schuldig said.

The golden lighting in the elevator flattered the hell out of Aya's improved color. It was such a beautiful, brilliant red, so dramatic. The lighting did great things for Schuldig's looks too. Caught in a small space with them, Yoji felt terribly restless. If Schuldig hadn't been there Yoji might not have been able to keep his hands off Aya, while Aya's presence stopped Yoji from pouncing Schuldig. It worked out well.

~ For now. ~

Yeah, yeah. Meanwhile, he ached and tried not to drown in his lust. It just about vibrated along his skin.

~ I really do love what you did to Aya. I've been trying to get him to fix himself for a while now, but he never listens to _me_. ~

Yoji refused to let the approval and compliments get to him too much, even if part of him felt like wiggling happily under their caress. He had dignity.

~ No comment. ~

"Stop staring at me," Aya said again, looking very twitchy, as he stood as far away from them as he could.

~ He's as hot to go as you are. If he weren't so hardheaded and monogamous he would have let you jump him on the way over. ~

How the hell did Aya stay monogamous while inside Schwarz?

~ Will of iron, I guess. Oh, _Aya_, you.... ~

If Schuldig was going to start to say something, he should finish it. Yoji hated teases that didn't deliver.

~ Never mind. It's not important. What is important is that I wanted to see you so badly last night but knew you wouldn't like it if I had to kill the rest of your team to do it. ~

Good thinking.

~ I thought so. Brad's eager to see you too, not that he'd admit to it. ~

Pain in the ass.

~ Totally, but he has his moments. ~ Schuldig nuzzled Yoji's neck. ~ I'm glad you're here. ~

Yoji had been waiting for this since last night.

Aya murmured, "Thank you," very fervently when the door opened onto their floor and walked ahead at a fast, focused clip. Yoji followed and smirked at his certainty that Schuldig walked behind him to watch his ass.

A tousled, sleepy-eyed Nagi opened the door and gaped a little at Aya. He might have even squeaked a tiny bit. Poor kid. Farfarello rushed up muttering about "kitten-smitten boys" before seeing Aya, at which point he said, "_Red_," in what seemed to be a happy growl, yanked Aya into a room, and slammed the door shut.

"Aya, are you sure you don't want me to save _you_?" Yoji yelled to him but doubted he heard.

Nagi returned a moment later better dressed and with his hair combed and walked out of the apartment without a word, slamming the door behind him. Yoji asked Schuldig, "What's wrong with him?"

"He'll either fight it or use it. Might be interesting to find out which. But later. Right now Brad's more eager to see you than he wants to admit so I have to bring you into the bedroom."

"I didn't say I was staying for that."

Schuldig grinned. "Yoji, I know better."

Damn. "I don't want to be too easy."

"No such thing. Missed you...." Schuldig nuzzled him again, took off Yoji's coat, and tossed it toward the couch.

Yoji had expected Schuldig to be smug and lustful but not _gleeful_ like this. It didn't even seem like a dark, evil glee, just a bright, bouncy one.

"I'm just so happy that you came back on your own," Schuldig said. "And you fixed your own hair too! I didn't mention it last night."

Why did getting compliments and approval here mean more than it did when they came from Weiß? The thought decelerated his lust. He didn't know what he wanted.

To his surprise, Schuldig said, "I don't know what you want either. What's the shock?"

"That you're a telepath but don't have any idea what I want, and that you'd admit it."

"I'm not Super Shrink. And I can tell the truth. Sometimes."

Wrapped around him, Schuldig kissed and petted him. It felt so comfortable and _good_ that the lust came back.

"Do you have any intentions of bringing him in to me?" Crawford asked suddenly, leaning against the doorframe of a nearby bedroom. He had his sleeves rolled up and his tie loose around his open collar. To his surprise, Yoji thought the effect looked kind of sexy.

Schuldig grinned and hugged tighter. "Nope. I'm selfish. You knew that when you took up with me. My Yoji. If you want a taste of him, you'll have to give us something."

Crawford looked Yoji over so thoroughly and with such heat that Yoji squirmed and went harder. Having gone to get Aya straight from the flower shop, he hadn't changed out of his casual work clothes, which didn't show him off to his best advantage. But you wouldn't know it from watching Crawford watch Yoji.

Crawford inclined his head and had an almost... playful look in his eyes. "I'd like to thank Balinese for fixing Aya's hair. I foresaw the results, and they're a great improvement."

"As if Aya was becoming an eyesore," Schuldig answered.

"Looks matter. Presentation is always important in selling this team. Thus, thank you."

Crawford was probably being at least somewhat sarcastic, but Yoji still appreciated the thanks.

"That butters Yoji up, but I'm still not buttered, and everything is about me."

"I don't have to butter you up. What are you going to do, have sex with Balinese in front of me? Not much of a punishment."

"You suck. You really do."

"Maybe later. If you're good."

Playful Crawford. Scary. But almost... cute.

Yoji was in such deep shit if he was thinking like this.

"You win for now. But I'll make you pay for it later."

"You always do," Crawford answered, sounding almost satisfied about it.

Schuldig continued to hold onto Yoji as he and Crawford kissed. Yoji jumped in their grip as he heard a thump from Farfarello and Aya's room. He _did not_ want to know.

~ You're sure about that? ~

And he was suddenly Aya, throbbing with lust and overwhelmed by an overexcited Farfarello. Farfarello was all over him, rocking, humping, kissing, touching, his lust a deep red, his love warm and vibrant as fresh blood. Back against the wall, already bare-chested, lost under the fast deluge of sensations, Aya's body tingled and sparked, but he needed to slow down.

He pulled Farfarello's silver hair and said in English, "Slow down a little. Now."

Looking up, Farfarello grinned, looking puppyish and sweet despite his eyepatch and scars. "You make me crazy, puisín."

"Sometimes you make it too easy."

"I'm too easy, too much?"

"Too fast. I want to be aware of what you're doing."

"You want to feel yourself coming?"

"Yes."

"Heh. Got too excited. I'll be good." Farfarello dropped to his knees and breathed hotly on Aya's stomach, making him quiver, then started to undo Aya's pants with his teeth.

It amazed Aya that Farfarello had _had_ him in so many ways over so long a time yet still wanted him. Surely the novelty had worn off. He didn't think he had a single body part that Farfarello hadn't touched and tasted. All right, a single body part that Farfarello wouldn't have to rip him open to get to, and Aya refused to think about that right now, especially when Farfarello could read his mind. He knew he could be moody, demanding, sharp-tempered, and unpleasant. Once the allure of the flesh started to fade, what could be left to want in him?

Yet Farfarello found something.

"Do you want me still?" Farfarello murmured against his cock, making his knees go weak. He had to lock them and lean heavily against the wall to stay upright.

"Yes." Aya enjoyed sex. He didn't seem to _need_ it as much or as often as some people he knew, fortunately, but he liked it, even despite how messy it could be. He enjoyed having it with Farfarello, who never failed to make him feel. It sounded like a weakness, but he couldn't help himself.

"Good. I want you too. Can't you tell?"

Aya could tell. He just didn't understand it.

"You're always new to me, inside and out, kitten." Farfarello went down on him, taking him in so deeply that Aya could feel the back of his throat. The feel and sight of him made Aya thrust--

And Yoji was Yoji again, rock-hard and panting, held upright by a very amused looking Schuldig. "I wouldn't want you to come from something _Farfarello_ was doing."

"Why not?" Yoji gasped, his head spinning and body throbbing. Aya and Farfarello _loved_ each other. He'd gotten the lust thing, especially from Farfarello's side, and seen the love thing, but seeing it and _feeling_ it, especially from inside the ice prince's head, were vastly different things. Sure, he'd briefly had Farfarello in his head in New York, but he hadn't gotten any of the emotions and Farfarello had only revealed what he wanted to reveal of their sex life, while here Aya had been utterly candid and unguarded, having no idea that someone was listening.

It made Yoji feel guilty to have eavesdropped. And sad that Aya thought so little of himself.

The kind of love Aya and Farfarello had left Yoji scared and jealous. He thought he might have felt that way about Asuka once upon a time but didn't now. Feeling love like that from them, he recognized his own current feeling for his dead love as a kind of miserable guilt and habit, a fading obsession. He hadn't thought of her much lately or felt haunted by her.

It was a big relief.

"Because _we_ want to do things to you," Schuldig answered. "We also want you to stop losing track of the sexiness, dammit." Faster than Yoji could think or see, Schuldig had put him over his shoulder and started carrying him into the bedroom, a very amused Crawford walking behind them.

"Hey!" Yoji protested. But he barely struggled.

******************************************************

Damn. Nagi had hoped that driving away would somehow weaken the effect, but he was still horny as hell, getting lust from five directions. He had never asked for a link to _Kudou_ too, thank you very much. He needed to get off so badly.

He suddenly had such a naughty, naughty thought. Was he really thinking this?

Nagi checked the glove compartment, pushing aside the gun to find condoms and lubricant. Schwarz believed in carrying protection in their cars. Shaking his head at himself, Nagi changed directions.

Omi would definitely be surprised to see him.


	152. "What? Crawford, are you *thinking* again?"

Crawford had a nice view of Schuldig's pert ass and half of Balinese's upside-down body slung over Schuldig's shoulder as he followed his telepath into the bedroom. Schuldig seemed to be on the same train of thought because he said, "I'm so glad you have an ass again, Yoji!" and smacked it.

Surprised, Balinese shouted, "Oi!" and smacked Schuldig's ass back.

"Ooh, I _like_ that game." He raised his hand again.

"We're not getting involved in an ass-smacking contest!"

"Why not? You smack my ass, I smack yours.... It'll be fun!"

"No, it wouldn't!"

"What do you think, Brad?"

"I think it would be fun to watch you spank each other. At least for a little while," Crawford answered. It was an inspiring image, but the act might get repetitive. It would depend on how Schuldig and Balinese went about it. "But I didn't know you enjoyed being spanked, Schu." The telepath had never suggested it and was hardly shy.

Only someone who knew Schuldig well would see the tinge of panic in his expression. "I like it once in a while. Not often."

"And you didn't tell your boyfriend about it?" Balinese asked with a purr, apparently sensing vulnerability and going straight for the throat.

"I like it as _play_. Brad, you'd make it all about punishment and reward for our work, which I don't find sexy at all."

"You're probably right," Crawford answered. It made sense. Given its connotations of discipline, it would be too charged a weapon in the hands of one's team leader.

Of course, Crawford knew about Schu's occasional yearning for a spanking _now_.... Having Balinese around could be useful after all.

"You're admitting it? I'd almost think it was my birthday. Stop struggling, Yoji."

"I'm upside-down. All my blood's rushing to my head!"

"We don't want it going _there_." Schuldig slung him down onto the bed and grinned as Balinese bounced but didn't fall off.

Balinese got back at him by saying, "But I'm not your boss, so _I_ can spank you...."

"Enough out of you. I'll have to put your mouth to better uses."

Balinese just smirked and relaxed on the bed with his legs sprawled out, open but not obscenely so. Inviting instead of begging. He had one arm under his head, cradling it, and the other resting on his stomach. Usually Balinese had the stench of desperation about him, often acting and dressing so over the top that he became almost a parody of a slut. Right now, dressed casually, quietly sensual, he was far more attractive.

He still retained some sense of cocky attitude, but Crawford didn't mind that, seeing it as improvement over the shocked twitchiness of last night. Balinese had moved leadenly then, as if his limbs were heavy and being dragged down by increased gravity. Now he was light and sinuous again.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch?" Balinese asked him.

"You didn't want me last night. Now you do?"

"If you can be nice."

"Nice?" The word choice amused him.

"Sure, Brad. Nice. Like this." Schuldig sank down onto the bed next to Balinese and ran his hand lightly, teasingly, up Balinese's inner thigh. "Nice?"

"Yeah," Balinese answered with more breath than voice.

There really was something compelling in watching Schuldig and this pale shadow of him react to one another. Something rather Dr. Evil and Mini-Me about it.

Schuldig sulked. "Brad, stop thinking yourself and me out of the mood. If you came over here and got involved you wouldn't have time for crazy thoughts. You're all the way across the room."

Balinese started to get up. "This isn't working."

Schuldig pushed him back down. "You, stay down. Brad, get over here."

"You command me now?" Crawford asked, amused by that and by the whole situation.

"I'm looking out for your own good."

"If he doesn't want to get involved yet, don't make him," Balinese said. "In the meantime, I'm getting bored."

"Bored? Please." Schuldig looked mortally offended.

"Bored. You stopped doing nice things to me."

"I guess you're right. Brad can just watch if he wants."

Shameless, as he preferred them, they went back to stripping, stroking, and kissing, both of them occasionally shooting him heated, teasing looks to let him know they remembered he was there and wanted him to know what he was missing. He enjoyed watching the movements, arousing and silly looking and sometimes both at once, and seeing how the Schuldig moves he knew actually appeared from a distance, matching them to how they felt. Despite being entangled most of the time, they'd gotten each other's shirts off. Balinese had that stupid tattoo, which made Crawford thankful yet again that Schuldig was too fickle to get one himself. Instead, Schuldig had a lot of jewelry for his navel piercing.

Balinese managed to roll them over to put himself on top, something Schuldig protested lightly until deeper, open-mouthed kisses stopped him. Crawford didn't mind Balinese in his current position, since his shorter hair made it easier to see what they were doing.

Schuldig did finally get out a "You smell like an old woman, Yoji, like roses and lavender and cigarettes."

"What kind of old women do you hang with?"

Schuldig sometimes let Balinese get away with mildly dominating him, and Crawford knew that it came from the Weiß assassin being no real threat. With Balinese, it could be all play. By contrast, Crawford was Schuldig's boss as well as his lover, an authority figure in fact, and everything they did together could be related to work. Crawford hadn't realized that it could be a drawback.

Balinese and Schuldig played like cats, and Crawford was their owner. Watching them right now, he... wanted very much to be a cat too, and he resented that.

On the bed, Schuldig was convulsing with giggles and gasped, "Brad, stop that!" while an obviously irritated Balinese growled, "What? Crawford, are you _thinking_ again?"

It was time to stop thinking. If he kept distracting them they'd never get anywhere and he wouldn't have anything good to watch anyway. Crawford undid his tie and walked over. "I'm done with that now."

"Finally!" Schuldig said.

******************************************************

When Nagi entered Mamoru's office, he looked somewhat flustered. "Is this an okay time?" Nagi asked as he locked the door behind him. "No cameras or bugs in here, at least...."

What was going on? Humor him.... "Sure. What's going on?"

"I'm told that it's best to be truthful in a relationship, which I'm not sure is always right but I'd like to give it a try for this situation. My entire team is having sex, and it's left me feeling really... on edge. I figured I'd come to you since breaking in here might distract me enough to take the edge off and if it didn't I'd always be able to see you at the end of it."

With how quickly Nagi spoke and how breathless he sounded, it took Mamoru a few moments to translate what it all meant. What he pulled out of it was that Nagi could be vulnerable to feeling his team's emotions, worrying and good to know about, Nagi felt horny as a result and embarrassed about it and thus tried to distract himself from it, and the distraction failed to make a difference. Also, Nagi now hoped to have sex with Mamoru in his office but didn't want to or know how to ask. As Mamoru digested that, he asked the least charged question of "You broke in?"

"It was much easier than I expected. Sometime I'll tell you how I did it." Nagi was _blushing_, and looked hot and distracted.

Sex with Nagi. Right here, right now, _in his office_. In his chair, on top of his desk.... It was wrong and hot and _wrong_. He had responsibilities!

Nagi looked at him, breathing hard, devouring him with his eyes, and Mamoru gave up on getting any work done today. "Come over here," Mamoru said, his voice going low and thick with lust.

Nagi smiled shakily and straddled Mamoru's lap as he sat in his office chair, pressing down on Mamoru's hardening cock. Nagi was already hard. It amazed Mamoru how Nagi could be hot and commanding and shy and sweet all at once.

When Mamoru said, "I want you to fuck me on my desk," Nagi stiffened, then tried to relax again. Mamoru knew Nagi didn't have any problem with the fucking, so it had to be something about desks. Since Nagi obviously needed to see that it was okay, Mamoru said, "The thought of it gets me so hot, knowing that I'll be sitting at this desk later giving my people orders or negotiating with someone even as I'm thinking they have no idea what I was doing on it not that long ago." It did make him hot. It would be torture in the future because he _would_ be thinking about that instead of work but he currently didn't care, not when he had a kinky boyfriend here ready for some office sex right now.

Nagi finally started to relax and even started to grind again in Mamoru's lap. "I see. It's knowledge and power. The boss in his office can do what he wants."

"Yeah. And I want you." As desire took over, Mamoru had a last dim thought that he hoped his fish tank would survive this.

"I'll try to keep it in mind," Nagi told him after a demanding kiss.

******************************************************

"This bed is way too small," Yoji said.

"I keep saying that!" Schuldig answered.

"We don't usually bring people home, so it usually doesn't matter," Crawford replied. While Yoji mulled that over, Crawford grabbed him by his shoulders and pulled him up to stand, with Schuldig grinning and following them up. Okay, no bed.

Crawford might be a bastard, but he was a sexy bastard and kissed like he meant it. Still, Yoji preferred the black hair to the silver. It had looked glossier. When Yoji could keep his eyes open long enough to tell, he saw that Crawford's eyes were a really pretty color without the glasses in the way, some kind of amber shade, and his lashes were a darker silver than his hair. But Yoji liked the glasses, the cold distance they gave to the seer's appearance. Up close, you could see that Crawford couldn't actually see very well without them, ironic as that was.

Fuck, he was grooving on _Crawford's_ looks. Schuldig demanded to be ogled, but _Crawford_?

But Crawford's body felt good as Yoji stroked and ground up against him. Crawford's hands felt possessive and perfect on him, easily finding his spots. Duh, Yoji, _precog_. In sex, seeing into the future could be as useful as telepathy. Speaking of telepathy, Schuldig breathed on the back of his neck and suddenly twisted his fingers inside Yoji, surprising a whimper from him at how swift and good it felt.

"I'm glad you've put on some healthy weight lately, Balinese," Crawford said. "Frottage with you would have hurt not that long ago. I don't like my lovers bony."

Neither did Yoji, but.... "Yeah, yeah, everyone dogpile on Yoji."

But then Schuldig was fucking him in long strokes, thrusting into him and pushing him into Crawford, who was grinding back. Skin on skin on skin. They touched him all over, thoroughly, like they wanted to feel every part of his body, like they owned him. Schuldig's teeth grazed the back of his neck.... It didn't take much to make him come, not after his recent long dry spell, and it felt so good as it ran through his whole body and cleaned him out.

Crawford held him up as Schuldig kept fucking him as he went for his own orgasm. It was so _much_. "So good, Yoji," Schuldig murmured.

Adrift in the afterglow, Yoji kept losing time. Eventually he found himself lying half-conscious and curled against Crawford's side on the still too-small bed as Schuldig licked Crawford's stomach clean with thorough strokes of his tongue and Crawford stroked their hair. Yeah, so good.

******************************************************

Standing in a riot of messy paperwork, staring down at Omi's bared back and ass bent over the cleared-off desk, Nagi didn't know if he could do this, fuck him like this, without breaking his own brain in the process. He had to remind himself that desks might have played a starring role in his own sexual abuse but that Omi saw this purely as a fun, kinky thing and a subtle strike at all the people he had to play the constricting role of head Takatori for. Omi had asked for this, and giving it to him wouldn't be abuse.

But Omi looked so vulnerable like this. Yes, everyone was fragile to Nagi's power, but Omi had deliberately made himself more openly so, which made this hot and terrifying.

Omi turned his head to smile at Nagi. "You won't hurt me."

Liar. What little telepathy Nagi used told him that the edge of the desk and his position already hurt Omi, but that he was enjoying the pain somewhat. He also still ached a bit from last night. Nagi did not get how some people found pain erotic. Sensible people understood that life doled out enough of it already. He ran his hand down Omi's spine and smiled at how it made Omi shiver.

Nagi would do this. He didn't believe in letting old traumas rule his life. He didn't believe in coddling weakness. Doing this wouldn't be abusing Omi. He took a deep breath and prepared--

But then Omi moved to face him. "No, let's not do it like this."

"You _like_ this."

"Not this much. Let me...." Omi guided Nagi to lie down on the desk. It felt so hard and uncomfortable against his spine.

Turned on and scared, Nagi tried to slow his breathing and stared up at Omi. With a look of lust and intent focus on his face, Omi climbed up onto the desk, then atop Nagi and slowly pushed himself downward, using his hand to guide Nagi's slicked cock into him. Nagi bit his lip at the sight and feel of it and heard objects in the room start to rattle. Control, control, control....

"You can break something if you have to," Omi gasped. "Just fuck me."

Nagi started to move and helplessly sped up as he watched Omi ride him and jack off with a look of intense pleasure. Omi felt so good around him.... It was too much. They fucked like they would die if they didn't reach orgasm soon. Omi came first, all across Nagi's stomach, looking wild and absolutely fucking beautiful. Nagi didn't last much longer, and all thinking ceased for a while.

But thinking never ceased permanently, so eventually the glow started to wear off and Nagi became aware of his aching back and how they were sticking to the desk a bit. At least telekinesis meant that he never had to get disgustingly up close or fumble with a used condom. It made things a little neater.

Omi trembled next to him, sweating, still breathing hard, his heart pounding, and the reciprocity of that shook Nagi because he felt the same way. Glancing away, Nagi smiled as he saw the fish tank and fish still intact.

"Next time, don't make me guess," Omi said softly. "I'm fine with whatever you _want_ to do."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Nagi answered as softly.

"Right."

Somewhere from the floor, Rex's voice came from the intercom. "Persia, I need to confer with you."

"Shit," Omi murmured. "I can't reach the fucking button."

"I'm telekinetic, genius."

"You weren't making fun of me a few minutes ago. Push the button."

"Yes, Dr. Forrester." At Omi's blank look, Nagi said, "Never mind. I've been warped by Americans. I'll push the button in a moment. Now."

"I'm in the middle of something," Omi said to it, sounding clear and a little less like he'd been moaning his heart out in the middle of a vigorous fucking a few minutes ago. "Give me five minutes."

"Persia--"

"_Five minutes_."

"Yes, Persia."

"I'm no longer pressing the button," Nagi said.

"Shit," Omi groaned. "I want to laze for a while now."

"Being forced to do work while at work. Shocking."

"Yeah, yeah. I wasn't the one who came busting in here desperate for some afternoon delight."

Amused, Nagi answered, "I definitely have to get you away from Kudou."

"Laugh it up now, but you're the one who's going to have to put my papers and computer back on my desk while I get dressed."

"I have to get dressed too." The office didn't exactly have any easy ways out for an exhausted telekinetic/telempath, so.... "Maybe I could stay under your desk while she's here."

Omi shivered and nearly groaned, "Talking to her with you waiting under my desk naked. I don't think I could do that without exploding."

"Why would I still be naked?"

"Because you'd be too busy making my desk look like we hadn't just fucked on it to get yourself dressed. Oh damn, you'll be under my desk...."

"Be strong, Omi."

"Shit."

******************************************************

Yoji groaned as Crawford fucked him and he fucked and jerked Schuldig. If he kept getting steady doses of really hot threesome action it was going to take really incredible one-on-one sex just to hold his interest that way.

"Balinese," Crawford murmured into his ear.

"You ever gonna call me by my real name?"

"Maybe. Maybe on the day you spank Schuldig while I watch."

Mmm. Pretty thought. "Maybe later? I'm busy right now."

"What?" Schuldig asked, sounding dazed. "Hey!"

******************************************************

Nagi managed to get pants on before he had to crawl under the desk because he had no intention of being bare-assed on the carpet. Down here Nagi couldn't see much of Omi but saw enough to know that Omi couldn't stop thinking about him _being_ down here. The urge to play with him was strong, but Nagi fought it. It wouldn't be fair to Omi.

Meanwhile, Rex kept talking and talking, occasionally asking if Omi felt all right. Omi answered well for himself considering how hard he was and how much his leg kept fidgeting.

Eventually the babysitter left and Omi quickly rolled his chair backward and asked, "What the hell were you doing?"

"Nothing. You hardly needed my help." Nagi crawled out and sat on the edge of the desk. Being under a desk might not be the most embarrassing place he'd ever hidden, but he didn't want to stay under there any longer than he had to.

"Really? I could swear I felt your telekinesis running up and down my leg."

"_Nothing_."

Omi looked thoughtful as well as aroused. "You do seem to have a little bit of a field around you sometimes."

"What? I do not!" Nagi had better control than that! Well, he did except for the times when they had sex and he ended up breaking something, but this was not one of those times. "You're just oversensitive right now."

Omi grinned wickedly. "Do you want to take advantage of that? I've given up on getting any work done today."

******************************************************

"I feel despoiled," Aya murmured into his pillow. It wasn't a complaint, since he felt wrung out but at peace.

"Good," Farfarello replied into the back of his neck, buzz buzz. Farfarello had been very vocally happier with the greater sensitivity his energy work gave him, while Aya liked that he didn't have to be as rough during sex play anymore. He used to worry about damaging his lover, who probably wouldn't notice.

Yet, even with all the sex he'd just had, Aya couldn't help feeling that he'd had even more than that. So much for just refraining from using telepathy. How could he stop doing something when he didn't know when he was doing it?


	153. "I told him that he better put his fluffy head to thinking of ways to train you."

They had fuckbuddies, not sleepover friends, who demanded more, so.... "Up and at 'em, Yoji," Schuldig said as he shook the kitty entangled with them. If Yoji were going to let Aya get him out of staying here full-time, then he damned well would be going home to Weiß to sleep in his cold, lonely bed and see the error of his ways.

"Meh," Yoji answered without opening his eyes and snuggled in closer to Schuldig. His hair looked much better lately, much smoother and healthier, but it still had a bit of endearing, dorky fluffiness to it.

"We wore him out," Brad said. "If you woke him up and sent him away, he'd have a car accident."

"Yoji wouldn't be any fun like that." But if they let him sleep in they couldn't get up. Long limbs tangled badly, and they all three had them. Not that Schuldig wouldn't like more time lazing around.

Brad laughed a little. "This is why I never let _you_ get a pet. You'd get attached. Then you wouldn't even clean up after it."

"Some of us have links to him. It would be damned unpleasant if he got badly hurt when we didn't expect it. Aya has one too."

"When the hell did that happen?"

"Today. For a standoffish guy, Aya sure reaches out easily."

"Are you ever going to train him or Farfarello?"

"Farfarello's doing fine now. The problem is that none of us know how and when Aya's pulling on Farf's telepathy. How the hell do I train a non-telepath in telepathy? It's a unique situation, and I'm still working on it. I told Aya not to use it at all, but he linked with Yoji today anyway."

"Balinese is not a member of Schwarz, nor will he become one."

"And he's not gonna live with us. But he can visit, can't he? We can borrow him. You might even get to see him spank me eventually. C'mon! You're the one who told me not to throw him out because if we did he'd have a car accident and die."

"I didn't say he would die."

"You're toying with me, aren't you?"

"It's fun. You're right."

"And hell just froze over."

"I've always appreciated the practical benefits of sadism."

"Even if it means I'm right about something?"

"Even if." Brad put his glasses back on. "I don't have a flowerboy wrapped as tightly around me, so I could get up and do things."

"I'd prefer it if you stay and keep my ass warm."

"I'm good for more than that."

"I'd really rather just snuggle and doze right now, thanks." Even he had limits.

"I didn't mean only that."

"I know."

"Fine. I'll sleep." He even let Schuldig take off his glasses and put them back on the nearby night table.

Brad could be sweet sometimes, and having him close on one side and Yoji on the other felt comfortable. Schuldig enjoyed dogpiling and the tangling of bodies. Having Yoji as an occasional sleepover friend might not be bad, especially since Yoji knew better than to expect anything of them anyway.

******************************************************

Yoji woke up feeling very warm and cozy and a little too crowded. Every good thing had its downsides. Schuldig grinned sleepily at him as he opened his eyes. "Better now?" Schuldig asked.

"He slept long enough," Crawford said from somewhere beyond Schuldig.

"Am I keeping you from something?" Yoji asked sweetly.

"While you're here my telepath wants us all to stay in bed."

Feeling restless and a little embarrassed wearing nothing but his watch and a very cuddly telepath, Yoji said, "I'll be taking off now."

"Okay," Schuldig answered, so easy. "Be sure to come back again soon."

As they watched him dress, he couldn't resist making a little show of it. He knew he should feel guilty or worried about their... arrangement, but he couldn't quite. Yoji walked out of the bedroom with a little spring in his step.

"I see you survived, and they're even letting you go," Aya said as he sat cozily curled up on the couch with a book. At Yoji's questioning look, Aya answered, "Farfarello prefers to be alone as he meditates. I don't mind since I need some private time myself now and then."

"Farfarello meditates?"

"It's been doing wonders for him, but he feels silly when he knows other people are watching."

Surreal. But at least Aya looked very... Aya now. He still had gorgeous hair, but otherwise he seemed very normal and composed, just desirable instead of overwhelmingly sexy and as necessary as air and water. Yoji could put aside being inside Aya's head as Farfarello played with him.

At least he could before he'd started thinking about it again. Yoji shook his head to try to clear the sex out.

Barefoot and dressed in a green robe, Schuldig walked up to one of the closed doors, leaned against it, and said, "I know you're home. Congratulations on cornering Omi in his office. You made me proud. Oh, such language."

Yoji hadn't heard anything at all, so either the doors were thick or Nagi was answering telepathically. Or both. Wait, what did Schuldig mean about "cornering" Omi? Had the Schwarz telekinetic turned on Omi? But surely Schuldig wouldn't announce that in front of Aya. Yoji put his hand on his watch anyway, even though it probably wouldn't do him much good here, surrounded by Schwarz.

Schuldig smiled. "In his chair, on his desk.... His desk? Nagi, you're getting past your past! That's wonderful! Heh. No, I'm not taking this conversation private. You should be proud of yourself."

Oh. _Oh_. Yoji had known that the two kids didn't meet up just to play video games together, but the thought of the two of them playing kinky office games made Yoji blush. It was _Omi_.

That time Yoji definitely heard a growl from inside the bedroom. Aya murmured, "You willingly returned to this madhouse."

"Na, Yoji, we'll be going out to dinner soon," Schuldig said. "Wanna come with?"

That took fraternization a little too far.

"Sex is okay, but _dinner_ is too personal and intimate. You are a strange one, Kudou Yoji. It's a good thing I like you that way."

"I'm leaving now." Before things got any stranger.

"Wise man," Aya murmured to him as he closed the door.

The flower shop was empty when he got home, but Elena had left an innocuous note for him on the kitchen table to say they were off at a job that she didn't feel he'd recovered enough yet to help them with anyway and she'd left dinner for him in the fridge. Even for something left in their own home she'd made it so a stranger would have no idea what they really did for a living. She'd ended it with:

_*I hope you feel better and had a good time at your play date._

 

_Love,_

_Mom*_

Wiseass. It annoyed him a bit. Still, she'd left one of his favorite meals, and all he had to do was reheat it.

******************************************************

"I could get used to eating out every night," Schuldig said.

"You're all paying for yourselves," Crawford answered.

"Of course."

"We still have to get groceries."

Nagi figured that either he or Crawford would end up getting them, since Schuldig and Farfarello couldn't be trusted to buy food anyone else would eat. Then again, now that they didn't have to worry about Aya running off they could occasionally transfer food bitch duties to him, share the pain.

Crawford blinked, then asked, "Nagi, why do I see you teaching a class when I know you have a hatred of humanity?"

Shit. He hadn't even thought of how he'd bring that up. "I'll be presenting a single seminar date to Kritiker talents on how to better work with kinetic abilities."

"You'll be improving our competition?"

Because, of course, they might not want to freelance with Kritiker forever. "You said once that you thought a more robust competition would make things better and more interesting for us as employers had a better idea of what talents could do for them. Perhaps you were just shooting off your mouth or talking because you enjoy the sound of your own voice?" That came out more defensive than Nagi had intended. Damn.

Crawford didn't seem offended. "Are you even getting paid for this seminar?"

He hadn't thought of that. "We haven't worked out the details on that yet." It sounded better that way.

"I didn't know Persia could be such a whore, let alone such a successful one," Schuldig said.

Aya winced and stared more intently at his plate. But Aya often spent these dinners out staring at his plate and not saying much, probably in part because Farfarello spent a lot of the time idly stroking his back under his shirt.

Aya's hair really did look gorgeous, and Nagi didn't know whether he should kill or thank Kudou for that. He hadn't told Omi about it....

"It wasn't like that," Nagi answered. There was no need for Schuldig to know that Omi had asked him to teach a class after sex.

Except that he somehow did, from the smirk he had on his face.

This really sucked. Crawford would never chastise Schuldig or Farfarello in public like this because they'd shamelessly make a big scene of it. Nagi just took it and seethed, even as he wanted to kick himself for not thinking of the things Crawford had just brought up.

"I'll have to talk to Persia," Crawford said. "I don't appreciate him taking advantage of my people. You should at least get compensation."

"Aside from sex, which you would have gotten from him anyway," Schuldig said. "This is one of the reasons why I told you to play the field and not get too attached to one person. You can get sex anywhere and you should, so you shouldn't let anyone use your growing attachment to manipulate you. Listen to me on this, because I'm the expert."

"I'm merely asking you to be more cautious with your lover, who shouldn't be pushing you on things like this outside of a professional setting. He should have been content that I offered your services to help Balinese, but instead he's demanding more and doing it at an inappropriate time and in an inappropriate fashion. I act as manager for Schwarz to stop this kind of situation from arising, and he should have come to me with this."

"Brad, maybe Omi didn't think he could talk you into undressing and getting into his bed?"

Crawford looked skeeved at the thought, then shook it off to continue, "You have to learn not to let your hormones overwhelm your better judgment, Nagi. I'm amazed I have to say this to you. But I'm annoyed more with him than you."

"It wasn't like that, I can defend myself, and I'm not being taking advantage of now or in the future. Thank you," Nagi answered, really ticked off.

Nagi didn't know whether telling Crawford that originally Omi had asked him to teach a _series_ of classes and he'd bargained Omi down to one seminar would get a good or bad response. Crawford might appreciate that he'd retained the presence of mind not to cave in entirely or wonder why he hadn't shown the strength to refuse everything.

"You're only making it worse, Crawford," Aya said softly.

"Aya's actually right here," Schuldig said, surprised. "And when Aya can see it.... I'll back off. I'm not helping either."

Aya, Nagi's hero. ~ Thanks, ~ he said to Aya, who nodded.

Nagi didn't know whether he should try to see Omi tonight. Would it look like the act of a good lover or a clingy one? He didn't want to be clingy. It wouldn't even be a visit just to see or have sex with Omi, because he wanted to talk about this situation with the seminar himself. The more he thought about it, the more odious the thought of getting up in front of a group of idiots and trying to teach them something they might not be capable of learning seemed. He must have been insane or besotted to agree to it.

Damn it, he hated second-guessing himself like this. Life had been much simpler when his dick and heart hadn't fought his brain for control. His brain was a far more dependable pilot.

Schuldig looked very amused as he watched Nagi, so amused that Nagi had to ask, "Are you reading me?"

"You're not easy, but the 'go to Omi or not go to Omi' is really loud."

"There wasn't anyone left to pair up with in Schwarz, so I had to go outside the team and deal with the 'your home or mine' thing."

"Baby, if you want sex within Schwarz all you had to do was ask. Or just stand there and accept any of my countless propositions. I love you so much that I make it easy for you."

Ew.

"That's not happening," Crawford said.

"It doesn't have to be a threesome."

"It's still not happening. Nagi, I don't think you should see Persia tonight. I'd prefer to be the first to talk to him about this. Besides, you already saw him today."

Aya smiled a little, making Nagi, annoyed, ask, "What?"

"At least _no one_ on this team has any privacy," Aya answered. "It bothered me when I seemed to be the only one suffering."

"I asked Nagi to take care of Aya for me during my recovery to cheer my kitten up," Farfarello said suddenly. "The boy turned it down."

Aya put his hand over his eyes, while Nagi wanted to slide under the table to hide. As expected, obviously horrified, Schuldig dropped his chopsticks and then asked, "Where did I go wrong? Nagi, after all the time I spend trying to teach you right you turned him down? There are people at this table starving for the opportunity you threw away. Damn, I should have been in Pittsburgh."

"I think it's time for the check," Crawford said.

******************************************************

Yoji opened his door to talk to a freshly-scrubbed Elena. He'd heard the shower running earlier but still said, "You're all back sooner than I expected."

"Than I expected too. Our target was a badly-defended puss. Can I come in for a moment?"

Yoji had a feeling he knew what she wanted to talk to him about, but he replied, "Sure," anyway. Might as well get it over with.

After giving him a long look, she said, "You seem to be healthy and in good spirits." Pink-cheeked, she looked too young to be Weiß's leader. Then again, so had Omi.

"Yeah. It was a fun play date."

"Sorry. I couldn't resist." Her grin faded. "If they treat you well and you're happy, that's fine. But you know that if they hurt you, it'll be war, right?"

He hadn't, but he answered, "Right." Weiß would put up a better fight than Schwarz would expect, but Yoji figured they'd still get creamed in the end. It left him feeling cold. Loved, but cold and somewhat fearful. Shit. "You don't have to rescue me."

"Okay. Just know that we will if you need it, just so we're all clear."

"I think so. Just, whatever you do, talk to me first, okay?"

She nodded. Then she asked, "I just put more stress on you, didn't I? I won't make assumptions about how you're doing with Schwarz. I'll talk to you. Better?"

"It'll be fine. Go to bed."

"Yes, Dad."

"Good night, Mom."

She stuck her tongue out at him as she left.

He didn't worry so much about the kids going after Schwarz to fight for his honor, not when Elena was fairly practical and Fenris followed her lead. He did worry a bit about Ken, but at least Ken wasn't a psionic and wouldn't attack alone.

Feeling a little easier about the whole thing, Yoji went to sleep. He'd really tired himself out.

******************************************************

To his confusion, Aya seemed to be fucking himself. At least the body he thrust into looked like him and behaved a bit like him. He didn't turn himself on, but something inside him found him very arousing. Whose dream was this?

"Yoji," the him under him moaned, which suggested the answer. He didn't want to see this, know this, feel this, be this....

How the hell did he get in here? How could he get out?

How could he stop making it feel so good?

******************************************************

Farfarello woke to his puisín's restless movements beside him. They hadn't played tonight because Aya had been pissed off about his admission at dinner, but it had been too funny to resist saying, especially with his kitten feeling superior. Aya would cool down. Eventually. Right now, the rolling of the kitten's hips and the small sounds he made into his pillow suggested him to be in the middle of an erotic dream. This might be fun.

He rolled his puisín over onto his back and climbed atop him, purring at Aya's thrusts against him. He had to be careful not to do that telepathic melting thing, but he needed to see this dream. Putting his hand against Aya's sweaty cheek, he went in a little and saw that Aya dreamed of fucking... Aya. Kinky and arousing to Farfarello, but uncharacteristic for his puisín.

Aya tasted of the slutkitten inside, and Aya didn't like it....

Enraged, his lust gone, Farfarello went out of Aya's head and yelled, ~ Schuldig! Block Aya _now_! ~

~ Mmph? What? ~

~ Telepathically block Aya now, you lazy, incompetent creature! ~

~ After the name calling, I don't think I'm going to. ~

Explaining the situation might make Schuldig less likely to do his job, since the pervert might like the idea of Aya's dreaming the slutkitten's sex dreams, especially when Aya starred in them. Instead, Farfarello attacked Schuldig with shards of pain and staticky noise. ~ Fix it! ~

~ Fuck you! Fine! Asshole. But I'm gonna make you pay when I wake up more. ~

~ Yeah, whatever. Just do what you're supposed to do. ~

He could tell that Schuldig had worked when Aya's rocking and breathing slowed. Eventually Aya went limp and sighed, although he was still hard. Stimulation did that. That too faded as he drifted into a new dream, one that tasted only of him.

Shaking with emotion, Farfarello got off him and left the room. Utterly disheveled, Schuldig stalked out of his room into the hallway and hissed, "What the fuck was that?"

"Aya was dreaming someone else's dream. I know you don't know what the hell you're doing where he's concerned, but you have to figure it out faster!"

"Really? Interesting."

Farfarello growled. "Your interesting puzzle is my heart."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm working on it." He smirked. "It was Yoji, wasn't it? Must have been a fun dream."

"If my kitten loses himself, I know to blame you."

Far from intimidated, Schuldig replied, "And yourself. This wouldn't have happened without your blundering. Besides, if he goes he may take you with him."

"I'm sure Crawford will forgive you for failing to save two members of his small team. Eventually."

That shook Schuldig a little. His piece said, Farfarello returned to bed and curled up against his kitten. He needed better threats to crack the whip on the telepath but didn't know what else he could use.

He better think of something.

He spent most of the night thinking but saw no solutions.

When Aya woke in the morning, Farfarello asked, "Are you well? Not traumatized?"

Aya looked confused. "Should I be traumatized? I'm annoyed about dinner--"

"No, I'm talking about the dream you got caught in."

"I don't remember any dreams. Farfarello, what the hell happened last night?"

"You must have used my telepathy to overhear someone else's dream and couldn't get out until Schuldig blocked you. I told him that he better put his fluffy head to thinking of ways to train you."

Although he mostly looked worried, Aya smiled a little. "Did you phrase it to him that way?"

"Not yet." He might not be able to protect his kitten's mind, but he could still make him smile.


	154. "No, and I just had bacon."

When Aya sat down at the kitchen table for breakfast, Schuldig beamed at him and said, "I have an idea on how to train you."

"You have an idea?" Nagi asked as he walked past to serve himself. "I thought I smelled something burning."

"Funny one, shorty."

"You're scraping the bottom of the insult barrel there."

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood. Look, Aya, I was thinking I could boost your senses with my telepathy so you can see and feel what you're doing. Once you get that, maybe you can stop yourself when you feel yourself reaching out."

"That actually sounds like a good idea," Aya said.

"Are you all on the rag this morning? Maybe it's because none of you got any last night except for Aya, who doesn't remember it, which is a shame. It's too bad you didn't get caught in the dream where he had you with real kitty ears and a tail. That one you would have remembered this morning."

"I hate you," Aya said.

"You love me. I may save your sanity."

"What do we have to do for this idea of yours?"

"I have to go into your head and let you see with my telepathy. You have to let me."

"I don't trust you."

"You'll have to."

"Besides," Crawford said, "Schu won't dare break you today. We have a job tonight as a team."

"Finally," Schuldig said with a smile.

The prospect of work barely eased the gnawing worry in Aya's gut, because he didn't trust Schuldig. From the look on Farfarello's face, neither did he. But they didn't have a choice.

Breakfast continued, but Aya couldn't eat anything more. Afterward, Schuldig sat on the couch and gestured for Aya to sit next to him. "I don't know how long we'll be out, so we better make ourselves comfortable. Lie down and put your head on my thigh."

"Like hell," Aya answered.

"I have to maintain skin contact to make this better and easier for both of us. If you're beneath me, my fingers can just rest on your face."

Farfarello sat across from them and said, "I'll keep watch, puisín."

"See? Totally safe."

He didn't have much choice, not if he wanted to learn control and avoid melting into his lover someday. The thought of being caught in someone else's dream also scared him badly. He settled his head on Schuldig's leg, facing away from the telepath's body, and tried to get comfortable, flinching when Schuldig touched his arm.

"You're rigid. Relax," Schuldig said.

"It's not a long couch."

"So? You don't sleep straight and sprawled out anyway."

"I hate that you know that."

"C'mon, baby." Schuldig set his hot fingers against Aya's cheek.

"Did you wash those?"

"No, and I just had bacon. Kidding! Don't squirm away."

Aya settled down again. "Just get to it already." Waiting for and wondering about it made it worse.

"Close your eyes and relax."

Aya slowed his breathing and closed his eyes... and found himself in thick, murky darkness. In the distance he could vaguely see some fuzzy glowing lines. It was horribly reminiscent of the water they'd plunged into as the Eszett elders' stronghold fell. The shock of hitting the water had knocked him out at first, but then he'd opened his eyes and mouth, drowning in cold--

Something that felt almost like a fluffy tail slapped his face. "Stop that. This isn't water but it'll become like water if you make it. Think happy thoughts and let me boost your sight."

It _wasn't_ that water. Remembering that, Aya felt the formerly growing sensation of cold sliminess disappear. The darkness and murk lifted somewhat, leaving him in a shadowy, featureless dark velvet world with the same glowing lines he'd seen before but saw more clearly now and a cinnamon-scented weight on his shoulder.

"Much better," the Schuldig-voiced weight said. Although Aya couldn't turn his head to see it, he had the impression that if he could only its large grin would be visible. "Eszett scientists would be pissing themselves to take a crack at you, because you shouldn't have been able to see anything on your own. If you saw anything, it would be something I imposed on you, but this space is holding the shape you're giving it. You'd be able to show more detail if you were dreaming, but you wouldn't be in control of the images except on a subconscious level so I'd still be able to mess around. You shouldn't have been able to see the links at all without me." He sounded excited.

"I feel blessed."

"You should. You're even imposing a shape on me. I can change it but don't feel like it. This is too fun not to keep." The weight moved around a bit with a shifting of claw pricks into his shoulders.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I'm usually a wave of colors, but you seem to have made me into a Wonderland-style Cheshire cat. Why that?"

"I don't know. I didn't do it on purpose." But he'd seen the Disney movie once, and when he thought about it now Schuldig with acid orange and green stripes and a mad grin seemed right, although Schuldig would be fluffier and prettier. Garish, but pretty.

"You're very visual and focused and frequently self-deluding, so maybe that's why you can do this. Did what Farfarello did to you change the structure of your mind? Damn, I'm intrigued."

Fighting off the tickle of soft but invisible fur waving against his nose from what seemed to be a swaying tail, Aya asked, "What are the glowing lines?"

"Your links out. I cleaned up in here a lot recently, then blocked you, so they're neater than they used to be. You keep unblocking.... Okay, Aya, identify who's who."

"How?"

"How do they feel?"

Aya walked toward one.

"No, just move yourself there. There's no real distance here."

Aya thought himself next to the one he chose first, and thinking that worked. The glowing thread resembled the others but was slimmer than most of them. When he touched it lightly it felt warm and soft. He felt kindness and sadness and an obscuring haze of cigarette smoke.... "Yoji. This is Yoji."

"Very good."

"How the hell did I link to Yoji?"

"You did it yourself, not me."

******************************************************

Love. Bliss. Bliss bliss bliss....

"Yoji, what the hell is wrong with you?" Ken whispered suddenly into his ear.

Yoji realized that he'd sat down. Good thing that chair had been there, or he'd be on the floor.

What had that been? And where could he get more? It had felt like someone lovingly stroking his soul, which had suddenly become his foremost erogenous zone.

Noticing Elena watching him with a look of confusion and worry, he jauntily waved and mouthed, "I'm fine."

~ That wasn't Schuldig, ~ she said. ~ It didn't feel like anyone I know. It didn't feel like a single person but didn't seem like more than one either. And it was inexperienced, hesitant.... I'm confused. You're okay? ~

Better than okay.

~ I'm going to go gray before I hit 25, and it'll be your fault. ~

******************************************************

"Now try the others, Aya."

Aya identified by touch and feel Nagi, Schuldig, and Crawford's, their leader's link the slimmest thread of all. Schuldig purred when his link was handled. Aya did not want to know.

******************************************************

Nagi jumped and swore as he felt a phantom caress up his spine. Fortunately, he wasn't hacking into anything at the time. Crawford felt a small breeze that turned out to be nothing. He finished dressing for his formal appointment to see Persia and left the apartment.

******************************************************

"Where's Farfarello's line?" Schuldig asked.

On a hunch, Aya felt out into the space, warm and dark and comforting, occasionally struck through with flashes of color. "This is him."

"_This_? Just... stuff? All of this... around us-- He had lines in here just recently!"

"Maybe he still does. Maybe now it's that you're seeing him through my perceptions?"

"Holy shit. He's all over the place?"

"Is this a bad thing? You have to tell me."

"I don't know."

"That's very comforting." He wished Schuldig would stop breathing in his ear. It was very distracting.

"This is kind of your telepathic space here, and your telepathy comes from him.... I don't know. This is terra incognita, kitten. I'll have to check you out without going through your perceptions later."

"Joy."

"Bitch."

"Wait a minute, there's a barrier around me."

"Yeah, but Farf and the links got through anyway."

"You said it was like a box with air holes! This is--"

"It has holes! Your links and all this Farf stuff went right through it."

"That's what _I_ did. I should have known you lie about everything."

"It didn't bother you when you didn't know about it, so keep going with that. There's no reason to freak. Okay. Reach out to use the telepathy. You're already touching it."

"I don't--" Aya felt it suddenly, heat and power, the whisper of minds out there in the distance, the singing of angels and demons. It flowed through him.

"You _feel_ that! Remember it. It won't be as strong or obvious when I'm not jacked in to you, but it is noticeable. If you feel that starting to happen, stop what you're doing and pull back. Pull back now!"

By sheer will, Aya did. "Oh."

"Yes! I am a genius."

"We don't know if it'll work when you're not perched on my shoulder."

"You'll do it. You hate failing at anything."

"Hnh. Are you going to teach me to use it instead of just abstaining?"

"I don't know if it's a good idea because we don't know if it weakens or hurts Farf."

"I didn't think that could happen."

"Who knows? I'll think about it."

"How will I stop myself while I'm sleeping?"

"The better trained your conscious self is, the more control you have in your sleep. It's not perfect, but it's better. At least you're using a kind of telepathy that you have to reach out with to hear anything. The world comes to _my_ door whether I want it to or not. Farf's luckier than he realizes."

Aya snarled as Schuldig batted his dangling earring and made it swing. "Stop that. Stop breathing in my ear too."

"You really are sensitive, which would suck in a psychic battle. And I _can't_ breathe in here, so that's all your imagination at work. It's a shame you only borrow telepathy, because you'd make an intricate, tasty inner world if you had your own talent and perception."

"Why did I end up inside Yoji's dream?"

"You linked with him earlier today, maybe out of friendliness."

"Hnh."

"That ice prince act doesn't work as well as it used to. You linked with him, for whatever reason you reached out last night, and Yoji doesn't have the barriers the rest of us have. Makes him the logical choice out of any of us. Funny that after all that sex we gave him he still ended up having a dream about you. Or maybe not so funny. He _had_ us."

"I don't want to hear this."

"You should've seen his kitty Aya dream! You wore bells and had the cutest velvety black tail and swiveling ears! You purred too!"

He wanted those images out of his head _now_. "The trauma is repressing this entire conversation for me. I'm not going to remember any of it."

"I'll remind you."

"I hate you."

"Nah. You _love_ me." Schuldig purred and nuzzled into Aya's neck and needled his shoulder with sharp claws. "This avatar form is a lot of fun. I have to keep it in mind."

"Are we done?"

"Do you think you know how this feels well enough now?"

"I think so. I won't know until it actually comes up."

"Good point. I may have to come back for a booster visit."

"Joy."

"You need a new tune. Something like 'Thank you, Schuldig, for your generous help and training. Take me now.'"

"I hate you."

******************************************************

Farfarello idly played with a little ball of electricity in the palm of his hand as he stared at Schuldig and his kitten. Schuldig looked utterly relaxed, his head leaning back against the couch. Aya looked peaceful, though the sight of the mindbreaker's fingers splayed on the side of his face made Farfarello want to growl. If something had gone wrong, they'd be far less composed, but he desperately wanted to know what they were doing.

He would show patience. He had no choice.

"Stop toying with the electricity. If I didn't have a surge protector for my computer I'd be screwed over that," the boy said as he walked into the room.

"But you do, so there's no problem. Admit that you're really so bitchy because this thing with the Persia kitten bothers you."

The boy looked surprised. People often did over Farfarello's displays of insight, his gift and his curse. "That's really annoying," the boy said.

"Crawford and Persia will talk. You can only wait."

"Hopefully with more grace than you're waiting with right now."

Aya blinked, and the mindbreaker's fingers stroked his cheek. He jumped up and away, then winced, murmuring, "I'm stiff." He glared at Schuldig and said, "Shut up."

The mindbreaker grinned. "Sure, sure."

Farfarello wanted the important information. "Are you protected now?"

"Maybe," his puisín answered. "We won't know for sure until I unconsciously try to use it again."

"You could always have sex and see if you can stop yourselves from melting into each other," Schuldig said.

"While you watch?"

"It's the least you can let me do after all the help I've been."

"No. Did you look to see if my link to Farfarello looks like a thread elsewhere?"

"Yeah, I did, and it does. It's in your perception and the way you're accessing him that he surrounds and suffuses you."

Feeling warmed by the sound of that, Farfarello let his ki ball fizzle out and grabbed his kitten to sit on his lap. He thought the sex idea to be a good one but knew it wouldn't happen now that the mindbreaker had suggested it first.

Time would tell whether he had cause to feel so hopeful about Aya's prospects.

"We have planning to do," Nagi said. "Crawford left me the layout and dossier data."

"Mini-Crawford," Farfarello murmured, which made Schuldig grin.

"Just remember that you're not the only one who can throw lightning around here."


	155. "Do you really have to wear a telekinetic full-body condom?"

After Rex took Crawford's coat, Mamoru said, "Please sit."

"Thank you."

Interesting. Crawford usually preferred to stand. Also, the precog had been wearing dark suits lately but right now wore a cream one that looked somewhat unsettling with his silver hair. Had he chosen his outfit as a reminder of the Crawford he used to be?

Mamoru motioned for Rex to leave them, than sat as well, with the desk between him and Crawford. He didn't think about what he'd done on the desk yesterday or that Crawford probably knew about it, given what seemed to be a total lack of privacy within Schwarz. "I didn't have a chance to ask the last time we saw each other," being too busy trying to get Yoji out of Schwarz's clutches, "but how was your flight back?"

"Uneventful, as I prefer it. It's good to be back. We've gained a certain fondness for Japan. I may have been born in the United States but I've spent most of my life elsewhere."

"You intend to continue operating in Japan?"

"For the foreseeable future. You know why I'm here to speak with you."

"I have a guess. I'd prefer to be certain, so please enlighten me."

"Your request for Nagi's services as a teacher was inappropriately done in several ways. I can't let it pass."

Mamoru had thought so. It hadn't been until later that he'd realized that suggesting it in bed after sex gave him an unfair advantage, even though he'd done it innocently. Sometimes good ideas occurred to him during the afterglow and he became enthusiastic about them. "Actually, I agree that the time and place were wrong."

Surprise very briefly flashed on Crawford's face before the stillness returned. "You also shouldn't have done this without me."

"Nagi doesn't have any say on his free time?"

"If he had no say, you wouldn't have been in a position to make your request where you did. The problem here is that accepting that offer affects Schwarz. We're freelancers, not Kritiker employees. You would have him training people who could be our competition."

Mamoru forgot that sometimes. His fond hopes of Schwarz joining Kritiker could be placed in the same box with his hopes for getting Nagi to move in with him. Considering Nagi's repeated refusals, sleeping and waking up alone most of the time might be Mamoru's destiny. Expecting Schwarz to be any different might be a losing proposition. "I see."

"I'm Schwarz's manager, and I should be present for negotiations for all such offers and requests. Are you even offering to pay him for his time and aggravation?"

...no. Mamoru had seen it as a favor, even though he knew better than to mix his personal and business lives. He hadn't paid Nagi for the second consultation with Elena either. In defense, trying to hide weakness, Mamoru answered, "There was no talk of monetary compensation for his help with Yoji's ability."

"That was meant to be a favor, not a presumption on all future work. Besides, Nagi will find teaching a class to be even more unpleasant than training a single man. He should get something out of it."

True. Damn it. He'd taken advantage of Nagi.

He hadn't known he _could_. Nagi was so hard, so misanthropic. Who knew Nagi would get soft for him? It was... sweet. Mamoru had to make sure Nagi didn't regret it.

"As a paid favor, we might let Nagi do the seminar if he wishes to and finds all the terms agreeable," Crawford said. "You'll have to make an offer, and I'll have to talk to him."

"You said that you didn't want to help your competition."

"I'm in a mood to be generous."

Arrogant, more likely. Still, if Nagi consented to teaching, Mamoru had no qualms about taking advantage of Crawford's arrogance. "I appreciate generosity."

"But it will cost you."

"Of course."

******************************************************

Crawford felt pleased by his negotiations, having bargained for a fair price for Nagi's services and an agreement to give Nagi another chance to turn the seminar down while he wasn't under the influence of pheromones, afterglow, and mild emotional blackmail. Having agreed once, though, Nagi would probably agree again, out of pride. Backing out now would make it look like he'd made a mistake before.

It would be interesting to see if Crawford's prediction of the boy's behavior turned out true. He had confidence in his insight, but as Nagi continued to evolve into an adult, his own person he became less predictable.

When Crawford returned to the apartment he saw most of his team bunched around Nagi's laptop, while Farfarello sat on the nearby couch and looked meditative as he sharpened one of his knives in long, consistent strokes.

"--dossier he wants us to come up on the enemy gang from behind and kill them, moving forward until the leader is alone," Nagi said. "Hi, Crawford."

"How dramatic of him," Aya answered.

"Pot and kettle, o prince of darkness," Schuldig said, then he took a look at Crawford as he removed his coat and said, "Muraki!"

Nagi sneered. "And in today's installment of _The Unlikeliest Otaku_...."

"I'm not some desperate fanboy. I just think all that white looks hot." He tried to rest his head atop Nagi's then growled, "Mean." No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't close the final five-centimeter space between his chin and Nagi's hair.

"I don't want anything of yours in my hair."

"You won't let me touch your shoulder, your hair.... Do you really have to wear a telekinetic full-body condom?"

"Around you? Yes."

"You've also been looking at my ass," Aya said.

"Everybody looks at your ass," Schuldig replied. "I'm just feeling friendly and affectionate."

"You're feeling horny," Farfarello said as he examined the edge of his knife on one fingertip. "If you're that desperate, I have several things I'll be happy to poke you with."

"Brad, save me!"

"You got yourself into this," Crawford said.

"You're all so mean. I'll wither away from neglect."

"Lick it up, baby. Lick it up," Nagi answered.

"You're just pissy because you're thinking deep, dark thoughts about your relationship with Omi."

"I'm this close to breaking one of your fingers."

"Fine, fine. You just don't appreciate my love. Brad, we already have a big start on a plan for tonight's job. You can check it and make suggestions."

His team showing initiative and drive always made him happy. "Very good."

It was a good plan, thoughtful and cautious yet not too cautious. It took variables and escape routes into account. He had suggestions to add but mostly approved his team's directives.

Finally, Crawford presented Nagi with a paper listing the pay Persia had offered for the seminar and said, "You can refuse to do it. I bargained that out of him."

Nagi seemed disinterested in the pay, which wasn't all that surprising since they all had money. For them, pay was more about the principle of the thing. "I'll do it," he said. "I don't want to back out of a commitment I already made." But he looked somber and thoughtful.

Crawford called Persia and let him know that Nagi agreed to the job and terms. Persia didn't let a hint of emotion show in his voice, very professional. Crawford took note. The boy was dangerous.

With the planning finished, everyone went to their own preparations for the night's work. Schuldig said, "I think I'll get some target practice in. I haven't killed anybody who was a real challenge in a while." He put on his coat, then his chauffeur hat.

Crawford fought back a smile. "Schu."

"I'm a tall white guy with bright blue eyes and blazing orange hair. I'm not gonna blend in without using telepathy, so why bother?"

Crawford felt rather warm and mushy in general at the moment. "Are you doing something to me?"

Schuldig's surprise looked genuine. "Nope. Why?"

"I'm feeling sentimental."

"Heaven forefend that the man with the steel spine who can eat iron and spit out bullets starts feeling affectionate. The world might end."

"I'm feeling much less warm toward you now."

"Goody."

"Nagi seemed moody." More than usual.

"He's blocking me, but some of his misery and 'going around in mental circles' bleeds through anyway. At least to someone who knows him as well as I do and is as incredibly powerful as I am. He feels stupid that he agreed to do Omi's bidding so easily, and he's second-guessing his decision to be involved with Omi. He's... torn."

"It would be easier and safer for him and Schwarz if he weren't involved with Persia."

"I know. He's just the drastic type. I could see him becoming celibate for the rest of his life because this one didn't work out. That would be a shame."

Distracted and unhappy team members didn't perform well, Nagi particularly. Crawford remembered the disaster with Tot. "Keep an eye on him."

"Was gonna do it anyway. Hey, wanna go to the practice range with me?"

He could stand some practice. "Sure."

"Don't get too excited. Your heart might burst."

"I don't have one."

Schuldig grinned. "Oh yeah. I forgot."

******************************************************

"Come in," Nagi said after Aya knocked on his door.

"Thank you. Can I sit down?"

"Yeah, go ahead." Nagi pointed him to the bed, touched and amused at the idea of a teammate who actually asked first, and turned his chair around to face him.

Aya sat. On Nagi's bed. Looking gorgeous. "Thanks again." He also looked a little wary, a little awkward. "I want to apologize for Farfarello last night."

"He should be making an apology himself, but thanks. Anyway, he does this sometimes to amuse himself. It's one of the reasons why he and Schuldig got along."

"Then that's not what you're brooding over today?"

Did Nagi want to talk to Aya about this? He didn't know. "It's not."

"Is it about Omi?"

"No comment."

"I see."

"It's just that I feel so stupid about this. I never thought I'd start feeling this way or being so weak."

"You're not weak," Aya said fiercely.

"All right. What do you call agreeing to do something I hate just because I was in a good mood from having sex?"

"That sounds crass."

"Okay, maybe because I like Omi too, but either way it led to me doing something against my best interests."

"Does he make you happy?"

"Sometimes. But I get so anxious about when I should go see him or whether I should stay over. He wants me to live with him, and I can't see that. He's only one of our potential employers, and this is a conflict of interest on my part. I'm going to have to remember to weigh everything he asks versus the best interests of my team." He was doing an excellent job of not commenting, wasn't he?

"I've never had to worry about whether to stay over with someone. I wish I could give you advice."

"It would be easier if I stepped away now."

"And never engage with anyone again?"

"Actually, yes. That would be safest." Depressing, but safest. He wouldn't be so plagued with self-doubt then either. Crawford said that self-doubt occasionally came with greater intelligence but that it should never be allowed to paralyze you.

He hadn't decided what to do about himself and Omi yet. Not really.

"I thought the same in the past."

"My flirtation with Tot was a disaster too."

"You weren't well-suited for each in many ways, and she was on a rival team."

Hmph. Rival. That gave Schreient too much credit.

"The rest of us will be paired up while you have no one, ever, and you'll be fine with that?" Aya asked.

"I'll be fine. I don't have to be celibate." Good luck with that on this team anyway. "I just won't look for anything long term. Don't look at me like that. We're assassins. I can't bring anyone in who might find out and freak about it. And report us to the authorities, though being believed about us might take some work. Then there's my telekinesis...."

"I remember your worries about finding someone who'd accept that about you."

Omi accepted it. Occasionally Nagi felt that Omi liked the use of telekinesis too much. "Yeah."

"I don't have any answers to your concerns, Nagi. I wish I did. I just don't want you to be alone." Aya could be very sweet in his quiet way.

The part of him that wanted to tell Aya that one way to make him feel better and less alone would be to lie back on the bed and have sex with him could just shut up, because that wasn't going to happen. "I haven't made any decisions yet. Besides, on this team I'm never alone, even when I want to be."

Aya smiled a tiny smile. "You know what I mean."

Having Aya sitting here on his bed trying to get him to talk in the hopes of making him feel better gave Nagi such an ache inside.

******************************************************

Their suitcase was buzzing. Buzzing and vibrating usually denoted weapons or sex toys. Farfarello carefully flipped its top open using the tip of one of his knives, saw some of their clothes subtly moving, and used his knife to push those aside as well. He found his kitten's cell phone. They'd forgotten about it.

Grinning, he answered it, "I told you not to call me here."

"What? Excuse me?" Persia asked.

For a moment Farfarello felt angry suspicion, but then remembered that Aya was using the arch-kitten to help find them a place of their very own. Thus, he would be polite and helpful. "Sorry. I didn't expect a call. Have you found a place?"

"Farfarello?" Persia sounded so shocked, then recovered as he went on. "No, not yet. It's difficult, as we expected. First we have to find two side-by-side apartments that either already have the features you want or could be modified. Then they have to be in a building where the neighbors aren't too nosy."

This didn't sound good. "Hmm."

"I have Kritiker housing that gives me more say in the conditions, but I don't think your leader would be amenable."

"You're right."

"The only progress I've made is that I've eliminated some possibilities. I called more to make sure that Aya could be reached at this number." After a moment, he said, "I can also help switch your service to a local number."

It mattered very little to Farfarello, but he answered, "All right."

"Can I talk to Aya?"

"I can give him your message."

"I'd still like to talk to Aya."

Persistent. Still, Persia was helping them, so Farfarello could give him a small boon, a little tidbit to entice him to work harder. "All right."

He found his kitten trying to cheer the smitten boy, who looked at Aya with such longing. It would be good to break this up. "Puisín. Phone."

******************************************************

Nagi watched and listened as Aya spoke on the phone. "Hi," Aya answered, then smiled a little. "Yeah. I should have thought to leave some way for you to contact me. I hadn't thought ahead.... Switching the service over would be good, but that was a long, intricate contract they made us sign. You might need lawyers. Hnh. Yeah, it would have to be a place where the neighbors don't snoop. We're a flamboyant looking group that would keep odd hours, never mind the killing and occasional coming home bloodstained. Yes, really. Thank you. We'll talk again."

So Aya had enlisted help in finding an apartment. Very smart. But Nagi didn't want Aya to move out, ever, and it had nothing to do with how "hot" Aya was. But Aya wanted his own space. It would be selfish to refuse him it for a reason like this.

Nagi didn't have a problem with being selfish. It was a good thing Aya hadn't asked him for help on apartment hunting, because he didn't think he'd be able to give it.

Farfarello shot him a measuring, knowing, somewhat threatening look. Nagi stared back, defiant.

******************************************************

Boxes filled parts of their bedroom. Some part of Farfarello enjoyed all the opportunities for cover in case of attack but most of him hated their presence for the reminder that he and his kitten still lived like children in Schwarz's home. Aya had infected him with a love for space and privacy where before he hadn't cared.

"What did the boy want?" he asked his kitten. "He's not still upset about my little confession at dinner, is he? A member of Schwarz should let such roll off his back or he'll not survive long."

"That's not it."

Farfarello grabbed him and rolled on the bed with him back and forth. "There are no secrets in Schwarz. Besides, it's no secret at all that the boy is upset about something that will come out sooner or later no matter what you do." He nuzzled the soft nape of Aya's neck, loving the crimson of the hair there.

Aya breathed out. "You don't really care."

"You care so I care. Now spill. We all know each other's business."

"This seminar issue has just reinforced for him how rocky his relationship with Omi can be."

"That wasn't so hard. And?"

"I care about them both, and they do seem to be causing each other as least as much misery and uncertainty as happiness, not that I'm any expert to judge. I think they do love each other but love isn't always enough."

Farfarello felt into him a little and said, "You have your own concerns as well."

"Omi is one of our employers. In the future, the conflict of interest may manifest in even bigger ways than this seminar situation. Nagi already feels torn in two and is chastising himself for being weak-willed, which is unfair. He's seriously thinking of breaking up with Omi and never getting involved with anyone ever again. Meanwhile, I'm not sure he even _should_ stay with Omi."

That was not good. That was very bad. Persia distracted the boy from Aya. Farfarello had the sudden mental image of a kitten-smitten boy _forever_ gazing after Aya with a look of hopeless adoration and misery, which wouldn't be a happy and healthy situation for any of them. "He must have someone of his own."

"That's what I thought. But he made very good points about his job and his telekinesis being a stumbling point to keeping a lover."

"Best would be another assassin and talent." When Aya shook a little, Farfarello asked, "What? You're amused by me?"

"No, I just had the most ridiculous idea."

"What? What? Now you have to share."

His kitten sounded amused. "I don't. I won't."

"You do. You will." He quickly stroked up and down his kitten's body making him writhe, partly to get a confession and partly because his kitten felt better and better to him as his damages slowly healed. Sensation-drunk, Farfarello grinned. "Tell."

Aya suffered in stoic, if almost breathless, silence as he fruitlessly wiggled and struggled for a while in some show of putting up a fight until finally choking out, "Yoji. I thought of Yoji for him because my brain is cracked."

After the initial thought of "What the fuck?" Farfarello saw the poetry in it and said, "No, that's perfect." He turned his assault on his kitten into slower, more meditative motions.

"It's insanity!"

"The age difference isn't truly so bad. The boy is very mature."

"Yes, and that would be a problem."

"The slutkitten is immature?"

"I'm not having this conversation, and don't call him 'slutkitten.'"

"It's funny."

"Maybe, but I know that it's going to slip out in front of him some day."

"So?"

Perhaps seeing that he wouldn't win on that, Aya said, "It's the pairing of crackheadedness. They have almost nothing in common."

"They're assassins who have telekinesis."

"And that's it."

Not quite. More importantly: "They're both lust-struck by you. That suggests some overlap in taste."

Aya stilled. "Is that what this is about? You think that getting them hooked up with someone, here each other, will stop them from wanting me?"

His kitten was far too clever. "That's no doubt too much to expect of them." Trying to yank the flow of conversation back to where he wanted it, he continued, "The height difference is easily surmountable, given that they're both tekes."

"Nagi's far more likely to push Yoji down to his knees than to float up to meet him. Farfarello, it's a ridiculous idea, and we have no matchmaking skills anyway."

"Speak for yourself."

Nagi's relations with Persia left him unsettled and unhappy and thus available to orbit Aya. The slutkitten's occasional third wheel routine with Crawford and the mindbreaker left _him_ far too much freedom and time to consider Aya. They had to be settled and anchored.

Besides, Farfarello didn't like to see the boy mope. Or, rather, mope more.

Once he wouldn't have cared about any of this.

"You're not going to do anything," Aya said.

"No. Anything I did would probably only make them more contrary." When Aya winced hard suddenly, Farfarello petted him and asked, "What happened?"

"I felt myself trying to grab into you and yanked myself back from it. I think part of me wanted to see if you meant it when you said you wouldn't interfere."

He felt such pride. "You're a quick learning kitten." That some part of Aya felt distrust of him didn't bother him at all. Distrust would help keep the kitten alive, and Farfarello knew that he couldn't always trust himself.

"It worked this time. I think. But I have a headache now."

"You'll get better." Farfarello spilled some ki into Aya to help. "Better?"

"Somewhat."

"Good. I don't enjoy your pain."

"Luckily for me."

"So, what did you tell the boy to do?"

"I told him that he had to do what he felt was best. I also told him that he shouldn't be alone for the rest of his life."

"You might have contradicted yourself there."

"Life's not clear-cut. Why should advice be? In any case, it's not as if I have vast experience to draw on to guide him. I was mostly a sympathetic listener."

"One he enthusiastically bared his heart to."

"You were the one who once wanted him to bare other things to me, as you reminded us and revealed to Crawford and Schuldig last night, so you can hardly cry jealousy now."

"Cruel kitten." But fun. He liked it that Aya made him work hard to get away with anything.

******************************************************

"You really are feeling... sentimental," Schuldig purred as Crawford set his hand on the small of his back. The telepath smelled of gunpowder and sweat....

Crawford wanted him, right here, right now, in the hallway leaving the firing range, but... "I would fuck you now if I didn't foresee people walking in on us forcing me to stop so I could kill them. It would be such an annoying mess." This aroused, he even found Schuldig's hat charming.

Schuldig grinned. "I guess we'll just have to take out our sexual frustrations on our targets until after the mission, when we can finally actually fuck."

Blood, gunpowder, sweat, and anticipation made an even greater aphrodisiac, a pleasant side effect of their work. "I'm looking forward to it."


	156. "We can't interfere all the time."

~ The opposition has a teke and a pyro, ~ Schuldig told his team.

~ Maybe we'll have some fun after all, ~ Farf answered.

Everything had been nauseatingly easy so far. Ogura had brought a small army to his meet with Kono, yet not a one of them had noticed Schwarz in the shadows of the crates. Schwarz's employer, Kono, had brought only his lieutenant, something Ogura was currently sneering at. They postured at each other. Schwarz had already killed Ogura's rear guards that had been watching the doors.

~ Where are they in the crowd? ~ Nagi asked, still sounding moody and pissy. The targets would definitely suffer tonight.

~ In the middle. They'll reveal themselves once they figure out what's going on. ~

Kono, the drama queen, wanted Schwarz to start picking off Ogura's people quietly, let them freak a bit until it became obvious, then hit hard. That meant that Farf, Aya, and Nagi would start off the entertainment, with Brad and Schuldig coming out firing once they threw off stealth.

Brad watched the proceedings with a powerful focus, strong, every atom of him ready to plan and move. This was Brad Crawford distilled to his pure self, when he was most alive, and the sight and feel always sent such a rush of heat through Schuldig. This was sex, the two of them here waiting and plotting together.

~ Time, Oracle? ~ Schuldig asked.

~ Now, ~ Brad answered.

~ I have you guys telepathically cloaked. Go. ~

Breathing almost in sync, the psycho twins walked quietly and surely out and approached the back of the horde. Rose-red was all cool, implacable purpose, peaceful. He didn't angst about the killing all that often anymore. To Aya's mind, since he believed himself already damned what did more damnation matter? Aya's slope wasn't just slippery, it was greased. Snow-white crackled with excitement and glee. Once he'd lumbered somewhat when walking, but now he nearly strutted, vitally alive, sexy. In fights, Farfarello had been speed and reckless strength and rarely grace. Schuldig wondered if that would change now as well. The twins approached with knives ready.

Nagi walked alone, his expression as dark as his blue and black clothes. But the rings on his jacket caught the light of the bare hanging bulbs. He had that same sense of purpose and inexorability Aya did. Schuldig had such a thing for that. At this rate, Schuldig wouldn't be able to call him "kid" much longer.

The three of them looked like beautiful, kinky death. Schuldig had hit the lottery as far as attractive teammates went.

Nagi quietly snapped necks from a distance, muffling the sounds with his telekinesis. Aya and Farf grabbed people and stabbed them. The three of them thinned out the back of the horde.

Schuldig breathed a little harder at the small explosions of pain, surprise, death, fear, satisfaction, glee, anger, excitement.... He wanted to be out there.

Brad just looked at him, and it was enough to steady him. Not that he would have gone out without it.

The middle of the herd of sheep started to sense something wrong. Everyone in the back turned around.... Farfarello and Aya abandoned their knives for swords, Brad and Schuldig came out firing, and Nagi spun heads around on their necks, working out his upset. It felt good to kill again. Farfarello did move more gracefully, though less recklessly, now. As the horde fired at them, Nagi put up a barrier in front of him and another in front of Kono and the lieutenant that sent the bullets ricocheting and spraying back into the crowd firing them.

"Leave some for us," Farfarello said, annoyed.

"Work for it," Nagi answered, then looked offended and started gesturing at the guy in the crowd the bullets bent around. They each rocked, the target more than Nagi, as they had some kind of telekinetic battle.

Brad dodged a blast of fire. The pyro didn't seem to care about the other members of his little gang, since he fired directly through them and left it to them to get out of the way. The bullets Brad and Schuldig shot at him melted and exploded before they could hit. Aya's katana thrusting through him from behind ended his threat. Aya must have used the confused crowd of fighting and dying gangsters to hide his approach. Sneaky. Now his katana left burn welts on his newest victims. The other teke went flying across the room but stopped himself from smashing into a wall and came back at Nagi fighting.

Brad shot and pistol-whipped people out of his way in some cases on his way to Ogura while Schuldig covered his back with the same, making sure nobody nailed his baby from behind. That was _his_ job. Some of Ogura's protectors fled to save their own skins, leaving the man open. Brad did a perfect head-shot, putting a bullet right between Ogura's eyes. Poor Brad could be sensitive about his eyesight, so he tended to show off his with-glasses marksmanship when he could. He felt pleasure in his kill and contempt that it had been so easy.

Farfarello and Aya cleaned up the non-talented remnants by sword, while Nagi flung down the shattered body of the telekinetic. Wow. That guy's limbs sprawled out at all kinds of angles. Persia should count himself lucky that Nagi had an outlet.

Looking mildly panicked, Kono's lieutenant had his gun trained on them, not that they would hurt him unless Kono commanded it or the guy actually fired. The guy had a decent poker face, since inside he was scared to death. Kono had a better one, since he had a perfect stone face over _his_ fear.

"We've performed to your specifications," Brad finally said.

"Yes," Kono answered, his voice steady. "Your payment shall arrive as you specified. I hope that we can do business again in the future." Even through his fear, he thought it a shame that he couldn't afford to hire Schwarz more often since they'd just wiped out his main rival so quickly and easily.

Even if Kono could afford Schwarz on a regular basis, Schuldig knew that Brad would never go for it, having no intention of making them a crime lord's permanent enforcers and bodyguards. If Brad chose to work in that scene it would be for his own benefit, not as someone's employee. Their Takatori assignment had been bearable only for its ultimate result and the warm knowledge that the moron would fall to pieces when they finally screwed him over.

"If we're available, yes. Good night."

Kono's crew would display and dispose of the bodies in a way they hoped would intimidate their remaining rivals. Whatever. Kono knew that if he used them irresponsibly and someone tried to pin Schwarz for it he would suffer badly.

Actually, Schuldig thought it a bit reckless not to destroy the bodies themselves, but Brad was in a wild mood, hoping for challenges, maybe tempting fate. As long as Brad didn't become too "come and get us!" Schuldig wouldn't say anything. His old instructors would laugh to see him acting as a voice of reason and restraint.

At least they would if Schwarz hadn't killed them all.

In the car Brad bled dissatisfaction and restlessness. The job had been too easy for his tastes. He proved Schuldig's reading when he said, "Nagi, perhaps it's a good thing you'll be doing that seminar. Bringing the local skill set up would make things more interesting."

"Maybe. That telekinetic put up a little fight," Nagi said, looking annoyed. The seminar thing continued to be a sore spot.

"But he was hardly a challenge for you."

Nagi didn't know whether to be complimented or annoyed or both, which made Schuldig smirk, and said, "True."

Tyke wasn't happy. From the dark look Nagi gave him, the tyke might have heard him think that.

Farfarello licked some blood off Aya's nose, making him blink, then said, "Perhaps we can fight blindfolded if it's bothering you so much."

"Blindfolded and with one hand tied behind our backs," Schuldig said, getting into it. "Not that it would affect Nagi at all. Or me that much, actually, since I can still 'see' with my mind and shoot one-handed."

"You won't be so sarcastic about it when you're bored on future jobs," Brad said. Aw. He felt picked on.

Schuldig could see his problem. First he'd spent years planning and hiding his plans from the powerful, cruel, and invasive organization they worked for, taking it on from within. Given the odds, Schwarz shouldn't have survived, let alone won, yet they'd triumphed. Then he'd contended with that future he'd seen for Schuldig in London. With that finished, they'd faced multiple challenges and mysterious enemies in the United States, along with the side worry of Schuldig's instability. But back in Japan they had a cakewalk. The team's current biggest problems appeared to be interpersonal and romantic, things that annoyed Brad instead of setting him afire on solving them.

And he'd been in such a good mood at the firing range.

Daring, Schuldig set his hand on Brad's upper thigh, more worried about Brad's verbal reaction than Brad crashing the car. Brad had become accustomed to driving that way. The muscle felt tight under his hand so he stroked in small, slow circles until it started to relax. "I'm looking forward to something," Schuldig said, sounding excessively casual.

A small smile crossed Brad's face. "Really."

"Let me out now," Nagi said, sounding disgusted. Just because he had troubles with his love life didn't mean everyone should go without.

Brad stopped the car, and Nagi hopped out and stalked away. Poor kid. Trust Nagi to let sex make his life more complicated. Aya looked worried as he watched him leave but stopped that nonsense once Farf grabbed him, set him on his lap, and nuzzled. "Boy needs to brood," Farf said.

"He'll be fine," Schuldig said. "We can't interfere all the time. Hey, Red, what's wrong?"

Aya's eyes had squinched in what looked like pain. "I stopped myself again."

Schuldig could see and feel the effort Aya had put into telepathically backing away from Nagi. He wondered if part of the reason why Aya could grab onto Farf's telepathy the way he did was that Farf's telepathy involved detaching his self somewhat from his body, already setting a pattern. "You did! Good kitten!" Aya growled. "Even blind you're learning better than Farf did!" Then Farf growled. "But you're yanking yourself back too hard. It shouldn't hurt this much."

"I'll keep that in mind." His look of pain diminished a little as Farf stroked his hair with a slightly glowing hand.

Schuldig wanted a try of this ki stuff sometime.

He turned to look at Brad, who watched him out of the corner of his eye and still had a small smile on his face even though Schuldig's hand hadn't moved in a while. Sentimental.

And lusting too. Schuldig basked in both.

******************************************************

It started to rain. Figured. Nagi thought of stopping it but then thought that it fit his mood very well and should keep going.

Buck up, emo kid. He was being ridiculous. He compromised by letting it keep raining but having it avoid him, leaving him damp instead of drenched as he walked. At least his misery and distraction seemed to be blocking his team's sex vibes.

What was Omi up to right now? Still at the office.

Maybe Nagi should go talk to him as soon as he was free, because waiting wasn't resolving his mind at all, just gave it more opportunity to run in dizzy circles. He didn't know what he would say to Omi, but seeing him would have to give him a better idea of what he felt and wanted. Nagi couldn't keep living like this, uncertain and second-guessing. They might break up tonight. The thought made him feel somewhat ill, which should be a sign of... something.

As he approached the building, Nagi sent out a subtle influence to Omi to suggest that he should go home soon because it was late. It _was_ late. Omi resisted. So much work to do.... The work would still be there tomorrow, when he was fresh and clear-minded. Omi couldn't argue with that. He needed to give this proposal a lot of careful thought, and right now he could feel fatigue fogging him. Nagi had nothing to do with the fatigue, though it helped him.

Soon a phalanx of protection walked out of the building to a waiting limo. Through the cracks between suited goons Nagi could see glimpses of Omi, who wore a dark coat and held a black umbrella overhead, his expression solemn and funereal. Nagi's heart turned over a little. Some of the guards directed "keep away or we'll hurt you" looks at Nagi, who sneered back. They hated because they knew him and what he could do and how he made them superfluous, while he didn't see them as enough of a threat to expend mental energy on hating them back. He just felt the general disdain he had for all humanity.

Omi must have noticed the dueling glares because he suddenly called, "Nagi!" and brightened. That wouldn't last long. Something on Nagi's face must have said as much, because Omi said, "Get in with me."

"Sure." In his current mood he couldn't even feel much amusement over how much they'd just annoyed the bodyguards.

******************************************************

They spent the ride home in tense silence, with Nagi lost in what looked like unpleasant thoughts and Mamoru wondering what would come next. Had he screwed everything up with that one thoughtless request that night?

As childish as it sounded to say this, it wasn't fair. Nagi had seemed fine with it that night after some negotiation, but had that just been the afterglow talking? Or had he been fine with it until certain people had picked at him? Mamoru could easily see Crawford and Schuldig twisting things and hectoring him until his mind changed on it completely.

Mamoru really hoped to find Aya a private space somewhat away from those two, and he couldn't help wondering if Nagi would be so set on living with Schwarz if Aya didn't live directly with him.

None of that would make any difference here if Nagi broke up with Mamoru tonight. Mamoru didn't have to be a telepath to feel him trembling on the edge of that. There had to be a way to make sure it didn't happen.

Nagi had his chin resting on his gloved fist as he stared out the window, lost in thought. Few people could afford to ignore Mamoru these days. It was... nice to have one nearby. Nagi seemed to be gathering his thoughts more than setting out to be rude. The damp had darkened Nagi's hair to nearly black, and his outfit left only his head exposed. His dark blue eyes looked so sad....

Once inside the apartment Mamoru gave him a towel and a pair of guest slippers. "Thanks," Nagi said softly, taking off his coat and hanging it up away from Mamoru's dry coats before accepting them. So he meant to stay a while. That could be good news or bad news. He still wore his gloves and his jacket with the dangling rings.

Toweling his hair, Nagi still didn't speak, and Mamoru didn't know if he wanted to prompt him to. He doubted they'd be pleasant words, but perhaps it might be better to get it started. The sooner begun, the sooner Mamoru could find arguments to counter them.

Nagi's hair completely covered his right eye and looked wild when he finished. "I can't do this. I thought I might be able to, but I can't, not with me being me and you being the head Takatori and at the top of Kritiker. You have responsibilities. I keep wondering how many nights I should stay with you and if I should stay all the way through. I'm overthinking everything, and it's a distraction. I can't have this kind of vulnerability."

"Loving people means being vulnerable."

"Then I won't."

How very Aya of him. It suddenly hit Mamoru that Nagi was a lot like Aya in some manners, habits, ways of thought, even some facial expressions, and it was mortifying that he hadn't realized it before.

From the sudden change of expression to angry and even more hurt, Nagi had heard him thinking that and drawn some conclusions. Damn it. No one should be able to read people's unedited, unfiltered thoughts. Mamoru hadn't gotten a chance to consider and examine that one before Nagi had seen it. He didn't know for sure what it even meant.

"You're not second-best or a substitute," Mamoru answered. "What, I'm not allowed to have a type I'm attracted to?"

"All right. See? That was a stupid reaction on my part. I keep having stupid reactions."

"Like?"

"I keep worrying about what you'll think against what Crawford will think. Schwarz has no intention of going exclusively for Kritiker so I have to weigh everything I do with you or agree to for you carefully. I can't always be your bodyguard."

It hurt, but Mamoru couldn't say that part of him hadn't expected that. "I understand."

"And, presumptuous as it may be, I can't help thinking that you're going to need to have a wife someday. Your family and political career will demand it."

"You're thinking of us having a future that far ahead? You want to be exclusive?"

"I don't know what I want! That's part of the problem! I'm not like that on my own when I don't have to consider other people! Love sucks!"

Nagi really didn't want to break up. Mamoru clung to that and tried to provide reasons Nagi could use to support the not breaking up. "Crawford allows himself a lover."

"It's not the same thing. His is in-house and a member of the team. No conflict of interest, and no wondering who will stay with whom when."

Mamoru knew that he'd been failing with Nagi since the beginning, so he thought hard now and applied the perception that he used in every other part of his life, thinking about how Nagi lived with Schwarz but Schwarz didn't include his lover, someone intimately involved with him. "I think... that you wouldn't be comfortable with a live-in lover. It would make you feel too crowded." Thus Mamoru gave up his dream of living together, because he knew he was correct here, that Nagi would break up with him for sure if he felt he didn't have enough space.

Didn't mean that Nagi couldn't visit.

"You may be right. You're probably right." Nagi looked like he didn't know whether he should laugh or cry. "Why do you bother with me? I'm such a minefield, such a pain in the ass."

That was easy. "Because I love you and I want to be with you." Because if he were easy, he wouldn't be Nagi anymore, and difficulty appeared to be a component of Mamoru's type.

Nagi shook a little and looked stricken, then looked down. "Your taste sucks."

Had him. Mamoru was almost sure of it, and the relief nearly overwhelmed him. "I'm not complaining." He walked over, put his arm around Nagi's shoulders, and leaned their heads together, taking in Nagi's scent of rain, leather, metal, and a faint tinge of blood. Schwarz must have had a non-Kritiker mission tonight.

Nagi let him. "I'm always complaining."

"I'm not going to pressure you. I'll think carefully before I ask anything to stop me from creating a conflict of interest for you." Schwarz was _not_ a part of Kritiker. Mamoru would do well to remember that for more reasons than one.

"All right."

Crisis averted. For now. Mamoru knew that everything worth having required work to keep it. "Stay the night?"

"Yeah."

He had to remember to be careful with Nagi the way he'd be careful with an abused stray. Nagi shot him a sudden dirty look that made Mamoru say, "Please stop reading my mind."

"You're so loud. You're also touching me."

"I'm upset. You were about to break up with me."

"Okay." Nagi let out a slow, deep breath. "You might even be right about that description of me too, as much as I hate to say it."

Relaxing at the feel of the tension draining from the room, Mamoru murmured, "Come to bed with me. Whether we do anything or not is up to you." Given Nagi's abilities, that feeling of weight and electric charge might have been actual.

"Can we just sleep? This feeling emotions and talking about them shit drains me. Besides, I'm actually managing to block out my team's orgy."

Mamoru couldn't help blushing. "You've given me mental images I'll never recover from." At least he knew they weren't all having sex _together_.

Nagi nearly smiled. "I believe in sharing the pain and the 'too much information.' It's the Schwarz way."

******************************************************

"If I had a kid, I'd name it 'Sasha,'" Schuldig murmured sleepily as he snuggled closer.

When Schuldig came out with things like that from the blue, he'd either had a shield breakdown or a really satisfying and draining sexual workout. From Schuldig's smile and how utterly relaxed his body looked and felt, Crawford could be confident it was the latter so, feeling satisfied himself and indulgent, he asked, "Boy or girl?"

"Either. Sasha."

"I thought you'd never want children."

"Not saying I want one. Just that if I had one."

"I see."

"You ever think about it?"

"Having children? No."

"No. The ones that might already be out there from our mandatory stud service for Eszett."

Schuldig's ability to get at people from unexpected angles at unexpected times always had made him a more dangerous operative. "No," Crawford answered. "What brought this up?"

"I get the strangest thoughts when I'm bent in half over a table getting my brains fucked out. Mmm. My position with you is secure, since not many people are acrobatic enough to keep up with you when you're in that mood."

What? "Do you worry about being replaced in my bed?"

"Damn, you're sensitive tonight. I'm just running off my mouth." Schuldig yawned widely and went to sleep burrowed into Crawford's side and with his arm across Crawford's chest.

Crawford stayed awake wondering about possible progeny of his, if they existed, whether Eszett would have force-matured them as they had Class Z, and what might have been done with them since the fall of Rosenkreuz and then Eszett. Nagi had a lot of Eszett records he hadn't even gone through yet, and the escaped talents had branched out, with the smart ones going underground. What would Crawford even do with that information if he had it? He hadn't wanted an army or a dynasty. But now that he had the thought of this loose end in his head it wouldn't let him go, and given at least some of their genetic heritage the spawn would be powerful.... Damn Schuldig for his ability to unsettle people without even trying. Finding the data and deciding how to best use it once they did would be a challenge.

Crawford slowly started to smile, then petted his partner's hair until he joined him in sleep.


	157. "Yoji, why the hell can't I get you to stay away from this building?"

Aya shifted and murmured as Farfarello left their bed, so Farfarello telepathically stroked him into a deeper sleep. Too bad he couldn't do that for himself. He _buzzed_. Needed to go, needed to get out, needed to do something, anything. Once he would have gone out to find a church and slaughtered the devout until the restlessness and murmuring stopped, but now he refused to fall so easily into God's trap. He would abstain.

Right now Aya dreamed his own dreams, but that was tonight.

Farfarello knew what he could do.

He topped off his outfit with his X-mas gift jacket and the barbwire necklace. As his fingers pressed on the dull points of the "barbs" he felt the tiniest twinges of pain. These were things his kitten had given him. He wanted to kiss Aya before he went out but that might wake his kitten, who needed his sleep after their thorough fun together.

Farfarello slipped out of the apartment easily, taking advantage of Crawford and the mindbreaker's sated sleep. No straitjacket on Farfarello, no lock on his bedroom door. An odd feeling to be trusted. An odd feeling to be trustworthy. He wouldn't kill tonight, just scare a little, just one person. Nothing that would get into the media.

He took and even used an umbrella because his kitten worried about his health. Besides, it would help protect his gift jacket.

Farfarello enjoyed the rain. God cried. The sound of thunder and falling water disguised many sins. At night Tokyo's neon bled bright color into the dark puddles. His umbrella provided a thin but effective barrier against the rain and the eyes of God. In the cold and his pleasure at feeling some of the cold, Farfarello shivered.

Farfarello leaned against a building as he disconnected his soul a little to better tap into Aya's link to the slutkitten. It felt like a warm line even in the cool rain. Affection.... He slid back into his body more and remembered the direction, hunting.

Passing churches, he ignored their songs of welcome and incitements to bloodletting. Some people would see that as a sign of his improvement, but he knew better than they. He'd merely changed his religion.

The link trail led to some dance club. How completely unsurprising. The man at the door gave him an odd but interested look and let him in without making him stand on line after he exerted only a little pressure on the man's mind. Chaos beckoned and roared around him in sound and color and writhing bodies, a pale shadow of Hell used as recreation. Good, because he wanted nothing of Heaven, which would bore him. Still, he hunted, his sense of direction provided by Aya. The oblivious and often drug- and alcohol-fogged crowd wouldn't part for him so he pushed and writhed between their bodies and they seemed to like it.

The slutkitten sat alone and bleeding a vague and frustrating sense of dissatisfaction at the bar. Could a slut change his stripes? The slutkitten was prey not predator, sitting looking sleek and vulnerable at the watering hole, colored lights providing a sheen on the sweat-slicked stretch of bare back showing between the slightly rucked-up bottom of his shirt and the low waistband of his pants, and Farfarello was hungry for some kind of satisfaction.

But he felt something else too as he looked at the slutkitten, something he didn't understand. He approached anyway.

******************************************************

As he nursed his drink, Yoji picked at his sense of disenchantment. Yoji had enjoyed the dancing and inherent flirting, but the attempted pickups had felt so uninspiring and "been there, done that." It left him bored. Maybe he should leave for the night.

He kept feeling so distracted too. Something about... feeling the lights and sounds too much. Too many drinks maybe.

Like hell. He was still nursing his second one.

A sudden squirming feeling of being watched settled between his shoulder blades. Glancing up at the mirror behind the bar, he tried to scope out the source and noticed Farfarello approaching him. He looked and moved damned good for a guy who'd looked like ground beef only recently, and even seemed to be... better than he'd been before, smoother, more graceful, more alive. Sexy, which was a word that should never be used for the berserker, taste for bondage pants notwithstanding. Had being with Aya done this for him? Farfarello should not nearly glow with health, not in general and especially not after that car crash. Yoji had noticed the incredible healing when he'd been in Schwarz's apartment but had more important things to concentrate on at the time.

The lights seemed to glow off the reflective strips on the sleeves of the jacket Aya had given him and even a little in his silver hair. Weird to realize that Farfarello was kind of pretty in a cracked porcelain doll way.

Hand on his watch, Yoji stood and turned to face Farfarello, because the Schwarz might not care that this was a public place. Yoji couldn't count on Farfarello's willingness to use him to satisfy Aya once to mean that Farfarello wouldn't kill him now. Hell, he might see that as good reason to kill.

Farfarello ordered a beer at the bar and turned to put his back to it as Yoji did, standing on Yoji's left side to see him out of his one eye. After a long swig, Farfarello said, "You'll stop dreaming about Aya. Stop drawing his attention."

Even given the berserker's general insanity, those hadn't been the words Yoji had expected to hear. "What?"

"Stop dreaming about him. No dreams. Especially no sex dreams. Especially no sex dreams in which you give him kitty ears and a tail, because he is _my_ kitten alone."

They knew about that one? Of course they did. Dammit. "I don't have any control over my dreams."

"Learn to. Stop thinking about him when you're awake. That should help."

"My dreams don't hurt anybody."

"We _feel_ them. They count."

"'We' who?"

"All of us 'we.' Aya too. We all know. We all feel it."

Horrifying. "Because Schuldig is rubbing his nose in it?"

"Because Aya got caught in one of your dreams the other night."

Yoji felt like he had solid knot of dread form in the bottom of his stomach until he realized "Aya isn't a telepath!"

"He borrows mine sometimes. So stop tormenting him."

What the hell could he say to that? Aside from "That's impossible."

"Apparently not as impossible as you'd think. So stop dreaming of him." Then a woman walking by caught Farfarello's attention completely.

Yoji didn't understand it he saw the swing of her large, shiny cross necklace. When Farfarello moved toward her as if drawn, Yoji grabbed his arm to stop him. A moment later Yoji was sandwiched between the wall and Farfarello's body and felt a pressure and sting at his neck. "You won't kill me here," Yoji said, hoping it to be true. Farfarello even had one of his hands pinned so he couldn't go for his watch.

"I could just slide my knife in so easily and quietly no one would notice. By contrast, you would draw a lot of attention to yourself if you used your little teke powers." But Farfarello seemed a little confused and distracted as he looked up at Yoji too. Yoji couldn't tell if that was good news or bad news.

******************************************************

The slutkitten felt so good against him that Farfarello wanted to groan in frustration. Feeling had pitfalls. While he hadn't been so naïve as to think that only his kitten could arouse such a reaction in his newly sensitive body, he hadn't thought it could crop up in this situation. Then again, considering the slutkitten's record and Aya's own attraction to the man, Farfarello shouldn't be surprised.

He smelled pretty good too, of cologne and cigarettes, scents Farfarello remembered from old playtimes with Schuldig. Good times.

How strange to have lust start from his body instead of his mind or soul. Did that make this an earthlier, meaner, lust? He knew that what he felt for his puisín was pure.

Without the siren song of compulsion, Farfarello didn't know what he wanted to do. Right now he was no sheep to be following the call of a shepherding instinct. Instead, he had choices. He could slide the knife in. He could walk away. He could ask the slutkitten to take him home.

As he leaned in closer and set his leg between the slutkitten's for a better feel, the last idea seemed like the more urgent one. It went against his earlier stated purpose of getting the slut further away from Aya, but Farfarello was accustomed to contradicting himself.

He didn't want to want the slutkitten. Perhaps if he indulged once he could burn it from his system. The same might hold true for Aya's attraction to the man. Farfarello had to bring him back to the apartment to try. Aya would throw a fit, but persuading him could be fun.

"I don't know what I want to do," he murmured to the slutkitten and grinned at the panic the slutkitten replied with. One great thing about having a reputation for insanity is that statements like that drew people's focused and horrified attention.

******************************************************

Shit. Farfarello pressed himself and his knife in close, digging into Yoji's body with sharp metal and hard-- Shit! The little psycho was turned on. Confused, armed, aroused, and, oh yeah, _crazy_, Farfarello shouldn't be wandering Tokyo. "You don't want to kill me, and you don't want to stay here," Yoji said.

"I think maybe I want to go home."

That sounded like a great idea. Aya had to have some kind of control over Farfarello, so let him calm the nutbar down. "Good thinking."

"Take me there." Was that look Farfarello directed at him flirtatious? Could that even be possible?

He seemed so different. Still dangerous, yeah, but younger and softer somehow. Aside from the knife, Farfarello was kind of cute like this.

Oh. God.

Was this how it started for Aya, thinking one day that Farfarello was cute and immediately deciding that his sanity was destroyed so he might as well give in to Schwarz?

But the youth, softness, and... cuteness made Farfarello _more_ dangerous as far as Yoji was concerned. He didn't want to be alone in his car with Farfarello. "No."

"Then we stay here." Farfarello rocked against him....

"Let's go."

"Good kitten," Farfarello answered with a grin.

"Could you _move back_?"

The psycho stepped away and smoothly made his knife disappear somewhere. "So excitable." He seemed almost docile as he followed Yoji out to the car, which only gave Yoji the creeps even more. He used an umbrella to keep off the rain, which seemed somehow so wrong. Farfarello shouldn't notice it.

"You knew you would be drinking, yet you drove here?" Farfarello asked.

They were not having this conversation. It was too crazy. "I'm good to drive."

"You'll have to be. I can't." Farfarello tapped his eyepatch, which made Yoji wince. At least he didn't talk anymore as they rode to the apartment building.

But Yoji noticed Farfarello toying with the "barbwire" necklace he wore throughout the drive, rolling it between his fingers. Kind of cute again. His collarbones didn't quite match, Yoji had noticed earlier. He might have broken one of them in the past. Yoji would not stare at his attacker's off-kilter collarbones and find them alluring.

Everything about this drive felt wrong. _Any_ sane person would be freaking out. With great relief Yoji finally parked the car and said, "You're home. Get out."

Farfarello's mouth twisted into a smile. "No."

"You have no reason to stay in here."

"Untrue."

"Get out."

"No."

"Get out!"

"No."

"God dammit--" Shit!

Farfarello turned to look at him full on. "Calling on God to cast me out won't work either." At least the psycho hadn't tried to kill him for that.

"What will work? What will it take? Get the hell out of my car!" Yoji had a sudden nightmare image of sitting here through the morning with Farfarello at his side. Maybe he could get out and just leave the fucking car while the psycho remained inside? He couldn't stay here with crazy death sitting next to him and the windows fogged up like they were making out. Would not.

Through the fog and sluices of rainwater Yoji saw movement approaching the car on the passenger side, then heard a knock. Farfarello happily opened the door with a jubilant "Puisín!"

"You called me." Aya sounded sour. He sounded even more annoyed as he said, "Yoji, why the hell can't I get you to stay away from this building?" He wore a coat, pants, and boots but probably not a shirt from all the bare chest visible at the top of his coat. Down, Yoji.

"It wasn't my idea! Farfarello was going to shove a knife in my neck if I didn't take him home!" Yoji protested, unwilling to take the blame.

Aya looked at Farfarello, who grinned and said, "He tells the truth."

"You brought him here _after_ our conversation?" Aya asked. Yoji didn't need to ask to have an idea of what that conversation might have been.

"I went out to warn him off--"

"To threaten him is more likely. When I woke up alone I worried--"

"I apologize. But I decided that I wanted him. Since you want him too, maybe we can do something."

Obviously stunned, Aya opened and closed his mouth a few times in what seemed to be an attempt to speak before finally getting out "Are you insane?"

"That is so completely the wrong question to ask," Yoji muttered.

"Yoji's not coming upstairs," Aya said. "He's not ending up in our bed. We won't have sex with him, and he won't end up dead or being shoved at Nagi afterward."

Yoji didn't even want to know. And... _Nagi_? Aya better be talking about telekinesis lessons.

Yoji didn't really understand what had happened at first; he just suddenly had Aya tumbling down into the car on him. He yanked hard on the lever to make his seat recline hard and fast. Farfarello looked a little panicked and seemed to be trying to guide and cushion Aya with his hands, but Aya would still hit the steering wheel....

Instead of hitting the steering wheel, Aya lightly bounced off of something that wasn't there and ended up partly in Yoji's lap, struggling and cursing. Yoji felt Aya move a little and heard Farfarello's door close. The psycho said, "That worked out differently in my head." Farfarello must have yanked Aya into the car, which only worked through the element of surprise and Aya being less able to defend himself as he held an umbrella. "You're not hurt, are you, puisín? It seems that the slutkitten is better with telekinesis than I thought. Good job, slutkitten."

Yoji couldn't help letting a small, plaintive "Ow!" escape when Farfarello punched his arm in celebration. "Don't call me 'slutkitten'! Aya, does he abuse you too?"

"Not usually," Aya answered as he continued to squirm, his breath hot against Yoji's neck as he spoke. "Yoji!"

It wasn't fair. "You're writhing in my lap, Aya. I can't help it!"

"Heh," Farfarello said.

"You weren't so enthused about my effects on Yoji earlier," Aya said as he stopped moving, which prevented Yoji from getting much more aroused but did nothing to stop what he already had. He felt like squirming himself.

In the light from the dashboard Yoji could see Farfarello stroking Aya's leg in big circles. Yoji almost felt those circles himself, hypnotic. The three of them looked artistic in this lighting, darkness with colored patches of bodies and light-limned curves. Farfarello had gotten all of Aya's body into the car so he could close the door, so Aya was folded up a little. Thankfully, he was flexible enough to deal with it.

Down, Yoji.

"You're _not_ hurt, are you?" Farfarello asked.

"Other than my pride, no. I don't understand you sometimes."

"I wanted."

"And tomorrow?"

"Is tomorrow."

"Hnh." Aya started moving again. "I'm so uncomfortable." He also couldn't seem to find the leverage to get himself up. In the light available and from feel Yoji could tell that Aya wasn't wearing a shirt under his coat. Aya smelled really good. This was so unfair.

"_You're_ uncomfortable?" Yoji thought he would bust the zipper on his pants at this rate. With Aya all over him he couldn't even manage to get his door open to help Aya slither or fall out.

"Farfarello, I'll get Yoji off whether I want to or not, and maybe you as well, but it won't be what you seem to want it to be."

"True. Shit."

Circles and circles.... "Would you stop doing that to my leg?" Yoji asked.

"_Your_ leg?" Farfarello grinned, looking crazier in the low, colored lighting. "Interesting. I'll stop drawing circles." He stroked his hand up Aya's inner thigh, making Aya and Yoji jump and shudder. "See?"

Why was Yoji feeling this as if Farfarello did it to him too? He was just _watching_, which was hot enough by itself. Farfarello was playing with him, and he was enjoying it, finding the psycho surprisingly and disturbingly attractive. God, he was a moron.

"Yoji isn't a toy to be passed around, and I don't like to be toyed with," Aya said, sounded aroused and angry. At least Yoji had Aya to help protect his virtue at a time when didn't seem to be having much luck doing it himself.

What the hell was wrong with him? He had no interest in regular, healthy people, but give him mindfuckery and threats and killers and he was hard as a rock and eager?

******************************************************

Being in this situation left Aya so angry but also confused and a little depressed. Farfarello had tried to shove other people into their relationship before--and one of those attempts had involved Yoji--but had explained that it came out of the desire to give Aya a surrogate for him while he was too injured to fulfill what he saw as his place. Now Farfarello was well and bringing Yoji in because he wasn't getting enough from Aya.

~ Untrue! I want the slutkitten but want you more so I brought him here to share between us! Like a gift. ~

People shouldn't be given as gifts. They were people, not things. Besides, Aya wasn't the sharing type.

~ I've noticed. ~ Farfarello sounded amused and affectionate as he stroked up higher. ~ But you want him too. ~

But he wouldn't do anything with Yoji, not when he'd committed himself to Farfarello. It wasn't right.

~ It's not wrong when I'm amenable and participating. ~

It wasn't _right_.

Instead of enjoying the lust, Aya felt angry and jerked around, as well as ashamed that he could be this easy.

~ Play along with me, puisín. Shame is a trap. ~

This business with Yoji left Aya feeling very threatened. He couldn't help remembering how Schwarz had broken him into the team, ignored his wants, worn him down. Some of the things he'd wanted then and been refused were self-destructive but not all. He couldn't help seeing a similar pattern in Schwarz's dealings with Yoji.

~ You're special. The slutkitten's circumstances aren't anything like yours! ~

Farfarello was missing the point in every way.

It _wasn't_ exactly the same situation. It didn't have to be, not when Yoji kept coming around on his own like a stray looking for food and affection.

"Aya?" Yoji asked. He'd been jerked around, manipulated, yet he sounded worried for _Aya_. It probably came from having no idea how much danger he was in.


	158. "I would love you even if you made me an eunuch."

Aya's leg turned rigid and unyielding under Farfarello's palm. His soul turned likewise, becoming a shield, resisting all of Farfarello's efforts to telepathically smooth and arouse him. Bad signs. When Aya reached this point, it didn't matter anymore how hard his cock was. Aya grabbed the slutkitten by the wrist and moved his hand from his slightly bared chest, numbing the link somewhat at the cessation of skin-to-skin contact. Sensations must have crossed so strongly to the slutkitten because Aya took his telepathy from Farfarello and was linked with Yoji while Farfarello stayed in physical contact with them both.

The mindbreaker would love to hear of such a thing and toy with it, especially since it would give him an excuse to play with Aya. Thus, he must never find out.

Aya opened the door and got off of the slutkitten's lap and out of the car, although with far less grace than he normally did. The slutkitten barely complained, even if the movements did have an obvious effect on him. Leaning in, water dripping down his head, Aya said, "Yoji, get out of here while you still can," and walked back to the building without a word for Farfarello.

He didn't have to say anything, not when his actions left the choices so obvious. If Farfarello didn't leave the slutkitten and go after Aya, there would be cold vengeance as only his puisín could mete out.

In his excitement and glee at his own cleverness, Farfarello had miscalculated badly. "You're not alluring enough," he said to the slutkitten.

"He's really pissed."

"Do you really think so?" Farfarello answered in all sarcasm. But the slutkitten gave him such a sympathetic look that he couldn't keep his disdain pure. Damned slutkitten. Everything would be easier if Farfarello didn't grudgingly... like Yoji. He blamed his puisín for these warm and fuzzy feelings.

His idiot body still wanted the slutkitten but wouldn't get it without his puisín involved. It wouldn't feel right. Besides, he wasn't crazy enough to think that Aya would ever forgive him if he did it.

"The longer you're out here with me, the more time he'll have to stew." The slutkitten was disappointed/relieved that there wouldn't be sex.

"True." Farfarello opened the door and added Aya's fallen umbrella to his. Looking back, he said, "Figure out what you want. Don't wait for God or Aya's intervention to make your choices for you. That makes you a slave."

"You're not?"

Life kept forcing him to think tonight. He hated it. "Go home to the beasts and the other kitten. Aya saved you tonight. You won't always be so fortunate. Next time, save yourself." He slammed the car door shut for emphasis and walked away. A few minutes later he heard the car leave.

Refusing to use the umbrellas, forlorn, he let it rain down on his body. He had to think and plan his offensive to win his puisín back by words and deeds. He also had to foresee where Aya's twisty mind had taken him, the better to defend himself and their way of life in argument. Good luck with that. Aya could spout the most amazingly irrelevant nonsense, making him difficult to predict.

It was so damnably hard to tame a wild creature and have it love you truly afterwards without breaking its spirit first and even harder to keep it just wild enough and still gain its loyalty. There was a proud, feral part of Aya that no one, not even Aya himself, owned and controlled, and it chafed at the feel of a collar around its neck.

Farfarello wanted to ask if Aya's life with Schwarz was truly so bad that he would warn the slutkitten off like this, but he would not ask because it would make Aya think, and that could be very dangerous. An Aya that lived on feelings, reactions, and a little thinking tended to be content and a fun companion, but if he thought harder and further there would be conflict. If Aya thought hard enough, he would begin to cast bad interpretations on Schwarz's domestication tactics. His twisty mind couldn't help itself. Rebellion would follow, and it would be difficult to put it down without alienating Aya further.

They hadn't been forced to discipline him in a long time. If it became necessary now, they'd have to do it with care and delicacy. Farfarello knew he wasn't much good at care and delicacy.

As ever, he walked a tricky minefield in dealing with his puisín, but it kept him interested. Complacency led to death.

In their room Aya sat on the windowsill barefoot and bare-chested with every line of his body sending out a message of "do not touch me." He had to be jollied out of such moods, so Farfarello tossed the umbrellas aside and grabbed his arm.

"Don't touch me! I'm not in the mood for it," his puisín, predictable here, said. Amazing how Aya's reaction to feeling insecure about being loved and desired was to refuse to be shown his error through touch. He could drive a sane man mad.

"I can help you feel better."

"I'm not going to let you fuck me into a false calm." Aya tried to smack him away but he dodged and maintained his hold. Growling, Aya struggled against him, to Farfarello's great glee.

They ranged around the room, wrestling, trying to hit, failing to do much damage from how closely and firmly they held each other. At least his puisín seemed no more eager to seriously hurt Farfarello than Farfarello was to seriously hurt him. But they did land some blows. Breathing harder, his heart pounding, Aya became an even better treat to Farfarello's senses, so he grounded his soul more firmly in his body to better feel it.

The sudden shock of what felt like excruciating pain in his genitals took him by surprise and dropped him to floor, doubling over to protect the area. It blanked out his mind so badly he couldn't think to dissociate again at first. He'd _wanted_ to feel pain once? As he felt Aya's foot come up under his chin to kick, he gasped, "You're cruel, puisín."

Aya's foot shifted away as he said, "No. Just profoundly pissed off."

Finally he drifted a little loose of his abused body. Relief. "I want you, even after you nearly castrate me."

Aya slid down the wall to sit on the floor nearby. "You'll survive with your manhood intact. You're not the first man to take a hit like that." But he looked a little concerned. Kind of him.

His puisín could feel pain at any time with no escape yet bore it. It was bravery or madness.

"To my surprise, my body wanted the slutkitten. But my body _needs_ you, as does my mind, heart, and soul."

"I don't do orgies."

"Three is hardly an orgy."

"You don't do orgies either."

"Don't I? It's the Schwarz way."

"It's Schuldig's way. Crawford wouldn't if Schuldig didn't make it so easy for him, providing himself and random strangers. I don't. You don't. Nagi doesn't."

A sudden, horrible thought bloomed. "The boy is not coming to live with us when we have a place of our own."

"I didn't think of that." But Aya had a look on his face now....

"You're not thinking of it now. He will not live with us. Our nest is for us, and he doesn't need to be protected anyway."

"I didn't think of it."

Us versus them. Aya would make a schism within Schwarz, or at least insinuated that one already existed. Dangerous.

Yet... hadn't Schwarz always been split like that? They weren't all equal partners by any means, never had been. Now that Schuldig had ingratiated his way deeper into the lap of leadership, the line between the haves and have-nots had grown clearer. Schuldig had slept in their leader's bed while the boy feverishly worked alone to earn his place and Farfarello hung upside-down in a straitjacket inside a locked room.

"Yoji isn't a _thing_ to be traded around," Aya said.

"I thought that having sex with him once would satisfy the curiosity so I would never want him again."

"If you believe that, you might as well let Schuldig take a shot at me and see if it cures him of his desire."

"Never!"

"I've made my point. I worry that Schuldig and Crawford see Yoji as some kind of camp follower, some hanger-on they could use for sex. They don't respect him. I don't want you to do that too."

"Do you _want_ him to join Schwarz as one of us?" Horrible thought. Schwarz was large enough.

"...no. I don't think he would fit in well or like it much."

Which suggested that Aya _did_. Warmed, Farfarello said, "I agree."

"I wouldn't mind working with him occasionally, I just don't think he'd do well living within us. But maybe if he did more _work_ with us he wouldn't be seen as just a sextoy."

Farfarello wanted to bristle at the thought of Aya enjoying working with the slutkitten but couldn't quite. Inexplicable, so he blamed his puisín's link to the slutkitten for it. To save face within himself, he said, "You like him too much."

"I can like anyone I want to."

That statement had a nearly poisonous glow of importance. Farfarello's answer could doom them. "Yes, you can." It galled to say that, yet he had to if he wanted to keep his puisín. Besides, didn't he enjoy that willful streak? He'd worked hard and carefully to tame Aya without breaking him. "We don't have to have sex with the slutkitten."

Aya smiled, an upward curve of his closed lips, and Farfarello wanted to kiss him. Such an attractive mouth. Enough light came from the streetlights outside, even through the rain, to render him a creature of tempting shapes and shadows. This was the purer desire his puisín inspired in him, a feeling not just of his body but also of his soul. Even with his parts still mildly throbbing he could want this kitten.

Farfarello approached on hands and knees, and his kitten opened his legs a bit to allow him to get closer. He'd given the right answer indeed. Settled very close now, kneeling caged by Aya's thighs, Farfarello said, "I'm going to kiss you."

"It looks like you're not castrated after all." Aya's voice sounded throatier, seductive.

Farfarello slid back into his body more and found that the pain had faded somewhat. He could bear it. When he kissed his puisín's ripe mouth, he hummed happily at how Aya's lips yielded to him, welcomed him.

"I would love you even if you made me a eunuch. It would just be more physically difficult."

******************************************************

"My life sucks," Yoji murmured to himself as he walked through the hallway to his door.

One of the other doors opened. "How come?" Fenris asked softly.

"I don't want to get into it." Especially not when Fenris was so young.

"Oh. Sex stuff."

Yoji sighed. "Come into my room so we can talk somewhere else, because I can sense a talk coming. Is Elena up?"

Fenris followed him. "No. Good thing for you. I get the feeling she'd be pissed at you."

"I get the feeling you're right." Yoji turned the light on and flopped down to sit on his bed. "You could sit too."

"Not yet." Fenris wore pajama bottoms and a T-shirt that had a drawing of an adorable small dog and the kanji for "happy puppy" on it. "Maybe I don't want to try the sex. It seems to make people act kinda stupid."

"It can be good too!"

"_When_?"

Yoji wanted to say it was when you liked the people, but he kind of liked Schwarz, to his ultimate damnation, and look at how that was going. "I'm going to ruin you."

"Too late. Other people ruined me first so there's no pressure on you."

"Hmm. You know, sometimes there are things that are good when you don't overdo them. You know something like that?"

"Sweet things! I eat them too much. I could get fat or lose my teeth. That would be really bad. But I don't taste things real good so I need strong flavors."

"You don't?"

"I read minds. I know how other people taste things. I'm not so good. It's like how I'm almost deaf in one ear. I wasn't made well."

Poor kid. "I'm sorry."

"So sex is your sweet thing."

"That and empathizing too much with people who don't always have my best interests in mind. I overdo them."

"Empa-- Oh! Empathy. Regular people can do that too, a little. I forget sometimes."

Given his past, of course Fenris did. "I can't help myself. Wish I could." This whole, bizarre sex thing wasn't just Yoji living down to expectations, because he did feel for Schwarz. If he could treat them as one-night stands his life would be so much easier.

"What do you want?"

"Mainly things that seem to be bad for me."

"Only bad stuff? Nothing good?"

"It's nice to feel wanted." Schwarz had definitely been doing that lately. "I'm worrying that I'm feeling... bored by regular people and regular life. I work in assassin world, but I don't have to live there."

"Regular life? For me this is regular life."

True. Assassin world was a far happier place than a cage in a laboratory. "You keep beating me for angst potential, but you're so damned sunny."

"Why wouldn't I be? I have a home and friends and two jobs that are interesting in different ways. It might not be the regular life you're missing, but I like it."

"You make it really hard to stay depressed."

"Wunderbar! My evil plan works!"

"What's with the German?"

"It's just a fun word to say. 'Wunderbar.' It's a smile." Fenris crossed his arms and looked more thoughtful. "I think you're worried about the wrong thing. Assassin world isn't so bad. You have things in common with assassin people. It makes sense. Ken's having trouble with Riyo because she's regular so he can't tell her stuff."

"I didn't know about Ken."

"He doesn't spill to the world."

"Unlike some people?"

"You make things easier."

Yeah, he was easy all over. "Thanks?"

"I worry that he feels bad but there's nothing I can do but be there if he needs us."

"I get that. Smart attitude."

"But I don't think that assassin world is the big problem. You should worry about how certain assassin people treat you."

"How I let them treat me."

"It's on both sides. They do it, but you let them. Do you like it?"

It might be pathetic that he needed Aya to save him from himself, but whether Aya did or not the whole weird appeal was in having other people take responsibility for him. He didn't have to make decisions or take the blame, and he could enjoy things with less guilt. So he _did_ like it.

He was in a master and slave relationship with Schwarz? Very scary. Elena would be pissed off and rightfully so. But it was still so weird that a girl who'd been trained to be a conscienceless killer since childhood and a lab experiment that had never been shown any human kindness before his escape were concerned about him. "My brain hurts. Still, the assassin thing makes it more likely for them and me to be like this."

"Maybe. Now my brain hurts."

"You helped a lot." As much as the insight worried him, at least he had it now.

"Good. I could stay up more if you want to keep talking, but I should go to bed. Elena says I get cranky if I don't have enough sleep. I think she's wrong, but I should probably sleep anyway."

"Good night, kid. Thanks." He had too much to think about to sleep.

******************************************************

"Are you sure I can't interest you in staying for breakfast?" Mamoru asked, trying for the perfect morning. He'd already had a good one from waking up with Nagi and the blowjob. Starting the day out right.

Brushing his hair, Nagi replied, "Can't. Breakfast is a thing in Schwarz. Oh, I figure I'll see Balinese today and take stock of his telekinesis. He should be well enough now to test, and it'll show me how to tailor the lessons."

Nice diversion. Still, Mamoru appreciated it that Nagi would teach Yoji without dragging his feet about it. He hated to feel as if he was coercing Nagi, and the willingness suggested that Yoji would get better training. Mamoru feared that the seminar would not go well.

"I'll see you," Nagi said as he kissed Mamoru goodbye.

"Later?"

"Today? Hard to say. I'll let you know."

Mamoru had to learn to be satisfied with what he had. He should be good at it by now. When Nagi suddenly, briefly looked unhappy, Mamoru wondered if he'd heard that. Nagi didn't say, and Mamoru didn't ask.


	159. "I still think monogamy is a mistake at your age."

Sitting at the kitchen table, Aya gazed down into his tea and struggled to keep a small smile off of his mouth. If he looked up at anyone he knew he wouldn't be able to maintain his impassive expression. Farfarello had been very thorough in showing his love last night, resulting in pleasant aches and a neck so vividly marked up that Aya wore one of his high-necked shirts to cover it. Smiling, Farfarello hooked a finger in one of the straps of Aya's shirt and tugged before letting it go to fill his plate.

Aya still worried about Yoji and Yoji's place with Schwarz but felt less personally threatened about it now. Farfarello had acted impulsively, something he did on occasion, and meant nothing by it except that he'd felt attraction and wanted to try it out with Aya's participation and supervision. He hadn't snuck around with Yoji. Of course, part of that came from how Farfarello didn't seem to see Yoji as a person, just an accessory, but Aya decided to take his victories no matter where they came from.

Schuldig pouted. "I feel like I missed something while I was sleeping, but I don't know what it is."

"Isn't that the very definition of 'missed'?" Farfarello said, almost glowing in his good mood.

Aya used every trick he knew to make the surface of his thoughts unremarkable and uninteresting. If he tried to make them hard to read, that might gain Schuldig's attention.

"Funny, but it's making me crazy."

"You already are crazy." Farfarello sat next to Aya and affectionately leaned into him for a moment before drowning his tea in sugar.

"You're obnoxious this morning."

"I wasn't saying crazy is a bad thing."

"What the hell did I miss?"

"Why are you looking at me?" Nagi asked, sounding annoyed. He looked less downhearted than he had yesterday at least.

"You went to see your kitten last night."

"We talked. We're still together. The end."

"How boring. I still think monogamy is a mistake at your age."

"Yes, Mom. I'm going to keep committing it anyway."

"Ingrate. You'll be sorry someday. You should at least fuck a few talents so you can see what you're missing."

"You're a bigot."

"You're surprised?"

"Not really."

"Farf, you look disgustingly happy."

"I had a lot of sex with my kitten, something you will never experience," Farfarello answered. "No secret."

"You're all so mean to me." Schuldig continued to look thoughtful and annoyed throughout breakfast.

Once they finished their meal, Nagi said, "I'll be starting work on Balinese today."

The phrasing sent Aya's mind to certain thoughts, especially considering Farfarello's matchmaking talk. Nagi and Yoji and.... Aya's mind shuddered away from the thought.

Schuldig's gaze swung toward him. "_Yoji_ came by last night," Schuldig said, sounding triumphant.

"He did. I sent him home," Aya answered.

"Why would you possibly do that?"

"For his protection."

"Did he come inside?" Crawford asked, probably thinking about breaches of security.

"No."

"How did you know to go outside to him?" Schuldig asked, leaning forward over the table toward him, scenting out secrets.

Aya kept his thoughts fast and hard to follow. Farfarello said, "My fault. I went out to threaten him, and Aya stopped me."

"He came here?"

"He did," Farfarello answered, not even lying. This might work.

Aya felt relieved until Schuldig asked, "On his own?"

Shit. Schuldig wouldn't be placated, and Aya doubted he could hide this secret from a telepath for the rest of his life. He cast a look toward Farfarello, who rolled his eye and said, "I brought him here."

"Whyever would you do that?"

"I wanted him, I knew Aya wants him, so I thought maybe I could share him with my kitten."

Schuldig gaped, then burst out laughing, then looked really aggrieved. "There was a threesome going on outside and I slept through it?"

"Nothing happened because I sent him home," Aya said.

"If I'd known and been there, something would have happened! You and Farf and Yoji! I didn't even know it could be a possibility, even if Farfie did get a little mushy over Yoji in New York for how Yoji looked at the two of you while he was in your body."

It took Aya a moment to untangle that sentence, but once he did he gave Farfarello a look. Would it be better or worse if Farfarello had some kind of feeling for Yoji that way?

"It changes nothing, puisín," Farfarello said.

Aya decided that he agreed with that and wouldn't feel threatened again.

"You can't win them all, Schu," Crawford said.

"But, Brad! The sheer prettiness involved! C'mon, orgy!"

"Because you would have been involved."

"Damned straight. I would invite you in too."

"Thank you for your generosity."

"It wouldn't have happened," Aya said. Bad enough that Schuldig knew when he was having sex. Actually having sex in front of and with the telepath completely crossed the line.

"Wonderful," Nagi said. "Now I have to train Balinese with all of _this_ stuck in my head."

"Maybe you can take a shot at him," Schuldig said.

"Yoji is not the property of Schwarz!" Aya replied.

"It's not like he's fighting it much."

"He is not your sextoy."

"Suuuure, Aya."

"Nagi, I'd like you to start looking through Eszett's files for something specific," Crawford said in an obvious attempt to switch topics. "Schuldig reminded me that Eszett took sperm samples from us. I want to see if they have records of doing anything with them and if we have progeny out there."

"That was afterglow talk," Schuldig said. "It might not lead to anything. And if we do have kids they'll have been force-grown, and if they're wandering around out there after the fall of Rosenkreuz they won't have names like 'Baby Boy Crawford,' and if they're smart they'll be hiding off the grid."

"No matter. I want to pursue it. That's the challenge you gave me."

"What would we even do with them? You said you didn't want to house and feed an army."

"I'm giving the situation some thought, but that will partly be determined by the mental and physical condition of the ones we find. At the very least it would be a good idea to keep track of where they are, good for our purposes and probably good for profit. "

"That would be some large and wide-ranging database you're proposing," Nagi said, looking interesting. "We'd have to be able to update it without too much continuous personal effort too."

Schuldig smirked. "I just want you to keep my stated reservations in mind that I said this now if it doesn't work out. If it does work out, you can congratulate me on my genius. You know, it would make your mother happy if we found some."

Crawford smiled back at him. "That would be a bonus."

"Though I'm not sure if they'd figure she's better or worse than Rosenkreuz."

"I should be offended by that statement."

"But you know the truth when you see it?"

"I can do the research. I know they did something with mine," Nagi answered, looking disgusted.

Aya suddenly remembered the boy Tuji had fawned over as her pet project and how Aya had thought the boy had looked a great deal like Nagi. How many times had Eszett done things like that, mass-produced versions of the Schwarz members off a genetic assembly line like weapons instead of children? It left him feeling ill.

"I'd actually like to return to Rosenkreuz to sift through the rubble," Crawford said. "Eszett paid off the local authorities to keep a no-fly and no trespassing zone over it, so no one's discovered the ruins yet, but eventually people will realize that no new bribes are coming."

"You know that no one went through it?" Schuldig asked.

"You saw me on the computer looking into it."

"I was half-asleep. I wasn't paying any real attention."

"We just got back to Japan," Nagi said. He seemed a little upset, not that anyone who didn't know him would see it.

Then Aya understood why. Nagi and Omi didn't get much good fortune, did they?

"We'll stay a few more days for research and to tie up loose ends," Crawford said. "Nagi, your participation in this is vitally important. We need your research, programming, and excavation skills."

"You're right. And I understand."

"Maybe we can bring Yoji with us so you can keep training him," Schuldig said with a big smile.

"We're just going to borrow him from Weiß?" Nagi asked. "That would go over well."

"Yoji is not coming with us," Aya said.

"What? You don't like him or want to see him anymore? You don't care that he might hurt himself without Nagi's expert guidance?" Schuldig answered.

"Yoji controlled it just fine last night."

"Oh, he used it to protect you again? I see. That's so sweet. It looks like he's more likely to use it and has better control when you're in danger. Maybe Nagi could train him by repeatedly throwing you into the line of fire."

"Don't even joke," Farfarello growled.

And Aya had briefly thought he could keep his near involvement with Yoji last night a secret?

Schuldig pouted. "You always think the worst of me, Aya, when actually I've done Yoji so much good."

"And enough further harm to balance out the good," Aya answered. "He's not a toy or a pet."

"You don't want to keep him, so you don't have say in what the rest of us do with what he so freely offers. Yoji's fun for the whole family!"

"Exactly what I'm afraid of."

"Pretty thought. The only one of us who hasn't had some kind of taste of him is Nagi."

"That's not changing," Nagi said.

"No? Two tekes in love...."

"Two tekes who have absolutely nothing else in common to talk about."

"You're both lusting for Aya, that's another thing."

"Schuldig," Crawford said, "don't make me regret letting you indulge your whims with Balinese. He would be an exceedingly stupid thing to destroy harmony in the team over."

"_Balinese_ would be a stupid thing? Was that a Freudian slip?" Nagi asked.

"And Schuldig wonders why I don't trust Yoji with you," Aya answered.

"Enough. You know what I meant. Nagi will go to tutor Balinese now," Crawford said in a conversation-ending tone of command.

"Thank you again for putting all these images in my head just before I go see him," Nagi said. "You all suck."

Schuldig purred, "I could put images in your head that would really--"

"Schuldig."

"Yeah, yeah, Brad. I'll step back. But I gotta be me and at least mention it."

"This isn't over," Aya said.

"Actually, it is, Aya," Crawford answered. "This is a command decision, and I've made it. We're returning to Europe, and Balinese won't go with us. Thus, by your standards he's safe from us for a while."

"For now."

"I have an appointment to see Persia, and Schuldig and Nagi will go with me. If we leave now, we'll arrive on time. Come along, Nagi."

Thinking that he could use the time to better formulate an argument, Aya let them leave. Farfarello said, "That could have gone better."

"I need to spar." He needed to work off some anger and aggression.

Grinning, Farfarello answered, "I'm always open to that."

******************************************************

Brooding in the backseat, Nagi thought that this felt less like going to meet with an employer in the presence of his team than going to see his boyfriend with his parents while they were thinking of ways to humiliate him. He'd been insane and too long away from memories of what family was really like during those times when he'd forlornly thought that he'd really like to be part of a family.

Schuldig shot him an almost hurt look from the passenger seat. "That's mean, Nagins."

"You're breaking your mother's heart, Nagi," Crawford said. Looking in the rearview mirror, Nagi could see him smirking.

"Do you two have any idea how sick and wrong this is?" Nagi shot back. "You're not my parents. You're not even close."

"Yes, we didn't toss you into the street."

"I never hurt you as badly as I did them." Shit. That had been too much truth, but it had burst out of him. Another reason to be annoyed with the new family air Schwarz had. He'd kept this stuff to himself easier before.

"Do you really miss the way Schwarz was before?" Schuldig asked.

...not really. Yes, in some small ways, because then he knew where he stood and how to behave, but for the most part being treated as more of an adult and equal, with the option of speaking his mind and being listened to, made up for many things. "I'm torn. It's my natural state of being."

"I've noticed."

"Some people would appreciate having someone take the role I'm playing," Crawford said. "You can cast me as the villain in your relationship with Omi and avoid much of the blame. _I'm_ keeping you apart."

"That's such shit. We're doing fine with screwing up our relationship on our own. I can't blame you for most of our problems."

"You're such a clearheaded adult," Schuldig purred. "Meanwhile, Omi's happily blaming Brad for lots of things."

Which would solve nothing. Lost for words, Nagi growled softly to himself.

"You're too young for such a serious relationship."

"I agree," Crawford said.

Though for different reasons, with Schuldig thinking him too young to stay with one person and Crawford feeling that he was too young for a relationship at all. Nagi considered both points of view to be insulting to him.

"Fortunately, you don't get a say in whom I date," Nagi answered. "You have to admit that he's better than Tot."

"So is 98% of the population. That's meaningless."

More and more insulting all the time.

"Brad, you're just going to force him to defend his Persian kitten more if you keep on like that."

"You're probably right."

"_Probably_?"

Ignoring their banter, Nagi thought that maybe it might be good to get away from Omi for a while. With him out of Japan again, maybe Omi would see how unhappy he was like this and call things off. Nagi didn't have the guts to, not when even talking about it made Omi so unhappy, and he hated to see Omi unhappy. Then again, being together made Omi unhappy too if he could judge by this morning. Nagi just couldn't give Omi everything he needed. He didn't have it in him.

"Damn, I'm moody," Nagi murmured to himself. It used to be easier to make up his mind.

"You'll grow out of your teen years eventually," Schuldig answered.

"Something to look forward to."

******************************************************

When Crawford scheduled a meeting, Mamoru knew it had to be bad news. From the mostly impassive but vaguely miserable look on Nagi's face as he walked in with Crawford and Schuldig, Mamoru had been right. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Persia," Crawford answered.

"Hey, kid," Schuldig said. Nagi just inclined his head. They stood a little behind Crawford, obviously subordinates to his leader. Mamoru felt Rex bristle a little behind him at their show of solidarity but he expected no less from them, at least in front of him. Privately Schwarz could be more divided.

"I know that you prefer to get straight to business, which is something I appreciate right now," Mamoru said. With so many people and families he worked with he had to do a dance of polite conversation before getting to the meat of what he and they wanted. Crawford's preferred directness and speed could be refreshing. "What's the situation?"

"We have a job in Europe," Crawford replied. "Counting today as one day, we'll be leaving three days from now. I'm notifying you that we won't be available for jobs for a while. It's hard to say how long we'll be out of Japan until we get a better look at the situation when we're there. Nagi will have to do your seminar either before we leave or after we return."

A part of Mamoru wanted to whine like a child that Nagi had just gotten back, but he controlled himself. "I think I can schedule everyone together for the seminar before you leave." Mamoru knew that Nagi hadn't known about this before he left this morning.

"Please let us know."

"This is sudden."

"It's an ongoing thing that had a recent development."

Which was more than Crawford had to tell him. "I see. I hope it's profitable for you. I'll let you know about the seminar. I hope to be the first person you contact when you return from this job."

"You're our most favored employer, Persia-san."

So smooth. So false. "Thank you."

"I still intend to tutor Balinese today and perhaps tomorrow if it works out," Nagi said, completely professional.

"Thank you again," Mamoru answered, so formal, so false. He had to see Nagi alone tonight.

"Good day, Persia," Crawford said, then left with his team behind him.

"Do you want to appoint someone to follow them in Europe?" Rex asked once they were gone.

He wanted to. Oh, how he wanted to. "I'll need to consider that." The whole thing seemed suspicious, and thus like something he wanted to know more about than Schwarz would be willing to tell him. He'd ask Nagi, but Nagi could be loyal and close-mouthed, and Mamoru didn't want to put him in that kind of position anyway.


	160. "I forget that you've survived Schuldig this long for a reason."

"I'll walk to the flower shop," Nagi said, then left them.

"Unhappy Nagins," Schuldig said once they got into the car.

"Unhappy and happy at once, which only makes him more miserable. He's intrigued by some aspects of the tasks I've set him," Brad answered.

"He's complicated, and his loyalties are fighting each other."

"Thus, another break from Persia might be good for him."

"So part of this really is about getting away from Weiß." Of course.

"You've noticed how Balinese and Persia are infecting members of the team with a dissatisfaction for how Schwarz runs."

"Infecting? You wouldn't be counting me, would you?" Schuldig already knew the answer.

"I'm counting you."

"Yoji is a good fuck."

"Balinese is someone you keep asking me to keep around."

"Have I mentioned that he's a good fuck? I shouldn't have to. You were there. Several times."

"His influence is corrupting you, Aya, and even Farfarello."

"He's more needy and obedient than our half-tamed Abyssinian kitten."

"His presence reminds Aya of how it was to be independent and a leader. Now that Aya's grief over his sister and self-doubt about his decision-making abilities aren't as strong, he's less inclined to let us decide things for him."

"Who's the telepath now?"

"I'm just observant."

"You're the one who called Yoji 'stupid' in front of him."

"That was a slip."

"That's for sure."

"You're attached to Balinese."

Schuldig wanted to argue that because arguing was what he did, but he couldn't delude himself enough to believe that arguing the contrary would be the truth. He _was_ attached. Who wouldn't want a pretty, fuckable pet? Farf had one, and Aya wasn't open to multiple partners like Yoji was. Hell, Yoji had _pined_ for Schuldig while they'd been separated. That made Schuldig tingle all the way down to his toes, especially since he hadn't telepathically done a single thing to make Yoji react that way.

"It's a shame you think Yoji's too entwined with us as it is, because otherwise I'd suggest Nagi take a shot at him just to see that Omi's hole isn't the be-all and end-all of existence." Sharing Yoji could bind Schwarz closer together. Or tear them apart.

Brad nearly choked. "Where the hell did that thought come from?"

"I read from Aya that Farfie had the crackheaded idea of putting Nagi and Yoji together."

"You're not distracting me like this."

"But it's such a distracting thought!"

"You're utterly perverted."

"You're just figuring that out now?"

"Europe will be good for us. So will taking time away from Balinese and Persia."

"You hadn't foreseen this thing with Yoji."

"If I had, I never would have let you start it."

"Too late now."

"Too late to undo the start, but not too late to make adjustments to what's going on now."

"This should be interesting."

Annoyed by all the sneering at Yoji's easy virtue, which extended to Schuldig's easy virtue, Schuldig decided that Brad wouldn't be getting any from him tonight. When Brad found out he'd probably laugh it off and say he didn't need it as much as Schuldig did, but Schuldig knew how it actually messed with Brad's head. Sometimes Brad needed to be reminded that some sluts did it just because they enjoyed it, not because they needed it. So there.

******************************************************

"Is that girl's English really bad, or am I getting dumber?" Fenris whispered to Yoji. They had customers nearby.

Poor Fenris. That one girl who found out that he knew English had been hounding him to let her practice on him ever since. "Her English is terrible," Yoji whispered back.

"Good. I'd hate to get dumber." Fenris turned to Elena and whined, "Elena--"

~ I'm not going to rewrite her memories so she'll forget about your English and leave you alone. It wouldn't be right, ~ Elena answered, letting all of Weiß hear.

Disconsolate, Fenris sighed and shot a forlorn look at the girl impatiently waiting at the other end of the shop. Ken ruffled his hair.

Yoji felt a sudden shift in the air, as if a heaviness had entered the shop. Nagi closed the door behind him and approached the counter, heading straight for Yoji. He seemed pissed off, although his face showed only a mild dislike for what seemed to be everything around him.

"I'm here for your training," Nagi said.

Yoji thought of asking him to come back when he felt less homicidal but figured that wouldn't go over well. "Elena, can someone take over for me?"

"Sure. Go in back." Her expression said that she'd be keeping tabs on him telepathically. It left him feeling a bit better.

"Follow me," Yoji said.

Once they stopped in the room, Nagi said, "You look like you're marching to your doom."

"You come in here like a lightning storm, and you have to ask why I'm uneasy?"

"You feel that?" Nagi looked more interested. It beat him look pissed off, that was for sure.

"Yeah."

"Hmm. I should have brought some light things I could throw at you." At the horrified look on Yoji's face, Nagi said, "To test your ability to shield. Something light so it won't hurt if you don't repel it. Do you have something, Fenris?"

Yoji hadn't noticed Fenris on the stairs near the door. "Yeah. Hold on," the kid said. Three small cloth bags floated past him to Nagi.

"Bean bags?" Nagi asked when he grabbed them.

"Hacky sacks."

"What do you do with them?"

"You hit them into the air with the side of your foot and try to make sure they don't hit the ground. Kind of. You do this one sack at a time." At the look of incomprehension on Nagi's face, Fenris said, "Your childhood must not have been very good either."

"Whatever."

Fenris sat on the stairs. "I'm going to stay and watch. Maybe I'll learn something too."

Yoji definitely had people watching his back, and that knowledge made him relax a little.

"I don't mind. But don't interfere. I have to see how well Kudou can protect himself."

"I'll be good," Fenris replied.

Yoji had to say, "You can call me 'Yoji,' not 'Kudou.'"

"You can call _me_ 'master,'" Nagi answered.

"No way in hell."

The Schwarz kid almost smiled. "Worth a try. Now shield first. When these come at you, put up a barrier to deflect them."

Yoji did, every time. Easy. The ability actually came when he called it, though it never stopped being odd watching the little sacks hit a wall of nothing and bounce off before they hit him. But on the fifth throw from Nagi he unexpectedly felt something strike his thigh, and it stung. "What the hell?" He saw another hacky sack lying on the floor.

"I threw two at you. You only put up a small shield against the one you noticed coming near your head. My shield instinctively closes all around me, but you only do a point defense. I wonder if that's instinct or the limitation of your power? Can you enclose yourself completely?"

"I can try."

The next time Nagi threw two sacks, Yoji missed one and felt it sting against his calf, but the time after that he deflected both. The time after that too. He licked sweat off his lip. But on the third time he deflected two from the front but felt something hit his back. Shit. Sneaky little bastard.

"You're still not enclosing yourself entirely."

"Obviously."

"Are you all right? You're sweating." Nagi still sounded mildly interested, which was better than the anger and malice Yoji had expected when he'd walked in.

"It's a little strain. Not bad. Nothing like what I did to myself in the limo."

"Good. If you start reaching that point, tell me immediately and we'll stop."

"Sounds good to me."

"Okay. Try enclosing yourself completely."

The thought of being completely enclosed made him squirm, and he wasn't even claustrophobic, but he saw the value in it. He wouldn't always see everything coming at him.

But he got hit three more times after that. No matter how he tried, he couldn't do a full surround, which left his back open. "Dammit!"

"Enough of that for now. You're just frustrating yourself."

"You don't say." Yoji suddenly felt something cold nudging his hand and looked down to see a bottle of water rubbing gently against his palm. On the stairs, Fenris waved jauntily. Yoji grabbed the bottle and took a gulp, then said, "Thanks, kid."

Nagi said, "You're doing well for a guy who just learned he had telekinesis."

"I'm cool like that."

"It's impressive, especially since it makes it harder that you're not very powerful and you're starting out when you're older."

And then verbally kicked in the teeth. "Don't count us weak old men out."

"I don't expect you to become an expert in one session."

"I feel different since that night. Like I understand how it feels and works a little better."

"I'm glad something good came out of that night."

Interesting reaction. Had Schwarz's little dust-up over whether to keep Yoji as a pet caused lingering trouble? What a shame.

Nagi's mouth twisted a little. "It is a shame."

Damned telepaths. He forgot that Nagi had some of that too.

"We'll be in Europe on a job soon. We don't know how long. I won't be able to do much training with you for a while."

Was this Europe job connected to that night?

"You're an egotist."

"So it's partly connected?" Yoji asked. "You look younger when you pout like that."

The heavy, charged feeling returned to the air, and Nagi walked over to stand right in front of Yoji and smile up at him. "Schuldig suggested I try you out since you seem to be willing to do the rest of Schwarz. He said you were fun for the whole family."

...shit. They all knew. Of course they all knew. If you did something with one part of Schwarz the rest inevitably found out. Now they'd decided that he was a party favor to be passed around, and why not? He hadn't given them reason to think otherwise. It hurt, but he shouldn't have expected anything else.

"We're not taking you along, though Schuldig asked. Crawford didn't want it, and Aya fought against it too. Aya seems to be more concerned for your self-respect than you are. You're not one of us, Kudou. Even Aya, who keeps protecting you, doesn't want you to be one of us."

"You're unhappy so you make other people unhappy?" Fenris yelled, suddenly standing at Yoji's side. "Does it make you feel better to be so mean? Does it fix things for you?"

Fenris' defense warmed Yoji and scared the hell out of him at the same time. Nagi could liquefy the kid. Right now it felt like two gathering storms facing off in the room, but Fenris made a light breeze to Nagi's tsunami.

"Do you know what I could do to you?" Nagi asked Fenris.

"No. I don't want to find out either. But I can't stand back while you hurt a friend of mine just because you feel hurt. He has nothing to do with your real hurt. You're using him to cover it over. That's what Schwarz keeps doing: using him."

"You have no idea, Dummkopf."

"Do you? You're confused! Even I can feel that!"

Nagi closed his eyes. "What do you think is wrong with me?"

"You're confused. Hurt about someone you love, especially since you don't know how to make it stop hurting for both of you. You're worried. You're jealous of Yoji."

"Please."

"Aya wants him. The others just take him, just reach out like it means nothing, and he takes and reaches out right back. So easy. You're not like that. Everything means something to you."

Nagi looked outraged. "I'm shielded!"

Fenris actually smiled, looking almost wicked. "Yeah. But you're weakened by how strong your feelings are right now, and I don't work the way most telepaths do, and besides I can feel you _around_." When he flexed his hand in the air, Yoji _felt_ it. "When you're upset your power makes a big noise to people who can hear it."

Holy fuck. Telekinetic and telepathic, and combining them into one ability. What would you even call that?

Yoji felt the tsunami suck right back into Nagi's body. "Now?" Nagi asked angrily after taking what looked like a painful breath.

"Now you're... you're--"

"Repressing," Yoji said, feeling a certain wicked satisfaction himself. Nagi might kill them any moment now, but Yoji would go down feeling that he'd gotten at least one really good lick in.

"Repressing," Fenris said, pleased at the word.

"I hate Weiß," Nagi said softly. "You're all such fuckups, and everywhere you touch us you infect us with it."

"Aya's still Weiß," Yoji answered, sure of it. "He's Schwarz too, but in his heart part of him will always be with us. Are you including him in that? I thought you liked him. I know he likes you."

"Maybe he's including Aya. I think he's including Persia-san," Fenris said.

Persia-- Omi. Nagi was a mess about Omi? Well, going to Europe would mean leaving Omi again.

Yoji realized that Nagi was trembling a little. He could feel it like a vibration on his skin. Stressed kid was this close to cracking. He had an expression similar to Aya's rigid "I will not break, I _will not_ break" look on. Could he hold it together? With Schwarz in the room he might have, but he claimed to hate Yoji and Fenris right now so maybe he wouldn't fight as hard to maintain control.

Kid needed a hug, so Yoji grabbed and hugged him. It was only as he stood there holding a rigid, twitching and growling kid that he realized he might have just signed his death warrant. That thunderstorm feeling started again, so strong that Yoji could feel it shaking in his bones.

Talking fast, Yoji said, "Aya turned me _down_. He loves people, but he only has sex with one person at a time. He loves you. I see it when he looks at you. Being with other people is hard, and I'm a fuckup at it, I admit it. But it's better than the alternative. Omi loves you. You're smart and you work hard and sometimes that's enough but maybe it's not enough right now but it might be in the future if you keep at it. You have people who care about you." He sounded like an incoherent lunatic. Even with Fenris in the room trying to protect him, Yoji would die.

But Nagi's twitching turned to a kind of hitching shaking. "Mph," the kid said into Yoji's apron and he gripped one side of it with his right hand. Omi would have the back of Yoji's shirt clenched in his hands by now, but otherwise this felt so much like having Omi back in his arms, during those times when the killing and all the responsibilities got to feeling too heavy and too much for the kid to bear, and Yoji thought about that as strongly as he could, Omi coming to everybody's favorite Yoji-kun for nonjudgmental comfort and hugs that came with no strings attached or mentions of it the next day, and if somebody started to cry or anything Yoji never noticed. Whenever he thought about it, Yoji _hated_ Omi's father. Both of them.

Kids. Kids forced to grow up too fucking fast.

Did anybody ever give Nagi a hug? Did he let anyone?

"I... hate you all... so much," Nagi gasped against Yoji's apron.

"I know. So you don't have to kill us to prove it."

"I won't kill you."

"That's exactly what you'd say if you wanted to kill me by surprise later."

"I won't...."

"It's just you and me, and I didn't see anything."

Nagi pulled away, palmed his eyes, tried to hide his sniffling, and looked toward the stairs where Fenris had been. Fenris had left a few minutes ago, probably figuring that Nagi wouldn't kill Yoji after all but might be pissed to have more of an audience for his almost-breakdown. Elena was probably monitoring them by remote anyway. Schwarz _and_ Weiß did the busybody routine.

"Sorry about the drama," Nagi said softly as he composed himself. That had hardly been a good cry at all, but Yoji got the feeling that Nagi didn't even indulge himself that far too often.

"Everybody gets fed up once in a while. You want some water?"

"No. I'm fine. I said some really nasty things to you." He sounded a little bit apologetic and very curious.

"You're Schwarz." Yoji had actually developed a thicker skin over the years. It came in handy.

"Then why do you keep coming back for more?"

"Hell if I know sometimes. How about you let out all the force you sucked into yourself a few minutes ago? It can't be comfortable."

"I can't believe you noticed that."

"I'm more than just a pretty face. Do you need to go somewhere?"

"No. I've gotten better at it. You're not seeing any of this, right?"

"None. I've gone blind."

"How convenient for you." Nagi closed his eyes, and the force flowed off him slowly and gently, thicker at first but getting more diffuse the longer it went on. Then his legs seemed to give out and he sat down hard on the floor.

"Nagi!"

The kid waved him off. "No. I'm fine. Just wasn't as in control as I thought."

"Really."

"You're not funny." He breathed deeply and opened his eyes. "I feel cleaner now. I know what I have to do. I've actually known for a while, but it's clearer now." It didn't look like a happy thing.

"Is it gonna hurt Omi?"

"Omi's already hurting. I hope this will stop it sooner."

Yoji didn't know for sure what Nagi had in mind, although it sounded kind of breakup-oriented, but said, "You're actually a pretty good kid, even with the lashing out at people." Which didn't mean that Yoji wouldn't wait for a heartbroken call from Omi tonight. Still, sometimes you needed a little pain now to get better later.

Then again, he'd been wrong about people before. Yoji would have to wait and see. He couldn't live anyone else's life for him.

Maybe reminding Nagi that he could be a good kid would lead to him trying to be more often. Self-fulfilling prophecy and the like.

"You'll ruin my reputation. You're a pretty good guy."

"Thanks."

"For an old guy with a soft heart and only a sprinkling of telekinesis."

"How the hell do you sprinkle telekinesis anyway? Explain that one."

Nagi smiled a little and stood. "I forget that you've survived Schuldig this long for a reason."

"One reason? Try my good looks and smart mouth for a _start_."

"I think we've both had enough for one day. Do you want to try something else tomorrow?"

"Yeah, why not?" If the telekinesis wouldn't leave him alone, he might as well be able to use it better.

"You can only spot shield, but you seem to have some sensitivity. I want to see you work with your wire now that you have a better idea of what you're doing too."

When they went upstairs Fenris met them at the door, looking far more interested in them than in his sweeping. Nagi asked, "What was your designation in Rosenkreuz's labs?"

Fenris looked surprised. "#121-5a."

"I'm doing some research this afternoon and in the future. Maybe I'll run across your genetic sources while I'm in there. I'll let you know."

And use the knowledge for what purposes? Yoji wondered. And whose? Would it be worth it to ask when Nagi would probably lie if he had less than good intentions in mind for the data?

Nagi just shook his head and walked out. Who knew if he'd heard Yoji's thoughts? Yoji had been so much less paranoid before all these telepaths had settled into his life.

Now Schwarz would be in Europe, which would forcibly change his behavior in a way that would make Elena happier and should make him happier. It took _that_ to stop him? He also didn't look forward to the taunting he'd get the next time Schuldig and Crawford came around, because if Nagi knew about last night so did they. Yoji hadn't even thought about that at the time.

But if they teased him he could always say that it wasn't his fault Schwarz found him irresistible. That would be something to throw in their faces. They had to be seeing something in him aside from his devastating good looks, because there were plenty of pretty people out there in Japan, let alone the rest of the world.

Schwarz being away for a while would be a good thing. Definitely. Yoji told himself that.


	161. "Sluts have done good things for you."

Crawford reflected that numbers perfectly calculated and in their proper columns held many sensual pleasures. The books balanced and his team prospered.

If by some wild stroke of fortune Aya did find a suite of apartments that would suit Schwarz--Crawford would not nix a truly suitable suite just out of spite--Aya would be doing the finances for his and Farfarello's place just as Crawford had threatened, and Crawford regretted publicly making that condition. Aya might have balanced the books for Kitten in the House and might even be good at it, but Crawford didn't want anyone doing any of Schwarz's numbers aside from himself. Numbers danced so well and neatly for him. Why couldn't his team be content to leave it all in his hands when he took care of them so well?

"Because they're ingrates," Schuldig said as he walked into the room and kissed the top of Crawford's head.

"Enjoy your drive?" Crawford asked without looking back.

Schuldig's moods and interests changed so often that Crawford usually thought little of it. Today Schuldig had wanted to take the car out and listen to music. Not long ago Crawford had seen him with a pad sketching something. It could be anything tomorrow, although they fit patterns if you knew how to look at it.

"Yeah. Nobody caught me speeding. I popped in some industrial and EBM and burned the kilometers away."

"EBM?"

"Electronic body music." The "duh!" was implicit.

Crawford turned to face him. "You're wearing the headband."

"It was a thoughtful X-mas gift! How could I refuse to wear it?" Schuldig grinned. "Besides, it doesn't hurt anybody."

"You're in my presence now."

"Silver synthetic fibers hurt you? What a thin skin you have, baby." He tried to run his hand through his windswept hair and growled softly as his hand caught in it.

Crawford wanted to detangle it but controlled himself. "You'll never be able to get that headband off through all that now. Such are the wages of sin."

"Wearing a tacky headband is a sin now? It gets easier to be a naughty boy every day." Schuldig carefully combed his hair, the orange strands moving slowly around his long fingers. "Have the psycho twins been that cute for long?"

On the living room couch Farfarello had been napping with his head in Aya's lap as Aya read one of his books. "At least an hour."

"So cute! I wanna mess with them."

"I'd rather you didn't. Aya may still be volatile."

"Aya's always volatile. I can't tiptoe around him all the time. He was pointedly ignoring me when I walked in. I _have_ to mess with him."

"Let them be cute in peace."

"Sure, sure. For now. I can't promise forever."

"I wouldn't expect you to."

"Good. I'll take a shower and leave to you to your lovemaking. Dance, numbers, dance."

A few hours later Crawford finished his accounting and decided to set aside his researches for the night to take a shower and go to bed. When he entered his dark bedroom he listened and heard soft, even breathing. "Schuldig?"

"Mmm."

Definitely Schuldig. Good, and not just because Crawford might have been forced to kick someone out otherwise. He removed his pajamas and slipped into bed, already half-hard and enjoying the trapped warmth his telepath's body had put out. His cock had a Pavlovian response to being in bed with Schuldig, which annoyed him at times but didn't annoy him right now.

He put his hand out and felt silk draped over Schuldig's hip, which made no sense since his telepath tended to sleep in the nude. "Are you all right, Schuldig?"

"I'm fine." Schuldig kept his back turned and didn't move into the caress.

"Is this some attempt at punishing me?"

"No. This is an educational exercise."

Shit. Crawford had labeled a punishment an "educational exercise" himself now and then. Annoyed, he asked, "Are you going to tell me or do I have to guess?"

"You offended me earlier with the way you sneered at sluts. I'm a slut because I enjoy it, not because I have a problem, and my sluttishness has given you benefits in the past. You showed me that I was making things so easy on you that you don't appreciate what I do. So I'm doing a demonstration of what life's like when I'm not putting out."

"You couldn't last."

"I can do it. I didn't go out and pick up anyone either. No sex, Brad. I wouldn't still be as sane as I am if I didn't have a will of steel."

Crawford considered his options. He knew himself capable of holding out, but Schuldig could be incredibly stubborn as well, so did he want to? Would it be worth it? Especially considering that he wanted sex now and being refused only made him want it more.

"When will this demonstration be finished?"

"When I feel like it."

Crawford would not apologize, but he could say, "I didn't mean to offend you. I was speaking of Balinese."

"And while doing so tarred the good name of sluts everywhere. You have to think about these things, Brad. Sluts have done good things for you."

"I don't believe I'm having this conversation." He put his hand under the waistband of Schuldig's pajama bottoms and rubbed small circles on his warm skin. "It's a stupid conversation. It wastes time."

"Are you trying to cheat?"

Crawford pulled Schuldig back closer to him and felt slippery silk against the head of his cock. "I wouldn't call this cheating." Schuldig wore a dangling charm on his navel ring tonight, so Crawford toyed with it a bit before sliding his hand lower to stroke, smiling as Schuldig hardened at the touch of his fingers.

"What would you call it?"

"Showing my appreciation of what you do for me." Crawford smiled as he felt Schuldig struggling not to push into his hand.

"Does this mean that you learned something from this exercise?"

"I have." As he kept stroking he sucked at a spot on the back of Schuldig's neck.

"Good. Class dismissed." And Schuldig surrendered to him.

******************************************************

That night, Mamoru saw Nagi waiting outside his building and felt a familiar sinking in his stomach. Would he ever meet up with Nagi without expecting to avert a breakup again?

"After tonight you will," Nagi answered, sounding unhappy but resolute.

"We just went through this last night!"

"It's different now. Do you really want to do this outside, with an audience?"

Mamoru had experienced tenser elevator rides in his life, but not many. Nagi intended to break up with him. Again. What new arguments would he have now? This trip to Europe? That meant nothing. And why do it now, a few days before leaving?

"Leave us," Mamoru told his guards as they entered his apartment. At their rebellious expressions, he said, "_Now_." Once they were gone, Mamoru just felt angrier, more frustrated. "What, Nagi? What more can I do? What more do you need? Can't we have just one happy night?"

"That is the problem, isn't it?" Nagi asked softly. "I can't give you everything you need, and that makes you unhappy. Seeing you unhappy makes me unhappy, so I try harder and I _fail_ and that makes me even unhappier. You're settling for me, Omi. You settle in your family and in your work. Don't settle in your love life. Don't settle with someone because he's convenient and in the business."

"Don't tell me you know what's best for me better than I do."

"Do you think it feels good to know that I'm something settled on, the most convenient person around? I make you _unhappy_, Omi!"

It hurt. It hurt to hear this, and hear the truth. It hurt to realize that he was hurting Nagi. "I love you!"

"I love you too. I love you enough to make you miserable now so you can go out and find someone who can give you what you need and make you happy."

"You were settling for me too, weren't you? I was... easiest."

"No. Really. I have you, and I have my work."

Mamoru could easily believe that Nagi would be celibate if not for him. "I see."

"Yeah."

They could love each other and still not have it be enough. "So this is it? I love you and it's been fun but it's over now?"

"You'll see it yourself when I'm away. Don't get close to me! If you touch me I'll lose it. And that's not a subtle suggestion to convince me!"

It had worked last time.

Mamoru felt so tired, and his chest and throat felt too tight. He'd used his best arguments yesterday, while tonight proved that his best arguments weren't good enough. Maybe he should let this happen. Take a break, see what develops, and maybe rebuild his strength for Nagi's return if he still felt like going after him then.

So it finally ended with a whimper.

At least Nagi looked like he had a broken heart too. "Omi...."

"All right. I don't know what else I can say."

And Nagi hugged him. It so shocked Mamoru that for about a minute he just stood still in it. Nagi hugged stiffly, loosely, gingerly, and inexpertly, but it was Nagi hugging him, Nagi who didn't touch people much outside of sex. It was a comfort hug. Nagi would decide to break up just when Mamoru had started to see signs that his training was working.

Mamoru hugged back and asked, "What's this for?" How _did_ that telekinesis lesson with Yoji go?

"I'm sorry. I hoped a hug might help. Shows what I know."

"No, it's good. Thank you." He would wallow in it while he could.

"I hope you can find someone who will make you happy. I want you to try."

Mamoru turned his head so he could face Nagi's neck, enjoying the warmth and Nagi's scent. Nagi smelled faintly of ozone and electricity, a bit like computers. Mamoru turned and tilted his head a little more, and they were kissing, lightly at first but gradually getting deeper and hungrier. They clutched each other and moved together. Whatever other problems they had, the sex had always been good.

But then Nagi pushed him away with his hands. "No. No. This won't help. We have to make this a clean break."

"I don't want a break at all."

"I know. But it'll get better. It has to. I have to go." Nagi let himself out and leapt off the roof. Mamoru let him go.

Mamoru fought down the thickness in his throat and stinging in his eyes. Tsukiyono Omi was the one who cried, not Takatori Mamoru.

******************************************************

Aya half woke up. Something had changed, not necessarily in a bad way, but something was at work, moving. Sure. He was crazed certainly, perhaps carrying over some vaguely remembered dream into reality. But he put his knife sheath on along with a pair of sweatpants and had one of his knives in hand as he slowly opened the bedroom door.

"Aya," Nagi said from somewhere in the darkness front of him.

"Just got in?" Aya asked as he sheathed his knife.

"Yeah." His breathing didn't sound quite right. "Good night." No. Aya followed him into his room and turned the desk light on. "Aya!" Nagi's eyes were puffy and red, and his face was flushed.

"What happened?"

"I broke up with Omi," Nagi answered softly. "We were just making each other miserable. I think it's the best thing I could do in this situation."

Upset to see Nagi so upset, Aya didn't know what to do but felt that some physical display was probably called for so he put his hand on Nagi's shoulder. "If you feel it's for the best, I'm sure it was."

"You're not angry?"

"Why would I be angry?"

"I made Omi unhappy, and you were telling me not to withdraw from all human contact."

The thought of Omi unhappy put a pain in Aya's chest, but he had to say, "I wasn't there for most of it, so I'll have to trust your instincts that he'll be happier in the long run." He'd been expecting this breakup for such a long time now that it seemed anticlimactic to have it actually happen, but he felt so helpless in the face of it. Nagi was unhappy.... "You're not swearing off being with people after this, are you?"

"No!"

"Then I couldn't possibly be angry with you."

Nagi looked down and took a hitching breath, obviously struggling with himself. "Aya...."

"Yes?"

"...could you hug me?" It came out sounding strangled, and it had obviously been something Nagi found difficult to ask for. Which made it more important and necessary.

Aya grabbed him and pulled him in close, holding him tightly, though not as tightly as Nagi held him back, his soft fingers clenching and unclenching against the bare skin of Aya's back. Nagi's face felt hot and damp against Aya's chest, so he must have started crying again.

"I wanted it to work and I wanted us to be happy, but I couldn't make it work," Nagi said thickly. "I couldn't make it work."

Nagi hated personal failure even more than most people did. "I know you tried very hard," Aya answered as he stroked Nagi's back.

"Trying doesn't count for much if you don't succeed."

"It's still more than most people do," Schuldig said from the doorway. Nagi stiffened in Aya's arms, and Aya turned them around to face him.

"Are you here to congratulate me or gloat?" Nagi asked.

"Neither." The telepath sounded almost gentle. "I've gone through a lot of breakups, mine and other people's, so I know what it's like. I'm here to support you, kid." He put his hand on Nagi's shoulder, squeezed gently, then left.

"That was... so weird," Nagi said softly.

"Definitely," Aya answered.

Nagi snuggled in a little. "Yoji gives... better hugs."

"He's had more practice." What else had happened today? "I'll try harder." Aya stroked his hair.

"But you're good too. Thank you."

******************************************************

Nagi hadn't meant to make a scene, just go to bed and quietly deal, but it felt so good to be held. After being so mature and self-sacrificing with Omi, Nagi found some relief in setting aside some of his dignity and being comforted.

Aya was warm and had a strong, comforting heartbeat, and he was _Aya_. That bullet wound hadn't scarred as badly as Nagi had expected, and he knew that a lot of that was due to his work. He had a lot of other scars, but Nagi didn't think he'd know what to do with someone who didn't have any. He smelled a bit like Farfarello, not bad since Farfarello had gotten more fastidious lately so Nagi didn't mind. Hell, Schuldig often smelled like Crawford's cologne.

He was glad he'd asked for a hug. Aya rarely offered any out of what seemed to be the fear of infringing on people and being awkward.

And Schuldig had been kind, at least for tonight. Nagi didn't know what to make of that.

Nagi hoped that Omi called Yoji for some comforting. From the memories Yoji had broadcasted earlier today, it seemed to help. Nagi had planted a little suggestion in Omi's mind just in case Mamoru tried to make him go it alone.

******************************************************

It worried Yoji that Omi's security brought him up to the apartment instead of Omi himself. How upset _was_ he? But in many ways it didn't matter. Yoji would provide as much comfort as Omi needed and more. He just hoped that Nagi had been decent over what seemed to be a breakup.

Omi met him at the door looking weirdly upbeat despite his puffy eyes and flushed face. "Thanks for coming, Yoji. Leave us."

Okay. The bodyguards left, and Yoji walked in. The apartment looked way too neat. Did Omi do this or his staff? "You look weirdly calm." He'd sounded kind of calm on the phone, but Yoji had passed that off to putting up a brave front.

"I wouldn't say 'weirdly.' Sit. Do you want something to drink?"

"Omi, how much time did you give yourself to grieve?"

"I'm fine. I'm strong."

"You're psychotic."

"That's hardly fair."

Maybe if he grabbed and hugged Omi he could get some real person behavior out of him? "Omi, don't force me to bring out the big guns."

"Yoji, we broke up. It hurt, but he was right. I was... _crazy_ with him. I wasn't happy if he wasn't with me 24 hours a day. That's insane. I'm lucky he didn't run away as soon as he saw how things were going. A lot of people would have. He couldn't give me what I needed because _nobody_ could give me what I needed." Way too reasonable and brave.

"Omi."

"What?"

Yoji grabbed him and hugged him by force. "Grieve, dammit! You just broke up. You guys love each other. Grieve!"

"I did! I'm fine now!" Omi yelled, muffled by Yoji's coat.

"Grieve! I expect tears!"

Omi's laughter sounded a little like sobs. "Yoji...."

"I mean it!"

Omi hugged back hard. "I can't. Really. I cried a bit but nothing like I used to. I'm worried that maybe I can't get a really good crying fit going anymore. It stuck somewhere in the bottom of my stomach."

Aw, kid. "Then don't cry if you can't, though I don't want you to give up on ever trying again. Just don't feel like you have to put on a brave front for me, okay? I'm not one of those business contacts you have to keep a stone face up for. It's Yoji-kun."

Omi sighed. "Thanks. I called you for this."

"I know."

"I'm right about Nagi, though. I wanted too much, and then I was openly miserable in front of him when I didn't get it. I... _used_ him, Yoji. I'm so miserable in most parts of my life but things felt better when he was around to tease me or snark. He made it bearable, so I wanted to chain him to my side at all times. That's horrible, and it's not fair to him. I couldn't even see it until he told me and broke away and I thought about it."

Poor kids. "There has to be something you can do about the rest of your life so you don't need him as a barrier."

"I hope so, but I can't think of anything." Omi let out another long breath, shuddered, and relaxed a little more. "I miss him already."

"I know."

"The sex was really good."

"Omi! I'm going blind!"

"I can't have sex?" You could almost hear the smirk. At least he amused the kid.

"You can have it, just don't tell me about because you're still just about a baby in my head!"

"You don't want to hear about all the erotic ways telekinesis can be used?"

"I can figure them out on my own without having to imagine you and Nagi doing them, which will scar me for life. Unfortunately, that's no longer an option since you've put these pictures right into my head so I can't not think about you and Nagi doing the telekinetic nasty." Did they have to be such flexible kids? That position was-- Urgh. Yoji's mind was disgusting right now....

"In all the time we were doing it, we never thought of it as 'the nasty,' let alone 'the telekinetic nasty.'"

"Is this punishment for commanding you to grieve?"

Omi snuggled in a bit. "I'm glad you came here."

"Me too."

"I wonder how much of this breakup coming now had to do with Schwarz leaving for Europe."

"Don't know. Nagi didn't say much to me about it, and I don't know how open he'd be if we asked."

"How are you going to deal with them being gone?"

"Huh?"

"Yoji, I know you're sleeping with Schuldig and Crawford. Of course I do. One, I have my resources as the Takatori heir and leader of Kritiker. Two, I would have to be blind and deaf not to notice some of the undercurrents going on that night when Schuldig tried to keep you."

He hadn't even thought about what Omi would do if he found out!

Sometimes Omi scared the shit out of Yoji because part of Omi had always been coldly ruthless and Takatori Mamoru was only more so. "Uh, yeah."

"I don't mind. It's useful to give them links to us. I don't know how much value they'll put on those links since they're sociopaths, but at least the links are there. They're not abusing you, are they? I'll step in if I have to."

"No! Though sometimes they try to go a bit overboard on some stuff and I have to remind them."

"As long as you're happy. And not spilling any Kritiker secrets."

Was he? Sometimes. "Schuldig could read my mind. Of course, I don't have to be in his bed for him to do that."

"I meant that I trust your loyalty."

Yoji didn't always trust his own. He'd been so stupid with Neu and Tuji.

"I scared you, didn't I?" Omi asked. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

Thank God Omi wasn't a telepath. "Sure."

"Shit. I'm not doing well with anyone tonight." Poor kid.

Yoji rubbed his back. "I don't expect you to be perfect."

"At least somebody doesn't. Would you stick around?"

Omi needed someone around he didn't pay to be there. "Sure I will."

******************************************************

Crawford saw Schuldig in odd lighting outside, and the telepath looked too intent, almost frightening, perfect for the job.... Crawford woke up alone. Had he just seen the near future? Thinking back on what he'd seen, he decided that he'd been up on a roof at night. Worth a shot. He put on his glasses, pajamas, holster, and coat before he did a quick check around the apartment. Farfarello was sleeping, Aya comforting Nagi.... What? Whatever. Despite previous expectations, Aya seemed to have Nagi's emotions well in hand. Crawford put his shoes on and went up to the roof.

As he slowly opened the door, he put his gun out first, ready to fire. "I'm not that bad," Schuldig said.

Crawford holstered his gun and turned on his flashlight, revealing Schuldig, who stood there with his arms wrapped around himself and his eyes looking far too bright. He looked aroused, a bit sick, and somewhat crazy.

"How bad _are_ you?" Crawford asked.

Schuldig laughed and pushed his wind-whipped hair out of his face. "Nagi has a general, perpetual low-grade misery but tonight he just fucking _bloomed_, lush and ripe and red and addictive. It was damned... tasty. Then Aya walked in on him and blunted it, which was good and disappointing at once, but seeing Nagi unhappy made him feel unhappy and helpless, which added a new flavor to him. The kid couldn't help feeling a guilty little thrill at getting to smush against Aya too. When I went into Nagi's room he was crying on Aya's bare chest, and I just wanted to lick them both so damned badly. You don't know how hard it was to say something sane and leave instead of fucking with them. It's so... much somehow, too much, like the sweetest sweets, way too sweet. I'm so high. I want it to stop, I want more.... I don't know."

Schuldig always found a sick and occasionally addictive enjoyment in other people's pain and suffering, but this seemed more intense than usual. "Why did you get like this now? He's been angsty before."

"Not sure. This relationship meant a lot to him. I mean, Omi really got him to face some of his problems. Plus, he's repressed. When repressed people finally let go a bit it's more intense. Aya's a treat when he does it. Nagi... I don't know. I need to work this off. I need to work this off."

"Use me." Crawford knew he could handle Schuldig.

Schuldig's expression might almost be called a smile. "In my current mood I'd rip you apart."

"You'd try."

"Sure, Brad."

Perfect for the job. "I was thinking of putting Farfarello, with supervision, on this job, but I think you could do it. Our client wants a videotaped apology from the leader of another band of thugs. They're all hardcases, so he figures the man will have to be tortured into it. Then you can kill him afterward."

"Torture, huh?"

"Then you can kill him." Sometimes a victim's death broke Schuldig out of the loop and gave him a general reset.

"I'm so glad my little fits of madness can be convenient for you, Brad."

"Is that a yes?"

Schuldig licked his lips. "Yes. Give me the details on this walking dead man."


	162. "Just remember that you're not allowed to lick Nagi or Aya today."

When Nagi started to feel heavier in Aya's arms, Aya said, "You should sleep."

Although Nagi sounded tired, he answered, "Can't. If I go to sleep after all this idiotic crying I'll wake up with my eyelids swollen shut."

"You should do it anyway. It's late." Despite the situation and his seated position with a boy snug up against him, Aya had to keep fighting off sleep himself.

"Sorry. I'll go to bed like a good boy." Nagi pulled away and palmed his eyes like a child, even as he appeared to be taking advantage of all that hair as something to hide most of his face behind.

Aya, who had a habit of hiding behind his bangs when most upset, didn't say a word about it. He did pull the covers up for Nagi, who asked, "You're tucking me in?"

Nagi might be offended at being treated like a child. "I'm sorry--"

"No, it's fine. Just... don't make a habit of it." Since the words had no bite, they must have been meant to save face. The way Nagi snuggled under the covers, obviously comforted, supported that theory.

It made Aya glad that he'd been awake when Nagi returned. If left alone, the boy would have driven his sadness deep inside and left it to fester behind a strong mask. He hated to appear weak or sentimental. Aya knew the type from the inside. Hopefully, having someone to cry on had helped purge some of the sadness. It had always helped his sister in her smaller heartbreaks.

She hadn't lived long enough to see major ones.

"Good night. Everything will get better." Which was probably a lie, but certainly a kindly meant one.

Nagi smiled a little. "Yeah, yeah. Good night." Nagi knew.

It felt so strange to have such an unspoken understanding that had nothing to do with telepathy again. He and Nagi just knew each other on some level, stronger than anything Aya had ever had with Weiß. He hadn't felt such a thing with anyone since that last tragic day with his sister.

When Aya returned to his bedroom, he could sense that Farfarello was awake in the darkness. He waited for words or an approach but none came. When he sat on the bed Farfarello's arms came around him from behind and he felt the damp heat of breath along his neck. "You have the boy all over you," Farfarello said, disapproving.

"He needed someone to talk to. He broke up with Omi."

"You need a bath."

"It's 3:45 a.m. and I'm tired. I'm not taking a bath."

"It's never too early or late in the day to make sure one's pet is clean and free of pests and irritants."

"Nagi is neither a pest nor an irritant. _You're_ irritating me. Whose bed have I returned to? Yours. Do you really want to make me regret it?" He knew his lover could be jealous but refused to let that jealousy fence him away from everything and everyone. He'd decided to live, and he intended to do it fully.

"He's not your sister."

Stung, Aya responded, "He's not your rival. I'm going to sleep."

"Everything I do is out of love for you."

"I want respect as well as love."

"You're a hard kitten. Go to sleep. No bath."

******************************************************

His puisín fell asleep immediately. Farfarello couldn't say the same. Aya's willfulness didn't surprise him, but it worried him that the boy's distress had roused Aya from a sound sleep. There could be no other explanation. How ironic that his puisín was more sensitive than he was with his telepathy. Ironic and not at all funny.

Unattached again and hurting, the boy called out to Aya's hero instincts and brother instincts. Within moments of returning home he'd insinuated himself into Aya's embrace. Aya would not deny him, and Nagi didn't appear to have the grace to abide by Farfarello's clearly stated wishes. It would lead to trouble.

At least Aya was so tired that having his hair stroked didn't wake him. Farfarello liked how his kitten's body felt different, more pliant, when sleeping. The repetitive stroking helped him think.

******************************************************  
_"Sometimes I feel like a prophet, misunderstood,  
Under the gun like a new disease...."_  
  -- "High Voltage" by Linkin Park  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been so easy to grab the target. Through speed and stealth and telepathy, Schuldig had slipped in and easily grabbed Iwase from within the phalanx of his yakuza guards. When he could add insult to injury, he preferred to. Iwase wasn't helpless himself, but Schuldig knocked him out cold.

People always underestimated his speed and strength, and he preferred that sometimes. He was a machine designed to surprise.

Their client provided the room, chair, and video camera, while Schuldig provided the tools. Iwase had been upset to wake up naked and tied to a chair but was a hardcase about it, tough and contemptuous. Good. Schuldig gave him the terms from the beginning: "I'll kill you either way, but how much I rip you up first depends on you. If you do a videotaped apology for the Shumpei family, you'll die quickly and easily. I hope you resist, because I'm in a mood to hurt something over a long period of time." Of course he did the manly thing and said no, full of contempt. But Schuldig's words and simple existence as an obvious foreigner speaking perfect Japanese--Iwase's own Japanese, not that he knew it--had already put the first chips in his confidence.

Schuldig whittled him down with telepathy, knives, and bullets. He cut with words and knives, although he didn't mark the face up much. There would be a video to shoot, after all, and Iwase had to be recognizable. He shot bits off. One time he shot through the man's left hand and had to shove a handkerchief into the hole to stop the bleeding. Ooops. He had to be careful not to get carried away by the symphony of suffering and the flavor and aroma of pain and terror. Schuldig hadn't gagged him, so he kept fighting not to scream. Iwase just got more desperate and sweeter the longer it went on, but he kept refusing to do the apology. Good. Schuldig felt high and a little sick, warm and almost dizzy, as he gorged, but he wasn't ready to stop yet. He had to remember to keep aiming to graze when all his instincts told him to go for the kill shot.

Finally Schuldig had to end this or burst, and he knew exactly how to do it. He'd taken Iwase's measure. Breathing hard, he picked up a pair of scissors and turned back to face the bloodied flesh and wide staring eyes of his victim. "You have balls, I'll say that," Schuldig said. "That's why I'm taking them. Don't look like that. The scissors are sterile and sharp. I won't have to saw! I'm wearing latex gloves too, so that's fine unless you have an allergy to latex. I know some people do."

"No," the man gurgled.

"A little snip snip...."

"No...."

"You could still do the apology and die as a man. You're going to die soon no matter what. Whether you do it as a eunuch is up to you."

And that was that. Give guys a choice between their pride and their jewels, and they had to think. Iwase did the videotape, his soul screaming deliciously the whole time. Then Schuldig turned the camera off and shot Iwase in the head at point blank range. The shock of death and sudden cutoff of pain juice hit Schuldig in the head like a cold hammer, painful yet not painful. He came to on his knees, feeling still and calm. Purged.

It annoyed him that Brad knew how to handle him so well.

******************************************************

Mamoru sat on the edge of the table and watched Yoji sleep on the couch. He'd stayed. Yoji always had.

Of course Schwarz would take advantage of Yoji's kindness and sensuality. Mamoru wondered if having Yoji around now and then might improve them. He wondered....

Yoji had been a detective. That might prove useful.

Mamoru looked at the table that looked too clean now with all the origami birds removed and bagged. He couldn't bear to look at them but couldn't throw them out either.

After last night he felt weirdly hollow and breathless, probably from all the crying and thinking. He'd used Nagi. It was so obvious now that Nagi had rubbed his face in it. Why had Nagi stuck with him so long?

What could he do with his life to make it more bearable so he wouldn't be such a sucking black hole of clinging neediness? He didn't know.

In the meantime, he had to go to work. The usual. He stroked a lock of Yoji's hair away from his face, then went away to shower.

******************************************************

Yoji woke up on the couch with his back killing him. Damn, he wasn't _that_ old. Must have been the physical abuse of his life as an assassin adding more miles to his body. Sucked.

Where the hell had Omi gone?

Feeling about a hundred years old, Yoji gingerly got up and wandered to the kitchen, stopping at the doorway when he heard someone moving around inside it. Somehow he didn't think it was Omi.

"Please, Kudou-san, come in," a woman's voice said. "Takatori-sama left instructions to make you breakfast. He had to leave for work."

Takatori-sama? No wonder Omi felt so twitchy and weighed down. Yoji had wanted to see how he was doing and say something to him this morning. See how much more support he needed. Of course it wouldn't work out that way.

Yoji walked in to the kitchen to see a pretty but not spectacular looking girl waiting for him. She was cute. "I'll take advantage of your kindness," he said, flirting on default, but his heart wasn't in it.

******************************************************

"Better?" Crawford asked as Schuldig walked into the bedroom.

"You're an arrogant ass," Schuldig answered but sounded much saner. Warm and damp, he smelled of soap and faintly of blood as he nestled against Crawford's side under the sheets.

"That would be a yes."

"Fuck off."

"I'll be starting my day in two hours."

"You'll do it alone. I was working. I need to sleep in."

"Of course." Though the odds were good that Schuldig would wake with Crawford anyway, just from being a telepath so in tune with him.

"Sometimes it sucks to be me."

"Just remember that you're not allowed to lick Nagi or Aya today."

Schuldig growled out something obscene and buried his head in the pillow.

In about two hours Crawford awoke and so did Schuldig. Looking like a tangle of blankets and hair, Schuldig muttered, "Mother_fucker_," and sounded truly aggrieved.

"Go back to sleep," Crawford said.

"I'm _trying_. I'm still sensitive and you're so fucking awake."

"You're stronger than this."

"You suck. Go to breakfast already."

It would probably be better to give Schuldig more time before he interacted with Nagi and Aya again anyway. Schuldig tended to be too flirtatious and persistent at regular breakfasts, let alone at ones following him getting almost murderously turned on by the suffering of his teammates.

As Crawford dressed he thought through matters that would have to be taken care of today. The videotape would have to be delivered to their client, though Crawford wanted to get a look at it first. It wasn't as if they could redo it if he didn't like it, and he did trust Schuldig to get the job done, but he wanted to see his telepath's handiwork.

Persia might be harder to deal with if he couldn't be professional about the breakup, and Crawford would prefer to talk to him today to get some reading of how he would treat them from now on. Also, would Persia fight to get Nagi back or had Nagi thoroughly burned that bridge enough that Persia had given up? Crawford preferred to work from fact and observation instead of guesses.

When he entered the kitchen he saw Aya at the stove making breakfast, Nagi sitting with a small smile as he watched him, and Farfarello looking very disgruntled as he sat next to the boy. This might be another problem in the making. Nagi breaking up with the Persian boy was advantageous in some ways but problematic in others. It certainly changed the status quo again. Crawford would think on ways he could prevent Farfarello from feeling threatened.

"Aya's cooking. It's almost like Christmas here," Crawford said and smiled a little as Aya glared.

"I'm making eggs, bacon, and miso soup," Aya answered. "Nagi already set your cereal out on the table for you. Coffee's ready."

Crawford's Cocoa Puffs had already been placed in a bowl with a small cup of milk at the side for him to add himself to his own taste. The cereal seemed oddly like a peace offering, especially since Nagi avoided eye contact. The poor boy's eyelids looked so swollen.... Did Nagi think Crawford would be upset over the breakup even though he'd advocated it? Then again, Nagi was a smart boy, sure to see the complications that would arise. If the boy felt guilty, Crawford had no argument with taking the benefits being offered him.

"Where's Schuldig?" Nagi asked. From the look on his face, he had no idea what Schuldig had actually been thinking of him last night.

"He took a late night job, so he's sleeping in."

They had a peaceful meal in mostly companionable silence, although Farfarello's occasional glare should have shot holes through Nagi. Near the end, Crawford's cell phone vibrated. Business. He left the table with it before answering, "Crawford."

"This is Persia. I'm calling to ask if Prodigy could do the seminar tomorrow." Persia sounded cool and professional, at least with Crawford. Good.

"I don't see any conflicts from what I know of our plans. You'll have to ask him, of course."

"Of course." His voice wobbled only a little there.

Nagi was loading the dishwasher and blanched a little when Crawford handed him the phone and said, "Persia."

Nagi put some steel into his spine even though Persia wouldn't see him, took the phone, and answered, "I'm here. Yeah, I could do it tomorrow. Yes. Will Balinese be in the seminar? I'm going back today to give him a little more personal training. I already made the call to them to set it up. Yeah. Thank you. Goodbye." Nagi handed back the phone.

"So?" Crawford asked.

"We're both professionals. It's fine. If you'll excuse me...." Nagi left the room. His mask of inscrutability had been perfect the whole time. Crawford felt very proud.


	163. "You know, this would be the perfect time to take advantage of me."

Nagi researched as he waited for his time to leave for Kitten in the House. Even before Crawford had given him this project he'd been finding and compiling information on some of it, mostly waiting for it to cohere more before he presented it. It felt good to work, keep his mind off things, even though his researches showed him some really bad shit that made his insides crawl.

He and Omi had been so heartbreakingly professional on the phone together. Would they be able to do it face to face too? Maybe they wouldn't need to try it before Schwarz left for Europe.

Why was Schuldig standing in front of the bedroom door? "Schuldig, come in or go!" Looking uncertain, Schuldig opened the door. He had a largish box in one hand. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Nagi had to ask as he saw the zigzagging agitation in Schuldig's kinetic corona.

"Sometimes you think you can do something, but then when you get there you realize it's a bad idea." Schuldig had a telepathic shield up. What didn't he want Nagi to know?

"You can't leave now. I'm curious. Are you high?"

Schuldig's pupils looked dilated enough that Nagi had easily noticed. "Not on drugs."

"You're keeping something from me. Treat me like an adult." He could defend himself if he had to.

"You really want me to? Treat you like an adult?"

Shit. What had he let himself in for? But he wouldn't back down now. "Yes."

"I'll do even better than that and tell you the truth." As Schuldig knelt in front of Nagi's computer chair, slightly between his legs, Nagi immediately and instinctively put up a slim force shield around his body. "You've been attractive for a long time, but your breakup has made you the sweetest, tastiest morsel in reach. I'm a sadist, remember? You're not quite as tasty today, but I still want to lick you all over and fuck you until you scream. Even knowing that Brad would kill me for doing it doesn't matter at all because I _want_ you. Is that adult enough for you?"

Schuldig looked slightly crazed, and the soft wash of lust he let escape felt warm. Nagi knew that the full blast of what Schuldig was feeling would be far hotter. "So, what, in a perfect world you'd get to fuck and hurt me for your own enjoyment?" He'd _known_ Schuldig had been weird last night, far too kind.

Right now Schuldig tasted high, and the high had a sickly-sweet rotten bite to it. "Fuck, yeah. Hurt... I dunno. Don't think I could."

"That's interesting."

"I wouldn't, honey. Tease the shit out of you sometimes, but wouldn't hurt you. You're family." Schuldig placed his hands on Nagi's knees, then smirked and asked. "Full body condom again?"

"I know where you've been. Is that 'wouldn't hurt you' a guarantee? You didn't sound confident in it."

"Wait a minute, are you considering sex with me?"

"No!"

Schuldig stroked his hand up Nagi's thigh. Although Nagi couldn't feel it through the force field, seeing it still affected him. Dammit.

"You do want me." Schuldig sounded more happy than smug. "You know, this would be the perfect time to take advantage of me."

"Take advantage of _you_?"

Schuldig crossed his arms on Nagi's right leg, set his chin on them, and looked up at him sidelong, appealing. "You're vulnerable right now, while everyone knows I'm a predatory sex fiend. If you tried me out, you wouldn't be blamed. You could satisfy your curiosity. I can tell you want me."

"Parts of me want you. The parts of me that can think, the ones that I let actually control my life, see it as the worst idea ever. If I let you do this I would never hear the end of it. Ever."

"Otherwise you'd do it?"

"What's the big fucking deal? Really. Yes, I might have. You're tempting."

"Omi did some good for you after all." Schuldig's high didn't feel quite as sick and poisonous anymore. This close, this low, he seemed less freakishly tall and distant. He looked younger and somehow more approachable. And Nagi _did not_ want to touch a bit of all that hair to see what it felt like.

Saddest thing of all was that he could tell Schuldig wasn't telepathically manipulating him. He felt all of this on his own.

"I won't have sex with you."

"But?"

"I'd like to... pet you. Not in a sex way! Just... nice."

Schuldig grinned. "Pet away."

He had to touch Schuldig's hair first, of course. He had to run his fingers through it carefully, since it tended to tangle. No wonder Schuldig often used his fingers and a brush simultaneously when he tamed it himself. It had a different texture than Nagi was used to but still felt soft. Humming, Schuldig closed his eyes and nuzzled Nagi's leg. At some point Nagi had dropped the force shield, and the telepath felt warm and mildly lusting even through Nagi's pants leg. It _was_ nice stroking and fingercombing Schuldig's hair, very calming.

In the past day Nagi had gotten a friendly hug from Yoji, a goodbye embrace and "please stay and have sex" kiss from Omi, a brotherly hug and comforting stroking from Aya, and now this. He'd had more varied, willing human contact in the last day than he'd probably had over the course of his life.

"Mmm. I miss getting my hair brushed. We used to do it all the time once we figured out that we really liked it."

"Was that last sentence supposed to make sense? 'We' who?"

"Never mind. Mind's wandering. You have a good touch."

"Do you want to be brushed?"

"Are you offering?"

Nagi telekinetically pulled his brush off the dresser to his hand. "Maybe. If you're good."

Schuldig very obviously wanted it but almost sounded blasé as he said, "Honey, you will have to define 'good.'"

"Unlike some people, I'm not a sadist. I'll let you owe me for it."

"That's not worse?" But he stopped complaining when Nagi used his fingers and the brush. It _was_ a cleaner, purer high now, and Nagi coasted on the edges of it. Schuldig's fingers flexed lazily against Nagi's thigh as he started humming to himself again.

Nagi had never met a person who needed a tail more. Schuldig laughed suddenly, then said, "Sorry. Yoji thought there. Wait, you let him hug you?"

"I kind of liked it," Nagi admitted, relaxed under the echoes of having his hair brushed and stroked, which felt really nice.

"Liked it enough to ask Aya for it later. My baby's doing so well for himself. Brush more. Nice, isn't it?"

Wallowing in the edges of Schuldig's pleasure, Nagi had to agree with Schuldig that he did have good hands, even if he didn't usually use them for anything more than eating and keyboarding. Hair brushing definitely had more to it than he'd realized. He only had the vaguest childhood memories of getting his brushed. Schuldig had messed with it now and then when Nagi had to look a certain way going out--like when he and Omi had gone out that night, which brought a pang of pain and Schuldig murmuring, "Let it go, doll"--but that had been efficient business brushing, a means not an end.

"We have to fix that. It's different when it's your actual head," Schuldig said as he easily took the brush from Nagi's hand, stood up, and settled behind Nagi. Nagi had been so tranquilized that he hadn't been prepared for that. Then the brushing commenced and he couldn't bring himself to complain about anything. It felt so _good_. Schuldig even massaged his scalp with his fingertips. Purest animal contentment. He hadn't known that his scalp had felt stressed.

"Your hair feels so nice, so soft," Schuldig murmured, and you didn't have to be a telepath to feel his smirk as he said, "Virgin hair."

"At least my hair is still virgin."

"Such pretty hair."

"This is where you wish you had a girl so you could put me in ribbons and dresses?"

"I'm content with being able to dress and make you up sometimes. Oh. Almost forgot."

When Schuldig stopped brushing, Nagi couldn't help the little sound of disappointment he made. Schuldig chuckled as he picked the box up from the floor and set it on Nagi's lap. "What's this?" Nagi asked.

"Open it," Schuldig answered as he resumed the brushing.

While Nagi could barely keep his eyes open? Unfair. Still, it was a gift. Even though it had come from Schuldig, it might be good. Schuldig lightly smacked the back of his head with the brush for that thought.

"I give good gifts all the time," Schuldig said, openly pouting. "Open it."

When Nagi lifted the lid and moved the tissue paper aside he saw black fabric. It felt soft in his hands as he picked up. It was a top designed along similar lines as his old schoolboy top, though cut to fit his currently more adult body, and black with a deep blue sheen and narrow silver zippers at the front and the shoulders. Kind of kinky but subtle and almost classy. The box also contained a matching pair of pants, those with the same narrow zippers for two fake pockets at the front near the hips and two more in the back over his ass. He also found a black leather belt studded with silver grommets.

"What is this?" Nagi asked. For a moment he thought it might be some weird reward for breaking up with Omi, but this looked like a custom commission, something that had to be started before Schuldig could have known.

Then again, Schuldig's lover was a precog. No. No, they hadn't known yesterday or even earlier that he would break up with Omi. Unless they'd played it that way to make sure the future would turn out as foreseen.

Nagi was giving himself a headache. Schuldig's attitude and mental runoff all spoke of it having nothing to do with Omi, and Schuldig wouldn't stray from the story if asked, so Nagi decided to believe it. Believing otherwise would lead only to frustration and insanity.

"When you showed up inside Aya's head to consult on his links, this is the outfit your avatar self wore. Okay, the belt was my idea, but the rest of it came from your subconscious. If you keep looking in the box you'll see the sketches I used to get this made."

"You don't draw."

"Yoji does. He's better at it since it's actually his eye and natural talent, but my work came out great anyway."

They _were_ pretty good. Nagi didn't think he looked that smoking hot in reality or even in mindspace, but the annoyed expression certainly worked. "What do you get out of having this outfit made for me?"

"You have to ask?"

"You get to see me in it."

"Yep. Put it on."

"I'm not changing in front of you!"

"It was worth a shot. But you'll try it on sometime soon, right? I'm dying to see it in the flesh as it were. The measurements should be right since I got them from you, but still."

From what Nagi could tell, it would fit well, conforming to the shape and size of his body without being sluttishly tight. "I'll wear it if you don't give me any funny, scary, or drooling looks for it."

"I'll try."

"Okay." Nagi kept petting his new outfit, while Schuldig kept brushing, and they probably fed each other their pleasure in this because it couldn't possibly feel this good on its own.

"I love you, you know," Schuldig said softly. "You can put out or not. You can be as much of a prickly little bastard as you wanna be. Just be you and obey me on the really important stuff."

"You had me until the end." Still, Nagi felt unwillingly touched by the rest of it.

"Damn."

"Schuldig, I know you're in there. I can feel you purring," Crawford said through the door after knocking on it.

"I have to get ready to go to Kitten in the House anyway," Nagi said. No human being needed more brushing than he'd already gotten. He shouldn't be greedy.

"All right. I'd tell him where he could shove it otherwise." Schuldig kissed the top of Nagi's head. "Give my regards to Yoji."

Schwarz used to be so much simpler when they really hadn't given a damn about each other.

******************************************************

Nagi had liked the outfit. Schuldig couldn't wait to see him in it. Though he'd have to, obviously. He wished he could have gotten the kid to agree to a bit of recreation. The possibilities of telekinesis intrigued the hell out of him. Besides, it had felt good to make Nagi feel good with the brushing and gift, better than his sadism had. The kid tasted wonderful.

And he'd let Schuldig actually touch him without the excuse of some kind of business-related purpose. That was a huge step forward.

Once he closed the door behind him, Schuldig raised an eyebrow at Brad. "You're _jealous_?"

"I don't want you taking advantage of the boy," Crawford said as he walked back to their bedroom.

Yeah, but also definitely jealous. Following, Schuldig answered, "I didn't. All we did was some grooming, like the proper primates we are."

"This time."

"You know how I am, so I don't understand your jealousy."

"I'm not jealous."

"You even enjoy some of the--"

"I'm not jealous."

"All right. Not jealous. Brad, I think I know why his misery hit me harder. It's our link. It takes out some of the filtering, so his pain hit me like a pure drug."

"It didn't used to."

"The link didn't used to be this strong."

"Will it become a problem?"

"Now that I know, I can control it better. Trust in my expertise."

"I'll try to."

It made Schuldig feel so tired sometimes. "Brad, did you have a reason to pull me out of that room aside from the fear that I would pollute Nagi's lily-white purity?"

"Actually, yes. Come inside with me." Brad seemed a bit unsettled, hesitant, nervous. Brad being Brad, Schuldig couldn't quite read why.

Interesting. "Sure." Schuldig sat on their bed. "So?"

Brad remained standing, across the room near the door. "Nagi and I have been researching. We've been sharing our work with each other to make sure we don't waste time chasing the same leads. Eszett had vat-grown a lot of talents, both through direct cloning and combining and engineering the genetic material they had. When we destroyed Rosenkreuz, a lot of the ones who hadn't been assigned or fully trained died, but not all of them. Some enterprising talents have been selling them to employers. I say 'selling' because it's more of an ownership situation as opposed to an employer/employee contract that the talent could leave. These mostly shattered dregs aren't worth much. But the Orange line is popular."

"The Orange line?" Then Schuldig started to get it. "Those assholes!"

"There are actually a lot of direct clones of you since Eszett saw your telepathy and speed as useful. Unfortunately for a lot of the Orange line, we destroyed everything before they could be taught all the shielding and control they'd need to stay sane. They function about as well as Trash did."

Of course. Of course.

"Not all of the Orange line is that bad," Brad continued. "There's one telepath in particular, one of those that had been sent out earlier with decent training, who was doing well working as an independent contractor after we took out Eszett."

"You said 'was.'"

"His last employer tried to keep him permanently. He did a lot of damage escaping but not to the man himself. There's a large bounty on his head. Ridiculously large."

"Too large for it just to be about this telepath refusing him and taking out some minions as he left?" A lot of employers, tantalized by the possibilities of telepathy, wanted their hired telepaths to be their whores as well. Schuldig was easy but also demanded the right to say No.

Brad's eyes flicked toward his laptop, so Schuldig went over to it and saw the bounty notice with picture still onscreen. Fuck. Just... fuck. Schuldig had times when he didn't look like himself to himself, but the Collective remembered very well what Emory Disl had looked like as a teen, and this was a teenaged Emory who looked really miserable. _Needs cuddling/sex/feeding/brushing_ parts of Schuldig's old memories immediately decided. This Orange line talent was either a direct clone or hadn't been altered very much. Schuldig was looking at _himself_, and Brad had known....

Great. The kid was _named_ "Misery." Elend....

The bounty was ridiculous. The asshole who'd initiated it either wanted that piece of ass back very badly, had lost _a lot_ of face from his defection, or both.

"He escaped about three months ago and has apparently evaded detection so far," Brad said softly.

The best of the mostly enslaved Orange line was a desperate kid on the run. "Why are you telling me this, Brad? Are we taking the job?"

"I wanted you to be prepared for what we'll find." That didn't answer the second question. "He's the best of the Orange lot, but there are other useful ones."

"What the hell are we going to do when we get to Germany and Austria? A lot of the Rosenkreuz alumni are probably under new ownership because a lot of them, especially the vat kids, didn't have any legal ID or a way of getting any. Are we just going to see who's out there to keep track of them? Rescue them? Raise them? You never wanted to outfit and house an army. Give them to someone to raise? Kill them? Are we going to differentiate between the ones directly related to us and those not? Are we looking to track _everyone_ down? What the hell are we doing? Have you seen anything? Do you even have a plan?"

"I figured we would determine that based on individual situations." Brad didn't feel as confident and certain as he looked.

In destroying Rosenkreuz, they'd opened Pandora's box. And all the negative emotions, like Misery, had come out. It was hilarious.

Schuldig cared. It shocked him, because he didn't have any sense of compassion or altruism. It had to be that he hated having these pieces of himself living out there being abused.

"What about you, Nagi, and Farfarello?"

"A lot of the Oracle line escaped. They don't fetch a high price because at their age they mostly don't see far into the future. They mainly work with weapons as bodyguards and enforcers. The Prodigy and tweaked Godchild lines didn't have many survivors. Eszett knew that their high intelligence and telekinetic power would make them risky, so these talents tend to have failsafe chips implanted in them so they can be executed if they get uppity. Aya actually killed a member of the Godchild line during our final battle with Eszett. There aren't many Berserkers because Rosenkreuz scientists couldn't figure out how to make them impervious to pain no matter how thoroughly they tortured the members of the line and apparently never realized they were telepaths. Some of all of these are also enslaved. This doesn't count all the engineered talents."

"The mashups? Good luck finding all of those."

"That also doesn't count all the children carried naturally to term as a control to see if forced-growth talents had weaknesses that children carried and raised at a normal rate by actual human beings as opposed to scientists in a lab setting didn't have. Nagi has found lists of some of the women's names."

Eszett had generated that many bodies just from the four members of Schwarz, and the members of Schwarz were far from the only talents Eszett had brought in from outside. Eszett had taken material from everyone they had. How many kids had been created as weapons and cannon fodder in total?

"What are we going to do, Brad?" Schuldig asked again, feeling sick and trapped. He shouldn't care at all. These talents should matter as much as castoff toenail clippings. He'd have to set himself straight.

Was this a side effect of doing Yoji? It sucked.

"We'll see when the time comes."

No advance plan. How utterly unlike Brad. He had to be unsettled too.

That didn't comfort Schuldig at all.

"They're a part of us," Brad said, sounding stronger. "They should be ours to dispose of."

But Brad still wasn't hitting the right note.

They'd see when they got into the thick of it in Europe? Yeah, they would, one way or another.

But then Brad said, "I let a lot of these people go to create greater competition, not so they could stupidly let themselves get enslaved by local thugs. It doesn't do Schwarz any good if thugs already _own_ talent and don't need to rent more." Better.

"_¿Dónde está el dinero?_" Schuldig asked to deliberately remind him of the Barcelona job and make him smile.

Brad did smile a little. "I imagine we can convince rival organizations that our targets are a threat they should pay us to eliminate. Where that doesn't pan out, we should probably take these enslaved talents away anyway just to level our playing field. We may have decided to keep our home base in Japan, but I want to be able to work in Europe as well."

Good. Schuldig believed it best to have your justifications ready _before_ you hit the scene.


	164. "When did I take on your family name, Brad?"

"Slower," Nagi said.

"If I do this any slower I'm going to break something in my brain," Yoji growled through clenched teeth, sweating.

"I'm bravely refraining from comment."

"I've been nice to you and this is the thanks I get...."

Nagi had Yoji doing exercises with his strangler's wire today. Yoji had been fine casting it out and wrapping it around the practice dummy's neck at high speeds, then tightening it, but slowly unwrapping it with telekinesis gave him trouble. With the speed and delusions stripped away, it involved much greater control and awareness.

"How the hell could we have thought I was doing my wire tricks naturally?" Yoji asked.

"Again, bravely refraining from comments about idiocy."

"You're a snarky little bitch, ain't ya?"

"Proud of it too. For you, doing it telekinetically _is_ natural."

"You know what I mean."

"In your and Weiß's defense, you didn't know these powers existed outside of fiction until you fought Schwarz a few times. It wouldn't have occurred to you. You whipped it around at such speeds that people could blame momentum for some of your effects and so could you."

"That looks hard, Yoji. I don't know if I could do it that slowly without losing it," Fenris said from his seat on the stairs.

Nagi never let himself forget that the boy watched and listened. "You could try something like it."

"I have been. It makes my head hurt so I stop."

"It doesn't hurt me," Yoji said, "but it does feel wrong. It's like when I broke my thumb when I was 11 and tried to write with my other hand. It felt like things in my brain were trying to jump out of a trench to do it."

"That's the point, Yoji. If you only do something one way it turns into an ingrained habit and you stop thinking about how you do it or what else you might be able to do with it. It's human nature," Nagi replied.

"I'm going to be in your class tomorrow," Fenris said.

"Can Ken come to class with us?" Yoji asked.

"Did I miss him turning telekinetic?" Nagi answered.

"No, but we're a team of four and three of us are going. I think it would be good for his morale to be part of things and better for us as a team if he has some idea of how our abilities work."

That actually sounded like a good idea. "I thought you gave up on being Weiß's leader."

"Yeah, but I'm the team's uncle for life. Is that a yes?"

"Yeah, sure. He can come. I'm expecting some people to blow it off anyway." But all of Weiß would be there as familiar faces. He couldn't decide whether that would be a good thing or torture.

"You'll take attendance?"

"Of course I will. Omi would want to know." Shit. And Nagi had been doing so well not thinking about him. It hurt.

"He told me that he realized he was too demanding of your time."

"He brought you in afterward? I'm glad. He needed somebody."

"Did you have somebody?"

"Aya was very kind."

Yoji smiled in a way that suggested he was imagining the kind of help he'd want to get from Aya. "Go, kid."

"You're a pervert." And not far off the mark on what Nagi would have liked to get. "I didn't want to break up with Omi but didn't see any other alternatives. Nothing I was doing inside the relationship helped."

"You're so damned young. Was he your first thing?"

"My first 'thing'? I'm scared to ask."

"Relationship. Boyfriend or girlfriend."

"That's none of your business."

"That's a yes."

"Tot was my first." Though it had mainly consisted of meeting and having brief conversations in fields and a single kiss, Nagi's first. It counted, dammit.

And Yoji had seen their first kiss? Nagi saw him remembering it in his head. Was _nothing_ sacred?

Yoji asked, "Your first...?"

"Relationship. Mind out of the gutter."

"Good. I can't imagine anyone having sex with her, and I'm glad I can't." Now Yoji wondered if that had been their first kiss he'd peeped on.

Sometimes Nagi really wished he couldn't hear thoughts. And should he feel insulted that anybody who wondered whether he'd had sex with Tot found the idea somewhat disgusting? "Given your history, you're one to talk."

"Nah, I'm sure you were a perfect gentleman. That kiss I saw between the two of you looked sweet." And really clumsy, Yoji thought. But in a sweet way.

Having heard that. Nagi turned down his telepathy somewhat, figuring that Yoji wouldn't stop thinking but he could at least stop hearing. "That was probably a private moment you peeped in on."

"It's not like I invited all of Weiß over to watch, so it's not so bad. You really haven't had much experience, have you?"

"Compared to you? Definitely not."

"I want to take you out to a club, kid."

"No thanks."

"Not as my date!"

"Still no thanks. I'd far rather stay home and do useful things."

"It can be useful. You're missing out. Unfortunately, Omi would probably kill me if I did take you."

"It wouldn't look good for me either to break up with him last night and then go out clubbing the next."

"True. Damn. And Omi _would_ find out. He has ears everywhere lately." Finally having the wire unspooled from around the dummy's neck, Yoji let it zip back into his watch.

"But thanks for thinking of me." Nagi didn't like to think about it, but Yoji could be kind.

"I'm giving that way. Hey, I want to show you something I've been working on. Fenris, are you open to being part of the act?"

"Sure! What do I do?"

"Stand right here," Yoji answered as he pointed.

Grinning, Fenris did as he was told. Yoji zipped his wire out and ran it around Fenris like a cage of curves and sharp angles, like moving sculpture, without touching him. Nagi had seen Yoji do impossible things with it before, but this time it looked more obviously impossible and rehearsed, every movement of the line thought out. This and Schuldig's borrowed sketching ability reminded Nagi that Yoji was an artist at heart and made him wonder if he could incorporate that into the lessons. Not that he would have much time with it now, not when tomorrow would be their last full day in Japan.

Now that he'd broken up with Omi, Nagi felt a grudging anticipation about leaving for Europe. He might be Japanese by birth, but he was a citizen of the world at heart.

Then Yoji unwound the wire without it touching Fenris at all, another show of control. "Very nice," Nagi said and meant it as Fenris clapped.

"I did something like this to Aya the first night we met but with less buffer distance and self-control. He had a mission coat on so I didn't have to worry anyway. Though it's not like I knew him then."

Nagi had a sudden mental image of Aya bound and captured, wire gleaming against the darkness of his clothing, defiant but powerless, and it made him very glad that he'd chosen to keep his long coat on and that Yoji wasn't a telepath. Though Fenris gave him a suspicious but not entirely comprehending look. Nagi didn't know if Yoji's actual memory of it would be more erotic or less and refused to read him to find out.

"Ladies man that I was, I disturbed myself by how hot looking I thought that scene was," Yoji said softly.

"Uh, yeah."

Yoji grinned. "He screws with all of our heads. Always has."

"I think you've done enough today. You look tired."

"Nice retreat."

"Thank you. Class dismissed."

"See you tomorrow!" Fenris said, sounding enthusiastic.

Nagi wished he could be as enthusiastic. Teaching Yoji alone wearied him. Taking on a whole class of not entirely willing students would be a chore.

******************************************************

Annoyed at himself, Schuldig dressed to go out. He'd been letting himself get far too domesticated lately. Staying in with Brad should _not_ become the pattern of his nights. He would get flabby and lazy and Brad would start taking him for granted. Age was a state of mind, and he was letting himself get old lately.

Never mind that he was getting to the point where he _preferred_ to stay home.

When he walked out into the hallway, Farf asked, "Going out slutting?"

"You know it, babe. How did the checkup go?"

"The doctor said that he didn't know what I'd started doing but I should keep doing it."

"Score."

Farf looked thoughtful. "I want to take my kitten out clubbing. I got to liking it in New York."

Interesting. "Yeah, but he's not big on it. Besides, you're too jealous. Bringing him out to show him off and then trying to kick everybody's asses for looking at him is stupid. Aya would agree."

"He has been chafing under my possessiveness lately."

"Either cool it or find a way to make it more appetizing to him." Schuldig: fount of wisdom.

"Hmm."

"I'm going out, Brad," Schuldig said as he saw Brad working at his computer table.

Brad looked far too smug. "I foresaw it."

Sigh. "You wanna go out too?" Brad rarely did, but Schuldig asked now and then anyway.

"No. Enjoy yourself."

Too bad. Schuldig wished they'd go out together more often. It could be fun.

Schuldig felt a sudden spike of emotion from Nagi, who rushed out of his bedroom saying, "Crawford, I can't believe what your mother did!"

"This should be good, especially when the phrase 'your mother' comes into it," Schuldig murmured to Brad as Nagi approached.

"You can't see it yourself from his mind yet?" Brad asked.

"His mind is a wall of fire. I'm not going in there. You didn't foresee it?"

"No."

"This should be fun."

******************************************************

"She e-mailed me to say that showed the pictures I sent her to some guy who's connected to a gallery and he's interested," Nagi said.

It didn't sound bad to Crawford yet. Sometimes Nagi became overexcited about things. "That's good news."

"I didn't give her any permission."

"You live and work with Schwarz and used to be owned by Eszett, yet you're acting like someone never did that before."

"She also showed him that picture Aya took of me and now the guy wants to do some kind of brief profile on and interview with me. I don't want to talk to him."

"Wait a minute. He didn't want to do this until after he saw what you looked like? Are you sure that's how it happened?" He didn't like the sound of that.

"That's what your mother said, and her language tends to be precise."

"So he thinks you're hot," Schuldig said. "So do I."

"I can't have them do a profile on me and my adoptive parents who do industrial sabotage and murder for pay."

"Would it sound nicer if we just did it as a hobby?"

"You know what I mean!"

"Nagi's right," Crawford said. Mom had overstepped her bounds. "This has to be ended now. I'll talk to her."

"Thank you. And she told the guy my name was 'Nagi Crawford.'"

"When did I take on your family name, Brad?" Schuldig asked, sounding very offhanded.

"It's not as if you use your own," Crawford answered.

"True, but it's the principle of the thing. Does your mom realize she's supporting the patriarchy?"

"I think it's more the idea that she feels that her grandson should have a name she considers her own."

"She just gave Crawford's family name to me and didn't mention you, Schuldig," Nagi said. "She probably thinks you like to keep one name like Cher or Madonna does. You know, like campy figures like that do."

"Men do it too sometimes."

"Pretentious ones do. And some campy ones."

"If anyone takes any shots at U2, blood will be spilled," Farfarello said suddenly from the doorway. Aya trailed into the room after him.

"Oh yeah, there are two people who did that in there."

"'The Edge' is two names, thank you."

"Shouldn't you hate them for their humanitarian work?" Schuldig asked.

"Bono is consolidating world power and working to rival God. Thus I am content."

"Would a god who's a bloated Irishman be better? Though I do like his taste in shades."

Even for Schwarz this was a strange conversation. In an effort to halt it Crawford said, "Nagi, I'll speak to my mother about it." Annoyed by the look on Aya's face, Crawford said, "Aya, you are _not_ the only sane person in the room. You're not even _one_ of the sane people."

"I have to disagree," Aya replied.

"Thank you, Crawford," Nagi said.

"Maybe he'll decide the photos suck after all and won't be interested, making this a moot point," Schuldig said with a grin.

"Why haven't I killed you yet?"

"Hey, Nagi, wanna go out clubbing with me?"

The boy opened his mouth, then closed it and left the room. Schuldig said, "I win." Following Nagi out, Schuldig asked, "Are you sure you don't want to? Take advantage of me. You could always say I dragged you...."

"You two leave as well," Crawford said.

"No reason to stay now that the excitement has left," Farfarello answered as he walked out. Aya just shook his head at Crawford before he departed.

With the circus gone, Crawford called his mother. It should be morning in New York. "Hi, Mom," he said after her Hello.

"Brad, thank you for calling. I was starting to worry that you'd forgotten about me."

"Your e-mail made that more difficult. Nagi is upset."

"He shouldn't be. He should be flattered. David loved his work."

"Mother, you know that we have to keep a low profile."

"I was proud of him. He has a good eye. Does his job mean he can't have that talent appreciated by the art world?"

"Actually, yes."

"I figured you'd taught him to be an accomplished liar by now."

"He is. But we also prefer not to get into situations we don't need to get into. It also sounds like your friend David was more interested in Nagi's work after seeing that picture of him. I hate the sound of that."

"Did it come across that way in the e-mail?"

"It did to Nagi."

"I didn't get that impression at the time, but now that you say it... it might be possible and I'm no more enthused about it than you are."

"Nagi doesn't want to do gallery shows. I don't want him to either."

"We may be getting ahead of ourselves. Interest is no guarantee."

"Yes, but you think Nagi's good enough."

"Is it so wrong to be a proud grandmother?"

"When you get us involved in things that may blow our identities it is."

"Nagi hated the idea?"

"Completely. He doesn't like to put himself on display."

"I'll see what I can do. Can I talk to him?"

Crawford glanced out into the hall. "He's in his room, probably with the door locked." Yelling at Schuldig and calling him a pervert for the moment. His family had its rituals.

Schuldig was going out. On the one hand, it was a very Schuldig thing to do and thus healthy. On the other, Crawford had liked having him around at night.

"Brad?"

"I don't think he'll talk to you. He's probably too angry at the moment for it to be a good idea anyway, not that I think he'll change his mind given time to cool down. He didn't expect you to do this, and I don't think he would have sent them to you if he thought you'd show them to other people. Mom, even I didn't know about his photography until recently. You'll withdraw his work, and there won't be an interview."

"All right, Brad. I hope you and Nagi know that I meant nothing but the best with this."

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

"Don't take that tone with me, young man."

His life had been so much more peaceful before he'd gotten family. "Mother."

"Fine. But I think it's a shame."

"It's for the best. Especially if the man's interest was partially engaged by Nagi's looks. He truly doesn't need that kind of attention."

"All right. Have a good day, Brad."

It was night here, but he wouldn't quibble. "Good night, Mom."

"Now I'm 'Mom' again."

"I have my patterns and prefer to be understood with the least effort involved on my part."

"I love you. Make sure Nagi knows that I love him as well."

The boy would surely be thrilled. "I will. Goodbye."

"Nagi won't come out and play," Schuldig said, pouting and smirking.

"He's asking for hugs lately. Expecting him to go out clubbing with you as well is a bit much to ask for."

Schuldig wore all black with accents of silver: black leather pants and boots, a clingy, black long-sleeved shirt, and silver chains at his neck and wrists. Not all that sluttish, to Crawford's relief, but why did he even care? Schuldig was Schuldig. It would be ridiculous to expect monogamy, and Crawford rather enjoyed the tastes of other lovers. In the end his telepath always returned to him for what only he could provide. Whatever that was. He was being ridiculous, so he carefully hid his thoughts. Thankfully, the interference his precognition provided rendered his thoughts elusive enough in general that Schuldig wouldn't be suspicious if he couldn't read everything going through Crawford's head.

"You sure you don't want to go out?" Schuldig asked, sounding almost wistful.

"I'm sure."

"All right. Enjoy whatever boring home thing you're going to do while I'm out partying."


	165. "You can get *more* depressed? Should be impossible."

Farfarello must have gotten his hair trimmed before or after his solo doctor's visit because it looked short and neater and the hair at the nape of his neck had been shaved. Walking behind him, Aya wanted to touch that fuzz and run his teeth along the back of Farfarello's neck.

He hadn't always been such a pervert.

"Puisín," Farfarello suddenly said, turning to face him, fortunately removing some temptation, and looking a bit nervous. He must want something. Aya wanted something....

Really. He _would_ be dignified. "Yes?" Aya answered as he closed their bedroom door.

"I want to go out dancing with you."

"Didn't we do enough of that in New York? And look what happened." Aya never thought he'd have to worry about his hatred of going out clubbing while with Farfarello. If he'd been involved with Yoji, yes, but not Farfarello. It seemed that life really did have a sick sense of humor. Aya should know that by now.

"You enjoyed some of it."

"I feel exposed. I'm also not a good dancer."

"I like your dancing. It makes me want you even more."

"I don't approve of public making out." Bad enough to want Farfarello so much in private. "I... would prefer to stay in tonight," Aya answered with an expression that he hoped suggested how he wanted to spend that night in. It wasn't bribery or whoring himself, not when he actually wanted this.

Farfarello raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Mmmm." He just about glowed with vitality lately.

Aya felt far too loose here. "I like your hair," he said in an attempt at distraction. Idiot. There were reasons why he didn't talk.

"I was out alone, which is always a party occasion, and you came back looking so sleek and pretty that I had to do something to better deserve you. I want to show you off."

Which brought them back to going out to a club. Was it really a battle worth fighting? "You're very jealous."

"I'll control myself. It would be stupid to take you out only to murder anyone who looks at you."

"I'm glad you recognize that." Farfarello beamed with enthusiasm.... Aya supposed that he could try. Tokyo wasn't New York City. "I'll go and see what I think."

Farfarello grinned and grabbed him. "You're such a good kitten. I have to ask the mindbreaker which club we should try."

"Or you could just let me in and I'd tell you," Schuldig yelled from the hallway.

"Stay out of our business!" Farfarello yelled back.

"Are you kidding? From the lust I'm feeling from Aya and his agreement to go to a club, I feel like I should immortalize this day in photographs. Hey, the door is locked."

"Wonder why."

"You don't deserve me."

"We say that all the time," Aya replied.

"Watch me be better than you. I'm sliding a list of places under the door. Admire my nobility."

"Yeah, yeah," Farfarello said.

"Do you need a ride? I want to help Aya in his steps toward being less fucking boring when he's not killing stuff or having sex."

"We're going out later." Farfarello's eyes slid over Aya's body like a hot caress.

"Enjoy yourself, kiddies. I'm out of here."

"We will. What do you want, puisín?"

Aya felt riled, restless. "Turn around."

Once Farfarello did so, Aya rubbed his cheek against the close-shaved hair at the back of his neck and felt Farfarello tethering himself better into his body. Farfarello felt physically different to Aya depending on how dissociated his soul was. Aya put his arm around Farfarello's waist to pull him in close enough that only cloth and leather separated their bodies and slid his hand down to cup Farfarello through his pants.

Sometimes Aya still couldn't believe that he wanted and did these things. Yet he _did_, and it seemed to be a fever that never entirely left him.

"I can feel you. Yeah." Farfarello's voice sounded so much deeper right now, exciting. "Want you always. Bend me over a table and fuck me, kitten. I love it when you start things."

"I... do too."

******************************************************

Schuldig drank a bit, danced a lot, and flirted with anyone who crossed his path but still hadn't found what he was looking for, whatever that was. He'd know it when he found it. If this place didn't stop boring him soon, he'd move on.

As he went to pick up his coat he caught a taste of something sweeter in the general ambiance. Longing.... As he sniffed it out and concentrated on it, he saw himself, beautiful and exotic, through another's eyes. A shy working stiff who'd been dragged here by coworkers had a major crush on Schuldig and nowhere near the gumption to approach him.

Schuldig wouldn't mind being worshiped and adored, and this guy was open enough that Schuldig would be able to telepathically nudge him into anything. Game was afoot.

Schuldig approached him, smirking over Toyo's flitting thoughts. Was the foreigner coming over to him? No, couldn't be, not for _him_. He was getting closer! You shouldn't want that. Stop being such an idiot. There's no reason why anyone would notice you. He's so tall! Toyo almost had a stroke when Schuldig sat next to him and rubbed his leg with his knee.

"It's so loud in here," Schuldig said to him. If he'd wanted to be kind, he would have suggested right out that they go somewhere quieter, but he felt like letting Toyo dangle a bit. It was funny. He put a bit of an accent on to serve that whole exotic appearance thing.

"You're talking to me?" Toyo asked, shocked into rudeness.

"Yes."

"Uhm." What could he say? He had no idea! What were the odds that he would be approached by anyone? He would chase him away! How stupid. Say something! "Oh." Say something else!

Heh. "Do you want to go somewhere else with me?"

He did not just ask that. He couldn't have just asked that. You have officially lost your mind. "Yes!" He was very proud of himself for getting that out. "But where?"

"Your place?" Which caused the second stroke of the evening.

Is he suggesting we have sex? He wants it with me? Is he a whore after all? Would I _care_ if he asked for money before or afterward as long as I had him? I don't even know what to do with him! "Why me?" Toyo managed to ask.

"You have pretty eyes." Toyo did. No lie. He was good-looking, though not spectacular. "I like the way they look at me. It's like you're admiring and petting me."

Oh. God. Toyo had never been so hard in his life. It was embarrassing!

It made Schuldig want to lick him.

Toyo knew that this kind of opportunity might not come again. He had to act now! "I have to tell my friends I'm leaving. I'll only take a minute. Stay here, okay?" Then he rushed off like a lunatic. People could be so funny.

Schuldig watched and "heard" Toyo tell one of his coworkers that he would be leaving but not why. Made sense, since Toyo didn't want his taste in sexual partners known across the office. Schuldig resisted the urge to draw attention to himself because ruining Toyo's life wouldn't get him the kind of sex he wanted tonight.

Being a brat, Schuldig waited a little over a minute, then started to leave. Sure enough, Toyo sped up behind him and asked, "Where are you going? I asked you to stay."

"You said a minute."

Toyo decided that Schuldig was a dumb foreigner instead of an asshole. Schuldig loved people, really.

Toyo's small car took them to Toyo's small apartment. Small life. As they walked in Toyo worried about its small size and its clutter. He wondered if his catch intended to rob him, then told himself that he had nothing worth taking. Mundanes worried about the stupidest fucking things.

Besides, Schuldig didn't feel like being a thief or whore tonight.

Here, at the start of things, Toyo stalled, anxious and indecisive, so Schuldig decided to make it easier. Knowing that most guys didn't like to have to look up at their partners he sat down, spread his legs open a bit in invitation, and motioned Toyo over. The guy moved awkwardly like a puppet on strings, his expression aglow with fascination as he still couldn't believe he had this in his apartment. He stopped between Schuldig's knees and looked down as Schuldig looked up at him, presenting the idea that Toyo had the power and stature here, and murmured, "Come down here."

At Schuldig's subtle telepathic prodding, Toyo crouched down and kissed him, clumsily at first but with increasing skill as Schuldig made suggestions. His hands were likewise hesitant and awkward at first but gained greater ability as Schuldig directed them and reacted in obvious pleasure to what they did. He did exactly what Schuldig wanted when Schuldig wanted it, so Schuldig hardly had to fake anything. Toyo's self-confidence grew, and he resolved to listen to his instincts since they seemed to be serving him so well here. He was so hard....

Unknowing slaves could be very sweet.

They started to move faster, with growing passion, stripping each other. Toyo was slim yet soft everywhere but where it really counted. Schuldig's most regular partners were so sculpted that he liked some softness in his outside tricks for variety. He'd fatten Yoji up some if he could; guy was still too skinny, too bony. Sometimes Schuldig thought he'd get bruises from doing him just from all the bones.

"Let's take this to the bed. I want you to fuck me," Schuldig said, then grinned as Toyo almost came just from the words. He definitely hadn't lost his touch.

******************************************************

The last time they'd danced in public Farfarello had been mostly dissociated, which prevented him from making the most of the experience. Not now. Now he felt his puisín in all dimensions, realer than he'd ever known until recently. Now he felt _depth_. His fingers glided over textured leather and soft cloth on the hard planes and curves of Aya's body. He pushed up the back of Aya's shirt to feel the subtle grain of his kitten's hot skin, so addictive.

His puisín felt looser and more uninhibited than usual as he danced with him. He certainly moved his hips more. Maybe they should always have sex before they went out. Farfarello had gotten a little alcohol into Aya as well.

"I want to get you drunk," Farfarello said.

"No, you don't. I'm a maudlin drunk. No fun at all. Or so I'm told."

Even as Farfarello felt jealous that someone else had seen that when he couldn't, he asked, "You can get _more_ depressed? Should be impossible."

"I'm... not depressed right now." Indeed not. He had a glad little light in his eyes, probably not from the dancing, which he seemed to tolerate.

That meant that Farfarello lit him up even under such conditions, which could only be a happy-making thing. People stared--how could they not, especially when Aya wore the shirt with all the straps on it?--but right now Farfarello didn't care, not when his kitten was so obviously with _him_. Let other people press their noses up against the glass. Let them covet, especially since it was a sin. This pet was his alone.

******************************************************

As they got into it Schuldig didn't have to direct as much, which made him happy. He liked to lie back and enjoy, thank you. Once he got Toyo at the angle and speed he wanted, he went on autopilot and wallowed in the sensations they both had. Even aside from the pleasure of fucking, Toyo was amazed that this was happening to him, that he'd somehow been chosen by such a rare, pretty treat, so hot, so tight, so uninhibited as he clutched at Toyo and moaned his satisfaction. It shouldn't have been possible. More than pleasure, Toyo burned with an enjoyable sense of mastery that _he_ could bring such an exotic creature to this wanton, needy state. Fortunately Schuldig had so buried himself under Toyo's experiences that he didn't laugh his ass off. Floating in Toyo's head, he fucked himself, and he had to say that he was a fine piece of ass.

When Toyo came so hard that he briefly blacked out, Schuldig came with him. Good sex. Schuldig wanted to purr. Later, semi-conscious, Toyo wanted to snuggle, and Schuldig had no problem with that.

As he dozed off he wondered if Toyo would become too conceited for people to deal with after tonight, and the thought made him smirk.

******************************************************

"That wasn't so bad," Farfarello said as he lounged in the passenger seat. "Admit it, puisín."

"I don't have to admit anything I don't want to," Aya answered as he drove them home.

"You're smiling one of your smiles."

"I could be grimacing. You don't know."

"I do." Farfarello was being cute.

It still broke Aya's mind sometimes. "It wasn't so bad." The dancing made him feel somewhat silly, but it hadn't been that bad. And Farfarello had been very well behaved. He hadn't shown the bizarre and overwhelming jealousy and possessiveness that had left Aya feeling so hemmed in at times lately.

"I knew it."

"We're not doing it all the time."

"Of course not. We have work and fucking to do some nights. You also need your quiet times."

"Yes."

"Life is good. God must be resentful." Farfarello rested his head against Aya's shoulder.

Aya couldn't argue with the first statement and didn't feel that tackling the second one would be worth the effort.

******************************************************

The feel of a familiar presence in the area broke Schuldig out of his doze. Excellent. It would be so convenient to have Yoji drive him home instead of going to the effort of calling and waiting for a cab.

After placing a subtle telepathic call to Yoji to come hither, Schuldig untangled himself from Toyo's arm, cleaned himself up a bit, dressed, and left, Toyo being too out cold from exhaustion to notice. If the salaryman thought to doubt Schuldig's existence in the morning, the hickeys should be proof enough that he'd gotten some outside of his fevered dreams.

Schuldig waved cheerfully as Yoji's car approached. Stopping, Yoji put the window down and asked, "How do you just happen to be here as I'm driving by? Telepathy, right?"

"That and luck. Hey, stranger, give me a ride?"

"Which kind?"

Yoji could be fun to play with. "First one, then the other. Take me home, kitty."

Yoji hadn't gotten anything other than frustration and a scary moment of personal sociopathy tonight, so he was willing. "Get in."

Schuldig truly lived a good life. If Brad could take the steel rod out of his ass for a while, Brad would also be a beneficiary because Schuldig was just that generous.


	166. "You're smirking in stereo. That's frightening."

_"Legs open, eyes crossed, pressing on the nerve,  
We all like that, we all like that...."_  
  -- "Nerve" by Shriekback  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sitting in the passenger seat, Schuldig seemed mellow and very pleased after having obviously come fresh from somebody's bed. Yoji knew what else--and who else--would come with taking the telepath home but didn't mind the thought at all after the shitty time he'd had tonight. The one girl who'd attracted him had flirted along until, oops, her Yakuza boyfriend found her. What a mistake! Yoji knew full well then the boyfriend had come with her and she just had a kink for drama and her big boyfriend threatening the hell out of some guy for her. Attention whore. One good thing about being an assassin was that garden-variety thugs didn't impress you as much. The whole stupid scene left Yoji feeling so annoyed and so bored... and made him remember that he could snap this asshole's thick neck with a thought. It must have shown on his face somehow because the girl had stepped back a little and the guy's body language had turned warier.

Feeling kind of sick at himself, Yoji had wished the meathead great joy of her and walked away. Now he asked Schuldig, "Doesn't it ruin things a bit when you know you can kill a guy with a thought?"

Schuldig cast him an "are you brain-damaged?" look. "That's one of the _perks_. If you weren't so attached to some ridiculous sense of morality you'd see that. Stop being such a 'glass half empty' guy. Look, I'll teach you my philosophy and you'll be a happier man."

"This I have to hear."

"People are self-centered assholes. I'm not being superior here because I know I'm a self-centered asshole too. There are very few people in the world who will do nice things for you, so you have to do things yourself to make you happy. To quote a TV show: Want, take, have."

"And that excuses everything you do? Makes everything okay?"

"Yep."

A life of entitlement and no regrets. Yoji tried to imagine being able to live like that and couldn't.

"Your failure of imagination saddens me, kitty."

"My imagination is just fine. I simply prefer to hold on to some values. I wouldn't be me without them."

"'Me' being all too often an angsty anorexic."

Come to think of it.... "You eat like a pig. I've seen it. How do you stay so thin?"

"Oink. I'm blessed with the metabolism of a supermodel."

"And the exercise program of a porn star."

"I hate you too. We're almost home."

"Crawford wasn't that keen on me being around."

"Don't worry. I'm going to sweeten the pot for him."

"I'm not going to say any of things that just came to mind."

"Oooh, they're all dirty and pretty."

With a telepath around, he didn't need to say any of them. "Why are you guys going to Europe anyway?"

Schuldig stilled. "Omi wants to know? Well, yeah he does, but _you_ want to know...."

"I'm curious."

"You'll just tell Omi. Or he'll ask and guilt you into spilling anything I told you. So no. You should thank me for refusing to put you in an uncomfortable position."

"Yeah, you prefer different positions." Yoji hadn't really expected any confessions.

"I love your dirty mind."

As Yoji parked, he figured that convincing Crawford to give in to them might be fun. Making someone like that surrender out of sheer need for you, even if he wouldn't entirely admit it to himself, certainly had its appeal.

Schuldig put his arm around Yoji's shoulders. He even smelled like sex right now. "That's the spirit! Partners in crime." That was some good mood he had going.

"Who did you do?"

"Some little salaryman who worshiped me. I think I was the most exciting thing that ever happened to him. He'll never forget me. I love leaving a mark on people's lives."

As they walked into the apartment, one of the bedroom doors opened. "I just brought Yoji in," Schuldig said softly.

Farfarello nodded and closed the door again without a word. Freaky.

"We're lucky. Sometimes he wants to banter, and that can take a while," Schuldig said.

"I heard that," Farfarello said from a distance behind them.

"Banter has its place. As in, not now." Schuldig let Yoji into his bedroom and closed the door on the conversation.

"Indeed not," Crawford said within the darkness.

Schuldig turned on the light, revealing Crawford standing near the bed with pajamas and his glasses on. Light reflected off the lenses, which made Yoji and Schuldig smirk. What a drama queen, wearing his glasses in the dark as he waited for them to come home just so he could make a scene.

"You're smirking in stereo," Crawford said. "That's frightening." He should have looked vulnerable and a bit silly in pajamas, but he didn't. They were... classy pajamas. Or something.

That impression of strength might possibly be all in Crawford's steel spine and aura of confidence.

"I love to keep you sharp," Schuldig answered. "Fear keeps a relationship fresh."

"You're lunatics," Yoji had to say, though their talk was cute in its own insane way, which made him worry about his own sanity. Again.

"Couldn't stay away from Balinese?" Crawford asked.

"I'm in the _room_, thank you."

Schuldig leaned his head on Yoji's shoulder. "We'll be gone for a while soon. I wanted to make sure we got some quality time in with Yoji before that. Besides, there was something we didn't get to last time. Yoji didn't get to spank me while you watched."

That had Yoji's full attention. Crawford drew in a breath of what Yoji could tell was surprise and interest and asked, "Is this a bribe, Schuldig?"

"A bribe I would enjoy, which makes it a gift instead."

If anybody deserved to be spanked, it was Schuldig. Schuldig smacked Yoji's ass, making him jump, and said, "That wasn't nice."

Crawford looked amused and somewhat turned on. "Was Balinese thinking you deserved a spanking?" From how he looked at _them_, not just Schuldig, he seemed to find them both arousing, which made Yoji harden. Yoji seemed to be discovering a kink for making authoritative types who sneered at him break down and want him.

"What do you think?"

"I actually agree with him."

"It's a reasonable thing to agree on," Yoji answered.

Schuldig pouted and smirked simultaneously. "You both suck, you know. Maybe I shouldn't let you do this."

"You want it."

"I dunno...."

"This is your big peace offering to Crawford."

"I could do others."

"I want to see it," Crawford said.

"You can't always get what you want."

"Did you bring the possibility of spanking up just to taunt us, or is your attention span really this short?" Yoji asked. While he might like to play a bit, this was dragging on too long. He had to take action.

To get the party started he shifted Schuldig's arm off his shoulder and took off his coat. Then he turned and bent over to remove his shoes, letting Schuldig and Crawford get as nice a view as they might want.

"My attention span is perking up. How about yours, Brad?"

"Mine has been fine from the start."

"All right, Yoji." Schuldig took off his coat and threw it onto the chair atop Yoji's. For a moment Yoji had the insane thought that even their coats were getting it on, twining together. Late night he was having here, and his brain was shot. As witness current events.

When Schuldig took off his pants, revealing that he hadn't worn any underwear either, Yoji had to admit that the telepath had a nice ass. Nice other parts too. Grinning, Schuldig slapped it, and Yoji immediately went harder. From the small sound Crawford made, he had too.

"Where do you want me?" Schuldig asked as he pulled his shirt off over his head. He kept his necklaces on. Yoji, stop staring at his neck.

Yoji sat on the edge of the bed. "Over my lap. C'mere." But it wasn't as easy as that. As Schuldig tried to arrange himself across Yoji's legs, Yoji said, "You're too fucking _long_. Especially your legs." Limbs everywhere. This had to look ridiculous.

Crawford had his hand over his mouth, but his eyes crinkled a little behind his glasses. At some point he'd taken off his pajama top, revealing a very nicely toned chest. Good arms too. Yoji kept forgetting since Crawford's suits camouflaged him.

"I don't think anyone ever told me I was too long. It's something I've never said to anyone else either."

"Well, tonight's the first time I get to spank you, so it's a night full of firsts."

"Looks like we're not getting anything like spanking done here."

Giving up on his current technique, Yoji said, "Stand up, go to the chest of drawers, face them, put your hands down on them, and extend your ass."

"Since when do you command me?"

"Since you want to get spanked and laid eventually. Spanking will commence somehow. I swear it."

Schuldig actually did as commanded, then cast a look over his shoulder, offering himself. Approaching, Yoji's mouth went dry at the view. Was he still slick inside? Yoji wondered--

Crawford walked over with a prepared butt plug and slid it in as Schuldig groaned, then gave it a little twist at the end that made Schuldig shudder. At Yoji's look, Crawford answered, "I'm precognitive, remember?"

"That's even more useful than I thought."

As Yoji set his palm over Schuldig's ass close enough to feel its warmth but not to touch the skin, he decided that he liked the setup here. He was still dressed, giving him a psychological power advantage, Crawford was half-naked, and Schuldig wore only his jewelry. It was hot, especially with Crawford watching it all. Yoji did an open-handed slap, putting a snap in his wrist motion to make it sting more, but Schuldig didn't jump.

Schuldig was a telepath who'd probably seen it coming. "My great-grandmother could hit better, and she's dead," he said.

"I'm warming up. I don't want it to be too much for you too early."

"Oh, please."

Yoji slapped the same area twice in fast succession, liking the sharp, staccato sounds it made, but Schuldig said, "Boring me."

"Do you need me to get a flogger?" Crawford asked dryly. "I'm sure I can find a place open right now. It's Tokyo."

"That's too hardcore. I don't want anything that will rip me. I like my skin."

"So do I," Yoji answered. Damn it, he would get the reaction he wanted.

It took a while, and his palm really started to sting, but eventually he had Schuldig gasping, making small sounds, and sometimes squirming. Crawford watched the whole time, his attitude seeming to be more one of enjoyment and lust than judgment. Hard to tell with him sometimes.

"Does it burn? It looks hot," Yoji murmured as he looked at the reddened skin. When he ran one finger down the most livid mark, Schuldig huffed and humped the air harder.

"Ah, knew you had it in you, kitty."

The green butt plug looked even more obvious in the midst of all that reddened skin, and Yoji wanted to toy with it. Hell, Yoji wanted to pull it out and fuck Schuldig right now because he didn't know how much longer he could last. He would grab him by the hips and thrust in hard, feeling all that heat around and against him....

"...good. Everybody's thinking," Schuldig panted. "Nice images, Brad. You and Yoji are competing. Better do something soon."

"You don't have my permission to come," Crawford said suddenly, his voice so cold it burned. Yoji couldn't help smiling because he could tell how riled up Crawford was despite the evenness in his tone. The opened pajama bottoms with Crawford's hard, slick cock jutting out gave it away. Yoji had brought them to this. He couldn't help but feel smug.

"I'm not going to have much choice soon."

"Clamp yourself."

"Hell if I will. Oh, Brad, you're getting dirtier than Yoji now. That just encourages me to be worse."

Yoji was missing something here, even aside from whatever Schuldig was receiving telepathically, he knew it. Something vibrated in the air.... Then he saw the intensity in the way Crawford watched Schuldig with something that didn't look quite like love or hate, but it linked them and it was _something_. Something almost violent and so strong that Yoji moved away from Schuldig to give them room for whatever would come next, because he got the feeling he wouldn't want to be between them when it really started.

Besides, it was weirdly hot to watch.

******************************************************

It still annoyed him that Schuldig would let Balinese spank him but not let him, yet it turned out that Schuldig had been wiser than he because he hadn't anticipated his reaction to this little show. Weirdly, Balinese seemed to have a gift for this, an artist's hand and sadist's judgment, while Schuldig made his surrender as picturesque as possible, his posture screaming out his vulnerability. There had been so many times Crawford had wanted to punish his telepath, and here he had it, with this spanking having an added charge to it that felt like a rush to the head and made him almost painfully hard.

Yet Schuldig still seemed defiant, challenging, instead of chastened as he looked back over his shoulder and swung his hair and reddened ass. That gaze dared Crawford to make something of this, _do_ something with it.

Balinese moved away from Schuldig suddenly, seeming spooked as he looked at Crawford, making Crawford wonder what kind of look he had on his face, if his uncontrollable emotional reaction showed. Perhaps it did. But right now he didn't care.

He retained enough control to put a condom on before he pulled the butt plug out and thrust himself into exquisite heat. Schuldig gasped and arced, then moaned as Crawford started to jerk him off as he fucked him, maintaining a hard, fast rhythm with both movements. His ass _was_ hot, as Balinese had said, burning.... Crawford's other hand slid along the sweat-slick skin of Schuldig's chest, unable to get a good grip, while orange hair whipped the side of his face and neck. Schuldig felt so good, _his_....

Crawford came hard, letting it all go, and felt Schuldig go with him. Once they came down, they leaned forward against the chest of drawers, wrung out, though Crawford tried not to put too much weight on Schuldig, who seemed exhausted and rubbery-limbed. He felt almost scoured out, pleasantly so.

Glancing to the side, Crawford saw Balinese slumped down on the floor, breathing hard, obviously having just come himself. Balinese didn't take much effort.

******************************************************

As Yoji watched them fuck almost savagely, all animal want and possession, he thought he might not even need to touch himself to come. They'd _really_ gotten to Crawford. But he felt left out.

Schuldig looked almost drugged as Crawford pounded into him. ~ Yoji.... ~

Yoji groaned as Schuldig fed him the sensations, setting his every nerve on fire. He was hot, he was filled up, he was getting the fucking and handjob of his life, he was Crawford doing the fucking, taking possession and trying to regain control even as he lost it completely, a familiar callused hand jerking him off in time with that incredible pounding, so hot, so much pleasure, so much desperation, couldn't think, so good but so not enough, trying to _get there_....

If it was like this even most of the time, Yoji couldn't blame him for being such a slut.

Being them, he came with them, feeling the sensations and fire run through his whole body. He couldn't help it, even as the tiny part of his brain that could still think wondered if his orgasm added to Schuldig's. Then he couldn't think about anything for a while.

When someone grabbed him and set him down on the sheets, he still felt so sensitized that it all seemed like too much. Must have been Crawford, since Yoji doubted Schuldig could handle that much strategic thinking right now. The bed really was too small with three people in it, although Schuldig took up very little space from how he was lying all over the two of them. Feeling weirdly safe and connected, Yoji dozed within the tangle.

******************************************************

When Crawford awoke, he immediately reached for his glasses. He might get corrective laser surgery someday but refused to until it had better guarantees. Afterwards he would wear frames containing simple glass because he liked the effect too much to lose it just because his eyes didn't need the aid anymore.

Schuldig had twined all around him and Balinese like kudzu, so there would be no getting up. His telepath often woke up when he did, or at least woke up for the first time, but Schuldig didn't stir, probably out cold of exhaustion, which gave Crawford a small glow of pride. Still fully dressed and rumpled, Balinese slept and looked very comfortable, very sensual. That comfort probably wouldn't last once he woke up and had to deal with the aftermath of coming while still dressed.

Crawford hadn't liked how out of control he'd felt earlier even as he admitted to himself that the sex had reminded him of how he and Schuldig had once always been with each other: rough and fast. He felt a certain nostalgia for that even as he knew that he appreciated the broader sexual palette they'd evolved into. Besides, then it had just been enjoyable but utterly selfish sex. Since then, Crawford had come to take a certain pride in driving Schuldig insane with pleasure, especially when he thought of all the past lovers he had to compete against.

While he couldn't quite thank Balinese for being the tool that showed him that a part of himself responded to a punishment scenario like a salivating dog, it was better to know that than be ignorant. Crawford could even enjoy Balinese's attractive body and partially open mind now and then. He had his uses and could be fun to play with, and he provided opportunities to score points with or on Persia and Weiß. When Crawford reached out and set his hand on Balinese's soft hair, it made him smirk to see the Weiß rub his head into his palm and sigh in contentment. So easily owned.

Still, Crawford would be happy to be in Europe away from them. Schwarz had to concentrate on itself. He ran his palm down Schuldig's side and smiled as his telepath rolled over more to burrow against him. _His_ telepath, his team, his family. Balinese was only a tourist.

******************************************************

Schuldig awoke to good aches and the feeling that his body had been melted down to warm honey. Damn, he had genius ideas. Yoji had been an artist with his hands, Brad had become such a wild animal, and it made Schuldig happy to share the wealth with Yoji and get the benefit of a third-party orgasm. Lying snuggled between and on top of them felt good too. They should do this again sometime.

Since he'd woken up because Brad was already awake, Schuldig murmured, "You know, you said you'd start calling him 'Yoji' the day you got to see him spank me."

Stroking him, Brad answered, "I said 'maybe.'"

"You should call him 'Yoji.' Nagi already does."

"Since when?"

"Since after Yoji's first lesson in telekinesis." Schuldig wouldn't mention that it had come after Yoji had given the kid a comforting hug at risk to himself. Brad got so sensitive about people touching Nagi's innocent skin or some such.

"Then he doesn't need me to use it too."

"You're such a pain in the ass."

"He probably doesn't even remember me saying that."

"It's not like we're going to see him for a while after this."

"So?"

"We give and give...."

"You're whining."

"Brad...."

"I'll think about it."

"Goody."

"You're so confident you'll get this concession from me?"

"Eventually." Schuldig used to want everything _now_ but had come to see the value in having some patience. Getting something after having to wait for it made it feel more special.

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Because I want it."

"Why do you want it?"

"Because I do. 'Balinese' is so cold."

"All right."

"'All right' yes?"

"All right I'll think about it."

"Bastard." But he heard Brad kind of laugh. That was always a victory.


	167. "I win at life."

Yoji woke up feeling damned good, satisfied, and lazy. Then he realized that he also felt sticky and stale and.... "Damn," he groaned.

"Right back to the glass being half empty?" Schuldig murmured against his cheek. "So you're stuck to your clothes. So what? You should hang on to the afterglow longer."

Remembering the spanking and Schuldig's mindfuckery put a little grin on Yoji's face. "That _was_ a good time."

"There you go. You can always take a shower and come back to bed if you really have to. Let me help you get them off." Schuldig started to unbutton Yoji's fly.

Yoji didn't exactly stop him, but said, "I have to leave eventually. I have a class to go to."

"Funny thing? I know the class' teacher. He's here, and the class won't start without him."

"I'm not staying here naked on the bed. Especially not when you're going to Europe for who knows how long."

Schuldig grinned and snuggled closer. "Mmmm. Pretty thought. Waiting here naked for us to return."

"I thought you wanted me to _stop_ starving myself."

"You're too practical."

"Somebody should be," Crawford said from somewhere else in the room, making Yoji jump a bit. He'd dressed as well as gotten out of bed. "You can borrow a pair of Schuldig's pants, since they're more likely to fit you than mine."

"Only because he's not as freakishly tall as you are," Yoji answered.

"He's also less likely to mind you wearing them without underwear."

Schuldig rubbed himself against Yoji's body, obviously turned on by the thought. "Braaaaaad...."

The thought and Schuldig's bump and grind affected Yoji too. "Shit." Then when Schuldig climbed on top of him to hump him, Yoji protested, "I thought we were undressing me, then I could take a shower."

"I want you now and can't wait. Besides, these pants are already ruined, so let's fuck them thoroughly."

Yoji's cock thoroughly approved and seemed to have taken control of the rest of his body. "Oh. Yeah...."

As Schuldig ground against him and sucked on his neck, Yoji heard Crawford say, "To think, some people have to pay to see this kind of entertainment."

A while later, Yoji managed to take a shower, alone. Sprawling out on the despoiled bed, Schuldig had laughed when he made that demand but obeyed. It was fortunate for him that they had conditioner along with shampoo right in sight, because Yoji's hair would be impossible to work with without the use of conditioner.

Cinching Schuldig's pants at his waist with his own belt, Yoji tried not to find wearing the other man's clothing to be at all erotic. This wasn't something he could have done with any of his women.

He hoped Schuldig didn't read his mind and see that as a challenge to get him into women's clothing. Schuldig yelled through the door, "Women's panties can feel really nice against your skin!"

Shit. "I know, but from the outside, which is how it will stay, you get me?" Yoji yelled back.

"No fun."

Yoji chucked his own pants into the trashcan, figuring that he didn't have the patience to clean them himself and didn't want to take them to a dry cleaner. He tried to feel disgusted at himself but couldn't get that little smile off his face, having enjoyed himself too much. But he still didn't want to inflict them on some stranger while they were stained like that.

When he opened the door, Schuldig darted in with an armload of clothing and slammed it shut. "What's his hurry?" Yoji asked Crawford.

"He's hungry. Usually he dawdles in the shower, but he'll be fast now."

Yoji felt a little uncomfortable. Yeah, they'd all fucked together before, but what did you say to a guy the morning after you spanked his boyfriend in front of him? Then again, Crawford had happily watched them hump each other to orgasm this morning, even occasionally offering suggestions. Crawford might be hard to talk to now because he liked to play these little authority mind games.

An ashtray in sight gave Yoji the idea of lighting up as a delaying tactic. Somehow he felt bolder with a cigarette in his hand or mouth, like some hardboiled noir detective talking the hard shit to get to the truth.

Yeah, inside he was still a kid. Or an idiot.

He'd gotten so used to Schuldig reading his mind that he almost felt let down when nobody responded to that thought so they could start a round of jovial insults. Shit, he was going to miss them again. This sucked.

Then again, Crawford couldn't just look into his mind and see how uncomfortable he felt right now. If he played his face right, Crawford might not figure it out. "So what happens to this place while you're gone?" Yoji said, gesturing with the cigarette in his hand.

"We're keeping it for now." Crawford put on a small, condescending smile. "Balinese, I'm hardly going to tell you how long we'll be gone, and your question is one of your ways of trying to get around that."

"I get the feeling that you don't know how long you'll be gone."

Crawford's lips thinned a little at that. Point struck. "A rigid timetable can be too limiting."

"Sure. I understand." Yoji felt much better now.

"You smile a lot like he does when you think you've won something."

Yoji refused to be disturbed by that thought. "There are only so many smiles possible in the world. Besides, can't be. His mouth is much wider than mine."

Was that a smile on Crawford's face? Might be. "True."

"My mouth is one of my best features," Schuldig answered as he opened the door, his hair still damp. For a moment Yoji wondered why he didn't blowdry it. "Yours might straighten a bit when you dry it, but mine tangles. Now, I want food."

"Pig," Yoji murmured.

"People wish they could eat like me and still keep my figure."

"Boys," Crawford said.

A surprisingly domestic scene greeted Yoji in the kitchen. Aya and Farfarello sat at the table while Nagi, wearing an apron over casual but black clothes, cooked something. "Told ya," Farfarello said.

Nagi's face colored a little, then he turned his head to face away, putting too much attention into scrambling the eggs. "I didn't need you to. I felt them this morning and had some sick dreams last night."

"I was too occupied to notice those," Schuldig said. "You have to tell me about them."

"No way in hell. Is Yoji staying for breakfast?"

Was he? He had no idea how he felt about that.

"Yes," Schuldig just about purred. "We keep saying that he can't be trusted to feed himself."

"I can so," Yoji said.

"Can not."

"Can-- I'm not going to start a round of this. I have a--"

"Class? Your teacher is scrambling eggs as we speak. Sit your scrawny ass down. The table has always come with six chairs."

Although Yoji could feel Crawford's stare burning holes into his back--and why the hell did he have Brad Crawford behind him?--Aya said, "You should stay and eat. Breakfast is an important meal."

One Aya used to skip sometimes when he felt depressed or masochistic. Yoji had noticed stuff like that. "Okay," he said as he sat down across from him. Aya looked much healthier now.

"After the night and morning activities you had, you need to refuel," Farfarello said dryly.

Aw, damn. Did everybody feel everybody having sex here? Grinning, Schuldig said, "He probably just noticed poor Nagi reacting to it this morning, because Farf has to work at being telepathic. Last night he could guess."

Now he felt bad. "Nagi--"

"It's the damned threesome." The eggs would be liquid again if the kid didn't calm down. "I don't even notice Crawford and Schuldig alone together anymore."

"We have to get Nagi a lover," Schuldig said.

"No, you don't. I can get one myself."

"Then get to it already!"

"Don't harass the guy preparing your food. It's hard enough resisting the urge to poison you already."

"Fine."

"Farfarello, get the Pocky out of your mouth!"

"Mmph?" Farfarello asked around his Pocky stick. Strawberry. Yoji's brain would break.

"I'm making you breakfast and you're already having dessert." Nagi looked stern but funny while threateningly waving a spatula.

Farfarello finished it off, then asked, "What, are you wanting me to regurgitate it now?"

"Yoji, you see how they abuse me."

Yoji coughed. "What am I supposed to do about it?"

"Sweep him up off his feet and take him to your Weiß tower to be your lover," Schuldig answered as he set a full plate in front of Yoji and shoved a bun into his mouth, just to make sure he nearly choked.

"Schuldig!" Nagi protested. Aya colored and hid behind his long bangs. How cute!

"Everyone, shut up and eat," Crawford said.

"Yes, mein herr," Schuldig answered.

"That especially means you."

Yoji couldn't help smirking over how gingerly Schuldig sat down. The telepath made an obscene gesture in answer.

Looking confused and a little pleased at having Yoji there, Aya covertly watched him, though not quite covertly enough. Remembering his old game, Yoji grinned and watched back, until Aya colored a little again, looked down at his plate, and said, "Yoji."

"What?"

"You know that's why I stopped eating meals with Weiß for a while."

"People can't look at you?"

"I don't like it."

Yoji was no telepath, but he was sure Aya had never liked it because he'd actually liked the attention too much. "I stopped."

"Until today."

"Today's different." Yeah, today he sat at a table of people who would kill him if he tried to divvy one of them off from the group. Farfarello--and Nagi?--already looked annoyed, while Crawford looked displeased. Schuldig... grinned? Yoji decided to cool it. "I won't bother you."

"It wasn't bothering me. You were just looking at me. Just don't look at me like _that_."

Like flirting. "Gotcha."

"Next time you do it, I'll stick a fork in your eye," Farfarello said.

"It's how he took out his own," Schuldig explained.

Yoji didn't dare ask if Schuldig was kidding. He knew Farfarello wasn't.

Once Yoji stopped the eye fucking for a while, Aya relaxed. Aya visibly relaxed. It suddenly hit Yoji that this was a family meal, and Nagi and Schuldig had invited him to sit in. Nagi had opened the door to it, and Schuldig had swept Yoji inside. He tried not to make too much of or expect too much from that.

"Good food, Nagi," Yoji said.

"I've done better," Nagi answered as he sat. Yoji realized that he looked a little nervous.

Oh. "You'll do great today."

"You'll have to forgive me if I don't trust the judgment of a guy who's wearing Schuldig's pants."

Thanks, kid. Tough crowd. Farfarello snickered, and Aya raised an eyebrow. Yoji answered, "That's just discrimination."

"You'll do great, Nagins," Schuldig said.

"What did I just say about people who are wearing your pants?" Nagi replied.

"Nagi, you'll--" Aya started.

"Can everyone just try to eat their breakfast?" But Nagi smiled a little through the embarrassment.

"Farf, how did the clubbing go last night?" Schuldig asked.

"Aya liked it," Farfarello said.

"I didn't like it," Aya answered. "I just didn't hate it."

Stunned, Yoji asked, "You got Aya to go out to a club?"

"Yes," Farfarello answered.

"And it wasn't a mission?"

"Nope. And he liked it."

"Didn't," Aya said, but he smiled a little.

Damn. Yoji couldn't believe it.

"I win at life," Farfarello said with a huge grin.

It was... nice eating with them, but Yoji didn't want to wear out his welcome and he had things to do, so as soon as he finished his food he said, "I have to go. I'll see you in a while, Nagi."

"No goodbye kiss?" Schuldig asked.

That would be too weird. "You're pushing it."

"It's what I'm famous for."

Yoji managed to drive home without thinking about much of anything. When he reached the flower shop, Elena met him by the door and asked, "Will you be okay while they're away?"

Seeing no point in playing dumb, he answered, "Yeah," even though he didn't know for sure.

"Okay," she said. "You missed breakfast." She was a kid who acted more like his mom than his mom ever had.

"I miss breakfast a lot."

"True."

But as he changed into fresh clothes of his own in his room he wondered about it all himself. He was a tourist everywhere, and he kept doing it to himself.

"Can I come in?" Fenris asked through the door.

"Sure."

Fenris walked in, forlornly looked up at him, then smacked the back of Yoji's head with his palm.

"What the hell was that for?" Yoji asked as he jumped back and rubbed his head. Was this some game of weird game?

"This is, uhm, aversion... stuff. Therapy. If you start to angst when you don't need to I'll smack the back of your head. Or Elena will. Or Ken because he agreed too. He agreed really fast. That way when you start to angst you'll always expect to get the back of your head smacked afterwards and since that hurts you'll decide not to do it anymore. Unless you like pain, and then we'll have to figure out something else."

Yoji said, "I'm going to kill all of you," but couldn't help smiling. They really did care.

"We love you!"

"You'll all beat me into being happy?"

"If we have to."

"They sent you to tell me because you're too cute to kill, right?"

"Maybe. Now stop angsting!"

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you. And how can you angst when we have a class to go to?" Fenris looked very happy as he left.

They tried so hard. He didn't deserve them.

Fenris reappeared in his doorway with his hand upraised. "Do you want a piece of this?" he asked.

"No!"

"Good. Now hurry up because we have to go soon!"

Yoji lived in a madhouse, but it had its cute moments. At least now he had a stupid smile on his face.


	168. "I'm not getting angsty! Leave me alone, you bitches."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It looks like Fenris has been reading _Alice 19th_....

~ What _was_ that, Schuldig? ~ Crawford asked. Balinese should not be allowed to sit with the family.

~ I told you my theory on the value of having Yoji around Aya. ~

~ Yes, though I find it dubious. ~

~ Aya is more open around Yoji. Admit it. ~

~ No. ~ Crawford suspected that Schuldig had the notion that Balinese might loosen Aya up enough to get an orgy going, which seemed unlikely to him.

~ You're such a pain in the ass. I guess you also won't admit that Nagi's also more open around Yoji. ~

He saw it but didn't want to admit it. ~ Your point? ~

~ His presence very neatly fixes some things. Makes a kind of circuit. ~

~ You're insane. And besotted. ~

~ You weren't complaining much earlier. ~

"Mom and Da are fighting again," Farfarello said with a smirk.

"Could you save it for when you're actually in private?" Nagi asked. "It's scarring to watch you fight, especially when we can only vaguely hear it."

"It's not as if you don't both change your mind on Yoji constantly anyway," Aya said.

"You're all such wise-asses," Crawford said, annoyed and amused at once.

"It's a beautiful thing," Schuldig answered.

~ This isn't over. ~

~ Of course it isn't, Brad. ~

"Actually, I had two things I wanted to discuss," Nagi said. "One is more talent-related than business-related, while the other is completely business-related. I figured I could start out with the talent talk and save the second bit for after breakfast. Okay?"

"Yes," Crawford said, proud of Nagi's manner here. The boy's usual focus and efficiency had slipped somewhat during his relationship with Persia but seemed to be completely recovered now that they'd broken up. Nagi appeared sadder now at times but that would pass, especially as the comfort he turned to the rest of Schwarz for took effect. Crawford _would_ have to watch to make sure that the boy didn't become attached to Balinese as well, although staying in Europe for a while would certainly help prevent it. The breakup had been an excellent decision, one Crawford would congratulate Nagi on if he hadn't been certain his approval would be taken the wrong way.

Schuldig shot him a sudden look. Had he "heard" that and disapproved? Sometimes Crawford felt that the telepath couldn't get past his precognitive brain structure as easily as he wanted people to think and actually used his intimate knowledge of Crawford to make educated guesses and get him to admit to things. Thinking about it, Crawford couldn't decide whether it would be better or worse if Schuldig could correctly guess at him instead of needing to read him. Worse, probably.

Schuldig didn't visibly react, so he must not have caught that bit of conjecture. Thankfully.

"I'm not so sure I want to share this, but I think Schuldig's perspective might help me," Nagi said.

"It's all about you, kid," Schuldig answered.

"Of course it is. But I think you'll get something out of this too. I believe that some telekinetics can use telekinesis to read emotions and intentions, at least the flashier ones. It's not perfect, but sometimes it can work."

"Interesting," Crawford said, genuinely intrigued. "Can you?"

"Sometimes. I've never tried to call it up; I just feel it or I don't."

"Feel it?" Schuldig asked.

"Like waves. I can sort of see it too but I don't think I can explain that very well to someone who isn't a high-level telekinetic. I have enough telepathy to know that other people don't see the world the same way I do."

Schuldig leaned forward, intent, serious. Crawford loved to watch him get into that mindset. "Is this about being a high-level telekinetic or a telekinetic who's also telepathic?"

"I don't have enough of a sampling to say. Fenris seems to see a broader range of emotions, subtler emotions too, than I do, and he's more of a telepath than a telekinetic. Yoji felt some ripples from me, but I wasn't being subtle at the time. I was upset and not bothering to hide it. I may subtly ask my class about it today."

"These are... waves of emotional psychic force?" Aya asked.

"Kind of. Emanations."

"How could I shield myself against revealing that?" Aya looked upset at the thought of being transparent to telekinetics.

"How indeed?" Schuldig all but purred. Crawford saw the potential himself. There might also be applications aside from the obvious.

"That's my piece on that," Nagi said. "Are we done with breakfast?"

They all brought their dishes to rinse and then set in the dishwasher. Finally they sat back at the table to go to business. Nagi said, "I've seen something in Europe that bothers me. My research suggests that powerful and well-trained telepaths who had stationed themselves within 100 miles radius of Rosenkreuz have fled the area or disappeared since its fall."

"I saw them leaving as well," Crawford answered, "and ascribed it to the dumping of cheap telepathic labor on the local market. The ones who hadn't graduated couldn't charge as high a price. Telepaths with greater mobility moved on to people willing to pay for their experience."

"I don't think it's market forces at work. What I've seen suggests they ran from something or were... taken away."

That sounded ominous. Still, Crawford had to ask, "_Your_ research?"

"You look more at money. I actually correspond with people. I don't tell them anything you wouldn't want me revealing, don't worry."

"You _correspond_ with people?" Schuldig asked, sounding amused and pleased.

"A lot of hackers love to brag. Sometimes you can get them to give away other stuff too. The French, Swiss, German, and Austrian ones have been more helpful than they realized. Unfortunately, they don't know why, just that it's happening. Few of them are talents themselves." Nagi shook his head. "It's no secret that we destroyed Rosenkreuz. Some people will want to nail us for that alone. It's also no secret that we have a trained telepath. People will be gunning for us for sure."

Schuldig had just finished putting his mind back together. The thought of sending him into greater telepathic danger now chilled Crawford's blood. Anyone who tried to hurt or steal his telepath would die horribly at Crawford's hands.

"You can all stop looking at me," Schuldig said. "So I'm a special target. Big deal. It's not news that people would want me."

"I worry. I know how you like to go off on your own and be... friendly," Nagi answered with a sweet smile and a little batting of his lashes.

Farfarello murmured, "I'm glad I wasn't eating during that." Even Crawford was amused.

Schuldig looked at him, their leader. "I'll be careful. I won't need a babysitter."

"You may be at a higher risk than the rest of us," Crawford answered. "We'll all be more cautious, but you're the one who has telepathy as a primary, high-level talent. Nagi and I don't have much, while I doubt that Farfarello registers correctly. How does Aya feel to people now?"

"He doesn't show up as much now that he's had some training. Odds are he'll just confuse people now if he doesn't just manage to go totally under their radar."

"Good to know."

"I want you to be careful as well," Aya said to Farfarello.

"Of course. Stop looking at me like that. I mean it."

"You're rarely careful."

~ I want you to be especially careful, ~ Crawford said to Schuldig. ~ You'd be quite a catch, and people know it. ~

Schuldig smirked. ~ You can be so sweet sometimes. ~

~ No one threatens what's mine. ~

******************************************************

"I don't feel comfortable," Ken said as he glanced around the room at all the psionics. There had to be at least fifty other people there.

"Nagi thought it was a good idea." Yoji had found them seats in the middle of the auditorium so they wouldn't be too close to Nagi or obviously trying to duck him. He'd strategized.

"You're afraid people will think you're a teke hag?" Elena asked with a cheeky grin.

"You're not helping!" Ken said.

"We're a team. Anyone who has a problem with that can stifle themselves."

Yoji was here because he _did_ have a psionic talent. He'd been a freak all along.... When he saw that all of Weiß had their palms raised up toward him he said, "I'm not getting angsty! Leave me alone, you bitches."

"As long as you're not getting depressed," Ken said.

"How do you even know?"

"I _know_ you, Yoji."

"I'm excited," Fenris said as he clutched his mini recorder. "I've never had school before. Yoji's lessons are Yoji's and more... informal."

"But you're still learning from them," Elena said.

"Sure, but this is different. This is a whole class!"

Three minutes before the start time the doors at the back of the room opened and Nagi, dressed all in tailored black, a different outfit than he'd worn at breakfast, looking arrogant and somewhat brittle, swept into the room at speed, his open trench coat flowing. The doors closed behind him. Yoji had come to recognize that that much haughtiness covered fear but wondered what the rest of the room would think. Still ignoring the class, Nagi shuffled papers at the podium at the front of the room in what looked like preparation.

Fenris had an almost dreamy look on his face as he whispered, "I know it's wrong but...."

"What?" Elena asked as softly.

"I know he broke your arm over something I did, which I won't forgive him for, and he can be a jerk, but... he's really pretty."

It took the three of them a moment to catch up, then their jaws dropped and Elena murmured, "You have to be kidding me...."

Kids sure grew up fast.

But Fenris had taste, and Nagi had dressed to complement his good looks.

"Nagi can be a jerk but that's because he's hurting inside and doesn't know how to act."

"Have the fangirls been giving you shôjo manga?" Elena asked. "I'll kill them."

"Just this one series by Watase--"

"Please not the 'Ceres' one. It'll warp your view of sex for life."

"Mine has a bunny spirit in it."

"Good. I think that one's okay."

"Not that _you_ read shôjo?" Yoji had to ask.

"It's not like I have any hobbies, Yoji."

"It annoyed me that I knew from the beginning that the lead girl would get Kyô by the end. It takes a lot of the fun out of it," Fenris said. "Besides, Frey and Kyô had much better... chemistry."

"I can't believe I'm listening to this kind of conversation," Ken said, but he smiled.

"I wouldn't really go for Nagi. We don't have much in common."

"You like whoever you want to like," Elena replied. "Unless the person is abusive to you, I have no problems."

"Thanks, Elena!"

"Good morning," Nagi said, his voice carrying through the room. "I'm Naoe Nagi. In Eszett I was sometimes known as Prodigy. I'll probably have to change that as I get older. If you need to call me something, you can refer to me as Naoe-san. Some of you know me by reputation. Me, I have all of your names and an excellent memory.

"A lot of you are probably from Eszett or Rosenkreuz. I'm not going to ask why or how you joined Kritiker. I'm not going to write anything on the board because not all of you can read the local language.

"You're here because Persia has seen my consulting on talents and thought it would be useful to you. If you want to leave, I won't stop you since the kind of person who would leave probably wouldn't retain anything from this class anyway. You might not even wonder if any of the people who stayed learned something that will give them an edge on you. Anyone who wants to go is free to go now. If you leave during the class and draw attention to yourself, I might mock you. This is the last chance to go without me saying anything to your face. I would save the savagely cutting commentary for after you left. No one? Good."

"Hey, Professor Snape, is it true that you're sleeping with Persia?" one voice called out from somewhere in the middle of the room. His next "Hey!" sounded far less smug as a lot of people suddenly stood up and moved away from what had to be the culprit, who was a Eurasian-looking teen who tried to move away a little too late.

"Suicidal," Fenris murmured.

"Probably just stupid," Elena answered softly.

"You're Hellhound," Nagi said, sounding bored in a somehow dangerous way.

"No, I'm not," the kid answered without sounding convincing.

"'Hellhound'? What are you compensating for?"

The class laughed nervously even as they all looked tense and ready to defend themselves with force if they had to. Yoji might not have napped in class so much during his school days if school had been like this.

The kid, trapped, took the offensive. "Are you sleeping with him?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm not."

This only showed that Nagi had made a good decision in breaking up with Omi. Poor kids.

"You're a vat kid, force-grown," Nagi said. "If you tell me your ID number I'd have some idea who your gene sources were. I might be one of them."

Hellhound looked angry, horrified, and embarrassed. "Can I go now?"

"No. Sit down. You might still learn something. Sit!" When the kid sullenly sat back down, Nagi said, "Thank you. All right, any other stupid questions out there before we go on to something useful? I'd rather listen to them now than hear you whispering amongst yourselves." One woman raised her hand. "Yes, Stealth."

"Are you the one who actually finished that damned origami assignment?"

Nagi looked surprised, then smiled a little. "Yes. It took me several days, a few migraines, and a few nosebleeds, but I did."

"He's been taking that out on tekes ever since."

"You know what? That's not my problem. Is he still alive?"

"...no."

"You tore down Rosenkreuz," someone said out of turn. "That really fucked us over."

"Speak for yourself," another said.

"I notice you came to Japan. Trying to get away from the ambiance?"

Nagi suddenly looked more interested and asked, "What ambiance?"

"It's a telepathic thing, like a painful buzz in your head. I thought my talent was killing me until I got far enough away from Austria."

"What are you talking about?" someone else asked. "I didn't feel anything."

"Then you don't have telepathy or empathy. It feels like biting down on aluminum foil. Repeatedly," another said. "Wait, Naoe-san, you're going there?"

Anyone who didn't know Nagi wouldn't see it, but Nagi was annoyed with himself. "Yes."

The class abruptly quieted. "Better you than me," someone finally said.

Something big was going on. Way big. Omi should know.

"I'm done with taking questions," Nagi said, leaning forward on the podium. "Let's get down to business. Keep in mind that the sooner I finish, the sooner you can go. I know that not all of you are from Rosenkreuz, so what I say next won't apply to everyone in the same way.

"A lot of you were taught by people who didn't have any talents who trained you the way people without talents thought your talents would work. They trained all of you in a 'one size fits all' way, even though your talents don't all work the same way. You _should_ do what works for you. I know that a lot of what they told you was wrong. I know that some of them deliberately limited you so you wouldn't become what they thought would be too powerful. I know that because they worked to cripple my telepathy, and that crippling succeeded for years." Nagi let the murmur over that die down a bit before continuing, "Rosenkreuz rarely let talents train or compare notes with other talents for fear of losing control of you. I know that Kritiker has implemented a kind of mentor system, and I think that's a good idea.

"All of you, not just Rosenkreuz alumni, have developed habits in how you use your talents. I know. I do it myself if I don't concentrate on it. What I want you to do is think about how your talent works. If you know the scientific principles, wonder about them and see if you can experiment. I know a pyrokinetic who thought about how fires start and burn and now consciously uses and controls oxygen as part of her talent. I know a telekinetic who may be using his talent like empathy by reading probability waves."

Fenris looked proud as he nudged Elena, who just smiled.

"Is that last one really possible?" somebody asked from the class.

"I've done it, and two other people did it," Nagi said. "Not all of us are high-level telekinetics either. Have you felt or seen the waves?"

"A little. I read them a bit, but not like you're saying. I can tell whether people are about to move sometimes."

"Work on it, then. Everyone, try to use your talent a different way. Slower. Or faster. Think about the steps you take as you call on it. Mix it up a little where you can. Think about what it means and why you do what you do. Be _conscious_. You might be limiting yourself without realizing it. Whether you can tear a building down, lift only small things, or start fires, you can always improve yourself. You can be highly powerful, but if you can't control it you're only a danger to yourself and others, not a real power at all.

"Also, don't think that you can only learn from people who have the same talent you do. You can pick up something useful from everyone. I've picked up tricks for controlling and using my telekinesis from telepaths, precogs, and pyrokinetics.

"There is no such thing as a small talent. You're powerful even if you can't destroy a city block or take an atom apart component by component. Don't feel like you have anything to be ashamed of. You can kill a person just by pinching off blood flow in a few small areas. Or by puncturing a tire while they're driving. I know a teke who uses his talent to boost the accuracy and deadly force of his weapon. You may be forced to be more creative, but creativity and subtlety are good things for many assassinations."

Yoji would get all misty-eyed at this rate.

"Finally, be wary of arrogance," Nagi said. "Once you figure you know everything and shut your mind, your downfall is assured. But, from what I've seen, that goes for life in general, not just psionic talent. There will always be someone more powerful or more prepared than you somewhere, so you better keep sharp. So, any questions?"

"My brain feels like a spinning pinwheel," Fenris whispered.

"From the look on everybody's faces, the whole class feels your pain, kid," Yoji whispered back. He'd had some of this in the private lessons and _his_ brain spun. Some people were still taking notes, while others sat back looking like someone had hit them in the forehead. "You okay, Ken?"

"I'm glad _I_ don't have to remember any of this."

"No questions?" Nagi asked with a little smile. "Or maybe just not now. I'll talk to Persia about finding a way to take your questions. I'll be leaving the country tonight, but maybe I can get to them at some later date. Think about what I said and experiment, but experiment safely. Class dismissed."

As Nagi gathered his papers into his attaché case, a lot of the people got up and walked out immediately, though some sat and seemed to be digesting. Yoji got up and approached Nagi. "That was interesting. Thanks, Naoe-sensei."

"Are you going to be okay without me?" Nagi asked with a smirk, sounding far less brittle and tight now.

"I'll survive somehow. Just don't let Europe kill you."

"I have no intentions of letting it take me out."

"Ah. Have a good trip."

"That wasn't awkward at all."

"Bite me, brat."

"After all the times Schuldig--"

"Leaving!"

"Thanks, Yoji," Nagi said.

As Yoji caught up with Weiß on the way out, Fenris said, "I hope he likes them."

"Likes what?" Yoji asked.

"Kids are supposed to get their teachers apples or something on their first day."

"Only if they're suck-ups."

Putting on a look of great melancholy and dignity, Fenris answered, "It's sad that no one raised you right." Elena and Ken almost choked.

"Yeah, yeah. So you got him an apple?"

"No. I figured he wouldn't accept food because it might be poisoned."

"I think you got his number." At Fenris' look of total confusion, Yoji said, "Never mind that. So what did you give him?"

******************************************************

Nagi's heart still pounded, like he'd just been in a fight. Damned kid asking about his sex life.... Omi might have expected him to do exercises or demonstrations or something, but that would not happen. He'd gone in, said his piece, and gotten out before anything could go really wrong. He didn't think he'd sounded too nervous or like too much of an idiot. He hoped, anyway. At least leaving for Europe further decreased the odds of him seeing any of these people soon.

When he picked up the last of his cheat notes on the students, he saw two small hacky sacks.

He refused to miss Weiß. But he still put the hacky sacks in his attaché case, even if he didn't quite know what to do with them.


	169. "Restrain me."

Packing took very little time when all you _needed_ was your weapons and your kitten and you used clothing mostly to disguise the weapons. Looking mildly disturbed, said kitten lingered longer as _he_ packed. Sitting atop his suitcase, Farfarello asked, "Puisín, what's wrong?"

"It's stupid, but I have a bad feeling about this," Aya answered.

"About leaving? About Europe?"

"I don't know, and the vagueness of it makes it useless, which annoys me."

Farfarello leapt off and moved over to kiss the nape of Aya's neck. "We'll be more careful."

His kitten nearly smiled. "More careful than we're already being from Nagi's warning of something that might be happening in Europe?"

"Even more careful so no one will be able to harm us."

In the hallway, Schuldig asked, "How did class go, honey?"

"I found out something that everyone should hear," the boy answered, not sounding happy at all.

"Maybe you're becoming a seer," Farfarello murmured to Aya.

"It's bad enough almost being a telepath. I don't need anything else. And I'd rather my bad feelings weren't right."

"Let's see what the boy is so excited about."

Everyone sat on the two facing living room couches, Crawford and the mindbreaker on one and Farfarello and his kitten on the other, while Nagi stood in his "giving a report" posture. Predictable boy. He said, "I had it confirmed in the seminar that some kind of painful ambiance is hanging over the area of Europe around Rosenkreuz. The telepaths and empaths are aware of it, but everyone else isn't."

"Then what we did at Rosenkreuz is responsible. If this ambiance is such a painful thing, we may have hurt people badly," Aya said, vibrating in the force of his emotion. Farfarello gripped his kitten's thigh.

"I know you like to wallow and self-flagellate, Aya," Crawford said, sitting solidly on the couch like a king, "but no one on my team will take blame for this until we investigate this occurrence thoroughly and see that the responsibility actually belongs to us."

"You think it's coincidence that this happened after we destroyed Rosenkreuz?"

"I believe coincidences can happen," Schuldig answered, leaning forward as he sat on the arm of the couch.

"I believe that too, but I don't trust them."

"We will investigate this," Crawford said, using his steel voice.

"And if our investigations show that we did this?"

Aya sounded so dominating and dangerous that Farfarello vibrated to it. His jaws ached as if he hungered to rip out the throat of his lover's enemy... who turned out to be his team's leader. Ah, conflict. Was this a challenge for leadership? It looked like a big part of him had already chosen sides here. Although he disliked waiting, he would wait to see what developed and role he should take. Smirking, coasting along on the sudden tension choking the room, he watched Schuldig and Nagi watch Aya and him. The boy stood there so still, so cautious, face inscrutable, waiting, making Farfarello wonder where _his_ loyalties were.

Crawford looked utterly unruffled, and felt it as well from what Farfarello could tell. "Then we study the situation and see the best way to resolve it. I want to remind you that I made my decisions at the time based on the information and resources I had. Hindsight is always perfect. I make no apologies."

"If it was a bad decision, I don't place all the blame on you. I went along with it."

For a moment Farfarello thought the mindbreaker might say that Aya didn't really have the ability to say no to them, but Schuldig remained silent and watchful instead. Interesting, because that meant the mindbreaker saw this conversation as a true threat and not something to toy with.

"By all means, don't place _all_ the blame on me."

"Crawford, this trip seems to be getting more complicated all the time. Your investigations may show that this is too big for us to handle alone. What will you do then?" He sounded quiet yet dangerous and sometimes showed his teeth a bit. Challenge. Tasty.

"If my investigations show that it's warranted, I'll get whatever help we need. I'm a proud man, not a stupid one."

Aya took a breath. "Good. Thank you." The tension started to bleed away a little.

Interesting. His puisín didn't want to lead unless he saw signs of mismanagement. Good thing, because a struggle for dominance between Aya and Crawford could only end with one of them dead no matter how arousing Farfarello found the conflict.

"Are we done testing each other?" Nagi asked. "Yes? Great. The other thing, and I'm sorry for it, is that the class knows we're going to Europe. One of the telepaths pulled it out of me while I was distracted and worried over everyone talking about the ambiance. I apologize."

"Who cares about them?" Schuldig asked.

"Weiß was in that class. The talents there might not have thought to mention the ambiance to Persia, but Yoji or Friendly are certain to do it and see it having some bearing on our trip to Europe."

"Then Persia will probably send him and perhaps Friendly after us," Crawford said, frowning. "That was careless, Nagi."

Nagi bowed his head. "I know. It was idiotic."

"However, considering the circumstances and your position as the focal point of attention for so many talents, it probably couldn't have been avoided. I don't blame you."

The boy looked a little less worried after that. "At least I'm not entirely certain of your real reasons for going on this trip before you even heard about the ambiance, which means none of them can know either."

"See, keeping you in ignorance can be useful."

"Please don't push it. Oh, Schuldig, I have confirmation that other telekinetics can see the waves and use them to read people a bit."

"Good. I think this class turned out to be useful even with the slip on going to Europe," Schuldig answered, prompting his lover a little.

"I agree," Crawford said. "We received some new intel on our next location and on telekinesis at very little cost."

Nagi colored a little, pleased and failing to hide it. "Thank you, Crawford."

"I believe that Persia would have sent someone to keep track of us anyway."

"And doesn't Nagi look hot?" Schuldig asked. "Now you have to wear your new outfit too."

"I wouldn't wear that in front of a class," Nagi answered.

"Wear what?" Farfarello asked, happy to stir trouble, needing some outlet for the lust still vibrating through him until this meeting ended and he could vent in a more direct way.

"School uniform," the boy said.

"From the school of mild kink," the mindbreaker replied with a smile.

"I'll never wear it if you keep this up. That would teach you."

"Oh, yes, please teach me, sensei!"

"Are we done?" Crawford asked.

"Yes," Nagi answered.

"Good. We're leaving in two hours." Crawford returned to his bedroom, though Schuldig stayed.

"How did the class go?" Aya asked.

"Could have been worse. I think I won," Nagi answered. "I have to pack. See you later."

Thankful that the boy didn't want to talk about it and was so brief, Farfarello grabbed Aya's arm and said, "Kitten, we have to finish packing as well."

"All right." But something in the glint of his eyes said he knew what Farfarello really wanted. Such a wonderful pet.

"Enjoy your packing," Schuldig said, obviously aware. He would no doubt eavesdrop on them but Farfarello didn't care. In fact, the thought of an audience only made him harder. He'd always had exhibitionist tendencies.

Aya did not have exhibitionist tendencies, so Farfarello waited until they reached their room to grab him, push him up against a wall, and kiss and grind against him hungrily, needing ever more now that he could feel, hopelessly addicted. Want him, want him, want him.... Farfarello's skin was _alive_. It felt so good, too good, and the violence of his lust combined with the overwhelming depth of feeling made him too rough with his kitten. He could tell even if Aya said nothing out of pride or shame or the berserker state lust sometimes sent him into. In his current state, Farfarello couldn't control himself or differentiate.

Shit. It was too strong, especially now that he could feel everything so much, and the effort and concentration needed to restrain himself would take all the fun out of sex and might not even be successful. If he wanted to continue on without injuring his kitten, he would need help. "Restrain me," Farfarello said.

"What?" his kitten asked, eyes dazed and dilated, lips slick....

Fuck. "Four-point restraints. We still have them from before."

******************************************************

Grinning, listening, Schuldig flopped down on his bed and unbuttoned his fly. Sitting at the computer desk, Brad asked, "What _are_ you doing?"

"Snow-white and Rose-red are getting it on while Snow is wearing the padded restraints we used to use because he wants Red badly enough to break him but doesn't wanna break him."

"That didn't quite make sense."

"Yeah, it does. Farf's so lust-crazed that what I'm getting from him runs around in circles like that."

"And Aya?"

"Freaking out about that much restraint but trying to hold onto his lust because he wants to lust but also because he doesn't want to disappoint his psycho lover. It's twisty, hot stuff, baby. Wanna listen?"

"No. I'll leave you to it."

"Your loss." Buzzing with someone else's lust, Schuldig closed his eyes, the better to be there instead of here.

Already naked and aroused, Farfarello helped in getting the restraints on and attaching them to the bed, but his body twitched all over. So pretty as he writhed and struggled. Felt so different now with so much of the internal damage gone. _Felt_, for one thing. Lust had once been a purely mental exercise for Farfarello, a thing of will and violence. Getting him off had been a challenge, especially when trying to read his mind had felt like plugging your brain into an electrical socket. Now he needed to be tied down to deal with his level of physical sensation.

Where a lot of people would be aroused to have someone out of control with lust for them and so restrained that they were at your total mercy (or lack thereof), Aya worried as he saw Farfarello shaking at the edge of his control like that. While Schuldig enjoyed the kitten's sweet and sour complexity, he wanted more action, so he breathed a little more erotic appreciation for the situation into Aya's soul. When Aya ran his fingers down the side of Farfarello's chest, Farfie almost pulled his arm out of its socket to try to get to him, feeling _pleasure heat want puisín! Now!_ Maybe Aya had cause to worry, especially since an unrestrained Farf might have broken Aya's nose.

Schuldig already had his hand fisted around his cock and lightly thrusted into it.

"How am I to do anything to you when you try to rip yourself apart every time I touch you?" Aya asked in English in soft despair. Schuldig had noticed that they tended to do personal talk in English despite Schuldig's X-mas gift of the Blarney gab, saving the gift for really secret talk. It made some sense, since they'd bonded as a couple the most while speaking English in the U.S. and Farf's first language was actually English, but it made Schuldig feel a bit slighted and unappreciated.

"Puisín, I'll try harder," Farf panted, burning, martyred to his lust, mind crackling and nearly nonsensical. "I don't want to hit you either."

"We need one of those cat toys, the one that has the feather dangling from a long stick."

Farfarello and Schuldig groaned at the thought of that being used. "That image doesn't help my self-control. Fuck."

Then Nagi opened the bedroom door.

What? As Schuldig saw him through Aya's eyes, Schuldig went still as he wondered where the hell this could go.

"I'll hold him down. With telekinesis," Nagi said, sighing, sounding longsuffering and grumpy. "I'll watch as little as possible, and I won't listen. The empathic stuff I can't guarantee, but I'll sure as hell try to block that off too."

Damn. Schuldig was having the best dream _ever_. Had to be, right?

"Why?" Farf asked for all of them.

"Because the angst and frustrated lust you two are blasting out keep distracting me from my packing. I get you off, you go to sleep for a while, and I don't have to feel you anymore. If anybody here could just have straightforward sex, I wouldn't have to deal with this." Nagi told himself that it meant nothing. He was doing himself a favor by getting this over with instead of letting it drag on next door and drive him insane.

Schuldig snickered to himself. Poor Nagi needed to get some so bad he was talking himself into things he'd never do if he could get his own sex somewhere else. Still, fun for Schuldig!

Appalled and unwillingly intrigued, Aya started, "I--"

If Aya turned Nagi down, Schuldig would go over there and personally beat some sense into him without bothering to button up his pants again first. Hmm, beating Aya with his dick would be great fun too. It all distracted Schuldig far too much to manipulate Aya the way he should be.

Fortunately, Farf had his thoughts in the right place. "Yes. Hold me down."

"Farfarello--" Aya said.

"Give me this."

The kitten couldn't argue with that need or tone of voice. "All right."

Nagi held Farfarello down flat on the bed, creating a slight feeling of pressure. Maddened by that touch as well, excited, Farf growled in pleasure at the boy sitting nearby and his lover looking down at him, gold-toned scar swinging rhythmically from his ear. Farf lusted. His view of the world looked flatter, less detailed.... Nagi tried not to feel anything and closed his eyes once he felt he had a hold on the right places. Thoughtful kid, he left Farf's hips free to move. Aya felt torn and embarrassed and aroused, the kink hitting him at last. With Farfarello sometimes literally begging for him, he so lost himself in the sex that he forgot about Nagi and let his inhibitions go. Schuldig wished Nagi would be a little more aggressive in peeking at Aya from under his eyelashes because what little he could see made Schuldig want to see more, but he wouldn't try to manipulate Nagi into it because the kid was damned hard to influence and would probably notice.

Still, he was getting a hell of a lot more than he'd ever expected.

"Schuldig, what _are_ you doing?" Brad asked from a distance.

Where _was_ he? "Nothing to them at all, and that's the beauty of it, Brad."

Schuldig did nothing but watch and feel as Aya stroked and kissed and sucked while Nagi ignored and ignored and tried to pretend he wasn't getting hard and wasn't peeping at Aya-gone-wild, while Farf just felt and made sounds and struggled against restraints he couldn't budge, feeling safe and loved and about to explode. He did explode, into the sheath of Aya's mouth--_yes red yes good yes yes YES_\--whimpering at how much it was and how he never thought he'd feel this way, ever, and how much love he had and how it should rip the world apart. Aya came from watching and listening and thinking about what he saw and heard.

As they lay together, spent, Farf still in his padded restraints and unlikely to move for a while, Aya draped on top of him in places, Nagi went back to his room and finished himself off to memories of the things he'd told himself and them he wouldn't pay any attention to. "I need to get laid," Nagi murmured to himself.

Having come several times from several sources, Schuldig didn't feel inclined to move much and just idly took his hand from his pants and licked his fingers, needing something simple and repetitive to bring him down from the high. Sensitized, he shivered uncontrollably when Brad stroked his hair, smirking, and said, "That was some show you put on while watching them. Is nothing sacred?" This sensitized, he could feel the sound of Brad's voice.

"That seemed really sacred to me," Schuldig answered.

******************************************************

Watching his lover ride someone else's sex scene always left Crawford feeling aroused and disturbed at once. Right now Schuldig had one hand down his pants and the other moving atop his chest to the commands of whoever he was at this moment. Not all of his facial expressions were his; Crawford thought he might be seeing three different people aside from Schuldig, so had Schuldig lied about what he was watching? Even some of his moans and whimpers obviously didn't belong to him, especially the more guttural ones. Sometimes he moved a great deal, while other times he was lying there as if something pinned him down all over his body. He looked like he needed an exorcist, and Crawford could understand how his telepath's parents had put him in a mental ward.

It could be off-putting to watch and listen to at times.

But Schuldig also looked vulnerable and very young with his eyes closed and reflexive smirk absent. He wouldn't go so deeply under in front of just anyone.

Crawford sat next to him on the bed and waited, annoyed that he felt ignored and wondering what his telepath was feeling. He'd declined the offer to share. Perhaps he'd been wrong to. Some distance had to be kept from the team he commanded, but how much?

Finally, Schuldig came and came and came, then lazily opened his eyes and started to lick his fingers, looking dazed and limp in the afterglow, utterly satiated, sexier with Schuldig concentrated within his body again. Crawford had to say, "That was some show you put on while watching them. Is nothing sacred?" and stroke Schuldig's wild hair. Watching him shiver from it didn't feel as gratifying as usual, not when he knew that phantom lovers had sensitized his telepath to that state.

"That seemed really sacred to me," Schuldig answered, looking and sounding sincere instead of flip.

Crawford believed he meant it.


	170. "Thank you, Snugglebear!"

"They called it 'ambiance'?" Mamoru asked, working to get a handle on it.

"It sounds like some kind of telepathic interference or maybe some powerful pain being broadcasted. It might not be conscious," Elena answered. "There wasn't anything there like that when Fenris and I lived there and left."

"I got the impression people were blaming it on the fall of Rosenkreuz," Yoji said.

Which had been destroyed by Schwarz. "Schwarz is going there to clean that up?" It sounded oddly humanitarian. Then again, "cleaning it up" might involve killing people to stop the noise.

Nagi was telepathic and heading into that.

"Nagi seemed surprised to hear about the ambiance. That tells me they had something else in mind and hadn't expected it."

"I'm wondering if the ambiance may be from telepathic bleeding by half-trained talents," Elena said. "It's not like everyone had done the full course when Schwarz tore the complex down and slaughtered the teachers."

Mamoru wondered how Aya would react to that theory but asked instead, "Do you think so many talents came to us to get away from that?"

"It makes sense. If they can't stand to stay there, going far away to live and get work is smart."

He wished he'd known about that during the hiring negotiations. "This has been going on since the fall of Rosenkreuz but I'm only hearing about it now?"

"Talents don't talk about these things with non-talents. Or even with each other, a lot of the time. Non-talents barely know we exist, so they definitely wouldn't figure out what was going on. The non-talents who do know about us and usually hire us rarely share data in a humanitarian way seeing as how most of them are involved in highly illegal ventures and competing with each other."

"I need more information. I have business in that part of Europe that could be impacted by all of this."

Yoji's mouth briefly quirked, and Ken had a similar expression on his face. Yes, he wanted to keep track of Nagi too. With some kind of haze of pain settled over the area, he had good reason to be concerned about his former lover.

"Do we know they're going there?" Fenris asked.

"No," Yoji said, "but Nagi seemed too interested and worried about what he heard in class today for me to believe Schwarz won't be in that general area. If they were going somewhere else on the continent, he wouldn't have looked that interested. Besides, the class was talking about the ambiance in that specific area, not the whole continent, and then that one psionic said Nagi was going _there_."

"Huh?"

"They were talking about a specific place in Europe, and then that guy said that Nagi was going to that specific place."

"Oh."

"I don't think it was that clear-cut," Ken said. "'There' sounds pretty general to me."

"I need more information about the ambiance and Schwarz's intentions," Mamoru said. "Sending all of Weiß would attract too much attention. Besides, it sounds like the ambiance might be too much for Fenris to deal with. No offense, Fenris."

"Nah. I think you're right," Fenris replied almost cheerily.

"Would you be able to handle it, Draco?"

"It's hard to tell just off what I heard, but I think I may be able to. I won't know until I get there. I wonder how well Schuldig will deal with it. He's good but he's also more open than I am."

Excellent question. "That's another thing it would be good to find out."

"Are you suggesting that Elena and I should go?" Yoji asked. "We wouldn't be full Weiß, so it wouldn't attract as much attention. Siberian can stay with Fenris to keep our cover going and maybe do smaller jobs here. I would go because I'm not a telepath and wouldn't be affected, which would make me a good backup for Elena, and I've worked with Schwarz before and have some idea of their MO."

Yoji was also the only outside steady lover Schuldig and Crawford kept, which gave him an in that would make him a good operative to send in here. "Something like that."

"You'll be better off knowing German," Elena said with a smile.

"You're too gleeful about that."

"I like to share the wealth of knowledge."

"You like to meddle."

"Most telepaths do. Will you be okay, Fenris?"

"Sure. I'll take care of Ken," Fenris answered.

"You'll--" Ken rolled his eyes but smiled. "Okay."

"It'll be an adventure!"

"That's what I didn't want to hear," Elena answered.

"I'll be fine. I can't cling to you every day for the rest of my life."

"All right. I'm in, sir."

"Good," Mamoru answered. "Now can I speak to Balinese and Siberian alone? It's more of a former teammate thing than business."

"Yes, sir. C'mon, Fenris." She had to grab Fenris' arm to pull him out, and he looked back with obvious curiosity the whole time until she closed the door behind them.

Being telepaths, they might decide to eavesdrop anyway. Mamoru wouldn't know. He would have known if he still had Nagi at his side....

Maybe he should get a telepathic bodyguard. He would if he could think of anyone he'd trust for the position. He would.

Mamoru hated having to ask this, to look needy, but Ken and Yoji were still his friends, right? "How did Nagi look?" He didn't know what he _wanted_ to hear, but he figured he'd more likely to get an honest answer with Ken in the room. Occasionally Yoji used so much tact that he might as well be lying.

Ken shrugged. "He looked like Nagi."

Then again, Ken could be oblivious to some of the things Mamoru most wanted to know.

"I think he did a good job with the seminar, though he went a bit fast," Yoji said. "I could tell he was nervous, but most people would just see it as--"

"Haughtiness?" Ken supplied.

"Kind of."

Nagi remained Nagi. Mamoru didn't know why he'd expect differently. "I see."

"I think he seemed sad and angry lately," Ken said. "When he came in to teach Yoji alone. I think he's unhappy."

And then Ken came through after all. Mamoru asked, "How do you mean?"

"He just... carried it with him. He was hurting. You could tell."

"I had to give him a hug at one point during my lesson," Yoji said, sounding a bit rueful.

Mamoru felt so much at once that he couldn't describe how he felt. Some part of him was glad that Nagi hurt because Nagi had broken them up and shouldn't recover quickly, but the larger part of him, that loved Nagi, worried for him. But what could he do? They'd broken up. Despite all the thought he'd given it, Mamoru still didn't know what he could do to improve his life and make himself less clingy and dependent on Nagi for happiness. He couldn't help.

"I don't know what you can do, though," Ken said. "They're leaving for Europe tonight, and none of us knows how long they'll be gone. It's hard keeping anything going long distance."

Mamoru knew that Ken's correspondence with that girl who moved to Australia had puttered out after a few months. "I know."

"I know this sounds weird," Yoji said, "but Schwarz looks after itself. Schuldig's so invasive that nobody has a chance to wallow on his own. They'll keep an eye on him."

"That's kind of what I'm afraid of."

"They're not as bad as they used to be." Yoji smirked. "Schuldig only takes out his sadism on outsiders now."

"That gives me so much confidence."

"All right, look at it this way: Crawford doesn't want any of his team members to have the kind of personal problems that affect their work."

That Mamoru could believe.

And when had Yoji become an apologist for and expert on Schwarz? Had it been after they saved him from death in that limo or even before that, maybe as far back as that trip to England together? Mamoru would have to keep an eye on that.

"Nagi misses you, but I think he'll be okay," Yoji continued. "Unless that's not what you want to hear?" Wise-ass.

"I wish him the best."

"And want him back?" Ken asked.

"...yeah."

"Hearing about this thing in Europe has to worry you, since he's going there," Yoji said.

"Obviously!"

"If I can do anything to help him out that doesn't go against my moral code--"

"You have one of those?" Ken asked.

"--I'll help him out. And I'll get you for that later, Kenken."

"I appreciate that, Yoji," Mamoru said, feeling a little bit better. Mamoru hadn't realized how worried and helpless he felt until it eased now. Given the trouble Schwarz tended to get in the middle of he didn't see how much help Yoji could be without getting killed, but the thought of someone he trusted watching Nagi's back was a relief all the same.

Then again, he'd seen the corpses in that limo. Yoji had more defenses now than people realized.

"I should get packing to go. I have some German to absorb too," Yoji said. "Don't worry, Omi."

There were so few people who called him "Omi" in this office. Mamoru didn't see any point in making that group of people that much larger than it was now, but he enjoyed hearing it from them.

"Nagi's tough, and Schwarz has a history of surviving things that should have killed them," Ken said.

"Like we do," Yoji said.

It always felt good to know you had backup. "Thanks, guys."

******************************************************

As he sat in the terminal, Nagi hid behind his sunglasses somewhat, still amazed by his earlier boldness and a little embarrassed. Aya shooting him the occasional shy, embarrassed, and affectionate look didn't help. The ride in the backseat of the car had been somewhat awkward and tense, though at least Farfarello had still been so buzzed that he hadn't shown any jealousy or possessiveness, just leaned happily against his kitten.

Nagi had _felt_ Aya having sex before, been nearby during it, and seen some initial making out, but actually watching and holding Farfarello down for the whole thing made everything different. They'd been so desperate and hot for it, buzzing in his head, that he'd been forced to do something to help them get it over with, but now he could never forget the sight of Aya moving in predatory, focused lust, Farfarello's cock in his mouth. How could he ever look at Aya again without seeing that... wanting that? He'd told himself he'd keep his eyes closed throughout, but the sounds made it impossible not to look....

At this rate he'd have to go to the men's room to jerk off. Stop thinking about it. At least Aya had gone elsewhere with Farfarello for now.

Schuldig sat next to Nagi and sprawled. "Hey, honey." Viewed through dark sunglasses, Schuldig looked less gaudy. ~ Afterglow makes you meaner, kid? ~

Did Schuldig mean "honey" as a term of affection or a reference to how he thought fun thoughts tasted like honey? Or both?

An angry bitchfest might help kill the ache of lust. ~ I know you watched the whole thing, you bastard. ~

~ I'm me. Did you really think I wouldn't? ~

~ I felt you in my head by the end! ~

~ Did it feel good? ~

Nagi sent Schuldig an image of Schuldig's body being picked up, folded, and thrown across the terminal. ~ No. ~

~ Ow. You wound me. Hey, I don't want to discourage you from having sex. Quite the opposite, especially if multiple partners are involved! ~

~ Did you think I wouldn't notice you inside my mind? You became too obvious. ~

~ So you're annoyed that I underestimated your ability to notice an invasion? Nags, with what I was experiencing my control wasn't what it usually is. And you did a good thing for them. I'm proud of ya. ~

~ You would be. I'm angry about the absence of privacy. I know some of it can't be helped but I could tell that you were there of your own will and doing some manipulation on Aya. ~ Too bad Nagi couldn't blame his own actions on Schuldig.

~ Not much. He was really willing on his own, especially by the end. I just nudged. You knew Aya has more passion in him than he likes to show, you knew it even before today. ~

Nagi hated it when Schuldig was right. It complicated things.

Showing no sense of self-preservation, Schuldig leaned over and set his head on the slim teke field over Nagi's shoulder. His hair smelled like Crawford's cologne. ~ C'mon, it was good. You know it was. Aya knows it was. Right now he's a little embarrassed by what you saw but he really likes you and trusts you. Everything will be fine. And if we could only get you laid on your own you wouldn't be so vulnerable to thoughts of Aya giving Farf an amazing blowjob while you held him down. ~

Nagi shoved Schuldig's heavy head off his shoulder by thickening his field and making it push up. ~ I hate you. You almost had me until that last twist of the screw you just can't resist. ~

~ I love you, kid. ~

It sounded honest and like manipulation all at once, and it made Nagi smile. Predictability could be comforting.

But at the same time they were heading off into the unknown here. ~ You're a gaudy-- ~

~ When you're born with hair this color, you learn to stop fighting fate. The green I tried for a while was actually more sedate. ~

~ --too tall, meddling pain in the ass, but I want you to be careful when we get there. I'm used to having you around. ~

~ Don't get too sentimental on me, kid. ~ But Schuldig sounded pleased anyway and sprawled more. ~ I'll be fine. I've survived much worse. ~

~ I know things about your sex life I wish I still didn't know, but almost nothing about your past, while you and Crawford know too much about mine. ~ Though not willingly from Nagi's lips. Eszett took a lot out of him through drugs and torture when he was younger.

~ I don't feel like getting into it, is all. You'll have to believe me when I say I've gotten through some rough shit. Rougher than my recent problem, even. ~

~ I can believe that. ~

~ You better be careful yourself. You're a telepath too. Sure, it's not a huge talent, but if this ambiance is anything like you've heard, you'll feel it. ~

~ I'm always careful. ~

Schuldig snorted.

~ All right, I'm _usually_ careful, you bastard. ~

"Are you harassing Nagi?" Aya asked as he and Farfarello walked over. "Stop it."

"Harassing? Nah," Schuldig answered, looking, amazingly, even more smug.

"He has that 'Schuldig's harassing me' look."

"He's just looking like Nagi to me."

"Maybe that's because you're harassing him so often that he always looks like that," Farfarello answered.

"Funny guy."

Despite that feeling of awkwardness, Aya still looked out for him. It made Nagi feel warm and mushy and not very Nagi-like since he found it difficult to maintain his hatred for all humanity when so touched.

"You were watching us, weren't you?" Aya suddenly asked, his eyes narrowing and face sharpening.

"Watching what?" Schuldig answered, all innocence.

"You know what!"

"The sex? Of course I was watching. You should know by now. I'm a telepath. I can't help it."

"You're not helpless against it. I'll kill you." From the look on his face, he might not be entirely joking.

"Not in a public space," Crawford said as walked between them to take a seat next to Schuldig.

"Thank you, Snugglebear!" Schuldig said.

"Perhaps you can wait until we reach a private space, Aya."

"Damn, you're mean."

"Yes, but I'm no one's Snugglebear."

"It's all right, Aya," Nagi said.

"You don't mind?" Aya seemed surprised.

"I'll get him back in thousands of small ways for the rest of his life. There's not much else we can do now anyway."

"All right. I'll take your word on that and let Schuldig live."

Had Aya been concerned with Nagi's honor here? Weird. And cute.

"You don't have to let Schuldig live," Crawford said.

Schuldig pouted. "So mean!"

Farfarello and Aya sat on Nagi's other side. Sandwiched between Aya and Schuldig--

~ If only! ~ Schuldig immediately said.

~ You're such a pain in the ass, ~ Nagi answered.

\--Nagi waited for the departure time with his family. "Schuldig, stop leaning on me!"

"You're _no_ fun."


	171. "Really, I'm flattered but suspicious."

Aya had brought along a detective novel Farfarello had gotten him since he didn't have the attention span for deeper things on flights. Looking blissful and carefree, Farfarello slept with his head on Aya's shoulder and sunglasses slightly askew. Maybe they should always have sex before major travel. Aya felt his face warm a little at the direction of his thoughts. He used to have some sense of shame.

Fidgeting and distracted by a discomfort he couldn't identify (although _not_ shame), Aya wished he could be as peaceful as his lover. At this rate his squirming would wake Farfarello.

"I'm awake now," Farfarello said against Aya's neck, making him shiver, then lifted his head from Aya's shoulder. "Maybe a short walk will help settle you."

Farfarello probably wouldn't sleep with him away. "Sorry," Aya said.

"We take care of each other, as we should be. Go on."

Standing and stretching, Aya enjoyed the movement and pull of muscles that had been unused for longer than he liked. At least he and Farfarello sat in first class, with more legroom. He glanced toward the cockpit and could pick out Crawford and Schuldig sitting side by side by the glimpse of silver and orange hair showing over the top of the seats. Once he set his book down, he walked toward the back of the plane, quickly apologizing now and then to people in the narrow aisle with him. While he hadn't set out with a stop in mind, he halted next to Nagi anyway, who preferred to fly coach to stay away from the rest of the team. Predictably, Schuldig had made a comment at the terminal about short people and the possibility of folding Nagi up to store him in an overhead compartment instead of paying for a seat. The bitchfest duel that had followed had also been predictable but entertaining as Nagi threatened and Schuldig sleazed.

"You feel it too, don't you, Aya?" Nagi asked, looking up at him.

Aya's mind instantly went to a place that made his face flame before he could control himself. Apparently, another disadvantage of threesomes was that they made him blush against his will. He still couldn't believe that Nagi had--

Enough already. Move on.

The dark sunglasses hid Nagi's eyes but not his sudden smile. Perhaps Aya's discomfort let Nagi feel comfortable about it, because Aya would have thought the boy would be twitchy over it. "I didn't mean that. Pervert." He sobered and took off his sunglasses. "You feel the ambiance. I do too."

"No, I was just--" Uncomfortable. Distracted by something he couldn't put his finger on. "I think I may be." While it might be beyond odd to have some limited telepathic abilities, it didn't surprise him at all that they manifested in him as debits instead of useful tools.

"Is Farfarello? He seems to feel more lately." This time Nagi blushed. "Uhm."

The mutual discomfiture reassured Aya somehow. "I don't think he does." He didn't like speaking about business matters in public, but he couldn't speak mind to mind as cleanly as the actual telepaths could, while talking to someone who didn't seem to be answering would look even more suspicious. At least they could speak in euphemisms and a lot of the people seated near Nagi slept or listened to headphones. "What about Schuldig?"

~ Schuldig, how are you doing? ~ Nagi asked, letting Aya hear.

~ Fine. Stop bothering me. ~

But as Aya and Nagi looked at each other, Aya could tell that they'd both heard some strain in that. Aya asked, "How far are we from the airport?"

"If we stay on schedule, about a half hour. Why do you need me to say? I saw you wearing a watch in New York," Nagi answered.

He'd stopped wearing it when he'd returned to Schwarz, which he couldn't quite explain. Perhaps because Farfarello never wore one, which would once have made him more likely to keep the time for him but instead made him feel that he wanted to be closer to his experience by doing the same as he did. Watches were for missions only.

Besides, his time in Weiß had been completely controlled by clocks: the beginning and end of flower shop shifts, hospital visiting hours, and missions. Regimented. Spaces between those had felt like tense waiting, suspended, purposeless. Once, he knew where he had to be every day at every hour and felt time passing by those signposts. Having mostly escaped the tyranny of a schedule in Schwarz, he couldn't put a wrist shackle back on short of business. Something about Schwarz defied time for him, and he liked that. "I'm not now."

"Okay. You're weird. You know that."

"Yes. The ambiance will only get worse."

"I don't know what we can do. Really."

"Will you be all right?"

Nagi always briefly lit up when Aya showed concern for him before regaining his cool blankness, as if it still surprised him. It shouldn't, and Aya resolved to make sure he came to expect people to care for him. "I'm tough."

"I'm sure Schuldig's keeping his struggle from Crawford right now as well as us out of the same sentiment."

"You have a point. As much as I hate to admit it."

"Let me know if it gets worse for you. I think I'll visit Schuldig and Crawford in the meantime to see for myself."

"I doubt Schuldig will welcome you with open arms. Unless it's the sleazy way as he tries to distract you."

"I know."

"Better you than me. Good luck." Nagi put his sunglasses back on and leaned back into his seat, giving every indication that he intended to sleep.

"Thanks."

Farfarello shot him a questioning look as he walked past their row, but Aya did an "I'm fine" head nod and kept going until he reached Crawford and Schuldig. The telepath also wore dark glasses to hide his eyes, making Aya wonder if he would see signs of strain around them if he _could_ see them.

Looking annoyed, Crawford asked, "Is there something we can help you with, Aya?"

"Nagi's feeling some discomfort."

"Did you hear that, Schu?" It sounded so pointed that Aya began to think that the annoyance hadn't been directed at him.

"Sure I did, Brad. I'm not deaf." Schuldig's voice sounded flat and matched Crawford's annoyance. "But you know Nags can't keep his mouth shut around his redheaded lust object."

Aya nearly smiled as he heard that, noticing the attempted shield of distraction, sleaze, and offensiveness coming up on schedule just as Nagi had predicted. "You're more powerful than he is. He worries about you. We both do."

Schuldig smiled. "Aya, what is up with the blowjob? Really, I'm flattered but suspicious."

As much as he hated to draw this kind of attention to himself, he felt it necessary here. "I'm also feeling discomfort."

That caught Schuldig's interest completely. "_Really_?"

Aya felt a sudden, shuddering scrabbling in his soul and vertigo that knocked him down. He came to lying across Crawford and Schuldig's laps, with his feet dangling out into the aisle a little, and Farfarello growling at Schuldig as Schuldig answered, "He's fine. See how fine he is?"

Shivering, Aya said, "I feel dizzy. What the hell was that?" He struggled to get out of their laps but couldn't quite make it. Too wobbly.

"Calm _down_, Farf. I took a look at Aya's experience of the ambiance. Since I'm shielding myself from it so hard, my finesse isn't what it usually is. I have too much going on at once."

"You do not touch my kitten," Farfarello growled.

"It was necessary. No harm was done, and this way I know more on how to protect him from it."

"Schuldig," Crawford said.

"Nobody saw it happen and nobody notices a thing now. I'm good, just distracted, okay? Aya, you're not directly feeling more of the ambiance than regular people but you are getting some of Nagi's experience of it, since I'm shielding too hard to leak to you. As long as Nagi is shielding out most of it, you should be okay. Good thing we destroyed Eszett, because they would be creaming themselves at the thought of exploring what makes you tick. I'm creaming myself...."

"Get your hand off my thigh," Aya snarled.

Smiling, Schuldig removed his hand. "It's a shame I'm not a better researcher or theorist. You deserve better."

Schuldig _was not_ well.

~ No shit, ~ Nagi said as he walked up to them.

"Hey, kid, if you're here too it gets harder to make the flight attendants and other passengers ignore us. We take up too much space. Even you," Schuldig said.

~ Does Crawford or Farfarello feel it? ~

"No," Crawford said.

"I feel nothing but anger," Farfarello answered. "Let my kitten go."

"Yes, Moses," Schuldig replied, and Aya had to sit up fast to grab Farfarello's arm and stop him from trying to stab the telepath while Schuldig laughed. Aya took advantage of the opportunity to stand up and away from them, although he had to lean on Farfarello a little to _stay_ standing. And his leaning weight helped prevent Farfarello from attacking again.

"You're better than this, Schuldig," Crawford said softly.

"Fuck you." But Schuldig calmed a bit before finally saying, "It hurts. Even blocking it out, it hurts."

"I can't afford to lose you to this. If need be, I'll send you back."

~ Like hell! I can handle this. I _am_ better than this. You need me. I'm the best telepath you have, and a telepath is what's needed here to find the kids and stop the madness. I'm one of the best hounds Rosenkreuz ever trained. ~

"I know that."

"There's something familiar feeling in the haze," Nagi said. "I don't quite see it, though. My telepathy isn't that strong or developed."

"It's too foggy and overwhelming," Schuldig replied. "I need time to unravel it. And fewer teammates breathing down my neck."

"It may become clearer as we get closer," Crawford answered. ~ Go back to your seats. Telepathic cloaking or no, we'll draw attention if you keep blocking the flight attendants' path. ~

"I'm good, kitten," Schuldig said with a wide smile.

Nagi tilted his head in a "we tried" way, and Aya couldn't see what else they could do either, so the three of them returned to their seats. Farfarello put his head on Aya's shoulder and murmured, "The mindbreaker looks fluffy but is tougher than he appears. You know this."

"He's _not_ well."

"Aye, he's not, and he'll probably get worse. Promise me something."

"Promise what?"

"If you feel threatened in his presence in any way, listen to your instincts and flee or fight. Don't tell yourself or let your occasionally soft heart convince you it's nothing. Don't wait for any of us to do something. Defend yourself at full strength. Better to decide later that you overreacted if it turns out you did than the alternative."

"Is he that dangerous and out of control like this?" Aya whispered.

"He can be. Wounded, he's always been even more dangerous and indiscriminate of ally or enemy, and he enjoys hurting people more than I do. We've evolved, but now we're returning the place that tried to make us into little more than killing puppets. He can be suggestible."

Aya decided to keep all of this in mind and increase his alertness around the telepath, but he still had to ask, "There wouldn't be _any_ jealousy or possessiveness in this judgment?"

"Always. But it doesn't make me wrong. He might regret breaking you later on, but you would still be broken."

"I'll keep that in mind."

******************************************************

The kids plotted against him. Even with so much of the damage healed, Farfarello's mind stayed hard to read but Schuldig could slurp a lot of Aya's tasty thoughts. Still, it might be better this way since Schuldig didn't quite trust his self-control right now, especially not when Aya kept being so deliciously concerned, putting himself in harm's way. Schuldig wanted to roam through that sweet mind and bite down, wanted to feel Aya moan, shudder, and cry in his arms.

Worse, he knew he currently fixated on Aya just because of that show of concern. His lust could focus on Nagi next or maybe even Farf. Part of him recognized that Farfarello felt more now and wanted to test the limits of that.

He _hurt_.

"Do you need anything?" Brad asked. "A drink? A straitjacket? A leash?"

"Choices A and C sound good," Schuldig answered. ~ My head hurts, is all. Too loud out there. It's like being wrapped in a thick fog of people shouting and screaming. ~

~ Is it an outpouring of psychic pain? ~

~ It is indeed, and it's so overwhelming and so much that I'm not even getting my usual high. It just hurts. I think our untrained Rosenkreuz kin are suffering and letting it bleed out everywhere. ~

~ But you are high. I can tell. You have one of the ones you said feel like poison. ~

Brad knew him too well. Schuldig sighed. ~ A bit. Nagi's right about the signature feeling familiar. I can't place my finger on it, but I know it. It's like not seeing the forest because you're walking amongst the trees. ~

~ You don't have to do this. You have nothing to prove to me, and you're too valuable for me to risk you getting ruined. ~

~ Valuable. I am a gem beyond price. ~

~ You're a lunatic. ~

~ That too. I'm staying. ~ But feeling the edges of Brad's worry and Brad-style affection inspired Schuldig to make a concession out of generosity. ~ If it gets to be too much, I'll tell you and you can pull me out. ~

~ You will. ~

~ It's not like you can send me back to Rosenkreuz and get a comparable telepath now if you decide I'm not good enough. ~

Brad sparked with a sudden sharp and sour taste of emotion that came and went so quickly that Schuldig couldn't tag it, just try to remember it to pick it apart later. Might it have been a feeling of hurt? Not many people could make Brad feel hurt. Tasty.

Shit. ~ A drink would be good, ~ Schuldig said, then sat back in his seat and closed his eyes. As soon as he got settled in their hotel room he'd search the astral plane and start killing the little weeping telepathic sores. Anything to get some sense of peace and better control over his sadism.

~ Would a distraction help? ~ Brad's hand settled on Schuldig's thigh. Hello, nurse. And once upon a time Brad hadn't been spontaneous about sex.

Brad was harder to read than usual but Schuldig caught something about him feeling possessive as he watched his telepath struggle to stay together and fight off other influences. _His_ telepath. How caveman of him. Schuldig enjoyed that sometimes. ~ I always appreciate a good distraction. ~

~ If you can be quiet.... ~

~ Watch me. ~

Schuldig put a blanket over his lap and pushed himself into the hand and handkerchief that had gone down the now open fly of his pants. Brad stroked him with a strong, knowing, possessive touch, no shyness, very little gentleness, just out to get him off. Perfect. As Schuldig melted into the pleasure and rough handling, he felt knots of tension he hadn't even realized he had start to loosen. So good. He started to come....

It _howled_, hungry, in several voices that all sounded like one voice. ~ WHO ARE YOU? YOU FEEL LIKE ME BUT YOU DON'T HURT LIKE ME! I WANT YOU, GOT YOU! ~

Breathing hard, head ringing, Schuldig slammed all of his shields back into place tightly and put his hand down hard on Brad's to stop the stroking, not that Schuldig could climax now anyway. Breathing hard, he mentally felt around cautiously to make sure nothing had lodged in his mind before he'd closed up again. "Well, that was interesting," Schuldig said lightly, although he heard his voice shaking.

Brad took his hand back. "How are you?"

"Did you feel that?"

~ Just from your body's reaction. It looked like a seizure. ~

~ They took advantage of my distraction. A bunch of them are working together, I think. It's that or one telepath with a lot of people caught inside his head. Either way, it's bad news. ~ Then Schuldig thought about what had just happened. ~ Oh, shit. ~

~ You'll go without sex. You claim that you can. ~

Sure he could. When he wasn't stressed in other ways. Fuck! Or, rather, no fuck. No fuck for as long as the ambiance persisted. ~ Of course I can. I just prefer not to. ~

He was _so_ going to find the little monsters and snuff them out.


	172. "That's a long story."

"Are you sure you don't want to rest first?" Brad asked.

Schuldig stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray on the table near the bed. "Yeah, I'm sure. The faster we start picking off the problems, the faster I can live my life again." The buzzing in his head left him so irritable that he wanted to rip something to pieces, cry, or both. He was stronger than this, dammit, but somehow a lot of the ambiance went right through his shields anyway.

"I would feel the same," Farfarello said. All of Schwarz stood in the hotel room, ready as backup.

"They might be from our material." Brad meant that in a possessive and possible-weapons-to-acquire way, not a humanitarian or family way.

"If they're bleeding out this badly they might not be salvageable anyway. Better to kill them so the stronger us can live. Got me?"

"Yes. Be careful. Don't let your pique make you reckless."

"Yeah, yeah." Lying back, Schuldig closed his eyes and went out onto the astral plane.

Even that looked bad, warped by the local minds. It was dark and tense, thick with charcoal-colored clouds of pain and lightning strikes of dark color. Negative emotions wrapped around him like fog, moist and cloying. Hard to pinpoint anything in the miasma, when it was all around him, but he focused and started to make out radiating spots. The trick would be to stay invisible himself, but he could do that, easy. He flew to the spots with the weakest shields and most mindless pain and pinched them out. These telepaths didn't have much mind or personality left anyway. He capped the ones who had more power so their deaths wouldn't temporarily cause pain bursts or shocks, but most of them he nailed with impunity. Some retained enough mind to send a feeble burst of gratitude or defiance as they died. They all tasted much sweeter as he murdered them.

After he killed ten, he could already start to feel a difference. Taking out the pain spots removed their personal pain and stopped them from adding it to everyone else's in an amplifying loop. He felt less like a clenched fist now.

Schuldig noticed a small, fluffy cat standing nearby. Chinchilla Persian? It was white with black markings and had black rings like eyeliner around its large ice-blue eyes. It stared straight at him, when it shouldn't see him at all, but didn't attack. Schuldig sent out a careful probe but couldn't penetrate its shields, although he could get a surface reading of surprise and curiosity. Obviously another telepath.

~ You got a problem with me? ~ Schuldig asked, and it shook its head No.

He stayed alert anyway as he flew to his next mark. The little chinchilla cat didn't follow him.

Three deaths later he felt something gathering. He might be in stealth mode, but his actions changed the ambiance enough to get attention. Time to go.

Something that looked like a large bruise approached at high speed and wrapped around him, murmuring with multiple voices. To his horror, Schuldig felt it start to diffuse and mingle into his self, which should have been impossible, especially with his shields up. Drowning.... He changed form from a wave of color to a lion, "solid," slashing around him with large claws, killing parts of it and making it back off a little before it became a little larger, gained more voices, and flew at him again. What the hell was it?

Fighting the bruise drew the attention of other passing telepaths, who started to mob him, but somehow they couldn't affect him as much and as badly as the bruise did. The wave of black and gray-purple struck him like an avalanche, making him reel, then grabbed him tightly. When he tried to return to his intangible wave form, the bruise started to flow into him, which forced him to go back to a solid looking shape. Actually, the fact that the bruise made distinctions between illusions, accepting Shuldig's lion skin as a barrier against internal invasion, showed how little it knew, but its ignorance wasn't stopping it from kicking his ass in other ways. Outnumbered, overpowered, surrounded by beasts and shadows and killers and a bruise, he could just make out a few words in the pulse of howling sound beating through his self: ~ help help want help teach help hurts come help help help help help hurts hurts still hurts _hurt_ ~ He struggled and fought back and killed some of them but he was drowning....

Some unknown somebody somewhere was yelling, ~ Stop! You won't get what you want that way! Stop! ~ but nobody listened.

A few heads flew off as Farfarello announced himself with his lightsaber. After hacking off some of the bruise he managed to grab Schuldig and yank him loose, still slashing the whole time. ~ We're going! ~ he said.

Disoriented, full of voices, weak, Schuldig answered, ~ I can't-- Where...? ~

~ Out! Away! ~

Out. Schuldig wanted nothing more than to get out. ~ Okay. ~ But he only got himself out by focusing on the feel of Farf leaving.

He came to with a force pinning his body to the bed and something hard inside his mouth. He couldn't even thrash. Couldn't breathe!

~ Nagi, let him go, ~ Brad said.

"Gladly."

Once released, Schuldig nearly flew up off the bed but Brad caught him and held him tight, saying, "You had what looked like seizures. I told Nagi to hold you and put something in your mouth so you wouldn't bite your tongue off."

That explained the taste of blood in his mouth.

Schuldig tried to put himself back together but couldn't stop shaking. That bruise thing had entered his shields. Hell, it had resonated in time with him.

...no. It couldn't be.

"Nagi." Even his voice shook a little. Intolerable. "You've been reading up on Eszett's experiments and things. I remember hearing a rumor that clones have a similar telepathic signature and resonance to the person they replicate because those things are determined partly through genetics. True?"

Nagi went paler. Damn. "Yes. True."

The rest came from how you were trained to use your telepathy. "Then a bunch of my clones just slid through my shields like a hot knife through butter. They almost absorbed me into them by force. If I'd been less skilled and powerful they would have succeeded immediately."

Brad's grip tightened. "I can't let you go back in there."

"They were _in_ me a bit. They probably know I'm in the area. They might come looking for me." Schuldig tried to take deeper breaths. "They want my training. They want me to fix them."

"They felt crazy to me," Farfarello said as he sat folded up in a nearby chair. "Crazy desperate. All of them, not just the ones that almost ate you. The ones that wanted to eat you felt like a Legion."

Just what Schuldig had thought when he'd heard its chorus of voices. Damn. He didn't want to know but knew he'd have to find out for sure.

"I'm sending you back to Tokyo," Brad said. "You and Nagi."

"What?" Schuldig and Nagi said at almost the same time.

"You can't do this without me," Schuldig said. "I killed a least 13 of the problem telepaths. The ambiance feels a little bit better already. I'm also your tracker. You need me."

Nagi shook his head at Brad. "The ambiance is not affecting me that badly."

"Nagi, you're much crankier than usual," Brad answered.

"How can you tell? Besides, Aya isn't completely resistant to it."

"But he's picking up the two of you, not the ambiance, so if you were both elsewhere it wouldn't be a problem. Farfarello seems immune, as do I."

Aya looked thoughtful, probably wondering for himself what would be the better plan. Schuldig couldn't help thinking that Brad intended to get his wife and son out of Austria, leaving only the hired help. Schuldig didn't like it.

Brad smelled good and felt good, and it seemed safe here in his arms, but Schuldig didn't want this for himself, some life of dependency and being the weaker, unequal partner. He might play that with people who didn't matter even as he manipulated the hell out of them, but not with Brad. Brad had to know that he wasn't a delicate flower that needed protection and that he might be warped but he was _strong_.

"Brad, what makes us vulnerable here is what also makes us essential to you. How are you going to hunt these people down without me? Farf doesn't have the talent necessary. Best he could do is lay himself out as tasty bait. I can find them. And Nagi is an important part of our offense and defense." To further nail it in and show that he still had teeth and claws, Schuldig said to Brad alone, ~ You'd see that if you weren't getting so emotional. ~ Alone, because he saw no reason to rub it in in front of the team.

Blatantly offended and angry, Brad let him go. "Fine. But if I see another display like that, I'll send you back to Tokyo if I have to knock you out and ship you there in a box."

Schuldig slid of the bed and out of his easy reach. "That won't happen, but if things go that way remember to punch holes in the box."

"I'll punch something in the box."

That wasn't Brad's dry, joking tone. No matter. Schuldig knew he had to stay here, and Brad would get over his anger eventually, especially if he took the time to think about it.

Schuldig might joke about Brad being the Schwarz family patriarch and the two of them being an old married couple, but he had no intention of becoming the stay-at-home wifey in the relationship. He didn't help destroy Eszett just to sell himself into bondage to someone else. If Brad couldn't understand that, they'd never last together anyway.

"Sure, Brad. Now I'm gonna go out to smoke. Miss me while I'm gone." Schuldig grabbed his coat and walked out at Schuldig speed, needing to be away and less crowded. He still felt some lingering quasi-claustrophobia from how they'd attacked him on the astral plane.

Vienna had a good, cold wind going, perfect for his mood, although it made lighting up more difficult even while huddled in a doorway. Catching his hair on fire would suck too, but it kept whipping around. The cold cut right to the center of his bones, reminding him that this was _his_ body, the container that carried his self around, and _his_ experience.

"I agree with you," Aya said nearby. Beneath his whipping crimson hair, his face stayed blank, and it made Schuldig feel the way graffiti artists must feel when they see a plain white wall. "You're too useful here to be sent back until it becomes utterly necessary."

"Did Brad send you after me?"

"No. He said something about letting you rot."

About what he'd expected. "Ah, that's amore."

"But he didn't stop me from leaving." The cold put some color into his pale face.

"What about Farf?"

"He recognizes that sometimes it's best to let me do what I want to do."

"Farf's more reasonable than Brad right now? The damned are strapping ice skates on in hell."

"You deliberately ticked Crawford off."

"He needs that now and then." Schuldig took a deep drag on his cigarette. "Why are you here?"

"That's a long story."

Aya showed flashes of weird humor sometimes, something Schuldig liked about him. "Why did you follow me out?"

"You said that you're coveted by the area telepaths and they might be able to track you. It makes sense to give you someone to watch your back."

"You're not our leader. Brad would kill you if you tried to be."

"I don't want to be leader. I just can't sit back and do nothing when something needs to be done."

Aya had become proprietary about Schwarz. It made Schuldig smirk. "You're within grabbing distance. Didn't Farfie warn you about me?"

"Yes."

"Don't believe him?"

"I do believe him."

"You're not backing away, so you must want to be grabbed."

"Not by you."

Schuldig moved at a blurring speed, pressing Aya against the wall. Never got tired of doing that. Aya had drawn a knife, prepared to use it, but hadn't applied it yet. Instead, he tried to hold Schuldig off with a flat look that asked him if he really wanted to fuck with him. The answer was Yes, always, but.... Schuldig could feel the knife's edge he balanced on. If he attacked a member of Schwarz he'd be crossing a line in an irrevocable way. They'd just gotten Aya to accept them as family, and Schuldig could ruin that right here, right now. Unless he made Aya want it. Either way, it would be declaring war with Farf, and Brad would be pissed that Schuldig had destroyed the balance of the team he worked so hard to make efficient.

It was proof that Schuldig's actions mattered to other people, made an impact on lives. He loved that shit.

Aya was such a pretty and improbable creature with that hair and those eyes paired with his Japanese features. The gold bar of his sister's earring and red strands of hair splashed his pale skin with color as the wind whipped them around. Schuldig had such a weakness for pretty things that belonged to other people. The thought of fucking Abyssinian in a doorway in Vienna held so much appeal.

"Is it that you really have no control or is it convenient for you to pretend you don't?" Aya asked, his thoughts deep and twisty, labyrinthine. He had his warm body and cold eyes turned on Schuldig.

"Are you appealing to my better nature? I don't have one."

"I'm appealing to your pride."

"Why are you so concerned for me? I made one of your fangirls shoot you once." That girl had died trying to rescue Aya's sister and remained a sore spot from the way Aya flinched a little.

But Aya countered with "Why are you trying so hard to drive everyone away?"

Through his coat, Schuldig could feel the pressure of Aya's knife at his gut. If he leaned in more, it might start to cut. Schuldig wondered if it had started to damage his coat yet. "Why are you answering my questions with other questions?"

"I always cared about people, despite myself, but I couldn't allow it. I had someone far more important that I had to reserve my attention for."

His vegetable of a sister. "And now that she doesn't exist anymore you can lavish it on other people?"

"Yes, I'm famed for being lavish."

To Schuldig's annoyance, Aya kept refusing to react right. He _should_ be worried about imminent ravaging, yet he kept acting too light. It made Schuldig feel disrespected even as Aya's certainty that Schuldig had too much pride to let his control slip gave him a little warm glow. Still, he had to remind Aya to be wary of him. Time to do something unexpected.

Schuldig rested his head on Aya's shoulder and glanced up at him. From the look on Aya's face, this move terrified him more than outright molestation. Good. This even felt kind of cozy. Too bad Aya covered up so much because Schuldig would love to get a touch of bare skin.

Closing his eyes, Schuldig snuggled in a little more despite the pressure of the knife against his coat and murmured, "I became someone different to survive. You know what that's like. Eszett would have destroyed me if I hadn't."

"Yes."

"But otherwise I'm not like you. I have needs, Aya."

"I'm concerned, not a fool. Don't toy with me."

Schuldig felt little sparks of Farfie's talent resting inside Aya like embers in a pile of charred, burning-out firewood. Warm. Aya had a little of that inside him at all times now, but when he grabbed hold of the talent the embers flared to life, blazing. Unable to help himself, Schuldig used his telepathy to stroke them up to greater heat and grinned as he heard Aya gasp.

"Stop touching me," Aya said.

"I haven't even started." Schuldig didn't touch with his hands, just with his mind, showing Aya images of Schuldig stripping him, stroking him, sucking him, fuck--

Schuldig felt a sharp sting at his stomach and a cold weight at his neck. He knew one to be Aya's knife, but the other...? Opening his eyes, he saw the flat of Farfarello's sword resting on his neck. After a little twist its edge would face his skin and start to cleave.

Farf looked _ticked_. "Explain to me why I shouldn't remove your manipulative head from its neck."

"I'm still too useful."

"The thought of letting you drown in your own talent and die is becoming ever more attractive," Aya answered, his voice low and thick with sex. Schuldig had felt him getting a little hard. Even he couldn't help reacting to a mindfuck. Schuldig hadn't even given it the time and effort it really deserved, since he knew that doing a real seduction over time would draw Farf out for sure.

"Step away from my kitten," Farf said.

"It's not like I put my hands all over him." But Schuldig carefully moved away from the sword, stepped back, and held his arms out and away from himself in a gesture of harmlessness.

"You don't have to."

"It's so good to talk to people who respect my skills."

They regarded him with similar looks of narrow-eyed distrust, though Aya had two eyes to strengthen the impression of suspicion. Schuldig put his hand to his gut and put two fingers through the new hole in his coat. A little blood adorned his glove when he brought his hand up to look at it. The cut stung. Once, Aya would have tried to stab him at the first sign that Schuldig intended to get fresh with him. He might again, after today. That... wasn't a good thought. Schuldig had fucked up, pushed too hard. His head hurt so much....

To his surprise, he saw Aya wince, as if in pain. Definitely getting the edges of his experience. Maybe he could call on that to get himself out of the doghouse he'd just put himself in with the psycho twins. "Fuck. I can't think straight." Truth, but truth used to manipulate. "I wasn't thinking with you. I fucked up."

"You were thinking with your other head," Farfarello answered, very angry, but Aya looked a little more open, perhaps from being able to feel him a bit. Enforced empathy.

"I've done that, but it didn't happen here."

"Being gangbanged by your own clones doesn't give you an excuse to attack other people," Farfie replied, almost growling.

Schuldig had been dealing just fine with everything until Farf put it that way. "I feel kind of woozy."

This time Farfarello _did_ growl. But Aya said, "He's not lying." Red had a looking-into-the-distance appearance to him and the head tilt of a wild animal scenting the breeze. So pretty.... Focus, Schuldig. Maybe the ambient crap wafting all over amped Aya up.

Schuldig resisted the urge to say something that would get his head taken off, because he really did feel woozy and wanted to get inside, which wouldn't happen with an angry Farf blocking the door, so instead he concentrated on looking like he was in pain, which he was, and kind of pathetic. Which he also was. Farfarello looked annoyed but finally relented, moving to the side, partially blocking Aya from Schuldig's sight and reach.

But when Schuldig got to the door he couldn't resist grabbing Farf. His current state of mind made his usual mood swings seem mild. Right now he _needed_ a snuggle. He missed fucking with Farfie; it had been so raw and dangerous. They used to be closer.... Rubbing his nose against Farfie's neck above the barbwire necklace, he murmured, "You smell different since Pittsburgh. You know that?" Kind of... lighter and brighter somehow. Maybe it came from the healing and energy work.

Farf didn't hold him or push him away. "I didn't know that."

It would be a good idea to make an appeal to Farf's good side right now. "Thanks for helping me get out. You look good as a redhead."

"Redhead?" Aya asked.

"I look like that to some people while my soul is out wandering," Farf replied.

"That's good. I had some times when I thought I'd fallen prey to the worst kind of narcissism. Or insanity."

So Aya had seen Farf's soul. Oh yeah, Farf had mentioned that once. But he hadn't said... "What color were his eyes?" Schuldig had to ask.

"Purple."

"_That's_ narcissism." Or something to worry about if Aya had seen them as purple after the toxic twins had started to merge. "Since when?"

"New York. When I first starting having trouble."

Hard to call, then. "I see 'em as green."

"Hmm." Then Aya looked out into the street.

"What?"

"Something. I feel something."

Again, Schuldig bravely resisted the urge to say something snide and just took a look instead. Swirls. Swirls? Like wind, but not wind. ~ Nagi, get out here. I want to see if you see something. ~

To Schuldig's great pleasure, the kid didn't argue with him, just did as asked. As he opened the door and looked out into the street, Nagi said, "Everyone inside now."

"You think it's from everyone starting to concentrate on this area?" Schuldig asked as they rushed inside, then strolled through the lobby at a sedate speed that hopefully wouldn't arouse suspicions.

"Could be. The potential is building. Even you guys saw it? That's not good."

"Maybe we should keep a watch at night," Aya said.

"Good idea. I'm setting up a schedule," Brad said from the elevator as the doors opened. "Schuldig?"

"I'm not taking first watch. I need some sleep." He hoped he could get some with the ache in his head. Bandaging came first. Brad didn't say a word about the new hole in Schuldig's coat but his eyes noticed.

As the team stood in the elevator, Brad wound a tendril of Schuldig's hair through his fingers. It was as close to an apology Schuldig would get for something Brad saw no need to apologize for. It would do.


	173. "If you see that as threatening, it's not my fault."

Sitting next to him, Elena looked like she had the headache from hell, so Yoji asked, "Are you okay?"

"Peachy," she answered through gritted teeth. "I'm sure it'll be even better once we've landed there."

"Can you handle it? If not, I'll send you back."

"No, I can do this. You need me."

"Not enough to justify you killing yourself."

~ Yoji, the ambiance has a lot of signatures on it, but most of the signatures are Schuldig-like, so close that a lot of telepaths would think it's him but somehow as a lot of people. Even offspring doesn't develop a signature that close. Eszett did a lot of cloning and genetic engineering, though. ~

Shit. That didn't sound good at all. Schwarz came for the clones?

~ Maybe. ~

Schwarz didn't seem much like the family type, at least about people outside their unit.

~ You're asking me to interpret Schwarz's motives? There are too many possibilities. ~

Right.

~ I'm sensing pain, but a kind of tension too. I don't know how to describe it quite. It's like... the people here are hunting something too. ~

Schwarz had arrived recently. Coincidence?

~ If this is coming toward Schwarz, I don't wanna be them. They're damned good at what they do, but they're badly outnumbered. ~

He and Elena might have to get involved. Omi would be all for it, seeing opportunities for Kritiker along with the possibility of Nagi needing a rescue.

~ We're just two people, not the cavalry. ~

Two more people to add to Schwarz's roster.

~ Should be fun to see how much they yell at us and say nasty things about Persia over us being here. ~

"We'll have to find them first."

~ The link between you will make that a little easier. ~

"I hate the way that sounds."

~ Me too, but we'll take advantage of anything we can. ~

Yoji only had a little telekinesis, but even he could feel something thick and moving in the air of Vienna's streets. Figuring that Elena would be distracted keeping her shields stronger against the ambiance, Yoji took the wheel of their rented car and told her not to protest. As he drove them he said, "We'll check into our rooms. You think it's too late to start looking for Schwarz? Sun's setting."

"Yeah. Let's do it when we're fresh tomorrow."

"I'm always fresh."

"No comment."

"You just don't have a good comeback."

Yoji swerved to avoid a car coming at him from a side street, then swerved again and sped up as another car came at him from the oncoming lane. Elena automatically reached for where her gun would usually be then cursed to herself as she realized it wasn't there and remembered that it was disassembled and hidden inside her luggage. But Yoji had his watch on and they both had their psionic talents, so they weren't defenseless. Three cars pursued them from behind, and Yoji avoided another one trying to get him from the front. Unfortunately, his unfamiliarity with Vienna eventually led him down a narrow street that his enemies capped off with cars on each end, boxing their car in.

"We shouldn't wait for them to come at us," Elena said.

"Yeah. Agreed. Damn, they don't seem to care whether anyone else sees them, and there's nothing we can do to stay subtle. All right. I'll take the front guys, you take the ones in back."

"Yeah. We go. Now?"

"Now."

They opened their doors and ducked down to use them as some cover before she started her flamethrower routine and he whipped out with his wire and tendrils of telekinetic force. Being better at fighting psionically, she didn't need as much cover as he did. Or so he'd thought. Those few times he dared look around to see her work, he noticed that her aim was off and she looked a bit confused. Not that he seemed to be having better luck hitting them.

He also noticed that most of the people in and near the cars confining them had the same basic looks and uncanny speed. Bright blue eyes, orange or oddly dyed hair.... Damn. He and Elena had a confirmation on the cloning. Watching them unsettled the hell out of him, especially since a lot of them had similar expressions and mannerisms too. And they all looked worn out, tired, despite being teenagers.

But they still dodged everything that came at them and started to advance. Yoji gritted his teeth at the painful feel of a buzzing, squeezing weight growing in his head.

******************************************************

"Why did you have to go after him?" Farfarello asked quietly as they stood in the hotel room's small foyer, a little away from the rest of Schwarz.

"It's stupid to let him go anywhere alone while he's vulnerable and such a wanted commodity," Aya whispered back through gritted teeth, feeling twitchy and annoyed. And ridiculously horny. He shouldn't continue to be this affected an hour after Schuldig had toyed with his body and his head. Perhaps he felt some of the ambiance even beyond what little he caught from his teammates no matter what Schuldig said.

"You thought you could handle him."

"Usually he isn't this badly unsettled and unpredictable."

"True." Resting his head on Aya's shoulder, Farfarello asked, "You still lust, don't you?"

This desperate, he might take anyone he could get right now. He hated that. At least with Farfarello this close his desire focused on ripping his lover's clothes off, which made it a little less inappropriate. "We have work."

"I would love to wipe his touch away with my own, but you're right. We're so responsible," Farfarello answered with a sigh that made Aya shiver.

"Yes."

"You still feel him."

Aya glanced at Schuldig, who napped sprawled out on the bed closest to them. Crawford and Schuldig's room had two beds. Perhaps the precog had foreseen how much trouble the telepath would be and didn't want to sleep right beside him.

"I don't know. It would be nicer to think that he's responsible for this."

"So proper you are."

"I try."

"Don't try too hard."

Crawford joined them and said, "Aya, we have to talk."

"If you're concerned that I'm trying to usurp your position, don't be. I don't want to be Schwarz's leader. But if I see some way I can help the team, I want to take it."

"I _want_ you to feel a personal investment in the team. I think you don't mean to be coming off as challenging as you are."

Did Crawford mean that to be careful phrasing or just patronizing? "If I see something lacking, I fill in. If you see that as threatening, it's not my fault."

Obviously not amused, Crawford's eyes narrowed and lips thinned. By contrast, Farfarello almost purred against Aya's neck in glee, distracting.

Schuldig sat up suddenly and said, "Yoji's in town and the Bruise's bodies are trying to take him in. We can't let them."

"Persia never can leave well enough alone," Crawford answered, turning to face his lover. "Who else is with him?"

"Friendly. Stop smiling like that, Brad. No way you're using her to replace me here."

"Surely you want us to rescue Balinese, and he would want us to help Friendly as well."

"I see right through you."

"You might prefer to accuse me of things later, after we get Balinese out of danger."

Schuldig pouted. "Don't think I won't."

While Aya still felt angry about Schuldig's behavior and attack on him earlier, he had to admit that the telepath didn't look well and couldn't help feeling some pity. If the ambiance felt anything at all like the feelings clouding and abrading Aya's mind, Schuldig must get it far worse. Something about the look in Schuldig's eyes....

Aya didn't used to pay so much attention to the people around him. They'd been thin shadows against the bright, burning light of his mission for vengeance.

"I see the situation now," Crawford said. "The clones have Balinese and Friendly boxed in on a narrow street. Taking on one side or the other of them would slow us down."

"I could fly all of us in over them and put us in the middle with Yoji and Friendly," Nagi said as he stopped typing.

"That would work well. Keep in mind that we can't kill them outright. We may be able to bargain them to a truce, and they could be helpful to us."

"In any case, killing a group of telepaths that large all at once could set off a psychic death wave that could take out a lot of other people in the surrounding areas," Schuldig said.

"Not killing will make things harder, but it's doable. I just wish I could kill enough of them to quiet the crap leaking into my head," Nagi answered, the first time he gave any indication that he felt the ambiance as anything other than a small nuisance. Crawford shot Schuldig a "See?" look, which Schuldig answered with a petulant expression and an obscene gesture.

Right now, Schwarz made Aya very tired.

******************************************************

Crawford enjoyed flying, although he'd much prefer to do it under his own control instead of Nagi's. He couldn't help feeling exhilarated as they sped high over the streets. Still, he had to keep fighting the urge to do a Superman pose. That would be embarrassing.

Schuldig had no such qualms. He embellished it further by humming the song that played while Lois Lane had her assisted flight and insipid internal monologue in the first Superman film. This went on until Nagi threatened to fling him down to the street.

Schuldig kept up a good front.

As they flew, Farfarello grinned madly, while Aya looked nervous as well as excited, although you'd have to know him to see it in his face. Nagi, accustomed to flight, simply looked annoyed as he took Schuldig's street directions.

Truly, almost no one noticed them up there. Set on their routines and the things directly in front of them, people didn't really look.

~ Those who do see us from a distance don't think we're really people up here. It's just too far out of their experience. Everybody else I'm mindclouding. ~

~ Good. Schuldig, I know you understand my concerns. ~

~ As if Friendly can handle the ambiance better. You know I'm better than her. ~

~ The interference won't be as personal and resonant for her. Nagi told me that Eszett didn't use her material much, particularly not for direct cloning. ~ Eszett had considered her too intractable, thinking that any clones of her would require more breaking and brainwashing. Some members in power had also fallen prey to a weird bias against Slavs he didn't understand at all.

~ I'm not weak, and I don't run away. ~

~ If local telepaths feel you here and want you, more will come to Vienna, making the ambiance here worse. ~

~ Don't care. We don't have time for this now, because we're almost there. ~

~ Later. ~

~ Goody. Something to look forward to. ~

~ I'm dropping us in. Everybody be ready, ~ Nagi said.

~ They won't shoot at us, ~ Schuldig said. ~ They want them and us alive. ~

Crawford had to fight the urge _to_ fight as Nagi's talent reoriented his body to send him down feet-first. It only made sense to do it that way, but he hated the feeling of someone else moving him around. Nagi put them down so about half of Schwarz faced one way and the other half the other, covering each band of clones. Aya having his guns out meant that Crawford could have Schuldig facing the same way as he did while Aya faced the other. They needed a show of obvious force for each side. It could be very hard to get people to understand that Nagi could destroy them from a distance without some prior demonstration of power, while Farfarello had a very obviously close-up weapon.

"Thanks," Balinese muttered through gritted teeth, obviously under direct telepathic attack. Friendly, under likewise, looked like she wanted to beat her head against the car to get the invasion out.

"Saving your ass again," Farfarello murmured with an evil grin.

"We're here," Crawford yelled to the clones. "What do you have to say?" He wouldn't let them see how badly it unsettled him to see a multitude of Schuldigs, at least 20, around the age when Crawford had first met him. Some of them had sharp, hard eyes while others looked more lost and vague, but all had some tinge of pain to them.

"Emory," Schuldig murmured with longing and some sound of shock. It had to be even harder for him, to see himself replicated so many times.

"Yeah, Emory," one of the clones from the group behind Crawford yelled back. "You know you have to protect Emory. You can't let anyone else--"

Suddenly Crawford remembered what Schuldig _was_ and saw the danger here, so he pistol-butted Schuldig into unconsciousness. If his telepath had been himself, it wouldn't have been so easy. Schwarz only allowed a moment of shock and confusion to show before they went back to more professional blank faces, although they moved to shield Schuldig's body lying in the street. They followed Crawford's lead without obvious question. Good.

Farfarello looked amused.

"Enough of that shit!" Crawford said to the clones, turning to the ones the voice had come from and smiling as Nagi turned to face the other way, instinctively taking over Schuldig's slot. "The rest of us don't have any compunctions about hurting you if you keep attacking." In fact, he wouldn't mind at all. These little bastards had forced him to assault his lover.

"He must like you because he doesn't have to work to block you out," one of them said.

"You know what we want," another one said.

"If you think about it," a third one said from somewhere behind him.

"You're a smart man," another one said.

"At least _he_ thinks so."

They all had the same voice. You'd only know a different one was speaking from the different direction or different head's lips moving.

"That's fucking freaky," Balinese whispered, while Friendly muttered something about beating all their pointy little heads in.

"They're almost completing each other's thoughts," Aya murmured. "Are even clones that close?"

"No. They shouldn't be. This is a fuck-up," Crawford answered. "They can't keep each other out." Did any of them even have truly individual personalities anymore, or were they just one basic personality with different power, and thus different pain, levels?

"Legion," Farfarello said.

"See? We knew you'd get it," one of the clones said.

"We don't appreciate being attacked," Crawford said. "I don't appreciate you fucking with my telepath's head. I don't expect gene loyalty from you, but I would expect some smarts in not alienating people whose help you obviously need. You're also making far too big a splash by being this obvious on the street."

"We _own_ this town. Do you think the authorities could do anything to us?"

"Yes."

They pouted. It was almost Schuldig's pout.

"I want them to stop doing that right now," Balinese said.

But they didn't actually have many of Schuldig's facial expressions, not exactly. It just reinforced the knowledge that Schuldig was not his body's native occupant.

"But you're right that we should get off the street," one said.

"Other telepaths are coming. They're not all us."

"They're drawn here by your two powerful ones."

"Besides, you have to meet the others of us."

There were even more involved?

"Not all of us are this mobile."

"Or this sane."

Horrible thought. Crawford tried not to think of his telepath lying knocked out on the street at his feet. He didn't look down.

"You have to come with us."

"All of you do." They smiled. All of them.

"Not all of us," Crawford said, willing to take this calculated risk only if he didn't have to lock his whole team into it. "We may be able to come to an accommodation if you show us that it's worthwhile, but you're not getting Schuldig."

"We need him!"

"He's the biggest catch."

"You know why."

"You attacked and tried to manipulate him," Crawford replied. "Besides, he doesn't have the patience for teaching--"

"True," Farfarello said.

"--Friendly is a far better teacher, and he resonates too closely with you for you or him to be safe. Yoji will take him away." From what he could tell, Friendly appeared to be on board with his plan. She was Rosenkreuz-trained. He could almost feel Balinese's surprise, but even the Weiß worked along with him and said nothing.

"We're not losing him as well!" one of the clones said.

"He's just a telekinetic of small talent. You only lunged for him because you knew his link to Schuldig would lead us to you. Congratulations, we're here. You don't need him anymore. Abyssinian will go with them to make sure they're safe. Abyssinian doesn't have any talents."

Farfarello looked angry, no doubt at the thought of his kitten being alone in the company of two famous lechers who'd already made advances before, but Crawford willed him and Aya to be reasonable and see the strategy. Schwarz didn't want the clones to see and become interested in what bizarre quasi-talent Aya had.

Only Fujimiya Aya could become more of a liability for developing a psionic talent. Why the hell couldn't he have stayed untalented like every other untalented person did? Hopefully Schwarz kept their minds protected enough to conceal Aya's secret, while it didn't matter as much if Balinese and Friendly did because they didn't know about it. If reading Balinese's ignorance helped the clones to believe Aya valueless, all the better.

Farfarello finally nodded, trusting Crawford. Aya looked like he already knew. Schwarz _worked_.

The clone sounded uncertain. "He doesn't seem to."

"Because he doesn't. Give us this as a sign of good faith."

"...Fine. They can go, but they can't leave the city."

"I have no problem with that. Abyssinian, Yoji, get Schuldig in the car and go. We'll keep in contact. Yoji, keep him safe." Balinese damned well better do it. More softly, Crawford said, "Abyssinian, call Kritiker." Schwarz had officially met a problem far too large for them to handle alone.

After a moment of obvious surprise, Aya put his guns away and bowed his head slightly to Crawford in what looked far more like respect than sarcasm or gloating. Then Aya picked Schuldig up and gently carried him to and placed him on the car's backseat. Balinese sat beside Schuldig while Aya settled into the driver's seat. Part of asking for two people to escort Schuldig away was that Crawford wanted someone to give him full attention while someone else drove.

Demanding that Balinese went meant that Schuldig would have someone with him who understood him a little.

"You just don't want to be around when he comes to," Balinese said, striving to be light and not quite making it.

"Take care of him, _Yoji_. Keep him safe. Or I'll find you and kill you."

"Whatever." He'd settled Schuldig's head on his shoulder. From the looks of this cozy scene, the telepath could have been sleeping.

"Aya, get them out of here."

Aya rolled down the window and growled at the clones in his best "buy something or get out" voice, "Clear the way so we can get through. Now."

Faced with that voice, they immediately obeyed. They weren't Schuldig enough not to. They could be manipulated, a thought that comforted Crawford as the car pulled away, taking his lover to relative safety and sanity.

Too many of his reactions seemed too sentimental of him. He couldn't dress all of it up as practicality and planning. Being driven to this burned.

"Do you have any more demands?" one of the clones asked, petulant.

"Not right now. Let's go see your headquarters. We'll take one of your cars for ourselves."

"We'll drive in front and behind you to make sure you don't get... lost. Remember, we can always find you again."

"Or we could find _him_," another one said.

That knowledge left such a bitter taste. "I know."


	174. "Maybe they'll have souvenirs for us at the end."

His head really hurt. At least the shoulder he rested it against had a really nice, soft coat on it. He'd enjoy it more if his head didn't hurt so fucking much. Mmm, Yoji shoulder. Schuldig could feel him.

"--Brad realized that he underestimated the size of the party. We'll need more support," Aya said somewhere nearby in Japanese.

Ah, euphemisms. Aya was on a cell phone asking for backup. Things must be bad....

"He'll kill you for describing it like that," Yoji said, laughing.

"Only if you tell him about it."

Yoji laughed.

"_Yoji_."

Yoji kept laughing.

"No, he doesn't expect the support staff to be free," Aya said, presumably to Persia on the phone. "But there are opportunities for everyone here. You'll have to measure your price versus the commission he'll no doubt demand. Vienna. Yeah. Thanks."

Okay, he sat in a car with only Aya and Yoji, Aya in the driver's seat and Yoji sitting with Schuldig in the back. Brad had underestimated the size of the party. Schuldig's head hurt.

Emory. Emories.

"Whoa!" Yoji said as Schuldig rose up in a panic and Yoji grabbed him. Not that the kitty had to, since Schuldig's head spun inside like it would fall off his neck and he fell back against the seat with the Collective trying to claw their way to the top of the mental heap. They had a second chance! Needed to get back to Emory. Needed to protect Emory. He'd looked and felt so bad and needed feeding/hugging/stroking/fucking....

Schuldig beat them all back down. Morons! That wasn't Emory! None of the 20 or more of them had been Emory! 20 or more Emories all in one place were obviously not _the_ Emory at all. They were clones, you dumb fucks, and they tried to play us all. The Collective kind of whimpered in answer, even Klaus and Bren. What little remained of the real Emory just sighed softly.

The Collective had all died trying to protect Emory. They'd failed to protect him, and what remained of them had just enough awareness to know it.

"C'mon, Schu," Yoji murmured, and Schuldig realized that he was lying back against the seat gasping for air and writhing. He lost track of his body sometimes when he had to talk to everybody inside his mind.

"I'm fine. My head just hurts."

"Crawford clubbed you down," Yoji answered, sounding angry.

Right. Bastard.

No. Brad had been right to take him out. Shocked by the sight of all that living Emory and the sound of Emory asking for protection, Schuldig would have fought his own team. Schwarz was damned good, but only Brad and maybe Yoji would expect Schuldig to turn on them in that situation. He might have actually hurt them. Fuck. He was a liability, a danger to his own people. Maybe he _should_ go back to Tokyo.

It felt like such a defeat.

And he hated it when he deserved to be smacked.

"Do you need an emergency medicinal beer?" Aya asked as he looked back at them in the mirror.

It was an astonishingly kind offer, coming from Aya. "You really are one of my favorite people, Red." Did the ambiance do this to Aya? If so, yay ambiance.

"Do I get a beer too?" Yoji asked.

"No," Aya answered. "You don't need one."

"Meanie."

Then Schuldig thought about it more and asked, "Where's everybody else?" But he knew. Everybody else had stayed with the clones, in danger.

"Crawford asked us to stay away with you."

Schuldig wanted to sneer at Brad's sentimentality in giving him an honor guard and thus stripping two more able-bodied people from Schwarz but he also saw the practical reasons. Yoji would help keep him sane. Aya would drive and not be picked at by clones who might possibly see his odd quasi-talent. The only thing more dangerous than a curious telepath was a badly-trained curious telepath with no morals about hurting other people. The Orange line could scour out the kitten's brain in an effort to find the toy surprise inside. Without even meaning to.

Getting them out also meant that Crawford had insured Schwarz some cavalry if they needed it.

"What did he have to bargain to get us out?" With his head hurting this badly and Aya being mentally resistant at that moment, Schuldig couldn't pick that out on his own. Let Yoji tell him.

"Nothing really. He told them Aya had no psionic talent, which is true, that I don't have much telekinesis and they didn't need me anymore because Schwarz had already come for me, and that you resonated too closely with them for it to be safe for you or them to keep you around. He also said that you suck as a teacher, and Farfarello agreed."

True but... "I'll have to remember to talk to them about that later."

"They'll be fine, Schu," Yoji said, being annoying by seeing right through Schuldig's front. "That's a dangerous lineup going in at his side."

"I should be there, watching his back. I just have to get the truth into my head." He wouldn't go back to Tokyo. He _would_ control himself. All of himself. "I'm better now. I just had to work through some things. It hit me as a shock before. Now I'll kick ass."

"It's possible that you're about to get a chance to prove that," Aya said. "My foot's down on the pedal, I can hear the wheels turning, but our car is not moving." They were on another small street, perfect for an ambush.

Shit. "I'm feeling out, but with this damned fog of talents massed around here looking for the person doing this is like looking for a particular needle in a fucking stack of needles." Schuldig took his gun out and saw Yoji reaching for his watch.

"Or maybe we can ask the kids standing in the road in front of us now," Yoji said.

~ We just want to talk, ~ the auburn-haired girl said. She didn't look like anyone Schuldig had ever met. But the boy telekinetic looked like Nagi circa four years ago, even down to the blank yet somehow downhearted expression, and the other guy could have been Brad from when Schuldig had first met him. It wasn't like with Tom and Kenny Crawford, where they looked a lot like Brad; this teenager could have _been_ Brad, down to the smallest physical detail, at least as far as he could currently see.

He still had the sexy black hair....

Having been away from Rosenkreuz for years, Schuldig had forgotten just how bad the madness and creepiness of it had really been, forgotten just how much Rosenkreuz had seen its human products as a commodity, things to duplicate, use, and destroy. He'd remembered it as a fact but not as the _feeling_. Inevitably, he'd been a darker, crazier person there. He couldn't be considered anyone's fluffy bunny now, but he had to admit that he was softer, more human. Soft enough and human enough to wish right now that he could just go _home_, even though he hadn't had an actual home in forever, go under the covers with Brad, and just stay there, warm and superficially safe. Brad would sneer at this as a reaction of a weak man and usually so would Schuldig, but right now, with all these abused versions of him running around damaged and gunning for him and the junior Schwarz knockoffs bringing back so many bad and good memories....

Yoji put his arm around Schuldig, making Schuldig wonder just how much of his horror showed. Time to pull himself back together. He was an obnoxious, unbeatable force of nature, so he better start acting like it again.

One of his guns in hand, Aya rolled down the window a bit and yelled out, "What about? Who are you with?"

"We're saner than the congregation of the Orange line," mini-Brad said. "More diverse as well. Better off. But we could still use some help." He had more than just Brad's voice, he had Brad's tone as well. "We have a sponsor."

Ebenroth walked out with another member of the Orange line, presumably one of the better trained and thus sane ones. How many of Eszett's managers had survived? And that was _not_ Emory with him, people. Not. Fortunately, this time the Collective behaved themselves and stayed down. Freaked out, but didn't get intrusive about it.

~ I'm supposed to deal with one of Rosenkreuz's creatures? ~ Schuldig asked. ~ I won't. Take all your help from him, if he'll give it. ~

"I'm nowhere near as bad as most of them," Ebenroth answered, looking and sounding so reasonable. True, Schuldig had no evidence that Ebenroth had been one of the worst. In fact, from what Schuldig knew Ebenroth had been one of the kinder ones. But Schuldig had no gratitude or patience for the kind of person who collaborated even if he did nothing himself, like that one orderly who'd expected him to be grateful to have someone who'd hold back his hair as he puked from the latest experiment done on him.

He also couldn't trust Ebenroth because Ebenroth couldn't be read, an ability that had always seemed to be his only psionic talent and thus let him get into the managerial ranks as a nearly-normal. A telepath could tell he existed and know that thoughts happened in that head but couldn't actually get a look at any of them. That might be soothing to the raw and overstressed talent of the area's telepaths and empaths, but it only ever made Schuldig feel suspicious. Oskar Amann had hidden his talents too.

"Why would we bother walking into such an obvious trap?" Aya asked.

"I just want to talk. No trap. I've revealed myself to you already instead of letting you remain ignorant while the kids brought you to me. This is a show of good faith. Eszett and Rosenkreuz are finished. Schwarz and Weiß saw to that. Let's all move on."

How did Ebenroth know about Weiß being involved? Shit. Brad would want to know, and when Schuldig asked his question of What Would Brad Do? he came up with the answer of "Find out." But would Brad walk his team into a situation that all but had the word "Trap" flashing over it in neon letters?

Brad was out there walking with the Bruise, cautious but trusting in his team's wits and talents to keep them safe, so Schuldig had his answer.

"What do you want to do here, Schuldig?" Aya murmured, looking somewhat annoyed that he had to ask it. "You know this man far better than we do. Is he offering anything worth the risk? If we said No, would we have to fight our way out? He brought three knockoffs of Schwarz and another telepath with him, after all."

Abyssinian was looking to _him_ for advice on strategy? Hell became an ever icier place. Still, it made sense. Schuldig was the only person in this car who knew Rosenkreuz from the inside. "We go with them, because the payoff in information may be worth it, but we don't trust them for a second. We also demand the opportunity to call Brad as a show of faith on Ebenroth's side. After all, if he doesn't intend to capture us he shouldn't have a problem with us letting the rest of the team know where we're going. Aya, if you can figure out a way to make it easier for Farf to find you, do it."

"I have no idea how to do that."

"_Try_."

"Hnh."

With all the mindreaders around it made no sense to tell Aya and especially Yoji anything super secret, so Schuldig would have to keep his own counsel. It surprised him how much he disliked the idea of that.

"We accept your terms," Ebenroth said after the Orange kid murmured to him.

Then again, keeping everything to himself looked completely justified now, didn't it?

"Fuck, I'm the problem aren't I?" Yoji asked. "They're reading me, right?"

"Aya a bit, probably, but mostly you. Aya's better protected." Schuldig wished he could send Aya out of this without drawing more attention to him but didn't see a way. All those jokes about Eszett creaming themselves over a chance to examine Aya and Farf's link and ability to transfer telepathy didn't look as funny now.

Aya and Yoji were Schwarz, and Schwarz looked after itself against all comers.

"Fine, you accept," Aya yelled out the window. "What now?"

"Follow our car, please. You have nothing to worry about. We see you, and especially Guilty, as honored guests. You're more useful to us comfortable and willing."

"And that wasn't creepy at all," Yoji murmured.

"We've let go of your car," Ebenroth said as he and his cohort returned to their vehicle and started to pull away. Aya, his Abyssinian face on, followed.

As they rode, Schuldig asked, "Yoji, why did you and Friendly come to Vienna? Schwarz could have flown in to any part of Europe. You have no idea whether Rosenkreuz is in Germany or Austria. We left a confusing paper trail and didn't give you any hints."

"It seemed right. Once Elena found the area's talents on the swarm after Schwarz, we knew it was the right decision."

"That doesn't seem strange to you?"

Looking annoyed, Yoji answered, "My life hasn't been normal in years."

When they came to a stop in front of a large, old building on the outskirts of the city, Schuldig called Brad's cell phone but only received the voice messaging system. It didn't surprise him, and he left a message about their whereabouts. While Schuldig felt an almost overwhelming urge to contact him telepathically, he knew that it would distract Brad and draw too much of the Bruise's attention.

Brad was still okay. Schuldig would feel it if that changed.

By the time they parked the car and got out, Yoji had almost as serious a game face on as Aya did. The three of them looked damned impressive as they walked through the hallway just behind Ebenroth and his mini-pseudo-Schwarz. Schuldig knew it because the resident talents who watched them thought it. Some of them did the typical teenage "So what?" but most couldn't help feeling a small awe at their poise and watchfulness and the way their long coats floated out as bit as they walked, revealing small glimpses of their weapons.

That they were three handsome devils helped too. Schuldig could almost get high off the sex hormones floating around here. It made him wonder about something, and he decided to exercise his reputation as an obnoxious bastard to ask it. "Do you provide these kids with protection, Ebenroth? Almost all of them are sexually active."

Ebenroth didn't show any surprise at what would seem a non sequitur, not that Schuldig could read anything other than his face. "Never thought of it. It's their affair. I'm not intrusive."

"So you're starting your own breeding program?" Schuldig smirked as the ambient hum went dead, then darker. The talents listened, and some passed it on.

"I'm hardly going to treat these children like stock animals to be controlled. They have freedoms now."

"You could give them the option and freedom of not getting pregnant to begin with." Schuldig heard as Aya, remembering Nagi's stories of how many of Eszett's children were force-grown, wondered how much actual life experience these talents had anyway. Having other brains around to pick as backup could be handy. "How old are most of your foundlings really? Four? Five? They may look like young adults, but I'm sure a lot of them aren't. You can tape program them but some things Eszett would never think to teach them to do on their own." Hell, Eszett wanted them to think on their own as little as possible.

Ebenroth looked much less smooth and kindly now. Good. Schuldig hated façades. "We'll talk about it. In my office."

"I look forward to it." Actually he didn't. The deeper they walked inside, the more trapped Schuldig felt. Meanwhile, Aya watched and judged and kept track of all possible exits. Smiling at a passing thought, Schuldig said, "Almost all of them are too young for you, Yoji."

Yoji answered with an obscene gesture. Sweet.

The building appeared to have been a grand old school once, now gone somewhat to seed. Ebenroth could have bought it on its own or simply taken it over after Eszett fell. Eszett had paid its managers well and owned land for centuries. Schuldig could imagine the survivors scrambling for the tasty crumbs.

Did Ebenroth intend to create a new academy here, one headed by a dictator pretending to be a benevolent father figure? Right now it looked likely.

Once inside the office, Ebenroth sat at an antique wood desk as his baby-Schwarz stood at attention behind him. Schuldig kept feeling something about the girl even if he didn't recognize her, but the answer eluded him. She kept her shields well, although some disquiet and annoyance crept through. He'd have to crack her to get in, which would be tricky amidst so many people who would notice, and he didn't have the time and undivided attention necessary anyway. Baby-Prodigy didn't seem to be in touch with his telepathy at all, making Schuldig wonder if Rosenkreuz had raped as well as conditioned that into this one too.

The Orange and the mini-Oracle stood on opposite sides of the man they guarded but sometimes directed brief, twitchy sidelong glances at each other. Did they know about their gene fathers' relationship or had this developed on its own? Poor little clones. How must it feel to measure your inclinations against what some other version of you had already done?

Hand on his watch, Yoji stayed by the side of the door. Aya stood one step behind Schuldig on his left side, where he wouldn't get in the way of Schuldig's gun hand if necessary. Aya watched and listened with such focus that you could almost feel his state of attention even without telepathy. Brad would be so proud of them.

"Look at you, Guilty," Ebenroth said. "Without Crawford around you're almost a king in your own right."

Right into it. "If that's an attempt to drive a wedge between me and my team leader, it's incredibly clumsy."

"So suspicious."

"With good reason."

"I'm just saying that there's more to your talents, psionic and otherwise, than Eszett expected. They always had you on the subordinate track, never leadership."

"I'm content. Leaders get headaches and ulcers. They age faster, poor things. I stand back and make mischief and whisper, serpentine, into my leader's ear."

"The power behind the throne.... Schwarz's presence will draw more talents here looking for training, support, or vengeance. You're a particular draw."

"I'm a walking example of what not to do to a developing telepath. I'm no teacher." Schuldig couldn't help his flirtatious smile. "Are you trying to recruit me, Mr. Ebenroth?"

"You've already started to cut at the ambiance. With your skills and lack of squeamishness, you could break the cycle of pain and get talents working in this area again. That's valuable."

"It makes me expensive."

"You see that I have some hopes of schooling Rosenkreuz's orphans, who _need_ it, but I'm not Eszett. I learned something from Schwarz's example."

Oh, the asskissing. "Really."

"Eszett broke its talents, thinking that a lack of will made them better tools. Maybe it made them better tools, time will tell, but it made them weaker talents. Without strength of will, they can't control and refine their abilities. They'll forever be mediocre. Eszett made one of its biggest mistakes with you, Guilty. Your core personality could have been molded. Instead, they shattered that self and forced you to create a new personality from the will-to-power of a group of murdered children who refused to die. That will to live and triumph made you one of Eszett's worst troublemakers but also kept you sane when your circumstances and power should have destroyed you. I've learned."

Ebenroth knew far too much. Since his recruitment had been such a disaster and fuck-up, Schuldig's records had been sealed, and Ebenroth didn't have the necessary clearance. Or, at least, he didn't have before.

Schuldig felt Aya wondering at him. This was all news to Red. Yoji knew more than Aya had. Together, they didn't like or trust this outpouring of confidences. Smart. They weren't bad people to have watching his back during this.

But they weren't Brad. "I'm glad my suffering helped somebody." Having all this out in the open left him almost twitching at the feeling of being exposed, but he kept his smirk intact.

"Your presence will draw more here. It's too bad so many of the Orange line have fallen to madness and insularity. We could help them. I have three myself, three of the better trained ones. You see Antipathy. Malice and Sorrow have duties elsewhere at the moment. I've been trying to encourage Misery to come to us, but he won't. I suspect that his circumstances have led him to be distrustful. It's a shame, but not uncommon. Too many went out on their own, unprepared, and were victimized."

"Not our responsibility."

"Of course. This is a big job and needs a certain skill set and almost a calling. You're men of action, not teaching. I'm interested in your Japanese acquisitions. Mainly because I'm surprised Eszett didn't find and recruit them."

Whiplash topic shift, and Schuldig didn't like its direction. Nobody messed with his kittens but him. (Okay, and maybe Farf in Aya's case.) "Balinese has a very small talent. He's a former enemy and we had suspicions about him from how he used his weapon, but Prodigy confirmed that he had it. I doubt Eszett would have bothered with him."

Ebenroth smiled. "I'm surprised Eszett didn't look more carefully at Aya Fujimiya, considering what it saw in his sister."

Schuldig could almost feel Aya's teeth clenching in the effort to be still and stay calm. He did feel Yoji tense near the door. "If you're trying to keep this friendly, you're failing," Schuldig said.

"Did Schwarz ever tell you about your sister's surprising ability, Mr. Fujimiya? They must have, since you're now a member of the team."

"You're losing me," Schuldig said.

"Now, now, I know your love of the truth, Guilty."

"I don't know if I could believe you," Aya said softly. "Not after what Eszett did and tried to do to her."

"She wasn't aging. If the elders hadn't been so set on having their sacrifice by a certain time, we might have found out why. Was it a kind of psychokinesis? We don't know. Now you're here and registering with a kind of telepathic talent that, oddly enough, you seem to be borrowing from elsewhere. It makes me wonder about your genes."

~ There was no point in telling you that about her, ~ Schuldig said, knowing that a lot of the residents would pick up at least part of the conversation but making an effort at privacy for Aya's sake. ~ Not once she was gone. Anyway, it never came up, and we don't see any connection to what's going on with you now. We really believe it's Farfie's oddities responsible, nothing from you. ~

To Schuldig's amazement, Aya understood. Didn't like it, but saw the reason in it. Wished he could kill someone over everything that had been done to his sister but knew that now wasn't the time, not when the man he currently wanted to punish had a multitude of super-powered children around to protect and avenge him.

"You say you're not like Eszett, but you play some of the same games," Aya replied, trying so hard not to lose it that Schuldig half-wanted to leap over the desk and lop off Ebenroth's head, damn the consequences, himself. A disadvantage of having backup brains nearby.

"Your attempts at recruitment suck," Schuldig said.

"I understand if my honesty surprises you," Ebenroth answered. "You've all heard so little of it from your employers in the past." It made sense that if he knew about Aya he would know about Weiß and Kritiker but, again, Ebenroth had much more information than he should have.

"What do you really want from us? We might not give it but would appreciate hearing the honesty you're so proud of."

"Help us. You've already made some suggestions," Ebenroth's expression soured a bit, "and I'll take them into account. When the rest of your team is done with the congregation of Oranges, talk to them. I know you distrust me, but I assure you that I'm better than the alternatives."

"I'll think about it. It's not my place to make a commitment." Thankfully.

"I think we could help you in better managing Fujimiya's abilities."

Aya almost quivered with the urge to kill. Schuldig answered, "No. You don't get to look at him. It's not an option. It doesn't matter what your excuse is."

"He's not having any trouble with this?"

"No," Aya answered, his voice low, dark, and dangerous. "Nothing you could help me with."

"I understand. We won't press you on it. We're dealing in good faith."

With a kind of baby-Schwarz behind him.

"I chose these operatives as a visual aid," Ebenroth said with a smile that was probably meant to be kindly and ingratiating. "Eszett couldn't figure out how to make the Berserker line work, but the other lines are very useful."

Ebenroth wanted Schuldig to ask about the girl. He wanted to but didn't know if it would be worth it. Yoji said, "The girl isn't a knockoff of Schwarz."

Antipathy looked like he wanted to say something snide but didn't dare to. Baby-Schwarz couldn't possibly be Schwarz, no matter what grab-bags of genes currently stood in it. They had less experience, less personal power, and no team bond, none of the "Schwarz against the world" drive and sense of belonging. They were children, while even Nagi had been functionally an adult for a long time. The man they protected controlled them. Baby-Brad had to be chafing under all of this, but did he have the essential Bradness necessary to work his will anyway?

"I felt it best to keep it all in the family. Take a good look at her, Guilty."

A look of hot, poisonous hatred briefly crossed her face before she controlled herself again. Aya couldn't believe that Schuldig couldn't see the resemblance, particularly in the girl's chin.

Her pointed chin. Her nose and eye shape tended more towards Brad's, but her every other facial feature was a female version of his. No glasses, but she wore contact lenses, so she might be a precog as well. She was a good-looking girl, but of course she would be, considering her parents.

He felt angry, yes, but more than that he felt almost violated, which was stupid. "I see."

"Three such customs, each one a different blend of your and your leader's material, had been decanted, but one died in training and the other in the fall of Rosenkreuz. Verity here is probably the strongest of them."

His head hurt. "'Verity.' She fits in with your truth theme very nicely."

"I can only think Eszett thought to use them as hostages, although I don't know how well that would have worked, seeing as how Schwarz is famous for its ruthlessness. Perhaps they thought Crawford's pride wouldn't allow something more like an actual child of his to be killed."

"Whereas we might see clones as less than real people?" Schuldig darkened his expression. "Your recruitment pitch _really_ sucks."

"I could have doled all this out slowly and strung you along for a while. I'm not doing that. Haven't you already learned enough important information to make this trip worthwhile? Tour the facility. My staff will guide you." Ebenroth motioned for baby-Schwarz to go to Schuldig, and although they didn't look happy about it they obeyed. Someone knocked at that door, making Yoji pull a glistening line of wire partway out of his watch. "Don't worry about my safety. That should be Malice, here to take the next shift as my guard. Let him in, Balinese."

Yoji shot him an "oh no, you _didn't_" look but opened the door anyway. The Orange there had a different haircut and a nastier cast to his expression but otherwise matched Antipathy completely. Schuldig preemptively smacked the Collective down, but they murmured that Malice _definitely_ wasn't Emory, since Emory had never looked at anyone like that.

Nurture, or lack thereof, made a difference. Emory had a good childhood until his early teens when his parents learned he was a freak.

Creeped out, Yoji wanted to get the hell out of here. So did Aya, though Aya had some thoughts of chopping and slashing his way out if necessary, all this insinuating talk about his sister having brought his bloodlust up. Poor Red desperately wanted to get his berserk on. Made the world seem simpler to him. Yet they both looked to Schuldig for direction, even though it chafed Aya to do it. Schuldig's greater experience here put him in charge. King in his own right.

Brad could keep it.

They needed to know more, especially since Ebenroth knew so much, too much, about them and appeared to be grooming up his own small army. Damn it. "Let's take the tour. Maybe they'll have souvenirs for us at the end."


	175. "I always suspected being regular sucked."

"It's like somebody killed and skinned Elmo," Fenris said as he looked through some coats on the rack.

"Huh?" Ken asked.

"You probably didn't watch _Sesame Street_ while we were in the United States. Elmo's a red puppet."

"_Sesame Street_?"

"It's a show with puppets. They live in a neighborhood with people and teach things. In Elmo's case, they're annoying."

The sleeve Fenris held onto looked a lot like a bad red carpet or possibly puppet pelt. "Why do you shop here?"

"I like _some_ of the clothes. You and Miss Riyo didn't have to come with me. I'm okay."

"It's okay. I know you miss Elena."

Fenris shook his head as if distracted and moved deeper into the store. Riyo leaned into Ken and said, "It's really sweet that you're doing this for him while his sister's away."

It set Ken back a bit until he remembered that he'd told Riyo Elena and Fenris were related. He wondered if she realized that she had a patronizing tone to her voice. "Thanks for understanding. I didn't want to break our date, and I know Fenris would say he's fine on his own, but--"

"But he is how he is." She definitely sounded patronizing. Damn. He hadn't suspected this of her.

Fenris shot a rare scary look back at them. Telepath. Telekinetic too, and for a moment Ken wondered if he should put his body in front of Riyo's or whether that would even help. It twisted his brain to even suspect such behavior of Fenris, but Elena wasn't around and he'd seen Fenris kill on missions.

Then Fenris shook off the air of anger and homicide to come back and say, "Ken, I'm going home. You should stay out with Riyo-san. I'll be fine."

He couldn't leave Fenris alone. "Fenris--"

"You should go home with him, Ken," Riyo said. "We can reschedule."

"You don't mind?"

"I do mind, but this is important." She kissed him.

He wished her kisses made him feel more. Was he with her just to be with somebody, anybody? "I'll drive you home."

Once Riyo was out of the car and closed the door behind her, Fenris said from the backseat, "I'm glad I figured out that _you_ told her Elena was my sister before I said something that might make you look bad. Before I realized, I wondered if she thought all blond white people looked alike." Normally Fenris would look innocent or mischievous saying something like that. Right now he looked angry and tired as Ken glanced at him through the rearview mirror.

"Fenris!"

"She thought I was a moron, Ken! I'm not very smart but I'm not stupid."

"You're upset that Elena's not around, and it's making you sensitive. It's okay."

"Are you telling me that you didn't think Riyo felt pity for me because she thinks I'm a moron?"

"I don't."

"Ken."

"All right. I think she felt a little something but not as bad as you're making it out to be."

"I feel dumber when Elena's not around." He sounded much quieter, downbeat. "Do I seem dumber?"

"No. Really no."

"Okay. I'm a different person when she's here. I can't feel her at all right now. She's too far away. I haven't been apart from her in... I don't know. I'm worried. I'm really worried. I keep thinking something awful is happening to her but I don't know if it's because I sense it or I'm just worried and making myself feel bad. Even Elena can't talk to me unless she has a safe space to focus on it. This sucks. This really sucks."

"I don't know how she or Yoji are doing either." He worried about them too. "This is how regular people live life." He wouldn't say "normal" to Fenris. It sounded judgmental. "We don't know."

"I always suspected being regular sucked."

******************************************************

The Orange line led them into a warehouse past corporate security guards who didn't notice them even as they walked past. Friendly waved her hand right in front of one and received no reaction, while Nagi gazed at them thoughtfully. Farfarello didn't seem to care.

As they walked down one aisle surrounded by mountains of boxes, the smell of cardboard and dust so strong it nearly made Crawford dizzy, more members of the Orange line walked or sat around, all of them young almost Schuldigs. Some of them watched Schwarz come in with expressions that Crawford had to turn away from because their familiarity made something in his chest twist. Sometimes he caught others watching from the shadows like feral cats.

"How many of you are there?" Crawford asked, certain that Schwarz wasn't seeing the actual living areas. There had to be bedding, areas to eat in, and personal effects elsewhere. It would be smarter of them to keep that hidden.

They lived here like vermin. But Crawford knew that Schuldig, Nagi, and Farfarello had all lived something like this at times, Nagi and Farfarello without anyone to watch their backs.

"We don't keep count."

"More show up all the time."

"We can't turn them away. They're us."

One more focused looking Orange stood waiting for them with another teen, one who most emphatically wasn't an Orange from his appearance and black hair, standing at his side. "What did I tell you?" this Orange asked.

The one with Crawford who did the most talking shrank back a little and said, "I'm sorry. We got overexcited."

"I told you not to do it because not only is it wrong, it's also more likely to make Schwarz distrust you and want vengeance. Thanks to your overexcitement, they sent Guilty away, and I don't blame them."

"We know."

"We're sorry."

"Why didn't you come along with them, then?" Crawford asked. "If you're better."

"I'm more of a homebody and not much of a fighter. I don't lose anything by telling you that because your team is surrounded by my family. Taking me out wouldn't win you anything. In fact, it would remove one of the saner and more put-together members of the Orange line. Plus, St. Cyr here would try to kill you on the spot."

"I'm a pyrokinetic," the black-haired teen said with a cocky grin, "and I'm rather attached to Intrigue here."

Crawford didn't need any of his telepaths to tell him that the two were lovers. He could see it in their body language, from how they leaned toward each other. Frowning, he also fought the urge to like Intrigue, his openness and friendliness. The boy no doubt manipulated everyone around him to feel that way, ruling with a velvet glove over an iron fist.

_Was_ Intrigue the leader here? Or just a front for the real power?

"I'm sorry, Intrigue," one of the clones said. "We know you wanted to meet Guilty too. Because of what we did, we barely got to meet him ourselves before Mr. Crawford knocked him out."

The warehouse went suddenly silent, and Crawford felt the attention of every set of eyes nearby staring at him and his team. Behind him, Schwarz instantly readied their defensive and offensive moves.

"Whose fault is that really, 77?" Intrigue asked almost gently.

77? How many were there? Did the ones who had names have numbers as well, or were the numbered ones in addition to the named ones?

77 ducked his head. "Ours, for trying to trigger Guilty like that."

"What you attempted to do with Guilty is far worse than Mr. Crawford knocking him out. Guilty is one of us. He knows from personal experience the kind of abuse we received. We shouldn't add to it. Bad enough to do it unintentionally."

"Worse to set out to do it," another clone said from somewhere behind Crawford. "We know."

"We got too clever."

"Too overconfident."

"We even felt some of what he went through!"

"He really isn't the same as us. It was interesting. And he... loves us."

"Or at least who we look like."

"I spoke the words," 77 said. "If there's punishment, I'll take it and shield the rest from it."

"Is all of this a show for me?" Crawford had to ask.

"We want to show you that we're not enemies," Intrigue answered. "We're young and badly trained. We make mistakes and then try to make amends. A lot of our line was abused, and they have a tendency to strike out as a result. We want your help, not your hatred. We're glad that you brought a telepath with you and hope that you'll change your mind on Guilty as well."

"I haven't seen a reason to do that so far."

"Talents can't work in this part of Europe while the ambiance exists. If you could help fix it, you increase your job opportunities."

So they had some knowledge of him. From their own researches or what they'd read from Schuldig? Their source would make a big difference.

Friendly said, "Some of your people only still exist as people because they're filled with a kind of amalgam personality of all of you. If you were all trained to shield, the learning would take hold quickly through the link, but once the shielding started some of you would cease to be functioning people because they have nothing else left inside them to animate their bodies. They've been broken."

"I know that. I hate the thought, but we have to shield for our health and everyone else's. We also have to figure out who can be saved so we can focus our resources."

"You're talking about killing some of you," Crawford said. He had mixed feelings on that. His soul-deep, irrational revulsion warred with his thoughts of how useful this much telepathic firepower could be if leashed and trained.

Part of him kept waiting for Schuldig's usual sarcastic, sneering running commentary to start. Crawford's mind couldn't produce it itself, so it kept having "insert Schuldig snark here" moments, waiting for something that wouldn't come.

"Yes. We all know that it would come to that in some cases. We don't see what else we can do."

"Truthfully, I don't either."

"If you get any ideas, please let us know."

A sudden ripple went through the Orange line. Friendly said, ~ They've just discovered that Guilty, Yoji, and Fujimiya-san were picked up by Ebenroth's crew. The observer thinks they went willingly. ~

Crawford knew that name. ~ Ebenroth's _crew_? Is he restarting Eszett? ~ Had he sent Schuldig away just to have him snatched by another fucking group with an agenda?

~ The Oranges haven't heard anything bad about him or the talented students he's gathering, but they can't help distrusting him, which I understand wholeheartedly. ~

Intrigue looked annoyed, perhaps that Friendly had tipped Schwarz off instead of letting him control the flow of information. Too bad. When Crawford took out his cell phone he saw two messages. Putting his earpiece in, he listened to one job posting and one message from Schuldig about the location of Ebenroth's school. Schuldig finished with "I know you want to know more, so I went along. You have to see the baby-Schwarz he brought with him. It's nauseating. Bye." Schuldig sounded like himself, sane and not under duress, and Crawford fought the urge to reach out to him to try to feel him. They drew enough attention to themselves already.

Nagi looked like he really wanted to listen in as well, but Crawford thought it best to keep whatever information to himself that he could since the Orange line had the most difficulty reading him. The boy would just have to cope with being left slightly out of the loop.

"Was that a message from Guilty?" Intrigue asked.

"Yes. He seemed fine when he made it."

"That would make some sense. He could be more valuable healthy and whole to draw more talents to Ebenroth."

"I'm sure he's cloaking himself," Nagi said.

"Doesn't matter. His focus and ability give him away here. The very fact that he can cloak would draw attention to his cloaking."

"So the only way for him to blend in would be if he trashed his shielding?" Nagi asked.

And in trashing his shielding rendered himself as fucked-up as the rest of the talents here.

"Then we're all a draw," Friendly said, looking annoyed. Meanwhile, Farfarello looked bored to the point of homicide.

"Yes," Intrigue answered. "You might want to decide on your course of action soon, then."

"Teaching you doesn't necessarily help us here," Crawford said.

"We could back you up. A lot of people have gone to Ebenroth. Maybe more than your team can handle, no offense."

Another more individualized Orange walked over with a blonde girl in tow. They might be the source of the news.

"How long do you think the training is going to take?" Friendly asked in a tone that had just a taste of Schuldig to it. "I mean, if they can't even pick up what you and the other more-together ones know about shielding by now, this isn't going to be a quick and easy thing."

Farfarello coughed a laugh that sounded very derisive, no doubt out of impatience with these people who kept him away from his kitten, who was in possibly enemy hands at this very moment. Crawford didn't have much telepathy but didn't need it to feel how close to the edge of his control the team berserker stood.

"I don't know how long," Intrigue admitted, looking mournful and annoyed at once.

"We're not waiting that long to get Schuldig," Crawford said. "It's in our benefit to teach you better shielding, so Friendly will be staying with you to start your training. Prodigy will remain with her. Don't ask them for any further commitments from Schwarz because they're not qualified to make them. Berserker and I will go see Ebenroth." Nagi nodded and Friendly shot him a wry look. He had faith in Nagi's abilities and misanthropy.

As much as Crawford would prefer to have an alpha class telekinetic with him against a group of unknown size, Friendly needed backup--Crawford had no intention of wasting her talent and presence--and leaving Farfarello behind in this mood would be foolhardy. In any case, Farfarello could be useful against large groups as well and, under the right circumstances, couldn't be foreseen or planned for.

"Have you thought that Ebenroth might want you to come?"

"Of course he does. But he won't get it the way he wants it."

"If you hadn't sent Guilty away--" one of the clones started to say.

"If you hadn't toyed with him, I wouldn't have. You know where the responsibility really lies. Berserker, come along." It would be a relief to get away from the multitude of Schuldig knockoffs. They stared at him as he left with Farfarello.

As he drove away, Crawford asked, "Are you dissociated?" That way Farfarello would be harder to scry and wouldn't feel pain.

"Yes, I have been for a while." Farfarello extended and retracted the blade on his knife over and over. "They're pushing at him. He feels it. Yeah, Schuldig, but Aya too."

Damn it. Crawford didn't want either of them in experimenters' hands, especially not ones who had once belonged to Eszett. "I won't let them come to harm."

"Might not be your choice. But I will make it mine."

"You'll follow orders."

Farfarello growled.

"I'll get Schuldig, Aya, and Yoji out alive and unharmed. I rely on you to work _with_ me to do it."

Farfarello glowered but eventually said, "All right."

Crawford understood his feelings. If Ebenroth had done anything to Schuldig, Crawford would make him pay dearly.

At least the warm rush of anger cloaked the cold pull of fear. Fear wouldn't help.


	176. "If I could always read your thoughts, it would have goaded me into killing you long ago."

As they walked through the halls with their escort, Aya noticed that the exterior of the "school" may have looked decrepit but the interior showed the signs of recent care. He smelled new paint and varnish and fresh floor wax in places. Some windows had been left open, perhaps to prevent the scents from concentrating, so a chill breeze ran through the halls. It felt like a school, which made him somewhat melancholy, having left school forever after the murder of his family. That had been his first voluntary step down a road he could no longer turn off of.

While he couldn't imagine his life being any other way anymore, sometimes he couldn't help wondering what might have been.

He saw mostly teens and children as his tour group passed, few adults. Had most of the adult talents found work or left this part of Europe? Probably. The adults he saw might all be on Ebenroth's payroll as teachers and babysitters.

The people, adults and minors, here wore good clothing. No uniforms. The students didn't show any obvious signs of abuse.

A glimpse from behind of a girl with dark hair set in two braids sent a pang through him, but when he saw her again in the crowd parting to let them pass he saw that her skin and eyes were the wrong colors. Most of the students seemed to be trying not to stare at their visitors. Trying, at least.

Yoji directed friendly, flirtatious smiles toward the crowd, but Aya noticed that he didn't relax or look directly at anyone. Schuldig looked ostentatiously bored with the place, its people, and the tour, yet Aya sensed a brittleness under that boredom that he hoped no one else noticed. It seemed that the telepath really didn't want to be here, perhaps from reliving bad memories of his own school days. What little Aya knew of Schwarz's time in Rosenkreuz and with Eszett gave ample reason for that.

Twitching, Aya tried to keep his own face blank. He swore he could feel the residents' attention plucking at him, even beyond the surreptitious stares the bystanders greeted them with. If they were actually combing through his mind Schuldig would surely notice and protest, since it was in his best interest to keep as much secret as possible. This illusory feeling kept distracting Aya when he needed to be focused on the tour. If they had to get out in a hurry, they needed to know which way to go.

Truthfully, the tour commentary seemed scattershot, their guides not much more than children and not supplying information Aya wanted to know. Aya found the younger Nagi particularly disturbing just by his existence and apparent downheartedness.

Obviously dissatisfied, Schuldig toyed with them. "So you know about me and Brad. How do the two of you work together?"

"With a lot of annoyance," the Crawford clone answered.

"I doubt that," the Orange clone called Antipathy said.

"You annoy me. You don't hang on Scry the way you do me, so I don't understand it at all."

Antipathy had an interesting look on his face. Grinning, Schuldig asked sweetly, "Who's Scry?"

"Another Oracle with us. I'm Seer," the Oracle clone replied.

"You're a moron."

After a moment of obvious shock that Schuldig had dared say such a thing to him, Seer answered, "You're a slut."

"It's wonderful to be famous. Nice comeback, kid. Brad would have done better."

"I'm not your Brad."

"Obviously. Do you want me to explain to him what he's missing about you here, Antipathy?"

"I'd rather you didn't," Antipathy answered, a slight blush in his face.

"Antipathy, you're better off without him," Yoji said. "He _is_ a moron."

Steaming, Seer glared, then tried to calm himself. "Your Oracle went gray."

"White actually," Schuldig said. "It lets me call him 'blondie.'"

"Is it inevitable?"

"Hard to say. In his case it happened because he pushed himself to see more, better, and on command. I'm sure that won't happen in your case."

The clone sounded ever more brittle and annoyed even as he tried to remain somewhat polite. "Is there a reason why you keep insulting me?"

"Because it's fun?"

Aya had the uncomfortable feeling that he was watching Schuldig unconsciously reenact his early courtship with Crawford. Trying to shake that thought off, he glanced at Yoji, then murmured, "What the hell are you doing? Your face might freeze like that."

Thankfully Yoji let the expression of nearly cross-eyed concentration go and murmured back, "I was trying to see if I could send thoughts at you. Since you're a telepath."

"I'm not a telepath. I can't read thoughts. I'm just... sensitive."

"You've always been sensitive, princess."

"If I could always read your thoughts, it would have goaded me into killing you long ago."

"Funny."

"I thought so. You're a telekinetic now, so don't be a hypocrite."

"You look like you're reading _something_."

Aya hated it when other people could tell that he felt uncomfortable just by looking at him. "Maybe it's just the feeling of being a sideshow inmate. The attention we're getting here is approaching the flower shop fangirl levels."

"C'mon, these guys are much quieter. I don't hear any piercing squeals."

All the people they passed watched them with curiosity and something that looked like hunger. "They don't have to talk."

"Attractive kids. But I guess it makes sense that Eszett would take out any imperfections they could when they did the work."

"With these kids, their mother was a test tube, their father was a knife," Schuldig said cheerily, smiling even wider as some of their tour guides winced. He slowed down to walk next to Aya and whispered into his ear, "What's up, Red?"

Aya swatted him away with his palm. "Nothing."

~ No, really. Listen to your feelings, baby. ~

"I'm not your baby," Aya muttered.

~ Whatever you're feeling might not be your imagination. Ebenroth and his crew know you have something, so you might as well use it a little. ~

"Don't know what I'm doing...."

~ Never stopped any of us before. No, wait. ~ Schuldig ran his hand down the side of Aya's face, making him shiver and bringing that calling feeling into greater focus. ~ You got it now. You know where it is, I can tell. ~

"A little."

Schuldig grabbed Aya's wrist after rolling down the glove with his fingers to enlarge the sliver of bare flesh exposed. ~ Don't fuss. I need contact to help you and make this look good. Let's be sneaky. When we go to what's calling you, make sure I'm a bit ahead the whole time so it looks like I'm leading you. I'll pick up directions from this link. Got it? ~ Schuldig "said" that in such a dense, quick burst that it took time for it to sink in enough for Aya to understand and nod his head in agreement.

Grinning, Schuldig ran, and Aya ran just a step behind, even though his sense of direction told Schuldig where to go, with his wrist loosely clasped by the telepath's cold fingers. After the tense standing around followed by the heavily supervised slow walk, putting on a burst of wild speed and leaving their tour guides behind in disarray felt wonderful. He could hear their dismay and Yoji's annoyed curses. Schuldig ran fast enough that Aya had to push himself a bit to keep up, but he liked that, enjoying the stretch of his muscles working and the rush of air through his hair and across his face.

The calling came through a door ahead, and Aya and Schuldig skidded as they tried to slow down on the waxed floor. Schuldig let go of him so they could each use both hands to stop themselves against the wall. The run had brought some color to Schuldig's face, and his smile looked brilliant and exhilarated, leaving Aya somewhat stunned.

~ You look happy. ~

"I doubt it."

~ Good job, kitten. This looks interesting. ~

As everyone else caught up, Yoji panted, "I'm gonna kill the both of you."

"Smoke less," Aya answered.

"Hey, kids," Schuldig said in a purring tone, "I am very curious about this room. Somebody's doing a telepathic buffer to make the area feel like dead space. The door looks mundane and old-fashioned from a distance like the others, but it has electronic locks on it, painted and covered to look like wood, camouflaging them. I always find locked doors more attractive. It's that air of mystery to them. If we're all open, honest, and friendly, I want a look at what's in there."

"Could you unlock the door?" Aya whispered to Yoji. This close to whatever spoke to him, he felt a nearly overwhelming need to get inside.

"If it had a thin padlock on it, maybe," Yoji whispered back, for all the good it probably did them. "This stuff, you'd need Nagi or Omi to open it one way or another. I might just break it badly enough to jam it shut."

Verity closed her eyes, then opened them and said, "Ebenroth gives you clearance. The codes I'm about to use will change as soon as we leave."

"Sure, baby," Schuldig replied.

"I am not your baby." Verity pulled a panel away on the door to reveal a keypad and punched in a long string of numbers, then led them inside.

"In a manner of speaking you are."

She shot him a look of pure venom. Perhaps she took more after Crawford.

They entered a large room lined with refrigeration units, banks of computers, and what looked like scientific workstations. Men in labcoats and protective gear stared at them in surprise.

"We should have atomized Rosenkreuz," Schuldig muttered. "Aya, these folks found all the genetic material that hadn't been destroyed or stolen by somebody else and brought it here."

"Some of it has lost its labeling and still hasn't been identified," Verity said, apparently working as the voice of Ebenroth, while Antipathy looked annoyed, possibly over being passed over as lead telepath.

"And what will you do with it then?"

"We're still deciding. This is valuable and can't just be destroyed." She looked annoyed at the words coming out of her mouth.

"Who's 'we'?"

Aya left them to bicker and walked over to the unit that called to him. Certain that he'd lost his mind but unable to stop, he opened the door. One of the small protective boxes attracted him, but he retained enough control not to reach in and pick it up without taking some kind of precautions to protect himself and whatever was in there. Unfortunately, he had no idea what those precautions should be.

~ What is it, girl? Is Timmy trapped down a well? ~ Schuldig asked.

"It amazes me that you can take comprehensible words and string them together in ways that turn them into complete gibberish."

~ Blame Brad's pop culture. Is somebody you know inside that box? ~

"I don't know." Afraid that pointing out the one he truly wanted would get too much attention from their hosts, he didn't reach for it.

~ Smart, Rose-red. Yoji's distracting everybody with stupid questions like the smart kitty he can be, but they're still very interested in what's interesting you. And we don't exactly have a cooler to take the box out of here in. But you want it, don't you? ~

Yes. Devoutly. He just didn't know why.

~ Sucks to be you. ~

As if Aya didn't already know that.

"Is there something we can help him with?" Seer asked.

"Nah," Schuldig said. "Poor Red here isn't a real telepath. About all he can do is feel things without understanding why. He's kind of deaf, dumb, and blind. I try to be his miracle worker, but it ain't easy and doesn't work very well. Something in that refrigerator got his attention but he doesn't know what or why. It's sad."

"I'll kill you," Aya muttered, incensed. He understood the need for subterfuge but saw no reason to insult him in front of strangers.

"It makes him cranky. Still, he helped me find this cozy little haven of quack science."

"You'd rather we destroyed all of this material and refuse to learn from it?" Verity asked, the expression on her face suggested that she still spoke for someone else and hated it.

"Yeah. Duh."

Stepping very deliberately away from the refrigerating unit, Aya said, "I don't know what called me here." It almost hurt to turn away, but he didn't want the scientists here to develop an interest in what had called him. It might be too late for that already, although at least they'd suspect everything in the large unit instead of focusing on the box Aya wanted. Although it galled, Aya said, "What Schuldig said is true. The small talent I have isn't a precision instrument by any means. There's nothing here. I'm ready to resume our tour." In this situation, it was safer to be underestimated.

~ The temperature dropped several degrees since we got in here. Ebenroth and his pet scientists are not happy we found this, while the kids were totally ignorant of what was going on here before but now have some suspicions they're not at all happy with. ~ He didn't seem to be trying so hard to hide his suspicions from the other telepaths anymore.

Aya had thought Schuldig had problems reading Ebenroth.

~ I do, but it's easier when Verity's letting him talk through her 'cause I'm reading _her_ a bit. I love the irony. ~

So much for Ebenroth's honesty and openness with them. They'd proven that one wrong far faster than even Aya had expected.

~ No kidding. We may start seeing more of the iron fist underneath the velvet glove now. It's only going to get more dangerous as we get closer to knowing too much. ~

Aya had figured as much. Actually, he preferred more open threats to the strained façade of friendliness.

~ He'll keep the façade going for a while longer. He strikes me as that kind of guy. ~

Joy.

~ Heh. ~

"--sure you're that old? Maybe just enough to be my sister...." Yoji was saying to one of the scientists, who blushed and looked annoyed simultaneously, while her peers attempted to glare him to death. Aya could have told them that never worked.

"Yeah, let's move on," Schuldig said. "It doesn't look like Red will be pulling out any more toy surprises, so I'm bored."

Aya wanted to kick him so hard he'd bounce. From the telepath's wince and subsequent dirty look toward him, maybe he heard and felt that. Good.

~ Look, Bitchy McBitch, we have to play that we're not all that interested in what's in here. You know that. ~

They wouldn't believe it.

~ Worth a shot anyway. We leave and figure out what we can do as we go. ~

"Fine, but stop insulting me," Aya said softly.

"It's friendly teasing," Schuldig answered.

"Aya's killed people for that before," Yoji said.

"Hey, you're still alive, so he can't be too much of a hard-ass. Mmmm."

"Stop thinking about my ass," Aya said.

"That can never happen."

Still, all that public lechery didn't disguise the wheels turning in Schuldig's fluffy head about what this room hid and what Aya had done. If Aya saw it, surely their hosts did as well. He didn't know if he felt them looking more closely at him as they all left the room because they were or because he was being paranoid. More likely the former. It left him feeling as taut and stretched as piano wire.

Ebenroth had to know that Schwarz would strike at anything that resembled a reborn Eszett and that Schwarz had to know that any new Eszett would consider them too dangerous to be allowed to survive. Given their past history, either side would plan a preemptive strike. Had Ebenroth gambled on being able to keep them ignorant and lost, or did he have something else in mind?


	177. "If that's it, just suck it up and deal."

The car's sluggish response kept frustrating Crawford. Then he heard a faint crackle of electricity from the passenger seat and understood. "If you have to drain something, could you do it from something other than our transportation?" He'd nearly forgotten about Farfarello's newly discovered ability.

"I can't reach anything else. But sorry. Wasn't thinking about it." Farfarello rolled a small ball of electricity around in his hand, then let it wash away. Crawford felt an immediate difference in acceleration. Perhaps Farfarello should have attended Nagi's seminar.

Schwarz had grown in strength and skill since its days in Eszett, so Ebenroth would get quite a show, perhaps too much of one. Why should Ebenroth's mini-Eszett reap the benefits of Schwarz's work? At least most of the Berserker line had been destroyed through ruthless and ultimately futile experimentation, so Farfarello's new skill set wouldn't do Ebenroth any good.

Or so Crawford hoped, because if more Berserkers could be created Farfarello would be the only one who'd have any idea how to foster their talents and train them, and anyone with half a brain would realize that.

Crawford had a sudden flash of a car behind him, a blur of assailants, fire from a pyrokinetic. In the rearview mirror he could see the car approaching in actuality. Perhaps the late hour with its fewer bystanders had made their attackers bolder. "We'll have a fight on our hands soon." He sped up and opened his window, wishing he had the free time necessary to delve into his precognition and get a better look at these people but knowing that driving remained more important.

"Good."

Every time Crawford changed course a little, the other car changed its course as well simultaneously. They had a precog. Driving one-handed, he pulled out his gun. Farfarello might shoot ki balls at them. Having rarely seen him use his new ability, Crawford couldn't be certain.

Damn, they'd gotten soft and complacent. Just because Farfarello preferred to use his blades in battle didn't mean he should be allowed to let a useful ability remain untrained. He should have been drilled in its use and Schwarz drilled in having a member who could do such things. Crawford would rectify that as soon as the team came back together.

The car behind them sped up and started to gain on them. It would be better to let them catch up, the better to take out the opposition now instead of letting it chase them to Ebenroth's door. "Ready?"

"Mmmm."

Suddenly the car behind them swerved, out of control, and hit the corner of a building. Crawford hadn't foreseen _that_.

"Were they attacked?" Farfarello asked.

"I didn't see anything." Unfortunately, he couldn't leave without checking the scene to see who their attackers were or take a chance on survivors. "We're going over on foot."

Crawford parked their car, and he and Farfarello approached cautiously, him with his gun hidden partially by his sleeve and Farfarello doing the same with his knives. This wasn't the time to toy with his untrained ki ability, particularly when Farfarello hadn't been able to draw power from anywhere.

Standing near the driver's side of the crashed car, a young man with bleached blond hair and thick circles of black kohl around his eyes put his arms out from his sides with his hands open and said, "I helped you out here. I want to talk to you."

"Yeah, they're dead," Farfarello said softly to Crawford. "All four of them. I feel an absence."

"Keep an eye on our new friend here as I see it myself," Crawford said as he quickly looked into the car and saw four men, all with gunshot wounds, all dead. He didn't know any of them or whom they worked for, nor would he find out now. "All right. What do you want?"

"Can we go somewhere else? This will draw attention eventually," the guy said. ~ I'm Misery, and I'm willing to trade my skills for help in getting the hell out of this part of Europe. ~

The night and partial illumination of streetlights helped disguise his identity, but he certainly had Schuldig's chin. Whether he was Misery, though, remained to be seen. "All right. Let's go." As they walked, Crawford asked, ~ You're supposed to be one of the better Orange ones. You can't get out on your own? ~

Misery made a sound of annoyance. ~ I hired myself to one of the big men of this country, and he has the power, money, and minions to back himself up. You may have seen the bounty posted for me. I've tried to get out using various tricks but he has people everywhere and I always end up getting made in some part of the process. I'm reduced to petty thievery to survive. ~

~ Explains the coat, ~ Farfarello said.

~ It's shabbier than I like but does its job. Leaving with you would give me people to watch my back and discourage attack. ~

~ You just want to get out? Not vengeance as well? ~ Crawford asked.

~ I definitely wouldn't turn down vengeance if I saw an opportunity, ~ Misery smiled a little, ~ but getting out is my major want. I could always return later to get the bastard. ~

Crawford had an interest in punishing Woeller himself, to make an example to other potential employers, but saw no reason to reveal that yet. ~ Do you know where we're going? ~

~ After Ebenroth, yeah? ~

~ Yes. Whether we talk or fight depends on what develops. Back us up here, following my lead at all times, and I'll consider taking you away when we leave. Keep in mind that we don't trust you, and we'll be watching you the whole time. Farfarello will sit in the back with for now. ~

~ That sounds fair. You know that Ebenroth has tried to recruit me to his school, saying that he'd protect me? ~

~ Makes sense. Just as it would make sense for you to refuse. ~

~ Just so you know. ~

Crawford's precognition told him that his next cell phone call would be important, so he picked it up instead of letting it go to voice message. "Yes?"

"We received a call that you needed support."

Might be Kritiker. Might not be. "From whom?"

"Red."

Sounded like Kritiker. "Yes. Thank you. I want you to go to the address I'm about to give you and keep watch. If it looks like something's going wrong, come in to help us. Otherwise, wait for an hour. If we're not out by then, come in. Keep in mind the whole time that the people there are very talented."

"Understood."

He just hoped Kritiker proved to be more of a help than a hindrance.

******************************************************

"You-- Argh!" Friendly pinched the bridge of her nose, then muttered, "Give me strength...."

Nagi tried not to be amused by how badly the lessons went. Despite Friendly's efforts, the Orange line would not learn _anything_, almost as if they refused to. He couldn't quite figure out the problem here, because she provided sound concepts in the most basic way. Maybe the clones that didn't get it muddled the ones who almost did?

Better her than him. Having the concentrated focus of about 50 Schuldig clones staring at him would have driven him nuts. They were _everywhere_. Instead, he sat off to the side on a crate and fought the urge to heckle her.

~ You could help me, ~ she said to Nagi.

~ No, no. I don't know much about telepathic things. I'll stay out of your way. I'm just here as backup and muscle. ~

~ Thanks for nothing. ~

"Okay." She took a deep breath, then forced a friendly smile. "Can somebody tell me what the problem is? You're smart. You even have some members who shield very well. Thus, I'm confused as to why you're not picking this up at all. I don't expect full, expert shields. Just thin, starter shields would be nice."

"It... doesn't feel natural."

"We've tried before."

"Intrigue and Sleepy tried to teach us."

"But it won't take."

Nagi shook his head, just as he did every time he heard that poor clone's name. No wonder Sleepy preferred to be called "Tobias," not that that name was much of an improvement. Had they run out of decent codenames by then? Not that "Intrigue" was much better.

"Do you know what I think it is?" Friendly said. "I think that you guys don't really want to be separated by shields. You're hurting yourselves and much of Europe because you don't want to be alone. If that's it, just suck it up and deal."

...wow. Her misanthropy impressed him. She was much nicer when with Weiß.

"That's not it!"

"You don't understand!"

"We're hurting and want to get better!"

"That's what you told Guilty. Would you try harder for him? I have to tell you, though, that he doesn't have an aptitude for teaching."

"But he's different."

"He would understand better."

"He's one of us," almost all of the clones said at the same time. Nagi had to suppress a shudder. Even in Ebenroth's hands, Schuldig had to be better off there than here.

Looking creeped out herself, Friendly said, "That's not it and you know it. You want help so you can stop hurting but you're fighting what will help you. I know you know how to start shielding, but you're refusing. Why? What is it? Please let me know so we can stop wasting each other's time."

The clones glanced at each other nervously. Intrigue and Sleepy, with their attendant lovers, looked interested.

"She's right," one of the clones said. Nagi thought he remembered that this one was 77, one of the more together members of the Orange line. "We're fighting it. Intrigue and Sleepy tried to help us and we fought it then. Now she's here and we're fighting her too."

"She is right, isn't she?" another one asked.

"Yeah, she is."

"We know what it is, but we don't want to think about it."

"But we have to."

"If we close the link down, some of us will just drop. The link is the only thing keeping some of us going, and... being the way we are, we won't know which ones are the vegetables until the shields go up."

All of the clones understood this at once and became more subdued, murmuring telepathically amongst themselves. Intrigue seemed unhappy as well, possibly because he'd always known the probability of some of the clones being unable to sustain themselves on their own and hadn't seen a problem with it.

Friendly shook her head. "You think you'll have impenetrable shields immediately? No. It will be a gradual process. It won't be the shields snapping up in a second and some of you dropping. You'll be able to feel the change coming on. Maybe some of you who feel more at risk can link up with just each other to keep going. I thought it would be easier for you to learn how to shield everybody out first and then learn to differentiate, but if you want a more difficult course that might protect more of you, I can try to teach you the harder path. But I have to tell you that this is something that must be done one way or another. Wouldn't it be a nice change not to be in psychic pain every second of the day? And your masochism and fear are hurting a lot of innocent people along with yourselves. I think you would have devoured Guilty and made him fucked up like you if he'd stayed here."

"We wouldn't!" they said.

"Not on purpose, but the mass of you would have pulled him in until he became less himself and more a part of the hive mind. The fact that you all come from the same genetic base has made it easier for all of you to slide into one another. Your proximity to yourselves is worsening your problem. Are you ready to give shielding a shot? Because otherwise you're wasting my time and yours."

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"We'll learn."

"Thank you," Friendly said. "Now let's try again."

******************************************************

"We're not staying overnight!" Schuldig and Aya said at practically the same time as their tour guides left them in a room with two beds and closed the door. And locked it.

"We should bust out just on principle, but I need to take a breather anyway," Schuldig said as he wilted backward onto one of the beds, then winced and shifted around. "Brad gave me a fucking lump on my head. Damn it." He looked like he really needed a rest.

Seeing as how they didn't seem to be moving for now, Yoji happily took a seat on the other bed and asked, "Other than lumpy, how's your head?"

"Killing me. Between getting clocked by Brad and trying to block out the ambiance, I'm in major pain."

"Poor baby," Aya murmured as he paced like a caged animal.

"You should try some empathy. I'm the person most likely to get us out of this alive."

"Looks like you're lying down on the job for now."

"I _need_ a break. I could use a meal too, but I don't know if we could trust any food they gave us. Take a seat."

"I'd rather not."

"Whatever. This room isn't bad. If this is the standard dorm room here, it's nicer than what I'm used to. Of course, Ebenroth doesn't have Eszett's enforcers and collaborators in place to force students to live in crap conditions. At least he doesn't yet." No windows, though. "My neck's locked up tight. Know any massage, Yoji?"

"Just some half-assed stuff," Yoji answered, amused despite himself. "And who made me your personal servant?"

"If you come over here I'll give you the know-how to do full-assed massage, which can only help your nightlife. It's a good trade."

"Nobody will be doing anything to anyone's ass here," Aya said. "In case you haven't noticed, we're in a locked room and surrounded by people happy to take advantage of any weakness on our part."

"Like the weakness of me being a taut and tangled mess?" Schuldig asked. "I don't work as well like this."

Aya looked half-beaten, fatigued himself, as he asked, "Yoji?"

"I'm willing to untangle him while you pace and watch the door," Yoji replied. "Haven't had much to do here, and this might drain some of _my_ tension out."

"He could do you later, Rose-red," Schuldig said, grinning as he obviously sensed victory.

"Nobody's doing anybody here, but you can have your massage."

"Thank you. I think better when I'm loose. C'mon, Aya, rise to the bait!"

"No. Entertain yourself without my help."

Aya might be famous for his short temper, but right now he surpassed it. Poor guy also looked tired and distracted, drooping. Definitely needed a massage.

~ I agree. That bit with the room of evil science drained him, and he wants to know why that box called him. ~

Yoji remembered Farfarello saying once that Aya had some telepathic ability, but Yoji had blown it off as nutbar ravings. Aya only had the powers of masochism and berserker fits. Yoji couldn't blow it off anymore, not when he knew that _Aya_, not Schuldig, had found that room even despite cosmetic camouflaging and telepathic shielding.

Too bad that, like so many other things in Aya's life, Aya didn't get any joy out of it. Did Aya feel that ambiance thing the people in Nagi's class had mentioned?

~ Afraid so. Now get over here and rub me the right way. ~

"You're so demanding," Yoji said.

"Want, take, have." Schuldig slipped his coat off, and from the heavy, stiff way it fell to the bed Yoji could tell that it had some light body armor in it. Schwarz had come to Vienna prepared for a bad fight.

Aya wore his new mission uniform, no doubt reinforced with light armor too. "No stripping."

"Just the coat," Schuldig replied. "I'm even keeping my gun harness on, Mom, even through the massage won't be as effective this way. Sometimes you're so much like Brad it kills me."

"Hnh."

Yoji just wore street clothes, his mission gloves, and watch, so he felt a bit more vulnerable. Too bad he and Elena hadn't expected to get jumped as soon as they arrived. He wondered how she and the rest of Schwarz were doing with the army of Schu.

Once Schuldig stroked the side of Yoji's face, Yoji knew what to do massage-wise in a rush of information and instinct, which was weird but cool. Lying down would get the Aya ice glare, so he just sat behind Schuldig and went to work, his hands slowly catching up with the new knowledge in his mind. It felt good to be doing something.

Schuldig hadn't been lying about being tensed up. Schuldig's shirt and gun harness did get in the way, although Yoji's magic fingers did good things anyway. Would have been better with bare skin and oil, but he knew that would lead to places Aya would kick his ass for. Schuldig had no complaints, not with the way he let his head droop forward a bit and the sensuous and throaty "Mmmm" he uttered that went straight to Yoji's cock.

~ You, me, and Aya in a room with beds so kindly provided... part of my brain is playing the porno music in anticipation even though I know actually getting it on here would be a stupid thing. ~

Yoji knew exactly what he meant.

~ That's because you're a good kitty, unlike sourpuss over there. ~

Arms crossed, Aya leaned on the wall near the door and watched them. It would have been arousing if not for the annoyed look on his face and his raised eyebrow.

"Let them think they have us for now, Aya," Schuldig said through his hanging curtain of hair. "Let them get cocky. Meanwhile, we recuperate a bit. Which would be helped by you sitting down. You can still keep watch while you get off your feet."

"I want to get out of here, and I want a plan. I don't want to sit while you fool around."

"_Sit_," Schuldig said, with the force of compulsion so strong behind it that Yoji felt a need to sit _more_, even though that was impossible.

"_No_," Aya answered, and that had an unusual force and power behind it too.

Schuldig moved out from under Yoji's hands and stood up. "What have you gotten into, Aya? You're stubborn, but you're _not_ that good."

They circled each other like predators, though Schuldig chased and Aya moved away, and Yoji tried to figure out what was going on but knew he didn't like Schuldig's manner toward Aya right now. Unfortunately, he also knew that Schuldig liked to tease the hell out of Aya, so he wouldn't intervene until he saw a clear threat.

"Let me touch you, kitten," Schuldig said. "I can boost you and help you figure out who's in the box. I helped you find the room. You'll feel better once you know."

"No, thank you."

"Farfie would be so upset if he saw you now. It's not just him after all."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Schuldig moved so quickly Yoji only saw a blur until the blur stopped to show Aya with his back against the wall and one of Schuldig's hands on the side of his face and the other over his mouth. "Who's in the box, Aya? Who's in the box? You can know. You know you know."

Shuddering, Aya had his eyes closed and distinct look of discomfort. Clear threat. Yoji pulled out his wire and sent it sailing for Schuldig's neck as he shouted, "Stop that now, Schuldig!"

Schuldig pulled himself and Aya out of the way, but Yoji sent the wire in that new direction. "Clever kitty," Schuldig said, then smiled. "Oh, Aya. Of course that's who's in the box." He let Aya go, and Yoji let the wire spool back into its watch casing now that he'd backed off.

Looking horrified, Aya gasped, "No. They can't--"

"We didn't know. Truth."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Yoji asked as he walked over to them.

"Better you don't know," Schuldig said. "Our hosts could read it out of you. I can protect it, while Aya's getting harder to read the longer we're here."

Knowing that Aya had become more receptive to it lately, Yoji put his hands on Aya's shoulders and tried to send some comfort through his touch. Aya sagged back against him a bit, a clear sign of how bad he must feel.

"We need to destroy that room and everything in it, but we have to get your box out first," Schuldig said. "I don't know what you'll do with it other than keep it safe, but I doubt you want it obliterated."

Aya shook his head. "No, I don't."

"Especially not if it's somehow calling you."

If it could call to him, it might hurt him if someone destroyed it. Poor Aya.

Schuldig blinked, then said, ~ Brad's coming. But who's the guy with him and Farfie? Hold on a-- ~

Someone knocked on the door. Aya suddenly had a knife in his hand. How many weapons did he carry? Gun in hand, Schuldig asked, "Who is it?"

"You don't know?" Yoji whispered.

~ I want to hear the answer given. ~

"I'm Scry. We didn't want you to think we forgot about you. I'm coming in. Alone." When the door opened another Crawford clone stood in the doorway, but he wasn't the same as Seer. Seer had been all attitude, but Scry had the confidence shading into arrogance that Crawford did. It _was_ Crawford, but with his old black hair.

"Nice of you," Schuldig said, keeping his gun out. "I prefer to think I'm unforgettable. If they had to send an Oracle, why didn't they send Seer back? We already know him."

"I volunteered. I didn't want you to think that Seer is representative of the Oracle line. He's younger than he looks."

"You're not?"

"Eszett had Brad Crawford since he was a child. Thus, I'm actually 17."

They were taking material from Crawford that young? Ew.

"If you're so much better, why didn't they have you in the baby-Schwarz group?"

"I'm on the leadership track. So is Antipathy. It sometimes creates problems if we have to work together because he doesn't yield the floor to others well."

"You're very informative."

"I have nothing to hide." Scry smiled, evil and confident. Sexy.

Schuldig's posture... changed. "Really."

Aya, impervious to Brad Crawford's sexual charm in ways Yoji and Schuldig weren't, elbowed them. Schuldig shot him an annoyed glare but straightened up and purred less as he asked, "What now? I want to get back to my team and tell Crawford about Ebenroth's deal here. I don't have the authority to promise anything in Schwarz's name."

"We're told that he's on his way. You just have to wait." Scry said it in a way that made it sound as if not waiting would be stupid and wasn't even a possibility, while Aya looked tempted to thwart him on that just because. Yoji might not be a telepath, but to some extent he could read people in his own way. "You must be hungry. I could have someone bring food in." Scry's tone and expression said that he could because he had that kind of pull here, while his smile focused on Schuldig and stayed there.

Watching Schuldig struggle not to flirt or respond with a come-on line could be amusing. Finally Schuldig shook his head and said, "No, we're fine. We'll wait here. Thanks for coming by."

"If you need anything, you can call us, but he'll be here soon." Looking disappointed for a moment, Scry closed the door as he left and locked it again.

"You can dish it out but you can't take it," Aya said to Schuldig.

"Heh. Just call us. You know how to whistle, don't you?" Yoji had to add. "You just put your lips together... and _blow_."

"They must think you're _really_ weak. They may be right."

"The both of you can shut up." But Schuldig couldn't keep a straight face.


	178. ~ Congratulations, Brad. It's a girl. ~

"They asked for support. Aya made the call," Omi said over the phone.

Schwarz asking for Kritiker's help meant the situation had to be bad. "You think Yoji and Elena are okay?" Ken asked.

"I haven't heard differently."

Which meant nothing. "Do you think we'll be sent in to help?"

"Right now the Viennese chapter is handling it. I hope I won't have to send you and Fenris."

Because that would mean things had gone really bad. "I got it. You know we'll be ready to go if you need us. I hope you won't have to, but we'll be ready."

"I thought as much, but it's good to hear. Thanks, Ken."

"No problem. I have to get back out there. With just the two of us here, the customers and fangirls are running us ragged."

Omi made a sound that might almost be a laugh. "Good luck. 'Bye, Ken."

"'Bye, Omi."

As Ken walked back out to the front he could hear Fenris asking for people who weren't ordering or paying for anything to please move aside since there were only two people working today and please be kind. The kid was starting to stutter, not a good sign.

As Ken walked into the shop area, he heard Fenris yell at the top of his lungs, his face red, "Buy something or get out!"

The customers and fangirls stared at Fenris in shock, some of them with their eyes wide and mouths hanging open, then one squealed, "So cute!" and all the other fangirls decided that he was just adorable, like a big puppy. Their squealing increased.

Fenris cursed under his breath in German. At least Ken assumed they were curses, since most German sounded like that to him.

One of the girls said, "You know German? I'm taking German! Can we--"

Fenris shook his head emphatically, took off his apron, and handed it to Ken as he stomped into the back area saying, "Please. I need five minutes."

"Sure," Ken answered. You couldn't say no when a guy had an expression of suffering like that on his face. Then he whispered, "'Buy something or get out' rarely worked for Aya either, and he's much more intimidating looking than you are."

He could swear he heard Fenris murmur, "The stupidity, it burns," as he closed the door behind him.

Ken turned back to face a shop full of people, only some of whom would actually buy anything, none of whom intended to leave until he paid attention to them, and sighed. It would be a torturous five minutes.

******************************************************

Sometimes Farfarello felt certain he'd get there faster if he got out of the car and ran even if that wouldn't make sense to anyone else. The thought of his puisín in the den of potential enemies and the almost familiar feel of the not quite Schuldig sitting behind him made his skin twitch.

Worried, Farfarello reached out for his puisín and found him alive but changed. Once he would have needed to be careful not to slide too deeply into Aya but right now Aya had shielding. Against him as well as against others. But it didn't feel like the mindbreaker's work. His puisín had the marks of other telepaths on him, as if they'd tagged and vandalized him. Farfarello would find out whom and kill every one of them. Had the mindbreaker tried to protect him from this at all?

His door wouldn't open. "Disengage the locks," he growled at Crawford.

"You're staying with me," Crawford answered. "The only deaths I want here are necessary or profitable deaths. If I let you out, I'll be able to find you by the trail of corpses."

"I'll smash the window and leap out."

"You're not convincing me that you're capable of being sensible on your own. Besides, I need you." Crawford glanced back at Misery. Of course. Crawford knew better than to trust, especially since Schuldig himself didn't always prove trustworthy and he was one of them. "We'll get them out."

Running a knife's edge down his arm wouldn't help. He sternly reminded himself of that. "Don't make me wait too long."

Going back to his kitten, he felt Aya tug back a little, almost aware of him. The shields yielded a little, exposing a storm of fatigue and thoughts of little sister and a box of her genetic remains. Genetic remains? "Crawford, Ebenroth has kept whatever genetic material could be salvaged from Rosenkreuz's vaults."

"Damn."

"When we destroyed Rosenkreuz, we should have scoured the hole."

"I had plans. They've turned out differently in execution."

"You fucked up." Farfarello heard a huff of almost laughter from the backseat. "Aya knows that they have scrapings and vials from his sister. Oddly, I don't think Ebenroth or his minions told him that. He knows from another way."

"How?"

"Don't know. Aya feels different."

"Just since you last saw him? Calm down."

"If you knew Schuldig had changed significantly while in the hands of your enemies, you would feel as disturbed as I do, so don't give me that. Will we be there soon?"

"Yes."

"Not soon enough."

******************************************************

Crawford would have to make sure to keep a lid on Farfarello somehow. Without Aya around to pacify him, he was becoming as unmanageable as he once had been. Some part of Crawford waited to hear Schuldig make some comment about putting Aya in Farfarello's mouth but of course that comment never came.

Crawford understood Farfarello's worry.

Misery, if that was indeed Misery, seemed to set Farfarello on edge as well just by sitting there. Did Farfarello feel something from him? Crawford knew the concept of cloning didn't offend Farfarello so it wasn't Misery's existence that itched at him.

Other people stood outside the school waiting to be let in, some posturing to the guards at the door. The Orange line had said that Schuldig's presence would draw other talents here, and this might be a sign of it. Crawford parked, and they all stepped out of the car.

"We're being watched from different vantage points," Schuldig's voice said, but it was actually Misery speaking as he did Schuldig's job.

"Who are they?" Crawford asked, refusing to be disturbed by him.

"Might be Kritiker. They have a telepath setting up interference. I could break through it to find out, but that might give me away. Their telepath has to be pretty good to have this kind of control and survive the atmosphere here."

"Let's see if one of them picks up a cell call." Crawford dialed the phone number into his cell phone and heard a man answer. "Thank you," he said as he ended the call.

"Yes, one of them answered your call. They're the people who contacted us."

Possibly Kritiker. "Thank you. Farfarello, stay at my side and obey me. I don't want any unnecessary or unprofitable deaths."

"You're throwing away the advantage I give us," Farfarello growled.

Because precogs would be able to read the people around Farfarello to see what he would do, whereas alone he would be unpredictable. "If I have to let you go out on your own, I will, but it will be my decision."

"If my kitten is harmed from your planning--"

"You'll suck it up and deal with it. But it won't happen. Work with me, not against me. You don't want me to feel that I can't rely on you." Crawford would have to incapacitate him in such a situation.

And Farfarello knew it. "It should go both ways."

"I'm an add-on, not an equal partner, but is now really the time to get into this?" Misery asked, sounding far more diffident than Schuldig would have, which was a relief.

"You're right," Crawford said. "We're going in."

They walked past all the other people waiting and went straight to the door. When the others protested, Farfarello's best crazy-eyed look shut most of them up. The rest saw their guns and attitude and turned more wary.

"Ebenroth is expecting us," Crawford said to one of the talents guarding the door. Boy couldn't have been older than 20, if that.

"Yes. Come in and follow me please." He had respect in his voice but a grudging one, as if he resented feeling it but couldn't stop himself. Schuldig would have known for sure.

Crawford didn't have much telepathy but could still feel Farfarello jangling and seething. Then again, even someone with no talent at all would probably be able to sense that. Misery walked a little behind them in familiar long strides. Children, teens, and young adults watched them, some with wide eyes, others with resentment.

Crawford's mind roiled with suppositions and questions. Abyssinian might have more sense and patience than anyone would have suspected of him during his Weiß days but anything involving his sister had a tendency to make him lose all reason. Had Ebenroth used that? Farfarello had mentioned that Ebenroth continued toying with genetics as Eszett had. This school didn't have the perpetually tense and prison-like atmosphere of Rosenkreuz but Crawford reserved judgment for when he had more information.

The news about the genetics lab already put a tilt on things.

"More talents are converging on this location," Misery murmured. "Your team is definitely attracting people. What they do when they get here I don't know. At least some of them feel threatening."

Ebenroth had settled on the outskirts of a major city. Was he so big a fool to ask for a war in an area where far too many people would see it? Rosenkreuz had been founded in the middle of nowhere for good reason.

Their escort took them to an office and left them there with Ebenroth sitting at a large desk and the baby-Schwarz Schuldig had mentioned in the voice message standing behind him. Crawford hid a sneer at the sight of the Oracle and Orange lines clones but felt a twinge of surprise over the Prodigy clone, a rarity, and the mashup girl. Something about the girl felt familiar but he couldn't place it yet. Did Ebenroth think he'd feel pleased to be greeted with a young parody of Schwarz?

"I'm told you were expecting us," Crawford said.

"Your teammates will be brought here soon. Schuldig surprised me. Eszett never once considered him for the leadership track, yet he showed some talent for it. I think you've steadied him over the years."

Although he felt some warmth over the thought of his telepath sane and taking control of the situation, Crawford answered, "He's matured somewhat. It happens if we manage to live long enough."

"I haven't made the same mistake they did, and I expect great things of the talents gathered here. In safety, they may all be able to reach their highest levels. Is that Misery with you? You've changed."

"I had to keep a low profile," Misery answered. Under good lighting Crawford saw that he looked too thin and somewhat haggard, his face too sharp and bony, his bulky clothing no doubt hiding more of the ravages of a life lived on the run.

"I'm glad Schwarz inspired you to come in. If we all band together we can accomplish great things."

"I have no intentions of staying in the area."

"Are you afraid of Woeller?"

Misery's mouth twisted. "I want to be at my best when I return to annihilate him. I think it's understandable."

"Why wait? One of the great things about alliances is that we support and strengthen one another. We can strike in your name. People like Woeller can't be allowed to abuse talents as he abused you. An example should be made of him."

Feeling that he'd allowed Ebenroth to alternately antagonize and tantalize Misery long enough, Crawford said, "You're talking of an alliance. Tell me why I should consider such a thing."

"The kind of chaos here currently doesn't serve you. Local men of power keep some talents as slaves."

"If they didn't have the strength to remain free, it's not my problem."

"If they own talents, they don't need to pay money to hire others. That cuts into your business."

"I doubt I would want to work for such people anyway."

"Less demand for talent often decreases your asking prices."

"That is true."

Finding himself very short on patience, he wanted to end this verbal sparring match soon, especially as he felt Farfarello nearly vibrating with even less patience beside him. "What other points do you have to make?"

"I could mention the humanitarian angle. By banding together, these new talents survive. I provide money, training, support, and a home. My age also gives me more respect from local authorities than they would get. You see how the Orange line suffers without the benefits I could offer them."

"I'm amazed by your nobility but you can't expect me to see your generosity to these children as a reason to ally with you. If you were wise enough, you've gleaned enough money from Eszett's remnants to take care of your wards without Schwarz providing any financial backing anyway. In fact, your operation is so reminiscent of Eszett that it makes me distrust you."

"I'm not like them at all. They were abusive and wasteful."

"You don't have enough resources to be able to afford to waste them. I want my team members. I can only think that you haven't let me see them yet because they'd tell me things that would make me even less inclined to ally with you."

"Not at all. Where are they, Antipathy?"

The Orange line clone answered, "They'll be here in about two minutes."

Ebenroth said. "The miasma of pain and redoubled pain from untrained and badly trained telepaths and empaths also makes much of Europe a torture for many talents, including some on your team. Training could fix that. I know that Schwarz has developed some of its own training techniques and new uses for old abilities."

"Again, you mention how an alliance would be beneficial to you but nothing about how it benefits us."

Ebenroth had to know that he'd lost, that nothing he could say would persuade Crawford. Schuldig, Abyssinian, and Balinese had probably seen even more reasons to refuse an alliance in their longer time here. If Ebenroth intended to create a new Eszett and Rosenkreuz, he was Crawford's enemy and had to be put down. So what did Ebenroth hope to gain here? Did he continue on because he'd gone too far but knew he had no real hope of getting what he wanted? Or did he have some strategy in mind that he hadn't finished playing out yet?

"They've arrived," the girl said.

When they came in the three of them looked well, though tired and tense. Schuldig hid much of it under a smirk and challenging look, but Crawford noticed it from knowing him so well. Still, Schuldig looked healthy and as sane as he ever was, and if Ebenroth could be believed had been challenging his captors/hosts the whole time.

Better, seeing him dispelled some of the Orange line's power over Crawford because now he saw more of the differences between Schuldig and them. An adult, Schuldig had a breadth of shoulders they might not survive to match, something Crawford hadn't really thought about since in his mind he apparently remembered Schuldig best as the skinny teen he'd first met in Rosenkreuz. The Orange line reminded him of the past, but Schuldig was the present and future, both of which had always been more important to Crawford.

"Hey, Brad," Schuldig said as he put his hand on Crawford's shoulder and squeezed, as much physical intimacy as they could allow themselves in a situation that might force them to draw weapons soon. Schuldig had learned moderation and more sense over the years.

Inexplicably, the mashup girl looked even more annoyed to see them together since she glared specifically at them. Her wide mouth twisted almost the same way Schuldig's did when he felt petulant. She also had the feminine version of Schuldig's chin and cheekbones and his fine, flyaway hair texture, suggesting she was part his. No wonder she resented him.

~ Funny. But the other half of her is you. She's ours. Congratulations, Brad. It's a girl. ~

She... was _their_ child? Together?

~ Yeah, a fine baby girl hostage, Verity. Sorry I don't have any cigars for you. ~

While Crawford had known that Eszett had harvested his genetic material to breed more talents, he hadn't expected them to do this, create a talent born to be a hostage by mingling Schuldig's with his. His and Schuldig's daughter. Eszett must have thought him more sentimental than he'd realized. They would have been wrong years ago. He would have killed her himself without a qualm. Now he felt a rage so potent it nearly overwhelmed him. Now he was a family man, and he and his were free people, but Eszett made a mockery of their rights as such even after its destruction.

Its possibly temporary destruction. Either Ebenroth meant to taunt them, or he was a stupid man. Either way, Crawford could not let any of this pass.

Although his mind whirled with anger and plans, Crawford still noticed that Abyssinian looked paler than usual as he stood next to Farfarello, while Farfarello looked even angrier than he had before, with his grip on his kitten looking almost painfully tight. With his team and himself so on edge, the fragile détente here would break soon. Crawford had to plan his next strategy quickly while he still had a chance to control matters.

~ Who's the bleached blond kid? Did the Bruise give you a pet to take with you? ~

Crawford answered, ~ That's Misery. ~ Who snuck looks back at Schuldig when he thought no one noticed.

~ _That's_ Misery? Someone needs to feed him! ~ Schuldig took to some people immediately. Would that be a good thing or bad in this situation?

~ They all could use some feeding. ~

He foresaw the surprise attack on Ebenroth a minute before it would occur. Since he hoped it would succeed, he wouldn't interfere. He couldn't foresee the outcome.

A long blade in hand, the teleporter appeared next to Ebenroth and stabbed. The Oracle clone must have seen a few seconds ahead because he threw himself at the attacker but, lacking better skills, only got himself stabbed, though he stopped it from being a killing wound for Ebenroth. Ebenroth only received the tip of the blade in the side of his arm after it went through the clone's body. The Orange clone screamed in horror and rage. Amateurs. Still, seeing what looked like a younger him take what had to be a killing wound as a younger Schuldig freaked out over it still made for an unsettling scene.

Eszett had kept and trained the clones in a different part of the Rosenkreuz compound for many good reasons.

"Misoji, knock him out but don't kill him! We need him alive!" Ebenroth shouted.

The Prodigy clone yanked the attacker away and cut off his air until the man passed out.

"Antipathy! This is not the time to fall apart!" Ebenroth said. "Damn it. We need a healer."

"Seer doesn't need one anymore," the Orange clone, apparently Antipathy, said softly.

"I still need one. Verity."

"I've called two," the girl, their daughter, answered, ably keeping her head.

"Good. Put yourself back together, Antipathy."

"More attackers are coming," Antipathy answered dully.

"Of course they are," Crawford said. "Our presence drew them here, as you intended. I hope you realize that we won't help defend you. We only work for pay." He wondered how Kritiker would interpret and react to the situation.

"I have a school full of talents who will be defending their lives. I don't need to hire you," Ebenroth said, looking exhilarated. "This will be good. Home always means more when you have to defend it."

"He's a loony," Yoji murmured.

A monomaniacal lunatic could not be left in command of the talented children and Eszett's genetic stores. Crawford kept finding more reasons to terminate Ebenroth.

"If you won't help, you'll have to stay in this office under guard," Ebenroth said. "Our enemies won't pay you either, so there's no reason for you to help _them_. All I ask is that you stay here until everything's over." He left the room at a run with Verity, while five mashup teens entered and blocked the door.

"What do _you_ do?" Schuldig asked.

"We're telekinetics and a telepath," one of the four boys answered.

"I'm happy for you."

Crawford could hear Antipathy's almost sobbing breaths, although the desk hid the sight of him. He was probably kneeling or sitting on the floor with the corpse. Crawford liked to think of himself as a man who was difficult to unsettle, but he couldn't help being glad that the desk also blocked his view of Seer's body. Misoji remained where he was, standing over the unconscious attacker and looking at him with somewhat crazy-eyed curiosity.

Crawford realized that he didn't see Farfarello in the room and said nothing of it. At this moment, what would be would be.


	179. "Are you going to cry again now?"

As much as he wanted to kill something, Farfarello had a more important mission. He couldn't differentiate the players anyway. Using the chaos of students and sometimes attackers running and fighting through the halls, Farfarello slipped around and through, searching for the room that dominated his puisín's thoughts.

But if anyone attacked him, he killed them. That was fair. He made the pyrokinetic's death particularly painful after the man had singed his hair.

Aya wanted his sister's remains free from Ebenroth's people, which Farfarello understood completely. Crawford hadn't liked the idea of the room existing either, which Farfarello would duly remind him of when he started talking of punishment for disobedience.

Farfarello didn't understand how his kitten now tasted of other telepaths but didn't have any other telltale signs of occupancy. It made no sense. Aya used _Farfarello's_ telepathy alone, and it was only possible because Farfarello's telepathy had freakish quirks.

So how had his puisín known about his sister and the room?

Later. Farfarello could brood and rage on everything later. Now he needed to find the room, rescue their little sister's remains, and destroy everything and everyone else in there. It felt good to have something to do, especially since he didn't have the patience for stupid word games.

As Farfarello skidded to a halt in front of the door, he reached out to the boy. ~ Prodigy. I need a little help here. ~

Although he sounded surprised to hear from him, Nagi quickly answered, ~ With what? ~

Farfarello moved the disguising panels on it out of the way. ~ Door. Looks like it has electronics for its locks. Kitten says it takes a code punched into a pad to unlock it. If I gave you a look at it, could you tell me how to manipulate it with my ki? ~

~ At least your requests have gotten more interesting lately. Sure, feel into it carefully and send the feel of it to me. ~

Although he didn't like the sound of that, Farfarello figured he'd have to do it if he wanted to open the door. If he just sent charges through indiscriminately or with force he might screw up the locks in a way that would stop him from getting in.

~ I can't feel anything, ~ the boy complained, ~ because _you_ can't feel much and what you do feel you can't interpret. It's useless. ~

~ If I'm not dissociated, I'm more likely to get discovered. And it's not like I've done this before. ~

~ Did Aya get the number code before? ~

~ He watched, but I don't know if those numbers will work. Ebenroth said he'd change them soon afterward. Don't know what, if anything, will happen if someone puts the wrong code in. ~ How the hell would he get in?

~ Don't get so excitable. ~

~ You haven't _seen_ me excitable about this yet. ~

~ Can you lure someone out? ~

~ Dunno. I don't think they see outside of the room, and I can't feel anyone inside the room while the dampening field's in place. ~

Frustrated, he pressed the numbers Aya remembered, consequences be damned, just to do something. Nothing happened at all. He started telepathically beaming _Come out, come out, there's something outside the door you need to see_ into the room in the hopes of getting to somebody in there. For all he knew, the room was empty while God laughed at him, but he couldn't think of any other options.

~ Crawford set you on this task? ~

~ He wants it done. ~

~ But did he tell you to do it? ~

~ Normally you would do this, but you're guarding Friendly. ~

~ Farfarello-- ~

The door opened just a little bit then, so Farfarello had to move fast. He pushed his way inside, knocking the man down, then stabbed him dead to make sure he stayed down. As the shocked lab workers stared at him, he reflected that he'd have to kill all of them to make sure no one stopped his work. He slaughtered all ten in a few minutes. They presented no challenge whatsoever, which made killing them a chore somewhat reminiscent of chopping wood. No pleasure in it at all.

Judging from the new empty spaces, it appeared that they'd started to focus on the material in the refrigerated storage unit Aya had fixated on. Farfarello would need help to find what he wanted. Thus, he linked into his puisín, who'd expected him to need this kind of help and let him in, and felt through Aya's senses, even as he concentrated it through his greater telepathic perception. One of the boxes still in the unit nearly _sang_ to him now, redolent of warmth and home, beautiful and heartbreaking. It hadn't sounded and felt so obvious to poor Aya.

Amazing. Blood _could_ call to blood.

It was also obvious that Aya had some innate talent of his own. Farfarello didn't know how he really felt about all that aside from somewhat amused and disgusted that it bruised his ego a bit that what Aya could do didn't come completely from him. It hurt that he couldn't just slide into his kitten and now needed permission. But he could deal with it all later.

Looking around led to finding a cold containment bag he could put the remains in. Looking around even further led to finding the scientists' personal belongings and thus a backpack he could empty out and place his precious cargo in. Given the fights he had getting here, he needed his arms free.

With all that done, he considered the room and what to do with it. Crawford had reacted to its existence with extreme distaste, while Aya remembered Schuldig's disgust at the work done here. Those two had countless lesser replicas running about, so they had reason. More scientists could always be found, and who knew whose hands this material would end up in next?

Better to destroy it all.

Farfarello sucked all the power nearby into his hands, twitching with it, then shot it back through the equipment, frying circuits and overheating things that needed to be kept chilled. Some things even caught fire. Fortunate that. Fire cleansed. Damn, but he loved destruction.

******************************************************

Schuldig was bored and wanted to sit but didn't dare, not when the situation could change at any moment. They needed to be ready to move.

Too much of their work involved bored waiting.

The baby-Nagi, Misoji, looked at them suddenly and said, "Wait, wasn't there--" Then he shook his head. "Nothing."

Schuldig had felt a fast, brief flash of a telepathy like his own across the boy, but when he looked to Misery, Misery shook his head slightly. They both turned to look at Antipathy, who sat at the seat behind the desk. Antipathy's eyes were reddened and his face paler.

"You okay, Antipathy?" one of the kid guards asked.

"I'm great. Seer's corpse is lying on the floor behind me with my jacket over his face. Life couldn't be better."

"Are you really so surprised?" Misoji asked.

"Did you see the look on Mr. Ebenroth's face?"

"Did you really think he'd be different?"

"He's supposed to be. That's part of his whole sales pitch."

"Are you going to cry again now?" Misoji sneered.

Wow. That was low. It made Schuldig almost smile.

"No," Antipathy answered, sounding bleak. "I'm done with crying."

"Could you two not talk about this in front of our guests?" the same boy guard asked.

"They're not going to sign up with Ebenroth. They're too smart for that, especially since he offered them nothing."

Schuldig felt another quick flash of familiar telepathy heading elsewhere, but in the chaos of the attacks going on in the building and the ambiance he couldn't tell exactly where it went. He hated being this fucking muddled and lost.

******************************************************

~ Kill Ebenroth, ~ Schuldig's voice quickly said into Farfarello's head. At least it sounded a lot like Schuldig. Given recent events, Farfarello couldn't be sure.

But because he wanted to do that anyway, he would go along with it.

******************************************************

"Oh," a lot of the clones said, this time not all at the same time but staggered a bit.

"See?" Friendly said, smiling. "You didn't all turn into vegetables. Even those of you who were sharing a personality stored memories of that self. Now that you're shielded, you still have those memories. You'll become more individual over time--it's inevitable--but you're free of being _forced_ to depend on each other. Now if you stay together, it's because you want to. Less pain too, right?"

They stared at her in wonder and a bit of fear. "Yeah!"

"I knew you had the basics. You were just nervous about using them. Now, keep working on strengthening those shields. You don't have to feel as much bleed-off as you still do."

~ Did you know they'd all have some kind of personality left after they shielded themselves? ~ Nagi asked.

~ No. If I'd known, I would have said, ~ she answered. ~ I guessed, but I wasn't stupid enough to say it, because if it didn't work that way they would try to rip me to shreds over it. Let's just be happy for things working out. I already feel better. ~

Nagi did too. He hadn't even realized had badly the ambiance had affected him until so much of it had dissipated. Right now he felt almost optimistic and light-hearted but figured he'd stabilize soon.

******************************************************

A lot of the pain and depression disappeared, and Schuldig couldn't help smiling as the knots in his shoulders and neck that even Yoji couldn't get out loosened. All the telepaths in the room perked up. Aya looked better too, if confused by the sudden lift in his mood.

"What was that?" Antipathy asked.

At Brad's questioning look, Schuldig said to him, "A lot of the ambiance is gone. Everything feels a lot better. Your doing?"

"We left members of Schwarz behind to teach the Orange clones to shield themselves," Brad answered, more for the benefit of their audience than for Schuldig's.

"Better living through Schwarz."

"You left a telepath to train the Orange line?" Misoji asked. "Why? Did they pay you?"

"No," Brad answered. "They just seemed like the biggest component of the local disaster. If we wanted to be more comfortable here, we'd have to clean up a bit." They heard a loud rumble nearby and felt the building shake a little. "We want to go out there and help defend the school. At this point, it looks like we'll have to help if we want to protect our lives."

"Mr. Ebenroth said to keep you here," one of the guard telekinetics answered. Schuldig couldn't be bothered to learn who was who, since they were non-entities.

"We're bored. We don't owe anything to the people attacking you. In fact, those people are making our lives more difficult. Would we be under guard right now if not for them? No. Let us help."

"Besides, we want to fight," Schuldig said with a smile. Killing things would be great fun. "If you didn't have to guard us, you could be out there too, protecting your home. I bet Misoji could make a big difference all by himself."

"I have a prisoner to keep unconscious," the kid replied, but he looked interested. Who wouldn't rather be outside making a difference than standing around in boredom wondering what might be happening?

"Throw him to a telepath to keep under. You could do a lot more good out there."

"We're supposed to keep you in here," one of the guard telekinetics said, obviously the (damaged) brains of the operation.

"Do you think we could really keep Schwarz here if they wanted to leave?" Antipathy asked. "I say we go out and defend ourselves. Either Schwarz will leave us or they'll fight the attackers. I don't see the advantage for them in joining the attack."

The guards had such looks on their faces, like they knew what they wanted to do was naughty and felt guilty and exhilarated and worried about punishment all at once. They were such fucking kids.

"I think it's a good idea," Misoji said. "Let's go." He telekinetically handed the teleporter over to the guard telepath, then opened the door to the hallway, which let smoke and the smell of fire in. "Last one out better close the door just in case," he said as he walked off.

The telepath sighed, sat in one of the chairs, and set his feet on the unconscious teleporter's chest. Prisoners of war got to lie on the floor, apparently. The telekinetics ran out like they couldn't wait to get to the mayhem. Aya and Yoji left together more cautiously, weapons ready. Antipathy disappeared behind the desk for a minute to say a last goodbye to his dead crush, then stood, rubbed his eyes with his hand, and set his hard, blank game face on. Schuldig had to fight hard to resist the urge to pounce on and comfort him.

As Antipathy walked past, Brad gripped his shoulder in an almost comforting way. Antipathy almost lost it there, then took a deep, shuddering breath, nodded, drew out his gun, and walked in the direction of the fight sounds.

Schuldig couldn't read Brad at all at the moment. As they closed the door behind them and drew their guns out, Schuldig asked, ~ What was that? ~

~ Ebenroth, his regime, and his scientists are our enemies. These children aren't, and might be an asset later. I'd rather have a group of talents this large not hate me any more than they have to. ~

~ Nothing to do with a young me grieving over a young, dead you? ~

~ If you have your own theories, why do you even bother asking? ~ Brad looked annoyed but kind of fond too, touched with gratitude that Schuldig was still Schuldig. It felt like a caress.

~ I enjoy hearing your reasons and excuses. I'm glad I didn't have to see Seer lying dead behind the desk. ~

~ Me too. ~

As they walked, they occasionally picked off some people. Stragglers, or point men. Not a lot of people. They hadn't hit the epicenter of chaos yet. Schuldig wished he had a headband to cover his mouth with, because his throat ached a bit from the smoke.

~ He seems like a sweet kid, ~ Brad said, sounding preoccupied.

~ Nothing like me, yeah? That's Emory you're seeing. Kind of interesting knowing that Emory could be attracted to somebody like you, not just me. One of the Oracles came on to me, you know. A different one, not the dead kid. Well, he wasn't dead _then_, but you know what I mean. I knew better, but it still took Aya elbowing me hard to break the trance. You were one hot teen, Bradchen. ~

As Crawford shot someone through the head, he smiled. ~ Thanks. I was starting to worry if pistol-butting you had loosened your brains and changed your personality. ~

~ I can be deep and thoughtful. It's tiring being a light-minded asshole all the time. You have no idea how much work I put into it. If you really need to be reassured, I can say that I can't wait to fuck you later. Better? ~

~ Much. ~


	180. "He'll learn to live with disappointment. Or die from it."

Aya went through the halls like a heat-seeking missile. How could he run so damned fast, especially with all the choking smoke? A guy could feel threatened by that kind of reckless athleticism. Farfarello had to be in tremendous shape to keep up with him, a thought that Yoji ruthlessly cut short before his dirty mind took it to the inevitable conclusion.

Yoji knew better than to complain to Aya, especially if he mentioned the smoke, because he knew Aya would put all the blame on his lazy lifestyle and smoking. Well, excuse him for being able to assassinate people without needing to go for the gold medal in track at the same time.

So far they only attacked people who attacked them first. It seemed fair. At one point Yoji did kill a student, but he hadn't realized it was a student since the guy was assaulting a student girl. She thanked Yoji afterward before running off.

Generally the kids got out of their way. Made sense, given the triumphal march through the halls he, Aya, and Schuldig had done earlier. The students had either seen them personally or seen them through other students' eyes.

Life had been less freaky once, although it had been so long ago that Yoji might be romanticizing it a bit.

Or maybe the kids just didn't want to be bowled over by steamroller Aya.

Aya used his guns, a choice he seemed to make in situations where he had to clear an area fast and couldn't just chop down everyone in his path. Meanwhile, Yoji enjoyed the greater range and uses he could get from his wire now that he controlled his telekinesis more. Besides, the looks on his enemies' faces when he made it do something utterly impossible never failed to amuse him.

The telekinesis helped deflect bullets too, which unfortunately just made Aya more single-minded. Guy _was not_ bulletproof on his own, something Aya often forgot.

Some guys with guns gave them a brief salute. Might be Kritiker, but Yoji couldn't tell in the chaos. He just hoped Aya had a plan as well as a destination.

"Are we following Farfarello or what?" Yoji gasped. Didn't seem like they'd run across enough corpses to be tracking Farfarello, but the berserker had changed somewhat since glomping on to Aya so who knew?

"No," Aya answered, in the lite version of his own berserker mode. "Few people can track him. I'm... following something else."

Had to be the mysterious box o' stuff, and from Aya's reaction to it, it had to have his sister's or Farfarello's genetic material inside it. "You can tell me."

"I'd rather not. You can be read. Don't get like that, Yoji. This isn't disparaging you at all."

"I can get however I want to be and decide for myself what's disparaging."

"I'll tell you myself later. I swear. Okay?" It came out much less annoyed-sounding than it once would have.

Aya had seemed happier lately, more even-tempered. Yoji really hoped this shit with what might be Aya's sister didn't wreck that. "Yeah. Okay. I'll hold you to that."

"Okay."

******************************************************

Some asshole had tried to burn him again, which really ticked Farfarello off. He had precious cargo on his back in addition to his own well-being to think of. His thrown knives melted before hitting the target but his ki blast went right through the flames and took the man off his feet. And the man's head partway off his body. Nice. He didn't know who was who but _anyone_ who messed with him met their Maker.

Finally he saw Ebenroth, the mashup girl from the office, and another Oracle standing in a group, the two talents defending the soon-to-be-dead waste of space. Another Oracle. Did Ebenroth keep them in a box somewhere in case of emergency? Interchangeable precogs. Ebenroth really needed to die.

The Oracle started shooting at him. He dodged most of the bullets but one creased his arm, which would hurt once he reassociated later. Then he noticed a zip of orange heading toward Ebenroth at high speed. To defend? To attack?

The Schuldig clone stopped behind Ebenroth and quickly ran a knife across the man's throat, draining his life in a rich gush of red. This one, with his focus and obvious exhilaration in his wickedness, didn't look like a part of the Bruise. He saluted the mashup girl with his knife, the motion of which spattered her with blood, then sped off again before anyone had a chance to react.

~ You make a great distraction. Thanks! ~ the almost-Schuldig voice said.

Cheated Farfarello of his prey!

The mashup girl looked relieved for a brief moment before horror flooded across her face. The horror might be an act.

The Oracle turned on Farfarello, who decided that it would be an excellent time to lie. Why be blamed for a murder he couldn't commit? No, not a lie. Tell what was probably the truth, expertly wielded. "Tricked me!" Farfarello growled. "I heard a voice telling me to attack you and thought it was Schuldig's. Instead it was that creature using me!"

Students already started to gather near the corpse, bereft, sheep lost without their evil shepherd. "There's no time for that," Farfarello said to the Oracle and the girl, who seemed the most sensible ones here. "The fight isn't over yet."

The Oracle's face contained far more calculation than grief. "You're right. Which side will you fight for?"

"Yours. Crawford would agree that there's more to be gained from your side. Besides, the others have no love for us. We're competition." Just to make sure no telepaths would succeed in reading his mind he concentrated on his jagged-edged crackle and jangle inside, then smiled as the mashup girl winced and put her hand to her forehead.

"All right," the Oracle answered. "But we'll keep an eye on you."

"I expect it."

The boy-Crawford took command of the others then, delegating tasks so a few talents put Ebenroth's body somewhere safe while the rest went out in teams to exterminate attackers. Farfarello followed his commands, at least the ones that made sense, for now.

******************************************************

Crawford faced off with another one of his own clones. Following precognitive visions, they each zigged and zagged in a way that made attempting to aim rather useless. It annoyed the hell out of him, especially as the impertinent boy smirked at him. Then Crawford foresaw something that made him grin.

"Can you see one minute ahead?" Crawford asked.

"What?" He fell forward with an exit wound between his eyes, while Schuldig waved from behind him.

"You killed him without qualms," Crawford said, amused. Schuldig had nailed another Oracle clone before this. It rather offended Crawford that they hadn't been more difficult to kill, but at least he'd gotten over being disturbed by seeing these look-a-likes die.

"They were threatening you," Schuldig answered. "Besides, they look like you did at the times when I most wanted you dead. The fires are getting out of control." Nice change of subject.

"So they are. Can you act as my megaphone?"

"Oooh. You're going to take charge."

"Someone with some brains should. Start sending me out to the students now. This is Brad Crawford, the prime Oracle. Hear me out. Whatever your feelings may be for me, if my instructions sound like good sense, follow them. Coordinate your efforts. Get together and attack in teams and watch your backs. Telekinetics and pryokinetics should smother the flames. Kritiker is here to help fight for you so if you find some of them approach them cautiously and fill them in on who's who. They can be more use if they know who to kill."

"Scry's annoyed that you're trying to steal his leadership thunder."

"Must be an Oracle. Is Scry the one that came on to you?"

"Yeah."

"He'll learn to live with disappointment. Or die from it."

A girl approached them with her arms outstretched to her sides to show she meant no threat. "Sir, pyros can put out flames? Even ones that aren't their own?"

"We know someone who does it all the time."

"We'll help you help us, sir. A lot of them will listen to me."

"Thank you." Amused, Crawford looked over at Schuldig.

"Better not get too used to that kind of deference," his telepath said.

Feeling that reality was righting itself now, Crawford took out his cell phone. "It's time to call the Kritiker agents to get some coordination going."

******************************************************  
_"Remember all the times that we used to play,  
You were lost and I would save you.  
I don't think those feelings will ever fade.  
You were born a part of me."_  
  -- "Cure My Tragedy (A Letter to God)" by Cold  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aya noticed that Yoji used his telekinesis much more often, creatively, and instinctively if he used it in conjunction with his wire. After seeing him wrap his wire around one enemy's neck and impossibly drag him forward with it, Aya said, "Just like in Mortal Kombat."

"What?" Yoji answered, then laughed. "Don't think I'm going to rip anyone's heart or skeleton out now."

Yoji had been solicitous of Aya and tried to keep things cheery. While Aya appreciated the attempt, it was doomed to failure.

Finally they reached Farfarello, who defended an area of hallway with his blades and a gang of students. Farfarello's look of exhilaration brightened even more as he noticed Aya and shouted, "Puisín!"

One of the pyros turned toward Aya and Yoji and fired at them. They both slid out of the way in different directions for cover, even though the fire streamed harmlessly along a telekinetic barrier. "Didn't know if that would work," Yoji murmured. "Could have saved my knees some pain."

"Don't force me to make the obvious comment," Aya murmured back.

Yoji grinned, the madman. "You're so cute!"

"These two are mine!" Farfarello yelled as he sent what appeared to be a painful ki shock through the pyro. "Don't do that again." Aya didn't think it wise to display that new talent in front of these people.

~ No worries, puisín. I killed the scientists who could have made new versions of me. They're no longer a threat. ~

Until that moment Aya hadn't even realized that a part of him had thought of dealing with the scientists to see if they could bring his sister back. Through the sudden flood of frustrated despair Aya tried to tell himself that he should be grateful such temptation had been placed out of his reach. Scientists might be able to make a girl who looked like his sister but she wouldn't truly _be_ Aya. No one deserved to be so smothered and warped by the weight of his unfair and unrealistic expectations. He would only be disappointed.

A stubborn part of him whispered that there could be other scientists elsewhere who might have the knowledge. He smacked that part down hard for playing such dangerous games.

Farfarello put his arms around Aya and held him close, bloodying him. ~ You should never believe anything an Eszett scientist tells you. They would say any lie if it serves them. Also, take a good look at how different the members of the Orange line are. You have no idea what a clone of your sister would be like. ~

"I know." But Aya could feel her inside Farfarello's backpack and wanted to cradle her. What _would_ he do with her material?

~ Yes, I rescued our little sister's remains, wrapping it in protective material to keep it preserved. ~

"Our?"

~ She is yours, so she is mine. I couldn't save my sister. ~

Aya didn't think she'd object to being claimed by his lover as well. She'd always wanted him to find someone. "Ours, then."

"Good."

"We don't have time for reunions now," the Oracle clone said. "The next attack can come at any moment."

"Not so much," Crawford said, Schuldig at his side, as he rounded the corner at the lead of a group of students. "Our backup is cleaning up outside, and we've killed or neutralized many of the attackers who made it inside. Some pyrokinetics and telekinetics are stopping the fires."

"One of the Orange line killed Mr. Ebenroth!" one of the students near the Oracle clone shouted.

"That's a terrible shame. Was the attacker caught?"

"Wasn't a student Orange," Farfarello said. "Wasn't a member of the Bruise either. He was fast, focused, and professional. Used a knife well. Fooled me."

"We want the Orange members you call the Bruise to be brought in for questioning to be sure," the Oracle clone said.

"We can do that," Crawford answered. "Once we're sure they're stable. Our operative has trained them to better shield themselves, making a positive difference in the ambiance that will only get better with more practice, but they're new to it. None of us want setbacks now that the situation is starting to improve."

"We also want the captives you said your backup is cleaning up."

"I'm interested in what they have to say as well. Good thinking. Who are you?"

"Scry," the Oracle clone said, failing to completely hide his resentment under an even tone. "Adam."

Aya had spent enough time observing and listening here to know how important having a name in addition to a codename was, the value and individuality it denoted. Many students had to fight to be identified by more than a codename or clone designation. Although Scry obviously resented Schwarz taking command from him and might strike back, Aya couldn't help but feel a tiny hint of satisfaction in the boy standing up to Crawford. Aya knew Crawford would have to be prodded to see the clones as actual people with feelings and basic human rights. Right now Crawford made a public effort but a tinge of condescension lingered in it.

Of course, if the boy chose to stand up to Crawford by making another move on Schuldig he wouldn't live long.

"Scry, we all need to regroup. Do you know where there's a large space we can all gather in?"

"The main auditorium. We should probably get food and medical care prepared as well. Will you call your operative and the Bruise in?"

"I'll call them. It's up to Friendly whether they're safe and ready to move yet."

Both sides so reasonable. Aya expected and waited for the amity to crack.

Looking over the nearly reunited Schwarz, Scry asked, "Where did Misery go?"

"That sneaky little bastard slipped me," Schuldig murmured but with a small smile. "Ah. He saw some of Woeller's people and decided to beat them down personally, maybe get some information along the way. I just called him."

"Where's the auditorium?" Crawford asked.

"I'll lead you," Scry said. "Verity, get someone to wrap Mr. Ebenroth's body and place it in cold storage. We'll deal with him better once we settle the living."

"Yes, sir." Something in her expression eerily matched Schuldig's "I'll get you later" look. Schuldig's daughter. The whole clone and genetic engineering thing here kept bringing up nature vs. nurture issues, and Aya felt very glad that he didn't have any clones or "children" out there to trip him. He had enough problems with his sanity already.

******************************************************

Thankfully, they could close the shop now. Ken felt exhausted, sweeping up almost mindlessly. Omi hadn't said whether Ken and Fenris would go out on missions, but if they wouldn't be going out maybe he could talk Omi into temporarily hiring some staff on to help with the flower shop. Two people couldn't handle the work no matter how hard they tried.

Especially not if Ken had to protect Fenris from some of the crazier fangirls. The kid already had to deal with the one who kept trying out her English on him. Now that another wanted to test her German on him, he looked even more hunted. Fenris might have more control and be better in many ways, but he still had some mental limitations along with a lot of power. If the boy lost his temper too seriously, people might get hurt.

Gunfire. _Gunfire_? And the sound of shattering glass.... "Fenris, get down!" Ken yelled as he leapt behind a table for cover himself.

Fenris didn't move, just kept holding his broom and staring outside. But no more bullets flew through the front window either, because they bounced off the telekinetic shield Fenris had placed over the front of the shop. Thank God. Then Fenris threw his broom aside in what looked like a rage and stalked outside at high speed. Shit. Ken followed.

Fenris stopped at a bullet-ridden car that had rammed a nearby shop window, put his hand on the passenger door, and ripped it off the hinges with a telekinetic boost. Incredibly, none of the few people walking past seemed to notice anything. How powerful and focused had Fenris become?

The boy yanked a bloodied man out of the car and shook him hard, yelling at him in German. The guy's head looked like it might come off his neck from how rough Fenris was.

"He can't tell you anything like that!" Ken said, even as he noticed that the driver looked dead of bleedout from gunshot wounds. Had the telekinetic shield deflected the bullets back at their source?

"He knows what I am!" Fenris yelled in Japanese. "He knows where I come from! That's why they came to kill us!"

The man said something panicked in German, then suddenly stopped breathing. "I didn't do that," Fenris said softly, his eyes wide. "He said they'd kill him if he talked, and then he died!"

Shit! Ken took Fenris' arm and started to pull him back to the shop. "Get away from the car now. We can't get anything else out of them. We have to call the experts in." Inside, Ken dialed Omi up but got Rex. "I need to talk to Omi. We have a mess at the shop and need help cleaning up. There were some people causing trouble for Fenris too."

"He's not available. We'll send a crew."

Not available? "This isn't some everyday problem. This is big."

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do."

Ken hadn't thought Omi could get a secretary more difficult than Manx and Birman, but it looked like he'd been wrong. "Can you get that crew here immediately? It's a _big_ mess. I don't know how long Fenris can keep a lid on it. And tell Omi about this when he's around again. Goodbye." Ken slammed the phone down on the receiver. "I don't know where Omi is."

"Do you think he's still in Japan?" Fenris asked, looking disturbed by everything.

"Why do you think-- I have no idea where he is." You'd think he'd be used to being out of the loop. "Let's put the metal grating down. It'll stop some of the outside from coming in through what's left of our front windows." Maybe provide some protection too.

"I'm worried."

"Me too." Too worried to sit here like a moron and hope Kritiker cared while Omi was gone. Fenris deserved better. "Pack a bag. We're getting out of here and staying at a hotel. I'll figure out what we do next there."


	181. ~ I swear that I'll go back to being useless after this. ~

~ Brad wants you to bring the kids here, ~ Schuldig said.

~ Does _he_ really want it? ~ Nagi asked back.

~ Not so much, but it's a bargaining chip thing. You know how it is. Ebenroth is out of play permanently, so everything's up for grabs. ~

~ Is there a particular reason why they want to see our guys? ~ Friendly asked.

~ Yeah. ~ But Schuldig didn't expand on it.

When Nagi looked to Friendly, it worried him that they were probably both thinking the same thing, that an Orange line clone had killed Ebenroth. Scary.

~ I'll see if I can get them to go. Has to be of their own will, since I could hardly carry them all. ~

~ I could, ~ Nagi said, ~ but I'd really prefer not to. Besides, it would be really hard to travel inconspicuously with that going on. ~

~ Be really persuasive, kids. Now I gotta go. There's a lot to keep track of here. ~

~ We'll let you know. ~

"What's going on?" Intrigue asked.

"Ebenroth is dead. The students have more say now, and they want to see you guys," Friendly answered.

Before Intrigue could answer, one of the clones asked, "Why should we? What would we get out of it?"

From the sour look on Intrigue's face, he'd started to realize that a Bruise made up of healthy individuals might challenge his formerly unquestioned authority. He might have been the clones' savior and director before, but now they owed almost as much to Friendly as they did to him. Nagi wondered how well the Orange leader would deal with the change. Some people in that situation proved themselves anew, but others turned spiteful and resentful.

"Big changes are coming, guys, and this could be your chance to grab some benefits," Friendly answered. "The students might not be staying in Vienna any longer. They might get a better situation. I think you should represent yourselves there and see if you can get a slice of the pie. There are enough of you to be imposing if you go in as a unified force."

That last had surely been thrown to Intrigue as a show of support to him. It served Intrigue better if the Bruise didn't fragment into a bunch of smaller, competing interests.

"You listen to what gets said, and if you don't like it, you walk out," Friendly continued. "There are a lot of you, so you're not defenseless. What do you have to lose by just seeing what's going on? Maybe I'm not seeing some of the amenities of squatting in a warehouse and playing mind games with the security guards to stay here, but I don't think so."

"I think you're right," one of the clones said. Nagi thought it was 77.

"I say we go," Intrigue said. "Let them see who we are and that they shouldn't mess with us."

The other clones agreed, though not as quickly and thoughtlessly as they once would have. Nagi would be happy to go to a place where he wouldn't be surrounded almost exclusively by young Schuldigs.

******************************************************

Crawford hated how overwhelmed the situation left him feeling. At least the telepaths couldn't read him well enough to know that he had no real idea what to do with everyone. His team shouldn't become the students' parents, teachers, or sponsors, but they could hardly leave this much unsupervised talent running around loose and vulnerable, especially not with men like Woeller out there.

Scry had listed the school's student body at 347, but that didn't count all the talents who had shown up since Schwarz had arrived in town. Everyone was still trying to identify the corpses and tending the wounded. Preliminary reports suggested that no one would die of their wounds. Schuldig had wondered if any of the attackers had hidden themselves amongst the new arrivals in either a legitimate switch of sides or to cause trouble later. Several teachers had vanished, dead or escaped no one could say for sure. None of them could come at Crawford's command, those remaining claiming that they had to give medical attention to the students. Using force at this time might not be the best option, though Crawford could always use it later. Kritiker brought more people to watch the talents and prisoners and provided more guns but Crawford couldn't trust their motives. Friendly and Nagi would be bringing the Bruise here, which would put over 50 more people in the auditorium.

The students nearly buzzed as they wondered who'd killed Ebenroth and rejected all the Orange line clones they knew--even Antipathy, the one who had the most reason--as suspects. Since the murder was sure to come up as a major topic of conversation in the upcoming meeting Crawford planned, it would be best to know as much as possible. The members of Schwarz who were already here stood on the stage along with everyone he considered essential to finding this out.

"The true girl was there and saw the attacker well," Farfarello said as he kept a tight grip on Aya's arm. Aya looked tired and distracted.

"I saw him very well," Verity answered, "and I still have the blood spattered on me from when he saluted me with his knife. I work with Antipathy, and that hadn't been Antipathy."

"I told you," Antipathy said, looking resentful, tired, and disheveled. Some of the students had grabbed at him in suspicion earlier.

~ Antipathy didn't kill Ebenroth, but he did send a telepathic message to Farf telling _him_ to kill Ebenroth, ~ Schuldig said in a tight, narrow burst that should prevent eavesdropping from the other telepaths here.

~ Farfarello couldn't tell the difference in voice? ~ Crawford asked.

~ That's what he's claiming. ~

"It wasn't Malice or Sorrow either," Verity said.

"It wasn't me," Misery said as he fingered a lock of his bleached hair, then pointed to his smudged raccoon eye makeup. "I'm distinctive looking."

"You wouldn't have been considered for even a second if you hadn't run off," Schuldig replied.

"I saw a chance to get some of Woeller's people. I have more information now. You would have done the same."

Schuldig gave him an almost fond look, then shook his head a little and blanked his face. "Kill anybody?"

"That was the best part. I killed Woeller's #3 man. It was great."

"What the hell is that around your wrist? It looks like a handcuff."

Misery smiled a little more as he pushed up his sleeve to reveal a single cuff with a broken, dangling chain. "I have another one just like it."

Schuldig put his hand over his eyes, which hid his facial expression, but Crawford understood his body language and said, ~ We can't keep him. ~

~ I know. I know. ~

~ We can't keep any of them. ~

"Can I go now?" Verity asked, looking annoyed. "Scry's off arranging things and I want to keep an eye on him."

"Is he that untrustworthy?" Crawford asked. Already having far too much to deal with, he'd let Scry have some authority even though he didn't trust him. He had Schuldig keeping occasional tags on the boy's location and the minds around him.

"Somewhat. But otherwise I just want to be off this stage. I hate being stared at like a sideshow attraction. I've had too much of that in my life already." Her fierce glare at them suggested that she held Crawford and Schuldig responsible for it all.

"You don't have to hate us," Schuldig said. "We didn't make you. We didn't know you existed. We sure as hell wouldn't approve of how they wanted to use you."

"I know all of that. But you have to admit that my life wouldn't have been like that if you two hadn't existed, which makes you indirectly responsible."

"If we hadn't existed, you wouldn't exist either," Crawford had to say.

Her anger turned several degrees colder, perhaps because she couldn't counter that statement. "Am I done here?"

"Yes, but I want to speak with you later in private."

"Of course you do." She shook her head in a very Schuldig way, then left the stage, almost stomping.

~ She has your angry 'I'm going to freeze you down to the bone, then smash you' look _down_, ~ Schuldig said. ~ She already hates us just like a teenage daughter would. ~

~ I'd be happier if I didn't have to think about any of that, ~ Crawford answered.

~ We have to figure out what to do with these kids. ~

~ You're not adopting the Orange line. ~

~ I have no intention of doing that. ~

~ You melt anytime you look at most of the ones here. I'm not looking forward to your reaction when the Bruise arrives. ~

~ I'm under control. ~

~ None of them are Emory. ~

~ I know that. ~

~ There will be no hugging them and loving them and feeding them and fucking them and naming them 'Sasha.' ~

Schuldig looked surprised, then said, ~ You are a scary man. And naming them _all_ 'Sasha' would be counterproductive. What do you mean some of them only have numbers? ~

Crawford had tried to hide that memory, but all the talk of naming had brought it to the surface. ~ Some do. Not that we're going to fix that ourselves. ~

~ _Numbers_? Motherfucking-- ~

~ Is that so much worse than the codenames? ~

~ Gah. Yeah. All the emotion names. I named _myself_ 'Guilty,' and I didn't do it as a feeling thing. It's not something I feel, it's something I do. I _am_ guilty. You're not distracting me. ~

~ I can't deal with your nesting instinct. _You_ can't deal with your nesting instinct. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't take in over 50 teenagers. ~ Crawford refused, especially since he saw them as a threat to Schuldig's sanity and sense of self. They could manipulate him consciously and even unconsciously.

~ I _know_. ~ But Schuldig looked upset. He also had shadows under his eyes. ~ We have to do something with all of these kids. They can't stay in Vienna. Persia would probably want to bring them to Japan and take them under Kritiker's wing, but I doubt even his wealth could sneak so many people in. Besides, I don't think it would be a good idea. Even aside from the issue of whether Kritiker is that much better than Eszett, there would be some culture shock. Too bad we don't own some tropical island to set them up on. Be safer for them and for society. Plus, you know, tropical island. ~

Amused, Crawford asked, ~ Are you suggesting we set up a less hypocritical version of Xavier's school? ~ Interesting to see Schuldig's mind traveling through most of the same options his did.

~ Us? I'm not suggesting _we_ do anything. But somebody should. Fuck. I don't know. Fucking Yoji said he wanted to go outside to wait for Nagi, the Bruise, and Friendly, but he really went out to smoke. I wanna cigarette so bad.... You know, we should send Aya back to the hotel. Farf has his sister's genetic material in a cold pack on his back, so Aya's distracted and sis could use a refrigerator. Farf destroyed the lab while he was in there. ~

It figured. While Crawford felt better knowing the lab was gone, it would have been good to question the workers. If Farfarello had destroyed it, he would have killed everyone within it. Also, its destruction might be a problem during the upcoming talks. ~ Who knew about the lab? ~

~ Ebenroth, maybe some of the teachers, and baby-Schwarz for sure. I don't know if baby-Schwarz told anyone. I have way too much I'm already watching, listening to, and processing. ~

~ I appreciate your efforts. You want to send Aya back to the hotel. ~

~ Yeah. Brad, he's not just borrowing from Farfie. His quasi-telepathy took a giant leap in here. I think he's pulling from the untrained and barely trained telepaths here. He needs to get out of here. Plus, I don't want anyone getting interested in him. Ebenroth was interested, and baby-Schwarz heard his interest. ~

~ The ability is in Aya then. ~

~ Yeah, probably just jumpstarted by Farf. Aya couldn't take from me because I block people out. Nagi's a gated community. That kid barely needed my help to shield himself off from the world. Your telepathy is tiny. He had no one else in Schwarz aside from Farf to grab from. ~

~ We have to look into this further. ~

~ Later. ~

~ Definitely later. ~

~ I want to send Yoji back with him. Aya can get crazy left to himself. Leave him with his dead sister's genes singing to him and he might lose it entirely. Why are you smiling at me? ~

Schuldig had always offered suggestions and tried to steer him but rarely gave up so much already digested planning, preferring to have Crawford come to it on his own as if it were his own idea. Crawford had caught him at that a number of times and probably remained oblivious of some situations it had happened in. ~ Are you aiming to become leader of Schwarz? ~

~ What? Oh hell no. You and Scry can do all the territorial pissing and have all the ulcers and migraines. I swear that I'll go back to being useless after this. I'll just taunt and sexually harass people, sometimes both at once. ~

Crawford couldn't feel threatened or get angry when Schuldig found the idea of leading the team so completely distasteful, so he could feel proud instead. ~ I won't force you to lead the team. I'm just enjoying the reminder that you're not just a pretty face. ~

~ Yeah, I have a great ass too. ~ But Schuldig smiled, which took a little bit of the tiredness out of his face.

~ Aya, I want you to go back to the hotel with your... sister, ~ Crawford said to Aya.

Aya flinched as if the thought voice had woken him up, then answered, "Thank you."

"Farfarello isn't going with you. We need him here, especially since he witnessed Ebenroth's death."

As expected, Farfarello didn't take it well. "My puisín needs me."

"Not as much as we do. Balinese will go with him."

~ I just called Yoji's ass in here, ~ Schuldig said. ~ Told him Friendly and Nagi are big kids who can arrive here with the Bruise whether he's standing out there smoking on the steps or not. The slacker. ~

"The slutkitten?" Farfarello asked, a knife suddenly in his hand. "No. Not happening."

"He won't try to take advantage of me, and I wouldn't do anything with him even if he did," Aya said, making it an issue of trusting him, an issue Farfarello couldn't win if he kept protesting.

"I know you wouldn't," Farfarello had to answer. Grimacing, he put his knife away.

"Then let me go. I want you with me and I'll miss you, but the team does need you here. I'll wait up--"

"No. You will not. You're wilting. You'll sleep." Farfarello stroked Aya's bangs out of his eyes, then took the backpack off and handed it over. "That's what you'll do. Go. Rest."

~ We're worried that people might be too interested in Aya's quasi-talent, so that's another reason to get him out of here, ~ Schuldig said.

That provided the response they needed. ~ Then get him out. Get him _out_. ~

~ Wish _I_ could go to the hotel. I'm beat. ~

Balinese came up onto the stage. "Yeah, I can drive Aya to the hotel."

"You will drive him there and stay with him until we return," Farfarello said. "Protect him and keep him from brooding as best you can. But if you make any other move on him I will castrate you with a filthy knife."

"That was unnecessary," Aya protested with some heat as he put the backpack on.

"That's for sure," Balinese said. "I'll take care of Aya and keep my balls, thanks."

"I prefer Yoji's balls where they already are too," Schuldig answered.

Balinese smirked. "Sweet thing. How's your head?"

"Still there."

"Funny."

"It aches. I'm tired and hungry too but I'll live. You take Red to bed while I stay and be responsible."

"You will not take Aya to bed!" Farfarello said.

"Your head still hurts?" Crawford asked. He would rather be back at the hotel with Schuldig too, but they did have responsibilities.

"You hit me with a _gun_, Brad, but I'll be fine. Get going, kids."

Balinese cast a worried look in Schuldig's direction, then waved and led Aya out. Crawford let his anger go, knowing it was better to have someone else looking out for Schuldig's well-being when he wasn't around. Besides, Schuldig never chose Balinese over him.

"There are fewer new arrivals coming," Crawford said. They would probably have to start things soon before the crowd became too restless. Then he had a sudden flash of the future. ~ Persia's arriving, and he has Breaker with him. ~

~ _Breaker_? ~ Schuldig looked startled and nervous, his emotions showing themselves more on his face when he was too tired to hide them as well. ~ It doesn't surprise me that Omi showed up, but I can swear he didn't have Breaker on the payroll before we left. ~

~ I believe you. I don't believe in this kind of coincidence. ~

~ Me neither. Shit. ~

An older telepath, Breaker had trained and tested many of Rosenkreuz's telepaths and empaths. Like most of Rosenkreuz's staff, he hadn't believed in being respectful of or gentle with his charges. He'd also shown far too much interest in Schuldig.

"Antipathy," Crawford said, "there's someone coming that I'd like to brief on the situation in private. Do you have a suggestion as to where I could take him?"

"Yeah. That door to the left leads to a storage room. It should be good enough, unless you want something fancy," Antipathy answered.

"Thank you. That should be fine."

~ Do you think we got Aya out in time? ~ Schuldig asked. ~ Shit. I hope he doesn't develop an interest in Farfie. Hey, Snow-white, don't draw Breaker's attention if you can avoid it. ~

~ This is a man I should be wary of. What should I avoid? ~ Farfarello asked.

~ Don't do anything telepathically or play with your energy while this guy is around. Don't feel into your link with Aya, and if Aya reaches for you block him off. In fact, if you can amplify your snap, crackle, and pop mind effect, it might be a good idea to do it. You didn't use to be a telepath and we don't want him knowing that's changed. Shit. ~

~ I'll meet with them in private alone. Farfarello, stay out here with Schuldig. ~

~ Brad, I don't like this. You need me with you, ~ Schuldig answered, sounding annoyed.

~ We need to leave a Schwarz presence out here. If both of us went somewhere private with a new arrival it wouldn't look good. Besides, I prefer not to have you and Breaker sitting across the table from each other. ~

~ I can protect myself from him. ~

~ You shouldn't have to. ~

~ At least take Farf in with you. ~

~ I don't want Breaker to get too good a look at him and what he's becoming. I prefer that he stay here with you to help keep an eye on things. ~ And to protect Schuldig. Fortunately, Schuldig didn't seem to have heard that last thought. ~ You've done so much and you'll do more before you sleep. I want you to have someone watching your back so you won't have to do it yourself. ~

~ Damn it, we're spread too thin. ~

~ I don't think this talk should take long. It would be stupid to try to kill me in private here because they would be the only suspects. I can take care of myself, and I'll be fine. You made a good decision about sending Aya and Yoji away. Nagi will be here soon, and you should have him be careful as well. ~

~ I won't be able to monitor you well during this talk. Breaker will cloak himself and Persia, and you're never easy to read. ~

~ I'll be fine. Don't insult me. ~

~ You're such a bastard. Fine. I hope you die. ~

"Breaker is coming in. The students at the door saw him," Antipathy said.

At that moment Crawford had an immediate picture of which telepaths had gotten the most training because they all suddenly ducked into the crowd and made themselves as inconspicuous as possible, Antipathy among them. Misery shot Schwarz a rueful look and said, "Sorry. I'll be back later," as he walked off at great speed to blend in somewhere else.

~ Was he that bad? ~ Crawford asked.

~ You didn't even feel the tension in the ambiance shoot way up.... A lot of telepaths liked to hurt students. Breaker did some of that, but he could be much more subtle too. Some of the things he did felt good in... bad ways. I can't explain it, ~ Schuldig said. ~ The man's a chickenhawk. ~

Persia walked into the auditorium with Breaker and two armed local men at his sides. "You don't look surprised to see me," Persia said to Crawford. "I probably should have expected that."

"Welcome to Vienna," Crawford said. "There are things we should discuss. There's a private storage room nearby, unless you need something more distinguished."

"That should be fine," Persia answered.

"One on one."

"No. Breaker goes in with me and will stay with me the whole time I'm here. You have to understand that I need to be cautious in the presence of so many telepaths."

Crawford wondered if Breaker had let Persia know that a telepath didn't have to be standing next to the person to do that. "Yes." At least it would get Breaker away from Schuldig for a bit. The two telepaths stared at each other, Schuldig looking hostile and Breaker looking amused. "Follow me."

"You're not bringing Schuldig in with us?" Persia asked, sounding nearly amused.

"We have to maintain a public presence amongst the students."

The storage room was a decent size, large enough to easily hold three people. Some part of him that anticipated Schuldig's comments added that Omi was so small the room didn't need to fit three people. Crawford turned the light on and said, "It's a complicated situation here. These students can't stay in Vienna. It's too dangerous."

"I thought Kritiker could take some of them," Persia answered. Of course.

Crawford didn't think Kritiker should get all of them. After all, he didn't trust Kritiker and didn't want to change the balance of power so far in their favor for the future. Besides, they couldn't pay him the worth of all the talents here, not even through Takatori's wealth. "There are a few hundred. How do you decide? Also, can even you get a few hundred teens of European descent into Japan? Schuldig jokingly suggested some private tropical island."

"Hmm."

"You have one?"

"I'm thinking."

"Also, they have to want to go. We couldn't coerce all of them."

Persia smirked. "But maybe a few of them?"

Nagi had been a civilizing influence on this brat. Now that they'd broken up.... "I have no idea how the upcoming meeting will go. I'm talking to you now to see some of the options that are available so I can have some ideas ready."

"Kritiker would be willing to take a lot of them. We already have some psionic training going on."

"Bringing Breaker here won't endear you to the telepaths either."

Persia looked wry. "I thought his timing was coincidental myself. He only showed up after you left."

Breaker bowed his head a little. "I worked for Eszett before. I did my job. Now I work for Kritiker. They have nothing to fear from me." He looked like a handsome, urbane man in his middle 30s. Cultured. Harmless. His suit was impeccably tailored.

If Schuldig were here, he'd probably ask if anyone mistook Breaker for Persia and hope for a good reaction from Persia. Too bad Crawford wouldn't be able to pull off that bit of obnoxiousness as well, because he thought it an interesting question. Schuldig allowed Crawford to benefit from such behavior without being blamed for it.

"I doubt you'll convince them of that. It would be better if Breaker didn't stand in full view."

"Was he so bad?" Persia asked, a hint of the softer Omi showing in his eyes.

"Mine says so," Crawford answered as he stared Breaker down.

"Tough love. I helped all of them a great deal. Guilty too. Someday he'll realize it."

Crawford unclenched his teeth. "Persia, his presence at your side might be a deal breaker to the talents."

"Were you aware that you might be a liability to me, Breaker?" Persia asked, a dangerous undertone to his voice. "I've mentioned that I find your timing coincidental."

"I didn't think it would be a problem."

"He doesn't have to be in the room with you to protect your thoughts, Persia," Crawford said. "Proximity makes it easier, but it's not necessary. Though I have to warn you, the damage may have already been done when you arrived with him. The whole school is aware that he's here and with you." He didn't like having Breaker out of his sight, but his presence would make a difficult gathering impossible.

"It's worth a try," Persia answered. "Breaker, I want you to protect my thoughts from off-site. I don't want anything to jeopardize my effort to make a good impression here."

Did Persia intend to do a bait and switch? Lie to the talents? Crawford couldn't foresee for that, and Persia became darker the longer he played the game, which made him less predictable in his transition stage.

"All right," Breaker said. "Perhaps I should leave first, alone, to further dissociate myself from you."

"Good idea. Go."

Breaker bowed to them, then walked out. Crawford wished the man didn't have such a good game face, because he couldn't tell what Breaker made of this situation and being forced to hide. What had he come here to accomplish? Schuldig had called him a chickenhawk and once said that Breaker had a taste for untrained and barely trained telepaths the way some men had a fetish for virgins....

"Mr. Crawford," Persia said.

"Yes?"

Persia took a breath and softened a little. "Where's Nagi? I didn't see him."

"He's helping elsewhere. We expect him to come here soon."

"How has he been?"

Nagi had been strong and self-sufficient, to Crawford's pride. Aside from a little moping--only to be expected given the situation and the boy's age, not to mention his general temperament--Nagi had reacted very well to the breakup, seeming more focused and relaxed afterward, second-guessing himself less.

Crawford said, "He's strong, but he misses you." If the head of a powerful organization retained softer feelings for Nagi, let him. Those feelings could be used. "Let's get this thing over with."


	182. "They have always been enemies, the dinosaur and the cowboy."

With Brad protecting himself extra-hard against Breaker and Breaker shielding himself and Persia, Schuldig couldn't hear anything in the room. Given all the shit that invaded his head daily, it really pissed him off when he couldn't hear something he _wanted_ to get. Besides, he worried about Brad. Being damned good didn't mean being invulnerable.

Damn it, life had been so much easier when he hadn't given a damn.

"Sit," Farf said.

"I'm not your pet," Schuldig answered.

"You look tired."

"Yeah? Well, I'm hungry and I have a headache too." Keeping a telepathic eye on Scry's group took it out of him too. At least the ambiance felt better.

"So sit down and stop arguing."

Like an idiot, he was arguing against something that would make him more comfortable. "Fine." He sat. He might even be able to get up again later.

He deserved a sit-down with all the shit he had going at once: trying to crack someone in the store room, keeping a telepathic finger on the mood in the auditorium, and riding whoever had the weakest shields around Scry to see what the heir apparent was up to. So far Scry hadn't made any major moves, but all the authority he gleefully wielded in the absence of anyone else finding the will to had to make a difference. Like all precogs, Scry presented some difficulties to telepathic reading, but he just about swelled and glowed with glee and rising arrogance as he felt himself became an ever bigger big swinging dick. Schuldig didn't think Schwarz should let him have so much power but who else would they give it to? Brad didn't want to take total control here because he didn't want to start a precedent for doing something he had no intention of following through on. Schwarz didn't do this stuff. They were a small, sleek team of assassins, not an association of educators, a charitable organization, or nursemaids. Anyone else they put in charge here could become dangerous or self-important too.

Meanwhile, Scry basked in his greater authority like a great beast stretching luxuriantly in the sun, confident in his power.

Schuldig really needed to get laid soon.

Anyway, telepathically he was doing the equivalent of juggling as he walked a tightrope while trying to pull his pants up from around his ankles, but to everyone else he seemed to just be sitting on his ass. So unfair.

The kids watched him with a little less resentment and wariness than they'd used for Brad. Made some sense: Brad looked like ironhanded authority, while Schuldig seemed far more approachable, something he strove for. Some of these kids were interested in seeing what their gene father was like. He could read a lot of the students better than he should be able to, suggesting that a lot of them had some of his genes as their base. Had to be for his speed as well as the telepathy. Class Z had seemed to have some of him in it too. Lovely. Had Eszett thought of any ways to make sure all these kids didn't interbreed and end up with moron, freak babies?

Ebenroth had been letting the students hook up as they pleased, possibly in the hope of breeding an army. Maybe he'd _hoped_ the spawn would be simple-minded despite his talk of talents with will and brains being more powerful. Or maybe he just hadn't thought about it enough.

Some of the students even looked at Schuldig with a little excitement. A lot of those had come here to check out the school but been forced to stay against their will, guarded by teachers and student toadies for their own "protection." They knew Schwarz always changed things wherever they swept in and hoped that the changes here would benefit them. Schwarz could have allies there if they wanted them and played things right.

Malice appeared to be excited for other reasons, although the Orange clone was too good at shielding for Schuldig to immediately see what the kid anticipated. How annoying. He could peel those shields aside if he wanted to, but that would take more time, effort, and strength than he currently had available. But he would remember Malice.

Schuldig felt the stir through the school as the Bruise came in with Friendly, Nagi, and what appeared to be two mashups. While the students had been aware of this group of Orange clones, actually seeing all of those similar faces together on so many bodies made them feel like they interacted with a special effect. It didn't seem real. Then the Bruise entered the auditorium and saw Schuldig. With all the vibrant, flying hair in orange and several unnatural shades the Bruise resembled a flock of exotic birds swooping up on him. In practice it was more like a very large litter of very large kittens pouncing him. Part of him thought, "Gun them down!" while another yelled that he shouldn't, couldn't.

Before they could swamp him, Schuldig said, "Calm down, kids. You're making my psycho bodyguard very nervous." Hell, Schuldig could feel him twitching. Farf had less compunction over massacring the Orange line.

They skidded to a halt in front of his chair, all repentance, and started talking in a flurry. "I'm so sorry."

"We're sorry."

"We didn't mean to hurt you."

"We were desperate. I was desperate."

"We all were desperate. I needed protection and training."

"You cared for Emory so much. We wanted that. I wanted to be special like that."

"Forgive us?" they concluded, big-eyed, ever so sorry, so perfectly Emory, asking for care and love, insane but getting better.

Farfarello's fingers tightened cruelly on his shoulder to remind him. Schuldig said, "You're still trying to manipulate me."

"Maybe a little," one admitted. "But only so you'll forgive us and we can talk to you."

"I told them they shouldn't," one of the more together Oranges said.

"And you are?" Schuldig asked.

"Intrigue. It sucks but at least it's better than 'Sleepy.'"

"_You_ suck," one of the others said while Schuldig felt the urge to ask where the other six dwarfs were. Somebody in Rosenkreuz had truly been a sadist.

"It looked like it hurt very badly when your leader struck you down," one of the ones who wasn't Intrigue or Sleepy said, and the others agreed, a certain gleam in their eyes over the thought of maybe making things up to Schuldig by trying to beat on the leader who'd hurt him.

That couldn't be left to fester. "The only person allowed to punish him is me, get it?"

They gave him that woeful puppy look again. Manipulative little charmers. Could Emory have become this under different circumstances? Their numbers seemed to give them strength and confidence, while he'd spent some time in solitary confinement in an institution.

Schuldig noticed Misery, Antipathy, Malice, and some other Orange who might be Sorrow drawing up closer in curiosity and fascination. Everybody else in the audience seemed mildly freaked out by all the duplicates, though some of them wondered if Schuldig needed a rescue and if they could earn brownie points doing it. Hell, some even wanted to rescue him out of altruism, the naïfs. They'd learn better eventually. Friendly just seemed amused--she could afford to be, having no clones of her own--while Nagi had a stare-down with Misoji. Misoji had the advantage of knowing of Nagi's existence beforehand, something Nagi sure as hell couldn't claim likewise. Maybe Schuldig should have warned him.

Nah.

Scry walked in at the head of his little phalanx of supporters and Verity, who looked disgruntled as usual. She'd be such a pretty girl if she'd smile more often. Scry and Antipathy exchanged a look that was a taunt and eyefuck on Scry's side and annoyance with a tinge of loathing on Antipathy's. The idea of a mini-Brad who used his sexuality as a tool and weapon gave Schuldig shivers of horror and delight all at once.

He _really_ needed to get laid soon.

"I hear that one of your allies brought Breaker here," Scry said as he ascended the stage, all his focus suddenly on Schuldig all please-me-baby like. As if being the focus of attention would fluster an attention whore.

"Our ally didn't expect the reaction to him because Breaker misrepresented himself," Schuldig answered breezily. "Mr. Crawford is bringing him up to speed in private right now. That's Persia in there. He has the wealth and influence to buy and sell everyone in the room."

Scry smirked. "You included?"

"I work for him sometimes as an independent consultant. Figure it out."

Breaker walked out alone, smooth and confident as you please, and the most of the room went on point. Schuldig felt the Kritiker agents react to the tension by readying their guns. "We can't kill him," Schuldig said. "It would make a bad start."

"It would make a lot of us feel better," a mashup telepath said.

"For how long?"

"I'm leaving now," Breaker said with a faint smile. And he left, staring at any kids blocking his way until they let him pass. Guy had presence, you had to grant him that. And some set of balls.

"As if going offsite makes a difference to a telepath," someone murmured.

"Business is all about gestures," Schuldig answered. "You'll learn that when you grow up."

The kid didn't like to hear that. Truth could be so unkind.

Yet they'd all obeyed him. Kudos to their brainwasher. Not surprising that Ebenroth had fallen to megalomania when he had all these people following his orders.

Schuldig felt relieved that he hadn't had to hold Farfarello back against Breaker, but it made sense. Since he hadn't been diagnosed as a telepath until after they'd left Rosenkreuz, he never had to face Breaker's idea of training.

The Bruise sat on the floor around Schuldig and Farfarello, obviously having chosen where they would stay. Kind of sweet. Farfarello murmured, "They look like butterflies settling."

Looking up at him, Schuldig asked, "Are you the guy I'm getting all the animal similes and metaphors from? If so, cut it out."

Farfarello only smirked and turned up his mental static a little higher. The bastard.

Brad walked out with Persia, and the two of them ascended the stage. Brad cast an amused and horrified glance at Schuldig's coterie, then went to the microphone and asked, "Are we all here? We're starting now."

******************************************************

To his horror, Aya felt his awareness of his sister fading. Had the remains been exposed to too much heat and jostling?

"Aya, what's wrong?" Yoji asked as he drove.

"I can't feel her as well. It's fading out. We have to get to the hotel immediately." And do what? What could he really do if they were expiring? Sticking them in the refrigerator would just stop further degradation. Hopefully it would do at least that.

"Calm down. Schuldig thought that your ability might weaken the further you got away from the talented kids."

"When did he tell you this? Why did he tell you this when I'm the person it concerns the most?"

Yoji had the grace to look uncomfortable in the face of Aya's anger. "When he asked me to escort you to the hotel. Look, you were distracted anyway. But he should have told you too."

"Thank you." Better he be defective than the alternative. "He thinks I'm some kind of leech?"

"He doesn't know what you are, though he's interested in finding out."

"I'm sure. Yoji, she's my sister."

"I know. I figured it out. Relax, Aya," Yoji said, switching to Japanese. "Damn, I can't believe how hard Elena's language thing took hold. I had to fight to do this."

Aya switched with some relief. "It gets easier, but I know what you mean. This is the third version of German Schuldig put in my head. I never know what's going to come out of my mouth."

"Well, hey--"

"Please don't make something sleazy out of that."

"I'm just trying to cheer you up."

"I'm sure."

"It sounds stupid, but I didn't really think there were versions."

"Friendly gave you Viennese German."

"Don't call her 'Friendly.' It's hard enough for me to avoid calling her that while all of Schwarz keeps referring to her that way."

"She doesn't like it?" When he thought about it, it made sense that she wouldn't, but he hadn't really thought about it before. He rarely dealt with her personally.

"It wasn't meant to be a compliment. I think she sneers at it in an amused way, but I feel like I have to show some loyalty."

Yoji really was cute, but Aya couldn't tell him that. It would encourage him too much.

It still surprised him that the hotel's employees didn't see them or any of the other members of Schwarz aside from Farfarello as exotic. Still, he appreciated being treated like anyone else and mostly overlooked.

Actually, he received fewer odd looks in Vienna than he did in Japan.

Yoji, of course, loped in with total confidence, smooth, looking utterly comfortable. Aya had seen through that a long time ago but he appreciated the performance. Besides, it was an attractive look on him.

While Yoji took off his boots, as soon as Aya walked into the room he put the small box into the mini-fridge. It was... was like putting leftovers away. It was horrible. Something smacked the back of his head hard.

"What the hell was that?" he yelled at Yoji, who smiled at him.

"It's a new Weiß tradition. You're not brooding anymore."

"Only because I'm going to murder you."

"Aya, don't let this send you into a tailspin. Please. You were doing so well."

Aya wanted to protest. Surely she deserved his reaction. It would be an insult to her to just lightly go on now that he knew she'd been violated like that.

"I never met your sister, but I'm sure she wouldn't want you to hurt yourself like this."

"She wouldn't," Aya admitted.

"So don't! Don't despair. Work on things you can do something about. I'm managing to live by that a lot of the time, so you can too."

"Is that really working for you?"

"Sometimes. You killed Takatori. You helped bring Eszett down. You did all kinds of avenging. I'm sure she doesn't think there's anything else you should do. You're done."

"I can't be done."

"There sure can be, and you're it. Get on with your life. Enjoy living with your crazy boyfriend, even though I would be so much better for you."

"Would you?"

"Definitely. But if he does it for you, I won't stand in the way, even though my heart is broken."

"Generous of you."

"You know it, babe. So get comfortable and I'll keep you company until the love of your life comes back."

Aya felt only a tiny bit better--who would be chipper given what he'd recently found out?--but he made an effort for Yoji's sake. At least he strove not to show his brooding as much. He took off his gloves.

As Aya took off his boots, Yoji asked, "How many weapons do you carry?"

"Many." The boots came off easily. He'd seen a pair that laced up to the knees that he'd liked, but he didn't dare buy anything that required him to bend over for long periods of time in this team. He took off his boot sheath and left it on the bed, then stood to remove his coat, revealing his gun rig, another knife, and his scabbard. Yoji whistled, either at all the obvious weaponry or Aya's bare arms or both. When Aya walked into the bathroom, Yoji made a sound of disappointment. The pervert. But Aya needed a mirror for help in loosening his collar piece.

All the killing he'd done hadn't left any blood on him at all, which felt wrong. Murder should leave reminders. That was one reason why he preferred to use his katana.

As he unbuckled his collar's straps he noticed that the knife scars on his forearm looked lighter. Actually, all the scars on his arms looked lighter. When he ran his fingers over them they felt different too.

Once he'd loosened his collar all the way he quickly pulled his shirt off over his head, wincing a little as he snagged his earring. All of his scars had faded a little just since this morning. He didn't spend a lot of time staring at himself, so it was a big change that he noticed.

He'd felt Farfarello channeling some ki into him at the school to calm him down, which had annoyed him but he'd allowed. Had that caused this?

"Aya, are you okay-- What the hell did you do to your shoulder?"

What Aya saw on his body worried him enough that he didn't even object to Yoji barging in. He could use some company right now. "Old bullet wound. It looked worse this morning. I know, _you_ wouldn't be upset if your scars faded some just over the course of one day."

Looking stunned, Yoji answered, "No, I would be freaking the fuck out."

"Thank you." He had to have a talk with Farfarello soon. What other changes might be happening inside him that he couldn't even see? "Now stop ogling me."

"You'd be disappointed if I stopped ogling you."

"Not really."

******************************************************

On the bed Fenris made a dinosaur and what appeared to be a cowboy action figure fight each other as he voiced both of them in German. The dinosaur growled more. The play worried Ken because the boy tended to revert to more childish behavior when upset.

"They have always been enemies, the dinosaur and the cowboy," Fenris said in Japanese.

"Yeah," Ken said, humoring him. "I... could see that. The cowboys are used to... herding big things, and dinosaurs are big. "

Fenris raised an eyebrow. "Uh, no. Cows are really dumb. You can tip them over. Dinosaurs are much bigger and smarter. Besides, dinosaurs can just step on cowboys and squish them." At Ken's overdone disgruntled look, Fenris said, "I never said it was a _fair_ eternal battle."

"You're just playing with me, aren't you?" It made Ken feel better to see it.

Fenris grinned. Then he turned more serious. "You're really worried."

"Can't you just read me?"

"It's rude if I do it without you saying yes first."

"Good." It was nice--and different--to have a telepath who bothered with that kind of nicety. "Fenris, you have some kind of shield so it's harder for telepaths to find you, right?"

"Yeah. It's a notice-me-not so somebody just surfing around wouldn't see me. He'd have to know I'm there so he can try to pick at it until I'm visible. Elena and I worked on it, so it's really good."

"That's what I thought."

"Why?"

"These people knew where you worked."

"They did!" Fenris set his toys down. "You think someone in Kritiker told them?"

"It might be that the information was tortured out of someone. Or we could have a traitor. I hope we don't have a traitor. In case it's the last one, I didn't write where we were going in the note I left at the flower shop."

"I really don't like how this feels."

"Me neither. Can you reach Elena or Yoji?"

"No, not unless Elena reaches for me at the same time. I'm sorry."

Ken had hoped for more, but it made sense. "Don't feel bad. It's a really long distance. Maybe Elena will try to contact you and you can reach back."

Fenris brightened. "Maybe! I'm glad you're here with me, Ken."

It was good to have someone to protect.


	183. "Everyone makes that sound like a chore."

As Crawford approached the microphone he telepathically asked Schuldig for an update on the various situations with Scry, the Bruise, the ambiance, and the prisoners and received a burst of information back. Some businesspeople had a BlackBerry, but Schuldig was easily a much better resource. It horrified Crawford to realize that the existence of the Orange line meant that lots of people _could_ have a kind of Schuldig for their own.

Sitting at the epicenter of the Bruise, Schuldig slouched in his chair in a way that suggested indolence, but anyone who knew him could see honest fatigue in the sag of his body and particularly his mouth. Schuldig's usual joie de vivre appeared to be absent as well. They needed to get this over with so he could take his telepath back to the hotel for a well-deserved rest and some pampering. Schuldig certainly deserved it.

Farfarello looked twitchy standing behind him, rubbed raw by all the possible threat vectors around them, the colorful members of the Bruise surrounding him and Schuldig not excluded. Lacking his kitten to help relieve the pressure, he might snap.

Crawford needed to get all of his people out of here before any other wrenches were thrown into the gears. The situation just became ever more ridiculously complicated and tangled, as witness the complexities thrown in by Persia.

Persia currently stared in bewilderment at Nagi and Misoji, who looked at each other with fascination and wariness. Crawford decided that it couldn't hurt to let the boys talk if they wished to. At least Nagi didn't seem the type to want to adopt anyone.

Then again, neither had Schuldig until he'd been faced with the Orange line.

All right. From what Crawford had seen, Misoji didn't seem the type to want to be adopted by anyone. At least he hoped so. He liked Schwarz's current size.

Crawford had wanted a challenge. He should have been more careful of what he wished for.

Seated on the stage, Scry watched Crawford for openings, tips, and weaknesses, his face openly calculating. Crawford wondered if his own looked like that at times. Seeing it also made him better understand the urge some people had felt at times to slap him down, not that he'd ever let them unless it was necessary to his plan.

"Are we all here?" he asked into the microphone. "We're starting now." The ambient noise level settled into a low mumble. Good enough. Anyone who missed his words by chattering deserved to be left in the dark. "Mr. Ebenroth invited us here. We didn't come with ulterior motives to gain power over you or change your lives. To be honest, we didn't know all of you existed. None of that matters anymore. Everything _has_ changed, and we've been affected by it too. Mr. Ebenroth is dead, and the school is no longer safe."

"One of _them_ killed him!" someone shouted from the seated crowd while pointing at the Bruise. And so it started.

"They were all with me the whole time!" Friendly shouted back. "I've been keeping count."

"How could you possibly?"

"I was training them. Maybe you don't understand what that's like, but it's necessary to keep track of everyone's progress, especially when they're linked."

"None of these is the killer," Farfarello said, intimidating the crowd a little just by existing as he was.

~ Brad, Farf says the killer felt more like me than like any of the Orange line kids. Wait. He says Malice feels more like me than the others do, but still not as much as the killer. ~

~ Are you thinking the killer was a ringer and not an actual Orange liner? ~

~ No. Farf thinks it's the same genetics but... different conditioning and training, maybe. ~

~ Someone had tired of getting Emories and tried to make Schuldigs instead? ~

~ Sounds like. I don't want to know what shit they inflicted on this kid to try to get that. ~

Malice might be part of the same program and might know. Crawford could almost feel Schuldig thinking that at the same time.

~ Brad, Malice is excited at having a chance to talk to you. I can't get anything more out of him without prying, and that would be tough to do without getting noticed by at least _one_ of the telepaths in this room anyway. Besides, the kid is pretty good himself, a tough nut to crack. Doable in the end, but it would take time, effort, subtlety, and probably a damned big distraction. ~

"It's not one of these," Scry said. "I was there when Mr. Ebenroth was murdered. None of these Orange liners match the killer." He looked very satisfied when the crowd quieted down, obviously valuing his words. The urge to slap became overwhelming.

"While I agree that finding the killer is important," Crawford said, regaining control of the dialogue, "what's more important now is to make sure that all of you are safe. Interrogation has so far told us that some crime bosses saw an opportunity to raid the school and teamed up to do it. Others saw them going in and decided to take advantage. This location isn't safe, secret, or secure. Persia here has facilities he can offer the use of until we can decide on a better longterm plan that benefits everyone."

"I'm sorry that I brought Breaker in," Persia said. When the crowd started to talk, he projected his voice over them until they quieted to hear him. "The situation here blew up suddenly, and I didn't have the time to check his past that I prefer. He came to me with a lot of glowing employer references, while none of the telepaths who already worked for me wanted to brave the ambiance here. So you're already better than they are." Playing to the crowd. "Now that I know you have such objections to him, I won't let him be part of any operations that have anything to do with you."

"But you won't fire him?" a member of the crowd yelled.

"I haven't seen him do anything that warrants firing yet. So far he's impeccably done the job I hired him for. I don't just fire people in an instant. I need to analyze the circumstances first."

Some members of the crowd sounded put out about that, but others appeared to approve of the even-handed management he espoused. You couldn't please everyone all the time, and trying too hard generally pleased no one. This situation with Breaker was one that offered few compromises.

"Those of you who want to stay in my organization's facilities for a while are welcome to," Persia continued. "I'd appreciate anyone who's interested in joining, but that's not a necessity for now. Anyone who came to us has a week to decide. In Japan we have a program where talents train other talents, but I understand that a lot of you probably have no interest in a relocation that extreme. Part of that week would be me thinking of other, possibly more local, options. I agree with Mr. Crawford that you're not safe in this building anymore, although I wouldn't try to stop anyone who wanted to make a go of it."

That only made sense. Why waste effort on such irrational people? "Schwarz wouldn't stop anyone who tried to stay here either, although we think it's a bad idea. But we wouldn't stay to help defend them either."

"What about those of us who aren't interested in training to be killers and bodyguards?" Verity asked from the audience. _Verity_ asked. How did Crawford feel about her repudiating his lifestyle? He didn't know.

~ She just might not want it for herself, Brad. Don't jump to conclusions. ~

~ I hope I'm not this transparent to everyone. ~

~ Nope, just to me. ~

"I wouldn't force anyone into that either," Crawford said.

"My organization isn't all about assassination and bodyguard work," Persia said. "We have research, administrative, and liaison opportunities. We're not murder for hire, and we're concerned with social justice. However, if none of those interest you, I'm afraid I can't offer training in your talents without some other form of payment, particularly if a lot of you come into the program and need room and board. My resources are good but not _that_ amazing. Elena helped the members of the Orange line who'd been in such trouble here because it was an emergency situation." Which gave the students some idea of how effective the training Kritiker offered could be, since the Bruise was already so much better. "Breaker won't have anything to do with training. This I promise you. I have to tell you that I have no intentions of making you into slaves, which is what a lot of the local bosses appear to have in mind."

"Woeller in particular appears to have had some briefing from Eszett on how to manipulate the talented," Crawford agreed.

"I know that from personal experience," Misery said, his eyes bleak. It made a bigger impression from everyone in the audience being in some way aware of his story.

~ Brad-- ~

~ No! We're not keeping him longterm! ~

~ In coming out to help us, he revealed himself. Before, he made himself distinctive-looking to hide but now he can't blend back into the Oranges. ~

Misery had placed a target on his back. ~ He can dye his hair, ~ Crawford said.

~ Not and get the right shade. I know. It's something I've looked into now and then when I wasn't happy with one of my colors. ~

Crawford looked back at him. ~ Not my problem. He decided to take the risk himself and approached us. I didn't approach him. Schwarz agreed to help him take Woeller down, something I want to do anyway, but that's it. We'll help him find lodging while that's going on. We're _not_ adopting any of them. ~

Schuldig's sulking had more of an air of hurt in it than usual. Some members of the Bruise leaned in closer to him, and he put a hand on two Bruise heads, which made them smile a little. Dangerous. So dangerous. Schuldig needed to be separated from them before he bonded more than he already had. Misery watched them with longing. Farfarello twitched a little more.

~ We have two beds in our room. ~

Sometimes you had to speak Schuldig's language to make your point. ~ When we get back to the hotel, I'm going to do things with you I'd don't want to have an underaged audience for. ~

~ ..._oh_. ~ _That_ lightened the sulk.

"Schuldig has told me that the local ambiance is better," Crawford said into the microphone. "Do you feel it?" A lot of the crowd nodded.

"Now that the area isn't a bleeding wound of psychic pain, Schwarz won't stick out as much or draw as much attention," Schuldig said. "That should divide the local bosses' interests more."

Altogether, it would remind the students that Schwarz and Kritiker--at least Friendly--had ended a lot of their pain. It could only help their case. Fortunately, Schuldig hadn't mentioned to them the disadvantages of dividing the bosses' interests. Staying away from Schwarz now wouldn't help the kids.

"I believe that we're all tired," Crawford said. "Some of you are injured. I suggest we all get some rest and come back fresh."

"I'm interested in seeing Mr. Persia's facilities and security," Scry said. "With our fatigue and all the damage here, I think it would be best to go somewhere else, somewhere more protected." Most of the students looked grateful to have someone they knew decide for them.

~ Sheep, ~ Farfarello growled. ~ Always grateful for a shepherd to come herd, shear, and kill them. ~

"I suggest we adjourn for the time being. Yes? Good. Thank you." Crawford stepped down with some relief. ~ Schuldig, how did the crowd take everything? ~

~ A lot of them are relieved the decision's been made for them. Sheep, like Farf said. Or you could just figure that they're really young and tired. A lot of them resent and are jealous of us but have to grudgingly admit that we could have just walked away or decided to use them and become the next Eszett but haven't. We earned points. They're wary of Kritiker, but that's just common sense. ~

~ I'm glad to see they have some. ~

"You're not going to let us come with you, are you?" one of the Bruise asked.

"Frankly, no. There are far too many of you. Besides, Schuldig needs rest, and you're all too distracting." He ignored Schuldig's disgruntled look.

Now the Bruise looked resentful but also concerned. Some of them petted Schuldig's legs, which set Crawford's teeth on edge. He noticed that Farfarello had a few blades placed between his fingers.

"Do I have to remove them?" Nagi asked as he walked over, Misoji at his side.

"That might be fun," Misoji said with a small smile. "I would be willing to help."

"No, that's not necessary," one Orange liner, probably Intrigue, said. "We're going to the Kritiker facilities. Right, guys?"

The cries of protest continued, but eventually they started to stand and walk away, glancing back at times as they did so. After a brief talk between Intrigue and Scry, the Bruise joined the procession of students following Kritiker agents out.

"I'm not going anywhere," Misery said.

"I didn't expect you to," Crawford said. It would have been nice though. "Nagi--"

"You don't have to worry about adopting me," Misoji said, eerily adult, truly a mini-Nagi. "I have no interest. Nagi and I just wished to talk for a little while before he returned to the hotel."

A crisis averting itself for a change. The looks Nagi and Persia occasionally shot each other promised that _that_ situation would need more handling.

Malice approached, as Schuldig had predicted. "Mr. Crawford, I have an offer for you, something you might wish to have. I'd like to meet somewhere in the near future to discuss it with you." He really did seem more like Schuldig than the other Orange liners did.

Given that and his possible knowledge of a program that might have created Ebenroth's killer, Crawford did want to speak with Malice, so he wrote his cell phone number on a card and gave it to the boy. "Don't abuse this."

"Thank you, sir," Malice answered with a wicked look and some irony, very Schuldig. He waved jauntily as he left to join the departing group.

"What are you gonna do, Verity?" Schuldig asked.

"Stick around the others for a bit," she answered. "I don't have any other work lined up for now."

"You were _working_ here?" Crawford asked.

"I _have_ training. I had to, considering the use Eszett wanted me for. I stayed at the school because Ebenroth paid me to."

"Definitely your daughter," Schuldig said with a small smile.

She continued, "Ebenroth knew you were coming and figured you'd want to see me. I... wanted to see the two of you as well. You're not what I expected."

"We've changed," Crawford answered. She seemed so adult, even though she looked maybe 15 and had to be even younger for being force-grown. "Freedom did it. You don't have to work in assassination or security if you don't want to."

"As if you saying it's okay validates me," she said, but she had a somewhat smug look. "I'll think of something. I want to leave Europe, actually, but it sucks being so young. Everybody wants to find places to put me so they can tell me what to do."

"You have ID paperwork?" Schuldig asked. "You can't travel without it."

"Actually, yeah. I'm a German citizen. I have a passport and everything. Real as good money can buy you. I had a benefactor."

Misery and Schuldig had similar looks on their faces. She sneered at them and said, "Not like that."

"I didn't think that," Crawford said.

"If you say so. I'm ready to find a bed and sleep in it. I think Guilty is ready for that too. I'll see you again." She walked away with a flounce of her ponytail.

~ Do you really want her to need a daddy? ~ Schuldig asked.

~ I don't actually know, and that galls me. ~

"You're welcome to stay with Kritiker as well," Persia said. "It would be more secure."

"We'd prefer to stay where we are," Crawford answered. "It also makes us look more autonomous to the locals. We're still fishing."

Schuldig stretched. "We're off to bed, kids. Later."

"I'll get myself back to the hotel," Nagi said. "I don't want to talk to Misoji or Persia under a time limit."

"Don't keep him out too long, Omi. He's had a long day." At least Schuldig wasn't trying to get them to sleep together anymore. It made Crawford's life easier.

"Please," Friendly said. "He sat on a box and telepathically heckled me. It wasn't exactly intensive work. Hey, I need a ride to my hotel. We all walked over here."

"See? I walked too," Nagi said.

"Whose side are you arguing?"

Nagi looked disgruntled. And tired. Mental fatigue shouldn't be discounted. "I trust you to take care of yourself," Crawford told him.

"Yes, sir."

"We'll drive Friendly to her hotel." Crawford kept up his dislike of her for professional rivalry and out of nostalgia, but she'd helped them with the Bruise and hadn't sabotaged or worked against them recently. A little courtesy wouldn't kill him. "But you'll have to sit in the back with Farfarello."

"Everyone makes that sound like a chore," Farfarello grumbled.

"This is going to be a crowded ride," Misery said.

"You could always change your mind," Crawford replied.

"Brad," Schuldig said, sounding very annoyed.


	184. "All we can do is keep getting older. It's not like we have a choice, anyway."

Once Schwarz had left, Nagi asked, "Omi, could you give us some time here?"

"Sorry." Omi looked worried and confused as he walked away, not that Nagi could blame him. As shady as Kritiker could be, it had never delved into mass cloning.

As Nagi and Misoji stared at each other for a few minutes, Nagi reflected that he knew the boy looked like he used to but somehow not quite. Nagi couldn't remember looking cute. Misoji had something of that big-eyed waif effect going but it looked a bit more endearing than the sullen and pathetic appearance Nagi remembered seeing in the mirror. Did Misoji look different from him or had he never judged his own appearance correctly?

"It's a relief that I'll grow up to look okay," Misoji finally said. "Get taller. Look more proportional."

"The head," they both said, shaking theirs, then looked disturbed.

The ice broken, Nagi said, "There are some things I would have liked to have known when I was younger. If you're interested, I could tell you them."

Misoji shrugged. "Okay. Why not?"

"We're telepaths. Not powerful ones, but stronger than we realized. Rosenkreuz didn't want us to have it because it would make us too much of a threat."

"Are you sure I have it too? They might have designed it out of me if they feared it that much."

"From what I know of your line, they didn't tinker with it like they did with the Godchild subset, so it's probably in there. If something that seems like telepathy starts showing up, be open to the possibility."

"All right."

Nagi hoped Rosenkreuz hadn't raped and abused Misoji out of being a telepath like they had him but didn't hold out much hope, so he happily changed the subject. "Just... be open to hearing things. Don't take what people say as the total truth but don't ignore it either. Listen and judge for yourself."

"Obvious."

World-weary little brat. It made Nagi smile a little. "So I'm old and like to hear myself talk. Also, don't stop testing your limits. My telekinesis keeps getting stronger, and I'm always finding new applications for it."

"I know a lot about you actually, at least from before Schwarz tore down Rosenkreuz. They kept measuring my progress against yours."

"That's not my fault."

"Didn't say it was."

"Good."

"I'm not as much into computers as you are."

"No reason why you have to be. I find them interesting. With your telekinesis, you might enjoy music in different ways than other people do. I've... actually thought of trying to learn an instrument sometimes, but I'm too busy."

"How many days did it take you to do the origami thing? The records didn't know how long you worked on it in private before you showed it off to the class."

"I'm not competing with you."

"Afraid I'm better?"

"I'm above competition. Besides, I was the first to get it right. No one can take that away from me."

"Rosenkreuz tortured teke students with that lesson ever since."

"I thought they might. I really pissed them off by actually getting skilled enough to do it."

"Why do you dress like that?"

Nagi currently wore one of his leather jackets that had a lot of zippers on it and hadn't even worn one of his kinkier pairs of boots. "People make amusing assumptions about me based off of how I dress. Misoji-san, what will you do now?"

"By the way, I only know German."

Weird, even though it made sense. "You don't have to know Japanese, but you're more hirable if you know more than one language."

"I could get a telepath to give me others."

"You have to get a telepath first."

Misoji almost smiled. "I'm working on it. I figured I'd stay with the others and see what Kritiker has to offer. Not that I have many options with how young I am and how much younger than that I look."

"I still have problems with that. All we can do is keep getting older. It's not like we have a choice, anyway."

"I'm glad you're not stupid and annoying. At least, not from what I can see."

"Thanks. Likewise."

Misoji put out his hand to shake. "Good luck on your future endeavors."

Nagi shook it and thanked his good fortune that his clone wasn't clingy like Schuldig's were. "You too."

As Misoji left, Nagi just hoped that he hadn't irrevocably fucked the kid up with his advice. Nothing to do about it now.

Omi stood watching from the other end of the room, a look of sympathy and disquiet on his face, one bodyguard behind him. That was Omi standing there, not Persia. Nagi gestured to him to come over, wanting to get this over with. What could they do aside from dance around each other? Nothing had changed. Just seeing Omi reminded Nagi of the crippling self-doubt he kept facing in this relationship. In love he lost all confidence and competence and became timid and awkward, standing still and scared in what seemed like a minefield of what he thought Omi's expectations of him were, where any movement or decision could destroy everything.

"He's so much like you. How do you stay sane in the midst of this?" Omi asked. Thankfully, the bodyguard hadn't come forward with him.

"Not much choice. You either stay sane or break," Nagi answered. "You try not to take it personally."

Omi laughed a little, sounding almost as bitter about it as Nagi felt. "I missed you."

He hadn't thought much of Omi since their breakup, usually too happily busy with work and research. At night, in bed, that changed, and not just out of missing sex, although he did miss sex, particularly when the rest of his team got some. In bed his mind slowed and he set everything aside to sleep, which let thoughts of Omi creep in. Nagi missed having him then, though he didn't know if he missed Omi so much as missed having _someone_, someone who was his.

Wonderful. Maybe he should have told Misoji that they were temperamentally unsuited to love but were also such freaks that they'd rarely miss it.

Did Aya get like this? He and Nagi seemed similar in some ways. But Aya had a lover who pressed the issues and didn't overthink things, someone different from him. Nagi knew he and Omi strategized and danced around, cautious. Perhaps too cautious. But did Nagi really want someone who just swept in and took him over? He didn't think so.

"I missed you too," Nagi answered. "But nothing's changed."

"I know. It's too soon for anything to change. Just don't give up. I haven't." Omi looked so young and hopeful that Nagi's heart twisted. _Now_ he missed Omi, but he hadn't been able to put an expression like that on his lover's face by the end very often, had he?

Was it supposed to hurt like this? He didn't want it to. "I haven't given up yet."

Omi put his hand on Nagi's shoulder and squeezed, then let his hand caress up the side of Nagi's neck before letting it rest at his cheek. Weary, Nagi couldn't help leaning into its warmth, so unlike his own perpetually cold hands. This could lead to something very stupid.

"Omi, I should go. I'm really tired."

"You look it."

"Thanks."

"You know what I mean. Go to bed, Nagi. I feel like I'm taking advantage of you when you're this low."

"I'm too good to be taken advantage of," Nagi lied.

"Take care of yourself."

"I'm trying."

******************************************************  
_"Our needs are few. Our wants are endless."_  
  -- Lao-tzu  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buzzing, Farfarello tried to contain himself no matter how badly he wanted to explode. Too cramped, too constrained. Now he sat in an even smaller space sandwiched between Friendly and the junior mindbreaker. Everything felt too bright and loud.

He wanted his puisín in reach, wanted to lose himself in Aya's solid body, heat, and stark colors, but he wouldn't be able to just slide into his kitten's mind again, not after the events of the day. Aya had shields now and his own power. The sticky hands of other telepaths had marked him, leaving smears of scent and sound. Farfarello desperately needed to clean that filth away. Besides, Aya was depressed over their sister and needed comforting and distraction.

"Aya's alone in a room with Yoji, and you know Yoji's been trying to get into his pants," the mindbreaker said from the front seat. "Maybe neither of them are even wearing pants now."

Even knowing that Schuldig just wanted to get a rise out of him, he snapped at the bait and lunged forward, while Friendly and Misery grabbed his arms. "For fuck's sake, Guilty, could you wait until we're out of an enclosed space?" Friendly yelled.

"Schuldig," Crawford said, sounding annoyed.

"I feel a little better now," the mindbreaker purred.

Farfarello tried to breathe calm down deep into himself. "I understand, you bastard. All your Legion is going soft over the copies, so you have to prove to yourself that you still have an edge left. You're cranky like a little baby over needing sleep too. Leave me out of it."

The mindbreaker looked sulky now. Good. Let the misery be shared.

To Farfarello's relief, Friendly and Misery let go of him once he gave the appearance of settling down. Their touch distracted him. He reached out and felt his puisín notice and accept him. Although he'd miss the merging a great deal, the knowledge that his kitten could guard against him but chose not to had its appeal. Aya played poker with the slutkitten, both of them wearing their own pants, and wanted him to know how well behaved Yoji was. But Farfarello could feel him worrying about _something_, even aside from their sister. They would never know peace, it seemed.

~ Want you, ~ Farfarello told him. ~ Want you so much it aches. ~ It was a good ache and a bad ache all at once.

Aya blushed, warming and reddening to a shade Farfarello associated only with his puisín, something close to the crimson of his hair. It felt like the equivalent of Aya slouching down and parting his legs to let Farfarello get in closer, body to body.

~ Soon, ~ Farfarello promised. He opened his eyes to see Misery watching him, looking curious. "I'm not on display for you," Farfarello told him.

"There's not much else to look at," the mini-mindbreaker answered, refusing to be intimidated.

"Misery will stay with Balinese," Crawford said, "so we'll drop him off with Friendly."

"What?" Friendly and the mindbreaker asked as one.

"Who the hell made you Yoji's team leader to decide room assignments for him?" Friendly asked.

"I don't want Misery away from Schwarz," Schuldig said, sounding very angry. "What if he gets attacked? Friendly and Yoji can't match Schwarz's firepower."

Stung, Friendly replied, "I can do a damned good job."

"Whatever, you and Yoji still can't match the five of us. It's that simple."

"You do know that I'm only arguing because of my pride. Yoji only has one bed in his room."

"What size? Queen or king?"

"What... it doesn't matter, because nobody's installing Misery in it!"

"I'm sure Yoji wouldn't mind," Crawford said. "He's too good-hearted to kick Misery out of his bed."

Everyone knew Crawford had a very different descriptive word than "good-hearted" in mind. Friendly said, "Yoji's actually good-hearted, but Misery's too young for him for the rest of what you're implying."

"_Now_ he's 'Yoji,' Brad?" the mindbreaker asked. "When you want something from him."

"I get sex from him whether I call him 'Yoji' or not."

"Do I get a vote in this?" Misery asked.

"No."

"Charming, Brad."

"Schuldig, Misery certainly couldn't share a bed with Nagi."

The mindbreaker almost smiled. "Might do Nagi some good if he didn't kill Misery first, but you're right."

Usually Farfarello would mention that Crawford and the mindbreaker's room had _two_ beds just to entertain himself by throwing a wrench into the works, but too much time had already been wasted by arguing. "Do it or don't," Farfarello said. "I don't give a fuck. Just decide soon because I need to see my kitten and he needs to see me. Stop playing games."

"If you're going to be such assholes, Misery will stay with us," Friendly said. "Yoji probably won't have a problem with it. But don't get used to making these kinds of decisions for us, Crawford."

"Of course," Crawford said, magnanimous in victory. Friendly looked as nauseated by it as Farfarello felt. She slammed her door as she and Misery exited the car at their hotel.

"Come on," Farfarello growled as they drove away so slowly.

"Stop kicking my seat," the mindbreaker growled back.

"Nagi's more mature than the two of you put together," Crawford murmured.

"Get me to the hotel and you won't have to deal with my immaturity," Farfarello answered.

Farfarello opened the door and jumped out as they parked and ran for it. Thinking ahead, he'd cleaned up a bit in the car. He looked wild enough without the hotel staff seeing a literally bloody murderer dashing through their hallways and thinking of reporting him to the local police.

When he opened the door to their room, Aya and the slutkitten faced him from the table, Aya with a knife in hand and the slutkitten with his wire ready. Knowing that his puisín had someone helping to protect him in Farfarello's absence made him feel better. Aya set the knife down but the slutkitten kept his wire ready between his gloved fingers, not trusting. Farfarello didn't blame him for such cautiousness and actually felt flattered by it. His puisín still had his pants on but wore a blue sweater instead of his killing shirt. Knowing that Aya had done it to be more comfortable, not seductive, and that the killing shirt was much sexier, Farfarello smacked down the inner voice that wanted to make something of that partial stripping.

Though the sweater showed off Aya's neck....

Farfarello kept control of himself. "Poker?"

"Aya's sharp usually, so I took advantage of him being distracted tonight. But he doesn't have many tells so it almost evened out." The slutkitten's disgust sounded overdone.

"One facial expression works for most situations," Aya answered.

"Yeah, yeah. That's just miserly, and you know it."

"No such thing."

"I better get back to my own hotel. Besides, I have Elena's luggage in my car."

The slutkitten had stayed to help protect and distract Aya. He even left on his own without needing to be tossed out. All of that deserved something. "Thank you," Farfarello said as he idly wondered what the slutkitten would make of the surprise waiting for him in his bed.

The slutkitten looked surprised, then rueful. "Yeah, well, Aya's my friend. Sleep well."

"Thanks, Yoji. I'm glad you were here," Aya said as he saw him out the door. When he saw Farfarello taking off his jacket, Aya asked, "When did that happen?"

"What?"

"Something creased your arm."

Yes, it had torn through leather and fabric as well as skin, providing a tell. "I healed it before I even felt it." Reminded, Farfarello associated himself inside his body again, wanting to feel his kitten fully.

A troubled expression crossed Aya's face, then he pulled off his sweater and presented himself to Farfarello, running his forefinger along the knife scars on his arm. At first it thrilled Farfarello to see such play, but then he realized that the scars looked lighter. All of Aya's visible scars did. Farfarello ran his own finger up and down the lines on his kitten's arm, feeling the difference. He'd studied his lover's body that thoroughly.

"Did I do this?" Farfarello asked.

"I don't know. With what's been going on lately, it's hard to say."

"Do you worry about losing your scars?"

"Good riddance to them. I worry about what else might be going on that's doing this." Aya lied to himself. Farfarello knew he liked his scars but thought it wrong to admit it. Farfarello liked them too.

"All right." Farfarello pulled him in close, inhaling his kitten's own body scent, sweat, leather, metal, and gunpowder. "You smell good."

"I waited for you." When usually fastidious Aya preferred to wash up quickly afterward. Such a good and thoughtful kitten.

Farfarello nipped at Aya's bare neck, unable to help himself, smiling at the pleased sound Aya made low in his throat. As much as Farfarello loved to see his kitten's neck in collars and decorations, sometimes it drove him to madness to have it so covered and locked away from his touch. Aya relaxed against him, making him marvel again over how a man who could so often seem as hard, dense, and cold as glacial ice could melt and flow like liquid in his arms. They worked this kind of alchemy on one another. Aya turned _him_ into a man who could feel.

Some foolish people had described his puisín's hair as silk-like but Farfarello hated the slippery, too slick feel of silk and the way it made him feel like he should wash his hands after touching it. Aya's hair felt soft, wonderful, and addictive. He traced the curve of Aya's skull and down the length of his spine, smiling at the shivers his fingertips provoked. His kitten was such an elegant structure, painted in deep colors. Farfarello had felt such a fevered rush to get to his puisín before but now that he had Aya in his arms that frenzy eased into something deeper and more centered, slow pleasure, narcotic. They rubbed against each other sensuously.

"What are you thinking?" Aya asked.

"I'm rhapsodizing over you."

Aya stiffened a little. "Hnh."

Farfarello stroked him back to greater pliancy. "You have to learn to take compliments better. Are all of your scars fading?"

"I don't know. I wasn't about to strip naked and scrutinize myself with a guest in the next room."

In his obsession over the lust and treachery of others, Farfarello sometimes forgot to give his thoughtful, devoted kitten full credit for resisting such snares. "I think we should examine your body thoroughly. Very thoroughly." It galled that Aya might have power aside from what he borrowed from Farfarello but it also made Aya a better, more equal partner. They couldn't merge easily anymore, but Farfarello could still taste his puisín's self and enjoy its flavor. "I love you."

Aya let out a harsh breath and kissed harder, hungrier. "I...."

Wanted, Farfarello could read. Aya wanted, needed, sex with him. Needed to feel alive and anchored inside his body, needed to stop thinking, needed to interrupt the haunting. But he couldn't ask or say it, not without feeling selfish for wanting to forget about _her_ for a while. _She_ had come again, just when Aya had started to live without her thick, pervasive shadow blocking the light and warmth from his soul.

Determined to triumph over any adversity God threw their way, Farfarello would give Aya what he needed. "I know."


	185. "You can't help being a hero."

Although Elena still seethed over Crawford's power play, she didn't take it out on Misery. Crawford might be proud of being an unfeeling bastard, but she aspired to be better. Besides, Misery seemed so lost and tired right now that he reminded her of Fenris at his lowest ebb. If Fenris had been set amongst strangers, she'd want them to look out for him.

Despite his obvious fatigue, Misery retained some edge and defenses. She'd noticed him making the people at the front desk see him without the smeared eye makeup and shabbiness. Good choice, since he looked somewhat like a scary bum at the moment.

~ Yoji's a good guy, ~ she said to him. ~ He won't kick you out, especially if he sees you as a kid, which I suspect he will. Just don't... surprise him when he first comes in. He looks laidback, but he's a killer like us. Besides, he's a fledgling telekinetic. ~

~ I didn't see enough of him to form an impression. ~

~ This isn't what you expected, is it? ~

Misery smiled wryly. ~ I don't know what I expected. ~

~ Figured you'd sleep at the foot of their bed? Or maybe _in_ their bed with them? ~

~ Didn't expect anything, maybe. ~

~ Didn't expect Crawford to be a controlling, arrogant asshole? ~

~ I should have expected that. How does Schuldig deal with it? ~

~ By kicking him when it goes too far. Don't tell me you want to rescue Guilty too? All of you.... He made his bed, and he's lying in it. Hell, he's rolling in it, sometimes with multiple partners. ~

~ Do you think that's genetic? The sluttishness? ~ He sounded sad.

Elena didn't know what the whole thing with Woeller was but had a good guess and didn't want to feed into any lingering trauma. ~ I dunno about sluttish. You guys seem to be the cuddle-bunny variety of telepath, though. ~

That wiped the top layers of sadness away. ~ Cuddle-bunny? ~

~ You know exactly what I mean. We're here. Take a shower and nap-- ~

~ I look and smell that bad? ~ But he sounded wry.

~ I'm guessing you haven't had a good night's sleep for a while. ~

~ I either found a place on the streets or an abandoned building or I played hide-and-seek with a hotel's cleaning staff. None of it helps a guy relax. ~

~ So clean up and look cute while napping. It should help you ingratiate yourself on first sight. ~

~ Thanks. ~

******************************************************

Gravity seemed to weigh ever heavier on Schuldig as fatigue took a tighter and tighter grip. He _drooped_. "Almost there, Schu," Crawford said as they walked through the lobby.

"Good. Being bad-ass and manly is a pain in the ass right now," Schuldig answered.

At times like this, minions would have been useful. Then Crawford could have people checking into the various situations developing while he and his team rested. Too bad he didn't trust anyone enough.

When the elevator door opened it revealed Balinese, who was leaning back against the wall sensually, challenging, dark shades hiding his eyes. "Fancy seeing you guys before I leave."

"Congratulations on not getting killed by Farfarello," Crawford answered.

"He recognized my good work." Balinese looked at Schuldig and smiled, wise-ass and leering, and Crawford felt Schuldig react to it, uncoiling a little. Then Balinese turned back to look at Crawford and shook his head. "See you later."

Why the hell did Crawford feel condescended to? He wondered as he watched Balinese walk out. When he looked at Schuldig he saw his telepath smirk and asked, "What was that?"

"He thought of offering his... services to us, but then he saw how tired I am and how possessive and defensive you are and decided against it."

Offended, Crawford answered, "I don't need his favors."

"And you're not defensive at all."

"I'm not."

As soon as they entered their room Schuldig went straight to the bed and dropped down onto it, then said, "Ow," and writhed, a moving puddle of orange hair and black trench coat and blue scarf, obviously trying to get comfortable.

"Maybe you would be more comfortable if you took off your gun rig first."

"Maybe I'd be more comfortable if I didn't have a big fucking lump on the back of my head."

"That was necessary."

"I know." Schuldig opened his eyes a little. "But it's not necessary to cut me off from my kids."

"They're not your kids!"

"Flesh of my flesh, Brad."

Considering Schuldig's horniness and fatigue, Crawford had figured they'd either fuck or sleep when they returned to their room, not fight. "There are over 50 of them. Nobody has the energy or patience to deal with all of that. You certainly don't. What you want isn't realistic."

"You're jealous."

"I let you fuck whomever you want to. I am the least jealous man on Earth."

"Sure, I get to fuck people. You're that sensible at least. But I'm not allowed to care about anyone you don't want me to."

Nearly shaking with frustration and rage, Crawford asked, "What the hell do you want from me?"

"I want. I always want. You're always the one who figures out ways to make it happen."

"You're making no fucking sense."

Schuldig sat up but sagged. "It hurts to care, Brad. It's your own fault that I care about anything. I never used to. Once upon a time I didn't have anybody anyone could use as hostages against me. You held me in contempt but I didn't give a fuck what you thought and could tell you to just go to hell. No one could touch or hurt my insides. You would forbid me to do things, I'd want them and try to do them anyway, and then Eszett would force me to follow your will anyway while you smirked. Who forces me now? _I_ force me, because.... Because. Because you made the plans that made it possible for us to think we could live and want things like real people do and have. Other than that I don't know how the hell a man who has no heart could wake mine up. Your clones are heartless too, but _mine_ want me and I want them. I've changed. Maybe you haven't."

This was important. "If I don't give you everything you want I'm a bad person? Not everything you want is good for you. This isn't."

"Did you really think that through or is that just what your greedy gut tells you when I look at them and want them?"

Seeing that he couldn't get through with conventional means, Crawford decided to try the direct and brutal route. "They are not Emory. You're never going to get a second chance to save him, do you understand that?"

"I don't believe you went there! And we know that!" Schuldig snapped, then blanched.

Gotcha. "The clones are _not_ good for you. You've worked so hard to be one, whole person."

"They need me."

"We go forward. We don't wallow in the past."

"Jealous. You're fucking jealous. That's why you don't want any of them around me. That's why you don't want Yoji around me. I'm not allowed to pay attention to anyone but you. What would you do if I disobeyed? Eszett can't throw me in the Box until I agree to anything anymore. You have to _convince_ me you're right now, and that's hard, isn't it? Because then you have to examine what's going on in your own twisted head."

"I don't want to fight with you." He didn't want to listen either. Schuldig was tired, cranky, and sulky, that was all.

"You don't want to fight me because you know you don't have any solid ground to stand on."

"I like Schwarz as it is. We're a good, manageable size. I never wanted an army or a dynasty. If we get too big I'll spend more time supervising us than I will actually out in the field doing anything. You see what happened to Persia and how isolated and miserable he is. I don't want that for myself."

Looking surprised, Schuldig answered, "That... makes sense."

Encouraged by honesty's effect, Crawford continued, "And I _am_ jealous of the attention and care you want to show them." Why not say so? He hadn't fooled Schuldig.

"It's not the same."

"I know, but they would take up your time. Do you have any idea how much time and effort they'd need? More than you realize. You would be at least as responsible for administration as I would be. Besides, do you really want to make them dependent on you? Wouldn't it be better to let them create their own identities for themselves and become their own people?"

"...yeah."

As much as it pissed Crawford off that Schuldig had forced him to this, he couldn't help feeling relief as real, solid, and sensible reasons came out of his mouth, far better than the formless gnawing he'd felt in his gut prior to this. He wasn't being irrational or unfair, and he could see his telepath reacting to that. To further emphasize his words, Crawford knelt between Schuldig's legs, set his hands on his telepath's leather-clad knees, and looked up at him. "I'm looking out for us. Martyring yourself won't make their lives better. It doesn't work for anybody. Do you want to be like Aya?"

Schuldig barked a laugh. "I want to figure Aya out. We have to study what he has. But I still want my babies safe."

His babies. This was bad. "I understand that, but we can do that for them without giving up our lives to their care. Balinese will be good to Misery for now." Honesty could serve him well again here. "Besides, I wanted some time alone with you."

Schuldig raised an eyebrow and smiled. This close, no one could possibly mistake him for one of his clones, not when he had his light scars and the face of a man, not a boy. "Thanks. It's too bad I'm dead to the world."

"I don't mind."

"Yeah? In the past 'I don't mind' usually led to you pounding me to try to get a better, more lively response, which led to me waking up later with a sore ass and vague memories of some kind of sex. It didn't even satisfy you."

"I don't want that. Let me undress you."

"I don't think I could stay awake through a shower either."

"So?" Crawford unwrapped Schuldig's scarf, the one Mom had given him, from around his neck. "We won't do that."

"All right."

Crawford unbuttoned Schuldig's coat and pushed it back and down his arms. When he took Schuldig's gun rig off and set it aside, his telepath shook out his shoulders a bit, obviously enjoying the absence of the weight. Unbuttoning Schuldig's shirt revealed that he'd worn the emerald in his navel. They'd ripped it out of one client's ring after the man had tried to skip paying them. His telepath shivered as he took the shirt off. He left the silver torque on, rather liking how Schuldig looked when he wore only jewelry. When he gently pushed Schuldig down, his telepath went easily, lying limp and sprawled on his back on the bed, head turned to the side to avoid lying on the tender lump, breathing deeply, half-asleep. He unzipped Schuldig's boots and pulled them and his socks off, then ran one finger along the arch of his bare foot just to make him jump and mutter, "Asshole," out of ticklishness. Crawford stood and leaned over to unbutton his telepath's fly, finding him half-hard under it. Running his fingers down the length of Schuldig's cock made his telepath's closed eyelids flutter and hips arch a little, enough to let him pull the pants off and leave him naked and shivering slightly on top of his coat.

Usually Crawford could take or leave sex, hardly needing it, but anticipation from before and now the sight of his lover's bare, vulnerable body left him on fire with lust. Unfortunately, Schuldig was obviously too tired for sex play, and Crawford had never enjoyed just toying with his body. Much of the point of sex was making his telepath acknowledge his existence.

He manhandled Schuldig's limp, pliant dead weight to get it under the covers. Amazing how someone so thin could be so damned heavy. Schuldig kissed Crawford's fingertips without even waking up.

Crawford jerked off and washed up in the shower, put pajamas on, and joined his telepath in bed. Heat-seeking, Schuldig rolled over to him and burrowed against his side, rendering Crawford half-hard and frustrated all over again. He ignored it and went to sleep.

******************************************************

~ Thanks, Yoji. For my clothes, but especially for my gun, ~ Elena said as she stood in the doorway of her room accepting her suitcase. She'd taken her braid out so her hair fell in crimped blonde waves around her face and past her shoulders. ~ I get nervous without it. ~

"I feel the same way about my watch," Yoji answered. It said something that he didn't mind her switching back and forth between telepathic and audible speech depending on whether she spoke of their professions or not. It said that he'd really gotten used to telepaths.

"I'm glad Farfarello didn't kill you."

"Even he had to admit that I was a perfect gentleman."

"I'm glad you swung by before hitting your room." She looked uncomfortable, a bad sign. "Misery is staying with you."

"Misery-- One of Schuldig's... people? How the hell did I get volunteered into that? When did I become Schwarz's unpaid babysitter? Everybody knows I only have one bed, right?"

"I fought it, but Crawford was being such a jealous, controlling asshole that I thought he might actually have the kid sleep out on the street if we didn't take him in."

Yoji could see that too easily. Crawford liked to have everything in its place, and he was crazy possessive of Schuldig. All these kids coming up with claims on Schuldig's attention had to be making him nuts. Crawford preferred other people to suffer.

"You couldn't let him sleep on the street. I get that. You can't trust Crawford to back down and have a heart."

"And Misery can't sleep with me."

"Because you're a girl? Misery's probably bi. I mean, Schuldig hits anything that moves."

~ Because I said Misery could stay with us, I don't want him to think he has to fuck me to pay for it, I'm Weiß's leader, and it seems that he was sexually abused by his last boss. ~

Shit. "Sexually abused?"

~ Eszett had given his last employer the inside track on manipulating telepaths. ~

No way he could throw this kid out. "We'll be fine. I'll bitch Crawford out about it the next time I see him, but I'll be good to the kid." Crawford and Schuldig had just let Yoji leave their hotel without saying a word about Misery too. Figured.

Misery. How could Yoji call anyone that?

~ You're sure? There are other arrangements we can make. I was just too tired and pissed off at Crawford to think of them. Maybe we can get him his own room and bill Schwarz. ~

"Nah. He's a wanted kid, right? Better for him to stay with someone anyway. We can still keep the room idea open for tomorrow if there's a problem."

"Yeah, tomorrow." Elena looked unhappy. ~ I hate being neck deep in all this Eszett shit again. ~

"I'm hating them more and more myself. At least Crawford won't stay here any longer than he has to. He's all about efficiency."

"Yes, let's try to think positive thoughts about Crawford and less about how I want to set a fire under his ass."

Yoji had to smile. "Sweet dreams, Elena."

"With that image in mind, hell yeah. If things with Misery get bad--"

"I'll call you. I won't be a hero."

"Please. You can't help being a hero." She grinned, then closed her door.

When Yoji opened his own door he saw movement and a gun swing toward him. He dodged out of its path and hit the wall.

"Sorry! Shit, I'm tired. I just woke up when I heard the door, which is why I didn't read you," the kid said as he set his gun down. "You're Yoji, and this is your room. I don't have any right to kill you for coming in." His hair was still slightly damp and he wore one of the hotel's terry cloth robes. Without his eye makeup and raggedy punk clothes as support, clean, his choppy bleached hair looked more like desperation than a statement of style and attitude. He was also way too thin, another thing the clothing and makeup had camouflaged.

"Nah. My day isn't complete until I nearly have a heart attack. It's fine." Yoji closed his door and leaned against it.

"Somebody spoke to you about this, right?"

"About you staying over? Yeah. I'm up to speed."

"And it's okay?" So young and cute.

If it had been Schuldig, Yoji would immediately label this as manipulation but the kid wasn't really Schuldig. Assumptions could lead to mistakes here. "It's okay. Yeah, I'm Yoji, and you're safe with me, kid. Are you okay with sharing a bed? Because I can take a pillow and some blankets to sleep on the floor." Though his back would hate him in the morning. Everybody started getting old eventually.

"I can't put you out of your bed. It's fine."

"Okay. I'm going to go take a shower. You choose the side of the bed you want and go to sleep. You need pajamas?" Yoji slept nude most times, but he'd brought some loose clothing with him that could be used as sleepwear for him and a friend. As an assassin, when traveling on the job he tended to pack some clothes that could fit comfortably over bandages if necessary.

"The robe is okay. The hotel's service is washing my clothes. I kind of pity them. I also don't know how much of it will come back in one piece."

The kid had been tending toward the bum side of the spectrum. "We could shop in the morning. A man with style is a man who can smile."

"No. I could just take some."

"No, we'll pay for it. It's stressful stealing, even when you have telepathy. I want you to make some good choices instead of just take whatever's easiest to take. Takes brass balls to actually try things on to see if they fit when you're just gonna steal them, telepathy or not."

"You're familiar with that?"

"Being young, broke, and alone on the streets? Yeah. I'm a member of Weiß. An angsty past is a necessity. Hell, they hire for it." Some things you never forgot. Asuka had helped him out then. Time for him to give back. "I'll pay for the clothes if you don't have the money."

The kid seemed surprised and offended and pleased all at once. "You can't do that."

"Sure I can. I'm not hurting." He'd been saving more money from going out drinking and clubbing less. "Though if it really bothers you, you can consider it a loan and pay me back later. I'm going to take my shower. Don't wait up for me. Hope you left me some hot water."

"...yeah." Poor kid looked like he'd been smacked between the eyes. Wasn't used to kindness, probably. That was so damned sad.

Yoji unpacked his grooming stuff and a pair of sweatpants, then went into the bathroom and shut the door. It still felt steamy in here. He showered quickly, too tired to take his time, and towel-dried his hair some. Blow-drying damaged it, and he'd just gotten it to start looking less fried lately.

By the time he made it back to the bed he was really dragging. Funny how fatigue could smack you all at once. The kid had already settled into bed on one side. He had ginger-colored eyebrows and lashes, just like Schuldig did. He didn't open his eyes, but he murmured, "Thanks."

"Sure." It felt so warm under the covers. Yoji turned so his back would be to the kid, then shut off the lights with a little telekinesis. Cool.

"Showoff," the kid muttered, and Yoji smiled at the show of spirit. This would work out fine.

******************************************************

Shivering and writhing, Aya gasped, "Finish me. Please." True to his word, Farfarello was exploring every single one of Aya's scars with his fingertips, lips, and tongue, sometimes murmuring his memory of its origin into Aya's skin or commenting on the absence of one, leaving damp trails that made Aya feel as if he'd been tattooed with chills, his body marked again in its old injuries. Oversensitized, too aroused, he couldn't think of much beyond the buzzing and throbbing sensations.

He'd begged. He'd _whined_. He'd tried to pull away, but Farfarello had, embarrassingly, rendered him helpless by pinning his wrists with one hand and his body with his own, rubbing them together with every movement, which made Aya warmer but tortured him further.

Sometimes Farfarello became locked in patterns, and the only way to break him out was to take them through to the end. He'd sworn to see to every scar and couldn't turn away from that.

How many more could there be?

Finally, Farfarello grinned and said, "Yes, I think you're ready." He sucked sloppily on his fingers, then fucked Aya with them for a little while, close to what Aya needed but--

"Not enough," Aya said. "Not enough."

"All right." Farfarello thrust in, and Aya rode his cock with pleasure, filled, feeling the end approaching. Farfarello's pattern completed, he obeyed Aya's orders. Then again, Aya's insistent cries for "harder" and "more" probably fit with what he wanted to do anyway.

So close to _there_....

Before Aya had felt Farfarello's power come in as drowning waves, and he'd been helpless against them. Now it lapped at him, and this time he made a choice, taking it in along with the sensations, taking everything his lover pushed into him, sharing it. Overwhelmed, he blacked out as he came in waves.


	186. ~ Paranoia and creative bookkeeping are two things Eszett trained into me. ~

Sitting in a coffee house, Nagi sipped his tea and skimmed a newspaper, not so much wanting to be awake as not wanting to sleep yet. The pastry here had briefly tempted him until he figured out how excessively sweet it was.

He could actually return to the hotel, since only Farfarello and Aya had gotten down, which he could block out just fine. Considering how obviously horny Schuldig had been it surprised Nagi that there hadn't been a full Schwarz sex show, but maybe fatigue had won out. Of course, that meant he could expect Schuldig and Crawford to fuck later and could only hope they didn't set Farfarello and Aya off again when they did it. Anyway, they all slept now so Nagi saw no sense in staying out longer, especially not when he wanted to go to bed so badly himself.

As Nagi stood he suddenly felt the impression of hot breath on the back of his neck. Not real. Some telepath playing games. Invitation or warning? Nagi strengthened his own shields, blocking out that impression of breathing against his skin, even as he cast feelers out looking for the culprit and found nothing at all.

This was such bullshit. Nagi walked outside and into an alley, then shot up into the air and headed to the hotel. Annoyed, he put an extra burst of speed on and arrived in minutes. Even while sleeping, his teammates' shielding would strengthen his resistance against the intruder. When he stood right outside the building he felt out again, but the telepath left no impression, having decided to either leave him alone or wait for later.

As Nagi walked to his room, he decided not to wake Crawford about this, not when he had so little to report and his teammates needed sleep so badly. They all already had their shielding as strong as they could make it.

Inside his room, Nagi took off his boots and jacket and otherwise went to bed still dressed. Schwarz in the nearby suites provided a comforting telepathic white noise of shielding that let him find calm and slide into sleep.

******************************************************

Elena towel-dried her hair, then settled on the bed and composed herself to talk to Fenris. He probably worried about her and didn't know he didn't have as much cause to anymore. It amazed her that fixing about 50 telepaths had made such a difference in the ambiance. Teaching them to block had removed so much pain from the mix, which decreased the strength of the feedback loop of the pain causing more pain, endlessly. Who knew she had the talent and patience to be a teacher?

Fenris, probably.

She traveled out onto the astral plane but didn't find him or Ken at the flower shop. Not right. She wandered, following the tag she'd placed in Fenris' notice-me-not shield. Finally she found him.

~ Elena! ~ A large blond puppy with large paws threw itself at her and might have knocked her over if she hadn't been a giant dragon at the moment. ~ I'm so glad you're here! We worried and I have things to tell you! ~ His tail wagged so fast and fiercely that it looked like a blur, and he nearly vibrated.

~ I'm glad to see you too. Where are you? ~

~ Hotel! We were attacked at the shop! Some of the windows are a mess, but I saved a lot of them. People fired on us! ~ Fenris sent her an image of the hail of bullets coming at the flower shop's front window. ~ One guy died from the bullets I bounced back at him, but the other was killed by another telepath! He knew what I was! The guy who died, I mean. Probably the telepath too. That makes sense. Ken made us go to a hotel because he thought somebody betrayed us or maybe was tortured into telling our enemies where we were because how else did they know what I was and that I was there when I had a don't-notice-me shield on? ~

~ Sit. Settle, ~ she said as she processed the flood of information and Fenris sat, still vibrating, tail still wagging madly. ~ Ken has a good point. ~

~ I thought so too! We didn't leave anything telling anybody where we went in case a Kritiker traitor sold us out. We hope it's not a traitor but it's better to be safe. ~

~ Definitely. You and Ken did a great job. ~

Fenris grinned, and his tail wagged harder. ~ What do you want us to do now? ~

~ The ambiance is much better now. I think you could handle it. ~ Although it might be possible that the attack had been made to get Weiß to reunite in Vienna, Elena preferred having her team together. It would be safer for them.

Besides, that attack had certainly looked serious. If Fenris had been less attentive, he and Ken would have died.

~ We could come to you? ~ Fenris bounced back up again. ~ I can handle it! You'll see! It'll be great! We have to tell Ken! ~

~ Could you tell him I'd like to go into his head a little to talk strategy? ~

~ Sure! ~

Ken still didn't accept telepathy as easily as Yoji did. Then again, look how much more personal, intimate experience Yoji had with telepaths. Very intimate.

She rolled her eyes at her own bitchiness.

Maybe it would be easier for Ken to accept telepathic talkings-to if he got ass-fucked by telepaths like Yoji and Fujimiya-san did. Elena would be willing to provide. Don't be intimidated by the strap-on, Ken, and bend over for the good of the team....

Actually, Yoji and Fujimiya-san started to show signs of their own talents after their ass-fucking. Was talent communicable? Maybe if Ken bent over for _Yoji_...? Or did it have to be a telepath....

No. It was too stupid. And she _might_ be spending too much time around Guilty lately.

~ Ken's ready! ~ Fenris said.

If only. ~ Ken, you've done great work. Thanks for getting Fenris out of there. Now I want you to get tickets to fly the both of you into Vienna. It might be easier if you guys can sneak back into the flower shop to get the money and directions I held aside in case I needed you to come to us. Can you do that? ~

Ken thought he could. But what did she mean by money and stuff set aside?

~ My team was separated, so I took more money out than I needed at the moment and made plans. I put it all in the kitty. You know, the cat-shaped cookie jar that I claimed was my personal stash of cookies and raiding it was punishable by death. It has a secret bottom you can get into if you take all the cookies out first. I left directions on where to go and what agent to use. That way you won't have to draw money out or try to requisition some, which would make you visible to a possible traitor in Kritiker. Paranoia and creative bookkeeping are two things Eszett trained into me. ~

Ken was still hung up on the idea of her embezzling money.

~ It's not! I would have returned it if Weiß didn't need it. Turns out that Weiß needs it. Are you going to use it or not? ~

Ken would see if he and Fenris could get in and out without drawing attention. If not, he would be more direct and take money out of his own account for the tickets, then have the two of them make a run for it. He wondered when Elena would tell Omi their suspicions.

~ Not yet. He's sleeping right now. I'll tell him telepathically when he's conscious. He probably won't like the feel of it as much as he won't like the news, but Kritiker guards surround him all the time so I can't talk to him the normal way. I also have to figure out if Breaker's keeping an eye on him. Breaker might very well be our leak. Man's a bastard. I'll check in on you guys in three hours. ~ Persia might be a problem.

~ See you soon! ~ Fenris said.

It would be good to get everybody in one place again. Yoji would be glad too. When she told him. When he woke up on his own. She knew from experience that he could be damned hard to wake up.

******************************************************

Schuldig saw Aya wandering, katana in hand, through the darkened streets of a dim, insubstantial city and thought it to be a dream until he realized that he looked way up at Aya. Schuldig was a cat again, and Aya had imposed this shape on him in telepathic space once. He spent a moment to admire the adorable tufts of long orange fur between his toes before yelling, ~ Hey, Aya! ~

"Where are you?" Aya asked, head turning.

~ Down here. I'm a kitty again. ~

Aya looked down but obviously saw nothing. Blind. Right, mind-blind. His violet eyes had a corona of yellow-gold color around his pupils. "Don't toy with me."

~ Feel around for me and pick me up so I don't have to keep looking up at you. ~

"Why should I?"

~ Because I'll jump up on you and claw my way to the top otherwise. ~

"I need my hands free to defend myself."

~ Here I can defend you much better than your katana can. ~

"Tch." But Aya sheathed his katana, crouched down, and felt around for Schuldig until he found him, then lifted him up by grabbing him under his front legs.

~ Handle me nicer! You can be such an asshole. ~ As soon as Aya set Schuldig against his chest, Schuldig climbed up a little to Aya's shoulder and stroked his head against Aya's face, grinning cat-wise at his growl of annoyance. The city brightened and gained more detail, as Schuldig guessed it would, although it still looked like nighttime. ~ Can you see now? ~

"Better. Not by much." Apparently Aya still couldn't see his surroundings as well as Schuldig did even though he'd created them. His eyes now had flecks of bright blue amongst the violet and gold. Hmm.

When Schuldig turned his head he could see his reflection in a lit-up shop window. ~ I'm gorgeous like this! ~ His long fluffy tail swayed majestically to the tune of his thoughts and emotions, making him wish he had a tail in real life to use on Brad. Claws could be useful too. He still had bright blue eyes in a noble face, no sour, punched-in Persian look for him. What did he look like...? Kind of like a Maine coon cat. Very nice. His green stripes were stronger and more distinct on his face and subtler on the fluffier parts of his orange-furred body.

"Stop admiring yourself. You're a garish creature."

~ Says the guy with crimson hair and violet eyes. Support my ass! ~

"What?"

~ I'm dangling a bit, so cradle my fluffy butt. Haven't you ever held a cat? ~

"You were held securely until you climbed up my shoulder and started molesting my face," Aya grumbled, although he did place his gloved hand under Schuldig's rear. He wore his mission uniform here.

~ You think that was molesting? Honey, I'm tempted to show you what molesting really is. ~

"That's not necessary."

They stood on a street in a vaguely Viennese city, with the murmuring of the people passing them actually being the emanations of their thoughts. Untrained, an interloper in the telepathic world, Aya imposed shapes, forms, and real-world logic on his surroundings with all the naïve belief and strength of a child.

Schuldig had a theory he wanted to test out, so he shifted to human form. Trapped by real-world expectations, Aya reacted to a shift in weight that didn't really exist, let go of him, and stumbled backward into a wall. Grinning, Schuldig pinned him to the wall and kissed him fiercely, slipping him bits of telepathic power along with tongue. He tasted Aya and Farf and a hint of someone familiar he couldn't quite name. Schuldig backed off just before Aya tried to bite.

Aya's eyes were bright blue with hints of violet at the edges, and he leaned, panting, enraged, against a far more detailed wall. The whole area around him had taken on more dimension, detail, and weight, looking like a vague Vienna under an overlay of something like Tokyo, with kanji and more neon. When Schuldig looked to areas that weren't in Aya's direct line of sight he saw only smudges like watercolors, Aya's perceptions not bothering to waste power on things he couldn't see.

Amazed, delighted, Schuldig murmured, ~ I'm a genius. This is so cool. ~

"You're a lunatic and a pervert!" Aya yelled. "What the hell was that?"

~ Haven't you noticed how much more real everything looks? I just lent you Schuldig eyes to see with! ~

Noticing at last and looking freaked out, Aya said softly, "I don't understand this."

Aya had been leeching on Farf's power before, and Farf's telepathy was a smaller, muddled, unfocused thing. Hell, Farf had to be at least partially dissociated to use it at all. Schuldig had just given some telepathy to Aya willingly and focused it, lessening Aya's blindness. Meanwhile, Schuldig didn't feel weakened. Maybe Aya just rode others' power instead of taking it?

Schuldig would love to give Aya a ride, all right.

He wanted to wander the streets with Aya and see whether Aya's imagination made them all different or if it started looping appearances after a while. He wanted to see if the sun rose into morning here. Could they eat? Could they shop? Did New Tokyo-Vienna have whorehouses? Probably not, considering that Aya had created it. Maybe Schuldig could talk him into producing stuff with the power of suggestion and all that. Worth a try.

~ You're out wandering the astral world in your sleep but inside an overlay you created for it. Fortunately for you, I found you. I'm the best protector and tour buddy you can get. We're gonna have such a good time. ~

Aya's expression looked doubtful, familiar, even with his foreign, borrowed eyes. Schuldig would just have to convince him. Schuldig grabbed him and led him out into the street, grinning as he saw the places behind them fade into smudges of formless color. Oh, the places you'll go.... Jazzed, he leaned into Aya and rested his head on Aya's shoulder, as if they were a couple on a date.

Aya jerked and twitched. "You're so obnoxious. Wait, what's that?"

Schuldig felt it too, a sudden sense of dispersal like what happened when a weight suddenly fell into a tub of water. Aya already had his katana out and his arm free, ready to fight.

~ Who's your friend, Guilty? ~ Breaker asked with a smile as he turned the corner.

Shit. Shit! ~ Red, go! ~ Schuldig yanked his power out of Aya, which must have hurt from the sound Aya made as it happened, then kicked him back toward his body. He knew Aya was gone when the night city around him diffused and smeared like watercolor paint left in the rain until only the usual formless cloud space remained. ~ Friend? I don't have any friends, ~ Schuldig said as he returned to his wave-of-colors avatar, flashing red.

Breaker looked like a huge, two-headed dog, not overtly threatening in manner but too large and strong looking to be discounted. ~ You didn't have to send him away on my account. That was so interesting! I wanted to see more of it. ~

~ That was my power working with his imagination, actually. ~ True. ~ You know how I love to try new things. _He's_ normal. Doesn't have anything you'd be interested in. ~ Unfortunately, that one was _not_ true. ~ I have to go. I had a long day. Bye! ~

At least Breaker didn't follow him out. But Breaker seemed amused, which didn't bode well at all. Once Breaker got his teeth into a problem or puzzle, he didn't let go.

As soon as Schuldig woke up he knew he had to see Aya to make sure he was okay. He hoped to hell Breaker hadn't gotten a good look at Aya's avatar since it looked almost exactly like his physical self. Brad started to wake but Schuldig telepathically massaged him deeper into sleep, then got out of bed himself.

How did he get naked? Brad must have undressed him. Sweet. In his place Schuldig wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to molest. Since he didn't think the hotel would appreciate a free show in the hall, he put a pair of silk pajama bottoms on. He felt around again for Breaker, but it seemed that Breaker wasn't hanging out nearby looking for them.

Although Schuldig had lockpicks ready, Farf and Aya's door opened as he reached it, with a naked Farfie staring at him in mingled hope and anger. "Fix my puisín."

"What're you angry with me for?"

"I'm sure you're responsible somehow. Get in here."

Schuldig didn't bother to answer that as he walked inside.

Inside, Aya sat up in bed with his head held in his hands, eyes squeezed shut, blankets hiding most of his most fun bits. Schuldig could feel his pain. Mmmm, sweet. "Does it hurt, honey?" Schuldig crooned to him.

Opening his eyes, Aya put a "You know it hurts, moron" look on his face. Smiling, Schuldig set his hand on Aya's cheek and felt inside, tasting links torn raw from having power thrust in and removed suddenly. Was there such a thing as telepathic lubrication? He did have to remember that Rose-red wasn't a machine where you could shove a coin into his slot and get candy out.

"I'm glad you're amusing yourself," Aya murmured darkly. "Amazing how you make telepathy into a venereal disease."

"I hope not, or the global ambiance is gonna suck." Schuldig heard the clang of one of Farfarello's blades extending from its hilt. "And could you express that in a way less likely to get me slaughtered?"

"You're the one who shoved your tongue into my mouth."

Schuldig dodged the blade coming at him from behind just in time, although it sheared a little bit of his long hair shorter. "Hey, I saved Aya's bacon!" he protested as his back met the wall and he stared down two glaring, naked psychos. "He was wandering telepathic space all on his own without any protection. Breaker came and tried to get him but I stopped it."

"I don't think Breaker would have noticed me if you hadn't done what you did," Aya said.

"My kitten attracted Breaker's attention?" Farf asked.

"Yeah, since Aya was wandering around with some power he'd borrowed from you," Schuldig answered, trying to gain points.

Farfie got a sappy little grin from that before he put his grrr back on.

"I kicked him out of astral space to get him away from Breaker, which saved his hash," Schuldig said, "but it hurt him a little from how fast I had to do it."

"Then fix him."

"I can't. You remember how this works yourself."

"This will heal on its own?" Aya asked.

"Yeah."

"All right. I can deal with a little pain."

"I know you can. Your shoulder looks great, by the way." Why did that put a worried little frown on their faces? Schuldig dug in to Aya to see. "Aya's spontaneously healing now too? You didn't think we should be informed of that?"

Aya looked disgruntled. "We don't know why it's happening. It might be Farfarello's ability at work."

"Or it could be that you're near your sister again and you're riding whatever she had," Schuldig said, the words coming out almost as soon as his brain processed the idea. "She didn't age over all those years."

Farfarello looked outraged. Aya was stunned, eyes wide, mouth open, a look that only a sadist would find cute. Fortunately, Schuldig was a sadist.

"Get out," Farfarello growled.

"Going," Schuldig answered. "Hey, Aya, if you wanna talk--" A thrown knife quivered in the door frame near Schuldig's head. "You know where I'll be. Elsewhere. They'll charge us for the damage, you know." He heard something clatter against the door when he closed it.

Heh. So much for having a token normal. Now Aya appeared to be the least normal among them, and that was saying something. Cool. Schuldig liked having interesting teammates.

They just had to make sure Aya didn't have a breakdown and Farfie didn't explode from jealousy. Better to let them cool down a bit first before Schuldig tried to manage them. With this level of volatility Schuldig would have to turn Farf off to make him safe and doubted Aya would stand for that. They claimed to be adults, so let them deal with each other before Mommy came back in to mop things up.

When Schuldig returned to his room he considered going to Yoji and Misery. He could sneak out... but Brad looked so cute sleeping curled up and with his silver hair in his face that Schuldig decided to stay. Yoji and Misery could keep for now.

Brad woke up again as Schuldig stripped and sleepily asked, "What did you do?"

"Prevented some trouble, then started my own trouble."

"Explain."

"No, there's too much. Let me sum up. Aya was wandering around telepathic space with Farfie's power. I gave Red some of my power, which made things more interesting. Then Breaker found us, but I seem to have slipped me and Aya out safely. Aya's old scars are healing, either because Farf is accidentally lighting him up with more ki than he realized or because Aya has his sister's genetic material nearby. She didn't age for years, after all. The psycho twins are next door freaking out right now."

Sighing, Brad looked up at him with eyes that seemed softer from sleepiness and the lack of corrective lenses. So cute. "Is there anything I can do about any of this right now?"

"I doubt it."

"Then come to bed."

"That's what I was doing."

"You could have snuck off to see Yoji and Misery."

"Yeah, I could have." Did Brad really want to snuggle? It seemed so, and Schuldig sure as hell couldn't miss that. Brad rarely touched anyone "just because." He did it to hurt or stop someone, to show possession, or for sex. It always had a goal. Simple sleepiness wouldn't change that.

Yet now Brad spooned with him, then wrapped his arms around him and occasionally breathed against his neck, his warm breath just barely discernible through Schuldig's hair, his pleasure flowing through Schuldig's mind and skin. It felt comfortable. As Brad drifted gently back into sleep, Schuldig joined him.

******************************************************

After the shock wore off, Aya started to smile. He couldn't help himself.

"Puisín, you're worrying me," Farfarello said. Worried him enough to cut through the jealousy he'd shown before.

"I'm alright. You don't have to worry."

Even as he continued to feel concerned over his changes, Aya couldn't help feeling a simple joy. Whether the healing came from Farfarello or his sister, either way it showed that the people he loved cared for him. They were a part of him.

"Puisín--"

"Come to bed."

Farfarello did, and curled around him with the attitude of a protector, tense. Tired, still hurting from being ejected from a place he shouldn't have been able to wander into to begin with, Aya went to sleep, feeling almost safe.


	187. "It's okay. It happens. Just please stop breathing on my nipples."

Schuldig woke up still feeling a bit tired, so he decided he wouldn't get out of bed yet. Maybe he could go back to sleep if he didn't move. Besides, he had a snuggly grip and body holding him here. Then he realized that Brad was awake and hard against him, with his slick cock pressed between Schuldig's thighs.

"When did you undo your bottoms, Brad?" Schuldig asked with a smile. "And when did you become a sex fiend in your own right?"

"Are you complaining?" Brad murmured into Schuldig's neck, having gotten past the hair.

"Nope. Just wanted to see if you were aware."

With Brad's bare cock sheathed between Schuldig's naked thighs, skin to skin, Schuldig could read him a bit easier. Brad felt sleepy but aroused and so pleased that he still had Schuldig with him. Perhaps it made him a sex fiend, but he'd expected to fuck earlier as a celebration of getting out alive and actually felt disappointed that Schuldig had been too tired. Besides, his telepath made such a cozy armful and felt so good and warm, especially as Brad rocked into him, the skin of his inner thighs so soft. Wanted him....

"You're getting _me_ aroused over what a great piece I am," Schuldig had to say, breathless.

"Are you complaining?"

"Hell, no."

"How's the ambiance?"

"Good enough that I can fuck without getting my mind attacked and ripped to shreds."

"Good." Brad licked his fingers, then started to stroke Schuldig's cock.

_Good_ morning.

******************************************************

Still drifting, Yoji half-woke to warmth and someone wrapped comfortably around him. Felt nice.... He was almost half-hard but not aroused enough yet that he had to do anything other than lie here and enjoy it.

~ Balinese. ~

Elena? He struggled to wake up more.

~ I have news for you. Siberian and Fenris are coming to Vienna, since they were attacked back home and I thought it would be safer to have all of us together in one place. Hey, is that Misery snuggling with you? ~

Shit! That woke him up. He could feel the kid snap alert with him, then go still as he realized where he was and what he was doing. "I'm sorry, Yoji," Misery said somewhat... miserably.

"It's okay. It happens. Just please stop breathing on my nipples."

"Sorry! I'll go to the other side of the bed." Misery untangled himself from Yoji and rolled as far away from Yoji as he could be and still remain on the bed.

"It's _okay_. Let me just talk to Elena a bit."

~ You're irresistible, Balinese. ~

He sighed. She wasn't helping. He also wondered if she'd updated Omi on everything yet.

~ I'm getting to that. I have to make sure Breaker's not listening in. You left before Breaker showed up. I wouldn't ever trust him. Not ever. ~

Then Omi should be separated from him permanently.

~ I will once I find a way. Breaker's a powerful telepath, which makes it harder to sneak up on him. The man trained a lot of Eszett's telepathic talent. ~

Elena too?

~ Yeah. It's like he has blueprints to almost all of us who went through Rosenkreuz. Makes it much trickier to take him down. Huh. Schwarz might have a better shot than most of us would. Nagi, Farfarello, and Crawford didn't go through any training. ~

_Crawford_?

~ He has some telepathy, but it wasn't enough to justify actual training. He can talk to other telepaths easier than he could without telepathy by formatting and focusing his thoughts better. Fujimiya-san could be a strength or weakness. It's hard to say now. ~

Right. Aya had some kind of talent. Was Schuldig a strength or weakness against this Breaker guy?

~ Schuldig's one of Eszett's best-known telepaths. You think Breaker didn't take a crack at him? ~

Shit.

~ Yeah. Anyway, I see you have some plans to take Misery out for... stuff in the morning, so I'll contact you when Siberian and Fenris arrive. ~

He had privacy once.

~ I doubt it. We know what Kritiker's like. Talk to you later. ~

"Hey, kid," Yoji said, still unable to call him "Misery."

"Pathetic, huh?"

Remembering his own recent emotionally fragile days and his guesses about Misery's issues, Yoji thought carefully before answering, "Nah. I figure that you're pretty tough. You have to be to get through what you did. But maybe you feel safer now so you don't have to be so tough."

The kid sighed. "You're... really kind, Yoji. How do you avoid being taken advantage of?"

"I'm still working on that. Look, I don't mind if you roll over on me in your sleep. I'm heat-seeking myself." It'd been kind of nice, warm and comfy. "We'll agree not to molest each other."

"I wouldn't molest you."

"Now I'm insulted."

The kid coughed. "I can't win."

"Nope. Might as well go to sleep here." Yoji closed his eyes and relaxed. Eventually he felt the kid move a little closer--though not too close--and do the same. With that settled, Yoji fell asleep.

******************************************************

Yoji and Ken wanted her to talk to Omi. Like that would be easy. Like Omi existed much anymore. Persia had been taking over for a while, with Takatori Mamoru as his public businessman face and lie to himself, but lately the process had accelerated, especially once Nagi had broken up with Omi. Not that she blamed Nagi. No one should have the responsibility of enabling and maintaining another person's identity for him. People had to do that for themselves.

Although she'd be happier with Ken and Fenris back under her protective wing, Elena was glad Fenris had gotten a little time away from her to be who he was on his own. He'd even faced a crisis and risen to it admirably. She felt so proud of her team she almost couldn't stand it.

She didn't like the cold yet miserable feel Persia gave off, especially as he devoured the person he'd originally been. The sociopathy might be familiar, but most of those folks enjoyed themselves more. At least Persia had enough useful paranoia to be more likely to listen to her suspicions about Breaker's role in the attack on Fenris and Ken. Elena knew that tact had never been one of her strengths.

Talking to Persia without Breaker eavesdropping wouldn't be easy either. She hoped she'd detect the bastard listening in, but he was powerful and skilled and had taught her a lot of _her_ tricks. From what she could tell from the light touches she put in around him to test the water, he felt suspiciously excited. Ew. It might be best to put off notifying Persia until Fenris and Ken had arrived, lessening the possibility of some "accident" taking them out along the way if Breaker overheard her talking to Persia and _was_ involved in trying to kill them earlier.

Damn, she wanted a cigarette.

Yeah. Tell Persia later, once Fenris and Ken were _in_ Vienna. Sounded good. Besides, it was easier on the plan to ask forgiveness afterward than permission before. It would give her a chance to get a nap too. While everybody else had been sleeping or fucking she'd been _working_, thank you.

******************************************************

Schuldig sprawled on his stomach in their bed obviously spent and satiated, eyes closed in half-sleep, smug smile on his lips, and Crawford had brought him to this. Sex might be messy and inefficient, but it relaxed Crawford and definitely had its pleasures.

Still, as he followed the arc of one scar on Schuldig's back with one of his fingers he worried over how invested he felt in his telepath and worried that he _was_ becoming a "sex fiend," addicted to Schuldig's presence and body. Feelings of possessiveness didn't concern him because anything that belonged to him _should_ be protected against anyone who wanted to take it away from him and should damned well stay with him. Anyone who tried to steal from him would be manipulated to his advantage or killed. He'd tolerated a lot while on Eszett's leash but no longer had to. Schuldig was his partner, his lover, and his telepath, and sex one of the many uses Schuldig could be put to.

But love... love could weaken and paralyze. It led to hesitation. Recently Crawford had felt overwhelmed at times in his worry for his telepath's well-being, almost to the point where his thoughts ignored the rest of Schwarz and its interests. Schuldig had been right in saying that Crawford himself had told them they deserved everything everyone else had and more, and love could be counted among that, but love went against Crawford's experience and his prior successes. Change could be good and sometimes necessary, but it could also destroy.

"Tempted to kill me, Brad?" Schuldig murmured, half-opening one eye and peering at him through messy strands of wild long hair.

"Often."

"You get so weird after sex sometimes."

"It's not the sex."

"Then it's the tragedy of liking me."

"I never said I liked you. Sometimes I hate you."

"I get that a lot." Schuldig stretched and arced his back into Crawford's hand, insolent. "The love thing? C'mon, you hear about tiny grannies lifting cars off toddlers out of love. Your parents' love for each other gave them the strength to tell Eszett to go fuck itself."

"You don't get to use my parents against me." Anyone could use his parents against him, another weakness.

"People who threaten anything of yours never die of natural causes, and anyone who knows you enough to target them would know that they better expect to get terminated. You got a reputation about things you own, Brad. Eszett only did that crap about creating our kids because you hadn't dared show them your whole, true face yet. Now people didn't even want to help me train Aya because they _knew_ you'd kill them afterwards for the possible threat they could be to your team. It can be your strength instead of your weakness if you use it right, and you're all about using things right."

Amused, Crawford wondered why it still surprised him to hear thoughtful logic from Schuldig when he knew Schuldig wielded his persona of carelessness like a cloak and weapon. "It's always such a pain in the ass to argue with you."

"Yet you keep doing it anyway."

While he might not be convinced of Schuldig's reasoning on love, it provided food for thought and lessened some of Crawford's worry. Some of it. "I refuse to submit to you."

"You refuse to submit _completely_. You don't know yet that the right kind of submission can be a hell of a lot of fun."

Crawford couldn't foresee well lately in what felt like a storm of variables, when so many, too many, people and plans and powers were involved. Perhaps he should enjoy himself in the few quiet moments that came his way. He had so much to do and some chances to take once he left this bed. "You've never convinced me of that."

Suddenly he had Schuldig lying on top of him, hair hanging like a curtain around the sides of Crawford's head. "I'll try."

******************************************************

Somehow Yoji had trouble sleeping in when he had company in bed. Maybe it came of too many nights in too many recent years trying to escape a one-night stand before she woke, which didn't sound very nice but hey. At least he didn't have Misery inadvertently teasing his nipples or wrapped around him this time. A guy could only resist so much.

In the half-light let in by the thick curtains, he slipped out of bed and stretched, reaching up as if toward the ceiling on tiptoes, his fingers splayed. It hurt and felt good at once. And he'd put on enough weight that his sweatpants didn't slide south anymore when he stretched like this.

Yoji could almost feel the eyes watching him so he asked, "Enjoying the view of my ass?"

If it had been Schuldig, the response could have ranged from "Hell yeah" to "What ass?" The kid said, "I promised I wouldn't molest you last night," which sounded like an improvement from the scared rabbit air from the last time they woke up.

Yoji turned and couldn't help smirking at what the kid's hair looked like. "Uhm."

"What?" Then the kid put his hand through his crazy hair. "Damn it. I forgot how it gets when it's this short and clean. Not to mention bleached to straw."

"I got gel. Maybe you can't totally fight the way your hair reaches for the sky, but at least you can control the direction it goes in. Though maybe you like the way it thrusts up at various angles. I don't know. You're going to stay with the bleached look?"

"Why?" The kid sounded suspicious.

"It affects the clothes we buy for you. I was wondering if it's how you like to look or a disguise thing."

"Ah. I'd like to go back to my own color someday." When the phone rang the kid showed a lot of bare leg as he slid off the bed and answered it, absentmindedly closing his robe up more with his other hand. "Yes. Thanks! We'll be down to get it." As he hung up the phone he said, "My clothes are clean. None of them disintegrated either."

"They said that to you?"

"I read it out of her mind. She hopes she never has to handle more clothes in that kind of condition again any time soon."

Some telepaths had different ideas about boundaries than others. One who'd been living hand to mouth on the street probably used whatever he had to survive without bothering to think about other people's privacy.

Then again, Schuldig read whatever he wanted to, and he seemed to have a fairly comfortable life aside from how he went out after dangerous people by choice.

"I'll get your clothes," Yoji said. "You might give too many people too much of a thrill if you walked through the hotel dressed in that. We're trying to call as little attention to ourselves as possible."

"Thanks, Yoji."

"I can ask the desk clerk where we can go looking for clothes too. You want to continue with your punkish look?"

"You sound suspiciously happy about going shopping."

"I like it." Shopping for clothes felt normal, even if he'd be doing it for someone he just met while using a language he hadn't even known a few days ago. After so much time walking around with Aya exhibiting impossible semi-telepathy and Yoji being stared at by super-powered teenaged clones, many of whom looked like people he knew, while they looked at him like _he_ was the circus freak, he needed a taste of normality.

Besides, Ken wasn't here yet and thus couldn't tell him that he was such a girl.


	188. "I'm not using my hands!"

Crawford agreed more out of curiosity than anything else. If Schuldig ordered him to do anything he didn't want to he'd just refuse. Easy.

He should have known better.

Schuldig started with "Most people I'd tie their hands to something so you wouldn't touch me, but you don't need that, do you? I'm sure that if you held onto the bars on the headboard you'd be fine. You're strong-willed." He smirked down at Crawford.

Amused, Crawford answered, "You could be less obvious in buttering me up and trying to manipulate me."

"It's a sign of my respect that I'm being obvious."

"You're insane."

Schuldig rocked back and forth on top of him. "Are you game?"

Crawford held onto the wooden bars in the headboard. "Impress me."

He should have known better. Schuldig worked him over with kisses and licks, all over, and the urge to clutch his hair was almost overwhelming but Crawford refused to give in. He did have the strength to resist, even as he started to grip the bars so hard his hands hurt. Of course, by the time Schuldig was tongue-fucking him, everything was hard. Very hard. Wanted so much to grab him and forcibly direct him....

Laughing against Crawford's skin, Schuldig said, "Remember, you can't touch me...."

Somewhat lost, rocking his hips to try to get more, Crawford didn't know whether to be rueful or thankful that he'd never cut Schuldig's tongue off during any of the times he'd threatened to since it was currently driving him insane. And Schuldig's hair tickled. Crawford felt so sensitive, as if all of his nerves buzzed, and shook with it. Damn, he wanted to come already.

"Are you going to fuck me tonight or just tease me?" Crawford finally growled, unable to take it anymore.

"Oh, do you want me to fuck you?"

Crawford hit him hard with his knees.

"Ow! That's touching me!"

"I'm not using my hands!"

"Fine. You can be such a little bitch."

The bars should be warping in his grip. "Later, Schuldig. I'll kill you later."

"But you need me to get you off now...." Schuldig folded him up and thrust right in, burning only a little, making Crawford grunt in satisfaction. "So relaxed for me, baby."

"Less talk, more fucking."

"Now, now. That's not how we're doing this." Grinning, Schuldig stayed still. "No orders from you."

Having Schuldig deep inside but not doing anything made Crawford more homicidal, especially since he was pinned in a way that made it hard to rock. "If you're not getting me off I don't have any reason not to kill you."

"You'd have to let go of the bars to do that."

Crawford only growled in response, momentarily beyond words. He'd been reduced to that. Oddly, it felt almost good to be.

"I'll fuck you through the mattress. You just have to say the magic word. Say 'please,' Brad."

As he struggled to move and get some satisfaction, shaking, Crawford answered, "Go to hell, Schu."

"Then I'm going to hell with my dick up your ass doing nothing, which would kinda pull you in with me. I can wait for you. Too bad I don't have a book or something. So bored." To be more sadistic, Schuldig started to whistle, "It's a Small World After All." At least it was on key.

But it was too much to put up with. "If I say 'please' will you stop whistling and start fucking me already?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Please."

"'Please' what? Fine, I'll be nice." Fortunately, Schuldig's current idea of being nice involved a very hard and thorough fucking, which coincided perfectly with Crawford's current idea. Crawford felt as if he'd almost become pleasure and motion. Even better, Schuldig actually fucked him through to orgasm. Some times, especially during their early days, Schuldig would get off and then leave Crawford hanging.

Now, once Crawford could breathe and think again, wrung out, he didn't know if he'd be _able_ to let go of the bars anymore. Still, he felt wonderful, even with his arms and hands hurting. Looking very self-satisfied, Schuldig curled up next to him said, "See how good submission can be?"

"I didn't submit to you."

"Like hell."

Crawford smiled as he carefully let go of the headboard and put his arms at his side. "I submitted to pursuing my own pleasure and tested my strength. I didn't disappoint myself."

In response, Schuldig playfully tried to smother him with a pillow. Or perhaps not so playfully.

******************************************************

"I'm going to take a shower," Aya said as he rose from bed.

"Hmm," Farfarello answered as he watched his puisín's smoother, blander body traverse the room. It had even fewer scars now than it had before they went to bed, and the familiar, well-loved map of Aya's life increasingly faded off his skin, erased.

Farfarello hadn't done any energy play at all with his kitten, so _she_ had to be responsible. If he didn't tap into Aya's soul he couldn't feel her at all, yet she could change her brother from beyond the grave.

As an unconscious body lying in a bed she'd warped the entire course of Aya's life. Somehow as nothing more than a fucking collection of _cells_, a piecemeal and unwelcome Lazarus, she could still rewrite his flesh and hold his attention.

When people married, the family should fade from importance a bit and the spouse gain first loyalty, dammit. Farfarello crouched down in front of the mini fridge and _hated_ at her. She was taking away Aya's beautiful scars!

But on her own she was helpless and vulnerable. Aya knew nothing about caring for what remained of her and wouldn't know anything had gone wrong until he stopped feeling her. A mishap would be so easy and, if done right and subtly, undetectable. Aya had sworn to value his new present over his finished past, as Farfarello had, and maybe just needed a little help letting go.

His puisín would hate him if he found out, so he'd just have to do it in a way Aya couldn't find out about.

The bathroom door opened with a click, and Farfarello realized that he'd never heard the shower start. Aya walked out wearing only sweatpants and picked up their swords, then tossed Farfarello's over, saying, "Spar with me."

Farfarello caught his and said, "You were going to take a shower."

"It doesn't make sense to wash, then sweat."

Farfarello stood. Aya might prefer to wear something as he fought, but Farfarello didn't mind having his bits out. The Church made such a cringing shame of nudity. Besides, his bits might be distracting to his partner, especially as they moved. No, they wouldn't be now, not when Aya had that narrow-eyed Abyssinian look on his face. Serious. Focused.

Had Aya guessed? Perhaps. Perhaps not. If Aya had been sure, this might be a fight to the death. Instead, this looked like play at a more serious level. They did that.

But the thought of either possibility brought Farfarello's blood up. He grinned. "I'll spar you, puisín."

******************************************************

As he opened his eyes, Schuldig couldn't help grinning at his aches. Considering where they were, they meant victory. Abstinence really didn't agree with him. Their bed smelled like sex, sweat, and them. Brad slept on, looking like a long wrapped-up lump with a mess of silver hair at the top, fucked out, so Schuldig's body must have gotten enough sleep to wake him up like this. Good. Having pledged his allegiance to Brad in words and flesh, he could go see Yoji and Misery now.

...Yoji had taken Misery out _clothes shopping_? That was so nice! And cute! Now Schuldig wanted to fuck his kitty through a wall even more.

Schuldig got out of bed, grabbed some clothes, removed his jewelry, and took a shower, humming to himself in contentment as water and his hands caressed his skin, feeling so much better now that the ambiance wasn't so painful and foggy anymore. It made him feel more like himself. Unlike _some_ people, he didn't tend to be cranky or short-tempered for long periods of time. He was a ray of sunshine! All right, he was most often the ray of sunshine shooting through a crack in the curtains right into your eye as you were trying to sleep in, but still sunny.

As he rubbed his hair dry with a towel he gave thanks that his hair might almost have a mind of its own but at least dried fairly quickly. Poor Misery with his short hair probably suffered, though, since longer hair meant more weight and less defiance of gravity.

Brad had left some major hickeys. Schuldig admired them in the mirror and thanked his own sense of forethought in bringing a high-collared shirt in with him. With the shirt on you could still see the upper edge of one, which lent a sense of mystery without bragging quite so obnoxiously to the world that he was getting some. He preferred being consciously and purposefully obnoxious and only to people he chose. That focused its potency more.

Damn but he felt good and looked great. He would prowl Vienna like a sleek tiger as he sought out his errant lambs. Then, later, he'd return to Brad and Schwarz would plan their moves for Woeller and Breaker. Maybe he could scheme a way to see the Bruise again. The day felt ripe with promise, right there for the plucking.

As he picked up the car keys and turned to the door, Schuldig felt Brad awake and watching while playing possum. Interesting. "Brad, is there a reason why you're letting me leave?"

"Yes." Of course. Brad always had reasons, and he knew Schuldig knew it.

"All right, now I want to stay."

"Schuldig, can't you gracefully take advantage of me letting you go?" Brad looked mussed and rumpled and annoyed as he sat in bed with the covers pooled over his lap and his hair partly in his face. Edible.

"Not when you're plotting something you don't want me around for." And Schuldig couldn't read the specifics out of Brad's head either, dammit. "You know how I hate to be left out of things. Tell me."

"No."

Schuldig pounced onto the bed and into Brad's lap, his hands reaching for bare skin to let him get a better read. "Brad...."

Brad held Schuldig's wrists with the blankets between them. Schuldig could break that hold but the gesture would turn this into a real physical fight, crossing a line.

"Schuldig, I want to make and take some calls. They might not lead to anything. I can't foresee for sure. Everything is so unstable that I want to have as few variables operating around the calls as possible. You're a major variable."

"You say the sweetest things to me." That bit about phone calls and variables felt like truth too. Maybe not the whole truth or even enough truth, but Schuldig gave him the credit. Besides, he knew how Brad hated to be semi-blind. "Okay. I'll go out and let you do your thing you don't want to tell me about. Maybe I'll fuck Yoji. Maybe Misery and the Bruise too. You owe me that when you're hiding things from me."

"Schuldig, you're such a greedy, grasping pain in the ass," Brad said but the twist of his lips suggested amusement.

"Really, you have such a sweet mouth. Makes me so glad I get to have it around my cock sometimes."

"You're in some mood."

"Sore, Brad?"

"I'll definitely kill you later."

"When I come back? After I've stayed away so you could do your things without me? Hmm, maybe I shouldn't come back." Brad felt so warm and smelled like sex, making Schuldig want to rub up against him. "Maybe I won't leave after all."

"Schuldig."

"Fine. But you have to let go of my wrists if you _really_ want me to go." To Schuldig's disappointment, Brad let go. "I feel unwanted and unloved." Not really, though he did feel a little hurt. Still, they had to have space to do their own things.

"You'll survive. You're strong."

Disappointing. Maybe Yoji would be in a mood to play. "See you later, Brad." Schuldig put a little extra swing into his steps as he walked out the door.


	189. "Are you sure this isn't actually your revenge on Verity for her rejection?"

Crawford felt some relief once Schuldig left. His... feelings told him that he had to call his mother, and he didn't want to do that in front of Schuldig. Feelings. How had an increase in power forced him to depend on something he tended to scorn as imprecise and weak? It made no sense.

Just as Nagi was about to knock on the door, Crawford yelled, "Give me a moment, Nagi."

"I hate when you do that to me," the boy answered.

As Crawford pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms, finger-combed his hair, and put his glasses on, he felt every ache, although he couldn't regret the activity that had earned them. Schuldig really had worked him over last night. It had been interesting and somewhat entertaining for Crawford and obviously a mood enhancer for Schuldig. Crawford doubted his telepath would have taken the order to leave so well if he hadn't been so thoroughly indulged before that. Besides, he liked to see Schuldig look that cheerful.

When he opened the door to Nagi he could see that the boy had chosen a kinkier and more dramatic outfit for the day, black and leather with large, dangling silver rings on the jacket. He wondered if it signified something.

"I waited until Schuldig left," Nagi said.

"Wise choice. Did you sleep well?"

"Slightly kinky dreams, but nothing woke me up. Something happened recently that I think you should know about." It sounded like business, though he still looked unusually chipper. Perhaps the lightening of the ambiance still affected him.

"I'm listening."

"I had a telepath breathing down my neck while I was out. That was what it literally felt like. I didn't get an impression of lust, just of a desire to make his presence known and freak me out."

"_His_ presence?"

"It felt male to me. I don't have any proof. It seems that someone powerful is taking an interest in me in particular and probably Schwarz in general."

"Speaking of troublesome telepaths, I want you to research Breaker. He confronted Schuldig and Aya while they were out on the astral plane, and Schuldig is worried."

"_Aya_ was out there? Damn. All right. I don't have much personal experience with Breaker because I didn't have much telepathy while in Rosenkreuz but hearsay suggests he enjoyed himself too much. I'll look into him. If he's what I've heard, we definitely don't want him taking an interest in Aya and Farfarello."

It still amazed him how his team had turned telepathic recently. "Precisely. What's that look on your face?"

"I don't have a look on my face."

"You're smirking."

Nagi actually looked slightly embarrassed. "I didn't mean to. You just... really look like Schuldig worked you over."

He would have to groom more thoroughly than usual this morning. "Is there anything else I need to know? That's business-related?"

The boy smiled a little. "Not that I can think of."

"Good. I have a... feeling that tells me I should call my mother, and you probably don't want to be here for that. She might ask to talk to you."

At first Nagi looked surprised, then he turned more considering. "This is related to the talents."

"Yes, but mostly her granddaughter."

"It actually bothered you when she said she didn't want to have much to do with you?"

Once he would have summarily dismissed Nagi from the room, seeing such a question as impertinent and the answer as none of his business. Times had changed. "I can understand her attitude, considering what she'd been created for, and I'm certainly not ready or suited for fatherhood."

"But no one should be allowed to reject you."

"It's more that I want my daughter to have a better life than we had. Eszett already robbed her of her childhood. I want her to have family and a taste of regular life. If she decides to pursue the kind of shadow existence she and we have lived, then it's a choice instead of the only option she thought was available to her."

Nagi only said, "Oh," as he struggled not to feel sappy over that. Few people would have seen the struggle in his face, but Crawford had known him for too long not to notice it. The boy's misanthropy had limits.

"Besides, my mother would want to know her. Hell, my mother may demand Verity come to live with her."

"Are you sure this isn't actually your revenge on Verity for her rejection?"

"My precognitive feeling suggests that Verity may be open to meeting her grandmother."

"You really hate the feelings, don't you?"

"What the hell has happened to you?"

"It's great. When I don't have my own personal shit going on, I seem to become more aware of other people. I promise to use the ability for evil."

"It's good to be aware. Just don't use it on me."

"Yes, sir," he answered with a smartassed look.

"Yes, I hate the feelings. I want something definitive and rational instead of vague, wispy instincts. My old ability was smaller and only worked on the shorter-term future, but it was dead-on. My new one lets me sense much farther ahead, but I'm dissatisfied with how it manifests."

Nagi shrugged. "All of our talents are dependent on feelings and instinct. You just have to see it as another sense, like how smell is useful but doesn't break down the information into neat, precise lists for you. You just smell stuff. My telekinesis is like expanded touch and hearing in some ways. I can use it like radar to 'see' in the dark now."

Nagi kept impressing him. "Interesting."

"But the stronger it gets the harder it's becoming for me to drive. I'm just too aware of everything going on in the car and with all the other cars around me, too distracted. I'm okay on fairly open roads or gridlock but speeding on a highway in traffic would make me crazy. All those objects in motion, with their own speeds and trajectories.... Trade-offs, I guess. Though it _sucks_. Besides, it makes sense that the near future is more definite, because there's less time for things to shift around."

"I'll keep that in mind." Although he hated sharing anything about himself with others, Crawford had to admit that Schwarz pooling its experiences and expertise had led to insights into and advances in the use of their talents, which made it worthwhile. Nagi also seemed to think more about how and why talents worked than anyone else Crawford knew. "Thank you."

The boy smiled a little, obviously pleased. It took so little to make people happy sometimes. Although it made Crawford reflexively sneer, Schuldig would say that being easily pleased was better than the alternative.

"I'll leave so you can call Grandmom-san. I don't want to get roped into a conversation."

Curious and evil, Crawford asked, "Do you think she'd be interested in taking Misoji in?" The boy could use a home.

"Probably. Though he'd run away not long after meeting her. She can be... intense in a way we don't deal well with. Are you going to mention your clones to her?"

"No. I don't think they deserve to meet my mother."

Nagi laughed. "Suuuure. See you later."

Alone at last, Crawford showered, dressed, and groomed himself, then sat on the bed near the phone and focused himself on calling on and directing his talent to check for bugs and surveillance on both ends of the line and his parents' apartment. No matter how powerful his talent became or how hard he tried to train it, it did not take well to being prodded into performing, instead preferring to throw things at him when it felt like it. Foreseeing on demand while he'd plotted against Eszett had left him with severe headaches and graying hair, particularly when he'd scouted far ahead into the future, but those side effects had come with long-term usage. At least here he only intended to do one brief, narrow feel ahead.

Within a minute he had a headache but also the certainty that no one had tapped the line now or would for at least the next few hours. His parents' apartment was likewise safe from eavesdroppers. He could be as honest with his mother as he pleased to.

Telling himself that he had nothing to feel nervous about, he picked up the receiver and dialed, closing his eyes as he heard his mother greet his call with "Brad, your father told me you would call today but I couldn't quite believe him. You'd think I'd know better by now."

"It's not too early for you, is it?" Crawford asked. She certainly sounded awake, and he remembered her being an early riser.

"No, and definitely not too early to take a call from you. What's going on?"

"I want you to know that I'm only going to tell you what I'm about to tell you because I already checked for bugs."

"Sounds serious. Tell me about it. Wake up, Tom."

"Mom, Eszett used our material to clone more operatives for itself." He knew that she had some idea about what Eszett had been into so he went straight to the point, even if it did sound like science fiction. After all, what was the right way to announce that your son in his twenties just found out that he had a teenage daughter who was also part his male lover's DNA? "It also engineered and spliced some together. They created a girl who's a mixture of my DNA and Schuldig's."

"I... I have a granddaughter, is that what you're telling me? A granddaughter of my own blood." She sounded shocked and very happy.

As usual, his mother cut right to the point as well. "Yes."

"How old is she?"

"They used technology to accelerate growth. She looks and seems like she's in her teens, though she can't be more than a few years old."

"Those bastards. They-- Bastards!" In the near distance of the phone his father muttered something that had a similar sound.

"They created her to have a hostage to use against me." Another shot of insight hit him, telling him that he had to get Verity out of the area. "My team took down Eszett but other people can use her. She resents me and Schuldig somewhat, which I can't entirely blame her for, but...."

"But you think she might be intrigued at the thought of having a grandmother? I hope so, because I want to see her. Hell, I want to bring her home."

Crawford hadn't dared hope. "Do you really mean that?"

"_Yes_."

"You just finished raising children. Your apartment is your own again."

She murmured something to his father that Crawford couldn't make out, then said into the phone, "We always wanted more children."

"I don't know if she'd want to go. She wants to get out of Europe, but she doesn't know you and she's been living as a quasi-adult. I don't know if she would consent to being a child again, let alone under the authority of someone she never met before. She said she didn't want me to be her father."

"I want to try. She's my granddaughter after all. Please, what's her name?"

"Verity. She's a telepath and a seer."

His parents made a sound that seemed somehow proud and satisfied. It killed him that they'd gone baby-mad so immediately.

"How powerful is she, son?" Dad asked. Unbelievable. It wasn't as if they could brag about her talents to their friends.

"I have no idea because she doesn't want to have much to do with me. Look, she's not a cute little child. She's a sullen teenager who thinks she's already an adult. She's set in her ways and knows how to use a gun. She might not even want to see you."

"But you think she might," Dad answered.

"It's a feeling."

They both knew what that meant. "We'll have to come over to convince her then," Mom said. "Where are you, Brad?"

"Vienna."

"I never thought of seeing Austria, but it should be interesting."

Exasperated by the direction of the conversation, Crawford let himself get blunt with her. "Mom, this is not going to be a sightseeing trip. You come here, you get her, and then you immediately go home. I don't want you to even leave the airport. If I thought it would do the trick I'd knock her out, put her in a box, and send her to you via cargo without asking her opinion."

Most parents would whine that their son didn't want to see them. _His_ father said, "You're worried that someone might take us hostage."

"Yes."

"How dangerous is it for you, Brad?" Mom asked.

"It's always risky, but it's more dangerous than usual this time. I want Verity out of the country, with off the continent being even better. Schuldig may say that most people of sense who know anything know that anyone who tries to mess with something of mine gets exterminated, but I'm not so certain I'm dealing with knowledgeable, sensible people."

"Oh, Brad."

"This is my job, Mom. I find it rather enjoyable most of the time. My plan is to tantalize Verity with the possibility of grandparents and a ticket out of the country--she's mentioned wanting to get out--and drive her to the airport when you come in. I figure this will be tightly scheduled and choreographed." Which unfortunately increased the possibility of things going wrong.

"You can talk to her, but we're flying over no matter what. If she disagrees, knock her out and bring her to us so we can try in person. _Then_ if she says No we'll abide by it."

"Evelyn!" Dad protested.

"Our flesh and blood being used as a hostage by terrorists, Tom. I don't want to leave her alone at all, but we have to show some respect for her decisions. I just want to make sure her decisions are as well-informed as possible by having her meet us first."

His mother scared even him sometimes. "I hope it won't come down to kidnapping her, Mom."

"But you have to keep it in mind as a possibility."

His mother _really_ scared him. Maybe he should keep Verity away from his _mother_ to keep her safe. Then again, the battle might be more even than it seemed. If Verity used the "aw, granddaughter!" reaction and had a tenth of the charm Schuldig could put on, she might be capable of putting up quite a fight.

He also better tell Verity that trying to telepathically manipulate his parents would lead to severe punishment and that he _would_ find out. Also, that it wouldn't be as easy for her as she'd think, since his parents were strong-minded and his father was a precog as well.

"We'll start making travel arrangements to get to Vienna," Mom said. "We'll keep you informed."

Short of contacting the American branch of Kritiker and asking for favors to stop her, Mom would do this her way. "All right. Let me give you the number to the hotel here. I don't think it's safe to use my cell phone for this."

"All right. How is everyone?"

Crawford didn't want to start to get into what they'd been through. "Fine."

"When you said clones, are you saying that they cloned you as well?"

"None of them have stayed in the area, Mom."

"If you say so." Her tone said clearly that she knew he was lying but wouldn't call him on it.

Good. From what he'd seen of his clones, he didn't want them around her. They were far too cocky, self-satisfied, and untrustworthy. They would think they could manipulate his parents, and although he doubted they were right he didn't want to give them the chance to find out.

He gave her the hotel's phone number and felt relieved when they got off the line. Their enthusiasm for this actually tired him.

A moment later, his cell phone went off. "Crawford. Yes?"

"It's Malice. I had a business deal I wanted to discuss with you."

"I'm not hiring."

"I'm not interviewing." That sounded so Schuldig. "I have some items I think you might be interested in. It won't be a waste of time."

In that moment Crawford knew with a pure and sharp certainty that he had to make this meeting. "All right, but I'll be the judge of that. Do you have a place in mind?"

"Theseus Temple at the Volksgarten in about an hour. See you soon, Mr. Crawford."

"Yes. Soon."

Immediately afterward Crawford went to Nagi's door and knocked. ~ Nagi, I need to talk to you. ~ It unlocked and opened, and Crawford walked in.

Taking off his headphones, Nagi asked, "What's going on?"

"Take a break from researching Breaker to accompany me as backup. I'm going to meet Malice and would prefer to have somebody nearby keeping a watch, someone who can do it without him noticing."

"From who's left here, that _would_ be me."

"I'd rather have you doing research, but I don't trust this clone either." Particularly not if Malice was part of some kind of Schuldig, instead of Orange, line of clones. "A telepath as good as Malice appears to be would notice Aya and Farfarello."

"And Schuldig's already gone."

For a moment Crawford thought to say that he might not be able to trust Schuldig to take action against one of his clones, but then he realized that he did trust Schuldig to choose Crawford over Malice. Interesting to know. "Exactly."

"All right."

******************************************************

Formerly upset and full of misgivings, Aya settled happily into cool determination as he sparred. He didn't need to borrow anyone's telepathy to sense Farfarello's concern and jealousy, not when it vibrated against his skin. He hadn't needed telepathy to notice the hatred on his lover's face as he sat and stared at the mini fridge that held Aya's remains. It hadn't taken long for "our sister" to change to her being an obstacle once Farfarello started to feel that he wouldn't be the only thing in Aya's life anymore.

"You know that if something happened to her while you were alone with her I'd never forgive you," Aya said after a particularly hard and reverberating strike of blade against blade.

"I know. I know you would," Farfarello answered. "I also know that it's not a she anymore. That is not your sister."

"I... know. But it's also not something I want you to snuff out. You don't have the right."

"I'm your husband."

"That doesn't give you the right to kill a part of my family out of jealousy." Aya knew that Farfarello had killed his own family in a fit of violent madness.

Farfarello bared his teeth in a snarl. "A part! What is in there is exactly a part! A part that's changing and obsessing you."

"Are my scars that important to you?" Aya didn't dodge his lover's next strike all the way, letting it open a shallow gash on his arm. He didn't feel it. "Is this better? I'm sure it'll make you even happier if you can mark me yourself."

Farfarello's eye widened in horror, then he cast his blade aside, tossing it to the floor, and leapt at Aya and grabbed him in a fierce, tight hug as he stood there staring in surprise. Holding on, Farfarello said, "I'm jealous and hateful--I admit that--but I'm worried for you too, your body and soul. That I'm jealous and hateful doesn't mean that I'm necessarily wrong about danger being here."

"I can't just kill what remains of her! Nor will I let you do it."

"I know. I know. I love you. I say that not as the mindbreaker would say it, to manipulate you, but because I mean it. I don't want any shit with you laying yourself open on my blade to make a point."

"You're a hypocrite."

"Out of love, I will be a hypocrite if it keeps you safe."

Someone knocked at the door. Farfarello sighed and said, "It's Crawford and the boy."

"You can let me go," Aya answered. Once Farfarello did, Aya went to the door and opened it with his katana held behind his back.

"We're leaving for now, Aya," Crawford said. "I'm taking a meeting with Nagi as my backup."

"Aya, you're bleeding," Nagi said, and he looked ready to smash Farfarello into a wall.

"I did it. I was making a point," Aya answered.

"I suggest you do that without bleeding yourself in the process. And what the hell happened to your scars?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you later."

~ Don't attract Breaker's attention, ~ Crawford said.

"I'll try not to. I don't intend to travel like that anywhere."

~ That goes for Farfarello as well. ~

~ Sure, ~ Farfarello answered.

"We'll call you if we need you," Crawford said. "Try not to kill each other in the meantime. Please don't bleed on anything in your room either. We'll see you later."

As soon as Aya closed the door, he had Farfarello in his face with a first aid kit to clean and bandage the cut. "No self-mutilation for you, puisín."

"I actually felt happy for a little while last night. I should have known that wouldn't last."

Farfarello smiled. "I like you a little grumpy."

"You don't get to kill my sister."

"I know already. Now let me take care of you."


	190. "It's my ass, and I'm holding on to it."

Expecting something to go wrong at any moment and waiting for the next attempt on their lives, Ken spent the next several hours in a high state of anxiety. No matter how smoothly everything went, he couldn't shake that feeling. They booked and picked up their plane tickets without incident. Fenris set off the metal detector as he went through it, but the security guard accepted his medical excuse papers without Fenris needing to give him a telepathic boost to help. It made Ken's gorge rise to think of Eszett experimenting on and implanting things inside the kid.

Fenris was so excited at going to see Elena that it took some effort to keep him from jittering in his seat. Ken ended up playing some kind of connect the dots game with him for hours to keep him calm, even as they both kept an eye out for someone who might have been planted on the flight to get them. He hated being unarmed in this situation, although he could defend himself barehanded and had a telekinetic with him. Just... he felt that he had to protect Fenris. Happily, that ambiance or whatever didn't seem to be bothering him. Fenris said it felt uncomfortable but bearable.

It left Ken very relieved to see Elena waiting for them in the airport. Fenris flung himself forward across the room in what would have been a flying tackle if Elena's words and "Whoa! Slow down!" arm gestures hadn't made him calm down a bit and skid to a halt near her instead. He chattered excitedly in German at her for a bit while Ken approached at a less insane speed.

"Hi, Ken," she said in Japanese. When she rested her hand on Fenris' cheek, the kid grinned at her. "You know I'm going to have to give you German, right?"

"Yeah, I know." He wouldn't be much good if he spent his whole time looking at everyone suspiciously because he had no idea what the hell they were saying. "I'm just not looking forward to it."

"C'mon, the English wasn't so bad."

"Yeah, still." When she put her palm against the side of his face, he felt a rippling moment of _something_ moving through his head, then he could make out the conversations of the people around him. Freaky. "Why did you have to do this to Fenris too? That _was_ what you just did."

"I gave him the Viennese version. That way he'll sound local instead of German."

"But... this _is_ German."

"Austrians can sometimes be less than friendly to Germans. Trust me, all right?"

"All right. Fine. We still have to pick up our baggage."

"Gotcha."

As they walked, Ken said, "Things sounded like they got freaky here."

"Yeah, Yoji and I came to find a seat in the audience for the freakshow, but instead the performers yanked us onstage almost as soon as we got here. You'll hate it."

"Have you told Omi yet? About us being here?"

"In the cab. I told you that I wouldn't tell him until I got you inside the city, and we're not in the city yet."

"You're really worried about that Breaker guy."

"If you knew him, you would be too. He hasn't had his new leaf turned over long enough to be anywhere near trustworthy, and people who enjoy their jobs as much as he did rarely stop working."

******************************************************  
_"I'll make a soldier's decision to fly away,   
Load my gun, paint my face, call me 'misery.'"_  
  -- "When Angels Fly Away" by Cold  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Misery didn't register much--good going, kid--but Schuldig found Yoji's mind fairly easily. Good for Schuldig, not so good otherwise. So he used his line to Yoji to track them even as he obscured the trail for any other telepaths that might be sniffing around.

It started to rain as he parked the car, and as he ran for the front door Schuldig couldn't help wondering why Brad couldn't foresee useful stuff like this for him. Then again, Brad probably wouldn't bother telling him even if he did, seeing it as a small frivolous thing, probably thinking, "Getting a little wet wouldn't hurt him." He spent way too much time trying to figure out how Brad Crawford thought.

Schuldig swept through with utter confidence, smiling at how everyone cleared out of his way toward the two tall thin blonds he saw in the distance. The bleached blond stiffened suddenly and turned to face him, then smiled a little, Mona Lisa-wise.

"You look great," Schuldig said, warm with pride.

"Damned right," Yoji answered.

"You're biased, since you dressed me," Misery said.

The kid had traded his worn gutter punk look for something sleeker and a little more glam, somewhat goth. He wore black and dark blue in leather and good cloth, the darkness relieved here and there by bright silver buckles. Instead of the raccoon smear of black in his eye sockets and across the bridge of his nose he'd discreetly lined his eyes in neat, slim strokes of black kohl. His spiked hair looked more deliberate now, styled. He only vaguely resembled the person he'd been yesterday, and the less obtrusive makeup revealed more of the Emory in his face. Yoji held his shopping bags, showing that Schuldig's clone already had a good grasp of the proper division of labor.

"Did you eat yet? I don't trust the beanpole to feed you," Schuldig asked.

"Oh fuck off," Yoji replied. Actually, he looked great too, tailored and luxurious. Schuldig wanted to stroke the both of them.

"We had breakfast," Misery said.

"I didn't want to stuff him. I don't think he can take it yet." Yoji smirked at him. "Looking a bit wet, Schu."

"How did you know to bring an umbrella?" It seemed terribly unfair to Schuldig. "You left before I did."

"Yoji's hair forecasts the weather," Misery answered with a wise-ass grin.

"You don't get to sass me too," Yoji griped.

"It's not my fault, Curly."

They were so fucking cute together, comfortable already. Brad would surely take full credit, as if he hadn't actually thrown them together just to keep them away from Schuldig.

"Like _your_ hair behaves. To punish you for turning on me I should encourage you to let Schu help you pick out clothes. He has no taste at all. At least that doesn't appear to be genetic."

"_I_ have no taste?" Schuldig had to ask, playing to his new audience of Misery. "I wasn't the guy who used to go out to work dressed like a homeless cowboy gigolo. The target you painted on your bare chest was the cherry on top."

"It wasn't a target, it was a cross. It was symbolic."

"Symbolic of you being a self-destructive moron."

"I'm over it now."

"Good thing for you. I'm amazed you didn't catch pneumonia. I'm also amazed your pants didn't slide south as you worked. Nobody can be hard enough to keep them up all the time. Unless you didn't care about that and actually used to flash your victims first as a distraction."

"I'm _over_ that. Kid, Schu's collection of bandannas was so annoying that Crawford eventually burned them to stop him from wearing them anymore."

"Brad can be such a prick sometimes. Farf bought me a nice silver one afterwards that I save for special occasions. Nice distraction, kitty, but no go."

"Yoji, how long are you going to call me 'kid'?" Misery asked.

"I'm not going to use the name they gave you," Yoji answered. "It's so wrong."

"It's the only name I have."

"It doesn't have to be," Schuldig replied, trying to sound casual. "How about 'Sasha'?"

"Sasha?"

"Yeah, why not? I think it's pretty."

"Okay. Sure. I'll be 'Sasha.' Do you have a problem with that, Yoji?"

"I have no problems."

After all the shit Schuldig had gone through in the past few days, he deserved to have things working out so happily right now. The world could just keep on turning to his tune, thanks. His bottle blonds could keep being just as cute and accommodating as possible, while Breaker could just stay the hell away. While Schuldig knew it wouldn't last, he fully intended to enjoy it and take advantage while he had it.

"Your clothes are a little too big for you, though, Sasha." And it felt so good to use that name. "I'm surprised Mr. Skintight let that pass."

"We deliberately did that," Sasha answered. "I figure I'll be putting on more weight soon."

"I haven't heard many real complaints about how my clothes fit," Yoji replied.

"Recently," Schuldig answered, even as he wanted to purr in utter contentment.

Still, he didn't get careless. When they walked out to their cars he kept his mind on sweep and hand on his gun. Yoji had passed the bags to Sasha so he could have his hand near his watch as he held the umbrella for them. Sasha himself was unarmed and looked uncomfortable that way, but it made sense not to have him wearing a gun rig when he'd be spending the morning changing clothes, undressing, sometimes near strangers.

In the next store Sasha said, "That is the last store. After this, I'm done."

"Okay," Yoji answered.

"Okay? No way," Schuldig said. "We've barely started."

"Last store," Sasha and Yoji said together.

"Fine, fine."

In the fitting room, Sasha said from his cubicle, "Yoji, you don't have to get more stuff for me. I can put my own damn clothes back on and go get the next size."

"Just accept my generosity, okay?"

"You look so good fetching and carrying," Schuldig said as he leaned against the wall.

"Better than standing around being useless like some people. I shall return."

When Yoji left, Sasha asked, ~ Why are you with Crawford when you get along so well and have such good chemistry with Yoji? ~ Weird how his physical voice sounded so much like Schuldig's but his mental voice didn't.

What, were they going to girl-talk now? Amused, Schuldig answered, ~ I tap Yoji's ass too. Especially now that he has one again. ~

~ Classy. But you do it as a recreational thing. Crawford is the person you're _with_. ~ Sasha sighed. ~ Crawford feels a lot like Woeller. ~

Schuldig didn't like the sound of this. He couldn't see Sasha, and Sasha blocked him from feeling him.... ~ They're different. ~

~ Not so much. Once he was confident he had me, Woeller used to toss me over to people too. It's just lucky for me that I get along with Yoji. I _know_ Crawford didn't give it much thought whether I would or not. Yeah, he was Eszett and I shouldn't expect better, but he knew that you had some interest in me being okay but didn't care much anyway. ~

~ He can be a prick. We've mentioned this. ~

~ They both have that feeling of focused, self-confident, single-minded certainty. It's very seductive... for people like us. Easy to get rolled over by. For a guy with no talent, he was still so damned good that I don't know if he really thought he loved me--with all the 'so pretty, so fast, so deadly'--or just lied very convincingly in his own mind whenever I happened to be listening. With that pressing on me, I made such stupid excuses for all the things that didn't feel right or hurt or took advantage of me. Leaving him was the hardest thing I've ever done, because he was so convinced I would never go. ~

~ Brad's not like that. ~ Except for when he was.

~ He thought my hair was such an amazing color. He'd grip me by it so damned hard when I blew him, enough to bring tears to my eyes, then brush it out afterward, smiling at the way it would crackle with static electricity. This is the same man I had to let punch me around as punishment after I broke the arm of the john he'd tossed me to who'd tried to cut me up. Though they weren't really johns, just Woeller's good friends that I should make happy. It didn't reflect well on him if I hurt them, especially since he'd handed me over to show them what a great thing he had. He'd hired me to _protect_ him, remember? ~

~ Brad _is not_ like that. ~

~ Because he's too possessive to loan you out. He'll let you go out when you need to, but it's always him doing the letting. ~

~ I won't argue with you. ~

~ Because you can't. Look at most of the Orange line. You'll see a pattern. ~

Disturbed, Schuldig tried to distract him by asking, ~ Then how did you break free? ~

~ You don't fool me, but I'll bite. I'd just been roughed up by another of Woeller's good friends. I was standing in my room looking at myself with my black eye in the mirror as I just about mindlessly brushed my hair. Even the brushing hurt, because I had two sore lumps on my head too. I... just started thinking that this was such bullshit, even by Eszett's standards of how I should be treated by other people. Maybe I snapped, because I picked up a scissor and chopped at my hair, then packed what little I had and left. I don't know how many guards I took out on the way, though I know that I killed some of them with my mind. I made sure it hurt.

~ I'm growing out my hair again, the first chance I get. ~

Schuldig had to block out a shitload of murky, sticky emotion on that one. He didn't need to feel it to get it. Besides, he could have been there himself. ~ Damned right. Good show. But, you know, Yoji's no bed of roses either. He has his own darkness. ~

~ Yeah, but he's not using it to run other people's lives. And he's not so maniacally _certain_ of every damned thing. I'm done with people who know it all. ~

~ Why are you pushing me at him when you so obviously want him yourself? ~

~ He knows. He also thinks I'm an abused kid with a crush on the first person who was nice to him for no ulterior motive. He's probably at least partly right. ~

~ Woeller must feel something for you in his pinched little heart. Wouldn't have spent so much time and money trying to get you back if he didn't. Even pride has a finite price tag. ~

~ Delusions have power. ~

~ Always. ~

~ Considering how you are about Crawford, I wonder if I'll be able to keep my resistance up when I'm face to face with Woeller, basking in the warmth of his supposed love. ~

~ You're seriously pissing me off, so back off. ~ So much for warm fuzzies of family feeling. Schuldig wanted his uncomplicated happy back, damn it, and had no intention of gnawing on any of Misery's accusations.

"All right. I tried."

"You two are fighting, I can tell," Yoji said as he returned and tossed the clothes over the door into the cubicle.

"Only over who gets to keep your pretty ass," Schuldig answered.

"It's my ass, and I'm holding on to it."

"I'm bravely refraining from comment."

~ Please don't hate me, Schuldig, ~ Sasha said. ~ I don't want that. I just saw something and worried. ~

~ I don't hate you. ~ Kid had a bad experience, and it cast its shadows over everything after it. Schuldig had seen it before. ~ But if you start making pronouncements like that after having seen a relationship for less than a day, you're gonna tick people off. ~

~ Okay. Thanks. ~

"That's rude," Yoji said.

"We were discussing your good points," Sasha said.

"Sasha says that one of them is that you're not certain about anything," Schuldig answered sweetly.

"I didn't say that!"

Yoji smiled and shrugged, unbothered. "We can't all be Brad Crawford. Or want to be."

"Too true," Misery answered.

~ You're seriously getting on my nerves, kid. ~

~ I'll stop. I just couldn't help getting that shot in after Yoji left such a great opening. I'm sure you understand. ~

In some ways Sasha took after Schuldig a little too much.

"You guys can stop telepathically arguing with each other," Yoji said, then he blinked. If not for the blink, Schuldig might not have noticed Friendly sending a brief telepathic pulse of information right to Yoji's mind. Nice work from Friendly. The kitty was definitely getting ever more comfortable with that kind of thing, but he still had some tells.

The message had just been ~ They're here ~ but it linked right to Yoji expecting Ken and Fenris to show up in Vienna. Yoji had some static and defenses around the rest of it, nothing too hard to handle for Schuldig, but Schuldig decided to ask anyway to see what the kitty volunteered. "Why are the other kittens showing up in the city?"

Yoji looked disgruntled. "You have no respect for a guy's privacy."

"Are you really surprised?"

"No, but it would be nice if you'd try harder."

"Yoji, our teams are working together. You should tell me."

"They were attacked back home in what might have been an inside job. Elena wanted to get them under her wing here."

"Conveniently timed inside job."

"That's what we thought."

That really did seem like everything Yoji knew about it, and Yoji had just told him without holding back. It perked Schuldig's mood considerably, so he grabbed his kitty and hugged him, groping a little. It wasn't really right in front of Sasha's face anyway, not with the cubicle door between them.

"Hey!" Yoji wiggled.

"Keep doing that."

"Let go of me. I can't take you anywhere."

"C'mon, it's not like we're even in public. There's nobody here but us."

"Do you need me to come out and protect you, Yoji?" Sasha asked.

"If you go to my side I'll let you have a piece of Yoji," Schuldig said.

"Which piece?"

Good boy.

"Hey!" Yoji said and used a bit of telekinesis to get himself loose. Amused and a little proud, Schuldig let him. As he straightened his clothes, Yoji said, "There are times and places for everything."

"Later, then?"

Yoji sighed, as if he didn't love it.

~ Brad, two more kittens incoming. ~

~ Thank you. Later. ~

Schuldig felt somewhat offended by the brusque brush-off, but Brad seemed to be meeting with someone and concentrating on something important. It would be stupid to distract Brad and maybe get him killed.


	191. "And people wonder why I'm not an optimist."

Mamoru had tried to cut off his emotions and personal ties to be more professional, so why did it seem that he'd worked better as emotional little Omi? Coming to Vienna might have actually set back the effort to recruit the new talents, especially since he'd brought Breaker with him. He should have known Breaker seemed too eager, especially considering how even his most trusted telepath had refused to do more than strengthen Mamoru's shields and send him on his way to Europe.

Even aside from the obvious hatred the talents bore Breaker, the man seemed... off, especially since they'd arrived in Austria. He smiled far too much and was _too_ mild, too nondescript. People who blended in that much were usually hiding something.

Now Mamoru had Ken and Fenris to worry about as well. Rex had briefed him on the attack on the flower shop, an attack that would have ended in tragedy if Fenris hadn't stepped up like that. Ken could have been dead right now.... Ken could still be dead, since he and Fenris had only left a short note with the words "Be back later" on it. Not that Mamoru could blame him for hiding their location when this looked so much like a security leak from someone inside Kritiker, but he wanted to _know_ they were safe.

Ken might suspect someone near Mamoru....

~ Sir, can you ask Breaker for some privacy? ~ Elena suddenly asked.

Breaker was Mamoru's employee, so it damned well should be possible. "Breaker, I'll be having a conversation with Draco. Don't eavesdrop."

"You trust her?" Breaker asked.

It set Mamoru's teeth on edge. "Yes." He wondered if Elena would be able to tell if Breaker didn't obey.

~ I might, but he's damned good. ~

If Breaker started speaking of things he shouldn't know about, then they'd know for sure. "I mean it, Breaker."

The man smiled. "Yes, sir."

~ Sir, I can feel that you're aware of what happened to Fenris and Ken. I'm calling in to report that they're safe and in Vienna. I'm in a cab with them right now. ~

His deep relief warred with annoyance as he wondered why she'd she waited until now to tell him this.

~ I didn't want Kritiker to find out until they were in a more secure position. If you know how the attack went down, then you understand my caution. ~

He did. He also approved of the decision to bring them here, though he would have preferred to be privy to making that decision. Then again, micromanaging didn't seem to help, did it?

~ I'll spare you having to wonder or ask by saying that I budgeted some money specifically in case something like this happened. ~

So honest. Now.

~ Yes, sir. ~

Still, it had worked out, which gave him something to think about. He also wondered if her unwillingness to talk in front of Breaker meant that she suspected he had a hand in it. In answer to that, she only sent him an emotion that said "Yes" very loudly, although she admitted she had no proof of her suspicions. Telepathy could be such a strange thing.... He expected her to get Ken and Fenris up to speed on the local situation.

~ Of course, sir. Thank you. ~ Then she withdrew her presence.

At Breaker's mildly curious look, Mamoru said, "I got some good news," and left it at that, hoping that at least some of the shielding his other telepaths had done held.

******************************************************

As Crawford walked up to Theseus Temple he couldn't sense Nagi, a good thing since he didn't want to chance giving his own operative's position away. Malice would be waiting behind one of the Greek-styled columns.

"Precogs can be such a pain," Malice said as he stepped away from one of the columns. He had most of his hair tightly tied back, with some shorter hair in front to soften the effect a little. Although it suggested weakness, Crawford was glad that Schuldig had never styled his hair like that because it would make it easier to deal with Malice as an actual individual instead of filtering him through thoughts of how Schuldig would think and react.

Crawford moved closer--even in the winter the Volksgarten had visitors--although not too close and stood under the cover of the temple's roof so he could close his umbrella. "I appreciate my talent."

"It makes it harder for me to read your mind, but not impossible."

"Show some manners. You said that you had something I'd want. A business proposition."

"I do." Malice held up a small cloth-covered case and unzipped it to show numerous discs held in plastic. "These hold Schuldig's case history, the real complete one, not just the public stuff, current through his last intervention in the Box. With how thorough you are about information, I figure you'd want to have your hands on your telepath's design specs."

Crawford had seen Schuldig's records, which had been some document files, some surveillance footage, and a heavy folder full of pages with red tags showing what an insubordinate ass the telepath could be. Even then, Crawford had figured that there had to be more. "How can I trust you on that?"

"You're a precog. Maybe your talent can tell you?"

"Don't you just have a laptop to show them on?"

"You would be too suspicious to trust me showing just one, we don't have time to show them all, and anyway I don't want to be distracted and have my hands occupied while in your presence."

He couldn't tell this impertinent puppy that he didn't like to push his talent like that, so instead he just felt out and managed to get an answer along with a mild headache. "They are genuine. How did you get your hands on them?"

Malice smiled a little, sadly. "I was assistant archivist on these. Nii thought it was a genius stroke of inspiration to have one of Schuldig's own clones compile data and provide commentary. A detailed record was necessary, considering that Schuldig was the baseline material for so many clones and mashups."

"You're not just a part of the Orange line. You were special, weren't you?"

"If you want to call it that. Yeah, there was a group of Oranges sectioned out for 'special' treatment. But I seem to be giving a lot away for free here."

Crawford pulled off and opened his backpack to let Malice get a look at the bills inside. Malice picked up a few bound stacks, flipped through them, then said, "This will be enough to cover the CDs and some more information. Eszett couldn't figure out why the Oranges were softer-hearted than Schuldig, so they decided to start a group where they'd focus on creating a bunch of little sadists. The Guilty line would be abused into becoming more like the person they replicated, but the degree and kind of torment necessary had to be figured out through trial and error. I was actually luckier than some of them."

"There are a lot of you?"

"Not really. A lot of them didn't survive the process."

Crawford hated this shit, the reminders of Eszett's way of doing business, and this replicant sneering at him like a cut-rate version of Schuldig. Malice really did know too much to be allowed to leave this meeting alive.

Suddenly he felt something coming, something fast. ~ Crawford, I got you! ~ Nagi said, and a telekinetic field came up just before the sudden blur could strike Crawford or Crawford could dodge.

"Wicked!" Malice yelled.

"He wanted to kill you," the new Orange clone said as he brandished his knife. This one was a flashy dresser in leather and a few fetishy buckles, and he had his hair cut semi-short so it spiked out around his head like a dandelion puff. Schuldig had looked like that while growing out some of the haircuts Rosenkreuz had forced on him.

"I know. I could have dealt with it."

"Suuuuure."

"I'm not helpless."

"Did you know about Prodigy waiting around here?"

"I knew Oracle had someone."

Annoyed, Crawford said, "There won't be any killing of anyone." Damn it. Nagi sent him a small telepathic wave of disgruntlement too.

"That's damned right," Wicked said, while Malice rolled his eyes.

"So now we know that we both have backup," Crawford replied. "We can continue our conversation like rational adults."

"Like hell," Wicked answered, but Malice said, "Sure, now that we understand each other. Be more professional, Wicked."

"You be professional." Wicked came up behind Malice and affectionately rubbed his cheek against the other clone's like a big cat, like Schuldig on a sugar rush. Or on cocaine. "Nobody's touching you, not when you can be mine again. I mean, with what's-his-ass dead, you're done with being a student, right?"

Malice got a sudden odd look on his face and shrugged out of Wicked's arms, then he stared at Wicked and the two of them started what looked like a telepathic argument, gesturing without saying a word.

~ Nagi, are you getting any of that? ~ Crawford asked.

~ Not much. These two know each other well, and they're simpatico. But I can tell that Malice is sure Wicked killed Ebenroth, and Wicked isn't denying it. ~

"So you're Ebenroth's killer," Crawford said.

Wicked grinned, so much like Schuldig that it gave Crawford a pain in his chest. "Yeah. The man had delusions of grandeur, and he was a nut."

"And you figured it would get me out of the school," Malice said. "You don't make decisions for me!"

"It's better for you! It's not like you need training."

"I liked it there. I wasn't a freak. Or, I was a freak but I was a freak among freaks and nobody singled me out. You are not my owner!" Malice seemed younger when with Wicked.

"Of course not!" Wicked looked almost heart-stricken.

"So you're another member of the Guilty line," Crawford said.

"Yeah. Malice saved my life," Wicked answered, and Malice made a rude sound. "You did! I kind of knew what I had to do to save myself after Vicious snapped, but if you hadn't been doing the archives and willing to help me I never could have pulled it off."

"Explain. I'm paying you for it. Well, I'm paying Malice."

"Good enough for me. They tried to abuse us into being more like Schuldig."

"They had no idea why Schuldig was like Schuldig or why they couldn't make us Schuldig just by training us, and I never told them," Malice said. "Him being an amalgam is his own business, and it's not like Eszett did anything to make me loyal to them. Or like I wanted them to start experimenting with ways to make us amalgamate. But I think Breaker knew too, though he never told either."

Damn it. Breaker again.

"_Anyway_," Wicked said, "they didn't know how much or what kind of abuse would do the trick, so they assigned groups of us to different trainers and decided to see what worked. Vicious' trainer... yeah. Eventually, Vicious couldn't take it anymore and his mind just snapped. Spectacularly. Took out his trainer, six other scientists, and 13 members of our line. Dead. He died in the backlash."

Malice shook his head fiercely. "I'm still pissed off about Vicious and the other 13 dead."

"Martyrs to the cause, honey. Malice and me interacted sometimes, with it being forbidden just making it more fun, and he told me that he figured the only way we could escape being abused into insanity and death was to give the trainers the behavior that they wanted. We had to replicate Schuldig." The two clones smiled at the same time, and it was Schuldig's evil smile exactly. "I had no idea how to make myself seem more Schuldig, but Malice did, having watched surveillance footage and read shit. He trained me and a few others, like four, and we survived." He merrily wrapped himself around Malice's back, looking at Crawford from over Malice's shoulder. "I'd probably be dead if not for you, bunny."

"Don't call me--" Malice sighed, long suffering. "Yeah, that's it. There was one other Guilty survivor, one I didn't get to because his trainer was really nasty and proprietary, but you don't want to get near him. Ever."

"Evil." Wicked shook his head. "That's his _name_, and... yeah. He's a total wackjob, not that I blame him."

"I wonder if the names come first and we become them, or if they named us for something they saw in us already? The names just fit too closely in most cases."

"There's not much that's malicious about you, sweetie."

"You might learn differently, after what you did to Ebenroth."

"He was holding you back. You know it. Come away with me. We can gig across the continent. Hell, we can go anywhere. We could rename ourselves. We could be Friedrich and Georg."

"What, Friedrich and Georg Weaseley?"

"There was also this one photographer in Stockholm who really liked my look and nearly died when I told her I had an identical twin. She would pay big for photos of twincest, and it would be so hot making out with you in front of her. It would be erotica, not porn."

"You're a reckless fruitcake." But Malice sounded affectionate as well as exasperated.

"Yeah, but I know how to enjoy myself, and I could teach you if you _really_ want to be a student. But maybe we'll wait on the pictures, because I was just in London and I'm fucking sick of the cold and damp. We could work in southern Italy and claim to be northern Italian. We could be Federico and Giorgio!"

"Hello," Crawford said, annoyed, "I'm still here."

Malice sighed. "Mr. Crawford, I know that you think my knowledge is dangerous to you, but really I just want to get these archives off my hands and then leave you and Schuldig alone. I've spent far too much of my life being forcibly fixated on him already. I don't even want to stay in Vienna any longer. It may be easier for us now that everyone knows Misery bleached his hair, but I've had enough of this shit of people looking at me and me having to check if it's because they think I have a bounty on my head."

"Though if you want to hire me to help rub out Woeller, I'd be all for it," Wicked said. "The look on his pervy face when he saw me would be worth it. Misery got shafted. Literally."

"I don't care," Malice said.

"You're just not sadistic enough, sugar."

"You don't want to encourage me to be sadistic."

"I think it would be hot."

Was this the Schuldig and Emory show? It was unsettling. Wicked also made him appreciate how much worse Schuldig could have been.

"Malice, I can feel Mr. Crawford judging me."

"I can't blame him."

"You're both so mean."

"Why offer this archive to me?" Crawford asked, although he really wanted those discs. "Why not to Schuldig?"

"He's aware of about 90% of it, so I don't think he'd recognize its value as much," Malice answered. "Besides, like I said, I've already spent my whole life on him, watching him, figuring out what he thinks. I don't want to have a long talk with him. Really, I just want to hand the discs over, take the money, and walk away."

"Then let's do so. You know Prodigy is watching, so don't try any tricks."

"And I have Wicked. You might not understand this, Mr. Crawford, but it'll be a relief to get rid of these."

"Are there copies?"

"Probably, though they might be under rubble now. Exclusivity is not part of the deal."

"True."

~ Brad, two more kittens incoming, ~ Schuldig suddenly said. Damn it, more Weiß coming? Vienna was becoming far too crowded with people interested in Schwarz's business.

Crawford didn't have the time or attention to spare at the moment. ~ Thank you. Later. ~ Although he caught a sense of Schuldig feeling sulky over getting such a brief acknowledgement, his telepath didn't distract him any further. Good.

Crawford exchanged the backpack for the disc case and quickly backed away. "That concludes our business. But I'm not quite done with Wicked."

"What, you're upset about Ebenroth?" Wicked asked. "Please. I may have used your team as a distraction to get to him, but you wanted him dead. Me doing it gives you an alibi with the kiddies. If Farfarello had killed Ebenroth like he so wanted to, you'd be in deep shit and never gain their trust. I did your work and didn't even ask to be paid for it. We both got what we wanted, so let it go."

"You're certain you got what you wanted?" Malice asked, sounding somewhat dangerous.

"I got a start."

"Wicked, don't consider what you did a favor to me. I won't punish you, but I don't owe you either," Crawford said.

Wicked shrugged, unconcerned.

"You seem to be faster than Schuldig," Crawford had to say, fishing for information. He wanted to know.

"My subset of the Guilty line was tweaked a little. Live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse."

Malice turned more solemn. "Right. Goodbye, Mr. Crawford. Come on, Wicked."

Grinning, Wicked said, "I told you he loves me. He wants to hug me and feed me and call me 'Georg.'"

"Don't start again. Come on." Keeping an eye on Crawford all the while, Malice slung the backpack full of money on and opened his umbrella. Malice and Wicked walked away together sharing the large black umbrella, with Wicked obviously slowing himself down to keep in step and both of them having the wary posture of people who expected someone to try to shoot them in the back.

They didn't really have to worry about that. Although Crawford would love to shoot them, his talent said that they'd be a useful resource later. No need to assure them of that, though.

Under his own big black umbrella, Nagi walked up and said, "Wicked is offering to put Malice's hair into a French braid like he used to do. The whole line is nuts. And manipulative. Wicked was ever so subtly reminding Malice that his speed meant he didn't have as long to live, so better enjoy him now."

Did it amuse or annoy him that manipulative tendencies appeared to be genetic and common in the whole line? "I noticed that."

"Are you going to tell Schuldig about the discs?"

"Of course," Crawford answered.

Nagi looked surprised. "Of course?"

"If he managed to read their existence out of my mind without me telling him first he'd make my life miserable."

"If he knows about them, he might not want to let you look at them."

"Although this sounds impossible to us, he won't mind."

"You sure are having a lot of feelings today."

"I know. I'm annoying myself. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Cup of tea and a croissant."

"Not good enough. We'll have breakfast."

"You're paying for both of us?"

"No."

Nagi nearly smiled. "Good. I was starting to wonder if you were trying to bribe me to be quiet about this meeting or something."

"When I bribe people, I want to make sure they know what they're supposed to do in exchange for the bribe. If I'm telling Schuldig about the discs, I might as well let him know who I got them from. Besides, I doubt I could buy your silence with breakfast."

"Yeah. I have my standards."

"Could you contact Verity and see if she can meet us there?"

"Now it's becoming clearer. Probably. I feel so used." Nagi blinked. "Got her. She was expecting me. Is two hours from now at a restaurant good?"

"Tell her 'yes.' I'll let her choose the place."

"She's told, and she gave me a place. She foresaw a request for a meeting and thinks she knows what it's about."

"Does she?"

"_I_ don't know what it's about."

"I'll tell you once you break off contact."

"All right. You can lay it on me now."

"My mother and father are coming to Vienna to meet her and want to take her away with them."

"I couldn't read much--Verity's good--but I don't think that's what she was expecting."

"Good. I appreciate the two-hour lag because I'd like Schuldig to be there and you to get back on research."

"Happily. But does that mean we're not doing breakfast after all?"

"We're still doing breakfast."

"Thanks. That'll make up a little for how Grandmom-san is going to throw me aside for a grandchild of her own blood."

"No, I'm sure she's going to want to see and fawn on you just as much as usual when she arrives at the airport."

"And people wonder why I'm not an optimist."

"I don't."


	192. "I'm providing for my young."

"Puisín, you're so fidgety you're making me fidgety," Farfarello said. Grumpy too, more than usual. Obviously distracted, Aya ran through his katas at quick speeds he usually didn't use. Maybe they needed to get out of the hotel room, away from _her_.

"Do you hear buzzing?" Aya asked.

"No. Does your head still hurt from last night?"

His puisín took on something of a mulish expression but admitted, "A little."

"Come here and lie down."

Aya sheathed his katana and settled on his side on the bed. This close, Farfarello could see that the skin around his eyes looked a little tight with tension. Farfarello spooned against his back and lightly stroked the fine-grained skin on the side of Aya's face, luxuriating in its texture, and let a little ki flow through his fingers, hoping that it could heal psychic pain as well as physical. "Any better?"

"The pain's not really better, but the buzzing is a little less."

"That doesn't make sense." How could ki stop the buzzing? Buzzing didn't sound like a pain thing. What had he done?

He'd associated himself deeper into his body to enjoy touching his puisín more. That always lessened his telepathy. Had Aya been borrowing his telepathy and picking up something with it? Crawford had warned that Breaker might still be looking for Aya. Damn it. Farfarello didn't have the skills to protect his puisín from telepathic intrusion aside from cutting the both of them off from his telepathy, which might not be enough. He needed assistance.

"I'm going to look for help. Be back in my body in a bit," Farfarello said.

"Be careful."

Farfarello detached his soul to look for the mindbreaker, jumping from person to person. Although he found him after some difficulty--the mindbreaker was in stealth mode and only the Schwarz linkage provided any traction--everything in Schuldig's soul screamed Don't Bother Me, I'm Nesting. Pussy-whipped by the kitteny Orange boy and the slutkitten. While Farfarello only intended to ask him to do his fucking job, the mindbreaker never did his best work when distracted by other things, but then who did?

Damn it, Nagi didn't have the power or talent necessary. Couldn't go to any of the clones or mashups for help, as Farfarello didn't know them well and they were not Schwarz.

Wait, Farfarello felt someone familiar. Puppyish. When had Fenris arrived in Vienna? Still, if the puppy had arrived, he might be with his owner, who had aided Farfarello in telepathic matters before. She also wouldn't sexually harass Aya as a certain someone had again just last night. Couldn't feel her, though, so he'd have to ask the puppy.

~ Fenris, fetch Friendly for me, ~ Farfarello said.

The puppy sent an impression of _Who do you think you are/I am, not your fetch boy, should rip your throat out with my teeth_. Less than cooperative. But was that one of the other kittens in the car? Farfarello jumped into the untalented Siberian kitten, looked around through Hidaka's eyes, and saw Friendly. He smiled with Siberian's mouth, something that took only the lightest pressure of the kitten-with-claws' soul. Fenris yanked on her coat and pointed at Hidaka, talking telepathically at her in a fast blur.

~ Get out of him, Farfarello, ~ she said.

~ Not hurting him. I'm light in here. ~ Interesting body, casually athletic and strong, but with the lingering feel of old, slight pain that tasted vaguely of fire's touch. Hidaka didn't feel him or hear Friendly.

~ Get out of him anyway. ~

~ Need your help. I think Breaker is hunting Aya. Something like that is rubbing Aya's nerves, which are sensitive to begin with. ~

That got her interest, even though she said, ~ I don't know if you've noticed, but we're not Schwarz. Nor are we your errand runners. ~

Although he hated to say it, he would use any weapon in his arsenal. ~ He was Weiß. Balinese and Siberian still think of him that way. If it makes you feel better, think of this as a Weiß matter. Just help him avoid Breaker. ~

Oh, but she hated Breaker. The hate and fear felt almost tangible. Tugging on that had been a good call. ~ Is Fujimiya-san at Schwarz's hotel? ~ she asked.

~ Yes. ~ He would be polite if being so got his kitten protection. ~ Please come. Aya would also like to see Ken, I'm sure, as they were teammates. ~

~ All right. I'll tell the driver and we'll be there soon. Now vacate Ken. ~

~ Gladly. See you soon. ~

Feeling hints of the buzzing himself, Farfarello returned to his own body and associated himself fully and quickly, smiling as he felt his puisín relax and melt back against him. Aya recognized his return.

"I got help," Farfarello said. "Friendly is coming here. She's bringing Fenris and Hidaka with her."

Aya tensed a little. "What are they doing in Vienna?"

"Something must have happened."

"Obviously."

Since he hadn't cared, Farfarello hadn't bothered to investigate that, but obviously something had changed. If his puisín cared, perhaps he should as well. "We'll find out when they arrive." When Farfarello further associated himself inside his body to lessen his telepathy and make them less of a target to Breaker, the exquisite feel of Aya against him made him hard and hungry. "They won't arrive for a while. I want you."

******************************************************

It still surprised Aya what he'd gotten used to. His lover could lie vacant behind him, mind and soul out wandering, and he could see it as nothing out of the ordinary. Farfarello's body felt different when he wasn't in it, heavier somehow and wrong, dissimilar from sleep. Its heart rate and breathing slowed more they did for sleep. Farfarello's hand felt so much heavier on Aya's hip like this.

Such times made Aya shudder a bit, especially when he considered the risks Farfarello ran. What if he ran into something that prevented him from returning to himself? Aya didn't know if he could survive sitting vigil over another loved one's breathing but otherwise dead body.

Aya felt Farfarello's soul return in a rush, like a shower of sparks suffusing and finally kindling wood. Moving against him, Farfarello took in a deep sensuous gasp of breath that stirred the fine hairs at the nape of Aya's neck.

"I got help," Farfarello said. "Friendly is coming here. She's bringing Fenris and Hidaka with her."

"What are they doing in Vienna?" Something must have gone wrong in Tokyo, because Aya couldn't see them being called to Austria for anything else when neither of them had a talent someone already here couldn't provide.

"Something must have happened."

"Obviously."

"We'll find out when they arrive." Farfarello rubbed against him, obviously aroused. "They won't arrive for a while. I want you."

Aya fought down his own spark of arousal. "We don't have time. I need to shower and dress. You need to dress."

"It's convenient for now that I'm not dressed," Farfarello answered as his stroked Aya's stomach and let his hand drift lower.

The way Farfarello touched him let him know how deeply inside his own body Farfarello was. When fully associated, he touched differently, _deeper_ somehow, as if he wanted to imprint Aya's body onto his own, yet not harder. Where once he'd often been too gentle or too harsh, now he judged better, being able to feel it himself, although some of that might be simple familiarity. He knew Aya's body very well now, knew what made him sigh and what made him scream.

Knew how to manipulate him.

Fighting the urge to melt, trying to block out the feel of Farfarello's teeth nipping at his earlobe and hand stroking him, Aya said, "We don't have the time. I don't care how quick you can be, I don't want to take the chance of being in the middle of something when they arrive and I definitely don't want to face Ken while I'm stupid from sex. Stop toying with me."

"You take a lot of the fun out of things," Farfarello grumbled into his ear. "You're so proud."

"So be it." Aya knew he won when he moved away and felt Farfarello let him go without a fight. "We'll play later."

"Better. I prefer you hard but fair."

******************************************************

"You're hanging around the whole day?" Yoji asked Schuldig as Schuldig dropped his coat on one of the chairs in Yoji's hotel room and took his shoes off.

Schuldig smirked through the fall of his hair. "You got a problem with that?"

"Maybe." He had Weiß coming in and couldn't see Ken reacting well to Schuldig hovering in the area. Damn, Yoji hadn't even figured out if Elena would be okay with Sasha sitting in on the reunion. He kept feeling the temptation to flag her and ask, but if she said no he'd have to tell the kid to get lost for a while, which he didn't want to do. Somehow he thought that if she saw Sasha face to face she'd be more likely to let him stay.

"Not the whole day. Brad will call me back to service sometime. I just want to hang with you and Sasha while I can."

Sasha looked like he was studying Schuldig, something Yoji had noticed him doing at times the whole morning, not that he blamed him. Yoji couldn't imagine socializing with someone who looked and partially acted like an older version of himself. It had to be mindbending, even for a kid accustomed to seeing copies of himself who were about the same age he was. Schuldig was kind of Sasha's father, at least in the genetic sense. Yoji sure as hell couldn't imagine Schuldig being anyone's father in the other sense.

"What, Sasha?" Schuldig asked, sounding amused and annoyed.

"I can't figure you out. You kind of want me, but not in a way I understand."

"I'm interested in you."

"You _know_ what I mean."

"Yeah. I don't want to have sex with you, not that you're not an attractive devil. Or not at first? Or at least not as.... I want...." Schuldig pouted. "I'm not sure. I want something like this." He grabbed Sasha and held him. At first Sasha stiffened up, but he gradually relaxed. Once the kid had loosened up, Schuldig started to pet him and rub his head against his a bit.

"And you call _us_ 'kittens'?" Yoji had to ask.

"You _are_ kittens. I'm a cat. Sasha's a Chinchilla Persian."

"You knew?" Sasha asked.

"The eyeliner helped identify you in the real world."

"I didn't plan that." Sasha sighed. "This _is_ nice."

They both looked blissed out from their mutual petting session. Yeah, mutual, because Sasha petted back. It looked sexy but somehow not sexual. Comforting and companionable.

"Feeling lonely, Yoji?" Schuldig asked. "Wanna join the cuddle pile?"

Yes. No. "I don't think it's a good--"

But Schuldig had already snagged him in and dropped the three of them down onto the bed. Yoji wanted to say something about how they shouldn't do this for Sasha's sake, but Sasha snuggled right in on him and nuzzled his neck, so Sasha might not have a problem with this.

Yoji said, "You don't have to--"

"I want to," Sasha murmured against into his ear.

"If this is out of thanks or something, you really don't need to." Even though it felt damned good.

"I want to," Sasha growled, then nipped his ear.

"He wants to," Schuldig said as he unzipped Yoji's fly and slid his hand inside. "He just didn't see a good opportunity, so I decided to make one. I'm providing for my young."

"Thanks, Dad," Sasha answered with a smirk.

"Don't call me that." They smiled at Yoji with the same bright blue eyes and similar faces crowned by different hair.

"I'm a toy?" Yoji groaned. He really couldn't do anything else at the moment with Schuldig stroking his cock and Sasha kissing the side of his face.

"No! I like you," Sasha answered. "I like you a lot. If you want to stop this, we'll stop."

"Aw," Schuldig whined.

"We'll stop if you want us to, Yoji," Sasha said again. "And if you can't think while Schuldig's jacking you off, you just say so and he'll stop."

"Aw! You suck."

How much of a coward was he that he wished they'd just keep going on so he wouldn't have to make a decision himself and could enjoy it without taking responsibility? And how stupid was he to think that in front of two telepaths? Not that he could help himself on the last one, but it didn't do him any favors.

"No shame in being what you are: a submissive," Schuldig said with a smirk as his thumb circled the head of Yoji's cock.

"I am not! I hate taking orders and you know it," Yoji answered as he fought his own body's natural reaction to being teased. Damn, this was unfair.

"Schuldig's sorry," Sasha said. "Say you're sorry, Schuldig."

"You're seriously cramping my style, Sasha," Schuldig replied.

"I want Yoji to be relaxed and happy, while you're toying with his head."

"Both of them. He expects it from me. He'd be uncomfortable if I didn't toy with his head."

"Well, it's not right."

"I can't believe we're having this conversation while we have Yoji primed and ready for us!"

Yoji couldn't believe it either. Though the kid obviously had good intentions.

"I want to do this the right way!"

"It's sex, not brain surgery! How wrong can you go?"

"Thanks for killing the mood," Yoji said, only half-hard now, to his relief.

"What? Good going, Sasha." Schuldig lightly smacked the back of Sasha's head. "And after I set him up so nicely for you."

"As if you don't want him too. Maybe we can put you back in the mood, Yoji?" Sasha asked with a very nice stroke up under Yoji's sweater and along his bare skin.

Damn it, they made it difficult. Hard too.

******************************************************

Where the hell had Misery developed a conscience? It couldn't have come from Eszett, and being abused by other people in Schuldig's experience just made the victim more likely to treat others badly, not less. Schuldig felt offended by the kid's reaction too, because Schuldig had no intention of hurting Yoji. Anything but! Yoji enjoyed this stuff! Yoji _wanted_ to be _taken_, and Schuldig believed in helping people along when they had good ideas. Sasha wanted Yoji but never would have made a move on his own. Everybody could have won if they'd only trusted that Schuldig knew what was best for them.

Story of Schuldig's life.

At least Sasha had gone back to seducing Yoji, and Yoji was having trouble fending him off. Good job, kid. Somebody somewhere had taught him something right. Schuldig added to the effort. Not many guys could say no when you had your hand wrapped around his cock. He loved the look Yoji got on his face when he got lost in good sex, so smooth and blissful. Schuldig grabbed one of his hands and sucked on one wire-scarred finger, loving those lines that were so different than most of the scars Schuldig experienced.

~ Schuldig, I need you, ~ Brad said. Of course.

~ Your timing sucks! ~

~ Like you'll never have sex with Balinese again. ~

~ What do you want? ~

~ I'm meeting with Verity to discuss a possible deal with her. My mother wants to take her home, and I want to see if she'll agree. I want the girl out of Europe. ~

_That_ was what Brad hadn't wanted him around for, a call to his mother? Knowing that, Schuldig couldn't blame him. He would have mocked the hell out of him. Still would, but he'd lost the opportunity to do it before and during the phone call.

~ I never realized you hated Verity and your mother that much. ~ Schuldig couldn't even imagine how they'd live with each other, the struggles for dominance. It would be Ultimate Extreme Bitch Deathmatch. Would Tom Crawford survive in the crossfire?

Their daughter, his and Brad's together. The thought still freaked him out.

~ Very funny. ~

~ You know you have this coming. ~

~ I knew it was coming, not that I have it coming. I want my best telepath with me during this meeting. ~

~ _Now_ you want me. ~

~ Do I need to go to Friendly? She's a good telepath and has pyrokinetic abilities too. Considering how butch she is, she might even pack a strap-on. ~

No. Way. ~ Hey! Don't even joke about that. I'd have to kill her if she laid a hand on your naked body, then you after her. ~

Brad sounded somewhat surprised, even though he had a light tone as he answered, ~ Then show up. I'll give you directions to the restaurant. ~

~ I'll be there. ~ Schuldig took the directions in, then said, ~ If I see Friendly there, you'll get a bitch fight like you can't even imagine. ~

~ I'll keep that in mind. ~

"Are you going to give me my finger back?" Yoji asked as he and Sasha stared at Schuldig. They looked so cute intertwined, mussed, and gazing at him in mystification. It was so unfair that he had to leave them. Schuldig let Yoji's finger slide out of his mouth with one last loving lick and took his hand out of the kitty's pants to lick his own fingers clean.

"What did Mr. Crawford have to say?" Sasha asked. "I know it was him but couldn't read anything you two said to each other."

As Schuldig untangled himself from them, he answered, "Gotta go. I've been called to service. But don't stop just because I'm leaving!" Past experience made him a pro at putting his shoes and coat back on quickly.

He resented having to go, but the somewhat horrified look of "What do we do now?" on both their faces had its appeal, especially with Yoji lying sprawled out on the bed on his back like a human sacrifice. Too bad he had the feeling they wouldn't consummate without him, the saps. He waved merrily at them as he closed the door behind him.

******************************************************

"Uhm," Sasha said.

"Yeah," Yoji answered, as he tried not to snuggle into the kid's warmth. Kind of awkward moment here.

~ Once again I save your ass, ~ Elena said. ~ Weiß has reassembled except for you. Farfarello called us in to help with a telepathic problem Fujimiya-san is having, so we're heading to Schwarz's hotel. When the hell did Fujimiya-san turn telepathic? You at least were using all along, if subtly and with a really small talent. I should have felt him before this. ~

Yoji didn't understand it himself, though it seemed to be something Aya took from elsewhere. Somehow. Wait a minute. Farfarello had contacted Weiß for help? Why hadn't he gone to Schuldig? Okay, Yoji could kind of figure out why, considering what they'd just been up to. But how desperate had Farfarello been to go to Weiß? What kind of shape was Aya in? Was he okay?

~ He was concerned, not desperate. He didn't demand we rush over. Fujimiya-san must be in decent shape. ~

Good. Yoji calmed at that. But when had Weiß and Schwarz started to work so closely together that Weiß took care of Schwarz's clones and telepaths for them?

~ I'm wondering that myself. In any case, get over here, Yoji. ~

"Weiß is having a reunion at Schwarz's hotel," Yoji told Sasha. "Wanna come along?"

The kid looked surprised, then happy. "Yeah. Thanks."

~ He's not one of us. ~

Sasha would be helpful with his talent and knowledge of the area and the major players. Besides, Yoji refused to leave him sitting around alone.

~ Fine. Make sure to neaten yourselves up before you get here. You do realize that just confirms you're Schwarzosexual. ~

Sasha wasn't Schwarz!

~ Baby-Schwarz, ~ Fenris said suddenly. He'd been listening in too? Damn it.

~ Schwarz: The Next Generation, ~ Elena said.

Yoji wanted them to know that he and Sasha would be there.

~ See you soon! ~ Fenris said.

"Looks like sex won't be happening," Yoji said to Sasha.

Looking rueful, Sasha answered, "Maybe later?"

Yoji sighed. "If you're as insatiable as Schuldig is, I'm going to skip the country and go into hiding."

"That wasn't a no."

"Maybe, okay?" Yoji just didn't know. "I like you." As he zipped his fly, Yoji thought that he had to find a way to resist when Schwarz pulled his pants down. Which happened often.


	193. "You're having better luck training him to respond to voice commands than I ever did."

Aya and Farfarello waited in the hotel lobby for Weiß arrive since staying in their room would leave Farfarello in temptation range of the bed. He'd pouted the whole time Aya had made the bed and neatened the room for the arriving company. While Aya had a strong will, he had difficulties withstanding Farfarello for long periods of time where sex was concerned. As if hearing his thinking, Farfarello smirked at him, which Aya felt like heat along his skin. Farfarello had said he'd be staying associated to cut down on his telepathy and Aya didn't hear the buzzing as much, which suggested as much, but maybe Farfarello _could_ still hear. Although disgruntled, Farfarello eventually agreed to have the initial meeting in the lobby, probably deciding that at least it would get Aya away from his sister's remains.

With Farfarello attracting so much attention just by looking like himself, even with dark sunglasses hiding his eye patch, Aya had dressed more casually to try to offset it but still wore his weapons hidden by his long coat. Better to be careful. He knew Farfarello had gone out armed. Besides, better to wear them than to leave them hidden in the room where the cleaning staff might somehow find them.

"How's your head?" Farfarello murmured.

"Hnh."

"I see. I wish my ki had done you more good."

"Me too." Last night's psychic excursion had left him with a searing headache that didn't feel quite like anything he'd ever had before. He'd be happier if he didn't feel it now either.

Friendly... Elena walked in with Ken and Fenris behind her. Ken rushed up to him and asked, "How are you, Aya? It sounds like there's some really weird stuff going around."

"I'm all right," Aya answered as he shot a look at Farfarello, wondering how much his lover had told them and how much more Elena might know but hadn't told them. Aya hated to be left out of the loop and ignorant like this. "It's good to see you, Ken."

"We can talk about it upstairs," Elena said smoothly.

It would be foolhardy to talk about telepathy or their lives in public. "We'll take you to our room. Yoji isn't with you?" Aya smiled as Farfarello glared at him. Someday Farfarello would have to learn to accept that Aya had other people in his life too and that it didn't mean Aya was betraying him.

"He's on his way. We expect him soon."

How odd to feel so uncomfortable with Weiß, including Ken. All right, two of them he didn't know well and one of that two had once pulled him hard into a wall of metal bars. They might have the name, but they weren't the Weiß he'd been part of. Schwarz's members had so tightly entwined themselves in his life that he also sometimes forgot that he hadn't been so deeply involved with the members of Weiß, preferring to be solitary and able to abandon them if his revenge or sister's safety needed it. He'd trusted Ken to watch his back but didn't know all that much about him aside from his obvious interests and the things you could observe about a person you worked with. Ken had made some friendly overtures over the years but Aya had rebuffed them out of shyness, differing interests, or just spending too much time working with him to want to socialize with him as well. He got tired of being around Schwarz too at times.

Elena was a cipher to him, but he appreciated her cool professionalism when she didn't use it against him. He wondered if it bothered her sometimes being the lone woman in a group of men. He didn't know what to make of Fenris. While he didn't hold a grudge over Fenris' early attack on him, he still felt wary. The boy had a great deal of power but did he have the self-control and sense of judgment to use them well and safely? He hadn't before. Fenris waved at him, with only a small amount of gloating sarcasm. It made Aya wonder how strong his shields currently were and reminded him of his old worries, of being the least talented member of Schwarz, left out of some conversations. Even if he had some fugitive talent now, it hardly responded to his commands.

The elevator door started to close when he heard someone shout, "Wait!" The door reopened by itself even though no one had pressed any buttons.

"Not me," Fenris murmured.

With the door held open, Yoji and his companion sauntered over, in no hurry. Elena yelled, "So you can trigger the sensor to keep the door open. Big deal. Get your ass in here, Yoji, and stop making us wait!" In response, Yoji and his friend put on a burst of speed.

Maybe Elena did all right for herself.

"I try," she said, smiling at him.

"I hate when people do that," Aya answered.

"Then don't be so loud."

Never knowing how to reply to that, Aya said instead, "You're having better luck training him to respond to voice commands than I ever did."

"Don't feel so bad. He's still willful. I think it's that he's just more likely to obey me since he's the one who put me up for the leadership job in the first place."

Aya felt a stab of annoyance at being out of the loop on that until he remembered that Yoji wasn't actually on his team. Lately, he kept forgetting.

Yoji had put Elena up for the leader slot, so he must trust and respect her. Or he just wanted to escape the responsibility that badly. No, Aya couldn't quite believe that.

"Grace and charm, Elena," Yoji murmured, sulky, as he got into the elevator.

"You're already beautiful. You don't have to waste our time by making an entrance," she replied.

"And way to spoil things. You don't tell the secrets of magicians' tricks."

"You're no magician."

"Showing off," Aya said. When had Yoji become so comfortable with his telekinesis?

"We're here because _you're_ doing freaky things, Aya," Yoji answered good-naturedly, with a smile. "You have no room to talk."

"It's not on purpose."

Yoji smelled faintly of sex. Maybe that explained his more laidback then usual attitude. Aya didn't want to know.

"Hi," Fenris said to Yoji's companion. "Who are you?"

"You can call me 'Misery.' Or 'Sasha,'" the boy answered. Aya had seen him only briefly yesterday and certainly wouldn't have recognized him since Misery now looked much better tended. Yoji's doing, no doubt. Without all that makeup the boy looked much more like Schuldig, which probably explained why Ken stared at him with such a bemused look. He already had a certain adoring light in his eyes when he looked at Yoji.

"Okay." Fenris looked very interested in him and stared unabashedly.

"Nice makeover," Elena said.

"The kid needed clothes. How could I turn down someone in need?" Then Yoji smirked at Ken. "Hey, Kenken, couldn't live without us, huh?"

"Yeah, we set all that up just to come see you and Elena."

Why did Farfarello keep smirking at Ken?

Feeling too crowded, Aya was very glad when the elevator reached their floor. Now he'd have to let them all into his room too. Although he didn't let his mild claustrophobia affect his actions, he couldn't stop feeling it in these situations, to his annoyance. Once inside, he had to let Elena rest her hand against his face to start a reading.

"You've been in a psychic battle recently. This damage is fresh." She looked around her suddenly and said, "I've never seen a group of guys jump up to nanny another guy who doesn't even want it. I feel like one of the manliest people in the room at the moment."

Indeed, most of the people in the room looked upset and had moved forward a bit but now backed off and tried to look casual. Pathetic. They must all believe that Aya couldn't take care of himself at all. "Are you all going to stand around and stare at me while Elena does this?" Aya asked.

"That was the plan," Yoji answered.

"That's not the plan. Elena will check me in the bathroom. Everyone else will stay out here."

"I won't be left outside," Farfarello said, "especially not when the power you were using is mine."

Everyone else except Misery and Elena kind of gaped at that. Elena answered, "All right, but don't make Fujimiya-san uncomfortable."

"I couldn't possibly."

Aya hoped that his look said plainly "Oh, really?" It must have, because Farfarello slid his gaze to the side in excessive innocence as they walked into the bathroom. Still, it would probably be safer not to leave him with Weiß anyway.

As they left, Aya heard Ken say, "So it's a touch thing for him? Guess that explains why Aya never touched people."

Aya didn't even want to think about that idea, partly because it had its roots in a misapprehension but also because he didn't want to think about the parts that might actually apply.

Once Farfarello shut the door, Aya asked, "Is there a way to make the psychic damage heal faster?"

"Not that I know of," Elena answered. "You'll have to keep putting up with the headache. Now get comfortable somewhere so I can do a scan."

When Aya sat down on the toilet cover, he had wry thoughts about his glamorous life as an international assassin. As Elena put her hands on the sides of his face, he refused to be some passive, unknowing receptacle as he'd been in the past and tried to feel whatever he seemed to be absorbing lately. This felt different than the other sources, even if he hadn't been conscious before of how the others had felt. It flowed through him like liquid warmth in bright waves. The buzzing became louder....

Then cut off completely. His eyes snapped open to see Elena staring at him in consternation. "I have never heard of anyone having what you have," she said. "I've heard of a few rare cases of what Farfarello does, but this? No."

"Is it trainable?" Aya asked.

"I don't know. For now, at least, it seems more like the people around you have to block and be careful, because I can't figure out how _you'd_ turn it off."

"Did you find the source of the buzzing?" Farfarello asked.

"No, though it's definitely a telepath sweeping the area."

"How can you know that and not know the telepath?" Aya asked.

"There are a lot of telepaths in Vienna right now, and he's hiding in everyone else's signatures. Still, that tells us something, because that takes power and skill. This is someone who has excellent training."

"Breaker," Farfarello said.

"Could be. No proof."

"He showed an interest in Aya last night."

"That makes it more likely. Was he the one who injured Fujimiya-san? Get that look like you're about to lie off your face."

Obviously annoyed, Farfarello shook his head. "...I don't know."

"Breaker didn't get a chance to touch me," Aya said. "I was hurt because Schuldig kicked me out hard."

"It was Schuldig?" Farfarello looked enraged.

"I don't blame him. I didn't like the feel of Breaker either."

"See?" Farfarello said to Elena, deciding to grab on to something that bolstered his argument.

"We still don't have proof that he's looking for Fujimiya-san now, nor that this scan is for bad reasons," she replied.

"Who needs proof? We can set the bastard up and take him down. None of us trust his intentions. _You_ don't. He's a threat. Remove him."

"He's working for Persia right now."

"I still don't hear a compelling reason to let him live. You brought your team into Austria on your own authority, didn't you, so just make another command decision here."

She sighed. "I need more information. I'm not objective here."

"You want him dead for your own reasons," Aya said.

"I never liked the feel of him in my head. There was something rotten under the veneer. That's proof enough that _something_ was off about him. But it's not like any trainer in Eszett was there for humanitarian reasons. I'm not going to decide to sanction Breaker yet."

"I hope you come to a decision before he takes it out of your hands," Farfarello said.

"Yeah, yeah."

"Is Aya better now?"

"I blocked me off from him. You blocked him off from yourself. Whoever's looking for him thinking he's a telepath won't be able to find him this way, so we're okay for now. I'll keep an eye and ear out for anyone trying to hover around us."

"That will have to do, I guess," Aya said, wishing he knew more. He hated having to depend on other people's word for how much could be done. The doctors had pulled that shit on him all the time over his sister. "I don't hear the buzzing." His head even hurt a little bit less.

As they walked out, Aya heard Ken asking, "...so you're Schuldig's clone?"

"One of them," Misery answered.

"Only Eszett could be evil enough to think the world didn't already have enough Schuldig in it."

"He's not that bad."

"You haven't known him for long."

Off to the side, Nagi murmured to Yoji, "I don't remember life being this strange before."

"Me neither, kid," Yoji replied. Fenris watched everything as if it were a play put on for his entertainment.

"Hi, Aya," Nagi said. "When I came in I heard so many people here I knew that I had to investigate. It's like you have a convention going on in here."

Looking over his weirdly expanded team, Aya heartily agreed with Nagi and Yoji's assessment about everything being even stranger.


	194. ~ You make "mushy" sound kind of psychotic, Brad. ~

Schuldig put up and opened his umbrella as soon as he opened the door to the car. Rainy days sucked for how they made a lot of people depressed, creating a kind of miasma of downheartedness that he couldn't completely block out. Would be nice if people could keep their bad moods to their own damn selves. Besides, the cold damp made some of his old wounds ache a bit. Yeah, he healed quickly, but he'd taken some bad hits over the years, bad enough to linger.

Still, he was alive to complain.

Verity, under her own umbrella, red, walked up to the restaurant about the same time he did. He felt the soft, quiet stroke of her probe of his shields about the same time he sent out his own and got bounced. Her precognition didn't stretch her brain into different time zones as much as Brad's did, so she guarded her thoughts mostly with her trained telepathy. Still, he caught a quick, vague feeling that it made her happy to see him coming in at the same time she did. Maybe she hadn't liked the idea of walking in to a seated, unified front of her gene fathers.

Brad might have a thing about Verity being his daughter, but Schuldig didn't feel it as much. Yeah, Schuldig enjoyed the perversity of two men managing to reproduce against their will, and it might be interesting watching her and figuring out which physical and personality traits came from which of them, but he didn't feel any instant, unbreakable bond coming from shared genetics. Family had screwed over everyone he'd ever been, so he knew better than to expect that blood automatically led to loyalty. Brad had happy memories of his family and recently gotten back together with his parents--at Schuldig's urging, oh irony--so he had his mom in the back of his head demanding grandkids. She must have been thrilled to hear that Brad had come through on providing an actual granddaughter of her own blood after all.

She might not be so thrilled at Schuldig's contribution, though she seemed to like him in her own twisted way.

It amused Schuldig that Brad disliked his clones so much and apparently wanted nothing to do with them. Schuldig didn't like Brad's clones as much either. Maybe they couldn't help but be bastards without the tempering influence of a Schuldig in their lives. Schuldig couldn't help loving his, even aside from the whole Emory thing that would make hating them feel like throwing away a second chance and hating the thing that had once given his lives purpose and pleasure. He felt a... mutuality with the clones. They gave the world more depth and filled the holes a little.

He knew better than to say any of that to Brad.

Why did Misery have to stir up trouble about Brad anyway? Schuldig had experienced some abusive relationships, personally and otherwise, and this wasn't one.

He opened the door for Verity, who rolled her eyes but smiled a little. She was almost as tall as he was, not surprising considering her parents, at least unless Bradmom's contribution had staged a coup. Her long ponytail of auburn hair swung jauntily as they closed their umbrellas and walked inside.

Sitting in the far corner facing the door, Brad smiled a little at the sight of them and his glasses glinted, making Schuldig smile. Verity said, sounding surprised, "You really do love each other."

"When we don't want to kill each other, yeah. And sometimes even when we do wanna kill each other."

She looked thoughtful, and Schuldig noticed that her blue eyes had gold around the pupils. Something from Brad? "Were Eszett's files on you that wrong, or did you change since then?"

"Probably both."

Schuldig sat next to Brad, while Verity sat across from them. Brad wore a charcoal colored trench coat but all light colors beneath it. "Good morning, Verity," he said.

"Good morning, Mr. Crawford," she answered, just as coolly professional. Schuldig wanted to bash their heads together.

"Do you know why I called you here today?"

"I think so, but I prefer to let you tell me to avoid miscommunication."

Schuldig wanted to roll his eyes at them but manfully resisted the urge. Hopefully everything would improve once Brad dropped his bomb.

"All right. Your grandparents would like to meet you. More than that, they'd like you to come live with them in the United States."

Verity recovered in about 30 seconds, but the 30 seconds showed that she hadn't expected this at all. "I have grandparents?"

"My parents are your grandparents. I've been in touch with them, and they're very excited about you."

"Why?"

"You're their grandchild."

"So?" she answered, still not quite getting it, not surprising for someone created and raised in Rosenkreuz.

"A lot of parents have children partly from the hope of eventually getting grandchildren out of them," Schuldig said.

"They want me to live with them, but they don't even know me."

"You're Brad's kid, and that's good enough for them. They'll meet you first."

"They'll meet you for a few minutes, and then you have to make your decision quickly," Brad said. "I'm sorry, but I can't allow them to be here for long, for their safety's sake and yours. I don't want enemies trying to use any of you against me. To my current knowledge, my parents are flying in today."

"Mr. Crawford, this is much too fast." She looked pleased and somewhat panicky all at once. "I didn't even have a family until a moment ago, and now you're asking me to go to a different continent with them."

"You said you wanted to leave Europe."

"Yeah, but.... This is too much, too fast. Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"You said you have no interest in being with us, and I can't blame you given your circumstances."

That actually left a pained look on her face for a moment. "But--"

"They can give you a more normal life. Maybe more normal than you expected, since they'll probably expect you to do chores and get a more normal education, but you said you didn't want to keep living the shadow existence we do now."

After looking down for a moment, she straightened and looked Brad directly in his lenses to ask, "Can I bring someone with me to live with them?"

Interesting.

"That wasn't something I discussed with them. Why?"

Looking less professional, deliberately emphasizing her youth, she said, "Everything will be unfamiliar there, places, people, language, everything. It would be a lot easier for me if I had someone familiar."

~ Manipulative, ~ Brad said, so low key and guarded that Verity wouldn't hear it. ~ Definitely your daughter. ~

~ She gets it from both sides, thank you. ~

"Who?" Brad asked.

"Misoji." Before Brad or Schuldig could say anything, she said, "He's small, quiet, and doesn't eat much."

~ Should I tell her that your mother scares the crap out of Nagi so she probably won't do better with Nagi's younger clone? ~ Schuldig asked with a smirk.

~ Hell no. ~ Brad asked, "You want to bring him because he takes up fewer resources?" ~ Does she even like him? ~

~ I can't quite say, since she shields well. What little I get is that she knows him... and he takes up fewer resources. Definitely your daughter. ~

~ It sounds like she also thinks he won't win as much attention, making her _your_ daughter. ~

"We worked together a lot. I know him," she answered.

"Do you think he would approve of you volunteering him for this without being asked first?" Brad said, ~ _Definitely_ your daughter. ~

"I can ask him right now."

~ Can you make out their conversation, Schuldig? ~

~ She's good, but nothing can cover Misoji's "what the fuck?" reaction, even if I can't make out the words. He's shocked and hesitant, while she's wheedling. Wheedling, wheedling... I think she's got him. ~

The waitress arrived and asked, "Are you ready to order? What can I get you?"

"Coffee," Brad said, and Verity, involved in her telepathic conversation, murmured, "Coffee."

"Coffee and a raspberry torte," Schuldig said. At Brad's raised eyebrow, he answered, "I'm in the mood for sweets."

Once the waitress left with their order, Verity said, "He's willing."

"Really?" Schuldig asked, not quite trusting her but also just to be a smartass.

"_Really_," Verity answered.

"I'm not so sure my parents would be," Brad said. "They're coming for one person: you."

"I think I can convince them." She smiled, sunny, cocky.

Brad was not amused. "Don't think you can manipulate my parents so easily. They're strong-willed. Also, if I hear you're trying to abuse them--and I _will_ find out if it's happening--nothing will save you from me."

Disgruntled, she answered, "All right! I didn't mean it like that anyway. I'll just talk to them."

"That's acceptable."

A meeting of Evelyn Crawford and Verity with Verity trying to get something out of her might be like a meeting of immovable object and unstoppable force. Watching from the sidelines could be fun. Hell, he couldn't wait to watch Misoji meeting Bradmom too.

"I'm surprised you're not talking to anyone from the Oracle line about this."

"None of them impressed me so far. Besides, at the risk of sounding mushy, they're the past while you're the future."

~ You make "mushy" sound kind of psychotic, Brad. ~ Look upon Brad's mushiness and know fear!

~ Do you have a problem? ~ Brad felt kind of self-conscious. Aw!

~ Nope. I'm just entertained. ~

Verity looked surprised and kind of unwillingly touched. "You're not what I thought you would be."

Accepting his coffee from the waitress, Brad said to Verity, "Don't get the wrong idea about us. We're not humanitarians."

"Either way, I might not mind having you in my life. Now and then."

"Thank you." Brad did feel a small spark of warmth at that.

"But don't expect him to pay for your coffee," Schuldig said with a smirk, then took a bite of his dessert.

"I pay my own way," Verity said, then "Do you really think they'd make me do chores?"

"They might have you do chores," Brad said. "It's something Americans do."

"It's an apartment in Queens," Schuldig answered. "It's not like they're going to have you mucking out the stables or chopping wood."

"Make sure you and Misoji are packed and ready to leave the country at that moment in case you do decide to go. I want my parents in and out of here."

"You don't want to see them?" Verity asked.

"I'd rather see them in an area where I wouldn't have to worry about anyone shooting or kidnapping them. In better circumstances, I would have them stay longer."

Better circumstances. Like if Brad could hide them somewhere no one could find them and then visit only when he wanted to.

"What did you think Brad called you here to ask you?" Schuldig had to ask.

She shrugged. "I thought he'd try to talk me into a business deal and I would have to decline because I really do want to get out of the game. This is much better."

"I don't know exactly when they'll be here," Brad said, "so we'll contact you when we know for sure."

"Thank you. This should be... interesting. Is there anything else?"

"Not unless you have something you want to discuss."

"No. I'm good. Thanks. I'll... look forward to being contacted. Goodbye." She took one last slug of her coffee, put down some money, and left the restaurant, still looking somewhat dazed.

"Her mind is _blown_, Brad."

"I expected as much. How can anyone grown by Rosenkreuz have any idea what family is?"

"She's leaning toward going with them even without knowing them yet, figuring that they can't be worse than Rosenkreuz, and she's psyched about the idea of trying a normal life. Wonder how long that will last, especially since she's never been treated like a kid, which is similar but not quite the same as being treated as property."

"You don't know already?" Brad looked surprised.

"She doesn't know herself. We'll have to see once she actually experiences it. You know. With some things you don't really know how you'll feel until you actually face it." Schuldig grinned. "I wonder if Misoji will freak out when he meets your mom, considering how on-edge Nagi feels around her. Probably."

"Don't encourage that."

"Even though it would be fun to watch him flee the airport like he has the devil on his tail? Fine."

"My mother isn't that bad." But Brad smiled.

"Nagi gets so tense in her presence it's hilarious."

"Fine."

~ Verity's choice makes some sense. In Misoji she gets a companion who knows what life in Rosenkreuz was like and a bodyguard who can't be disarmed. She has to know she won't be allowed to carry a gun. Would your parents really take the both of them? ~

~ They might. Dad is easygoing and loves kids, while Mom likes Nagi, and Misoji's a younger, possibly malleable version. ~

~ Your mom is scary, Brad. ~

~ She's not-- Fine. She is. More than you know. She said she has no intention of returning home empty-handed. ~

Schuldig had to laugh. ~ Would your mom really kidnap Verity if Verity refused to go? ~

~ She might. I don't know if she'd succeed, even if we helped her and Dad. ~

~ _Would_ we help them? ~

~ Yes. I want Verity out of Europe. ~

~ So much for Brad the cool dad. ~

~ She could live to eventually get over it. ~

~ Your parents would have some fight on their hands once they got her home. ~

~ That's why I'm hoping it won't come to that. I don't want her hurting them. I'm planning contingencies. ~

As always.

There was something else on Brad's mind.... ~ Brad, what CDs? ~

~ Malice let me know that there _was_ a Guilty line, of which he's a member, and sold me the archival footage Eszett kept of you, including the stuff that didn't make it to the more public record. ~

Thanks, kid. Schuldig would have to kill him later. Why the hell would he give them to Brad? Oh wait, he _sold_ them to Brad. Money always changed everything. ~ Lovely. ~

~ You can watch them yourself. ~ Brad wanted to make sure Schuldig thought he didn't intend to use the CDs to one-up him or some shit.

The thought of watching the damn things filled Schuldig with dread, and it seemed like there was a lot of them. ~ You know me. I don't have the patience. I'm not gonna wade through years of footage just to uncover one waterboarding incident I forgot. ~

~ It's important that we know what they did to you. ~ Put like that it sounded less like Brad wanted to get an advantage on him by figuring out how he ticked and more like a good-hearted gesture. Sure.

Maybe.

He really didn't need this right on top of Misery's accusations about Brad. ~ I reshuffled my mind several times since then, and even before that I was never what they wanted me to be. I'm a creature of the moment, not bound by the past. I'm not the person I was then. Hell, neither are you. I don't want you watching those things and making assumptions about me off them. ~

Schuldig wanted to just tell Brad flat out not to watch the damned things at all. Destroy them. But that would make him look vulnerable and worried, and he wasn't. Not really. Not quite.

In total contradiction of what he'd just said about the past having no power over him, he couldn't help remembering how Eszett saw its telepaths as appliances for their teams, and these CDs sounded like an owner's manual.

~ Schuldig. ~ Brad used his calm, cajoling, "be reasonable" voice. Schuldig fucking hated that voice. ~ This whole trip has been showing us that several things went on at Rosenkreuz that we had no idea about. Can you really trust that you know everything they did to you? ~

That was a question that could undermine a guy's confidence completely. A rotten foundation led to a whole structure crumbling eventually. ~ No. ~

Brad in full "this is for the good of the team" mode could be impossible to stop. He _would_ view those CDs... although he might eventually give up on the mound of data if it took too much time. Schuldig could hope. Or time constraints might force him to give up.

Schuldig had already said no to Brad looking at them and been overruled. The team leader always had final say.

It might not be so bad. Brad already knew about the Collective, which had to be more than Eszett had known. What else could be in there? Besides, if Brad did find some hidden worm he'd be more likely to help Schuldig root it out than just dump him as he once would have. He didn't exactly have a stable of well-trained equivalent telepaths to replace him with, and they were lovers, not just sex partners, now.

Hell, they had a daughter together and Schuldig had met his parents.

Did all of Schuldig's clones want to break his thing with Brad apart?

Damn it, he sounded pathetic. He wasn't some whipped girlfriend; he was Schuldig, free spirit, free agent, and self-made man. Brad damned well better make concessions to him because if the bullshit became too much he'd walk, and there'd be no Eszett to drag him back this time. People had been trying to hire him away for years, so he wouldn't hurt for work as a solo act. When the hell had Brad and Schwarz become so important to him anyway? He blamed Aya, when Schwarz had to unify to keep him in line and somehow became a crack-headed family. Family. Family could be bullshit, just an excuse to use you and make you feel like you had to stay.

"Schu?" Brad asked.

~ You scared the hell out of Misery by tossing him to Weiß the way you did. It was the kind of thing Woeller had done. I defended you to him, but you better be better in the future. ~

Brad felt a bit surprised but counterattacked with ~ You can't make me believe that Yoji's abusing him. ~

Amazing the situations Brad called him "Yoji" in. It was always for effect. ~ You can't make me believe you gave much thought to how Yoji would treat him before you tossed him to Weiß. ~

Annoyed, Brad answered, so _reasonable_, ~ What is all this really about? I thought we settled that. ~

~ When I talked to Misery this morning he told me how he'd worried over how he'd be welcomed when Yoji came in and that Woeller used to loan him to friends as a sextoy reward. ~

~ You know me better. ~

~ He doesn't. Besides, sometimes when you get possessive you do things you wouldn't otherwise. ~

~ Are you saying I make stupid mistakes when that happens? ~ Brad sounded angry but also thoughtful.

~ You don't always think things through as well. ~

~ I'll keep that in mind. I'll be more thoughtful in dealing with the clones. I know you have misgivings about the CDs but I think it's important to view them for your safety and ours, and I don't think you can be objective about them. How much more do you want from me? I'll only go so far. ~

Schuldig stirred the dregs of his coffee with his spoon. What did he want? He wanted everything. That was all. As usual. How much did he expect? How far did he think he should push? Was change really possible when Brad saw nothing wrong? Those were good questions.

Would he respect someone who gave in to his every whim? He didn't think so.

Brad had made concessions and hadn't been snide or sounded like he was humoring Schuldig on his last answer. "I know," Schuldig said.

"I hope we're not going to fight every few hours now."

"We won't if you don't piss me off," Schuldig answered sweetly. "It's all up to you."

Brad smiled a little and lightly yanked on Schuldig's hair. "Don't be a brat."

"You wouldn't respect me if I were a doormat."

"Probably not, but sometimes I dream about it."


	195. "Be careful who you call a lamb."

"Not going to stop at the desk to see if your parents called?" Schuldig asked as they walked through the hotel lobby.

"They haven't called yet," Crawford answered.

"You're really working it today."

"Partly. Mostly it's just flowing naturally today."

"That's what getting vigorously fucked will do for you."

"You would say that."

"And just have."

Still, the feelings hadn't been perfect. One had told him that Schuldig "wouldn't mind" the discs when in actuality Schuldig had grudgingly consented to letting Crawford view them after a long argument. The end result might be the same, but the effort involved in getting there had been very different. Had the feeling only meant that he'd get his way in the end but he'd _interpreted_ it as "Schuldig wouldn't mind"? He'd have to be careful about that in the future.

Schuldig's actual reaction made far more sense than "wouldn't mind." Who wouldn't be disquieted by the thought of a comrade watching your life unfold on screen, especially when accompanied by the kind of commentary Eszett's trainers and torturers would provide?

Crawford understood the reaction but couldn't indulge it. Schwarz had already been blindsided by the word, the scope and breadth of the cloning program, and the existence of Crawford and Schuldig's daughter, so they couldn't afford to disregard a resource for more information about what Eszett had done, particularly when Schwarz had been a leading team for them and Schuldig a gene source for so many of the clones. Eszett meddled. That was its whole function.

He and Schuldig argued. It was something they'd always done, but Schuldig had become more brazen and demanding since they'd destroyed the Elders. Inevitable, as much as Crawford wished otherwise, even as he admitted to himself that a Schuldig who submitted to his every wish wouldn't be nearly as intriguing.

They'd first started fucking around with each other as a campaign and struggle for dominance and influence. It had become something more since then. If Eszett had installed worms or viruses in Schuldig's foundation....

It didn't help that dealing with this old Eszett and Rosenkreuz business rubbed their nerves raw and left them slogging through old business and old methods of operation.

As they ascended in the elevator, Crawford couldn't help appreciating the contrast of Schuldig's bright hair against the black of his coat. In the relative privacy here, he couldn't help stroking it, happy that the recent trim had taken off the rough ends. His lover. He'd always been possessive of what belonged to him, but it felt fiercer now. Anyone who fucked with his family would suffer. Schuldig shot him an initially suspicious look, perhaps thinking that he was trying to jolly him over the discs, but it soon looked more reassured and heated to something else. His telepath did love to have his hair petted.

The door opened to their floor. "Shit timing," Schuldig murmured.

"You haven't gotten enough yet today?"

"Do you know what 'insatiable' means?"

"Balinese didn't take the edge off for you?" Under the right circumstances, as long as Balinese knew and kept his place, Crawford didn't mind. Besides, Schuldig could be too much for one man to handle sometimes if that man ever wanted to get serious work done.

"We were getting close but then somebody told me to get to a restaurant to meet with our daughter. You owe me."

"You'll get paid."

Schuldig turned suddenly at the door to Farfarello and Aya's room and knocked. _Fenris_ answered it. When the hell did he get into town? "We were supposed to be invisible to telepaths," the boy said.

"I'm just that good," Schuldig replied. "Besides, three of my lost lambs are in there. I have mind links to those guys, so it's harder to hide them from me."

"Be careful who you call a lamb," Farfarello said from somewhere in the room.

"Sucks," Fenris said. "You can join the card game if you like, but Ken will accuse you of cheating just for being a telepath."

"That's not what I said!" Siberian protested from inside. When the hell did Siberian get into town? Weiß wasn't allowed to surprise Crawford.

"That's what you meant!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Children!" Friendly shouted.

Schuldig opened the door more and walked in. Crawford followed, annoyed and curious. How much had happened last night and today while he'd slept, fucked and gotten fucked, and taken care of family business?

"I better not find out that any of you looked at my cards while I was at the door," Fenris said as he sat down at the table and picked up his hands.

"You're losing anyway," Farfarello said, holding his own cards.

"It's the principle."

"We're killers. We have no principles."

"Of course you do!"

"Especially you, Farfarello," Friendly said.

Farfarello, Fenris, Aya, Friendly, Siberian, Balinese, and Misery appeared to be playing some form of poker for strawberry and chocolate Pocky sticks. It broke the brain.

"Dogs and cats playing poker together," Schuldig murmured, openly amused.

Friendly had a suit jacket draped over the back of her chair and wore a shirt, a tie, and pants tailored for a woman. In mockery? Noticing Crawford's look, she said, "I got these done in New York when Lark took me out. Not everything is about you. In case you're wondering, Nagi is in his room researching things on his computer."

"How did Weiß come to be here?" Crawford asked.

"Aya started to feel a buzzing that suggested a telepath snooping around," Farfarello answered. "Considering what you and Schuldig have said to us today, I decided that it would be prudent to err on the side of caution and have someone look into it. Unfortunately, _someone_ was too busy shopping and flirting with kitties to bother listening to me."

Schuldig had the grace to look chastened. "I didn't think it was a big thing."

"Oh, aye, because I trouble you over trifles all the time. Fortunately for us, Friendly was available."

"She helped you before," Crawford said.

"Yeah. Aside from the junior mindbreaker and the slutkitten--"

"Hey!" Balinese protested.

"--Weiß was with her, so she brought them with her and apparently called in the slut and the chinchilla kit along the way."

"You've never seen my avatar form," Misery said.

Farfarello shrugged. "Sometimes I know things. Sometimes I wonder what Schuldig's self would look like if he weren't Legion. Once they arrived, Friendly blocked Aya off a bit and confirmed that some telepath was hanging around looking for us."

"Was it Breaker?" Crawford asked.

"I can't say for sure," Friendly answered. "It could be, but the telepath has fudged his signature."

While the cooperation had its benefits, Weiß and part of Schwarz looked all too friendly together, a worrying development but hardly a sudden one. Schwarz had taken Aya in and worked with Friendly a few times, while some members had used, fucked, and trained Balinese. Schwarz occasionally worked as consultants to Kritiker. Change was the only constant in life, so Crawford had to react to it and shape their future.

Misery looked too comfortable amidst the blended teams. Better groomed and clean, he also resembled Schuldig much more.

"We're waiting for a call, so we're going to our room," Crawford said. From the expressions on the faces of most of the people here, they had a very different idea of what Crawford and Schuldig intended to do in there but he couldn't bring himself to care. The fewer people who knew what would be going on at the airport with his family, the better.

Once they entered their room, Schuldig said, smirking, "They all think I'm a slut."

"I wonder how that happened," Crawford answered as he checked the phone for bugs and found nothing.

"Don't get too smug. They figure you're aiding and abetting me."

"They can think whatever they like as long as they obey me."

"Baby, you're making me so hot right now."

Fortunately, the phone rang. Schuldig must have heard the phrasing of that thought, because he said, "As if you need to be saved from me?"

Crawford picked up the phone. "Hello."

"We're here, Brad," his father said. "At the airport. This is great. I never left the country before!"

Crawford had the sudden horrific image of his parents as _that_ kind of tourist. "It's a shame you won't be able to see more than that."

"We get it, Brad."

"Where's Mom?"

"Right next to me."

"She wants to meet you before she commits. I told her to come packed to go in case." His parents knew the "she" he meant, so why put it out there in case someone somehow listened in? "She also wants to bring someone with her if she goes, a friend of hers. He looks like he may be anywhere from nine to eleven years old. Japanese genetic heritage. Not a blood relation." They would see the resemblance to Nagi and make the connection on their own at the time of the meeting.

"Let me talk to your mother." But Dad did sound somehow more excited. A vague sound of conversation came through the phone before his father came back to say, "_We_ can't commit until we meet him."

"She said she might not leave without him."

"Hmm."

It made Crawford smirk to think of what his parents might be thinking right now. Did they still think they could kidnap Verity and take her with them? "I'll help whatever you decide." He knew they'd understand what he meant. "We have to tell them to come with us, and we'll find you when we reach the airport." They knew Schuldig could read their location.

"That's great. We're looking forward to seeing all of you! Bye, Brad."

"Bye, Dad." Crawford put the phone down. "Schuldig--"

"Already contacted them and told them to be ready to get picked up. Good thing we got the call now, because they were climbing the walls about to explode from nervousness and anticipation, and that would just be messy. Dunno if they could survive waiting much longer." Schuldig smirked. "This is so convenient for us too because we didn't even take our coats off."

"Good work." It was.

Schuldig beamed.

"Although it doesn't make up for ignoring Farfarello's call for help earlier."

The smile dropped. "I'm sorry, Brad, okay? I was distracted."

"Don't let this happen again."

"Yes, Brad." The answer sounded mostly sincere.

Good enough.

On their way out the door, they saw Nagi watching in the hall for them. ~ You're going to the airport now? ~ he asked.

~ The call came in, ~ Crawford answered.

~ Why do I have the feeling that there's something going on I should know about? ~

~ Paranoia, ~ Schuldig replied serenely.

Nagi corresponded with Crawford's parents more than Crawford did, so it might be better to tell him now, especially since Crawford felt they'd take Misoji. ~ Verity wants to take Misoji with her to the live with my parents. He agreed to come to the meeting and consider it. ~

Nagi reacted about how Crawford expected he would. ~ Does anyone have _his_ best interests in mind? ~ While he hadn't gone insane over his clone or developed bizarre maternal instincts like Schuldig had, he'd obviously felt some small bond of empathy, something vaguely big brother-like. From Nagi, it was disturbing.

~ Do you really think he's better off living amongst the mashups and other clones with Kritiker and possibly being exploited than going to live with actual parental figures who will treat him like a young _person_? ~

~ Do you really think Verity has that in mind? He's an accessory to her, like the little purse dogs rich girls get. ~

If Schuldig mentioned how Verity had talked about how small and easy to carry around Misoji was, Crawford would give him hell. For weeks. Perhaps years. Sensing that, Schuldig looked aggrieved but remained blessedly silent.

~ My parents will treat him well. ~

~ He looks so much like me. Will your parents hand him a computer and a camera and expect them to mean something to him, as if he _is_ me? ~

~ I and my brother look a lot like our father. It doesn't appear to have been a problem in my family. ~

~ You were taken from your parents at a young age, while you have no idea how they raised your brother. ~

~ You're being ridiculous. I trust my parents, and so should you. ~

~ Did anyone mention to Misoji that your mother makes me nervous? ~

~ She likes you, ~ Schuldig said with a smirk.

~ Yeah, with fava beans and a nice Chianti! ~

Crawford couldn't tolerate that, not about his mother. ~ Nagi! ~

~ She makes me nervous. I'm not even sure why. I think I may be responding to her on a telekinetic level. I should go with you to make sure someone's there for Misoji's interests. ~

~ No, because I want Misoji to have his own reaction to my parents, not yours. ~

Nagi closed his eyes, obviously unable to argue with that, then opened them and said, ~ Bring Aya. ~

~ Now who's imposing an image of you over Misoji? Misoji doesn't have any feelings for Aya and barely met him. ~

Steely-eyed, Nagi said, ~ Give Misoji someone there whose overriding concern is _not_ to punt him onto a plane just to get Verity to go. Give him that much, even if you won't listen to Aya about it when the time comes anyway. ~

~ You're assuming a lot about Aya too. ~

~ He was a big brother. I don't have to make any assumptions. You can tell Farfarello that you want Aya with you so Schuldig can monitor him and see if we can catch the telepath he sensed. ~

That last part was actually a good plan, and Crawford really had no intentions of listening if Aya tried to intercede against his parents taking the kids away, not that Aya would want to once Crawford properly explained the situation and its dangers. ~ All right. ~

Nagi looked surprised and unable to believe yet that he'd gotten what he'd asked for. ~ All right? ~

~ Yes. I see the benefits to that plan. ~

~ Okay. Thank you. I'll go back to doing research and recon on Woeller. ~ Still looking a bit suspicious, Nagi returned to his room.

"I can't wait until we're all away from here," Crawford murmured.

"Pandora's Box is already wide open. No way we're all going back to blissful ignorance just by returning to Japan," Schuldig said.

"It was a pretty thought."

When they knocked at the door to Farfarello and Aya's room, Fenris answered again. "Hi."

"Why do you get this duty?" Schuldig asked.

"Lack of seniority, while Sasha is a guest," the boy answered. "What do you want now?"

Who the hell was Sasha? Then Crawford realized exactly who Sasha had to be and wanted to groan.

"That was fast," Balinese said with a smirk.

"Don't even play that, Yoji. You know the two of us are good for a long ride," Schuldig answered, then called to Aya, "Yo, Red! Come with us. I want to see if we can bag the person sneaking around your head." Looking right at Farfarello, Schuldig continued, "To make up for me being unavailable before."

"Remember to keep your paws to yourself," Farfarello replied.

"Yeah, yeah."

"That doesn't sound sincere enough."

"All right! Besides, Brad will be there and you know how Brad likes to keep me in line."

"He better."

Aya raised an eyebrow, but stood, handed his cards to Farfarello, and put his boots and coat on. Looking at the cards, Farfarello cackled, then abruptly quieted.

"What?" a few people at the table asked.

"Nothing. I'll be doing Aya's cards too. Play on," he answered.

Once they were out in the hall, Crawford asked, "What was the last bit about?"

"My hand was crap," Aya replied. "I suspect he's toying with their heads. What's going on?"

"We're picking up two members of mini-Schwarz, then going for a ride," Schuldig said. "Meanwhile, I'll be doing just what I said for you."

"Without molestation," Crawford replied. "Just as you said."

"Aw, Brad! You take all the fun out of things."

"I'll sit in the back alone where I'll be less convenient," Aya said.

"You _both_ take all the fun out of things."

At least the insanity was occasionally amusing.


	196. "Better than being raised by a band of feral prostitutes, as you were."

While he'd asked for the backseat to avoid Schuldig's wandering hands, Aya somewhat resented being in it. It made him feel something like a child while the two "adults" sat in the front, although he didn't mind as much when he had Farfarello and Nagi back here with him. It felt different then, more like a team on the hunt, professional.

It didn't take brains to know that Crawford and Schuldig hadn't told him everything. They didn't spontaneously take him out for no reason. Picking up two members of mini-Schwarz and going for a ride. Really. With Schuldig and Crawford involved, it would probably be Verity for one. Despite themselves, they'd been interested in her, Schuldig for whatever genetic bonding he seemed to feel for his spawn and Crawford out of possessiveness and some idea of a legacy. Yes, that seemed right. So the other would be Antipathy?

No. Aya didn't think that it would be the Orange line clone. It didn't feel right somehow. Half closing his eyes, he let himself drift a bit, thinking about it.

Nagi's clone. The other kid would be Nagi's clone. But why? Something about family.

"Red, that tickles," Schuldig said, amused. "Never been fingered with my own talent before. Mmm, go a little harder and deeper."

Aya snapped his eyes open and saw the telepath, a blaze of vivid color, turned to face him. Aya replied, "I was just thinking."

"'Thinking'? Is that what the kids are calling it these days? Like hell. You were riding my telepathy a bit, and most of your success at that seems to come from me feeding you some last night, letting you know me. Huh. The telepaths playing poker were blocking themselves, while Friendly made you nondescript to whoever was snooping around. Nice work, but she couldn't quite nail whatever you have enough to seal you off from sucking on other people so she didn't do that."

"That sounds disgusting."

"I think it sounds kinky," Schuldig answered, while Crawford snorted.

"You would," Aya said. "You blocked me off once."

"I blocked you off to _everything_ then because I couldn't figure out exactly how to stop what you do, and the only reason why I could do such a complete job is that I know you well. We can't afford to box you away from us while half the talented world wants our asses for one reason or another."

"He doesn't drain off your power, does he?" Crawford asked.

"No, just rides on it. Doesn't weaken me."

"Let him have as much as he can handle without making him or us a target. Another sensitive would be a good thing to have here. Also, let's see if the buzzing comes back based on the power instead of Aya himself or Aya on Farfarello's talent."

"Is anyone going to ask if I'm all right with that?" Aya asked, annoyed but not surprised.

"Are you all right with it?" Schuldig asked with a smile.

"...all right."

"Figured you would be." Schuldig took his glove off and held his bare hand out to Aya. "Take a sip. It seems to work better when I know about it and give instead of being taken from."

Aya had sworn to himself that he would be less passive about this, and that meant taking responsibility for what he did as well, as distasteful as that could be. He took off his own glove and let his hand rest atop Schuldig's, feeling a pulse like warmth and the world becoming louder and settling into new, richer patterns. Oddly, his headache _changed_, shifting into a different kind of pain.

Schuldig let go of his hand with a caress of fingers, then moved over the seat more to let his fingers play across Aya's right temple. "Better?"

"A little," Aya had to admit. Shield more on his own instead of leaning on Schuldig. Taking a deep breath, he concentrated and felt an improvement, then shook off Schuldig's hand in annoyance.

"You have a natural gift for shielding yourself from others' thoughts," Schuldig said as he moved back into his seat. "The funny thing is that you didn't have one before coming to Vienna. It's too bad I don't have a gift for research. I'm interested in how you do whatever the hell it is you do."

"Hmm," Crawford said.

"Yeah?"

"I may want to contact Malice."

Schuldig looked sulky. "Sure. He's been such a great help with his archives. When you meet him again I'll have to come along to thank him properly."

"It'll be worth it. I'm sure of it."

"I'm glad someone is."

Aya didn't want to listen to them bickering about something he couldn't make out that they seemed disinclined to explain to him, so instead he asked, "Why are we picking up Verity and Misoji?"

"Very good, Red. I'm sure you'll figure it out once we pick them up. We want as few people as possible knowing what's going on for as long as possible."

The two talents stood outside a building, each with a backpack, both almost sparking with anticipation and nervousness that increased as the car came to a halt in front of them. How odd to feel the world this way, with all these other cues. Aya moved to the far end of the seat, automatically shifting his katana so he could be comfortable.

Looking at him, Verity said, "You're different again."

Aya shrugged. Seated between them, Misoji just about vibrated against Aya's side although he looked cool and unconcerned to the eye.

They were going to the airport to meet Crawford's parents. Aya felt it from Verity, who was excited and scared but trying to seem jaded. Of course Crawford hadn't wanted to tell anyone about his parents being in Vienna. Aya knew he shouldn't be reading a trained talent like hers this easily, even if she was bursting with emotion and conjectures. Then again, she had a blood link to the telepathy he currently used.

He wondered if putting his hand on Misoji's shoulder would calm the boy down or at least give him something to be annoyed at as a distraction or if it would just make him worse. Misoji wasn't Nagi and didn't know him. They didn't know each other. Aya just saw someone young and scared, with far less promise of a welcome than Verity had, but trying to be strong for the sake of his pride and dignity, so Aya didn't need talent to feel some empathy here.

Aya finally decided to set his hopefully calming, or at least distracting, hand on Misoji's shoulder, which made him jump and look chagrined, then annoyed, but at least he stopped vibrating. He glanced at Aya, then looked to the front again.

The next moment Aya realized that he'd surprised a telekinetic and could have been crushed as a result. Fortunately, it had worked out.

"My parents are very excited to meet the both of you," Crawford said. "My father's also excited to be in Austria for the first time, so please don't think he'll be that manic all the time. I know that Verity has a passport, but we have one for Misoji too, his to keep whether he leaves with my family or not."

Handing it back to the boy, Schuldig said, "You have no idea how much money and string-pulling this needed. The wheels of bureaucracy in Vienna turn very, very slowly."

Still looking surprised, Misoji then laughed a little. "It has a photo."

"Rosenkreuz gave you and Nagi matching moptops so it worked out."

"I hope you don't find the naming too presumptuous," Crawford said. "Claiming you as a member of my family helped get it done faster, whether you choose to actually become a part of my family or not."

Misoji looked unwillingly touched. "No, it's fine. I can be Misoji Crawford. It's not like I have an actual family name. Or family."

"Nagi just keeps his family name for form's sake," Schuldig said. "He doesn't consider himself theirs after they tossed him into the street."

Annoyed at all the manipulation, Aya said, "As if you're both humanitarians."

"Serving the better good can serve us too sometimes."

Misoji was touched and impressed despite himself, while Verity couldn't help feeling some jealousy and resentment made more bitter by the knowledge that Misoji wouldn't even be here if not for her. How did telepaths keep a train of thought or get anything done with so many cross currents of distraction?

"Verity, did you bring your gun with you?" Crawford asked.

"Of course I--" Then her eyes widened. "I can't keep it if I go, can I."

"New York State has strict gun laws. You're not old enough to have a legal license to carry a gun."

"My passport says I'm 19."

"Still too young. I'm sorry. I'm sure it means something to you, but you can't keep it. You'll be out of the game, living a normal teen's life in America. Shut up, Schu."

"What?" Schuldig looked much sulkier than Verity had. "Fine."

"You should hand it over now for us to keep in the car. If you don't go with Mom and Dad, we'll give it back to you after the meeting. I swear it. If you decide to go, you can tell us what you want us to do with it here."

Masterfully done. Let her figure it out herself and make the rest sound like a reasonable adult-to-adult conversation.

She closed her eyes, then wiggled out of her coat, nearly smacking Misoji by accident a few times, so she could take off her shoulder rig with its gun. "Shit," she said as she stroked it a few times, then thrust it all at Schuldig, figuring that what she'd be getting in return would be worth the cost. Schuldig accepted it as if she'd given him a great gift, then carefully folded it up and put it under his seat so it wouldn't be noticed in the car once they parked. Subdued, she put her coat back on.

Verity had just willingly given up her autonomy and consented to being a child. Aya wondered if she realized or understood what it meant.

Schwarz had long ago forced him into a similar situation. That would be addressed again once they were done with this tangled mess in Vienna.

Schuldig had turned around in his seat to look at Aya, making Aya wonder if he'd heard those thoughts. Not that it made a difference since Aya had no intention of unthinking them. Their current work only provided a hiatus from the concerns he'd aired to them in Japan.

If Schuldig had noticed, he didn't mention it, saying only, "Misoji doesn't know English but Verity does."

"My parents only know English," Crawford said. "Are you open to getting a language transplant, Misoji?"

"Yeah. This meeting would be a waste if we couldn't understand each other."

"Verity, would you like to do the honors?"

"All right."

As she gave Misoji English, Aya couldn't help wondering if she'd be able to adjust to a "normal" life as a teenager with others speaking and making decisions for her. Far fewer people would be asking her opinion on what she wanted to do after this. Then again, perhaps she intended to lord it over Misoji, who also provided a link to her past. Not that Misoji seemed like the easily biddable type.

Perhaps Crawford and Schuldig figured she'd no longer be something they'd have to think about or their problem once she left for the United States, and she could be dissatisfied without them caring at all. He knew damned well they didn't intend to let her stay in Europe. Surely she knew that too.

Why had they brought him along? Whose idea had it been?

"Aya, I'm going to take a lot of my talent back," Schuldig said. "I don't think you're ready for an airport. Hell, they give _me_ headaches."

It _was_ distracting, and they hadn't even gotten to their destination yet. "All right." The world quieted and dimmed a bit after the brush of Schuldig's fingers along the side of his face.

As they approached the airport and he got a feel of it with what talent he had left, he felt very thankful that Schuldig had leeched so much off because he couldn't imagine dealing with more of this. It was overwhelming here, so redolent of anticipation and various kinds of anxiety that Aya's heart pounded in sympathy. People worried about their flights, their family, their future as things happened too quickly or far too slowly. They waited in tense boredom and leashed excitement, clenching their teeth.

"It gets worse the closer we get," Schuldig murmured. "Oh, don't worry about your weapons, Aya. I'll be clouding folks' minds so we can bring them in."

"How do you _deal_ with this?"

"Good shields put together through hard work and a total lack of having any choice in the matter. Do you need me to block you out more?"

As much as it galled his pride, Aya said, "Yes." He wouldn't be useful like this, and it seldom made sense to teach someone to swim for the first time by dropping him into the deep end of the pool. He shivered as Schuldig's bare fingers fluttered against the side of his face again, further damming the ocean.

"Good decision," Crawford said.

"I've noticed that this gives you excuses to touch me," Aya said.

"Of course it does," Schuldig answered. "You know, if you let me touch you more often I wouldn't need excuses."

"Keep dreaming."

"Where are my parents?" Crawford asked as the car approached the parking area.

"Found them," Schuldig said. "Shit, so have two other people."

"Kill them."

"Of course. Aya?"

"Ready to go," Aya answered, rather looking forward to it.

Crawford slowed the car down for a moment, and Aya and Schuldig raced out. ~ Don't worry about security, ~ Schuldig said. ~ I have you covered. Just plow on through. ~

Although Aya understood the Crawfords' danger all too well, he couldn't help the rush running gave him and the pleasure he found in the challenge of getting around people who couldn't even see him. He didn't like to admit that he enjoyed pushing his speed against Schuldig's, fighting for the lead. Schuldig grinned at him.

~ There! ~

Seeing Mr. and Mrs. Crawford hemmed in by two people and obviously angry about it, Aya put on a new burst of speed, then grabbed the opponent he chose by the neck and yanked the man away, snapping the spine and flinging himself and the corpse over to the side of Crawford's parents. Schuldig straddled his chosen opponent down on the floor.

Waving airily toward the Crawfords, Schuldig said, "Aya, make conversation while I read this guy for information."

"What?"

"Talk! Politeness. That kind of thing. I'm busy."

Brushing himself off, Aya stood and said, "It's good to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Crawford."

"That sounds more like our line," Tom Crawford answered. "They had some kind of-- You know." Talents and weapons. "I hate not having an equalizer."

"Please call us Tom and Evelyn, Aya," Crawford's mother said.

"...all right. Thank you," Aya replied.

"Don't mind him, Mom," Schuldig said. "He was raised by a band of feral cats on the streets of Tokyo, so he doesn't know how to do small talk."

"Better than being raised by a band of feral prostitutes, as you were," Aya answered, stung.

"How did you know?"

"You're almost impossible to insult. I hate that."

"No, really, how did you know? Did you read it?"

Aya sighed. "It was a guess. I'm sorry, Tom, Evelyn. You're dealing very well considering." Considering Aya had killed someone in front of them, while Schuldig... did something that wasn't really what it looked like. Not that anyone saw them at the moment.

"Brad told us we wouldn't be able to stay long. I see why," Evelyn said. "Where is he?"

"Parking. He'll bring the kids with him," Schuldig said as he stood. "Believe or not, these guys don't belong to any crime lord we even had on our radar, but they heard of us. We'll have to deliver the corpses to the man's door to make sure he gets the point. Shit, we don't have Nagi with us, so we'll have to carry these ourselves."

"Misoji could help if he wished," Aya answered. "If he doesn't go with Crawford's parents."

"Wise-ass."

Evelyn smiled as Crawford and the children came into view. "The boy looks like Nagi." Then she looked almost angry. "I see." From the look on Tom's face, he understood what it meant as well.

"Mom, Dad," Crawford said, doing a quick grab and clasp with his father, then a hug with his mother. "I'm glad you're all right."

"I'm glad Schuldig and Aya are on our side," Tom answered, dealing with the situation easily. The Crawfords scared Aya somewhat.

Aya couldn't help smiling a bit as Verity, looking at Crawford's mother, hadn't realized the woman would look _that_ Japanese. He didn't need to be able to read anything from Misoji's mind to know that the boy resented almost everyone else being so damned tall. From his slight smile at Mrs. Crawford, Misoji considered her the right size.

Crawford used his hand at Verity's back to urge her forward. "This is Verity."

The Crawfords smiled, and Tom said, "You look so much like your fathers."

"Such a pretty girl," Evelyn said, which for some reason made Schuldig cough.

~ When she calls _me_ "pretty," she doesn't mean it as a compliment. She's on the fence about Verity. ~

Verity looked searchingly at them both, then smiled a little as she asked, "I'm really not going to be able to get away with anything around you two, am I?" She currently seemed charming, a bit cute, and younger.

"Are you sure you haven't raised her, Schuldig?" Evelyn asked, obviously not taking her at face value. Smart woman.

"I solemnly swear, Mom," Schuldig replied.

"You don't do anything solemnly."

"Would you be interested in coming to live with us as our granddaughter, Verity?" Tom asked. "It's up to you, but we'd love to have you around. Please feel free to call us 'Grandpa' and 'Grandma.' You'll have an aunt and uncle too, though they're at college most of the time."

"Would I have my own room?" she asked.

"Kenneth rarely visits anymore," Evelyn said with an almost evil smile.

"Verity, aren't you forgetting someone?" Aya asked and noticed Misoji's brief look of relief before he made his face blank again. She shouldn't be allowed to rescind the offer she'd made to the boy now that she appeared to be reassured of welcome with the Crawfords and think she wouldn't need him as much.

To her credit, she didn't turn sulky. The remnants of talent Aya still had showed that while she somewhat resented splitting her grandparents' attention, the naked greed of moments before had been her getting ahead of herself a bit, not an attempt to get rid of the boy. She _was_ young but not a sociopath or selfish. At least, she wasn't any more selfish than an ordinary teenager. "Grandpa, Grandma, this is Misoji. I worked with him. I don't know if Mr. Crawford told you, but I hoped that I might bring him along, since I'm going to be far away from everything I've ever known and it would be nice to have someone who... understood. By the way, this does mean I'd like to go home with you."

Actually, Aya felt her warming to the idea again as she spoke. It _would_ be nice not to be alone amongst strangers, and she didn't know for sure what she'd do with a room of her own anyway.

"You don't... have to. If you don't want to," Misoji told them. "I know I'm not part of your family."

Tom put his arm around Evelyn, and they both smiled at Misoji. Aya could tell through telepathy that they loved having a granddaughter of their own blood and loved the idea that if they took in Misoji as well they would have a grand_child_.

What a weird way to live, having so many other clues and cues to people's behavior and reactions. Aya couldn't decide whether he liked it.

"We want to take you in," Evelyn said. "It doesn't matter to us. But if it matters to _you_, consider yourself a blood relation to our adopted grandson, Nagi."

Risky. How would Misoji deal with being connected to the person he'd been cloned from? Would he consider it a plus or minus?

Misoji smile was small but genuine. "Oh. All right. Thank you. I'll... I'll come with you. If I'm welcome."

"You certainly are, grandson."

The Crawfords seemed to be good guardians for Verity and Misoji. Knowing their inner reaction to Misoji made Aya feel better about allowing him to go with them. No matter how Verity saw him, he'd be loved.

Crawford closed up his cell phone. "I just activated your tickets home. The flight will leave in an hour."

"I hate being forced to see you so briefly, but considering what happened to us I can see the sense in it," Evelyn said. "We better check in. They won't allow you at the gate with us. Brad, do you have suggestions on how we can better protect ourselves if anyone else comes for us?"

"I trust that Misoji will be able to take care of you."

The boy radiated pride. "Yes, sir."

The Crawfords looked surprised until they remembered Nagi. Tom said, "I'm glad we'll be in your hands, Misoji. Don't be a stranger, Brad," then clasped Crawford again.

"I won't, Dad."

"You don't have to need something to call us," Evelyn said.

"Yes, Mother."

"Don't 'mother' me, young man."

"Yes, Mom."

She hugged him. "Like your father said. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Schuldig. Would you like a hug too?"

"No, Mom," Schuldig answered. "I think Brad's still traumatized from the last time you hugged me."

"Next time we want to see Nagi too."

"He was busy today."

Once she let Crawford go, she said, "Come along, Verity, Misoji. Let's check in, then see if we can get your grandfather excited by Austrian fast food in the kiosk."

"Great, Eve. They'll have no respect for me at all. I'll have to start telling them things about you to make up for it."

As the America-bound foursome walked away, Schuldig said, "How sweet to see everyone on their best behavior. Once they get home your mom and Verity will begin their epic battle for dominance, and they'll have to peel Misoji off the ceiling."

"I don't foresee that," Crawford.

"You don't wanna foresee that."

"I'm sure it will turn out fine."

"Suuuuure."

"Besides, my mother will win."

"That I can believe. Too bad we won't get to see Kenny's reaction to the new arrivals. Hey, Red, what's wrong?"

"I feel something." A low undertow of rage and pain and a certainty that injustice had been done. Aya had no idea where that had come from and would have mistaken it for his own feeling if it had arrived with any context.

~ Is it the buzzing from earlier? I don't hear anything like that. ~

~ No. Nothing like it. ~

Schuldig stepped over one of the corpses and put his hand against the side of Aya's face. ~ Huh. This is a really narrow telepathic broadcast. A person with really good shields wouldn't get it. And it seems to be keyed to my signature, which is why you heard something-- ~ Schuldig's eyes widened. ~ It's telling its hearers to go after Woeller. If Aya had more power, he would have felt and heard it much stronger and gone stomping out of here. Someone's using my less shielded clones as a weapon. Fucker! ~

~ This is not good, ~ Crawford said.

"I thought you wanted him taken down," Aya said.

~ Not like this. If it looks purely like a personal vengeance killing, with no sanctions or employer, it could lead to big trouble for all of us. We have to go and stop it. Schuldig-- ~

~ I told the team, and they're heading to Woeller's place. None of them heard it, not even Sasha. Whoever sent this didn't want any of us, particularly not me, to notice. But Aya here-- ~

"Get your hand off the back of my neck," Aya said.

~ You and Aya carry the bodies to the car. We'll drop them off after we fix this fiasco with Woeller, ~ Crawford said. ~ The timing on this is very suspicious. ~

From the expression on his face, Schuldig added body-toting to a growing list of things to be angry about.


	197. "Ken is very nice but he's not three people."

"I win again," Farfarello said with a cackle. "Sweet Pocky."

"You have, like, the luck of the evil or something," Yoji said. The psycho won a lot. Had one hell of a poker face too, since he'd bluffed them all with Aya's hand.

"People often blame the luck of others when skill fails them. Or when skill never existed to begin with."

"Is it always like this, Yoji?" Sasha asked.

"Is what?" Yoji asked.

"Schwarz and Weiß."

"Yes," Farfarello said, "Schwarz always wins."

"No," Yoji said, "we don't usually play cards together. Schwarz doesn't always win either."

"We should play together more often if Siberian keeps bringing Pocky."

"This is _not_ my fault," Ken protested behind what was probably another crap hand.

"I vote that we blame Ken," Fenris said.

"Seconded," Elena answered with a smile.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Ken said.

"Too late. We blame you."

"Yoji didn't vote!"

"I blame Aya," Yoji answered.

Ken looked vindicated. "See?"

"Doesn't matter. Two to one!" Fenris said.

"You see if I ever offer anyone Pocky again."

"Oh. In that case, it's not your fault. It's Yoji's fault. Yoji never gives anyone Pocky unless they win it off him."

"You're such a little mercenary," Yoji answered.

"You shouldn't be surprised. Look at my job."

Yoji heard a whisper of something, and everyone else in the room except Ken blinked at the same time. "What?" Yoji asked.

"Woeller was mine!" Sasha said as he set his cards down. Everyone else was starting to get up too.

"Can we get a translation for the non-telepaths in the room?" Ken asked.

"Schuldig let us know that someone is sending a signal to make a lot of Schuldig's clones go after Woeller and his men," Elena said as she put her suit jacket and then her coat on.

"Forcing them?"

"No. Being subtle enough that they want to do it themselves without realizing it came from outside. Shit. I didn't give them enough shielding know-how to block this out but just enough to make them useful as a weapon."

"Huh?"

"Without the shielding they were so intertwined that a lot of them weren't able to act as individuals. They were just lying around being confused."

The door opened seemingly on its own. Nagi came through, already wearing his coat. "I see you all heard."

"We got our marching orders from Schuldig," Elena said. "Since this thing with Woeller is a big disaster, Weiß will actually listen to that order."

"But they wanted Woeller dead," Yoji said.

"It's a delicate balance," Nagi said. "The normals hate having people like us in existence. We're too powerful. But if we stay within guidelines and limits--employers, sanction orders--"

"If we're tools, controllable," Elena said.

"--then it's okay. If we start going out wilding on personal vengeance sprees, we become a threat."

"They might start banding together to take us out. It could be war. It might even draw in official authorities. We need to show people that we police our own and we're not wild."

"That's not fair!" Ken said.

"That never matters," Fenris answered.

As they rushed out of the room, Yoji asked, "How are we divvying up into the cars? I say Weiß and Sasha take one car, Nagi and Farfarello the other." Sasha barely knew the rest of Schwarz, so why put him with them?

"I have no complaints with that," Nagi said. "See you there."

Yoji took Sasha's gun and rig out of the trunk and handed them to him. As they got into the car, Sasha, looking nervous, said, "Thanks. I... thought I'd have more time to get ready for this."

"This man abused you but he can't touch you again," Ken said. "Think of it that way." Ken hadn't been given details of the kind of abuse, but he'd immediately seen Sasha as a kid and was more protective because of that.

"Yeah," Sasha answered, obviously trying to convince himself.

"It's pretty tempting to be just a moment too late to save Woeller," Elena said.

"Wait a minute, are you saying saving his life is an option?" Yoji asked. "I really thought we could we just amble in and get credit for making an appearance."

"We have to at least make it look like we're really trying to, or the other crime bosses will get antsy about us. They might react badly if Woeller dies even if we do make the rescue attempt look good because there's no job against Woeller that we've taken. Crawford might try to fabricate one later but if he doesn't have somebody willing to say they ordered it, we could end up screwed. And with Woeller dead, nobody would have to admit to wanting it done. Anybody with a legitimate beef just got a freebie, so why would they?"

"In Europe you have weird ways of doing things," Ken said.

"We were born into a world we never made. In Fenris and Sasha's cases they were made in a world they never made."

"Can we go kill Eszett again?"

"You're a good guy, Ken."

"Woeller deserves to die," Yoji said. Sitting next to him, Sasha looked at him with some apprehension but a lot more gratitude, eyes almost shining. Yoji saw that the kid really liked him. Maybe too much. He also felt Fenris giving him a look on the other side. "Hey, how did Ken end up in the front seat?" Yoji asked.

"He called shotgun," Elena said.

"Getting old and slow, Yoji," Ken answered with a smile.

"I'm glad you're back here," Fenris said, resting his head against Yoji's shoulder. "I haven't seen you in a while."

"It wasn't that long," Yoji answered.

"It felt long. No you, no Elena. Ken is very nice but he's not three people."

"I've noticed that about Ken."

"I already leaned against Elena on the ride to the hotel so it's your turn."

"Thanks."

Sasha watched this jealously, but out of jealousy of Fenris over Yoji or of them both for having a team like this? Yoji said, "You could lean against me too, Sasha, if you want to. I prop people up all the time."

"...all right." Sasha leaned against him from the other side, which Fenris didn't seem to mind.

Glancing at them through the rearview mirror, Elena said, "It must be a sign of my diseased mind that this scene makes me think 'Big Pimpin' Yoji.'"

"Elena!" Yoji protested. How could she say that after what the kid had been through? But Sasha seemed amused. "Fine. That would make you and Ken my chauffeurs. Drive, bitch." She flipped him an obscene gesture. "You love it, Elena. Besides, you invited it."

Thankfully, Sasha seemed a lot less tense now. Yoji hoped the kid did all right, considering he hadn't been ready for this confrontation yet and obviously felt torn over how he should feel about Woeller. Bastard had fucked over Sasha's head really good. Would he instinctively fight to protect his abuser/former employer? Weiß would have to look out for the kid, make sure he stayed level.

"You think Woeller's people will understand we're trying to stop the attackers and aren't attackers ourselves?" Yoji asked, though he knew the answer. Thugs wouldn't turn their guns aside just because the new strangers didn't have orange hair.

"Damn it, I wish we could just let the Orange liners kill him," Elena said. "I don't really want to seriously injure or kill the clones to stop it either. It's not really their fault. Best course of action would be to stop them from getting inside to begin with. Our telekinetics will be useful here."

Plural. "Does Nagi know you've commandeered him for Weiß?"

"Schwarz commandeered me. I'm returning the favor."

"Shit," Sasha said. "I'm doing security for Woeller again."

There was an ugly irony. "I'm sure you'll get another shot at him later," Yoji replied.

"How did Nagi get here first?" Fenris asked as they drove up.

"Might've shoved cars out of the way."

Nagi already had a group of clones telekinetically corralled, and they looked really pissed off. Farfarello stood nearby looking fierce. Yoji wondered for a moment what bystanders thought of it all until he realized he didn't see any. For whatever reason, no one seemed to be on the street over here. The gunshot sounds might have driven some of them off.

Once Elena parked the car, they rushed out and approached the building using whatever cover they could find. Cars, for instance. Finally they reached one of the building's exterior walls.

"Took you long enough to arrive," Nagi said. "Did you take the scenic route?"

"We're here now," Elena answered. "What's the situation inside?"

"The exterior guards were dead or chasing after clones by the time we arrived. I can't tell how many are inside because the signatures keep merging, mutating, and just disappearing. Spotty training."

"I didn't have much time with them."

"I wasn't blaming you for it. I also sense something faint and weird around here, even aside from the signal setting this off. I think we have other clones around who aren't part of the assault."

"If we can cut the signal off at the source, our job would be easier."

"I know, but I don't have the power to find him."

"Him?" Ken asked. "You know that much?"

"Yeah. I think it's another one of Schuldig's clones," Elena replied. "And I think the 'faint and weird' presence is also one of Schuldig's clones."

"Then I might be able to tag them," Sasha said.

"Don't bother. There's no reason to play hide and seek with you on this," one of two spontaneously appearing Orange clones said. "We're kind of on your side."

"You!" Farfarello shouted and lunged until Nagi telekinetically grabbed him. "You used me to kill Ebenroth!"

"What do you care as long as he's dead? C'mon, don't be so uptight!" the dandelion puff-headed one answered.

"Good going, Wicked," the other one said.

"Wait a minute, you're Malice, right?" Yoji asked. Yeah, the kid hadn't had a French braid at the time he first saw him, but it seemed right.

"Yeah. I'm impressed that you could tell the difference. No, really. I wasn't being sarcastic. Damn it, I knew we should have left the city and kept going."

"But Evil!" Wicked said.

"I don't give a fuck!"

"Some of them got in," Nagi said. "If we want to look like we're trying to prevent a tragedy, we better get moving."

"You two fill us in on why you're hanging around here as you go in with us," Elena said. "We'll see if we can help find this other Orange liner you're looking for."

Malice elbowed Wicked hard. "I told you!"

"You're so dramatic," Wicked said. "C'mon, you couldn't leave town with Evil doing something like this! Your inquisitive nature and pride as an archivist or whatever wouldn't let you!"

Malice shook his head but just said, "I think we would be better off outside looking for Evil."

"Wait, is that the guy's _name_? 'Evil'?" Ken asked.

"Yeah. This is a weird thing, because it feels like Evil but this isn't his usual method of operation. It's like someone is pulling his strings."

"Which, if you knew Evil, you would definitely wonder what changed," Wicked said. "Evil doesn't give a shit about people. Or himself a lot of the time."

"I'm sure you're both good and talented," Elena said, "but I don't feel this guy very well and you've admitted you don't even with your similar signatures. You know who should be brought in on this, and he isn't here yet. You can also probably guess that this would be a good trap for him. No matter, you are coming the fuck inside with us because I hate loose ends, especially ones out of viewing distance, and because we have a pyro, a few telekinetics, and several telepaths who will back me up. Got it?"

"Yes," Malice answered, although he still looked somewhat rebellious.

"Good. Nagi, I want you inside with us. Fenris can pen the ones we already have and they'll find his mind too painful to toy with to boot."

"Thanks, Elena!" Fenris said.

"All right," Nagi answered. "That sounds like a decent idea. I just hope you realize that when Crawford gets here I take orders from him. If they conflict with yours, too bad for you."

"Thanks for the notice. Farfarello, are you going to behave professionally around Wicked or do we have to put you in the pen with the Orange liners until we get back out?"

Although Farfarello looked deeply disgruntled, he answered, "I won't attack him."

"Good."

This was why Elena made a better team leader than Yoji. She really didn't care as much whether people liked her as long as they obeyed her, while Yoji knew he had a tendency to want people to like him and think he was a fair, cool guy. At least with their current setup it gave them a kind of bad cop/good cop relationship to the people they tried to get results out of. It usually worked.

"I'm withdrawing my talent, Fenris," Nagi said. "Be ready to hold them in."

"Got it."

The Orange liners tried to surge out but still hit walls and protested loudly. Fenris said, "Give up. You won't get out."

"All right, we go in now. We've spent too much time out here already," Elena said. "Do we know exactly where Woeller is? I'm picking up a lot of interference."

"Likewise," Malice said.

"I feel him. Still," Sasha said, looking slightly ill. Poor kid. "Follow me."

They raced through hallways cleared of any conscious defenders. The unconscious and the dead littered the floors. The combined team didn't even need to be as cautious and move within cover as much as they'd expected. Their biggest peril was tripping over a body or five. Kids moved _fast_, but that had been part of the point of making them, right? Yoji actually hoped Schuldig arrived too late to see any action on this one, screw trying to catch Evil.

What kind of sick monster named a kid "Evil"?

Sasha stopped them in front of a door on the second floor. "This is it, and it's locked and has furniture shoved in front of it on the other side. They're beating and scaring him right now."

"I can stop them from here," Nagi said.

"Without hurting anyone?" Elena asked.

Looking offended, Nagi answered, "If I have a minute or two to feel out the room first, yeah."

"We don't have that much time," Sasha said. "Blow the door!"

"You're not my-- Fine." Nagi ripped the door off the hinges and moved it into the hall as everyone streamed into the room.

Yoji's glance took in broken furniture, dead men, one dead Orange line clone, and five live ones, one of whom held a bloody and badly beaten older man by his collar. The five looked insane with rage, their blue eyes almost burning with it. All the same face but framed by different lengths of hair. It was so _wrong_. They all held bloody knives. Sick. Using kids as weapons, the way Omi's father had used him....

"Was I worth fucking over?" one clone asked before he tossed Woeller onto the knife of one of the others. They threw him back and forth amongst themselves, slicing and stabbing him, so quickly that Nagi didn't have a chance to figure out whom to stop when. Sasha rushed forward to defend or prevent or something but took an elbow in the face by one of the clones that knocked him down to the floor.

"Woeller's a loss," Elena said, sounding somewhat freaked out. "This is such a snafu."

"He was mine!" Sasha said.

One of the Orange clones answered, "He still was. Who do you think he thought killed him?" They all breathed in easier, their anger clearing into serenity, then they looked to their dead one and went solemn. "Shit," one of them said, then gently picked up the corpse.

"What were you thinking?" Malice asked them.

"That everything would be better with him dead. We do feel better."

"Except for 272. That... really hurt."

"Out," Elena said. "We're all getting out now. Go!"

Mostly serene, they took orders from her. Yoji's skin wouldn't stop crawling all the way through the building. The look of stunned trauma on Sasha's face didn't help. They all stopped at the last door to the street when they heard gunfire.

"Stop shooting at me!" Fenris yelled outside. "It just makes me angry!"

"We can go out," Nagi said. "I have us all shielded."

"Now," Elena said, and they all walked out at once.

Armed men using their cars for cover faced the building, while the street and wall near Fenris and the captured clones had been pocked by bullets. Some of the clones looked particularly traumatized. How well were the local authorities paid off to ignore this?

"We couldn't stop it in time," Elena told the thug squad.

"Woeller's dead? Someone has to pay for that," a man who seemed to have some kind of authority amidst the thugs yelled.

"Someone did," Wicked said, pointing at the dead clone. "He got Woeller, but we took him out. He just... snapped. Couldn't handle being hunted for looking like Misery anymore. I think he thought he _was_ Misery. He fought us hard, as you can see."

Not bad. Fast liar. Maybe Wicked thought these people might think twice about hounding anyone after this vengeance spree, but Yoji doubted it.

Case in point. "Just one person did this to Woeller and his men?" The thug sounded suspicious.

"Yeah, though we had to move some people aside to try to stop him. He was fast and nuts, so it had to be us to take him out."

"We'll take the body."

"Like hell!" Sasha, Wicked, Malice, and the other clones said at once.

"He's dead," Yoji said. "You can check him here if you'd like, but we're not letting you take the body. These kids were desecrated enough while they were alive."

"There's no problem here," Crawford said, cool and smooth as ice cream, while walking up with Schuldig and Aya. "But we can't allow you to take the body. Our trade secrets are our own, so there's no way in hell we're letting you cut any of us open." Somehow he seemed more like an imposing adult than anyone else there, even the people older than him, and exuded command. He also really _worked_ his silver hair.

"We demand--" the head thug started.

"You demand nothing. We put the culprit down like a rabid dog, but Mr. Woeller brought trouble upon himself. There are ways of doing things, and he ignored them. In the process he drove someone over the edge and it cost him. You can't demand we play by the rules when you don't. Learn from this."

"Or what?"

"We're done here."

"We--"

"_We're done here_. You don't want the kind of trouble you're asking for right now."

The thugs actually left. Score for Crawford.

Looking very angry, Crawford said, "We're taking this off the street now." Looking at the penned-in Orange clones and then the free ones, he asked, "Are you sane now?"

"We feel much better," one of the free ones said. "Except for--"

Schuldig had gone pale upon seeing the dead clone cradled in one of the other clones' arms. Seeing yourself dead had to be freaky as all fuck. Then again, Schuldig had different issues about his face than that, partly from how he didn't quite seem to see it as _his_ face and instead saw it as the face of someone he needed to protect. Aya clenched his fingers down tightly on Schuldig's shoulder, making him wince and snap out of it a little.

"How the hell are we going to get the Orange line out of here?" Elena asked.

"They can walk," Crawford answered. "That's how they got here. We're all going to Kritiker's installation. And they can all shut up about it because if they weren't so easy to manipulate none of us would be here right now. Schuldig, did you get a bead on the source of the compulsion?"

"No, he's camouflaged in the overwhelming signature of _me_ in this city. Hello, Malice." Schuldig suddenly sounded much snippier.

"Damn it, I should have _destroyed_ the discs," Malice answered.

"Yes, and you should have kept on running away, because now that you know who the guy behind these attacks are, you're sticking to us like glue."

"But I don't know _where_ he is."

"We'll be working on that."

"What are you-- Everyone who's getting into cars, get into cars," Crawford said, sounding near the end of his patience. "Everyone else walks. Start walking _now_. Malice and Wicked are coming with us. Whoever you are who's carrying the body, you're also coming with us."

"We don't have any more room in our trunk due to the other bodies," Aya said.

"Then it'll have to go in one of the other cars' trunks." As the clone opened his mouth, presumably to protest, Crawford said, "You can shut up. And we can get rid of the other bodies on the way to Kritiker."

"This is nuts. I want to go home," Ken murmured.

"You and me both," Yoji whispered back.


	198. "Did you have to hang the bodies on the crime lord's fence?"

From inside his office, Mamoru watched Schwarz and Weiß enter the building on one of the video monitors and turned up the sound on that one. Several areas had hidden microphones, something Mamoru found slightly disturbing but had no difficulties taking advantage of.

They had an escort of Kritiker agents and some of the Orange line clones. Mamoru had heard about the clones going after Woeller, but Schwarz and Weiß had gone in to take control of the situation before he'd had a chance to try himself. The clones tended to prefer their own company, and he didn't keep any of the psionics _imprisoned_, so he hadn't seen anything wrong in a small group of them going out together. Then information had come in.... Breaker had explained the special danger in psionics attacking authority figures and crime lords in Europe without doing it as a job from an employer.

One of the clones carried the corpse of one of their own. Schuldig kept shooting uneasy looks at them when he wasn't looking around the halls as if inspecting the building to decide if he thought it appropriate for his children. Mamoru didn't know what to make of that. One of the Orange liners in the group was someone Mamoru knew he hadn't seen before, since he'd remember that shock of hair. Seeing all these people walking around with Schuldig's face and hair didn't stop being unsettling. Mamoru had asked the men to take the clones who hadn't been directly involved in Woeller's death to a separate area to be isolated from the others.

Misery looked much more groomed and stylish today. Mamoru figured he knew the person responsible for that.

"We walked, but we got here the same time you did," one of the other Orange line clones said.

"We stopped to dispose of some bodies," Crawford answered.

"Did you have to hang the bodies on the crime lord's fence?" Ken asked.

"We wanted to see if we could provoke a reaction. That no one came out to stop us while we were there tells us things. Besides, those people tried to attack my family. I won't show mercy."

"I get that, if it's your family, but I still can't believe you have parents!"

Yoji smiled. "Roll with it."

Ken looked sulky. "Sure, you can say that. You've known about this longer and had more time to deal with it."

"There's nothing for you to deal with," Crawford said. "They exist and have nothing to do with you. It doesn't matter whether you approve of their existence or not."

Ken shot him a look of pure angry hatred but fortunately didn't blow up. Yoji's grip on his arm probably helped on that.

Nagi shook his head, obviously amused. He wore one of the kinkier jackets today, the black leather with the large silver rings Mamoru liked to pull on. As if this meeting needed to be more difficult.

No, it didn't matter. He would remain professional in mind and expression throughout. Matters were far too serious for anything less.

Once everyone gathered in the room, Mamoru felt very thankful that his office in Vienna was bigger than his Tokyo one since he had eight live Orange line clones, one dead one, Weiß, Schwarz, Mamoru, Vienna's head Kritiker man Zeitler, and Breaker in it. Most of the new arrivals looked unhappy at Breaker's presence, but Breaker said, "Considering what happened today, I have to be here. I'm one of Europe's foremost experts on telepathy."

Although most of them schooled their faces to blankness, Mamoru got the definite impression that they considered Breaker to be the one behind today's events. Mamoru wanted him here to see his reaction to their reports and because he'd prefer to have him in sight.

"What happened out there?" Mamoru asked them. "I let some of the Orange line go out together because this isn't a prison, then a while later get a report that they assaulted Woeller's compound."

"Woeller needed to die," one of the clones said.

"Badly enough to sacrifice one of your own?" Mamoru asked as he pointed to the corpse in his arms.

That staggered him for a moment, before he answered, "Woeller needed to die. There wouldn't be any peace until he did."

"A narrow-band telepathic transmission directed them to do it by making it seem like their own thought," the one with the French braid replied. Might be Malice, Mamoru thought. "It only hit the ones with weaker shields."

"It _was_ our own thought!" one of the clones said.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but you were manipulated like puppets. We even know who pulled your strings, though we're sure there's somebody behind him. He doesn't care enough about anything to do something like this on his own. Somebody suggested it to him."

"You know who did it?" Mamoru asked and almost sighed as Malice shot a distrusting look at Breaker.

"Rosenkreuz is destroyed," Breaker answered.

"That doesn't mean we start trusting anybody we see," Malice answered. The clone Mamoru didn't think he'd seen before, the one with all the leather and the puff of orange hair, stood at Malice's back, obviously ready to defend him. Something about them suggested they spoke to each other telepathically. It drove Mamoru nuts that so many conversations happened around him that he couldn't hear at all.

"Please tell us," Mamoru said, hoping the clone calmed enough to realize that, as a telepath, Breaker didn't need to be in the room to learn anything.

Looking regretful that he'd started this at all, Malice answered, "An Orange line clone named 'Evil.' Part of the way he did it so easily is that he's one of us."

Schwarz and Weiß didn't look surprised, and Mamoru got the feeling that their poker faces hid prior knowledge of this. They'd been at the scene and had a car ride to debrief Malice during.

"He's named 'Evil'?"

"It's not my fault or his. Rosenkreuz had some charming naming conventions for the people they created."

"But why? Why attack Woeller?"

The loudspeaker went on with someone speaking a list of unrelated words in various languages through it. Someone was testing the system? Then he felt something horrible shiver through him even as he saw the clones, Breaker, and Elena hit the floor. Elena and some of the clones spasmed in pain, while Fenris knelt next to her and seemed to feel some of it as well. Crawford and Nagi looked uncomfortable and seemed to be in some pain, while Schuldig leaned against the wall looking as if someone had clubbed him. Crawford moved to be at his side and help hold him up. Farfarello seemed to be fine aside from how he looked panicked, had a grip on Aya's hair and put his face next to his, and was yelling at him in the language Mamoru had heard them use at times in New York City. Aya's expression gradually smoothed out to calm and a lack of pain. Ken and Yoji looked confused and uncomfortable, Yoji worse than Ken.

"Pomegranate!" Aya yelled for some reason, but then Mamoru saw some sense in it when it seemed to fix Malice's personal bodyguard. Everyone else continued to suffer.

"Turn it off!" Mamoru said to Zietler. "Send a team to the control room! And lock down the building. Nobody gets out."

"You wouldn't want to turn this off," the voice said via the loudspeaker. "I'm the only person who can give the words to stop it." He ran off a list of different words that unfroze everyone who'd gone down and stopped the spasms of the ones who'd been hurt by it. "Those aren't the permanent cure words, just temporary stop words. I'm a telepath, so I could reapply the words any time I chose. Think about that a moment."

The transmission went to the whole building. Had all of the psionics gone through that attack? Mamoru motioned Zeitler to get out and assemble a team.

******************************************************

Paralysis, _pain_.... Aya couldn't move, could barely think....

"Puisín, associate with me!" Farfarello yelled, then grabbed him by the hair and set them skin-to-skin. The world quieted and shrunk, and the pain and paralysis faded.

Aya realized that he'd just switched from riding Schuldig and the Orange line's telepathy to riding Farfarello's, and Farfarello had none while fully anchored inside his body. Now Aya didn't either.

He watched the counterwords take effect. Schwarz might have deprogrammed their word out of themselves, but the telepaths among them still felt it when a whole mass of people suffered the effects of _their own_ words. Schuldig, who had a personal blood and mental signature link to so many of the people here, particularly felt it.

"Pomegranate!" Aya yelled, but that counterword only worked on Wicked, who then got up a little and crouched protectively over Malice.

"Turn it off!" Omi shouted to one of his men. "Send a team to the control room! And lock down the building. Nobody gets out."

"You wouldn't want to turn this off," the voice said via the loudspeaker. "I'm the only person who can give the words to stop it." He ran off a list of what had to be counterwords from the way they stopped the paralysis and the pain. "Those aren't the permanent cure words, just temporary stop words. I'm a telepath, so I could reapply the words any time I chose. Think about that a moment."

"Crawford's gonna be pissed," Farfarello murmured.

"He should be," Aya answered.

Crawford had never thought that leaving the words lodged in other people could hurt Schwarz. Why would he? He'd no doubt seen it as an advantage that other Rosenkreuz alumni could still be rendered defenseless with the right word.

~ Aya, this is Malice. Keep an eye on Schuldig. If you see something happened around him that concerns you, act on it. I have a feeling that what happened today with Evil was a test of something. ~ Malice only gave him a quick glance before returning to his muttering that he should have gotten out of Vienna while he still had the chance.

Aya didn't really understand, but he would be cautious. Why not? As the origin of much of Eszett's gene stock as well as a powerful telepath, Schuldig had a great deal of importance. The mysterious attacker might have something in mind for him. As the person in the room who had insider knowledge of Schwarz and Weiß, he had some experience in standing somewhat outside of events and noticing things others more intimately involved on either side might miss.

Farfarello gripped his wrist, silently asking him not to go. Given the surprises that had come so far, Aya couldn't blame him for wanting him to stay close, where he might be easier to protect. But Aya shook his head in answer and sent a look back that said, "Trust me." Farfarello let him go, and Aya continued to slowly and stealthily move closer to Schuldig.

Yet he had to do that while trying not to catch Breaker's eye. He remembered too well Schuldig's horror at discovering the telepath looking for them in the imaginary city. Schuldig and Crawford had both warned him against getting Breaker's interest focused on him.

Unfortunately, Breaker stood near Schuldig, to Crawford's obvious anger. "Considering his blood link to the clones, this attack hit him hard," Breaker said as he reached for Schuldig, who looked distracted and nauseous.

Crawford blocked him. "I'm well aware, and we don't need any extra help."

Aya hoped Crawford let _him_ near if he needed to do something.

******************************************************

If Breaker didn't back off, Crawford would kill him. With that in mind, Mamoru said, "Breaker--"

"I've given you enough time to consider," the voice said over the loudspeaker. "I can disable all of you at any moment. At the same time, only I have all the deprogramming words. You can earn those if you're willing and save yourselves from the uncertainty of living under the threat of the control words by working for me."

"I would sooner die," Elena muttered as she wiped blood off her lips and looked ill. "I'm never going to be a slave again."

Grabbing her arm, Fenris said, "Elena!" and looked up at her in panic. She patted his hand.

"I will be kind," the voice continued. "I'll give you until tomorrow morning to consider your few options. If you make the smart choice, go to the Volksgarten tomorrow morning to be taken in."

Crawford looked angry, while Nagi asked him, "Coincidence or mockery?"

"Good question," Crawford answered, then glared again at Breaker, who'd taken advantage of his distraction to edge closer to Schuldig. Breaker smiled, wise-ass.

What could the perpetrator have in mind? He wouldn't possibly give them all a location and make it easier to catch him.

"Tomorrow morning you make your decision," the voice said. "And I only have one last phrase for one special person: Skeleton key."

Mamoru stared in surprise as Aya clubbed Schuldig down to the floor near the end of that sentence and put his hands over Schuldig's ears. The hell?

"Aya!" Crawford shouted, sounding angry and confused, but not trying to kill Aya in payback for assaulting Schuldig.

"Aya...." Breaker said as he looked at Aya crouching on the floor half over Schuldig's unconscious body.

Aya looked back at him, blank-faced to everyone except people who knew him well, who could see "Oh, _shit_" in his eyes and the pull of his mouth. "Schuldig was the one special person. I'm sure of it." Perhaps he figured that he'd already drawn attention to himself so he might as well speak.

"What the hell was that phrase supposed to be for? 'Skeleton key'?" Crawford asked, glancing back at Malice.

"I don't know. I'm not familiar with everything," the clone answered.

"We can guess. Still, you're helpful. It's a good thing you didn't leave like you wanted to."

Malice took on a sour look... and so, briefly, did Breaker. _That_ was interesting.

After a knock at the door, Zeitler came in with three men and said, "There was no one in the booth, but the scene suggests that what we just heard was a recording someone played. The perpetrator tried to hide that fact, but we figured it out. The recording itself had been taken away. We're having a forensics team examine the equipment for fingerprints and other evidence. We're also searching for the person or people who did this."

Still holding her hand to her head and looking like she really wanted some painkillers, Elena said, "Every telepath in the place is too blown out to search right now too, even the ones who were just paralyzed instead of pain-wracked. The slowdown stays in effect for a while. Besides, this whole building is a smear of pain and fear, almost impossible to get detail out of."

"How did Eszett decide who gets the pain?" Mamoru asked.

"Hell if I know. I didn't even know someone had put a trigger word in me."

"I used to get pain from my word," Nagi said, looking somewhat ill himself though nowhere near as bad as she did. "Eszett didn't believe in explaining itself to talents."

They'd done that to Nagi? Mamoru wanted to touch him. Wait a minute, "used to"? Schwarz didn't have trigger words right now. The way they'd reacted suggested they'd caught the echoes of what the others felt instead of feeling it themselves. But Nagi's comment suggested that they used to, which made sense considering how _all_ of the psionics that came from Eszett had suffered. How did Schwarz get rid of it?

"We're leaving," Crawford said as, crouching on the floor, he blocked Breaker from approaching Aya as he protected Schuldig's fallen body. "We currently can't contribute anything more than your own operatives are already doing."

And his people were injured, and he wanted Schuldig away from here because it wasn't safe. Mamoru saw that easily. He probably also wanted to be away from Breaker, who was being too aggressive toward Schuldig by almost anyone's standards. Besides, Schwarz being Schwarz, they wouldn't trust that Breaker being here and paralyzed with the others meant that he had nothing to do with what had just happened. Actually, Elena probably wouldn't trust it either, and Mamoru remained suspicious of Breaker as well. A devious man with plans and motives to hide _would_ do a showy, public demonstration of solidarity.

Perhaps Crawford thought Nagi, in his weakened state, might reveal more if they stayed.

Crawford hadn't been asking permission to leave, just announcing his departure. Holding Schuldig in his arms, he started toward the door, and Schwarz followed. Farfarello took Malice by the arm, which made the Orange line bodyguard growl and Farfarello growl back and say, "Come. You're safer with us." Malice nodded wearily, and his defender eased down a little, although he still looked angry and ready to attack at any provocation.

"What about us?" one of the other Orange line clones asked.

"Stay here. Kritiker can debrief you if they wish," Crawford answered. "I believe that you've told us as much as you're capable of." As the clones stiffened, obviously sensing his derision, he signaled Schwarz to continue leaving. He didn't ask Misery to come along, nor did Misery offer to come with them, obviously preferring to stay with Weiß even if he did look worriedly at Schuldig. Interesting.

Breaker looked somewhat disgruntled. _Very_ interesting. Casting an annoyed look at Breaker, Elena said, "Weiß will case the building and see if we can find the perpetrator inside." Apparently, she _really_ didn't want to be in a room with him.

"Good. Go," Mamoru answered.

As she nodded, Weiß, including Misery, left the office. Brave of her, considering that she had a word of her own and was going out hunting someone who could use it on her.

Mamoru suddenly realized he'd never gotten a chance to ask what Crawford had done with Verity and Misoji. He understood Crawford wanting to get his daughter out, but why Nagi's clone as well when he had such disdain for Schuldig's clones and his own?

"Sir?" one of the clones asked, looking very young and scared.

"We have to debrief you," Mamoru answered, "but don't worry about it. We're not Eszett. We'll also treat the body with all respect." This craziness with the clones and psychic powers and the feel of Breaker standing at his back, with the perfect opportunity to place a knife in it if he wished, almost made Mamoru nostalgic for the simpler days of facing music that drove people insane and psychos who chopped people up and arranged the limbs.


	199. "How do you think they returned him to you freshly laundered every time?"

_"I hate when you say   
That I never fight for you.   
Sometimes you bleed all over my skin.   
You always end up   
Closer than close   
And that's where I give in...." _  
  -- "Insane (KCRW)" by Damien Rice  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the door to the hallway Crawford switched to carrying Schuldig over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. It would let him have his hands free but also make him look less weak. He did hope that not everyone in this building knew what Schuldig meant to him and the team.

Every member of Schwarz looked cautious and scanned the hallways by eye. The few people here moved out of their way.

Farfarello still held Malice by the arm. The only reason it couldn't be called "dragging" was that Malice walked at a speed that kept up with him. Nearby, Wicked appeared to be considering whether he should attack Farfarello to get Malice free.

~ Do you sense Evil here? ~ Crawford asked Malice. Sticking to business would be a balm here. He could rage and worry in the car.

~ No, but that doesn't mean much since I feel like I stood in the center of a giant bell while someone struck it. I have a strobing headache and I'm only "hearing" people through a filter that robs everything of volume and texture. He could be a few meters away and I might not notice him. ~

~ Is everyone like that? ~

~ Yeah, ~ Wicked said, while Nagi turned a somewhat nauseated look in his direction. Crawford didn't feel 100% himself and knew that his "voice" didn't sound as strong or clear as it usually did.

Of all the telepaths in their group, Farfarello didn't seem to be suffering. Crawford asked, ~ Farfarello, are you dissociated? ~

~ The opposite. Lets me turn the telepathy off so I wouldn't be taken out like the rest of you. Can't really feel it or use it when I'm utterly in my body. I tuned my puisín to me, away from the mindbreaker and his brood, so he would be the same. ~

Crawford still didn't instinctively remember that Aya had a talent now. ~ Good work. ~ He hadn't known that whatever Aya had could allow it to be tuned to one person's talent without the other ones having to block it out first. Aya hadn't seemed to have heard Crawford at the moment.

From his expression, Aya looked like he had a bit of a headache even beyond the hard, bitchy mask he currently had on as Abyssinian, so he either still suffered from what he'd felt earlier or had retuned to the other talents in the building. Why couldn't Aya have remained untalented? He'd be far more use right now that way, especially since what talent he had was weak and unpredictable, far more of a debit than an asset.

In the car Crawford would have to ask how Aya had known to take Schuldig out.

The Kritiker guards let them out without challenge, so Takatori must have called ahead. Good, because Crawford had no patience for giving explanations right now.

Outside, Crawford said, "Nagi and Farfarello take one car. The rest of us will be in the other."

"I want my puisín with me," Farfarello said.

"You'll see him later. I need to debrief him in the car, and I don't trust your self-restraint while in a small space with Wicked. It's your own fault."

Farfarello growled but obeyed, letting go of Malice harshly and turning away sharply to walk with Nagi. Over his shoulder he said, "Puisín--"

"I'll be well," Aya answered.

"Hmph."

"Aya, you drive," Crawford said. "Wicked sits up front. Malice, you're with me and Schuldig."

Crawford propped Schuldig up in the seat and carefully set his head to lean against the window, letting a layer of bright hair provide some insulation from the cold glass. Sitting next to him, Crawford rolled up Schuldig's coat sleeve and shirt cuff a bit to set his bare fingers against the telepath's wrist. If the trigger phrase had done some damage, let this skin-to-skin contact remind Schuldig whom he belonged with.

Sitting next to Schuldig might be a terrible risk. Had Aya truly stopped him from hearing the trigger phrase? Was "skeleton key" actually the phrase? Crawford had mentioned those words in front of him in various languages over the years.

"It might be the whole sentence or more of the phrase than just the two obvious words that might be the trigger phrase," Crawford said aloud. "Or it might not be those two words at all. We might have been too late."

Sitting on his other side, Malice cast a penetrating look his way. He looked so Schuldig in body yet utterly not, with his tightly controlled braid and quiet, dull clothing, simultaneously that Crawford almost found him more unsettling than Wild Teen Schuldig sitting up front. "I don't know," Malice said.

"Does the... accent make a difference?" Aya asked as he drove. "The voice was speaking... a kind of German German, not Austrian."

"German German," Crawford said dryly.

Aya flipped him an obscene gesture. He must have been spending time with Schuldig lately. The thought sent a pang right through Crawford's nonexistent heart.

"You may have a point," Crawford answered. "We don't know." He'd cured Schwarz of the word, so why should he bother any further? What other words they'd found in their studies they might use, but why concern themselves with finding and trying out other talents' counterwords? He'd never thought it would come back to bite him in the ass so hard, hadn't foreseen it.... "Aya, how did you know to strike Schuldig down?"

"Malice told me to look out for something suspicious being done to Schuldig and be ready to move if I saw it."

"Malice, why Aya?" Crawford asked.

"He wasn't suffering as much as the other members of Schwarz, and I didn't think Farfarello would obey a Schuldig-like voice in his head after the Ebenroth thing," Malice answered.

"It was a good idea!" Wicked protested. "It got the job done."

"Farfarello might never forgive you for manipulating him and then stealing his prey out from under his nose."

"He should have been faster, then."

With his insight and ability to think quickly, Malice had leadership potential. Hadn't Ebenroth said the same of Schuldig? Crawford had seen that in him too, though rarely since Schuldig far preferred to seem lazy while actually working as a power behind the leader.

"Good thinking, Malice," Crawford said, "except that you put Aya right under Breaker's nose, where we didn't want him."

Malice warmed a little under the initial praise and turned sulky as it changed to criticism. "Nobody told me. Besides, I wasn't the one who said his _name_."

Crawford had been upset and confused then but refused to just accept those excuses. He'd erred. He knew it.

"You should thank Malice for at least giving us the possibility that Schuldig might be okay," Wicked said.

"We don't know that he is." Might not even know that when he regained consciousness.

Evil had been doing a test run with a small group, to show what a Schuldig talent could do to puppeteer others even in a low frequency. Schuldig was better trained than Evil and had strong links to all of Schwarz and Balinese as well as to the Orange line clones and any mashups who had his genes. Whoever thought to use him as a weapon wouldn't care that Schuldig would have to devote all his attention and power to controlling the others, so much so that his body might deteriorate over time.

"Cross that bridge when we get to it," Wicked said. "Malice and Aya gave you the _chance_. I also want to thank Aya for counteracting my word." He grinned a very bright, flirtatious Schuldig grin at Aya.

Malice kicked the back of his seat. "Down, Georg."

"Jealous, sugar?"

Aya said, "Don't thank me. Really."

Wicked must have been given Schwarz's word since their counterword had snapped him out of it as well. He'd been permanently cured as they had. That could prove to be useful later.

"Malice, I need your help to pinpoint the areas of the CDs I should look through to find out where and how Eszett planted that trigger phrase in Schuldig," Crawford said. They didn't have time to dick around with all of them. "Would there be a file that would give the phrase itself and its cure?"

"I don't know. I just put everything that was available together, watched some of it, and provided some commentary."

"And kept Nii's bed warm when he felt like it," Wicked muttered. "Man was a _freak_. I should have broken his other wrist too."

"Thanks for that. You think he didn't take that out on me?"

"He didn't ever get into that plushie shit with you, did he?"

"While the twisted sex habits of a man I don't even know might be interesting to some people, can you please bring this back to business?" Aya asked sharply.

"Exactly," Crawford said.

"They had plenty of opportunities to slip it in. You know that," Malice said. "They audit telepaths after every long mission."

Crawford knew that and had been very glad that Schuldig had successfully hidden Schwarz's plan to free themselves for so long.

"They also stirred his brains a bit after every visit he made to the Box," Malice continued. Crawford must not have guarded his expression as well as he should have, because Malice said, "Come on. You think they wouldn't? Eszett realized that it shouldn't mess with him whenever he first entered the Box and went into himself for awhile, at least they realized after two of their pet telepaths went insane trying him, but after that they could audit him. It's part of why they kept him in it for days."

Every so often Schuldig had hit a point where he couldn't stand Crawford anymore and take off but Eszett had always returned him days later. "I didn't even know about the Box until recently."

"How do you think they returned him to you freshly laundered every time?"

Again, Eszett had never found out Schwarz's plans, so Crawford hadn't thought much of it. Damn it.

"Breaker was one of his usual auditors."

Of course he was. Crawford felt so angry and so fucking _foolish_. He'd been so damned _blind_. "If he kept getting audited, how is it that Eszett never realized he was several people?"

"All telepaths sound like a crowd, and his piloting personality is strong. It _is_ a composite?"

"Yes."

"Maybe the auditors couldn't survive his head during his initial day or so in the Box because he was letting the others loose and it was maddening."

Malice knew too much and had too great a talent for guessing the rest.

Schuldig twitched and moaned softly, then said, "Fuck. Nailed the same spot Brad hit before. If I get hit again someone _dies_." Then he turned to look at Crawford. "You think I'm compromised." Incandescent hurt flashed across his face for a moment before his expression hardened to a mask of incandescent rage.

Schuldig had read him too well. Crawford replied, "I think we can't know for sure." As much as he hated to admit it.

"Ever? Are you ever going to trust me again?"

"We'll protect you."

"That doesn't answer the fucking question. How am I supposed to trust you to watch my back when you're so busy doubting my ass?" Schuldig yanked his arm away from Crawford's grasp, which could only be an improvement over Schuldig getting a direct feed of the harsh, unedited, spin-free version of Crawford's fears.

Crawford could try to explain it better. "I'm not going to hand you over to anyone."

"But are you going to segregate me from Schwarz to make sure they're safe?"

"I haven't decided yet."

"Wrong answer, dickwad. I'm leaving and taking one of the kids with me. Aya! Aya, stop the car!"

Aya did, so suddenly and so hard that the wheels skewed a bit on the still wet road. "Don't do that to me!" Aya said once the vehicle came to a full halt.

"It was necessary," Schuldig said as he opened his door.

"Schu, leaving is the worst thing you could do right now," Crawford said. "You're a valuable prize."

"Always have been. I'm just more so lately. Besides, that's why I'm taking Aya."

"Who's _also_ wanted!"

"We're _all_ valuable, Brad, so shove it. What a win-win situation this is for our enemy. Even if he doesn't fuck my brain, he gets to make you distrust me to the point where I'm useless to Schwarz. I have to get away from you for a while." Schuldig stepped outside. "Aya?"

Aya left the car as well, seemingly of his own will, probably figuring that he could look after Schuldig for the sake of the team. If Crawford had foreseen such selfless professionalism from Abyssinian years ago, he would have doubted the vision's veracity.

Keeping them by force now would only intensify Schuldig's rage and feeling of betrayal, making the situation worse, so Crawford let them go. They walked away, bright heads with dark, flowing coats. But then it became harder to see them. If Crawford hadn't possessed a precog's difficult brain structure, he probably wouldn't be able to see them at all. If he hadn't known they were there, even he might have been fooled. Schuldig hadn't lost all sense. Crawford took the driver's seat, adjusting it and the mirrors before pulling away.

"That was really amazing," Wicked said, sounding very Schuldig. "The way you fed your doubts and fears about his reliability and mental stability right through his skin. He might never come back."

"He will," Crawford answered.

"You foresee that?"

"He took Aya with him."

"So you won't follow him either?" Malice asked from the backseat.

"No, he'll catch up with us later." Crawford believed it. He had to. Besides, following Schuldig from a distance would just piss him off. "In our hotel room I want you to start looking through the CDs with me."

"I really should have gotten out while I still could."

******************************************************

"You don't get to yank my strings like that," Aya snarled as they walked.

"I wanted to be sure I'd get what I wanted," Schuldig answered. "I sure as hell wasn't getting any consideration from Brad."

"That is no excuse."

If Schuldig didn't return them to the fold soon enough, Farfarello would come looking for them. Had Schuldig taken him along as an excuse to come back?

This was insane. It was a little like that saying about how saving a person's life bound you to him for life. Being bound to Schuldig for life sounded like a terrible fate.

Aya wanted to get out of this area and away from the insanity so badly. It wore on him and wore on Schwarz. He had a life with Farfarello to get back to in Japan that hung in limbo while they all tried to clean up Eszett's lingering toxic spills. Although he knew nothing would be the same after what Schwarz had seen and done and found latching onto them looking for parents and leadership here, it had to get better eventually.

At least it wasn't raining anymore.

"You're not being any fun at all. Here we are: two gorgeous, deadly redheads on the loose. We should start a band."

It was a fine performance, but Aya wondered when Schuldig would finally run through all his games and get back to something more genuine. "What?" Aya asked as he noticed Schuldig staring at him.

"Do I seem like myself to you?"

"Too much so. Are you overcompensating?"

Schuldig burst out laughing. "You just keep being the bitchiest poodle on the planet, Aya. Don't ever change."

"I don't intend to change, but I'm certainly not a poodle."

Abruptly turning more serious and looking almost worried, Schuldig said, "Aya, I might be changed without even knowing it."

Crawford got to hear the confidence and anger, while Aya got the uncertainty. It made some sense, since Schuldig wouldn't want to appear weak in front of his leader and lover.

"Brad loves it when I'm weak in private with him. Eats it up and licks the fucking spoon. Makes him feel strong and superior and macho and shit." His rage turned to something with more of a smirk in it. "You could be my lover too, you know."

"No, I really couldn't. You've thrown me up against a wall and kissed me far too many times."

From the salacious look on his face, Schuldig considered doing something like that again. "You like it."

"You're lucky I haven't cut you open."

"You don't hold back on shows of vengeance, so the fact that I'm still alive must mean you actually like it."

Cutting through the annoying games, Aya said, "Schuldig, I don't know if you avoided hearing the trigger phrase. I don't know for sure what part of that actually _was_ a trigger phrase. There might not even _be_ one and it was all just a way for our enemy to make us doubt each other. How do you feel?"

"Like me. Worried and pissed off, but definitely me."

"If you thought you had the phrase working inside you, what would you do differently?"

"Nothing. I mean, what the hell _could_ I do?"

"So. That's it."

"Hmph. 'That's it.' Nothing I can do."

"I don't think Crawford can afford to avoid using your talent and keep you segregated from us. You're too powerful a weapon, and he wouldn't want to give our enemy the satisfaction."

"Damned right."

"Besides, he doesn't _want_ to cast you aside and distrust you."

"True, though he'd want to kill you for saying so."

"So?"

Schuldig grinned. "I'm glad I took you along. You're pretty clearheaded in a situation that doesn't push _your_ buttons."

"Thank you. I think."

"Besides, you make such great scenery." Grinning, Schuldig slung his arm over Aya's shoulders, forcing Aya to fight his instinct to break it. "Let's go to the hotel. I can make Brad squirm and Malice regret he didn't run for his life. The kid being useful doesn't mean I can't torment him."

"Get your arm off me. And I think Malice is already regretting it."

"Even better. But the arm stays on."

"I really do hate you."

"No, no. You really love me. You want me to kiss you...."

"I want to break your arm and possibly castrate you," Aya answered in all honesty.

"Ah, Aya love. It's a special thing."


	200. "It's not my fault you guys look so much alike."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliff Notes edition of GH's story-so-far is available [here](http://viridian5.livejournal.com/1034173.html).

"Do you really think we have a chance of finding this guy?" Ken asked as they walked the halls.

"Hard to say," Elena answered aloud, then switched to telepathy to say, ~ He could still be here. Or he might never have been in the building and had a minion use a tape or CD of his message. His voice might be disguised. He might not even be a he at all. I have no idea, especially with how painful and smeared the ambiance in this building is right now. I just knew that I had to get out and do something, and that if I stayed in that room the temptation to boil Breaker alive from the inside would have gotten to be too much. ~ Her "voice" sounded lower and somewhat strained.

She, Fenris, Sasha, and passing shell-shocked kids all had expressions of lingering pain and tension on their faces. Yoji had gotten a small taste of it himself, probably from his link with Schuldig. No one should be allowed to attack his people.

Breaker had been in Schuldig's face. Yoji said, "It's a shame that no one believes in spontaneous human combustion."

"If you didn't kill him, Crawford might have," Ken said. "That guy would not back off. He's just not right or something. Was he trying to provoke him?"

~ I didn't like leaving Persia with Breaker either, Ken, but there aren't any safe moves we can make on that for now. We can only follow Persia's lead and protect him as much as he'll allow. ~

It had been damned hard leaving Omi in a crowd of strangers and potential enemies, but Omi needed it that way at the moment to make things work. And had the kid begun to go gray? Yoji could swear he saw traces.... They had to rescue and reclaim him somehow.

"Elena, if we do find the guy with the words, let us go into it first and try to protect you."

She smiled. ~ I'm brave and proud but not stupid. If I see it coming, I'll let you do that. ~

Aw. Ken _liked_ Elena, and she liked him back. Since Ken already treated Fenris like a little brother, altogether this sounded like a great match. It didn't seem that Elena really understood that Ken was into her, though. Yoji had noticed that telepaths might know too much of other people's private information but also had huge personal blind spots, so Yoji would have to help get those two crazy kids together somehow.

"Needle in a haystack, though. We really have no leads?"

~ None that I can think of, aside from going back to the broadcast room, which is what we're doing. Actually, I'm also looking for someone else. It strikes me that one of the best places to hide a needle is in a stack of needles. I wonder if Evil is hiding in the building. I'll be trying to look for him and want Fenris and Sasha to do the same. ~

Whoa. "That would take some set of balls," Yoji said. But it made some sense.

"Do we even know how to pick him out of the crowd?" Ken asked. When Sasha cleared his throat, Ken answered, "It's not my fault you guys look so much alike."

~ It's a shame we couldn't keep Malice to ourselves. He seems to know a hell of a lot. Suspiciously so, ~ Elena said.

"Crawford wouldn't have let us, and we would've been forced to fight," Yoji said. "The kid knows something Crawford wants."

~ I noticed, and I'm getting really fucking tired of being used at times but otherwise left in the dark by Schwarz. It's appears to me that they once had their own word but don't anymore. They broke the conditioning somehow. I want to know how and when. ~

It looked like Crawford had several reasons to pull out and regroup elsewhere. Yoji hoped Schuldig was okay. Hell, he hoped that the look Breaker had given Aya hadn't actually had hunger in it like Yoji thought it had. Still, enough. If Schwarz would use Weiß they should damned well start keeping them informed. It would be better for both teams, leading to more efficiency and less blundering around. Somebody should take that up with Crawford.

"I doubt what they did could have worked for just anyone, though. Otherwise, they could have done whatever to stop this as it happened, since they were suffering from the echoes of it."

"True," she answered.

Anyway, Elena had them looking for Evil, but they shouldn't be so loud about it. "Hey, Elena, I love the suit, but isn't the tie a bad idea?" Though the tie clip was a nice touch.

"As much as I would love a real tie, this is a clip-on. I don't need to give people a noose for me."

"I like the leather jacket with the flames painted on best," Fenris said.

"Makes sense, since you helped pick it out."

Sasha shook his head. "Do you all help each other shop?"

"Not really," Ken said.

"Yes, really," Fenris answered brightly.

~ I think I might have an idea on seeing if Evil is in the building, ~ Sasha said. ~ We tap the Orange line. Evil is one needle that's _not_ identical to the others. ~

"Are you volunteering?" Yoji asked.

"Thanks to the price on my head, I'm a bit of a celebrity amongst the talented, if you can believe it."

The insanity, it burned.

******************************************************

"Farfarello is waiting outside the hotel," Wicked said, sounding pleased. "You're going to be in so much trouble, Mr. Crawford."

"How do you know he's not there for you?" Crawford answered.

"I don't think I'm that important to him. If I'm in reach, he'll try to kill me. Otherwise... whatever. But Aya is very important to him."

And Aya wasn't with them. Yes, Crawford foresaw this turning into a major, _public_ argument with Farfarello, who felt no shame in throwing tantrums about his kitten. "You don't have to sound so pleased about it."

"No, really, I do." Wicked spun to look back at Malice. "Stop kicking my chair! You're one to talk about acting mature."

"Acting unprofessional won't win us any favors."

As the two Orange fiends had a conversation through telepathy and angry dirty looks, Crawford parked the car and finally said, "Out. Now."

Farfarello's eye narrowed as the three of them approached. "Two mindbreaker cubs do not make a fair trade for my puisín. How did I know it would come to this?"

"Schuldig will be back with Aya," Crawford said.

"Will he? And when? You know he moves fast."

"They went for a walk."

"Schuldig and I fucked in alleys across Europe, so that's no consolation."

At least he didn't know that Schuldig had telepathically commanded Aya to stop the car earlier. Wicked's eyes lit up, then he winced as Malice kicked his ankle and perhaps started another telepathic tongue-lashing.

Crawford remembered times when Schuldig and Farfarello would go out together looking for diversion and return bloodstained, smelling of sex, and grinning like wolves. Although Schuldig had kept the berserker saner and calmer, Farfarello had always dragged the telepath down closer to _his_ level. Getting Farfarello a pet had the side effect of freeing Schuldig up from that influence, but none of the pets had lasted. Until Aya.

"They'll be fine," Crawford said.

"Schuldig's a slut used to taking what he wants, and he and Aya are both valuable prizes here. That doesn't sound fine in any way."

"It wasn't your decision to make."

"Nor yours. The mindbreaker did it all on his own, I'll bet."

Farfarello's moments of insight and confrontation never came at convenient times, and Crawford resented having to defend himself and his leadership in front of Malice and Wicked. ~ This is an inappropriate time and place for this, ~ Crawford sent him in a quick flash so the two telepaths wouldn't hear.

~ You didn't bother to listen _before_, ~ Farfarello flashed back.

~ That was also an inappropriate time and place. ~

~ They _all_ are to you, but I will not let this be set aside. ~

"You can only wait for them to return," Crawford said aloud. "Schuldig is hiding their tracks."

"I'll wait a little while, then. At least he hasn't lost all sense along with his temper. He left from being unable to deal with you in an enclosed space, didn't he?"

Crawford pushed past him to walk into the hotel and clenched his teeth at the sound of Farfarello's soft laughter. Farfarello and Schuldig had been too good a match at times.

"In you go, cubs," Farfarello said, so Wicked, Malice, and Farfarello accompanied Crawford into the elevator.

"What's Nagi doing?" Crawford asked.

"Looking into the words we know to see if he can figure out the counterwords by sight. The files didn't break them down for people who didn't already know them, and we hardly have test subjects here."

Aside from that small emotional slip in front of Persia earlier, Nagi remained professional and on-target, to Crawford's pride. It made him easier to deal with as well. It heartened Crawford that _Farfarello_ hadn't gone into a full fit of temper and now provided information in a clear and concise manner. Before, they'd bribed Farfarello into good behavior and obedience with promises of mayhem later.

"I hope you're not expecting me to look at the discs and pull the information you want right out," Malice said, "because that won't happen. If someone planted a trigger phrase, they wouldn't want just anyone to find out about it and take advantage or deprogram it. I can only point out the moments it might have come in."

As much as Crawford might have hoped for a quick discovery and solution, he was far more realistic than that. "I'm aware."

When Crawford led them to Nagi's room, the door opened before he could knock. "Aya and Schuldig aren't with you," Nagi said softly, faintly accusing, as he let them in.

"I've already been through this with Farfarello. They'll return on their own."

"Unmolested?" Nagi asked with a faint smile.

"Nagi."

"Yes, sir. Malice, you can use my laptop." Although he certainly didn't look happy about it, even if it made sense to use the one with the most cutting-edge technology and programs. While Crawford believed in owning the best himself, he didn't install new things if the old ones already fulfilled his needs. He also didn't have the kind of multi-media programs that might be needed to play some of the files on the CDs.

Malice took the CDs from his hand, installed the first one in the drive, and sat down, with Wicked putting one hand on his shoulder and leaning over him a bit. Despite his frequent protests, Malice smiled a little with what might be pride as he opened the CD. The contents had been segregated into folders: Photos, Family, Genetics, History, Interventions years 1-2, Audits years 1-2, and Video.

"You want to see some of the Eszett equivalent of baby pictures first, right?" Malice asked with a smirk as he opened Photos, where all the files displayed as thumbnails.

The first photo had young Emory Disl standing in front of a dingy white wall, very institutional, with the unfocused, almost mindless, drowning look in his blue eyes that many untrained telepaths had. In the next photo he was recognizable only by his orange hair with all the bruises, swelling, and blood on his face. "That black thing next to his head is someone's boot nudging his head into position," Malice said. "He was out cold and they needed to get a full frontal shot of his face. He's lying on his back. The eye sockets are so bruised because the retrieval squad--well, the survivors--broke his nose and the medics had to reset it."

"This is unnecessary." Crawford didn't need to get any angrier.

"Eszett might have pushed him to be a more obnoxious personality, because otherwise he would have been something of a folk hero to some of the talented from how much damage he did when they tried to bring him in." Malice shrugged. "All right. Did you know that Eszett took his younger sister too, years later? Right out of the institution, so they could mold her better. She's also a telepath, and Verity looks a little like her. They sent her to the division in Argentina."

Schwarz might go after that part of Eszett someday. For now, it stayed too quiet and too hidden to be a profitable mission.

"Eszett hated having to kill the mundane parents, since they were two for two on talented children, but they objected too loudly and strenuously to losing their daughter too. They started to figure things out by the end, and they were fucking annoying."

Would Schuldig care? Did he even know he had a sister?

"I want to see the interventions and audits."

"Those are transcripts. There are a _lot_ of them, and this disc just covers his first two years with Eszett."

Malice hadn't overstated. The two folders had so many files.... How the hell would they find what they wanted? "Narrow it down for me. When do you think they started to create a special plan for Schuldig?"

"The Orange line was started a year after he was brought in, and the Schuldig line two years after that. I'm sure somebody thought that blood link might be useful in controlling any clones made. Did you know that Breaker was one of the proponents of using Schuldig's material so extensively? Then again, he had a lot of company in that. Schuldig's power and speed were just too attractive."

"Everybody wants me," Schuldig said as he unlocked the door and walked in, all insouciance, with Aya, who was immediately pounced by Farfarello. "Hey, Malice, do you know there's a slow pulse of 'Leave Vienna' going through your head?"

"What?" Malice and Wicked asked.

Schuldig grinned. "Yep. And we just thought you were a broken record. Want it gone?"

"Fuck yes!" Malice answered. "Who the hell did it?"

"Sounds like your own voice, so it may be Evil again."

Crawford fought down the feeling of warmth that suffused him. After all, Schuldig hadn't stayed away long, certainly not long enough to be missed, so there was no reason for such a flood of sentiment. "Welcome back."

"I was never really gone."

"Get it out. Block it," Malice said as he stood and walked to Schuldig. "Whatever. Please. But don't go messing around in there. Wicked will be watching."

"Such a mannerly child. Can you stand to have me touch you?"

"If you had any idea what my life's been like, you'd understand why I don't want much to do with you."

"Still rude." But when Schuldig touched Malice's face he had an almost fond expression on his. "Done. It was small and subtle. Anything stronger and louder would have gotten your attention."

"Someone didn't want to take the chance of you giving us information," Crawford said. "If Wicked hadn't kept you here.... Schuldig, can you tell where it came from?"

Schuldig grinned darkly. "The Kritiker compound."

Of course. "I'll take Wicked and Nagi with me to the compound to see if we can take this one down. Schuldig, you stay here with Aya, Farfarello, and Malice. Malice, I want you to continue your research."

"I'm not leaving him," Wicked said.

"Go without me," Malice answered. "I think this is important. Try to get the son of a bitch who was messing with my head."

Having it put that way made it impossible for Wicked to say no. "All right. For you. But the rest of you better protect him."

"As if he were our own," Schuldig said with a smirk.

******************************************************

While Ken and Fenris cased the place for signs of the word user, Yoji, Elena, and Sasha looked for Orange liners for Sasha to shake down for information, with Elena and Sasha boosting Yoji's shields so he wouldn't be an open book about the search for Evil. To Yoji's surprise, none of the Oranges found it suspicious that Sasha would want to speak to them; he was one of them so _of course_ he'd want to check in. A mostly friendly, clingy bunch, the Oranges welcomed and chattered with the three of them. The ones that had made up the Bruise treated Elena with a special respect, while several Oranges propositioned Yoji.

At one point when they weren't swamped with clones, Yoji whispered to Elena, "Am I smeared with catnip or something? Yes, I'm gorgeous but this is ridiculous."

"They can taste Schuldig and a bit of Sasha on you," she whispered back.

Share alike. "Oh, God."

She elbowed him. "Hey, they like you. Suck it up. Uhm, not necessarily like _that_."

"Funny."

The clones suddenly looked a bit distressed. "What's going on?" Yoji asked.

One of them said, "One of us just took some kind of telepathic hit, though he's trying to hide it and says he's fine. We wish he'd let us help, but he prefers to keep to himself. From what we can tell he was badly abused, but he'd do so much better if he'd let us in a bit. Besides, we want to know if this is a threat to us."

Bingo! Elena and Sasha had nearly identical expressions on their faces, having picked up on it too. An Orange liner who kept to himself was definitely a needle of a different kind and well worth checking out. "Maybe he'll listen to Elena."

"It's worth a try."

They followed the clone for a bit and stopped just as two Orange liners walked out of a room, one of them looking very earnest and the other distantly annoyed, though Yoji could only hear the earnest one speaking. "C'mon--"

Once they were closer, Yoji heard the distant looking one say, "No. Let go of me." His voice was low and hoarse, sounding damaged, and he had his long orange hair in a sloppy ponytail. Something about his blue eyes suggested burnt-out lightbulbs, and they didn't look directly at the Orange liner talking to him. He huddled into his long coat a bit.

"We can help."

"No. Let go." He started to walk away but came up short from the grip on his arm. "Why are you still holding on to me?"

"I'm not done talking."

"I'm done listening, Sleepy."

Sleepy, the earnest one, suddenly let go as if he'd been burned and stared at the other one in surprise and some pain. "Why did you--"

But the clone was walking away, uncaring. Elena said, "We want to ask you some questions." He kept walking.

Sasha ran ahead and blocked his escape route. "It'll only take a few moments."

"A few moments too long," he answered. "Why are you harassing me?"

"People are in danger. We're trying to band together against it."

"I'm no one. Let me leave."

Elena and Yoji had taken advantage of his stop to come up behind him. "It'll be fine," Elena said.

"Like hell."

The pain and tsunami of voices hit Yoji like a sledgehammer and threw him to the floor, and he saw that he wasn't alone in that, since everyone but that one clone dropped to the floor in agony. Was this Evil? Although Yoji had some vague idea of yelling into his headset to Ken or Fenris to stop Evil from leaving, he couldn't get his thoughts together well enough to force any words out. Nobody could stop the clone as he kept walking, leaving human wreckage in his wake.

Eventually the deluge stopped and Yoji managed to get to his feet, but he couldn't see a trace of that one clone. Everybody around Yoji looked stunned and ill, like they'd gotten it worse than he had. Considering how many of them were telepaths, they probably had.

Yoji said into his headset, "Ken, we might have seen Evil! Long orange ponytail, acts like the walking dead. Get Fenris on it. Draco and Sasha are too blown out to be any good on this."

"I hear you. We'll see what we can do," Ken answered.

They'd been so close....


	201. ~ I don't think you're strong enough to do a real vacation. ~

Fenris had felt everybody hurting, though he hadn't been sure why it had happened, and now he could hear it in Yoji's voice too. But Yoji sounded like he hurt _for_ Evil too. Fenris still didn't understand caring about people you didn't know, especially people who attacked you. It seemed weak and crazy. Elena thought Yoji and Ken were strange for that too. Still, would they have taken him and Elena in if they hadn't been like that?

Elena. With that attack of her word and then getting her head swatted by the clone, she didn't feel or think very good. It made Fenris very angry.

Tactics. As Elena would say, Fire not where your target is but where he _will_ be. He couldn't feel Evil, so that didn't work. He'd have to think like Evil. Where would Evil go? If Evil thought like Fenris right now, he'd try to hide himself in the building again, needle lost in the pile, but somehow Fenris didn't think so. Elena had sent that the clone wanted to get _out_ even before everybody started to dogpile on him about talking to them, and maybe it really sucked to be around a crowd of people who looked almost exactly like you did and acted a bit like it besides. Maybe Evil had gone outside.

"Fenris, where are you going?" Ken asked.

"Window!" Fenris answered as he opened it and stuck his head out, looking around. His long sight sucked, but at one place part of the distant blurriness moved even though it didn't have the shape of anything that should move. Just walking background, weird and suspicious. Worth checking out. Fenris might not be able to read other people well through the static, but they had trouble planting things in _his_ head too. It might be that most telepaths wouldn't have noticed anything wrong.

Fenris loved his life. He should have been inside a cage or smashed to paste inside the rubble of Rosenkreuz, but instead he was free and living and proving them wrong about him every day. He was _useful_.

"I see something!" he said to Ken and into his headset. "I'm going down to check it out!"

"Not like that!" Ken answered.

"It's as easy as falling out a window!"

Fenris pushed himself out the window and let his teke shoot him towards the blur. He wished he could just attack at high speed for the full surprise thing, but he didn't know for sure that he had the clone. It could be some other telepath keeping a low profile for his own reasons. Sometimes Fenris liked to sneak around like that too, just because. He'd approach fast but cautious, looking for the blur to become something else the whole time. If necessary he'd grab the blur but not mow it down. Besides, Elena and Yoji would want Evil alive so they could question him.

The closer Fenris came, the faster that part of the blur started to move, trying to get away from him. Not that he could blame it for trying not to get tackled. "If you just show yourself I might stop! I just want to know who you are," Fenris yelled to it, but it didn't stop.

A bunch of words in a strange voice went into Fenris' head, even drilling through his usual static. Were they _those_ words? Fenris grinned. "Didn't work! I don't think I have a word."

Finally he grabbed the blur, and it felt like holding on to a bundle of long twigs. The blur became a guy, and Fenris got a look at a wave of orange hair and angry blue eyes as they hit the ground, then yelled as a sharp pain hit his shoulder with the sound of a gunshot and a kind of metal _*ptang!*_ It hurt and felt too warm there so he must have been shot. He _liked_ this shirt and coat too!

He saw the gun in the clone's hand so he used his teke to knock it away and more teke to make him too heavy to throw off. He used to play tricks with his teke to change his weight around the doctors all the time, so he knew what he was doing. Being held down made the Orange wild, with him struggling, trying to kick, and drilling more telepathic pain and drowning right into Fenris' head. Fenris didn't let him get away with any of it and didn't feel much of the telepathic attack anyway. So much for Fenris being too damaged to be good for anything. Here his damage helped him.

He wanted so badly to ask the guy if he were Evil, but what were the odds that he'd tell the truth if he were?

"Evil" really was a suck name.

The Orange struggled like he couldn't feel pain, making Fenris worry that he might hurt... _injure_ himself, maybe even break bones. "Stop that! If you stay still you don't have to worry." Something about him reminded Fenris of the stray cat he sometimes saw in the alley behind the shop, so he said in his most gentle voice, "Please just stay still. It'll be fine. I won't hurt you. None of us will."

The Orange didn't calm down at all. Then again, the cat never believed him either, even though he meant every word.

After letting out a hard, sharp breath, the Orange went completely limp, lying there like a rag doll, head lolling too and mind not giving anything off. Fenris couldn't have broken him! He had too much control. No, the Orange wasn't dead, just... absent. Or maybe buried deep inside himself.

Tactics. What did the Orange think Fenris would do in answer to this? Maybe get bored of waiting eventually, lose focus, and be ripe to get knocked out. Fenris would not! He could wait quietly forever. He'd learned how in the lab.

He could hear people coming out of the building and coming close. "Good boy," Crawford said, as if Fenris were his dog. Fenris was most definitely not, and if the Schwarz pack ever became a problem Fenris would go right for their throats. "Wicked, is that him?"

The wild-haired Orange looked down at them and answered, "It could be, though he looks better cared for than the last time I saw him. Wait, pull up his left sleeve."

Fenris did it and saw blue numbers on the wrist's pale skin. Wicked nodded and said, "That's Evil's number. The whole Guilty line got numbered, being the special limited edition people that we are."

"Does he often play dead?" Crawford asked.

"Who's playing?" Wicked answered, grinning. "Nah, this is something he does when it gets too bad. Just leaves. His trainer stopped doing shit when his victims stopped reacting."

What?

"Get him back."

"How? Look, he'll come back on his own when he's ready. Maybe when we try to move him, maybe afterward. Because _I_ can't find him in there. Also, just because we have Evil doesn't mean we have someone word guy is working with. Evil might be fucking around all on his own or working for someone else. Hi, kid."

Was the Orange talking and grinning at _him_? "Uh, hi."

Elena crouched down next to Fenris and said, "Good work," which meant so much. Then she looked worried and said, "Your shirt is bloody and smoldering. Shit! I got it out."

The area that hurt felt a little weirder now. Fenris couldn't describe it. But not being on fire was a good thing. "Thanks. What was that?"

"We'll take off your coat and shirt when we get inside and take a look. You need that cleaned and bandaged anyway. From what I can see, it looks like a graze."

"You have metal under your skin there," Nagi said. "It may be some kind of computer chip. It's short-circuiting a bit from the damage. I can feel it."

"Can you turn it off?" Elena asked.

"Do you really want to do that when we have no idea what it does?"

Damn. Fenris had wished Nagi would know already. _He_ didn't. He had too much shit in his body that he didn't know enough about.

"Damn. Good point."

Nagi really was very pretty and well put-together. Fenris was straddling an unconscious clone with his knees and hands in cold mud and grass and with blood on his coat and shirt. And the shirt might be burnt too. Oh well.

"Fenris, I can't believe you did that!" Ken said. "The window thing!"

"But I got him," Fenris answered with a grin.

"Sure did," Yoji replied. "That's the one we tried to stop. Great job."

"But he took off ten years of my life doing it," Ken said.

"Maybe we should do less gawking outside and more getting them inside so we can work on them," Sasha said.

"Great idea," Elena answered. "All right, everyone, back off and give them some room. I think Nagi should take the clone inside, since he could make sure the guy isn't going anywhere we don't want him to."

_This_ was Fenris' pack. Their praise and concern felt warmer and better than anyone else's. Maybe he'd count Sasha in it too if Sasha kept being good. "You got him, Nagi?"

"I have him."

Fenris stood up and away. Wow, the graze hurt more when he was upright. Nagi used his teke to pull the clone up off the ground, while Evil just hung in his grip, muddy and still limp and absent. Maybe whatever Yoji and Ken had was catching, because Fenris felt bad for him too.

******************************************************

Watching Malice research bored the hell out of Schuldig so Schuldig sat on one of the chairs and smoked to pass the time. Similarly, Farfarello sat cross-legged on the floor, sharpened his knives, and occasionally stroked the side of his face against Aya's hanging leg. Aya sat on the table near the laptop, sometimes watching Malice, still working because that was who Aya was.

Utterly engrossed, Malice didn't seem to be bothered at all by the noise Farfarello made. Staring at the back of Malice's head and watching the small movements of his long braid, Schuldig tried to figure out why Malice bothered him so much. Schuldig understood Wicked and understood the Emory-like Orange line. They had aspects of him. Malice was cold and focused in ways none of them were.

"You aren't happy with me when I'm you. You're not happy with me when I'm not you. It's a good thing I don't bother trying to please you," Malice said. "I'm not you. I'm trying to figure out who I am now that I don't have to pretend to _be_ you anymore."

"Don't strain yourself."

Malice made a derisive sound, then said, "I found part of the phrase in a transcript of a discussion on the ways to best utilize Schuldig but nothing about giving him a code phrase. The transcript suggested that they decided Schuldig would be more useful as a field operative than a... than a 'the phrase.'"

What was this damned code phrase anyway?

"Don't try reading it out of Malice's mind," Aya said.

"If I don't know what it is, how the hell can I know if I'm reading it? How the hell can I read anyone connected in this?" Fuck, Schuldig had just realized it. He was so screwed.

"I theorized that it needs a specific accent behind it."

"German German," Malice said with a smirking voice.

"Some of us don't fully understand the history behind our language implants," Aya said sourly.

"See how you do in Japan, mindbreaker cub," Farfarello murmured, ever watching his kitten's back as defense.

"I'm not denigrating Aya," Malice answered, his tone suggesting that he found Aya as pretty as... well, as most people did.

Farfarello extended the blade on one of his swords with a loud clang, but Aya deflected it away from Malice with one of his knives. "Have you forgotten that Malice is an authority we need?" Aya asked in a dark, dangerous voice.

"You saw the trajectory. It wouldn't have killed him, just wounded him a little." Farfarello sounded sulky.

"I know you're bored, but save your strikes for our enemies."

"I could have dodged, but I knew Aya wouldn't let you hurt me, not when he knows I'm useful," Malice said.

Snap, snap, snap. It amused Schuldig. "Farf, you are not decreasing Aya's prestige here." Wait a minute. "How do you know anything about Aya, Malice? All of our shields are good."

"How do you think? Eszett was still data farming on you right up to the end. We had to have information on Weiß because Schwarz kept interacting with them. Besides, there was the separate project on the Fujimiya offspring, not that I had any entry on that. The sister was important to the ultimate plan and obviously manifesting, so they had to have information on the brother as well."

Schuldig officially stopped being bored. Shit. It made _sense_ too. The alte kockers had to find out about Aya-chan's refusal to age somehow, and of course they would track her nearest blood relation as well in the hopes of having a backup. Schwarz just hadn't bothered to brainstorm around the idea of her to look at all the angles and potential plans. Damn, they just had blind spots all over the place, didn't they? Suspiciously so, especially considering their overthinking control freak of a team leader. How much had their minds been messed with?

Wait a minute. Ebenroth had claimed that Eszett hadn't given much thought to Fujimiya Ran, just his sister. Had Ebenroth been ignorant or lying? Schuldig wanted _answers_.

Aya had one of his killing looks on. Poor guy.

~ Schuldig. ~

~ Hey, Brad. How are things going at Kritiker Central? ~

~ We have Evil, although we can't question him yet. He's retreated into his own mind and none of the telepaths can drag him out. Although I'm wondering if Friendly isn't trying as hard as she should be. Her puppy was injured so she's distracted. ~

~ I could probably open Evil up. ~

~ Probably. ~ Schuldig could almost feel Brad's dark smile. ~ Too bad it's too risky letting you come here or touch any of the minds here, particularly his. ~

~ Yeah, Aya mentioned that to me. He's really picking up on how telepathy works. ~

Despite having to do it quickly, Brad had been careful in who went with him and who stayed here. He didn't want Schuldig in the building he'd almost been exposed to the phrase in and didn't want Aya under Breaker's nose. Farfarello shouldn't attract Breaker's attention either and wouldn't tolerate being separated from Aya yet again anyway. Malice should continue combing the archives. That left Wicked to go with Brad to identify Evil--which had turned out to be necessary--and Nagi as backup and heavy lifting. None of them had words that could be used against them.

At least, they didn't that they knew of. Damn it.

~ I hate this, ~ Schuldig said.

~ Me too. You're too useful to be off the board like this. I want you here but can't have you. ~

Aw. From Brad Crawford that was almost a marriage proposal. ~ I'd rather be with you. You know, it strikes me that I haven't had a long string of good days since before London. ~

~ We'll take a vacation after this. ~

~ Pull the other one. ~

~ I mean it. ~

~ Last time it started out as vacation but turned into a job. Then it turned into a second job. ~

~ Vacation. A real one. We all need it. A good leader doesn't run his people into the ground. I won't even check my e-mail. ~

~ I'll believe that when I see it. You'd go insane after one day. ~

~ Are you daring me? ~

~ Maybe. I don't think you're strong enough to do a real vacation. ~

~ You'll see. ~

~ I'm looking forward to that. Oh, Malice hasn't found where they might have programmed the phrase in me, though he says he found a transcript mentioning it and a plan to use me as a puppeteer. He says that the transcript suggests they decided against it. He's still looking. ~

After a flash of future, Brad said, ~ I have to go. Friendly is about to start bitching at me, and I need my full attention for that. Malice should continue looking through the archives. ~

~ The Farf is restless. ~

~ Find something for him to do. You should stay at the hotel. We still don't know enough yet, and the risks for you are too great. ~

~ Yes, sir. ~

~ Wise-ass. I'll keep you up to date if something important happens. Talk to you later. ~

~ 'Bye, Brad. ~

"Business or personal?" Aya asked.

"Both," Schuldig answered. "According to Brad, we're still here with Malice and our thumbs up our asses for the foreseeable future. Farf, you might want to go next door and get your thumb up Aya's ass for a bit. I think I can refrain from killing Malice for about a half hour."

Aya might have been angry and scandalized over the crass language and public proposal, but Farfarello could have been a kid at X-mas. _Commanded_ to fuck his kitten, which established his claim in front of Malice in the process, Farf grinned and grabbed Aya's hand. "We're not needed here. A watched researcher never boils, puisín."

Aya still looked annoyed but relented. "All right."

They left together. Hopefully they would return more relaxed later. Schuldig wished _he_ could fuck his way into some serenity.

As Malice stared at him, one eyebrow cocked, Schuldig said, "I won't eat you now that we're alone. Not even if you want me to."

"You really enjoy flattering yourself." Malice turned back to the laptop and went back to work.

Of all the Orange clones out there, Schuldig had to be stuck with the single one who hated him. His life sucked.


	202. "When you get shot in the implant and take it like a good little soldier then you can say that."

"Scry, he wasn't part of the school, so he's not under your jurisdiction." Such as it was, and Mamoru disputed much of it constantly. Scry always tried to grasp too much. "Intrigue, I know he's an Orange line clone but he's not one of yours either. Thus, neither of you have any say on what we do with him. He may have answers on what happened with the words today, so I would think you'd want him to be questioned."

"I don't want him scapegoated," Intrigue said. "Besides, you've seen him. I don't think he could survive rough treatment."

Mamoru disagreed but knew it wouldn't sound good to say so. "We're not going to torture him. Actually, right now we're not doing anything to him since we can't get him out of the unresponsive state he put himself into."

"I have the skills to bring him out," Breaker said.

The look of horror on the faces of almost everyone who heard that said why he shouldn't. Mamoru wanted to beat his head against the wall. Trust him to come to Vienna with someone the talents saw as a person somewhat akin to Vlad the Impaler at his back. "That won't be necessary. I'd like to give him a little time to come out of it on his own. Besides, Wicked is with him." Whoever had named these people deserved to be tortured and killed. "Now I really need you to leave. We have too many people in the room as it is."

Intrigue and Scry looked rebellious but obeyed. At least no one here doubted Mamoru's leadership based simply on his youth, not when so many of the talents were even younger than they looked and thus younger than he was.

Now, with only Breaker, Weiß, and part of Schwarz in the room, he could concentrate better on everything else. He had more immediate matters than Intrigue and Scry's attempts at grabbing more power and influence.

Fenris sat on the table, bare-chested, bloodied, and obviously uncomfortable, as Elena cleaned up his wound and revealed the edge of something unnatural sticking out. Mamoru couldn't believe the number of scars marking Fenris' torso, and that was with him having lived with and patched up assassins for most of his life. Worse, the scars looked too regular and precise to be anything other than premeditated surgical cuts.

While he regretted many things in his life, helping to destroy Eszett wasn't one of his regrets. Then again, considering current events, maybe he should regret that he hadn't been able to control and micromanage the destruction. Still, an actual precog hadn't foreseen how things would turn out here. Mamoru shouldn't be too hard on himself for the actions of others, even as he tried to fix what he could.

He noticed Breaker directing some annoyed looks in Fenris' direction. Yes, the boy was in pain and currently not quite stoic about it, but Breaker's reaction seemed out of proportion to that. Mamoru would keep that in mind.

"It can't hurt that badly," Ken said, obviously trying to be kind but not succeeding.

Less good-natured than usual, Fenris answered, "When you get shot in the implant and take it like a good little soldier then you can say that. Until then, shut up, Ken."

"Fenris," Elena said.

"Sorry, Ken."

"Siberian, I know you don't _mean_ to be ignorant, but Fenris' graze is only part of the problem," Nagi said as he appeared to be examining the area with telekinesis while Fenris looked away, nearly blushing. "This is a computer chip of some kind, and taking that shot has screwed it up badly. For a while it was sending little shocks of electricity into Fenris' body."

"Turn it off!" Ken said.

"Duh. I deactivated it, which doesn't seem to have done any further harm. From what I can see in a telekinetic scan, it doesn't appear to be connected to anything in Fenris' body; it just sat beneath the skin."

Mamoru had an embarrassing moment of "my boyfriend is so cool." Embarrassing because it was an embarrassing reaction and because Nagi hadn't been his boyfriend for a while.

Yoji would say that he really needed to get laid.

Feeling as if someone watched him a highly creepy way, Mamoru turned around and looked but couldn't find a source. Maybe just standing around Breaker set his nerves off now.

"Then what the hell was it?" Elena asked.

"Tracking chip?" Nagi's mouth twisted. "Time bomb?"

"Get it out!" Fenris predictably shouted.

"Nagi, damn it, that wasn't necessary," Yoji said as he put his hands on Fenris' shoulders, comforting.

"I don't know, all right? I don't want to sugarcoat things too much," Nagi answered. "This _is_ Eszett we're talking about."

"I want it out," Fenris said. "Take it out, and then patch me up. Figure out what it is once you get it out."

Glaring at Crawford, Elena asked him, "Are you ever going to release any of the information you took from Eszett? I know you had Nagi picking up whatever he could. There's too much for him to possibly go through alone, even if he weren't simply doing it as a hobby, which seems to be what's going on now."

Suddenly Crawford mentally returned, his attention fully on his surroundings again. Mamoru had recognized Crawford's former distracted look as one that suggested he telepathically spoke to someone far away. Probably Schuldig this time.

Smiling evilly, Crawford said, "I can't. We don't know its value yet."

"Nor will you ever the way you're going. And you really intend to make people pay for it?"

"Friendly, have you forgotten whom you're speaking to?"

Her mouth twisted with scorn. "Not for a second."

"We don't know the full extent of what we have. Some of it's obviously important, while other files appear to be minutiae about the daily running of the organization, like lists on how many napkins Rosenkreuz would need for a month."

"While some of it might contain information about the shit they put in Fenris or the words they put in all of us. Wait, all of us who aren't Schwarz. Yours don't work anymore. Is there more of that cure somewhere? Because the rest of us have to ask ourselves whether going into slavery in the Volksgarten tomorrow is worth it in the face of what some psycho can do to us with a fucking _word_."

Mamoru did appreciate her pit bull tendencies. He knew Yoji did too.

"I'm not _giving_ anything away."

"It's not earning any money where it is now. Why don't you give it to a group that could put several people on the effort to untangle and put a value on it?"

"This is not the time."

"When is?"

"Take it out, Nagi. Please," Fenris said. "I take... responsibility. Whatever."

"I agree that it should be taken out," Nagi said, "since it might reactivate somehow if I'm not around to keep it in check. Can someone get me some painkiller?"

"I don't care. Just pull it out. A lot of this stuff was put in without it anyway."

"I care. I'm not going to have you jerking around while I'm working. Besides, it's only partially exposed right now so I think it's best if we do an incision to free it up more. I don't want to have to pull it through the small area that's open right now."

Mamoru's former boyfriend, ladies and gentlemen. Mamoru had the distinct impression that regular people might feel a bit nauseous after that dry recitation of the benefits of slicing Fenris up further. Having it preceded by Fenris' talk about having things implanted inside his body without the use of anesthetics only made Mamoru feel sicker.

"You didn't ask for knives before, just painkiller," Ken said.

"I figured that several people in this crowd had knives."

"You walked right into that one," Yoji said.

"Shut up, Yoji. You suck," Ken answered.

"I don't need the entertainment as I work," Nagi said, "so maybe everyone who won't be here as support crew can get out of the room. I could concentrate better that way. At least a knife takes less effort to make a clean cut than using telekinesis...."

"Maybe they'd prefer to visit Evil," Wicked said with a grin as he entered the room. It disconcerted Mamoru that this clone resembled Schuldig so much, especially since the others didn't. "He's back. Though you might not want to have too many people around him. He gets distracted in a crowd. You definitely don't want Breaker."

"You have a problem with me?" Breaker asked.

"Several. So would he. Sure, we could let Breaker into the room. If you don't mind guaranteeing that you won't get anything useful out of Evil."

"I'll stay away then."

"Thank you. Please go to Zietler," Mamoru said, feeling undercurrents he couldn't quite set a name to, something going on. Once Breaker left, Mamoru said, "I want Wicked, Balinese, and Misery with me."

"Not me, sir?" Elena asked.

"I think you should stay to support Fenris." Professional she might be, but he figured she'd be distracted knowing that Fenris was in possibly dangerous surgery in the next room. "Ken, you stay with them too."

"Does he have to?" Nagi asked.

"He won't talk."

"Thanks so much," Ken said.

Yoji looked surprised that he'd been chosen to come in, but Mamoru couldn't explain his reasons openly in front of this company. He wanted Yoji in there as his support, his man. Besides, he'd noticed that the Orange line seemed to like Yoji. Maybe that would work with Evil as well. Yoji did Weiß's "I have something to tell you" hand gesture, which made him an even better choice to come along.

"You're bringing me in as well," Crawford said. "I can do a cautious link to Schuldig, and he can advise us."

Not feeling too kindly toward Schwarz after all those excellent points Elena had brought up, Mamoru asked, "Why? What's in it for me?" At Crawford's scowl, Mamoru continued, "Weiß brought him in. Your assistance was all after that fact. The way you're keeping things from us is obstructing us. This thing with the word struck at you even though you tried to protect Schwarz alone from it? That's a shame. It's not my problem. And Wicked and Misery aren't yours, are they?" He threw that last in as a calculated risk.

Misery and Wicked both flashed mean, razor-edged smiles at Crawford, pure Schuldig in a spiteful mood. Crawford had thrown Misery on the mercy of Weiß, discarding him like trash, while Weiß had treated him well, so he'd been a more certain quantity for Mamoru's side. Apparently, Crawford hadn't gained any loyalty from Wicked either. Or, perhaps, Wicked just enjoyed being evil. Meanwhile, Crawford didn't have any powerful telepaths of his own who could safely let him listen in from outside. Truly, a shame.

It had to be a sin to feel this much satisfaction to see Crawford get back some of what he always dished out. Crawford always bargained ruthlessly, doing nothing that didn't net him some gain, miserly in providing help, personnel, and information. He did almost nothing for people he didn't consider part of his own team, although he gleefully used Weiß for his own purposes whenever he could. Now he had no favors or good will to call on, and from the sour look on his face he knew it.

"What could you possibly offer us to make it worth our while to let you in on this?" Mamoru asked. "I want some of the Eszett data files Nagi took. _Useful_ ones, not stock lists for the Rosenkreuz cafeteria or whatever. I know Nagi, so I know he's had to go through some of the information. If you have something on the words, that would be best. Right now we may be forced to let things happen at the Volkgarten tomorrow and see who shows up to take the desperate in. I would let you in with us for the promise of that and immediate delivery afterward. And if you gave me shit instead of useful data I would smear Schwarz's reputation across the continent. If your employers have no faith in you, you won't get work."

If Crawford had been a pyrokinetic, Mamoru would probably be a pile of ashes now from the intensity of his glare. "How would I know how much would satisfy you? The files aren't all the same size or of the same usefulness."

"You can trust me to show some generosity. I've been lending Kritiker's help to you throughout my time here. So far the costs have outweighed the benefits, but I'm staying the course for now."

Crawford was _pissed_ but said, "We have a deal."

"Good. Let's go in."

"And hope that Evil didn't submerge himself again while we were wrangling in the hallway," Wicked answered cheerfully. Apparently, he enjoyed being evil.

When they entered the room, Mamoru saw that Evil was conscious and cognizant. Padded restraints at his wrists and ankles kept him bound to a heavy wooden chair. Someone had also bound his arms to the chair, which seemed unnecessary until Mamoru remembered Fenris' report that Evil didn't notice pain. The clone might break or strain something in his arms trying to pull them out of the wrist restraints. Even now he fitfully, seemingly instinctively, pulled at everything binding him.

They all stood across from him, but he didn't always look at them with his burnt-out blue eyes. Sometimes he appeared to be hearing or watching something from somewhere else.

"Evil," Wicked said. The clone didn't respond, so Wicked tried again. "Your name is 'Evil.'"

"No," the clone answered in a soft, raw voice.

"I saw your number. I have 'em too." Wicked pulled up his sleeve and a leather bracelet aside to show his own blue numbers. "You were named 'Evil.'"

"I was named 'Evil.' I call myself 'Flood.'" Did the clone's voice sound that damaged full time?

"Why did you change it?" Mamoru asked.

"I was named 'Evil.'"

Misery, Wicked, and Yoji didn't quite succeed in hiding their amusement. Crawford simply watched, light reflecting off his glasses.

"Let me go," Flood said.

"You shot one of our people," Mamoru said.

"He started it. Don't say anything about the other people temporarily hurt either, because they also started it."

"You tried to use the words on Fenris," Yoji said. No one had told Mamoru. Then again, Breaker had stood at Mamoru's back most of the time.

"I cursed him out. If I'd used the words, he'd be paralyzed."

"Cursed him out with word salad? None of them were curse words. They didn't work because he doesn't have a word programmed into him. He was a lab rat who wasn't supposed to escape the lab. You're different. You know the words, and none of them affect you. It doesn't look good for you."

"We know you're not the Big Bad behind this," Wicked said. "It's not your style. You don't care enough about other people; they barely exist as physical beings to you. But someone's obviously been taking care of you lately, before you came here. You're better fed than you should be. Someone cared for your hair, and your clothes are fairly new and clean. You barely notice these things on your own."

"I have no friends," Flood said. "I prefer to be as alone as I can, considering that I don't have as much choice about being _truly_ alone."

"Then why do all of that? Making the Orange line kill Woeller, using the words?"

"Woeller was a cancer. I could feel him tainting the area." Flood actually looked directly at Misery for a moment, which made Misery look away. "He needed to die. The words... I was bored. Bored."

"Bullshit," Wicked said. "Bored? You barely live in this world. And the rest of the Guilty line has words. Malice and I did. I can't believe you don't, especially considering the kind of man your trainer was. I don't believe you don't."

Flood's eyes briefly came alive with what might be anger or hatred at mention of his trainer then dimmed again. "I don't care what you believe. I know what you believe."

"You should care. There are a lot of desperate people whose futures are in doubt because of this shit with the words. They might have to sell themselves back into slavery. You don't want that."

"We're all slaves. Better to know it."

"You don't want to face what they might decide to do to you to get answers."

Although Mamoru didn't like the turn this appeared to be taking, he let it play out for now. Wicked knew this clone better than the rest of them did. If things went out of hand, Mamoru would step in.

Flood actually smiled, dead eyes lighting up with craziness. "Bring it, you stupid bitch. You know me? Then you know that's the most meaningless threat you can make to me. Too bad Malice isn't here, since he's the smart one."

They faced each other down, face to similar face, for several minutes. Mamoru finally said, "I understand that you claim not to feel any pain. I don't have to inflict any. I could just keep you tied down here and see if anyone comes to get or silence you. I have enough telepaths to keep watch over you and make sure you don't get into any mischief. Not all of them are from Eszett, so those don't have trigger words. I have non-talents who can guard and handle you just fine. Meanwhile, we'll keep asking you questions. You have to say something useful eventually."

"Sounds like a spa vacation," Flood said. "My room and board would be taken care of. They haven't always been."

"You're so hardcore," Misery answered, sounding bored. "It's cute."

"We know you're not the one responsible for the major planning," Yoji said. "Why take the fall for someone else? You could get room and board without being tied down to a chair and interrogated. Hey, don't nod off!"

Flood's eyes closed, and he twitched. That didn't look right at all. Wicked came right up into his face and slapped him, then said, "Somebody's trying to kill him. A telepath. He's fighting it off."

"Who?" Mamoru asked. From a distance like this? How many telepaths could do that?

"I can't tell," Misery said. "How about you, Wicked?"

"I can't either. Damn it. I can't even get a grip on it. This guy is good and powerful."

"So, what, we stand here and watch Flood try to fight off his killer until he dies?" Yoji asked.

And lose their one link to their enemy in the process, helplessly watching as someone was killed from a distance right in front of them. Flood started to bleed from one nostril.

"I've contacted Schuldig," Crawford said, as cool as you please. "It's too risky for him to try to stop this, but he has an idea of who can do it instead. He's calling him in."


	203. "Are you trying to seduce me with real estate?"

His puisín muttered under his breath as they walked to their room, _pissed_ that Schuldig had so violated his dignity by suggesting in front of the cub that they go fuck. Unable to be upset over being urged to do something he wanted to do anyway, Farfarello hoped that Aya didn't extend that anger into refusing to fuck just to spite the mindbreaker. Aside from wanting to slake his lust, Farfarello felt a burning need to _be_ with his kitten. Circumstances and Crawford kept separating him from Aya, and dangers and bad news came from unexpected directions here almost hourly.

At least a few good things had come. He'd been pleased that Aya had been able to ignore the influence of a building full of mindbreakers and mindbreaker hybrids to synchronize himself to Farfarello's talent alone. That was an achievement to marvel over and treasure.

That flesh-to-flesh contact aided it was convenient in many ways.

Still, Farfarello desperately wanted to get his puisín away from all this and thought longingly of the plans they'd had for their own apartment again, this time in Tokyo. So many things had been put on hold while Crawford chased new challenges amidst old methods of operation in Europe. No longer. All of these travails involving talents and clones felt like somebody else's business to Farfarello and certainly for Aya. It would be _their_ time soon. Farfarello swore it. Schwarz would put their past to rest here and turn towards the future.

Once inside the room Aya removed his coat, revealing his gun rig with its guns, mostly bare arms, sheathed katana, and left wrist sheath with knife hilt protruding. So hot. Farfarello often amused himself thinking that the coat was like a mage's cloak of invisibility. Wearing it, Aya could walk in public without people guessing his profession or the weapons he hid under it.

Aya's arms had far fewer scars than they once had, becoming unfamiliar. Another unpleasant surprise in Vienna. Would he lose them all? So far it appeared so. Curse _her_ that even undead she couldn't stay out of her brother's life.

But Aya _had_ taken off his coat and now gave Farfarello a look of dark-eyed lust from under his bangs. It appeared that his puisín wouldn't penalize him for the mindbreaker's disregard of propriety. Aya standing there wanton and willing and bristling with weaponry made Farfarello's mouth water.

"You shouldn't be so surprised," Aya said with a small smile. "I think it's a good idea. Even Schuldig can be right now and then, just as a broken clock is correct twice a day."

"Don't even joke...."

"I don't want him. I want you."

Oh yes. Farfarello wanted to strip his kitten to his skin and taste him all over but the mindbreaker might hold them to 30 minutes, and if they only had 30 minutes he didn't want to waste it with disrobing. He came up close behind Aya and put his hands over his kitten's on his fly, then pressed down, bringing Aya even closer to him. His puisín sighed and rocked back against him. Wonderful.

Nibbling the rim of Aya's ear in between the engagement cuff and his sister's earring, Farfarello murmured in English, "When Vienna is over we will make _such_ demands."

Although he appreciated the mindbreaker's X-mas gift, English was a language both he and Aya knew without a telepathic implant, making it a language with deeper and more broad ranging connections in their brains. It made a difference. Besides, they had spoken English during their time alone as a couple in New York City, so it had to remind his kitten of that as well.

He moved Aya's hands away so he could unbutton his fly himself. "We will have our own apartment, our own place," Farfarello continued, so excited by the idea. "Ours only."

"Are you trying to seduce me with real estate?" Aya asked, also in English, understanding.

"You'll be impressed and aroused by the size and girth of our apartment."

His puisín laughed, then gasped as Farfarello stroked the length of his hard cock. "But it's not just the size; it's how you use the space," Aya said.

"We'll fuck in every area. That way we'll see which one's best. But right now I want to start by drinking you in."

He let his kitten go, always with some regret, but did so to go down to his knees in front of him and take Aya in. This act performed this way gave him a special shiver of excitement, as he knelt as if in prayerful worship before a different god--though not a _false_ idol--and took Aya's cock upon his tongue in a different kind of communion. The religious background he hated so much did make many acts seem much kinkier.

Aya was hot and hard and tasty and looking down at him with such lust and affection that Farfarello could hardly bear it. Yet he would, he must. He would stay fully associated and feel it all. The sacrifices they'd both made demanded it.

When Farfarello put his hands on Aya's hips and pulled his pants down a little more to feel more flesh, Aya bucked forward and murmured, "Sorry."

Although his throat felt a little sore--still so strange to get such sensation--Farfarello wanted to purr and said, ~ You never have to apologize for being excited by me. ~ He sucked harder to make his kitten writhe. ~ Feel free to show me.... ~

Aya put his gloved hands atop Farfarello's head, stroking and combing and sometimes pulling his hair in reaction to the ministrations of Farfarello's tongue, giving sharp sparks of sensation. Yes. The gloves made it better somehow.

Farfarello had certainly not gone to Aya a virgin, yet he'd never had a lover who was this strong and flexible at once. Schuldig had strength disguised in his serpentine body and the will to use it, but not like Aya. Aya had strength in the same way and places Farfarello did.

Schuldig was shameless and immediate in his vocalization of his pleasure, but Aya had to be driven to the point where he'd moan the way he moaned right now. The warmth of accomplishment added more heat to the fire of Farfarello's lust. He might come just from this, without touching himself, from the sounds and sensations he pulled from his lover and the way Aya's cock pulsed on his tongue, so close to completion....

~ Farfarello! We need you now! ~ the mindbreaker yelled.

Fuck! He came so close to biting down in his surprise and nearly choked himself instead. He had to carefully pull away to breathe and prevent himself from hurting his kitten.

"What?" Aya gasped as he put his hands on Farfarello's shoulders. "What was that?"

~ We're fucking busy here! You of all people should be aware! ~ Farfarello yelled at the mindbreaker.

~ And I appreciate your self-restraint in not Bobbetizing Aya. ~

~ What? ~

~ Biting off his-- ~

~ If not for your interruption-- ~

~ I know, okay? I wouldn't want that to happen either. Look, Evil's been caught and somebody's trying to telepathically kill him. Nobody at Planet Kritiker can get a hold of the assailant and protect the kid, but I think you could leap in and save him. I can't go myself for reasons you already know. If we lose Evil, we lose the puppeteer too, which is why he's being attacked. ~

~ Are you really Schuldig? You all sound similar. ~

~ Motherfucker! I know I ignored you before, but this is different. Be better than me, you asshole. ~

Could actually be Schuldig. Damn it. That meant he had to go. "Puisín--"

"I know. Schuldig broadcasted to me too. You have to go."

Aya hadn't been telepathic because Farfarello hadn't been, not while associated. His kitten still rode with him. That provided one good thought.

But Aya had wilted. Poor unfulfilled kitten.

Noticing the direction of Farfarello's look, Aya said dryly, "I won't die for lack of sex. Go."

Even while cursing Schuldig and all his cloned progeny, Farfarello settled back on the bed, seeing no reason to leave his vacant body to stiffen on the floor, then launched his soul out of it.

Farfarello knew he'd jumped to the right place when he found Crawford's familiar body and one person who tasted mindbreakerish but struggled under a thick, smothering shadow. For this he'd been prodded away from his kitten, and he let his anger feed him more strength. At first the shadow made an impermeable barrier but Farfarello battered at it ruthlessly, letting his rage and frustrated lust provide more strength. Finally he weakened it enough to bash through it, leaping into the clone's body, and continued fighting from within with the clone's help. They ripped at it mercilessly, the clone matching his rage and more. Excellent. Farfarello figured out how to manifest a kind of energy blade even in this more diffuse, non-avatar form, and he used it to burn and gouge.

The shadow started to scream but still had enough strength to yank them onto the astral plane, in cloud space. Since Farfarello had more experience fighting there he didn't mind at all and just automatically converted to his avatar form. The clone did likewise, manifesting as a thoroughly fucked-up looking creature, vaguely feline but mangy, abused, and with more tails and slit-pupiled blue eyes than any animal needed. The number of tails and eyes changed moment by moment. It struck out with teeth and claws. Together they gave the vaguely doglike shadow an even more thorough battering, but it felt too easy somehow.

Finally it fled. He gave chase but it... evaporated, leaving neither trail nor trace. Damn it. No novice this, which made the relative ease of their battle even more suspicious. Shit. Had it let him fight longer to take his measure? In any case, Schwarz would be disappointed.

"Thanks, but who the hell are you?" the mindbreaker cub asked, still bristling.

"Farfarello, with Schwarz. Remember that."

"I know who saved me, and I know who tried to kill me." It returned to its body.

Farfarello returned to his body and his kitten. He'd done his part. When he opened his eyes he saw Aya lying beside him, watching him with a mild, nearly amused look and asking, "Did it go well?"

"I'll report later," Farfarello answered and grabbed him. They damned well better not be disturbed for a while.

******************************************************

When Flood stopped twitching and opened his eyes, he looked enraged. "It was Breaker! Breaker who told me what to do, and Breaker who just tried to kill me to silence me. Scry is working with him for the promise of more power. I won't be thrown away like trash and I'm not dying for someone else's sins."

Mamoru's shock at the sudden outpouring gave way to a fierce joy that he had his excuse and could stop waiting. He grabbed Yoji's headset and said into it, "Operatives, Breaker and Scry are to be captured and detained. Don't let them escape the building. Zietler, put #5 into effect." When they heard a sudden crash from the hall, Mamoru said, "Wicked, keep an eye on Flood. The rest of us are checking out the sound."

Wicked saluted with an air of deep irony but seemed inclined to obey. He and Flood tried to outstare each other. Flood certainly looked more vividly aware since coming out of his near-death experience.

They found Fenris sitting on top of an unconscious Crawford clone in the hallway outside. "Sir!" Fenris said. "I heard Yoji's 'Oh shit' and what was behind it. Then I realized that Scry was out in the hall so I came out fast as I could to tackle him down. Don't worry. I didn't break him."

Fenris had burst through the door of the room he'd been in to do it. Not only had the door been taken down, but the heavy wooden frame had cracked and warped as well. Nagi stood within, looking bemused. "I'm glad you bothered to tell me before you moved, because otherwise you'd be more of a mess than you are now. You're dripping blood on him by the way."

"Can't be helped!"

"How do you know this is Scry?" Mamoru asked.

Fenris pointed to someone lying on his back on the floor nearby. The person stared sightlessly, alive but unable to move. Someone had used a word on him. It was grotesque.

"We need Scry awake to see if he has a counterword for this," Mamoru said.

"I wasn't given any counterwords," Flood called from inside the interrogation room. "He might not have been either."

"Did you know he was standing out here?"

"Yeah. He might be a precog and harder to read, but I've been working with him closely lately. You know, I don't remember _all_ the counterwords I heard during the broadcast but I think I remember some of them. I could try them."

"Try them."

Flood yelled out four words. When none worked, Flood said, "Scry might have remembered some of the others, but I can't know for sure."

"Someone wake him up and find out," Mamoru growled. Into the headset he asked, "Has anyone taken Breaker yet? Zietler, I told him to go to you."

"He never arrived," Zietler answered through the headset.

Of course. Shit. "Find him."

"Yes, sir."

"Why were you keeping such close tabs on me anyway?" Yoji murmured to Fenris.

"I've been doing it for a while in case you needed the back of your head smacked," Fenris murmured back. It made no sense to Mamoru, but Yoji seemed to know what he meant.

As Yoji crouched beside the paralyzed talent and closed his staring eyes, presumably to prevent them from drying out, Mamoru thought about the kind of person you'd have to be to send operatives out with a weapon that could do this but no way to cure it. Although he acknowledged that he and his people killed, at least that was cleaner than making a person a helpless prisoner in his own locked-down body. Mamoru asked, "Can we get Scry back to consciousness to see if we can get the right counterword out of him?"

"Most of the telepaths here have words he can use against them," Elena answered.

"I don't!" Wicked called from the room. "Flood doesn't either, but you probably won't want to use him."

"You could," Flood said. "I'm done with them."

Mamoru returned to the room to see Flood's face as they talked and marveled again over how the clone seemed more alive now, though not by much. "Why?"

"I would have kept my silence, but he tried to obliterate me to erase his trail. My life might not be much, but it's mine. Breaker tried to incinerate me like trash, and I was never really a person to Scry. Meanwhile, someone from Schwarz saved me, no doubt to use me but it's still better than what the other side offered."

"'Someone' from Schwarz?"

Flood nearly smiled. "The redheaded Sith Lord."

"Farfarello," Crawford said. Farfarello? Redheaded? And, damn, Crawford looked smug again. Schwarz saving Flood's life had made a large step toward earning their way on this.

"Yeah. I can help you. I don't know all of his operations but I know some things. I'd like to be untied."

"You said being tied to the chair would be like a spa vacation," Misery said. At least Yoji had stayed with the others in the hallway.

"I can handle sitting around tied down. It doesn't mean I want to."

"I can't free you," Mamoru said. "I don't trust you."

"Ask Farfarello if that attack on me had been for real."

He would have to. Still: "You're responsible for the deaths of several operatives. You know words that can severely impair other operatives that you claim you don't have all the counterwords for."

"I don't."

"Are you willing to be scanned so we can check?"

"Sure, although I don't think anyone trying would find me comfortable and it would have to be someone who doesn't have words. But are you sure you want to start down that path of using telepaths to check your own operatives, Persia?" Tied down, Flood could still be dangerous.

"I wouldn't be doing it all the time."

"Of course not."

"Someone's been taking care of you," Wicked said. "Feeding you, getting you clothes, brushing your hair. You're gonna throw that aside?"

"Did you miss the part where I was fighting for my life? I still have blood on my face that I can't clean off because I'm tied to a chair."

"Life sucks."

"Breaker took care of me for a while." He briefly looked sad and nearly fond there. "Then Scry took over while we were here. Breaker told him to consider it training for when he had the Skeleton Key."

Mamoru noticed Crawford's expression hardening into something more dangerous at that. It turned even darker and harder when Wicked asked, "Is that all he took care of?" and Flood answered, "Scry took care of his own needs with me. It's not like I felt much of it or cared. He saw it as some reward for his thankless work."

"We all get used?"

"We all get used."

"What's Schuldig's trigger phrase?" Crawford asked, his voice dark, low, and demanding.

"Are you sure you want me to tell you? You're close enough that he might read it out of your head."

That would be a problem. "Then don't tell me," Crawford answered, his voice getting even lower and darker.

In the meantime, they'd strayed far from their original intent, so Mamoru said, "Wicked, take Scry to a room, wake him up, and see if you can get counterwords out of him. Don't break him but don't go out of your way to be gentle either."

"Sure thing," Wicked answered with a grin. "Malice hates him. Wait, am I getting paid for this? It sounds an awful lot like work."

"You'll get paid."

"Excellent. But is Misery safe here with Flood?"

"Flood won't use any words on Misery. He betrayed his former master and wants to get on our good side."

"Exactly," Flood replied.

"He'll see if he can get counterwords out of you next."

"I don't think he'll enjoy that much."

Crawford smiled. "I have an idea about that. There's someone I'd like to try on you if you're really so cooperative. You know him. He just saved your life."

"I'm ready. Bring it."

"Persia, don't have Wicked take Scry away to work on him yet, because I believe that my operative can do that as well."

******************************************************

He had his kitten spread out beneath him on the bed like a banquet, breathing hard, so willing and ready to be devoured. Farfarello licked Aya's cock--

~ Oh, Faaaaaarf.... ~

~ No! I _will_ kill! ~ Farfarello answered. He'd just gotten his kitten back in the right mood again! Being so interrupted before had thrown both their rhythms off.

Aya _growled_. "My patience with this is wearing thin."

~ Yes, your collective case of blue balls is tragic, but be professional, ~ the mindbreaker said.

~ You would bitch endlessly in my place! ~

~ Yes, but I'm special! You're special too, but in a different way. We need you to jump into Evil again to see if he has the counterwords. You can blow your kitten later. ~

~ At this rate I'll never blow him at all! ~

As Aya buttoned his fly _again_, he said, "You might as well go. Schuldig won't leave us alone. It's your own fault for being so useful."

"I'll try to be more useless to them in the future." He had to find a way to make someone pay for this.


	204. "I haven't earned my wings yet?"

Even without borrowed telepathy, Aya could tell that Farfarello's body was vacant. He didn't look asleep; he looked _empty_. Aya's sister's coma hadn't been able to pass for sleep either, although in her case he'd always felt her buried inside her motionless body no matter what the doctors had said and knew she could distantly feel him there. In his darkest moments of self-doubt Aya had wondered if he hadn't imagined it, but the recent talk of them both having talents made him think differently. All those years of being thought pathetic and desperate by the staffs of every hospital she'd been in....

He felt her now, though not in the same way or with the same thoroughness. She wasn't all there.

Whenever he thought about it, it struck him as deeply ironic that she'd wanted to be a nurse.

Farfarello's body retained most of its scars, although they looked shallower and lighter than they once had. He'd gained so much control over his healing abilities that he could keep the marks he considered most important to him and most a part of his conception of himself. Aya saw most of his own scars disappearing already, so short a time after rescuing his sister's remains. He'd removed his weapons so he could lie comfortably while waiting for his lover's return, and without the wrist sheath it was obvious that the scars left by the knife he'd taped to his arm so long ago had faded almost completely. The knotted, lumpy marks left by the bullet that had gone through his shoulder barely existed any more when he'd looked this morning. Older, more faded scars had already vanished.

It unnerved him to see his past and memories being erased from his skin. There had been an odd comfort in looking at these landmarks written into his body as signs of his ability to survive and reminders to learn from his mistakes.

There'd been comfort in Farfarello's continued lust for him, when even Aya considered his increasingly blank skin unnatural and somewhat repulsive. He stroked Farfarello's shaggy hair.

Someone at the door-- Schuldig. Aya stopped reaching for a nearby knife. The telepath let himself in, saying, "I was going nuts over there. The only thing more boring than watching someone research something through a computer is watching someone who looks somewhat like you doing it. It's like running through a faulty memory.... Him hating me doesn't help either."

"Get out of here," Aya said. "I'm really not in the mood for this."

"I know! You're all angsty and sexually frustrated. I didn't want that."

"Schuldig--"

Using his enhanced speed, Schuldig had already crossed the room and snuggled next to him on the bed. "I'm sorry."

"Get the hell off the bed!"

"It must be hard watching him when he's away, especially considering your past."

Damn it! "I'll kick you off!"

Schuldig seemed solemn and thoughtful, not malicious, and looked at Farfarello. "We were so much closer once, Farf and I. I miss it sometimes."

To cool himself down, Aya told himself that Schuldig felt stressed too, had only been following Crawford's orders before, and couldn't help being obnoxious at all times. Playing along for lack of anything better to do than brood and knowing full well that kicking Schuldig off the bed would only be a highly temporary solution, Aya asked, "What changed?"

"We brought you in."

There came the rage again. "Brought me in? Kidnapped me! Kept me captive!"

"You think you'd still be alive now if we hadn't?"

Probably not. "I'll never know, will I?"

"Are you really so unhappy with us?"

"...no." He couldn't imagine what his life would be now without them.

"That's what I thought."

"Hnh."

"We changed more since your arrival than we had in the years before that. It's amazing.... Most of it's positive, but there are things I miss."

Aya didn't know how to deal with Schuldig in this mood. "What's happening with Kritiker?"

"Farf saved Evil's life from Breaker, and Evil's flipped on Breaker and Scry. Scry's captured, but the hunt for Breaker continues. Breaker seems to have disappeared."

"Scry?"

"Yep. Apparently he's even more power-hungry and treacherous than we expected. Or so Evil would like us to believe. Everybody's thrilled to have an excuse to go after Breaker too."

"You're suspicious?"

"I dunno. It may be true. It's just convenient too. Or maybe Breaker's playing on how convenient it is to sow doubt."

"That's twisty."

"Yeah. Fuck if I know. It's not like I'm there to see any of this shit firsthand. Farf probably has a better idea of what's going on than I do."

How strange to realize that current events had separated Schuldig from Crawford just as they kept separating Aya and Farfarello. Worse, because Schuldig had become accustomed to being at Crawford's side as his right-hand man, there at every stage of the decision-making process. Schuldig had been cut out of the loop as well as cut off from his lover.

Aya hated feeling sympathy for Schuldig.

"But I do appreciate it," Schuldig said, then snuggled into Aya's side more and rested his head on Aya's chest and one hand on Farfarello's bare left arm. "I really do. Especially since he hates me. Malice does. I can feel it rubbing against me like sandpaper."

How the hell had he, of all people, become Schwarz's... comforter? "He doesn't hate you. He just can't reach the people he actually does hate."

"Huh. How did you get so wise about people's feelings?"

"Correspondence course. I learned by mail."

Schuldig laughed and rubbed his head against Aya's chest. "You're cute."

"Don't tell anyone." With all that hair everywhere, Aya couldn't help touching some. "You said that Breaker disappeared, and everyone you're with now heard the phrase but you haven't picked it up from any of us. Maybe it's safe for us to go inside the compound again. I'm sick of being away from the... action. I need to know what's going on."

"Are you that threatened having me in bed with you?"

"No." Yes.

"Liar. Your feelings betray you, young Jedi."

"I'm bored and frustrated."

"Me too."

"I'm well aware. I say we wait for Farfarello to come back and hear what he has to report, then go."

"Brad might want us to stay here."

"We could just show up without asking first."

Schuldig grinned. "Easier to ask forgiveness afterward than permission before. Anyway, we'd already be there. Me like. Malice could keep researching here."

"No, I don't like leaving him alone."

"He's a grown whatever and has his very own gun. He can take care of himself."

"I think he'd protest being left here by himself."

"Boo-hoo. He's doing an important job."

"Is he getting paid?"

"He's one of mine. He'll make sure of it."

~ No fair plotting without me, ~ Malice said.

~ Are you any closer to finding anything? ~ Schuldig asked.

~ No. ~

~ I guess you just have to try harder. ~

~ I'm not getting abandoned alone anywhere, not in this city, not with the people after us. ~

~ Maybe we'll bring you along if you're good. ~

~ You'd give up on finding the origin of the phrase? ~

~ For now. I don't think we have the time right now. ~

"I agree," Aya said. "I'm getting the feeling that events are moving much faster now. Malice, we're waiting for Farfarello to come back before we make a decision."

Schuldig grinned at Aya. "I'm glad you're more fun than you look."

******************************************************

Crawford could tell when Farfarello entered Flood's body and took over a bit. The posture changed and his eyes livened up, looking crazy in a different way. From the ease of it, Flood seemed to be cooperating.

Crawford disliked looking at this Orange clone the most of all. It didn't take much thought to understand why.

Farfarello in Flood spoke a familiar stream of words, exactly the same words Flood had tried on the stricken talent in the hallway, no more and no less. Persia said, "We have those already."

"I told you," Flood said, and this time it _was_ Flood talking and moving his own body. "I didn't do the talking during the broadcast and neither did Scry. As far as I know, he played the tape in the booth."

"We didn't find a tape there or on Scry," Persia said as he glanced at Scry sitting unconscious, tied to a chair. They'd frisked him almost immediately.

Crawford avoided looking at his clone as much as he could, finding the image of a younger self so defeated distasteful. Scry had been too blatantly scheming and ambitious, knowing no sense of subtlety. How could so many of his clones be so disappointing?

Maybe he should celebrate this proof that _he_ had made himself what he was, not some quirk of nature.

"He might have passed it on or hid it. I don't know. He's hard to read, the same way Mr. Crawford is. Not that I try very hard. I don't want to know what's going on in Scry's head." The expression on Flood's face changed again and Farfarello said from inside him, "He tells the truth as far as I can tell."

"Can Farfarello wake Scry up and try to pull information out of him?" Persia asked, though he looked more annoyed than enthused.

Crawford couldn't blame him, since Farfarello was continuing to rebalance accounts to tilt more positively to Schwarz's side, something Crawford couldn't help feeling smug about. "I believe so."

"But don't feel like you have to get out yet," Flood said, smirking, looking abruptly more Schuldig-like. "You... _feel_ interesting." His lips thinned and twisted suddenly in a very Farfarello gesture of distaste. Flood shuddered then sighed. "Bye-bye."

Scry woke up, looking disquieted, then annoyed as he pulled at his bonds. "You've made a mistake. Release me."

"The person we found lying near you, seemingly word-struck, suggests otherwise," Persia answered.

"I didn't do anything. Did you knock me out just on the word of that Orange liner?"

"Don't you like me no more?" Flood asked, sadism putting more life into him.

"Wait a minute, what did you do to me?" Scry asked. "Get it out."

"He has a nice touch and a lovely voice if you just lie back and let it happen. Then again, I'm more accustomed to doing that than you are."

"He's involved all right," Farfarello said with Scry's mouth. "I have more words now too. He remembers more than Flood does. But he handed the tape off to Breaker while Weiß hunted Flood." Farfarello then ran off the words and counterwords Scry remembered. Through it Scry turned his head to look at Crawford with outrage and horror at this violation.

Crawford merely shrugged, unconcerned, feeling no blood connection or loyalty to a fuckup who'd endangered Schwarz. Besides, Crawford had been able to fight Farfarello's influence, so Scry's helplessness against it suggested a weaker will.

"Are these words or counterwords?" Balinese asked as he wrote them down. He jumped then said, "That wasn't necessary." But he made changes to his list, no doubt using the information Farfarello gave him from the inside.

To think, once upon a time they'd thought Farfarello's talents rested only in mundane murder, berserking, and confusing the hell out of precogs.

Schuldig should be here to see it. Hell, Schuldig should be here providing in-depth and often snarky commentary.

Schuldig should be here.

"Do you still need me here?" Farfarello asked through Balinese's lips. "I was in the middle of something."

"I think we're fine for now," Crawford answered. "I'll call you back if we need you."

"I'm sure." Balinese's whole posture changed when Farfarello left.

"Can we even test these words?" Persia murmured to Balinese. "Safely, I mean. I don't trust the sources. Even if Farfarello can force the truth out of them, they admit that they picked these words up on their own. They're limited by their own knowledge. We also don't know which words go with which counterwords."

"I haven't earned my wings yet?" Flood asked.

"Not even close."

"What made you so suspicious of life?"

"Truthfully, we shouldn't have had Sasha in here for any of this," Balinese answered. "It wasn't safe for him. I didn't think of that at the time. Sorry, Sasha."

Misery shrugged it off. "I'm fine."

"The broadcast said that it hadn't used the counterwords that _cure_ the words, just temporary stopgap words." Balinese did have a brain. It was easy to forget.

Crawford said, "You might want to ask the talents if they want to take the risk of being exposed to the words and counterwords. Some might. Giving themselves back into slavery tomorrow can't be appetizing to all of them."

"It's too big a risk," Persia said. "I'll try the words on the victim we already have since there's not much else we can do to him, but I'm not chancing it on healthy people."

"Do you actually have a plan for tomorrow?"

"Do _you_?" Persia shot back. They stared each other down for about a minute, then Persia continued, "You think I'd talk about it in front of Flood and Scry?" He had Friendly shielding his mind at least, while other telepaths kept Flood bottled in a bit. Not that he had a plan. Crawford could tell.

Crawford didn't actually have a plan yet either, which galled him.


	205. "Aren't we becoming sickeningly mundane lately...."

As Farfarello returned to his body, he thought sadly that his window of opportunity with his puisín had probably closed. Aya couldn't be turned on and off like a light, and they'd already been interrupted twice. Given the shit way today had been going, Farfarello almost expected to get a third intruding call if he and his kitten attempted anything further.

Farfarello opened his eyes to see the mindbreaker's head nearby on Aya's chest and Aya's hand in his hair. Schuldig grinned and said, "Welcome back."

Not even. "You! You break us up twice and then leap into bed and on top of my kitten while I'm gone? I'll send you to Hell!"

"Bit of an overreaction there." The mindbreaker looked much less blasé when Farfarello launched himself forward, set on punishing. Damned Schuldig still moved like something greased, faster than anything human should be. They both rolled off the bed and went up to their feet, armed and ready.

"Hey!" Aya yelled, even as he moved out of the way. "This is not the time!"

Sword in hand, Farfarello faced off against Schuldig, who had his gun trained on him, taking him seriously. Well he should.

"I didn't do anything to or with him," the mindbreaker said.

"I find it hard to trust you on that," Farfarello answered. "Especially when I saw you snuggled up on him like a cat slutting about for a petting."

"He didn't," Aya said. "All right, he begged to be petted, something I didn't go along with, but he didn't make any other moves."

"Or fuck with your head? You might not be aware of that."

"I'm not aware of anything like that. With so many other people out to kill us, this isn't the time to turn on each other."

The mindbreaker remained silent, perhaps thinking that he wouldn't help anything by talking. Wise of him.

"You can understand my frustration."

"And share it, but there are too many other things going on that take precedence."

From the look on Schuldig's face, he didn't agree about sex being a thing of less importance, but he still held his silence. And his gun, ready to shoot.

Aya continued, "I think it's time we put ourselves back into the thick of things. Farfarello, I wanted to get your take on the situation with Kritiker and Breaker before deciding for sure. On further thought, if we reunite, I want to suggest that we meet somewhere neutral, away from the Kritiker base of operations and this hotel, away from it all."

"I haven't noticed any surveillance here," Schuldig said, "but I'm sure at least some people know we're staying here, so I understand wanting to get away."

With the two of them being so logical and professional, Farfarello could sense himself losing here. Shit. It didn't help him retain his anger that nothing seemed to have actually happened here, even on the mindbreaker's side. He preferred more reason to draw blood on teammates.

He hadn't always. When had that happened?

It certainly seemed that the Aya had lost the sex mood, but mayhem might make up for that a little. "You simply need a report from me?" Farfarello asked.

"Yes," Aya answered fervently.

They wanted to _do_ something badly. Farfarello could relate to that. "Then you shall get it. And I also wish to leave the hotel to make plans. Something here feels... oppressive." And felt more so all the time. "They caught Evil. After someone attempted to kill Evil through telepathy and I stopped it, Evil has named Breaker as his puppetmaster and Scry as a conspirator. Scry has been captured, but Breaker remains free and in hiding. I pulled a few words and counterwords from Evil and Scry, but I think Persia won't take the risk of testing them on his own people. None of those words affected Misery, which may narrow things down for him in the future." Although Farfarello didn't care about Misery, he knew Schuldig did.

"Did you see the avatar form of Evil's attacker?" the mindbreaker asked. He still held his gun ready, respecting Farfarello's mood and potential. It made Farfarello grin.

"Mostly it looked like an enveloping shadow, but occasionally it took the shape of a large, two-headed dog."

"More evidence against Breaker, since something a bit like Cerberus is one of his main shapes."

"We have to draw him out somehow. It's imperative that we get together and plan," Aya said. "We're spending too much time reacting and being manipulated, and it's past time for us to start shaping the situation ourselves. Farfarello, I'd like you to go to Crawford and let him know that we want to meet to make plans and think it best to do it somewhere that's not the Kritiker compound or this hotel. Usually we'd have Schuldig do it, but I think it's still too risky for him."

So exciting to be picking up the reins of their own destiny again, to be _moving_. It also excited him to see and hear his kitten in such a strong mood. "Yes." Farfarello returned to the bed and let his soul fly free again.

Crawford had his usual odd seer walls up, which Farfarello could slip through unnoticed if he timed it and moved just right, but he _wanted_ an invitation, so he buzzed a little until Crawford noticed and relaxed a little more, making it easier to get in. ~ We think Schwarz should meet to make plans, though not here and not at the hotel. ~ Sensing Crawford's turn of thought, Farfarello said, ~ We have a bad feeling about the hotel. Not one of immediate danger, but of foreboding. It's hard to say further and better. ~

Crawford thought that it sounded like a good idea and would call Schuldig's cell phone when he had a place in mind, which would be soon. Farfarello bid him farewell and returned to his own body to see Aya and Schuldig staring down at him expectantly. "He'll call Schuldig's cell phone with the place and time."

"My cell phone? Aren't we becoming sickeningly mundane lately...." the mindbreaker answered, his current vulnerability making him bitchier.

~ You better not be thinking of leaving me here, ~ Malice said.

~ How much of our conversation have you been following? ~ Farfarello asked.

~ A lot of it. Not all. I think I have a genetic advantage for eavesdropping on you people. ~

"I'm going out to smoke. I'll let you know if Brad calls," Schuldig said, looking disgusted as he left the room in a huff.

"He's not dealing well," Aya said, looking sympathetic.

"I've noticed," Farfarello answered. It could be difficult to bear life smacking you in the face repeatedly.

"Let's keep Malice company and working."

The mood for sex had definitely left his kitten. Then again, who knew when the rest of Schwarz would return to interrupt them again? Better not to get too excited and then be disappointed again.

******************************************************

Crawford had his hotel reservation for the planning session ready. It didn't surprise him that his people had gotten restless, and at least they took the initiative in sensible ways this time.

Of course, he'd have to make sure this hadn't come of Aya trying to get above himself. Schwarz had one leader; more would lead to chaos and disrupt the functioning of the team. Schuldig might stage-direct and insinuate, but in the end Crawford always made all the major decisions.

It would be good to get away from here for a bit. He felt better just being out of the room, being away from Scry and Flood. Once Schwarz got out of this quagmire, their next job would be something far more straightforward. This he swore.

After knocking on the door, Persia entered and said, "Weiß is going with you."

"Like hell."

"This is a big thing, and you need all the personnel you can get."

"Schwarz has far more knowledge of the situation than you do. We'll plan, and then tell you what we decide."

"Like hell. I've taken these talents in, and I want them safe. I want this wrapped up before they're scheduled to hand themselves over for enslavement tomorrow."

"Do you really think I don't want this finished as soon as possible?" This state of affairs put Schwarz and particularly Schuldig at risk.

"Then take our help and advice."

Persia smirked just a little, but Crawford wanted to snarl back at him. He didn't because it would show weakness. "It's been a mob scene lately. The fewer people who know what's going on, the fewer security risks we have. Our enemy is a telepath, after all."

"You want our resources, and you've been using Weiß and Kritiker for your own ends. I'm not going to let you decide everything yourself then take anything you want. We're there."

Bad enough that he still had to hand over some of the files he'd promised, since trying to renegotiate now would look desperate and he'd have to hold Farfarello's work here today for credit later. Now he was supposed to let Weiß into the decision making process? He barely let the rest of Schwarz into it!

Unfortunately, the press of time made it necessary to indulge Persia at least a little. "I can let a few members of Weiß in. Tactical thinkers only."

"Draco, Balinese, and I," Persia said immediately. Of course the little bastard wanted to be there.

"All right. Now get out of here so I can call Schuldig in peace to notify the others."

For a moment Persia looked as if he would be obstinate over that--Crawford felt probabilities trembling this way and that way--but finally he said, "All right," and left.

The next job would be different. Definitely. Crawford called Schuldig on his cell phone, "Schuldig, I have a location and time for you."

"Sure, Brad. Lay it on me." Schuldig sounded _tired_. Trying to avoid reading the trigger phrase out of everyone's minds had to be like walking through a minefield and every bit as draining.

Crawford gave him the address, directions, and time then said, "We'll beat this problem. We'll beat all of them."

"Of course we will." Schuldig sounded neither convinced nor sarcastic. A Schuldig bereft of energy and snark was a crime against nature. Something had to be done. "Malice doesn't want to stay at the hotel alone, but I don't want to bring him into the meeting."

"I don't either. I'll bring Wicked back to stay with him. In fact, I'll drop him off there and we'll go to the new hotel together." At least there wouldn't be any clones at the meeting. That made a start. "Schu, I'll see you soon." Over the course of the drive and meeting Crawford would decide whether to move the team to the new hotel for the duration of their stay here instead of just the meeting.

That done, Crawford stood up from the desk and left the room to get Wicked, who currently sat in front of Scry and Flood leaning back in his chair with his feet on the table and smirking. Flood said to him, "You wouldn't be so cocky without the guards here and the telepaths penning me in."

Unbothered, Wicked answered, "Hard to say, especially since I do have guards here and telepaths penning you in. You'll have to try harder, since I've been insulted by experts. You hardly qualify. Besides, I'm sitting here free, while you're tied to a chair and can't even wipe the blood off your face."

Wicked disturbed Crawford in different ways than Flood did. So close....

~ Wicked, I'm taking you back to Malice, ~ Crawford said.

His eyes lit up then he looked suspicious and a bit sullen. He'd have to work more on keeping his emotions to himself. ~ What's going on? ~

~ We need someone to look after him while he's researching. We have plans to make in private. ~

Smirking, Wicked asked, ~ You trust him to keep working in your absence? ~

~ Yes. ~ Crawford truly did. Malice had a drive and sense of... not quite honor, more like responsibility. Wicked might try to talk him out of it, but he appeared to have the strength of character to do what he felt was best regardless, and if he said no Wicked appeared to go by _his_ wishes. Even without a watchdog, Malice would continue to work.

~ Huh. All right. ~ Smiling, Wicked said to the captives, "Duty calls. Try not to miss me."

"Mr. Crawford, a mistake has been made," Scry said. "I shouldn't be penalized for something I didn't do."

"I think not," Crawford answered as he left with Wicked.

Crawford could hear him shout, "Are you really going to believe _Evil_?" as the door closed and they walked down the hall.

Antipathy, standing nearby, asked, "Is it true that Scry helped betray all of us?"

"Looks like," Wicked answered.

"It's not conclusive yet," Crawford replied.

"It's what we all heard. It's going to be tough keeping him alive, you know." Then Antipathy walked away.

Shit. Something else that needed taking care of. They couldn't let a resource die in a vengeance killing.

"Your clone was apparently a really popular guy even before he turned out to be in league with Satan. Funny," Wicked said.

_If you can't be helpful, shut up, Schuldig,_ part of Crawford's mind thought. Fortunately, he didn't actually say it and Wicked didn't "hear" it.

As he entered the room Crawford heard Nagi saying, "--doesn't look like a time bomb after all. There _was_ a homing function but I think it had malfunctioned even before it had gotten shot. Something else involved too, but I can't make it out yet." Then he looked back at Crawford and Wicked. "Yes. I'm so ready to get out of here for a while. I can get back evaluating this chip later, Fenris."

The boy, a new bandage on his chest peeking out of the partly open, ill-fitting shirt he wore, stood at Nagi's shoulder and cast resentful looks back at them. Did Nagi know that Fenris had a crush on him? Could it be used? Friendly shot Crawford a look that made him wonder if she'd heard that somehow, but since recriminations didn't follow it seemed that she hadn't.

"Time to go," Crawford said for the benefit of the less intelligent members of Weiß.

"Wicked's part of the planning?" Misery asked, looking every bit as annoyed as Weiß.

"No. He's coming to keep our researcher safe while we're elsewhere. None of the clones are getting more privileged status than you are, Misery."

"We'll be back, Sasha," Balinese said as he put his hand on Misery's shoulder and squeezed a little. Bottle blond, Misery seemed more Balinese than Schuldig, which was a mercy.

"You better."

"Persia, make sure that Scry is guarded," Crawford said. "I have reason to believe that his life may be in danger from talents here who feel he betrayed them."

"I'll put a call in," Persia said and used his headset to call in an order for more guards.

Friendly kissed Fenris' cheek as she and Persia and Balinese grabbed their coats to leave. Nagi already stood, ostentatiously ready. That left Siberian, Fenris, and Misery to watch them go.

The Weiß members took their own car. Good. Crawford didn't feel like ferrying or talking to them. He didn't talk to Nagi or Wicked either.

When they arrived at the hotel, Crawford saw Schuldig smoking outside. Schuldig had three reasons for smoking: he was around people who smoked, he wanted to annoy someone who didn't, or he felt stressed. Smoking alone outside? It could only be stress.

Crawford frowned. "Considering everything that's happened, he shouldn't be out here alone. Everyone else go ahead. I'll bring him in."

Although Friendly smirked at him, Wicked just gave him a look that might be increased respect. He didn't care about either of their opinions. As everyone else went ahead, inside, Crawford stood in front of Schuldig.

This job was taking its toll on all of them. Crawford wanted so badly to be away from his own disappointing clones but the Orange line felt so much worse, jogging and disrupting his memories. Younger Schuldigs moving through places they'd never been. A younger Schuldig with a neat braid researching quietly at a computer for hours, something he would never do. Another younger Schuldig, bloody and defeated, thoroughly tied to a chair, his spirit reduced to cool, dead ashes, disconnected from his body. Another younger Schuldig, wild-haired and faster and a little crazier than he should be, interrogating a prisoner or walking by his side making sarcastic comments, doing what he should be doing but not quite in the way or time he should be and without the familiar warm background hum of their link.

_This_ was Schuldig here, older, taller, broader-shouldered, harder and more angular, less androgynous. Crawford's gaze went to the faint scar on each side of Schuldig's face near his cheekbones, marks he knew and had seen dealt, their common experience. The clones were pale copies, mere shadows.

"I do trust you, Schu," Crawford said, even though the argument in the car seemed like ancient history now. He knew his telepath never forgot a slight.

The cigarette moved as Schuldig smiled a little through a veil of smoke. ~ I hear you guys haven't caught Breaker yet. He's slippery. You need bait to bring him in. ~

Obviously. ~ He wants Aya. ~

The smile disappeared. ~ We're not dangling Aya in front of him. Aya doesn't know how to fight or capture anyone in astral space. It's almost impossible to train someone whose power levels and, hell, _power_ itself constantly shifts. If we put Aya out there in front of Breaker, we might as well tie a bow around his neck and consider him gone. ~

Crawford hadn't expected such a strong reaction against that. When had Schuldig started to give a damn about Aya? This sounded like something more than Schuldig not wanting to lose a toy. ~ I have no intention of throwing any members of Schwarz away. ~ And Aya _was_ a member of Schwarz. He'd bled and given enough for them a long time ago to gain that status. ~ I have an idea that I'd like to try. We have to see if Farfarello can do it. ~ It had just struck him. ~ I'm still working it out in my head. I'll voice it when it's more finished. ~

~ All right. I'm interested in hearing this idea when it's done. ~ Looking calmer and a bit happier now, Schuldig stubbed out his cigarette and tossed it away.

Crawford moved in close and kissed him, enjoying the feel of his telepath melting against him, sighing in pleasure, and putting his hand back to cup his head. Missed him. Schwarz had always been stronger together. Reuniting had been a good idea, no matter who'd thought of it.

After a round of kisses, Crawford was about to suggest they go inside when the others came down on their own, ready for war. When he saw Aya a sudden brief vision hit him: Aya lying on a bed, motionless, eyes closed, with Farfarello draped half atop him making horrible, pitiful sounds of grief, disbelief, and rage. What the hell was that? _When_ the hell was that?

Had Schuldig gotten a glimpse of that? No, Schu looked too relaxed. Better he hadn't seen it. And if Schuldig hadn't, Friendly certainly, thankfully, hadn't. Crawford worked on keeping it hidden, even as he started to pick apart the image in his mind, looking for telling details. How would it happen? Was it connected to his developing plan? How could it be prevented?

There had to be a way to win without losing anyone. He would make sure of it.


	206. "There's a statement I never wanted to hear."

Tension permeated the car during their ride. Even napping, Nagi exuded it along with the rest of them.

But it went beyond tension. Something had upset Crawford, although Aya couldn't put his finger on what it might be or what gave him that impression. Crawford looked as impassive as possible, but that was hardly unusual.

Aya rested his face against the side of Farfarello's in the hopes of communicating better and easier without spoken words, since he didn't want to arouse Schuldig and Crawford's attention. So far he still hadn't figured out how to focus his thoughts into actual speech and wondered if he ever would since he used borrowed, not innate, talent to do anything. Schuldig had said he was blind and deaf....

~ Do you sense it or do you _sense_ it? ~ Farfarello asked.

Aya couldn't be sure.

~ Unless I'm inside him, I can never get a reading. ~

Aya could almost feel Farfarello thinking that if Aya could read him, that meant Aya had borrowed from Schuldig while Farfarello would prefer him to borrow from him alone. However, he said nothing of it and didn't make any demands.

Good. Aya would use any advantages he could get. Besides, he couldn't exactly control where he took it from.

Actually, he should work on that. Wandering haplessly through didn't appeal to him.

Could he focus on Crawford and pick something up? Although he tried, he only gave himself a headache instead of enlightenment. Schuldig glanced back at him with what might be suspicion but also might not be.

~ I wouldn't blame Crawford for hating all this, ~ Farfarello said. ~ Everything's been a quagmire. The mindbreaker's unhappy too, something that affects Crawford more than it used to. ~

Schuldig had spoken of Schwarz as it had once been. Aya couldn't quite believe that his presence in the team had forced so many changes and adjustments to their behavior, but sometimes he caught glimpses of it himself.

"Do you really trust Malice and Wicked to keep looking for Schuldig's phrase?" Aya asked. No matter how much Schwarz may have changed, trust didn't come cheaply from them.

"I believe that Malice will keep working. If he does, Wicked will stay with him," Crawford answered.

"How do you see that?"

"My own judgment, plus Schuldig's."

Schuldig waved back almost merrily from the front passenger seat. It disturbed Aya that he found that sign of renewed life reassuring. If he started to celebrate Schuldig leering at him again, then he would know that he'd gone too far.

"I'm working on a plan to get Breaker," Crawford said.

"I thought Weiß would be contributing to that," Aya said.

"It's best if Schwarz go in as a united front instead of working out our differences and concerns in front of Weiß. They can talk once the details of my plan are already worked out. I may even let them contribute some thoughts if I think I'm hearing good ideas."

"That's my Brad," Schuldig said.

Nagi woke up. Or perhaps had been listening all along with his eyes closed, because he asked, "You _have_ a plan?"

Crawford didn't seem upset by Nagi's tone. "I have an idea. I don't know yet that it will work, since it's something we've never tried before and don't have much time to practice. It depends on Aya and Farfarello."

"How so?" Farfarello asked, sounding suspicious.

"We need to draw Breaker out of hiding. To do that, we need something compelling that would pique his interest. To fight him, we need to use wordless telepaths he didn't train himself. It's unfortunate that he's already taken Farfarello's measure in telepathic battle."

"Whose idea was it to use me?"

"I know. But it means that we have to be sneakier. I want to send Aya into the astral plane to tempt Breaker, but I want to see if Farfarello can hide inside Aya to give fighting tips and backup."

"No! I won't let you dangle my kitten as bait!" Farfarello said.

"Not even if you're there with him?"

"Even if. That only makes it slightly better."

"We don't even know if he _can_ do that," Schuldig said. "It's not the same as sharing a body. I mean, do their... selves merge? Do they remain separate? Would Breaker notice? And it's not like we can do a long trial run while he's watching the planes for interesting people. Seeing if Farfie could do this and giving Aya some training would have to be done quickly."

"Wait. Our souls would be... what?"

"Hell if I know. Like I said."

Farfarello looked more interested now, which Aya found unsettling. Aya also didn't like the idea of being used as bait, but it did seem like the best option they had since Breaker had already expressed an interest in him. If Breaker remained free through tomorrow, some of the talents--who weren't more than children no matter what they looked like and what memories they had shoved into their heads--would feel forced to go to him for safety, while the others refused and waited to be attacked. Having seen what the words did to people, Aya wouldn't wish it on them. Friendly... Elena had one too, and although he hadn't worked with her much recently and best remembered her as one of his jailors when Weiß had tried to reclaim him, Yoji and Ken obviously liked and respected her, which gave her points with him. Hadn't Farfarello said that she'd trained him in his telepathy as well? Even more points. When Aya weighed his safety against that of hundreds of people, he had no choice but to put himself on the line.

"If we distract and weaken Breaker enough, I could yank out his knowledge of the words," Schuldig said.

"That's risky to you," Crawford answered.

Grinning, Schuldig answered, "That's why I want someone to seriously tenderize him first. Besides, someone's gonna have to cap him so he doesn't blow out the brains of every Austrian in range when we snuff him. I wouldn't have much time so I'd grab all the stuff that looks vaguely promising, box it as a separate thing, and pick through it later. I wouldn't want to just absorb data I haven't security searched first. It's safer to check it before assimilating it, and I've gotten better at that. I've been training myself on it since Betts gave me information that way in New York."

Crawford cast Schuldig a quick fond look, probably over Schuldig doing independent self-training, then asked, "Betts? _Charles'_ crew helped you out there?"

"She did it as a free agent, not as a representative for the team."

"Makes sense, since they hate us."

"She seems to be some kind of Asian now."

Crawford shook his head. "They get into some weird shit."

"Yeah. _Totally_ unlike us."

"If we have an actual plan and we're not just throwing me to Breaker as a gift, I'm willing to do this," Aya said. "He needs to be stopped."

"_If_ we can make it work and I'll be there, I'm willing as well," Farfarello said.

What had changed his mind? Sometimes Aya had no idea what went through his head. His attitude had started to change when Schuldig had mentioned the merging of souls.... "Can I ask why?"

"I believe that I can guide you well. It also helps that the mindbreaker is risking himself too."

That wasn't it. Aya would find out. He swore it.

"Love you too, Farfie," Schuldig said.

"Are we trying this in the car?" Aya asked.

"Nah. I think we should wait for the meet. There, Friendly can spot you too. That way you'll have her _and_ me keeping you safe and hidden and critiquing your style. Friendly also trained Farf in telepathic combat, so that'll be helpful too. What do you think, Brad?"

Crawford answered, "It would have been more convenient to try it now to see if it'll work before we run it in front of Weiß, but I think your caution is a good idea. It'll also make Weiß's presence there useful after all."

"I don't like this," Nagi said.

"I don't either, but Breaker has to be stopped before he gets his own army tomorrow."

While Aya worried about the human cost of what would happen tomorrow, Crawford saw only the negative impact to Schwarz's ability to work in Europe and possibly a blow to his ego. Typical. At least Aya had helped make Schwarz less likely to murder innocents than they had been. That had to be considered an achievement.

"You're almost fortunate here that Rosenkreuz buried your telepathy," Schuldig said. "That way you avoided the Breaker treatment."

"Then you should keep me in mind for backup," Nagi said.

"You also don't know how to fight in astral space," Crawford answered. "Nor can we train you in time. Aya and Farfarello have to be our main weapon, so we have to focus our attention and help on them."

"Another body could still be helpful, especially if things go badly."

"True." From the look on his face, Crawford hated the entire situation.

There they agreed.

When the members of Weiß Crawford had allowed met them at the hotel door, Yoji gave Aya a look that said, "This is really fucked up." Aya hoped that his returning look translated to "You don't know the half of it, nor do you want to." It was a lot to say with a look, while Aya had never been famed for his expressive face. Ran, on the other hand....

Once inside their room, Omi said, "I know you were plotting during the car ride. I want you to share it."

"Why?" Schuldig asked. "Because he _promised_? That's so cute." But he said nothing more once Crawford cast a quelling look his way.

Crawford said, "We have an idea but don't know if it will work. It's something Aya and Farfarello haven't tried before, which is good in that Breaker won't expect it."

"And bad in that you're not sure if it'll work?" Elena asked.

"That's why we're trying it out at this meeting, with you helping Schuldig as spotter in case something goes wrong."

"I'll be doing that? Really?"

Omi said, "Draco, I'd like you to assist them here as long as it's related to stopping Breaker and I approve it first. I'll probably want you to help them in this plan as well."

She looked unhappy but replied, "All right, sir."

"Mr. Crawford, what do you have in mind?"

"You're aware that Aya is showing signs of talent. Breaker has shown interest in him."

"You didn't think this was important to mention to me before? Aya was recently in a room with him."

"Aya is a member of Schwarz, not Kritiker."

_That_ was a dangerous game to play. Crawford should really be more careful not to alienate Omi.

Omi's expression darkened. "Are you suggesting we use Aya as bait?"

"In a way, and only as poisoned bait. You saw what Farfarello can do. I want him to hide inside Aya and have them battle Breaker together on the astral plane that way."

"That's an interesting idea," Elena said. "But one that you have no idea will work yet, right?"

"Yes." Again the sour look. "Farfarello's kind of telepathy is very rare, so there's no known precedent of this being tried or working. We, of course, want to know if it'll work before we set them against Breaker. When Breaker is weakened, Schuldig will try to grab any information he has on the words. We want to do this before tomorrow's surrender at the Volksgarten."

"Me too," Omi replied.

"So we have to do a trial run soon so we can do the bait and attack not too long afterward."

"Is there anything stopping you from trying it now?"

"No. We even have two beds."

"I'm not sharing a bed with Schuldig, no matter the purpose," Elena said.

"I don't like you that way," Schuldig answered. "Actually, I don't like you at all."

"You're not sharing a bed with my kitten," Farfarello said, "nor is my kitten sharing a bed with Schuldig. It's you and Schuldig together, Friendly."

"There's a statement I never wanted to hear," she answered. "Sir?"

"Do it," Omi said. "We'll keep watch."

"I hate this so much. Fine."

Aya tried to ignore the squirming disquiet fluttering in his stomach as he and Farfarello laid back on one of the beds together. Knowing that Omi and Yoji would be watching this didn't help calm him. At least the mutual bitching coming from the other bed amused him enough to distract him a little.

~ I slide into you first, ~ Farfarello said.

All right.

Aya felt Farfarello enter and suffuse him as a wave of warmth that settled into barely feeling him at all, as if Farfarello belonged inside him. Schuldig would no doubt make off-color remarks about that thought if he'd heard it. Farfarello said, ~ I'm in. And now we go. ~

Together, they left Aya's body.

******************************************************

"So they left the stupid members of Weiß behind," Scry said, which made Ken bristle.

"Ignore him," Fenris said. "He's younger than he looks. Immature. We all are. He's also stupid himself since he's caught and tied down. A smart oracle wouldn't be here."

Ken had to smile over how sour Scry's expression turned. Still, Scry's remark had hit home, and Ken would prefer to be with the rest of Weiß. "I know. Attacking us doesn't make you look less guilty, Scry."

"I'm bound to a chair. You can understand me being pissed off, especially since I'm innocent."

"Sure, sure," Sasha said. "Mr. Crawford is probably being an ass to the other members of Weiß right now, Ken. It's his way."

"I'm glad you're all here," Flood said. "I'd be so bored otherwise."

"What happened to the 'spa vacation'?"

Flood's expression closed down more. "Hnh."

Sasha smiled a little. "You can't get out of yourself as well now that we have telepaths watching you. You're actually stuck more in your body."

"I can travel the immediate vicinity. This is unnatural...."

Ken tried to imagine being so disconnected from his own body that being _in_ it felt wrong. Although he couldn't entirely, what he did imagine sucked so much and made him glad that Kritiker had taken an interest in setting things right here. Like Fenris had said, these were all _kids_ that Eszett had made and abused and broken. Eszett being destroyed didn't make their victims disappear. Wishing Schwarz well might still feel unnatural and he knew their motives here couldn't be pure, but he wanted them to find Breaker, get the cure words, and bring him to justice.

He actually felt a bit sorry for Schwarz lately. Being in a room with what looked like a young Crawford and a young and broken Schuldig freaked _him_ out, so how must it feel to actually _be_ Crawford and Schuldig and see these people?

"They'll think of something to get Breaker," Fenris said. "They're all so smart."

"I hope so," Sasha answered. "Because if they don't tomorrow is really gonna suck for a lot of people. Me included."

Fenris looked really sad. "Elena too."

Ken definitely wished Schwarz the best here.

"We have words too," Flood said.

"But you're immune to everyone else's," Sasha answered.

"We wouldn't be much use if we weren't. He made us immune to those but gave us a new word. Didn't want us running around free."

Ken glanced at Scry, who refused to look at anyone and still pretended innocence. Had they known they'd be getting new words? Had they had any real choice? He almost felt sorry for Scry but wouldn't let it get in the way.

How could Eszett people keep getting worse? How many people did Weiß and Schwarz have to kill to make it stop?


	207. "Are you going to train me or just harangue me?"

With Farfarello inside him, Aya returned to the odd city, although this time it looked grayer and less detailed than it had after Schuldig had kissed him that night. At least Farfarello's talent made it so he wouldn't be blind and lost in darkness. He didn't have much time to think about the city, though, as he found himself standing in front of a large dragon-like creature made of somehow solid yellow and blue flames and a ripple of colors that abruptly turned into a fluffy green-striped orange cat.

The dragon became somewhat less intimidating as it convulsed with laughter. ~ You got a problem, Puff? ~ the Schuldig cat asked.

~ None, Fluffy, ~ the dragon said in Elena's voice. ~ I'm having the time of my life. Even as a cat you're gaudy.... You changed shape as the city and Fujimiya-san appeared. Did he impose these forms? ~

~ Yeah. Without meaning to. His mentality is very rooted in the physical world, which may turn out to be a problem. ~

"How so?" Aya asked.

~ You'll be bound to a set of physical rules Breaker doesn't have to abide by and he'll be able to do things that will surprise the shit out of you. ~

~ It's something we must work on, ~ Farfarello said, feeling warm and filling to Aya, part of him but also separate. ~ You made this city? It's interesting. ~

The dragon shook her head. ~ I can hear Berserker and kind of see a superimposed image of him on you, Fujimiya-san. You're obviously two people trying to take up one space. He needs to try harder. ~

Aya could feel him trying harder to be inconspicuous now, and it _hurt_, as if Farfarello clawed out and moved the dirt of Aya's being to better bury himself. But he would bear it, since this needed to be done.

Suddenly Aya felt hands on his arms and opened his eyes to see Schuldig standing far too close, holding on to him. The telepath looked human right now, younger than in life, and brightly colored, particularly in his blazing hair and piercing eyes. Actually, everything looked more vivid and detailed and had more depth now. Schuldig must have pressed his telepathy into him.

Farfarello grumbled and growled, but Aya said, "It doesn't hurt anymore."

Schuldig grinned. ~ I'm sure you're complaining, Farfie, but taking on my power helps him. Are you so jealous that you'd rather hurt him than let me help? ~

~ ...no, ~ Farfarello answered.

"Did you hear him, Schuldig?" Aya asked.

~ A little, but he was making an effort to be heard. Try talking to Aya without wanting us to hear. ~

~ This is not how I hoped this would go, kitten, ~ Farfarello said with a sigh, bleeding disappointment.

Aya would have to ask what that meant later. To Schuldig he asked, "Did you hear that?"

~ No. I don't see him either. That's one problem down. When the actual fight time comes, I'll let you ride along on my telepathy. ~

Elena had left dragon form to look human, which made her much less intimidating, and Aya noticed that her braid was longer here than in real life. ~ Interesting. His eyes changed color, ~ she said.

~ Yeah, Aya's unusual. ~ But from Schuldig's grin he appeared to like that.

~ You'll need to defend yourself against Breaker, so let's try you out in mock battle and see what suggestions might help. We'll try to make it so you don't end up like the Dragon of Wawel Hill's last sheep. ~

"I assume the dragon ate it," Aya said.

~ Oh yeah, but it was either smeared or stuffed with sulfur first. Depends on who's telling the story. Smok Wawelski became so thirsty from it that he drank and drank until he exploded. Ended the dragon threat, but the sheep was quite dead. ~

It sounded a lot like Crawford's "poisoned bait" plan. While he would fight to win, Aya hoped that if he did end up eaten he at least did Breaker some damage, but they might not be so fortunate in this strange other world against a man who'd been a master of his telepathy for two decades or more. He wished they had more time to train him. Of course, he intended to give his best effort in everything, as usual, no matter how intimidating it seemed.

~ We will not be sheep, ~ Farfarello said.

~ Tattling on your own kind, Friendly? ~ Schuldig asked.

~ Why not? I watch what I eat. ~ Elena abruptly returned to dragon form, making Aya instinctively set his hand on his katana and forcing him to look up at her. ~ I'll be your opponent, Fujimiya-san. Keep in mind that you don't just want to evade me; you want to defeat and capture me, just as you would Breaker. Or at least hold me until the others arrive. I'll be trying not to hurt or kill you but I won't go much easier on you than that. You need to know that the threat is real and respond with everything you have. ~

She was huge. How the hell would he defeat her?

~ I'm with you, puisín, and I've faced her before. ~

Aya wondered if Farfarello had ever defeated her and didn't like the feeling that came from him in response. If she'd kicked even his more experienced co-pilot's ass, how would he get through this?

~ Don't be discouraged. Learn and survive, ~ Farfarello answered. ~ In the meantime, we should probably prepare to be embarrassed. She kicked my ass several times while training me. In case you weren't sure, she blows fire out her mouth. ~

Yes, she'd kicked Farfarello's ass. And breathed fire. Aya had suspected it would be that bad. At least he had all his weapons here--katana, guns, and knives--and appeared to be wearing his mission outfit. Would the kevlar protect him against dragon fire?

~ Believe strongly that it will, and it may. Belief and will make a big difference here. Of course, it can be hard when the fire is bearing down on you to believe that you're protected against it even a little. ~

Aya began to see where his literal-mindedness would become a problem.

~ You have power. Your mind makes this city and turns the mindbreaker into a cat. ~ Farfarello laughed a bit at that. ~ You are not helpless. You just have to learn how to command it. ~

******************************************************

Unable to see how things were going, Mamoru couldn't help pacing a bit. They had nothing they could do aside from wait for the telepaths to return and report. Mamoru couldn't tell if he only thought this because he knew what they were doing or if it were a true impression, but watching them he couldn't believe for a moment that they were only sleeping. They somehow seemed to be absent from their bodies.

Telepaths. How bizarre to lump Aya into that group.

But Aya had been placed beyond Mamoru's reach since his sister died, hadn't he? This was only another, newer way.

While Elena and Schuldig were lying as far apart as their mattress allowed, Farfarello had twined himself with Aya, lying partly on top of him, smiling, and Aya leaned on him. Although Mamoru should be used to that by now, it still stung. Would that wound ever heal?

Looking worried and sad, Nagi watched Aya as well then glanced at Mamoru with a wry expression. Their love and concern united them in that moment, something Mamoru found very precious. Tokyo seemed so far away and so long ago.

"They don't have much time to teach him anything," Mamoru said.

To his surprise, Crawford answered, "I don't like it either. It's just the best idea we have going right now." Mamoru had expected to hear bluster and insane self-confidence, not honesty.

Then again, now that Mamoru paid more attention to him, Crawford seemed to be watching Aya and Farfarello with a worried look. Did he know something about them Mamoru didn't?

"You said that Breaker 'wants' Aya," Yoji said. "So what does that mean? He won't kill him; he'll... enslave him? Toy with him? What is Aya up against?"

"Having never had enough telepathy to qualify, I never had any personal dealings with Breaker. All I know is what I've heard, rumors. Schuldig never spoke of him until recently, when it became necessary." That reticence on Schuldig's part obviously worried Crawford. Given how much Schuldig talked, Mamoru could understand why. "He's very powerful and had a role in training almost all of Rosenkreuz's telepaths. Maybe all of them. He also appeared to have some influence on policy, rare for a talent. For the most part the non-talented kept the talents out of decisions so we wouldn't get above ourselves."

"You think he has some kind of training fetish or something?"

"Aya has a talent we haven't seen before and don't understand. Breaker, being who he is, will want to study and mold it. I hope he doesn't realize how rare Farfarello's brand of telepathy is either."

"So by putting those two up against him, you gave him a doubly tasty treat. That doesn't sound like a good idea."

Mamoru agreed but waited for Crawford's answer.

"He wants Aya, they don't have words, and they weren't trained by him. Do you know any other people who fit the criteria?"

"And you don't think Aya could win against him by himself."

"I know he can't."

"You're not filling me with confidence, Crawford," Mamoru said.

"I'm not trying to. You claim you want to be kept informed. I'm doing it. If you'd prefer to be lied to, I can do that as well. Just let me know," Crawford answered sweetly. "The stakes and the risks are high. That's just the way it is. Aya recognized that and agreed to do it anyway."

"Yeah, well, Aya's instincts for self-preservation aren't exactly top notch," Yoji said, which made Nagi snort.

"Regardless. All we can do is wait and hope this works."

******************************************************

Aya ducked behind a car as a hot river of flames shot over his head and hit a building behind him. Shit!

~ Aya, don't worry about the fucking city! ~ Schuldig yelled. ~ It's not real, nobody lives in it, and anybody who's wandering its streets is either fictional or a telepath who can take care of himself. Fight, dammit! ~

Aya popped up and fired his guns at Elena's huge dragonhead. The bullets vaporized before reaching her. Cursing, he ducked back down. How the hell would he even get close, let alone take her down?

~ At least we have cover, ~ Farfarello said. ~ In the usual version of astral space it's just clouds. Very war-in-Heaven like. Nothing to duck behind. ~

"Do we have any idea how and why I make this city?"

~ Stubbornness and wanting your own way? ~

"From the telepaths I've met, I know I'm not alone in having those qualities in abundance."

~ We really don't know. ~ Another dragon blast hit the building behind them and broke loose a lot of debris. ~ The buildings aren't real, so there can't be debris. Deny it, kitten! ~

Aya denied with everything he had in him, even as every instinct screamed at him to get as far out of the way as possible. Some of the debris blinked out of existence but some still hit and hurt him. He dodged some of what didn't disappear.

~ Good start but try harder! ~ Schuldig yelled. ~ And are you going to fight or just hide? ~

"Are you going to train me or just harangue me?" Aya yelled back.

~ This _is_ training you! ~

~ To think, at one time I wanted him to train me, ~ Farfarello muttered. ~ Kitten, I was bolder than this. ~

"You had no cover. That's less boldness than necessity. I'm sure she scorched you many times."

~ Hmm. ~

"Bullets melt. Can I use my knives or katana?"

~ Hmm. ~

Aya didn't like that reaction at all. "They would melt too, wouldn't they?"

~ I didn't want to say anything your mind might take to heart. I struck her once with one of mine, and it did melt. ~

Could he find sulfur and a sheep in this city? "So what did work?"

~ ...lightsaber. ~

"'Lightsaber'? Like in _Star Wars_?" Aya had seen three of the films years ago.

~ Precisely. ~

"Where would you get that from?"

~ Made it with my mind. As you made this city, but with more focus and direction. ~

Making something out of nothing?

~ Or transform the katana you have here into one. It is _not_ your real katana. ~

"I doubt any of them had a 'lightkatana.'"

~ Many of them had individualized weapons. Aye, I'm far more of a geek than you could have imagined. Can you at least try this? ~

Aya unsheathed his katana and realized that it became somehow more detailed and more like his actual katana the longer he stared at it. All right, point proven. He imagined a colorful laser sword in place of the blade. At least he tried to.

He flinched as another dragon blast flew overhead and felt the car he leaned against heat up even more, while his skin felt hot and tight, slightly baked. His literal-mindedness did him at least as much damage as his opponent's efforts did.

Staying low he moved to take cover behind another car and went back to focusing on changing his katana's blade. Did it really look a little different now?

~ Friendly, I think you might not be the best person for his first fight. Breaker's Cerberus form doesn't shoot blasts. Aya can at least _approach_ Cerberus without getting flame-broiled, ~ Schuldig said.

~ He could turn human and start firing on Fujimiya-san with a gun, ~ she answered.

~ I think Aya would have an easier time dealing with that than with Smok Friendlyski. Wow, never thought I'd get to be flipped an obscene gesture by a dragon. Could you at least try harder not to singe him? ~

To Aya's amazement, his metal blade became a purple laser blade under the beating force of his will, with his growing certainty in his ability to do it making it happen ever faster. It hummed faintly.

~ It doesn't sound quite-- Never mind. It sounds fine. Softer is good. ~

His new cover was the closest to the dragon. He would dart in, strike, and dart away since he lacked the height to hit anything more substantial. Then again, killing her wasn't the object of the exercise. He just had to show that he had a workable strategy for fighting and subduing Breaker.

Aya saw his opportunity and broke cover, heading toward her at a full-out run, taking her by surprise. She didn't start trying to blast him until he'd nearly reached her, and those blasts he dodged. He leapt and struck, and she dodged, but he still sliced into her wing a little. Shrieking, she let loose a flood of flame that barely missed him. It left his coat smoking and some of his skin stinging as he ran back toward cover and leapt behind it.

******************************************************

"Fenris, are you okay?" Ken asked as he saw him flinch.

"Yeah," Fenris answered, shaking his head and rubbing his shoulder. "I don't know what that was."

******************************************************

~ I'm sorry, Fujimiya-san! ~ Elena said, her voice roughened with pain. ~ I would have killed you out of instinct because the pain made me forget this was a training session. ~

~ There's a strategy, ~ Schuldig said. ~ Look like an incompetent and coward at first then rush in and strike. Of course, that will only work once. Still, you converted your katana, so you're picking up some of the knowledge you need. Or Farf's giving you a cheat sheet. ~

"Some of both," Aya answered, still ducked down behind a car, not trusting that the being-shot-at part of the training had ended.

~ Friendly's done firing at you. I want you to come out and try something for me. I want you to throw your sword at a target and bring your sword back to you. Yeah, it wouldn't happen in the real world, but this ain't the real world. I'm hoping that's obvious to you now. ~

"I'm getting there." Aya stood, although he didn't fully let down his guard.

Schuldig and Elena both looked human at the moment. Aya would have to remember that they and Breaker could do that. The foe he fought could change size and weaponry.

~ Good. Now hit the target I'm pointing to. If it helps, pretend it's Takatori's helicopter. But actually hit it. ~

"Funny." Aya had thrown his katana as a weapon before. But what about the changes in weight the different blade made--

It made no difference. Regular physics didn't work here. Expectation did. He threw his sword, fully expecting it to fly true to its target, watching it at every moment and hopefully guiding it and correcting its course moment by moment. The blade sank into the door Schuldig had pointed to.

~ Killed it real good, Aya. Now bring your sword back, ~ Schuldig said, smirking.

He could do this. They swore he could. He'd already changed his katana blade from metal to solid, burning light. This was his weapon, _his_. Part of him. Holding out his hand, Aya thought of it returning to him.

~ Be willful and stubborn about this, puisín. Deny reality. I know you can. ~

Everyone was a comedian today. Aya concentrated harder and saw the hilt vibrate. Very encouraging. It vibrated more.

~ Don't burst a blood vessel, Rose-red, ~ Schuldig said.

"If you're right, I don't have blood vessels here, so make up your fucking mind." The katana came out of the door and flew to Aya's hand, its hilt slapping his palm and his fingers instinctively closing to grasp it. It so pleased Farfarello that Aya nearly buckled from the wave of pleasure he sent through them.

~ I thought that I just had to annoy you to get some action. So, not too bad. Mind you, Breaker won't let you stand there taking this much time with things. He'll attack and keep on attacking. Still, this is better than I expected to get this quickly. Good going, Aya. ~

~ I helped, ~ Farfarello said, making sure Schuldig and Elena would hear.

~ Yeah, yeah, Farf. Good idea making Aya a Sith. You did more than Friendly here. ~

~ I was the opponent and the challenge, ~ she said. ~ I did all the work! All you did was stand there, yell, and snark. ~

~ That's three things I did! ~ Schuldig's head whipped up. ~ Did you feel that? A darkness, a weight.... Let's get out of here. No need to start the party too early. ~

When Aya returned to his body it felt a little stiff, and he still felt too hot. "Soul burnt," Farfarello said as he opened his eye and kissed Aya. "Still, you did well. I came back burnt a lot too."

"Can it work?" Crawford asked.

"It might," Schuldig said. "Rose-red picked up some tricks, though he'll need to ride along on my power to really make it all work. I think we should let them get some rest and then send 'em out."

"A nap would be good," Aya had to say. "I'm very tired." Maybe he would hurt less when he woke up too.

"All right," Crawford answered. "I'd be happier if I could keep you here, given our suspicions about our current hotel, but I also want you close to the rest of Schwarz, and moving the whole team here to stay would grab attention."

"You're cutting Kritiker and Weiß out again," Omi said.

"He doesn't need you while he's sleeping."

"Crawford, don't toy with me." Omi might be making his own plans right now. It made Aya smile a bit. "You'll let me know when you start. If you don't we'll find out on our own. We have our own talents."

"Fine, fine," Crawford answered, giving in too easily to Aya's eye.

Omi looked at least as suspicious as Aya felt, yet he gave in. For the moment.

Despite the tension and his worries over the upcoming attempt to lure and capture Breaker, Aya fell asleep in the car with his head on Farfarello's shoulder as Schwarz drove back to the hotel.

******************************************************

The mindbreaker had said to keep an eye on Aya, as if Farfarello wouldn't anyway. Schuldig wanted to be sure that giving a non-telepath a telepath's sight for a time didn't have adverse side effects. Since Farfarello wanted his kitten to be safe and well, he certainly would be alert. He petted Aya's hair.

Farfarello had hoped for more while inside Aya's soul, but they'd remained separate and distinct. While he knew he should want that, that it was healthier, part of him still wanted to merge more, to be a part of Aya and Aya a part of him.

He knew he had odd ideas of romance.

No matter. Farfarello felt so proud of Aya, of his strength, will, and flexibility. No one could have a better partner.


	208. "Malice is researching, while Wicked's lying on the bed inciting him to sin."

At the door to Farfarello and Aya's room, Crawford told Farfarello, "Remember to let him rest. We'll start in three hours."

Although Farfarello snarled at being told how to care for his kitten, Aya didn't say a word about something he usually would have considered an indignity and sign of contempt for him. Instead of snapping at Crawford, Aya looked as if he wanted to go to bed and back to sleep again as soon as possible.

"You should rest as well," Crawford continued, "since you'll be his guide and provide more protection."

As Farfarello slammed the door behind them, Schuldig said, ~ He's pissy because we interrupted his sex twice today and now Aya's too tired. ~

"Is it normal for Aya to be that tired after what you did?" Crawford asked. It worried him, especially after that vision he'd seen. He tried to keep that memory quiet so Schuldig wouldn't grab at it.

He really needed to decide whether to tell Schuldig or not.

"It was his first fight as a participant, and he fought a dragon, Brad. Besides, this doesn't come naturally to him," Schuldig answered but didn't look as confident as Crawford would have preferred. "I'm keeping an eye on him and told Farfarello to do the same."

Schuldig had always been physically attracted to Aya and considered him fun to toy with but lately a fondness seemed to have developed that Crawford didn't know enough about to evaluate. Knowing that Schuldig fought hardest and most viciously for things he felt he owned, Crawford decided to see the fondness as a positive.

"Good. Are the Weaseleys still working?"

"What are you--" Then Schuldig got it and snorted. "Malice is researching, while Wicked's lying on the bed inciting him to sin."

"Nobody told him he could lie on my bed," Nagi said, sounding understandably annoyed.

"You'll just have to tell him that."

None of them had really thought over how long Malice's overview might have to take. Nagi didn't share his things lightly, yet he had one clone using his computer and programs and another trying to tempt the first one into his bed and no one knew how long that state of affairs would last. Nagi's mouth twisted in distaste as he knocked on the door to his own room to ask for entrance.

Wicked opened the door with an expansive gesture and a smirk on his lips, all insanity and overripe sexuality, yet blocked the doorway. The absence of his leather coat revealed black leather pants with at least as many buckles on it, a heavy leather belt, black leather choker, a vaguely shiny dark green top that showed a bit of his midriff, and a silver navel piercing with a charm dangling from it. His hair looked messier, and he licked his lips. "Hello, babies. Do you want something?"

Was it Schuldig or an over the top parody? For a moment Crawford couldn't tell. Fortunately, he had the real thing standing next to him, looking at the display with a raised eyebrow and a slight hint of amused lust.

After a moment of shock, Nagi said, "You didn't actually get any action on my bed, and that's the only reason why I'm letting you live."

"You're no fun," Wicked said as he pouted.

"Let them in already," Malice said in the distance.

"Yes, my lord." Wicked moved out of the doorway, and Schwarz walked through. Nagi cast a very annoyed look on his rumpled bed that quickly transferred to Wicked, who said, "You have to make allowances for guests. Be a good host."

Malice, sitting at the table with the laptop, had his braid half undone but remained professional looking otherwise. Crawford figured he knew who had started on the clone's hair. "Status?" Crawford asked him.

Malice answered, "I found parts of what we believe the phrase to be but nothing mentioned around them that seems to be a cure word. No mention of when it was implanted either. Then again, I've only gotten through half of the audits on one disc and none of the interventions."

"This is taking too long," Schuldig said. "We don't have the time."

"I want him to continue," Crawford replied.

"For how long?" Malice asked.

"Until I tell you to stop. At least a few hours for now. Depending on how events go, I may or may not ask you to resume tomorrow."

"We _are_ getting paid for this." It wasn't a question.

"Yes. We'll work something out." He would pay, having found Malice useful enough to be worth it now and possibly worth hiring again in the future if the clone stayed in the game.

~ They're going to be in my room using my equipment for several hours longer? ~ Nagi asked.

~ Yes. ~

~ Well, shit. I'll have to find somewhere else to be. ~

Of course he did, although Crawford hadn't really thought of that and didn't like some of the possibilities he thought of now. ~ Like where? ~

~ You don't have to worry about me. Trust me. ~ Nagi's obvious irritation turned into one of the least trustworthy smiles possible. ~ I'll remember my curfew, Dad. ~

Crawford looked at Schuldig, who asked, "Why are you looking at _me_?" but grinned.

"See you later," Nagi said as he left. Crawford suspected that Persia would be getting a visit and didn't like the idea but saw no way to stop it that wouldn't alienate Nagi at this delicate time. In any case, he trusted Nagi not to leak anything important.

"All right," Crawford said to the two Orange liners. "We'll be next door. We don't anticipate an attack or problem but we're not ruling it out. I expect Malice to work and Wicked not to distract him."

"What if he needs food? He does, you know," Wicked answered, looking rebellious.

"Get him some. What kind of bodyguard are you?"

"I either like you or hate you, Mr. Crawford. Hmm. Yeah, it's hate."

"As long as you do what you're supposed to, I really don't care. See you later." Crawford left with some relief. Wicked was a damned distraction.

Snickering, Schuldig said, "The kids. The kids are not all right. Wicked's also trying _way_ too hard."

"Like you're subtle. Particularly in your younger years." It felt good to be back in their room, able to take his shoes and coat off and just breathe for a little. They all needed a few hours.

"I'm the very definition of subtlety."

"In what dictionary?"

Schuldig took a break from taking off his coat and shoes to flip him off. Endearing.

Crawford decided that Schuldig should know after all. "I had a vision, more a flash than anything else, of Aya motionless and injured in some way I couldn't see, possibly telepathic, while Farfarello grieved."

Schuldig almost seemed to sharpen. "You think our plan leads to that?"

"I have no idea. I want us all to fight to make sure it doesn't, since this is the best plan we have."

"Damned right. We put too much time and effort into Aya to lose him now, especially when he's turning out so interesting. We'll make the plan work. We'll also learn more useful stuff faster from yanking it out of Breaker's mind than digging through the discs."

"I can understand why you're down on checking out the discs for information, but we've already learned some useful things," Crawford said.

"Fine. Tell me what useful stuff we've already gotten."

Testing the waters, Crawford said, "Your sister is a telepath too. Eszett assigned her to a division in Argentina."

Looking a bit lost, Schuldig asked, "Which sister?"

It wasn't the reaction Crawford had expected. "Which-- Your younger sister. Ingrid."

Schuldig's eyes did that movement people's eyes occasionally did when they dug deep into their memories. "I don't have a-- Oh! Emory's sister."

"She's not the first one that came to mind?"

"We had so many."

"What about--" Starting to wonder and think about it, Crawford did a test. "Schu, Eszett killed Emory's parents."

"Okay." So blasé.

"Aren't you angry? At Eszett? At your parents?"

"I'm always angry at Eszett but whatever. The parents? I guess they must not have cared much if they threw me into an asylum, but I don't really remember them."

How much of Emory's original personality and memories actually remained? "Then why did you push me so hard at my own family?"

"All of our parents didn't want us. Yours wanted you, but you were going to stay away out of stupid pride."

What was this thing he was feeling right now? It hurt... but it hurt for Schuldig. His telepath smiled, grabbed him, and murmured, "You dope. It's a good thing I like 'em tall and stupid."

Although it felt good to be held like this, Crawford said, "I don't have to put up with that kind of talk."

"Love you. You have the love of a crazy mob of throwaways. Can you deal with that?"

"As long as I only have to deal with their spokesman. I've become fond of him."

"'Fond.' It's like I've won a prize or something."

"Are you interested in seeing your sister?"

"...sure. Why not? I wonder how much sunscreen she must go through daily in Argentina. Does she have pale skin?"

"Verity resembles her."

Schuldig melted at that a little. "Yeah. Let's go see what she's like. Eventually. Though she's not gonna get the brother she might still remember. Then again, it's not about her, it's about us."

"Good thinking."

Schuldig grinned. "You know, we have three hours to kill."

Crawford thought of a younger Schuldig blocking a doorway while in full display. Was Wicked simply so accustomed to pretending to be Schuldig that he still did it even though he didn't have to anymore?

"Do you want me to invite him in?" Schuldig asked with a smirking pout.

"No. I think I'm still trying to work through the trauma of seeing that."

"I'm trying to figure out whether I should be offended."

If Schuldig had been compromised by the phrase, it was so subtle even Crawford couldn't see it. Old-fashioned prudence would say to hold Schuldig at arms' length, but life was risk, wasn't it? Making you doubt everything, everyone, and yourself had been one of Eszett's favorite tactics for keeping its slaves too paranoid to rebel. At some point you had to trust in something, and Crawford chose to trust in his team. He wouldn't give up on any of them.

"Don't trust me too much, Brad," Schuldig said. "If I do something too dangerous or out of character, take me down."

Crawford kissed him hard to get things started before they became any mushier or more self-sacrificing.

******************************************************

"Cool, free porn. Hey, Malice--"

"Not even." Though Malice did turn to see him, if only for a brief time.

Obviously eavesdropping as much as he could, Wicked sprawled invitingly on the bed, his hand splayed across his bare belly and rubbing slow circles on his skin. "I hope I'm still getting it on like that when I'm that ancient. Of course, I also hope I'll survive long enough to get to be that ancient."

"We're not having sex," Malice answered, but he couldn't help smiling a little.

"Aw! You're so cruel!" But he grinned too.

******************************************************

Fucking would be wonderful, but once they settled into bed together Farfarello realized that he felt more tired than he realized. Snuggling with his puisín felt good too, being entangled with him, dozing and listening to the slow, soft hum of Aya's sleepy self.

Buzzing. That buzzing should not be there. Shit. Bastard telepath trying to find and take his kitten....

Farfarello pressed his fingers down on Aya's bared wrist and saw his twilight eyes half open. "Do you hear buzzing, Aya?"

"A little...."

"Ride on my talent, puisín. Come with me. Focus on me."

"Mmm. All right...."

Farfarello felt the difference in him, the current they shared, as Aya switched to him. Then Farfarello associated himself fully in his body, shutting their telepathy down, hiding them. "Do you hear it now?"

"No." Aya rolled closer to him and snuggled, closing his eyes again, his red hair soft against Farfarello's face.

Farfarello went to sleep with a smile on his face.


	209. "So we're geeks. We can also make up for lost time."

As Nagi flew over the city he decided that he would see being temporarily chased out of his room as a positive thing. He needed to get away for a bit from the tension and worry flowing through his team since he had enough of his own while waiting for Aya to take a shot at a telepath who easily outstripped him in power and experience.

He knew Crawford would disapprove of him going to see Omi but couldn't care at the moment. Ever since they'd arrived in Vienna Nagi had felt somewhat beside the point, as if he rode the coattails of someone else's story instead of starring in his own. Schuldig was apparently the Rosetta Stone of talents, while Aya was a new flavor much sought after. As a result Crawford concentrated on Schuldig and Farfarello concentrated on Aya. Being of little interest to the area's Eszett remnants for all anyone could tell and lacking a lover inside the team, Nagi had been left to himself aside from fulfilling practical functions like guarding other people or medical work.

While he appreciated missing out on the over the top drama, he felt somewhat overlooked and unvalued. It was adolescent of him, but he _was_ an adolescent. He wanted to be somewhere for a while where he'd be Nagi instead of a cog in the machine that let everybody else's drama work. He had needs, damn it.

Weiß probably felt even more cog-like than he did, but that provided little comfort.

He didn't know how Omi would greet him so didn't expect anything. Nagi had initiated the breakup, and the reasons for it remained valid. Omi hadn't wanted it and, judging from some looks Nagi had caught him at, seemed to still want him.

Nagi wished he knew what _he_ wanted. As much as he hated to admit Schuldig could be right about something like this, he'd come to think that having Tot as his first "love" had been a terrible mistake that still haunted him. He'd thought he'd loved her. Time and more analysis had proved him wrong, shown him that he'd loved the idea of having someone of his own far more than the girl herself. He'd rebelled from his team and nearly died in the name of a delusion. But it had felt so much the way everyone said love would....

He missed having Omi around and had no love for Persia, who was the version of Omi Nagi currently saw 95% of the time. Before the breakup he'd seen much more of Omi.

But did he want companionship? Sex? Was what he felt for Omi love, just some kind of attachment, or adolescent hormones? Was he just looking for someone who would belong to him since everybody else he was closest to already had that?

He suspected he was overthinking all of this, but in life, as in telekinesis, it was important to go in having some idea of what you wanted and expected.

In the past, Omi had wanted something serious, intense, and 24/7. Nagi still didn't want that. Aya and Farfarello had something like that and although they seemed to enjoy themselves the very idea of living that way made Nagi's brain shudder. Too close, too much, too smothering....

At this very moment, Nagi just wanted company and hoped he could get some time with Omi as opposed to Persia.

Nagi touched down in front of the Kritiker compound just as Omi's car stopped to let him, Yoji, and Friendly out. Good timing. The local Kritiker agents flanking Omi trained their guns on Nagi, as if that would do anything.

"It's good to see you, Nagi," Omi said with a smile, and the Kritiker agents stood down a bit. Good for them.

"This isn't business." That didn't sound quite right and might lead to unrealistic expectations. "I... just wanted to see you. As a friend. I'm not going to spill any Schwarz secrets."

"Wouldn't expect you to."

Yoji looked pleased. "I'm sure you two can catch up in an empty office all by yourselves. It seems like the place has lots of them."

"You're subtle, Yoji," Friendly said with a smirk.

"People are always telling me that, so it must be true."

"Let's go inside," Omi said.

Despite all the time he'd spent with Omi under similar circumstances in the past, Nagi didn't like the feel of having a phalanx of bodyguards moving with him for the way it made him feel hemmed in. Considering that Omi seemed to feel the same way, it didn't appear to be just Nagi's distrust and paranoia working.

It also felt terrible inside this building with all the fear and anxiety its occupants felt. How could anyone stand to stay here?

Oh, more fear and inertia. That explained it a little. He couldn't help feeling pity and some contempt for the talents here, almost all of them half-trained, half-formed kids who only looked like and tried to be adults. Even as a former tossed-out street kid, feared and stoned by his mundane "peers," Nagi had advantages in his upbringing versus theirs. Still, they could stand to generate more backbone for themselves.

"Elena!" Fenris said as he opened a door into the hallway and ran out to hug her, briefly casting a... look at Nagi that made Nagi sigh. It had been impossible to avoid noticing that Fenris had a crush on him while he'd had the kid sitting shirtless in front of him as he carefully and gradually removed the implant from beneath his skin. All the nervous avoidance of his eyes and blushing.... Since Nagi didn't know how to deal with it, he dealt with it by not dealing with it, ignoring it.

Schuldig would think it was cute. Schuldig must never know. Which was of course impossible.

Fenris was a kid, just like so many of the people here were. But he at least had backbone and ambition. He worked to make himself something more and better than what he was, whereas most of the talents here seemed to expect someone to save them and hand them everything on a platter. Nagi liked him somewhat.

Then again, Fenris hadn't taken well to the tape training that had given these other force-grown talents their false childhoods. His personality came from his own learning and experiences, not one of the generic pasts Eszett programmed into their force-grown products' heads and reinforced through similar, repressive schooling. They'd been deliberately deprived of learning for themselves and tips to becoming independent thinkers. Only the exceptional ones rose above the quagmire of slavery and mediocrity Eszett had designed them for.

Misery stood in the doorway with a curious look on his face, although he and Siberian stayed with the prisoners instead of coming out to greet the rest of their returning team. Good that somebody had some idea of caution and professional duties. Nagi was getting really tired of seeing Schuldig's face everywhere, multiplied endlessly. At least Misery had really different hair and the eyeliner to mix things up a bit.

Did Nagi just tag Misery as a member of Weiß? Yeah, he had, instinctively. Would that be a good thing or bad? How would Schuldig and Crawford see it if things worked out that way?

Did he have enough questions?

Nagi smiled a little to himself. He needed to settle down and get a grip.

"Go on, Omi," Yoji said. "We'll get along for a little bit without you. You don't want to run yourself into the ground anyway."

"Yeah, you're right." Omi commed to Zeitler that he'd be taking a bit of time out. Omi must have come on damned strong for the Austrian contingent to let him take over so much. "There's an empty office we can go to," Omi said to Nagi.

"Sounds good." While Nagi would be happier out of this building and away from the focused tension and worry of all the threatened talents inside it, he figured he didn't have a chance in hell of getting Omi away from Kritiker's nerve center at this time and certainly not without having bodyguards all but sitting on them. Here, the guards stayed outside the door when he and Omi entered the office. "Is the office soundproof?"

"What? Yeah. No point in doing business in here if someone in the hall can eavesdrop," Omi answered.

"Just want to be sure.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to see if I sense any bugs in here." He could feel mechanical output somewhat. Nothing here. "We're clean."

"You're really handy to have around."

"That's what I strive for."

Omi sat on the leather couch. "It'll be good to play hooky for a while. Thanks for the excuse."

Nagi sat next to him, though not close enough to touch him. "I've heard that I'm handy to have around."

"Nagi, how could you be so warm after flying during the winter?"

"Telekinesis is very handy. I've been manipulating things on atomic and maybe sub-atomic levels. Didn't want to freeze my ass off. I'm always working on new and better ways to use my talent." That sounded a little too much like boasting or looking for a pat on the head. Damn, he still wanted to impress Omi. As if Omi hadn't already been impressed.

Omi smiled at him fondly and somewhat wistfully. "Would it offend you if I said I've missed you? I'm not putting any pressure on you. I just miss you, and I wanted you to know."

"I... missed you too." As he sat here talking, he realized that he had. He became a different person with Omi, as he'd become a different person with Tot. Working Nagi didn't miss moments like this or feel like this, but he wasn't just working Nagi. At least, he wasn't when he had someone to be with. Working Nagi had fewer doubts and didn't need company. Working Nagi wasn't quite human and looked upon his body with some contempt as just vulnerable meat.

He didn't know that he wanted to feel this uncertain and emotional, but at least he felt _something_ right now. Since coming to Austria he'd been almost exclusively professional and annoyed, almost a misanthropic automaton.

"Good. I think." Omi looked tired. And his hair seemed to be going a bit gray, which was so wrong.

"You could use a little quiet time right now," Nagi said. "It's been stressful for everyone, but you're here trying to hold things together for everyone around you too."

"Bringing Breaker in was a huge mistake."

Hell yeah, but.... "You couldn't have known."

"More research--"

"He lives quietly and keeps a low profile. He hid within Eszett. If he hadn't wormed his way in with you, he would have found some other way to do this. It was just more fun for him this way."

"Most of the psionics in the building are agonizing over what they should do. If we don't take Breaker out by tomorrow morning, they'll have to choose whether to give themselves up for some small security in being slaves, to stay here, or to scatter and run. I'm not even a telepath and I can feel the tension in the air."

"The people who are thinking of staying figure your security will be better since you're on guard from the word getting broadcasted once already?"

"Yeah. While the people who want to run hope that if they scatter all over he won't be able to find them all or maybe decide they're not all worth it. Did all of those Orange line clones actually live in a warehouse and dodge the owners' security guards all the time?"

"Yeah. I was there."

"That's no kind of life to have or go back to! I can't protect any of these people, and I hate that. Crawford's plan has to work." Omi leaned back on the couch. "Though I wish that Aya didn't have to be a lynchpin of it."

"Me too. At least Schuldig seemed to be happy with Aya's progress. He didn't fake that. And I told them to feel free to use me as backup."

"That sounds dangerous."

"What isn't dangerous lately?"

"I feel responsible."

"You didn't create this situation. Eszett and Breaker did. All we can do is our best with what resources we have."

"I need to be better than that, and I can't stay in Austria much longer. I have so much to do in Japan, Kritiker business, Takatori business...." Omi sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"What you have to do is get off the treadmill for a little while. You'll burn yourself out."

"This _is_ my vacation."

"Like hell. It's better to step aside and recharge when you need it because if you work until you collapse you'll be out a lot longer recovering. You're stretching yourself too thin. I'm sure the last Persias did some delegating."

"The last Persias weren't the head of Kritiker and the Takatori family at the same time." He looked far too stressed and worn out and a little thinner in his suit than he should.

"Learn to say no to things. Omi, I'm worrying about you." And a little afraid for him too. Since talk didn't always work on Omi, Nagi pulled him in close against him and set Omi's head on his shoulder.

After a moment of tensing in surprise, Omi took in a deep breath and relaxed. "Yeah. I keep having that problem...."

Nagi didn't need to be slightly telepathic to feel Omi thinking that this problem was part of why Nagi had broken up with him, which was true. But it felt good to have Omi here with him and to rest the side of his face against Omi's hair, which remained soft even though it looked a bit gray. He'd missed this closeness, missed Omi, missed being wanted.

"Is this going somewhere?" Omi asked. "It's a little more intimate than just comforting."

"I'm not sure."

He knew that he'd gotten enough distance from what had been going on before the breakup to forget how bad things had been. He knew that if they reconciled now things might go back to exactly how they'd been when they returned to the scene of the crime in Japan, especially since Omi admitted to difficulties in changing his behavior. He knew that being involved with Omi had often left him uncertain. He knew he wasn't the answer to all of Omi's problems.

At the moment, none of that mattered much. He _wanted_.

From the eager, hungry way Omi kissed him back, Omi wanted too.

This might be a bad idea. A really bad idea. The love here was mixed with loneliness, worry, stress, and lust. But with Omi melted on top of him and stroking his back as they kissed, he found it hard to think at all, and that was far from the only thing hard here. Damn, he'd spent far too much time with Schuldig over the years.

He'd missed Omi and sex so much. He'd gotten so tired of denying everything. Omi was undoing the buttons on their coats and grumbling about winter clothing....

"I don't know," Nagi gasped, using his last few brain cells, between kisses. "This won't fix anything, and I'm afraid I'm giving you the wrong impression." Though he noticed that he couldn't let go of Omi.

"You don't actually want me?" Omi gasped back, eyes hot and wild, obviously not believing that.

"I want you."

"Then I have the right impression. I don't expect this to fix things. I just," kiss, "want it." Kiss, stroke.... Omi was undoing both their flies. How anyone could possibly think Nagi topped just because he was usually the pitcher while fucking mystified Nagi.

He hated suits so much, especially ties. Ties made no practical sense unless you intended to pull someone by it, while the shirts involved often took forever to unbutton. Sure, you could rip the buttons loose, but that was wasteful. Good thing neither of them felt inclined to get all the way undressed for this.

Omi's fingers felt so good and sure on Nagi's cock. Hackers had great manual dexterity. Right now he stroked and jerked both of them at once, occasionally letting them slide and rub together. Nagi couldn't help bucking up into his grip, already so close to coming.

"I'm not going to last long," Omi said, almost panting. "Just so you know you don't have to do some feat of endurance to look macho."

"Or to look less desperate?"

"That too. Come for me, Nagi. I've been dreaming about you...."

Between that and the sudden twist and curl of Omi's fingers, Nagi didn't have any choice. He felt his whole body clench and then release in a flood of feeling, spilling out. Omi came a moment later, crying out, finally coming to a rest with his forehead against Nagi's.

"That was fast yet satisfying," Nagi said after a while. Muscles had relaxed that had been strung taut for days. He hadn't even realized how tense he'd felt until he stopped feeling that way.

"Mmmm-hmm."

"Didn't solve anything."

"I feel more relaxed and less frustrated."

"There's that, yeah. Me too." Stupid meat. It could be useful at times though.

"Stickier. We're a mess." Omi smiled. "I think I could fit you into a pair of my pants so you can leave later."

"The dirty things you say." Feeling more laid-back and quieter inside, Nagi said, "We have more time. If you want to make use of it."

"What happened to not giving away any of Schwarz's secrets?"

Not much of an exchange of information. "Being a wise-ass doesn't get you any secrets or sex."

"That would be tragic. I'll try to stop."

Putting his hands on Omi's hips, Nagi said, "You need to eat more."

"I know, I know. More sex soon?"

"Yeah."

"We'll just bask for a while and recover for next time."

"It's a good thing we're young and insatiable."

"And not getting much."

"So we're geeks. We can also make up for lost time."

They could think about fixing things much later.

******************************************************

"Fenris, don't eavesdrop," Elena said as she lightly smacked the back of the kid's head.

"Ow. I'm trying not to," Fenris answered. "I don't actually want to see... that."

It had to be hard when everybody knew what Nagi and Omi were doing and you had a crush on Nagi. Still, Fenris seemed to be practical about things. Yoji smirked, thinking it was good for somebody on Weiß to be. They just had to import Fenris and Elena in to get that.

Weiß had found a room to take a coffee and tea break in. Ken, Fenris, and Sasha had obviously needed a breather from the Schwarz funhouse mirror junior league, while Elena and Yoji thought it would be a good idea to bring the team up to speed on Schwarz's plan. At least, what Schwarz claimed to have as a plan. Who knew with them?

"I don't think it's a good idea to let them do that," Ken said. "Nagi's still Schwarz, and they're keeping us in the dark and maybe playing with us."

"Omi needs this," Yoji said.

"Sex is a necessity? That sounds like you."

"Spoken like a guy who's not getting any."

Elena smacked the back of Yoji's head. "Mean!"

"Ow. But not angsty. It's sweet that you're defending Ken, though."

She gave him an "I think you cracked your head" look that he just grinned back at.

"I don't need defending, but thanks, Elena," Ken said.

They would be cute together. Damn, when had he turned into Schuldig? "Omi could use some happiness and companionship. He definitely needs a little break from his duties," Yoji answered. "He takes too much on himself."

As he sipped his tea, Sasha watched them as if they'd all gone insane. Understandable. They were getting punchy. It had been _such_ a long day and it wasn't even over yet.

Yoji hated the idea of staking Aya out as bait for the kind of bastard who wanted to make a few hundred kids his slaves and saw no problem in hurting them to force them to agree to it. Yeah, Farfarello would be there--God, _inside_ Aya--as his wingman, but Schwarz had looked dubious about it working out, which should scare the hell out of everyone. "Elena, you were with them. Do you think it could work?"

"Hard to say. It's a big risk. I don't know. But something needs to be done before tomorrow morning, and it's not like we have a lot of options. I'd be fighting with them if I could, but Breaker helped train me and I have a word, making me far more of a hindrance than a help."

"Neither of those things apply to me," Fenris said. "Let me help. I want to get the guy who did that to you."

"I appreciate it and you're good, but you're nowhere near Breaker's level. He'll hurt you then toss you aside without a second thought. I can't stand that idea. Fujimiya-san at least has some protection in that he's unique and will be powerful enough to catch Breaker's interest. Breaker will want to capture him, not kill him."

So they hoped that Breaker would be a twisted, acquisitive freak when he fought Aya. Great. Yoji felt nauseated.

And all they could do was hope and wait.


	210. ~ The two-faced dog. How appropriate. ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guest pre-reading for this part done by thanatoseros.

They hadn't started yet--Nagi would know if they had--but he decided to leave now anyway, a little more than a half hour earlier than he'd been told they'd begin. He needed time to get to the hotel, and his departure would throw Omi's guesses off a bit. Let him wonder and wait for signs.

Nagi might disagree with Crawford on some things, but he wouldn't go against orders unless he saw it to be absolutely necessary. Given that their most powerful telepaths had been trained by Breaker and had words, Kritiker wouldn't be any use, so why should they be allowed to know when the plan would start? If it worked and the talents were safe, then Kritiker would be given the news. Schwarz shouldn't have to reveal all just to satisfy Kritiker's curiosity.

Besides, all this sex and snuggling and banter with Omi felt so good, _too_ good, and Nagi couldn't help feeling tempted to stay. While he might not be foolish enough to believe that a few rounds of sex and some affection solved all their problems, he couldn't help thinking he'd made a first step toward getting back together.

That might be true. It might not. Either way, he didn't have time for follow-up or consequences now. He'd promised he would be backup as Aya attempted something very dangerous, and he would be there. He would be the operative they needed. If he stayed here until the last second then left, he might not be able to put his professional self back on well enough and thoroughly enough to give his all, and Aya might suffer. Nagi couldn't allow that.

"You're getting restless," Omi said, stretching beside him. "Is it time to go?"

"Time for me to go. Not necessarily time for anything else."

"I hear you. I can't help being curious. You notice I didn't try to pry anything out of you."

"I noticed."

Their differing loyalties and responsibilities would always be a problem between them. They were too smart and strong-willed for it to be otherwise. If Omi were stupid and weak, Nagi wouldn't be interested in him. Tot may have been... simple, but she hadn't been weak. Maybe Nagi could figure out a way for them to remain together without their differences causing friction.

This wasn't the time to be pondering those kinds of things. He really had to get away and get professional. Lying naked next to Omi wouldn't help him do that. "You mentioned that you had another pair of pants in the office?" Nagi asked.

"More than one. I have my suitcase here."

"You sleep here? That's devotion above and beyond the call of duty." Nagi worked in his bedroom, but at least it had an actual bed. "You need someone to make sure you sleep _and_ eat. That's sad."

"Are you volunteering?" Then Omi's face turned more serious. "You don't have to answer that now. It's not a good time."

Omi _was_ smart, and it made some things easier.

"Later."

"Later."

Omi's pants were too tight at the waist on Nagi, so somebody had to get him to eat more. Later, as they'd agreed. At least the pants only had to be worn until Nagi made it to his own room and clothing. If the two orange-haired hellions currently staying in it had any comments to make about the stained pants he carried back with him, he'd introduce them to a nearby wall and gladly pay the hotel for the damages.

Omi and Nagi dressed in silence, with Omi appearing to have deep thoughts of his own to keep him occupied. Not wanting to be rude or pry, Nagi didn't try to read them. Possibly he didn't really want to know either.

When Omi kissed him, Nagi nearly drowned in the warmth of it and the feel of Omi's hand against the side of his head, cradling him. This could be hard to leave, but it had to be done.

"Protect yourself and Aya," Omi whispered against Nagi's lips.

"I'm not much for self-sacrifice, so don't worry. And you know I love him too."

"I trust you more than I trust them."

Sometimes _Nagi_ didn't even trust Crawford and Schuldig, so he could hardly protest. "I understand."

"Schwarz _will_ tell us how this goes."

Since success or failure of this attempt against Breaker would affect every talent here. "I will." Even if Schwarz didn't. Crawford hadn't said he couldn't.

Omi nodded, satisfied. "Thank you. I'll talk to you later."

"Later."

The guards didn't look Nagi in the eye as he left the room, although one of them trailed him through the building. As he walked through the halls one of the doors opened to reveal Fenris saluting him as if he were an honored soldier going off to war. Nagi found it oddly touching and said, "Thanks." Fenris smiled and nodded back, then closed the door.

Nagi felt some of the background feeling of oppression and tension lift as he left the building, and it became ever fainter the farther away he flew. Amazing how accustomed to it he'd become while staying with Omi. Even headblind, Omi had been aware of it, giving an idea of how powerful it was.

Things still hadn't started when Nagi reached the hotel, while Schuldig and Crawford hadn't finished yet. He should have expected they'd pass the time this way. Joy, he'd have to spend some time with the Guilty liners in his room.

When he opened the door, Nagi put up a shield and said, "If you try to shoot me I swear I will make you wish you'd never been hatched."

"Put the gun down, Wicked," Malice said.

Wicked put his gun back in his holster, then stroked the bed he shouldn't have been sitting on and asked, "Have you come back to use your bed? It's fine by me, though I gotta tell you that I'm not getting out of it."

Malice sighed. "_Wicked_."

"Could you stop saying my name as if it means 'shut up'?"

They were entertaining in a way, though they remained menaces. "I'm taking you off the bed in three seconds," Nagi said.

Wicked gave him a challenging look, and Nagi just raised one deadly eyebrow in pure "you sure you wanna try it, punk?" fashion. Sighing, Wicked stood up and answered, "You're no fun. I could help you change that."

"No thanks."

"Ah. You already got some."

So obnoxious and too over the top to be really sexy. Then again, he also reminded Nagi too much of someone he'd spent years turning down. "That's not why I'm saying no to you. You're just not as irresistible as you think."

Malice snickered, then turned it into a half-assed cough. Obviously offended, Wicked said, "It's a shame the sex didn't do anything for your temperament. You must not be doing it right."

"You're not going to find out how I do it. I'm taking a shower, and then we'll probably start trying to trap Breaker soon. You know, actual work. You might want to try it sometime."

"Blah blah blah. Enjoy your frigidity."

"I fully intend to. You won't." Nagi unpacked a new outfit for himself and went into the bathroom.

Schuldig and Crawford were showering and having sex at the moment--efficiency that suggested Crawford's influence--so Nagi made sure to shut them out. For him this would just be a shower, the purpose of which was to cleanse off the sex scent and lingering feel of Omi's touch and prepare Nagi for the possible work to come. If Aya hit trouble, the team would need Nagi clearheaded and ready to strike, emotional only if it served their purposes.

He washed quickly then toweled off and blew his hair dry quickly. Putting his clothes on felt a little like putting armor on or sealing himself in, neat and controlled.

By the time he reentered the bedroom Crawford and Schuldig stood there waiting for him, perfectly put together and ready for war. Schuldig asked, ~ What is it with you and monogamy? You certainly don't get that from me. ~

~ It was office sex. Kind of kinky, ~ Nagi answered.

~ Not as kinky as you being in the office while Rex checked in on Omi. ~

Nagi felt a flood of heat remembering that, then pushed it away. ~ Few things are as kinky as that. ~

~ Brad won't be happy if you get back together with Omi. ~

~ He's not living my love life for me. ~

~ You'd be getting more sex if he did. ~

~ You're a riot. ~

"Aya just woke up," Schuldig said. "Let's give him a little time to get himself together, then get this party started."

"We'll be in the room with you," Malice said. "I'll bring the laptop with me, while Wicked will be on standby. He might have been trained by Breaker but his word was deprogrammed thanks to Mr. Fujimiya, so he could help on the astral plane if it came down to it."

"Decided this on your own?" Crawford asked, sounding far from amused.

"Let us be useful. Wicked hasn't been doing much."

"_Thanks_, Friedrich," Wicked answered with a pout.

"No problem, Georg."

"All right. I'll let Wicked earn his money," Crawford said.

"Hey!"

******************************************************

Aya awoke suddenly, although he still felt a little groggy. Farfarello nuzzled him and asked, "How are you, kitten?"

"I feel... weird."

Aya could feel Farfarello scan him. "Hmph. Catch 22. I turn my telepathy back on to check you, and we become more noticeable to our enemy."

"Did you synchronize me to you recently? I vaguely remember something...."

"Synchronize? Ah. Aye, to protect you from the telepathic bloodhound sniffing you out. I tuned you to me then associated myself in my body so neither of us would smell of power, but I seem to have dissociated again as we slept and the telepathy creeping back brought the creep's interest back as well."

"It's about time we started catching his attention."

"True. Are you truly awake?"

"Yes." A little groggy but awake. He couldn't sleep any longer. "It's time to get started."

"We should wait for the others to arrive."

Right. Aya would need some of Schuldig's telepathy to make this work. "I can at least make myself more presentable." It seemed funny to wake himself up more so he could put his body to sleep and let his soul walk, but that was how this world worked.

"Making himself presentable" would normally require dressing up in his mission gear and weapons and he _would_ feel more comfortable doing so, but it wasn't practical for lying down in, especially with its stiff, reinforced collar. He expected to get up again after this fight and preferred to do so without his whole body hurting from his inability to dress comfortably.

Expected? Actually he was nervous as hell. All missions inspired jitters of anxiety with their potential for failure, injury, and death, but at least those he'd worked and fought on his own terms, with methods he understood. Here he'd be fighting in an unfamiliar realm with barely tested weapons against an expert with the freedom of hundreds of people on the line. No pressure.

Aya splashed cold water on his face and looked at himself in the mirror. He'd be fighting as a telepath. He kind of was one. That still didn't seem possible. He didn't look or seem different.

Aside from how the T-shirt he wore showed that he no longer had any scars on his arms.

Enough. He could have his existential crisis _after_ he finished the job. People counted on him.

He heard that buzzing again and could... feel the others enter the bedroom even though he couldn't see and hear them while in the bathroom. This kind of thing would be the rest of his life, assuming he lived that long. He fingercombed his damp hair out of his eyes and walked out to see everyone. It annoyed him that even Wicked and Malice had come in. Wonderful to have such a large audience for his abandoned body, although Malice sat cross-legged on the floor paying more attention to Nagi's laptop than to anything Aya did.

"Breaker will know it's a trap," Aya said.

"We figure that his ego will be large enough and you a tempting enough acquisition that he'll come in anyway," Crawford said.

"All right."

"I'll be monitoring you a bit," Schuldig said, "but not as closely as I'd like. He'd notice me. If you get in real trouble we may be able to send someone in."

"Someone who might get his ass kicked if I haven't softened Breaker up enough."

"True. Try not to need much help."

Aya returned to the bed and settled himself, trying to slow his breathing and heart rate as he composed his limbs. Farfarello nestled in with him for skin-to-skin contact at their arms and faces.

Schuldig set his bare hand along the side of Aya's face, making his senses sharpen and the world deeper and louder. "Kick ass, Aya. Remember that you're a survivor. I'm amazed you're still alive with what you've been through."

Sometimes Aya had cursed being a survivor. He wouldn't now. "Thank you."

Aya felt Farfarello's soul slide in to nestle with his, then closed his eyes and left his body to return to the city. A smear of colors at the corner of Aya's eye said with Schuldig's voice, ~ I don't see your passenger. Good luck. ~ then disappeared.

The city seemed vast. Would Breaker find him? How long would it take? No, Breaker would find him. From how much buzzing Aya had heard, Breaker already searched. Now he'd just have to see how long Breaker made him wait and stew.

~ No need to stand in one spot. I say we explore the city, ~ Farfarello said softly.

"All right." Some of the bystanders he passed seemed to be surprised by their surroundings while others didn't appear to notice it. Many of them didn't look human. "There weren't so many people around while we were training."

~ We were being stealthier, while now we beg for notice. Besides, we had a fire-breathing dragon with us. ~

Aya saw that his city looked like a hybrid child of Tokyo and some stereotypical old European city, with quaint stone adorned with neon signs in kanji blazing in the night. With this level of detail visible, Aya knew he'd taken Schuldig's talent in well. He felt the kevlar weight of his long coat and the weight and shift of his sheathed katana as he moved, while flexing his arms made him more conscious of the knife sheaths strapped on them. Although he found some comfort and a sense of wonder in the feel of it all, he kept in mind that being too physically invested in this world could have dire consequences in the real world.

~ Someone is focusing on us, ~ Farfarello said. Aya felt it too, like something pressing into his back between his shoulder blades.

"We turn and face it?" Aya murmured. "I can't think of any better places here to have this confrontation."

~ Yes. ~

Aya turned and saw the very large, muscular two-headed dog approaching him. Its attitude had nothing threatening in it. Yet.

~ Aya, ~ it said through two mouths studded with sharp teeth moving in tandem. ~ How good to see you here! We haven't gotten a chance to talk about your new abilities. Schwarz doesn't appear to be training you in them as well as they should. ~

~ The two-faced dog. How appropriate, ~ Farfarello murmured.

"I've heard a lot about you," Aya said, trying to strategize sword fighting against an opponent that might use two sets of sharp teeth and didn't stand on two legs. Too bad he couldn't just have a nice talk with Breaker and leave him to the others, but Schuldig and Crawford needed Breaker distracted and weakened for their plans. He would have to fight.

~ And trust me not at all. ~

"Considering what I've seen myself and heard, no."

The two-headed dog became an image of the man himself, far from imposing. ~ You believe all of that? ~

"As I said, I've seen some of it."

Breaker smiled. ~ They must want me badly to have staked you out for me. They've been so protective of you. ~ Perhaps Breaker had given up on pretending.

"Why are you doing this? These are hundreds of people, not toys." Although Aya doubted that talking would do any good, he hoped to take Breaker's measure somewhat.

~ I helped create them. I'm like a father. They wouldn't exist without me. ~

"That doesn't mean you own them."

~ Don't I? I'm one of the few remaining members of Eszett's controlling body. That means I get the inheritance. Schuldig is mine too, I just loaned him to Crawford to get the results I wanted. ~

"But it's not working out completely to plan, is it? Your allies have been found and captured."

Breaker's expression briefly turned angry and bitter before smoothing out into calm unconcern. ~ I'm not here to talk to you. You know what I want. ~

"Actually I don't."

~ Your creation here is unusual. It's actually drawing psychic tourists. Your signature changes every time I meet you. You're Fujimiya Aya's closest surviving relative and have abilities yourself. You can be more than what you are, and Schwarz doesn't have the experience to help you achieve that. ~

"I find your methods of gathering talents sickening."

~ You're choosing the hard way, then. You're at a disadvantage. If you kill me, you lose the cure to the words, not that you have much of a chance at damaging me that badly. Still, keep it in mind. ~

The talk hadn't shown Aya anything other than his foe's arrogance, greed, and sociopathy and hadn't accomplished anything aside from pissing Aya and Farfarello off. Time to fight. Aya unsheathed his katana and charged, hoping for the advantage of surprise.

He didn't succeed in the surprise because Breaker just smiled and shifted back into his large, two-headed dog form, forcing Aya to change the angle of his strike and dodge sharp teeth. And fire, since Breaker could shoot fire out of his mouths. At least Aya had trained against something like that. Apparently Breaker had no qualms about hurting Aya to bring him in. Aya's strike didn't connect with anything, and he dashed for cover.

Breaker followed, dashing as well, refusing to give him space or a breather. Aya fought with his katana and occasionally used its scabbard as a club but Breaker batted them aside as dog or man, insanely strong and fast. At least Aya proved the bastard could feel some pain when he changed the blade of his katana into a laser light version as Breaker tried to punch it away again. He could even smell charred flesh. It made Breaker angrier, and he swatted Aya into a wall with the heaviest feeling fist Aya had ever faced. Farfarello offered encouragement and strategies but Breaker remained too fast and unpredictable, exploiting his greater knowledge of this realm's rules and occasional lack thereof.

Pressed this hard, Aya couldn't strategize, only react. That and the pain from all the hits he kept taking put him into a berserker state, where he distantly felt the pain and used it to fuel his own attacks, working completely on instinct, occasionally swinging wild and frustrated as his opponent kept shifting forms on him. He fought back like a beast when he felt jaws trying to close around his hand, and although he successfully fought that off he kept losing in other ways. Grazed and scorched and run around, Aya felt his energy flagging even through his mania while Breaker appeared almost as fresh as he'd started even with the burned hand/paw and grazes he sported. Aya was failing....

When Breaker, in man form, grabbed him by the throat and bashed his head into a wall, rattling him from the impact and pain, Aya couldn't get his thoughts back together, and his light sword fell from his hand. Not real, he tried to remind himself, not real, but he couldn't help reacting as he did in the physical world. Keeping a hold on Aya's throat, Breaker forced him to his knees.

~ You hurt me worse than some adepts have, ~ Breaker said, almost growling. ~ I can't wait to see what makes you tick. I'll have to put a crude controller on you now and save the finer, more complex version for later. You feel what I'm putting around your neck? It's a collar, a control collar. ~ Breaker turned his head and shot fire out of his still human mouth at Nagi, who'd been creeping up on them. Shocked, inexperienced, Nagi blinked out in his effort to save himself, hopefully just thrown off the astral plane and not injured.

Still rattled, Aya felt a shiver of horror as his strength drained away the longer that grip remained on him. And he could feel the collar forming. Farfarello screamed in rage, then ripped loose out of him, weapon in hand, desperate to strike. The pain was incredible but at least it knocked him out of Breaker's surprised and loosened grip.

As Aya struggled to regain his wits and some strength he saw Breaker strike Farfarello down hard with a punch, Farfarello hitting the street and _bouncing_ at the impact. So far he wasn't getting back up. Had Farfarello been weakened by the punishment Aya's self had already taken? Had he felt that wave of pain too when they'd separated?

~ Nice trick, ~ Breaker said. ~ I look forward to learning how it works once I have the both of you under my control. ~


	211. "Fix him!"

Inside Aya, Farfarello felt an increasing desperation as he saw them losing, and losing badly. Breaker had a power and range of techniques far greater than they'd realized. He remained fresh no matter what they did to him, and he kept hitting Aya so hard and fast with punches, his gun, and occasionally the edges of his two jaws of dogteeth that Aya could react with only the most instinctive defenses.

Farfarello's puisín was _hurting_, and Farfarello felt it as his own. Aya might have gone berserk to deal with it but Farfarello could not escape it and wasn't used to it. Although Aya fought through it with bravery and recklessness, Farfarello worried about the damage being done to his puisín and how much worse it would get if Aya didn't stop. How horribly ironic.

It would soon be moot anyway if they didn't win soon because Farfarello felt increasing fatigue dragging them down. At this rate Breaker only had to outlast them, and he wouldn't have to wait long for that.

Did Schwarz have any idea what trouble they were in? Would any help arrive? Not that they should rely on the idea of help coming. No bystanders would help them because there were none; they'd all fled the scene of the battle.

When Breaker dashed Aya's head into the wall, Farfarello lost all sense for a while along with his puisín. Coming to on their knees with Breaker's hand tight around their neck, draining them of strength, made him growl in rage. Hearing that Breaker intended to collar them into obedience mixed that rage with fear. _His_ kitten! No one would cage Aya's mind and force him to do anything! Schwarz was apparently doing some monitoring and felt the same because they'd sent Nagi in, but Breaker quickly and easily defeated the boy and threw him off the astral plane. Had the boy escaped unharmed?

They shouldn't rely on outside help. Something needed to be done now, and he would defend his own kitten. He separated their souls and leapt up, weapon in hand. It _hurt_ in ways he hadn't expected, and he had to turn his cry of pain into a war cry to hide that from their enemy. When Breaker struck him down effortlessly and he hit the street that hurt badly as well. Every part of his soul's body felt ready to give up and die. Weak, so weak.

When Farfarello strained to see his puisín it looked as if Aya hurt as much as he did. Damn it, the separation must have been agony for him as well. He wanted to be near him but the meters that separated them seemed insurmountable. He could barely move no matter how he raged at his recalcitrant limbs.

Breaker smirked at them lying there, confident in his victory and contempt for them. ~ Nice trick. I look forward to learning how it works once I have the both of you under my control. ~

~ I would sooner die, ~ Farfarello answered.

~ That can be arranged if you give me too much trouble. I'm intrigued by what you can do but the Fujimiya boy is a much greater prize. We wondered if or when he'd manifest, and how. And originally he wasn't going to be here. I can sacrifice you if I have to. ~ Breaker dodged the feebly thrown light katana and turned his head a little to smirk at Aya, who snarled. ~ It would hurt you to lose him, wouldn't it? You have it coming. ~

What the hell was the bastard talking about?

Breaker suddenly looked behind himself in surprise and went down under the body of a large puppy made of flames growling and snapping at his throat. Farfarello never thought he'd see the day he'd be cheering Fenris on. Unfortunately, before he could do serious damage Breaker changed to his Cerberus form with its confusing two heads and two necks and took advantage of Fenris' surprise and confusion to grab the boy by the throat with one set of teeth and shake him hard before throwing him off, with Fenris loudly hitting one of the parked cars before hitting the street. The puppy shook his head as he whimpered and bled flames from his large bite wound, his power too weak to protect him better on the astral plane.

Singed, Breaker returned to human form and growled, ~ You don't have the skill to beat me, just annoy me. Still, it's too bad my operatives failed to kill you. ~

Fenris growled, jumped up, and threw himself at Breaker in his large but injured puppy form. Smiling, Breaker pumped several rounds of bullets into the boy. Gunfire sounded the same here as it did in reality, and bullets did the same damage.... Screaming, Fenris hit the street hard again and lay there panting and whimpering in pain. A vengeful dragon started to materialize but quickly disappeared in a flash of rage and frustration as Breaker said one of the words. Had she missed the end of the word and saved herself? Who knew? Friendly had to be going insane over this.

Aya looked enraged and fought harder to move but mostly just flopped around. It made Farfarello curse their useless soul bodies anew. If-- _when_ they got out if this, he would train harder. He knew his kitten would as well. There might be no shame in struggling against such a powerful opponent, but he refused to face defeat and they both believed in perpetually working to improve themselves. Breaker would _die_ for this even if Farfarello had to drag his own soul back from Hell to make it happen.

~ Did you people really think you could trap me? Bring it on. I'll enslave anyone I can and damage the rest. It'll be fun, ~ Breaker said.

******************************************************

Elena almost jumped up as she came back to her body. "I can't get him out. Damn it. Breaker nearly nailed me with my word, and I'm useless like that.... Fuck! I told him not to try!" She looked desolated.

Fenris was sitting at the table with his head cradled on his arms and his soul out wandering. None of them had thought it weird for him to leave them for a bit--everybody needed a bathroom break now and then--but Elena had felt it when he went out to fight.

Ken put his hand on Elena's shoulder and said, "He's really tough."

Shaking her head she answered, "He's already very badly injured. Breaker has over a decade of experience in training and beating down telepaths."

"I could go in," Sasha said. Good kid.

"You have a word too. He started on my word the moment he saw me. Man had me matched right up to it."

"How are Aya and Farfarello doing?" Yoji had to ask, though he didn't hold much hope of the answer being a happy one. Standing next to him, Omi looked almost ragged with worry.

"I didn't get much time to see anything but it looks like they're getting their asses kicked."

******************************************************

Things had gone south so damned quickly. Breaker was _playing_ with them the way a sadistic child would stomp an anthill. Schuldig wanted to go in and tear the man a new asshole, but he'd seen Friendly try to go in and be forced to flee. If Breaker got a hold of Schuldig with the trigger phrase, the talents in the area, the Orange line in particular, might as well kiss their freedom goodbye.

Nagi looked like shit, although he didn't seem to be permanently damaged, and Schuldig didn't think it would be safe for him to send him back in. Besides he didn't have the training or "feel" to be much good in there.

Even Aya and Farfarello's physical bodies showed some of the strain their minds went through in clenched-shut eyes and occasional spasms of muscles. They were losing strength....

Schuldig went to the mini fridge and pulled out the box o' Aya-chan. Nagi asked, "What are you-- Wait, you think that'll help?" When Schuldig set the box down near Aya, opened it, and put Aya's bare hand inside Nagi said, "That's disgusting!"

"If it works, I don't care how disgusting it is," Brad said. "Interesting idea. We need to do _something_."

"It's that bad?" Wicked asked.

"Quite frankly, yes."

Wicked slid down the wall to sit on the floor, then closed his eyes and leaned his head back. "You don't have to," Malice said.

"I want you safe, and I don't have a word anymore," Wicked answered.

******************************************************

To Aya's relief he felt a second wind coming on, strength and a kind of comforting, loving warmth. Just in time too, since Breaker was looking at him again and quickly approaching with a smile. He should hide his renewed strength until Breaker stood right in front of him. Then there would be a reckoning.

A tiger appeared out of nowhere and crashed into Breaker, who snarled before saying lightly, ~ I haven't had a workout like this in ages. Orange line, aren't you? ~

~ You don't have to know. ~

Every word Breaker tried as he grappled with it as both man and Cerberus failed.

~ We're all interchangeable, aren't we? ~ the tiger answered with a sneer. ~ Harder to know what word to use when we're all alike. ~

~ I'll just have to beat the shit out of you then. ~

Aya took advantage of Breaker's distraction to get up and start over to Farfarello, his strength improved but not enough for a run. Although he wanted to help the tiger, that fight had too many flying claws and teeth for him to do anything other than get in the way and killed. It worried him that amidst the growls, snarls, and yowls most of the cries of pain seemed to be coming from the tiger.

Fenris was lying whimpering, flames extinguished, at his feet, and Aya knew he should keep going but this was a torn and bullet-ridden child lying in a pool of his own sparking blood, possibly dying alone. The way the large puppy form looked faded as well as mangled didn't hold much promise for a future.

Kneeling at his side and placing a hand on his furry shoulder, Aya asked, "Can you get out of here? Get to someone who can help you?"

The puppy's pain-filled and mismatched eyes, one blue and one green even in canine form, looked up at him. ~ I'm hurt and I'm lost. I can't feel my body. ~

Fenris should never have attempted this, yet he'd come in to help and had bought them precious time. Aya wished he could do something for him. "Try harder. Please."

Fenris seemed to be feeling a little warmer, and Aya had to take his hand away from the sudden sensation of sparks across his fingers. Feeling his strength starting to fade again, Aya knew he couldn't spend any more time with this.

~ Thank you, Fujimiya-san, ~ the boy said with what sounded like surprise and wonder as Aya left him and reached Farfarello.

Farfarello laughed as Aya helped him to his feet, looking stronger with Aya at his side. ~ I see that _she_ is with you, kitten. ~

"What are you talking about?"

~ ...I see. The tiger gave us breathing space but he's being beaten and won't last much longer. The time to strike is soon. ~

The tiger did look badly hurt but kept attacking. If they waited much longer it could take a fatal blow.

~ I'll help! ~ Fenris said suddenly. He stood at their side as a much smaller dog, looking injured but much less so.

"Go home!" Aya said. "You're hurt."

~ I'll stay out of it unless it looks like you need help. ~

~ Oh, aye. If we need someone to bite Breaker's ankles, we're covered, ~ Farfarello said. ~ You've gotten a second chance, boy. Don't waste the strength given to you. ~

Fenris looked to Aya. ~ I'll stay just in case and stay back unless I'm really, really needed. I won't do anything... foolhardy. ~

"All right. Farfarello?"

Farfarello had his own light sword ready as well. ~ Ready? ~

Aya prepared himself to spring forward. "Yes."

~ Now. ~

They ran. Aya pushed through the pain and pushed himself harder. They needed to catch Breaker by surprise. Farfarello yelled, ~ Out of the way, mindbreaker cub! ~ a moment before they struck Breaker from behind. While Aya would prefer a more honorable attack, he was an assassin and Breaker was far too dangerous. The tiger managed to get away from Breaker's grip then disappeared completely.

They cut and cut and cut at him. Although he dodged some of the blows he couldn't escape them all, and all the attacks he'd already faced had begun to finally slow him down. At one point one of the large dog heads walloped Aya right under the chin, almost felling him, but he kept fighting through. Farfarello beat at Breaker even with one dog jaw locked around his wrist. This felt more like some hellish combination of wrestling and butchery than a fight. Once he saw Farfarello shorten the blade on his light sword, Aya followed suit. At this range it would be safer for them to use a shorter one so they'd be less likely to cut each other. As it was, Aya caught some of the edges of Farfarello's strikes.

Tired, on fire with pain, Aya felt as if he'd been trapped in a hell that would never end. "Will you just _die_ already?" he gasped, his limbs shaking with fatigue. He wanted to sleep....

Farfarello struck at the head fighting Aya and chopped off its tongue. ~ Call the mindbreaker now! ~

The Cerberus' other head tried to let go of Farfarello's wrist now but he refused to let it. Could Breaker still talk on the astral plane with one tongue gone and his other mouth muffled? It seemed that he remained bound enough to some idea of real world rules that he could not.

Aya saw Farfarello's plan and felt such pride in him. "Schuldig! You can come in!"

Aya saw a rainbow of colors cling to the edges of his light katana. ~ Stab him in the head if you can, ~ Schuldig said. ~ I need to yank all the knowledge I can get and cap him so his death doesn't kill other telepaths from the backlash. ~

Aya tried. He stabbed and stabbed and stabbed, but the head kept moving. ~ Stab the one clinging to my arm! ~ Farfarello yelled.

"And take off your arm too? No!"

Aya felt his strength suddenly die. He'd used it up. As it dissipated so too did the feeling of warmth and love inside him that he'd found so achingly familiar, leaving him empty.

It had been hers. Aya-chan's. That was what Farfarello had meant earlier. Aya knew it now. He'd drained her remains to death, killing her one more time.

With the last dregs of his own strength, screaming, Aya stabbed the dog head so hard that his blade went all the way through and the katana's hilt rested right atop Breaker's skull. From inside it Schuldig laughed as Breaker shrieked. From the beams of colors gleaming through the entry and exit holes, the telepath had to be worming his way through Breaker's mind.

~ Yes! ~ Fenris shouted from somewhere behind them.

Aya felt so tired, so lost. He had nothing left in him, having used everything he had and taken everything she had as well. He faded away.

******************************************************

Fenris bounced up in his chair. "Elena! We got him! He's dead! You'll be safe!"

Tears in her eyes, Elena pounced him and held him tightly in a hug. "You were so hurt...." she murmured.

"Fujimiya-san gave me strength!"

Yoji smiled. Good old Aya.

"I told you he'd be fine," Ken said with a smile.

Elena grabbed Ken's arm and yanked him to join the hug. "Get over here!" she yelled to Yoji, Sasha, and Omi.

"Yes, ma'am. Joining the circle of love, ma'am," Yoji said, and Omi lovingly smacked the back of his head. "Hey, why the hell does everyone do that?" Sasha shook his head but came over.

So they all hugged, but only Ken got a kiss from Elena. The dazed expression on his face afterward looked good on him. From the expression on Omi's face, the circle of love had done him some good too.

Yoji could finally breathe again now that everything would be okay.

******************************************************

Although he felt like he could sleep for a week and wished he could wash the feel of Breaker's mind off him, Schuldig couldn't help grinning as he returned to his body. They'd nailed Breaker without anyone getting the backlash, and he had a large, neat package of the man's knowledge to carefully sift through. Soon he'd be free of any dangerous words and so would everyone else. He wanted to dance.

Slumped against the wall, Wicked accepted aspirin from a hovering Malice and dry-swallowed it, complaining in low tones throughout. Nagi smirked at them.

"You got it, Schu?" Brad asked.

"Yep. We did it all."

"Good work."

"Puisín?" Farfarello asked on the bed, his voice breaking. "Aya...."

Aya wasn't moving, and his eyes remained closed. Aya could be still, freaky still, but what his body did now looked like an empty still. It didn't move because it... couldn't.

Schuldig and Brad looked at each other with what might be identical looks of horror before they rushed to the bed. At least the look on Brad's face looked like what Schuldig felt.

The box had fallen to the floor, and Aya's arm hung limply over the edge of the bed. Farfarello was draped half atop Aya making horrible, pitiful sounds of grief, disbelief, and rage before he reached up to grab Schuldig and yell, "Fix him! He's not dead! He's not dead.... I can almost feel him, and his body is still accepting my ki."

"Idiot! Don't kill yourself trying to help him!" Schuldig said, then quieted as he saw the tears on Farfarello's face. Schuldig touched Aya's forehead with his bare hand. "He's _not_ dead. He's...." Schuldig almost choked on hysterical laughter that he didn't dare let past his lips. "He's in a coma. He'd strained himself too much." Schuldig's chest hurt looking at the two of them.

"What?" Nagi looked far too pale standing at Schuldig's side.

"He's still inside himself, just buried deeply." Schuldig didn't like the lingering flavor of despair in there.

"How deep?"

"I can't find him and bring him up. I just know he's there somewhere."

"I'll go in and get him out," Farfarello said, his voice sounding like stones being run together through a grinder. It hurt to be near him and catch even the edges of what he was feeling.

"Not right now! You're too weak. We'll lose you both. I won't let you," Schuldig answered. It would make a bad situation worse.

"Won't _let me_?"

"I won't let you. When the time comes I'll go in with you to help but the time is not now."

"I stand behind him in this, Farfarello," Brad said. "There's no point in you going in and getting the both of you lost to us forever. Once you get some rest you'll have your chance."

"You foresaw this," Farfarello said, his eye narrowing.

"I foresaw the possibility. I was working to prevent it."

"And failed!" Farfarello launched himself up off the bed at Brad but Schuldig knocked him out with telepathy before he got too close. Weakened by the battle, Farfarello had been easy to manage. Didn't mean that Schuldig hadn't almost had a heart attack watching him spring up despite having half expected some kind of attack.

This was... kinder anyway. Surely. Give him a chance to rest without grief or nightmares.

Schuldig gently arranged him on the bed next to Aya then arranged Aya's body more comfortably as well. He stroked Aya's hair then Farfarello's. Even unconscious, Farfarello radiated grief.

Schuldig wouldn't cry. He never cried unless he could manipulate someone with it.

They would go in and bring Aya out. They would.

He set the box on the table but hadn't needed to pick it up to know that the genetic material inside had degraded. It was dead now, drained during the battle.

Shit, did Aya know that?

Not knowing what else to do with it, Schuldig put the box in the fridge so at least the material wouldn't... spoil and start to smell? Schuldig had no idea what it would do.

Brad looked awful. Nagi looked worse. Wicked and Malice just stared, shocked and solemn. Nagi said softly, "I'll sit with them. Watch over them. Okay? Besides, Farfarello might need to be restrained from hurting something when he wakes up."

"Good idea," Brad said. "The rest of us will go to another room so it'll be... quiet." His cell phone went off. He looked at its display then sighed and answered it. "Yes, Crawford here." Then he listened for a while, his expression getting deader by the moment.

~ Brad? ~ Unfortunately, Schuldig already knew what this was.

~ It's Weiß, of course. They know we beat Breaker and want to talk to Aya. ~

This would be a fun conversation. Schuldig was glad Brad would be doing it.


	212. "Breaker's gone. School's out forever."

Yoji shamelessly eavesdropped on Elena and Ken talking about dating. Everybody knew he had no shame. Elena demanded dating first, to be started once they left Austria, while Ken protested that they'd already had their first kiss so couldn't they just keep things going? Yoji doubted he'd win that but gave him points for trying. Still, Ken wasn't the type to get too fresh and Elena wasn't the type to let anyone. Fenris looked adorably happy over the state of affairs.

The sound of Omi's voice getting harder and darker brought Yoji's attention back to the phone call going on. Omi was saying, "...yes, but we'll have someone searching for a body to make sure. I'm sure you understand. Now will you put Aya on the phone already? I'm tired of asking." Omi's eyes widened. "How did that happen? That's.... I want him here, where we can put him under medical supervision. He should have an IV, maybe even monitors.... I don't care if it would disturb Farfarello to see him like that. Farfarello should know that his life matters more than-- If he's knocked out, why should he care? We want to see him. That's not good enough--" The voice was all Persia demanding, but his eyes were all Omi and hurting badly. From the half of the conversation Yoji could hear he was getting a horrible feeling. How badly had Aya been hurt? "All right. _Fine_. How long would it take Schuldig to find him? Of course you don't. That's not good enough." Omi took a deep breath. "He can stay at the hotel overnight but he's coming here tomorrow. They should all be under a physician's supervision while you do this. I know you don't like it but you have to see that it's smart. Yes? Good. I'm sending an ambulance for him tomorrow. We'll see you then." Shaking, Omi turned off his cell phone.

"What happened?" Yoji asked, but Omi shook his head, unable to answer yet.

"Fujimiya-san is in a coma," Elena said softly.

"What?" Yoji and Ken both asked. Fenris put his hand over his mouth and looked stricken, while Sasha looked solemn and somewhat confused.

"The battle might have been too much for him.... But he'll have some of the most powerful telepaths in the area working to bring him out."

Aya in a coma. How bitterly ironic. How did they keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

Omi obviously wanted to hold himself together but seemed to be having difficulties so Yoji hugged him hard and said, "You don't have to be brave or be Persia for us."

"I have to--"

"No, you don't."

"It's not fair," Omi said softly, brokenly. "After all this...."

Sasha asked, "I don't.... It's _bad_ but...."

Seeing what he was trying to ask, Yoji answered, "Aya's parents were murdered and his sister run over in the road. He became an assassin for revenge but also because he needed to pay her medical bills while she was in a coma. He spent years hoping she'd wake up."

"She didn't?"

"She was murdered instead, along with two other people we knew. Schwarz picked him up while he was in a vulnerable state over her death." Despite how much happier Aya seemed lately, Yoji still couldn't help feeling bitter over how they'd stolen him away.

"And now Schwarz helped put him into a coma of his own," Ken said angrily.

"They're going to send Schuldig and Farfarello in tomorrow to try to get him out of it," Omi said, still shaking a bit in Yoji's arms. "They would do it tonight if not for everybody being tired and injured from fighting Breaker. They say that a few hours won't make much of a difference."

"We're trusting them?"

"Unfortunately, the telepaths who know him most intimately are his best bet for recovery," Elena said. "No matter your personal feelings about Farfarello you have to admit that he's been the closest to Fujimiya-san, while Schuldig brings power and experience."

"So you're saying you couldn't do it?" Omi asked.

"I could try, but it would definitely take me longer and my chances wouldn't be as good. I would only keep me in mind as a backup. That they're sending Farfarello _and_ Schuldig in together shows that they're taking this very seriously."

"What do we do now?" Sasha asked.

"We sleep," Omi answered. "There's nothing we can do, and it's late. If Schwarz doesn't give us Aya tomorrow willingly we'll have to drag him in."

"That'll be fun," Yoji said.

"So we hope they don't but be prepared anyway. Everybody, go to bed. We've had a long day and tomorrow might be even longer."

"You're not sleeping in your office."

"No. I'm not. And I'll be fine, Ken."

Ken looked dubious and out it but said, "If you say so."

"See? I'm leaving with you."

But leaving in his own car it turned out, while the rest of Weiß left together in theirs. As Omi started to get in to his Yoji yelled to him, "If you need us for anything, and I mean 'anything,' call us!"

"I will," Omi answered, his public mask in place. Then one of the bodyguards closed the door.

"I really hate that," Yoji said as he sat in the backseat with Fenris and Sasha.

"We could follow him," Elena said from the driver's seat.

"We can try. His driver's good."

"I'm a telepath. I'll do my best--" Elena's cell phone went off, so she picked it up and answered, "Yes? Ah. Yes, sir. We won't." Smirking, she said, "Persia just ordered us not to follow him."

"Shit." Where did he intend to go?

"I think he's going to see Fujimiya-san and Nagi," Fenris said.

"Oh. That makes sense. You think Schwarz will let him?" Would he need backup?

"They won't kill an employer over that," Elena answered. "Besides, Prodigy would probably intercede for him."

"We're trusting Nagi's love and nobler instincts?" Yoji asked it half-joking.

"He does have them," Fenris said.

And Omi had bodyguards and could take care of himself besides. "I know. All right. But I want you and Elena ready in case you feel something bad happening. Don't scan... intimately," if Omi decided to get some comfort, Yoji didn't feel the team should be eavesdropping on it, "but keep a mind on him." Except.... "When you're not sleeping, at least. You need your rest."

"Yes, Dad," Elena answered. "We know what you mean."

******************************************************

Weiß would drive Crawford insane. They didn't know how lucky they were that he hadn't become incensed enough yet just to kill them all. Persia had some brains but kept overstepping himself, _demanding_ things. Still it would be good and wise to have medical supervision for Schuldig, Aya, and Farfarello tomorrow and send people searching for Breaker's body. Crawford only gave into the demands because they would serve him.

Wicked smirked as he and Malice returned to Nagi's room. Nagi wouldn't be happy about them using his bed, but _he_ wouldn't be using it and Crawford preferred to have them nearby anyway. They'd been useful so far, as his precognition had suggested.

He didn't like to think of Nagi sitting lone vigil over Aya and Farfarello, "the kids" as Schuldig called them with progressively less snark. Crawford hadn't been able to prevent that vision from coming to pass. Not enough time, not enough information. They'd taken almost all the risks and brought him victory, but at a price that couldn't be fully assessed yet.

There should have been a way around this. Farfarello had fallen to pieces....

Crawford refused to give Aya up as lost. His team specialized in beating the odds, and they hadn't even started to fight this yet. Schwarz would be whole again soon.

Once they were inside their room, Crawford asked, "How are you doing, Schu?" He'd seen the care Schuldig had taken with Farfarello and Aya's bodies and the look in his eyes. It made such a change from the exuberance Schuldig had shown despite his fatigue when he'd first returned from the battle.

"I'm tired. I want to start unpacking Breaker's knowledge but I'd be better off getting rest for tomorrow's work instead."

"You'll be careful with his knowledge."

"Hell yeah. I have no urge to become a puppet to his phrase or whatever the fuck. If I see anything that even starts to twinge me, I'll pack that off to another telepath." Schuldig stared off into space for a moment, then said, "I'll get Aya back. Farf has a maniacal will, while I have the power _and_ will. Aya won't end up like his sister."

Crawford sat next to him on the bed. "I thought as much."

"Yeah, I'm just that good."

"You are. You all did so well today."

"Aya and Farf got hosed, I couldn't go in...."

"Breaker was a difficult opponent with even more tricks than we knew of. You all took on an impossible situation and grabbed a victory. Once we save Aya, we'll celebrate."

"Such confidence," Schuldig purred, leaning his head against Crawford's shoulder.

"You love it."

"True." Schuldig yawned like a cat, his whole head seeming to open with it. "Sleep now."

Almost as soon as they stripped down and went under the covers Schuldig fell asleep, snuggling into his side, but Crawford remained awake for a while, twining a lock of his telepath's hair through his fingers. He wanted people to stop hurting his team and swore to find a way to make that stick.

******************************************************

"I can feel them celebrating," Flood said. They hadn't blocked him off enough to prevent that. "Breaker's gone. School's out forever. What will happen to you now, Scry? You lost."

"Nothing. I'm innocent," Scry answered sourly. He still hadn't realized that he wasn't the big swinging dick anymore. Might be tasty when it finally broke through.

His big swinging dick wasn't actually that big anyway. Flood had barely noticed it.

"The Orange line might take me in. I'm one of them, and I was used. I was a tool, not a planner." With his head so quiet, Flood actually cared. It was... different. Maybe someone could fix or train him so he could be more like this on his own. "I wasn't somebody in authority who betrayed them for his own profit like you did. If Crawford didn't think so little of you, he'd kill you for the intentions you had for Schuldig."

"Shut up. You're annoying me."

One of the guards said, "We'll be taking each of you to a cell with a bed in it."

"We'll be locked down?" Flood asked.

"You'll have to be."

"It'll be better than trying to sleep while strapped to a chair. You might want to avoid giving Scry any sheets. He might do himself in with them." He was finding out who he was when he didn't have everyone else in his head, and apparently he was something of a bitch. Not bad.

Somehow life had gotten more interesting.

******************************************************

Nagi couldn't look right at them. At best, he glanced at them out of the corner of his eye, and then they looked like they were sleeping. Coward. But he couldn't handle staring at what had happened straight on.

He'd been useless in there, barely a distraction. He hadn't even gotten hurt. While he might smirk at Wicked, at least the clone had put up a fight and bled for them. Nagi swore to be more useful in the future.

Aya had to recover.

The sudden knocking at the door made him jump. Who the hell--? _Omi_ stood at the door, laptop bag hanging from his shoulder, flanked by two bodyguards, and he was upset.... Nagi set his laptop down on the floor and went to open the door, asking, "You _knocked_?"

"I could have gotten through the lock but didn't want to upset anyone who'd be standing guard over them. Can I come in? The guards will stay outside. They can look inconspicuous." Omi looked younger for a moment when he said, "I need to see him."

It had been creepy sitting here alone thinking of how damaged Aya might be and how useless he'd been to stop it. "All right. Come in."

The thugs remained outside being inconspicuous. Nagi reserved judgment. But at least they stayed outside. Omi stood near the bed looking down with so much love and pain on his face. "Could you imagine that he did this for years? Sitting by her side alone, hoping but never knowing if she'd ever wake up?"

What a horrible thought. "I try not to imagine it. We won't have to take his place sitting vigil for long. They'll bring him back."

Omi's fingers lingered just above Aya's head as if he longed to touch him but didn't dare. Aya and Farfarello looked so peacefully asleep.... "I needed to see him. Now that I know you're watching them alone, I'd like to keep you company. Is that okay?"

"Yeah." Company would be greatly appreciated. "But you don't think that we'll--"

"Nagi, I have my computer. I figure on working until I can manage to sleep. Anything else wouldn't be appropriate."

Yeah. "Of course." Omi was smart, and getting snuggly under these circumstances was in bad taste. A small part of Nagi couldn't help being disappointed, though.

"I can't believe Farfarello sleeps so deeply."

"Schuldig put him out so he wouldn't hurt himself or others. It's like a--" Nagi just stopped himself from saying "medically-induced coma." Shaking his head, he continued, "It's done for his safety. And ours."

"All right." Omi pulled up a chair, sat next to him, and set up his laptop to do some work. It felt good to have him around.

******************************************************

Sitting on the bed, Sasha asked, "So Mr. Fujimiya is part of Weiß _and_ Schwarz?" He looked so different without the eyeliner, younger and frailer. He also wore less clothing now--only a loose shirt and pants for sleeping in--which meant even less camouflage.

"Schwarz doesn't see it that way, but that doesn't matter. Yeah, he is," Yoji answered. Sleep would be great.

He didn't want to think about how much of it Aya was currently getting. He only thought about Aya at least once every ten minutes already.

"Must be nice to have so many people claiming you."

Poor kid. "Sasha, we'll make sure there's a place for you. I don't think Schuldig's going to forget about you either. You have people now, okay? You're not alone and hunted anymore."

"Thanks, Yoji. I really didn't want to make this about me though."

"We take care of our own. Let's try to get some sleep, okay?"

Snuggled chastely under the covers next to each other in the darkness, they each pretended they didn't know the other was still awake for at least two hours. Still, Yoji felt the snuggling provide a little comfort for him and hoped Sasha felt the same way. From how tightly Sasha gripped him at times, maybe it did.


	213. "I'm indecent, and I don't fetch and carry for you."

Consciousness returned slowly and gradually. Farfarello _hurt_, in a way he couldn't dissociate his way out of. Must have been from a telepathic battle. He hated that and swore to better his fighting skills in it.

Telepathic battle? He couldn't remember yet.

Associating himself again in his body, he recognized his kitten beside him by touch and scent even with his eye closed. Mmm, such fine skin Aya's neck had, complemented by the softness of his straight red hair. Such wonder to be able to feel these things. His puisín--

His puisín didn't feel right. At least not to Farfarello's soul. His puisín wasn't _there_.

Farfarello vaguely heard someone nearby murmur, "You should leave _now_," and something scurrying away but couldn't quite care. Not with his eye open and his hollow puisín lying next to him like a big warm doll. His memory awakened, making his throat close and his heart clench. Through pain and injury, they'd fought and defeated Cerberus for the good of all but Aya had given everything he and his undead sister had in the process, putting himself into a coma and burying his mind so deeply that Farfarello couldn't see even the smallest spark of it. If he could've gotten a noise past the constriction in his throat he would have howled.

His puisín was lost but would not remain so, because Farfarello would dive in and find him.

"No!" the boy said, giving him a telekinetic smack on the back of the head as if he were some misbehaving puppy to be disciplined. "Not yet! Wait for Schuldig! That way you'll be more likely to save him and not get lost yourself in the process! If you try to go in I will knock you unconscious before you get far enough. You know I can."

"Aya is lost!" Farfarello yelled back. "Look at him! Do you really think we should wait?" He only bothered talking at all because he knew that Nagi might well succeed in stopping him. Better to appeal to the boy's love of the kitten and get his support.

"We have to! We have to do this right!" Nagi looked bruised with sleeplessness around the eyes and rumpled but adamant. "We're not losing the both of you."

"Who gave you the wherewithal to speak for Schwarz?"

"Crawford--"

"Crawford foresaw this and didn't stop it!"

"I'm sure he tried!"

"_We_ are not his favored ones."

"Maybe not, but he doesn't like having his favorite tools break and he hates to lose. _I_ care about Aya and I'm not going to let you squander the best chance to save him because you're upset and impatient! You know Aya, and Schuldig has the power and experience to help you get him out. _Use_ him."

As much as Farfarello wanted to rage and plumb the depths of Aya's self now, he had to admit that the boy made sense. It galled. "How long am I expected to wait?"

"Not long. They figure on doing it this morning. Aya will be taken to Kritiker to have a doctor's supervision and probably an IV while this is going on. Farfarello, Schuldig looked really upset when he saw what happened to Aya."

"Wants to get in his pants," Farfarello growled.

"Maybe, but he doesn't need Aya aware for that. He looked really upset, and he'll help you as soon as possible. You keep saying he's turning mother hen lately, and you're right. We're his family to him now."

Farfarello wanted to hold on to his rage because it felt so much cleaner than grief but he couldn't stand against Nagi's arguments, not when they were true, not when the possibility that he could make things worse by moving too quickly loomed. "I can't feel him in there," Farfarello said, not liking the broken sound of his voice but unable to fix it. Lately he always felt his puisín, no matter what. This silence and lack of sensation scared him.

Nagi looked even more tired. "We'll save him. We fought too hard to keep him alive to let him go out like this."

Farfarello continued to distrust Crawford in this matter but he had faith in the boy's love for Aya, and Nagi's love was a fearsome thing. If it could resurrect that broken doll girl from the dead in defiance of all natural and religious law, surely it could help bring Aya back to himself. "...all right. I will wait a little while. But if I don't see the mindbreaker soon I will go in and bring him out by his hair."

"I'll help."

Yes. This was the way to do it. Farfarello nodded and looked at his kitten resting in his arms. Just looking at Aya, without using that other sense, you could think he simply slept. He looked alive, though very still. Farfarello ran one finger along the rim of his ear, stroking over the warmed gold of the engraved engagement cuff and setting Aya's sister's earring faintly swinging. Aya looked perfect on the surface but inside he felt dark and empty. With all his scars vanished, he might have been made just this morning. Such a pretty thing....

~ We are wed, and I love you, ~ Farfarello sent into that void. ~ And I will find you even if I have to search Heaven and Hell for you. ~

After knocking at the door, Crawford and Schuldig walked in. Of course Crawford had his own key. Aya would be angry over that, so Farfarello was as well. Also, he still didn't forgive Crawford for failing to protect Aya although he understood it a little better now. He wouldn't attack again but could still wish that Schuldig hadn't stopped him so quickly the last time.

Nagi said, "I told you they're taking this seriously and want to move quickly on it."

"They could have waited to be let in," Farfarello answered.

"This is too important to wait on that," Schuldig said but not quite as flippantly as he usually would. Perhaps the mindbreaker actually cared.

"I didn't think you would arrive so quickly and was looking forward to dragging you over here by your hair."

Petting some of his own hair in an almost comforting fashion as if it were some sentient creature needing reassurance, Schuldig replied, "Don't even think about it."

In other circumstances Farfarello would have wondered aloud whether Schuldig's brain or hair contained his ruling consciousness but now was not such a time. "I hear that the arch-kitten will be collecting us so a doctor can watch our bodies while we search for Aya's mind."

"Yes." Crawford didn't sound pleased, so it couldn't have been his idea. "It would be safer. Nagi, I'm not at all happy that you allowed Persia to stay the night here. Did you think I wouldn't know?" And so he tried to hijack the scene for his own agenda.

"I wasn't hiding it. I told him to go so Farfarello could have some privacy this morning. I didn't let him stay because he was my boyfriend," Nagi sneered on the word, "but because if Aya was injured I would go to him too no matter who had him or how much they told me to stay away. It's what you do when people you love are hurt or in trouble."

"Nagi, you're behaving like an adolescent. You're better than that."

"I _am_ an adolescent, but I'm not letting it make me soft in the head. There was no reason to turn him away other than spite. He won nothing from coming here other than getting to see Aya and having some company over the course of a difficult night. That's it."

"I don't approve of this liaison."

"You haven't approved of any of my liaisons."

"Yes, all _two_ of them. And the fault there lies with you, not with me."

"If the problem is that I end up with people who aren't Schwarz, that's not my fault. You and Schuldig or Farfarello and Aya would just have to open yourselves up to having a steady third lover." He let Schuldig snicker a little before continuing, "In the absence of that, I have to go outside Schwarz for companionship."

"You have to see that taking the leader of a competitive group as your lover hardly puts me in a good position."

"Your position has nothing to do with me and Omi."

Watching the mindbreaker bite his lip to keep from laughing, Crawford said, "Phrase things in a way that doesn't make Schuldig laugh like a 12-year-old boy."

"Either you trust me to be professional, which you damned well should by now, or you don't. There's nothing to argue about, and now isn't a good time anyway."

"Thank you," Farfarello growled.

"Kritiker has arrived, and they're bringing up medical technicians with a gurney," Schuldig said.

"Tell them to wait," Crawford answered. "Nagi and Farfarello need a chance to freshen up. Don't rush on Kritiker's account."

Nagi nodded and left. Schuldig smirked at something he heard from the next room, but Farfarello didn't have the space for amusement. As he took a pair of pants, socks, and one of Aya's shirts to the bathroom with him, the mindbreaker said, "Good choice on the shirt. You'll want to keep your arms bare."

Farfarello showered quickly, and his head rang a bit from lingering telepathic pain as he lowered it to blowdry his hair. He might not feel cold and wet if he dissociated but he might open his body to illness. Although clean, Aya's shirt retained a hint of his scent. Farfarello breathed in deeply at the collar then put it on. All in black, he looked the part of a mourner.

As he left the bathroom the two mindbreaker cubs arrived with Nagi. At the boy's aggrieved look, Malice said, "We already told you we didn't have sex in your bed."

"Damn it," Wicked said, irritated. "Not for lack of _one_ of us trying."

"You're not helping. We were just snuggling, Prodigy."

"Yeah, _in my bed_," Nagi answered. "I'm not sorry I bounced you." Indeed not. That bit of sadism had brought a small gleam to his eyes. Farfarello wished he could find as easy an outlet.

"Mr. Crawford, we want to go with you," Malice said.

"Fine," Crawford said, sounding a little distant. Perhaps he foresaw something. Or perhaps he was in a snit over how everything kept being snatched out of his control.

Farfarello understood the last feeling too well.

Crawford let the medical technicians and their gear in. Persia entered as well. He and Crawford had a tense but polite little discussion Farfarello paid little attention to since he was far too busy biting his lip as he watched the technicians check his kitten in various ways with various instruments, then strap him to the gurney. "I'm riding with him," Farfarello said.

"Sure," they answered. No argument made. Had they been told who he was and his relationship to their patient?

The easy acquiescence actually annoyed him. He would love to be able to fight _someone_.

Over the course of the ride Farfarello murmured endearments and encouragement to his puisín by voice and by "voice," hoping that Aya could hear him and take strength from it. But Farfarello felt no response in any way. He might as well have been dropping his words down a dark well.

They wheeled Aya in through empty halls, a laudable attempt at discretion and respect, but Farfarello could feel thoughts and minds buzzing by like flies and wasps, mocking the very concept of privacy. It had been years since he'd lived in a nest packed with talents, and back then he couldn't feel them as well and clearly as he did now.

Weiß waited for them in the room they finally stopped in. Friendly looked solemn, her boy heartbroken, Siberian downcast and disbelieving, the bleached cub lost and adrift, and the slutkitten grief-stricken. Farfarello didn't want to feel how much they cared but couldn't stop it short of returning fully to his body, a difficult task when he felt so upset and toppled.

Multiple windows gave the large room a bright, airy appearance, and three beds had been pushed together at one wall. Hospital machinery Farfarello didn't know the use of stood at two sides of it. He saw racks and tubes and bags full of fluid.

One of the medical technicians prepared to lift Aya from the gurney but Nagi said, "No, I'll do it," and used telekinesis to set him gently down in the center of the bed. The technicians put an IV line into his left hand and set sensors on his body that they attached to machines. So many lines....

The mindbreaker took a deep breath, then said, "Our turn," and took off his coat to show that he'd also put on something loose that bared his arms. Schuldig took one side of Aya and Farfarello the other, then snuggled up on Aya to make sure their bare skin touched his and linked their left hands atop Aya's body to make sure they kept contact with each other. Schuldig made a face as the needle for his IV line went in but Farfarello barely felt his. It wouldn't matter once he fully dissociated anyway.

Hospital stink. Farfarello loathed it. While in confinement he used to cut himself just for relief from the smell and for fresher color. Aya would hate it too when he returned to consciousness. At least the room had otherwise vivid shades in it, obviously having a different usual use.

"Are we going to have an audience the whole time?" Farfarello growled.

"We'll always have at least one person on guard, but not everyone currently here is staying," Crawford said as he looked at Persia with an "I dare you to overrule me, you little bastard" expression on his face.

"That's fine," Persia said.

Schuldig's eyes looked very blue as he asked, "Are you ready?"

"Aye." He dissociated and felt Schuldig wrap around him like a net.

He found himself in cold darkness, with only a faint shimmer of light in the distance. ~ This is my kitten? It's different from last time. ~ Sadly different.

Schuldig surrounded Farfarello like a thin layer of iridescent plastic. ~ Yes. The light in the distance is from his links to us. They're all behind... glass. They can't touch or warm him. ~

In his glass coffin, Aya waited....

~ Where the hell do we go? ~

~ I can't feel him at all.... Think about him. About things he liked, things that mattered to him. Hell, think about his sister. She's even relevant here. ~

Doubt struck. ~ We couldn't bring _her_ out of her own coma. ~

~ She'd been stuck in there for years. Far too long. If someone who knew her had the talent and power to bring her out soon after she'd gone under, there wouldn't have been a problem. ~

Sympathy struck Farfarello hard. Aya's poor sister, lost in something like this for _years_. Had she felt her brother at all in that time and just couldn't get back to him? Poor Aya, watching her still form, powerless.

~ I think I see something! Good work! ~

~ What? What do you see? ~

~ A shape.... Dive, Farfie, dive! I'll tell you when to stop. And keep thinking about Aya. ~

What he stood on seemed solid and held his weight. Yet, this was his kitten's mind and he had no real "weight" here at all. Metaphor. There was no floor and he could dive if he wished. He did wish. He dove. As he plummeted he briefly looked "above" him and saw a long, iridescent line, like a bungee cord, trailing from his ankle into the great beyond. It had to be Schuldig's work, possibly their link to the outside.

All the while Farfarello thought of Aya: his love, his stubbornness, his loyalty, his beauty, his fine, fine deadliness. He thought of Aya alone for years, lacking the needed tools to save his sister from a fate he currently shared. Things would end differently here. Farfarello swore it.

Farfarello couldn't tell how long or far they fell before Schuldig shouted, ~ Here! ~ and Farfarello thought, _Stop!_ to himself. They stopped, floating, near a blackened shape of vaguely human form. Farfarello nearly screamed at the worries that blossomed in his mind like poison mushrooms but Schuldig thwapped him and said, ~ Brush it away. ~

As Farfarello brushed at it, the blackness gradually fell away like soot and revealed Aya's features and self beneath it. Farfarello worried over the possible symbolism of his kitten stained black and drifting in a void.

He held his kitten now, but Aya's colors looked dull and faded, ghostly, his hair the merest suggestion of red, his jeans just barely blue. His shirt appeared to be white, much whiter than his skin. He didn't wear any earrings, something that worried Farfarello for the possible meaning.

And his eyes didn't open. He remained inert, looking like a corpse floating gently under water.

In desperation, Farfarello clutched him and spoke to him and at him: words of love, memories, words of encouragement, rough poetry, fighting words, anything that came to mind. Aya's eyes didn't open, and he didn't move at all.

~ I never said it would be fast and easy, ~ Schuldig said.

~ Yes, you did! ~

~ Not this fast! Look, I didn't want you to lose hope, okay? Give it time. Keep at it. He's in there. We just have to reach him. ~

There was nothing else they could do. Farfarello refused to give up, especially while he had his kitten this close. Not even Aya would beat _his_ stubbornness.

******************************************************

When Yoji came by in seven hours to take a turn at watch, he found Crawford still there, working on a laptop. "Any change?" Yoji asked, refusing to treat Schwarz's leader and his occasional lover as anything special.

"No. Sometimes their eyes move under their lids or something twitches but otherwise nothing." The lack of any emotional tone in his voice was telling in its own way. A little more feeling bled in as Crawford said, "You could have had the decency to bring coffee."

"I'm indecent, and I don't fetch and carry for you. How long does this kind of thing usually take?"

"Depends on the victim, depends on the telepath."

And Aya had done a far more hopeless version of this vigil for _years_.

Machinery beeped steadily, but that was a _good_ thing that meant that they were all alive. If not for all the tubes and wires you'd think they were three young friends/lovers crashed out in a puppy pile, cozy.

"I'm here now, so you can leave." Yoji grinned, blindingly wise-ass. "Unless you want to share a watch with me, Brad-chan."

Crawford looked up with the light gleaming brightly off his glasses. Nice trick in a dim room with the windows letting in dull gray light as it rained outside. "I'll pass." He started to pack up his laptop.

"Your choice. We'll let you know the moment something changes."

Crawford made a small sneering sound, then said, "_Schuldig_ will let me know the moment something changes."

"That too." As Crawford stood, Yoji thought about what it must be like to be leader of a team that had three out of its five members incapacitated, particularly when one of the three was your lover. "They're all too stubborn to fail."

"Are you trying to comfort me, Yoji?" Crawford asked with a thin, dangerous smile.

"If I was, I'm doing a shit job of it, so no."

"Good."

With his coat on and laptop bag in hand, Crawford swept out of the room like a ship in full sail in a high wind. He'd be fine. Yoji didn't know why he bothered.

Then again, Crawford had just called him "Yoji" instead of "Balinese," so maybe he was in worse shape than he let on.

Although Yoji had a book he couldn't drum up the attention for it yet, and it disturbed him to watch the motionless puppy pile, so he stared at the rain running down the windows in rivulets. Life went on despite everybody's personal dramas. He remembered how much he'd resented that when Asuka had died--or at least when he'd thought she had--and his world had fallen to ruins. How dare everybody and everything else go on while his life had ended? It had made him feel so small.

He found an odd comfort in the idea now. He didn't know why.

Still, today was the day when hundreds of kids were supposed to march off into slavery to save themselves from the words programmed into them, yet they were safe instead. They were free. That was huge.

Fenris knocked at the door and opened it. "Yoji? Can I talk to you?" He'd been twitchy and haunted since they'd gotten the news about Aya, something that confused Yoji since the kid hadn't even known Aya well or for long.

"Sure. It's not like I'm up to much."

"Okay." Fenris closed the door behind him. "Maybe you don't know much about this-- Maybe nobody does. I don't know, but I have to talk to someone."

Sounded serious, and even if it were only serious to Fenris, Yoji would take it seriously. "Go ahead."

"I went in to help against Breaker. I know you all told me not to but I thought I'd be more use! He beat me bad. Real bad. I almost died. The only reason why I didn't...." Fenris' jaw trembled. "The only reason I didn't is that Fujimiya-san fed me some strength. His own strength. I felt it. It let me close up the wounds and change to a smaller shape that would take up less energy. It saved me, Yoji." He closed his eyes. "And now here he is, because he gave everything he had and I took some of it. What can I do? How can I make up for that?"

"Come here." From the sudden look on Fenris' face, Yoji amended that to "I'm not gonna hit you!"

"It would be in your rights!"

"I'm not. C'mere." Yoji put his arm around Fenris' shoulders and brought him in close. "Aya is like that. Even if you didn't take anything from him, he would have thrown that strength at Breaker too. That's how he is. You know what 'berserker' means?"

"Yeah."

"That's how he can get. He reaches a point where he won't stop until something stops him. He could have kept going at Breaker but instead he stopped to help you. That must mean he wanted you to live. So live, okay?"

Fenris knuckled his eyes, fighting tears. "Thanks, Yoji," he said, his voice rough.

"It's true." Yoji believed in that totally. "Besides, Schuldig and Farfarello will get him back."

"I... feel better hearing that from you. Ken would say whatever would make me feel better. Elena would say... something efficient. I don't know how to say it better."

"I think I know what you mean." As much as he liked Elena, Yoji knew she had some cold, ruthless spots.

"When you say it, I can believe it and really feel better about it. Can I... can I sit watch with you for a while?"

"Sure, Fenris. I'd really like that."


	214. "It's harder to angst when someone's smacking the back of your head."

Sasha didn't have to be doing this, but he thought it would be helpful to Weiß, who'd done so much for him and might do even more yet if their thoughts continued in their current trend of taking him into the team. Besides, the natives were restless and Sasha thought he could get a better feel of how and why if he sat amongst them.

Some of the people who'd drifted into town when Schwarz had arrived had already quietly drifted away again, but most of the Rosenkreuz alumni, especially the ones who'd been in Ebenroth's school and the Orange clones collectively calling themselves the Bruise, remained and wondered what they'd do about their future. While they were happy and excited to have dodged the bullet on handing themselves over to a new master this morning, they also felt edgy and unfocused, waiting for word of what to do next. Sasha knew that Schwarz would sneer at them for looking for someone new to lead them. The alumni looked at television or talked amongst themselves but seemed restless. In the main gathering room where Sasha sat now, the people here mostly ignored the television and talked.

Rumors passed on whether Mr. Takatori really would open a school in Japan for them, with most of the people imagining either a temple in the countryside or a mega-city like Tokyo. Some of them sneered at the ones who thought that Kritiker would be stupid enough to put a large group of obvious foreigners in the middle of a city. They all pondered on whether they'd go if Takatori had a place for them and what they'd be asked to do for it. A lot of people wanted to leave Austria but couldn't find the ambition yet. They wanted someone to tell them something definite.

With all the pent-up energy, questions, and doubts going around, things could get ugly. Sasha wondered what he'd do if things did.

Over the course of his day he'd watched the factions. Some of the alumni were networking and making connections while others stayed with their friends. Ebenroth's folk mostly kept to themselves in small groups, and Antipathy appeared to be their de facto leader despite their earlier suspicions that he'd killed Ebenroth and his recent vocal disparagement of Ebenroth. Nobody missed Scry, which said a hell of a lot. Right now Antipathy was talking quietly with one of the Ebenroth Oranges, Sorrow. Sasha noticed that sometimes Antipathy let himself look tired and sad if he didn't think many people were watching, and he looked like that right now in front of Sorrow, who had an arm around his shoulders. It seemed that he still mourned the unrequited love who'd been murdered right in front of him.

Sasha had spent a long time without having anyone he'd care about enough to mourn for a few days if they died.

The members of the Bruise and their hangers-on skirted the edges of Ebenroth's contingent, occasionally mixing in, but they too kept to themselves a lot. Sasha felt tempted to think nasty, sneering thoughts about how they'd adopted a name like that for themselves but he'd been named by Schuldig too so he hardly had the high ground. Though at least his name wasn't a negative thing. They intended to ask Mr. Takatori for Flood once Schuldig countermanded everyone's words. Flood might like that, and they might even be good for him.

They were all certain that Schuldig had the words and would clear them out in time. The Orange line in particular had an affection and reverence for Schuldig that would probably amuse the hell out of him. More cynical, Sasha wondered if Crawford would demand payment first and figured that he probably would.

Sasha remained his own faction, alone. He just didn't fit in with Ebenroth's sheep or the Bruise. People sometimes came up to talk to him since he was notorious but otherwise left him alone out of a lack of anything to talk about besides Woeller and the old bounty, which had been taken off. Sasha still felt an odd, annoying pain in his chest at the thought of Woeller being dead because Woeller and being a wanted man had defined his life for so long. Starting a new and uncertain life himself, he could understand the restlessness and fear around him. Even a hard existence had the advantage of being familiar, and who knew if what replaced it would be better?

He would never have the closure of knowing whether he could have killed Woeller or would have crumbled in front of him.

"Hey, what's going on?" Fenris asked. "You guys look all bored. I have stuff."

"Stuff?" a girl asked. None of them knew what to make of Fenris.

"Stuff. You could borrow it, but I want it back when you're done." He opened his backpack and took out a ball, some hacky sacks, and a stack of manga volumes. The dinosaur toys and coloring books went right back into his bag. "It's not much but maybe it could help? I don't think you could read the manga but this is the action stuff so you can tell a lot from the pictures."

They _really_ didn't know what to make of him. Some felt tempted to say mean things about his intellectual level but couldn't quite, not when he smiled so serenely at them, _daring_ them. It made Sasha smirk.

Fenris had _certainty_. You could feel it even without reading him, something telepaths found somewhat painful to do to him anyway. He knew he had a place and people who loved him and knew that he was more his own creature than any of the rest of the manufactured people in this room. He didn't have anyone he needed to impress.

Antipathy picked up the ball, saying, "Thanks. We can get a game started." With the ice broken by their leader being willing to act like a kid, others came over for the hacky sacks and the manga, murmuring quiet thanks.

Antipathy made a major improvement over Scry. Sasha couldn't help wondering what Schuldig might be if he didn't have Crawford holding him down.

With everyone's attention off him, Fenris asked, "How are you doing, Sasha? You don't have to be out here if you don't want to be."

"I want to be for now. Where have you been?"

"I was sitting watch with Yoji for a while but then I felt like he wanted to be alone with Fujimiya-san so I left." Fenris then said, "I didn't mean like that."

For an audience raised and trained by Eszett, sometimes you had to specify that no abuse occurred. "I understand."

"I felt like I wasn't helping anymore and he needed the time alone. He really likes Fujimiya-san and misses him."

Yeah, Yoji became attached to a lot of people. It wasn't anything special. "Ow!" Sasha said when Fenris smacked the back of his head. "What the hell was that for?"

"It's the stupid angst guard. It's harder to angst when someone's smacking the back of your head. Yoji likes you. Just because he likes other people too doesn't make him liking you mean nothing. I'm offended. He would be offended. So stop it."

"Okay. You're right. Sorry. Please stop hitting me."

"But it's fun too. Oh. Elena got the cafeteria to make potato pancakes, my favorite. You want to come along and have some? She's already there with Ken."

"No, it's all right. Enjoy."

Fenris smiled. "Don't be a stranger."

"You're okay about leaving your things here?"

"They'll probably give them back to me when they're done. Besides, it's not like I gave them my favorite stuff. It's just stuff. See you later, Sasha."

As Sasha decided to move on too he heard one of the Kritiker people murmur something to Antipathy, who asked lightly, "What, we're not allowed to play ball in the house?" which got a big laugh and the guy to back off. Strange days.

He found Malice and Wicked sitting together in another room, Malice hugging him and Wicked looking somewhat tired and in pain. Right, Wicked had fought Breaker too. Guilty line, another faction, although they didn't appear to have any urge to claim Flood as their own.

"Hey," Sasha said.

They smiled up at him. "Hey," Wicked answered. "Got tired of the sheep?" Very Schuldig.

"I suppose. Do you have plans on what you're doing next?"

"Fuck yes. First we get paid and get Malice's word taken off. That's key. Then I was thinking Italy. Once the heat from all this dies down more, Argentina."

Malice looked abruptly more interested as he said, "Argentina will need some research first."

"I have full faith in you. After Argentina we have to go to New York."

"You have a death wish. All right. But after New York I'm done with family stuff."

"Fine by me. You wanna get lost for a while after that?"

"I'm dreaming of it."

They wouldn't let him read what the deal was with Argentina or New York and why it mattered. Whatever. He didn't feel like prying.

"What about you?" Wicked asked.

"Weiß seems interested in taking me in. I like them," Sasha answered.

"Yeah, you like Yoji. He's pretty."

Sasha wouldn't argue that. "I might let my hair color grow out. Or I might just take advantage of having money to do it a better, softer blond." Then Ken would be the only non-blond on the team as well as the only non-talent. He would have to be nice to Ken. Sasha just kept getting sick of seeing all these people who looked like him. Maybe he'd be keener on his natural color if he didn't have to be around them for a while.

Malice and Wicked looked... interested. Sasha asked, "What?"

Wicked said, "That Yoji guy, if he ever does you it'll be all about tenderness and deep feelings and such. That's an awful lot of importance and solemnity to put on a guy's first time back in the saddle in a while. A lot of pressure. I think you'd be better off finding some people you could just get off with in a fun, stress-free way first."

"Are you offering yourself?" It didn't surprise Sasha much.

"Ourselves," Malice said, looking hungry. "We don't want our first time back together to be some heavy, mushy thing either. Having a game third party involved should lighten things up."

"You have so little faith in me," Wicked muttered.

"Oh please. You're a giant mushball."

_Now_ Sasha was surprised. "You didn't seem to be the type for this, Malice."

"You think you know my type? I've been professional and on duty the whole time. Now I'm on a break and in a mood, and you're pretty."

"Of course he's pretty," Wicked said. "We all are."

Sasha couldn't help thinking this was all some part of a Malice plan to make Wicked feel better and forget about his battle injuries but he didn't mind. He was in a mood himself, and maybe it would be better to go to his next partner without having something to prove to himself. "You'll have to be gentle with me," he said with a smile.

"Lovely. Another comedian," Malice answered but smiled.

"So where do we go?"

"We have a hotel room nearby. No way I'm doing anything with all the people listening around here."

No one from Kritiker gave them any difficulties as they walked outside. He knew they weren't prisoners officially but some things you couldn't be sure of until you tested them. He walked the streets openly and without fear for the first time in forever, secure in the knowledge that any second looks they got came from people surprised to see three boys with similar faces walking together. No more price on his head, no more skulking at the edges of society.

Wicked pounced and started stroking him, heating him up, as soon as they were inside the room, and his body reacted exactly as it should, with no sense of panic. Wonderful. Malice watched as he undid his braid, then joined them, putting Sasha in the middle, uninhibited in stripping and stroking, his hands certain the way telepaths' can be. In their honest lust they were as committed to showing him a good time as they were each other; he felt it.

Sasha sighed happily and gave himself up to it. He'd really needed this, the possibility of release and the familiarity. Hooking up had often relieved stress and boredom in Rosenkreuz, and these weren't even the first Orange liners he'd ever had.

"I love your handcuff. The still dangling, sawed-off chain is a nice touch," Wicked murmured into his ear.

******************************************************

When Nagi arrived with his laptop he saw Omi and a nurse already in the room. The woman checked the machinery and changed some of the IV bags, then left. Nagi mentally applauded her blasé attitude toward the empty bodies on the bed and wished he could replicate it. Leeched of kinetic potential beyond regular breathing, _inert_, they freaked him out.

Looking tired, Omi said, "I won't be staying long either. I have to get back to figuring out what to do with all the psionics. There might be a place in Okinawa we could keep them...."

"That could work," Nagi said as he came to a stop next to him.

"We have no idea how long this will take," Omi said, almost asking a question. "This" didn't mean the talents.

"No, we don't. I wish we did."

"I don't know if it's good or bad that his face is totally expressionless. I don't want to see him looking hurt or depressed but this nothing is unsettling."

"Omi, this is _Aya_. He doesn't _do_ facial expressions, even when he's around."

"Funny," Omi answered but he did smile for a moment. "Thanks. Good night, Nagi." At least he looked a little better when he left.

Nagi set up his laptop to work but soon found the steady beeping of the machinery to be too big and creepy a distraction, especially with everything else so quiet. Aside from the medical personnel changing the fluid bags, had anyone interacted with the bodies in any way? Probably not, since they depressed and creeped everyone out.

Maybe music might help them or reach them. He had no idea what Aya listened to, which seemed a shame, but he knew a lot of Schuldig's favorite bands and remembered that Farfarello had enjoyed some Oysterband songs but only _joked_ about liking U2. Going through his MP3 files, Nagi constructed a playlist involving Oysterband, KMFDM, Pigface, Wumpscut, Die Warzau, Apoptygma Berzerk, Shriekback, Covenant, Pet Shop Boys, Wave in Head, Erasure, New Order... and started playing it out loud from his computer. It made a huge difference, lightening the air of oppression and tension in the room.

But he had to switch songs when Oysterband's "When I'm Up I Can't Get Down" started to make him stupidly teary-eyed, grimly substituting KMFDM's "Juke-Joint Jezebel" in its stead. Nobody could cry to that. Schuldig's music tended to have an advantage there.

******************************************************

Crawford returned to his hotel room utterly confident that no one looking at him would realize he'd just murdered five people. The mission had been almost surgical in neatness and efficiency. None of his victims had dared bleed on him as he killed them, and they'd been carefully wrapped in plastic during their disposal. Some scent of gunpowder lingered on him but few people outside of the business would recognize it for what it was. It covered the slight scent of blood rather well.

Since many of the area's professionals had stopped taking these kind of jobs while the chaos with the Ebenroth school and later Woeller's death had gone on, his employers had been grateful to use him. They'd barely argued or haggled. No one had found it strange for him to do this job solo because he had a reputation for liking to personally keep his hand in on the simpler, more direct assignments now and then. That had been a deliberate choice he'd made long ago for how it gave him a greater latitude in his public behavior and let him indulge himself in the occasional urge to indulge in uncomplicated bloodletting.

Not everything had to be labyrinthine plotting and planning, although that was satisfying. Sometimes he just wanted to go out and fucking shoot someone. And get paid for it.

He cleaned his gun and put it away, then hung up his clothes to air out and took a shower. Unable to sleep, he lounged on the bed in his pajamas and read the paper.

The room felt huge, vast, and empty. Even his head felt emptier.

He remembered how thrilled he'd been to finally qualify for the reward of having his own room in Rosenkreuz. He still had to share the bathroom facilities with the rest of the floor but he had his own space, _his_. No one's breathing interrupted his thoughts. No one's possessions mingled with his own. Only his scent and that of the people he decided to invite in would be here. He could order the space exactly as he liked and wouldn't have to dominate other people every second he existed. Nonetheless, he resolved to stay alert and not let those moments of reprieve make him weak and unguarded.

He and Schuldig had been fucking now and then for a while before Crawford let the telepath share his bed for the night against all of Eszett's advice on dealing with telepaths and their unsteady minds. Having studied the situation and his subordinate, Crawford had decided that it made a good show of confidence in himself and in Schuldig to let him sleep in at times. Besides, it seemed to mellow out Schuldig's temper and rebellious qualities. They fought less. Otherwise Schuldig would have been storming out much more often. He also went out roaming less when having some of his appetites satisfied at home.

As long as it worked, Crawford thought the loss of personal space a small sacrifice to keep a hold on a tool destined to help him end his slavery and destroy his captors. He knew that Schuldig hoped the sex would be a leash on him, but he intended to use it the same way. Sometimes they were nearly enemies, and Crawford had taken to heart the saying about keeping your enemies closer. Sleeping with an often unpredictable telepath in his bed helped keep him sharp anyway, something he needed.

The sex was hardly a chore either.

He became accustomed to chatter, fast blurs of motion, loud clothing amidst his neutral and stark colors, a lot of sex, occasional bursts of smoking, and long hairs everywhere. Schuldig took up a lot of space. He let Schuldig's chaos make him more flexible, and he stopped setting himself apart from the others so much. When Aya's entrance into Schwarz had forced the team to unify more, it had only pushed an ongoing process on faster. The leash still worked both ways, because somehow they'd fallen in love with each other.

Crawford still enjoyed being alone, just not like this, not _forced_. Not with his telepath lying unnaturally still with an IV in his arm.

He couldn't foresee anything on that no matter how hard he tried and how much of a headache he gave himself.

Disgusted, Crawford set the paper and his glasses aside and turned out the light, knowing he would need his sleep. Unfortunately, his body didn't obey his commands and instead he stared into the quiet darkness, feeling the lack of warmth and weight within the bed and the absence of another's breath and heartbeat like a void.

******************************************************

~ Do you feel your body, Farf? ~ Schuldig asked suddenly, sounding tired.

~ Is that supposed to be some kind of joke? ~ Farfarello snapped back as he cradled his puisín. Aya occasionally twitched or murmured but otherwise showed little response to an eternity of talk, touches, kisses, and even tears. At least the soot stain hadn't covered him over again.

~ Only on us. ~

Farfarello looked at the mindbreaker then. Sometime during their vigil Schuldig had formed his body and started to toy with an object that sometimes looked like a sphere and other times like a cube, moving little bits of it, sometimes swallowing pieces, gradually making it smaller. On first appearance he had shown his usual bright, vibrant hues. He looked faded and pastel now, nearly translucent, and so did the thinned bungee line hanging in the nearby darkness.

Farfarello grasped the metaphor immediately and hoped to be wrong. ~ No. ~

~ We can't stay much longer. Our strength is giving out. You have no connection and mine's fading. If we don't go soon we'll be stuck in here and they'll have to send someone else in to try to find and get _all_ of us out. ~

~ It would be easier to find three! ~

Schuldig cast him a "you moron" look. ~ It was hard enough to find Aya, and he lives here and we know him. We don't belong here at all and we leave no footprint. It'd be sheer luck locating us, especially as we continue fading and thinning out. We have to go. We can come back after we regain our strength. ~

It burned, but Farfarello tried to be practical. ~ Aye. He'll stay right here and we can just go directly to him again. ~

The mindbreaker didn't say anything.

~ Are you telling me he could drift more and we'd have to look for him all over again? ~ Farfarello asked.

~ Possibly. I can't make any promises. ~

~ You should have lied to me! ~

~ _Now_ you want me to lie? What else do you want from me? ~

Tired, desperate, beyond pride, Farfarello yelled, ~ I want you to promise that we'll get him back, and I want it to be true! ~

~ I wish I could do that too. ~

At that moment Farfarello almost felt sorry for the mindbreaker, stripped of strength and bluster and outrageousness until only stark, weary truth remained. He felt sorry for them all. They should all three be vibrant and wrapped inside their own flesh instead of drifting lost inside this mostly dark nothing. The dim light of the links behind glass seemed all the more mocking.

~ You wouldn't tell me this only seconds before the deadline. We still have time, ~ Farfarello said.

Schuldig sighed. ~ A little more time. But if it runs out before he comes to I am yanking you out without a word. We can try again another time. Aya wouldn't want to become a black hole sucking people in to their doom. You know that. ~

~ Yeah, I do. ~ He cradled his lost kitten to his chest. ~ Puisín, come back. We love you. What more do we have to do? ~


	215. ~ Tear down the wall! Tear down the wall! ~

Fenris had left. Poor kid had a good heart but lacked the attention span to sit a long watch, though he'd done a longer sit yesterday. Not that this was a cakewalk for anybody. Yoji himself was going stir-crazy. He'd read everything he had and spent a lot of time staring out the window. Sometimes he went out of the room for a cigarette break, since Omi wouldn't let him smoke near the sleeping beauties, and that provided a bit of distraction. He didn't know what to do with himself now, though.

Yoji could wait when he had to. Assassination involved a lot of waiting, and he'd done plenty of vigils for injured teammates before. This seemed worse somehow. He knew what unconsciousness looked like, and they didn't look like that the few times he looked at them. They looked wrong. Not dead, but not right.

They looked wrong right now. Yoji had hit that point of boredom and tenseness where he had nothing else to do than confront what he'd been sitting around for, so he stood near them and looked at them. Unhooking his personality and the way it seemed to emanate beyond his body made Schuldig seem smaller and less attractive. Weird, so weird. Even sleeping Schuldig was bigger, realer, than this. Farfarello looked bizarrely healthy, with his scars there but light and the skin beneath lovely, yet he seemed inert, utterly motionless in a way he never did. Something about Farfarello vibrated from the inside usually.

Aya had no scars left. How the hell had that happened? Yoji knew a lot of them, and none of them remained. His skin looked perfect, almost poreless. Aya's head rested to the side a bit and the way his hair fell showed that the scar along the side of his face right near his hairline had disappeared too. On one mission it had been laid open with a knife but Weiß had been forced to go to ground and hadn't had the option of going to a Kritiker facility right afterward, so Omi had been forced to stitch it himself. Head wounds always bled so badly. The kid had done a damned good job, but the scar, paler than Aya's skin and slightly raised, had still been visible if Aya's hair hadn't covered it. Fortunately, Aya's usual style hid it. It wasn't there anymore. It looked like the rest of the great skin. Yoji had to touch it, reaching over Schuldig to do it, and it felt so smooth....

A sudden change in the beeping made Yoji leap backward. What the hell? The beeping returned to the usual slower beat he'd been hearing the whole time. Coincidence?

Yoji reached over and touched Aya's face again. Testing it. The beeping changed again. Aya's heartbeat changed a bit at Yoji's touch. Why? Yeah, Yoji was handsome beyond belief and had a great sense of style but Aya couldn't see this while comatose and with his eyes closed. Yoji had watched nurses and doctors check blood pressure and IV on Aya, Schuldig, and Farfarello, touching them to do it, but none of them had gotten this reaction. How did Aya know Yoji?

He looked at Schuldig and Farfarello nestled right up on Aya's skin and with their hands clasped. Skin-to-skin contact made a difference with telepathy. Yoji knew that. Could Aya... _feel_ him, even through the coma?

Could Aya feel a lot of people through his skin and maybe wake up from the extra stimulation?

Okay, Yoji had to get the dirty smile off his face and rephrase that thought before he tried to put the plan into action because nobody would trust his motives if he approached them like this. Inappropriate much? Yoji carefully put as many of his perverted thoughts under cover as he could before thinking hard at Elena.

~ What are you so excited about, Yoji? ~ she asked.

Shit. Then again, she didn't sound like she thought he was perverted excited, so maybe things would be okay. He let her know that when he touched Aya Aya's heart rate had changed even though it hadn't for the medical personnel touching him, so maybe Aya could sense through his skin, telepathic-like, and a bunch of people he knew touching him at once might break him out of his coma. Damn, it sucked that he couldn't focus his thoughts into direct speech.

~ That might actually work. It's certainly worth a try, especially since Fujimiya-san has links to some people. ~

He did?

~ To Schwarz and you, though bringing in other people he knows well but doesn't have links to might help as well. I'll call everybody we can use in to the room. ~

Not everybody was in the building, so it would take a while. Hopeful and nervous, Yoji just about climbed the walls waiting. People trickled in slowly, too slowly. In about 20 minutes they had Omi, Ken, Fenris, Nagi, Crawford, Elena, Wicked, and Malice in the room. "What's with the Doublemint Twins?" Yoji asked.

Wicked answered, "I helped fight Breaker off, so maybe me being here would help. Malice is just here to watch."

"Fujimiya-san fed me strength!" Fenris said. "He has to know me!"

Omi had two doctors in the room to monitor things. Good thought, especially since Yoji had no idea what physical effect his plan might have. He really hoped he didn't make things worse for Aya.

But how much worse could things get than this situation now? They had to try.

They all reached for Aya's bare skin, which was his arms and face, having to stretch to do it, and hoped for the best.

******************************************************

Farfarello flinched from the sudden blinding flare of light around them. ~ What the hell is happening? ~ he asked.

~ Yoji, I could fucking kiss you! ~ Schuldig shouted. ~ They're trying to get Aya's attention! ~

His kitten twitched hard in his arms. Hope hurt, but Farfarello embraced it tightly and kept trying to get through to Aya.

******************************************************

Aya twitched hard beneath their hands, and his heart rate accelerated. It worried Yoji, but at least it was a reaction.

"This could be a good sign," Elena said. "Think... nice thoughts. I don't know. Think how much you want him back."

"Think about all the people here who feel grateful for what he did," Fenris said.

Worth a shot.

******************************************************

The glass started to _melt_ under the heat of whatever Aya's links were doing. It felt much warmer here now, more... loving. Grinning madly in the glare, the mindbreaker chanted, ~ Tear down the wall! Tear down the wall! ~ and grabbed Aya's arm.

Aya twitched and moaned in Farfarello's embrace, and his eyelids looked squeezed closed now, as if trying to shut out the pain of the harsh light. ~ Puisín, come back! Come home! ~ Farfarello yelled, then kissed him hard.

Aya came to life in his grip, moving at last. Before Farfarello could grab on tighter, he felt Schuldig yank him away, laughing, and throw him back into his body.

******************************************************

Aya sat up so hard and fast that everybody touching him fell backward, some of them to the floor. Yoji stayed upright and felt a surge of glee. They'd done it! Schuldig and Farfarello were awake, though groggy looking, as well.

But....

Aya was sitting up doubled over, gasping hard, his body shaking almost convulsively, his bangs hiding his face. He sure as hell didn't look well. Had they screwed up?

******************************************************

Consciousness returned, bringing guilt with it. He felt her absence like a missing tooth, aching and empty. _He'd_ ripped her out, and she was dead again. How could he live with himself? Why would he want to? Why did he keep surviving?

******************************************************

Intent on Aya, Farfarello barely noticed the doctor removing his IV or the stiffness in his body. They'd brought Aya out, but Farfarello could see and feel his anguish and smell his tears. His kitten crumbled in front of him and everyone in the room.

"Everybody out!" the mindbreaker shouted as soon as his own IV was out and he could get off the bed. "Give them time and room! Shit, people, they need privacy."

"But, Aya--" Persia started to say.

"No. Privacy. Space. Now. They need it. Aya's overwhelmed, and if you care for him, you'll get the hell out of here right now. I mean it." As soon as he put on his coat and shoes, Schuldig pushed the staring stragglers in front of him, while some of the others had the sense to go on their own.

Farfarello would be more grateful for the show of thoughtfulness if he hadn't already been nearly paralyzed by the knowledge of how important what he said to his puisín next would be. This would be one of the most crucial conversations of his life and Aya's, and if he failed he could lose everything he'd come to value. Above all, he had to be careful not to reveal his relief that the remains no longer determined anything. Aya would not be convinced this was for the best. So many things and tactics to be considered before Farfarello even opened his mouth. Everything was so red and buzzing.... He didn't even know how close he dared be to Aya, how much Aya could tolerate, but he refused to leave the bed and his kitten.

Since the doctors hadn't gotten a chance to remove anything from Aya's body, Farfarello could hear his kitten's speeding heart rate via the beeping machines. He needed to be calmed and returned to sense. "Puisín--"

"No." Aya's voice sounded low, hoarse, and strangled, as if his throat tightened and closed off his words. He'd closed off his soul so Farfarello could barely feel him. "I know what you'll say. You'll lie to try to help me live with myself. I know I killed what was left of her. You shouldn't have brought me back. I don't deserve to be here."

"Don't you mean instead that you can't bear the pain of being here with your thought of what you've done? I don't believe it. You're stronger than that."

Aya snarled. Nobody liked to be accused of cowardice. "_No_. I did wrong."

Farfarello appreciated that familiar show of spirit. "You misread it all. I don't need to lie to you. It wasn't her. She's already gone. She's _been_ gone for some time now. What remained was a bit of flesh that never should have been taken and kept. It had no soul. It couldn't bring her back to life as she was."

Still refusing to look at Farfarello, still hiding behind his hair, Aya answered, "It knew me. It loved me. I felt it."

Very few things could make Farfarello shudder. That did. "It had no personality. It had no soul. And if it did... love you in its limited, non-sentient way, it would want to help you save yourself, which it did. In the process you saved hundreds of children from slavery and pain. You saved me. You saved Fenris. You didn't know where you were taking strength from, but you were willing to give all of your own to do this. You did. If I can believe what you've told me, she would have done the same while alive. That was what she wanted to do with her life: help people."

"She wanted to be a nurse," Aya said softly.

"After death, she helped you save lives, not just from death but from lives suffered in bondage. She loved you. I love you. Your team loves you, Weiß loves you, and there are people who don't even know who you really are but greeted yesterday and today thankful that you would give everything you had. We all love you. After that, how could you hate yourself?"

Aya trembled, and his shields dropped just enough that Farfarello could feel the conflict in him, the push and pull of believing his lover's words versus the knowledge that he deserved punishment for his crimes and didn't deserve anyone's love. His self-destructive streak and guilt hadn't been eradicated as Farfarello had hoped but just gone into remission before, and now their cancer spread again.

If guilt had the power to so move him, then Farfarello would wield it as well. "We all love you, and you're not alone. You are my love and my sanity; what would I do without you? All these people who care for and are tangled with you, Schwarz and Weiß, what would they do if you destroyed yourself in reaction to something we asked you to do? How would we survive your loss if you can't survive hers? You think something that loved you and worked to save you would want you to destroy yourself now? No. Be strong and live for all of us. Live for her too. You did it before. Do it again."

"It's... hard," Aya answered softly.

Farfarello grabbed him and held him now, willing him to feel their bond and love through their skin, thrilled to have his puisín back in his arms. "Yes, but you're one of the most stubborn people I know. It's not beyond you. I know that. I'll make you know that too."

Aya shuddered and breathed against Farfarello's chest. "I felt hope when I found that box. Irrational hope. I knew better. I knew...."

"We are all safe because you found that box. You gave hope to others."

"And have none myself."

"I will be your hope."

His puisín made a derisive sound, but the machine beeping of his heart slowed a bit. "I'm not a coward," Aya said softly, sounding calmer and tired.

"That's what I've been telling you all this time," Farfarello answered as he started to pluck the leads off his kitten's skin, disconnecting him from the machines. He would take out Aya's IV as well.

Even at his best, Aya had black moods that Farfarello had to add colors to. Farfarello had found him even in the blackest recesses of his self and would do it again whenever he had to. It would take work and vigilance to keep Aya together for a while, but Farfarello was also very stubborn.

******************************************************

"How long are we supposed to stay out?" Balinese asked.

"As long as it takes. You know how Aya hates being crowded, especially when he's feeling down. I suggest you go about your business for a while," Schuldig answered. "Great idea you had, though."

"Well, yeah."

"I'll have to show my appreciation later. Right now I wanna go to the hotel and shower." Schuldig cast Crawford a look that he knew to his bones. His telepath had something for his ears only. "Nobody bother them unless they ask for something. They need recovery time. I mean it, Persia."

Despite looking unhappy about it, Persia replied, "I suppose that you're the expert."

"Damned skippy. I'll know if you bust in there too, so don't. Brad?"

"I'll take you back to the hotel to recover," Crawford said. "Nagi, if you can stand it, I suggest you take some break time."

"Brad and I need _alone_ time," Schuldig said with a highly lecherous expression that would guarantee the boy wouldn't want to ride with them.

"I'm sure," Nagi answered with a look of distaste. "I'll go out. I haven't been out in a while."

Good. Persia wouldn't be able to go out, not with his current workload and responsibilities.

"Are you okay, Schu?" Balinese asked.

Schuldig made a face as he ran his hands through his lank hair. "Just a little unsteady. How long were we under?"

"A day and a half," Crawford answered.

"That explains it. I'll be fine, Yoji." Schuldig kissed the side of Balinese's face. "Reward later. I swear."

Balinese actually blushed a little. "I wasn't asking about that!"

"Sure, sure. See you all later."

Crawford and Schuldig left the building at a fast, confident "we stop for no one" pace that actually did get them out without anyone stopping them. Schuldig didn't look as strong or steady once they were outside and away from onlookers, so Crawford opened the passenger door for him and smiled a little at the imperious nod he received in return. As soon as Crawford started the car Schuldig put his window down and lit up a cigarette, taking a deep drag. All of this worried Crawford but he gave his telepath time to get himself together and start talking. Schuldig always started talking eventually.

Ten minutes down the road, Schuldig said, "I went through Breaker's knowledge and assimilated everything except the phrase."

"I'm pleased that you were working on that while inside Aya." Proud as well, but no longer as surprised as he once would have been.

"Not like I had much else I could do. So I have the words and cure words."

"I'm still deciding how to handle using them."

"I figured. If we can find a telepath we trust, I can hand the phrase memories over and get a cure for myself."

"I think we have enough leverage that we can use Friendly."

"I do too. Brad, I have something I wanted to tell you away from everybody. It's up to you whether we share it with anybody else, but my thinking is that it should never see the light of day, especially not to Aya."

"Tell me."

"Things weren't supposed to be this way. Breaker had a really farseeing precog under his thumb--due to her vulnerability to her word, of course--who gave him a forecast on us that extended years. In the original way things were supposed to run--"

"Original way? What are you talking about?"

"Brad, let me unreel this my way, okay? You'll see when I'm done." It sounded more tired and slightly stunned than smartass.

"All right. I'll contain myself."

"In the original way events were going to run, Schwarz starts to come apart after we and Weiß killed the elders, though we stayed together long enough to take out Rosenkreuz, even if we got more injured doing it than we did in what actually happened because we had more trouble with our word. Farfarello would get weirder and leave first. Once he left, the future became a lot easier and clearer to see. Nagi wouldn't be as linked to the team as a unit or family and would finally leave to go freelance on his own, eventually working for Persia a lot. I stay with you, and we two kick around as freelancers." Schuldig made a face. "Though I couldn't have been very happy.

"Nagi helped us once again in person and Farfarello in spirit when we went after Epitaph and Eszett and had to fight the Russells group. You were badly injured there too, same as here. Nagi left again. After that Breaker would put the final stroke on his plan. He would call me and drop my phrase on me. I'd come to him and be his Skeleton Key that would enable him to command all the kiddies made using my DNA. I'd live as his slave, and he'd be a new Eszett, king of all he surveyed. He also totally intended to let you find out so you could come in and see what he'd done to me, your former tool. Then he'd have enslaved me command the kids to slaughter you while he made me watch. He thought that'd be damned funny. Man had a hate-on for you that you would not believe.

"But instead his precog managed to escape him before the whole thing with the elders went down. Freaked him out. It _really_ freaked him out when his backup precog started foretelling a very different future. He finally tracked her down and ended up killing her in an insane rage when he realized that she'd intervened and ruined his future, though he regretted the waste of resources later. She died laughing at him. You wanna know what she did?"

"I'm dying to," Crawford answered even as he absorbed the details of the calamity that could have been. It enraged him that Schwarz would achieve all of its goals only to have Breaker swoop in right afterward and piss on all their efforts, making a mockery of them. It galled that Breaker had intended to make Schuldig the zombified instrument of Crawford's demise.

"She shot Aya-chan, Sakura, and Manx when they were on their way out of the museum as we and Weiß fought."

It came together. "Is that why your 'original way' didn't include anything about Aya?"

"Yeah, because he didn't join us. We didn't have any leverage on him and you didn't get a vision that we could turn him if we took him, so he stayed with Weiß. We never brought him in or had to become a unified front to deal with him. We never became a family. You and I... probably stayed coworkers with benefits." Schuldig took a long drag on his cigarette. "But Aya became a part of Schwarz, and Weiß became more involved with Schwarz, and together we fucked Breaker's plans over in so many ways. Hell, just us keeping Farfarello on the team made it harder for his backup precogs to track our revised movements."

"Your freedom, my life, Schwarz's continuing existence, and Breaker's fall are all due to Aya being brought into our team?" Crawford hated the idea, wanting more of his own involvement in his salvation.

"Yep. All of that because a pissed-off precog looking to screw her boss over murdered three girls. Funny, huh?"

Aya's tragedy had been Schwarz's gain. "I see why you didn't want to reveal this in a building full of telepaths. Aya would not take this well. He and Farfarello can't find out."

"I don't think Nagi should either, not with how he feels about Aya and his occasional attacks of honesty and conscience."

"Agreed. You're sure about this 'original way' being for real?"

"Breaker managed to pull some of the images of the original future out of her head and memorized them. Hell, he treasured them. I saw them, and they're real. Be really glad it didn't work out, because you'd never forgive yourself for one of the outfits I saw you wearing."

Crawford noticed that off note in Schuldig's voice and manner--too subdued, not quite smartass in the right way--again. Since he doubted that the revelations about the alternate history alone could be responsible--Schuldig would be pissed off about but not haunted by a bad future that wouldn't actually happen--something else had to be going on. That tone had strengthened when Schuldig had mentioned _seeing_ bits of that future. Crawford would ask him later if he didn't bring it up himself.

As soon as they reached their room, Schuldig went to his suitcase for clothing and headed for the bathroom, predictable. Although he could go for days without if a mission or situation demanded it, Schuldig far preferred to be meticulously groomed and clean, especially with his hair.

"I'll order food," Crawford said. Major acts of telepathy required refueling the body afterward, even if the telepath didn't immediately feel hungry. Sometimes Schuldig had said he was fine only to fall upon a meal like a ravening wolf after smelling food.

Schuldig briefly looked back and grinned. "Wise."

With his telepath showering, Crawford ordered food and sat on the bed next to Schuldig's tossed off coat and pushed Schuldig's kicked off shoes beneath the bed. Although he hated to admit it, something in him felt bolstered by the presence of and necessity of neatening his telepath's clutter.

He had his team again. Aya might need more work, but Crawford would give Farfarello a chance to push Aya up out of his personal darkness before he involved himself.

Schwarz indirectly owed its survival to Aya. That hurt.

Schwarz owed getting Aya back sooner to Balinese. That _really_ hurt.

"Hasn't been a good day for your self-respect, huh?" Schuldig asked as he walked out barefoot in a sweater and pants and with a towel wrapped around his hair.

"I had some victories."

"Yeah, true. Room service is here. You ordered goulash and käsespätzle!" Schuldig happily answered the door and took his meal, finally sitting on the bed near Crawford and devouring everything on his plate. He'd once killed a man for interrupting his meal.

So Crawford waited until Schuldig had finished using the bread to sop up the last bits of his goulash before asking, "What visions of the original future did you see? It had to be worse than usual to make you so quiet."

Schuldig narrowed his eyes and shot him a resentful look, then ruffled his hair with his towel and set it and the dinner tray aside on the night table. The towel left there made Crawford wince on the inside not for damage to a hotel table he didn't care about but because old instinct told him that he had to correct his feral teammate and get him to show proper behavior. But that was an old and outdated way of dealing with his telepath, and he currently hunted more important prey anyway.

"I'm fine, Brad."

"I'm curious, and you're leaving out some of the picture."

"Truthfully, I didn't have to tell you shit-all. You never would have guessed. I gave more than I had to."

"I realize that. I want to know what's bothering you."

"You're always poking for weaknesses."

"This isn't about that."

"Isn't it?"

"We're together. People who are together share the things bothering them." That _was_ part of the reason he wanted to know.

"You're sharing bullshit right now."

"Schu, talk to me."

Closing his eyes, Schuldig said, "Fine. I saw myself living, if you could call it that, as Breaker's enslaved, zombified skeleton key. The things he made me do left me too lost and distracted to care for myself, like Flood but far worse. But I was just so damned important a tool that Breaker took what he considered to be good care of me. I was fed the best food and bathed, combed, and curried. I had a security detail every minute of the day and never had to leave my room. Or the ability to leave my room. He thought it was so wonderfully _symmetrical_ that I ended up similar to where I was when Eszett found me. He used me for sex too and loaned me out to minions who performed really well as long as they returned me in good shape. He figured that I wasn't just a whore but the bastard amalgamation of _several_ whores, so I'd be fine even if he hadn't set his phrase on me. But I wasn't thriving, I was wasting away, and he couldn't understand why. Or how I still had enough independent thought to will myself to fade away and die. He was trying to see a way to keep me going short of putting me on a feeding tube and IV. I _saw_ all this.

"I watched my clones slaughter you at my command too. Breaker made sure of that. You were dead while I really wanted to die." Schuldig opened his eyes. "That's all. It won't happen now, but that doesn't mean I want those images in my head. Does me sharing this make you feel better? Doesn't make _me_ feel better."

"I'd find those images disturbing too." Just thinking about them disturbed him. How much worse would it be to _see_ himself so debased and helpless? _His_ telepath used and abused like that, broken, wishing himself dead....

"I would hope so. I'd hope I wasn't describing some dream of yours: me silent and completely obedient to your will."

"It's no dream of mine. I wouldn't know what to do with you if you didn't talk. I'm _not_ Breaker."

Smiling a little, Schuldig answered, "I should hope so. I'd have to kill you otherwise."

"I mean it."

Coming to sit next to him, Schuldig said, "I believe you." When Crawford pulled him in closer so they could lean together and put an arm over his shoulder, he asked lightly, "Going to strangle me now, Brad?"

"I controlled the urge for years, so I'm not going to do it now. Maybe later."

"Sweet."

Crawford murmured against Schuldig's neck, "Schu, we're alive and he's dead, having failed in everything he wanted to do. Breaker didn't suffer nearly enough, but we still nailed him."

"We win."

"As ever."


	216. "No dawdling or decadence."

"I really hate that," Mamoru muttered to himself as he watched Crawford and Schuldig leave.

"You've gotten a lot out of Crawford lately," Nagi said. "It makes him... cranky if he doesn't win at least sometimes."

"It's not just him. I was commanded out of a room in my own organization's building by Schuldig."

"You have to admit that Aya wasn't ready to deal with a crowd."

Yes, but... "There are better ways."

"That's for sure," Ken said. You could count on Ken to remain suspicious of Schwarz. Elena and Fenris were also dependable that way. Mamoru didn't know what to make of Sasha yet even if the team appeared to have adopted him, though being a clone of Schuldig's put him under more suspicion than he'd be under otherwise. Yoji had compromised himself, but at least he'd removed himself from Weiß's leadership position and wouldn't side with Schwarz against his team.

"Farfarello's good at talking Aya out of dark moods," Nagi answered.

"I thought Aya wasn't having those anymore." Good shot, Ken.

Looking annoyed, Nagi said, "Everybody has dark moods now and then, Siberian. It's not like we brainwashed him or transformed him into Little Mary Sunshine. He's still Aya."

Mamoru had wondered.

"He does a lot of things he never used to," Ken answered.

"Some of those things are good things. A lot of them are. Was he really happy the way he used to be?"

"When he woke up he looked like he felt guilty," Yoji said suddenly. "What does he have to feel guilty about?"

Most people wouldn't notice that tiny spasm that crossed Nagi's face for a moment. Most people hadn't spent enough time with Nagi. Mamoru had, and that brief spasm told him Nagi knew something about why Aya felt guilty.

Besides, Mamoru had spent years interpreting Aya's mostly minimal facial expressions.

"I don't know. It's Aya," Nagi said, knowing but apparently unwilling to reveal it.

"Maybe he feels guilty that he woke up and his sister didn't."

"Could be. Probably. Farfarello is talking to him about whatever it is. I have to go. I need some alone time for myself. Sitting watch over Aya, Schuldig, and Farfarello doesn't count. This time I won't have to worry about Breaker buzzing me either. See you later."

Tactical mistake, Yoji. No fool, Nagi had jumped for that lifeline and closed the topic. Mamoru could pursue it but didn't think he'd get anywhere at the moment, especially not when bringing it up in front of this group would give the appearance of ganging up and put Nagi on the defensive.

If they became involved again, he and Nagi would always be like this: keeping their teams' secrets from each other, always having some core the other couldn't touch. Could Mamoru deal with that? Since becoming the head of Kritiker and the Takatori family he knew and had resigned himself to the fact that he would have to keep some things from whomever he dated or married but hadn't anticipated his lover doing the same. Did that make him a hypocrite? Perhaps. It wasn't a comfortable thought, either way.

"You know where you're going, Nagi?" Yoji asked.

"Not really. I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for. I just want to get away from all of this for a while. I've been living it for too long."

"Stay safe, Nagi," Mamoru said, even as he let his expression show that he knew more was going on.

"Thank you," Nagi answered, and he ignored the look as he left.

Mamoru would love to ask Elena if she could get anything off Nagi now that he'd left the room, but Sasha would notice, even if Mamoru tried getting her to notice his question telepathically. Life would be much simpler if he could believe that everyone around him had undivided loyalties. It had been many years since he'd thought that possible.

"Let's all take a bit of time off," Mamoru said.

"You gonna do that yourself?" Yoji asked.

"Probably not. I can't afford to. Don't bitch at me about it either."

"Omi."

"Yoji."

"All right. Going."

He appreciated his friends looking out for him. He also wished they could understand how much of this he _had_ to do.

His bodyguards standing nearby closed in to follow him as he walked away. From down the hallway Elena said, ~ Sir, I have the impression that you wanted to ask me something. ~

Mamoru let himself feel unsettled for a moment, especially as he wondered how he'd given himself away to her and if anyone else had noticed, then let himself ask whether Nagi had given anything away on why Aya might feel guilty. Aya's reaction of guilt had been too immediate to be about his coma in comparison to his sister's coma.

~ Sorry, sir. He didn't let anything slip on that. His shields are very good. Living with Guilty, he must practice controlling them often. I would have needed to dig in to get something, and he might notice. ~

Mamoru thanked her and let her know that was all. He hoped she didn't hear him wish he didn't feel the need to use new team members to spy on his occasional lover or wonder why she paid such attention to Nagi's thoughts without an explicit order from him to do so. How many people did she regularly monitor?

******************************************************

Not really calmed, just _still_, Aya felt silent, murky gray, and almost unconnected to his body. Farfarello's head resting atop his and callused fingertips on his arm seemed so distant. Despite the embrace, what really made Aya himself had nothing to do with it. Farfarello only embraced his body. He tried not to think, but it didn't work, not when he had so many thoughts hitting him like dark, rushing water, a drowning force far more compelling than anything happening outside his body.

Farfarello had bound him perfectly. He would be guilty if he lived and guilty if he died.

Aya had known that once. Had known that he had no life beyond what he could do for his dead parents and comatose sister, so he'd done his best to make sure no one would care if he died in the pursuit of his justice. That way he was free to give everything he had, risk everything. Their hungry ghosts and her silent, still body demanded no less from him. He'd found a grim but occasionally heady freedom in that, because it let him do _anything_, enabling him to face obstacles with ruthlessness, a micro-focus, and berserker strength.

Ignorance had been bliss.

He knew now that some people had cared for him all along--more than he'd guiltily cared for them--and their number appeared to be growing. Somehow. Having killed his sister, he didn't deserve to live, but if he died he would cause other people pain. His sister had gone on to a place beyond all cares, but the people he'd leave behind lived and would suffer. He didn't understand it at all, because they _knew_ him. Farfarello had the excuse of insanity; what did they have? Nonetheless, he couldn't cause them that pain, not having suffered through similar, the pain and loneliness of survival, himself. He would have to find a way to live.

He'd _felt_ them, their warmth and voices. They'd _burned_. He remembered Farfarello's voice and touch in the darkness, how they'd kept him from peaceful oblivion, leaving him hating and loving his lover.

What _would_ happen to Farfarello if he died? Although a lot of him couldn't see it as anything other than vanity to think so, the rest of him thought Farfarello wouldn't outlast him for long, especially after having heard how well Farfarello had done with separation in the past.

"How long was I in a coma?" Aya asked softly, needing to know. Farfarello wouldn't have waited long after the battle to go after him.

"About a day and a half." Then Farfarello shook him and said, "You couldn't have done the same to save her. Getting you out took several telepaths, almost everyone you know, and your own quasi-telepathy. Nothing less was waking you up."

Farfarello really did know him, a depressing and cheering thought. Feeling so hopelessly muddled left Aya further disgusted at himself. How could he get anything done or make any decisions when contradictory thoughts and emotions tore at him from opposite directions at every moment? He had no sense of certainty left. Was this temporary or had he damaged himself somehow in the battle? Not that he didn't deserve damage.

Farfarello, still shaking him gently, said, "Stop that. You will get better."

"Is that a threat?"

"A promise. In fact...." Farfarello made a small sighing sound. "We shall have a bath. We haven't been clean for a while."

Aya didn't even bother to wonder if Farfarello might be joking because he knew better. "No baths."

"Definitely a bath. It's necessary. The boy brought clean clothing for us as well. We can change and be fresh."

Although Aya didn't hold out much hope of reasoning with him, he tried with "I can't. Doing something that... felt that good would feel like disrespecting her. I'm mourning."

"So you must wear sackcloth and ashes? She would not want that."

It always annoyed him when people presumed to suggest what his sister would want for him in an effort to change his decisions. "You never knew her." So many people had never gotten the chance to.

"I doubt she was such a sadist and so petty with her only brother."

"You know what I mean."

"You will be made clean and reborn."

Knowing full well what he was pushing, Aya answered, "As in baptism?"

The next shake had more violence in it, although it still stopped short of hurting. "Puisín, I know that you're in a mood, but don't test me more than you have to."

Farfarello pulled Aya from the bed and kept a hold on him. Aya fought him with fists and bodily resistance, but Farfarello was stronger and inexorable while Aya felt tired and faded despite having slept for nearly two days. Keeping Aya in a near headlock with one arm even as Aya beat at him with his fists, Farfarello grabbed a suitcase on a nearby chair and walked them out of the room, moving Aya with him. A guard outside the door stared at them gape-mouthed.

"Bathroom to the left and down the hall?" Farfarello asked. "I was told it had a tub in there we could use."

"...yes."

"Good. We're having some youthful high spirits here before cleaning ourselves up. See you later."

Pride wouldn't let Aya ask for help from a stranger, especially not in this situation. This was fucking humiliating enough without anyone realizing he'd been defeated and so dominated. Better to let this man think this a game or horseplay. Once they reached the privacy of the bathroom Aya could resume his struggle. Farfarello couldn't do everything one-handed.

Although he kicked the bathroom door open and then shut it behind them handily enough.

The moment Aya felt some slack in the grip on him, he angrily broke free and they fought again. Farfarello hit him with the _suitcase_ at one point. Aya couldn't help smiling fiercely whenever he landed a shot that hit flesh with a solid, reverberating impact. Eventually Farfarello had him pinned against the wall, and all of his struggles against his lover's body only made him unwillingly aroused. Farfarello was hard against him as well, although no doubt willingly so.

"We're not doing this," Aya growled.

"I would love to have sex, but I don't think you're ready for it. We will bathe instead."

"And that's _not_ going to lead to sex?"

"No, no matter how much our bodies might say otherwise. I have some sense of what's appropriate."

Aya couldn't help laughing at that, although the sound of his laughter scared him. It sounded too insane and too much like choking.

Farfarello's expression changed, and he gently stroked Aya's hair. "If you need to mourn, I will not get in the way, puisín. I just don't want you to tear yourself apart or lie to yourself. You lost something, but that something was _not_ your sister because she was already gone. You lost a deluded hope."

"...I know." Aya did know, despite his earlier protestations. Nothing he could have done would have made that collection of cells into his sister, the _person_ she had been with all of her experiences. It had been all potential, and deluded optimistic ideas of potential at that. "But I did kill something that _felt_ like her."

"So I will give you some space to work through that, but I will not let you return to the self-destructive wreck you once were, even if all this struggling today has left me feeling a bit nostalgic."

"You miss the fights."

Nuzzling his neck, Farfarello answered, "You're always stimulating in some way."

"...I'll have a bath. A quick, efficient one. No dawdling or decadence."

"You look too tired for more in any case."

"I shouldn't be so tired. I did _nothing_ for nearly two days."

"Lying down not moving with your eyes closed does not mean you rested. In your own way, you still fought."

"I fought you and Schuldig and later, as you said, almost everyone I knew."

"You're fortunate I so often find your fighting spirit endearing. Not here though." Farfarello looked down a little. "Did you want the oblivion so badly?"

"In many ways, yes, although you could hardly call what I was doing at that time 'thinking.' It was instinct." In the harsh light of self-analysis, Aya had to admit, "I was hiding. Like a wounded animal I had gone to ground to conceal myself from anything that would take advantage of my injury... such as life."

"All right. You will bathe and eat and say thank you to the slutkitten."

"What? And don't call him that."

"Fine then. Yoji started the process that brought you out. He appears to have discovered it by accident, but I'm thankful that he figured it out and did what he did. I'm sure he's worried about you and would be happy to see you up and well."

"You support this?"

"I brought him home for you to have and I'm suggesting you see him now, so I must. Don't worry about it. After that, you will rest."

Sometimes Aya really couldn't figure out how Farfarello's jealousy worked. Some things that you'd think would bother him didn't touch him at all. But Aya knew that Yoji would like to see him up. "That's... kind of you. I would like to reassure him."

"That reassures me too."

Really? "Good. You're wearing one of my shirts."

"I wanted to feel close to you. I'll take it off now. You strip too."

As Aya stripped, Farfarello growled softly in approval and ran the water, then stripped as well. The tub was big enough to let two very friendly people sit in it so they bathed together. The hot water and Farfarello's cleansing touches unknotted Aya's body and felt too good. Eyes stinging, he fought back tears and heard Farfarello's comforting murmurs along the back of his neck and at the rim of his ear. Although Aya could feel Farfarello's arousal, his lover kept his promise and did nothing with it. The washing by itself already provided too much pleasure.

Bathing done, Farfarello vigorously toweled Aya dry. "Looking like a roughed-up kitten," he said with a smile. "Your fur is all ruffled."

In response Aya rubbed Farfarello's hair with the towel until it stuck out in all directions. He didn't appear to mind.

Once dressed, they had a quiet meal in the cafeteria. To Aya's relief, Farfarello didn't expect him to talk. His lover seemed content to have him simply be there, sitting at his side and tolerating the presence of his fingers drawing patterns on his back. The patterns tended to be intricate, tight knots, all curves. In more whimsical moments Aya had wondered if his lover traced spells on his body.

Filling his stomach didn't lessen his fatigue, so Aya wondered if he should see Yoji now or nap first and see him later, even though it smacked of weakness. Farfarello said, "This makes things easier."

Yoji stood at the door of their room. "I'm glad to see you up, Aya. How are you feeling?"

"Tired. Thank you for everything you've done. Really. Come in," Aya answered, glancing at Farfarello for a reaction.

From the look on Farfarello's face and the general feel of him, he didn't mind a visit from Yoji at all. His "Aye, do come in" supported that.

Looking surprised and pleased, Yoji said, "Sure," and walked in with them. He smelled of cigarette smoke and cold winter air, familiar.

Farfarello pulled back the covers, saying, "Kitten, get in."

"We have a guest," Aya said.

"He came knowing you weren't 100% and won't begrudge you being comfortable, will you, Yoji?"

"No. The bed looks comfy," Yoji answered. "Is it common for somebody to be tired after what Aya went through?"

"Yeah. You get in bed with us too."

"Say what?"

Farfarello smiled. "To be warmer and more comfy."

"Aya?"

Aya was shocked by the offer himself, but it _would_ be comforting to have them both so near. After what had happened, he felt oddly closer to Yoji, which made him wonder what his links looked like now, but his own comfort meant nothing.

Still, Yoji just lit up, so thrilled and warm that they would let him in so close, so Aya said, "I'm fine with it."

Yoji didn't protest any further after that. Figured.

Aya soon found himself lying in bed between them under the covers, warm. It made him sleepier and a little lighter. "Thank you, Yoji. I'm glad you discovered a way to bring me out." Glad for everyone else's sake, at least. He still felt that he'd gotten off too lightly.

"Sure, Aya. It was nothing. We couldn't leave you like that."

Of course not. Aya would have to live whether he wanted to or not.

He felt so sleepy, and Farfarello was snuggling up behind him....

"You don't have to stay awake for me," Yoji said. "Get some rest and heal. I can go--"

"You don't have to leave for my sake," Aya answered.

Aya could hear a little laughter in Yoji's voice. "All right."

"You should sleep, puisín," Farfarello said.

And Aya did.


	217. "You both grope for answers in strange but similar ways."

Yoji had slept near Aya before after some bad missions, but that had been a safety and proximity thing, not a statement of affection. Yoji had been entwined with Aya in bed before, in New York, but that had been Aya being accustomed to having a grabby lover and thus doing what had become natural in bed while asleep. Having Aya snuggling up to him while conscious, even if barely so, meant a lot more. Trusting him enough to fall asleep while figuring Yoji would be awake while entwined with him had to be brand new territory.

Too bad Aya had to be beaten down so badly to get here.

Then again, maybe Aya figured nothing could possibly happen with his psycho boyfriend on the other side of him on the bed. Yoji only saw the side of Farfarello's head that had the eyepatch, which meant he missed a lot on facial expressions that could give him some idea of what the nutjob thought about the current situation. The slight vibration he had was perpetual and told nothing. His hair looked a lot spikier, but Yoji didn't think that meant anything. Being willing, in front of Aya, to put the three of them in bed together didn't mean Farfarello had to be happy or graceful about it once Aya stopped watching. Yoji would defend himself and Aya if Farfarello stopped staring at the ceiling and lost his mind.

"Scared kitty," Farfarello said softly, still looking upward, only a profile.

"I think you're a menace," Yoji answered as softly, since he had a sleeping Aya under his arm.

"Is that all you think?"

"...no." He knew Farfarello loved Aya completely in his own crazy way. He'd seen it in action, in person and through Schu. It didn't make Farfarello any less dangerous or less likely to act out if something triggered him. He remembered how crazy Farfarello had been that night at the club when he'd threatened Yoji to drive him home and then tried to initiate a crackheaded threesome.

A threesome that Yoji wouldn't have minded at all except for the whole "willingly throwing himself into the Schwarz lion's den to be devoured over and over and needing to be rescued by Aya" thing.

"Then I'll give you some small credit."

"What made him feel so guilty?" Yoji had to ask, even though he had doubts about getting an answer.

Farfarello made a small sound of what might be discontent then rolled over to press himself against Aya's back and onto Yoji's arm a bit, giving a full view of his face. Weird. Farfarello's scars looked light now, while Aya had absolutely none. What the hell had happened to them? Farfarello looked younger and kind of pretty even with the eyepatch and only one visible eye and still had that cracked porcelain doll thing going, and Yoji absolutely refused to go there. Yoji's arms were bare, and the silver hair against his skin tickled. Oh, so not going there.

"Will it help you help him?"

Aya. "Yeah. Damned right."

"Hmm. You know about the box with his sister's remains, aye? Her genetic material."

"What? Yeah. He told me. I saw him... feel them." Which had been freaky as hell.

"She must have had some healing powers in life, because Aya was accessing them just from the material. That's why no scars now." Farfarello stroked Aya's bare, unmarked arm.

Not watching that either. "Okay, had no idea about her."

"We didn't really either, just that she didn't age since going into her coma."

"And that's why your freaky elders wanted her so badly?"

"Yeah, and why we couldn't let them have her."

Yoji still couldn't figure out how many sides and angles Schwarz had been working during that whole thing. "You bastards were going to take her away once we finished off most of the elders for you! What the hell were you going to do with her?"

Farfarello put one finger to his lips in a "shhh" gesture and nodded to Aya, then said softly, "Dunno. I wasn't part of the planning then, at least not on that. Did what I was told. Mostly."

Did Aya have anything to do with that changing? Weiß kept obsessing on how Schwarz had changed Aya--and, frustratingly, how so many of the changes seemed to be for the positive--but what influence had Aya had on Schwarz? Omi had already told him once that Schwarz now focused on crimelords, gangs, and thugs when once they'd just taken whatever job paid best. Had that been in some consideration of Aya's beliefs and tendency to rebel?

Thinking about this made Yoji's head hurt, he doubted he'd get a good answer from Farfarello, and he didn't think they'd gotten to the point on Aya's current guilt yet. "Okay. She was psionic but only Eszett figured it out, and Aya could tap into her like he can with telepaths." No, not getting away from the freakiness.

"I think... telepaths and just her. Because of the blood tie. Not that it was _her_ anymore, just tissue preserved after her death. But my kitten said he felt _her_ from it."

Okay, fucked up and ew and Yoji wanted to scrub his brain. Poor Aya. "He felt it _think_?"

"He felt it... love. He said."

Moving right along, because the longer they lingered the worse the things that came out of Farfarello's mouth. "Something happened to the material during the fight with Breaker?"

Farfarello closed his eye and gently stroked Aya's arm. "We were losing against him. He had too much power and experience. He casually broke down the puppy in between beating the shit out of us."

"The puppy?" Who could keep track of the berserker's little nicknames for everyone?

"Idiot. Fenris."

Yoji decided getting into a bitch match over what a Schwarz called Fenris would just lead to more digressions. Fenris had also confirmed that part about the fight. "You were losing badly."

Farfarello's eye opened, which reminded Yoji all over again how piercing that weird near-yellow could be. "He was killing us. If we died there, our bodies would be brain-dead. Life over. We would die, and Breaker wouldn't have anyone who could challenge him worth a damn since he already had a string he could pull tight on Schuldig to force him to work against us. Game over. Every talent with a Word or anyone who could feel them would be forced to dance to his twisted whims forever. Then again, he also mentioned wanting to study and fucking mold us over. So maybe our minds would still be alive if he could control how violent he got with us, but the end result would the same. The we who we are would be dead, and he would get his enslaved army."

Shit. Kritiker had no idea how close things had been. None of them had. Aya in a coma had not been as bad as what had almost happened. "What changed things? What made the difference?"

"Schuldig. Feels things, knows things in strange ways.... I don't know. He knew Aya was losing his scars and knew why, so he put the box on my kitten's chest and put his hand inside."

"That's really disgusting."

"So is dying at Breaker's hands, teeth, claws, and bullets or being enslaved. Schuldig guessed that Aya could better draw on the material's power and get more strength from it. It worked. Aya strengthened himself, me, and the puppy, then we two beat Breaker down and held him in place for Schuldig to plunder for the words we needed. Aya and I didn't know what Schuldig had done to give us that last burst of needed strength." Farfarello made another small sound. "Maybe my kitten knew right at the end. I remember a look on his face, the pain, but attributed it to the damage we'd taken in the fight."

"What happened?" Yoji asked, trying to prod it along faster.

"The tissue died. In giving us strength, it...." Farfarello sighed. "He must have known even before we terminated Breaker because he reacted as soon as we took him out of the coma. He was so resistant to letting us get him out. He thinks he killed his sister."

"_Fuck_." Poor Aya. Dammit. It kicked Aya right where it would hurt worst. The whole thing was awful and damned macabre. Once upon a time Yoji had thought perverted dark beasts would be the sickest things he could face.

"I've been telling him it wasn't _her_, it would never be her again even if it hadn't expired. It was just stolen flesh, kept alive unnaturally by machines.... But maybe he saw that as being like her life in a coma anyway.... I've told him. No matter what feelings he felt from it, it could never be a person, let alone the sister he knew. I think he knows it. He just won't accept it yet. The grief and guilt are too strong, too ingrained, too fucking familiar. And he's still tired and injured despite my best efforts."

Yoji realized that Farfarello wasn't doing that well himself. He seemed to be tired and worried and in love and feeling kind of helpless over Aya. His body had been lying down, but his mind had been out trying to drag Aya back to life. Schuldig sure had looked like warmed-over shit despite his best front. Yoji doubted Farfarello felt broken up over the demise of the undead sister, competition for Aya's attention and affection, but it obviously hurt him to see Aya in such pain over it. He felt bad for the guy.

Sympathizing with the enemy again. Maybe he did have fucking empathy in addition to a little bit of telekinesis after all.

Farfarello stared at him, doing damned well at putting the weight of a two-eyed stare into his one eye. "What?" Yoji finally asked, although he kept it soft for poor Aya's sake.

"You're a strange one, slutkitten."

"You're one to talk, nutjob."

Farfarello's soft laugh sounded more like a soft bark. A wolf with silver fur and one yellow eye? Fuck, maybe Yoji needed more sleep too. "True," Farfarello said. "He needs... this."

"This? Sleep? Me? Sleep with me?"

The answering growl only affirmed the wolf thought. "No. Yes. Not like that. I don't know. Stop fucking poking me."

Wait, had Farfarello just admitted that at the moment Aya needed more than he could give him? That Aya needed Yoji too?

"No!" Farfarello said, his hand clamping down more on Aya's arm. When Aya twitched and whimpered, Farfarello looked horrified, said a much softer and broken, "No," and whipped around to get as far to the edge of his side of the bed as possible, his back turned to them, as he made little distressed panting and growling sounds that at once broke Yoji's heart and made him worry about werewolves.

In the meantime, Aya had quieted and snuggled into him more. With the left side of his head down on Yoji's chest, you couldn't see Aya's sister's earring or the engagement ear cuff Farfarello had given him in New York. He was just Aya, unmarked, fresh. Currently all Yoji's. Which was a lie because Aya only had to turn over or wake up to bring things back to reality and Aya's boyfriend was making softly despairing and slightly crazy sounds on the other side of the bed.

Yoji sighed as he thought that any books out there that needed a picture to illustrate the word "sucker" really should have his photo. He was feeling sorry for _Farfarello_, nutcase, only recently former enemy, the guy who'd gotten Aya kidnapped so Schwarz could make Farfarello a more docile and controllable killer, the guy who was the iron band around Aya's heart making sure he didn't come back to Weiß. The guy who called Yoji "slutkitten" and openly manipulated him with more brute force and far less finesse and respect than Schuldig did, which made it rankle even more that it still worked. Maybe they could use his photo to illustrate "moron" too.

But Yoji doubted that he could help Aya all by himself either. As much as he didn't approve of it, Aya had given his heart to Farfarello and needed him. "Aya's a complicated guy with a lot of things hurt," Yoji said as a peace offering and hopefully a way to open a dialogue that didn't consist of him talking while the berserker made animal noises with his back turned to him. Or with knives turned _on_ him.

"He thinks too much," Farfarello muttered. "He twists himself around that way."

"Always has. He's hard to help. We tried for years but couldn't make a dent."

"We did better." You could almost hear the smile.

"You needed a 'we' though."

"Hmmm." It sounded part growl, part consideration. "I'm seeing more of why he likes you."

Damned telepaths assuming people followed their thoughts.... "Aya?"

"Schuldig. You both grope for answers in strange but similar ways."

"Should I be insulted?"

"Perhaps." But his back didn't look as tense.

"Wow. Thanks."

"Hnh." Farfarello rolled over to look at the ceiling some more. "Meant this to be your reward for helping us get Aya out, and that it would help my kitten feel better made the idea more attractive."

"My 'reward' was actually a gift for Aya."

"It's not a reward if someone else benefits as well?"

"That is not what I said. You annoy the fuck out of me--" Wait. "You and Schuldig really couldn't get him out on your own, could you?"

Deep, harsh breath in. "...no. We were close to being forced to get out for our own safety and try again another time."

They'd needed his intervention and idea to save Aya. They'd _needed_ him. That warmed Yoji all the way through. Aya made a small, happy sound and snuggled more. Had Aya _felt_ that? Who knew anymore?

Farfarello seemed to, from the darker scowling downturn of his mouth. Schwarz was a team of telepaths, all having their private conversations in front of deaf normal people while smirking at them. But it had another side, didn't it? Aya had a link to Yoji, which was how Yoji got the idea that saved him, and Aya could feel and react to his happiness about being necessary. What should have kept Yoji out of their ranks had actually brought him partly in. Did that make him auxiliary Schwarz? Would he even want to be, even if they'd have him?

Have him. Not _have_ him. Though they'd certainly done that too, not that he'd protested much.

He remembered Aya telling him that he should have someone all his own and being worried that he seemed to be some satellite of Schwarz, living a half-life with them. That had seemed to be almost as large a part of Aya's argument that they couldn't have sex as his fierce loyalty to Farfarello and instinct toward monogamy. Aya loved him. Yoji pulled him in a little closer.

Farfarello sighed. Shit, had he heard any of that?

"Eavesdropping?" Yoji asked.

"Sometimes I try very hard not to. I'm not the mindbreaker. I'm not always On, to my everlasting relief. Don't need to be, not when you're snuggling him like that."

"It's Aya and he's letting me. Only a stupid or crazy man wouldn't snuggle him under these conditions."

"I hate you very much. You don't know how easily I could kill you right now."

"But you know how Aya would react."

"And that's part of why I hate you so."

Enlightening. Also... not the words of a completely crazy man. "You didn't use to be like this. Are you on some kind of medication now?" If Farfarello couldn't kill him, he might as well take advantage.

Farfarello turned over to pierce him with a stare. "You're holding him."

That sounded like a major admission of vulnerability and a threat all at once. Plus, damn, Aya really did have to be Farfarello's sanity for him? "Because he needs it right now."

"Yeah.... I've seen the way you look at him and seen the way you look at me...."

Yoji did _not_ like where this seemed to be heading to. "You're tired. You should get some sleep too."

"Can't. Not when I can't trust--" Then he smiled, dangerous and sexy. Shut _up_, Yoji.

Yoji moved away but not fast enough, not nearly fast enough. Farfarello had a hand in an iron grip on his arm and a mouth breathing hot into his ear and saying, "Sleep with us, Yoji. Sleep with us...." The vibration _was_ perpetual, but it looked like it wasn't always all the way inside Farfarello because Yoji felt some of it _around_ him now.

"I'm not--"

"Sleepy. So sleepy, Yoji...."

No. Oh. Fuck--


	218. "They might find killing you to be cathartic."

Aya jingled as he ran, which he hated when his natural instincts made him strive to be quiet and stealthy unless he wanted a foe to know he was coming. Why did he have the belled collar on? No matter. Right now, with the two of them arguing and seemingly about to come to blows somewhere ahead, the need for speed outweighed stealth.

"Why the hell are you here?" Yoji asked loudly. "Get away from me!"

"No," Farfarello purred/growled.

"You're insane and a pain in the ass!"

Aya hated it when people he cared about behaved like morons to each other. If they wouldn't stop on their own, he would stop them. He dashed out of the darkness into a better lit but dingy and nearly featureless room and slid to a halt between Farfarello and Yoji, making his body a human shield, facing his lover. During his slide in he noted that Yoji had dressed in tight clothing for a night out, though he had his hand on his watch, while Farfarello had his X-mas jacket on along with fingerless gloves, mission gear, and a drawn knife.

"No!" Aya said. Farfarello's belligerent look turned surprised and confused, making him seem much younger. Behind Aya, Yoji started snickering and gasping. "What?" Aya asked.

Farfarello's belligerence returned as he yelled, "Slutkitten, don't throw your fantasies in front of me as a shield! It won't work."

"Don't call me 'slutkitten,' you psycho!"

This could not be tolerated. "What the hell is wrong with you, Farfarello?" Aya growled, which regained his lover's attention.

"Puisín? Really?" Then Farfarello seemed to look deeper into him. "Yes, it really is."

"Who else would I be?"

"You have--" Farfarello made hand motions Aya couldn't interpret, while Yoji kept giggling. It made no sense. And what was that motion Aya kept seeing in his peripheral vision? It kept bothering him, so he grabbed it with both hands.

He held a black tail. It could have been a shorthaired cat's tail if a shorthaired cat had been about the size of a human. It had a red bow with a gold-toned bell tied near the end, and it felt warm and soft to his bare hands. He could also feel his hands on... _through_ the tail. It was _his_ tail?

Yoji got out a breath to say, "That's why I've been giggling. I've had the tail end the whole time. And what a piece of tail it is."

"Yoji!" Aya said. Shit. He remembered Schuldig telling him about some erotic dream Yoji had had about him with cat ears and a tail. Did he have the ears too? Shit. He could kind of feel them moving atop his head as well.

"Never had a pushpin holding it on though."

"Pushpin?" Farfarello asked, looking suddenly and weirdly happy.

"Pushpin," Yoji confirmed. "No idea why."

Aya couldn't see a reason why a living tail he could feel needed to be attached to him by a pushpin either.

"I must see this." As Farfarello started to walk to get behind Aya, Yoji moved to keep his distance and walked to get in front. It made Aya feel as if sharks circled him, which he found very disturbing.

The whole thing felt disturbing. Embarrassing as well. How had he become something out of a hentai game? He had to be dreaming, but this felt so oddly real.... He let go of the tail to reach up to touch one of the ears, which felt just as soft and warm and real and _his_ as the tail had. His sister's earring dangled from it, and when he felt higher up he found the engagement ear cuff as well. He also noticed that he had claws instead of nails, and not even wicked claws, just small, well-shaped ones. He _would not_ reach back to feel where his tail started, not in front of Farfarello and Yoji. When his hand slid down to his neck it didn't surprise him at all to feel his belled collar there.

"I have red hair. Why is the fur black?"

"Matches your personality?" Yoji answered, his twinkle-eyed gaze at him saying full well how _cute_ he looked.

Aya found himself hissing at him. "Thank you for humiliating me."

"It's not! You look great! You always do. You--" Yoji gave him a look similar to one Farfarello had given him recently. "Aya?"

"Yes!"

"You're _really_ Aya somehow, aren't you?"

"Yes!"

Then Farfarello touched Aya's tail and the pushpin, making Aya gasp and instantly turn hard from the sensation. This _could_ get more embarrassing. But it felt so wrongly good....

"Aya?" Yoji asked again.

"I'm fine."

Farfarello hugged him from behind, his body rubbing maddeningly against the too sensitive tail, set his chin on Aya's shoulder, and nearly purred, "Puisín. My puisín."

Aya couldn't understand how a pushpin could make Farfarello so happy, aside from how the pushpin didn't appear to have been part of Yoji's neko sextoy specs. Aya was still ticked off at Yoji's perverted dreaming imagination turning him into a cutesy plaything.

~ The pushpin is from me. It's mine. Despite the shape the slutkitten put on you, you brought this piece of me here. Eeyore, ~ Farfarello answered, hugging madly and happily.

Aya still didn't get it.

~ Later. ~

"This is a dream, right?" Yoji asked.

"Yes. Moron," Farfarello answered lightly.

"Fuck you. But you guys seem kind of real."

"We're in your dream. Really. We're linked."

"You put me to sleep!" Yoji yelled.

"It's not like it hurt you. Or stopped your libido."

"Why am I partly a cat?" Aya had to ask.

"Slutkitten's mind," Farfarello answered. "You're not a telepath, so his mind imposed some shape on you as you came in."

"How many times have I shown up looking like this in your dreams, Yoji?"

"A guy can't be held responsible for his dreams," Yoji said defensively.

"Yes, he can," Farfarello answered, but he still seemed very good-tempered and hadn't loosened his hold on Aya. Aya really hoped Yoji didn't notice his state of arousal from that.

Then again, Yoji didn't even need to see that to get a charge from this, did he? Not when Aya stood in front of him dressed up as one of Yoji's own erotic fantasies and wore one of his tighter pairs of leather mission pants. Yoji's gaze on him burned with lust as well as affection.

"No, he can't. Once or twice, Aya. But I never would have thought of it if I hadn't seen Schwarz's belled collar on you and Schuldig hadn't given those kitty ears as a Christmas gift."

"X-mas gift," Farfarello replied.

"It's whatever gift I say it is, since it's my dream and my mind."

"Hnh." Farfarello rubbed his head against the back of Aya's. "I'm glad I got to see him like this. Thank you, Yoji."

That really set Yoji back. "You're welcome?"

It certainly surprised Aya. "I'm not happy like this."

"Sorry," Farfarello murmured.

The three of them stood there like that for a while. Nothing happened. "So what comes next?" Yoji asked.

"Dunno."

"Hey, I'm not the telepath or dream expert here."

"I'm no expert on either."

"Shit. We're not going to be stuck here like this, are we?"

"Dunno."

Aya felt about as panicked as Yoji looked. "Farfarello, you're the closest thing we have to an expert here," Aya said.

"Hmph. We have to wake up eventually. Maybe we should do something in the meantime."

"Like what?"

Aya could feel Farfarello's smile against the back of his head. "Slutkitten, your dream is a dump. Fix it up."

"One, I am not 'slutkitten.' Two, I wasn't expecting company. Three, what the hell do you expect me to do?"

"Change it."

"I don't know how!"

"Aya has a talent for world building, while I have power. Perhaps we three can make this more hospitable."

"I have some choice in this?" Aya asked, frustrated in several ways.

"Please," Farfarello murmured.

The dream _was_ dingy and lax on details and amenities, just a brown room with no furnishings. "All right."

Aya's frustration eased a bit as Farfarello stopped clinging so tightly in order to offer his hand to Yoji. Aya also put out one of his hands. When they three touched, Yoji closed his eyes and their surroundings gradually changed, opened. The walls faded into a starlit nighttime expanse with gentle breezes, and grass grew beneath their feet, bringing some subtle scent Aya couldn't name. A large bed also appeared amidst the field.

"Consistency from the slutkitten," Farfarello said, not sounding completely displeased.

"I figured you'd want something nicer and more comfortable for Aya," Yoji replied with a sharp smile.

"It's... very pretty," Aya said honestly.

"It is," Farfarello said with a look of quiet and almost awed happiness on his face as he sat on the bed and pulled Aya to sit down with him. At that moment Aya realized that he no longer had boots on and that his toes also had small claws. This was all too weird. Farfarello had his own suddenly bare feet up on the bed atop the covers. The reflective tape on his jacket glowed softly in the night's dim illumination.

Yoji already sprawled on his back with his usual knack for looking comfortable and indolent. "C'mon, lie back, Aya. Get comfy. That's what the bed is here for."

"I can't just lie back. I have a tail."

"You sure do."

"You're enjoying this far too much."

The feel of its movements and the sight of it swishing, jingling all the way, at the corner of his eyes distracted him badly. He hated having body parts that paid little attention to his conscious commands. The tail did not belong to him, yet it had attached itself to his body. With a pushpin? How the hell did that work?

He might as well feel it for himself since he'd abandoned dignity the moment they'd seen him like this. If Yoji and Farfarello had anything to say about it they would face his wrath.

When he touched his tail and the pushpin, both as warm as his body, he felt again that surge of pleasure that made him hard, so he quickly moved his fingers up more to try to feel where his body ended and the tail began. Unfortunately, his pants covered that area. Aya set his hand atop his waistband in back and felt a zipper where he didn't expect one.

"It looks like it's there so you can unzip it down to open the back. That way you don't have to pull the tail through a hole to get your pants on and off," Yoji said, sounding a little too aroused already. "Good idea. Better than you'd ever, uhm--"

"Your other cat Ayas didn't have clothing designed as cunningly?"

"Uhm."

"I see." His tail brushed his hand suddenly, soft and warm, making him jump in surprise. Frustrated, he cursed as he scrabbled with the zipper tab. "I can't do anything with these claws...."

He jumped again as Farfarello and Yoji's hands suddenly settled atop his to help with the zipper, Farfarello's fingers callused in that so familiar way and Yoji's skin softer. Tension stretched taut among them as they all touched, lust thickened in the air, and Aya was appalled and hopelessly aroused, wanting the both of them and knowing they also wanted each other. He remembered Farfarello bringing Yoji home that rainy night in Tokyo....

Aya was truly a beast, his sister dead recently at his hand and he was in _heat_? Yoji had chosen this form better than he'd realized: an animal with urges and parts it couldn't control. She would never know anyone's touch again, while her brother lusted after two men against all measures of decency, restraint, and faithfulness. Farfarello at least he'd made some commitment to, but selfishly wanting Yoji as well? It was disloyal, and Yoji needed to be protected from himself against Schwarz anyway. Aya remembered that he didn't deserve to live.

He realized that they held him, one on each side, clinging, with him in the middle. Farfarello had his head resting against Aya's as he said, "No, you did not kill her, and no, you do not deserve to die for having a body and a life force. You taught me that by enjoying my flesh and yours I take possession of it away from Him. Self-punishment makes slaves of us, especially when we don't deserve the punishment, and you do not deserve the punishment. How many times do we have to tell you we love you before the concept sticks?"

On the other side, Yoji said, "Aya, I had my own ghost, guilt, and obsession with it, and eventually I realized that the people who love us don't want us to hurt ourselves when they're gone. Your sister would want you to be happy. You're a good guy, so stop this self-hatred shit."

Farfarello continued, ~ Eeyore had his tail attached by a pushpin. He was grumpy, pessimistic, stoic, and cynical but also possessed of great compassion. Things around him kept being knocked down, often with him inside them, yet he tried to rebuild. That's your essential spirit when you let it be. Let go of the misattributed guilt and rebuild again with me. ~

"This is _wrong_," Aya answered. They loved him, he could feel it, and they shouldn't. He couldn't understand it.

But somehow he felt a little calmer, a little steadier, sitting with them wrapped around him. He ached a little less inside. They seemed to be satisfied with that as an improvement because they said nothing more for a while and simply clutched him under the illusory night sky and against the cool, illusory breeze.

Maybe... they were right about her and about him. Maybe. He could consider that.

Finally Aya found the strength and will to ask, "Eeyore was a cat?"

"Donkey," Farfarello answered.

What? "I remind you of a donkey?"

Yoji shook a little bit with laughter at Aya's side, while Farfarello said, "Stuffed toy donkey."

"I'm a plaything too?" He couldn't help being offended and seeing some humor in it all at once. Unfair.

"Never my plaything, not really, not since we play with each other." Farfarello set his hand on the side of Aya's face to turn it toward him and kissed him deeply, sweet and consuming, while Yoji made some soft sound. Finally Farfarello rested his forehead against Aya's, murmuring, "It feels like forever since I've had you. Don't let your guilt call it shallow and evil."

It was never just sex, just lust, with them; it also involved love and comfort and a victory over the forces that had twisted Farfarello's body and mind. Would he deny Farfarello forever? Should he? He didn't think he could or should punish his lover for his own shortcomings. An inner voice sneered at how convenient an excuse that was to have sex.

Farfarello looked annoyed. "But if you intend to do it as self-punishment or martyrdom, I don't want it. I won't be the tool of your flagellation."

He'd forgotten that Farfarello did that sometimes, just looked into him and interpreted his thoughts in different ways. "I wouldn't. That would be a horrible thing to do to you." He kissed back, gentler, and set his hand in Farfarello's thick hair to move him closer. It amazed him to be able to feel so much in a dream.

"Uhm, I guess I should find another part of my dream to hang out in," Yoji said.

"You don't have to," Farfarello answered.

"You're going to make him watch?" Aya asked, angry.

"He can participate."

"What?" Aya and Yoji asked at once.

"You've threatened to kill him afterward in the past," Aya said.

"I've changed my mind about that. I like him somewhat, and he... seems to be good for you. He cares for you. I can see his desirable points for myself since he displays them so often."

"I'm with _you_."

"I know that you are loyal and committed to me beyond doubt. That's why I feel safe making this offer."

So the eventual reward for fidelity was a threesome? That made no sense.

"It's not good for Yoji to be an occasional third for two couples in Schwarz. He deserves someone of his own, not leftovers."

"Aya," Yoji interrupted, "I'm good with it. I'm not the kind of guy to turn down an incredible once in a lifetime offer just because it's once in a lifetime. Besides, what you guys have may work for you, but I'd find it kind of smothering. Until I find what's best for me, why can't I have fun with people I like being with?" He had love and some lust in his expression....

"Do I get any say in this?"

"Of course," Farfarello answered. "You get final say. Nothing happens without you."

"I don't like it."

"Relax, Aya. Nobody's pushing you to do anything," Yoji said as he shot a look at Farfarello, who hmphed in return. "Lie back and be comfortable. You know, you can lie on your side."

"I would like the side with the tail," Farfarello said. "It's not something you see every day."

"All right." He still suspected them of trying to pull something on him, Farfarello especially, but he did as they asked, and they settled on either side of him. The bed felt comfortable and he could dimly feel their heat warming him. Aside from the annoyances of his tail sometimes moving at the corner of his eyes and the sound his moving cat ears made against the pillow, it was quite nice.

******************************************************

Such a distrustful kitten, though Farfarello should have expected as much. Aya had been inclining toward yes until he'd brought the slutkitten into it. Then again, Aya might well have stopped at some point after having decided it would be rude to have sex in someone's else dream.

The slutkitten did help Aya at times.

It hurt that Farfarello couldn't be everything Aya needed, but had he really ever been? Yoji had been right about all of Schwarz having to work on Aya, penning him in, giving him attention so he couldn't brood alone, making him angry to fight the depression. Nagi had even fulfilled Aya's need to be a big brother to someone.

The slutkitten deserved some consideration for making this information clearer. He deserved even more for giving Farfarello this view of a more truly feline puisín. The tail was a marvel, while the ears were adorable, especially when they went flat against Aya's head in anger or embarrassment. Could his puisín truly purr?

He wanted Aya badly. He also still wanted the slutkitten, and this time he wouldn't even kill him later unless he did something to really deserve it.

Farfarello watched the tail move and jingle and started to smile as he remembered his puisín's earlier, lusty reaction to having it and the pushpin--Farfarello's pushpin--touched. Maybe if Farfarello played things smartly and subtly he could get everything he wanted.

******************************************************

"Dammit," Schuldig growled.

Crawford turned from his laptop to look at his sleep-rumpled and annoyed telepath. "What's wrong?"

Sitting up, somewhat under the covers, Schuldig had his arms crossed and a pout on his face, which Crawford sternly told himself did not look cute at all. "They were this close to hot healing sex but Aya put a stop to it. Again. What the hell is wrong with him?"

"He's Aya."

"Too true."

"You won't force them to do anything."

"Of course not. That wouldn't be healing sex. That would be sex followed by 'we're going to kill Schuldig.' That's not healing at all."

Crawford had to smile. "They might find killing you to be cathartic."

"Ha fucking ha. Leave the comedy to the experts, okay? They still have a chance to make up for it, so they better not blow it."

"Sure, sure." Hardly an emergency. Crawford turned back to his accounting.

When Schuldig giggled and murmured, "Eeyore!" Crawford refused to even ask.


	219. "Don't puff your tail at me."

Lying next to the actual Aya made up kitty-style, Yoji could kick himself for taking so long to notice the difference before. His past fantasy had been a loose sketch to the full portrait he saw now. Besides, his erotic fantasy had almost been a parody of the old Aya, all prickly, icy hauteur that needed only the right seduction and a good fuck to be melted. Yoji refused to be held responsible for what his subconscious came up with.

Though kitty Aya had usually ended up fucking _him_ one way or another....

Yoji really refused to be held responsible for what his subconscious came up with.

When the actual Aya arrived in the cat drag, his claws surprised him and the movements of his own tail kept driving him insane. The fantasy Aya had been created part-cat, thus had _always_ been part-cat, and thus didn't need to think about its kitty parts. (Did dream fantasies even think? Like, have inner lives? Or were they all some part of Yoji's thinking?)

Yet Aya's pants had been better designed for the tail than the fantasy's had, which Yoji couldn't figure out. How much say had Aya had in determining his look upon arrival?

Where the hell had the pushpin come from and why? It had certainly calmed Farfarello down and cheered him up. He'd looked kind of cute clinging to Aya from behind with a huge smile on his face.

Farfarello cute? Yoji needed therapy more than he'd realized. It made much more sense to think of Aya, especially as he looked right now, as cute and to want so badly to scritch his adorable ears. Would he purr?

But real Aya apparently found the part-cat form embarrassing. While his occasional blushes had been so appealing, that feeling of shame couldn't be helping him calm down and relax. Aya didn't seem capable of changing his form back to his regular self, but Yoji had been able to change his dream surroundings with Aya and Farfarello's help. Yoji wouldn't dare take a chance that messing with Aya's look might mess Aya up, but Yoji should be able to change _himself_ in his own dream to make Aya more comfortable. If Yoji had a little help again.

Farfarello would probably laugh his ass off when he saw what Yoji had decided to do to help Aya. The things Yoji did for people he liked....

Yoji extended his arm, his wrist touching Aya's bare arm and his fingers touching Farfarello's where they rested on Aya's hip. To Yoji's surprise, Farfarello twitched, showing more physical sensitivity than he'd expected from a guy who barely noticed being shot or shish-ke-bobbed with edged weapons. But Farfarello's fingers didn't shy away from his, the most important thing when Yoji needed to draw on his psionic power.

When had his life reached a point where he could think something like that seriously and only realize it sounded strange later?

Yoji closed his eyes and concentrated on what he wanted to do. If he could change a simple empty room into an open night with a sky and stars, grass, breezes, and a cushy bed, he could damned well make some changes to himself.

"Yoji?" Aya asked, sounding worried, incredulous, and near laughter at the same time. That could be good or bad.

When Yoji opened his eyes he saw Aya watching him with an expression that matched his voice and Farfarello's eye gone wide as he sat up and stared at Yoji in surprise and what might be a bit of lust. Yoji saw something moving at the corner of his eye and felt some things moving atop his head. He reached back to feel a fluffy cat's tail--good thing he hadn't appeared wearing one of his long coats in this dream--and reached atop his head to feel two kitty ears. Success! No claws, but he didn't mind that. Claws and sharper, pointier teeth looked good on Aya, but Yoji didn't play that.

"Of course you're fluffy, slutkitten," Farfarello said.

For some reason, Yoji had just had enough now, and he took his hand away from Farfarello's. "Most of the things you say to me are nasty for no good reason. I'm tired of it, and I wouldn't even bother with you if not for Aya."

Farfarello actually looked surprised and then looked upset and nearly "kicked puppy" when Aya said, "Farfarello, you're obnoxious to him sometimes. I've mentioned it before as something that upsets me."

Farfarello subsided behind Aya, almost as if hiding, so only his hand on Aya's hip remained visible, then his hand also disappeared. Yoji felt bad about him getting a smackdown from his lover in front of someone else. Wait, what the hell was wrong with him? Farfarello had insulted him over and over, Aya had agreed that it sucked (and defended Yoji in the past!), and Farfarello _should_ get his nose smacked.

"They match your hair, Yoji," Aya said, seemingly ignoring Farfarello.

"Of course," Yoji answered, "because I'm classy like that." Why were Aya's eyes moving like that? Watching something? Watching Yoji's tail move! "Hey, don't pounce my tail! Unless you're going to pounce my _tail_."

That got Aya's attention. "I didn't intend to do any such thing," he said, sounding a little huffy. But his eyes kept roving a bit, as if hypnotized.

This could be fun as long as Aya didn't get too rough. Just thinking about getting pounced, Yoji felt his tail sway more, out of his control. Speaking of out of control instincts, Aya had apparently reached a point where the tail swayed too much for him to be able to fight his cat nature down anymore, and he leapt for it, jingling. Even semi-expecting it, Yoji freaked out and reacted as he would to an attack, so they rolled on the bed struggling for a while until Yoji found himself flat on his stomach with Aya sitting heavily on Yoji's thighs and holding his fluffy tail, occasionally combing some of the fur with his fingers as he purred, his body vibrating directly against Yoji's ass. Yoji could see Aya doing it if he turned his neck enough, and he sure as hell felt it all. He couldn't get Aya off.

Don't go there.

Hard, aching, and frustrated, Yoji was seconds away from abandoning any remaining shreds of dignity to hump the mattress while Farfarello watched and Aya sat on him. Farfarello would taunt him for life? Whatever will be will be. It would upset Aya--who had to be inhuman to be able to abstain from sex so easily no matter the stimulation--to see and feel it? Yoji didn't care so much right now; he just wanted some relief. His sleeping real-world body might be dying of blue balls at this very moment. His sleeping real-world body didn't even have to deal with having a tail as a new erogenous zone.

No, he would wait. Aya would snap out of it and be horrified soon, then put some distance between them. Yoji expected that, even as he mourned it a bit. As much as the tease and frustration factors got to him, he liked Aya being sensual, even if it showed itself in a weird way. Aya should touch people more often.

Yoji wondered if Aya didn't touch people to try to limit the effects of his undiagnosed psionic talent that he might have had for years. Maybe he'd unconsciously tried to protect himself. It seemed terribly sad that he had to deal with it by himself.

Yoji noticed Farfarello watching Aya with such lust, love, and _pride_ in his expression. People had looked on Yoji with lust and love, but had anyone felt pride over him recently? The risk of being emotionally and mentally smothered might be worth it for that.... Then Farfarello watched the both of them with a look that made Yoji harder.

Aya abruptly let go of Yoji's tail and stopped purring, which suggested that he'd returned to his usual state of mind. "I'm sorry...."

The bed dipped as Farfarello moved to be near them, so close that Yoji felt body heat from him across his hip. "You have nothing to be ashamed of," Farfarello said as he stroked one of Aya's ears and smiled as he purred lightly. "I love to see you freer and less held back."

Aya yanked his head away from the stroking fingers. "This isn't really me, though. You like me better this way, don't you, sluttish and almost helpless against it?"

"I like it better when you openly enjoy my touch, aye."

Nice manipulative shot there. It made Yoji want to growl.

Yoji felt Aya shudder on top of him--dammit--before Aya said softly, almost brokenly, "I'm so messed up."

"No, no," Farfarello murmured, then hugged and kissed him, the two of them moving along Yoji's body in two different areas in very distracting ways.

So they manipulated _each other_ (and him if he were there)? Did that make it right or better? Did Aya even do it consciously?

Aya needed hugs and comforting, but how long should Yoji let them have their Moment before he demanded they get the hell off him and stop teasing?

"Yoji, I'm sorry," Aya said. At least he'd noticed on his own without Yoji having to struggle to bring it to their attention.

"I wouldn't mind so much if you did something while you were there," Yoji answered, striving to sound lighthearted instead of frustrated.

"We haven't forgotten you, kitty," Farfarello said with a smile before he ran his hand down Yoji's side, making Yoji shiver, especially when it glided over bare skin.

"Farfarello!" Aya said, sounding annoyed.

All right. Enough already. Yoji asked, "Farfarello, can I talk to you somewhere privately?" He hoped Aya interpreted the expression on his face as "I'm working to make things better for you" but having to turn his head to do it over his own shoulder made it harder to tell.

Aya dismounted, so maybe he did get it. Yoji tried not to feel too disappointed by the loss of that longed-for body pinning him. It wasn't as if he'd be getting more than that from the way things had been going. Farfarello pouted, once again heading into that disturbing, almost cute territory, even with the facial scars. Yoji hadn't thought he had that much more brain left that hadn't already been broken, but Schwarz kept proving him wrong.

Still, it felt great and safer to be upright and able to see everybody again without having to crane his neck around. No matter how hot some part of him found being pinned to be, he liked having some sense of control of his own destiny. Even if it turned out to be an illusion.

Then Farfarello had to ruin it by following him away from the bed at a small distance, putting himself at Yoji's back again, which made Yoji's tail twitch from the nervousness and dislike he felt. Farfarello seemed to have a fetish for making people feel uncomfortable.

This handy copse of trees--far enough from the bed that Aya wouldn't be able to hear them or possibly read their lips but close enough that Aya could see them and they could see Aya--would be a good place to talk. Weird to _feel_ grass under his feet and between his toes as he walked.

Farfarello started off with "Bad enough that my puisín is letting his guilt dictate what he does, but now you're obstructing matters as well? You?" The implication being that the "slutkitten" wouldn't say no to any proposition that came his way.

Yoji's condescending smile back, all teeth, felt like a snarl too, and he hoped it came across that way. "Maybe you've gotten him," _forced_ him, "to do a lot of things by pushing him hard and at inappropriate times, but this is the _most_ inappropriate of inappropriate times to change the boundaries of your relationship with him, especially since he's already refused, several times, to bring me in on what you guys have together." Which hurt, but some people practiced monogamy for some reason. "Sudden changes panic Aya and put him into a major over-thinking brood state."

Farfarello's teeth-baring response also had the condescension and snarl in it. "You think I don't know that by now? I'm far closer to him than you are."

For quantity of moments, maybe, but Yoji had gotten some quality time in, especially in New York.

"Don't puff your tail at me," Farfarello said.

Yoji's tail _had_ gone into full fight display. "I puff my tail at whomever the hell I feel like doing it to."

"Another point I have with you. I thank you for giving me such a vision of my kitten, but I do not thank you for helping him deny himself to me. I do not thank you for teasing me as well!"

Yoji just had to look back at Aya, who, while watching them with curiosity and anxiety, sat back on his heels on the bed with his very visible cat ears and waving tail and the faint jingling of his bells in the breeze. He looked funny, adorable, and sexy all at once.

"You'd push him into doing something he really doesn't want to do just to get your shot at fucking him while he looks really kitteny?" Yoji knew he wouldn't get a happy reaction to that verbal shot, so he had a telekinetic shield up and protecting him as Farfarello tried to stab him.

"He is also freer here than he is in the waking world. I could have already had him like this if not for mentioning you! He wants you and feels guilty for it, but he _does_ want you!"

Maybe, but Farfarello's comment about Yoji had just penetrated as well. Aya wanted him, and Farfarello _also_ wanted him. This threesome offer wasn't unselfish and a case of Farfarello throwing himself on a grenade for his lover. Aya's refusal had played on monogamy and fidelity on his side and not wanting Yoji to be a sextoy, but what if some of it had to do with worrying that his lover didn't consider him satisfaction enough? Yeah, Farfarello had made Yoji come back to Schwarz's home with the intention of having a threesome, but that night had seemed like straightforward lust and curiosity, while this time had a feeling of something _more_ to it. Maybe Aya had felt that too.

Yoji didn't want to get between them. Okay, he _did_ want to get between them a lot of times but in a rescuing Aya way, not in a making Aya feel insecure way.

"That can't be it!" Farfarello protested.

Telepathy worked in dreams too? Great.

"I made it clear to him then that I felt only lust for you but him I love. We've shared souls, he and I. He has nothing to be insecure or jealous about."

"That's really flattering. Thanks," Yoji had to answer.

"He feels affection for you," Farfarello said, his tone of voice saying he found the idea somewhat offensive.

While Yoji had already thought that, hearing it from someone who would really know made it even better. "It makes sense. I look out for him. Plus, I'm completely lovable." And Yoji had no problems playing well or sharing with others, unlike someone standing in front of him that he could name.

Yoji had never really thought about it, but speaking to a one-eyed man could be strange. He usually focused his eyes to the center of a person's face when he talked to him, but with Farfarello his gaze kept turning to the remaining eye to make eye contact. It made him feel a bit paranoid about what Farfarello might try to pull with his left hand while Yoji looked elsewhere, and that was an amazingly stupid thought to have while standing near an enemy telepath.

Farfarello looked healthier lately than Yoji had ever seen him before, with fewer scars and the remaining scars fainter, with more healthy color in his skin when before he'd had an almost corpselike tone. Still, nothing would be fixing whatever that eyepatch hid well enough for him to have two seeing eyes again. Farfarello had all kinds of psionic powers lately that he surely would have used against Weiß, if he'd had them back when Schwarz and Weiß had been fighting all the time, if he'd known about them then. He must have been undiagnosed for ages, and how that could even be possible within Schwarz Yoji didn't know, but that seemed to be what had happened. If not for bizarre circumstances that led to his psionic ability being discovered, would Aya, undiagnosed, have ended up crazy and so badly scarred?

Actually, hadn't Aya ended up close to that?

Farfarello's eye currently moved in an odd way, back and forth, watching something-- Yoji said, "Stop watching my tail like that!"

"It's so fluffy and so there." Farfarello smiled, part malice, part innocent glee.

No way. Innocent? Yoji's brain needed an adjustment. It had to be faulty or something. "You don't want to make any moves that would upset Aya." Neither sex nor violence.

"Hmph."

With everybody finding his tail so compelling, Yoji damned well wanted to touch it himself. It was his tail, so he should have the right to molest it. Its end oblingly curved to hang near the right side of his head and brush against his cheek. So soft and nice. It had his natural hair color with a bit of the expert highlighting that Kaori did for him. He stroked it with his hands to get that same soft and nice feeling and found himself purring in pleasure. He even enjoyed how the purring felt, the way its vibration rumbled through his chest and throat.

"Stop teasing," Farfarello snarled, looking angry and lustful.

"I'm doing this because I'm enjoying it. You have nothing to do with it. Not everything is about you."

For a moment Farfarello gaped at him before his expression turned to rage. At that moment the reflective tape on the sleeves of his jacket seemed to glow brighter, making the English words of "CAUTION  DO NOT CROSS" on them more obvious. Dream world meant dream rules, and Farfarello had more knowledge and power here. Still, Yoji refused to back down, especially not when this was _his_ brain they currently lived in and he and his friend in danger of being hurt. He wouldn't back down from the truth just to make Farfarello happier. No matter where you were, if you let the other person define your world and its rules you made it harder to fight for yourself.

Yoji heard a faint jingling only a moment before Aya put one hand on his shoulder and the other on Farfarello's. How had Aya avoided jingling all the way over when he had two bells, one of which hung from a tail Aya hadn't seem to have much control over? Oh, right, Aya had secret ninja abilities or something. Whatever, Aya looked adorable with his swiveling ears and waving tail. Yoji really needed to pet him more.

"There's no reason to argue," Aya said as his grip tightened to the point of pain, a pain that Farfarello seemed to feel as well. "We're all here to feel better... right?"

"That's what I'm here for," Yoji answered.

"Aye," Farfarello mumbled, looking chastened. At least Yoji figured he did.

"Good. We have this very pretty setting, so I say we enjoy it." Aya suddenly looked worried. "Wait. What is--" He disappeared.

Yoji and Farfarello went batshit at about the same moment, both yelling, "Aya!"

Yoji felt like someone had touched his face even though no one had, then woke up in bed with an awake Aya and Farfarello as one of the women who'd taken care of Aya, Schuldig, and Farfarello just about jumped away from the bed. "I'm sorry!" she said. "It's just that I didn't know if you'd fallen back into--"

"We didn't," Farfarello snarled. "Back away from us until you leave the room, then just _go_." It looked like somebody hated missing his chance for hentai dream sex.

She looked disgruntled but still did as he commanded, leaving the room in a hurry. Aya said, "That wasn't necessary."

"It _was_," Farfarello replied.

They didn't have kinky kitty parts, but Yoji was in bed with Aya, who kept snuggling into him even while awake. Maybe he'd get a shot at sex with real Aya done kitty-style another time, but he liked what he had right now too, especially as he ruffled and stroked Aya's deep red hair without hearing any complaints. Aya's surrenders worked best and lasted longest when Aya had been given a chance to look at the situation from all angles and decide on his own that what you wanted was what he wanted too.

"No more dreaming," Aya said. "No tricks."

When Farfarello kept pouting and grumbling to himself, Aya grabbed his arm and pulled him in to snuggle too. At first Farfarello remained stiff and obviously hating it the whole time, but gradually he relaxed and snuggled with Aya and a little with Yoji too. Aya just needed time and the chance to gradually work his way along; the sooner Farfarello figured that out, the happier they'd be together. Also, the less obnoxious Farfarello would be.

Yoji eventually fell asleep again while stroking Aya's hair and parts of Farfarello's hand.

******************************************************

"Dammit," Schuldig snarled.

"No healing sex?" Crawford asked. As if he couldn't tell. He turned away from his accounting to see Schuldig in full pouting form. There should have been a black cloud floating over his telepath's head, perhaps with a rumble of thunder and little lightning bolts threatening to strike.

"No healing sex. No sex of any kind, just a little snuggling. It might even be healing snuggling, but I wanted hardcore porn! With three people I'm linked to getting it on, it would create a huge spillover to me and if I got you to get it on with me at the same time it would be even better. The five of us could have had a kind of orgy, and Nagi would hate us for it. How can I avoid being pissed over losing out on all that?"

"Three?" Which three-- He didn't want to know.

"Yeah. And two of them had kitty ears and tails!"

Crawford really didn't want to know.

"I've been gypped," Schuldig said, the look on his face suggesting that only vengeance would soothe his affronted soul.

Crawford had mostly finished the accounting. He could feel something nagging at the edge of his brain, trying to be remembered, but figured that it wouldn't come clearer until it felt ready because his attempts to grab it hadn't been successful so far. Ignoring it for a while might bring the nagging thing up to the surface.

Schuldig, set on vengeance, didn't care about innocent bystanders or any standard of decency. Rather, he cared even less about them than usual.

Besides, Schuldig hadn't been available to him in _days_....

"There can still be sex," Crawford said. "Sex right here."

In seconds Schuldig's pout changed to an evil, flirtatious smile, showing teeth. "Sex right now?"

"I think it's possible."

Just like that, Crawford had Schuldig, sensual and predatory, sitting on his lap facing him. "'Possible' isn't good enough, Brad. You're the man with the plans, so...."

Grabbing Schuldig by his hips and pulling him in closer had the wonderful added effect of rubbing his telepath against his hardening cock. "I have the plans. Let's make them happen."


	220. "Nostalgia?"

Wicked wanted to get this job done quickly. Go in, find the body, _don't_ find any minions waiting, grab the body, and go. They had the address already since Persia had put his people to narrowing down choices almost as soon as Schwarz reported Breaker's defeat. It wasn't like Wicked was getting paid by the hour, and he could feel the Kritiker mundanes with him in the other car and the others in the van hating and fearing him as if he had some kind of cooties. They shouldn't need a telepath with them; they were professionals with a lot more experience than he had! Persia wasn't even local, so what right did he have to order them around like this! This was German trouble, not Austrian, so why did the damned Germans have to drag it to them! Such whiners. They could all kiss his fabulous ass, especially the guy next to him who couldn't stop muttering about how unnecessary this was.

Finally, Wicked reached the breaking point on that and said, "Yeah, I'd rather be in my hotel room fucking my boyfriend, but the higher-ups thought this was more important."

That shut the man up but increased the mental hate. Wicked just couldn't win. Could he kill them all? He _could_ but shouldn't. Persia better figure out how thin his welcome here was wearing. Wicked wondered if he'd get extra pay for letting the guy know.

Wicked cruised the agents' minds to find out who the fastest and best gun was. That could be tricky, since he wanted the actual best, not the guy who thought he was. Okay, Hellbrugge had the best aim and fastest reflexes. Good to know. In the absence of having a real partner along for the ride, Hellbrugge would have to do if Wicked needed backup.

Although Wicked thought longingly of having Malice at his side, he knew why it wouldn't work. Malice still had a word, and nobody knew who might be waiting with Breaker, still armed with the words. Meanwhile, Schwarz was faffing about somewhere doing who cares what and wouldn't want to give him Schuldig or the luscious Aya as a partner anyway.

Once they reached the place, Kritiker let him go in first, because the head-guy, Pfender, figured it made strategic sense to have a telepath make sure other telepaths didn't lie in ambush. It was the whole reason Persia had hired him to go along. Pfender seemed decent. The other Kritiker guys here figured it was a good idea because they were wise-asses and hoped to see his ass get shot off. Bastards.

A knife in hand, he set his back to the walls as he investigated rooms that looked like they could belong to anyone's home. No weirdness here, nor talented people waiting to kill, at least not so far. Kritiker agents followed after him, some pointing in amusement at his knife, making him wish he could give them a demonstration of why giving a semi-automatic to someone with his speed and excitable temperament was such a bad idea. The knives forced him to slow down, pick his exact target, and focus.

Wicked found what might be Breaker rotting in the dining room. The corpse was seated at the table with its face down on it. He couldn't sense a mind still working in it, which made precise identification for harder. The hair looked right, but Wicked didn't trust easy setups and definitely didn't trust Breaker. What Schwarz had done sure as hell should have killed Breaker, but having proof was always better.

"Does anybody have a long stick?" Wicked asked. "A curtain rod will do. Just take the curtains down. Or do I have to do everything?"

_That_ poked the agents the right way, although it sure as hell didn't make him more popular. Whatever. After a few minutes Hellbrugge brought a curtain rod, stripped of curtains, over to him. Why couldn't more people be helpful like that? Wicked jiggered the rod so it would stay at that length instead of telescoping--and Malice thought the collection of rubber bands, paperclips, and whatever other interesting things he kept in his coat pockets was useless!--then used it to move the corpse for better viewing. Yeah, that still looked like Breaker's face.

"Him?" Pfender asked.

"Sure looks like Breaker," Wicked answered. "Of course, we're bringing him back for DNA analysis to be sure."

Wicked only felt a moment of something flashing in his head before he turned and threw the rod, smacking a telepath who couldn't do a notice-me-not and fend off a weird attack at the same time. Too bad for him that Wicked had to make split-second decisions all the time. Too bad for him that Wicked had gone into speed-time, managed to read the guy's affiliation with Breaker out of his head, and thrown a knife into his eye, following it up with a close-up takedown that made sure the knife went in deeply enough to stop the guy from ever getting up again. Sitting on top of the corpse, Wicked had to say that ruptured eyes spurted all kinds of interesting fluids, especially when you put a knife into one all the way to the hilt.

Wicked felt another flash, put another knife in his hand in case he had to make the kill himself, and yelled, "Hellbrugge, another one behind you!"

Just like a good boy, Hellbrugge turned and shot the other attacking talent dead. Maybe Kritiker agents could really be helpful to have around. Some of them.

Scanning didn't show any more telepaths hiding themselves or others, so Wicked allowed himself a "_That's_ why you brought me." He put one knife away and pulled out and cleaned the other on his target's shirt just in case someone else hid from his scans, even as he let himself come down from speed-time. Living at speed-time all the time burned bodies out faster. Inability to shift down and the resultant early burnout had been the second largest cause of death in Wicked's part of the Guilty line so far, right after suicide.

Pfender looked happy. A lot of the Kritiker agents looked very, very unhappy. Wicked got the feeling that the unhappy agents would lead to very bad things in the future. Bastards.

At least no one asked _him_ to carry the bodies out to the van. Being full of freak cooties made some things easier.

******************************************************

Yoji woke up as part of a snuggle pile, which made him smile. Not even Farfarello could resist the Yoji charm, and asleep he was a lot less threatening too. Unfortunately, while Yoji liked and enjoyed this, he couldn't stay in bed lounging around anymore; he felt the need to get up and do something. Although many people would be shocked to hear it, he felt too wasteful lying around idle. He had too much energy! Aya would laugh.

As Yoji got up, Aya murmured, "You don't have to go."

That almost made it worthwhile to stay. "I can't stay. Too restless. Besides, Vienna's calling." He wondered what Vienna's nightlife would be like.

"All right. Don't get into trouble."

"Me?"

Aya just gave him a _look_.

"Fine, fine. I'll try." Feeling daring, testing the new boundaries, Yoji kissed Aya's cheek, then grinned when he didn't hear any objections to that. "You know that if you need me you just have to call for me, right?"

Aya smiled his small smile, although here it also looked sleepy and kitteny, sweet. "I'll keep that in mind."

"You better."

Aya's smile sharpened into something more predatory. "Farfarello will be sorry he missed you leaving."

It amazed Yoji that Farfarello hadn't woken up through all this, especially since Yoji didn't get many happy surprises. "We'll survive somehow. Good night, Aya."

"Good night, Yoji."

As Yoji put his shoes and coat on and left, he felt great. He'd done a lot of good today and even been rewarded for it.

******************************************************

Farfarello tightened his embrace and murmured, "Took him long enough to leave."

"You could have said good-bye too," Aya said. Farfarello had been awake for the last two minutes of it.

Sleepily nuzzling the back of Aya's neck, Farfarello answered, "It's not my way."

"Excuses."

"Perhaps. Still, did you want another fight to break out?"

"Not particularly." He hadn't teased Farfarello about being cowardly with Yoji because he didn't want to fight with Farfarello either. "I want to get more sleep." He did. Sex could come at a time when he felt less bruised on the inside.

The sound Farfarello made against the back of Aya's neck sounded disgruntled, but after that he replied, "As you wish."

******************************************************

Needing clothing he hadn't slept in, Yoji returned to his room before starting his night on the town, because he refused to do this kind of thing half-assed. The people of Vienna deserved his best!

At the door he started to wonder if Sasha had gone to sleep here, since Sasha didn't always come to their hotel room. If he had, Yoji really didn't want to wake him up. At times like this, it would be great to be a telepath.

He quietly opened the door to a dark room, which could mean anything. Crap, he had to find his suitcase to get his clothes.

"Yoji, just get in here and turn on the light." It sounded like Schuldig's voice but not quite.

"Sasha?"

"Yeah."

"Were you sleeping?"

"I was."

"Sorry." Yoji closed the door behind him and blinked at the sudden rush of light in the room. "You didn't have to turn the light on."

"Might as well." Blinking, crazy-haired, Sasha looked very cute. "Why are you-- It's the hair again, isn't it?"

"It's cute!"

"Bedhead, especially mine, looks unprofessional."

"You're going to sleep. What do you have to look professional for?"

Wait, Sasha could read minds. Did he know that Yoji wanted to go out? Did he want to go out along with him? Yoji didn't actually want company for this, because going out with people meant you looked out for them while going out alone meant you could go where the night and your newfound friend or friends might take you. Besides, Sasha would have to wash up, groom, and get dressed, which would take more time. How could he express it to Sasha without sounding selfish? The kid was fresh off the street and just found people who wanted him around, so he might be a bit fragile.

He might be reading Yoji's mind right now.

Yawning, Sasha said, "Whatever you're thinking that you're not feeling good about, don't worry. I'm not reading you. Also, I'm not reading you at the moment because you get this look in your eyes when you're thinking something like that and you have it going on right now."

"I'm totally fucking obvious? Great skill for an assassin to have."

"We all like it. Besides, you're more than an assassin."

Better to just get it out there. "Sasha, I'm going out for the night. I don't know when I'll be back in, so don't worry about me." That implied "Please don't invite yourself" nicely, at least Yoji thought so, but Sasha might not take the hint.

"Tha's okay. More bed space for me. Now that I have a room and a bed I don't have to worry about getting thrown out of, sleeping is my new favorite hobby."

Now Yoji felt bad. "Hey, Sasha--"

Sasha made a shooing motion. "Go. Party. Whatever. Enjoy yourself. I'm gonna sleep."

Yoji had been cool, even suave, once. Actually, he'd always been something of a dork but he'd put on a better act once. "I need to get dressed first."

Yawning wider, Sasha answered, "Okay," then buried himself under his blankets.

Knowing that clothing had to be chosen carefully, especially for a night out in an unfamiliar city, Yoji brought his suitcase into the bathroom with him so he could spend more time on it without the guilt of wondering if he kept Sasha awake. It had to be alluring and inviting without being too slutty or desperate, stand out in a good way but not look so outré that people might find it ridiculous. Few of the people Yoji worked with understood the effort he always put into his going-out outfits. He decided on pants that were tight but not too tight or low on his hips, a good pair of leather boots, a shirt that would only show off his midriff if he stretched upward, and a quiet bit of jewelry at his neck and one wrist. He put it on after he had a quick shower. A little gel tamed his hair somewhat. He looked forward to the day when it had grown out enough.

When he walked out of the bathroom he saw that with the blankets pulled up only a tuft of Sasha's bleached hair remained visible. After days of being treated with Yoji's costly conditioner it looked a bit softer. "I'm leaving," Yoji told the Sasha lump as he grabbed his coat and turned out the light.

"Mmm-hmm," Sasha answered.

Yoji figured on drinking--after the last few days he needed it--so he picked up a bus. To his surprise, Nagi got on not long after him. At the look on his face, Nagi said, "I got tired of cafés. If you want to hunt the clubs alone or whatever, you can pretend you never saw me."

"You don't seem to be the clubbing type."

"I have to be in the mood. Besides, I usually didn't attract the right attention in them."

Was Nagi checking up on him? It made sense and it didn't. Nagi seemed to like him a bit, but Nagi was Schwarz, and Schwarz didn't do favors without expecting something in return.

"But you're willing to give it a try now?"

"I never tried a club in Vienna, and I look older now."

Yoji didn't like the sound of the last part of that. What kind of crap had a younger-looking Nagi put up with at clubs? Yoji didn't like his guesses.

Checking up could go both ways. "We could start prowling together and see how it goes on both sides. If one of us doesn't like it, we split up."

"Sure."

Yoji hadn't always been such a bleeding heart for everyone, and life had been easier when he'd only been chivalrous toward women. He could probably blame his recently discovered bisexuality for this too.

******************************************************

Mamoru had actually gotten and used a hotel room for the night but didn't seem to be sleeping any better. He could've just stayed in his office.... Still, having a bathroom he didn't have to walk down a public hallway to definitely had its appeal.

Yawning and scratching, Mamoru turned on the light to the bathroom and saw a flash of orange hair and black leather. Before he could backpeddle too well a member of the Orange line pulled him inside by his pajama top and kicked the door shut, making Mamoru resentful all over again that he worked around so many people who were so much taller than he was. He had a dart ready in his hand--

"If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead. I'm actually in your employ and here to deliver some news," the crazy-haired Orange liner said as he let Mamoru go. "I'm Wicked."

Good to hear a name, because otherwise Mamoru's brain would have kept labeling the face and voice "Schuldig," and he had issues with Schuldig. Also, he still had trouble telling the Orange and Guilty liners apart person by person.

Mamoru didn't entirely let down his guard but relaxed his body a little, although he couldn't help growling softly, "Why the hell do I even bother with guards at my door?"

"Nostalgia?" Wicked answered, apparently having heard. He sat on the edge of the sink and looked very comfortable, almost lounging there, a sensual and vivid presence.

How could regular people defend themselves against this? Once you introduced psionics into an area, everyone had to have some just to defend himself and would want more powerful ones, which turned it into a kind of arms race that used people as weapons. Europe already had such a situation, and Mamoru had previously brought enough of them to Japan that it would start there too. Now he pondered bringing hundreds more....

Wicked had done work for him in the past and seemed friendly enough now that Mamoru felt free to say, "I need a telepath of my own."

"Of course you do, not that Malice and I are on the market for it. We're getting out as soon as everybody pays us what they owe and we get Malice's word taken off."

All the psionics would be much less tense after they had their words neutralized. "I've been waiting for Schwarz to start handing out the cure on that. I think they may need some prodding."

"Won't get any arguments from me. As for good telepaths for you, you might want to ask Sasha for ideas. He's been hanging around taking the pulse of everybody lately. Or ask Antipathy."

Mamoru missed having Nagi at his back but knew that as long as Schwarz existed Nagi would want to primarily be with them, while Mamoru needed someone who could be more available. Sometimes life really sucked. Actually, it sucked a lot more than sometimes.

Mamoru remembered what job Wicked had recently been hired for. "You went out with the detail that would bring what we hope is Breaker's corpse in. How did that go?"

"It seems to be Breaker. Looks like him. The body's been sent to the morgue for autopsy and DNA testing. We found two telepathic surprises waiting in ambush but we nailed both of them. Actually, some things came up there that I think you should know about. A lot of people in this Austrian part of Kritiker are getting tired of cleaning up what they see as a German mess dragged into their city and taking orders from a Japanese man. It's probably a good thing for you that not all of them know how young you are because they'd probably resent that too. You're wearing out your welcome."

Mamoru had seen the possibility but expected to have more time before it started. It looked like he really needed to poke Schwarz about handing over a cure for the words so he could get moving. "Is there anything else?"

"A lot of them have a major hate for people like me, and the more they see what we can do the more it grows. They might start trouble about that too."

"Thanks." Why had Wicked come to him about this? He had no loyalty to Kritiker and could have kept it to himself.

"I thought you might appreciate a warning so you could prepare yourself. Don't look at me like that. Your shields are pretty good for a mundane and I'm not prying, but you're loud at the moment." Wicked slid off the edge of the sink and straightened his coat a bit. "Just... think well of us, ya know? We're individuals no matter what we look like. Good night." Wicked walked out of the bathroom and no doubt right past the guards in the hall who guarded the room's main doorway.

Mamoru really needed a personal psionic of his own.

Of course, Wicked was Schuldig's clone, and Schuldig was apparently one of Eszett's most powerful telepaths. Not all telepaths could make walking out unnoticed happen that easily.

Think of them as individuals and rate them accordingly. During the day it was easier to deal with Schuldig purely in a professional capacity, based on his talents, and ignore the small army of young men who looked so much like him, but at night Mamoru couldn't help but remember Ouka dying in his arms just as he'd finally felt that he'd found family. Farfarello had shot her instead while aiming for Mamoru, but Schuldig had given him the gun.

In his guilt, certain that she'd still be alive if she hadn't connected herself to him, Mamoru had gone over the events of that night over and over but couldn't quite make everything add up. The more he'd seen of Schwarz's abilities the more certain he'd been that Schwarz could kill them at any time but abstained for their own reasons. Now Mamoru felt certain that Schwarz had let them live and kidnapped Aya's sister to lead Weiß into killing Eszett's elders and preventing them from bringing a demon into the world.

But why had they killed Ouka? She was the daughter of the man they'd seemed to be working for at the time: Takatori Reiji. Why make it look like a bullet meant for Mamoru instead? If Schuldig had shot his aim would have been true, but he'd given the gun to Farfarello instead, who didn't use them, and another member of Mamoru's team had heard him say that he'd missed his actual target....

Mamoru knew that Schwarz played a long game. He just didn't know what it was or if the game had changed since the official end of Eszett.

In the meantime he had to set aside all grudges in public and work with them. He would have to settle for small strikes against Schwarz's leadership until a better opportunity showed up.


	221. "It's not like I can read his mind through the phone."

Although Schuldig had been the one complaining about the lack of sex, Crawford certainly felt the benefit of having it now. Schuldig presented such an appealing picture sitting atop and riding him, sweat sheening his skin, his usually hard blue-eyed gaze looking softer and dazed with pleasure. Crawford groaned at the hot, tight feel of his telepath's body clenching around his cock, friction, tips of his long bright hair brushing his chest on some of the strokes, and hands caressing his chest. Every motion Schuldig made demanded harder, deeper, faster strokes, and Crawford obliged him a bit, though not too much since he didn't want to finish too quickly. Despite the aching, spiraling urge to get his release, he was enjoying this too much to race to a conclusion. Felt so good.... His hands traveled from Schuldig's hips to his ass, cupping and stroking.

"Not going to... jerk me off, Brad?" Schuldig gasped.

"I'm not... feeling it at the moment."

"Ha ha. C'mon, you always... tell me I don't have much of an ass... so why don't you put those hands somewhere... they'll enjoy more and do more good?"

"I'll consider it."

Schuldig's thumbs rubbed circles around Crawford's nipples, making him moan, as Schuldig said, "Bastard. And here I am... trying to help you."

"Sure."

Schuldig tilted his head to the side a bit, obviously thinking, which offended Crawford because he shouldn't still be _able_ to think that well at the moment. Then he smiled suddenly and smacked the side of Crawford's head, putting his wrist into it enough that it really stung. A few minutes later Crawford would be mortified and angry that being _slapped_ had made him come, let alone that it made him come so hard, but at that moment he only knew that his whole body seemed to wring itself out in a whiplash of pleasure as he hit orgasm.

When he came to he saw his telepath bent over, still on top of him and breathing hard. "What the fuck was that?" Crawford asked, even as he felt some disappointment that Schuldig had obviously come hard all over the both of them but none of it had gotten into his long hair.

"Ah, I'm fast, remember? I pulled all my hair... behind my back as we hit jackpot. Fuck, I gotta remember that smacking move for another time."

"You are _never_ slapping me again."

"Aw." Schuldig leaned back and made a sound, probably at the way it made Crawford's softening cock move within him. "Do you remember what you were trying to remember?"

His head.... He had to call his father about a head injury he'd gotten as a child because it connected to a vision he wanted but couldn't remember for himself. Rosenkreuz trained its precogs in ways to hone and retain their memories to access old visions that might be hard to interpret at the time they'd arrived but might make more sense later. The vision he wanted had come years before that training and there had been a head injury involved, but he remembered telling his father about it even if he didn't remember the details of the vision itself.

To his annoyance, his telepath looked far too self-satisfied. Crawford said, "I think I have a lead now, but don't get too smug about it."

"Never."

He wouldn't call his father while naked and splattered with come. "Ride's over, Schu. I'll come back with a washcloth for you too."

"Such a gentleman!" Schuldig moved off him and rolled so he would be lounging in the bed on his back, looking less smug and more simply satisfied.

He picked up his glasses and some clothes, disposed of the condom, and went to the bathroom to wash up and dress. Having no intentions of leaving their hotel room again soon, he only put on boxers, pants, and a sweater and only wore the sweater because he knew that if he talked on the phone shirtless Schuldig would be far too tempted to play with him, especially once he realized Crawford was talking to his father.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he still had that first second's shock of seeing his white hair. How long would it take to become accustomed to it? This was getting ridiculous.

Crawford brought out a washcloth for his telepath and thoroughly rubbed his chest and belly with it. Schuldig wriggled happily and shamelessly under it and even became half-hard. "Brad...."

"I don't have time for a second round." He balled up the washcloth and threw it into the bathroom, smiling as it went right into the sink. "I have a call to make."

Schuldig looked abruptly less sleepy and hedonistic. "Brad...."

"No."

"C'mon, I gave you the lead as well as some great sex."

"You're too distracting."

"Thank you. Now about that call...."

"No."

When Schuldig pouted, Crawford asked, "Do I have to ask you to leave the room too?"

"No."

Relenting a tiny bit, Crawford said, "You're distracting, and I don't want to be uncomfortable and stiff while speaking to my father."

"Society frowns on sons being stiff with their fathers."

"Schuldig--"

"Nah, nah. I can be good."

"You will be silent."

"Fine. That too. You seem to feel that it's an important call, so fine."

Having felt that he'd hammered his instructions home hard enough, Crawford mentally switched his internal setting to English, made the call, and heard his father pick up on the first ring, which discomfited him a bit. "Dad?"

"Brad, you forgot that your ol' Dad can see things too? I knew you'd call. It makes me happy to hear from you."

"Do you know why I'm calling?" His voice must have sounded as off-balance as he felt because he could see Schuldig bent over with _silent_ laughter on the bed. He flipped Schuldig the finger.

"I didn't get that. I just know that it's not about our new grandchildren."

Now he _had_ to ask about them first. "How are Verity and Misoji doing, Dad?" Although he remembered full well handing them off to his parents, he hadn't really felt enough connection to them to claim the title of their "father."

"Verity and your mother are either gleefully arguing with each other or hatching evil plans together. Eve says it's invigorating, and when your mother gets that look on her face I grab Misoji and take a walk for a while. I like Verity too, and she respects me more and maybe loves me a bit now that she knows she can't manipulate me. I'm really glad we have Misoji too. He's so smart! We do quiet things together, though he also likes to watch the poker tournaments on TV with me and help me bitch about the poker faces and strategies used. He likes to take walks and go out for rolls with me at our place. We have some of our best getting-to-know-you chats at those times. He's very respectful with Eve without letting her dictate to him too much, and she's fond of him. Your mother got him a camera but didn't shove it on him, so he might actually end up liking it."

"'Your mother'?" At least his voice remained steady. He'd figured that his father must have taken some of the others out to their bagel place but hadn't been forced to hear about it before.

"Yeah, she temporarily stops being my wife and becomes 'your mother' when she's doing things I roll my eyes at. Hey, Kenny came back and was really ticked off about us using his room for Verity and Misoji. Eve very sweetly reminded him that in that fight he had with her two days after you guys left he said he didn't have to listen to her because he didn't live under her roof anymore. She figured that between him saying he didn't live here anymore and him living with his girlfriend most of the time, as if your mother wouldn't find out about that, he didn't need the room anymore. He turned colors and pretty much lost the ability to speak for a bit then yelled kinda incoherently and stomped out of the apartment. Didn't even try to reason with her! Kenneth never could win a match against her. She likes Verity better for being able to go toe-to-toe. You should have seen the look on May's face when she saw Misoji. I think she muttered something about God laughing at her. I don't like the two kids being their ages and having to share a room, though at least we got a nice bamboo partition to give them some private space."

"I see." What else could he say? At least he enjoyed the idea of Kenneth getting some comeuppance. Once again he had to think that he took his sadism from both sides of his family. Rosenkreuz must have been thrilled to have a candidate who already had so much DNA coded for evil.

"So, now that I made you suffer through the family stuff, what were you really calling for?"

This was such a longshot, but one worth taking. "Dad, I have the feeling that a vision I had about 20 years ago might be important. I would completely understand if you don't remember the details of it, because I don't, but I hope you do remember. It came after I hit my head so hard in that fall--"

"Yes!" Dad sounded weirdly excited. "I can be a great help on that one. I hoped you'd ask someday.... Hold on a moment, son. I'll be right back."

Crawford shot a look back at Schuldig, who said in English, "It's not like I can read his mind through the phone."

"I _know_, but--"

"I'm back, Brad! You're talking about what you saw after you took that fall off the top of the monkeybars and got a concussion, right?"

"...yes. I was responding to a challenge from Johnny Rossi."

"Other kids saw that his horsing around helped knock you off once you got to the very top. We were pissed once we heard about all that. Eve was ready to go crack his head and his parents' too but I managed to get it through _her_ head that she'd get arrested. She must have gotten some vengeance somewhere, though."

"I think I remember other kids his age making fun of Johnny after that for being a twelve-year-old playing with a five-year-old." It had been weird because no other kids Johnny's age had been around, and Crawford couldn't see kids his age approaching older ones and being believed.

"That could be her doing somehow. I love that woman. Okay. You said that you didn't know if this was a vision or just something you saw from hitting your head so hard, so you wanted to run it past me. You said it was like you were inside a grownup's body looking out, being there. There were two people in front of you, this one guy with his arm resting on the shoulders of another guy, his arm partly around the guy's neck. You said that arm didn't look friendly somehow. The guy under the arm had long hair and weird clothes, like he might be a rockstar, but he had teartracks on his face like a baby. You said you were surrounded by guys who had different hair but the same face as the rockstar guy and they made you feel uncomfortable. They were trouble. The arm guy smiled and shook the rockstar guy in a not-friendly way. Rockstar guy sounded sick when he said, 'Kill him.' All the other guys mobbed the guy you were inside and that's the end."

He'd foreseen his own death--his original timeline death, as Schuldig had spoken of--at the age of five. Shaken, Crawford said as he processed it, "Dad, that's a lot of detail."

"Most of the stuff I see is near-term, but some of it I don't recognize but write down in my journal in case it turns out helpful later. I made a journal for you too, son, and that vision is the only thing written in it. Wait a minute. The 'rockstar' with the long hair, is that--"

"Dad."

"And the other ones with the same face as him, they're like Mis--"

"_Dad_."

"I'm right."

"Yes, Dad."

"What are you doing to stop that? I know Schu wouldn't do that if he were in his right mind, and from what you said back then it sounds like he might have been under major duress. Who's the other guy?" Dad sounded ready to kill the "other guy" himself.

Crawford figured that they'd prevented that event but would like more certainty. "Did I give you a description of the other guy?"

"Not really, just that he played at being friendly with the rockstar but you could tell he wasn't. He didn't claim as much of your attention."

Crawford could just see Schuldig poking him about having been fixated on him since the age of five. "I believe that we prevented that from happening. We're working to make sure of it. Things have been really weird here."

"I'm getting that impression. You're taking care of yourself?"

"Yes, and my family here as well. None of us are injured." Not now. A day earlier the report would have been very different. "I think we may be getting to the end of our work here." He certainly hoped so. "Dad, aren't you worried about keeping a journal? Especially after you had all that attention before?" His father had made a journal for him and kept it....

That was... very touching. And probably foolhardy.

"I use script for my journal. My mother always said I should have become a doctor for how illegible it is. People at work make me write in print or type in word processing. Nobody's gonna be able to read it. The books don't look like what people would expect either. It's nice to hear that you worry about your ol' Dad."

"Well, yes." Since he could _feel_ his telepath convulsing with silent laughter on the bed behind him, he flipped Schuldig the bird again. "It was... good talking to you, Dad. I'm glad everyone's all right and the new living situation is working out."

"We love having them. It's like a shot of adrenaline. I'll give your love to the kids. Goodbye, Brad."

"Bye, Dad." He hung up the phone.

"I like your dad," Schuldig said, completely without sarcasm. He'd probably like Crawford's dad even more if he could have heard more of the conversation.

His dad apparently liked Schuldig too. "It's nice that you like him, but it's not like I'd get a different one if you didn't."

Schuldig stuck his tongue out at him. "Such a hard-ass, you are. Want to come over here so I can feel it for myself?"

"Tempting, but I have things to think about."

"Sure, sure. Like how we're going to distribute the cure words, right?"

Crawford forgot sometimes that Schuldig being naked and horny didn't mean he stopped thinking. Crawford answered, "I've been thinking about that the last few days. The cure words are very valuable. How much should we charge for something we fought so hard to get that could give these people freedom and peace of mind? Those cure words are no small things."

Obviously irritated, Schuldig asked, "Are you gonna charge our kids too?"

Although he really wanted to say that Verity was "theirs" only through DNA and Misoji only to make it easier to get Verity out of Europe and although Schuldig had often said in the past that no one could screw you over better than family, Crawford knew it would be idiocy to say any of that. It wouldn't sound good. Besides, he could imagine his parents' reaction to him shaking down his kids for cash, especially involving something that could enslave them if he didn't have it removed.

"No."

"You're gonna charge _my_ kids?"

The Emories. Schuldig still remained insanely attached to them.

"Are you counting the Orange and Guilty lines alone or all the ones who have some of your genes? Are we going to do blood tests? Do you section off the ones who look like you or are related to you and tell the rest that it's tough luck?"

"Does it look like the Bruise has money? They were derelicts, many of them hardly able to move on their own for the longest time let alone work for a living. The rest of the kids are mostly students, hardly people with a good income either. You're gonna demand payment and tell the ones who can't afford it to take a hike? Are you going to accept payment installments? Will you charge interest? If they miss a payment or default, will Schwarz become a collection agency, chase them down wherever they run to, break their legs, and take whatever money they have? Unless you're letting me adopt the Bruise, in which case Schwarz will know exactly where 50 of about 400 kids are."

"We're not adopting the Bruise." While Schuldig made some excellent points otherwise, Crawford couldn't back down. "How does Schwarz operate? ¿Dónde está el dinero? Remember? Aside from what we made working for Kritiker here and my own solo job, this has been a very dry run and very costly in room, board, transportation, ammunition, and outsourcing."

"So we make up for it off the hides of these kids? There are a few hundred of them. We don't have to charge that much to make a nice little profit."

"You weren't always so soft."

"They're _mine_, Brad." Schuldig's fierce look had nothing soft in it. "I know it and, better yet, _they_ know it. They love me."

"Their love is worth turning down a profit? You took big risks to get those words, and you should be compensated."

"If you charge them hard, they won't blame _me_ for it. They'll put it all on you. You saw how the Bruise wanted to protect me from you."

"They wanted to score points with you. Are you really this desperate for pets?"

"You're feeling so fucking threatened by these kids that you're missing the big picture."

"Not at all. You think that if we charge them lightly they'll be thankful toward us and may turn out to be a useful resource in the future, especially since many of them already like you."

"Yes. Maybe you are listening."

"I'll think about it."

"Think fast. The longer we leave them waiting in limbo for a cure the more likely something's going to go wrong, rile them up, and make the situation harder to control."

"You're telling me how to run things?"

Sculdig grinned, bright and evil, more menacing now than sexy even though he wore nothing more than his emerald navel piercing. "Always have been, stud."

Schuldig had become far more forward and open lately in suggesting how Crawford should run the team, especially since their time at Ebenroth's school. Crawford knew that some of the kids thought Crawford held Schuldig back, and he remembered how the Bruise had sat around Schuldig at his feet as if to protect their liege.

"I prefer the older, subtler methods."

"What, when I did it but didn't admit to it? That's not so much subtler. Besides, it shows my respect that I'm approaching you in an upfront manner."

"As opposed to how you felt before?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want answered. Or need answered. You know how we used to be. You were there." _Very_ casually Schuldig asked, "Do you wanna go back to that?"

He didn't even have to think about it long. "No. I'm satisfied with things as they've developed."

Crawford hadn't realized how much Schuldig's body had tensed until it loosened now. Schuldig answered, "I strive to satisfy."

"Unless you're striving to drive someone insane through obnoxiousness."

"Some people find that satisfying."

"I'm thinking on how to deal with the cure words, and I'll issue my decision tomorrow. Now that Aya is conscious I want to wrap up our time in Vienna as quickly as possible. We're going to check out Rosenkreuz's ruins as well. Then we return to Tokyo and business."

"It's been a while since we've had a fairly straightforward assignment. I miss them."

It made Crawford smile. "You killed Breaker only days ago."

"That was only telepathic murder. It's so much better when it's physical. More fun. Besides, you know how much I love to handle my gun."

"Just _your_ gun?"

"Your gun too. Is that a request?"

"Perhaps." Crawford took off his glasses and sat on the bed.

Schuldig rested his fluffy head on Crawford's thigh, looked up, and said, "I need something more definite. I wouldn't want to force myself on you."

"Sure. Feel free to handle me."

Schuldig made an amused and greedy sound as he started to stroke Crawford through his pants. It was good to be alive... and good to have confirmation on a horrible future averted. Schuldig, struggling and enslaved, with _tears_ on his face, commanding his clones to kill....

Crawford would wait a while before telling Schuldig about that vision.


	222. "Spite is a good, useful thing."

As Nagi turned his coat over to the coat check person at the club, with the music hitting him, he started thinking that maybe he'd made a mistake. He'd never really enjoyed these places, and while his last time at one with Omi had been a good time, being there with _Omi_ had been responsible for that feeling. That one time on a mission with Aya had been incredible, but that had been due to Aya and that rush of happiness they'd started up and shared. Usually Nagi stood around and watched, disconnected from everyone, as he tried to figure out why people liked this and if it could be possible to enjoy it while sober. Then someone who wanted to either mother him or rape and kill him would come along. Not his idea of a good time.

Eyes closed, smiling, relaxed, Yoji swayed along to the beat. Yeah, Nagi had decided to try a club because of him. Nagi had been sitting at some café reading, bored, when he felt a kind of... energy approaching. How could Yoji be about a decade older yet feel more vital and youthful than Nagi did? It didn't seem fair. Big surprise that life wasn't fair. Nagi had thought about tasting a bit of that energy for himself, riding the coat tails of it. If Yoji could find fun in places like this, maybe Nagi would see and feel it for himself. It could be useful later on.

Okay, he couldn't even convince himself of that.

Yoji opened his eyes and gave Nagi a sudden weird look, making Nagi ask, "What?"

"I didn't realize you had that on under your coat."

Nagi had worn the vaguely kinky schoolboy outfit Schuldig had commissioned for him, the black one with the zippers. He'd put it on out of some hazy hope that Schuldig might return with Aya if only to tease Nagi about the outfit. Ironically, Schuldig had come back with Aya and Farfarello but hadn't seen him wearing it. Better he didn't.

So Nagi had decided to give clubbing another chance while dressed in an even kinkier version of his old schoolboy outfit. Good going.

To hell with it. _He_ wasn't the same.

"You have a problem with it?" Nagi asked.

"_You_ might, but it's up to you."

When pushed, push back and show no lack of confidence. "Anybody has a problem with me, it's their problem, not mine."

Yoji smiled. "All right. I'm interested in seeing who you catch dressed like that."

Nagi smiled a not-smile back. "You don't like it?"

Yoji's smile deepened. "Never said that. I'm heading to the bar to get a drink and do some recon of the floor. Wanna join me?"

"Yeah."

Nagi couldn't match Yoji's long-limbed sexy swing as he walked so he just went with his own determined yet calm walk. No reason why he should look unnatural or advertise something he might not be willing to give. He couldn't see himself picking anyone up here no matter what Yoji ended up doing, not when he still had the ability to break things when distracted. Nagi figured he would see a night out through Yoji's eyes and eventually leave him to whatever he decided to do as long as that whatever didn't turn out to be too stupid or self-destructive.

Nagi noticed that Yoji did feel and almost see the music somewhat, teke-wise, like Nagi did but didn't realize it. How could he when he didn't read minds and didn't think other people experienced music differently from how he did?

Yoji ordered and received a drink like he did it here every night, flirty with the bartender and confident, before turning around to survey the dance floor as he drank. "She mixes a good drink."

Standing close so he could hear better, Nagi asked, "How the hell can people like that stuff?" He'd read other people enjoying alcohol, but his sips now and then had given a very different experience. Not that he should be drinking anyway, not with his abilities, but he preferred to understand things.

"You want to give it a try?"

Yoji extended his mystery drink toward Nagi, who took a sip and felt his entire face spasm in horror at the sour, burning flavor. "That's awful!"

Yoji smiled and took his drink back. "Maybe it's an acquired taste. Besides, most of the time you drink until you can't really taste it so much anymore."

"Better you than me." Nagi coasted a bit on the feel of smug contentment Yoji felt in being in this habitat with a drink in hand, then asked, "Are you looking for something in particular?"

"Looking for the right ladies. I'm sick of being surrounded mostly by guys lately. Unless ladies don't do anything for you? Oh, right. I'll be looking for a lady for you too."

Nagi remembered reading from Yoji once that he'd watched him try to kiss Tot for the first time. Like that hadn't been awkward enough without being observed by an experienced judge the whole time. He'd been trying to figure out what to do with noses while the playboy lecher of Tokyo looked on. Yoji had watched as Tot had shown far more experience at kissing than Nagi had.

And Yoji thought it had been _sweet_. Sweet? _Children_ kissed sweetly.

"I can't dance," Nagi said.

"Look at the crowd. Most of them can't dance either. It's not about technical expertise; it's about being out with people and _moving_. Doing what the music makes you feel like doing. Making connections with attractive people. That kind of thing."

"Leaving with somebody?"

"If you get lucky. What's going on with you and Omi?"

Despite it not really being any of Yoji's business, Nagi answered, "Hell if I know."

"Honesty. That's cool." Yoji finished his drink, set it down, and said, "I found what should be a good area. Follow me in."

Yoji moved smoothly and steadily through the crowd, sometimes pushing and sometimes being pushed as he swept through, and Nagi followed in his wake, duplicating his mix of aggression and surrender. Sometimes Yoji flexed or bent backwards a bit to get through. At no point did he seem to mind all the accidental frottage, and Nagi strove for the same no matter how much he wanted to defend his boundaries of personal space. Aya would _hate_ this.

Yoji stopped in an area that had a lot of women, which made sense since they couldn't all have their own men with them. Nagi's surface scan showed that they weren't all lesbians either. While Yoji probably had confidence in the converting power of his dick, Nagi didn't share that belief. Yoji danced near him but not with him: didn't face him or match moves. If they wanted to attract other partners, which they did, that made sense. It made Nagi happy to see logic at work, where before he'd struggled to see the patterns.

Yoji was happy here, and Nagi didn't need to be a telepath to notice. Yoji smiled, relaxed, and used the splashes of light and thunder of music to display himself to good effect.

Neither of them remained partnerless for long. While a few women took some passes at Yoji, two, more aggressive, ones monopolized and sandwiched him after that. A few danced with Nagi for a while but the current one pressed in closely enough that he had a moment's thought of "Get out of my space!" and realized that she wanted him to touch her. Most of the people here danced near each other but rarely made contact, while Nagi's partner smiled when he put his hands on her hips. He liked having them there, liked her curves.

She was pretty and not overly tarted up, though she had enough of a height advantage on him that he had a sight line that went to the top of her breasts. Schuldig would say there was nothing at all wrong with that kind of sight line, but Nagi had to look up to maintain polite eye contact. At least the way her slightly low-cut dress displayed them suggested that she wanted people to admire them now and then, which meant that sometimes he could give them a good look. They looked good and might be real. A little teke sense on them proved them to be genuine instead of bags of fluid. Good. Nagi didn't understand what some men saw in implants since he felt that breasts should be soft and didn't care so much about how large they were.

Omi might be gay, but Nagi found women attractive too.

She had her hands on his ass so she could bring them closer together and grind against him, so she must find him attractive too. Aroused and amazed, he couldn't believe he had someone going this far with him this quickly and wondered if they'd really go all the way. Did he even want sex with someone who'd thrown herself on him within minutes of meeting him?

Fuck, yes. He could find out her name later, and it wasn't like he'd be staying in Vienna long.

On a slower song, she put a hand to the back of his head to encourage him to rest his face against her breasts. Sex had to happen. If she turned out to be a prostitute, he'd be really pissed off.

Wait. He could know now. With all his blood going to his cock, he must have turned into a moron. He had telepathy, dammit, and she'd even given him some skin-to-skin contact to make it easier. Unlike Schuldig, Nagi wasn't automatically on and receiving everyone 24 hours a day.

He read her and didn't like what he saw. It hit him like cold water. More aware again, he read Yoji's two and didn't like what their minds said either. For all he knew, Yoji might not mind being ripped off later, but he should at least let him go into it knowing. Good luck breaking through his sex haze though, especially when one part of his girl sandwich had her hands in his back pockets, the better to grope him, and the other had her hands atop his fly, the better to grope him. Nagi knew she felt the temptation of Yoji's wallet sitting in one of his front pockets.

~ Yoji! ~

Not much answer, not even a vague curiosity. Yoji had definitely switched control over to the smaller head.

~ Yoji! Yoji, these three women are together. They're going to fuck us, then rob us. If we weren't so pretty they would have led us elsewhere and just robbed us. ~

That made a vague impression on Yoji.

~ They pegged us for tourists and figured we went out on the town loaded and that we'd be too clueless or embarrassed to go to the authorities. They plan to take everything we have. ~

Feeling hurt and holding onto delusions, Yoji had some vague idea that the girls would change their minds once they had the sex.

Although Nagi's own body would prefer to just go along with the sex no matter what happened afterward, Nagi's body didn't rule his life. ~ Yeah, we'll fuck them so incredibly that they'll leave our wallets alone. They'll be reformed by the power of your dick. That was all sarcasm, by the way. Be smarter. This is reality, not a porno. We have to get out of here. Once we tell them no, they'll try to ruin our chances with anyone else here. You know they will. ~

Yoji's hurt came through loudly and clearly. After all the shit he'd seen with Weiß, how could he still be an innocent in so many things?

Nagi disengaged himself from Tina and her wonderful breasts and fortunately couldn't hear her protests over the loud music. He kept shaking his head no and slapping her hands away from his waist and ass. To his credit, Yoji was trying to get away from his two, but to his discredit he seemed to be crumbling in the face of their pleas, disappointment, and grasping hands. Unbelievable. Any enemy organization should just send female assassins after him, since he seemed helpless against most women. He'd only killed Neu for preferring Takatori Masafumi to him... which didn't say good things about Yoji at all. Did Yoji think evil and a vagina couldn't coexist in one body?

Fortunately for Yoji, Nagi didn't care if people thought _he_ was a bitch. "Yoji!" he yelled, and Yoji snapped to. Those telekinesis lessons had helped him see Nagi as a voice of authority. Good. "I'm very displeased with you! We're leaving now!"

To hammer the point home to everyone, Nagi grabbed Yoji's collar to pull him down and kissed him hard and possessively. Yoji froze for a moment, probably in shock, then started kissing back. Even with the burn of alcohol on his tongue and the faint taste of a woman's fruity lipstick on his lips, Yoji gave a damned good kiss. Nagi had to keep that in mind.

He decided to kiss a bit longer than he strictly had to, then let go of Yoji's collar in favor of grabbing his wrist and dragging him off the dance floor to get to the coat check area. People actually parted like the Red Sea to let them pass, whether from hearing Nagi or watching them kiss or just because the people before them had let them through and they were lemmings. Anyone who didn't move enough got a subtle teke shove. Whatever. He and Yoji wouldn't be returning.

Yoji didn't regain his voice until his coat came back to him, at which point he asked, "What the hell was--"

"Outside!" Nagi answered as he put his own coat on. He felt _great_.

Yoji yanked his coat on and opened the door to the outside with a sullen "Master."

"Good. Thank you," Nagi replied as he walked out into cold that hit like a slap after the heat he'd gotten used to inside the club.

"What the hell was that?" Yoji just about exploded with once the door shut behind them. Good Yoji, waiting like that as Nagi had told him to. He deserved a treat.

Omi would kill Nagi for the images in his mind right now....

"You couldn't extricate yourself from those women on your own, so I helped you." The look on their faces.... Nagi had to smirk. "You didn't want to be 'mean' to those thieves, but I'm not held back that way. Considering that they wanted to victimize us, they got off lucky. I usually start breaking bones. Women can be as evil as guys. Haven't you paid any attention to your own team leader?"

"She's only mildly evil."

"Plus, you don't really think of her as a woman."

"I never said that!"

Nagi smiled. "So, where do you want to try now?"

"I'm not in the mood anymore." Yoji sullenly and disconsolately lit up a cigarette.

"You're going to let them ruin your night? You're such an innocent. I do not get you."

"Once you stop caring about things, you're dead inside and ruined."

"Yeah, but you need to toughen up. Being tough doesn't mean you're numb and ruined. Enjoy yourself to spite all the people who want to ruin your enjoyment. Spite is a good, useful thing."

"I feel bad for you sometimes. Then sometimes I feel bad for myself."

"'Sometimes'? That's sweet, but you'll be happier if you spank your inner angst moppet and get on with your life."

"You yanked on my Armani.... What was up with the commands and the kiss anyway?"

"They got us out."

"So that's it? It was just to get us out? It didn't mean anything?"

"Mean anything? Like what?"

"Like that you-- Shit, I'm turning into a chick. Forget it."

"You're asking if I want you, Yoji?" Nagi had to smile, especially as he remembered Yoji kissing back. With tongue.

"Yeah, all right. I'm asking."

"Sure, I do."

"What?" Yoji nearly swallowed his cigarette.

"You're attractive, flexible, and a damned good kisser. I hate that you're so much taller than I am, but I can see the aesthetic and sexual advantage to those long legs of yours." Nagi had some dreams of Aya and _his_ long legs, and that one time he'd helped Aya and Farfarello... consummate in real life had shown him the advantages.

"...what? Am I... catnip to every member of Schwarz?"

"All of us except Farfarello." But something about the look on Yoji's face.... "Farfarello wants you too? You're kidding me!" Since Yoji didn't intend to answer that, Nagi took a dip into his mind and found himself in hentai heaven: Aya with cat ears and a tail, Yoji with cat ears and a tail, and Farfarello wanting a threesome while they'd been trapped in Yoji's dreamscape. "You guys went neko when I couldn't see it? Why do I always miss the fun stuff?"

"Reading my mind is really fucking rude."

Yoji had some shielding up but Schuldig's link to him meant that everyone in Schwarz had easier entrance. Nagi answered, "You weren't going to talk about it."

"Yeah, and you could've honored that."

"Yeah, yeah. Shit, Yoji, you have the best dreams."

"It's not like I got sex out of it. Farfarello was dumb enough to try to get Aya to agree to a threesome right after the last bit he had of his sister died. That's ridiculous. He pushed too hard and too soon."

"Sucks to be you. Farfarello alternates between knowing Aya's quirks to a scary degree and fucking up in a huge way with him. That means it sucks to be him too."

"Hmm." Yoji didn't approve of them being together. Of course.

Farfarello wanted Yoji too? He must have been pissed off to discover that about himself. It made Nagi smile.

Too bad all this talk made him hornier. In some ways being a virgin--to sex, though not to rape--had been a lot easier. He mourned a little the loss of the release Tina had promised. It looked like he wouldn't "make the earth move" or "rock anybody's world" tonight, as Schuldig would have teased, as if Nagi _liked_ to cause property damage during sex. Nagi suspected he wasn't the first teke Schuldig had used those lines on.

"You went out clubbing because Aya and Farfarello gave you blue balls?" Nagi certainly sympathized at the moment.

"...pretty much." Then those women had revved him up and turned out to be thieves.

"Are you sure you don't want to go anywhere else? You look like you need _something_."

"It embarrassed the hell out of me when you made yourself out to be my master and dragged me out of there."

"It's not like other clubs are going to get a bulletin on you."

"It was _embarrassing_." Embarrassing partly because... Yoji had found Nagi's possessiveness and taking control kind of hot.

Yoji would die if he'd realized Nagi had heard that. While Schuldig would gleefully tease the hell out of Yoji for it, Nagi didn't know how he wanted to deal with it. Yoji had found him being a bitchy master hot. That didn't mean Yoji found _him_ hot, though, not when Yoji just found a bit of light domination arousing and was at a state where he'd jump almost any semi-attractive person.

It looked like Yoji wanted to spread the embarrassment around because he asked, "What happened with you and the bunny girl?" a little too casually.

It took Nagi a moment to understand what he meant. "Tot? She wanted someone who would be like her daddy, while I had no intention of becoming Takatori Masafumi for her."

"Ew. No."

He had nothing to be embarrassed about. "I think I was more in love with the idea of love and being with her than the reality. It took me a while to figure that out."

"I've been there." Yoji seemed to be looking into a distant land or time as he said that. Then he smiled a little, softly. "So we're two sad, horny bastards."

Damn Yoji's flashes of insight. Nagi answered, "Horny? I have no idea what you mean."

"Suuuure."

"You're the one who doesn't want to try another club."

"I'm not in the mood anymore." He looked so sad now after having started out so high and full of energy.

Nagi was surprised to feel the urge to kiss him better. "You're going to let them ruin your night?"

"It looks like it."

"What are you going to do now: go back to your hotel room, get in bed next to your roommate, and try not to cry before you go to sleep, dejected?"

"Maybe. Except for the crying thing."

It had to be oncoming brain damage making him feel this way. "Or you could come to my room."

"And do what?"

"Chess. I thought we could play chess. What do you _think_ I mean, Yoji?"

"For a moment I thought you were talking about sex."

"That's because I _am_ talking about sex." Was he really horny and compassionate enough to make putting up with the stupidity worth it?

Yoji started to smile. "I wanted that clear, because I know you've broken people in the past."

"It's not like it's a legal contract we're talking about here."

"Are you even 18?"

"Sure." Someday.

"It would kill Omi."

"Omi and I broke up... with occasional hiccups." Nagi added the last when he saw Yoji getting ready to object. "Besides, he's been with people." Omi took advantage of Aya when they were drunk.... Who cared if that had been before he'd officially gotten together with Nagi? There'd been sexual tension and statements of mutual interest, and taking advantage of a friend who'd come to help get you through your grief, someone you'd gotten drunk past the possibility of true consent, was _wrong_.

"I don't want anyone to think I'm doing a 'collect 'em all' thing on Schwarz."

That reminded Nagi of neko Aya and neko Yoji and how he'd missed all of it, which made him hornier. "Anyone who'd harp on your good taste is a moron."

Yoji smiled a bit, sexy, _interested_. "You have answers to everything?"

"Yeah. I really do. Do you have an answer for me?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, you have an answer or yeah, you're coming to my room?"

"Both."

"Now you're talking. I don't feel like waiting out in the cold for a bus, though, so I'll just have to fly us there."

Yoji tried to look blasé about the thought of flying but failed as he ever so casually asked, "How would flying be warmer than waiting for a bus?" Nagi read him as being alternately excited and afraid.

"My amazing telekinetic powers make it possible. It'll be easier if you hold on to me."

Yoji looked amused at how he had to stoop down to hold on. Height differences stopped being important or funny once Nagi shot them up into the sky and Yoji barely held back a scream. Sure, Nagi could have made the ascent slower, but it wouldn't have been as chastening that way, would it?


	223. "You want to have your second thoughts inside where it's warmer?"

The flight gave Yoji too much time to think. What the hell did he think he was doing here? Omi would hate him for this, and he didn't exactly have any fine, noble reasons he could defend himself with. "Sorry, Omi, you wouldn't believe how horny I was" wouldn't cut it. Remembering how Nagi had agonized over the breakup, before and after, it surprised Yoji that Nagi didn't seem worried now about Omi's potentially hurt feelings, but then he remembered that Nagi belonged to Schwarz and had different values, like Schuldig's "want, take, have."

Omi had admitted to being smothering and clingy, two qualities that had to have driven someone like Nagi insane, and Nagi had seemed miserable with him. They'd hooked up again a few days ago but hadn't really made up fully. Did any of that make spending the night with Nagi less, what, objectionable? No, not quite that. Disloyal? Yoji didn't know.

Still, thinking stopped him from freaking out over the flying. He seemed to have a kind of telekinetic... shelf under him, so it might be more like sledding than actual flying, but Yoji kept expecting to fall and splatter across the street despite Nagi's power and firm grip on him and no matter how deeply cool and kind of fun sky sledding was. Did Nagi do the shelf thing while flying around on his own? Probably not, especially not when he had greater experience and less fear. Besides, being the one in control made a big difference. Yoji could almost feel a kind of soft, light telekinetic layer over Nagi where their bodies brushed together. It almost seemed to have strings.... Yoji didn't feel the wind at all nor much cold, so Nagi must have given them a kind of nose cone shield to protect them from the elements. What would it be like to have that kind of power to throw around?

Lonely sometimes, probably.

Then again, Nagi was smiling as they flew. It could be cool too. Yoji would never be able to fly on his own, but he had to admit that some of the things he could do himself made him happy.

When they reached a dark street next to Nagi's hotel, Nagi reoriented them to be vertical to the ground instead of horizontal and said, "Here's where you get off." When Yoji couldn't resist sniggering, Nagi said, "You're 12. For that, I'm dropping you."

"What?"

"You're closer to the ground than I am. You're an assassin. Suck it up." Nagi let him go.

Okay, it didn't turn out to be that far from the ground after all and Yoji easily landed on his feet, but the fright took two years off his life. "You're a brat!"

"You're the one who's 12." Nagi descended in a graceful and showy spiral spin, completely in control, still smiling.

Brat. Still a kid....

Nagi's smile faded. "You want to have your second thoughts inside where it's warmer?"

Damn it. "Enough with the telepathy! Leave my thoughts in peace!"

"You'll let me know if you change your mind about this, right?"

"Yes."

"It's not like I'm going to rip your clothes off and mount you as soon as we enter the room."

Yoji couldn't help remembering Nagi grabbing him by the collar in the club to pull him down for a forceful kiss. It made him wonder what Nagi had been like with Omi-- No, it didn't!

"If you could quit with the terrifying mental images, that would be great too," Yoji said.

Nagi turned a look of nearly feline disdain on him, then walked toward the hotel, leaving it up to him whether he'd follow or not, a very Aya move. Had Nagi been like that before Aya had been kidnapped and assimilated into Schwarz? Yoji tried to imagine what it would be like to be on a team with the both of them.

The thought probably shouldn't have made him smile and follow, but it did.

Once inside the lobby, Nagi asked, "Still with me? I'm flattered."

"You're such a little bitch." Yoji ruffled Nagi's soft, wind-tossed hair.

"Big bitch, thank you. Height has nothing to do with my ability."

"In this case? That's for sure."

Nagi's hotel room had class but revealed little about him, not that hotel rooms gave you much of an opportunity for showing character unless you refused to let housekeeping in. Nothing of his had been left out in the open, particularly not Nagi's computer, not that Yoji blamed him about the laptop. Nagi neatly hung up his coat and gestured for Yoji to hand over his coat so it could be neatly out of the way as well. Yoji left his shoes by the door, so it seemed he'd be staying for a while, even if he didn't know whether he was staying out of politeness or curiosity or what.

When Nagi took off his boots, Yoji noticed they had decorative zippers on them just as his kinked-up gakuran did. Yoji really didn't know what to make of that outfit. It fit very well, like something custom-tailored, and its black actually had a deep blue sheen in it. Very good material used. It poked fun at Nagi's old look and old schoolboy uniform. Only someone with a sense of humor and confidence could wear it as clothing instead of a costume.

Damn, it was kinky.

Damn, it and the sight of Nagi sitting somewhat expectantly on his bed brought back to Yoji why he'd originally come here.

"Relax, Yoji. If you don't want to do it, we won't. We could play cards or something. I'm not going to bind you to the bed and gag you, then ravish you."

Yoji had to stop thinking that sounded hot, and he _would not_ adjust his pants. He also had to be as quiet about his arousal over that as possible in case Nagi might be listening again. Time to change the subject. "Cards? I never figured you guys for the type. Playing with Farfarello that time broke my brain."

"It's a guard thing. Sometimes you have to do something to stop yourself from falling asleep waiting for something to happen. Crawford usually didn't play because he felt that, being our leader and handler, he had to look On at all times. Besides, we didn't trust him not to look ahead. We never let Schuldig play because he'd just read everybody's minds, although he'd split his 'help' among different players when he felt like it or if he wanted to tip the game. Farfarello and I didn't know how to use the telepathy it turned out we had, so we played just fine."

Which meant: "You and Farfarello would play cards."

"Would _you_ want him to get bored? Not even he can lick a knife for _hours_, and he thought it diluted the shock value of it anyway. Poker led to less property and collateral damage. Yoji, you played against him."

"I know. It still boggles the mind."

Yoji had gotten so used to Nagi wearing gloves almost every time he saw him that when Nagi started taking them off, baring his fingers, he might as well have been removing his pants. The sight made him guiltier and harder all at once.

Nagi had an odd look on his face. "Are you ashamed of me, Yoji?"

"No! Maybe ashamed of myself. You're a kid, and Omi's a friend."

"Have you checked the ID on every girl you went with?"

"No, but that's not the point."

"So you trusted the word of strangers. How the hell can you expose yourself like that to people you don't know? 'Here, have a look at my scars and let's potentially exchange diseases and parasites before we leave, never to see each other again.' How does that _work_?" The kid really had a gift for painting an unappetizing picture.

"It just does. It's less complicated." It prevented attachment. Attachment hurt. Attachment could kill, and a lot of the women Yoji had found sexy couldn't defend themselves. Was that a knock against women or against him for the ones he chose?

Then again, Asuka had been tough, for all the good it had done her.

"And if you sucked as a lover, you don't have to face her complaining about it or worry that word will get out to your friends?"

He wanted to shake Nagi but doubted he'd survive the attempt. "I don't even know why we're having this conversation!"

"I'm trying to figure out why you'd happily bone women you don't know anything about aside from that they're _thieves_ but doing something with me is a disaster."

"Because of Omi. You remember Omi, right? You dated and had sex with him. You had sex with him recently." When Yoji had been so down over the whole... thing with Asuka and Neu, Nagi's sweet affection for Tot had restored some of his faith in love, but now Nagi didn't seem to care about love at all.

"I care for him very deeply and the sex is great but about 70% of the time when we talk he turns into Persia and I'm Schwarz and a potential employee. Also, he wanted more than I could give him, maybe more than anyone could give him. I don't know if it could _ever_ work."

"Friends don't fuck friends' exes, _especially_ not when the feelings are recent and unresolved."

"Bros before hos?"

"You're not a ho." Yoji sat down on the bed near him, on the side of Nagi that didn't have all the hair hanging over it. It might be nice, soft hair, but Yoji had too much experience of Aya hiding behind his hair to give Nagi a chance to do the same.

Nagi looked tense and stiff enough to snap. "Didn't really think I was, but thanks. Yoji, you're happy with strangers, but it doesn't work that way for me. If I really get into it, things around me tend to break from my distraction and let-up of self-control. Try explaining that to your partner. That leaves me with people who know who and what I am. Unfortunately, most of those people know Omi. Am I supposed to be sexless for the rest of my life unless I go back to Omi? There's a way to try to force me back into the relationship, but I'd sure as hell be resentful. Faced with that, I might decide to be abstinent instead."

"It wouldn't be like that."

"Wouldn't it?"

"It's not some fiendish plan Omi cooked up."

"He doesn't have to, does he, with friends like you around him. It's a shame there's nobody available in Schwarz I want."

"Loyalty isn't a crime."

"Whatever, Yoji. No man has ever refused as much sex in half a day as you're doing. Luxuriate in your achievement. Do you want to play cards or what?"

"This is bullshit. You were ready to pounce that girl at the club until you found out she was gonna rob us with her friends."

"I was stupid with sex, Yoji. I usually don't get that close to other people. My brain overloaded, and my dick was more than happy to take over. If I got too into it during the sex, the breaking things would either have frightened them into leaving or trying to kill us."

Come _on_. Please. "A bunch of girls would try to kill someone who could hurt them like that?"

"People get a weird kind of braveness in the face of that kind of thing, especially if they outnumber you. You could ask the gangs of kids who would throw stones at me."

"Nagi...." Yoji felt like crap now. "You really break things during sex? You seem like you have too much control for that."

"Usually I do. But if it gets really intense for me, I slip. Are _you_ in complete control of yourself every minute of the day?"

What a crap way to live. "No, I'm not."

The tiniest smile crossed Nagi's face. "Have you still been practicing?"

_Sex?_ Yoji thought first, then realized what Nagi meant. "I've been busy here."

"Excuses."

Yoji saw some truth in that, but it annoyed him all the same. He'd been busy almost the moment he and Elena had gotten off their plane, and his telekinesis wasn't so huge that he couldn't shove it under the rug until things calmed down more. Still, he felt the urge to _show_ Nagi that he wasn't a slacker or a failure.

Yoji could still vaguely feel strings around Nagi, though not as strongly as he had when Nagi had flown them over the city. They currently moved less and seemed shorter, tauter, and closer to Nagi's body, where before they'd waved. Yoji extended his fingers and thoughts toward them and felt them react, moving a little closer to him for stroking.

Shivering, obviously surprised, Nagi looked at him. "What the hell?"

"You're surrounded by strings. You didn't know?"

Wide-eyed, Nagi answered, "What are you doing to them?"

So now the student surprises the master! It made Yoji smile. "Touching them. It seems like they enjoy it." They felt almost... fuzzy. Soft.

"I don't... enjoy it." Nagi shivered some more. "I didn't know anyone else could see strings. Do you see ripples, waves, or storms of probabilities?"

Huh? "No. I don't really _see_ strings either, just feel them." He couldn't help stroking them. "I didn't even notice strings tonight until I felt them around you."

"Farfarello can manipulate Aya's sometimes."

"He's not a telekinetic."

"No, and he doesn't see them either, just feels them sometimes...."

"He's a freak."

Nagi's laugh sounded shaky. "Yeah. Yoji, you might want to stop stroking my strings."

Jerking his hand back, Yoji asked, "What? Is it hurting you?"

"It's turning me on like you wouldn't believe."

Or maybe Yoji would believe, because Nagi grabbed and kissed him while doing something that made ripples of sensation travel under his clothes and across his body. Fuck, Nagi was... strumming his strings like he was an instrument. Yoji felt Nagi's hot mouth, warm arms, and telekinesis not quite stroking his body and instead going directly to, what, his soul? He could barely think, let alone describe it.

When Yoji had a moment to breathe and think he asked, "You do that with everybody?"

Nagi's eyes looked so dark and very sexy, and he hadn't let go of Yoji. But he sounded offended. "Everybody? I'm not a slut."

"No, no, I mean people you're having sex with."

"I only use telekinesis with the ones who know what I am, and then I only touch their bodies with it. If you weren't a teke, you'd barely be aware of what I'm doing with it now. I never thought of trying this before because of that."

Only a dead man wouldn't be aware of when Nagi kissed him again and pushed him back onto the bed. Height differences didn't matter as much when you were flat on your back, which might help explain why Yoji felt so overwhelmed, especially since Nagi didn't weigh all that much on top of him. Yoji also couldn't help feeling that their strings were going at each other without either of them consciously willing it. Awash with sensation, Yoji couldn't decide whether that annoyed or pleased him, but it sure as hell turned him on. He'd never had anything like this before, with every touch carrying a vibrating echo.... Wanting more, he kissed back. Grinding with Nagi through regular touch and telekinesis, Yoji didn't think he'd be able to last long. The way Nagi's body seemed to almost pulsate against Yoji's didn't make self-control any easier. It felt like he'd been hard and waiting for hours....

The skin of Nagi's hands felt so soft, but his grip had a lot of strength in it. Yoji couldn't get to more skin yet, not with a belt in the way and Nagi wearing some kind of black shirt under his top. Yoji fumbled with the belt for a while then suddenly felt it unfasten against his fingers and Nagi smiling against his mouth. At about that moment Yoji's pants suddenly became much more comfortable as the fly had unfastened itself, no fingers necessary. Telekinesis could sure as hell be handy, and Yoji really needed to practice more to see what he could do, but not right now. Right now he undid Nagi's fly the old-fashioned way and reached in with his hand even as Nagi stroked _his_ cock with telekinesis.

Nagi's whole body stiffened suddenly and not in a good way. Had Yoji gone too far too fast? No way, not with what Nagi had already been doing to him, so what was wrong?

Nagi said, "Someone's unlocking the door-- Dammit!" and rolled off him to furiously refasten his clothing.

Still sex-stupid, Yoji couldn't figure out what the hell was happening until his head cleared a bit to allow him to analyze Nagi's reaction. _Then_ he knew. "You can keep them out, right?"

"Them? Schuldig's not the problem...." Nagi muttered, surely the first time anyone anywhere had ever said that, and stomped to the door. "Crawford! You may be able to unlock the door but I don't have to let you in!"

"You'd prefer me to keep airing your private affairs in the hallway? Because I'm not leaving and I won't stop talking," Crawford answered.

"If they were as private as they should be you wouldn't be here." Nagi shook his head. "You have too much personal pride to scream like a harpy in a hotel hallway at 3 a.m."

"This won't be a business issue. This will be a father berating a son gone wrong about his sex life while he's locked out of said son's room." More quietly, Crawford said, "Shut up, Schu."

Schuldig really did have Nagi's back and didn't approve of this kind of embarrassing attention? It made Yoji wonder about ice skaters in hell. Hell, this argument had worked like a splash of ice water for Yoji. Figuring that Nagi would open the door and that the mood had passed anyway, Yoji started to fasten his pants. He already exposed his dick to Schuldig and Crawford too much as is.

As incredible as the foreplay might've been, Yoji would be better off not consummating with Nagi anyway. It would've killed Omi when he found out, as he inevitably would have. But Nagi looked so angry, embarrassed, and _sad_ as he stood near the door that Yoji wanted to hug him.

Taking a deep breath, Nagi murmured, "Yoji, I'm opening the door. Are you decent?"

"I'm as decent and ready as I can be. Go for it," Yoji replied as he stood up. "Nagi, I'm sorry."

That put a small, brief smile on Nagi's face. "You didn't do anything wrong." Nagi opened the door and said to Crawford, "You damned well better have a good reason for this."

"You know I do, or at least you will once the lust passes," Crawford answered as he walked in with a blatantly ticked off Schuldig glaring at his back and slamming the door shut. Crawford wore a shirt and pants with shoes, looking casual but also well-groomed, while Schuldig wore a robe, silk pajama bottoms, and slippers. "Do you really want to destroy your and Schwarz's relations with Persia over one night of misguided passion? I've foreseen--"

"Do I have 'Property of Takatori Mamoru' tattooed on my ass? Did you completely flip-flop on your take of my relationship with him? Are you my pimp now?"

Ouch. Yoji had never seen the kid argue that heatedly with anyone and hadn't thought him capable of any rage aside from an ice-cold one. Never thought he'd use words like that either.

"I still think it was a mistake to have started it, but you did and now we have to deal with it. He doesn't own you, nor have I sold you to him. But if you have to do something that will anger him so badly, wouldn't it be better to do it over something that really matters instead of some one-night stand? Don't ruin the future with this."

Schuldig looked like he might implode from the force of keeping his anger in, yet he still kept it in and didn't say a word. Was it some kind of team loyalty that stopped him from undercutting his leader? Would he be able to intercede if Yoji removed himself from the room?

If Yoji were Nagi, he wouldn't want to be taken down to the mat with an outsider looking on, and Nagi had more prickly pride than he did. "Nagi, I should--"

"Yeah," Nagi answered softly with a blank expression.

"I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong." Nagi's tone strongly implied "unlike _some_ people."

After Yoji got his coat and put on his shoes, Schuldig said, "Yoji...."

Although Yoji couldn't hear anything smartassed or perverted in Schuldig's tone he snapped, "I'm going back to my hotel room to have an intense date with my hand in the shower. I think I've been sampled by enough members of Schwarz for one day." He'd just... had it: too many weird powers, too much coercion, too much strange bullshit, and too much _Schwarz_. Although he didn't have much dignity left, he wanted to keep and protect what he still had. "Good night, Nagi. You showed me a good time." He just barely managed not to say that maybe they should resume the telekinesis lesson another day just to be a smartass in front of Crawford.

Nagi smiled a little, genuinely, heartbreaking. "Good night, Yoji."

Yoji actually felt shaky walking away as he thought about how close he'd come to doing something that would probably make Omi cry and start a small war. Omi could be mature in many ways, but Yoji knew all too well that matters of the heart drove all kinds of people to do insane and destructive things. It didn't matter how unexpectedly hot Nagi had turned out to be.

When he jerked off in the shower later his spinning brain couldn't settle on one partner to fantasize about and instead gave him bits and pieces of fucking everyone.

At least he didn't wake Sasha up coming in or coming.

******************************************************

Feeling the rage, embarrassment, frustrated lust, and sadness Nagi radiated, Schuldig said, "You did what you came to do, Brad. You can leave now."

"You're not leaving with me?" Brad asked.

"I'm sticking around here for a bit, unless Nagi wants me to leave. Do you, Nagi?"

"Schuldig can stay," Nagi said, his voice dark and low.

Brad had the nerve to look affronted. "Schuldig--"

"You stopped Nagi from despoiling his snow-white purity. Call it a night, while I try to take care of things here."

Being right on one thing didn't just make everything okay, and your reasons could be good even while your implementation sucked. Brad had been too keen on stopping the sex before it got to coming to bother listening to Schuldig about how humiliating Nagi would consider the interruption. Hell, Brad thought the embarrassment would help prevent Nagi from doing it again.

Nagi shouldn't be celibate just to make Brad happy.

"Leave, Crawford," Nagi said.

Looking annoyed, Brad said, "I'll see you later, Schuldig," then left. At least he didn't slam the door.

Nagi just about collapsed as he sat on the bed. "Did he really have a vision?"

"I wouldn't have tattled on you. I told you to play the field, and Yoji's kind and pretty."

"Telekinetic too. It was... different." Nagi had a small smile on his face.

"Tell, tell."

"No. I'm a gentleman."

"Brat. I'll just read it from you or Yoji."

Putting his hand over his eyes, Nagi said, "I knew it would cause trouble, but I just didn't care."

Schuldig sat next to him and leaned against him. "You wanted something for yourself. Our time in Vienna has been seriously of the suck. You're growing up."

"Which means I get to be ruled by my hormones for the rest of my life?"

"Yep. Male or female, that's what it means. I'm proud of you."

"For almost wrecking relations with a potential employer by having sex with one of his best friends?" At least Nagi also saw the stupidity of tonight's actions, which meant that Schuldig could focus on propping him up without having to smack his fluffy head too.

"You socialized. You're trying to get on with your life. You're wearing the outfit I had commissioned for you." It looked as hot on him as Schuldig had thought it would.

Nagi looked so hot in general that he should be fending scores of suitors off. That he didn't have to only showed yet again how stupid and tasteless people were.

Nagi snorted and leaned into Schuldig, almost snuggling. "It's so stupid...."

Schuldig could tell that Nagi didn't mean the outfit; he meant the reason he had it on. Nagi had worn it in the nearly superstitious hope that Schuldig, Aya, and Farfarello would come back if he had it on just so Schuldig could gloat about catching him in it. Sweet, just like Nagi's urge to fuck Yoji into being happier, at least for the night.

Nagi deserved more sexual and emotional experience. Why the hell should Persia get to keep him on a string for the rest of his life? Given a choice between Omi and celibacy, Nagi should go for C, none of the above.

Schuldig could help that, but Nagi never let him. Still, he had to offer. "You know, Nagi, you don't have to be left unsatisfied tonight."

He really didn't deserve to have a pillow telekinetically thrown at the back of his head. That kind of cheap shot deserved a noogie, which Nagi apparently thought deserved tackling him and wrestling him into submission, telekinetically no less, the little cheater. Still it ended in them lying down loosely snuggled together, something Nagi never would have allowed once upon a time. Schuldig would take that as a small victory.

Of course Nagi ordered him out of the room 20 minutes later.

When Schuldig returned to his own room, as soon as he closed the door Brad said, "Schuldig--"

"Yeah, the person he chose was a mistake on his part, but the way you went about 'fixing' it was wrong. And don't you dare punish him for being human. We all got enough of that shit from Eszett. You being uncomfortable about him having sex shouldn't force him to be abstinent for the rest of his life. He already thinks he's a freak."

"Hmm." It sounded like a considering "hmm" so Brad might be thinking about it. Good. There might be a quiz later.

As Schuldig burrowed in next to Brad, he tried to think of ways he could get his kid to be happier.


	224. "They'll be taken care of."

When Farfarello felt his puisín wake and move to get out of bed, he grabbed Aya's wrist and asked, "Where are you going?"

"The bathroom. I'm allowed to relieve myself, aren't I?" At least Aya sounded more amused than annoyed.

"Yeah," Farfarello answered as he let go, somewhat embarrassed. Recent events had rendered him even more paranoid about Aya's safety and proximity. He wanted his puisín at his side, always, and he wanted to get out of this city before more shit dragged them deeper in. They'd drown or smother if events continued as they had so far.

With Aya out of the room, Farfarello let himself think over last night's stupid mistakes. He'd been so high on Aya manifesting that pushpin, a sign of their bond, and so in lust with his puisín and the slutkitten that he'd mishandled Aya completely. Having been attentive and with him so long, he should have known better. His puisín _should_ be pushed past grief and self-flagellation as soon as possible, and sex would be a good way to start that, but expecting Aya to agree to his first threesome ever, something he'd refused to do in the past, had been imprudent. Farfarello hadn't given him any preamble or preparation toward it, and the timing had been beyond bad. You couldn't expect Aya to quickly embrace something new, nor could you get him to put his sister aside so easily.

Fortunately, Farfarello's rash actions hadn't harmed their relationship. When Aya was angry, he let you see and feel it.

When Aya was insecure, it would take a lot of time and poking to drag even a word of it out of him.

Had the slutkitten been right about a threesome being threatening to Aya, a sign that Farfarello needed more than him alone? Despite all of Farfarello's words on many topics, Aya didn't always comprehend them in his heart. Hearing that Farfarello loved him and only lusted after the slutkitten might not be reassurance enough, not when faithful Aya himself never acted on his lust toward anyone other than Farfarello. But how could Farfarello prove it when his puisín was in mourning and resistant to sex as a result?

But perhaps Aya wasn't entirely resistant. Last night Farfarello had talked Aya into willingness before he'd tried to have Yoji as well. He'd been so close to having sex with his kitten while his kitten looked more kittenish!

Farfarello cursed the lust that had rendered him brainless. While he'd like to blame the slutkitten for it, he couldn't. It had arisen within his perverse body without Yoji trying to be enticing. What idiot conceived an attraction to his husband's object of illicit attraction? It gave you so much less high ground.

Speaking of his lust, Aya's return to the bedroom made it spike again. "Come back to bed, puisín. It's too early in the morning to do anything yet."

"I'm restless. I need to be working. Or practicing."

Twitchy and restless himself, Farfarello wanted to do some bloodletting as well, but not this instant. "The boy didn't bring your katana here. Return to bed."

Thankfully, Aya did. Farfarello enjoyed the way his puisín's breath caught as he pushed up Aya's shirt a bit and stroked his stomach. Aya didn't tell him to stop.

Farfarello wanted to fuck and be fucked so badly, to reconnect in the most basic, physical way. Missed him, missed him so much, and being presented with Aya's corporeal existence, his scent and feel and heat, stirred Farfarello's lust far beyond what he'd felt in the slutkitten's dream.

Besides, his earlier sight examination and subsequent touches confirmed that his puisín had lost all of his scars, all those reminders of events in his life. If Aya's earring hadn't been in, he might have lost that hole as well. The knife scars on his arm from the act that had helped push him toward joining Schwarz were gone. All the marks that Farfarello had traced and mapped with mouth, fingers, eye, and ki had been replaced by flawless, boring, new skin. The knotty sigils of possession and protection that Farfarello liked to draw on his puisín could always be done again--in fact, they needed to be refreshed now and then anyway, and Farfarello had started a new set at dinner--but scars could not be replaced.

At least, Aya would never redo them or allow anyone else to either.

Farfarello needed to reaffirm his claim on and learn his puisín's remade body. His mental map needed to be updated.

"Don't look at me like that," Aya said, although his voice sounded breathy.

Amused, Farfarello answered, "I can't look. It's dark."

"You know what I mean. I can feel it, like heat on my skin."

"I'm arousing you just by thinking about you? My power amazes me."

"Farfarello, I promise you that you can have me all you want at a later date, just not now."

"All I want?"

"Within reason. You know what I mean."

Farfarello dissociated himself a bit more to better read his puisín. He found arousal but also the continuing grief and a feeling that having sex here would be inappropriate. Aya did want him, badly, but needed time and a more secure location.

Farfarello understood that, even if he didn't like it. Stilling his hand on Aya's stomach, he said, "I understand. I can always wait for you, my puisín."

"Thank you." Aya put his hand over Farfarello's and drifted into sleep.

It should bother Farfarello how easily his puisín could disarm him sometimes. That it didn't bother him should bother him even more.

******************************************************

Despite anticipating more bitchery from Schuldig about last night's events, Crawford appreciated it being morning because not everyone kept his business hours. Now, after days of stasis, he could start getting things done. He had an important call to make, and he knew what he would do in administering the cure words.

Watching himself in the bathroom mirror, he brushed his freshly blowdried hair and straightened his tie even though Friendly wouldn't be able to see him as they spoke on the phone. Having his appearance in control contributed to his confidence and feeling of power as he presented himself, even if his recipient only heard his voice.

"Elena, this is Crawford."

She didn't bother to ask how he had her number. "You must want something. What would it be?"

Although she had many faults, rudeness and attitude among them, she didn't waste much time. He appreciated that. "Schuldig took the cure for his phrase out of Breaker's head. You seem to be the best recipient to administer it." He wanted that phrase taken _off_. Immediately.

"Am I supposed to feel honored?"

"There will be some compensation."

"I would hope so. You've been harping on how people aren't properly paying Schwarz for work while Weiß has been doing all kinds of things that benefit you for free."

Things would have been much easier if Balinese had remained the leader of Weiß. He'd probably resigned from that position and suggested this harpy to replace him for just that reason.

"You will be paid."

"I haven't seen anything for any of the work we've done yet."

"You _will_ be paid. You know we're good for it."

"And you know that if you don't lots of other people will know too."

Crawford pondered ways of killing her but most of them involved his culpability being discovered fairly quickly due to her link with Fenris. "Yes."

"You're sure the cure is legit?"

"It came directly from Breaker's mind." Crawford wondered if Schuldig could safely remove the phrase's catalyst from the data packet Friendly would get but figured they hadn't been that fortunate in anything that had happened here so far so probably not. While he hated her having that kind of information, he couldn't see a way around it.

"There are reasons why he manifested as a two-headed dog. He had the heart of a trickster. It wouldn't surprise me if he had a bogus cure running through his mind in case somebody got the drop on him."

Crawford didn't know whether she was toying with him or actually believed that possibility. "Schuldig believes it's correct from what he was able to see. In any case, do we have someone we can test it on? I don't think so."

"Don't get your panties in a bunch. I'm just suggesting it to cover myself. I don't know the efficacy of this cure and don't want to be held responsible if Breaker fooled him and it turns out to be wrong or dangerous. Given your reputation for swift and sometimes unthinking vengeance, only an idiot would agree to do anything risky for you without some kind of safeguard for her life."

Damn it. "If you do exactly what you're told to do, I won't harm you."

"I'll need witnesses there from my own side."

"My word is good."

"The cure might be dangerous to _me_, did you ever think about that? I want a spotter there."

Why did everyone feel the need to make everything so complicated? He couldn't wait to leave Vienna and hopefully never work with Weiß again, although he doubted he would be so fortunate on the last one, Weiß being too useful to discard.

"Fine." He didn't actually want to have Kritiker accusing him of harming her either. If he ever had to break with them for good, it should be for something he _intended_ to do.

"Excellent. Does Schuldig have the cure words?"

"Yes. I'll be discussing our terms today."

"Of course you'll have terms."

"Meet us at Kritiker's headquarters in about an hour. It'll be worth your while. I'll speak to you later."

To his surprise, his phone immediately went off again almost as soon as he disconnected the call to Friendly. "Crawford."

"This is Malice. I've finished going through the discs."

Crawford hadn't expected him to continue to once Breaker's mind had been plundered for information, but it spoke well of the clone that he'd completed the task. "And?"

"If Breaker had installed the phrase at any of times documented here, he did it so subtly that I can't see it, which makes sense. I'd hoped that he'd be a little more obvious, since his arrogance and love of getting one over on people are legendary. However, I do think you should take a look at one of the audits."

"Any particular reason why?"

"Aside from me saying you should?" Malice sounded _exactly_ like Schuldig there, where before he'd sounded somewhat like Schuldig.

"Aside from that."

"Breaker's there, which is unusual. He uses the words 'skeleton key,' and Schuldig reacts to them. That suggests to me that he had the phrase in place by then, so you'll want to see it. You should see it with me, since I've watched enough of these damned things to know what's routine for an audit and what's not. Do you want me to come to your room for a showing or do you want to come to ours?"

"Ours" meaning a room he no doubt shared with Wicked. Did Crawford want to watch a past Schuldig being brutalized into a more obedient frame of mind while under the judging eyes of two of his clones? Not at all. Unfortunately, he also figured that he'd miss some nuances without them there. This whole ordeal with Breaker had shown him that he'd been unaware of what telepaths experienced at Rosenkreuz.

Actually, the longer he lived, the more he realized how ignorant he'd been in general. That state of ignorance couldn't continue.

"I'll be making an announcement about the cure words this morning. I'll decide where to view the audit after that."

"Great. I was wondering about that."

"I'm surprised you didn't ask for the cure word as part of your pay."

"I wanted to see how much everyone else is paying for it first."

Crawford couldn't help smiling at that. Smart kid. "You'll find out at Kritiker's base this morning along with everyone else. Be there and wait for the announcement."

Something about the catch in Malice's breath suggested that he wanted to say something long--Crawford had a flicker of foresight that supported that impression--but instead he closed with a brief "We'll see you later, Mr. Crawford."

Crawford would keep the feeling in mind for later, in case it became important. He closed up his phone and walked out of the bathroom, ready to get moving and take on the world. In the bedroom, up on the tips of his toes, eyes closed, Schuldig was stretching upward and a bit backward, arching, not enough for serious exercise or to work up a sweat but enough to show some of his flexibility. It didn't bare even a hint of skin, yet Crawford felt lust curling through him. It hadn't always been this way.

Once, sex had been something he could take or leave that he used sparingly, a means of relaxation and way to make Schuldig believe he was gaining the upper hand. At that time, his lust for his telepath had been a small thing, easily ignored, that only arose in certain situations where Schuldig behaved in a sexual fashion toward him. Otherwise, the telepath had only registered to him as a weapon, tool, annoyance, and occasional obstacle.

Rarely had Schuldig registered to Crawford as a person. Few people had. Few people did now.

He supposed that in some ways he hadn't registered to _himself_ as a person for a long time.

Without completely ending his stretch, Schuldig opened his eyes and let them roam over Crawford's body before he smiled. Crawford knew that dark colors better complimented his silver hair so he'd chosen a dark navy suit for today's public presentation regarding the words. Its pinstripes played to Schuldig's surprising love of them.

As Schuldig came down from his stretch he said, "I know that Nagi having sex with Yoji would be a disaster from the inevitable emotional fallout from Persia, but there had to be a better way to stop it than barging in like an enraged father protecting his naïve virgin daughter's virtue. Nagi will either stop trying to get together with anyone--which, regardless of what you think right now, would be a _bad thing_\--or he'll take it somewhere far away from us where you can't interfere, which might lead to entirely different dangerous situations." It sounded far calmer and more reasonable than anything Schuldig had offered last night.

"What do you think I should have done last night? I'm curious."

"I don't know. I'm also not the leader. Lucky me. Look, I know you didn't have much time to think up an approach last night. I figure that something like this will come up again in the future, so maybe you should think up your procedure in the meantime. And, no, I'm not pacified and brainwashed by your pinstripes, although I certainly appreciate you going to the effort of making yourself especially pretty for me."

"I don't expect him to remain celibate for the rest of his life." Crawford just didn't want to think about Nagi having sex. Ever.

"I guess that's a start."

As they armed and finished dressing, Crawford still couldn't accustom himself to this kind of easy compromise they now had at times. They'd spent too many years trying to beat one another into accepting their own rigid point of view. Any divergence from that point of view had suggested an intolerable defeat, no matter if Schuldig's ideas had shown any logic.

Schwarz had been Crawford's team, his _tools_. Tools shouldn't have opinions.

Crawford had been Eszett's tool. They hadn't wanted him to have an opinion either. He'd kept his opinions carefully to himself.

This morning, he truly felt that he'd really done it, really won Schwarz's freedom from Eszett. Better than that, they had won their freedom and _changed_ instead of continuing on, even without Eszett, as tools. They would clean up the remaining mess with the words and Schuldig's phrase here, check out the ruins of Rosenkreuz, and then go on with the rest of their lives, whatever that turned out to be. It put a smile on his face.

Crawford received a quick flash of the future just before Nagi knocked at their door. Even before he could say anything or move, Schuldig pulled his trench coat on and walked to the door in a swirl of bright orange hair and long black coat. Coming in, Nagi cast Crawford one dark look of recrimination before his face smoothed over completely into his blank professional look. Crawford could see how this would become a problem if left unresolved.

"We're going to offer the kids our deal on the cure words today. I'll also have Friendly take off Schuldig's phrase," Crawford said. "I've already spoken to her about it."

"Everything's going down at Kritiker's place, huh? Aya and Farfie will be glad for the pickup," Schuldig answered, although the look of relief on his face probably had more to do with his control phrase being taken care of than retrieving their berserker pair.

Nagi nodded. The suitcase he held no doubt contained more clothing for them, and he had Aya's scabbard crosswise on his back camouflaged in one of those carry-alls art students used for some of their tools.

His team always had looked out for its members more than Eszett had thought was healthy. Now they did it even better and with less prompting. "Let's get it all started," Crawford said.

******************************************************

"Mr. Takatori, a word with you, please," Mr. Zietler said as Mamoru arrived at the room he'd been using as his Vienna office.

Mamoru didn't like the look of this but answered, "Of course," as he sat at his desk, the position of power, while Zietler had the standing position of claimant.

"We're aware that you would like to take the talents to Japan with you."

"They need training and some stability. I'll only take those who agree to go. They've already been treated like chattel too often in their lives."

Zietler's minute wince made his next words less of a surprise. "We can't let you take them out of the country."

"By what right do you hold them here? They're not criminals." Mamoru didn't say, "They're not Austrian citizens," out of worry that it would somehow benefit Zietler's stance instead of impede it. Fairness and law had nothing to do with the agenda Austria's Kritiker head presented to him right now.

"Balance."

"We're all Kritiker."

"Yet when you arrived here you took complete control."

Turf wars? _Now_? "Hardly by force. My operatives had more experience in dealing with Eszett's results."

"You're claiming Schwarz as your operatives? I doubt they'd agree."

"They freelance for Kritiker. I've hired them on for jobs. We're collaborating on this. One of my teams also has two talented operatives we liberated from Eszett a while ago. I've had some difficulties finding people accustomed to working with psionics among the Austrian Kritiker agents. The psionics are people. What would Kritiker do with them here?"

"What would you do with them in Japan?"

"Train them to be useful members of society."

"In Japan."

"I haven't heard any plans to do anything with them here. Some of them have encountered some prejudice from Austrian Kritiker agents. If they remain here, what happens to them?"

"They'll be taken care of."

"How?"

"They'll be taken care of."

Like hell. It looked like they'd have to wrap things up quickly here. Schwarz had to hand over the cure word immediately, Mamoru had to trust in the embryonic plans he'd laid for a facility in Okinawa, and the psionics had to make their decision on whether to go with him or not immediately if they wanted to retain their freedom. As soon as Zietler left the room, he'd have to contact Elena, then Crawford.

Mamoru figured he'd lose the Austrian faction of Kritiker over this, but at the moment he found it impossible to care.


	225. "See? I'm useful as well as decorative."

Yoji woke up in bed alone in his hotel room without a hangover or any aches whatsoever. Damn it. It all helped immediately remind him that he hadn't gotten any of the fun he'd wanted last night.

"You're telling me you went to all that trouble and didn't even have a good time last night? That's lame, Yoji."

The voice... it took Yoji a moment to realize he had Sasha in his room talking to him, not Schuldig. His life _sucked_.

"Apparently it does," Sasha said, as standing near the mirror, he struggled with his hair.

Sitting up more, Yoji answered, "I'm not the only pathetic one. You're using my product, right?"

"Yeah, but it's all so damaged already. I'm tempted to buzz-cut it all down and just start over, but then I have to do the awkward growing out stage where it defies gravity even worse than it does now."

"How did you deal with it when you lived on the street?"

"I didn't wash or comb it much, I pretended it was punk and supposed to look like that, and nobody cared. "

"Yeah, you won't be able to get away with that with us."

Sasha grinned into the mirror at him. "Yeah. But, Yoji, you didn't get lucky last night?"

"You didn't just read the whole sad story of last night out of my head? Sure sounded like it."

"I don't pry. I got enough of an idea that it didn't end well."

"I didn't wake you getting into bed, right?"

"Nah."

"Good. I didn't get lucky. I ran into some chicks who thought I was hot but were more attracted to my wallet."

"Ouch. How did Prodigy figure into it?"

"Huh?"

"I can tell he was there. There's kind of a... signature."

"We hooked up. He wanted to see what the deal is about going out to clubs."

"I guess he picked a bad night to tag along."

Could Yoji actually manage to keep his near thing with Nagi last night a secret? When Schwarz was involved, it seemed like everybody always found out who was doing everybody else eventually, but he wanted to give secrecy the best shot he had, especially since they hadn't even fucking consummated the whole thing. Everybody getting upset over a small bit of making out would be ridiculous.

"Yeah, it looks like it." Though Nagi had enjoyed commanding him around. And he'd enjoyed being commanded.

"You ever think of giving it up?" Sasha asked as he started lining his eyes.

It took Yoji a moment to get his head back to figure out that Sasha meant clubbing. "I like the drinking and dancing and relaxing. I like the people and the performing."

"The performing?"

"Me out there in front of other people. I've spent a lot of my life in the last few years trying _not_ to get noticed or watering myself down for public consumption, but I go out to clubs to be noticed. It's kind of like being an artist, the way I craft an image for myself."

Sasha's expression in the mirror was rueful. "I've hidden from the public in a lot of different ways."

Yoji remembered how all the black kohl Sasha had put around his eyes as Misery had not only made it difficult to focus anywhere else on his face but also covered the ginger color of his eyebrows. The shock of bleached, spiked white hair certainly made an impression too. Recently Sasha had been using much less eyeliner and letting his eyebrows show, possibly the signs of a more secure person. Possibly.

"I can see that. You're not hiding anymore though, right?"

Sasha didn't _quite_ flinch as he answered, "Of course not."

"Because you don't have to hide anymore. We're here for you, and we have your back."

"I know that." Sasha's small, sweet, slightly wavering smile nonetheless suggested that he didn't entirely trust in it though, not that Yoji could really blame him. The kid had lived a tough life and seen a lot of abuse and betrayal. Weiß would have to show him better.

It sounded like he thought that could be possible, that Weiß could be a positive influence on someone's life. Not so long ago it had only been the company he had left, the company he deserved: killers damned to lives of torment and afterlives in hell. When Tuji had offered him an opportunity to forget it all and start anew, he'd come perilously close to betraying his team to get it from her. Yet he couldn't look at Elena and Fenris now without thinking that they'd grown so much as people since joining the team. They'd even... healed somewhat. Somewhere along the line Weiß had stopped being something Yoji wanted to escape from and become closer to the family Omi had always wanted it to be, and they definitely had room for Sasha in it. If they played it right, they might even save Omi. Yoji kept pondering possibilities on that.

"--ever take me to a club?" Sasha asked, his words breaking into Yoji's thoughts.

"Yeah. Of course I would." It was about time Sasha had help on getting on with his life. "Wait 'til we hit Tokyo. Then you'll see what real night life is like."

Sasha grinned, then asked, "Are you going to get dressed today?

"Sure, sure." As Yoji gathered his clothes and walked into the bathroom, he couldn't help smiling. It seemed that he'd kept his little thing with Nagi secret from Sasha. Maybe it wouldn't be a disaster.

Or maybe Sasha just wouldn't tell him he knew. Damn it.

How did people deal with living like this? Bad enough when you just had to worry about being caught saying or doing something stupid in public. At least with that you had the option of not saying or doing it at such times. With telepaths, you didn't have _private_ moments, not even inside your own head.

~ Yoji, the rest of Weiß is here, ~ Sasha said, probably to make him hurry more and let him know not to walk out in too much of a state of undress. Sure, they got to see quite a bit of him when stitching up his small wounds and Yoji didn't have anything to be ashamed of in the body department, but everything had a time and place. Besides, he didn't want to distract them from business too much.

He already had all of his clothes on, so he ran a brush through his hair, thankful for a day without tangle-inducing damp, and walked out to greet his team. Elena had a tailored suit on today, something she'd been doing more of lately, while back home she tended to favor shirts and jeans. Dressing up for the Austrian division of Kritiker probably, under the idea that, as Weiß's leader, she needed to make some kind of professional showing. Good idea. Ken and Fenris had dressed casually, as usual, although Fenris hadn't worn any of his funny T-shirts lately.

"We have to roll out of here quickly," Elena said. "Things are moving fast now. Persia just had Antipathy contact me in a short telepathic burst to tell me that Austrian Kritiker is starting to get difficult about the talents."

"'Difficult' how?" Yoji asked.

"'Difficult' in that their rep has said they're not going to let the talents leave Vienna to go to Japan. They're also starting to bitch about Persia taking the reins here."

"They're bitching about that _now_?"

"Yeah, the timing seems to be coinciding with them deciding they're going to play everything their own way from now on."

"Including stripping any kind of human rights from the psionics?"

"Yeah. Not that I'm surprised about that. We've only been dealing with that attitude from people forever."

"What exactly does Austrian Kritiker intend to do with them?"

"Austrian Kritiker is using its own telepathic talents to block access to any plans. Considering that, I imagine they'll 'offer' local jobs to a lot of them, but that's guesswork on my part."

"Persia isn't going to let it stand."

"Persia may have to sneak everyone out of the country. Coordinating all of these people is going to be tough. Not all of the talents in the building are firmly on our side. I can easily see some of them selling news of us trying to smuggle them out to Austrian Kritiker representatives."

Screwing over everyone else like them? Yoji wished he could say that he thought that would be impossible. "Great. Like we need more complications. You said that Persia had Antipathy send the message, so that must mean that at least some of the school talents are already informed."

"Yeah. He told one member of the Bruise and it diffused to the rest of them and their hangers-on. They still seem to be enough of a single entity in some ways that they would never betray their own."

"Unless they decided it benefited them as the Bruise to turn on everyone else," Sasha said suddenly.

"So we don't trust anyone?" Ken asked. "We can't exactly leave the country by ourselves and leave it to everyone else to fight it out amongst themselves just to make sure we don't have to risk anything. I mean, we're here, and we did things. We can't just walk away now."

"Yeah," Fenris said. "We have to take a risk somewhere."

"Nobody's saying we're checking out alone under the cover of night. Though life would be much easier if we could," Elena answered.

"I know," Ken said. "I'm just saying...."

"Yeah, I know. The whole problem here is that we want to give the talents the opportunity to get out, whether they want to join up with our Kritiker or not. Taking Eszett and Ebenroth down just to have fuckin' Kritiker take its place does _not_ work for me. Nor does it work for Persia." Her tone said very strongly that if Persia _had_ been fine with it, she would have been vocally and violently opposed.

"What's Schwarz doing in all this?" Yoji asked.

"They haven't heard yet."

"Shouldn't they hear? Elena, don't give me that look. I know what you think of my... extracurricular activities with them, but they're talents and they'll be walking into Kritiker headquarters at a time when Austrian Kritiker is looking at talents as things to be owned. Shit. Aya and Farfarello are probably in there already, and who knows what Kritiker might decide to try with them?" Not that Aya and Farfarello would just _let_ anyone imprison or use them, but they also had a tendency to ignore any personal damage they took until after the battle ended or their injuries took them down.

"Crawford will entrust me with the cure needed to take off Guilty's phrase, and I'll tell them then. Shit. Crawford said they'll meet me at the headquarters. I agreed to that before I got the message about Kritiker. But we can't afford to have too many messages flying around telepathically when Kritiker has its own telepaths who could be trying to listen in. Just us having all that communication going on this morning would look suspicious. We have to play it cool. I may have to call Schwarz soon to see if we can meet elsewhere."

Yoji had several sudden thoughts. "The Kritiker telepaths... what do they think of all this? How free are they? Do they get paid? How indoctrinated are they? Are they loyal to Kritiker or to themselves? How much do they know about what's going on here? Are they former Eszett?"

"I don't know. I know they don't have many, but I haven't met any."

"I haven't spoken to any," Sasha said. "Sorry. I was concentrating on feeling out Ebenroth's people, the Bruise, and Wicked and Malice."

"Don't sweat it," Yoji answered. "We didn't even ask you to do that, although I'm thankful you did. Wicked and Malice see themselves as independent from it all?"

"Yeah. They're totally freelance. They're still doing a research project for Schwarz, but that's as far as they go there."

"Elena, you said Schwarz has the cure for Schuldig's phrase. Do they have all the cure words?"

"They said so," she replied. "This morning they're going to reveal what they want in return from the talents."

_Charging_ for the cure words? That sounded like Crawford.

"Getting their cure words will get the talents started on trying to get out of here," Sasha said. "Most of them have only been waiting for their word."

Yoji snorted. "Kritiker headquarters is going to be fun for everyone today."

"I'm definitely going to have to call Crawford," Elena said, "and I'm _so_ looking forward to that. I'll have to figure out how to say what I need to without being too obvious just in case Kritiker has someone monitoring things there too."

"Are we forgetting anything?" Yoji had to ask. His brain already hurt, and the day had just started and only promised to get worse.

"I can't think of anything else," Elena said, "but that doesn't mean there isn't anything."

"We can always bitch about it the moment we remember anything," Yoji answered as he put his boots on.

Elena actually smiled. "I'm glad I have an Uncle Yoji to brainstorm with."

"See? I'm useful as well as decorative."

Fenris looked excited. "I'm so glad the waiting is over, and we're doing things again."

Sick as it might be in the face of all the traps set in their path, Yoji felt a bit of that himself.

******************************************************

Schuldig looked a little less surprised over being the one sitting in the driver's seat driving when Crawford's cell phone went off, which confirmed the hunch that had told Crawford to take the shotgun seat to begin with. "Hello?" Crawford asked, although he knew who'd called the moment he'd picked up the phone. Nice of his precognition to finally get more specific for him. He hated vague feelings.

"It's Elena. I'm rethinking our earlier plans. Let's meet somewhere else before we go there. Do you have any suggestions?"

Her utter refusal to get detailed told him much of what he needed to know. “The Volksgarten.”

“You want to meet up at the place Breaker wanted us to report for slavery to?”

“It's one of the first places that came to mind. Go to Theseus Temple there. There’s no reason why you can’t see some of the sights while you’re in town.”

“That’s _so_ very thoughtful. Thanks. See you soon.”

As Crawford closed up the phone, Schuldig asked, wise-ass as ever, "Was it worth taking the passenger seat over?"

"Something's going on at Kritiker headquarters, and since Weiß doesn't want you walking into it with your phrase still working it has to involve talents." He wanted Schuldig to be safe from outside control as well. "The fact that she's not using telepathy to talk to us says a lot too. Elena and probably the rest of her team will meet us at Theseus Temple soon to remove your phrase. We'll have to wait until then to get more details."

"Fun! But I guess it means Weiß cares. Isn't that sweet? I wonder if they'll let us break some members of the local Kritiker. That would be sweeter."

"Some mayhem would be nice," Nagi said quietly from the backseat.

Crawford agreed.


	226. "The lock no longer fits you."

As Farfarello and his puisín sparred hand to hand, eschewing blades in the absence of his kitten having any of his own here, Farfarello felt a rising feeling of disquiet and uncertainty in the people in the building around them, a miasma of things shifting into imbalance and secrets being carefully shared with some and kept from others. He saw in Aya's body language that his kitten had some awareness of it as well.

"Stop," Farfarello said.

"There's something wrong, isn't there?" Aya asked. Perhaps he even felt it from power he sipped from Farfarello, a warming thought.

"There would seem to be. I believe that factions are building."

"How soon will Schwarz arrive?" As ever, he assumed the worst.

Farfarello couldn't fault that as a survival technique. "Perhaps not soon enough. Let me contact the mindbreaker." Sitting on the bed, he dissociated himself further from his body and sent out, ~ Mindbreaker! When will you and the others grace us with your presence? ~

~ Soon. We just have a few personal things to take care of first. You know how it is. ~ Although Schuldig's mind "voice" sounded light and offhand, the quick burst of information he'd sent along with the "speech" suggested something very different about his state of mind. Schwarz saw reason to be careful of telepaths.

Farfarello would need more time to unpack what the mindbreaker had surreptitiously sent him. In the meantime he replied, ~ Don't waste too much time on personal things. I miss insulting you. ~

~ Now that I have that to look forward to, I'll make sure to hurry up. See you later. ~

Once Farfarello went through the secretive burst of data, he growled to himself, prompting Aya to ask, "What?"

Farfarello grabbed him and tumbled them together onto the bed, murmuring into his ear, "Something is happening with the talents and the Austrian branch of Kritiker. The mindbreaker is being very careful in his telepathy, so that means we may be monitored. He's currently going to get his control phrase removed. Schwarz will come for us once he's done. We wait for them."

"I hate waiting."

"As do I."

"But we're capable of it."

"Yes."

With his kitten in his arms, Farfarello knew how he wanted to pass the time but also knew they couldn't afford to be so distracted within enemy territory. Of course, Aya might _still_ be unready to resume sexual relations. His puisín truly tested his willpower.

"We can return to sparring," Aya said. "It feels good to move again."

"Excellent idea." But they wouldn't train all out. If someone came to try to use or dispose of them, Farfarello had some of his knives and his own battle-trained body to fight back with. Aya could also defend himself even without his katana or guns and knew where Farfarello's knives were. Farfarello could watch such calculations go on in Aya's eyes.

They smiled at each other in perfect understanding.

******************************************************

Schuldig couldn't help having a small skip in his step as Schwarz walked to Theseus Temple, but who could blame him? Anyone would want to have a fucking control phrase disarmed. He had no intentions of being taken over and used against his will, let alone used against Brad or anyone else who belonged to him.

Weiß waited for them at Theseus Temple like good little minions, just as they'd been commanded to. Sasha said, "Hi, Mom!" no doubt to irritate Brad, who twitched.

Seeing that as a worthy pursuit, Schuldig answered the greeting with a cheerful "Hi, baby!" and grinned at the somewhat constipated expression that crossed Brad's face. Brad shouldn't have been such a dick to Sasha from the start anyway.

As usual, Friendly had a sour expression on her face. "Seriously, the Volksgarten?"

"It _is_ one of the first places that came to mind," Brad replied with a small smile. "I said I'd allow you a spotter. I don't want the rest of Weiß gawking during this."

"I'm using Sasha as my spotter. You might as well let me keep Fenris here, since he's so deeply linked to me. Yoji has been linked to Guilty for a while, so I don't know what good it would do to put him at a distance. Ken could be useful to have with me just from not having any links to anyone and having no connection to Rosenkreuz and no words of his own."

"I didn't agree to any of that."

Friendly shrugged. "Think about it. None of us have all day to waste."

An experienced Brad wrangler would know that Brad hated to have new demands dumped on him in public, but Friendly hardly had a claim to that title. She probably figured she had him over a barrel. Besides, hadn't Schuldig himself just thought about the great fun to be had in baiting the Crawford?

~ Unfortunately, her reasons make sense, ~ Schuldig told him.

~ I know, which makes them even more galling, ~ Brad answered. ~ How do you feel about having an audience while we try this out? We have no idea what might happen to you.... ~

Or to anyone around him if the cure turned out to be a trap with a "destroy" command inside or Schuldig's telepathy went nova. ~ I've always been an exhibitionist. Why stop now? Besides, if it could do damage across links like Friendly is positing it may, physical distance wouldn't make you and Nagi... or Yoji any safer. Seeing it might give you better warning and a better chance at protecting yourselves. ~

The look on Brad's face said volumes about how he felt about that, even though only intimates of his would be able to read it. Schuldig couldn't blame him for being angry over the possibility. It pissed Schuldig off too. He said to Nagi, ~ Kid, if something goes wrong with me and you feel it trying to spread to others through my links, protect yourself and, if you can, try to protect Yoji. But make sure you're safe first. ~ If Nagi were compromised, Yoji would be in equal danger whether Nagi tried to shield him or not. Brad's precog-structured, partitioned mind took decent care of itself for the most part.

Once again, Schuldig wistfully thought back on the days when he hadn't spent so much time pondering every possibility of his actions. Once he'd cheerfully sown the wind and hadn't thought much about what he'd reap from the whirlwind, and Brad had needed to remind him not to get so caught up in the honey that he forgot the bees. But that had been a luxury of being a minion. With greater freedom came greater responsibility. Doing something disruptive out of rebelliousness would only hurt himself now.

And having to let himself be walloped repeatedly about the head with a golf club at the command of his team leader/Daddy had changed matters for him somewhat before that.

Growing up could suck.

After a brief flash of surprise, Nagi answered, ~ I will. ~ Then he smiled. ~ You can trust me to take care of myself. And Yoji. ~

Brad said to Friendly. "We'll allow Misery and Fenris as your spotters. Balinese and Siberian can stay nearby but not too close."

"What about you and Prodigy?" Friendly asked.

"We'll remain at Schuldig's side."

"It's three facing three," Schuldig had to say. "Balanced."

"All right," Friendly replied then made a hand waving "back off" gesture to Yoji and Ken, both of whom turned rebellious and sullen over it. When they didn't immediately obey, Friendly said, "_Now_," in a tone of voice that made them finally back way up. Weiß had become a matriarchy.

He, Brad, and Nagi stood facing Friendly, Sasha, and Fenris. Sasha's hair already looked softer and more alive after a few days in Yoji's care, and he used eyeliner to accentuate instead of obfuscate. But even with the bleached hair he looked enough like the face Schuldig saw in the mirror every day and enough like Emory to roil Schuldig's stomach. Friendly and Fenris made safer objects to look at, since she looked only like her Polish self and presumably her family and Fenris looked somewhat odd and mishmashed-experimental.

Schuldig "handed" the telepathic packet over to her. After taking a deep, steadying breath, she closed her eyes and went through it, her eyes obviously moving beneath the closed lids, while Sasha and Fenris monitored and looked nervous.

Finally, Friendly laughed a little and opened her eyes. "It's either really easy out of him thinking he was really funny, or it's a total joke."

"Really easy?" Brad asked.

"It's two sentences in English. The rest of Schwarz might want to back up and out of hearing range in case there's a trap in these words for the people he knew were Guilty's team members."

Schuldig could tell that Brad wanted to refuse, so he said, "Crawford, Nagi, stand back and keep yourselves safe. Just in case. I don't want to take the chance of that fucker getting a laugh on us from beyond the grave."

"All right," Brad answered as he stepped far back. Nagi looked between them, then did the same as Brad.

"Ready?" Friendly asked.

"Ready," Schuldig answered.

In English she said, "You're no longer my skeleton key. The lock no longer fits you."

"That's it?" Couldn't be.

"Yeah," she replied, back to German.

"I don't feel any different."

"I'm not so sure I should try the trigger phrase on you to make sure the packet was correct."

"Shit. Of course we shouldn't." He only trusted that a cure for the phrase even existed because this had been mentally marked as such in Breaker's mind and because Breaker was a paranoiac who always tried to have an exit strategy and trusted none of his allies.

Schuldig hoped that one of Breaker's exit strategies hadn't involved putting false information inside his own brain as a trap to any telepath who tried to plunder him.

"We probably should have expected this," Brad said as he walked back up with Nagi.

"Doesn't make it any less disappointing," Schuldig replied.

"No kidding. Friendly, what's going on with Kritiker? I couldn't help noticing the secrecy you used while changing our appointment for this."

"The Austrian branch has decided it doesn't want to let any of the talents leave the country," she answered, while Yoji and Ken walked over to back her up. "It sounded like they may enforce that by force."

"Great," Schuldig said. "A new version of Eszett can start within driving distance of the home base of the old one."

"Persia opposes this. No one's going to be made into slaves on his watch."

"I'm sure it helps that he'd like to make use of the talents in his own home country, something he can't do if Austria keeps them," Brad said.

"You can make whatever you like of it, but he backs the talents having the human rights they deserve, while the Austrian branch is looking at them as tools to be used or destroyed. There will probably be a schism in Kritiker over this. Persia will lose the local Kritiker people by taking a stand, so this will cost him."

"He hasn't yet?"

"He hasn't taken a _public_ stand yet and may try to get at least some of the talents out of here by stealth before he does so. That we have hundreds of talents with unknown loyalties involved complicates the situation. We can't tell them en masse because some of them might be for sale and willing to turn on the others. We don't know the loyalties of Austrian Kritiker's telepaths either. Trying to handle that many people can be tricky. Sasha says that a lot of the talents have only hung around Kritiker this long waiting for the cure words."

"I'll give my terms for those today," Brad replied. "All right. We have no more urge to see these Austrians emulate Eszett than you or Persia do. Schwarz will be with you on this in private but won't make any public announcements yet."

"It'd probably be better making our semi-alliance on this a surprise to Austrian Kritiker anyway." Friendly smiled.

"All of you will go to Kritiker headquarters in the two separate cars, arriving at two different times. I'll arrive a little later, since I have business I need to take care of first. I _will_ arrive later though with the terms for the cure words."

Brad had just changed his plans. ~ What's going on? ~ Schuldig asked him.

~ Malice has something to show me. You'll drop me off at his hotel room, and he and Wicked will drive me to Kritiker afterwards. I believe it's important. ~

~ But not important enough to tell me now? ~

~ I want to see how it works out first. ~

Brad had to go off and play cowboy now and then. It annoyed the hell out of Schuldig.

~ It's related to one of your audits, all right? ~ Brad said. ~ I don't know if it would affect you to watch it, and I'd rather not take the chance. ~

On the one hand, Schuldig really didn't want Brad seeing any of the damned things, but on the other Brad had told him about it and seemed to feel some concern for him over it. If Brad played him here, at least he was doing it well. ~ All right. How long do you think it'll take? ~

~ Not long. Don't start handing out words without me. In fact, don't leave the car or enter the building until I arrive, Schuldig. ~

~ You'd never forgive me if I tried to hand out the cure for free. Fine. ~

Weiß wasn't pretending not to watch them, so Schuldig gave them a merry wave that turned into an obscene gesture. Ken and Fenris each flipped him one back. Once he and Brad looked a little less intent, Weiß left for their car.

~ You better tell me if something's going really wrong, ~ Schuldig told Brad.

~ Of course. ~

"Is anyone going to tell me anything eventually, or will I have to rip it out of you?" Nagi asked sweetly.

~ Brad's going to Malice to check out an audit of mine that might show something important. He'll catch up with us at Kritiker HQ soon, ~ Schuldig answered, then asked Brad, ~ The Terrible Twosome will get you there? ~

~ I believe that they're staying close to Kritiker. It'll be a walk. I'm going to call them with my revised plan, so I'll find out then. ~

~ I want to get out of here so bad. ~

~ I know. Once we finish up here, we'll swing by Rosenkreuz to see if there's anything left there we want, then we'll return to Japan. ~

~ You promised me a vacation with you. ~

~ ...I did. We'll look into it once we get back to Japan. ~

"I think Weiß is waiting for us," Nagi said. Indeed, the clown car remained in its place, with Friendly leaning out the window watching them and the others staring through the windows.

"You'd think they had nothing better to do with their time," Schuldig answered as he waved merrily at them.

"It's not my fault if they won't move on their own. They can wait a while longer." Brad took out his cell phone and punched in some numbers. "It's Crawford. I've decided it would be better to see the audit before Schwarz does its presentation on the cure words. Can I come over now? Excellent. Directions, please." Brad wrote them on a scrap of paper. "I'll be there soon." He snapped his phone shut. "Now we can all leave." Weiß's car pulled out not long after theirs.

Schuldig would be a lot happier about it if he could go in with Brad. Too many situations kept splitting them up lately.

******************************************************

With Malice and Wicked waiting for him outside the hotel, Crawford didn't need to look over to know that Schuldig had an expression of worry and disapproval on his face. "I have good reasons for this," Crawford said.

"All right," Schuldig answered, expressionless.

"See you soon." Feeling that they'd already hashed everything over, Crawford got out of the car without another word. He hated long goodbyes. Schuldig didn't drive away until Crawford entered the building.

"What made you change your mind on the timing of this visit?" Malice asked once they were inside the room.

"Realizing that we don't dare test Schuldig on whether the cure really took out his phrase. You said he reacts to Breaker here, so I want to see it in case he reacts similarly in the future," Crawford answered. He wouldn't let their imperfect resemblance in looks and voices distract him.

He was also very relieved that they'd met him fully dressed. While Malice had a sense of professionalism and dignity, Wicked provoked just for the sake of it, too much like Schuldig in _his_ youth.

"Must be near future to make you want this earlier," Wicked said. "Confirms our feeling that something is rotten in the state of Kritiker. The tension over there is thick."

"They're thinking of refusing to let any of the talents leave the area."

"Welcome to the new boss, same as the old boss. We're out of here as soon as Malice gets his word, and anyone who tries to stop us dies."

Malice had already started up his laptop and loaded his files. "Ready, Mr. Crawford?"

"Quite." Another seat had been placed in front of the laptop, so Crawford took it.

"Each audit has a file folder because it has four audio-visual files and one text transcript. Each audit was videotaped from three angles: frontal view of the subject, frontal view of the auditors, and side view to catch everyone at once, though the last one had to be from a great distance. The fourth audiovisual file is the edited copy that's a spliced together version of what the editor thought were the most important combined moments from the three views. Not everybody has the time to go through all three versions of the audit. The editor is also the person who writes up the text transcript. While going through the audits I viewed all four audiovisual files to make sure I didn't miss anything. After all, editors can't help being subjective. I'll show you the editor's cut and fill in the blanks on what I saw in the other versions. Unless you want me to cue those up as well. It'll be more disjointed for you, though."

"I would prefer to see for myself."

"All right. Let me announce the dramatis personae here. You know Schuldig. His auditors here are Breaker, Pahner, and Gruber. Pahner is a telepath, while Gruber is one of Eszett's normals and chosen ones. It's more common to have one telepath inside the room and one outside, but the transcript noted that Breaker was always given special supervision around Schuldig. Eszett's assumption was that he'd try to break or alter Schuldig if he thought he could get away with it while Schuldig's powers and shields were weakened for the audit."

"Under the Eszett system, powerful telepaths were more likely to try to kill or one-up each other than work together." Which was one of the reasons why Eszett fell.

"Precisely. One person without talents was always in the room to discourage the talents from possibly colluding. Gruber's fairly high up the chain, which is a show of how much closer they checked Schuldig out whenever they got him. He's the base gene set for a lot of the cloned telepaths after all. I'm surprised he was able to hide your plans from them, Crawford."

"He's strong," Wicked answered.

"And maybe Breaker helped him out there," Malice said. He smiled at the dark, angry look Crawford shot him. "Getting the Elders out of the way helped Breaker too. I guess we'll never know for sure." He started the video.

Schuldig lounged in his chair, trying to look comfortable despite the straitjacket they had him in. His hair looked oily and matted, and he had dark circles under his eyes. Someone had split his lip. "Breaker," Schuldig said, "if I knew you were coming I would have done my hair."

The look in Schuldig's eyes and tone in his voice were off. They were colder and not quite his. When he'd gotten himself out of the Box that time, he'd reshuffled himself a bit differently. Schuldig had come back to him a little bit different every time, and Crawford hadn't cared as long as his plans had remained secret and doable.

"The snake man," Malice murmured, while Wicked said, "The _knife_ man. Look at how his eyes watch people and track their movements."

"Same man," Malice replied. "I just don't agree that he's a knife user."

"Whatever."

Crawford listened to Breaker and the other two auditors go through the standard boilerplate, boasts, and propaganda talk, while Schuldig looked bored and annoyed when he wasn't tossing in an insult.

Then Breaker said, "Your rebelliousness and stubbornness don't suit you. You're a special person, a skeleton key."

Schuldig twitched _hard_ and looked a little dazed for a moment. The editor had seen something important there too, because the video cut to the smug grin on Breaker's face even as Gruber demanded to know what the hell he was playing at.

"I didn't do anything," Breaker said. "Ask Pahner."

Pahner shook her head. "I can't see any damage or control strings."

"It was just a fond memory of ours, right, Guilty?"

Schuldig bared his teeth in a snarl.

Malice said, "The words used at Kritiker were 'And I only have one last phrase for one special person: Skeleton key.' We don't know that all of these belong to the command phrase, but it looks like some of them certainly do."

Breaker had used a string of words _close_ to the command phrase in front of Schuldig. They hadn't been exact enough to trigger him but just close enough to disturb him. Cute.

"We've played long enough," Gruber said, sounding bored and annoyed. "Breaker and Pahner, start the audit."

Malice paused the clip. "We can look at Breaker's reaction piece now if you'd like. Auditing doesn't look like much until the victim starts sweating and screaming."

Wicked added, "They all scream by the end. The auditors make sure it's as painful as possible."

"Is this supposed to be some kind of test?" Crawford asked, sneering. If he didn't watch old footage of his telepath being tortured, he was chicken?

"No," Malice answered. "Truthfully, I don't want to watch and listen to it again myself. I've seen too many of these done to too many people who look and sound like me, particularly in the last few days."

"Ditto for me on the last few days," Wicked said.

"I want to see Breaker's reaction piece," Crawford said. Watching Schuldig being audited would accomplish nothing, and he already had the names and faces of Pahner and Gruber if he decided to take vengeance.

The file that focused on the auditors showed that Breaker had been smug and amused even longer than the spliced footage had suggested. He'd toyed with Schuldig for no reason aside from his own amusement at getting away with something in front of someone who thought he was Breaker's master. The bastard had died too quickly and easily.

But now Crawford had some idea of what reaction to look for if the phrase hadn't been deactivated. He trusted no one in Kritiker or among the talents. They might try to use Schuldig against him if they thought it possible, and it seemed that the trigger phrase really had been played for all to hear.

"Was there anything else?" Crawford asked.

"No, that's it," Malice answered.

"Let's go to Kritiker and get the cure word situation out in the open. You just paid for yours."


	227. "I know you can choose who you ride now, and that makes me so proud."

As he and Nagi waited for Brad outside Kritiker's headquarters, Schuldig hid his nervousness under a smug smile and the occasional obnoxiously cheerful wave at any nearby Kritiker agent. What if the cure had been one last joke on him? He hated being uncertain that his phrase had really been nullified and hated even more that he had to walk into a building full of people who'd heard what might have been his trigger phrase without being certain that he was safe from outside influence. Sure, he'd been here to help rescue Aya, but he'd only been inside his own body and conscious of the outside world for a few minutes at a time then.

Breaker was probably laughing his ass off in hell right now.

In the end it didn't matter how worried the situation made Schuldig. He'd go in and do his job. If he lived his life constrained by fear, Breaker won.

That didn't mean he shouldn't have a backup plan, though. ~ Nagi, if it looks like I'm falling prey to a phrase after all, knock me out. Better safe than sorry. I don't want to be used against my team. ~

~ How will I know? ~

~ What I took from Breaker suggests that I'll suddenly become very obedient to someone else. ~

~ _That's_ helpful. ~

~ You _know_ I'm usually obedient to no one. ~

~ Bullshit. You take orders from Crawford. ~

~ Stop disrespecting my rep. ~

~ Stop deluding yourself. ~

~ It's not like I could read the trigger phrase itself without getting taken over by it, so I can't tell you what it is. You'll have to keep an eye on my behavior. ~

~ You'll be fine. ~

~ Because you say so? ~

~ Yes. ~ Nagi could be sweet in his sour way.

~ I'll keep that in mind. If I feel myself bending to the phrase, I'll just remind myself that you didn't give me permission. ~

~ You do that. ~

When Schuldig briefly reeled Nagi in by an arm around his shoulders to give him a quick hug, the kid didn't put up a teke condom around himself or push away, just shot him a tepid glare and fussily straightened out his coat and hair a bit afterward. How lovely to feel his warm body instead of the faint vibration of mental force. Once Schuldig wouldn't have gotten away with touching him in private, let alone in public. Times really had changed.

Speaking of times changing, as Brad approached, bookended by Wicked and Malice, Schuldig couldn't help thinking about how much he wanted to get away from the whole Emory thing. A big part of himself still demanded that he protect them, but he was reaching a point where he dreaded seeing all these similar faces, including the one in his mirror. He needed a _break_.

He'd still fight Brad to the death on the fate of his kids and clones because no one else would if he didn't and they were _his_, but another part of him tired of the burden and thought patterns of the past. He might reshuffle his personality a bit every now and then, but a core Schuldigness remained, the person who'd experienced all the years since his capture by Eszett, and Schuldig was more than the sum of his original parts. He had opinions and skills shaped by the life he'd lived that had nothing to do with those kids who'd died and become part of Emory Disl. You might not be able to call what he'd been through "nurturing," but the basic premise that a personality was more than what nature had started him out with remained true.

He reminded the part of him that wanted to protect Malice that Malice wanted as little to do with him as possible, so why bother? Malice already had a Mini-Me Schuldig of his own to watch his back anyway.

Schuldig couldn't wait to get the hell out of this part of Europe and away from the stranglehold of the past. Japan would be fine, but he wouldn't mind England, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Italy, or wherever. If the U.S. hadn't had so many people attacking them last time, Schuldig would have been especially fine with it from how it put them closer to Brad's family, always a source of torture for Brad.

He wanted the vacation Brad had promised him so many days ago too. For years a small part of his mind had been keeping track of places that sounded fun to visit from what he'd read from people's minds. So many places he'd been that he hadn't gotten a chance to appreciate because they'd been working at the time, and so many places he'd never visited.... He'd make the most kick-ass tour guide of all time from how he could direct people to the area's best clubs, tiramisu, whatever. Too bad for tourism that hired murder remained his first love.

Now he wanted to share his hoarded knowledge with Brad. The alternate future he'd seen in Breaker's head had been a cold one where Schuldig and Brad had only tolerated each other, working together only because it was more convenient, not so different from how they'd been under Eszett. Then Breaker had made him kill Brad and forced him into a gilded cage. The hell he would live like that, including having a life of antagonism and unhappy codependence with Brad. Schuldig wanted more out of life; he wanted _everything_. He wanted love and adventure and to see if all those little bits and pieces of information he'd collected about the world were right. He wanted to see and do everything possible.

Maybe he should see if he could convince Brad to take him somewhere tropical with beaches. He'd probably pick up surfing easily, and by some quirk of genetics he was a redhead who could tan a bit. By contrast, Aya probably exploded into flames. Farfarello would need help coating Aya in sunscreen.... Shit, now they really had to vacation somewhere like that.

Schuldig hoped he could get Brad to actually vacation without having to chain him to a bed to keep him from his e-mail and cell phone. If they were going to stay in their room like that anyway, Schuldig saw no point in going somewhere exotic for it. Brad hadn't sounded enthusiastic about a vacation when Schuldig had reminded him at the Volksgarten, but he could be convinced. Nagi too, mini-Brad that he sometimes acted like. Schuldig would make sure of it.

"What are you smiling about?" Brad asked.

"The future," Schuldig answered. They had a better present and future now, and Aya only had to sacrifice a few things to make it happen. For all anybody knew, Aya might even be happier this way.

******************************************************

"Knock knock," Schuldig said through the door.

"What took you so long?" Aya asked as he opened it to let the rest of Schwarz in. He frowned as Wicked and Malice followed them inside.

"Missed you too, Rose-red."

"Not as much as I missed that," Aya said as he realized what Nagi had brought for him as the boy took his katana out of the container. "Thank you, Nagi." Nagi smiled a little in response.

Familiar weight in his hands, Aya smiled at the clean, sharp sound that resulted as he partially unsheathed his katana. The light that glinted off the revealed blade surely matched the one now in his eyes. When he looked up, he noticed Schuldig and Farfarello nearly drooling over the sight of him. As much as he'd like to blame it on the sickness of Schwarz, he remembered that the other members of Weiß had sometimes reacted similarly to him luxuriating in the presence of his katana.

Opening the suitcase Nagi had brought in and put on the bed revealed his mission shirt and coat. The coat had been creased by folding it to fit, but he couldn't care, not when the growing tension in the building made him want his light armor. His guns with their holsters and a knife with sheath had also gone in, covered by more clothing. If Nagi hadn't been a telekinetic he might have had difficulty hauling this suitcase around. Farfarello already had all of his weapons, having carried them in himself days ago, and wore them now.

Across the room, Crawford spoke quietly with Farfarello, who nodded at times, the look on his face turning darker by the moment. Did they intend to keep Aya ignorant? He didn't intend to remain so.

"You're going to want to change in the bathroom, aren't you?" Schuldig asked Aya. "None of us are going anywhere alone, so I'll be your bathroom buddy."

Annoyed, Aya answered, "There's a point to changing clothing in privacy."

"I've seen your body before. I've helped undress you."

"I've been trying to forget that." The same way he tried to forget that the telepath had no doubt _experienced_ him having sex every time to the point of being able to give a play by play and sensation by sensation account of it if he had to.

"Non-negotiable, Aya. It's safer not to let any of us go off alone, and I'll be bringing you up to speed on what's going on while we're in there."

Damn it. He hated when Schuldig countered his protests with logic. "All right."

He closed the suitcase up again and pulled it down to the floor. If it hadn't had wheels and a long handle he would have been hard-pressed to lug it down the hall. He answered Farfarello's look of angry frustration with an expression that he hoped Farfarello found reassuring. It would have worked better if Schuldig hadn't waved smugly and merrily as they left the room. As it was, Farfarello might have come after them if not for Crawford's restraining hand on his shoulder.

When Aya closed the door to the bathroom, he saw Schuldig leaning against the wall, arms crossed, with a smile on his face. Aya said, "Turn away while I'm undressing and dressing."

"You wouldn't trust me not to look no matter what I did, so why bother with the pretense?"

"I hate you."

"You can still do that while you're stripping. Chop, chop. We want to get this whole thing with the words done as soon as possible. The talents are too vulnerable here."

"That's the problem here?"

"One of 'em. The sooner you get your ass in gear, the quicker you find out things."

Aya bared his teeth at Schuldig in a snarl, which Schuldig just smiled back at. Sighing, Aya pulled his shirt off over his head.

"You really have lost all of your scars," Schuldig said softly as he took his gloves off and put them in his coat pockets. "That's a shame. I liked them."

"I still have the IV entry points, and some of them have bruised badly." He could scar again now that she was gone.

"We'll bring her to Japan and inter the remains at your family's monument."

Swallowing past the lump in his throat, Aya gruffly answered, "Thank you." He knew that Omi had taken care of her body thusly while he'd started out as Schwarz's prisoner. So many family duties he'd failed at....

"Boots, jeans...." Schuldig said.

Growling, Aya removed his boots and jeans and tried not to react to the hot gaze he felt caressing his bare skin. He tried not to bend over any more than he strictly had to either. Fortunately, his briefs could stay on. As he put his leather work pants on, he said, "Nothing's stopping you from bringing me up to date now."

"Sorry. You're very distracting." Schuldig, of course, didn't sound at all sorry.

Although Schuldig had seemed nicer lately, Aya had to remember that he remained manipulative and had his lecherous pig side. "More business, less leering."

"How can I when you're bending like that to put your boots on?"

They weren't his work boots, but they'd do. "I trust that you're multi-talented."

"You should let me show you just how multi-talented--"

"Schuldig."

"Yeah, yeah. Austrian Kritiker doesn't want to let the talents leave the country to go to Omi's training facility. They want to keep them here, even if they're not sure yet what level of slavery they want to institute. Omi is opposed. Getting everybody out will probably turn into a fight."

"Wonderful." Aya adjusted the side straps on his sleeveless work shirt then put on his belt, shoulder holsters, arm knife sheath, and scabbard and topped it off with his work coat, already feeling more secure for having the light armor in the front of his shirt and throughout his coat on. It also gave him the feeling of having a kind of supportive exoskeleton on. "What?"

"It's almost as much of a thrill watching you dress up in that kinky stuff as it is watching you strip. Let me fasten the neck piece for you."

"Schuldig...."

"I have a method behind my madness. Besides lechery. C'mon." Schuldig walked over and stood in front of him, blocking the mirror, then deftly pulled the straps through the buckles and fastened them.

Having someone so focused on him left Aya uncomfortable, with an odd feeling in his stomach. "Do you dress other people often?" The telepath certainly seemed comfortable and skilled at it.

"You'd be surprised." Schuldig murmured, "Be careful whom you take telepathy from here. I got what should be cure sentences, but we had no real way of testing it, so be watchful of me in general. Remember that Farfie's telepathy fluctuates depending on how attached to his body he is, so don't depend on it. I don't care if his pride prefers you to crib from him alone; do what's best to protect yourself in whatever situation you find yourself in. If you have to _close down_, choose him and tell him to associate himself. I'll train you to do that yourself as soon as I can, but that day is not today. Nagi's your safest bet for times when you need telepathy. You don't have to be powerful for us. It's not like you're even trained to handle it. Don't take from Ebenroth's kids, the Bruise, or Austrian Kritiker's talents if you can avoid it. There's probably no real danger there, but why take chances? I know you can choose who you ride now, and that makes me so proud."

Aya refused to feel warmed by that praise. It was just Schuldig. He just felt closer to him from the telepath having gone inside him--the thought still upset him--to bring him back out. Schuldig stood too close and had no legitimate reason to stroke hot fingers along his jawline, and he shuddered in response at such treatment from distaste, not... attraction. Schuldig smelled of Crawford's cologne and faintly of arousal.

"Hold on," Schuldig said so softly then produced a comb from his coat pocket and groomed Aya's hair with it. In his shock at being treated so casually, Aya didn't move away or even protest, just stood there with his mouth slightly open. Schuldig moved one of the tails with a finger then said, "Perfect," and moved out of the way of the mirror.

The Aya that faced him in the mirror looked younger and hungrier, cheekbones more prominent than they were when he ate well, than he had for some time. He could have been looking at his body as it had been a year or more ago, although at least then he had more of his calluses still on his hands. Her healing had even softened some of those. The faint blush in his cheeks further annoyed and unsettled him. With his youth, blush, and the somewhat dazed expression in his eyes, he looked like an innocent playing dress-up.

Standing behind him, hands on his shoulders, Schuldig said, "We're getting out of here soon. After we finish the bits of unfinished business left, it'll be a whole new start for all of us. We'll be putting the past behind us. And feeding you better. All the recent stress followed by those days in a coma didn't do any of us any favors."

Angry, upset, uncertain, Aya didn't know what would best express his need to get out of this situation. What somehow came out was a strangled "Yes, Mother."

Smirking, his eyes somehow looking bluer, Schuldig said, "If that was supposed to kill my lust, it didn't work."

"I'm not surprised." Fortunately, it had helped kill Aya's somewhat. He still felt ashamed to have felt the lust in the first place.

"Aya, we did what we think is a cure for Breaker's phrase for me but, for obvious reasons, couldn't test it to be sure. I gave Nagi a warning and directions, and I'm giving you them too. If I appear to be acting very oddly, like someone else is controlling me, take me down. You have my permission. I won't even bitch about it if it turns out to be a necessity. I'd rather have us all be safe."

"Aren't you worried about me getting in Nagi's way?"

"We've been pretty good about that so far. Besides, I know _you'll_ put me out. You did it before."

"I did it on a tip from Malice."

"Yeah, but it was you watching and your decision when to move. You saved me from a very bad life. I won't forget that."

It made Aya uncomfortable. "It's not a big deal."

Schuldig put his arms around Aya's waist and rested his chin on Aya's right shoulder. "It is to me."

Aya had no idea how Schuldig would choose to reward someone for something and didn't know if he wanted to find out. It probably involved sex, and Aya didn't like the way he'd reacted to the intimacies Schuldig had taken so far. "Thank you. But everyone's waiting on us."

Schuldig's smile said that Aya's cool façade hadn't hid his panic at all. "Sure, sure. Let's get back to the rest of the family," Schuldig answered, but he kissed the rim of Aya's ear, the one that didn't have the earring and engagement ear cuff, before letting him go and opening the door.

As Aya shook his head to clear it, put his work gloves on, and carried the now much lighter suitcase back, he felt very conscious of Schuldig's presence a few paces behind him the whole way. Farfarello cast them a sharp look as they returned, but Aya answered it with a subduing look because Schuldig hadn't been that much more aggressive than usual and nothing had really happened. Although Farfarello didn't seem to be completely reassured, he didn't act out. He did, however, put his arm over Aya's shoulders, which Aya liked.

"Is Aya up to date?" Crawford asked.

"Totally," Schuldig replied with a smile. Aya wondered if Crawford had given his prior approval on _everything_ Schuldig had spoken of and wordlessly offered.

"Good. Let's find Persia, get everything resolved here, and get out of Vienna."


	228. "Now you're just being a pain in the ass."

It unsettled Yoji to feel a rush of relief as all of Schwarz showed up in Omi's office. For one thing, they hadn't been in any known danger, and for the other, they were _Schwarz_ and he felt the urge to protect them, _him_?

And he'd somehow gone to bed with all of them. Though not all at once and not all the way with all of them.

~ Give yourself time, ~ Schuldig said.

Shut up.

Schuldig grinned, annoying and reassuring. After that thing today at the Volksgarten, Yoji had worried about him and how vulnerable he might still be, but Schuldig looked nonchalant. Then again, Schuldig did that no matter what might actually be going on.

Aya had his professional face and stance going, blank cold stone, although his eyes briefly warmed as he looked at Yoji. But that blankness was the mask Aya wore the way Schuldig wore his nonchalance, wasn't it? Yoji really wanted to talk to Aya and see how he felt today. Dressed for war, Aya looked damned good, sexy, even though you got the impression he'd break your bones if you tried to touch him. Farfarello walked close enough to him that if Aya didn't break your bones for the crime of touching him, Farfarello no doubt would.

Farfarello barely spared a glance for Yoji, and Nagi did less. This _was_ kind of his morning after with the three of them. Great. He hadn't even gotten to go all the way with any of them!

Work time now. Right. He would be at least as professional.

Schwarz had been followed in by two of Schuldig's clones. One looked at Yoji and seemed to be about to speak, but the other kicked him in the shin before he could get a word out. The fluffy-haired kicked clone shot him a glare but said nothing. Considering that they were Schuldig's clones and thus telepaths, anything they said probably would've gotten Yoji into trouble.

Nagi said, "There aren't any bugs in the room," while Schuldig said, "I don't sense any listening telepaths either."

"Good. Do you have the cure words?" Omi asked.

"Yes, and our terms," Crawford answered.

"What are your terms?"

"We'll announce them to everyone at once, because I don't want rumors running and twisting before us. They're not ridiculous terms, because we want to get out of Vienna at least as quickly as you do. We have other business."

"Would that be the remains of Rosenkreuz?" Sasha asked with a small smile. "That was what everybody assumed Schwarz came back for. A team went to plunder the ruins as soon as they'd heard Schwarz had returned to this part of Europe. There's probably nothing of value left there anymore."

A small, quick twitch of Crawford's upper lip suggested to Yoji that Rosenkreuz _had_ been part of Schwarz's itinerary and that Sasha hadn't given him welcome news, but Crawford said, "Our business is our business. We're not sharing it. We _will_ share my terms for the cure words in a general assembly."

"Sasha," Elena said, and Sasha smiled and left without needing any further explanation. He'd done well and shown great initiative in becoming an unofficial liaison to the kids, and now he'd be carefully spreading the news about the cure words, to-be-announced terms, and exodus out of Austria.

"We'll give Chinchilla an opportunity to get the word started before we make an official announcement asking them to gather," Omi said.

Crawford looked briefly surprised before he controlled himself, and Yoji couldn't help smiling a little. Crawford had tossed Misery away like trash, but Weiß had fully taken him in. Schuldig had given the kid one new name, while Weiß had given him another. Too late for second thoughts about kicking him to the curb now. Yoji couldn't help thinking that Crawford saw more value in things other people wanted. Supply and demand.

Sasha would see the significance of having his own Weiß codename. They intended to tell him after this thing with the cure words.

Crawford simply replied, "Good idea." They all wanted Austrian Kritiker left in the dark about their plans as long as possible.

What consequences would come from a split? Yoji knew that Omi worried that the other parts of Kritiker wouldn't necessarily fall in line behind him. While Yoji would like to believe the other chapters wouldn't side with bigots who wanted to use kids as weapons, he hadn't been that innocent in a long time.

Omi had a private jet and cargo plane fueling for takeoff today. The kids would have to quickly make their decision on whether to go with them or stay in Europe. Yoji hoped Crawford wouldn't demand a ridiculous price for the cure words, which would further hold things up.

"DNA tests have come back for the corpse Wicked brought us," Omi said, "and they confirm that it's Breaker's body."

"Are you sure you have the right DNA on file?" Schuldig asked.

"How devious do you think he was?"

"Very."

How could you live without being able to trust in _anything_? It would be like walking on steadily eroding ground, your footing always rolling out from under you and your balance always uncertain.

Omi smiled a little. "A post-cog also touched the body and read that it's Breaker's. It's a handy talent for investigations, so I offered her a job."

It had been interesting to watch, although it hadn't looked like such a pleasant process for her. Still, she'd been surprised and gratified to find a use for her talent that wouldn't involve snitching on other Eszett-trained psionics, which was what Eszett had made her do with it.

"Are you sure _she_ wasn't lying?" Schuldig asked, which made Crawford smile.

"The telepaths in the room that we'd already hired confirmed her. Just as she'd confirmed the DNA testing."

"They could have been lying too."

"Now you're just being a pain in the ass." But Omi didn't look upset. Slightly annoyed, but not upset.

"Took you that long to figure it out?"

"Breaker is dead. That succeeded at least."

"I'm glad we killed him thoroughly," Aya said.

"What's going to be done about Scry?" the fluffy-headed clone asked. "He's too dangerous and ambitious to be let loose, especially after what he almost helped Breaker do, and I don't think it's safe to leave him locked up by your Austrian Kritiker agents. I'm inclined to kill him, and I think most of the former Eszett people here will agree."

"Scry needs to be destroyed," Schuldig said.

Although Yoji expected Crawford to disagree at least a little--this was his clone they were talking about--Crawford said, "I concur."

Omi didn't look like he liked it much, but Yoji couldn't see any other options either. If Scry had done half of what they'd suspected, the precog had no conscience whatsoever and threw the people he used aside like trash once he was finished with them, yet they had no proof of him breaking any laws that a regular court could get him for. He also didn't have a real legal identity. Scry could only be found guilty and punished Weiß-style.

"I also agree," Omi said. "When we go, we have to take him and Flood with us. I'm working on plans for that. Elena will be the first to know, and she'll share with everyone else. Any other business?"

"Not that I can think of at the moment, sir," Elena answered.

"I don't have anything in mind right now either," Crawford said.

"Then let's call the assembly and get the cure word process started since Chinchilla should have made a good start on the rumor mill by now. No, I haven't forgotten that you expect payment for them, Crawford. I'm not likely to forget that. I hope you realize that if your greed creates a bottleneck of psionics here, you'll pay the price as much as we will."

"I've given it a great deal of thought. It will work out."

"You've foreseen it?"

"No. I haven't foreseen anything on this." Crawford didn't look pleased about that himself.

"Of course you haven't." Omi went to his public address system and announced for the building, "A general assembly will be held in the auditorium in 15 minutes. The cure words will be discussed there, so many of you will want to attend. If you don't come, you won't know what you'll need to do to get them. Thank you." Omi turned off the system.

"That sounded kind of mercenary," Yoji had to say.

"Chinchilla had a limited time to work, and it's better if they come in already knowing that Crawford won't dole the words out gratis from the goodness of his heart," Omi answered, with a dark look sent Crawford's way that didn't appear to bother Crawford at all of course. "Hopefully, 15 minutes won't give the local Kritiker chapter long to put together more mischief for us."

"They have to already have _something_ in mind for us. The decision to turn on you wouldn't have been made quickly or lightly," Elena said.

"I know. Have you heard any leakage from the Austrian Kritiker telepaths?"

"None. They don't have many telepaths here, but the ones they do have are good and quiet. No leaks from them, and they're putting up enough shielding and interference around the decision makers that I can't get anything from them either. Sasha has tried cracking it too, with a similar lack of luck."

Yoji felt torn about talking about all this stuff in front of Schwarz. On the one hand, Omi was right in feeling that Schwarz had to know some of this stuff to be helpful enough in getting everyone out of here, but on the other, Crawford was getting information and access as if Schwarz were one of Omi's teams instead of a bunch of freelancers and Yoji didn't think he deserved it. What had Crawford done that hadn't been entirely for his own benefit? If other people benefited, Crawford then ever so generously tried to make them pay for it.

~ Our need to know so we can be more effective in helping Weiß is more important than you wanting Brad to be more gracious, ~ Schuldig said.

And of course his private thoughts were never respected and kept private.

~ You know I love to share things with you, Yoji. ~

Omi put his suit jacket on, his current version of armor. "Let's go. We have an assembly to address. I'd like Draco and Balinese on stage with me as my backup, with Fenris and Siberian in the audience keeping an eye on things. How is Schwarz handling its placement?"

Crawford raised an eyebrow but answered, "Schuldig, Abyssinian, and I will be onstage, while the others will be in the audience keeping watch."

_Aya_ would be watching Crawford and Schuldig's backs? Farfarello looked as unsettled and surprised as Yoji felt over that, although Farfarello soon changed his to a growling look. Nagi seemed surprised too, but Aya _didn't_ look surprised. Interesting. What did Crawford and Schuldig think Aya could do for them that Nagi and Farfarello couldn't?

Schuldig didn't answer Yoji's questioning thought on that. That figured.

As they all walked through the halls to the auditorium, Yoji could almost feel the tension of everyone in the building crawling along his skin. If he had it this bad, what did it feel like to actual telepaths? Had to suck. The Kritiker agents they passed give them these sour little looks didn't make things any more comfortable. Definitely enemy territory here.

It didn't feel much friendlier inside the auditorium. Yoji felt hundreds of eyes boring into him and the rest of his crew as they walked up the aisle to the stage. This assembly would be a great opportunity to smack down hundreds of people at once, wouldn't it? They'd have to look out for weapons and words. So many possible threats.... Yoji kept his hand on his watch.


	229. "Who the hell are you?"

What the hell had Schuldig been thinking to name Aya as his best backup? Trying to label and keep track of all the possible threats in the auditorium would drive Aya insane. Aside from how there were hundreds of people standing and milling around instead of being decently seated, most of them looked like or at least resembled each other, making them even harder to follow with his eyes. Even aside from the direct clones, one girl near the front could be a younger Schuldig even down to the way she tilted her head and let her long orange hair move around her face.

At least a lot of members of the Orange and Guilty lines liked to do something distinctive with their hair, like dye it odd colors that broke up the sea of orange more. Between the colors and the way much of their hair defied gravity, they resembled exotic birds when seen from above.

But all the bleach jobs made it harder to notice Farfarello, something Aya never thought he'd be able to say. Farfarello looked supremely disgruntled over everything, not that Aya could blame him. They kept getting separated, and they wanted to leave. Being here in this ocean of anxiety left Aya even edgier than he felt on his own, almost gagging on the sour, acid taste of the nervousness and anticipation in the air. Farfarello had associated himself deeper into his body almost from the moment they'd entered the building to dim his telepathy down, yet they still felt that edginess. Crawford would probably fault them for refusing one of the tools they had, but being here hurt too much and neither of them used telepathy for all that much anyway. In this arena, against people trained in telepathy, their better-practiced physical skills had more use.

It wasn't as if Aya could differentiate the Orange liners telepathically any better than he did by eye. He identified Malice, Wicked, and Weiß's adopted Orange liner only from knowing them somewhat better. At least the few clone Crawfords here had black hair, helping Aya think of them immediately as enemies.

Aya's gaze picked Nagi out of the crowd easily, since Eszett hadn't kept many Japanese subjects in Europe. Nagi briefly nodded his head in acknowledgement. Ken and Fenris also stood out.

Seeming expectant, the Kritiker agents stood with their backs to the walls and their guns in the open. Many of them appeared to be guarding the doors. It all made Aya suspicious.

He really wanted the crowd to stop murmuring amongst itself. With so many people involved, it led to a lot of noise. He felt too crowded in general lately, since people seemed to surround him at all times. Perhaps he could request some alone time from Schwarz and everyone? Farfarello would probably demand to come with him, but he could surely deal with just one person. He'd find a way if he had no choice. One person would be better than a crowd.

Given how he'd been recently, he wouldn't blame them for not trusting him to be alone with himself, but they had nothing to fear because he knew his responsibilities and wouldn't end his life. He'd been made all too aware of how many people would feel inexplicably hurt by his death.

Speaking of which, he could feel Yoji glancing at him again, not that he could blame him after last night. Every time he thought of that strange dreamscape and his transfigured self there Aya had to fight back a blush. It didn't help that he felt so much more aware of Yoji's presence now, which was even more unsettling than being more aware of Farfarello and Schuldig's. Aya had only lost that awareness of his lover once Farfarello mingled into the crowd, distant. He still felt Schuldig. Would this new, ticklish consciousness fade in time or would it remain forever, a memento of their starring roles in bringing him back from his burial within his own self? He felt Yoji's concern and affectionate lust prickling across his skin like a multitude of slim, warm metal tines, bringing up goose bumps. Did the man remain in a constant state of heat? At least he wasn't as bad as Schuldig....

Aya needed to get away from people for a while. Being around them too long got him accustomed to loosening his standards and making allowances.

As he heard Omi, he realized that he'd spent too much time woolgathering because Omi had already gone through the verbal preliminaries of addressing a large group. It shocked and saddened Aya to see the beginnings of gray in young Omi's hair.

"--DNA tests prove that the corpse is Breaker's. That's a threat that's over," Omi said. "Mr. Crawford and Schuldig have the cure words. I now give the podium to Mr. Crawford."

Crawford walked to and accepted the microphone with a look of complete confidence and no worries, his manner saying that nothing could defeat him and his. "Thank you. We do have the cure words, and the price is small. A cure word costs 10 euros. Or 13.36 dollars, 16.59 Swiss francs, 19.56 German marks, 6.76 United Kingdom pounds, 137.60 Austrian schillings, 65.60 French francs, 38.15 Polish zlotych, 2,501.87 Hungary forint, 94.14 Swedish kronor, 74.30 Danish kronor, 285.48 Czech Republic koruny... you get the point." He made it sound like a song, Crawford's favorite things. "A small price for freedom and peace of mind. Once you pay, we'll run through our list until we hit yours."

"How will we have proof that it works?" someone yelled from the crowd.

Crawford smiled unpleasantly. "That's up to you. We could also throw all the words at you to make sure, but I don't know if you really want to take that chance. We've been cautious ourselves."

The murmuring crowd sounded unhappy but not rebellious. Aya figured that they'd pay. Indeed, he'd expected Crawford to take advantage of their desperation and demand more money, though he'd still make a large sum off the hundreds of people needing cure words even if they each paid a fairly small amount. Surely they'd all be able to raise that much. The Bruise might have been recently illicitly living in a warehouse and sleeping on boxes, but they'd regained their minds and probably had a talent for thievery and confidence games if they truly took after their gene source.

"Approach us in an orderly way after the assembly about it, and we'll start taking payments and making appointments to remove your words. We want to move on from Vienna as much as most of you no doubt do."

Aya noticed the sour look many of the Kritiker agents along the walls had at that last sentence. Did they think their slavery plans were secret? Or did they just not care?

"I only have one last phrase for one special person: Skeleton key!" called someone from somewhere within the crowd. It sounded a lot like Crawford's voice. Aya had knocked Schuldig down halfway through and tried to cover his ears, but the telepath knocked Aya's hands away and laughed, still seeming completely like himself. Crawford crouched near them, looking worried and uncertain, while a melee occurred in the audience. Aya had no idea what the hell was going on.

******************************************************

Although being on the stage would make him a target, Ken would have actually preferred to be there than down in the pit within the Hall of Schwarz Funhouse Mirrors. Although the young Crawfords unsettled him, the army of young Schuldigs really freaked him out. How could he possibly keep them all straight? You couldn't even separate them by wild hair colors because a lot of them had wild hair colors. Sasha, Weiß's Schuldig, wasn't the only bleached blond one who wore black eyeliner. While Ken knew that it was horrible to tattoo numbers on people as if they were property, he also understood the reasoning behind it. One Schuldig made a lot of trouble; try keeping track of over a hundred of him, each one eagerly and gleefully pointing a finger at the others. The Schuldigs who liked to hang out together in a huge cluster looked especially wrong because that many people who looked identical or close to it shouldn't be allowed to hang out that close together.

Ken did better with the psionics who didn't look like Schwarz. Yeah, he knew Schwarz was working with Weiß lately, but he still saw them as the enemy and couldn't trust or like them. They hadn't shown Ken any reason to aside from showing some genuine caring for Aya.

It wasn't like _he_ was sleeping with them.

Fenris laughed. "Mean, Ken," he said, though his tone suggested he approved of the meanness.

"What?"

"Sleeping with."

"You're not supposed to be listening." He hoped _everybody_ wasn't listening. They couldn't get back to Tokyo and normality fast enough to suit Ken. Sure, there'd still be telepaths on his team in Tokyo, but they'd be _his_ telepaths.

He hadn't gotten used to Sasha yet, but Sasha seemed better and less sadistic than the general run of Schuldigs. If Sasha became a problem, Elena wouldn't put up with him no matter what Yoji had to say about it.

Weirdly, Weiß now seemed to be made of people who balanced each other. It hadn't been something anybody had intended. Where would Sasha fit into that?

It didn't really matter. Sasha was a kid who needed help. Yoji wanted to adopt him. And maybe have sex with him, but that was Yoji. Fenris liked him, and Fenris tended to be a decent judge of character. Elena tended to be kind to him and appeared to treasure an opportunity to twit Crawford over how useful Sasha kept turning out to be.

Nagi and Farfarello didn't look any happier to be out in the audience scouting for trouble than Ken did. Too bad. This was their old organization's mess so they _should_ be out here helping to clean it up. Standing behind Crawford and Schuldig on guard, Aya looked a lot like he did in the old days, sullen and impervious, before Schwarz had kidnapped him, and Ken couldn't entirely see that as a bad thing. Yeah, he worried that Aya might have found a way to be traumatized about his sister's death all over again, but Ken hadn't trusted the new Aya who smiled more.

Ken half-listened to Omi's speech. Poor Omi looked even smaller here. Had Eszett bred for height in Europe? But his voice and the way he presented himself showed steel. Good for him. Damn, but the Austrian Kritiker agents looked like they were dying to rebel and just waiting for their chance.

Crawford finally revealed his price for the cure words, the thing that had been holding everybody up waiting here. Ten euros? That would be about... 1,680 yen. Not too bad. It'd be nicer if the bastard didn't charge _anything_, but he probably figured he had a reputation to maintain and couldn't be too much of a decent person. The murmuring kids around Ken were split on how fair a price it was. A lot of them felt the cure should be free, while others told them to stop being so naïve and asked if they'd really come up through Rosenkreuz like the rest of them.

The Kritiker agents looked _really_ pissy when Crawford spoke of making an appointment to pay for and get your word so everyone could get out of Vienna like they all wanted to. The agents didn't even bother to pretend. But then they sort of went at ease, which made Ken instantly suspicious.

"I get the feeling they're waiting for something," Fenris said.

"Me too," Ken replied.

From somewhere behind him, Ken heard someone yell out, "I only have one last phrase for one special person: Skeleton key!" When he saw Aya knock Schuldig down, Ken remembered that "skeleton key" had been a control phrase Schwarz had tried to disarm at the Volksgarten this morning. Somebody in the audience had just tried to take over Schuldig. Had that person succeeded? Ken couldn't see anything through the crowd and what might be Aya lying on top of the telepath on the stage.

Ken's instinctive reaction might be a big "So what?" to someone enslaving Schuldig, but he remembered Elena explaining how the genetic link most of the kids here had to Schuldig could allow someone to puppeteer them through the Schwarz telepath. It would be a big strain on Schuldig, so he wouldn't want to do it to himself nor would anyone who cared about him use him that way, but someone who didn't care about him as a person and just wanted an army of slaves might be willing. Ken couldn't go along with that at all.

All this went through his head as he and Fenris tried to get through the shifting chaotic crowd to the guy the voice had come from. It had sounded like a Crawford, and there were two over here. How the hell would he figure out which one had done it? He couldn't imagine either of them just confessing to it. More likely, each would point a finger at the other if confronted. The Crawfords didn't seem to feel the loyalty to each other that the Schuldigs did.

Suddenly moving through the crowd became easier. Ken realized that Fenris was using his telekinesis to lightly shove people away from them. As long as he didn't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it, Ken had no problems with that.

A knot of people, mostly Schuldigs, had formed ahead. Obviously agitated, they seemed to be standing around something while a few Kritiker agents tried to break them apart, some of them by threatening with their guns. The threats didn't work. One agent hit the floor, downed, from a Schuldig clone's dirty look that probably had some kind of telepathic reinforcement behind it. Ken could hear Omi yelling into the microphone for the Kritiker agents to stand down and wait for directions, but the Austrian agents ignored him.

"Move aside so we can get in!" Fenris shouted. Ken saw evidence that Fenris was trying to pull them away with his teke but couldn't use the force necessary to enforce it, not without hurting people.

Nagi might have had better odds at succeeding due to his greater power and finer-tuned control, but it looked like the crowd around him had him pinned and distracted. Everybody in the audience wanted to know and see what was going on but didn't know where to look or go. He couldn't possibly figure out what was going on over on the other side of the room while in the middle of that.

"Everybody calm down and clear away from the suspect now!" It was Schuldig's voice coming from the stage. Ken looked back to see the Schwarz telepath standing and looking very much like his usual self.

The swarm of Schuldig clones Ken had been struggling to break through started to part to let him through and the murmuring started to sound less angry. If one of them chose to get violent with him, how could he even identify the right one? So many faces the same.... Fenris followed close at Ken's back, protective.

"If any of the Kritiker agents move to help the perpetrator, any of you have my permission to stop the agent involved in a non-lethal fashion," Omi said from the stage, drawing the lines clearly and gaining himself new fans and new enemies in one shot.

At the center of the swarm a Schuldig clone crouched next to a downed and unconscious Crawford clone. "We had to knock him out," that clone said. "He has everybody's words too. It's Scry."

Great, Scry, the worst Crawford clone of the bunch, but-- "How do you know?" Ken had to ask.

"I know him really well."

"He knows because he's Flood," the clone with his hair braided back, one of the two Schwarz had brought with them, said.

The one standing over Scry looked surprised and displeased and protested, "I'm not!"

"Shall we take a really good look at your arm? You can't hide the tattoo from me."

That shut him down fast, but Ken said, "Flood has longer hair, and he's supposed to be locked up." Flood had also looked... ill, wan, vague-eyed, while this clone appeared to be in good, sharp, lively condition.

"Hair's easily altered, and Scry's supposed to be locked away too, isn't he?" the braided Schuldig clone answered.

"Who let them out?"

"The Austrians let Scry out," Flood replied. "They wanted to use him and Schuldig's phrase to get the talented army they wanted."

"Who let _you_ out?"

"We did," one of the other Schuldig clones said. He had a black-haired teen--who thankfully didn't look like anybody Ken had ever seen before--at his side.

"Who the hell are you?" Ken asked.

Schuldig himself stood at Ken's side now--along with Crawford and Aya--and answered, "He's from the group we've been calling 'the Bruise.' This is Intrigue, who tends to speak for them when they need a speaker and lead them when they need a leader." This one was too adult not to be Schuldig himself.

"No one authorized Flood's release," Omi said, with Elena and Yoji flanking him protectively.

"He's one of us, and Scry had abused him badly," Intrigue replied. "Doesn't he look better already for being outside of a cell?"

Flood did, actually, having lost his wan, brittle look. He seemed to actually be _here_, in his body, anchored in reality. Even his hair and skin seemed healthier. His voice still sounded damaged though, something Ken could have used to help identify him if he'd been thinking.

"You took him out of his cell days ago," Schuldig said with a smug little smile.

"Yeah."

"_Someone's_ been in that cell who could pass for Flood," Omi said. "Was that some kind of a mind trick? An illusion? Austrian Kritiker's telepaths are pretty good."

Intrigue answered, "There has been someone sitting in that cell. That was 77 using the hair we cut off Flood as extensions for his own. He passed really well." To Crawford, Intrigue said, "He promised that he would take punishment for playing on Schuldig's emotions the way he did when they first met. We keep our word."

"So you do," Crawford replied. "But you haven't shown what benefit it gives _us_ to have Flood taken out of his cell without our approval."

"We figured that in friendlier company he might loosen up more, maybe give more information."

"Has he?"

"We believe so."

"Did you know this was going on, Antipathy?" Omi asked the head of the Ebenroth kids.

That Schuldig clone looked annoyed. "No, I had no idea. The Bruise holds itself separate from the rest of us."

"This _is_ Scry," Flood said as he rolled up the Crawford clone's right sleeve to reveal what looked like some old shackle scars around the wrist. "These are his scars."

"That only you know about," Crawford replied.

"Maybe someone else does too. I don't know about that and don't care. This is him, he has the words and Schuldig's phrase, and he just attempted to use the phrase to bring Schuldig under his control. _I'm_ not the person you should be giving a hard time."

"I agree," Schuldig said as he brushed past Ken a little too closely and crouched down beside Flood and the unconscious Scry.

"You seem all right," Flood said to him.

"I was deprogrammed just before I got here today. Fortunately." Schuldig sudden smile wasn't pleasant. "We got our test as to whether the cure worked after all."

"Breaker gave me to Scry to use as a training model for handling you later."

"That obviously worked out well."

Flood smiled. "Scry thought he was a bigger swinging dick than he really was."

Mr. Zietler rushed up to Omi. "I came as soon as I heard. We had nothing to do with this attempt on Schuldig. You can't believe the story you're being fed here. Consider the source."

Omi gave him a hard-eyed look and spoke in a way that made sure his voice carried. "The agents here reacted as if they'd been waiting for this attempt. I have an explanation for how Flood got out of his cell without the Kritiker telepaths knowing but no compelling story as to how Scry did. If not for the psionics covering them some of the agents here would have provided backup for him; I noticed them attempting it. Flood's 'story' makes sense from what I know of the situation and have seen for myself. I don't support any of this, and I certainly wouldn't leave anyone here after seeing that Kritiker is willing to enslave them. We're leaving, and we're taking Scry with us."

"You're taking a lot on faith here, without investigation."

"I'll investigate it. From a distance, with everyone out of here."

"That would be unwise."

"Mr. Zietler, I sincerely hope you're not threatening me. It wouldn't be healthy." Omi's tone suggested he'd like to see Zietler try so they could kick his ass. Feeling nearly hopeful about it, Ken flexed his fingers in his gloves. Having a problem he could punch and slash would be great.

"Persia, sir, those of us who were affiliated with Ebenroth's school would like to go with you and see your facilities. We'll make a decision on whether we stay then," Antipathy said. "If someone tries to give you trouble here, we'll help you give them trouble right back."

"The Bruise would also like to do so," Intrigue said, smiling.

"Good," Omi answered. "We'll get 77 and leave. We can start making arrangements about the cure words on our way out. Can we keep Scry under?"

Flood was already enthusiastically improvising a gag for Scry out of someone's long hair ribbon. "We can. With the Bruise boosting me, Scry's precognitive brain structure can't shield him as well."

Crawford got an interesting look on his face over that. Good. Worry, bastard.

"Telepaths, watch our back against Kritiker's telepaths," Omi said. "Everyone else, knock out any Kritiker agents who move against us. I don't want any deaths, so try very hard to avoid killing anyone."

Ken felt a boost of optimism and energy now that everything had come out. No more skulking around and pretending. They could _move_ now. Everyone around him--aside from the Austrian Kritiker agents--seemed to feel the same way.

For a moment Mr. Zietler looked like he would stand his ground, but Omi continued his hard stare until Zietler moved out of his way. Ken felt some disappointment over that but having a small army of psionics walking behind him and glaring down the Austrian assholes as they left the auditorium provided a tiny thrill. They were finally doing things!


	230. "If you believe I have that much sway over his opinions, you never knew him at all."

Mamoru hated the walk toward the cells as paranoia and bitter experience made his skin tingle with the expectation of Austrian Kritiker attempting a shot at him. It didn't matter that Ebenroth's psionics had pledged to his side, because he didn't trust their experience, reaction times, or even them. They were all young, some of them even younger than they appeared, giving this walk through Kritiker's halls the feel of a children's crusade.

~ Omi, I'm watching out for all of us, ~ Nagi said, and _that_ made Mamoru feel a bit better. He trusted Nagi's ability and word. He wondered if Crawford had any idea if Nagi had promised him his protection, but he did feel better. When he glanced at Nagi, Nagi didn't appear to be looking at him, just monitoring the situation with a bland expression.

It underscored how Mamoru could really use a telekinetic/telepath for a bodyguard, and it was a professional regret to add to all the personal ones he had that he'd ruined his relationship with Nagi. Nagi was _perfect_. Mamoru would have to see how the trainees he already had in Kritiker looked and talk to Antipathy about candidates from the Ebenroth school.

Ken looked as if he wanted a fight, not that Mamoru could blame him after all the smoke and shadows they'd faced in Vienna. Ken needed something he could punch and slash. Elena's hard-faced expression suggested that she would run over and crush anything that got in her way. Fenris seemed excited, although his eyes scanned their surroundings like a professional, and every so often he patted Sasha's arm. Sasha smiled when patted but otherwise had an expression of somehow ruthless concentration on his face. The bleached blond hair thankfully made him look less like Schuldig but weirdly somewhat like Yoji.

Yoji himself appeared preoccupied, making Mamoru glad all over again that Yoji had removed himself from leadership of Weiß. While Yoji had many good qualities, focus, objectivity, and a good game face didn't number among them. He could be ruthless but rarely for the right reasons. Mamoru had made him leader more out of some sense of guilt over Yoji's circumstances than good sense and quickly regretted it. Every so often Yoji glanced back at Schwarz, particularly Aya. Yes, Aya had faced some recent problems he'd nearly destroyed himself over, but this wasn't the time to moon over him. Despite Mamoru's initial hopes that Schwarz's trip to Vienna would distance Yoji from them, it seemed to have had the opposite effect. Not good at all.

Aya already occupied some twilight status between Weiß and Schwarz; they didn't need Yoji there too. Schwarz took too much advantage.

Aya had his blank face on, although Farfarello looked pleased in a somewhat manic way. To Mamoru's disquiet, they walked together at nearly the same pace, matched. Crawford had a coldly homicidal air and sometimes touched Schuldig possessively, while Schuldig grinned at everyone with the Bruise flanking him almost like a kind of honor guard. Although Flood still resembled a victim of starvation, he easily carried the gagged and unconscious Scry slung over his shoulder. Ebenroth's kids walked behind and to the sides of them.

These people made up Mamoru's entourage. God help him. No wonder he felt that he walked almost alone. How sad that the Weiß members he currently trusted most for this kind of thing were Draco and Fenris, not "his" Weiß, and that the person he thought would be most helpful here would be Nagi.

As they all got closer to the cells, Mamoru said, "Everyone except Weiß hang back a bit. I want to see if I can get them to open the door on my authority before I start intimidating them."

Some of them looked rebellious but he shot them a quelling look. If they wanted to be part of his organization, they had to act like it. They backed off. Crawford and Schuldig seemed amused, but Schwarz didn't step forward with him so at least they obeyed. He preferred a better attitude from them but would accept compliance.

"Sasha, you come along with us. You're part of the team," Mamoru said and was stunned by Sasha's sudden smile. Could Schuldig smile like that? If he did, he probably used it as a weapon.

They turned the corner, leaving the others behind. Walking up feeling like this, detached from the five people with him, underscored that Mamoru wasn't part of Weiß anymore. But he had more power to do good now, didn't he?

Didn't he?

Austrian Kritiker still had guards at each door, as if somebody was inside Scry's cell. Mamoru decided to try to see Scry first, to see if the guards would admit anything. Once they no doubt turned him away from that, he'd make a try for "Flood." If they refused him access there too, he'd demand entry by whatever means necessary, force included.

The guards looked apprehensive when he walked up. How much did they know? Mamoru said, "We're here to question Scry. Open the door."

"We can't do that, sir."

"We're all Kritiker, and my team specifically took him down. You know what my rank is. On what grounds are you refusing us access?"

~ These two know Scry isn't in there. Somebody gave them covering surface thoughts, but I'm better than that telepath and went right through them, ~ Elena said.

"Well?" Mamoru asked again.

The guard answered, "We've been commanded not to let _anyone_ in, sir."

"Why?"

"We weren't given reasons. We just follow orders."

"How convenient. I'll bring that up with Mr. Zietler. After I talk to Flood."

One of the guards at Flood's door said, "We've been commanded not to let anyone see him either."

"This is ridiculous."

"So is contacting the other Kritiker branches to say you're splitting from us and saying it's because we're enslaving people," Mr. Zietler said as he approached with flanking guards.

"Considering how quickly you reclassified my status among you, I thought it best to get my news out quickly," Mamoru answered. He'd called about Scry's place in the Austrian branch's scheme not long after that had been discovered. He could imagine what libels Zietler would use as excuses for the split if he didn't inform people on his own before the Austrian branch had a chance to. "We're going to liberate the prisoner in Flood's cell, then we're leaving. I'm not letting you obstruct me on that. You've chosen to follow a path of fear, selfishness, and inhumanity to other people, but I haven't."

"We're protecting ourselves, not being selfish."

"'Protecting yourself' at the expense of the lives and rights of children who have already been abused. It's unacceptable." Mamoru turned to the guards at the door to Flood's cell, trusting Weiß to make sure the other guards and Zietler didn't attack him. "Open the door now."

"We--"

"If you don't do it on your own, we'll do it for you." Given the Austrian branch's fear of psionics, Mamoru decided to use that as leverage. "Draco uses fire. Fenris is a telekinetic. We have more such people waiting around the corner. Don't force us to use them."

The obviously nervous guards looked to Zietler, who seemed to deliberate for a moment, then gestured to them to open the door. The guards did so. "Thank you," Mamoru said, even as he thought loudly at Nagi to bring the rest of the group up.

~ I hear you, ~ Nagi answered. ~ We're coming. Schuldig is fending off Kritiker's telepaths for us. He thinks they're laughable, but we're not taking chances. ~

Good. Mamoru and Weiß didn't enter the cell until everyone else had come up to watch their back and intimidate Zietler and the guards.

The Schuldig clone sitting inside certainly did a fine impression of Flood as he'd been when Mamoru had first seen him, although someone looking closely would note that he didn't look thin or wan enough and that the length of his hair beneath the hair tie looked more frazzled than what grew closer to his scalp. Head downcast and eyes closed, he seemed lost in his own world and unreachable, though conscious.

~ Even to a telepath, he could pass, ~ Elena said.

What name had the Bruise supplied for him? A number, right? Once again, Mamoru sighed at Eszett's casual cruelty and inhumanity. "77, your assignment is over. We're all leaving now."

He didn't move and gave no sign of having heard. It seemed that he took his playacting very seriously. Under other circumstances Mamoru might have approved but right now he wanted to get the hell out of here as quickly as possible.

Flood, still carrying Scry over his shoulder, and another Schuldig clone walked into the room. "77, it worked like a charm. Having Flood out worked in our favor even more than we expected. Now we're getting our asses out of Austria," the not-Flood clone said. It was probably the Bruise's leader. Mamoru really needed a way to tell all of them apart.

Animation immediately came to "Flood," who replied, "Finally. I was so damned bored." He loosened the tie and pulled it down and off, taking the long fall of more brittle hair with it and revealing little comb tines inside to make it catch in his own, then pulled a tie out of his own shoulder-length hair that remained before mussing and fluffing it to his satisfaction. "Is that Scry I see dangling and tied? It must be Christmas."

"I caught him," Flood said, sounding smug.

"Then being bored to death was worth something after all."

"You didn't know they let Scry out?" Mamoru asked.

"The Kritiker telepaths had been keeping Flood telepathically contained. If I had to be Flood, I had to be contained. So, no, I didn't hear it."

"The rest of your... brothers have agreed to come to Japan with us, particularly since the people here just tried to have Scry take Schuldig over to control all of you. Are you coming along?"

"Fuck, yeah." 77 stood and stretched once Flood untied him from the chair. "Show me to the door."

******************************************************

Crawford wanted them to get done so Schwarz could get out of here. He wanted to cut a swathe through the Austrians for daring to try to enslave and take advantage of his telepath yet figured that if he did that they'd never work for Persia's Kritiker again and didn't want to burn that bridge so thoroughly yet. The longer they stayed here, the stronger the temptation would become. Of course, if the Austrians attacked, Schwarz would have to defend themselves. Persia could hardly object to it. Crawford wouldn't goad them but could hope.

These bastards had nearly made Crawford's old nightmare vision come true and used his clone to do it.

He'd been so right to get Schuldig's phrase taken off before arriving here today. Not only would he have lost his telepath, but Schwarz would probably have been forced to fight off most of the talents in the building afterward. Somebody needed to pay. Scry would die and Crawford wanted to see if he could get a shot at Zietler too before they left.

As much as the Bruise annoyed him, he appreciated that they now circled Schuldig as he worked at keeping the Kritiker telepaths off, leaving himself somewhat distracted from his surroundings. Zietler's eyes scanned the group as if he searched for one in particular, probably Schuldig, but couldn't make him out in the crowd. Crawford should put Zietler's eyes out before killing him.

One time when Crawford had said that Schuldig's hair hardly looked professional, Schuldig had taken on an annoying "I know something you don't know" look and answered, "How tall am I?" He had a point on how it varied the appearance of his height. With all of the clones doing variations of the same thing, it helped disguised how Schuldig was a bit taller than they were, being older. A lot of them dressed like him too. If the Austrians tried to carry one of the clones off by mistake, that would be their problem.

Schuldig looked good, strong. If today's close call had rattled him, he didn't show it. Excellent. Crawford could see that he was a bit distracted with his telepathic work--blocking all of the Austrians' telepaths took effort even for an alpha--but most people wouldn't. Usually Schuldig would hide that behind sunglasses but didn't right now, probably because he too saw the advantage in blending in with his clones. Schuldig shot Crawford a brief, heated look full of promise before turning his head away as if he could be just another member of the Orange line with no real connection to Crawford aside from hating his guts.

That look said, "Later." Later they would celebrate. It might start with sex or with interrogating and destroying Scry. Especially now that they'd freed themselves from Eszett, they believed in living life to the fullest.

There would _be_ a later.

Crawford had a to-do list: hopefully take out Zietler, take out Scry, celebrate with Schuldig, and visit Rosenkreuz, since he preferred the evidence of his own eyes and didn't believe in taking rumor for fact. They would eventually return to Tokyo. Somewhere along the way they'd start removing words for pay, although Crawford hardly saw it as a priority. Given how much Schuldig had gone through and done and the promise Crawford had made him, Crawford would have to consider taking Schwarz on a vacation. Besides, he would prove to himself and the others that he _could_ survive without constantly consulting his cell phone and e-mail.

Zietler looked very sour. "I don't know what you did to turn Persia against us, but it won't work forever, Crawford."

It amused Crawford. "If you believe I have that much sway over his opinions, you never knew him at all."

Zietler's look turned even sourer.

~ He's not going to just let all of the talents leave, ~ Nagi said, obviously feeling secure that Schu kept them safe from prying telepaths. ~ He's planning a fight. ~

Crawford felt secure in that as well. ~ Of course he is. I'm looking forward to it. I believe that Weiß is as well. ~

Nagi's mouth took on a malicious tilt. Apparently he'd appreciate some mayhem too.

~ Schu-Schu says Z is suspiciously hard to crack, ~ a Schuldig-like voice quickly unloaded into Crawford's head. A clone with crazy shorter hair and a leather coat with buckles smiled and briefly waved at him. Probably Wicked.

Z was probably Zietler, and if he had someone shielding his mind that hard he must have plans. But "Schu-Schu"? Crawford really couldn't wait to get away from all the clones. One Schuldig was enough. He'd have to pay Wicked and Malice and take Malice's word off soon to make sure they left instead of stalked Schwarz. Wicked would enjoy following and playing practical jokes on them too much. Schwarz would hardly be helpless against him, but he'd be a pain in the ass they couldn't rely on Malice to rein in.

Persia, Weiß, 77, the Bruise's leader, and Flood, still carrying Scry, finally walked out of the cell. It shouldn't have taken that long, but Crawford knew that not everyone had his sense of efficiency and timing.

Persia asked, "Is there anyone in the other cell Scry was supposed to be in?"

"No," the Bruise answered all at once.

"Kritiker agents are coming up through the halls to surround us," Schuldig said suddenly.

Nagi nodded and said, "Lots of them."

Crawford couldn't remember the last time he'd seen so many faces light up at once. Everyone had been cooped up and unable to let off tension for too long. As he drew out his gun he asked, "Mr. Zietler, did you tell your agents you'd volunteered them for suicide?"


	231. "She's *shot*. She doesn't need a jump-start!"

"That was bright," Omi said, his tone heavy with sarcasm, as he watched the fighting start around them. Fenris and Elena held him back against the wall, and Yoji felt the tingly strings of telekinetic use around them, suggesting that Fenris had made a shield to protect Omi. Made sense, considering how close they were to Zietler and the potential for a stray shot hitting them as chaos reigned in the hallway.

Then Crawford broke free of the knot of psionics and started firing at Zietler, which inspired Zietler and some of his aides to run in the opposite direction. Crawford pursued, his posture and smile showing a predator's joy in the hunt. When Yoji glanced at Schuldig, who remained within the group of the Bruise, Schuldig smiled and shrugged before leaving to follow Crawford. The Bruise looked amongst themselves, then four members split off to go after Schuldig. It gave Yoji the feeling that Zietler wouldn't survive to give Omi much trouble in the future. He should probably feel a little worse about that than he did.

Omi had a dark, sad look in his eyes. He said, "Elena, please pass on to everyone on our side that they should get their things together and report to some tour buses waiting outside. Tell them they should go in small groups so they can cover each other's backs. If they encounter Austrian Kritiker agents trying to stop them along the way, they should take them down." While that didn't specifically say to kill the agents, it didn't say not to either. Omi had just knowingly put targets on people who'd been in his organization.

Once again, Yoji thought that he and Omi might have felt worse about that once upon a time. Not everyone in the Austrian branch had made the edict about the psionics; many were just following orders that probably hadn't been explained in full to them. But these people would be trying to capture and possibly kill the escaping psionics and probably Weiß and Schwarz, and they couldn't take the time to talk to them to convince them otherwise or take the chance of getting shot in the back.

"Done, sir," Elena said. Fenris and Sasha nodded in approval. You wouldn't get an argument from the Rosenkreuz-trained about the necessity of leaving no enemies behind.

That broke up the knot of psionics in the hall and made them take the battle to Kritiker more. Prior to this, the ones in the middle of the group had been vulnerable to shot bullets and abilities without being able to defend themselves or fire off on their own.

"Flood, you and Scry are staying with us," Omi said.

Flood smiled a little. "I'm fine with that."

"Then I'm staying as well. We don't want anything happening to Scry before the time is right," Nagi said with a smile that sent a small shiver down Yoji's spine.

"Sir, where did we put the guy Scry struck down with the words? The one who was paralyzed?" Fenris asked. "I want to make sure he gets out and is okay. I'll pay for his cure word too."

One of the Orange clones who stayed around looked back at Fenris with surprised approval. "He's one of ours, so we'll take care of him, but thank you." Maybe he'd noticed Weiß trying to figure out which one he was, because he said, "I'm Antipathy."

Okay, that made him the head representative of the Ebenroth kids as opposed to the Bruise. Yoji kind of pitied the people of Okinawa, who'd not only get a sudden influx of European psionics but have so many of them look so much alike.

"Thanks, kitty," two Oranges said. One of them held Scry over his shoulder, which made _him_ Flood, but the other one wasn't Antipathy, and Yoji just gave up.

"Can't a guy have some privacy?" Yoji growled. And did they have to sound so much like Schuldig?

"No," they both answered. "And yes."

"Yes, people around you must have privacy," Omi answered. "It'll be a condition of the training. I don't want to hear about incidences in Okinawa. Part of the training will be in uses of your ability but some will be in blending in with the general run of humanity--even if you're foreigners--by at least pretending in public that you can't do things regular people can't do. I'm sure you can all see the value in that."

They both looked annoyed but replied, "All right."

Still, considering that the first day Yoji met Flood the telepath had barely been connected to physical reality and his own body, this showed positive progress. Flood smiled at him, nearly looking sweet in the process. It made Yoji shake his head to clear it and hope to return to Tokyo and what passed for normal life soon. There'd be fewer amorous Schuldig clones there too.

Farfarello had led Aya off at a predator's run a while ago. Nagi remained with Weiß, watching them with an expression of mild interest and making sure nobody tried to kill or carry Scry off too soon.

"You know," Yoji said, "Crawford has probably gone off to kill Mr. Zietler with extreme prejudice for trying to use Scry to pull this shit on Schuldig."

"At this point even I wouldn't grudge him for that," Ken said.

Nice, Ken, but Ken wasn't one of the heads of Kritiker. Yoji looked at Omi, who looked back warily, then said, "Mr. Zietler brought this down on himself by attacking us... and then attacking us again. He can reap the whirlwind. I gave him chances, and he blew them all. Let's get our things together, get out of here, and go home."

"I can totally get behind that too," Ken said.

******************************************************

Inexorable, Crawford picked off another of Zietler's defenders. Three down. Zietler and the rest kept running, for all the good it would do them. Crawford enjoyed the exercise of hunting them anyway. With Nagi keeping an eye on Scry's safety and Crawford's interests, Crawford could afford to indulge himself in terrorizing and killing the person who'd threatened Schuldig and his team.

Having hooked his reflexes and marksmanship directly into his near-term precognition, he could direct his every shot to go where he wanted it to, and he dodged theirs back at him. It didn't always manifest as visions; when he did this second-by-second he _felt_ the future almost as nerve pulses inside his body or a caress across his skin. While he liked to have full control of himself, a certain thrill came from handing himself over to his precognition, and thinking over every action at such moments would slow down his ability to use the seconds of future he sensed. He hadn't been fully online like this in a while, and it felt glorious having time on his side and his opponents' obvious fear.

Lessons had to be taught. No one could fuck with Schwarz and live.

"Be reasonable, Mr. Crawford," Mr. Zietler yelled behind him.

"I'm being perfectly reasonable. You tried to enslave my telepath. I don't know what you would have done with the rest of us if your plan to use him to enslave everyone else in his bloodline worked, but I doubt I'd like it much. A reasonable man couldn't allow an enemy like that to live, and I'd still be within my rights to hurt you very, very badly before I killed you."

"I meant no malice."

"That makes it better? A dispassionate decision can be worse in its own way. We're _things_ to you." Crawford dodged another rain of bullets and shot another man dead. Four left to go, and then Zietler at the end. Let him see his fate coming.

His foresight gave him a flash of Schuldig following behind him with a few Orange liners. Schuldig could overtake him easily if he really tried but didn't seem to be really trying. His telepath followed at a distance as backup, giving Crawford the opportunity to take care of business on his own but with the security of knowing he had talent watching his back. It showed sensitivity to Crawford's preferences. With Zietler dying, Schuldig would probably even come up to enjoy the moment with him. A shame that Schuldig had the Orange liners trailing him, which would stop them from enjoying the moment as fully in the manner they'd want to, but Vienna kept throwing such compromises at them.

They'd be away from that soon. Crawford swore it. Other people had been leeching onto and splitting up Schwarz for too long. He tired of having to tailor his actions and remarks to suit a small nation of hangers-on and of having to share Schuldig with an army of young, acquisitive clones.

While he would never be able to run his team completely free of outside influence--they had to pay some attention to employers--he'd dealt with more interference here than he'd faced since being part of Eszett. A few jobs for employers who wouldn't be standing next to them or trying to look over their shoulders would be just what they needed. Or maybe Crawford could turn their vacation into a team building exercise. There had to be vacation activities that would do that.

Crawford felt a ripple that told him to throw himself backward and to the floor just in time to avoid a blast of flame from a suddenly opened door at his side. When he saw the surprised pyro inside he shot her in the head, then rushed back up to his feet to continue his hunt.

Zietler and his minions looked very surprised to see him turn the corner. One of his guards died looking that way, while everyone else ran.

"Still coming for you, Zietler," Crawford said as he followed, smiling.

Hearing gunfire in the distance behind him, Crawford reached into the future a bit to address his sudden concerns and caught a glimpse of Schuldig looking fine. Good. His telepath watched his back and thrived.

Crawford had three more people to shoot, more if anyone else tried to ambush him from the side. He took cover around another corner as another precognitive nerve twitch made him expect Zietler's guards trying to shoot him down again.

~ Brad, they're heading for the door out! ~ Schuldig yelled.

All right. Time to get serious. Crawford had no urge to spend time searching Vienna for Zietler when he could kill him much easier within the Kritiker compound. The pleasure of a hunt wasn't worth it. He reloaded and put a burst of speed on.

To his amusement, Zietler and his men hadn't been rushing out, perhaps taking too much of a stupid sense of security in Crawford's steady stalking. That nearly laidback pace cost another of them his life as Crawford came up shooting. Zietler and the other survivor fired on him continuously now, but his precognition helped him move out of the bullets' path as he kept shooting. This probably shredded his trench coat, which would annoy him more later.

A warning flutter of foreknowledge along his skin made him start to throw himself back, but a wave of telekinetic force hit him partially anyway, knocking the gun from his hand and driving him sideways into a wall, rattling his thinking. Lying on the floor, Crawford tried to gather his wits quickly as he straightened his glasses with one hand and searched for his gun with his other. No bones seemed to be broken, which wouldn't have been the case if he'd gotten hit full on, but his head still rang.

Just as he was about to stand, a rain of gunfire started over his head, so he stayed down. He'd reoriented himself well enough to know that the resumption of gunfire hadn't come from Zietler's end of the hall. Zietler and his remaining bodyguard went down under the devastating attack.

"You too, honey," Schuldig said, almost purring with menace, standing with four similarly grinning and armed young clones. "Come out, come out. We can't let you escape alive either."

A man walked out of a nearby room in a slow, jerky fashion, seemingly struggling not to move forward but losing the battle. "Why can't I kill you?" he shouted.

"That's because the five of us have blocked your access to your telekinesis, just like we've blocked your ability to command your own body. Kids, which one of you wants to kill him?"

"Me!" one of them said a little faster than the others.

"All right. 'Lucky'?"

"I named myself."

"Don't sound so proud of that." Schuldig rolled his eyes.

“It’s better than a number.”

"I can’t dispute that. Kill him."

Lucky took the telekinetic out with one shot between the eyes. "Got him."

"Showoff." Schuldig relaxed a little once the teke died and the strain of using the four members of the Bruise to boost his power and controlling the teke completely ended. "Brad, Zietler's still clinging to life."

"Good." He appreciated getting the coup de grâce. Gun in hand, Crawford walked over to Zietler and looked down at him, kicking the man's gun out of his bloody, shaking hand. "What's that expression for? What you wanted to control for yourself just took you down. Not so much fun now, is it?"

"Fuck you," Zietler gasped.

"Unoriginal and vulgar. You continue to meet my expectations. If I were given the opportunity for last words, I'd try to show more eloquence." Crawford shot him dead.

Schuldig and the four members of the Bruise walked up to him, but only Schuldig leaned into his side. Schuldig tried to get into his brain without using the Bruise to boost him. That last was almost his telepath being polite, like knocking at the door.

"I'm fine," Crawford said as he put his hand on Schuldig's shoulder. Seeing the Bruise members watching him with small smiles, Crawford asked, "What are you looking at?"

~ They're watching you redeem yourself a bit. You seem less like my evil, restrictive owner when you're showing concern for me. ~

~ I sought vengeance for you. ~

~ You could have done that over him messing with your property or prestige. ~

Crawford definitely needed Schwarz to be back on its own again. He had no intention of tailoring his public moves around Schuldig to suit or placate an audience; he would be as mushy or not as he cared to be depending on his own desires.

He also refused to apologize to the clones for snapping at them for gawking at him. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"Sure!" But telepathically Schuldig said, ~ I'll thoroughly check you out to make sure you're fine later. ~

Crawford would have to wait until later to look _Schuldig_ over and assure himself that his telepath had come out of that brush with his phrase completely fine. They had appearances to keep up.

As Crawford turned his back on the corpses and walked away with Schuldig and his Bruise entourage at his back, he almost hoped to run into more Kritiker agents to slaughter. It would be better to work off his temper on enemies than have to hold it back from his team.

******************************************************

Farfarello grinned as he struck down another agent with his poniard, thrilled to have free rein to commit mayhem and draw blood again at last. Mostly he killed people trying to hurt or impede the cubs but some he took out just because he wanted to. Vienna _owed_ him. Besides, they wouldn't have to flee so hard and fast if they had fewer people chasing them. It only made sense.

He couldn't help laughing to see Aya's katana whip an agent's head off and send it rolling across the floor, but it worried him too. As much as he enjoyed watching his puisín cut loose, cutting _that_ loose wasn't usually Aya's way. He generally needed more of a goad. No wonder the cubs looked more frightened than they generally would of Farfarello alone.

A bullet whipped across the top of Aya's shoulder, diverted by the light armor of his coat. It would bruise though. Aya flung a knife at the shooter, hitting the man's gun hand and making him drop the gun, before Aya barreled into him, took him down cold, and chopped off his head. All right, his puisín definitely had something unusual going on inside his kitteny head. Unusual might mean induced.

~ Puisín! Room to your left. We're talking now, we are. ~ Even touching Aya lightly this way Farfarello could feel the edges of a frenzy inside him.

Aya glared and briefly bared his teeth but went into the room as ordered once he determined that no agents lurked inside, only packing and about-to-flee cubs. The talents gave him and Farfarello a nervous look, then either left the room with their things or kept on packing while two kept watch on them. As soon as people finished packing they rushed out. Aya looked as if he wanted to rush out with them.

"This behavior is unusual for you. What's going on?" Farfarello asked.

"Nothing."

"You don't usually lop heads off with such joyful abandon. You usually have this thing about people deserving it." His puisín would probably feel bad about it later too, damn it.

Shaking his head, Aya answered, "Bloodlust. Tension."

"Not yours. You're riding with me, aren't you?" And Farfarello realized that he'd instinctively dissociated more as they'd gone into battle, thus opening himself and Aya to picking up more of the ambient feeling. Farfarello, accustomed to expressing or fighting down bloodlust as it suited him, hadn't been bothered by feeling more, but his more temperate puisín had become a weapon of vengeance for the long frustrated talents trying to escape the Kritiker compound.

"Hnh."

"It's not yours. It's not even mine. Fight it." To help, he associated himself a bit deeper into his body. Aya could do the rest himself. "Better?"

"Some."

A sudden rain of gunfire came at the door, splintering it. A few bullets went through. They must have been using something high-powered out there. One of the cubs yelped, bleeding.

"Farfarello, help her," Aya said.

"What? Why?"

"We're getting them out."

"Anything stuck inside her has to stay there. We don't have time to dig it out now. It wouldn't be a good idea for me to heal tissue over it, so no."

"Can you make sure?" Aya sheathed his katana and drew out one of his guns as he carefully approached the door, then ducked as more bullets came through. He found some space to crouch near the doorframe.

"You're a healer?" the boy holding the injured girl asked. He'd already put pressure on the main visible wound and moved them and everyone else out of the path of the doorway.

"Of a sort," Farfarello answered.

"That's just great!"

"Is it just splinters or is she shot?"

"Shot in the chest." The boy took on a sour expression. "No exit wound."

"Nothing I can do!" Farfarello said to Aya.

"You could give her more energy to hold on with," Aya answered as he returned fire through one of the holes in the door.

"The world has flipped upside-down, truly," Farfarello muttered. A killer nearly working as a healer, and with his pet commanding him. He also wished Aya would be more consistent on his attitude toward bystanders. They couldn't even see getting the kids out as a true job, so this was sentiment.

"It'll be easier to get her out if she's not dying as we drag her out."

It'd be easier if they could just abandon a corpse on their way out, but apparently Aya wasn't having it. The ways he indulged his kitten.... Seeing no reason to deplete his own energy reserves, Farfarello pulled electricity out of the wall into his hand. It tickled.

"What the hell are you doing?" the boy asked. "She's _shot_. She doesn't need a jump-start!"

As he crouched down near them, Farfarello absorbed the power into his body. "Whine harder and I'll cut your Achilles tendon and leave you to bleed here with her."

She smelled so good right now, so tangy and wet and red, with a sharp tinge of pain and fear. Did he really want to change that? But he wouldn't be, not really, just letting her last longer.

Now that the moment had come, he didn't know where he should put the ki in and doubted his kitten could tell him either. Not too close to the heart surely, not unless he wanted to fry it. He _wasn't_ trying to jump-start her heart. Doing a rush at once probably wouldn't be a good idea either. He did a slow, steady spill of ki into her arm closest to the wound, not enough to heal her flesh over the bullet or drain him much but enough to give her more strength to get to someone who could take more time with her.

"What did you do?" the boy demanded.

"Gave her more strength to deal. Better than what she started out with. Let's get going. We can't stay trapped in this room all day. Puisín?"

"I can't tell how many are out there."

There were three other talents in the room aside from the wounded girl and the boy who held her. "Are any of you tekes?" Farfarello asked.

A girl with a backpack said, "I am. Not a powerful one though."

"You don't need to be to stop bullets. You just need to be able to deflect them," Aya said from his perch at the door shooting.

"He knows a very weak teke, so he knows whereof he speaks," Farfarello had to say.

"Funny." Aya remembered loudly that Farfarello hadn't been turning Yoji's... services down recently.

Farfarello growled at that, then forcibly gentled his voice. "Weak girl. Help us all get out of here if you want to live." He could almost feel Aya giving him a dirty look, but it wasn't as if his kitten were a master of eloquence either.

The girl didn't look impressed but went to stand by Aya's side anyway. Results mattered more than the process needed to get them. The rest of the cubs followed Farfarello's lead as he headed toward the doorway, with two of them carrying the wounded girl.

"When I open the door, start deflecting the bullets," his puisín told the teke girl. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three!"

Aya whipped the door open, and the girl sent their attackers' incoming bullets back at them, even aiming them to kill. It put a smile on Farfarello's face. Walking and battling their way toward the exit with a group of cubs, one wounded, that grew the closer they came to leaving the building was far less edifying, even with the screams of dying agents as their accompaniment.

At least some of the cubs could defend themselves. As much as Farfarello loved having prey to kill, he preferred that enemies didn't come suddenly swarming up on all sides as incompetents died and fell and failed to cover him. With his young associates showing some small talent for killing, he could choose and face his targets at his own pace and glory in the feel of metal cleaving flesh and ringing off bone. Having gone practical and cold, Aya fired his guns, even though Aya enjoyed his katana more and it was far more fun to watch in action.

They made it to the door out and handed the children off to others but didn't see Schwarz waiting there for them. "Are they all right?" Aya asked. "Schwarz _and_ Weiß."

Farfarello dissociated more and felt out. "Aye. They're holding their own; they just haven't gotten through and out to reach the buses yet." Then he smiled. "If we go back in to meet them, we can kill more people."

His puisín cast him a long-suffering look but put away his guns and drew his katana in preparation to go back inside. Well-pleased, Farfarello gave him a kiss. Aya protested too much but always got into the spirit eventually.


	232. "I think there are a lot of things that can be blamed on Yoji's pants."

"Don't shoot at us," Nagi yelled to the Kritiker agents as he, Weiß, and some of the clones walked through the halls. "I'm a telekinetic, and the bullets will just ricochet back at you." When people kept doing it anyway and getting hit with their own bullets coming back at them as they bounced off his shield, Nagi said, "Just like that. Morons."

"This doesn't seem entirely fair," Ken said.

"You could go outside the shield and fight them hand to hand while taking your chances with the ricochets, but I think Persia would rather you stay safe. If you're bored or bloodthirsty, it's your problem."

From the look on Ken's face, not so different from the one Farfarello got at times, Ken did want to battle people hand to hand... or claws to whatever, though Ken answered, "...you're just putting up a shield and letting them kill themselves."

"I should toss their bullets back individually? Why put that much effort into it when I don't have to? They're just as dead this way, and here they have the option of letting us pass and keeping their lives. Not that many of them have taken that option." Besides, he was also carrying the luggage Schwarz had brought here.

"Don't mind him, Nagi," Omi said. "I'm glad you're doing this."

"Thank you." While Nagi didn't need to have his every undertaking and utterance praised the way Schuldig sometimes seemed to, he did appreciate his efforts being appreciated.

"This is our room. I have to pick up some things here."

"Sure."

"Ken, are you bored?" Yoji asked.

"No! It's just kind of weird walking the halls with people firing at me and I'm not doing anything like fighting or dodging or looking for cover," Ken answered.

Ken was bored. Like a lot of them, Ken probably needed to let off steam, and Nagi's power and extreme competence cut into his slaying time. Nagi didn't need to go rooting through his mind--if you could call it that--to see it.

"You could make sure the room is empty before Omi goes in," Yoji said.

"Already did that," Fenris replied cheerfully.

"...or not."

"You people are freaks," Nagi said as he let them all go inside the room while he stood at the door to set up his shield.

"_We're_ freaks?" Ken asked.

"Yeah."

"You're Schwarz!"

"Yeah."

"Yeah? Just 'yeah'?"

"No kidding I'm part of Schwarz. There's not much more I can say."

Yoji smiled. "Give it up. You're not gonna win this argument, Ken."

"I have to try!"

"Your funeral."

"Listen to Yoji, Ken. He knows what he's talking about," Nagi said.

"Since when did you two become such good buddies?" Ken asked. "Is this a telekinetic thing?"

Noticing Yoji squirming a bit, Nagi replied, "Yeah. We have a secret society and a secret handshake that doesn't involve hands." He never would have expected Yoji to be that hypersensitive about their interrupted sex. It was kind of cute and made Nagi want to pet his fluffy head.

Yoji kept it very quiet on a mental level, at least, probably out of trying to avoid any telepaths finding out what they'd almost done and squealing about it to Omi. If he could keep on like that, he might survive amongst telepaths after all.

"It's really hurting holding Scry up," one of the clones said. It had to be Flood.

"Of course it is," another answered. 77 maybe? Or was it Intrigue? "You're one of those blob telepaths, barely living in your own body. Almost no muscle tone on you. I'm surprised you were able to connect the feeling of pain to the act of carrying him around."

"I know things. I'm fine."

"Sure you are."

"Do I need to separate you two?" Nagi called back to them.

"No, we're fine!" they answered at the same time. When he glanced back he could see them glaring at each other. Flood put Scry down for a while at least. Nagi would be so glad to get away from the army of clones. Weiß packed Omi's office up and pretended not to notice the clone warfare.

~ Nagi, you'll have to adjust your field so Brad and I, with our entourage, can come in, ~ Schuldig said.

~ It'd be more fun to watch you dodge ricochets, ~ Nagi answered. He hadn't bothered worrying about Schuldig or Crawford surviving Zietler.

~ Your lack of feeling kills me. I practically raised you! ~ Schuldig could whine for days if he felt like it.

~ Sure, sure. I've revised the shield. Start approaching now. ~

~ _There's_ teamwork! ~

Crawford, Schuldig, and Schuldig's four clone entourage _strolled_ through the hallway toward the room as Nagi's shield kept them from getting shot. Schuldig even merrily waved at the Kritiker agents.

~ With all due respect, could you get your asses in here? ~ Nagi included Crawford in that too. Really, now. They could act cool when they were expending their own power. Nagi had to stand for principles here.

They sped up only a little. Damn Schuldig and his attitude and Crawford and his love of making a grand entrance. And the clones took their cue from Schuldig.

"We're ready to go," Omi said.

"Good," Nagi answered. Weiß leaving should help his team arrive faster. _Nagi_ waved merrily back at Crawford and Schuldig as Weiß, the three Orange clones, and an unconscious Scry slung over one of their shoulders left the room and started swiftly walking toward one of the exits.

Amazing how quickly they caught up. "We just killed Zietler," Crawford said to Omi.

Omi looked unhappy but resigned. "He brought it on himself. If we make an announcement, we may be able to get Austrian Kritiker to stop attacking us."

"Or his second-in-command will step up to take his place and follow the same directive, telling everyone to keep fighting."

"I think it's worth taking the chance."

"I disagree."

"Not everyone is as powerful and proficient as you are, Crawford." Some sarcasm dripped from those words. "If I can help them get out of here without them having to fight for their lives, I'd prefer to do it."

Schuldig looked as disgusted over the territorial alpha dog posturing as Nagi felt. Although each had a point, now was not the time to get bogged down in arguing. They were still walking the whole time, at least, but a decision needed to be made now. If Omi didn't act soon, Crawford would get his way by default.

Omi said, "Elena, give the telepathic announcement that Mr. Zietler is dead, I'm taking control, and Kritiker should stop fighting us."

"Are we still leaving right now?" she asked.

"Damned right we are."

"Are we telling them that?"

"Nope."

She grinned. "Cool. It's done."

Nagi listened in to her telling them exactly what Omi had told her to impart. How obedient.

"Reaction?" Omi asked.

She smirked. "I think the general reaction is 'arrrrrgh!' Not that they should be surprised. These normals should have known the costs of doing this business, the same as the rest of us. They don't live that far from Rosenkreuz."

"I didn't see you killing Zietler," Crawford said.

"I had a job assigned to me. I was doing it. Besides, you were off being the avenging angel so I didn't need to."

"Don't you even joke about that," Farfarello said. He and Aya awaited them at the corner, both with steel drawn.

Kritiker agents started to stand down, so maybe the announcement had done something. Although all the blood on Farfarello and dead bodies lying around might be helping with that. Farfarello looked disappointed about the decrease in hostilities, but Aya grabbed him by the arm and helped escort him to the door out.

Outside, the talents were mostly seated on the buses already, with Malice, Wicked, and some other Orange clone directing a few to defend against the remaining Kritiker agents still fighting. Reason #1,231 why Nagi would be glad to get away from the clones: He wouldn't have to see Schuldig's face endlessly repeated everywhere.

He pitied the instructors at the Okinawa school. Hell, he pitied Okinawa.

~ _Damn_, you're mean, ~ Schuldig said.

~ Then don't listen. ~

~ Then shield better. ~

"Stand down!" Omi yelled, and the Kritiker agents obeyed. "We'll be out of here soon enough, and you won't have to deal with us anymore. Or your new commander can decide whether to reestablish ties. At the moment, I don't care."

"This is where we part ways," Crawford said more quietly to Omi as Omi helped the remaining talents onto the buses.

"We have to get things from our hotel rooms too," Omi answered him.

"No, we're not heading back to Japan yet. Once we get our things, we're out on another mission."

"You're going to take the words off people before you go," Wicked said. "You promised Malice, and a lot of people are ready to pay now."

Annoyed, Crawford replied, "It can wait."

"Like hell it can! Anything could happen to your team, and the cure words could be lost." What remained unspoken but understood was that Wicked didn't trust Crawford to keep his promise without being prodded, which Nagi didn't blame him for.

"Fenris is going with them to their hotel to make sure they'll return to the airport with the words," Omi said. "We'll sort people by who's ready to pay and who was promised a cure word while Schwarz is getting their things so everyone will be ready by the time they arrive."

Crawford had that blank, set expression on that meant he was pissed off, wanted vengeance, but also didn't want to show too much in front of an employer. Still, all the talents in earshot immediately calmed down. Schuldig said, ~ Brad, it's better to get this out of the way now so we don't have hordes of kids tracking us down for the words later. It won't take that much more time. We-- ~

~ Yes, we discussed it. I simply hate people meddling in our affairs. ~

~ You realized that we'll have to de-word Verity and Misoji too, right? ~

~ I imagine we can do that by phone later. ~

~ We could visit! ~

~ Really, we don't have to. ~ Crawford answered Omi, "I don't have any problems with that. It would make everyone feel more comfortable?"

"Yes," one of the Orange clones said.

"Fine. We'll take Fenris with us on our brief trip to the hotel to get our things before we show up at the airport with the cure words."

Fenris looked ridiculously happy for someone about to be sent off with a hostile rival team as watchdog and collateral. "I'll do a good job, Persia, sir."

"I'm sure you will," Omi replied.

"We may even teach him some things before we give him back," Schuldig said with a bright, lecherous smile.

Friendly growled, "Don't you dare."

"It's not like he's not interested!"

"Haven't you put your--"

"This is so not the time for this," Omi said. "Schuldig, Fenris is going with Schwarz. Fenris is coming back to us with the same level of sexual experience he left us with."

Nagi kind of enjoyed seeing Omi stand up to people, and not just for the visual fun of the contrast in heights. Schuldig should be stood up to by more people, something self-evident, not a matter of Nagi having divided loyalties as Crawford sometimes like to accuse.

"You'll let us know where in the airport to go to?" Crawford asked mildly, as if the conversation had never veered off the tracks.

"Yes. Elena will send word to Fenris. You know they have a close link." Nice reminder that Weiß would quickly find out if Schwarz did anything to the kid.

~ That could be a disadvantage to them, ~ Schuldig said on a tight, intimate band to Nagi to avoid making waves with any of the other telepaths here.

~ You really can't resist shooting your smart mouth, ~ Nagi replied as he put their luggage in the car's trunk.

~ Hardly shooting my _mouth_, here, but yeah. I hate people slapping my hand as if they have a right to and thinking the reprimand will stick. ~

~ You'd really mess around with Fenris? ~

~ Under the right circumstances. He's not a total innocent. ~

~ Of course not. He's a telepath. ~

~ He's into you, you know. ~

~ I know. ~ Too well. A blind man would notice. ~ But he's a kid. ~

~ And you're an old man. ~

~ You know what I mean. In his head. ~

~ If you're gonna hold out for someone as smart as you are, you won't get laid much. ~

~ In some ways that's one of the nicest things you've ever said about me. ~

Schuldig laughed, then said, "Bite me," when people stared at him over it.

As Aya and Farfarello got into the back seat of the car Nagi noticed Yoji staring soulfully after Schwarz, perhaps wondering when he would next get a chance to score with Schuldig and Crawford or to fail to score with Aya and Farfarello. Then he shot a look Nagi's way that made Nagi think that perhaps Yoji might be thinking about him too. It was a nice feeling. Though probably not for Yoji. Nagi got in after Aya and Farfarello.

"Looks like Fenris will have to sit on my lap," Schuldig said. "No room for him in the back."

Friendly yelled, "Damn it, Guilty, I'm going to castrate--"

"That won't be necessary," Crawford said. "Fenris can sit in the middle between me and Schuldig."

"There's no seat there," Schuldig replied.

"I'm telekinetic," Fenris said. "I'll make something up and be fine."

"You sure you don't want my lap?"

"I don't think it would be a soft seat."

"You have a good point!"

Nagi had to smirk as he saw Friendly pinch the bridge of her nose in what might be horror or frustration. When she cast him a sour look, he waved at her. She might not be so bad, but Nagi had team loyalties to think about.

Fenris managed to fit himself in the middle in the front, although he did it as Schuldig said, "Watch the gear shift. Put your legs to either side. Be careful with the emergency brake lever too. You don't want that going in anywhere without lube...."

Crawford started driving the car away as soon as Schuldig had his door closed. After a few minutes of car-wide silence, none of them willing to talk in front of Weiß, Fenris asked, "So, where are you going after this?"

"Disney World," Schuldig answered. "It's Crawford's favorite place to go to wind down after missions. He loves the 'It's a Small World' ride."

Blank-faced, Crawford said, "Yes, it helps me hone my hatred for humanity. Plus, the song gets stuck in Schuldig's head and he has to inflict it on everyone for days afterward."

"I wasn't going to keep that little gem to myself. It's all part of Schwarz's sadomasochistic bonding rituals."

"It tests our abilities to shield ourselves. Hell, it tests Schuldig. If he's failing, we can punish him like he's a child and he'll be so busy thinking like a child he won't realize it's inappropriate."

"Thanks, Brad. You've always been a pal."

Fenris answered, "Yeah? We all figure you're going back to Rosenkreuz even though Sasha said it's a waste of time."

"Sasha heard from someone that Rosenkreuz was looted, and you'll all trust his source of information? Does he even know if the person he heard this from saw that for himself? It's stupid to take it for granted. There are so many reasons to lie," Crawford replied. "Not that we're going there."

"We don't mind if you go there. If what Sasha heard is right, you'll be kicking yourselves for bothering." Fenris shrugged. "Well, Yoji might mind if you go."

Seated next to Aya, Nagi noticed the unhappy look that crossed his face when Fenris mentioned Yoji and the annoyed look on Farfarello's face at seeing Aya looking unhappy over Yoji. If Aya and Yoji had wanted some time to talk privately or something, it didn't look like they'd get it. Nagi also noticed Schuldig watching them all in the rearview mirror.

"It'll be good to separate our teams for a while," Crawford said.

Schuldig grinned ruefully. "Yeah, we've been so close we've almost been living in each other's pants!"

"That's why you have your hand on my leg?" Fenris asked, sounding somewhat suspicious.

"They're nice pants."

"They are. Lots of pockets!"

"Very true. Less likely to cut off a guy's circulation than Yoji's are too."

Fenris turned thoughtful. "I think there are a lot of things that can be blamed on Yoji's pants."

"Stop encouraging him, Schuldig," Nagi said.

"What?" Schuldig asked, sounding wounded, but Nagi could nearly _feel_ his grin. "We're just talking here."

"What the hell is going on?" Aya asked.

"Nothing! Right, Nagi?"

"Fortunately, we've arrived," Crawford said as he stopped the car. "Pack to leave quickly. Farfarello and Aya should also shower quickly and change clothing."

"I didn't get much blood on the seats or use any to draw on the windows," Farfarello said.

"As it should be. Everyone out of the car. Schu--"

Schuldig nodded. "I'll be fuzzing people's perceptions so they don't notice Murder, Inc. looking so bloody as they walk into the hotel."

"Excellent."

For whatever reason, Fenris followed Nagi into his hotel room instead of going with any of the others. Hopefully the boy didn't intend to make any declarations of love or anything like that. Nagi seriously didn't have patience for it.

Nagi had packed his stuff up before leaving for Kritiker HQ this morning, so all he had to do now was drag it out. Leaning against the wall, Fenris asked, "Do you still have that chip?"

For a moment Nagi had no idea what he meant then remembered and said, "Yeah. I still haven't figured out what it was supposed to do yet. We haven't had much time for things lately aside from when we had to wait to get Aya back, and then I was too distracted to make much headway."

"It's okay. It's out, and if it could have killed me it would have already, right?" Then Fenris looked more nervous. "Right?"

"I would imagine. Once we settle down for a bit, I'll do some research on it. Maybe find out who your gene donors are too, while I'm at it." At the moment, Nagi felt generous. Getting out of this quagmire at last in Vienna left him nearly giddy.

"I don't care that much about the last. I doubt my gene donors were anybody infamous. Besides, I have the family I need."

It might still be interesting. "All right."

"What are Farfarello and Fujimiya-san doing?"

Doing a quick, light telepathic check, Nagi said, "Arguing. They do that. They're hot-tempered." He tried not to worry about it himself, especially with how off-balance and depressed Aya had been since the last of his sister's remains had died.

"How about Schuldig and Crawford?"

Nagi had to smirk on that. "Being thankful."

******************************************************

Crawford clutched his telepath close to him. "We're almost away. When we have more time, I'll show you how glad I am that Scry's plan failed." He looked forward to having his team and his telepath to himself with no one else meddling.

Schuldig nuzzled his neck just above his shirt collar. "We have to get Scry for ourselves too. Where would we put him though? The car's kind of small."

Some unfinished business remained, but interrogating Scry would be a pleasure. "He could be tied up in the trunk on top of the luggage."

"Kinky. Do you think we'd have to snap some bones and fold him to make him fit?"

Damn it. "...I'll think of something."


	233. "The fire is better than the darkness where he's concerned."

Aya saw a big blue and white plastic cooler sitting in their hotel room. "What's this for?"

Farfarello answered, "I would presume that we're meant to fill it with ice and put the container of genetic material inside. The container's been in the mini fridge the whole time."

To keep his sister from rotting. Aya shuddered. To his rage, he suddenly had Farfarello right up against him, in his face, and backing him into the wall. "Back off! Don't push me!" At least the rage burned away the gray, tired feeling he had.

"If I don't push you, I lose you," Farfarello answered very calmly.

"I just lost her again. I need some time!" Aya set his hands against Farfarello's chest and pushed him away. Or at least he tried to. Farfarello didn't move. In fact, he pulled Aya so close to him that he pinned Aya's hands between their chests.

Words didn't work, nor did gentler methods of physically moving him, so Aya gave thought to pushing and tripping him simultaneously or head butting him, anything to get him away, get his hands and breath away, thrown into a claustrophobic panic at being trapped like this....

They rocked violently from side to side and back and forth as Farfarello anticipated or reacted to every move Aya made to throw him off or get loose. Aya got a few kicks in but none that took Farfarello down. It felt a lot like struggling against a block of petrified wood. When Aya headbutted him, it hurt and rattled Aya but didn't phase Farfarello at all.

"If you're so intent on hurting yourself anyway," Farfarello muttered before pushing Aya back hard to make the back of his head hit the wall. Further rattled and stunned, seeing flashes of light, Aya slid down the wall a bit before Farfarello pulled him forward into a hug, with Aya's chin falling atop Farfarello's shoulder.

How many times would he be bullied into contact? How many times would events make Farfarello feel it necessary to do so? When would Aya ever get a clean break? It felt like his life kept going along one step forward, two steps back lately, always dragging him back into the pit after he'd fought and climbed free of it.

He'd begun his time with Schwarz as a captive under duress and fetters. Would that always be the default they returned to? Would he always be "wrong" and they always be "right"?

Spending hours in a small car with Schwarz was difficult enough when he started the trip contented. Doing it now, in this state of mind, with his skin twitching in disgust at being in close proximity to _anyone_, would be impossible. But they would force him to, wouldn't they?

He had no patience to spare for this.

Aya could feel that Farfarello had dissociated, the better to feel no pain when Aya fought him. He would make of that a double-edged sword. Grabbing on to the available telepathic ability Farfarello had at the moment, Aya channeled his rage and grief into their connection and yelled, ~ GET AWAY FROM ME! Get away from me _now_! ~

Farfarello jerked, obviously feeling _that_, and his grip loosened. Aya tore himself free and sped to the other side of the room, away from him, able to breathe again. Part of him wondered whether he should draw his knife out and keep it out to show he meant business. Not that a knife would make a difference if Farfarello didn't think him willing to use it to inflict serious and immediate damage. Was Aya willing? He wasn't certain.

He didn't take out his knife for fear that Farfarello would charge him and force the issue. The mood in the room seemed to be teetering precariously on the edge of a cliff. One push could send it hurtling the wrong way.

Farfarello shook his head and looked hurt and confused, but Aya tried to avoid letting it affect or deter him. He refused any further telepathy that would make him empathize with that. If Farfarello hadn't continued forward against Aya's will, Aya wouldn't have been forced to use such methods.

"Are you saying that someone else would be more considerate of your feelings?" Farfarello asked, the hurt look turning to anger. "The slutkitten perhaps."

"Where did that come from? I didn't say or imply any such thing. _You're_ bringing Yoji into this, not me."

"Have you forgotten the shape you were in when Weiß let you have your space? You were disconnected and suicidal. You're only alive because of pushing from Schwarz in general, me in particular."

"You can't be sure of that. And even if it turned out to be true, being right in one time means you can never be wrong again? I don't think so. I will not be treated like this."

"This is how it has to be with us."

Confused, horrified, angry, Aya asked, "Are you saying that I should go back to Weiß if I want to be treated decently?"

"No! By no means! You belong with me. I _am_ treating you decently-- Puisín...." Farfarello reached out, his hand close enough to Aya's face to let him feel the heat of it but not enough to touch skin. "You get lost inside your own head and need to be reminded that people still exist outside it."

Shivering under the heat and the possibility of being touched, Aya answered, "I see a pattern. You use physical contact to distract me and think it's a cure if you succeed. It's not a cure; it's deferment."

"If you're distracted from brooding on it, it _is_ an improvement."

"It's disrespect." Where was he going with this? If he didn't get his point across and get the distance he craved, would he _leave_? He didn't know. Self-respect argued he should, although self-respect was well aware that he stood the chance of having to battle Schwarz if he tried.

Even he felt tired of his history and angst, but who would he be without them? He'd tried that with Schwarz earlier, and it had worked for a little while, but his past, when ignored, always came back after him even stronger than before.

He tried to imagine returning to Weiß. They would certainly take him. Though Ken might never let him out unchaperoned ever again, given the weirdly and fiercely possessive air he had regarding teammates. Omi would be very happy to get him back. Aya imagined that Elena would welcome him but need time to see how he'd fit into her team, and he wouldn't mind that. It was prudence. Fenris seemed friendly toward everyone these days. Sasha, being new, would probably go along with the rest of the team. Being around three telepaths would mean that Aya would still express untrained telepathy, like the power that had made him so vicious despite himself in battle with Kritiker today. Yoji might be happiest of all to have him around. Or might not, since Aya thought himself to be best tolerated in small doses. Yoji maintained his own close, half-willing ties with Schwarz. That would hardly be an escape.

Aya couldn't quite imagine a life without Schwarz anyway. His affection for Nagi, his unclassifiable bond with Schuldig, his oddly son/father struggles with Crawford, and his undeniable passion for Farfarello had become integral to him. He wore Farfarello's engagement cuff, and he didn't take it lightly.

In some ways he lived out a kind of second adolescence with them. He didn't know what to make of that.

But what goad did he have to correct their bad behavior aside from the threat of his departure? If they realized he couldn't leave, they'd take full advantage, and he refused to be powerless.

Yet they would stop him from leaving anyway.

And in this flood of thinking about himself he'd forgotten his sister entirely. Such selfishness....

Yet a small part of him asked if he weren't being too hard on himself. He was alive, while she was dead. Aside from respecting her remains and honoring her memory, what more did she need?

He didn't know.

"You're so far away even though you're standing right in front of me," Farfarello said, his hand still upraised and close to Aya's face, his arm steady. "I hate that distance. There's no good in it."

"Can't you just read it out of my head?" Aya didn't feel any intrusion, but that meant little.

"You'd find it rude. Besides, it's probably a mess in there right now."

"...you're right."

"What do you want?"

"Aside from some space, I'm not certain." While he might have been better off lying, he didn't know any detailed wants that would sound plausible. Hopefully there could be some advantage in unpredictability.

"You need more patience than I have for you."

"I see." Or Farfarello could make his decision for him, and he shouldn't feel relieved by that. He should at least be _trying_ to shape his own future.

Farfarello's bare, warm fingers settled lightly on Aya's face. "Too much of the time you speak, hear, and think in another language than the rest of the world, I'd swear you do. I didn't say I'm giving up on you."

Aya didn't understand how that touch could make him relax and tense at the same time. It almost hurt. Shaking a little, he closed his eyes. When Farfarello's fingers started to lightly, very lightly, stroke his face, Aya shivered even more, feeling too much.

This would all be easier if he didn't _know_ that Farfarello cared for him.

"I suggest a compromise," Farfarello said, still stroking. "I'll crowd and touch you less, but you'll have to allow _some_ of it. I'll try to make Schwarz give you some space in the car."

Close enough. Aya could accept that. Still, how pathetic to be relieved that he wouldn't need to fight more to get _close_ to what he wanted. How pathetic to need Farfarello's help to achieve it.

"This isn't a loss for you or me. We each give a little," Farfarello said. "That's sensible, and you know how much work it is for me to be sensible. Doesn't that mean you win more than I do?"

"Not by much."

"You've faced a lot of shit recently. It's like with any injury; you just need more time to recover. I'm confident of that."

A knock at the door startled both of them and sent their hands toward their weapons, but Schuldig opened the door and grinned at them as he swept inside in a swirl of long coat and hair. He had an ice bucket in each arm. "C'mon, kids. We don't have the time to play around. Chop, chop."

Aya noticed the flicker of relief that ran across Farfarello's face. Had Farfarello called Schuldig in, rare as that might be? Not that he had to, not when Schuldig commonly stuck his nose where it didn't belong.

"I'm taking a shower, puisín," Farfarello said as he backed off and picked up a change of clothes. "Want to take it with me?"

"No."

Thankfully, Farfarello didn't look surprised. He shouldn't be after the conversation they just had. "So be it."

Aya couldn't help watching with some appreciation as Farfarello walked into the bathroom. That strut did things to him he couldn't control.

"He's come a long way," Schuldig said as he crouched next to the mini fridge and poured ice into the plastic cooler.

"In some ways," Aya answered. With the battles over for the moment, his shoulder started to ache insistently again. The light armor of his coat had diverted the bullet that had skimmed it, but he could feel the bruising left behind.

"You martyr. As soon as I'm done with this, I'm looking at that shoulder."

"Done with--" Aya saw Schuldig put the box containing Aya's remains into the cooler, spread the ice around it, then close the cooler. "You didn't have to do that for me." It left him feeling unwillingly touched and grateful.

"Didn't have to make life easier for all of us? I disagree. Take your coat off."

...that was more the Schuldig he knew. "What?"

"You're obviously hurt, so I want a look at it."

"It's just a bruise."

"You don't react much, so if you're visibly hurting that much, it must be a big bruise. Off with the coat."

"I have a shirt under it."

"That'll have to come off too."

"...do you know me at all?"

Schuldig put some of the ice in a bag then the bag inside a towel he picked up near the sink. "It won't be as bad if it gets ice fairly quickly, and you know it. Better mobility, Aya...."

Aya grumbled but took off his coat and even his shirt--glaring when Schuldig whistled--then held his hand out to catch the wrapped ice and apply it to his shoulder. "Fine."

"The whistle was over the bruise. Nasty. Bullet skimmed you, huh?"

"Sure. Get out of my suitcase!"

"You're too busy sensibly caring for your shoulder to get your clothes ready for when Farfarello's done, so I'm doing it for you. It gets us out of here faster."

"When did you actually start to become Schwarz's mother?"

But Schuldig didn't take offense. "Before you showed up, though you accelerated it."

"I don't need mothering any more than the rest of you."

"Keep telling yourself that." Schuldig set out underwear, socks, black jeans, a blue sweater, and the belled collar for Aya. When Aya glared at him, Schuldig said, "He was worried sick over you when we couldn't wake you up. He really loves you. Give the poor guy a bone."

Past the renewed flood of shame at having put Farfarello in that situation, the situation he'd been in with his sister, Aya growled, "Schuldig!"

"Not like that! Well, not right now while we're on Brad's timetable. And you say _I_ have a perverted mind?"

"You _do_."

"But so do you."

Needing to change the subject, Aya said, "We're past the event Crawford wanted me on the team for. I can tell."

"We can't want to keep you anyway? You're that unbearable?"

"...yes." He meant it.

"Oh ye of little faith in yourself. It's not so. You'll see."

To Aya's great relief, Farfarello walked out of the bathroom, allowing him to grab his change of clothing and go in. He'd probably be much better off if he could have diverted Schuldig with teasing hints of flesh, but he didn't have that in him. Instead, Schuldig had concentrated on his mental and emotional state....

Aya wrapped his bloodied gear in plastic to be cleaned later, then took the fastest shower he could, trying not to think about anything. Yet once he finished and started to dress, the leather cat collar Schuldig had included mocked him. At least, it mocked him as much as an inanimate object possibly could, with its winking rhinestones, impertinent bell, and all the assumptions attached to it.

Farfarello could be overbearing and set on getting his own way, yet he _was_ trying to compromise. As Aya toweled his hair drier, he also couldn't help thinking how horrible it must have been for Farfarello to come back to himself after that battle only to find his lover dead to the world, comatose, with no certainty that Aya would ever be all right again. Farfarello loved him; he knew that, even _felt_ it. Aya wore a symbol of Farfarello's commitment to him along the rim of his ear. Was Aya being too self-centered in his grief?

He buckled the collar around his neck and gave the bell a dispirited little flick with his fingers to make it ring.

******************************************************

Farfarello hated feeling grateful for Schuldig's intervention, especially since it meant that the mindbreaker must have been listening in through at least some of the conversation, but that conversation had left him floundering. At least Aya could be distracted at times, and the mindbreaker made an excellent distraction.

That didn't mean Farfarello shouldn't strike at Schuldig a bit. After Aya started the shower Farfarello sat down on the bed next to a lounging and comfortable Schuldig and said, "I come out, and he's half-naked."

"Come on! That was a bit of bruise care! You're the guy sending mixed messages to Yoji...."

"Am not."

"You want Yoji in your bed for sure, then?"

"Grrrr...."

"Wicked looking bruise on Aya. Bullet?"

"Aye."

"Not everyone can turn off the pain the way you can, not that it's even a good idea."

"He went a bit wild off everyone's frenzy. He needs training in telepathy."

The mindbreaker's face twisted into an annoyed expression. "Ugh."

"You should have been training him ages ago!"

"Ugh. Training him to do anything is so much work."

"Don't say anything about sending him to Okinawa."

"I wouldn't. He's Schwarz."

"He'd end up stinking of your cubs. You'll miss them?"

"Yes and no. I'm gluttonous, and most of them idolize me, but there are just too many of them, and they'd make me crazy."

They'd make Crawford crazier. From Schuldig's current smiling, boneless languidness, it seemed the telepath was getting along very well with Crawford, so Schuldig might be more sensitive to keeping their leader happy... at least for the moment. The mindbreaker had to bait people.

That always made asking him for help risky, but Farfarello saw no other choice, as much as it galled him. "Aya's sinking into depression again. My usual unconscious efforts aren't reaching him, but he seemed to be very sensitive and susceptible to touch, like an untrained telepath would be. Doable?"

Schuldig smirked. "You'd make the great sacrifice of going skin to skin with Aya?"

"Of course."

"Part of that sensitivity is a reaction to his traumas. If you overstimulate him he might stick a knife in your gut."

"Win-win."

"You're still a loony."

"The fire is better than the darkness where he's concerned. You know that."

"Mmmm. Yeah."

"Don't know it so intimately."

"Touch him if it works and he'll let you. Don't if it doesn't work and pisses him off."

"That's your great wisdom?"

"I agree that you could have come up with it yourself."

His puisín walked out of the bathroom with damp hair and wearing flattering colors and the belled collar around his neck. Farfarello's spirit lifted at the sight of the collar then sank again at the despairing look on his face. When Farfarello looked at Schuldig in reproach, Schuldig answered, "You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles. C'mon, boys. Brad wants to move on, and so do I."

"As do I," Aya said as he finished packing his bags and put on his coat. "The sooner we're out of this city, the better."

If Aya was willing to stop fighting him for a while, Farfarello was very willing to let him. "Agreed." He felt an almost sad twinge of lust as he watched his kitten move, sad because he knew he wouldn't get to touch the way he wanted to for some time to come.

It would be a _long_ car ride out.

Once they gathered their things and locked the door to the room, Crawford, the boy, and the puppy walked out of their rooms as well. Nagi looked upset in Aya's direction, so perhaps the whole damned team knew what had just transpired.

"Fujimiya-san, if you're not happy with Schwarz, you can come with me," the puppy said.

Farfarello's intended knife stab bounced off Fenris' teke shield. Schuldig said, "Junior, we're _right here_. Listening."

"I know. I'm not doing anything behind your back!"

"You're stabbing us in the front," Nagi replied, sounding darkly angry.

"The important thing is what's best for Fujimiya-san, yes?"

"I'm staying with Schwarz," Aya answered. If only he sounded less fatalistic about it.

"Fenris, in the interest of inter-team cooperation, we'll only lodge a complaint about this to Persia," Crawford said. "In the future, don't expect us to be so understanding."

Farfarello noticed that after they put their things in the trunk Crawford laid a layer of plastic wrap over them. That suggested messy mayhem to come. He appreciated having something to look forward to.

The cooler was in the trunk as well.

"Would you like to sit near the window, puisín? For the ride to the airport and then the ride to Rosenkreuz as well?" Farfarello asked. Usually Aya sat in the middle, between Farfarello and Nagi. Nagi looked as if he would protest for a moment then held his tongue.

Aya appeared surprised by the offer. "Yes. Thank you." Once they all settled into the car, Aya rested the side of his head against the window and closed his eyes, the very image of self-isolation, but the side of his hand rested against Farfarello's thigh. Aya's other hand held an ice pack against his bruised shoulder under his coat, a sign of him taking care of himself. Hope remained.


	234. "Take the happiness in and like it."

"Make a left here," Fenris said.

"I know how to get to the airport, Fenris. I just need to know _where_ in the airport," Crawford said. "We don't need a right, left, right all the way there." It was distracting enough having the boy sitting so close to him, perched over the parking brake, without him talking at every turn.

"Yes, sir."

Schuldig stretched then extended his arm behind Fenris to rest his hand on Crawford's shoulder. Crawford asked him, ~ How did the talk with Aya go? How bad is he? ~ Crawford glanced in the rearview mirror to get a look at Aya and found some reassurance in Aya sitting so close to Farfarello.

~ Fairly bad. He has a melancholy nature, and right now he has something legitimate to cry about. With all the crazy floating telepathic stuff around and him having haphazard shielding, he's trying to block out other people's influences, so he doesn't have Farfarello counteracting his depression as much. Farfarello's having trouble seeing how hard to push Aya, since Aya needs some pushing but too much makes him balk even more. In fact, Aya spoke of leaving Schwarz to get away from Farf pushing him. ~

Although it didn't surprise him to hear that of Aya, it still annoyed Crawford. Nobody leaves Schwarz. ~ That's not happening. He's one of ours. Did he say he wanted to return to Weiß? ~

~ He thought of it but not for long because he's smart enough to see the debits and he loves Farf. What he wants is to escape his mind and circumstances. He's got a bit of a trapped animal feeling. ~

~ Tasty? ~

~ Very. But I can't play like that with my team. ~

~ Good answer. ~ Crawford knew that within Schwarz Schuldig would happily feast on naturally occurring emotions and stir things up now and then but wouldn't mindfuck a teammate too badly. Since he'd committed himself to Schwarz Schuldig didn't shit where he lived.

~ We desperately need a vacation, but I think unstructured time and too much time to think would destroy Aya at this point. Who would have guessed that Kritiker's stupid, insulting florist job was just the sort of thing Aya needed? ~

Crawford wouldn't change Schwarz's course over just one person, but he'd wanted to settle down in a single area for a while anyway. The whole team could use some stability.

But they also deserved some time to relax, a vacation. Perhaps a job for Aya and Farfarello at that location could help. Working appeared to focus and calm Aya, and Crawford appreciated work therapy.

~ Where do you want to go for a vacation, Schu? ~

~ I'm thinking beaches, maybe an opportunity to try some surfing. ~

~ You just enjoy seeing skin and applying sunscreen. ~

~ Is that so wrong? ~

~ Not at all. ~

~ You've been happy seeing _my_ skin. ~

~ I already gave my approval. ~

In response, Schuldig sent a warm, nearly gloating pulse of pleasure along the link to Crawford. The light touch of Schuldig's hand on his shoulder confirmed that his telepath felt relaxed and happy. Glancing to the side would only show Crawford the side of Fenris' head and a bit of Schuldig's nimbus of bright hair, so he didn't try.

"We're at the airport," Fenris said.

"Now you can direct me," Crawford answered.

Fenris' directions led them to a large hanger filled with people, most of whom Crawford didn't want to see again. They assumed that obligation and camaraderie existed and dared to make demands of him and his team based on that. They could all go to hell. Unless they paid well enough. That was the only reason he left Persia alive.

The Bruise better not follow Schuldig afterwards. While Crawford didn't want the bother of exterminating them, he'd do it if he had to, no matter that they looked like Schuldig.

Schwarz and Fenris had everyone's notice as they got out of the car. Loving to be the center of attention, Schuldig reacted to the staring by waving merrily.

Persia immediately approached them and said, "While you were out, we gathered the money for everyone here to get a cure word."

Crawford had to ask, "Everyone? _Really_?"

"Some of them you promised a cure word to as payment, but we have enough to cover everyone else. A lot of people chipped in for those who didn't have enough money on their own." Persia gave him a look that suggested Crawford could learn something from that.

It taught Crawford that a lot of people here had a sentimental streak. "You have the money?"

Persia sighed and handed him a duffle bag. Crawford did a head count of people, then tallied the money. Fortunately, it mostly came in euros, making the process faster and easier. Converting currencies in his head took more time. His total was slightly over what it had to be.

"This will do for everyone," Crawford said as he closed the bag. "Schuldig?"

Schuldig grinned. "I'm ready." His smile widened as all eyes turned to him, rapt, everyone eager to hear him speak.

Crawford wondered if Schuldig might need a microphone to get everyone, but Schuldig's voice carried beautifully, Schuldig projecting it like a professional entertainer. With the words came a rush of bliss, surely Schuldig projecting his pleasure at being important and the focus of everyone's attention along. It felt warm and good. Wanting a mood test, Crawford looked away from his nearly glowing telepath to direct his gaze on Schwarz's two little black rain clouds.

Nagi had a pleased tilt to his lips, nearly smiling, then shook his head. Nearby, Aya fidgeted and looked frustrated, whispering to Farfarello, "Block this off." His pupils were dilated, and he had a bit more color in his face than usual.

"No," Farfarello whispered back. "Take the happiness in and like it."

"I'll try to block it out myself." He didn't appear to be succeeding.

Balinese put his hand on Aya's uninjured shoulder, and Aya set his hand over it as Farfarello growled. Nagi sighed. Balinese stood too close to the three of them. Once Schwarz left Vienna, the blond barnacle wouldn't be with them for a while.

It irked Crawford that Yoji had come up with the idea that had brought Aya back.

The wave of happiness swelled as all the telepaths found themselves swept up in it and radiated their own out, creating a circuit. No wonder Aya couldn't protect his bad mood against it. By the time Schuldig finished, everyone looked rather high and hung on one another. Schuldig leaned companionably against Crawford's shoulder.

"Flood." Schuldig said in English, "Your cure word is 'candyass.'"

"Cute," Flood answered. "Thanks."

"Was that Breaker's nickname for you, based on your attributes and talents?" Wicked asked.

Flood answered, "You want to lick it and see?"

"That kind of behavior isn't necessary," Crawford said.

"But it's fun," Wicked replied.

"You and Malice are welcome to come work for me," Persia said, probably out of a desire to keep things moving forward and more professional. "We wouldn't put you in the school, just a very brief orientation course. The people with more training like yourselves will bypass the rest of the curriculum."

"Thanks, but we already have plans." Wicked said. He and Malice each wore a backpack, and Malice had a laptop bag as well, so it seemed that they would be leaving right after this. "We finished the jobs we were paid for, and Malice has his word. Once we get the last of our pay from Schwarz, we're out of here."

Not wanting to hold them up, Crawford handed Malice their pay. Malice smirked at him, obviously recognizing it as go-away money, but certainly didn't reject it. Crawford had given the money as a guarantee for them, since Malice had wanted to leave Vienna for as long as Crawford had known him but Wicked wavered.

Grinning as he looked at the money, Wicked said, "This is gonna be great, Friedrich. A new start."

"As long as I look after the money, Georg."

"Schwarz hasn't completely discharged its obligation to Kritiker," Persia said.

"The only thing we haven't paid to you yet is some of the data you wanted, and Nagi is still working on that," Crawford answered. "Nothing to get excited or upset about."

"But you're still demanding Scry be handed over to you."

"He owes us."

"That's not reason enough. Why should I give him to you?"

"How about because you already had the telepaths strip him of what you wanted to know?" Schuldig answered.

~ How? ~ Crawford asked him. ~ Scry is a precognitive. ~

~ And nobody's had an easy time deep-reading him because of it. The difference here is that a lot of these telepaths operate in the same way and are accustomed to combining their abilities and power together. That's unusual. ~

~ Right. ~ Rosenkreuz had trained its telepaths to be rivals, but the Bruise had needed and valued all of its component Orange clones and a lot of the other telepaths here had some of the same genes and could be taken in by the sheer force of the Bruise's concentrated will. Crawford couldn't have gotten all of them to do it, but perhaps Persia had made Friendly call in the favors the Bruise owed her. Or maybe the talents saw it as repaying Persia for working to get their asses out of Europe. Some people came cheap.

Schuldig gave Crawford a look that he knew was his telepath telling him they could have used all of that telepathic talent the same way if _someone_ hadn't worked so hard to keep them at arms' length. Crawford shrugged briefly in reply, because he didn't regret it. Having looked at the costs and benefits, he'd decided that the costs of keeping them close outweighed the benefits.

"You have your information from him so you don't need him anymore," Crawford said to Persia. "Don't try to tell me you want to protect his life, not with what Kritiker and Weiß do. Not with how he threatened to enslave almost everyone here. He's a dark beast."

******************************************************

Watching Omi and Crawford fight over Scry left Aya feeling weird because his sympathies kept wavering. He retained some loyalty to Omi, but Scry _was_ a dark beast who needed to be punished in a very final way. But Aya knew that Schwarz would torture Scry first, and he vacillated in his feelings on that as well. Torture didn't sit well with him except in special circumstances. Scry had intended a horrible slavery for all the talents he could grab and would have hurt anyone he could, but he'd been rendered unconscious and powerless for now, unable to put up any resistance, which made it seem dirty and dishonorable somehow.

Yet, what should they do? Restore him to full health and consciousness and let him try to hurt them before taking him down? That made no sense. Did it matter that much whether the person had committed evil a moment ago as opposed to in the near past?

Aya didn't want to think about it. Unfortunately, his mind didn't give him a choice.

At least the false happiness had faded. It had horrified him to feel so out of control, floating and misled.

"Are you okay, Aya?" Yoji asked.

Aya didn't feel up to talking with Yoji at the moment, but if Schwarz parted ways with Weiß here he might not see Yoji for a long time to come. He lightly squeezed Yoji's hand on his shoulder and said, "I'm fine." Although he'd appreciated how that grip had helped him stay grounded during that surge of joy, Aya would remove it when he could. It felt like too much, especially since the link between them had strengthened and deepened.

"He's fine," Farfarello said. "Don't talk to him."

"You decide who Aya gets to talk to?" Yoji asked.

The obvious attempt at manipulation galled Aya. Did Yoji think him that simple? Or perhaps Yoji had aimed that barb at Farfarello alone, hoping that anger and jealousy would cloud his judgment and make him react in a way that would disgust Aya. Aya hoped that Farfarello would avoid the snare.

Farfarello growled a little but said, "No, but he's tired and grieving, and I don't want you taking advantage of that."

"You have to trust me with him a little. Otherwise our dream wouldn't have gone as far as it had."

"Are you so eager to provoke me into a rage?"

"I would appreciate it if you two didn't talk about me as if I'm not here," Aya said. "I'm a person, not some tidbit you're fighting over. You're ticking me off."

"Sorry, Aya. But, you know, if you need a break from Schwarz--"

"Fenris already said I could return to Weiß, and I refused to. Crawford just mentioned that offer to Omi as a thing he's annoyed about."

"All right, not that I'm listening to them at the moment, and good for Fenris. Aya, I'm concerned for you."

"You and several other people." They kept telling him as much. "I've chosen my course. Do you realize that every challenge I've received on this today has only strengthened my resolve to stay?"

"Yeah, uh, that's funny."

Farfarello grinned. Aya didn't feel the need to discourage it.

"I care, though," Yoji continued. "Try to be well, will ya?"

That touched Aya. "I will."

"Try to get by without us, slutkitten," Farfarello said.

"Funny guys. I'll be great!"

Aya did worry about Yoji being without Schwarz. He'd been so intertwined with them lately.

"It looks like Crawford won over the Persian kitten," Farfarello said. "It only took a ridiculous amount of talking."

"You probably would have stabbed the person disagreeing with you," Yoji said.

Farfarello's eye glinted as he grinned. "Slashing is faster and easier, and it works."

Aya sighed. Nagi glanced back at the three of them with a long-suffering but slightly fond look.

******************************************************

"We'll dispose of him, while you keep your hands clean," Crawford said, unwilling to concede, especially with the Bruise and all the other talents watching.

"Fine," Persia answered. "Take him off our hands. Draco?"

Friendly dragged Scry, bound and confined in sheets of plastic, over to Crawford. It momentarily distracted Crawford to see what looked like a young him so totally helpless, but that didn't last long. Scry had proven himself to be an inferior copy too many times and needed to be deleted.

It amused Crawford to see Schuldig looking down at the captive with such an evil and gloating expression on his face. The session that resulted would be... interesting.

"Nagi, please take and confine him to the trunk," Crawford said.

As Nagi telekinetically pulled Scry away, Crawford had a flash of vision and dialogue. Standing in front of a giant mound of misshapen concrete, he heard himself say, "--can't you?" and Nagi responding, "It's not like a bathtub stopper where you can cleanly pull it out. From what I can feel, the cement flowed into every open space it could find before hardening. I'd have to excavate the whole hill to get it out, and that would take days if you want to get anything other than rough chunks of crap out. Nothing of value would come out intact."

With a blink, Crawford returned to the present, with no one except Schuldig seeming to be aware that he'd mentally pulled away. ~ Brad? ~ Schuldig asked.

~ I'm fine. I'll tell you later. ~ While they had tight shielding, too many telepaths stood around for Crawford to feel comfortable getting into a discussion about it here.

It looked as if Rosenkreuz would be a waste of time, so Crawford changed his plans. Persia didn't need to know, because if he did he'd probably suggest Schwarz return to Japan with everyone else since they didn't have any business that _needed_ to be done in Europe. Crawford felt very strongly that Schwarz needed time away from other people commanding and constricting them. They also needed time away from Balinese trying to bed all of them.

"It's time for us to go," Crawford said.

He watched Balinese give Aya a tight hug from behind, with Farfarello looking disgruntled in response before _he_ tightly hugged Balinese, who panicked and squirmed. Once Balinese freed himself, Schuldig yelled to him, "Yoji, I'll give you the reward I promised the next time I see you!"

It annoyed Crawford to see the Bruise mob Schuldig, but he breathed easier as his telepath said goodbye and gently but inexorably eased himself out of the mass. He'd worried that Schuldig would be as big an obstacle to parting with them as they would. They looked disappointed but let him go free.

Schwarz got into the car without needing any further urging, Schuldig in his usual shotgun seat, Farfarello in the back between Nagi and Aya, letting Aya have a window seat. Nagi had put Scry in the trunk, and Schuldig would keep him unconscious until the right time. Crawford passed the duffle bag of money into the back, letting Nagi, Farfarello, and Aya decide where would be the most comfortable place to put it. No way he'd put it in the trunk near Scry.

Crawford couldn't help speeding a bit as he drove them out of the airport and away from Vienna. It felt like they'd been trapped in Vienna for years. Free of the past and entanglements, at least for a while, Crawford smiled.

An hour into the unusually quiet drive, he said, "We have a change in plans."

Schuldig laughed at the cries of "What?" emanating from the team members sitting in the back.

******************************************************

"Are you gonna be okay, Yoji?" Sasha asked.

"Sure. If I'm not, the rest of the team will smack me," Yoji answered as he stopped watching Schwarz's car leave. He couldn't see Aya, who didn't seem fine, looking out the window at him anymore anyway.

"Smack you?"

"In a loving way. We're not sadomasochistic."

"Really?"

"Shut up."

"Thanks for working to get me out of here. I'm looking forward to seeing Japan." Sasha grinned and patted his back before going over to help Weiß get the talents on the planes.

Yoji heard Omi congratulating Fenris on telling Aya he could come back to Weiß and Ken telling Elena that he'd be glad to be speaking his own language all the time again. Everybody looked excited to leave and move on.

Yoji would be fine. He wasn't dependent on other people.


	235. "You better not have drooled on me, boy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did a mapquest thing on the road trip of Vienna, Austria to Munich, Germany and found out that the estimated time was four hours. It took me six hours and about sixty more miles than the Vienna=&gt;Munich trip to travel from Lords Valley, PA to Pittsburgh, PA.

"What was this about changing our plan?" Nagi asked.

"I had a vision," Crawford answered. "Rosenkreuz will be a dead end. It's very firmly concreted shut and would require far too much time and energy for what may be far too little payoff."

"When did you get this vision?"

"It's not necessary for you to know, but I'll tell you that I had it while at the airport. I waited until now to make sure no one else knows what we're doing."

"That makes good sense," Nagi answered but with a grudging tone in his voice.

"What's the plan change?" Aya asked, not that knowing would make much difference.

He really needed to find something positive in his life.

"I'll call up an apartment in Germany we can use, and go straight to working on Scry."

By which he meant torture as punishment, of course. You didn't wrap up and throw a man into the trunk of a car if you intended future good treatment. Aya still didn't know how he felt about the torture to come. Kind of numb to it? He had helped torment Amann, but there they'd desperately needed information and it had come right after Amann had personally fucked with all their heads. Since Omi had already gotten everything from Scry's brain, Schwarz intended to slowly break Scry simply for vengeance.

"Germany is a large country, Brad," Schuldig said. "Could you be more specific for the benefit of the peons in the car?"

"A city with a lot of people we could sink into without a ripple. Something near the border since this is a ridiculously long drive as is."

"Too true," Farfarello muttered.

"I'm thinking Munich," Crawford answered.

"Mmm, the world city with a heart," Schuldig said with an almost dreamy smile. He'd been quiet for the ride so far, perhaps in the effort of keeping Scry from regaining consciousness.

"Munich loves you."

"We'll have to make Aya try the Weißwürste."

"I'm not a big sausage fan," Aya answered.

"Not even Farf's big, white--"

Farfarello kicked the back of Schuldig's chair. "Don't continue that sentence, mindbreaker, and stop antagonizing my puisín." But he didn't sound all that upset, perhaps because Schuldig being an obnoxious ass felt like normality, scary as that sounded.

"You're cute, Farf. At the very least, we have to get Aya a Weißbier. They don't let you leave if you haven't had at least one."

"Get out the map and my cell phone, Schu," Crawford said. "Get the cell phone out without any unnecessary explorations."

"My idea of unnecessary or yours?"

"Which do you think?"

"You take all the fun out of it." Schuldig took a map out of the glove compartment and removed Crawford's cell phone from his suit jacket with a minimum of rummaging through it or feeling him up that Aya could see. Aside from Aya, who still wore his coat to make up for the ice pack he'd kept on his badly bruised shoulder, they'd stopped earlier to remove their winter coats for the time they spent in the heated car. Schuldig put Crawford's earpiece in, then went through the phone's address book.

Watching them work so efficiently yet wordlessly with each other somehow comforted Aya. He didn't know what to make of that. No, he did. This was his team, and he liked his team to function well.

"Our real estate agent for Bavaria, Schu."

"Yeah, Frantz Bayer. I know."

"A little too well."

"Hey, it got us a first shot at some real estate opportunities. All right, here you go."

"Mr. Bayer. It's Crawford. How are things? Excellent. Yes, I'm looking for a rental: a place in Munich, furnished, three bedrooms. No, we don't need bars on the windows anymore. I need it ready for tonight, length of stay currently unknown, but you know my money is good. Hmm. Yes. I can hold for a brief time."

"Is the hold music any good?"

Crawford just shook his head irritably at Schuldig then said, "That location sounds fine. We'd like to see it. We're driving in from Austria, so I'm not certain of an arrival time. Traffic. You know. I'll have a better idea after we cross the border and call you again then. Excellent. Good-bye." Once he disconnected the call he said, "Some kind of oom-pah music."

"Poor Brad."

"This promises to be a long drive, so everyone would do well to pick up some sleep."

"If you don't wanna do that, I could always start a few rousing rounds of '100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.'"

"Hell, no," Nagi said as he put earphones in.

~ I'll sing as a telepath too. ~

"That's really not necessary," Nagi answered.

"You really don't have to, Schuldig," Aya said. "I'll find a way to sleep if I have to knock myself unconscious to do it."

Schuldig turned to face them and smiled. "Now that's taking the initiative. Good show, Aya. Learn from him, Nagi."

"I'm not as eager to knock myself unconscious, thanks," Nagi answered.

"You're no fun. No spirit of adventure."

"Knocking myself out isn't adventurous."

"Do you hear that, Aya? Sounds like he's casting aspersions on you. Shouldn't you be defending your honor?"

"Unconsciousness sounds good right now," Aya replied. The ice in the bag had melted a while ago, so he'd unwrapped the bag and placed it at his feet until they had an opportunity to throw it away. That left him a towel he could fold up to place between his head and the window.

He just realized that they hadn't brought any towels with them, so the towel Schuldig had wrapped the bag for him in had been stolen from the hotel. By him, inadvertently, since he'd carried it out. At the moment he couldn't bring himself to care much. He had it, and it provided some softness and a slight shield against the cold glass.

"You're not going to fall asleep leaning against Farfarello?"

"You're in fine form." Making trouble. "Farfarello is too muscular and bony to be comfortable to sleep against, and he has his coat off so that's all there is to lean on." Because Farfarello, being Farfarello, wore a sleeveless shirt.

"He's right," Farfarello said.

Such a reason didn't offend Farfarello, just as Aya had suspected. If Aya had other reasons to avoid being so close, he didn't have to share them at the moment. He snuggled in against the towel the best he could, closed his eyes, and tried to mentally block out the sound of the rest of the team talking. To his relief, they actually seemed to get quieter....

Aya woke up sometime later, the towel his head rested on now lying on top of Farfarello's shoulder with an arm around him as Farfarello slowly, softly petted his hair. Looking half-asleep himself, Farfarello said, "You and your towel started to slide down the window at one point. You didn't wake up then or when I moved you."

Aya should probably be ticked off but couldn't manage it, not when he felt so warm and muzzy. "The car stopped?" he mumbled.

"We're not in Munich yet," Schuldig said. "We stopped for food, gasoline, and a chance to stretch our legs, being that most of them are so long. Well, long except for the legs belonging to somebody in the back who's acting like a snoozing kitten."

Aya saw that Nagi had fallen asleep curled up a bit against Farfarello's arm, his earphones still in, his hair hiding a lot of his face. He looked really cute.

"I'm not so sure I wanna wake him," Schuldig said.

"We're not stopping again until we reach the place in Munich," Crawford said. "Wake him up so he can eat."

"If he sleeps through chow time, that's his problem."

"I don't want him acting crankier than usual from hunger once he wakes up."

"C'mon--"

"Schuldig."

"Fine. But there's something I have to do first." Schuldig used Crawford's cell phone to take a photo of Nagi then looked at it and snickered. "Okay, now I'm good. Nagi, wake up. Nagins!"

"Hmmm?" Nagi murmured, as he snuggled in closer against Farfarello's arm.

"Nagi! Damn, he's out. I guess he'll have to starve."

"This is so easily accomplished," Farfarello said as he moved the arm Nagi slept against, which made Nagi shoot up, startled awake, one of his earphones falling out. "You better not have drooled on me, boy."

"You should be so lucky," Nagi muttered as he swept his hair out of his face one-handed. Some of it returned to fall over one eye as usual. "What the hell? I was sleeping."

"Nom nom time, Nagins," Schuldig said.

"Shit. I'm not two years old, and you're not my mother."

"I was all for letting you sleep through mealtime and wake up hungry and crankier than usual later, but Brad said no."

"Crankier than usual? I'm never cranky."

"Yeah, you and Rose-red are bundles of sunshine. Up. We're not stopping again, so this is your last call to eat, stretch, or drain the lizard."

"You're disgusting," Nagi muttered, but he put his coat on, opened his door, and got out.

"Are you all right?" Farfarello softly asked Aya, his arm still around him.

Aya didn't feel like complaining. "Yeah."

"Good." Farfarello smiled and withdrew his arm to get his coat.

Aya picked up the small bag of water and got out of the car. It felt good to walk after so long a time curled up and folded in the backseat. Ahead of him, Crawford walked at a fast, deliberate pace while Schuldig seemed to be dancing forward and stretching as Nagi snapped at him to be less of a freak. Aya could almost feel Farfarello walking a few steps behind him as guardian or goad.

Nagi seemed to lose interest in picking at Schuldig and walked back to keep pace with Aya and Farfarello. "Farfarello, what did you mean about drooling on you?"

"You leaned on me and snuggled into my arm like a baby animal," Farfarello said. "It was sickeningly adorable."

Nagi looked somewhat horrified. "I'm never going to hear the end of that from Schuldig."

"He took a photo with Crawford's phone."

"...damn it. Crawford would kill me if I fucked up his phone."

"Very true."

"Maybe it won't be so bad," Aya said.

"And maybe he'll send a copy to his mother to amuse her and demoralize me."

"That sounds likely," Farfarello answered.

When Nagi walked faster and pulled ahead of them, muttering to himself, Aya said, "Farfarello, that was unkind."

"But truth."

"...yeah."

"Better he find out now than get ambushed by it from the mindbreaker later."

"Is it that you care about Nagi, or you want to thwart Schuldig?"

"Can't it be both?"

"Yes."

Farfarello had such a fond smile on his face as he held the door open for him that it made Aya's chest ache a bit.

Aya tossed his bag of lukewarm water into a trashcan. Happily, his shoulder hurt less than it had earlier.

After he walked inside the service area's restaurant the heat made him open his coat. He saw Crawford, Schuldig, and Nagi waiting on lines to order from the cashiers, so he joined one, with Farfarello coming to stand behind him. The menu boards showed fast food, which made sense. Crawford would want to reach Munich as soon as possible and wouldn't want to waste time with a leisurely meal.

As he gave his order he noticed the cashier staring and smirking a little at his neck. He remembered then that he wore his belled cat collar. It hadn't made much noise, perhaps because he hadn't moved quickly in the line. Whatever. Her opinion meant nothing to him. He just hoped it didn't so distract her that she took his order incorrectly.

Once he had his food he found Schwarz. Nagi had his head down in his arms on the table, while Crawford looked at the viewscreen for his phone and said, "Mom will love to get a copy of this."

"Unnecessary cruelty," Nagi said with his head still down.

"I'm sure you laughed over my baby photos. This is karma."

As he sat down, Aya didn't mention that Nagi had shown the baby photos to him and Farfarello so they could make snide comments as well. As usual, his sympathies rested far more with Nagi than Crawford.

"Go to the photo before that one, Brad," Schuldig said around the straw in his mouth.

Crawford did and promptly smirked. "That's adorable."

"What?" Nagi asked, alarmed.

Farfarello, standing behind Crawford, said, "I'm a pillar of support."

Crawford turned his phone so Nagi could see, which led to Nagi saying, "You're not sending that one to your mother too."

"I'm undecided," Crawford answered. After he turned the phone toward Aya, Aya saw an image of himself and Nagi asleep and snuggled into Farfarello's sides, while a sleepy looking Farfarello had one hand on Aya's hair. They looked vulnerable and so young, even Farfarello.

"I don't want this going to your mother," Aya said.

"I actually don't want this going to my mother either." Crawford had a tight smile on.

"Then mine shouldn't go either," Nagi said.

"It has to. You're her grandson. The other photo is more of a team thing."

"Farfarello's arm is in there."

"But it's not obviously his arm."

Nagi sighed while Schuldig grinned.

Crawford finished his meal and left the table first, so their gas tank had been filled by the time the rest of them went outside to the car. Crawford and Schuldig then silently faced off, though Schuldig grinned.

"What?" Nagi asked.

"Brad should get some rest so he'll be fresh for talking to Bayer when we get into Munich," Schuldig said. "We figured Aya could drive the rest of the way."

"That's fine," Aya replied, still not seeing the problem.

"I'm keeping Scry unconscious and doing map duty, so I should sit up front in the shotgun seat. Brad thinks _he_ should stay up front."

Nagi expressed Aya's feelings very well when he asked, "Are you both eight years old?"

"Brad should just man up and sit in the backseat."

"I don't want to sit in the backseat," Crawford said.

"If you're sleeping, why should you care? Do you think it's beneath you?"

Aya suspected Crawford did think the backseat beneath him, but Crawford simply answered, "You're taking photos."

"Afraid I'll catch a candid shot of you snuggling up to Farfarello?"

"I can't predict the effects unconsciousness and a moving vehicle will have on my sleeping body."

"Let's give the people who will stay in the backseat a say. Who would you prefer sitting with you?"

"Crawford," Nagi said immediately. "Schuldig gets even more grabby when he's bored."

"I don't care," Farfarello answered.

"Don't care? What if Schuldig ends up in your lap in a moment of boredom?"

"I've reconsidered my not caring. I would prefer a sleeping Crawford to a prankish and slutty Schuldig."

"This isn't a democracy," Crawford said. "And, Schu, you're desperate enough for the front seat to give them an opportunity to malign you to get it?"

"Yep," Schuldig replied.

"...fine. If you want it so badly."

"Not even that superior tone will make me regret getting shotgun," Schuldig said as he opened the door and sat in the contested seat. "Mmmm, this seat feels so good. Like victory."

"Shut up."

Aya removed his coat before getting into the driver's seat and set it between him and Schuldig, who peeled out of his coat as he sat. As Aya adjusted the seat and his mirrors he took a look in the rearview to see that Farfarello had taken Aya's window seat and Nagi sat in the middle, which put Crawford on the other end. Short of Nagi getting prankish, that arrangement would make incriminating photos of Crawford snuggling with Farfarello impossible. Crawford shaped the towel into a pillow for himself and put it behind his head, leaned back into it, took off his glasses and placed them in his pocket, and closed his eyes. Although he looked like a different person without the glasses, Aya couldn't say his face looked naked or weaker.

Once he had everything adjusted to his tastes, Aya started the car and got it back on the road. It wasn't challenging driving, just long, and Aya's mind had nothing to concentrate on aside from what he'd been brooding on too often lately. He fought that for a while alone, until two hours in he had to distract himself or perish. He looked into the rearview mirror.

Farfarello had gone back to sleep, and Nagi, earphones in, dozed snuggled up against his arm again. Crawford hadn't moved at all--no leaning to the side to find support against another member of Schwarz for him--and looked stern even asleep. Glancing to the side, Aya saw Schuldig sitting awake but with his gaze distant and almost dreaming.

As much as he hated the thought of being so desperate for distraction that he'd deliberately grab Schuldig's attention, he actually _was_ that desperate. "Schuldig, when do we get off this road?"

Schuldig blinked then looked down at the map lying in his lap. "Not for a while."

"Oh."

Schuldig smiled. "You're that bored, Rose-red?"

"Yes."

"Schwarz isn't being entertaining at the moment, true. I'd sleep too if I could."

"We're in that much risk of Scry coming to?"

"He's been out for hours only because I've kept him that way. While it'd be fun if he freaked out waking up in the trunk, he could damage our stuff or ruin my efforts to let us slip easily and quietly across the border. Somebody yelling and pounding the inside of the trunk draws more attention and forces me to work harder. Screw that."

"So you're bored."

"Fuck yeah. I'm surfing people's dreams for something to occupy myself with."

Aya would ask if Schuldig "surfed" his dreams as well but didn't because he already knew the answer. "Anything interesting?"

"Kind of. They're often more surreal than anything else. You were dreaming something weird earlier."

Of course. "I don't remember."

"Something about these youkai kids whose neighborhood was firebombed and destroyed in the past, so their reaction in the present is to create snowmen and line them with Christmas lights."

"...really."

"Hey, it's your brain."

"Indeed."

"The flashback part had humans in cars throwing incendiary devices at the houses and driving on as they exploded."

"That makes more sense for me." It made him sad to think about, but it didn't feel as raw to him. Maybe because of the youkai angle? He didn't know. "I was surprised that you didn't fight Crawford about letting the Bruise go. You appeared to enjoy how they looked up to you." He didn't want the Bruise around, but it should be safe to talk about them now that so much distance separated them.

"Yeah, they stroked my ego nicely, and I can't help feeling like they're mine, but I've fought all my life to be me. If I kept them around, I'd be part of a set, the queen bee maybe but still a bee in a hive full of bees."

"You think having them around would shape your personality to fit them?"

"It could happen. They should separate themselves from me more anyway." Schuldig smiled. "Not that I'll stop reminding Brad of the big sacrifice I made in letting them go without an argument. Niggling at him is practically my job."

"I'm aware." Aya didn't know if he'd be able to trust a too accommodating Schuldig.

"It makes everyone appreciate it more when I _am_ somewhat accommodating."

"Don't read my mind."

"You should be pleased that I find it so interesting!"

"I'm really not."

"Too bad. Hey, the border is coming up." Schuldig pounded on his seat. "Wakey-wakey, folks! Up and at 'em! Document time."

"Oh, c'mon," Nagi muttered.

"I'm flattered you keep snuggling up to me," Farfarello said. "Then again, I know I have a lot of personal magnetism."

"I don't snuggle!"

"My experience and photographic evidence suggest otherwise."

"He's right, Nagi," Crawford said.

Nagi grumbled.

They crossed the border without incident. The route didn't have many road changes or turns, so Aya had to say something snide about needing Schuldig as a navigator.

Schuldig answered, "Yeah? Wait until we reach the city. Then you'll be thankful."

Crawford said, "You know the way to Munich, but I'm the one who has the actual directions to the apartment." Then he brought out his phone, probably to call the real estate agent.

"Everyone's a critic."


	236. "Truly we're in the dawn of a new era."

"This is it?" Aya asked.

"Yeah. There's Frantz," Schuldig answered as he waved to the man standing outside the building. "Aya, look for a place to park."

"Of course."

"Scry stays in the trunk while we check the place out," Crawford said. "Schuldig will keep him under, so don't worry, Aya."

"I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to. Don't make that face; I believe that your tendency to distrust so much can be a good quality under the right circumstances."

"I'm not making a face. And you can't see my face from the backseat anyway." Sometimes Schwarz made him feel eight years old.

"It's okay, honey," Schuldig said.

Aya decided to quit talking and just park. Talking hadn't been doing him any favors.

As the team left the car Aya noticed that Farfarello had put his hood up to leave most of his face--everything above the bottom of his nose--in shadow. That made it so only the scar near the right side of his mouth, the one that went all the way down to his chin, was visible, which made him less immediately dangerous looking. Feeling the cold much more since night had fallen, Aya wanted to hide within the shelter of his own coat. Crawford quickly took the duffle bag of money out of the car before approaching the real estate agent.

"Mr. Bayer," Crawford said as he shook hands with the man.

"Mr. Crawford. You look well," the real estate agent answered, then cast an almost worried look at Schuldig. "Schu, you're still with this gang?"

Schuldig shrugged and answered, "They're my family and my home. Where else am I going to go?"

"I almost didn't recognize you without a headband."

"They were all destroyed in a horrific firebombing accident. Now I only have one, and I only wear it on special occasions."

"Gang?" Crawford asked. "Should I be insulted?"

"Of course not." Mr. Bayer opened the front door and led them into the elevator. "What would you call it? A social club? A squad?"

"A team."

"That works. Is that Nagi?"

"_Yes_," Nagi answered, sounding annoyed.

"You've really grown up."

"'Up' isn't quite the word," Schuldig said. "He needs more centimeters for that."

"Laugh now. You won't be laughing after I smother you in your sleep," Nagi replied.

"Some things haven't changed," Mr. Bayer said. "Other things have. New member."

"Picked up during our time in Asia," Crawford answered, not exactly friendly but more forthcoming than Aya would have expected.

Even if Aya had been the type to say a word in greeting he wouldn't here, not while watching and listening to this strange exchange. Schwarz apparently had a very different relationship with this real estate agent than they had with the others Aya had been aware of. Mr. Bayer seemed to know _a lot_ about them, while Crawford didn't appear to find that odd or cause to snap at him.

"Is that an engagement ring?" Schuldig asked.

"Yes. Yes, it is," Mr. Bayer answered, sounding somehow simultaneously happy and guilty.

"Who's the lucky girl?" Schuldig closed his eyes. "Ah, she's very pretty. Are you sure you deserve her?"

"Very funny. We make each other happy."

"As it should be."

Mr. Bayer led them out of the elevator and into the apartment. "As requested, furnished, with three bedrooms. It has a full kitchen--pots, pans, plates, and silverware included--one bathroom, and a living room."

"The kitchen table and chairs appear to have a nice weight to them," Crawford said "Well-crafted."

"Of course. This is Bavaria."

Aya didn't really understand Mr. Bayer's answer, although he had good guesses as to why Crawford wanted heavy, solid furniture.

"This is larger than what you usually show us for the money."

"Your old request for bars on the windows cut out a lot of stock." Mr. Bayer cast a look at Farfarello, who merely grinned back.

"I see. Excellent." Crawford approved of the bedrooms, while Farfarello really liked the large tub in the bathroom. "Are there any others you want to show us?"

"One other."

"But this is more expensive and larger. Please answer honestly. Schu will know if you don't."

"I'm aware of that. This is more expensive and larger."

"Schu?"

Mr. Bayer sounded angry. "My word is good."

"That's not what I'm checking up on."

"I didn't see any obvious advantages to the other place inside his head," Schuldig answered.

Crawford said, "We're ready to settle in for the night, so we'll take this."

"Thank you. I have to check on something on my cell phone, then we can make arrangements." When Mr. Bayer went into the bathroom and closed the door, Crawford looked over at Schuldig, who followed Mr. Bayer in and shut the door again.

Once they'd both left, Aya asked, "What is all this about?"

"Bayer is upset about something," Crawford answered. "Schuldig will find out what it is."

"He knows a lot about the team and Schuldig."

"But not everything. Eszett worked more closely with certain agencies in cities and towns near Rosenkreuz. We've dealt with Bayer's predecessor, then Bayer himself, in the past when we needed housing. There are advantages and disadvantages to it." That Crawford currently had his hand on his gun told Aya a lot though.

******************************************************

Frantz had an unlit cigarette in his mouth, so Schuldig offered his lighter along with a soft "Hey."

"Nah, thanks, but I'm cutting back. I was that suspicious, huh?" Frantz whispered back. "I guess not overly suspicious, though."

Overly suspicious would have made Brad kill him instead of send Schuldig after him. "Yeah. What's up, Frantz?"

"You can't just read it?"

Schuldig saw bits of it even through Frantz's attempts at shielding, but Frantz had gone into such a tizzy over it that making out everything through the frenzied flood would take work. "I'm not trying. Besides, I'd like to see your spin on it. This would be your opportunity to save your ass."

"I didn't send in Crawford's name the moment he called like I was told I should, nor am I going to now. I seriously suggest he use one of his lesser known aliases for renting the apartment."

That bit Schuldig had gotten a glimpse of. "Who wants to know?"

"Somebody offered serious monetary rewards for agents who notify him of any teams or former players showing up in the area. I never saw the person who spoke to me before, and he might not be the person behind it all."

Frantz thought of the person strongly now, so Schuldig had an idea of what the messenger guy looked like but _only_ an idea, since Frantz's memory of him had faded through time passing. The guy resembled a former Eszett flunky. "We appreciate your restraint. If we want people to know we're in town, we'll announce ourselves. Is it Munich or all of Bavaria?"

"Any areas we cover. I have no idea if he's approached people in other places."

"Shit."

"Do you know the guy?" Frantz of course assumed that Schuldig had taken the guy's image from his head.

"He was connected, yeah. Are you gonna get in trouble for this, Frantz?" Better to bring it up now and deal with any responses that came up than let him walk away and make his own freaked out decisions when the possibility hit him later.

"If we're careful, no. And if you have to advertise yourselves here, try not to be obvious about who rented you a room or at least give me a heads up so I can send your names through. But... fuck it. I hated those guys and what they did to people like you. I'm not going to obey them and accept little treats from them like a good little doggie now that they're out of power but trying to continue on. The agency is diversified enough that the fall of the school didn't kill our business and we have enough contacts to protect ourselves."

Frantz had always been a decent enough guy that Schuldig hadn't minded schmoozing with him. "Good. Hey, do you know who our new member is? Name, origin?"

"Should I?" Frantz didn't. At least the Eszett remnants weren't publicizing Aya's inclusion on a former Eszett team.

"Nope. Better you don't."

"Why _are_ you still with the team? You always seemed half-poised to run."

That insight surprised him, because he'd never guessed Frantz had seen that deeply into him. Kind of horrifying. "I wasn't blowing smoke up Brad's ass earlier. The team _is_ my family and home. Things became much better once we didn't have to answer to Them anymore. Besides, most regular society doesn't respond as well to people like me as you do. A lot of survivors have banded together to have people with them who understand."

"It shouldn't have to be that way."

"That's how it is."

"You're happy?"

"Most of the time, yeah."

"You look even sexier without the headband." Frantz had a sexy crooked grin on his face. "Wish we could have met up again before I met Edda."

Because Frantz wouldn't cheat on her. "Yeah, me too," Schuldig said in all honesty. Being around Frantz had always made him gentler and sweeter, one of the reasons why Brad hated Schuldig being around the man. "So let's get out there, sign this thing, and get the money changing hands before Brad gets suspicious about what we're doing in here and starts barking."

"You're sure you still want to be with him?"

"He's not that bad."

"It's like that, then? Where's the wedding band?"

"Nobody is going to tie me down."

"_Really_."

"Get out there already!"

Frantz grinned and chucked his unlit cigarette into the garbage can as he opened the door. "I'm going, sweet thing."

******************************************************

"Nagi, Farfarello, can you telepathically make out anything they're saying?" Crawford asked.

"You're asking me for telepathic help?" Farfarello asked back. "Truly we're in the dawn of a new era."

"Schuldig is shielding their minds from other people," Nagi answered.

"And we can't make out words through the door or walls," Crawford said.

"You don't trust Schuldig to be truthful with us about him?" Aya asked.

"He likes Bayer. Always has."

"Enough to side with him over us?" It still surprised Aya whenever he automatically included himself within Schwarz's "us."

"No." Crawford suddenly had a small smile on his face. "No, he doesn't."

When the bathroom door opened, Mr. Bayer walked out with a smiling Schuldig behind him. That smile could mean anything. Schuldig said, "Frantz has something valuable to tell us." That Schuldig felt the need to put a spin on it within his first sentence suggested that the news would be bad and probably damaging for the real estate agent.

"Someone from Eszett who may be working for someone else from Eszett came to the agency offering a reward for anyone who turned in the names of any Eszett members or alumni who show up," Mr. Bayer said, looking uncomfortable. "I haven't revealed your name. I didn't even write down an alias for you. I just haven't entered this meeting of ours in at all yet."

"Do we want people to know we're here or not, Crawford?" Schuldig asked. "Because if we want to draw these bastards out, having the news of our stay here delivered by Frantz would be an impeccable way of revealing ourselves."

"So far not," Crawford answered, frowning and looking annoyed. "We've gotten sidetracked too often lately."

"Just.... uhm," Mr. Bayer said.

"Frantz no doubt want us to be careful that we don't get revealed and it doesn't look like he knew we were here, let alone helped us," Schuldig said.

"Did they promise negative repercussions for people who knew about the presence of former personnel but didn't report them?" Crawford asked.

"No," Mr. Bayer answered. "However, I've done business with people like these in the past. They don't _have_ to say it."

"True. You've been useful in the past, so I have no urge to sacrifice you now. I'll use one of my aliases. If something beyond our control happens and we're discovered and linked to your listings, tell anyone who asks that we sent someone who you didn't know worked for us to close the deal. Give us a call if you hear something or someone is coming for you."

"Really?"

"Really. I'm not that much of an ogre." Crawford cast all of Schwarz a "don't stare at me" look. "It's beneficial to you and us."

"That makes sense."

Apparently no one who knew Crawford would accept a seemingly selfless act from him, but if they saw that it benefited Crawford they felt much better about it.

"Let's get this done. Farfarello, Nagi... Red, start unpacking the car."

Crawford didn't have to say that they should leave Scry in the trunk until after Mr. Bayer had left. Aya found it instructive that Crawford hadn't called him by name in front of Mr. Bayer. Nagi and Farfarello said nothing about Schuldig being left out of the physical labor, so Aya didn't snark about it either. The telepath probably remained to keep relations smooth, truth detect for Crawford, and prevent Crawford from killing Mr. Bayer out of hand.

The three of them remained silent on the way out of the building and to the car, but as they started unpacking the trunk, moving Scry's prone body around like baggage, Aya asked, "Distracting people is part of Schuldig's role, isn't it?"

"Duh," Nagi answered.

"It's good of Aya to notice, especially considering how Crawford is acting," Farfarello said. "The mindbreaker is often set to distract, annoy, or flatter people."

"So why _is_ Crawford so snippy about it?" When Nagi and Farfarello both had pitying looks on their faces, Aya said, "I have a theory but want confirmation."

"Sure you do," Nagi replied, then said telepathically, ~ Schuldig likes Bayer too much for Crawford's tastes. He always has. ~

~ Watching them fight about it is always funny, ~ Farfarello said the same way. ~ Schuldig would argue that he doesn't like Bayer _that_ much, while Crawford would rant about the security risks in getting too comfortable with him. Transparent, the both of them. ~

~ Schuldig is less obnoxious around Bayer too, like he got a personality transplant. It's easier to notice if you see them together longer. ~ Nagi shrugged under the bags he no doubt pretended to carry with his own strength; telekinesis probably did the actual lifting. ~ It's something that can happen with more powerful telepaths. We've all taken advantage any time we noticed him picking up on parts of our personality. ~

Farfarello grinned. ~ I've gotten some good hunts with him that way. ~

~ I think Crawford first took up with him in the hopes of influencing him to be more loyal and less trouble. ~ Nagi pressed the button to open the elevator doors.

"That's horrible," Aya said.

"C'mon," Nagi answered as the doors closed. ~ It's not like he's helpless. Does he _seem_ to be that easy to sway? Does he _seem_ to be Crawford's toady? ~

"No."

~ He's strong in himself. Strongly obnoxious. ~

Farfarello nodded. ~ It's long been Schwarz's way to tap at each other's weaknesses. ~

"I've noticed," Aya answered sourly.

Farfarello bumped his shoulder affectionately as they got out at their floor. "As if you're blindly supportive to everyone you know."

"...true."

Mr. Bayer was just packing up his briefcase as they reached the apartment. "A pleasure doing business with you," he told Crawford.

"Likewise," Crawford replied. "Do you need someone to see you out?"

"I'm fine. Good night." Mr. Bayer left without saying anything personal to Schuldig, which Aya thought was wise of him.

Once Mr. Bayer had been gone for a while, Crawford asked, "How much is left to come up?"

"One bag and Scry," Nagi answered.

Schuldig sat down and said, "Don't look at me. I'm beat, and I'm actually still on the job keeping him out cold."

"I agree. Nagi should bring it all up," Crawford said.

Nagi sighed but replied, "Fine. Since I'm the strongest member of the team."

"Cute. Any questions about why we're not announcing ourselves here?"

"Not really," Farfarello answered.

"I had some," Schuldig said, "but Brad said that he's tired of Eszett determining our agenda for us. If we let it out that we're in town in an effort to trap this guy and his boss, Eszett is still making us stay in Europe."

"We'll take this one out another time," Crawford said. "This team needs some downtime."

That made sense to Aya. "That sounds fine to me."

"Good. Nagi, bring up the baggage."

Nagi saluted mockingly with a "Yes, sir," and left, then returned ten minutes later with the luggage and their captive.

Crawford moved one of the kitchen chairs away from the table and set it in a cleared area of the living room on top of a layer of plastic. "Nagi, can you fuse the bottoms of the chair legs through the plastic to the floor?"

"Ask for something difficult." Nagi did it, set Scry down in a seated position on the chair, unwrapped some of the plastic wrap around him, and wrapped some of the freed plastic so it included the chair back as well as Scry. Then he fused the plastic wrap to itself.

Aya found it very helpful that Scry looked so much like the Crawford he used to fight and curse. That made it much harder to feel sorry for him and much easier to wish him a lot of harm.

"Schu, you don't have to keep him under anymore."

"Thank you," Schuldig replied. Scry's head jerked a little, but he still seemed only half-conscious and made faint sounds through his gag. "Give him a few minutes."

"Are we gonna have to look at him all the time, like while we eat?" Nagi asked. "That's offputting."

"I saw a folding wooden screen in one of the bedrooms," Aya said. "We could put it around him a bit to block him off from regular view."

"Let me see." Nagi returned with the screen and set it up around the chair but not close to it. It blocked him from view on three sides. "Not bad. Crawford?"

Crawford nodded. "I'll allow it. We'll need a break from him once in a while."

"Is the refrigerator on?" Aya asked, the cooler in hand.

"Yeah."

"Good." He'd worried about her remains being in an ice-laden cooler in the trunk for hours. Although the refrigerator was currently empty, he figured that the team wouldn't want to store their food around... her, so he put the box inside the clear bin at the bottom.

"You put her in the vegetable dra--" Schuldig coughed. "I'm gonna start putting our sheets on our bed. By 'our,' I mean my and Brad's bed. The rest of you have to do your own." Schuldig walked out of the room with his and Crawford's luggage. Aya heard him snickering to himself, though. Why had Aya been defending Schuldig to Nagi and Farfarello again?

He supposed he should see Schuldig leaving the room first instead of pointing at Aya and laughing in front of him a gesture of kindness, but he couldn't quite manage it. "I'll make our bed too," Aya told the rest of Schwarz.

"I'd like Farfarello to stay out here with us and Scry for a bit," Crawford said.

"That's fine," Aya said, although he didn't actually feel that way, which surprised him. Did he really want to have a private conversation with Farfarello about recent events? It seemed that he did.

Right before he left the room with his and Farfarello's bags, he saw Nagi take a needle and syringe out. He decided not to wonder about it and shut the door to his bedroom behind him. They'd tell him later.


	237. "Yoji is a delicate flower."

"The bunk bed is already here! Yes! Persia-san works fast!" Fenris said.

"I've never seen someone so eager to give up having a room of his own," Ken replied.

Sasha thought it looked like a nice room, done mostly in calm blues. He saw the bunk bed, a dresser, a TV and DVD player on top of a wheeled table, shelves of books and DVDs, a beanbag chair, a wheeled office chair, and a desk that had a computer, stacks of paper, and mugs full of markers and crayons. A corkboard on the wall had what could have been children's art pinned to it.

"I'm more worried about people coming through our home when we're not here, even if they are Kritiker," Elena said. Sasha appreciated her concern about security.

"They had to send people to fix the windows that had been shot out, so we've had strangers in and out for a while."

"Thanks, Ken. I feel so much better now."

Ken looked a bit chagrined over her tone then smiled. "I'm smooth like that."

She smiled back. "I know. We'll just have to be even more careful going over the rooms once we're settled."

"I would only be worried if they messed up my manga and anime. And Tama." Fenris bobbed around the room checking out changes made when the bunk bed came in. "If those are fine, things are good. If not, there will be words."

"I'm sure they're intimidated at the thought of a long conversation with you," Elena answered.

"They should be."

"I'm sure they wouldn't mess with Tama," Ken replied.

"They better not."

"They probably moved her somewhere safe."

"Hnh."

"Thanks for being willing to share a room, Fenris," Sasha said.

"You're welcome," Fenris answered. "You're a teammate now, and if you're going to be around you shouldn't have to share a bed with Yoji the whole time. It's not... appropriate, and it could lead to some awkward moments. No offense, Yoji."

Yoji put a stricken look on his face and a hand over his heart. "I'm a victim of my own reputation."

"It already did," Elena said softly.

Sasha managed not to blush at remembering that. Although he wouldn't have argued against staying with Yoji--he didn't feel he could afford to--he could stand to have a little distance from Yoji until he figured out how he really felt. Against all expectations he'd gotten out of Europe alive and well and with Woeller dead. He didn't need to screw things up in his new home by jumping into anything.

The language and cultural differences were already weighing on him, and he'd just gotten here. At least he had the words and sounds down through telepathy and already used them, but they didn't write with alphabetical letters here and he had to learn the written forms the mundane, old-fashioned way.

"Ohhhh. Yes." Fenris nodded. "I'll give you first choice on bunk, Sasha. I'd be happy either way."

Fenris' effusive nature still surprised and occasionally startled Sasha, but he wouldn't let it show. "I'd like bottom, if that's okay."

"Sure. Besides, if I fall off the top I could teke myself before I hit the floor."

"Let's not have any deliberate diving off the top bunk, Fenris," Elena said.

"Of course!"

"Sasha, make sure he doesn't do dives off the top bunk."

"Yes, ma'am," Sasha answered.

"Nah, I'm just 'Elena' for regular and 'Draco' for missions. I'm not much for formality unless it's necessary. For example, I can't wait to change into something more casual."

"I haven't seen Tama yet, but I can kind of feel her around. Everything seems to be okay in here," Fenris said. Sasha noticed him nodding to a gesture Elena made though. He suspected they'd be checking closer for bugs later and wondered how often Weiß had to worry about being bugged by their own organization.

"I'm sorry you had to give up your own room, though," Sasha said.

"I had my own room just to myself for a while, and now I'd like to see how roommate stuff works. I still have all my books that helped me start learning to read Japanese, so you can look at them too, and that's easiest when you're already in the room with them. All of us here will help you learn too."

"Thanks for the offer." He'd already started educating himself on the plane ride because he didn't want to be behind everybody for long. "You didn't room with someone at Rosenkreuz?"

"Uhm, not with bunk beds! Sometimes they'd toss all of us into a room and we'd have to find our own spots on the floor. Otherwise it was a closet kind of thing, one to a closet. If they did some new and stupid experiment on us they wanted to keep us separated so we wouldn't... influence each other or something." Fenris rolled his mismatched eyes.

Even by Rosenkreuz standards that was pretty bad. Yoji and Ken looked surprised, though Elena looked less so. It made Sasha feel a bit better that Weiß didn't hear these things every day and a lot better that Yoji and Ken looked horrified. Although he felt so nervous, he wanted and needed a new environment.

"What?" Fenris asked. "Things are much better now. Life is good. Stop staring. Shouldn't everyone be unpacking?"

"Good point," Elena answered. "Boys?"

"Cruel," Ken said. "But I guess it's valid."

"If you need anything, Sasha, just let us know," Yoji said.

The three of them left Sasha and Fenris alone. Sasha asked, "What the hell was that about?"

"'That' what?" Fenris answered.

"Tossed in an empty room or alone in a closet?"

"I wasn't considered powerful or smart enough to be a viable operative, and I look a bit goofy, so they used me and other people like me for experiments, like to see how certain kind of implants might work for people or to see if they could make me smarter or my senses more... sensitive. Like that thing Nagi had to pull out of my chest in Vienna. It was from Eszett figuring they might as well use the excess flesh for something. Elena took me with her when she escaped. It was cool."

"That's more horrible than usual for Eszett."

"It's past. I always go forward. Like, you don't have to be so nervous here."

"I'm not.... It's that obvious?"

"A little? I have some talent that helps me see it. Elena probably noticed."

Sasha sat down on the bed and set his suitcase on the floor. "Great."

"We don't hold it against you or nothing."

"I know I shouldn't be nervous. I survived the worst, and I'm finally out from under a lot of stress now."

"It hasn't hit you yet. Besides, you're dealing with jet lag and the time differences."

"Maybe."

"New place, new people, and different things here. Lots of new, different minds crammed into this city. Some of the nervousness might be excitement."

"Or it could just be nervousness."

"You will be fine. If anyone gives you trouble, I'll beat them up." Fenris grinned.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'll smush them. Hey, Elena's at the door wanting to come in. Okay?"

"Okay."

"She'll probably want to give you a welcome speech." Fenris yelled, "Come in! It's not locked!"

Elena entered wearing a plaid flannel shirt, blue jeans, and slippers, definitely more casual than anything Sasha had seen her in before. "Hi. I'm here to give you a kind of 'welcome to Weiß and Japan' orientation."

"Yoji and Ken couldn't be here for this?" Sasha asked.

"I'm sure they'll do their own for you, but there were some things I thought you'd need to know as a foreigner and a former part of Eszett."

"Makes sense."

"First, you'll have to work in the flower shop like the rest of us."

"I heard about that and hoped it was a joke."

"No joke. It's like team bonding anyway. It'll get you even more used to working with us. The job itself isn't so bad. You're smart and you appear to pick things up quickly. You'll need to work on your reading."

"I figured that."

"We only speak Japanese in the shop. Sometimes I'll coach Fenris on his English when we're in the apartments, but the shop is Japanese only."

"For your own safety!" Fenris said. "No German or English or anything else ever! I made the mistake of talking in something else in front of one of the fangirls, and she decided she could practice her language skills on me. She keeps coming back for it. It is not fun."

"Fangirls?" Sasha asked. He'd picked up some fleeting memories from Yoji about that but not much.

"Fangirls," Elena said. "Some fairly useless teens and near-teens hang around the shop only for the eye candy. Some of them come here for the whole Y chromosome group, others stay loyal only to one guy, and some do some combination of both. They all hate _me_."

"You mean Yoji and Ken have a customer fan following?"

"Fenris has one too."

"Some girls think I'm cute!" Fenris sounded emotionally torn over that. "I used to look really goofy."

"Eszett fed you the worst food they could get away with."

"Yeah, that was shit. But tell him more about the fangirls!"

"Sure. Most of these girls buy nothing while squealing and trying to cling a lot. You're a good-looking guy, so I'm sure you'll attract some attention. Be polite but not too attentive. If you give any of them too much attention you won't be able to get rid of her. Yoji cuts down on a little of their hopefulness by saying he'd never date anyone under 18."

"It might not be my business, but _does_ he date any of them?"

"Hell no. Even then they're mostly too young-acting and annoying."

"Good."

Elena raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm just saying."

"Uhm, sometimes I'll talk about the past in front of Yoji or Ken and they'll feel like they disbelieve me a bit," Fenris said. "I got hurt or felt... disrespected over that sometimes, but really they just don't have that kind of thing in their experience. They don't naturally think of people doing that to other people. It's actually a good thing."

"Ken can be hot-tempered, but he usually forgives quickly," Elena said. "He can get a little punch-happy, but he does that to guys in general."

"But he's a good guy!" Fenris said.

"Definitely. Yoji can distrust happiness and drown in his own angst at times."

"I've seen some of you lightly smack the back of his head or at least threaten to," Sasha said, smiling a little.

"It makes him more aware of when he's falling into ridiculous angst. A lot of times the smack even works."

"Like a reset button!" Fenris said.

"But never too hard."

"Yoji is a delicate flower." Fenris put on a very innocent expression.

"Funny, kid. The smack is a reminder, not a punishment. Enough to make him notice, not hard enough to hurt."

"But his hair cushions it a bit!"

"Fenris, stop making trouble."

"Sorry."

"And you don't have to sleep with him, Sasha! Not that we'd mind it, as long as everything was totally consensual, but it's not necessary for you to do it so you can stay with us. It should go without saying, but I want to make sure you know."

"Elena! Stop making it hard for me not to say anything!"

"I think I see Tama a bit behind the monitor."

"Yeah? Yeah!" A black cat with a waving paw flew at a curve around the monitor and off the computer desk to Fenris' hand. "I want to get Tama a Mi-ke friend. They're lucky cats, Maneki Neko, Sasha. Ken got me the black because it's believed to bring good health and keep away evil, and he figured I'd think it was cool, which I do. The paw actually waves! A Mi-ke is a tortie and white, tri-color, and considered especially lucky. I'm... bi-color. But you don't have to worry about living in this room. Anything of yours can go in just fine. I'm not really big on objects, although I like having them. A lot of the stuff I loaned out in Vienna I never got back, but it's okay. Even if it is rude."

Sasha was so glad they'd changed the topic and hadn't mentioned the blush he'd gotten.

"There aren't any rooms in the building you're not allowed into, Sasha," Elena said. "Feel free to explore. All the food in the house is communal except for things that have sticky notes on them. You'll probably learn to read everybody's names first. Eat what you like. Once your reading is better you'll probably be sent to the grocery store to pick up things yourself. Speaking of, I doubt there's much in the house since we were gone so long. I may go grocery shopping after I ask the boys what they'd like."

"You know what I like," Fenris said.

"I could ask you to go along with me."

"But I need to stay here to help make Sasha familiar and comfortable."

"You're turning into quite the little operator."

Fenris grinned. "I try."

"Sasha, if you have any questions about anything, please ask. We're friendly here."

"And comfortable?" Sasha asked.

"This is the best life I've ever had, easily," Fenris answered. "That's including the first team we were put in for Kritiker, which wasn't a good fit."

"But I think you'll be a good fit with us, Sasha. It's a good life," Elena said. "We have to kill people, but I know you've done that before. If you don't have any other questions for now, I'll be off to put a grocery list together and buy food."

"I'm fine for now," Sasha answered. "And I'll eat whatever you come back with."

Elena smiled. "I'll try to get a few things more familiar to you so it won't be like we're just throwing you into the deep end of the pool."

"Unlike some teams," Fenris muttered.

"Hush, kid. See you later." She left the room.

"So what now?" Sasha asked.

"First, we look for listeners. Then I'm going to show you some of my favorite anime. You sound good but a little too... formal sometimes. Besides, in our work it's important to have all the curse words ready."

"For the flower shop?" Sasha asked with a small smile.

"For the flower shop, you just curse on the inside, not with your out-loud voice."

******************************************************

Their very thorough room search didn't find any bugs. Afterward they spent a few hours watching some episodes of _Saiyuki_ because Fenris said that knowing something about Goku, the Monkey King, was "vital for the culture" and knowing how to say "Shut up" was important. Fenris obviously sympathized with Goku in a few ways. Sasha found it all interesting, although some of the art looked weird to him. When Fenris started yawning, Sasha told him to take a nap and not to worry about him. It gave him an opportunity to check the building out on his own.

Yoji, Elena, and Ken appeared to be in their rooms, probably unpacking and settling back in, so that left Sasha free run, not that much looked too far out of the ordinary. Eventually he reached the kitchen, which had obviously been recently restocked. Some of the packages gave him no idea about their contents, but he found three eggs and butter in the fridge and a frying pan and spatula in the cabinets. He even found plates and forks, to his relief, since he hadn't mastered chopsticks.

Sasha's plate was half-empty when Yoji ambled in on a current of horniness and restlessness, saying, "Whatever you made smells good."

"Doesn't taste as good because I couldn't find the salt," Sasha answered. Yoji took it out of one of the cabinets and set it down in front of him. "Thanks."

Yoji sat down across from him. "Elena didn't scare you too much, did she?"

As Sasha gave his eggs some salt, he answered, "Not at all. I haven't seen anything that tells me where she got this reputation I keep hearing about."

"Some of it involves eyes, testicles, and scissors."

"Pfft. We all did things in Rosenkreuz."

"Well that's scary as hell."

"I'm messing with you. Mostly."

"Thanks. _Anyway_, she's pretty good to her own people, which would be us."

"I would hope so. But she's already been good to me. I'm fed now."

"Hmm." Yoji looked sleepy, hungry, and edgy and still _felt_ horny and restless too.

That horniness kept infecting Sasha despite his sentiment that he shouldn't get too deeply into anything before he settled in more. They both felt horny and restless, and this was _Yoji_, who'd become connected to feelings of comfort and safety. They'd done some quality snuggling in Vienna, and Sasha knew how good Yoji felt.

"What are you going to do now?" Sasha asked.

"I dunno. My body doesn't even know what time it's supposed to be right now. I want to get out to do something but don't have the energy." He gave off faint, high-contrast images of clubs and bars, heavily tinged with nostalgia. "I guess I'm staying home. Guess I'm getting old."

"Are not. You just work for a living, that's all."

Yoji grinned. "Elena and Ken might dispute that, especially where the flower shop is concerned."

"I guess I'll get to see for myself." He had to get that flirty purr out of his voice. He didn't know if he even wanted what would come of flirting. "You promised to take me out clubbing someday. Not today, but someday, when you don't have jet lag."

"I know. I'll have to prove my manly prowess to you."

As Sasha got up to clean up his plate and utensils, he told himself that Yoji flirted on autopilot, the same as breathing. Yoji had turned him down several times, and Sasha wasn't interested right now. Really. "Thanks."

But then Yoji stood and came over to stand near him. Didn't he know a retreat when he saw one? It annoyed and aroused Sasha at once. He'd definitely have to strengthen his shields around Yoji.

Feeling defensive, Sasha leaned in Yoji's direction and asked in the sultriest voice he could manage, "Is there something you want, Yoji?"

Yoji licked his bottom lip then backed up and looked less sultry as a more aware expression came into his eyes. "No. I just wanted to make sure you were settling in okay."

"You don't want to... help?"

"Uhm."

Sasha dropped the overdone flirting. "No harm, no foul. You just seemed kind of... available here tonight, and I wanted to make sure I was reading you right."

Yoji squirmed a bit. "I am kinda, but I don't want to _use_ you, and I'm tired and have a rep to maintain, and I really hadn't meant anything as a come on."

"I may be open to it another time, but everything's too new and I'm too tired tonight too." Sasha cleaned the things he'd used and put them in the tray to air-dry.

Yoji felt very interested and not wanting to be interested all at once. "I wasn't-- I didn't mean to-- Good night, Sasha." He left the kitchen. Fortunately, Sasha felt a lot less horny with him out of the room.

Sasha smiled. Yoji would come around.


	238. "They'll get the family discount."

As Crawford watched Nagi prepare the sedative and lay out a set of headphones with earpieces large enough to cover the whole ear to block out outside sound and a blindfold, he heard Scry let out a muzzy little sound. After having been kept unconscious so long through telepathy, Scry slowly climbed back to consciousness, too soon. Schwarz would deal with him in full when they felt more rested. However, they could dole out a bit of terror tonight as an appetizer.

Crawford thought of Schuldig in the bedroom and lightly reached out to him. His telepath needed rest now but _should_ be around for Scry's comeuppance tomorrow. Of all of them, Schuldig deserved to take the most shots at Scry. He had such a talent for it too.

~ Feeling friendly, Brad? ~ Schuldig sounded simultaneously sleepy and turned on, warm and insinuating.

~ Just wanted to see if you're still up. ~

~ I'm always up. ~

Crawford let his smirk be felt over the mind link. ~ I didn't mean like that. I know that. ~

~ Mmmm, baby. ~

~ We're putting Scry down for the night. I'll be in when we're done. ~

~ Don't have too much fun with him. ~

~ Don't worry. There will be more than enough left for you to do tomorrow. ~

~ You really do look out for me. ~

~ I'm better than you deserve. ~

~ I wouldn't go that far.... I'm really sleepy from a long day, but I'll try to still be awake for when you show up. ~

~ You don't have to. You've earned your rest. ~

~ Thanks. We'll see. Catch you later, Brad. ~

Holding Scry's glasses, Crawford looked down in disgust at the bound replicant. He didn't feel responsible for Scry and his actions--he hadn't created, raised, or trained the miscreant--but he did feel unwillingly connected through genetics. Scry shouldn't even exist. How dare Scry wear Crawford's appearance and use his talent to try to thwart Crawford's will and steal his team? How dare he be so stupid in the process, despite his genetic inheritance? It was unforgivable.

Looking down at Scry secured to the chair, Crawford saw his younger self or someone who resembled his father or Kenneth. Kenneth. _That_ helped Crawford direct his aggressions better again. Did Mom feel something like what Crawford felt about Scry when she looked at her disappointing youngest son?

Not that Crawford had any intention of telling his family about Scry. His mother might very well approve of what Crawford intended--she was fierce and merciless in defense of her family--but he saw no reason to put the burden of knowledge on her and his father's shoulders. It wasn't as if they would have a hope in hell of stopping him if they _didn't_ approve.

Crawford reminded himself to call their home tomorrow to give Verity and Misoji their cure words. The children they'd taken in shouldn't have _fewer_ advantages than all the ones they'd let go.

Scry's fingers clenched on the armrest. Nagi had bound Scry's right arm to his body but restrained his bare left arm along the armrest for easy access. Intelligent, practical, thoughtful, always pushing his talents to new heights, Nagi made a far better Crawford heir than Scry did.

"I can tell you're conscious, Scry," Crawford said. "Pretending otherwise won't help you. If you ignore us, I'll have Farfarello give you a more pointed wakeup call with the metal rods he's heated up."

Scry opened his eyes and looked at Crawford. From the way Scry blinked Crawford could tell that he wanted his glasses to let him see better. Too bad. If his sight corresponded to Crawford's at that age, Scry saw well enough to identify them and see that they had items in their hands but not well enough to know what they held or read their smaller facial expressions. Scry's lips pursed around the improvised hair ribbon gag, and Crawford couldn't help seeing a certain elegance in it being something contributed by a member of the Orange line.

Observing Scry's brave front, Crawford said, "You're no longer in Vienna. Your play for power failed, and your badly chosen allies have been destroyed. The talents have their word cures, as does Schuldig. The Orange liners banded together to strip your mind of useful information, so the talents and the Japanese Kritiker faction had no more use for you. When Schwarz asked for the opportunity to dispose of you, _no one_ had an objection, suggesting that you utterly failed to gain any loyalty for your person or plans. You've been greedy and foolish."

Scry muttered through his gag in answer.

"Nagi, you can remove his gag," Crawford said.

After Nagi's telekinesis took the gag out, Scry coughed, licked his lips, and answered, "They were premature. I'm still useful."

"I've seen no evidence to support this, and you've turned your coat a few times already but never effectively. What could you possibly have that would pay for your offenses against me?"

"Contacts within the remnants of Eszett. I know where a lot of them are and have some data on what they're up to. They haven't abandoned their ambitions, and they'll never stop trying to capture or destroy a team like Cell 49. You're too powerful and successful, and they'll always see you as theirs, as Cell 49."

It had been years since someone had referred to the team as "Cell 49" without meaning it as a taunting reminder of how Eszett had owned and named them. If Scry meant to impress Crawford with his knowledge, referring to Schwarz as Cell 49 did him no favors and counteracted a lot of the compliments Scry had surrounded the name with.

"You're too kind," Crawford replied, making certain to show his boredom. "Whatever you have, the Orange liners know."

"Can you be sure they got everything?"

"I could find out." Crawford had intended to call Persia for a debriefing of the Orange liners tomorrow anyway. "It's not as if we're taking you out tonight. We're tired, and we want to make sure you get the full treatment. The soonest we'll start is tomorrow."

"You'll see then." Scry had a good game face; Crawford barely saw fear at its edges.

"You'd give up your contacts so easily. How many times have you turned your coat now?"

"They're occasional allies, certainly not my friends. You should understand, since you know what they're like and played along with Eszett yourself."

"The reasons and circumstances were very different from yours. Your inability to see that is only one of the things that led you to where you're sitting right now." Crawford saw Scry's arm start to twitch along the armrest. "I suggest you hold still for the needle. We'd prefer not to damage you this early. Besides, Nagi is a powerful telekinetic, so there's nothing you can do to stop him from getting you."

It appeared that Scry foresaw the needle coming and hoped to somehow get loose. Precogs could be difficult to torture if they saw a way out early, but if you really had them helpless their precognition helped their tormentor by giving the victim a preview of horrors to come. Crawford knew both sides from experience. Here he trusted that Nagi had their target trussed well and foresaw nothing to the contrary. At least Scry had enough pride to show fear only in his arm, not in his face.

"I don't get to jab or burn him with anything?" Farfarello asked, his voice dripping with disappointment.

"Not tonight. Wait for tomorrow," Crawford said.

"I don't like being refused. I need my outlets."

"So you'll be even more enthusiastic tomorrow."

"True."

"Nagi, put our guest down for the night."

Smiling, Nagi injected the sedative into Scry's arm. Although Scry visibly tried to fight the effects, he soon went under. Nagi blindfolded and gagged him, then set the earphones on him. "Set up the screen?" Nagi asked.

"No. There's no reason for us to see him while we're eating, but most of the time I want him visible, in case he becomes more competent or resourceful. By the way, good work, Nagi."

"Thank you," Nagi answered with a small smile as he put his tools away. "We're done for the night?"

"We're done. Make sure to rest well. I don't want you surfing the 'net all night. We have things to do tomorrow."

"I hear you." Nagi left the room.

Farfarello looked truly mournful as he left the metal rods to cool. "How disappointing. All I had to do was stand there."

"Tomorrow will be different."

"Hmph. I hardly _started_, but I'm done for the night too, am I?"

"Done."

"I have a kitten to attend to."

Although Crawford wondered if Farfarello's "attending to" Aya would keep the rest of them up, he couldn't say anything against it. Farfarello and Aya both worked better when they felt peaceful with one another, and Aya needed to move on. No one should mope that long over such a small bit of human material. Besides, hadn't he mourned his sister at length already? But Aya Fujimiya always had to be extravagant. Schuldig would laugh if he heard Crawford think it, but Crawford felt that Aya really needed a good fucking to get him over himself for a bit and remember the stronger ties he had to the living.

Speaking of Schuldig, Crawford's telepath opened his eyes as soon as Crawford opened the door. "Just resting, Brad!" Sitting in bed while leaning against a high stack of pillows, looking sleepy and mellow, Schuldig wore his green silk robe and probably nothing else. He showed enough bare leg to suggest it.

Crawford started to undress. "I said you didn't have to wait up for me." Though Crawford appreciated that he had.

"And I said I wanted to." Schuldig took off his robe and slid under the covers. "You need something to clean the taste of that clone out of your mouth."

"We didn't do anything like that."

"My, how did you get so dirty? Couldn't have been _my_ influence. Na, Brad, you hate how he's cloned from you yet so disappointing. I'm not surprised that he doesn't live up to the original. After all, he didn't have me."

Crawford had to smile. "Your ego truly knows no bounds."

"Hear me out. Yeah, lacking a childhood spent with your parents and a healthy base of independence and the idea that he was an original person, not a carbon copy product in a production line of pale copies, probably didn't help either, but look at the rest of it. He had no me. He had no vision saying that he could depose the Elders and strike a giant blow against Eszett, gaining him his freedom with that step. No grand destiny to work toward. He didn't have to keep a team together to achieve that goal, so he never learned the power that a group can bring or how to earn or compel loyalty. He's not you. He's not even American. In every way he is a product of Rosenkreuz."

"All of that actually makes a lot of sense."

"Of course it does. I have a lot of insight into the human condition."

"I hope this doesn't mean you sympathize with him."

"Fuck no. He could be better than he is. He wanted to make me his slave, so I want him to die screaming. I _saw_ a vision of my horrific future under Breaker, and I doubt Scry would be any kinder. I won't show him any mercy."

"Good. We also have to call my parents tomorrow to give Verity and Misoji their words."

"Are you going to charge them for it? You know your mother would never let you live it down if you tried."

"I won't charge them. They'll get the family discount."

"Another way we can tell Verity that it's not like we never did things for her. It's too bad we won't get to see the look on her face."

"You're supposed to be the more mature one."

"Who says? Aside from you. You don't count."

"I count more than anyone else."

"Will we be visiting the homestead sometime in the near future?"

Crawford slipped under the sheets to lie next to his telepath and set his glasses on the bedside table. "Not the near future. We have a vacation to think about, remember? Visiting my family is no vacation. Besides, you mentioned wanting sun and surf and the opportunity to offer Aya a sunscreen rubdown."

Schuldig smiled. "I did at that. But we're not staying away forever. You can't let me believe you're afraid to visit your family. You're too proud for that."

"_There_ was an obvious attempt at manipulation."

"It's a sign of my respect for you that I'm not trying to be sneaky about it."

"Sure it is. We'll see my family again."

"Yay. I want to take another shot at Bradmom."

"That's supposed to make me want to return?"

"It'll be worth your while. We're not mentioning Scry to them, right?"

"Not him, not any of my other clones, not ever."

"Then I hope the kids didn't say anything about your clones."

It annoyed Crawford that he didn't have more control over those two. "What's done is done. _I'm_ not going to incriminate myself."

"Que sera sera." Eyes heavy-lidded, Schuldig snuggled into him, obviously drifting off. His hair felt soft and familiar against Crawford's skin.

While it disappointed Crawford that he wouldn't get sex in the near future, he didn't want to make the grand effort of trying to keep Schuldig awake and saw little pleasure in fucking a sleeping Schuldig. His telepath had worked long and hard today and deserved rest.

Crawford really didn't need to stake his claim just because Schuldig had flirted with Frantz Bayer and appeared to feel some actual affection for the man. If he lost confidence every time Schu flirted with someone he'd be a wreck. Telling Schuldig not to flirt would be like expecting him to stop breathing. Hell, it was part of his _job_ a lot of the time. Besides, they didn't have that kind of relationship.

But Crawford knew himself well enough to see that the evidence of affection bothered him, not the flirtation. He didn't care who Schu fucked as long as he protected himself and saved his devotion for Crawford alone.

"Brad, I'm _here_," Schuldig murmured into Crawford's neck, and that was what really mattered.

******************************************************

To his frustration, Aya couldn't tell what was happening in the living room while he had the door closed. The low murmurs he heard told him nothing. He'd closed the door because he didn't _want_ to see what they did to Scry, so why did the success of that make him so irritated? He made no sense even to himself.

He even had some small thought, quickly dismissed, about latching onto Farfarello's telepathy and reading what went on. Did he really want to read their minds as they tormented someone? No, he did not.

When had he become someone who'd even consider reading minds as something he should do, a telepath? That took him out of the category of normal people and into the category of psionic, talent, _freak_. This had to be a horribly momentous occasion. Then again, wouldn't it be better to actively use it than be a victim of it? Taking control always gave you more options than lying back and hoping someone else would be kind and competent to you. It gave you power. Either he had the power or the power had him.

He really would need training. If Schuldig didn't initiate it, he should.

Aya heard the murmur of Nagi's voice and a light tread through the hallway past his door that might be the boy. Perhaps they'd finished whatever they'd done to Scry for the night. Farfarello coming into the bedroom soon afterward confirmed it.

"Did you get to do anything?" Aya asked although he didn't need to, not when he could see Farfarello's tension and barely leashed frustration in every line and curve of his taut body.

"No. 'Twas all talk. Disappointing." Farfarello's voice came out low and heated, and his gaze devoured Aya's body where he sat on the bed. Aya had stood at the door eavesdropping until he heard Nagi walking by. His one eye seemed to see through the black T-shirt and cotton pajama bottoms and lingered on the belled collar still around Aya's neck, all of which sent a rush of heat through Aya's gut and made his heart speed up. This time Aya noticed his small telepathic sense of people shutting down as Farfarello associated himself more inside his own body in anticipation of getting to feel Aya's. Despite all his logic and objections, Aya _wanted_ him....

Better to be in control and use his power instead of being passive.

Aya stood and walked over, stopping just in front of him, almost close enough to breathe his breath. Barefoot while Farfarello still wore boots, Aya seemed a little shorter than him at the moment, but Farfarello's hand touched the bell, making it ring, then stroked over the leather collar and up Aya's neck and finally rested under Aya's chin to tilt his face up while he looked down. His fingers felt hotter than usual, which made Aya shiver. Farfarello nearly vibrated with lust, and it strengthened Aya's.

"Puisín," Farfarello rumbled, his mouth nearly on Aya's.

"Yes," Aya answered fervently as he set his hands on Farfarello's back and drew them closer together, meeting Farfarello's arousal with his own and rubbing against it. "Don't think this will solve everything...."

"I know you better than that by now."

Farfarello kissed him like a barely leashed storm, intense while trying not to be destructive, as his callused fingers pulled Aya's pajama bottoms down to pool on the floor before moving possessively on Aya's skin. Aya wore nothing beneath them. It felt like so _much_, being this desperately wanted but also protected.

His sense of time in Vienna had become so disjointed that he felt like he'd been keeping his essential self cut off from Farfarello for an eternity as he'd desperately defended his space so he couldn't get distracted from his failure and grief. As he'd expected, being touched like this and engulfed by Farfarello's emotions for him burned all of that away, but tonight he wanted to burn.

Farfarello made frustrated, impatient sounds against Aya's mouth as he ripped off his gloves and tore at the buttons on his vest. The vest clanked as it hit the floor. When Farfarello pulled the T-shirt up over Aya's head with Aya's help, he grinned at how it mussed Aya's hair and made his bell ring. They kissed again, hard and demanding, as Farfarello unzipped his fly then started to push Aya backward toward the bed without losing contact.

"I want you," Farfarello said between hungry kisses. "I've wanted you, I have. Almost lost you...."

Panting with desire, Aya fell onto the bed with Farfarello on top of him, Farfarello still wearing his pants and boots but with his hard, bare cock rubbing insistently against Aya's inner thighs and sometimes against his perineum, making him moan. Farfarello humped him, creating maddening friction, as he ran his hands through Aya's hair and kissed him. Aya's fingers clenched on Farfarello's leather-clad ass and pulled him in closer. He needed this, needed _him_. Even through their frenzy, a small part of Aya knew that if he didn't get lubricant now fucking would occur without it and he'd really regret it later.

Aya grabbed the tube on the table nearby one-handed and said, "Farfarello, we have to--"

Fortunately sense returned enough that Farfarello gruffly said, "Aye," took the tube, squeezed a huge dollop out in his enthusiasm, and shuddered as he coated his cock. "It's cool. Bit of a shock. Glad to feel it though. Glad to feel _you_...."

Aya moaned and writhed as Farfarello's fingers stroked into him as a brief bit of pain that abruptly became shooting sparks of pleasure. But it wasn't enough. "Now. Need you _now_...."

Aya heard Farfarello do a throaty laugh before he thrust in and started to fuck him in long, hard strokes, filling him, leaving him blessedly unable to think of anything aside from how it felt. Too often he felt like his body was just a vehicle that carried his mind around. So often his brain looked toward the future or wallowed in the past. But here he felt completely in the moment and part of his body, riding Farfarello's thick cock and all the pleasure it brought him, feeling Farfarello's callused hand stroking his cock and balls, hearing the headboard hit the wall and his bell ringing with every stroke, his hands sliding on sweaty skin or hot leather and his toes curling from how good it all was. He came hard, blacking out under the wave of sensation, and came to as Farfarello hit his own orgasm, letting go in a final thrust and a burst of heat as Aya's sensitized body shivered. He shivered more as Farfarello licked his neck and nibbled the rim of his ear.

"You feel so good," Farfarello just about purred.

"You do too," Aya answered softly, feeling nearly boneless, "but the boots have to come off."

"_Now_ you're going to be properly Japanese with me?"

"I'm just saying that if you want more sex...."

"Let me enjoy my afterglow first, you cruel bastard."

"I can do that. You can get a washcloth too once you get up."

Although Aya's apprehensions and grief remained, they didn't seem as dark, strong, close, or suffocating now. He would happily take respite from them tonight.

******************************************************

Crawford awoke to slick fingers circling his cock and Schuldig's voice in his ear saying, "Thanks to the Psycho Twins, I can't sleep. But I don't think you'll complain."

Crawford tried to, just to show that he could, but his heart wasn't in it. Besides, his mouth was busy.

******************************************************

Moaning, eyes closed to better experience the sensations, Nagi helped his lover fuck him, moving himself up and down his lover's cock as he sat in his lap. Fuck, that felt good. He should be the receiver more often. As the thrusts became harder and callused fingers gripped his ass, he rocked along with it, ruthlessly working toward giving himself the most pleasure he could, as he grasped his lover's muscular arms, probably hard enough to leave bruises. Nagi moved one of his hands down to jerk himself off, crying out as he came. His lover achieved orgasm in three more strokes then brought Nagi in close to snuggle against his muscular bare chest. That part was... nice.

But Nagi knew he'd start to feel sticky, gross, and too crowded soon, so he opened his eyes as he opened his mouth to give his lover the brush off.

"Very good, boy," Farfarello said, and Nagi could feel the rumble of the words through his chest. "You didn't drool on me either."

Fortunately the horror of it woke Nagi up, and he spent at least ten minutes cursing in five different languages.

******************************************************

Schuldig laughed. "Poor Nagi. But this may get us closer to my dream of a full-team orgy." He groaned as Crawford rolled them over to put Schuldig below him and fucked him a bit harder to get his attention back.

"How could a full-team orgy work when at least three of its five members have no interest in it?" Crawford asked.

"Where there's a will, oh, there's a way."

"Pipe dreams."

"You, ahhhh, have no imagination, Brad."

"I can easily prove otherwise." He did.


	239. "I'm a go-getter. You love it."

Getting held back from actually doing anything to Scry had left Farfarello grumpy, unfulfilled, and bursting with tension. He didn't know how he would have responded if his puisín had denied him an outlet after that. Although he liked to think himself in control and worked at it constantly he knew he had some occasional deficiencies. Fortunately, Aya had been as hot and ready for it as he'd been.

So many people didn't realize the benefits of Aya's passionate nature, that the same deep well that fed his angst, stubbornness, and prickly anger fueled his lust as well. Once Aya decided he wanted something, he went all out, in love as in battle.

His hungry kitten had been an enthusiastic sheath earlier and currently gave as good as he'd gotten as he screwed Farfarello into the mattress almost as hard as Farfarello egged him on to do. Farfarello wanted to ache afterward in lingering physical evidence.

Events had conspired to keep them apart too many times recently, and he tired of the interruptions, cockteasing, and Aya's guilt and grief. Aya might intend tonight as a respite, a temporary surrender to lust and a need to be touched, but Farfarello would make it stick through reminders. He would always be the lifeline that brought Aya out of his haunted mind and back into his flesh.

Farfarello enjoyed the hell out of Aya's flesh: his hot cock, his hard body and firm grip, his soft wet mouth and hard sharp teeth, his intense lusting eyes, his blood colored hair sometimes brushing sensuous trails along Farfarello's sweaty skin. It should always be like this, with his kitten, bell occasionally ringing, moving together with him in glorious sin, fucking or killing, sucking the marrow out of life.

Farfarello clutched Aya as he hit orgasm, and his puisín came as well, crying out from it. Perfect. Rolling them over to lie on their sides, Aya rested against him, hot and sticky, hair in his eyes. Endearing. Farfarello kept his own hair too short for that, but he could brush Aya's long bangs away. Kittens existed to be petted.

Aya smiled at him for the gesture, giving hope that the kitten hadn't completely returned to his old standoffishness and still wanted to be touched. The Frankenbits hadn't totally undone all of Farfarello's hard work on making Aya a more sensual person.

If Aya acted twice as standoffish tomorrow to make up for having sex tonight, Farfarello would be really ticked off.

Tonight Farfarello had started his erotic remapping of Aya's flesh that had been so changed through the unusual power his sister's bits had retained. They should probably be happy that the power hadn't made the bits themselves grow or animate. (Could it have grown a whole new girl or just masses of flesh? Or did it need her brother's presence to activate? If the last combined with the first had been true, it was far better that the bits had been drained of all life.) Farfarello already deplored its effects on his kitten: rises and knots of scar tissue leveled, scar trenches filled, and discolored marks faded and blended to match the rest of his skin. Although they could both appreciate the eradication of weak points and old-injury aches, the visible changes erased the map of Aya's life and the mementos of how they became a couple, leaving boring newborn skin. Only the bruise on his shoulder, the bruises and red punctures marks from the IV needles, and some red marks from Farfarello's passionate nibbles showed now.

It made him grateful again that he had enough control of his ki to stop it from erasing _his_ favorite scars.

Which reminded him of something else he hated about the changes made to his puisín: that they'd been done by a foreign power, not his. That power had altered Aya without regard for his wishes, and Farfarello knew how it had fucked with Aya's mind to see his body suddenly and inexplicably changing. It all made Farfarello feel that he had to put his own signature on his kitten.

"What are you thinking about?" Aya asked.

"How much I'm glad you're mine," Farfarello answered as he stroked one finger in circles around Aya's hole before sliding it in. He grinned as he felt Aya's formerly softening cock still inside him twitch as he caressed his kitten's sweet spot.

"What are you doing?" Aya panted.

"I would think it's obvious."

He started to send currents of ki directly into Aya's prostate and groaned at the short, sharp thrusts Aya's body answered it with. Not that he could hear himself over the strangled sounds of pleasure his kitten made.

"Damn you. You make everything so..."

Farfarello grinned. "Hard?"

Growling, eyes dark with lust, Aya rolled them again to put Farfarello on his back and Aya atop him, grabbing and pulling his hips hard toward him to make his next thrust go deeper, so good. "I won't be toyed with."

"We can both play." He had two stroking fingers in his kitten now, both sending power and stimulation to light Aya up from the inside.

Moaning, Aya tightened his grip and manhandled Farfarello, moving and bending him for better penetration, and Farfarello loved this wild, forceful mood on his kitten. He should fuck him with ki more often if it got this kind of result. He wondered if he could direct it through his dick.... Although he didn't know how long and well he'd be able to do that, since it became more difficult to remember to keep it running through his fingers as Aya pounded him. At least he managed to keep up the finger fucking, especially once he matched Aya's rhythm. He wrapped his other hand around his cock to jack himself off.

"Harder, puisín."

When Aya grabbed Farfarello's ass to pull him in closer for several sharp, hard thrusts, Farfarello hit orgasm in a wave of sensation, splattering himself and Aya. Aya whimpered, closed his eyes, and came as well. As they came down they rocked together and kissed languidly, his sensitive kitten trembling against him as he redrew some of the protective sigils on Aya's skin. It still amazed him to be able to feel so much.

"...you sent a wave of energy up my ass at the end," Aya said softly.

Worrisome that Farfarello hadn't noticed, but since Aya didn't seem injured, Farfarello asked, "Did you like it?"

"You saw how I liked it."

"Mmmm. Good." He'd definitely experiment more with his ki in the future. Besides, the bruise on Aya's shoulder had faded a little just from that indirect infusion of energy.

******************************************************

Aya moaned and undulated as Nagi paid loving attention to his cock with his tongue, and his voice went deeper as Nagi took more of it into his mouth, licking and sucking. Nagi moaned in response as Aya's long fingers tangled and pulled in his hair. He bobbed along to the insistent thrusting of Aya's hips, just as Aya's hips moved along to Nagi's slick fingers stroking him from the inside, readying him. That feeling of connection and reciprocation rocked Nagi to his core.

As if he knew what would come next, Aya slid his fingers out of Nagi's hair to caress their way down the sides of his face as he lifted his head, licking a few final circles on his way. They looked at each other for a moment in the seemingly candlelit dimness, both expectant, as Nagi stroked lubricant onto his cock and Aya further spread his legs. Letting that sense of expectation build, Nagi gazed upon his lover, the way the warm, soft light struck sparks off his red hair, how dark his blown pupils made his eyes look, the slight pink flush in his cheeks and elsewhere, how hard Aya was while waiting for him, the swing of his long earring from shadow to gold light as he breathed and waited. He wouldn't take any of this for granted.

Finally he couldn't wait any longer and thrust in, smiling at Aya's outcry and how Aya felt so tight and hot around his cock. He nearly came right then but managed to hold it back and start a good rhythm. Flexible, Aya kissed him open-mouthed as they fucked and wrapped long legs around him. It was good, so good, and Nagi savored Aya's greedy sounding sigh of pleasure as Nagi telekinetically jerked him off and caressed his body. Between his telekinetic sense and telepathy, Nagi knew full well what felt good to Aya, applied it, and felt that pleasure come back to him in a glorious loop. They soon came together in an orgasmic rush.

Lying tangled with him, Aya stroked Nagi's hair and murmured, "Mmm, Nagi-chan."

Nagi would kill anyone else who would call him that, but he only smiled at Aya, fulfilled, and answered, "Nii-san."

Aya smiled back, luminous in his joy, and kissed him.

This time when Nagi woke he wondered if he'd be able to look _anyone_ in the eyes in the morning. "Fucking hell," he muttered. If he went back to sleep again would he find another way to humiliate himself? Schu already had more than enough material to _crucify_ him with.

******************************************************

Brad rested peacefully, worry lines absent from the smooth, younger face sleep currently gave him. With Brad looking so cute and content, Schuldig couldn't wake him to take care of his newest bout of horniness. Besides, all the sweetness infusing the current sex made Schuldig need something somewhat different. He put on a pair of boxers and his robe, then stroked Brad's silver hair before drifting out of the room and closing the door.

A bit of streetlight coming in from the windows showed Scry bound in his chair. Schuldig approved of all the measures taken to deprive their captive of his senses: the gag, earphones, and blindfold. Already aroused, Schuldig went fully hard at the sight of him in his helplessness. He took a condom out of the pocket of his robe and put it on, even as he kept his boxers on.

Even better, Scry's age and dark hair reminded Schuldig of Crawford at his most arbitrary, arrogant, stubborn, and hateful. Seeing that Crawford brought low and packaged up like a present nearly drowned Schuldig in lust.

Drugged and unconscious, Scry was easier to read, although the mental structure precogs naturally had still presented some interference. In his dream Scry had a whole harem of people pleasuring him and performing with each other for him, while he sat back and took it all in. For all their differences, Scry and Brad had some kinks in common, and the slight telepathy in their genetic makeup would make them susceptible to all the sex in the apartment. Some of the slaves were Orange liners, which stoked Schuldig's anger.

Breaker had been the architect of all misery and intended a horrific future for Schuldig, but in the end Schuldig could only kill him as quickly as possible while stealing all the useful information he could find. His only payback had come in tearing Breaker's mind apart and letting him know as he died that Schuldig had done it.

Scry had collaborated with Breaker all the way, then tried to take advantage of the infrastructure Breaker had set up to become the grand, high slave master himself. They didn't need to worry about killing Scry quickly.

It might not be fair to pay Scry back for all the things they couldn't do to Breaker as well as for his own crimes, but since when was life fair?

When Schuldig sat on Scry's lap, right on top of the hard-on his harem fantasy gave him, Scry's hips moved in idiot response to the stimulation. Leaning forward, Schuldig loosely put his arms around Scry's neck and breathed in, smelling musk, sweat, gunpowder, the trunk, and a faint whiff of faded cologne, not one of Brad's favorites but close. Dark hair badly mussed, shirt sleeves rolled up, collar undone, rumpled tie hanging loosely around his neck, bruised, bound, blindfolded... it was like someone had thoughtfully set the stage for one of Schuldig's old fantasies. It made his toes curl with pleasure.

Maybe not all of it was that old. Love or not, Schu still had fantasies of tying and roughing Brad up, or roughing him up and then tying him up. Whatever the order, it ended in sex, sex Schuldig's way, not this thing where Brad allowed him the honor of fucking him. No, everything would be at Schu's preference, and Brad would take what Schu decided to give him, when Schu decided to give it.

Still, that would be what he'd do with Brad. Scry would get some of what Schuldig would do with old school Crawford.

Schuldig plucked disconsolately at the plastic that tied his victim to the chair, thinking of all the things he could do if he had a freer hand, but Scry would stay tied. Schuldig sure as hell couldn't put all the plastic back the way a telekinetic could, and nothing he'd improvise in its place would be as good. Trying to pinch Scry's nipples through all the plastic just frustrated Schuldig without gaining a reaction from Scry.

Such was life. He'd do what he could with what he had, and what he had was a drugged precog with weakened shielding.

"Do you really think we'd let you go to a happy place in your sleep, sweetie?" Schuldig murmured. "You're not escaping our tender mercies."

Schuldig started to send tendrils of influence in. First he made Scry's vision in the dream go fuzzy. Just as Brad walked through his dreams with eyesight-enhanced vision, so did Scry. No longer. Scry felt a bit of worry over that as it happened. Smiling, Schuldig made the slaves' sexy nipping harder and more painful, drawing blood. The dream had started with a high level of sensation, which Schuldig gleefully amped up as he turned it nasty. Scry's commands to them to stop made no difference, and his every attempt to throw them off made them cling like limpets, some of them by their teeth. As Scry's panic grew, so did Schuldig's ability to play around with him. The performers stopped making out and came over to hold Scry down as one woman fastened an open-wide gag and a cock ring on him. Others set up shackles and a spreader bar for him.

Then he had the whole crew gangbang Scry, fucking his ass and forced-open mouth as they pleased. They applied paddles, flails, whips, and clamps. One woman Schu really liked the looks of dripped hot wax on Scry's cockhead.

Through the fear, horror, and pain Scry tried to break free and wake up, but Schuldig submerged him even deeper into it and made him get off on it all even as he hated it. Schuldig greedily sucked it in, grinding against his bound captive in reality even as he played a fox-masked voyeur in Scry's nightmare.

Finally they tossed him at Schuldig's feet, and he looked like a mess: bloody, bruised, and splattered with come. When Schuldig grabbed him by the hair and forced him up to kneel, Scry glared back at him with pain, panic, fear, hatred, and outrage in his face. Beautiful. Schuldig fucked his mouth for a little while, but the wide-open gag precluded the kind of lips and tongue action Schuldig preferred during that so he turned Scry around, bent him over a convenient piece of furniture, and fucked him hard that way, feasting on Scry's emotions and the pained grunts and harsh panting the gag allowed him. When he felt satisfied, Schuldig bit down on the back of his neck hard and removed the cock ring, letting him come.

Schuldig withdrew from the dream as he withdrew from Scry's abused ass, coming to melted on top of his prey, his hands loosening from around Scry's neck. Shit, that could have turned tragic. Fortunately, Scry still breathed. Wheezed, actually, but that worked well enough. Scry still struggled to wake up, but Schuldig kept him under and etched the dream in to make sure his victim wouldn't forget.

Wrapped in afterglow, Schuldig licked the tear tracks on Scry's face and contemplated one partially bared collarbone before deciding that would be pushing it. Too intimate. He'd worn underwear and a condom to help keep his boundaries clear.

As the immediacy of the psychic assault faded, Scry eased deeper into sleep on his own, making it so Schuldig didn't have to expend any more effort. Scry's body went as limp as his bonds allowed it to.

After stretching sensuously, Schuldig stood up and disposed of his condom, even as he smirked over how uncomfortable Scry's pants would be by morning, poor baby. By contrast, Schuldig felt _wonderful_.

When he met Nagi coming out of the bathroom, the kid's body language and feel just about screamed, "I don't want to know." Smiling, Schuldig said, "I'll see you for breakfast and torment in the morning, Nagi-chan."

"...I hate you so much," Nagi muttered as he rushed back to his bedroom.

~ But I love _you_, sweetheart. Not many minds would take the trouble to tangle his _and_ his would-be lover's issues into a sex dream! ~

Nagi answered with the telepathic equivalent of slamming his door shut on Schuldig's fingers.

~ How rude! ~ It couldn't dim Schuldig's mood, though. He hummed as he tossed the boxers in the hamper and washed up. It didn't seem right to bring Scry into bed with Brad.

Soon he tossed off his robe, slipped under the covers, and snuggled into Brad's warmth. "Started the festivities early with Scry?" Brad rumbled, although he didn't sound displeased, just sleepy and amused. Brad was _so_ much better than Crawford.

"I'm a go-getter. You love it."

"I do."

For a moment Schuldig thought of taking advantage of Brad's fatigue-induced agreeability but decided against it. He had already had lots of sex tonight and didn't feel like pushing himself to get a piece of half-there Brad, which wasn't his favorite Brad flavor at all. If Nagi and the Psycho Twins didn't start up again, Schuldig would proclaim himself done.

Brad smirked. "Can't you just tell if they're asleep?" It could be unnerving how well even half-there Brad knew him.

"Tonight the fun's been _starting_ when Nagi's asleep."

"If he tries to stop sleeping so you can't humiliate him, and thus can't work properly from exhaustion, I _will_ hurt you."

"He's made of stronger stuff than that."

"Hmph. I'm just making sure you know."

"It'll be fine." If Schu got Nagi a good sex partner, the kid would be less likely to have ludicrous sex dreams. Sure, Schuldig would miss the entertainment and laugh potential, but he could eavesdrop on actual sex happening too and Nagi would be happier and somewhat less uptight.

Being a traveling assassin could make relationships so difficult. Everything would be easier if they could only make Nagi a full third partner on one of the team couples or do orgies. Orgies made lots of things better.

Hell, Schu was more than willing to relieve Nagi's unresolved sexual tension on his own. The kid had grown up _fine_, and Schu wanted to experience the sexy telekinetic touch first person. If Nagi could have dreams about Farfarello that horrified him, why couldn't he give a green light to his Schu-Schu? If he could have dreams about fucking Rose-red in a brotherly way, why get skeeved over doing his kind-of mom? Really, that kid had the weirdest hang-ups.

Just thinking about it dimmed Schuldig's afterglow.

"Go to sleep, Schu."

"Yeah, yeah."

He already had so much candy he shouldn't get so bent out of shape over the one piece he hadn't gotten yet. Okay, he hadn't gotten Aya either, but Aya somehow felt more eventually obtainable.

"We have a busy day tomorrow. Get some rest. Do it."

"Yes, sir." Once Schuldig tuned himself into Brad's warm, comfortable indolence, he set aside the little things and drifted off to sleep with his nose comfortably pressed into Brad's neck.


	240. "It's not brattiness. I simply have high, exacting standards."

When Aya awoke, he felt Farfarello plastered, hard, against his back and adding more heat by breathing against the back of Aya's neck, which raised the fine hairs there and made him shiver. As Farfarello's hand moved from Aya's hip to stroke Aya's cock, Aya had to ask, "Didn't you have enough last night?" even though the answer was obvious.

Farfarello's lips skimmed Aya's skin as he spoke. "There's a saying: Strike while the iron is hot."

Despite his lingering aches, Aya concluded that he _was_ hot, so he started to move his hips, to Farfarello's growl of approval.

******************************************************

When Crawford awoke he felt his telepath wake up with him, as so often happened. One of the benefits of sharing a bed with Schuldig was being able to force him into consciousness at earlier times than the lazy lump would manage on his own.

"I heard that," Schuldig said, pouting and petulant.

In a good mood, Crawford kissed his nose. "I figured. Get up. We have a lot of things to do today, some of which you may enjoy."

"We really have to get up right now? Snow-white and Rose-red are doing each other, and I figured I'd laze in bed eavesdropping and enjoying it."

"You had more than enough of that last night."

"No such thing."

"You could shower with me."

"Would it involve any groping?"

"Maybe."

"I'm not gonna get out of bed for 'maybe.'"

"I'm being flirty, and this is your response? I'm leaving."

"Fine, fine." Schuldig dug himself out of the covers, stretched, and stood.

Crawford allowed some mutual groping in the shower, but Schuldig didn't thank him for his generosity or applaud his spontaneity. "Ingrate," Crawford said as he toweled off.

"You were the guy who recruited me by telling me to aim high and demand more and better."

"There are limits."

"I should expect mediocrity from you?"

Crawford further demonstrated his spontaneity by snapping his towel at his telepath. He'd been _so_ spontaneous about it that Schu didn't read it coming until too late. Only Schuldig's greater speed enabled to dodge most of it. It still made a very satisfying snapping sound as it hit the outer edge of his ass.

"Obviously I should worry when you're in a good mood." Schuldig pouted.

"You can dish it out but you can't take it," Crawford said as he dressed.

"We'll see how well _you_ take it when I retaliate later."

While Schu dried off and started to dress, Crawford, already done, called Persia's private line, only to get the answering machine. It made him limit what he said, since he didn't believe in leaving anything too incriminating on a recording. "Scry claims he has important information the Bruise wouldn't get from him. He's probably lying but I want to be more certain before we do anything final. Please call me."

Next Crawford called his parents. "Hi, Mom," he said in English.

"Brad!" his mother said. "How good to hear from you. What do you want this time?"

"Mother. I just want to tell the kids something important."

"It's always something. What's wrong with calling your loving parents just to let them know you care?"

"Nothing, but it's better to do it when I can do something important at the same time. Like right now. Are the kids around?"

Schuldig snickered as he sat on the edge of the bed, close. "Ach, how lovely are the ties that bind."

Crawford made a shushing motion, which Schuldig rolled his eyes in response to, and extended the phone enough so they could both hear.

Sounding very put upon, Mom answered, "Your father and I are fine, and the kids are doing well. I'm having them evaluated for school, worried about their unusual prior education. I wish I could just homeschool them. Thanks for asking, Brad."

"Mother."

"They're here. Is the threat to their lives taken care of?"

"Yes, but they're still vulnerable in a way we can fix right now."

"By phone? Really, Brad."

"By phone. Trust me, Mom."

"All right." Her voice became more distant but Crawford still heard her yell, "Verity! Misoji! Your father is on the phone!" He vaguely heard Verity respond with something that had a very derogatory tone, which his mother answered with "Young woman, you will show him proper respect! Anyway, he says it's something to protect you so get over here now."

"Which father?" Verity yelled back. Definitely Schuldig's daughter.

"My son, although I'm sure Schuldig is around as well. Get over here! It sounds like they'll make it worth your while."

"Fine!"

"Definitely _our_ daughter," Schuldig murmured.

"Of course you would be proud of her brattiness," Crawford murmured back.

"You think you're never a brat? Especially when you feel put upon? You're wrong."

"It's not brattiness. I simply have high, exacting standards."

"When it's _you_ it's that, but when it's me--"

"I could come back later, when you're done flirting with each other," Verity said over the phone.

"We're arguing," Schuldig answered, "and if you're waiting for that to stop so you can get your cure words you'll just have to live without them."

"If you say so, but it's actually flirt-- Wait, our cure words?"

"I got them, baby doll."

"Don't call me 'baby doll.'"

"That's not the most important thing here," Misoji said. "Schuldig, you're sure you have our cure words?"

"Fairly sure," Schuldig answered, "but it's not like we're going to test words out on you to see if the cure has taken."

Verity cut in, "If you can't be certain--"

"It's better than nothing. I could always tell you to go away and only let Misoji have them. We're _fairly_ certain. The other kids had to pay for this, while you're getting it for free. So shut up. You don't want them to have something you don't."

That actually shut her up for a few moments. It made Crawford smile. Then she asked, sounding a little bit subdued, "Where did you get them from?"

"Breaker's mind, right before he died. That's how I knew how to get my controlling words taken off myself. _That_ cure was tested against my will."

"I see."

"Take it and be thankful. Stop complaining. Have you been out of the game so long that you've forgotten how to grab whatever you can get? You're acting like a dumb spoiled teenager."

Crawford could hear her huff over the line. The conversation so entertained him that he saw no need to cut in yet. Schuldig shot him a look, but he just waved Schuldig on to continue, which made his telepath smirk.

"Never mind her. _I'm_ ready for the words," Misoji said.

"You're welcome to leave the room, Verity," Schuldig said.

"Take gifts with good grace, Verity," Mom said. They'd been speaking in English the whole time so his mother had been able to follow along. The idea of working with his mother struck him as so strange, which wasn't surprising considering that the thought of just being in _contact_ with his mother and father gave him strange feelings.

"No. I want them," Verity answered. "Give 'em up."

"Good. Glad to see you have a sense of self-preservation after all. Ready, kiddies?"

"Yes," Verity said, while Misoji answered, "Ready."

"Listen hard." Schuldig reeled off the long string of words. "And done."

"All of those words were our cure words?" Verity asked.

"We couldn't be certain what goes with what, so consider it an inoculation against everything."

"What if one of the 'cure' words had been _our_ trigger words?"

"Are you both fine now? Obviously yes, since you're complaining instead of catatonic or raging about Misoji lying senseless on the floor. So, again, shut up."

That got a small laugh out of Misoji.

Crawford said, "You got what the others got, but you didn't have to pay for it."

"Yeah, yeah, we get the point that being part of your family is awesome," Verity replied.

"Thank you, Mr. Crawford," Misoji said.

"You don't have to call him 'Mr. Crawford.' That's so formal. Call him 'Dad,'" Mom said. Thanks, Mom.

Schuldig snickered, so Crawford lightly smacked the back of his head. His telepath rubbed his head in a very exaggerated way and shot him a petulant look.

At that moment, the right moment, Crawford saw another call coming in. "We have to go, Mom. An employer is calling. We'll call again another time."

"Bye, Mom. Bye, kids," Schuldig said.

"Before you go, Tom wanted to ask Schuldig something," Mom said. "Tom, get over here!"

"I suppose we could keep him waiting a minute longer," Crawford said, "but make it fast."

"Are you really all right, Schuldig?" Dad asked. "After what Brad saw in that old vision...."

Schuldig looked so surprised, then the look in his eyes softened. "I'm fine, Dad. Really. We stopped it. Nobody will be able to get me like that again."

"Good. Good-bye."

"Good-bye, everyone," Crawford said then switched to talk to Persia. "Hello."

"Hello," Persia answered. "I'm surprised you haven't finished him already."

"All in good time. We don't let anyone rush us. Is it possible that he kept something back from the Bruise?"

"Anything is possible, but it's unlikely. The Bruise has been unpacking the data they took from him, and they got a lot about remaining Eszett cells and contacts."

"But we'll never know for sure."

"True."

"But it's not like we trust him to work freely and honestly with us," Schuldig said.

"Also true," Crawford answered. He _might_ trust Scry in such a situation if the boy had a gun pointed at the back of his head by someone Scry _knew_ would fire. Maybe. More likely, Scry would sell them to his Eszett contacts the first chance he had. The little bastard had to die. But they would get some idea of what he really knew first. "Do you have a write-up of the information, Persia?"

"Yeah. We've all been unpacking and notating while it was still fresh in their heads."

Someone had taught Persia how to best deal with and use telepaths. Crawford wondered whom, though he suspected Friendly. "I'd like that information. We'll see if we can get anything else out of Scry before we put him down."

"I'll send the attachment to Nagi's e-mail."

Schuldig had the nerve to smirk at the look on Crawford's face. Getting annoyed over Nagi's personal connections to Persia made business sense. On the other hand, Crawford didn't want Persia to have _his_ e-mail address. "That will be fine."

"How's the set-up on Okinawa going?" Schuldig asked.

"I believe it will be temporary," Persia answered, his voice betraying no emotion.

"They're that big a pain in the ass?"

"Having that many really loud foreigners in that area is proving to be too much of a disruption."

"You'll let us know what happens on that, right? A lot of those kids are my relatives."

Crawford could almost feel Persia twitch as the little bastard said, "That's doable."

"When can I expect the e-mail attachment?" Crawford asked.

"In about five minutes."

"Thank you."

"Good-bye, Mr. Crawford."

"Have a pleasant day," Crawford replied before he disconnected the call, to Schuldig's snickering. "Schu, is Nagi awake?"

"Yep. He's even dressed."

"Let's get this e-mail opened and the attachment printed up. I like to be prepared before I start torturing someone."

Schuldig smiled. "Yes, sir."

They didn't knock before they opened Nagi's door. "What do you want?" Nagi asked with annoyance while giving Schuldig an extra foreboding look.

Crawford had only a vague idea of what that was about but figured he'd find out soon enough; Schuldig didn't like to wait long when it came to tormenting people. "Persia is sending you an e-mail with an attachment for us. We'd like you to print it up."

Nagi looked briefly relieved before setting up his laptop and printer. Crawford would definitely be finding out what this was about later.

******************************************************

Aya took a deep breath in. "It's time to get the day started."

"No. I want more." Farfarello's callused hands trailed possessively and provocatively over Aya's sensitized skin.

"No. Enough."

Growling, Farfarello grabbed Aya and turned him around to face him on the bed. "No!" Aya said and smacked him, but the smack just put a more lustful light in Farfarello's eye, a lust Aya felt streaming into his own emotions, clouding his judgment.... With another "No!" Aya grabbed Farfarello by the wrists and pinned him on his back to the mattress. Panting, Aya glared down at him and noted the grin on his face. Farfarello was hard and erect from the rough play.

So was Aya. Damn it.

"You don't do anything to me when I'm not willing," Aya said.

"Looks like you're willing to me."

"When I say, 'no,' I mean it. Judge me by my 'no,' not by what parts of my body are doing. If you can't abide by that, I'll be staying out of your reach."

"...fine."

"Bath time. Don't even think of getting frisky with me during it."

"You're taking the fun out of it, you are."

They had their bath in a tub large enough to easily fit two, although Farfarello stayed close enough that they had lots of room left over but not so close that Aya would have to complain and move away. Fortunately, Farfarello had settled down somewhat and seemed less rebellious, content now with simple contact instead of all-out lasciviousness.

Good, because he felt Farfarello's pleasure as an almost tangible thing. Farfarello feeling good about him made him feel good, which he hated. Would Farfarello's displeasure physically hurt him as well? Without a strong sense of self you could very easily fall prey to acting on the desires of others over your own. Had Aya's lust last night and early this morning been Farfarello's instead of his own? No, he didn't think so, not this time. He _had_ a strong sense of self. Besides, Farfarello's telepathy turned off when he associated himself more into his body to let him better feel sensations, so Aya's would as well.

Unless Aya rode Schuldig's talent, which would also increase his lust....

He definitely needed training. He just wished he had more options than Schuldig for it. Only a fool or naïf would trust Schuldig, who always had ulterior motives along with a love for sadism. It required thought.

Aya ran the washcloth along his arms and repressed a sigh over the unmarked skin he saw. Eventually he'd get used to the loss of his scars, but it didn't appear to be soon. He hadn't realized they'd meant so much to him, partly because he never thought he could lose them and partly because most people would consider such a thought sick.

"So serious and brooding," Farfarello said. "Don't worry. You're still beautiful. You'll make new ones."

It surprised a small smile out of him. "I hadn't thought of it that way." Farfarello had very thoroughly felt out the new topography of Aya's skin last night and this morning.

"Then do so. It's a good day. We started it off well, and soon we'll deal with Scry. Not that you have to participate in the torture if you don't want to. The rest of us have appetite enough for it. Besides, it could be fun to let him think he could appeal to you for mercy."

That sounded somehow insulting and wiped the smile from Aya's face. "I am not--"

Farfarello nuzzled his neck. "I do not judge."

Sighing, Aya said, "Sometimes torture might be necessary to get information. It isn't here. This is just vengeance and fun you and Schwarz are seeking."

"_I_ don't judge."

"But I do."

"Constantly. You're even doing it right now."

"You judge. Look at all the people you've killed for your own reasons."

"Those are strangers."

Sometimes his lover really made his head hurt. Wanting the conversation over with, Aya stepped out of the tub, toweled off, and started to dress, ever aware of Farfarello getting out as well behind him.

"Can't you wear one of your shirts with the straps on it?" Farfarello asked as he started to dry himself.

"I'm not getting dressed in a kinky style for a day of not-torturing people," Aya answered as he put his sweater on.

"That sentence was a bit hard to follow."

"Consider it payback."

"So vengeful, and over so little."

"You enjoy some of my vengefulness."

"True."

When they walked out into the kitchen, Aya saw Crawford and Nagi going through some pages while Schuldig smirked at Nagi, who appeared to be steadily losing his temper. It made Aya feel slothful to see Crawford getting work done. As he thought about it further, he realized something. "I thought you never work at the breakfast table."

"We don't have breakfast yet," Crawford answered.

"No food in the house," Schuldig said.

"That's easily remedied," Aya replied.

"Yep, it is," Schuldig said. "You're going out to buy groceries for us."

"Why me?"

"Schwarz is known and on a wanted list, so we should avoid wandering around in daylight," Crawford answered. "People don't seem to be aware that you joined us, so you're safer."

"Alone, since Farfie is really hard to miss... and tends to start opening packages and eating things," Schuldig said. "We made a list for you. Besides, you should be proud to contribute to your team! You've never gone out to get food for us before."

"...fine." He felt hungry, and it made sense.

"Excellent!" Schuldig pressed a piece of paper and a roll of paper money into Aya's right hand and the car keys into his left. "We don't know the area very well, so you'll have to drive a bit to find a grocery store. But I'm sure you'll be fine!"

"Although you should go out lightly armed just in case," Crawford said.

"Understood," Aya replied.

"Get to it, food bitch!" Schuldig said.

"I'm going to pay you back for that later."

"Oooh, I can't wait."

Aya put on some knives and his coat. When he walked to the door, he passed the screen that hid Scry from view and wondered if Schwarz would start on him in Aya's absence. Would it be easier if they did? As he left he heard Nagi shout at Schuldig to stop looking at him and Crawford tell the "kids" to stop annoying each other.


	241. "I prefer you to show some predictability in your unpredictability."

"Are we going to wait for Aya to come back to start the torture?" Nagi asked.

"Hell no," Crawford answered. "It's not as if he's even enthusiastic about it."

Although they'd done similar in the past, he couldn't help feeling that this would be a bad time and act to test Aya's loyalties to the team with. From Schuldig's talk, it sounded as if Aya had shown his fidelity to Farfarello a few times last night and this morning in a way that should mellow him for a while. If he came back from shopping to find the torture already in full swing he'd be less likely to protest Schwarz taking it further.

Schuldig smirked. "It'll be annoying to have to take a break from torture to have breakfast, but Scry will appreciate it even less as he has time to imagine and foresee what we'll do to him when we're back."

"Good," Farfarello said as he heated his tools on the stove. "I'm impatient to start. Now?"

"Yes," Crawford said as he moved the screen away to give them room to move and work.

As Nagi looked at Scry's lap he said, "Schuldig, you're disgusting."

"Why does everyone blame me for things?" Schuldig replied.

"Because it's always you and you're always disgusting."

"You're the one focusing there. That mess inside his pants won't be comfortable for him. He has good bladder control, though."

"We'll have to do something about that," Farfarello said. "Unwrap him a bit, boy. I don't want plastic in the way of my art."

"Everyone is so demanding," Nagi answered. "You're not my boss, Farfarello. Crawford, what are we doing?"

"Don't unwrap him yet," Crawford said. "We'll wake him and talk to him first. Build anticipation."

Farfarello pouted. "We better be doing something with him today. I'm tired of the teasing."

"We're doing something today. Nagi, take the blindfold off. Schuldig, wake Scry up."

Scry had a moment of panic as he woke up but quickly settled down into impassivity. Not that it would save him, but Crawford gave him credit for swiftly regaining control of himself after whatever Schudig had inflicted on him last night. Scry made a sound through his gag.

"Should we take the gag out?" Nagi asked.

"Sure," Crawford answered, and Nagi removed the gag.

Scry licked his lips and asked, "Time for breakfast?"

"He's so _cute_," Schuldig said with a sneer, then laughed as Farfarello quickly applied a hot metal rod to Scry's collarbone, melting some plastic, and Scry screamed.

"I didn't tell you to start yet," Crawford said, not really annoyed although he played at it. The smell of hot plastic, burnt fiber, and burnt skin was closer to Scry than the rest of them and had to be more disturbing.

"You keep me around for my unpredictability," Farfarello replied.

"I prefer you to show some predictability in your unpredictability."

"Sure, sure."

Precogs found Farfarello and his unpredictability deeply unsettling, something Crawford knew from personal experience. Farfarello was very difficult to foresee for, and precogs tended to become control freaks. Sometimes Crawford himself felt an instinctive wave of aversion to Farfarello. Between the torture damage Scry could foresee and the inevitable but unforeseeable damage he had to know Farfarello would do, Scry's courage had to be shaking.

"Feel free to scream, Scry," Crawford said. "The walls are thick, and most of the residents have left for the day anyway."

"I'm too useful to destroy," Scry replied.

Crawford held the large sheaf of printed paper up in front at him. "This is what the Bruise took from you. We got a copy from Kritiker and read it. It seems very thorough. There might be some small thing they missed, but it's not worth keeping you around for."

Scry didn't show much reaction to that, but Crawford noticed Schuldig smiling more. Scry said, "You could use me to make contact with or take advantage of people in Eszett."

"You've turned coat too many times. We discussed this amongst ourselves and all agreed that we couldn't trust you. That's one card you can't play. Isn't it a shame that you burned all your bridges so obviously?"

"You know what my interests are. That gives you an idea of how I'll jump."

"Your own life, ego, and comfort. We know. But if Eszett offered you a better deal you'd jump to them in a second. There's no way we could control that. So you're useless to us. All you have left to offer us is your pain, and we intend to take it. If there's anything you really think the Bruise hasn't gotten, you're welcome to yell it out. It might even save your life if we think it's good enough. Farfarello, you start once Nagi unwraps him a bit. Nagi!"

"I have it, Mr. Crawford," Nagi answered, completely correct. He quickly unwrapped enough layers of plastic to give Farfarello some access but not enough to give Scry mobility. Farfarello grinned.

Once Farfarello began, Scry started out with quiet gasps but quickly became much louder.

******************************************************

Yoji came in close to Elena to whisper, "I need a cigarette break."

"Try to make it quick," Elena whispered back. "We're still one worker down."

"We did fine with four before."

"That's not the point."

"Is he lost or avoiding this?"

"He's shielding himself pretty well, but when I'm looking for him I can get an impression of him being lost. You just had to send him out for deliveries."

"He was drowning in fangirls so I took pity. He should be able to read minds to get directions even if he can't read signs."

"Mind reading doesn't work so well for travel directions, because you have to dig and move things around to get exactly what you're looking for. He'd have to stop and ask people, which he damned well better be doing. If he's going to be working here he'll have to get used to the girls. It's not like the novelty of a new arrival won't eventually wear off. It'll wear off faster if he's here instead of lost for two hours."

The thought of a badass telepathic killer getting that rattled by and scared of a flock of teenage girls still tickled Yoji. "I'm taking my break. I'll do it fast."

"Good."

As Yoji moved to leave, Ken suddenly said, "I'm going with Yoji."

"Why?" Elena asked. "He can light and smoke his own cigarettes. He's been doing it for years."

"I just need to. Okay?"

"Fine. Fast, the both of you. Got it?"

"Yep!"

Yoji noticed Elena and Fenris giving them odd looks as they left the shop. Once they stood outside out back and Yoji had his cigarette lit he asked, "What the hell, Ken?"

Ken looked uncomfortable. "I need to ask you some things."

"Ask away. I'm not guaranteeing that I'll answer, though."

"Between you being a man-whore and one of Schwarz's favorite people--"

Unhappily and simultaneously offended and amused, Yoji snorted out a stream of smoke and asked, "Are you looking for advice or an asskicking?"

"I'm getting to it! It's about dating Elena. I'm really psyching myself out."

"She's the same woman you looked pretty gung ho for in Vienna."

"She _was_ different. Dressed up--"

"Mostly in a slightly modified men's suit."

"Dressed up. And more... decorous. Professional. Softer spoken. I don't know. Now she's back in jeans, heavy boots, and a T-shirt over some long sleeved thing, and she's threatening to literally kick the fangirls out if they get too rowdy."

"The fact that she kissed you back and wants to date you is enough to tell you that she's not a dyke no matter how she dresses or how much ass she kicks. Yeah, she's into women too, but she's also into guys."

"I know, I know, but it reminds me of what we know she did to those Eszett people."

"If you're not planning to try to rape her, you'll be fine."

"Stop making me sound stupid, Yoji."

"I'm just working on what you're saying. We knew all this stuff about her already. Nothing's changed."

"I don't know."

"Not that I'm the guy to get judgmental on this, but weren't you dating that chick you literally ran into on the street?"

"I was, but I broke it off after she kept being mean to Fenris just because he's the way he is. It really changed my view of her."

"I had no idea."

"It surprised me too."

"If you're having second thoughts about dating Elena, it's better to break it off now before you really get started. That way she'll only smirk and sneer at you instead of hate you."

"Thanks, Yoji. You suck."

"Only if people are very lucky."

"Ha, ha. Just... how would I even date her? Where would I take her? What would I get her? Flowers would be silly...."

"You freak out about strange stuff."

"You've hung out with and made time with Schwarz. I don't think you've actually dated any of them, but--"

"Cute, Ken. Take her out for dinner. She's human and likes to eat. We all eat lunch together sometimes so you have some idea of the food she likes."

"What if things turn out badly? We'll still have to work together."

"Then she'll castrate you and kick your ass. Then Fenris will--"

"That's what I'm worried about. Or if things turn out well, working together could still get awkward."

"This is why you looked like you wanted to throw up all day?"

"Some of us think about these things instead of just going for it."

"If you decide not to 'go for it' after all, the working together thing could be a good reason that wouldn't hurt her feelings as badly. I think you're blowing everything out of proportion, though."

"You gave me some things to think about, Yoji. Thanks."

"Don't look so surprised about it."

Sasha walked up to them and said, "I'm so glad to see this place again."

"Two hours, Sasha? Seriously?" Ken asked.

"I know, I _know_. It sucked." Sasha looked tired. "Have things calmed down?"

"It's been two hours," Yoji answered. "All the ones who were here then have left by now. It's safe."

"For real? Oh, yeah. I see for myself. Thanks, Yoji." Sasha walked inside.

Yoji snickered when he heard the squealing and a male scream. Ken coughed and said, "You're so mean."

"I didn't see you telling him that they're all like that. Besides, he was gone for two hours." Yoji liked Sasha, but every member of Weiß had to face this.

"True."

"This is cool."

"Huh?"

"I'm getting better at misleading telepaths."

******************************************************

Searching for a grocery store and then the listed items in one took longer than Aya would have wanted. German packaging was so weird. As Aya loaded the bags into the car he had that feeling again, the feeling that someone was watching him. Someone close by. Aya hadn't survived this long by ignoring his instincts, so he put the bags in and locked the doors, then tried to unobtrusively scan his surroundings. It didn't take him long to notice Mr. Bayer.

It didn't take him long to run down and grab Mr. Bayer either. The real estate agent looked afraid. He should. "I doubt this is a coincidence," Aya said as he shook the man by the lapels of his coat.

"It's not, but I don't mean any harm!"

"Crawford would disagree. In fact, he'd probably kill you just for stalking us."

"He doesn't have to know."

"Why shouldn't I tell him?"

"Can we go somewhere more private to talk?"

"This better not be an ambush. I'm armed."

"It's not an ambush, and I expected a member of your group would be."

"All right." Keeping a hold on Mr. Bayer's coat, Aya walked them to a slim, shadowed alley. "Talk."

"I didn't know who they would send out, but I thought it might be you, given that people are watching for them."

"So you told us. Or was that a lie?"

"It was the truth! I wish it wasn't."

Aya wished he could get a better feel for the man, so he decided to see if he could read him. He had the feeling that he couldn't draw much from Farfarello, whose power varied in an unpredictable cycle of ebb and flow, so he drew from Schuldig. Each had a different feel to him. He couldn't describe any of it better. But he couldn't get a reading from Mr. Bayer. At least he knew enough now to see that it was resistance from some kind of shielding Mr. Bayer had instead of a failing of his own.

The real estate agent gave him an odd look. "Is that why you're with them?"

"What?"

"Telepath."

"What kind of training do you have that you were aware of that?" Aya had to ask. Mr. Bayer was supposed to be a normal person!

"I dealt with the organization quite a bit, so I picked up some things for self-protection. But is that it?"

Aya didn't owe this man an explanation of why he was with Schwarz. Sometimes he didn't understand why himself. "It's complicated. And none of your business."

"I couldn't help wondering why someone who wasn't raised within the school would be in the group. Schu would have some nostalgia or feel comfortable after so many years, but you...."

"Is that what this is about?" Amazing how Schuldig could warp people's lives without trying that hard. "You have a fiancée, and... Schu isn't the person you think he is."

"I'm not that naïve about him. If he couldn't play ball, the organization would never assign him to a team and he'd be dead by now. But he's different with me. That's a lot of the point. Being with people like Crawford or Farfarello makes him more ruthless and violent."

Aya couldn't exactly say he was wrong or that Schwarz had turned into a gentle, charitable group in recent years. Hell, they might be torturing Scry this very moment.

"You can't live his life for him."

Mr. Bayer looked sad over that. "I'm aware of that."

What kind of past had Schuldig had with this man that Mr. Bayer had so much invested in seeing him safe and happy? "He's happy being with Crawford and the group."

"I've heard that they now focus on hunting criminals."

"That's true."

Schwarz had done it to keep Aya happier. Could he say that he stayed with the team partly to keep them aimed at dark beasts and fix them from within? That made him sound like too much of a martyr for his comfort. He'd joined them to get vengeance, but he'd done that. Of course, his enemy turned out to be a hydra, growing new heads and limbs for every one he lopped off, but the main malefactors had been taken out. So did he stay with Schwarz due to his feelings for Farfarello, not being able to imagine going back to Weiß, his certainty that Schwarz wouldn't let him leave, and his work to keep Schwarz on the straight and narrow? That sounded kind of silly.

Fuck it. He stayed because he wanted to, and he didn't have to justify it to himself or anyone else and certainly not to a real estate agent he'd met just last night or who might be more affiliated with their enemy than he wanted to admit to.

"No matter your intentions, what you're doing is enough to get you killed by Crawford. You have to know that."

"You don't have to tell him about this. I just wanted to make sure that the team has changed. If you'd known Schu years ago, you'd understand my inability to believe that he wants to stay now."

"Things have changed. It's more of a partnership between him and Crawford these days." Aya had seen some of the shifts occur in front of him.

"Okay. You don't need to be rescued either?"

...what? "No. Anyway, does your agency have its own army to take people out by force?"

"What? No. No."

This was an odd conversation even by the standards of someone who had Farfarello as a lover. "We don't need anyone rescued."

"Good! Good."

"Why are you staring at me?"

"I didn't realize I was-- You have really unusual coloring."

This again. "I know."

"Of course you do. Sorry. Can you please let me go now?"

Aya decided he would, so he did. "Go away. I won't tell Crawford this time, but if there's a next time I'll run right to him."

"I understand. Goodbye." Mr. Bayer rushed off.

Aya hoped that the man stayed away from this point, because Crawford would destroy him if he saw him. He tried to set his shields up more so the others wouldn't read the encounter right out of his thoughts, since he didn't know if Schuldig would protect the real estate agent if he knew.

When Aya reached the door to Schwarz's apartment he realized he didn't have keys for it. He set the bags down and knocked. It took about five minutes for Schuldig to open the door. Smiling, Schuldig asked, "Did you get everything?" His eyes looked dark from how much his pupils had dilated.

"Everything on the list."

"Great. I'm starving."

When Schuldig let him in, Aya coughed at the acrid smells of burnt flesh, blood, and hot metal. That, along with how high Schuldig looked, told him what he needed to know, even though the screen had been put back up to hide the sight. Farfarello had some smears of blood at his cheekbones too, something he must not have covered up while doing his work. Aya couldn't say he felt disappointed, not when he'd figured they would torture Scry and half expected them to start while he was out shopping, but he still felt upset. Speaking to Mr. Bayer about the team might have exacerbated it. Oddly, he felt a low-grade but queasy mix of pain and terror and could almost hear screams.

Schuldig almost glowed with pleasure. Frantz Bayer had thought to save _this_. Yes, Schuldig would really appreciate being rescued from a life that suited him so well.

Noticing Schuldig staring at him, Aya asked, "How am I supposed to eat when it stinks like this in here?" It came out a little strangled.

"Nagi, open the windows and air the place out a bit!" Schuldig yelled.

Nagi answered, "You know it's January outside, right?"

"Make it fast, then."

"Crawford?" Nagi asked.

"Do so," Crawford said. "I don't want to eat in the middle of this smell either."

Aya had his coat on but still shivered as cold air rushed in through the suddenly opened windows. Maybe he just felt upset in general and it was preying on his imagination. Farfarello hugging him didn't help, especially not when he still smelled like burning torment.


	242. "You can't handle the sense I make."

Too hungry to wait, Schuldig started breakfast off with a bun and a cup of banana juice while Nagi cooked sausage. Schuldig couldn't stop grinning, because he was having such a _great_ morning that he felt nearly high. Scry was so worried and in so much pain that his training and precog's brain structure couldn't stop Schuldig from hearing it, which gave Schuldig quite a feast. Burns hurt worse than so many other kinds of injury. The smell of cooking food even nauseated the poor, tormented boy. It probably didn't help him that he'd spent so much time this morning smelling _himself_ cooking. Scry wondered how long breakfast would take and what they'd do to him afterward, even as his precognition showed him flashes of badness, while he felt like throwing up the whole time.

Tom asking about his health had been cool too. If it had been Evelyn there might have been an ulterior motive behind it, but Tom tended to be more straightforward. If Schuldig had possessed a heart, it would have been touched.

To Schuldig's amusement, Nagi felt uncomfortable and couldn't look Aya or Farfarello directly in the eyes. How nice of the kid to torment himself.

Schuldig wondered what was up with Aya, though. He knew the former Weiß didn't approve of their reasons for torturing Scry, but he seemed to be suffering over it much more than he should. Aya shouldn't be so sick and pained from this. The kitten even looked paler than usual. The lingering smell of their activities might not be pleasant, but Aya didn't tend to be such a delicate flower about that kind of thing.

Schuldig reached out telepathically to investigate. Aya glared at him, apparently noticing the intrusion, but couldn't stop Schuldig from picking up a few things.

Finishing his bun, Schuldig stood up and said, "I need to see Aya privately for a little bit. He forgot something."

Obviously suspicious, Farfarello answered, "I see everything on the list. He even picked up green tea for himself and the boy."

"Which I'm thankful for," Nagi said.

"I'm sure you are. Aya is so generous with you, like the best incestuous big brother ever," Schuldig purred, grinning as Nagi glared. He'd really start in on the kid about last night's wet dream later. Let him wait and worry.

"Stop picking at Nagi, Schuldig," Aya said. "And I bought your tea too, Farfarello."

"Sure, Rose-red. Farfie, it's about something else. It's important."

Brad glanced up from the local newspaper Aya had brought him then returned his gaze to it and said, "Go to it, Schu." Of course he'd want a report later.

Schuldig would decide what to tell him and what to hide. "Good. Come on, Aya."

Aya looked annoyed but stood and followed him to one of the bedrooms anyway. Once Schuldig closed the door behind them he said, "This whole thing with Scry wouldn't be bothering you so much if you weren't piggybacking on my telepathy. You're feeling some of his pain and emotions."

Aya did his blank-faced routine. "I didn't realize I was doing that."

"You are. But I want you to close it off yourself instead of latching on to Farfarello in his current associated state. It's something you need to learn to do."

"I don't know if I can."

"Give it a try. I'm already proud of you for figuring out how to restrict or change your piggybacking to a certain person."

Despite his "Hmph," Aya couldn't completely hide his pleasure over being praised like that. So cute.

"Since you're ridiculously scared of being walled in, I won't suggest you imagine a wall."

"That's not a ridiculous concern."

"I suggest you visualize a clamp to block off the flow. You should probably sit on the bed so you can give it your full attention."

"I know how to switch to Farfarello, and I know that he's not able to use it at the moment so I would be safe."

Farfarello had been distracted by the telepathic input during the torture, so he'd associated himself better in his body to stop it. "I know you know that, and I know you find it easier. That doesn't matter. His talent is unstable and reliant on a lot of factors you don't control. Do you really want to be dependent on us?"

That obviously made an impact on Aya, which is why Schuldig had stated it in a way that would get a control freak's attention. "Fine," Aya said. "I've been thinking that I need some training anyway, not that I want you to do it."

Schuldig didn't want to train Aya, but hearing it stated like that ticked him off. "There's nothing wrong with my training."

"What little of it you bother to do. Besides, I don't trust you. It would be just like you to put back doors in my defenses."

"You're making me hear porn music in my head."

Aya might be correct, but Schuldig felt offended anyway.

"You're disgusting," Aya said.

"And you're not working on blocking my disgusting self off from you, because you're still suffering echoes of what Scry's feeling."

Aya shuddered then closed his eyes to better concentrate.

Smirking, Schuldig said, "I think we should officially call what you do 'piggybacking,' because the mental image of you riding people piggyback is just too cute."

"Do you want to die?"

"I doubt you'll be able to kill me. It's not like I can't hear you coming. Ooh, I am on fire today."

"That could be arranged."

"You're so cute in so many ways, Rose-red."

"Never."

"Imagine a clamp or you're going to be miserable and ready to puke for hours more. It'll _really_ suck for you when we finally kill him."

"...I'm working at it."

As Aya tried, Schuldig wondered why Aya had piggybacked him today, because the kitten tended to instinctively key himself to Farfarello lately. Farfarello's small and often non-operational telepathy better suited a neophyte like Aya, who'd thought himself mundane for almost two decades, anyway. Had Aya _tried_ to read someone today and turned to Schuldig because Farfarello had hit the off switch on his telepathy? Had to be that he wanted to _use_ it for something, because Aya hadn't had usable telepathy long enough and steadily enough to feel naked without it. But why had Aya wanted to read someone and, better, _whom_ had he tried to read?

Once Aya had a pretty good clamp up that blocked him off from using Schuldig's talent and made him look much less sickly, Schuldig asked, "So whom were you trying to mindread today?"

Aya sputtered and nearly lost his clamp but, to his credit, kept his block going. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Who did you meet while you were out shopping? I know you didn't try to read any of us."

"No one." Aya's shields worked very well at the moment, damn it.

Schuldig could dig at them telepathically or try to talk Aya into giving himself away. Schuldig chose talk. "You left here piggybacking Farfarello but came back piggybacking me because Farfie turned his telepathy off while working on Scry and you wanted to use telepathy on someone while you were out. Was it a hottie?"

"No!" Aya sounded so disgusted at the thought. He could be such a square.

Fishing, Schuldig quietly asked, "Was it Frantz Bayer?" That got a brief but satisfying emotional reaction out of Aya.

Aya whispered, "It wasn't him."

"Don't lie. I know better. I understand why you didn't announce it. I doubt he ran across you by accident, because he doesn't live in or work close to this area. Damn it. He's going to get killed if he keeps being stupid about me. Brad would murder him for stalking us."

Giving up on the ruse, Aya said, "Mr. Bayer has some really naïve ideas about your goodness," and had the nerve to look angry at Schuldig.

"He has a better idea of how I am and what I do than you think. He's very familiar with Eszett. Eszett had its tentacles extended into all kinds of things, particularly in this area of Germany. It dealt with Frantz's agency often enough that it gave some training to the real estate agents to make them a bit less vulnerable to the teams they would be finding temporary housing for."

"He had some kind of shielding against telepathy and knew that I tried to read him."

"Good. Meeting you will make him overestimate the effectiveness of his shielding."

Aya gave him such a scathing look. "Are _you_ going to do horrible things to him? All he wanted to do was make sure you're with Schwarz of your own free will."

"I'm not surprised he's skeptical. I ran to him once or twice while fleeing the team, not that I let him know I was trying to make a permanent break for it." Noting Aya's look of surprise, Schuldig continued, "Yeah, sometimes I hit the end of my tolerance for being abused, slipped out of Eszett and Brad's leash, and ran away. Eszett always brought me back by force and punished me hard. Schwarz wasn't some monolithic evil, with one mind."

Schuldig had never stayed with Frantz for long, though, for Frantz's safety and his own. While he'd craved the company of people he knew, he'd also known too well that Eszett would easily crush Frantz if they found Schuldig with him.

"He spoke of rescuing you. And me, if I wanted out."

"What did you say in response to that?"

"That we neither needed nor wanted it. Does he have the kind of friends or influence for a real rescue?"

"Hell no. He's just a nice guy. He'd get slaughtered. I don't want that."

"Was he that great a... lay?"

"And you call _me_ crass. He was a good lover but mostly he was a good man and a safe harbor where I could get away from my life for a while." Frantz had been one of the few people in Schuldig's life who hadn't valued him for what he could do for him.

Frantz had been good to Schuldig, so Schuldig would be good to Frantz in turn by letting him go. Let him live, marry his honey, and have little Bayers, although Schuldig didn't see the appeal of babies, which were screaming, impatient, mess-making bottomless pits of insistent need. Smart telepaths steered clear of them. You couldn't reason with a baby or get any good conversation out of one.

Verity had worked out rather well, letting Schuldig miss out on the babyhood and a lot of the annoying years.

"He has a fiancée, but he's risking his life and future happiness for you," Aya said.

"I _am_ that great a lay."

Aya snorted. "Madness."

"Says the guy involved with Farfarello."

Although Aya didn't say anything, his expression was murderous.

"With how the remnants of Eszett are lying in wait around here and Brad already being suspicious of Frantz, I don't think Brad will have us stay in Munich long. That should help take Frantz out of the equation."

"Hopefully. I don't think he deserves to get hurt."

"Me too. You're controlling yourself better, and you look like you're feeling better. Let's get back out there before Farfie gets violently suspicious about what we're doing together."

"I'm sure he already is, so let's not make it worse. All right, but I still need training. From someone." Aya looked simultaneously adamant and unenthused about it.

Although it galled Schuldig to admit it, Aya was right. For Aya's sake and _Schwarz's_ sake, Aya needed training, even if Schuldig didn't want to do it and Aya didn't want him to do it. Brad would see an Aya trained in telepathy as a more valuable team member, and he'd be right.

But Aya's request meant more than that. Having this piggyback ability made him a talent like everyone else in Schwarz, another freak in the show, but also let him pretend to be normal a lot of the time. Trying to use it to read someone and feeling a commitment to _training_ that talent made Aya truly one of them instead of some mundane brought into the family through marriage.

It made Schuldig feel warm and fuzzy. "One of us. One of us."

"You're making no sense," Aya answered.

"You can't handle the sense I make. We'll figure some training thing out later. Come along, Rose-red."

"...fine."

******************************************************

Crawford glanced up from his newspaper as Schuldig and Aya returned, but Farfarello asked what Crawford was wondering for him with "What was that all about?"

"Nothing much," Schuldig answered as he and Aya sat down. "Girl talk." Schuldig chuckled at the glare Aya directed at him.

"Hmph," Farfarello said before he put his nose to Aya's neck, as if he could smell molestation. Who knew, perhaps he could. Aya looked annoyed in response to the distrustful nuzzling, not worried or guilty.

While Schuldig preferred to take his time with sexual conquests to better savor them, he wouldn't be above doing a hit and run. But Aya looked better than he had before he'd gone off with Schu, which didn't support the idea that he'd been assaulted.

As Schuldig ate some of his sausage, Crawford asked, ~ Schu, what _was_ all that about? ~

~ Me helping out our stiff-necked kitten. He wants to start training with his piggybacking ability and with using telepathy but didn't know how to approach me. In a rare fit of generosity I decided to make it easier for him to ask. ~

Crawford could sense that Schuldig held something back but decided that he trusted his telepath enough to let it slide. If it were important enough or became important later, Schuldig would tell him. ~ Aya being able to control and use his ability would be a great help to the team. ~

~ He'd be able to talk to us like this, for one thing. He's getting better at focusing his thoughts for it on his own but still has lots of room for improvement. ~

~ His urge to explore his talents will only bind him in closer to us. ~

Farfarello's sense of smell must not have found any evidence of wrongdoing because Farfarello looked much more contented, occasionally leaned his head on Aya's shoulder, and sometimes touched Aya's back. Aya didn't appear to mind and sometimes even smiled a little. Nagi, seated on Aya's other side, rolled his eyes at them.

It surprised Crawford that _that_ situation hadn't blown up, especially given how volatile and possessive Farfarello could be and the destructive power Nagi held. Somehow they behaved like sane and mature adults despite their dueling interest in Aya.

It would have been easier and safer if Nagi hadn't started to feel such things, but the boy _was_ a teenager and asexuality would be an impossibility while around Schuldig's influence. Hell, Farfarello had become a sex fiend since they'd brought Aya into the team, so with everyone focused on sex Nagi becoming so as well became inevitable, no matter how much it galled Crawford.

If Farfarello hadn't already claimed Aya as his own, Nagi's crush on Aya could have worked out well. It stopped Nagi from becoming connected to someone outside the team and the divided loyalties that resulted, Aya was fond enough of the boy to give him some emotional and physical shows of affection, and Nagi appeared to help stabilize Aya. Nagi yearned for loving family, while Aya enjoyed being a big brother.

It made Crawford smile to think of Farfarello and Aya's reactions to being ordered to make room in their partnership for Nagi, but it would make so much trouble that Crawford didn't seriously consider it.

~ Aya wishes like hell he had someone _else_ to teach him. ~

~ He saw you "teach" Farfarello. ~

~ I gave Farfarello some really helpful tips! ~

~ You pushed Farfarello into the deep end of the pool and called him a moron if he fucked up during it. ~

~ He learned from it. I also showed him how to reattach himself to his body, which made a huge difference in his life and abilities. So all of you can suck it if you want to complain. ~

While he could wish for more, he had to admit that what Schu had done had made a large difference. ~ I'm busting your chops. ~

~ Duh. ~

~ I think we should leave Munich tomorrow. Finish and dispose of Scry today, book our vacation, and leave tomorrow. ~ The remnants of Eszett could wait a while. A refreshed Schwarz with more information could return to obliterate them later. His team deserved some downtime.

After enough attention Scry had screamed out a few small things the Bruise hadn't gotten from him but not enough to make up for what he'd done and save his life. It would take a lot of effort, work, and time to torture Scry enough to balance what he'd done, while Crawford didn't want to waste much more time on him. They'd done enough.

Schuldig wanted to say something--Crawford could tell--but instead answered, ~ I can't wait. ~

Crawford figured that the aborted reply had involved Frantz Bayer, probably something about the real estate agent being annoyed at renting an entire apartment for just a little over two days. For all Crawford knew Bayer had already stopped advertising it and might have to pay more money to put it up again. Whatever. Crawford would pay for the time they'd stayed, fees, and maybe add a little extra as a sweetener if he felt like it. After he settled his accounting he would see if he deserved money back from what he'd already paid out.

Bayer couldn't have expected them to stay long after he'd told them Eszett was looking for them in Germany.

Schuldig could have mentioned Bayer here but hadn't. Smart of him.

~ I believe you wanted sun, surf, and an opportunity to attempt to apply sunscreen to Aya. ~

~ You remembered. Does this mean I'll actually get those things? ~

~ Maybe. ~ This had felt like the longest winter of his life so far, so going somewhere warm sounded very appetizing.

~ You're such a tease. ~

~ You're one to talk. ~

~ I am. Speaking of which.... ~ "Hey, Nagi...."


	243. "Don't congratulate yourself too much."

After breakfast ended, Farfarello offered to let Aya participate in the torture, whether as a joke or because Farfarello thought Aya might have changed his mind Aya didn't know. Of course, Aya turned him down and went to their bedroom. Although he tried to read to block everything else out, he could still hear muffled screams and whimpers. The smells also wafted in under the door, burnt flesh and blood. He'd successfully blocked out Scry's sensations but could easily imagine what they were doing out there.

Finally it reached a point where he couldn't take it anymore. He put the book aside, having actually read none of it, and stomped out.

Scry looked worse than Aya had imagined, so bloodied, burned, swollen, and damaged that he barely looked human anymore. Schwarz had taken him to a point where it would probably be kinder to kill him. Aya didn't want to look at him but wouldn't turn his eyes away. This was his team, and this was what they were doing. While he hadn't personally participated in the torture, he hadn't stopped it either.

He could manage to excuse torture done to get information but not extended torture done for no reason other than petty sadism. If you had an enemy too dangerous to keep alive, kill him quickly and be done with it.

"Stop it!" Aya said. "This is just petty now. It looks like you've done more than enough." When Schwarz responded by just staring at him, Aya said, "I'm going out. I've had enough of the smell and the noise."

Farfarello had looked somewhat bored when Aya had first come in but looked much more interested now. "Don't go, puisín. I think we've done enough as well. We've taken his best already."

Schuldig's face looked sharper and his eyes brighter. "You're passing up an opportunity for some prime pain causing, Farfie?"

"It's less fun when they don't look human anymore and I've already broken them. We broke him."

Crawford looked thoughtful. "I see some sense in that. It might be best if we finish this last bit of business so we can move on to new things."

"Vacation?" Schuldig asked.

"Vacation."

"Then let's end this sucker."

This turn of events surprised Aya. Could he have ended this sooner by saying something sooner?

Perhaps not. What Farfarello had said sounded as if Schwarz had to reach a point where they'd felt that they'd tortured Scry _enough_ to be satisfied.

"Let's," Crawford said, sounding perfectly agreeable. "Do you want the coup de grâce, Aya?"

"No," Aya answered.

Schuldig suddenly had a knife in his hand as he said, "I'll take it."

"Just make it fast. You've done enough."

"You're not the boss of me."

"That's true, because _I_ am," Crawford said.

"That's what I let you think, Brad. Hmm, which artery should I cut? How quickly or slowly should I let him die?"

If Scry could still understand them, Schuldig's words would just terrorize him more. Upset, Aya said, "If you're going to dither at it, I'll kill him."

"No, no. You refused it already. You can't take it back."

"Schu, just kill him," Crawford said.

"Brad--"

"End it. You've gotten more than your fill of cruelty out of him last night and today. This is gluttonous."

"Fine, fine." Schuldig deeply slit Scry's throat with inhuman speed and smirked at the gush of blood. His eyes glittered dangerously. "Fast enough for you, Rose-red?"

"Is he dead?" Aya asked.

"Look at him. What do you think?"

"Is he dead?"

"Yes. His mind has snuffed out."

"Good."

"You're so soft."

"I don't care what you think."

"You should." Schuldig handed the knife to Farfarello, who happily licked Scry's blood off it.

Thoroughly disgusted, Aya walked to the closet, grabbed his coat, and let himself out with a hard slam of the door. He shouldn't be so surprised by what they'd done to Scry, because he knew they could commit atrocities. Sometimes he just forgot how bad they could be and how far they could take it.

Aya had walked halfway down the block before Farfarello caught up with him. "Puisín, wait."

Aya knocked his hand away and kept walking. "I can't deal with any of you right now."

Farfarello kept pace with him. "You got them to listen."

"It didn't do much good."

"I was getting bored and--"

"I didn't intervene because you were bored!"

"Aye." The hood and sunglasses covered a lot of Farfarello's face, making it harder to see his expressions. "I know. But I supported you."

"Not for the right reasons."

"That's your opinion."

"You licked--"

"It's what I do. I'm not going to completely change myself for anyone."

"Don't try to make yourself into a persecuted victim. And I'm not going to completely change myself for anyone either."

When Farfarello suddenly pushed him up against the wall of the nearest building and held him pinned there, Aya growled, "Distracting me with your body or threatening me won't change my mind on that either." He pushed back but Farfarello wouldn't move.

They breathed hard together, body to body, their breath steaming in the cold air. Farfarello's mouth was so close to Aya's face, so hot.... Aya noticed bystanders either staring at them or carefully ignoring them. While Farfarello had most of his head covered, anyone passing by could see Aya's face and hair clearly. He wished he'd put his hood up before getting outside, because he couldn't do it now while he had his arms tangled up in Farfarello.

"We shouldn't be drawing attention to ourselves in public anyway," Aya said softly.

"But I love getting physical with you."

Aya hit his arms hard, though he knew Farfarello was currently too dissociated to feel pain. "Don't toy with me. I won't be distracted. We each have things we won't bend to the other on, so don't expect me to completely change myself when you wouldn't either."

"Hmmmm. I do love your spirit."

"This resolves nothing."

"We're not so far apart on this. You wanted it ended, and I wanted it ended."

"I never wanted it started!"

"Aye. But you saw that he could no longer be saved with how far things had already gone, so we're not so far apart, are we?"

Aya growled in frustration. "This kind of thing will keep coming up. You have to face it someday."

Farfarello didn't say anything, and with most of his face covered he looked unreadable as well. Maybe he thought Aya would eventually change given enough time in Schwarz. Aya watched him in silence for a while, waiting for a break or a sign.

"Aye, someday," Farfarello said, giving nothing away. "Let's take a walk. You like walks, you do. Sometimes you're more dog than kitten."

He probably figured it would calm Aya down. As patronizing as that thought sounded, Aya said, "Yes. Let's." A cooler head might do him good.

They kept pushing toward this point and then backing away, so Aya knew they would get back to it sometime, though maybe not today. Someday.

******************************************************

"Why do I have to clean up after the rest of you so often?" Nagi asked as he telekinetically pulled the corpse to bits and wrapped them in the plastic.

He hadn't even participated in the torture much, just watched because seeing how people fell apart helped him fix the injured. While Scry had been a delusional, arrogant pain in the ass and obstruction, Nagi would have killed him quickly and been done with it. Hadn't Scry already wasted too much of their time?

"Because you're so good at it," Schuldig said as he smoked a postcoital cigarette. He really got off on torturing people. "And because only you can unfuse the plastic and chair legs from the floor."

"You could have dismembered the body."

"Only by using a loud power saw or chainsaw. Telekinesis is much quieter. Besides, we would have to _rent_ a power saw or chainsaw first."

"I hate you."

"It's tough when I make good sense, isn't it?"

"I _really_ hate you."

"I applauded when you neatly ripped the body up."

"I want more than applause. I should get a substantial tip or something."

The cigarette smoke curling around his face made Schuldig look even more wicked. "I'll give you a tip--"

"Money, asshole, and you know it."

Schuldig had been so annoying to Nagi this morning as well, but at least Aya and Farfarello hadn't realized from it that Nagi had dreamed erotic dreams about each of them last night. They obviously hadn't considered it possible, which kind of insulted Nagi, and Schuldig hadn't gotten detailed enough to let them know.

"See, I could have been worse at breakfast and you know it," Schuldig said.

Nagi telekinetically waved one of Scry's plastic-wrapped hands at Schuldig in a very threatening way. "Don't congratulate yourself too much." Nagi's morning had sucked.

"Wah, wah. Once we've taken out the trash we can go on to planning our vacation."

"_We're_ taking out the trash? _You'll_ be doing something soon?"

"Maybe. If you can't do it yourself and need the help."

"That was a brazen attempt at manipulation that won't work."

"Worth a shot."

"Crawford, where are we going for vacation?" Nagi knew Crawford too well to believe that Schwarz would stay on vacation for long. Crawford became too restless and bored and was too addicted to staying on top of his e-mail and the world.

"Somewhere offering sun, sand, and an ocean," Crawford answered. "Schu wants to learn to surf, and I think it would be interesting to watch."

"I'm so graceful that I don't _do_ awkward newbie flailing," Schuldig said. "I was thinking Jamaica, because the Caribbean's nice but too many of the other islands are named after saints."

Crawford snorted. "Good thinking."

"I'm thinking hotel cottages right on the beach. I even know of some places. Telepathy is good for many things."

"You are aware that some members of this team might spontaneously combust in sunlight," Nagi said.

"That's what people invented sunscreen and linen for. Or just enjoy the nightlife and sleep during the day. You might find a hottie to have a fling with."

"A vacation romance? How disposable."

"It could be a many-night stand! Though a kid who'd tried to tumble Yoji shouldn't complain."

"I really don't want to hear that," Crawford said.

"Then I'll help Nagi get a life under your radar. We'll just not talk about it in front of you."

"Schuldig, I really don't want your help on this," Nagi replied. Anything Schuldig considered paradise would probably be hell for Nagi. "So how long will we be home in Japan before heading out on vacation, Crawford?"

"We're going straight on vacation from here," Crawford answered.

"We don't have the clothes for beach weather."

"We'll buy them when we get there."

"...who are you, and what have you done with Brad Crawford?"

"People on our trail in this area would be expecting us to return home soon. I intend to throw them a curveball."

That made a little more sense for Crawford, but Nagi had to ask, "We're really doing this?"

"We're really doing this."

"...okay. Do Aya and Farfarello know?"

"Nope," Schuldig replied with a grin. "Not yet. Rose-red will probably have a reaction similar to yours."

Seeing that Nagi had finished dismembering and wrapping up the corpse, Crawford said, "The two of you scatter and hide the pieces. If you see Farfarello and Aya while you're out, pick them up."

Watching Schuldig standing by doing nothing, Nagi asked, "Are you going to help carry any of this?"

"As a telekinetic, you're much stronger than I am."

"I'm not lazy either."

"Schu," Crawford said.

"Hmph." Schuldig stubbed out his cigarette in an ashtray and picked up an arm. Nagi took the rest.

Schuldig's telepathy kept anyone from noticing what they carried or from paying much attention to them, while Nagi's telekinesis scanned for security cameras and didn't find any. Once they had the parts loaded into the trunk, Schuldig took the driver's seat and Nagi sat as the passenger. Schuldig would determine where the parts should go, so it made sense to let him drive.

They rode in silence until Nagi dropped the last part in a dumpster and buried it, at which point he went back into the car and asked, "Why do you get so much input into our vacation location?"

"Because, unlike the rest of you, I'm a vacation expert. Also, I'm fucking the boss. Easy."

"Great."

"I sense the Psycho Twins nearby. I love it when things work out neatly." Schuldig drove up to them, rolled down his window, and yelled, "Daddy wants you home, so get in!" When they stared back at him unimpressed, he growled, "_Now_."

Farfarello took an obviously disgruntled Aya by the arm and led him into the backseat. Still, at least Aya didn't resist being brought over. He was still Schwarz. Having watched Aya's explosion in the room, Nagi had wondered if Aya would come back so easily. Or at all.

Once Aya closed the car door, Schuldig pulled out into traffic and said, "Good. Even aside from how we have prices on our heads, Brad doesn't want you wandering around because we'll be leaving for our beach vacation in the morning."

"If we're not going back to Japan first, what will we do for vacation clothing?" Aya asked.

"Buying it when we get there. This is spontaneity for Brad, so don't knock it."

"He's forgotten about my sister's remains. We can't traipse around the world with them."

"We'll send them to Omi in Japan inside a special refrigerated shipping container. It's not like you can make them less dead by returning with them to Japan."

Aya looked enraged. "That's not the point and you know it."

"Omi did the arrangements for the rest of her body so it makes sense to send the box to him. We'll call to give him a head's-up so he doesn't have a major 'what the fuck?' moment when the box arrives. It's really the best way to do it and _you_ know it. It's not like you could have carried the box onto a plane with you."

"I'm not so convinced."

But Nagi could feel from Aya that he saw some of the good points of it.

Nagi thought it a great idea to have the remains sent on to Japan without Aya escorting it. Send it to Omi, and let him inter the remains at the Fujimiya family monument. When Aya returned to Japan after the vacation it would already be taken care of, with nothing more for him to do than finish mourning.

~ Is that a plan you and Crawford thought up? ~ Nagi asked.

~ Nope, just me, right now, but I'm sure Brad will go along with it. Don't feel like that. I've always contributed to Brad's planning and directed some of the action in the field. ~

~ I know. ~ Once upon a time, Schuldig hadn't done it so openly and confidently out of the field, though. Nagi couldn't quite say why it bothered him. Did he worry that it might undercut his own status within the team?

"Where would we be going on vacation?" Farfarello asked.

"One of the Caribbean islands," Schuldig answered. "Brad hasn't said yet how long we'll be there."

"It's Crawford. We won't be there long. Good for me. I get bored easily."

"We all know that too well."

"I haven't agreed to any of this," Aya said.

"You need a vacation as much as any of us, Aya," Schuldig replied.

Aya made a sound that wasn't total disagreement.

"What's dead doesn't care who buries it."

Looking in the rearview mirror, Nagi watched Aya's eyes close. "...I suppose," Aya said softly.

"Good! Brad will be making the arrangements today. We're going on to new and better things."

Nagi hoped so.


	244. "I'm helping him define himself as a leader by showing him what he's not."

Although it surprised Crawford when his team returned earlier than he expected, their calm attitude as they walked into the apartment told him he didn't have to worry. Schuldig and Nagi had even found and brought Farfarello and Aya in, with Aya seeming to be over his tantrum. Still, assumptions could be dangerous. "You've gotten rid of him?" Crawford asked.

"Yeah, Brad. He's left in carefully hidden pieces throughout Munich. We're _that_ good," Schuldig answered. "Close the windows, will you?"

"Are you trying to command me?" It never paid to let Schuldig get away with too much.

"Nope. I just think you got rid of the smell and I'd like to get warm already."

"So close them with me."

"Fine." As they stood side by side to close the windows, Schuldig said, ~ After Aya threw a small fit about us not going to Japan before our vacation, I told him we would ship his sister's refrigerated bits to Japan, though we would call Persia first so he knows corpse parts will be arriving. ~

~ Did that mollify him? ~ Crawford asked.

~ Eventually. It didn't even take as long to talk him down. Maybe he's finally getting some sense. ~

~ Good call. I forgot about his sister. ~

~ Of course. It's not like it's important to _us_. Aya needs to get out of his endless loop of mourning and sister obsession. We'll all go on vacation, and by the time we get back she'll be buried. ~

~ So I have some calls to make. ~

~ Of course! You're our leader. You know, the responsible member of the team. Besides, Persia likes me even less than he likes you. ~

~ You're so practical. ~

~ People always underestimate my practical streak. ~

With the windows closed again, Crawford turned to face the rest of his team. "We're leaving tomorrow. I'll be making arrangements to ship out the remnants and book our vacation. Find something to do with yourselves that won't make us too visible in this city. I'd prefer if you stayed here."

"I have things I could do on my laptop," Nagi replied.

"I could use some exercise, and the living room has room enough for it if we move some of the furniture," Farfarello said. "Will you spar with me, puisín?"

Aya didn't look entirely placated by the arrangements, but he replied, "I'll spar."

How Aya felt didn't matter as much as what he did about it. As long as Aya went along with Schwarz and didn't make too much of a nuisance of himself, everything would be fine.

Crawford hadn't minded Aya calling for a halt on the torture. They'd certainly done a lot of damage before Aya had intervened, enough to feel as close to satisfied as they could've gotten, and this way Aya knew he had some say in Schwarz affairs. Although he obviously still felt some disgust over what they'd done, he'd returned with less fuss than he once would have subjected them to. With time, Aya's morals--such as they were--wouldn't be so quickly and easily triggered, and hopefully he wouldn't express objections to team policy in such an overly dramatic fashion.

"I'll find something to do," Schuldig said.

"You'll be helping me make arrangements," Crawford answered. "It sounded like you had something very specific in mind when we talked about the vacation. I want to review it to see if I'll agree to it."

Schuldig smiled. "I did. Sure, I'll jump online to let you see."

"Everybody find something to keep yourselves occupied for a while. I presume you won't need my direct supervision."

Schuldig followed him into their bedroom. While Schuldig turned on Crawford's laptop and went on the internet, Crawford called Persia's private line and didn't get a machine this time. "It's Crawford."

"Are you really missing me this much?" Persia answered, sounding annoyed and amused.

"I don't expect to call you this often in the future."

"Good. What is it? Was there a problem with the information I sent you?"

"No, that was fine and useful. We've taken care of him. I'm calling about Aya's sister. I think the remains should be refrigerated and shipped to you to inter at his family's monument."

"I find it hard to believe that he doesn't want to travel here with them."

"He wanted to travel with them, but we managed to convince him otherwise, mostly because no airline would allow him to keep the box with him at his seat anyway."

"Good point."

"He needs to get on with his life. Carrying parts of her body around with him won't help that. It would be best for him if the interment takes place before he returns to Japan. He'd trust you to do it."

"How long will he be staying out of Japan?"

"Schwarz will be taking a brief vacation. I'll decide how long it will be later. As you may have guessed, some members of my team don't deal with periods of inactivity well."

"So you have to see how much vacation they could stand?"

"Exactly."

"I have a delivery service that can handle the remains. I'll contact them, then give you a call so you have some idea when they'll arrive. You'll pay for it because I'm doing you a favor."

Annoying brat. "Aya's mental health means so little to you?"

"I know Aya's mental health wasn't your primary consideration here. If I don't agree to this you have to deal with him. I assume you want your whole team on this vacation."

"I would find a way."

"Knocking him out and carrying him onto the plane? I assume you did something similar when you kidnapped him out of Japan. He'll give you hell over it if you do that again. I don't think you'd want him to feel as if the intervening time had never happened because he _hated_ you people back then. Or you could go on vacation while he returns to Japan with the remains. I wouldn't mind that. I'm sure Yoji would be happy to pick him up at the airport, comfort him, and let him stay with--"

"Your point has been made."

"Good."

Crawford told Persia their address and said, "Give me a call when the details are available. I doubt I have to tell you that I don't want the information on where we're staying shared with anyone else."

"Yes, you don't have to tell me. I'll call you soon."

"Wonderful. Goodbye." Crawford closed up the phone and glared at his snickering telepath. "Whose side are you on? Aside from your own."

"I'm a sadist. You knew that when you accepted me on the team."

"Yes, but you work for me."

"True." Schuldig stretched his back and arms upward while in the chair. "I called up the website."

"You really had this information waiting in your head?"

"Telepaths make the best travel agents."

As he looked at the website over Schuldig's shoulder, he said, "This looks potentially cheesy."

"Yeah, but these are cottages right on the beach. We'll have occasional room service but more privacy. Besides, how much luxury can your cheap-ass ways support?"

"True. Schu, does that link actually discuss nearby 'naturist' beaches?"

"Yes, it does." Schuldig smirked. "I would prefer it if Nagi doesn't find out about that until we get there."

"He simply believes, as I do, that some people shouldn't be allowed to be naked in public."

"I agree with both of you, but I like having the option of going out bare-assed and avoiding tan lines.'

"All right. I'm fine with the naturist beaches and won't give Nagi advance warning on them. He already hates the whole idea of a beach vacation, so why give him more ammunition?"

"That's the spirit."

"We'll get two cottages, one for us and one for Farfarello, Nagi, and Aya."

"Sounds like solid planning to me."

"Wait, it's not solid planning when I consider that Nagi had dreams about them last night. It might be worth it to get him his own suite instead of putting him in a cottage with those two, especially if they start rutting." The resort offered suites as well as cottages.

"You're so protective of his purity, Daddy. I'm surprised you haven't made him wear a promise ring."

"I'm tempted." Standing behind Schuldig, Crawford leaned over him to use the mouse to scroll down the page and noticed his telepath's currently sharp, acrid, provocative scent of cigarettes, hot metal, blood, cooked flesh, and pain. "This site spends a lot of time assuring customers that they can wander on the beach or hang out around their cottages nude."

"Like I need an excuse."

"Make sure you use sun protection if you do. You really don't want to get sunburned there."

"Good point."

It had been a long time since Crawford had gotten to watch Schuldig slowly take a person apart, and he'd nearly forgotten the effect it could have on him. This time arousal warred with concern, because some of the methods Schuldig had used to unbalance and psych Scry out he could only have learned through living with Crawford. On the one hand this gave Crawford the interesting and somewhat depressing fact that his clone shared many traits and fears with him and on the other it made Crawford wonder if his telepath would ever use that information against _him_. All right, damned right Schuldig would use it, if he hadn't already, but would Schuldig use it to thoroughly undermine Crawford as opposed to using it to get his way in small things? Crawford would have to watch out for that.

Still, the danger in the telepath had always been part of the attraction. Crawford's left hand tightened on Schuldig's shoulder.

"You like this, Brad?" Schuldig asked softly, nearly purring the words.

"You know I do."

"Mmm."

As Schuldig leaned into him, Crawford checked the resort's availability chart, saw that it had what they'd wanted available, then filled out the online reservation form. He ordered Schwarz plane tickets as well and tried not to be too annoyed by how much more they had to pay for a next-day trip. He preferred planning ahead for many reasons.

"_Brad_."

"We'll play once I get some needed things finished." His cell phone buzzed in a timely fashion that underscored his point. He answered it with a curt "Crawford."

"The shipping service should show up within the next half hour," Persia said, thankfully sparing him from any long, polite preambles. "They'll bring a specific protective container for the remains."

"Yes, we hardly want them to go bad and stink while in transit."

"...you're a crass man, Crawford."

"It often helps in my line of work."

"Expect someone to arrive soon. If the remains don't get picked up by the service today, I'll expect Aya to arrive with them in Japan, at which point we'll take care of him and them. Good day, Crawford."

As Crawford closed up his phone, Schuldig asked, "Taunting the kitten again, Brad?"

"I'm helping him define himself as a leader by showing him what he's not."

"You're doing that by taunting him."

"Yes. Any problems with that?"

"Hardly. Is your strategy to massage his soft heart back to consistent life? There are some disadvantages in it, such as the likelihood that he'll continue to meddle with us where Aya is concerned. Then again, even without a heart he might meddle just for revenge or to count coup against us."

"Done thinking out loud?"

"Oooh, bitchy."

"We definitely can't play now. Someone will be coming for the leftovers in a half hour to an hour, and I want to be ready for it. Leaving this to Farfarello or Aya would be a big mistake."

Schuldig pouted but laughed. "That would be quite a scene. Don't worry. I understand why."

"Good."

"Doesn't mean I can't bitch about it."

"Of course not."

"I'm going to have to go out for some fun tonight. I'll be careful, Dad."

Annoyed, Crawford asked, "You really can't get it at home?"

"We don't actually have a home."

"You're splitting hairs."

"No, I try to avoid that. I like my mane to look healthy and glossy." Schuldig fluffed out his hair. "Look, I'm in the mood for a woman tonight, and none of you fit the bill. Got it? I'm not going to call the hounds down on me or lead them here."

Schuldig hadn't spoken of needing something particular in a while. Had this come from returning to older uses of his abilities and skills today? Should Crawford be worried?

"Shit, Brad, I'm just in the mood for pussy. It's nothing to be concerned about. A lot of the world's population considers that normal. Maybe I'd be simply heterosexual if not for the telepathy."

"I've wondered about that."

"There you go. Are you sure I can't interest you in a quickie before the pickup guy arrives?"

"No. I'm not in the mood for business for a while afterwards."

"I'll take that as flattery."

"Move. I want to work on the computer until whoever gets here."

"When will you call Frantz to let him know we're giving up the apartment?"

"_After_ the delivery man arrives."

"Hmph." But Schuldig obediently vacated the chair to sit on the bed. "However will I occupy myself?"

Crawford sat in front of his laptop. "Find something to do." On further thought he added, "Find something that isn't masturbation. It's distracting."

"I'll clean my gun, then."

Knowing full well how arousing Brad found that. "Who's being a teasing brat now?"

It was sad how much he liked the sound of Schuldig's laugh.

******************************************************

His kitten still hadn't lost his pissiness, and being summoned back to the apartment had interrupted his attempt to make his lover walk the negativity away. Working Aya's body sometimes distracted him from getting lost in his frustrating, dark thoughts. While Farfarello tended to take out his emotions upon his body, Aya preferred mental self-torment. Farfarello had suggested the sparring to bring him out of it.

Aya pulled his sweater off over his head, revealing a black tank top beneath, and tossed it to the couch. He'd already bared his feet. For reasons Farfarello couldn't articulate, he loved his kitten's toes. It all combined to increase Farfarello's excitement and make him look forward to the actual fight even more.

Farfarello extended his blade and smiled harder when Aya's unsheathed katana parried it in a clang of metal. They fought back and forth across the living room, challenging themselves to avoid damaging the furniture. Nothing matched the joy of this, the way his muscles warmed with exertion and his blood stirred, the fiery intensity and focus in his puisín's eyes, the sound and weight of repeated impact, the pleasure found in speed and movement, and the scent of their sweat. This, too, was lovemaking. As his blade slid down the length of Aya's katana, the heated look in Aya's eyes and the set of his mouth suggested that he saw it similarly.

He never felt more alive than when he fought.

They continued their foreplay a while, varying their sparring between playful and deadly serious, occasionally scoring light cuts. By mutual unspoken agreement there came a moment when Farfarello pushed forward with his blade retracted and Aya opened his guard to leave the two of them body-to-body with Aya's back against the wall.

Farfarello drank in his kitten's intoxicating and volatile cocktail of exultation, lust... and annoyance over feeling the exultation and lust. No doubt Aya wanted to remain angry about and punish Farfarello for the torture scene this morning. Too bad for him that his body knew better and wanted something different, melting against Farfarello as he kissed and nipped his way down Aya's bared neck and rubbed himself against his hard cock, which Farfarello would happily bare if given the chance. Grinning, Farfarello descended to his knees, cast his main weapon to the side, and rubbed the side of his head back and forth across his kitten's crotch, his smile widening as his puisín made a choked off sound and grabbed hold of his hair. Wanting to feel the physical fully, Farfarello completely associated himself inside his body and became so sensitive that he could feel the texture of the fabric beside his cheek.

Just as he set his hands on the button at the waistband of Aya's pants the door buzzer went off. Why the hell did fate keep cutting short his playtime with his kitten lately? No, not fate, _God_ did it, which only proved that he needed to continue fighting for more contact. Growling at the interruption, he undid the button emphatically.

Crawford walked into the living room, saying, "Stop that. A delivery person has come to pick up the remains."

At those words every trace of eroticism drained out of Aya, and he sheathed his katana and carefully set it aside. How often could his dead sister cockblock Farfarello? It had gone beyond ridiculous. He growled as Aya used his grip on his hair to push his head further away but didn't fight it because he far preferred his kitten to be willing and knew he'd never be allowed to do what he wanted in front of a witnessing stranger.

When Crawford let the man in, Aya silently trailed them to the kitchen and added nothing to the light conversation of trivialities Crawford and the stranger had. The man, not knowing the box's contents, didn't say anything about taking it from the vegetable bin.

Dissociating again, Farfarello felt his kitten's resumed anguish, set his hand on Aya's shoulder in an effort to remind him of what else he had, and received a tremulous twitch of thin lips in reply. But the bruised feeling of his emotions lightened a bit. It felt wonderful to have such immediate confirmation of the correctness of his response.

After the man left with what remained of Aya's sister and Crawford returned to his bedroom, Aya sat on the couch and stared at nothing. Farfarello set aside impatience and ennui to sit beside him, their legs touching, saying nothing because what more could he say about the undead sister bits? When Aya leaned over and set his head on Farfarello's shoulder, Farfarello managed to get over his surprise and put his arm around him. It appeared to comfort and relax his kitten, who didn't twitch or swat it away. It also... felt good.


	245. "Tell me about it, and I'll pay all my attention to you."

Nagi slipped the chip back into the small bag he'd carried it in to protect it. Now that he knew its purpose, he saw how lucky Fenris had been that it no longer worked, especially when it had been shot. Operating properly, that chip could send a signal to an explosive that would also be implanted into a person's body. Did the boy still carry a bomb inside him?

Not that it was his business or he really cared. He'd only studied the chip today for lack of anything better to keep his attention. Hopefully he could inform someone of the chip's purpose and that person would tell Fenris, because Nagi didn't want to get involved, especially not when the boy had a crush on him while he had absolutely no interest in return. He didn't want any more ties with Weiß, nor with Omi.

Why couldn't he just get on with his life? Omi had fallen into his lap, they'd had some good times, things hadn't worked out, Nagi had broken them up, and now he should make a clean break to move into the future without looking back. Having neither sought out nor wanted the relationship in the first place, he shouldn't find himself thinking about it when he had free moments.

Vacationing in Jamaica would be hellish if he kept being this foolish. Maybe he could find work there to keep him busy? But he shouldn't have to. He should be stronger.

Needing to break the current cycle of his thoughts, Nagi left the bedroom to get something to drink. Even before he entered the living room he knew they weren't fighting or having sex, but what he saw them doing surprised him. Aya appeared to be taking comfort from Farfarello holding him, while Farfarello didn't vibrate with the tension and potential he so often had. Their combined waves of probability looked fairly peaceful, although Aya's individual part had a definite tinge of melancholy, more so than usual.

Not wanting to disturb them or gain their attention, still embarrassed by last night's dreams, he moved quietly. Lusting after Aya didn't surprise him, but the thought of his subconscious wanting _Farfarello_ freaked him out. He couldn't help wondering if getting laid by some stranger really could straighten him out--so to speak--the way Schuldig thought it would. It might be worth a try. He made it into the kitchen undetected.

As Nagi poured himself a glass of banana juice, he jumped a bit when Farfarello asked, "What are you up to, boy?"

At least telekinesis stopped him from spilling anything. "Pouring myself something to drink."

"You've been twitchy around us all day. What's your problem?"

"It's been a weird day. I have no problem. Fuck off."

"Sounds like I hit a raw nerve."

"Farfarello, leave him be," Aya said. Farfarello grumbled but didn't prod Nagi any further. Thanks, Aya.

As Nagi entered the living room, he said, "I don't know how well I'll be able to deal with a vacation."

"Me neither," Aya answered softly. "Too much time to think."

"Exactly."

"I'll do my best to prevent you from thinking, puisín," Farfarello said with a grin.

"I'm sure." Despite the dark sound to Aya's words, he remained curled up on the couch, snuggling with Farfarello, who sprawled a bit.

They certainly looked cozy together, which put an odd, choking pain in Nagi's chest. He really needed to do something about this, because he hated feeling this pathetic. "You two should really clean up those cuts." Nagi wouldn't touch either of them.

******************************************************

Brad wouldn't appreciate Schuldig making this visit, but what Brad didn't know wouldn't annoy him. He might foresee it, but Schuldig wouldn't let that scare him out of doing what he felt he needed to do. Schuldig would rather die than become some perfectly obedient pet that always considered others' needs before its own.

"Stop here," Schuldig told the driver. "Wait 20 minutes. I'll be back."

He already knew Frantz was home alone. Telepathy had so many benefits.

As he let himself into the building, he felt such nostalgia. Frantz had lived here as long as Schuldig had known him, though he'd be moving after the wedding. Schuldig had come here for refuge now and then; it had given him some of his first personal experiences of mundane life. Did getting here before Frantz moved away make things easier or harder for Schuldig? He didn't know, aside from how the engagement helped him let go of the past.

It had to be easier. After the wedding it would be harder to get Frantz alone. While he could telepathically make the girl take a hike, Frantz wouldn't approve if he figured it out.

Smiling, Frantz answered the door after Schuldig's second knock. "Welcome in."

"You don't seem surprised to see me." Schuldig felt almost sulky about that.

"I thought you might come by tonight since your team is leaving tomorrow."

"Sorry about us roaring in and taking off immediately. I know it leaves you in a bit of a bind."

Frantz shrugged. "I hadn't even taken all the listings for the apartment down yet, so it's not as bad as it could have been. I kind of expected your team to leave soon once I told you about the Eszett remnants looking for you. In so many ways I could have made more money leaving you in the dark."

"Obviously."

"Does Crawford know I did it for you?"

"I'm not about to rub it in his face, but he knows." And didn't like it. "You confused the hell out of Red. He didn't know whether you were a well-meaning chump or somebody who had the minions and firepower to back yourself up."

"Yeah, well."

"You're cute, even if you do need to develop a sense of self-preservation."

"You might find this funny, but he convinced me that your team isn't as bad as it used to be."

"I can't see him giving an impassioned big speech about that."

"He didn't. He's just so... not from Eszett that his continued survival within the team suggested change."

"We're not fluffy bunnies, but we're not what we used to be. Being free from Eszett is a big part of it."

"You're not as heartless as you think you are."

"Any heart I show when I'm with you is actually yours, not mine."

"If you're free of Eszett, why do you get so nervous when I say you have a heart? Won't Crawford let you have one?"

"'Nervous'? Me? That's really overstating matters. You should also know that there are lots of things I do whether Brad wants to 'let' me or not."

"Now you're upset. Not that it takes much to get you to put the petulant face on."

Frantz hadn't even seen Schuldig's _really_ petulant face yet, but if he kept this up it would show up soon. Annoyed, Schuldig answered, "Like most people, I don't appreciate being told how I feel."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be such an ass."

Schuldig warmed to the sincerity in that but also felt surprised by his own reactions. When together, they'd always badmouthed Brad before. Frantz hadn't changed, but Schuldig had.

"Good. You don't want my last memories of you as a free man tainted by an urge to strangle you."

"It's marriage, not an execution."

"Sure."

"You don't sound convinced."

"Because I'm not." Schuldig wanted to hold him, kiss him, fuck him but wouldn't. Too bad he wouldn't get a reward for his goodness here.

"I'm sure we'll see each other again. Your team will do jobs in Europe sometime, and Crawford will want to take out the Eszett remnants at some point."

"It won't be the same. It can't."

"True. I'll miss that."

"Understandable. I'm the best you ever had."

"I don't think my fiancée would agree."

"She'll get you full-time from now on, so I don't think she has a right to complain."

When Frantz took hold of him to hug him close, Schuldig felt the implicit "goodbye" getting stronger and closer. Closing his eyes, he snuggled in for the last time, sighing happily at the feel of Frantz's arms encircling him. With the changes in Schwarz, he probably wouldn't need to keep Frantz on the line as a way out anyway. Probably. Giving him up would be the best thing for him. Even Schuldig thought that breaking a marriage up just to keep a guy--someone who'd been good to him--on the line for the distant chance that he might need temporary refuge later was ridiculous.

"I can actually feel you thinking," Frantz murmured.

"That's overrated."

"Thinking?"

"Feeling people do it."

"In my case it's guessing, not telepathy."

"Guessing isn't even as certain as telepathy." Schuldig gently pushed himself away from Frantz. "I have to go."

"I'm really not marching off to my execution."

Frantz didn't really get it yet that things would change after his wedding, poor bastard. A woman with any sense of discernment would be able to tell what Schuldig had been to him and not want him anywhere near their happy home. Schuldig put on a smile as he said, "Sure, sure. Good night."

"Good night, Schu," Frantz answered, sounding fond.

After the warmth of Frantz's place the winter cold outside felt like even more of a shock. Schuldig got into the cab and let it carry him off to decadent revelry, hoping that dancing and fucking would scour this melancholy and... softness away. Eszett and Brad had nothing to do with him considering this a weakness.

******************************************************

Crawford woke suddenly out of a light, uneasy sleep when he became aware that his telepath had returned. At 4 a.m.? Even by Schuldig's standards that was some wallow. He would be tired and cranky for the flight out, and the telepath, like most telepaths, didn't tolerate plane travel well even when rested.

"What the hell, Schuldig?" Crawford muttered into the darkness.

The bed dipped under Schuldig's sudden weight. "I miscalculated." He _sounded_ weary. And annoyed.

That didn't sound good. "Do I have to kill anyone?"

Schuldig laughed softly. "Not like that."

"Then what?" How dare Schuldig be warm, mysterious, and so strongly scented like woman, sex, sweat, and cigarette smoke next to Crawford?

"She was insatiable. Seriously, she needed cock the way Farfie needs to get cut up, obsessive-like. I think she squeezed all the fluids out of me. Plus, I didn't keep in mind how women can have successive orgasms and just keep going. Being a telepath, I had to keep going with her."

"This still doesn't sound bad by your standards."

"I was just a cock delivery system for her, a human dildo. She didn't care about me or my experience at all, the selfish bitch."

A cardinal sin by Schuldig's reckoning. Crawford had to laugh, which made Schuldig huff and say, "Laugh it up now. You'll pay for it later."

"No. I got it out of my system. Tell me about it, and I'll pay all my attention to you." When Crawford set his hand on Schuldig's arm, he smiled at the way Schuldig shivered under the touch, obviously sensitive, which always had potential.

"All right."

"Get undressed. I've been waiting for you." Anticipating Schuldig's tale had him hard already. He heard Schuldig's boots hit the floor and felt Schuldig's shirt skim the skin on his bare arm as it came off. Impatient, he pulled Schuldig close to him and started undoing his fly by feel.

"Yeah," Schuldig said breathlessly. "I doubt I'll be able to get it up again for a while."

"Like that's necessary. Talk to me."

"Yeah." Schuldig shuddered. "I went to a club and telepathically scouted for good candidates. I chose Eva for her tall, blonde looks, fishnets, short dress, high-heeled boots, and horniness. We danced some foreplay first, then I brought her to a shadowy corner near the back wall. The fishnets turned out to be thigh-highs fastened to a garter belt, which made me so hot that I took out a knife and sliced her panties off her. Eva got so excited by that that I nearly had to push her off me just to get a condom on first. I fucked her against the wall with her legs circling my waist and the crowd writhing around us. Fuck, she was hot and slick and demanding, just about spurring me on with the heels of her boots as her inner muscles clenched and relaxed over and over around me. She really enjoyed doing it with a crowd nearby and kept telling me to go harder, harder...."

Even with the memory of that and Crawford's hand down his pants, Schuldig's cock barely stirred. The little bitch had milked him dry. As annoyed as that made Crawford, at least he could hear how Schuldig reached this state. He started to pull Schuldig's pants down.

"I made her come twice, with my cock and my hand, but she wanted more and invited me to her place. During the cab ride over I started to finger her but that apparently wasn't enough for her because she undid my fly, put a condom on me, pulled up her skirt, impaled herself on my lap, and rode my cock. The driver nearly hit a few cars and the side of a building hearing us and trying not to watch us in the rearview mirror. I was thrilled but surprised by her forwardness and starting to wonder if I'd bitten off more than I could chew."

"So soon?"

"I was already getting a telepathic taste of her obsessive ways." He shuddered and his breath caught as Crawford traced soft lines up his inner thighs with his fingertips.

"Sensitive?"

"Duh. As soon as she got me in the door she started stripping the both of us, though I told her to keep the garter belt, thigh highs, and boots on. I earned myself some bad bruises from her heels that way, though. She scratched the hell out of my back too."

Crawford could feel the occasional stripe of raised flesh, quickly accompanied by Schuldig's flinches. "Stupid of you to allow her to mark you up when you knew you'd be leaving for a beach the next day."

"I wasn't capable of thinking much at the time. I'll just have to advertise to everyone that I rock in bed until my quick healing takes care of it. Anyway, the chick was an animal. Even though I fucked her in several different positions, she kept demanding more. I wanted to play with her breasts more, tongue her nipples, give her head, but she wasn't that interested in that. She insisted that I keep slipping her the man meat." While Schuldig usually put more heat and erotic detail into his stories, this time he sparsely relayed events with more of a tired and matter of fact tone.

It wouldn't do. "Which positions?" Crawford asked as he stroked Schuldig's balls and perineum.

"Uh. Bent her over a table and took her from behind. Had her on top riding me facing two different directions. Though not, you know, two directions at the same time. Bent her like a pretzel to adjust the angle of my thrusts. Had her in my lap while we were sitting down. Even fucked her in the ass once."

"All while she wore only the garter belt, fishnets, and boots." Crawford imagined it: long fishnet clad legs wrapping around Schu's waist or up over his shoulders and boot heels slapping or spurring into Schu's skin.

"The garter belt and fishnets were kind of scratchy against my skin, but they added something. For a long while, every time I thought I couldn't possibly get it up again her demanding urges dragged another erection out of me. It was crazy. I started wondering if I could get some pelvic version of carpal tunnel from all the repetitive movement. Weird thing is that she didn't even enjoy herself as much as she should have; the sex seemed to be more of a compulsive thing. What a buzzkill." For a telepath that got off partly from feeling his partner enjoying the sex, that would be deprivation.

"That _is_ sad. Hmm. Turn over onto your stomach."

Schuldig complied without complaint or teasing, which showed the depths of his exhaustion. "Her mind was so all about 'fucking, fucking, fucking' that I got a huge sympathetic urge to get penetrated myself. Somehow she realized that and suggested we use her sex machine."

"Sex machine?"

"As in a machine you use to have sex. I'm only a sex machine in the metaphorical sense. She had a Monkey Rocker Tango. She attached a big dildo for each of us, let me lube myself up, then sat us down on them facing each other so our movements could determine how fast, slow, deep, or shallow we wanted to get fucked. That was actually the time when I got the most kissing and stroking in on her. What's the point of fucking a woman if you don't get to play with her breasts?"

"So that's why you're somewhat slick here." Crawford had to smile over the way Schuldig squirmed from having two fingers sliding inside him.

"Ahhhh, yeah. Fortunately, she fell asleep soon after that and I hightailed it out of there. I read her considering chaining me to something as her personal organic sex toy because I was one of the few guys who nearly kept up with her."

Crawford put a condom on and applied some lubricant to himself. "You seem to inspire that urge in people."

"They can't help themselves, not when I'm so sexy and look so good in handcuffs and chains."

"You do."

"I couldn't let her keep me. She didn't appreciate me enough."

"Agreed."

Schuldig let out a deep, low moan as Crawford smoothly thrust into him, then panted and writhed with every stroke following it as Crawford rode him. It disappointed Crawford that his reach-around found Schuldig still only half-hard--the night's adventure really had wiped him out--but in every other way his telepath reacted well, making gratifying sounds and pushing back onto Crawford's cock to take it in deeper. As they fucked, he ran his hands through Schuldig's hair and along his body. Stimulated from imagining the actions in Schuldig's descriptions and particularly aroused and amused at the thought of a woman using Schuldig as a human dildo, it didn't take him long to come.

For a while they slumped together in satisfaction, but Schuldig's twitches soon reminded Crawford that his telepath had been used, scratched, and spurred hard for hours before this, so he disengaged and gave Schu some space. Schuldig responded by rolling to turn his welted back away from Crawford but otherwise staying close, nearly snuggling.

Crawford started to ask, "Are you--"

"I'm in no danger of getting blue balls, thanks. I'm totally drained." Schuldig sounded contented and nearly dreamy, no longer annoyed or petulant.

"So you're feeling better now?"

"Much."

It seemed that Schuldig felt that the woman may have used him like a tool but Crawford treated him well and with affection. A year ago they both would have laughed at the very idea that it could be possible.

"Sleep well. We have to get up in three hours."

"Can't you just carry my unconscious body onto the plane?"

"Even if I were willing to lug you around, which I'm not, I doubt the airline would allow it."

"Killjoy."

"Less grumbling and more sleeping."

Although Schu grumbled himself to sleep, he stayed tangled up, warm and pliant, with his killjoy. Victory went to Crawford's side in this match. Between the company and the victory, he quickly drifted into sleep himself.


	246. "You want us to shop for clothes as a team? That blows."

When Aya and Farfarello entered the kitchen that morning, they joined Nagi in staring in confusion at what awaited them. Nagi asked, "Am I still dreaming? I can't be watching Schuldig cook breakfast, especially not this early in the morning."

"If you're dreaming, I'm doing it with you," Aya answered then wondered why that statement had made Nagi twitch.

"_Somebody_ woke me up early," Schuldig replied as he pointed a large fork in Crawford's direction. Smiling smugly, Crawford waved his coffee cup in an almost jaunty way before going back to reading a newspaper. "Yeah, smirk it up, fearless leader. We didn't have to get up _that_ early. Anyway, I figured that I had to right a wrong. Aya has to have Weißwürste before he leaves Bavaria, and it has to be done properly."

"I'm not eating your cooking. I've seen you burn water," Nagi said, sounding disgusted.

"No, you're going to have a good Bavarian breakfast, even if I have to shove it down your throat while having Brad take photos. You're such a selfish little thing."

"I certainly won't protest the beer," Farfarello said as he sat at the table.

"Beer, mustard, and pretzels with sausage for breakfast?" Aya asked.

"It's traditional!" Schuldig answered. "Weißwürste without all that is heretical. I don't know where you get off being surprised since I made you buy this stuff yesterday."

"I didn't know _you_ would be cooking."

"I have access to the minds of thousands of Bavarians. I can't go wrong on this. Also, what you just said really insulted me."

"Live with it."

"I was going to compliment you on buying the right mustard, but not now. Sit!"

The sausage did smell pretty good. Farfarello touched Aya's arm and pointed to the chair next to his. Aya sat and let Farfarello place two pretzels and two sausages on his plate for him. "Do you eat the casing too?" he asked.

"Nope. You can rip or slice, then peel it. Mustard application should follow."

When Nagi sat too, a look of misgiving on his face, Schuldig smiled and put a pair of sausage and a pretzel on his plate. The telepath looked worn out and sleepy, making Aya wonder if the cooking had come out of fatigue-induced insanity. In the end Aya decided that he probably didn't really want to know anything about it. Besides, if it had been anything serious or wrong Crawford wouldn't look so cheerful this morning.

Aya decided to avoid following that line of thinking any further and really hoped that Schuldig wasn't grinning at him because he heard all that. At least Schuldig didn't tease him about anything before sitting at the table.

Aya found himself liking the taste of the sausage, although the mustard surprised him by being milder than he'd expected. Having pretzels and beer for breakfast still struck him as really weird. Farfarello seemed to be enjoying the meal, even without sugar in anything, while Crawford had eschewed his usual chocolate cereal, perhaps in an effort to make this a team bonding exercise.

"Schuldig, that's disgusting!" Nagi suddenly said. "It looks like you're sucking a dick out of a condom!"

"It's a traditional way of eating it."

"He's right," Crawford said. "The Zuzeln method."

Nagi continued to look disgusted. "I don't believe you. It's bad enough he's eating it with his hands."

"Also part of the traditional style," Schuldig answered. "And if you think oral sex ends with the dick being devoured I'll have to beat the crap out of Omi."

"Don't even start on that."

"Then be thankful I'm not expecting all of you to learn how to eat it this way. It's more difficult than it looks."

"Of course _you'd_ be good at this kind of method."

"Am I supposed to be insulted? I'm not. Just because you're not getting any lately--"

"Nagi, if it disturbs you, don't watch," Crawford said in a decisive, trying-to-end-the-conversation way. Aya figured that Crawford just didn't want to think about Nagi having a sex life.

"Fine," the boy answered.

Aya wondered why Nagi had been so cranky and twitchy lately. Wondered and worried.

******************************************************

As they waited at the gate for their flight, Schuldig had fallen asleep with his head on Crawford's shoulder. The telepath's mirror shades showed Nagi two small images of his bad-tempered, dissatisfied face. Nagi looked forward to watching Crawford poke Schuldig awake when they had to get up and hoped his telekinetic talents needed to be called on to help.

Nagi knew he had to lighten up before he exploded. Even for him his misanthropy had been over the top the last few days. Schuldig hadn't even teased him about the dreams as badly as he could have. At least he hadn't embarrassed himself last night too.

What the hell would he do with himself over this vacation? He couldn't play with his computer the whole time. It barely held his attention right now. He just felt so... restless. He couldn't even say to himself what he wanted because he didn't know.

As he watched Farfarello fidget in his seat he wondered what the team berserker would do with himself during this vacation too. While everyone considered Crawford to be Schwarz's resident workaholic, few of them handled downtime well. Farfarello did stillness well when waiting to tackle prey or punishing himself while in a straitjacket but otherwise needed a purpose to work toward.

Aya finally looked up from his book, put his bookmark in place, and closed the book before setting his hand on Farfarello's arm and murmuring something right into his ear. Farfarello's face lit up, and he eagerly stood up, following Aya away.

Aya couldn't keep Farfarello busy throughout the whole vacation that way either.

~ If Aya doesn't mind it, I don't see why you should, ~ Crawford said.

~ What? ~

~ It was all over your face. I thought you were better at masking your emotions than that. ~

Damn it. ~ I am. ~ Nagi refused to squirm under Crawford's penetrating gaze on him.

~ I hope this won't become a problem. ~

By "hope" Crawford generally meant "It better not." ~ It won't be. ~

~ It isn't productive. ~

Schuldig had probably given Crawford the lowdown. Damn it. ~ I'm not acting on any of it! ~

~ Thinking about it isn't productive either. It's a waste of time. ~

As if Crawford could control or stop _his_ non-productive dreams. Nagi put all the put-upon annoyance he felt into: ~ I'm working on it. ~

~ As much as I dislike it, I'm starting to wonder if Schuldig might be right about what you need. ~

What? ~ If you let him molest me against my will I swear that neither of you will live to regret it. ~

~ I don't mean that, and I resent having that mental image. I mean that I'm starting to think you should mingle during the vacation and get this out of your system with someone there. ~

Crawford had to be one of the last people Nagi wanted to talk to about this, even aside from how he didn't want to talk about this with _anyone_. If he had to be having this conversation, he intended to make Crawford at least as uncomfortable as he already felt. ~ You make it sound like an itch I could scratch with a single one-night stand. What if I need more than just quick, empty sex? What if I need more than just this team in my life? ~

Score. For a brief, shining moment Nagi could see the discomfort and denial on Crawford's face and taste it coming through their mental link before Crawford controlled and masked it. ~ We'll find a way to make things work. I have to get you away from your computer for a while too. ~

~ Nobody mentioned that as part of the vacation! ~

~ I am now. ~

******************************************************

Another trip, another men's restroom stall. Once, Aya would have been appalled that anyone would think of having sex in there let alone having it. He'd known it happened but thought it thoroughly disgusting. Recently he'd become almost a veteran of it.

Farfarello could be an annoying seatmate, and Aya could use some distraction from his own thoughts. Sex was a pleasant way to relieve that. Farfarello had unexpectedly comforted him yesterday....

"You don't have to go down on your knees like that," Aya said softly. "It's disgusting."

Once Farfarello finished unzipping Aya's fly with his teeth, he replied, "For you this would be degrading and self-punishing. For me, being on my knees is kinky. Besides, it's not like I'll be eating with my knees or shins." He pulled Aya's pants and briefs down. "They can stand to get dirty."

"That's not the point." Aya let out a long, shuddering breath as lubricated fingers slid up into him and Farfarello tongued the head of his cock. The feel of it... and the sight of _him_.... "You have to be.... You can't be rough with me. I have to... sit for hours after this."

Grinning, Farfarello answered, "I'll be gentle with your ass," before devoting himself to slowly fingerfucking Aya and bestowing long, hard, swirling licks to his cock.

Leaning back against the wall as his knees started to feel weak, Aya bit his lower lip to try to keep quiet, while his hands clenched on Farfarello's shoulders and his hips moved to seek more of everything. Aya didn't mind Farfarello's knife licking ways because the exercise apparently did wonderful things for his tongue skills.

"You can pull my hair," Farfarello said before he slid his mouth down Aya's cock and started to suck as well as lick.

Aya appreciated the permission because once the sucking started his hands had moved to do that without his volition anyway. The sensations had put his mind on autopilot and let his body operate on instinct, and instinct demanded that the source of the pleasure be pulled in close and prevented from leaving. It felt so good.... Gasping, Aya ran his fingers through his lover's thick hair and over the warm metal of his earrings, clenching and sometimes pulling, while Farfarello made pleased, hungry sounds as he drove Aya insane with his mouth, tongue, and fingers. Aya came hard when he felt the back of Farfarello's throat.

When sense started to return, he found himself stroking the curve of the back of his lover's skull as Farfarello gave him one last lick and said, "Turn." Aya let go of him and turned to face the wall. Hopefully Farfarello would help keep him standing, because he felt really limp right now.

After he gripped Aya's hips to position him, he thrust in with a low, purring growl, which made Aya bite his bottom lip again to silence himself. As Farfarello went still and waited a moment, probably to gain control of himself, Aya felt their hearts pounding in time together, especially in his ass and genitals, as they stood pressed together, body to body. His lover was thick and hard and nearly perfect inside him.

"I hate that you have a shirt on," Farfarello whispered into his ear in puffs of hot breath. "I want so badly to bite you."

Aya had worn a mockneck _because_ Farfarello had already marked his neck. As much as obvious hickeys annoyed him, the words sent a bolt of excitement through him anyway.

"Vacation," Aya managed to say. Would Farfarello even understand his point?

"Aye. We'll have opportunity to be naked there." Farfarello understood. He started to move, slow and deep, making Aya shudder. "I love to fuck you. You fit me so well."

"I want it." Aya pushed himself down on Farfarello's cock to take it in deeper, while Farfarello's hands clenched on his hips, probably bruising.

"I'd love to watch us on tape sometime."

"We made sure there weren't any cameras in here."

"I wouldn't want any authorities to watch us together anyway."

Although Aya had been the one to ask for gentleness, this slow pace tormented him. "You could go... faster."

He could almost feel Farfarello smile along the back of his neck. "No, no. I won't be rough on you."

Farfarello maintained his slow space, only gradually speeding up, while making soft, sexy sounds to express his lust. Feeling needy himself, Aya couldn't help letting some noises of pleasure and frustration cross his lips, especially when one of Farfarello's callused hands started to stroke and tug at his cock and balls. When Farfarello finally came, he made a corkscrewing motion that gave Aya an orgasm as well.

Afterglow left him feeling loose, clear, and untroubled for a while, but soon enough darker thoughts plagued him again. How many people became so troubled over going on vacation? It was ridiculous.

Then again, most people didn't suffer from so gloomy a view of things or have an occasionally murderous berserker to hold back.

******************************************************

As soon as Schwarz got out of the van the hotel had picked them up from the airport with, coats and bags in hand, Schuldig stretched and soaked in the sunlight and heat. Damn, he felt good, loose, renewed, and well rested. Even his mind felt better from fewer psychics in the area to pick up on. Truly, he ruled at vacation planning.

"That's the least eventful flight we've had in a long time," Brad said, sounding somewhat more relaxed than usual. Excellent. He always looked so good in sunglasses too.

"Comes from over half the team sleeping through it," Nagi answered.

"I'll have to thoroughly exhaust Schu the night before more often."

"I might not complain if you do it in pleasant ways," Schuldig replied.

Farfie and Aya wore sunglasses as well, but somehow Aya gave the impression of still squinting in the abundant light. It made Schuldig say, "Our nightcrawler contingent will need hats."

"I won't wear a hat," Nagi said.

"You'll roast if you don't."

"I just won't go out."

"Hell no. You're at least going out for the nightlife. We didn't come to Jamaica so you could continue your usual shut-in habits."

"Can we at least go inside to check in?" Aya asked.

"We'll check in, get our keys, stow our bags in our rooms, then get the hotel van to take us shopping for clothes and sunscreen," Brad said in a tone that discouraged dissent.

Nagi dissented anyway. "You want us to shop for clothes as a team? That blows."

"It comes from wanting to make sure you follow orders. You'll dress for the area and mingle."

"I'm not buying any shorts, though."

Brad smirked. "I wouldn't want you to look like Omi anyway."

"Low blow," Farfarello said with a grin.

Nagi sighed. "Can we just pick up our keys and get on with this?"

"I'd appreciate it if you could stop bitching and moaning long enough for us to check in," Brad said.

"Fine." Nagi put vast depths of exasperation into that one word. The kid had a gift. He also contained at least 50% more bitterness than the average person his size, probably because his bitterness was concentrated.

Even Schuldig behaved himself through check-in, while Nagi also stayed quiet, possibly to avoid embarrassment in front of the hotel workers. Possibly. Poor kid. The vacation had only just started and already his life sucked. Schuldig had to grin.

As they walked back out with their keys, Brad said, "Schu and I have one cottage on the beach, Aya and Farfarello have another one, while Nagi has a suite to himself in the hotel."

"I really have a room alone?" Nagi asked.

"Same as usual, as you always want."

"In a totally different building?"

"It's not that far from us or the beach, but yes."

Yet Nagi didn't seem happy about it. Sometimes he could be such a teenager. Hopefully the kid would soon get a better idea of what he wanted. Something, anything, to make the kid less repetitively miserable. Schuldig would like to move on to more original misery, for both their sakes.

As Brad handed Aya and Nagi their keys, he said, "Meet us back here in about 15 minutes. If you don't arrive here within 17 I'll go get you. You don't want that to happen."

Aya raised an eyebrow in answer to that, while Nagi just looked annoyed. Then Schwarz separated into three groups.

The cottages really were right on the beach, and Schuldig immediately saw some people enjoying their time there in the buff. While some of them had bodies they shouldn't be so freely displaying in public, others looked damned good.

"How fortuitous for us that Nagi's suite isn't this close to the beach so he won't get to see this until sometime after we return from shopping," Brad said.

"Yeah, he'll probably be bitching so much about the shopping that we won't want to hear him bitching about the nudity too. He really needs to space it out, pace himself," Schuldig answered.

Once inside, he decided that he liked the cottage a lot. Nicely appointed but looking more homey than extravagant, it had a bedroom with a very nice big bed, a living room/dining room area, a bathroom with a very large tub, and a kitchenette. The veranda outside would let them enjoy the outdoors with some privacy if they wanted.

After looking around, Brad said, "Not bad. It's not cheesy."

"If Farf's cottage has a tub that large too he's going to be a really happy camper."

Within 15 minutes Schwarz reconvened, all of them dressed in lighter clothing, and rode the hotel van into town. Schuldig smirked over at Aya and his now visible hickeys the whole way, to Rose-red's annoyance and discomfiture. Eventually Schuldig said, "If you hate getting looked at, you'll either have to start wearing chokers or tell Farf to stop mauling your neck."

"We'll need chokers," Farfarello answered firmly.

"I can see that we'll have to have a talk," Aya replied.

Nagi rolled his eyes, while Schuldig smiled at the driver trying to pretend he didn't hear that conversation.

The driver had actually listened when Brad told him to take them clothes shopping at a place that stocked more than touristy crap, because the store he brought them to had a nice selection, from a debonair hat and linen ensemble for Crawford that gave him something of a "Hungry Like the Wolf" air to the black straw cowboy-styled hat Farfarello plopped on Aya's head to go with his summer-weight alt clothes. Although Farf usually hated hunting for clothes, he happily shopped for things for Aya, who even decided to accept some of them. Aya did him the same favor. Having failed to find much in dark colors aside from black, Nagi loaded up on black. They all bought swimsuits under Schuldig's constant nagging but only Schuldig got a skimpy Speedo. They could be such cowards. Schuldig actually missed the touristy crap, having been brokenhearted when one of their missions had destroyed his prized "Shuck me, suck me, eat me raw" T-shirt he'd picked up in New Orleans.

Brad picked up sunscreen with a high SPF for the whole team. Although some of them looked paler than others, all of them spent most of their outside time at night and showed the effects of that. Besides, Schuldig might not burn easily, but he felt that he didn't need any more freckles. At least the ones he did have usually hid under clothing, like on his shoulders, to be revealed only to his intimates. He also needed to protect the Kaiser and the boys when going the naturist route.

On the way back Aya and Brad also picked up some groceries to go along with the remaining stuff from their time in Munich. While Schuldig would be perfectly happy to take advantage of the free continental breakfast and eat out the rest of the time, those two had some ambition of making some meals in the kitchenettes. Whatever. Schuldig had his mind open on the ride back to glean what entertainment waited out there for them.

"Schuldig, if you stick your head any further out the window people will think you're the family dog," Nagi said as he rolled his eyes.

"Woof," Schuldig responded with a tolerant, beaming grin.


	247. "Arrrr, I'll be taking your booty, matey."

As they walked back alone along the beach to their cottage, Aya suddenly said, "There are a lot of naked people walking around."

"You just noticed?" Farfarello asked. "They were here before too."

Aya sounded defensive as he answered, "I had other things on my mind before." Then he sighed. "I like to think I pay more attention to my surroundings than that."

Poor kitten. "Does the nudity bother you?"

"It's... surprising but doesn't bother me much. I'm thinking more about sand getting into areas one doesn't want it."

That disappointed Farfarello because he enjoyed shocking his kitten. Aya's shock could be so beautiful. Were public baths and hot springs vacations to blame for his blasé attitude?

Farfarello could only go forward. "I agree on the sand but otherwise don't mind it. The Church wants people to be disgusted by the bodies their Creator gave them, which makes no sense. People are stupid. I'd go naked more often if bodies had been designed with pockets and straps."

"That's very practical of you."

"God should have thought ahead." Wait. "Are you humoring me?"

"A bit," his puisín responded with a small smile as he unlocked the door.

They had a cottage to themselves. With luck, the mindbreaker would be too busy leading Crawford into debauchery in _their_ cottage to interfere with them. He hoped Nagi found something to do that would keep him away as well. If not, Farfarello might have to find something _for_ him.

He sat on the counter swinging his legs as Aya put their groceries away. Domesticity. Still, they were on vacation, and Farfarello wouldn't let his kitten spend all his time in workaday activities.

"Do you like it here?" Farfarello asked him.

"The sun's a bit much, but I like the warmth and the beach. It's so green here too."

When Aya put the last thing away, Farfarello left the counter to gently push his kitten back against the refrigerator, body to body, and kiss him. Although Aya responded well to the kiss, once he broke away for breath he said, "We're not going to spend our whole time here fucking."

"What else would you have us doing?"

"Eating out. Enjoying the beach. Swimming. It's beautiful outside." Aya's enthusiasm started to cool as his eyes took on a familiar look.

Farfarello recognized it easily and snarled, "She would want you to live. You've mourned and mourned for months. No one would believe you have stinted on it and haven't suffered enough, so let it go already."

That put a flare of anger into Aya's expression, so pretty. "You...."

Farfarello had to kiss his mouth, so he did. It so surprised Aya that he didn't react to it until it was over. "It's time to live," Farfarello said as he stroked Aya's hair.

It might be pushing it too hard, and his kitten had been doing better than expected the past few days, but they didn't have so much time to waste in this location that Farfarello could afford to coddle him much longer. He wanted to see Aya wear less, soak up the warmth, and be more uninhibited. They'd be returning to winter soon enough.

Aya trembled a bit with what Farfarello guessed to be a volatile mixture of rage and depression, while Farfarello kept stroking, refusing to back off. Finally, Aya let out a long breath and allowed Farfarello to move in closer for a hug, which reminded him of how good it had felt to be a comforting presence for his kitten on the couch, someone to lean on, yesterday. His strength could be used to protect and support as well as kill. Perhaps God had wanted him to be nothing more than a mad dog, a simple killer, and that was why He had ripped his family from him and shown him that everyone he'd ever trusted as a child had been a liar. If so, His will should be thwarted.

Farfarello had to remember that even though sex had sealed the deal he had won Aya over through patience, gentleness, and sensuality. Force only took him part of the way.

Aya made some allowances for him, so he should return the favor. Perhaps if the kitten came to lean on Farfarello more he'd get through his extravagant grief faster. Anything that might work was worth a shot.

Farfarello maneuvered them to and down onto the bed, which was surely a more practical place to throw what might be an extended wallowing session. Usually he wouldn't care that much, but he'd associated himself into his body more to get more sensation during the stroking process and wished to be as comfortable as possible. Although lying down would be optimal, Aya wouldn't descend out of a seated position, but Farfarello could make do with that, especially since his kitten felt ambrosial in his embrace. Nagi would give a lot to be in Farfarello's place right now, not that Farfarello would give him the opportunity, especially not with his kitten now clasping him tighter and clenching his fists in the back of Farfarello's shirt. Especially not with Aya kissing him with such intensity, which made him want to purr and cackle simultaneously. He reciprocated enthusiastically.

Aya was a special brand of unpredictable in that he was _totally_ predictable until he hit certain mental points that took him totally off the grid. It made him so much more interesting.

******************************************************

Once Crawford finished putting the groceries away he went out to join Schuldig in watching people from the veranda. Sprawled on a chair, Schu looked _good_, relaxed and predatory, a tiger lounging on his branch watching the prey pass by unaware of how they were being judged and marked from above. It galled Crawford that he hadn't even realized how worn out and stressed out Schuldig had come to look until it had ceased.

"You see it now, so it's cool," Schuldig said. "There are _a lot_ of pretty people around here. We have to go out and have some fun with them."

"We?" Crawford asked, amused.

"I enjoy telling you about my exploits, but I want you there with me, watching and doing. You know I need at least one woman to make up for last night's disappointments."

"They'll take one look at your back and get wrong ideas about what you're into and what I do to you."

Pouting, Schuldig answered, "Damn it, I hate it when I do something that bites me in the ass. Or, in this case, claws and spurs my back. But I'm not going on the prowl shirtless. People won't get to see that until we've sealed the deal, and then I can decide whether I can mess with their heads."

"I remember you wanted to learn to surf too."

Schuldig's pout turned sourer. "Maybe I can telepathically convince my instructor that there's nothing to see there. You really like to rub my nose in it, don't ya?"

"It's one of my greatest pleasures."

"You really don't have to suck that much."

"I believe that I do."

"Or be that smug."

"That's how we match up."

"You're such a bastard." But Schuldig smiled at it a little. "Is this your way of trying to keep me to yourself?"

"Not necessarily. Not that I'd mind."

"I see. I might be persuaded to stay in and give my back a longer chance to heal. I'd have to fuck you, though. It's dependent on that. It'd have to be me plundering your ass."

Crawford decided he didn't mind that and knew Schuldig would do his best to make it good for him, but he still had to answer, "'Plundering'? It sounds like we're having an adventure on the high seas."

"Arrrr, I'll be taking your booty, matey."

"...that's terrible."

"So?"

"Yes, but it better be incredible."

Grinning, Schuldig stood up. "Cool. I have to go get something or maybe some _things_ in town, but I'll be back with dinner. See ya."

It sounded like cause for fear and anticipation. Crawford wondered whether he should try to look ahead or not and decided not to for now.

******************************************************

Restless, Nagi had to leave the room but nothing he put on made him happy. He'd been forced to settle. Heat didn't agree with computers or him. Besides, hot weather clothing tended to look sloppy or slutty. There was too damned much revealed skin, and in circumstances where it was often slick looking and shiny from sweat and/or sunscreen. Gross. Another debit came in how he could wear clothing that made him look slutty, even younger, or some unholy combination of both. He didn't feel like breaking any pedophiles today.

Would some black eyeliner help? No, he'd be better off getting an idea of the area's mores before he tried that. Preferring not to go outside in a hat unless it turned out to be absolutely necessary--he'd applied sunscreen--he put on black lightweight pants, a black T-shirt, sunglasses, and black sandals, distributed his ID and some money amongst his pockets, and went outside.

He really didn't like the idea of being able to see his individual toes while walking outside. It seemed too strange. If he were barefoot at a beach or pool, that felt different. Okay somehow.

Nagi passed a lot of people but felt completely separated from them. How the hell did Yoji do what he did, live life the way he did? How did he make it look so _easy_? It probably helped him that he looked like a groomed metrosexual on the make while Nagi looked like a disgruntled goth or hacker teen, which might be accurate but didn't lead to as many people figuring he would be open to conversation... which for the most part he wasn't anyway.

Nagi never felt more alone than when near other people.

Wait a minute. Why were there so many naked people walking around outside?

...he'd have to kill Schuldig. Apparently he hadn't put enough fear into him, or perhaps it had just been too long since he'd last reminded the wretch what he could do to him.

Actually, not everyone looked all that bad, but Nagi couldn't let something like this slide. Discipline had to be maintained. If you gave Schuldig a millimeter he took kilometers.

Nagi decided to take a look at the hotel's complex first then branch out into the surrounding areas. While on the stroll he could eavesdrop on people to find out if they had any suggestions on the best places to go. It didn't escape him that he approached vacationing using tactics similar to what he used for work.

******************************************************

Schuldig returned two hours later, grinning, with bags in hands and the scent of mildly spicy chicken wafting around him. Crawford said, "It appears that you found what you wanted."

"Oh yeah," Schuldig nearly purred. "Do you want to see what I bought now or wait until after dinner?"

"Now."

Schuldig set the bag that smelled most strongly of food aside to reach into the other one. First he pulled out a small bag that contained the usual party favors like condoms, lubricant, and wipes, nothing exciting. Then he pulled out a large box, set it down on the table, and took the top off, letting Crawford see a mass of orange, deep red, black, and white fur. Schuldig reached in, brought it out, and put it down on the box top, straightening it with stroking hands.

"...it's a fox tail attached to an anal plug," Crawford said. It had to be for Schuldig, because if Schuldig ever grew a tail it would surely look a lot like this, nearly matching his hair. "Is the tail as soft as it looks?"

"Yes. Maybe more so. Actual fur. Try for yourself."

When Crawford ran his fingers along it, he had it confirmed. _So_ soft. It was attached to a black silicone plug. He couldn't help imagining it going in and how Schuldig would look wearing it.

"I'll be wearing that while I fuck you." Smirking, Schuldig asked, "Are you regretting that you asked to see it before dinner?"

Yes, but he refused to admit it. "Anticipation can add spice to life."

"Adding spice to your life is what I'm here for." Schuldig left the food bag on the dining room table then came back with plates, cups, and utensils. "Napkins are in the bag. Serve yourself."

They sat across from each other and ate quietly for a bit, with Crawford concentrating on the meal to avoid thinking about later. Fortunately, the quality of the chicken and vegetables helped. "Where did you get this?"

"I read some locals' minds to find out what they considered the best food places to be. I guess they have good taste."

"Is this more of you proving how good telepathy can be for vacationing?"

"I don't have to prove it--it's just true--but you're welcome to think of it that way. If I ever get too slow and old for killing people I might choose 'travel guide' as my new vocation. You always say it's good to have a backup plan."

"But you don't always listen to me."

"I listen when you're saying something useful or important."

As Crawford finished his meal, he got a second's arousing flash of foresight before he felt Schuldig's bare foot slide up his shin, stroking. Crawford thought his voice came out pleasingly even and bland as he asked, "And you thought _I_ was the impatient one tonight?"

"I'm just playing. We're on vacation, after all. If you minded you wouldn't be spreading your legs to give me better access right now."

"True." He breathed deeper as Schuldig's foot slid along his inner thigh before pressing against and stroking his growing erection. His pants felt much too tight now, and he knew Schuldig had much greater dexterity in his hands than his feet. He'd almost finished the meal anyway, giving Schuldig his way in some little things often made him more avid, and the more Crawford thought about that tail the more... curious he became. "Bedroom. Now."

Grinning, Schuldig asked, "Are you sure? I know you have an iron will and so much self-control...."

Crawford stood. "My iron will and self-control are preventing me from grabbing you and throwing you in there. So _now_."

The grin widened. "Yes, sir."

Crawford grabbed the supplies and tail while Schuldig scooted into the bedroom. As he entered the room he saw his telepath already undoing the buttons of his shirt with speed, anticipating his wants. Crawford had to appreciate the cooperation involved and felt that all teamwork should be so quick and accommodating. Although it would be more efficient for him to start stripping simultaneously, he couldn't get past undoing his fly yet because doing more would get in the way of him watching Schuldig.

Schuldig let his pants drop to the floor, stepped out of them, set his hands on the top of the dresser, and spread his legs to better present his ass. Looking over his shoulder, he said, "Put my tail in."

It took a minute or two for the words to sink in because, looking at him with his ass up and out like that, Crawford wanted nothing more than to thrust in and ride him hard. It didn't help that he could see Schuldig getting harder and more excited the longer he lustfully stared at him, the exhibitionist. Even the air felt thick and tense with their lust and anticipation.

Schuldig's voice sounded deep and dark as he said, "I can put it in myself if I need to."

Crawford had to get a hold of himself; he had better self-control than this. "That's not necessary."

With Schuldig _so_ ready and panting for it, Crawford started with two slick fingers aimed right at Schuldig's prostate and smiled at the sound Schuldig made in response. He concentrated on fingerfucking him hard to try to avoid thinking of how much he wanting his cock in there doing that instead.

Schuldig rocked his hips, thrusting into air, and breathed hard. "The tail... in... in.... Dammit, Brad...."

Right. When he slid his fingers out Schuldig made a sound of what could almost be relief. Crawford prepared the plug then slid it up and in, enthralled by the fluttering breath Schuldig let out as it brushed his prostate and settled into place. He stepped back to get a better look.

It looked wrong and yet so right all at once. After wiping off his hands, Crawford stroked down from the ends of Schu's hair, down the hot skin of his back and ass, and down the sinfully soft tail all the way to its white tip. He had to ask, "Can you see yourself through my eyes?"

Schuldig's answer came out as a heated whisper. "Yes."

"Good."

"I can feel the fur caressing the back of my thighs...." Schu wiggled his ass to make the tail sway more.

In that moment Crawford felt it himself, soft brushes against sensitized bare skin and muscle clenching around the plug that filled him and felt so good. Usually he discouraged Schu from giving him telepathic impressions during sex, but he currently couldn't find the motivation to complain or shield himself better. Besides, he only received a minute of the sensations and felt almost disappointed when they ended.

When Schuldig turned to face Crawford, his pupils had dilated so much that his blue eyes looked much darker. As they kissed and humped each other, Schuldig undid the buttons of Crawford's shirt while Crawford played with the base of the plug and start of the tail. Crawford usually didn't find kissing this absorbing, even when they were both writhing against each other. Once Schuldig finished with the shirt, Crawford took it, his pants, and underwear off then gasped as Schu nuzzled and kissed behind his right ear while taking both of their slick cocks in his hand to rub them together. It was so good, and Crawford put more energy into thrusting harder, faster.

"Wait. Heh. That was a bad idea," Schuldig said, sounding breathless.

"Feels like a damned good idea to me." Despite his best effort, Crawford sounded breathless himself.

"I don't want to come until I'm inside you, with your tight ass hot and perfect around my cock."

Crawford refused to let such a cliché affect him, but his body reacted to those words with the eagerness of a trained dog, his heart beating a bit faster and his hips moving. He did manage to stop himself from making any sounds of disappointment as Schuldig's hand let go of him.

"I'll make it worth your while," Schu murmured as he started to kiss, lick, and occasionally suck his way down Crawford's neck toward his chest, slowly descending toward the floor, as his hands settled on Crawford's ass.

Crawford had a sudden precognitive flash image of Schuldig kneeling on the floor as he sucked Crawford's cock, head bobbing beneath Crawford's grasping fingers, half-closed eyes looking upward through his lashes, his back and ass a perfect slope ending in a fox tail, with the fading bruises and scratch arcs on Schuldig's skin somehow adding to the eroticism of the image. He nearly came just from the sight.

"Are you all right?" Schuldig asked against his stomach, taking a break from flicking his tongue in Crawford's navel, torturously close to yet so far from where Crawford wanted his tongue and where foresight said he would end up.

"...yes." Some of his visions gave a shock to his system and made him go flaccid, but this one had arrived gently and easily, more like the moments of knowledge about the immediate future he had that did things like help him make Aya look like an idiot while trying to fight him.

"I wasn't sure if it was a good sign or bad one that you actually got harder. Aside from how it hit my chin."

"I'll try not to beat you to death with my huge, rock-hard cock."

Schuldig's snorting laughter tickled. "Good idea. That way you won't have to explain my death to the team."

"They probably wouldn't be surprised, though Nagi would be disgusted." Not even mentioning Nagi could dim his lust.

He set his hands in Schu's long, soft hair and stroked it, occasionally pressing his fingertips into his telepath's scalp, smiling at the rumbling sounds of pleasure it inspired. He'd have to be careful not to pull too hard on it later, because Schuldig reacted viciously and immediately to that and he had no urge to spend a few hours with a bag of ice against his crotch.

Schuldig licked and rubbed his lips against his balls before licking and doing little teasing sucks at the head of his cock. Crawford had forgiven his telepath a number of things over the years based on the quality of Schu's cocksucking. Sad but true. Worse, Schuldig had realized that and used it. But Crawford did demand he kneel and behave in the most submissive way possible during it and if he were really pissed off would put off coming as long as possible while Schuldig had to keep trying. If the telepath bitched about his sore jaw later, Crawford would answer that Schuldig should have thought about that before he'd done whatever he'd done.

It was amazing that they'd ever started having sex with each other since without having an agenda.

Schuldig must have noticed Crawford's slightly wandering attention, because he did something with his tongue and lips that brought Crawford right back into the moment and made him have to lean back against the wall to take it. It just about sucked the brains out of his skull.

Looking down gave Crawford the déjà vu of his vision made flesh, but the precognitive flash hadn't included the obscene humming noises Schu made or the heavy scent of their mutual arousal. It hadn't imparted the full sensations of Schu's hot, wet mouth and tongue along his hard flesh or the zing of Schu's long, soft hair running through his fingers. He hadn't gotten to see Schu's swollen lips sliding up and down the length of his slick cock. Fuck, he was close.

The expert cocksucking so engrossed him that at first he didn't notice Schuldig's lubricated fingers stroking behind his balls, but he sure as hell paid attention when they circled his hole before thrusting in to fuck him. He came so hard he saw sparks, and when he could see straight again he found his body moving along with his telepath's fingers still inside him, scissoring, as Schu licked his lips and looked smug.

"Your ass is mine," Schuldig said, sounding a little hoarse.

Crawford found it hard to think. "Are you... going to do me against the wall like this... or in the bed?"

"Bed, I think."

Fortunately, bed wasn't far away and Schu slid his fingers out to stop distracting him. Looking wild yet intent, Schu pushed him to lie down on his back and spread his legs open with firm but stroking touches. As he waited, breathing hard, Crawford was surprised to notice that the sheets and pillow under him felt worn-soft and smelled vaguely lemony, more like something in someone's home than in a hotel. He shivered as Schuldig lightly circled his hole with his fingers before rubbing it with what had to be the head of his slick cock.

"Ready for me?" Schuldig asked, smiling widely.

Hell yes. "Give it to me."

Schuldig started with small, slow, shallow thrusts in, so distracting and maddening. It made Crawford more aware of the friction and burn, more aware of being gradually filled. He wasn't used to taking it. Crawford said, "Give me more."

Schuldig's smile just about devoured his face. "Deeper, harder, faster?"

"_Yes_."

But while Schuldig went deeper, he didn't go that much faster or harder. It felt more like he was rocking into Crawford, and occasionally Crawford felt his balls rubbing against his ass. Maddening teases. He moved his body up and down on Schuldig's cock to force a faster, harder pace.

"If you're that willing to work for it, Brad, I guess you must really want it."

At last Schuldig started to move faster and harder, making the bed squeak rhythmically, hitting the right spot inside over and over. It felt so good and set him on fire. Why the hell didn't he do this more often? Crawford grabbed Schuldig by the arms and brought him close so they could kiss feverishly in a tangle of tongues, so Crawford could rub his cock against Schuldig's body for greater satisfaction.

He thought his telepath might be crooning into his mouth and perhaps murmuring over their telepathic link, radiating pleasure, telling him how good and tight and right he felt. He had the rare feeling that Schuldig was focused completely on him, lost in _his_ body, not responding to or being inspired by anyone else's lust or sexual exploits.

In a sudden flash of vision, Crawford foresaw Schuldig fucking him as if he watched it from a different vantage point. He saw Schu's strong, lithe body moving in and out of his, tail swaying along with his thrusts, beautiful and obscene. But looking at it from that direction showed Crawford what more should be done.

Thought and coordination were more difficult than usual, but Crawford half-thought he might have managed to trap Schuldig in position with his legs and feet. His searching, groping hands found Schu's tail, slid down to the flared base of the plug, and clumsily moved it to fuck him with it. Schuldig just about shrieked in response and started to pound him harder. It was too much and not enough, and he was so close but not quite there yet....

When he twisted the plug during a downstroke Schuldig bit his shoulder and he came _hard_, feeling his whole body clench and release and take Schu with him. He lost track of time for a bit until Schu started to squirm and said, "You have to let me go. I could fight my way free but don't feel like doing it." But he said it with a grin.

Crawford realized that he still had Schuldig's limbs trapped and let him go. Although he felt sleepy and somewhat dazed he was aware of how gently Schuldig disengaged from him and wiped them both down. As he drifted off to sleep he felt Schuldig take his glasses off and snuggle in to his side, tail presumably still in.


	248. "This is one of the reasons why we get along."

Aya woke up suddenly, alert and restless but not knowing why. Moonlight coming in through the windows gave a faint glow to Farfarello's silver hair and pale skin. With his blind side down, Farfarello looked pretty, as if his facial scars had been put there as decoration or punctuation, touches of exoticism to break up the generic attractiveness of his features. The breeze from the ceiling fan occasionally ruffled his hair. It took time, effort, and strategy to free himself from Farfarello's tangling limbs without waking him, and Aya employed all three.

Aya couldn't help feeling annoyed at himself. He'd started asserting that they wouldn't pass the entire vacation in sex to distract themselves from their problems, issues, and challenges, then he'd distracted himself from them by initiating sex with Farfarello. Stupid. If he continued being so inconsistent he'd never train his lover properly and Farfarello would continue to jump up on people.

Aya coughed to prevent the laugh that wanted to bubble up at the mental picture of Farfarello as a puppy-eared chibi with a cute spiked collar.

This didn't get him outside any faster. Still restless, Aya stood and put on sweatpants, a T-shirt, and sandals then walked out to the beach. The full moon so illuminated the area that he had a shadow and saw perfectly. In the distance some people had some lights up and continued to enjoy the beach. He avoided them by inclination. When he noticed Nagi sitting on a beach chair near the water Aya started to suspect that he _had_ been drawn here, though perhaps not intentionally.

Aya came to a stop next to Nagi's chair. "Hi."

The boy looked miserable before he blanked his face. "Hi, Aya. What are you doing up?"

"Something woke me up."

"I hope it wasn't me. If so, sorry. It may be Schuldig, though. I've been feeling horny and vaguely thinking about fur, so he's probably doing something obscene."

Aya sat on the cool, damp sand beside the chair. "When isn't he?"

"True."

If Nagi's misery had summoned Aya here, Aya didn't mind. He hoped he could help. "How was your day?"

"It's pretty here."

"That's faint praise."

"I don't want to complain to you."

"You don't use that attitude with any other member of the team."

Nagi smiled a little. Success. "You really want me to complain to you?"

"I'm asking for it."

"Begging for it?"

"I wouldn't go that far."

"I can't deal with the party atmosphere, and everybody here seems to have companions already. I don't know what to do with myself."

"I told Farfarello I wanted to see the area, eat out, and enjoy the beach, but he didn't seem enthused. Maybe we could do it together."

Nagi's bright, wide smile transformed his face. "That would be great. Farfarello would try to _kill_ me, but it would be great." The smile left him. "That would be kind of pathetic of me, though."

"Spending time with a friend while on vacation? Most people do it. I doubt most of the people here are with recent strangers they just met now. You know I'm right."

Nagi's expression started to lighten again. "I wouldn't go that far, but I think you might have a point."

"I usually do. People don't always see it, and that's their fault."

"You're blameless, huh?"

"I swear it."

"Nobody accepts blame on this team, so why should you?"

"Something like that. Is your room nice?"

Nagi's lower lip did a minute quiver that suddenly hit Aya with the déjà vu feeling of watching Omi trying to hold in some hurt and be brave. Omi had come to Aya now and then for comfort, which Aya had never realized until later, and Aya had rarely known what to do for it.

"Nagi," Aya said before he kneeled beside the chair to hug him. Nagi stiffened in what might be surprise at first but then melted into him, putting his arms around him and trembling. That quelled Aya's anxiety by showing him that he'd responded properly this time. Poor Omi, who'd been the test case he'd failed.

With that, Aya suddenly thought of all of Weiß. He'd seen a lot of them in recent weeks and taken it for granted, too caught up in the drama of his sister's remains and all the events with the talents to really think about them. Yoji had even helped bring him out of a coma. He hadn't even started to process it before. Tuned into Nagi's loneliness and need for comfort, Aya missed them all now. This was crazy.

"I really brought you down. I'm sorry," Nagi said against his neck, that small bit of heat shocking in the relative cool of the night.

"No, it's okay. I needed to see something." Aya rested his hand at the back of Nagi's head to lightly stroke his hair. "The room is a problem?"

"It's pretty...."

"Yes?"

"But it's lonely too." Nagi shook his head. "It's stupid. I think I just feel isolated in general, so it got to me."

Holding Nagi like this felt good. Why hadn't he done this with any of his old team? Right, he could admit to himself now that he hadn't wanted to feel good about anything ever then, feeling that he hadn't deserved to.

Nagi had been so withdrawn, and this was the most animated Aya had seen him lately. It made Aya's course clear. "You could stay with us. We have room, and a big bed."

"Farfarello would love that."

Farfarello occasionally needed to be reminded that Aya wasn't a possession he could lock away in a cabinet where no one else could interact with or look at him. Aya asked, "You can't protect yourself from him?"

"I could--no problem--but, Aya, I'm attracted to you, and Schuldig will be putting out perv vibes at random."

"You can't control yourself?"

"I can't control my dreams."

"If it would make you uncomfortable, you don't have to be in our bed. I just don't want to invite you to stay with us but leave you to sleep on the couch."

"I appreciate the offer. I just don't know if I should accept."

"I'm... a big boy."

Nagi smirked. "That's for sure."

"I can handle anything you do. Short of tearing me to pieces."

"I wouldn't do that."

Aya couldn't help feeling that Nagi wanted to be convinced into acquiescing. "Then I'm safe. I can withstand some unconscious snuggling and groping. I have to be able to on this team. I wouldn't return it but also wouldn't blame you for it."

"Hnh. Okay."

"Okay, what?"

"I'll spend the night at your cottage. In your bed. I'll try to behave myself."

"No tearing me apart."

"No tearing you apart. I can swear to that." Nagi smiled. "I can't promise that for Farfarello if he--"

"No tearing _anyone_ apart. Self-defense, yes, excessive force, no." It would be unrealistic and dangerous to put someone in bed with Farfarello without allowing him to defend himself.

"Okay."

"Let's get some stuff from your room."

After some hesitation, Nagi let go of him, Aya brushed sand off himself, and they walked to Nagi's suite. "This _is_ a nice room," Aya said when they were inside.

"Shut up," Nagi answered, though he sounded fond. He picked up his computer bag and threw some clothes and toiletries into a tote.

"If Farfarello gets on my nerves, I know where I can go for shelter and peace."

"...I'm actually not sure whether I should encourage or discourage that."

"Encourage me," Aya answered with a small smile.

Nagi smiled back. "Just remember that you told me to." Then he paused. "Wait, are we flirting?"

Were they? "You _know_ you're asking the wrong person."

"True."

He knew Nagi had a crush on him but hoped that he wouldn't make things worse tonight. This might be a terrible idea, but Nagi had been so miserable here and spent so much time in Vienna and Munich shunted somewhere off to the side. There had to be a way to show his... affection without leading Nagi on, and he meant to find it.

"Ready?" Aya asked.

"Yep."

"Let's go."

Nagi looked even more relaxed walking back to the cottage. "It really is pretty here," he said.

"Yeah."

"I'm not so big on the public nudity. I'm sure Schuldig knew about it in advance, so he'll have to pay."

"I look forward to it. He could use some of that."

"This is one of the reasons why we get along."

As expected, Farfarello half woke up, ready to spring, when Aya opened the front door, so Aya tried to send calming "it's me" vibrations his way. It seemed to work from how he sighed and settled back down into the sheets. Aya felt a weird, naughty thrill from getting into bed between Farfarello and Nagi. He should be too mature for that. Besides, he wasn't doing anything wrong.

As Nagi curled up against him, Aya felt a warm wave of protectiveness wash over him. When Aya embraced him, Nagi let out a soft breath and relaxed completely, quickly falling asleep. This couldn't be wrong. Aya could make things better for Nagi; he _would_. After Farfarello moved closer to Aya's back and draped one arm over his waist, Aya fell asleep as well.

******************************************************

Crawford woke before morning and heard Schuldig mumble as that dragged the telepath a little closer to consciousness. Putting his glasses on gave him an excellent view of Schuldig's sprawled, long body, the moonlight leeching color from his hair and tail. Fuck, the tail. Schuldig still had it in, and the sight of it made Crawford's cock harden and throb in time to his heartbeat and the dull ache in his ass. He didn't know how an ache could be erotic, but somehow this one managed it. Maybe it struck him that way because it made him so aware of himself and the pleasure Schu had brought him earlier. Remembering Schuldig's little display as he'd presented himself to get the tail put in and how much he'd wanted to just fuck Schuldig then, Crawford felt a spike of renewed lust.

Earlier it had been all about Schuldig doing things to and for him. This time he intended to reciprocate. He couldn't let Schuldig one-up him.

He put a condom on and set a tube of lubricant nearby, then stroked down Schuldig's ass before doing light, teasing circles around the place where Schu's body ended and the tail began. Shuddering, his toes curling, Schuldig murmured and moved his ass into Crawford's touches. Once Crawford had the flared base of the plug in his hand, he carefully slid it out and set it neatly aside, knowing they'd want to play with it some other time. He'd noticed before and now that Schuldig had chosen a slim plug, possibly in deference to Crawford's preferences.

Eyes half open and heavy-lidded, Schuldig looked over his shoulder at Crawford, challenging. He let out sexy little moans when Crawford applied lubricant to two of his fingers and rimmed him with them, occasionally sliding them shallowly inside.

"Up on your knees," Crawford said, lust deepening his voice.

Schuldig looked amused but complied, positioning himself on hands and knees with his ass pushed out and legs spread, all but daring Crawford to take him. Kneeling on the bed himself, Crawford grabbed Schuldig's hips and pushed in on one long stroke, biting his lower lip at being fully sheathed in that snug heat.

"Lean back against me," Crawford said. As soon as Schuldig did, Crawford took Schuldig's hard cock in one fist and started to stroke up and down, occasionally twisting his fist around. Panting, Schu put his arms back, set his hands on Crawford's ass, and tried to move Crawford's hips forward by force, wordlessly demanding to be fucked. "You want it?" Crawford knew he sounded smug, although he'd kept himself to shallow thrusts thus far only by concentrating on his actions and the feel of Schuldig's hair rubbing against his chest, shoulder, and neck.

"Yes, dammit." Schuldig moved his hips back to take Crawford in deeper and hissed as that movement made Crawford's hand slide along his cock. "I didn't tease _you_ this badly."

Crawford rubbed his thumb along the head of Schu's cock and pinched his nipple. It felt so good to have his telepath, hot and solid, in his grip and against and around him. "I'm not teasing. I fully intend to deliver."

"Eventually?"

"Maybe I want you to come before I start to _really_ fuck you."

"Yeah, but if I do my muscles will clench around your dick, like so--" Schuldig briefly squeezed down on his cock to make him gasp before relaxing again, "--but for longer, and you won't outlast me by much."

That clench had certainly brought Crawford a few minutes closer to orgasm. "Perhaps we can come to a compromise." He sped up his hips and handwork a bit, enjoying the friction.

Schuldig lolled his head back and undulated in response. "Ohhhh, that's better. That's getting there. Give me more of that."

"Bossy."

"You'll like it."

Crawford nipped at Schuldig's bared neck. "I'll make sure of it even if you don't."

Schuldig pouted. "Even if I don't like it?"

"Even if you don't work hard to get me to like it. I know you'll like it. I'm that good."

Moving wantonly and sensuously as Crawford fucked and jerked him, Schuldig smiled and said breathlessly, "Ye of little faith. You should know me better by now. Even though I make it look easy, I always work hard."

Crawford couldn't really deny that.

Kissing shouldn't get him this much more excited, but Schuldig had such a gift for communicating different things with it. At the moment, Schuldig did short, open-mouthed kisses that he would break to gasp for air or moan out an "Oh!" It was so hot that Crawford had to fuck him harder in the hope of garnering even more impassioned sounds, and it worked. Each new "Oh!" and "Ah!" sounded more desperate, raising Crawford's lust as he heard them, and Schuldig's kisses became faster and nearly feverish.

Schuldig's hand moved over his on Schuldig's cock, sometimes clasping or mirroring, sometimes moving to stroke another part of his cock or his balls. Schuldig's nipples were hard and peaked, and he figured that his own were as well from the feel of Schuldig's back rubbing insistently against them. His own body felt so sensitive.... As Crawford pushed and pulled Schu towards orgasm, he felt so strongly that they did all of this _together_, joined. Schuldig came hard, crying out his name, radiating pleasure, his body rippling against Crawford's body and around his cock, and Crawford followed.

Satisfied and sleepy, Crawford drifted in glorious afterglow atop his lover until Schuldig mumbled, "I have to get out of the wet spot."

Crawford blew Schu's hair away from his mouth. "You're ruining the mood."

"The wet spot is very big and very wet, and I'm lying facedown in it pinned under your weight, so my mood isn't as swoony as yours." But he sounded much more fond than petulant.

The very real possibility of being stuck to his telepath didn't appeal either. Crawford disengaged, cleaned himself up a bit, felt some tiny stirrings of lust as he watched Schu applying one of the wipes to himself, and took off his glasses. Drowsy, he settled back under the sheets at his telepath's side. Fortunately, the bed was large enough that they could avoid the wet spot if they tangled together a bit. Above the scents of sex and sweat, he could still detect the faint tang of airplane interior when he buried his nose in Schuldig's hair and drifted to sleep.

******************************************************

When Nagi half opened his eyes, he didn't know where he was or who he was with but certainly felt comfortable, nestled in soft sheets that smelled vaguely lemony, held protectively by someone strong, and nuzzling into silky hair and a warm neck. He also thought he might be humping this wonderful person a bit in his horniness. The humping hadn't earned a negative reaction so Nagi let his hands wander a bit, lightly skimming over a tight ass and really incredible abs. Seriously, who had abs like this? It had to take a lot of work. He kind of wished the person holding him would grope him back in reciprocation, but even though Nagi could feel he was half-hard the guy just made a soft "mmm" sound and snuggled in closer.

Seeing as how they were both half-hard, maybe Nagi could wake him up for some sex. No, that would be rude. Besides, he liked the snuggling too and found the mild frustration pleasurable in its own way.

Nagi couldn't quite make out his companion's hair color in the mix of moonlight and darkness that filled the room, and the person held him too close for him to get a better look. He'd never picked someone up for a night in his life--wait, Yoji? No, he didn't count--so he couldn't figure out how he'd ended up like this. If he did figure it out, maybe he could think of a way to make it happen more often.

It suddenly hit him that he had _Aya_ wrapped around him because nobody else he knew had hair cut like this. Wow. Was he dreaming? He didn't think so. Not that he would poke at the matter or situation, because then he might wake up and it would be game over. So let this last for a while.

This might be real. In Nagi's Aya-in-bed-with-him dreams, Aya probably wouldn't be wearing any clothes, while this one did. Nagi had clothes on too.

Aya felt so good, _solid_. Nagi didn't think he could imagine this so well in a dream. Then again, he doubted the real Aya had two right arms, one somewhat shorter than the other, to sling over Nagi. Did Aya have one sprouting out of his back? That would be so weird. Like, Aya as an Indian god. But the Indian god of what? Nagi didn't know, nor could he figure out if Aya had two left arms too.

It wasn't that important anyway. Nagi was happy where he was and with the person he was with. Aya could have as many arms as he wanted. Nagi kissed Aya then closed his eyes and settled back into a deeper sleep.


	249. "We should start a band!"

Yoji had been good. He hadn't made a nuisance of himself or demanded anything, figuring Omi would let him know without him making a pest of himself because he was so obviously interested in any information that came in.

Yeah, that hadn't worked, and he'd had it with being left in the dark.

Happily, he got Omi on his first try instead of a voice message machine. "Hi, Omi. It's Yoji."

"All right, what do you want?" Omi asked, sounding somewhat aggrieved.

It annoyed Yoji. "If you'd called me with an update I wouldn't be doing this now, and I don't call you just for fun anymore because you told me how busy you are."

"Right. Sorry, it's been a bad day. Update on what?"

"Aya, his sister? C'mon, Omi, it wasn't that long ago."

"I didn't see a point in 'updating' you, because he won't be back in Japan for a while. I didn't get told when he'll return because supposedly they don't know either."

"He'll be traveling Europe with his sister's remains in a box? What the hell?" Not even Schwarz could be that fucked up.

"No, the remains were shipped here, and I interred them at the family monument."

"But Aya's not with them? That doesn't sound like him." Even if it seemed healthier to Yoji. "Was he the one who arranged it?"

"No, it was Crawford, but they must have convinced him since otherwise he would have snuck back here by now."

Damned right Aya would. "Maybe they prevented him."

"Maybe, but they'd have to be careful about how they did it if they wanted him to still cooperate."

"True. So where are they?"

"On vacation in the Caribbean."

"Crawford's aware of this?"

"Crawford was involved in it. Maybe he decided that after everything they'd gone through in Vienna they really needed a break."

"He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who has a heart."

"And you're closer to him than I am, so you'd know." Omi sounded wry.

"Ha, ha. Not _that_ close."

"I offered to let Aya return to us with his sister's remains since I knew they were important to him and he doesn't vacation well. Crawford refused."

"Of course he did." Would Schwarz take care of Aya well enough on vacation? Aya could be difficult in general, and now he had another layer of guilt and grief on top.

The Caribbean. Yoji tried to imagine Aya and Schwarz having fun in the sun on a beach somewhere--laying out sunbathing, making sand castles, surfing, playing volleyball--but his brain stalled every time. Hell, just the idea of Schwarz vacationing didn't work. Also, Schuldig's ideas of recreation weren't conducive to other people relaxing.

"Have you already interred it?" Yoji asked.

"Yeah," Omi said. "There wasn't much in that box so I didn't see the need for a huge ceremony."

"No, I understand it." Yoji would have wanted to be involved only if Aya were there, needing comfort. "If you hear anything more about Aya, would you please let me know? Even if you don't think it's important." He hoped Omi didn't keep this information away from him out of some thought that he was too attached to Schwarz.

"All right."

"Wanna talk about your bad day?"

"Not really. I don't want to rehash it. But thanks. I have to go. If I'm not right on top of this organization every minute everything falls apart, and the decision I made in Vienna is having some aftereffects."

"You made the right choice. You _couldn't_ go along with what they were doing."

"I know. Now I just have to convince some of our satellites and affiliates."

"Go get 'em, tiger."

"Thanks, Yoji."

Yoji still wished he could think of a way to save Omi from what appeared to be his fate but hadn't figured any solutions out yet. He was still pondering it when he heard Ken yell, "Yoji, get your ass out here! The customers are swarming!"

******************************************************

That night the _new_, new Weiß had their first official mission together, and Yoji couldn't help feeling a small, illicit thrill of anticipation. Nervousness and dread too, performance anxiety of a kind, but part of him enjoyed what they did at night, even if it did make him a bad person.

Besides, he wondered how Sasha would do. They knew he could kill people and fight as part of the team, but that had been unofficial and improvised. How would he do with following their planning? He really wanted Sasha to succeed.

Yoji definitely wanted Sasha to do better on missions than he had on finding his way around Tokyo. At least he couldn't do worse. Worse would take a hell of a lot of effort.

Hopefully.

Sasha walked down the stairs with full, raccoon mask eyeliner on, the very picture of Misery. Yoji asked, "Sasha, why are you...."

"Huh? This?" Sasha smiled. "I know I was down on my luck when you first saw me looking like this, but this was my first step toward freedom and away from being one clone among many so I have a certain fondness and nostalgia for it. Also, there have been so many new and foreign things for me to deal with lately that something familiar feels good."

That made Yoji worry. "If you need any help, you know you can come to any of us, right?"

"Yeah! You've all been great. Don't worry about it. I just need time to adjust. This look is a style issue, not a cry for help. Besides, I think it looks cool."

Sasha hadn't been with them--well-fed, well-rested, and taken care of--for long, so there wasn't a huge difference, but he still looked much healthier than he had the last time Yoji'd seen him done up like this. "Yeah, it looks good," Yoji said.

Ken gave them a wise-assed look. "Yoji, tell him to get his book bag so you can take a picture of him on his first day at school."

"Hilarious, Ken. Your comedy skills are wasted in our line of work."

"C'mon, kids," Elena said. "The dark beasts won't kill themselves."

"Though it would be so cool if they would," Fenris answered. "Especially if we still got paid anyway."

"We're like the blond squad now," Yoji said. "With a token brunet."

"Somebody has to do the thinking around here," Ken replied.

"Obviously it's not you, Ken," Elena answered.

"I'm joking. Joking!"

"Good. I won't have to kill you."

"We should start a band!" Fenris said.

******************************************************

"Yoji, I said I was sorry," Ken said, sitting next to him in the back seat.

"I'm not dogging your tail about it," Yoji said. "It's just that I almost got shot--"

Ken looked upset. "I don't know how I missed him. I'll get them all next time."

"Sure, Ken. It happens. Once he had me in his sights and fired, nobody could have saved me but me."

It annoyed Yoji that he still felt a bit shaky about it, as if he hadn't had his life threatened so many times before. Maybe the upheaval came from how the bullet had him dead bang but he'd telekinetically knocked it aside once the shock cleared enough. Weirdly, he'd done it by instinct. Amazing. Scary. If he hadn't been a freak, he'd be dead now.

Good thing he'd been practicing, even if it had been half-assed. Nagi would have smacked him for not working harder at it, but what he'd bothered to do had saved his life.

That brought it all back to him again, Aya and Schwarz and all the shit that went down in Vienna that he kept trying to avoid thinking about. He missed them, which made him feel stupid because he'd just seen them, and he couldn't even call it a sex thing because he missed _them_, not just getting laid by some of them. God, he sounded like an addict. As if he hadn't been Mr. One Night, Mr. Love 'Em and Leave 'Em, once upon a time, not so long ago, mostly because his long-term relationships tended to end in tragedy. Not a single member of Schwarz belonged to him in any way.

He wondered how Aya was dealing with his grief and guilt and if Schwarz was taking care of him.

"Seeing you do that was cool, though," Ken said.

"Thanks, Ken," Yoji answered. Thankfully, being part of a team full of psionics had made Ken more accepting of this kind of thing.

"Not that I couldn't have saved my life if it had been me without resorting to that."

"You better be joking, Ken." It could be hard to tell with people sometimes, especially after a mission amped them up.

"Kind of."

From the front seat Elena said, "If you're going to start comparing dick sizes, I have to tell you that I have a larger one than both of you so _I_ win. Actually, I have several larger ones, in different colors."

"Uh," Ken answered.

"And if that's another reason to reconsider going out with me, Ken, please feel free to mention it soon. Piss or get off the pot so I can move on already."

"...wow."

Yoji had to smirk. "You're in it now, Ken."

"Sometimes I'm amazed you people are still alive," said a voice near Ken that sounded so much like Schuldig it sent a shiver down Yoji's spine and a wave of heat through his gut. Yoji felt Ken startle next to him and shift closer to Yoji and away from the voice. But it was Sasha. Of course it was Sasha.

"We bicker out of love, Sasha," Elena replied. "Though usually I wouldn't bring personal matters up right after a mission like this."

"No, it's not that. I can see how it would affect team dynamics," Sasha answered.

"I'd like to know which way Ken will go," Fenris said from the shotgun seat, "because it affects me too."

At least all that had defused the odd moment with Sasha's voice. For Yoji at least. Ken still seemed edgy, and for good reason.

Yoji said, "Guys, it's kind of unfair to put him on the spot while we're all stuck in a van together."

"There's no better time," Fenris answered.

"Sadist," Ken said.

"I'm just saying the truth!"

Elena sounded tired as she said, "I'm giving you two days to get your head together on whether you'll try dating me or not, Ken. No harm, no foul no matter what you decide, but I need a decision. It sucks waiting around for the hammer to fall."

"You're right," Ken replied, subdued. "You won't have to wait much longer."

"Good."

They drove in tense silence for a while until Sasha asked, "How was I?" probably in an effort to defuse the situation as well as from wanting to know.

"I thought you did well," Elena replied. "You haven't gotten that team bond down yet, but synchronization and the like always take time. Your weapon skills are good, and your ability to work with the team is good and shows promise. Just don't let your head get too swelled about it. There's always room for improvement."

"I won't get overconfident."

"Good to hear. So, another successful mission to add to our tally. I didn't see any obvious, major injuries on any of you, but if you have anything that needs to be patched up--"

Yoji pondered dishonesty but felt Fenris looking back at him. "It's just a graze on my arm. I got it from somebody else, Ken. I'm sure it only needs a bit of cleaning and bandaging."

"You'll get someone to look at it anyway," Elena answered.

He didn't want anyone currently on the team to fuss over him. "I don't need the coddling."

"It's not coddling. Your wound might need stitches. You want it to heal well and look pretty for people."

He didn't need to be talked down to. "Oh, do I?"

"You know what I mean. We're rarely the best judges of our own injuries. Maybe you're right and it's nothing, but it would make me feel better to know for sure."

"Please, Yoji," Fenris said, turning around to look back at him.

"Don't give me the puppy eyes!" Yoji protested.

"Would the puppy eyes work?"

"No."

"Liar."

"Oh look. We're home."

"No, we-- Oh, we are. You got lucky, Yoji."

"Don't I know it."

The team did their usual rock-paper-scissors to decide showering order on the two bathrooms, though they always gave some leeway to Ken, whose chosen weapon tended to make him the messiest. Yoji had finished his shower and started to bandage his arm himself when a shower-fresh Sasha came into his bedroom, opened the door after three sharp knocks, and said, "Drop the gauze now. You didn't really think we'd forget, did you?" He'd taken all the eyeliner off and combed back his damp hair, and he looked much more snuggly than sexy in flannel pajamas, fuzzy robe, and slippers.

"I had hopes. You know, I could have been naked." He wore pajama bottoms at least; it had been too cold lately to go nude.

"I've seen all that before."

"Not mine. Mine is special. Stop laughing."

"It was just a small laugh."

"Look, the wound's not that bad. It's barely even a wound." Yoji wondered what Elena had been thinking when she chose Sasha for this duty. Did she figure Yoji would have a harder time saying no to him? Did she hope that proximity would overwhelm them with desire and make them pounce each other?

Was she watching too many boys' love series? She _said_ she only watched them to snark at how cliché the situations were, but....

"You're such a baby sometimes." Sasha sat next to him on the bed and aimed the light at his arm.

Yoji tried not to notice that he smelled good and felt warm. "It's clean, and it's not bleeding badly. It doesn't seem deep. I think a little pressure from a bandage would do wonders."

"I'm inclined to agree. See? That wasn't so bad."

"Nothing's hurt but my pride."

As Sasha bandaged it up Yoji made sure to look at him the whole time. Sure, something inside him knew this wasn't Schuldig--could even _feel_ it--but Sasha's voice, when not matched to his looks, still gave Yoji the shivers.

"Things will get better," Sasha said.

"Do they miss me as much as I miss them? Aya and Schwarz." Yoji wanted to know but didn't want to know too in case they didn't.

"You have links to a few people who are far away. They're just missing you, one person. It's different."

That didn't sound quite as bad as Yoji thought. But.... "Are you saying it that way to make me feel less pathetic?"

"Nope. I'm saying it because it's true."

"How are you doing with us? Really. I know you're not used to how we do things."

"You've seen the people I'm used to working with."

"Not all of them were bad."

"Maybe not, but everyone is welcome to stay in Okinawa or at least out of Tokyo."

Surprising. "Harsh."

"I like being an individual, and I hate people making assumptions about me based on them thinking I have a shared history or genetic code with them. There were too many of us with a similar genetic code around for any of us to feel any real loyalty. Weiß judges me based on what _I_ do. I like that."

"What else do you like about us?"

"Fishing, Yoji?"

"I'm on a fact-finding mission. Besides, you seemed less than impressed with us while coming home tonight."

"I'm not used to your affectionate bickering. In my experience, if someone's arguing with you you better watch your back from now on because there will soon be a knife in it. I'm also not used to working with people I like. I keep expecting to find out something terrible about all of you, like that you eat babies or something."

Yoji snorted. "We don't let newbies in on the baby eating until they're with us for three months."

"Seriously?" But Sasha smiled.

"Not seriously. C'mon. We're great people, and you'll just have to get used to that." Yoji's lighter and pack of cigarettes were too far away. Should he? Yeah, he should. He used a little bit of telekinesis to bring them to his hand. It worked, and the only pain he felt from it came when his lighter hit the palm of his hand harder than he expected. "What's with that look on your face?" Yoji asked as he lit a cigarette. Ah, sweet nicotine.

"It's cool to see you using it. I know you've had some... misgivings about it."

"I still do, but it saved my life tonight and I didn't want to move now. It's been useful." He _should_ do more with it more often.

"It's not like you have enough of anything to majorly change your life. In the talent sweepstakes, you came out fairly well. In the team sweepstakes, you came out fairly well too, since you have understanding people who won't be competing with you for favor or out to kill you."

"Yeah, I guess."

"It can really suck to be a telepath sometimes. A lot of times."

That sounded so sad and forced Yoji to ask, "If somebody could take your telepathy away, would you want that?"

Sasha didn't even need time to think about it. "I doubt I'd be able to deal without it. I've lived my whole life this way. It's my sixth sense."

"You think all telepaths feel that way?"

"I can't guarantee it, but I think most if not all of them would prefer to continue being telepaths."

"Interesting."

"But if I had a choice of what to be born with, I'd rather have what you have."

"Okay! I hear you. I'll think about it."

"Good. Are you aware that you're still shaking a bit?"

"Yeah, but I hoped you wouldn't notice."

"Is there anything I can do?"

Yoji fought the temptation to ask Sasha to get into bed with him. For warmth and comfort. Right, like it would stay at just warmth and comfort. "Hmm."

"Slumber party?" Sasha smirked. "I could do your hair; you could do mine."

"Would we be sharing a bed?"

"Probably. I'm not sleeping on the floor, and I doubt you would. But I trust you."

"_I_ don't trust me."

"You'd really do something against my will? I don't think so."

"No, but if I were half-asleep I might start something." It would feel like using him and wouldn't be fair to Sasha.

"Okay. I won't tempt you." Sasha stood up.

"Good night, Sasha."

"Good night." Sasha waved as he left the room and closed the door behind him.

Yoji didn't know if this was progress or not.


	250. "Are we done beating each other up?"

Crawford woke suddenly and smoothly. Beside him, Schuldig started to stir in response until Crawford sent him soothing sleep vibrations to put him back under. That didn't always work, and most of the time Crawford preferred his telepath to be available to him from the moment he woke up anyway, like a BlackBerry. Today, though, he needed some solitude so he could think in peace, and he quietly left the bed and went into the bathroom to shower, dress for the day, and further help his effort to think.

Besides, if he stayed in bed Schuldig might entice him into another round.

He wanted to brood, and it annoyed him that his body hindered that effort. Even with the aches--_especially_ with the aches, to some extents--it felt too satisfied and well-used to let his turn of mind get as dark as he wanted it to. How annoying. It also didn't entirely make sense, because Crawford _usually_ left their sexual encounters feeling satisfied. Schuldig was good at what he did, and whenever Schuldig's efforts weren't enough Crawford wouldn't leave him alone until he'd gotten what he needed. What made last night different?

Why had he felt so much more connected to Schuldig last night? He'd bottomed before, though rarely, and this feeling of connection had persisted through him fucking Schuldig later.

Did he even want to feel more connected? The kneejerk answer would be no. He led the team, with Schuldig as his minion. Schwarz was a dictatorship and would remain so, run on one vision: his. He would accept advice but didn't want to second-guess himself. It would quickly turn ridiculous if he always had to worry about Schuldig's feelings.

Did he feel like that now? Not really, but he didn't know how things would feel when Schu woke up. Schuldig had seemed more _there_ yesterday, focused and completely with him instead of telepathically spread out through other people. Crawford had liked that. It made him feel--

Setting feelings aside made him... feel better, so he concentrated on other parts of his mystery. Visions often took a toll on him, but last night's visions during sex had come easily and gently, as easily as the split-second, instinctive future knowledge did. Sex had never had that effect before; relaxation hadn't either. But he'd been open last night, accepting bits of Schuldig's telepathic sharing as well, and relinquished some of his self-control. Could that have been it?

_Should_ he be worried? Finding a new, less stressful way to call up his ability could be beneficial. Still, it did cost him because it went against his life philosophy and self-image. Was it worth it? He needed to really think about it.

Schuldig would probably mock him mercilessly for all this, but Crawford couldn't live his life by what Schuldig thought.

When he left the bathroom he saw that Schuldig hadn't moved at all since he left the bed. Apparently he needed the sleep. Although his hair covered some of his face, Crawford could see the peaceful, contented expression on it. Schuldig looked... cute.

Crawford really needed to get out of here for a while. He grabbed the keys and left the cottage in search of coffee, breakfast, and a newspaper.

******************************************************

Farfarello awoke with a grin. Despite his talk of not giving in on sex constantly, Aya had been avid and sexually aggressive last night. Farfarello sighed happily as he remembered desperate kisses, Aya's demanding grip, and being pounded into the mattress. What might he get his kitten to do today? Aya murmured sleepily as Farfarello moved closer and used the arm he had slung over Aya's middle to press his kitten closer to him.

Somehow this didn't feel right. When had Aya gotten dressed? Also, Aya had an awful lot of middle this morning.

And that was _not_ his kitten's ass he had his hand on. For one, it was smaller and softer, and for the other, he already had Aya's ass against his groin. Who the hell had climbed into bed with them this time? Nobody else had the right to be here; this was trespassing. As the intruder started to move, Farfarello began to move as well, gathering speed and force--

"No!" Aya said as he pushed them apart with his arms. "No one is attacking anyone." His kitten had come to full wakefulness too damned quickly.

"This is _our_ bed," Farfarello answered, "yet you keep bringing other people into it."

"Strangely enough, I didn't have _anyone_ in my bed until you kidnapped me," Aya replied in a too-sweet voice.

"Aya, let me knock him around a bit!" the kitten-smitten boy said, as if he had a right to be angry. "I won't damage him. Much."

"I told you I would only allow it for self-defense," Aya answered. Such treachery from his kitten!

"This _is_ self-defense. He was molesting me!"

"Only while I was asleep and only because I thought you were my puisín," Farfarello had to answer, "a reasonable thought while I'm lying in our bed, where you're not supposed to be. Given a choice between your ass and Aya's, I would choose Aya's every time."

The boy looked very petulant. "I'd rather you chose Aya's ass too."

"Aya, what the fuck happened last night? The boy has a room of his own, with a bed of his own."

"Team members are supposed to look after each other," Aya replied.

"The boy has lost the ability to sleep in a bed alone? Somehow I doubt it."

"It was a friendly gesture. I've been through some rough times recently. I wanted to see if I could make Nagi's time here easier. It's not like I'm sneaking around with him."

"No, you're with him right in front of me." Perhaps it had nothing to do with lust, though. Maybe Aya did this as a big brother kind of gesture, something that would mean more to him in the wake of the mess with his sister's remains.

Aya was obviously getting annoyed. "_Nothing happened_. Are you calling me a liar?"

Put that way.... "No." He didn't believe Aya lied or that he would choose the boy as a lover over him. However, being a big brother to Nagi might improve Aya's mood and make him fret less, even if Farfarello did resent the diversion of some of his kitten's attention. "I don't mind some friendly gestures." It cost so much to say that. Such sacrifices he made for his kitten's well-being. "But not in our bed." Some sacrifices went too far.

"It's not like I'm interested in doing anything with you in your bed," the boy said, but Farfarello noted an off tone in his voice. Interesting.

"You protest too much," Farfarello answered and noticed a hint of reaction briefly cross Nagi's face. Farfarello dissociated himself from his body more to see if he telepathically picked up confirmation on his suspicions, but the boy's shielding remained hard and firm, impervious. He'd have to attack harder if he wanted to get in, and he knew the boy and his puisín would notice and complain. Not worth it.

How would he feel about the boy possibly wanting him as well as Aya? Aside from amused. What else? Surprised. Intrigued. He'd always been interested in how such a small form could hold so much power. It had intensified after the boy had resurrected his girl from the dead. What would it be like to be skin to skin with a receptacle of such power? Especially when the boy had so hated to be touched by people?

Apparently Nagi didn't hate to be touched as much as he once had. That took some of the fun out of it.

Still, everything depended on his kitten. While Aya continued to feel attraction and affection toward the slutkitten, Aya had been the one to put a halt to sexual explorations with him every time. Aya had let Nagi restrain Farfarello for sex once, but the boy hadn't participated in that any further and had even tried not to watch, which made Aya more comfortable with it. He didn't know if his kitten would ever be capable of a true threesome. Yoji and Nagi intrigued him, but Aya he loved.

These kinds of thoughts didn't help him restrain his morning excitement at all, and he didn't know if his puisín would be helping him expend it any time soon.

"I protest as much as I have to," Nagi replied, while Aya looked back and forth between the two of them in an effort to figure out what was going on.

They must make quite a sight: the three of them sitting in bed, Aya in the middle acting as a human barricade, Farfarello naked, all of them glaring and staring and arguing with one another. It amused Farfarello to think about it.

His kitten would want to know where they stood, so Farfarello said, "Friendly gestures are acceptable. The boy getting in the way of our morning routine is not."

"We don't have sex every morning," Aya answered tartly.

"We do a lot of mornings." Farfarello stroked his hand down Aya's side, let it come to a halt on his hip, and put more heat into his gaze and voice. "I want you."

It strengthened his lust to see Aya's breathing quicken and pupils dilate. The kitten _wanted_ to be tumbled. On the other side of him, the boy looked uncomfortable and a bit flushed. Farfarello was taking out two with one blow today, and he hadn't even needed to touch the boy to snare him.

Although the mindbreaker considered sexuality to be another weapon in his arsenal as well as a pleasure, Farfarello had rarely thought of using it himself, but here and now he saw his own power in it. Force and intimidation he'd always used to great effect, but attraction he'd considered to be out of his reach. Before, bodies simply, naturally, responded to whatever he did to them with pleasure or pain, but he'd never thought he could have any personal sexual magnetism. Apparently things had changed.

This also gave him a new way to tease the boy.

Aya fought it, like he did so many things in his life. "I don't want you taking me for granted."

"I've never been able to do that, and I won't start now." Farfarello moved closer to him. "Let me show my appreciation of you."

"I can't. I won't. We have--" Aya cut himself off. Farfarello wondered if he'd been able to protest with a "We have Nagi in the bed" and decided not to for worry it would direct more of Farfarello's ire toward the boy.

"A friend would give lovers the opportunity to express their love toward one another. Yes, Nagi?"

To Farfarello's amusement, the boy looked even more aroused and uncomfortable now as he answered, "Yes." Unlike the mindbreaker, Nagi worried sometimes about seeming selfish, something Farfarello could use against him.

Farfarello smiled and stroked his kitten's arm. "Though you could stay in bed with us if you want." He wouldn't mind if the boy stayed or participated as long as he didn't have any designs on gaining Aya for himself. Aya might mind, but Farfarello gambled that the boy would retreat instead. That one time Nagi had held him down for ravishment by his willing puisín remained fresh in his memory, so good, but that had occurred under unusual circumstances.

Nagi clambered out of the bed quickly. "No. I'll go." Oh, well.

Aya recovered from his distraction to say, "I'm not going to surrender to you while Nagi's here, and I don't want you to chase him off."

"He's accustomed to being in the room next door to us. There's no difference here," Farfarello answered, knowing Aya wanted to succumb to him but needed excuses to clear his conscience. "It's been so difficult for me, my puisín. So much time in Vienna spent separated from you or helplessly watching over your still body. I need you, and I'll have you."

He fought a smile as he felt Aya's body move closer to his to comfort him and saw Aya's face react with guilt, concern, and love. Not everyone would see it, but Farfarello could. Good.

While Farfarello would never admit it to the mindbreaker, he'd learned a great deal from him over the years. Under his tutelage Farfarello had learned to be more subtly manipulative, becoming a scalpel instead of a bludgeon. Manipulation worked best when it came from a foundation of genuine emotions.... Here he sought to affect two people.

"I have my computer with me, so I can do something in the kitchen," the boy said. Farfarello wondered if he'd be able to fry an egg on Nagi's red, hot face.

"I'll make breakfast for all of us," Aya said then closed his eyes as Farfarello nipped at his neck. "Later." Victory! "Don't... mark up my neck. I told you."

"So you did, and I mentioned buying something for your neck to cover my lovemarks from strangers' eyes." Although Farfarello liked strangers seeing the proof of his possession, he also saw the appeal of covering them so only his eyes could feast on their beauty. He won either way.

"Because _that_ won't look suspicious." Once the boy left the room, Aya said, "You're too mean to him."

"I'm exactly as mean as I need to be. I help prepare him for the world. You're too soft."

Aya raised an eyebrow at him.

"You know exactly what I mean, puisín." Farfarello pulled Aya's shirt off over his head and cast it aside, mussing his hair and making it look even more tempting. "What do you want me to do for him? Should we include him in our fucking? You've always been the one to protest such things."

That brought a look of uncertainty to Aya's face, though sucking at his neck and toying with his nipples couldn't be helping his thinking processes, which was part of the point. Poor kitten.

While Aya lacked the ability to speak, Farfarello continued, "I doubt you want him to be an equal third partner with us--I don't want it either, since I pledged myself to you alone--so it would just be a fuck. He might even see it as a pity fuck. That won't make him feel good."

Aya batted Farfarello's face away from his neck. "Things don't always have to be about sex. Stop touching me."

"The boy is an adolescent, a stage of life when God particularly enjoys vexing and laughing at His children. As much as he no doubt hates his urges, he has them. I can't entirely blame him, since looking at you makes me want to fuck you as well. Thus, having you so close yet so far away is cruel to him, even if you only meant comfort."

Obviously incensed, Aya scooted back toward the edge of the bed. "We keep coming back to this argument. I won't let you isolate me, and I'll touch whomever I please."

This again. "This isn't the usual. This was in our bed. _Our_ bed."

Aya met Farfarello's rage with his own rage. "I know. You mentioned that before. Farfarello, the tighter you clutch me, the greater the chance you'll lose me. Don't smother me."

******************************************************

Undecided, Nagi sat in the kitchen. If he started to hear them fucking he'd leave for a while, so there was no point in setting up his computer yet. Listening to them would be torture.

It didn't sound like sex going on in there though. It sounded like an argument, but with low-voiced growling instead of shouting. Good for Aya for standing up for himself--and Nagi--but Nagi worried about what he might be pushed into doing if it became worse. Aya and Farfarello had argued before they left Vienna too, and Nagi had gotten the impression that Farfarello and Schuldig had worried Aya would try to leave Schwarz.

Nagi didn't know if he really wanted to intervene or not, but he was pretty sure that if he tried he'd make things worse because they had to be arguing over him or at least the argument had started over him. As much as he hated it, he might have to call Schuldig in.

The low-voiced growling became more emphatic, so Nagi swallowed his pride. ~ Schuldig! ~

******************************************************

Schuldig woke with an "Mmmph?" Somebody was calling him?

He couldn't feel Brad in bed next to him. As he half opened his eyes and pushed his hair out of his face, he realized he didn't see him either. Sending out his telepathy, he found Brad eating in the kitchen alone and being very, very mentally quiet and closed off. What the fuck? How had Brad even gotten up without waking him up? And why?

He sensed incoming stupidity on the horizon.

~ Schuldig! ~

Once Schuldig identified it, he answered, ~ Nagi, what the hell? You better be under attack or something. ~

~ I was. Kind of. But right now Farfarello and Aya are having a huge argument and since I'm probably a lot of the cause I can't intervene. ~

~ Are you saying that you _need_ me? ~ Schuldig let all of his smugness radiate in that question.

~ Schwarz might if Farfarello enrages Aya into leaving us. ~

~ Is it really that bad, or are you being melodramatic? Be honest. ~

~ I think it's that bad. Especially after what went on before we left Vienna. ~

Shit. ~ What started it this time? ~

~ Farfarello waking up to find me in bed with them. We didn't even do anything! ~

~ You both had to have known Farfie would flip in the morning, so why _didn't_ you have sex? Better to be hung for a goat than a lamb. ~ Farfarello would really get into that kind of metaphor.

~ That's not the way that saying goes. ~

~ I like it better my way. Goats are hornier. ~

~ Not everyone leaps into sex with everyone else at any opportunity! ~

~ Such self-control. You could have had fun and relieved some stress, but instead you were honorable and now you're suffering anyway. ~ Apparently Schuldig had missed a lot in his sleep. If only he'd been awake to eavesdrop while all that had gone down! If Brad had let him wake up with him as usual, he would have. ~ If sexual jealousy is part of it, I better wash up first. I reek of sex. ~

~ I really don't think we have time! ~

Grrr. ~ Quick body wash and I won't wash my hair. ~

~ Fine! Just get started already! ~

~ Bossy! ~ Schuldig also intended to have a few words with Brad before he left to fix the Psycho Twins.

Nagi better appreciate the speed, because Schuldig enjoyed taking long showers and lavishing attention on his hair. Instead, this morning he did fast swipes with soap and warm water while he kept his hair pinned up out of the way and quickly towel-dried his body before shoving himself into green briefs, a light pair of pants, a bowling shirt, and sandals. He used some of his speed to brush his teeth. To save more time he brushed his hair during his walk to the kitchen.

At least Brad looked up from his newspaper when Schuldig arrived. That showed some respect and saved Brad from getting a _humongous_ fit thrown at him.

"Brad, what the hell is going on?"

"What do you mean?" Brad asked, so nonchalant.

"You didn't let me wake up, and you're keeping your mind more carefully guarded against me as you eat breakfast alone. That suggests that something's bothering you. Was it last night's sex? Because you've been the catcher before with no aftereffects, and I thought we both had a good time."

"We did, but I need time to think about it."

"Time to think about how or why we had fun? I think it's obvious."

"Not quite."

"So, what, the sex was too good for your tastes?"

Brad got an odd look on his face. "In a way, yes."

"You have to be kidding me." They were on vacation--a rare vacation--for fuck's sake. After all the kinky fun they'd had last night, Schuldig should have been enjoying a morning of relaxation, fooling around, and smug self-congratulation. Instead he had to navigate the minefield of Brad's issues? "That's all you have to say about it?"

Without hesitation, Brad answered, "For now. I need to work it out myself."

And Brad had been doing so much better recently. "I'm going to give you a lot of time alone to get your head out of your ass because I've been called away to calm the Psycho Twins down. I rule at team bonding, unlike you."

_Now_ Brad looked worried. "What's going on with them?"

"You don't want to talk to anyone right now. If we were partners and I thought you had your head on straight, I'd share information and invite you along, but since _we're_ fighting I don't want to introduce that into an already edgy dynamic over there. You stay here gazing at your navel; I'll save the team." But Brad was still starting to stand up, damn it, so Schuldig said, "Don't come with me unless you want to sabotage it, which I really don't think you do."

Brad looked annoyed but sat his ass back down. "When will you be back?"

"I have no idea. See you later." Schuldig left the cottage, looking back as he walked and happy to see that Brad didn't follow him.

What the hell was wrong with people? Give them a few minutes without a mission to think about and they fell apart. If this shit continued they might not ever go on vacation again, and why should he suffer because the rest of them had issues? They should work through whatever the hell was wrong with them during working hours, since they'd be miserable anyway, so they could _enjoy_ their free time.

Why should he have to be their therapist too? He far preferred breaking people to mending them. It was more fun and often easier and faster.

When he reached the door to the Psycho Twins' cottage Nagi opened it before he had a chance to knock or try the doorknob. "Good," Nagi said. "Get in here. They're getting worse."

"Of course they are."

"What crawled up your ass and died?"

"You woke me up, and my hair is still dirty."

"That's not enough. Are you fighting with Crawford?"

"Can it, kid." Schuldig heard a thump in the next room, and it sounded more violent than a sexy fun times thump, even for Farfarello. Good timing, Farfie. Schuldig yanked the bedroom door open to see Aya against the wall about to wallop Farfarello away from him, so he yelled, "What the hell is wrong with you two? This is why we can't have nice things!"

Looking surprised, they both turned to see Schuldig. Farfarello showed a flash of relief followed by annoyance, probably at himself over feeling relieved. To Schuldig's further amusement, Aya said, "He started it."

It left Farfarello dumbstruck for a moment before he angrily replied, "Only because your behavior is unbefitting."

"Unbefitting for what?"

"My partner, my husband!"

"I've been faithful! You can't expect me to stop associating with other people completely!"

"Before me you were happy to avoid people!"

Seeing it start to spiral out of control again, Schuldig yelled, "Shut up! You sound like quarreling five-year-olds! Farfie, Aya is in a team with you. He has to be friendly with the rest of us. You can't put blinders and a leash on him so he only looks at and talks to you."

"You don't get to tell us to shut up," Aya said. "But thank you for most of the rest."

"Our bed--" Farfarello started.

"Enough about 'our bed'!" Aya growled. "Besides, Nagi was in 'our bed' before when he saved my life. Deal with it."

Schuldig could feel Nagi nearly exploding from the effort of keeping quiet during all of this. As much as he wanted to have his say, he had to figure that butting in and drawing attention to himself would make things worse. At least someone here was thinking.

"Shut up!" Schuldig said.

"Enough with telling us to shut up," Aya said, though Farfarello still had moments of looking relieved over Schuldig drawing some of Aya's fire away from him.

"Neither of you are helping. You have something special--get that look off your face, Aya--but if you keep up like this it won't last much longer. Farfarello, if you keep clutching him so tightly, you'll lose him." Schuldig wished he could also tell Farfarello to stop being so naked because it was distracting but refused to admit to such weakness. "Aya, stop running so hot and cold. Both of you, this is a vacation, so stop being so fucking miserable and antagonistic."

"Are we cramping your style?" Farfarello asked, darkly amused.

"Yes, and if I'm miserable I'll make you even more miserable. How about a compromise? If this comes up again, Nagi could sleep on the couch or Aya could wake Farf up to ask if Nagi could come into bed."

"What's the point in asking when I know he'll say no?" Aya answered. "He didn't trust my judgment that Nagi could use some company and he immediately figured I'd cheated on him. It makes me wonder if he trusts me at all."

That had the potential to start a whole new battle, but Farfarello replied, "I trust you. I do."

"I think it's reasonable to expect notice for bringing someone into bed," Schuldig said. "Not everybody wants to wake up in the morning to find out that his hand is on the wrong person's ass and it's a person he didn't expect to find there." In most cases, Schuldig wouldn't mind it, but he knew Farfie was different.

He also doubted that the whole rest of the team would agree that an orgy would solve a lot of their problems.

Aya looked simultaneously pouty and thoughtful, which he managed to look hot doing. His shirtlessness contributed to it. It was a damned shame he wouldn't agree to an orgy. "I wouldn't like to wake up with an unexpected person in my bed. I just figured that I'd only get my will in this granted if I offered apologies after it rather than asked for permission before it."

"I admit that I have been... unreasonable at times in wanting you all to myself," Farfarello said. "I don't want you to see me as so controlling that you feel forced to do things behind my back."

Progress! "Are we done beating each other up?" Schuldig asked. When Aya shot a heavy, loaded look in Farfarello's direction, Schuldig continued, "Not just physical beating. There are two sides in this."

"...I'm done," Aya said. He didn't have to say, "For as long as things work out my way," because everyone in the room already knew that. Although Schuldig had to admit that Farfarello had some majorly frustrating moments that could make a significant other insane in response.

Farfarello looked a bit pouty himself but said, "I am as well."

"Excellent!" Schuldig answered. "Now, somebody make me breakfast."

"Aya promised breakfast for us all," Farfarello said.

"Schuldig wasn't in the room when I said it!" Aya protested.

Schuldig crossed his arms, resolute. "I stopped the two of you from doing something you'll regret. The least you can do is feed me."

"Fine," Aya replied.

"But there has to be a bath first," Farfarello said.

Aya remained pouty but said, "...fine."

"But I'm hungry now," Schuldig said.

"You can wait a bit. My kitten and I have bonding to do so you won't need to be called in to help again."

"...fine." Who knew that some of Aya's tics would transfer to him? "I'll let you get away with it, as long as you don't start arguing again in the bathroom."

Farfarello grabbed Aya's arm and led him away without even taking any clothing to get changed into, the speed a good thing for him since right after they left Schuldig started feeling more resentful about their bath when he remembered his own quick wash and dirty hair. That left Schuldig annoyed, dirty, hungry, and looking likely to remain so for some time to come.

"Your hair looks fine," Nagi said.

Had he been that obvious? Schuldig answered, "Come on, Nagins. Let's forage in the kitchen."

As Nagi followed Schuldig out, he asked, "Are you going to be cooking anything from it?"

"Hell no. They have to have some fruit and bread."

"Good. That's safer."

Schuldig acquired a banana and a muffin then sat at the table. "My sausages were good. Admit it."

Nagi sat across from him. "That wasn't really you cooking."

"My hands, my telepathy, thus mine."

"Sure."

It was time to start grilling Nagi about how he'd ended up in the Psycho Twins' bed, because Aya didn't just randomly invite people under the sheets with him. "So, about you ending up in their bed--"

"So, you and Crawford are fighting?"

What? Well played, Nagi, well played. "I put myself out to clean up your mess, and you interrogate me after it? See if I'm ever as quick to help you again." Though bitching could be cathartic.

As Nagi smoothed his sleep-mussed hair with his hands--cute!--he frowned and offered, "Exchange of information? What you want from me for what I want from you?"

That had potential. "Yeah. Sure."

"I was feeling kind of... lonely and isolated last night. When Aya met up with me, he offered to let me sleep in his bed with him for company. That's it."

"You _have_ realized that you get a bit claustrophobic when someone spends what you consider to be too much time with you, right?"

Nagi sighed and used telekinesis to pour some orange juice into a glass and grab it and a muffin off the counter. "I'm complicated. I admit that. I know it makes some things harder for me, especially since I tend to alternate between getting too little and getting too much."

"It doesn't help that so far you've been all 'monogamy or bust' while also having a bone-deep misanthropic streak and need for occasional solitude." Sounded a bit like Aya. "Maybe I need to find you a Farf to bond with."

"Hell, no!"

"Or not. Farf can be clingy and high maintenance."

"Thank you."

"While we're figuring out your perfect match, which may take quite a while, you should get your rocks off now and then. It'll calm you down a bit."

"I'm not listening."

"Getting sexual tension mixed into your emotional needs makes you more hair-trigger and less logical. Take a break from finding The One by picking up Mr. or Miss Right Now."

At least Nagi looked thoughtful instead rejecting all of Schuldig's advice out of hand. But then he said, "It's your turn to suffer now. Spill."

Maybe some TMI would make Nagi back down from his demand. It was worth a try. "Last night I wanted to find a stranger or three for some simple erotic fun, but Brad convinced me to stay with him alone for one-on-one sex instead. Thus, he shot us both in the foot, because I don't think he'd be so broody today if we'd gone with _my_ original idea. So, sex with just Brad. I even bought a new toy: a plug with a fox tail attached."

Nagi winced. "That's what was going on last night? I was getting some vague bestiality thoughts last night, but I comforted myself with the idea that it had to be coming from you."

"I add sparkle and variety to your drab life. Brad consented to bottoming on the first round, though he of course makes it out like you're catering to him instead accepting his submission. We've done that several times before, so that's not some frightening Rubicon to brood over. Besides, I gave him a magnificent blowjob first."

Nagi put his hands over his ears in horror, as if that would help. "Less sexual detail!"

"You asked for it, o delicate one." Behold the power of TMI. "He fucked me during the second round. I had a great time all the way through, and he's not skilled enough to fake the kind of pleasure he showed last night. Especially not with the distractions I was providing." Last night _had_ been fun.

"I hate you."

"Again, you asked for it."

"Less about the sex and more about the problems." Apparently Nagi wouldn't be shaken from his line of questioning.

"I woke up alone this morning. He'd stopped me from waking up with him. I found him in the kitchen eating breakfast by himself with his shielding up stronger than usual. He told me he needed time to 'think.' My guess is that he felt too close to me last night and the sex was too good, some kind of ridiculous bullshit. I should have gotten a happy wakeup and some fooling around, and instead I have a cold bed and Brad being a moron. Meh. Well, I should expect setbacks. It's not like any of us walk a straight line mood- and morals-wise. But if he doesn't pull his head out of his ass soon, the hell with him. I won't let him ruin my vacation."

Nagi had this funny look on his face and radiated some emotion that felt warm, something that was affection and a bit of pity. Annoyed by the pity, Schuldig said, "I'm doing better at romance than _you_ are."

"Hmm. It's not like that's saying much."

"It's Brad. He can be as pigheaded about his own sex life as he is about yours."

"I never thought of it that way." Nagi took another sip of orange juice. "I want to do something, but if you mock me and talk to everyone about it it'll be a one-time thing that'll never happen again."

"That's the very definition of a 'one-time thing,' but all right."

Nagi got up, sat cross-ways on Schuldig's lap, and turned his face to kiss him. Lingeringly. On the lips. Closed-mouthed, but it definitely wasn't a child's kiss or a family's kiss. Several things ran through Schuldig's mind, instincts, and body at once during this, but as he reciprocated he did manage to get his arms loosely around Nagi, one hand resting lightly on the back of his neck to urge him in closer. Nagi moved in closer and held on to Schuldig, still kissing, still affectionate and lightly lusting, though the lust strengthened the longer they continued. Schuldig wouldn't let his eyes go further than half-closed because he damned well wanted to see this.

When Nagi finally pulled away little, Schuldig had to lick his lips, and the sultry look Nagi had on his face as he did it strengthened Schuldig's "pounce him!" instincts. Remembering that this was _Nagi_ held him back, which wasn't easy when the kid was sitting on his lap and had raised the Kaiser.

"I could make some assumptions right now," Schuldig said softly, "but I think it would be safer for both of us if I ask what your intentions are instead." Reading Nagi didn't do much good because Nagi didn't really know what he wanted.

"I think... you might be right about some things. I'm frustrated as hell, and it's affecting my judgment and emotions."

"So you'd like me to relieve some of your frustration?"

"I know you like me."

"Well, yeah, but I'd like to feel wanted." Was he really turning down possible sex?

He was if Nagi intended to use him as a human masturbation aid. Been there, done that, still wore the bruises and cuts.

Nagi looked annoyed. "Are you going to make me spell it out?"

"Considering that you could break me in half if I make a wrong move, I want things spelled out."

Nagi pouted. Over half the team had become too fond of doing that this morning. "I wanted spontaneity, not some carefully worded contract. You keep telling me I should be more spontaneous."

"Not where my life and bodily integrity come into the equation. Sometimes less spontaneity is good. Sex should be fun, not like using the toilet."

"Why is this so complicated?"

"Humanity makes it so. Why aren't you absorbing my wisdom? Do I need to talk _more_?"

"No!"

"That's really flattering."

"I'm still on your lap."

"You certainly are."

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, and I do know you have them. It's just that you proposition me all the time."

"You usually say no."

Nagi quirked an eyebrow as he asked, "So I'm usually a safe target to flirt with?"

Damned kid. "I would be thrilled to lay you the right way, but right now doesn't feel right." Schuldig pulled him in closer to his chest to be snuggly, and Nagi let him. "I want you to be certain, and I don't want to feel like a whore during it. Slut is fine."

"Okay."

Thankfully, Schuldig felt Nagi feel better about it. He really would like to have sex with him some other, better time and not just out of worry and to help the kid get healthier ideas about sex. Nagi could be so pretty, like a porcelain doll, and as he grew older he seemed like a more expensive porcelain doll.

"Besides," Schuldig said, "there's something I want to ask Farfarello to do for me, and as kinky as it would be to have sex in their bed that would make it less likely for him to help me."

Nagi _liked_ that thought. A lot. "That _would_ be kinky."

"And spiteful." Fuck yeah. "Down, boy. Normally I would be all for it, but I have a favor to ask him."

Moving in closer, rubbing against Schuldig, Nagi whispered into Schuldig's ear, "You wanted me to have fun and let off some steam," and followed it up with little kisses on the side of his neck.

Why did the kid have to be giving off the right emotions _now_? Feeling Nagi get so lusty and perky made it harder to think. "Mmmm."

"Please, Schu."

Nagi's kisses and the lust in his voice made up what little remained of Schuldig's mind. "All right. If they come out and try to kill me, you better protect me."

"Yes. Of course."

"What do you want me to do?"

After a moment's thought, Nagi said, "Fuck me. I want you to fuck me."

Fuck yes. In an effort to save time, Schuldig held onto Nagi as he stood up and carried him into the bedroom like a husband carrying his bride across the threshold. Kid weighed almost nothing, after all. After a minute of protests Nagi saw the benefits and let himself be carried.

******************************************************

As soon as Schuldig set him down, Nagi started stripping. He felt _high_. Even as he tossed his shirt away he vaguely wondered if he could really do this. This was Schuldig, and Nagi had been turning him down for ages. But the kissing had felt so good, Schuldig was watching him with a look that made him almost painfully hard, and he could smell Aya and Farfarello and a faint whiff of sex from the nearby sheets.

Schuldig tilted his head, obviously listening, then went to one of the side tables and pulled condoms and a tube of lubricant out of a drawer. The benefits of telepathy. He unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it aside then unzipped his fly.

Once Nagi was naked, Schuldig seemed to flow up the bed to hold himself over Nagi and kiss him. The intensity of the kisses and the feel of Schuldig's chest rubbing against his nipples made him pant.

"I'm not going to do anything really freaky," Schuldig said, "but to make _sure_ you're onboard with all the good things I want to do I want you to say 'elephant' if you really want me to stop."

Nagi appreciated that. "I got it."

"Good."

"I just had a terrible thought. What if Crawford foresees this happening and comes in to stop it?"

Schuldig's blue eyes looked very intense. "Then I brainblast him so hard he'll be comatose for the rest of our time here. I won't let Crawdaddy screw you up again." He kissed his way down Nagi's chest and abdomen before giving him a saucy look as he started to lick Nagi's cock in swirling up and down motions, occasionally polishing the head with his tongue. That effectively ended the conversation.

Moaning, Nagi gripped Schuldig's hair and took note of an ashtray on a nearby table that he could probably break without much notice being taken. He needed to choose something because he already heard things in the room rattling in response to the streaks of pleasure Schuldig's lips and tongue sent shooting through him. As Schuldig went down on him and his fingers stroked over Nagi's balls and back and down, Nagi heard the ashtray crack loudly in response.

Schuldig's hair felt wonderful in his hands and sliding across his skin, and Schuldig was so skilled at what he was doing that Nagi didn't think he'd be able to see "cocksucker" as an insult ever again. "I don't think I'll be able to last long," Nagi gasped as his hips instinctively fucked Schuldig's mouth.

To Nagi's vocal dismay, Schuldig closed his hand tightly around the base of Nagi's cock like a ring as he removed his mouth to ask, "Do you want to?" His eyes sparkled as he teased. Of course. "If you want to last longer I could back off and/or do the human cockring thing when you start getting too close. Not that you have to. If you just want to come, I'm all for that too."

It might be a kind thing to offer, but... "I should have held your head tighter so you couldn't back off and talk."

"I'm a telepath. I can always talk, even when my mouth is full."

"Don't remind me."

"Be nice. Remember where I keep my teeth."

Considering that Schuldig could start blowing him again, something he hoped for, he could remember to be nice. "They're nice teeth." When Schuldig responded to that with a laugh and a flash of his teeth, Nagi said, "It doesn't have to go on and on. It'd be nice just to let go for once."

"Just don't break me."

"I promise."

"Good." Schuldig's tongue returned to swirling around the head of Nagi's cock as his slick fingers started to swirl around the rim of Nagi's hole, inspiring Nagi to spread his legs more in encouragement. Why had he refused this for so long?

As Schuldig slid the length of Nagi's cock into his mouth and slid a finger up into him to stroke his sweet spot, Nagi moaned again and had the vague thought that he should make Schuldig feel as good as he did so he diverted some of his telekinetic power into stroking him. In response, Schuldig shivered and made sounds of enjoyment that sent really pleasing vibrations along Nagi's cock. The benefits of reciprocation had never been clearer to Nagi. He telekinetically stroked him, gripped Schuldig's hair, and let him feel how much he enjoyed everything, while Schuldig sucked, licked, telepathically radiated his own pleasure, writhed, and fingerfucked him with a slowly but steadily increasing number of fingers.

Although he felt the urge to come escalating, when he finally reached orgasm it hit him as a sudden, intense surprise. It felt so incredible.... Wrung out and relaxed, he shivered as Schuldig let his cock slide from his mouth and scissored his fingers. Turning his head to the side, he saw the ashtray broken in half on the table.

"Let go of my hair now?" Schuldig asked.

"...oh." When he unclenched his hands and moved them away some orange strands remained wrapped around his fingers. "Sorry."

Schuldig smiled and looked very self-satisfied. "It's okay. I knew the risks." He sent Nagi a mental picture so Nagi could see how debauched he looked at the moment.

He shivered again as Schuldig put a condom on each of their cocks. "What are you...?"

"Maybe he'll be a bit less pissed if we take away the risk of you coming all over his sheets."

"...good idea."

Schuldig snorted then kissed Nagi's belly. "I'll stop expecting you to think now." He stripped off the rest of his clothes and started to apply more lubricant to his cock.

Now that Nagi wasn't as horny and distracted he noticed the fading bruises and scratches on Schuldig's skin. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Don't worry about it." Schuldig maneuvered Nagi's legs around a bit, considering him with a heated gaze that made him squirm and breathe deeper.

Nagi had never noticed how big Schuldig's cock was before. "Uhm."

"Relax." Schuldig pushed into him on a slow but steady glide that burned a bit but also made him groan from how satisfying it felt, how deep it went. "Ah. You feel so good, so tight, like a glove.... I think you broke the ashtray more."

"Don't care. Move." When Nagi shifted, he moaned from the friction. Once, having someone on top of him like this--especially someone taller--would have freaked him out. Here, he just wanted more.

"Yeah."

Schuldig started with rocking motions as he kissed him but soon sped up and rubbed Nagi's prostate more often. With the way Nagi gripped him he'd end up with new hand-shaped bruises, but Nagi figured that he had enough to keep in mind splitting his telekinesis between breaking the ashtray into smaller pieces and stroking it down the length of Schuldig's back in non-lethal, non-bone-snapping ways for Schuldig to complain about small bruises. As he panted and moved to ride and meet Schuldig's thrusts, he realized he'd gone hard again. It didn't surprise him. They kissed hungrily and shared their pleasure, and with how Nagi found himself gripping Schuldig's hair again he figured that he'd be pulling more out by the end of this.

At those times when his own sensations didn't completely distract him he noticed and enjoyed watching the flexing of Schuldig's long, lean muscles as he fucked him. The thing about having sex with Schwarz was that they were in incredible shape, although it physically expressed itself differently depending on the weapon and fighting style each used. (Well, most of Schwarz; Nagi was slender but somewhat soft.) Nagi vaguely remembered sleepily feeling Aya up in this bed last night, and that memory sent another jolt of lust through him, as if he needed more.

~ If I had my way, you'd get to have both of them. Fuck, I want a piece of that action too. ~

It made Nagi feel better that Schuldig hadn't been offended or hurt by his thoughts straying to Aya. He also found it interesting to notice a bit of longing connected to Schuldig's mention of Farfarello, because Nagi hadn't thought that Schuldig would miss having sex with Farfarello. Truthfully, he hadn't thought about their former sexual relationship at all before, during, or afterward.

Schuldig speeding up his thrusts broke Nagi's train of thought completely. Moaning, Nagi wrapped his body around Schuldig's, wanting to be closer, wanting _more_. It felt so good, and he was almost there.... In the midst of his next thrust Schuldig wrapped his hand around Nagi's cock and stroked it up and down, which made Nagi come again. Spurred by that, Schuldig cried out and reached orgasm himself, rocking into Nagi a few more times before slowing to a stop and moving to the side so he wouldn't collapse on top of him.

Nagi enjoyed the relaxation and satisfaction of afterglow. It helped his mood that after Schuldig had removed and thrown away their condoms he'd returned to lie at Nagi's side and doze with their legs tangled together. He felt cared for.

It galled a bit that he'd shattered a drinking glass as well as the ashtray, but it could have been much worse, especially with how thoroughly distracted he'd been. Schuldig was _good_. Nagi might even tell him so if he could find a way to make sure Schu's head didn't get too swelled from hearing it.

He'd think about it later. At the moment he'd much rather zone out and pet Schuldig's hair, so he did that. It felt good, and the sounds of pleasure Schuldig made sounded pleasing and comforting. Schuldig's usual waves of possibilities currently looked much gentler, suggesting he had no intention of moving much.

After a while, Schuldig lifted his head from Nagi's shoulder and said, "They'll be back in a few minutes. Either way they'll have some idea of what we got up to, but I see no reason to flaunt it. Unless _you_ want to."

He had to come back to reality and thinking sometime. "No. I'm not going to be secretive, but I don't want to rub people's noses in it." There would be some trouble over this--Crawford would probably throw a _fit_\--but he didn't want to stay miserable and isolated just to make other people happy. He felt so much less cranky and on edge now.

It was kind of Schuldig to leave the options up to him. This whole encounter showed the telepath's thoughtful, affectionate side. He wasn't _just_ selfish, silly, hedonistic, and provocative.

"I'll blush, Nagins."

"Are you even capable?" Nagi wanted a shower. If things didn't blow up too badly maybe he could get it while Aya made breakfast.

"Try me."

"Now isn't a good time." But he kissed Schuldig and had to smile a little at the smirk he received in return.

This would change some things. Maybe for the better.


	251. "We apparently don't vacation well."

It had surprised Aya to see Farfarello give up arguing so quickly once Schuldig arrived, not that Aya _wanted_ to keep arguing. Lately it seemed that he and Farfarello had the same quarrel over and over again. Things might be different if one of them could win the damned thing already and settle it for good, but they just continued to go 'round and 'round with it, neither of them giving in because neither wanted to show submission. Aya sure as hell didn't. Instead of fighting to the finish, one of them always distracted the other--often with sex or some other form of sensuality--and put the argument off until later.

Having finished filling the huge tub, Farfarello pressed his nude body up to Aya, right on schedule. Tired and annoyed, Aya asked, "Did you really think that was going to work? I'm not that easy."

But Farfarello just grinned. "I hoped. Hmph. We apparently don't vacation well."

"Apparently."

"Your bath is ready."

"I could take a shower. Alone."

"You could, but why would you want to?"

"To avoid being distracted."

"Masochistic self-denial."

"You're one to talk."

"I've learned better recently, and you've shown sporadic success in that yourself. Have a bath. We're on vacation, so we're supposed to succumb to hedonism."

What should he do? If he went along with the bath he'd be putting the confrontation off again because his body and emotions would distract and temporarily placate him again. But was now a good time for all-out battle?

"I've been an ass at some points this morning," Farfarello said softly as he rested his hand along the side of Aya's face. "Let me spoil you."

"Only at _some_ points?"

"Be kinder. I'm compromising here. I'm learning. Really."

He really was compromising. Maybe Aya should as well. "...all right." Even when he found Farfarello utterly exasperating he couldn't deny that he still cared for him and that Farfarello actually was quite devoted to him, even if some of the signs of that devotion could be exasperating.

Farfarello grinned. "Excellent. Take off your pants."

"That seems to be Schwarz's motto," Aya said even as he obeyed.

"It's a very useful command that has many purposes."

As Aya descended into the large tub he realized that Farfarello had filled it with water hot enough to make Aya's skin tingle a bit. While it seemed like an odd temperature choice given how warm Jamaica was, Aya said nothing of it. He remained thankful that Farfarello had never tried to put him in boiling water.

Farfarello sank in beside him, bottle of liquid soap in hand and hopeful look on his face. Without asking first he started to wash Aya. To Aya's annoyance, it felt very good, as usual, no matter how much he didn't want it to.

For years Aya had succeeded in treating his body like a tool, something to be maintained for proper performance but not spoiled. He hadn't given the greedy thing everything it wanted. Discipline and asceticism had given him the feeling that he had control of some aspects of his life. He was self-sufficient.

Farfarello had taken even that away from him. It shouldn't be such a surprise that a man so skilled in causing pain and taking people apart would also show a talent for tormenting people through the application of pleasure. Aya could deal with pain, but pleasure confused and overcame him and made it harder to resist desires. It didn't help that part of him wanted to be cared for and made much of and thus enjoyed being washed and stroked with such attention. Farfarello knew about these weaknesses and took advantage of them.

Thus, Aya reciprocated Farfarello's kisses as Farfarello sat astride him and slid soap-slicked fingers and palms along Aya's tingling, ever-more-sensitive skin. Aya gasped as a slick grip swirled around his cock and balls, increasing his arousal. As Farfarello nuzzled and nipped his bared neck and jerked him off, he felt some continuing annoyance on how Farfarello would get what he wanted but it became harder to think under the pleasure, lust, and anticipation. Rocking against him, Farfarello let out a very satisfied sounding growl as Aya's hands clenched on his ass.

Feelings--emotions _and_ sensations--gave Aya such trouble. He knew he thought too much and that it often undercut previous conclusions and emotions. He only trusted his rage, which made so many things simpler and immediate.

Aya was so glad Farfarello tended to associate himself in during sex, because the thought of Farfarello reading this stuff out of his head horrified him. As it was, Farfarello seemed to be staring _into_ him very intensely, which was very intimidating coming from one eye and an eye socket, although Farfarello's ki healing had transformed the once very ugly socket into something somewhat more pleasant to look upon. Aya figured he'd freak out if Farfarello ever managed to regrow an eye, working or ornamental.

"Let me love you," Farfarello said.

_That_ settled things by sending a surge of fight-or-flight through Aya. If he could have pushed backward through the tub wall to get away, he would have. Instead, he banged his back and nearly headbutted Farfarello but didn't escape. He was _shaking_, and his erection faded completely. Altogether, it was a ridiculous, hurtful, and unexpected overreaction.

"That wasn't the reaction I expected," Farfarello said, sounding frustrated and sad yet thoughtful.

"The same for me. I'm sorry." Whatever his exasperations with Farfarello and Schwarz, that had been over the top. He felt awful about it and deserved the small backache his near-flight had earned him.

Farfarello let out a long, angry breath then stroked Aya's bangs away to kiss his forehead. "Hmm."

That gesture made him feel even worse. "I am."

"I'm done with this bath. You?"

"Yes." Emphatically yes, especially since he couldn't get a reading of Farfarello's emotions.

Farfarello reached for towels for both of them. It actually comforted Aya somewhat when Farfarello rubbed and ruffled him a bit with the towel before putting it around him. If he'd been unwilling to touch him it would have suggested that Aya's earlier recoil had opened a chasm between them.

As Aya walked down the hallway with Farfarello he heard Schuldig saying, "--would kill for a cigarette right now."

"Do you _strive_ to be a cliché?" Nagi asked but sounded fond.

"Clichés become clichés for a reason."

They looked very mellow and relaxed sprawled in chairs at the kitchen table. Remarkably mellow, particularly for Nagi. When Nagi saw Farfarello and Aya, he picked up a small pile of clothes and toiletries and walked past them to the bathroom with a light "Thanks." Farfarello cast Nagi a strange look then briefly went into the bedroom. Aya had no idea what was going on but knew _something_ was up.

"Good move, mindbreaker," Farfarello said when he returned with a small pile of his clothes and Aya's. "He may be less cranky and kitten-acquisitive now."

"It's not like it was a hardship, not like throwing myself onto a grenade. But thanks."

"You didn't have to do it in our bed, though."

"Where else? Did you expect us to do it on your table?"

"Good point. Aya can be picky about that."

It smelled a bit like sex in here. Had Schuldig jerked off in their bedroom? What were Farfarello and Schuldig talking about?

Wait. "You and Nagi had sex on our bed?"

"You're not too fast on the draw, are you, Rose-red?" Schuldig answered.

That suggested a "yes." "I'm fast on the important things. What the hell?" As if Farfarello needed more reasons for resentment.

"Nagi needed companionship, human contact, and relaxation, while I think he's cute and hot as hell. This way both our itches got scratched."

"You're disgusting."

"I didn't force myself on him or take advantage of him. He had a lot of ways and opportunities to say no. Hell, he could have torn my limbs off in seconds."

Did Aya feel _hurt_ that Nagi had sex with Schuldig, even aside from the timing? ...he did. He actually did feel hurt and less special. Did his ego need stroking that badly?

Of course Schuldig eavesdropped on that and answered, ~ If it makes you feel any better, a lot of the turn-on for him was doing it in your bed. He really has a thing for you. ~

That didn't make Aya feel any better.

~ Hey, I tried. ~ Schuldig gave him a penetrating look. ~ You don't think less of him for doing it with me, do you? ~

What? No. Why would he? Nagi must have had his reasons.

~ Good for you, Red. ~

Aya wished Schuldig's approval meant nothing to him, but he felt a small, warm glow anyway, especially in the wake of what had happened in the bathroom, the last of which he buried as deeply under shielding as he could. Hopefully Schuldig would only see the first embarrassment and be satisfied.

Schuldig smiled. "Hey, Farf. While we're helping each other out and all can you do something for me?"

"I make no promises," Farfarello answered as he dressed. As vulnerable as Aya felt facing Schuldig wearing nothing more than a towel around his waist, being naked in front of Schuldig while having his hands and some of his attention occupied in the process of putting clothes on seemed much worse.

"Could you use your ki to heal up my back? The fading bruises and scratch marks are stopping me from fully enjoying the sun."

"Why? You said you dislike freckles."

"I do, but I love the sun so I'll be using sunscreen."

"Bruises and cuts are nothing to be ashamed of. Far from it."

"I just don't want my back to be writing any checks my inclinations don't want to cash."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Aya had to ask.

Farfarello replied, "The mindbreaker worries that sadists will see his damaged back as an invitation for abuse."

"Then just turn the tables on them," Aya said. "I thought you enjoyed that kind of thing."

"I could," Schuldig said, "but I'm not interested in doing that right now because it's not that kind of vacation. Thus, it would waste my time."

"You trust me to heal your back?" Farfarello asked.

"I've trusted you with my body before."

What did that mean?

"True. Take your shirt off."

"Oooh, baby."

"Shut up."

"Hmph." Schuldig removed his shirt, showing the damage. Aya could understand Schuldig's unwillingness to show it off in public. "I have some bruises and marks on my hips and ass too, so keep that in mind. I'd happily take off my pants, but I think your kitten would object."

"He probably would." Farfarello walked over to stand behind him. "Your hair smells like debauchery."

"I'd like to take a full shower sometime today."

"I wasn't complaining. These finger-shaped bruises here are fresher. Smaller than Crawford's. The boy?"

"Yep."

"If I'd known that about him ages earlier, it would have changed some things."

"Sure would have. He would have thrown you across the room into the walls more often."

"That wouldn't have dissuaded me."

"True."

Aya tried to avoid being horrified by the conversation but failed, just as he failed to bleach some of his current mental images out of his head. "Take off your pants" really did seem to be Schwarz's motto. It shouldn't matter that Farfarello had once pursued Nagi, even if it did make Aya's stomach roil, and maybe he should also fully and totally accept that Nagi could be a sexual being and get over it.

He'd known but he hadn't _known_.

Schuldig turned the chair around, sat on it backward to give Farfarello full access to his back, and pushed his long hair out of the way. Farfarello closed his eye in what might have been an effort to focus his thoughts then opened it and lightly ran his fingers along the trails of scratches and swirls of bruises. They started to fade.

"Fuck, Farfie, what are you doing?" Schuldig asked, his voice gone deep and low. He squirmed in his seat.

"What I said I would." Farfarello sounded amused.

"It feels like.... I can't even describe what it feels like. What are you trying for?"

Aya remembered how weird but _good_ the ki infusions could feel and started to understand why Schuldig was moving the way he was. "Farfarello, is this really necessary? I'm not going to watch you do this," Aya said. Was this vengeance for what had happened in the bath, or would Farfarello have toyed with them both this way anyway?

Although Aya had been told that Farfarello and Schuldig used to have sex, seeing and hearing this left him disquieted. Uncomfortable as well, but he would have felt that way over anyone engaging in this kind of behavior in front of him. He'd never thought about or imagined what they were like together. It wouldn't have occurred to him that Farfarello could banter flirtatiously with Schuldig because Farfarello had never done so in front of Aya before. (Schuldig hadn't flirted much with Farfarello either, something so unusual that Aya should have noticed it sooner.) When Farfarello was with Aya, he was _with_ Aya, completely monogamous... aside from some weird moments with Yoji, and even that had been more like trying to bring Yoji in as a sextoy for him and Aya to enjoy.

Aya would have an easier time resisting Farfarello if Farfarello weren't so fixated on him, if having Aya seemed like more of a whim than a necessity. Should he hope for that? Probably, for both their sakes. He didn't know.

"Jealous, puisín?" Farfarello sounded amused and surprised. "There's no reason to be. You've gotten more of my ki than I'm giving the mindbreaker now."

"I think he's objecting more to the delivery method and my reaction to it," Schuldig said, husky-voiced.

"It's not my fault if this turns you on. So many things do."

At least Farfarello didn't seem to be doing it intentionally. Alas, it also meant he saw no reason to stop yet.

"Yes, but this would turn anyone on." Schuldig's fingers clenched on the edge of the table and his toes curled a bit. Aya would not look at his lap.

"Am I truly so powerful?"

"Smug bastard."

"Can I make you moan for me?"

Aya had to intervene. "Farfarello!"

"It's all in play, kitten. Besides, it amuses me that so many people are complaining that I make them feel good this morning." A shadow briefly passed over his expression.

Aya shook his head. "I'm not feeling good right now."

"That's not acceptable."

"You're almost done healing me, right?" Schuldig asked, perhaps in awareness of the increasing tension, even if he hopefully didn't know all the reasons for it. "In that case none of us has to deal with this for much longer."

Schuldig and Farfarello turned to look at the door almost simultaneously, then Schuldig laughed and said, "Brad's here. With a key. Everybody better scramble. I'll send Nagi a little telepathic head's-up."

"You couldn't have heard him before he reached our doorstep?" Aya asked.

"He's being _really_ stealthy, and I was distracted."

"I think you've had more than enough distraction for one morning."

"No such thing. By the way, unless you want to meet Brad nearly naked you should go get dressed. I wouldn't mind because he's certain to notice and say something while you're pretty when you're flustered and blushing, but...."

"Right."

******************************************************

Crawford arose from his newspaper reading trance when he realized that he had a horrible headache from his neck and back muscles locking up badly with tension. How ridiculous to get so wound up over all this. When he measured it on the scale of horrors he'd faced, it barely ranked. A rather Schuldig-sounding inner voice told him to unclench already. He'd... sulked long enough.

Schuldig had been gone for quite some time. A disagreement--even one involving Aya--shouldn't have taken this long to resolve. What could be going on over there? Schuldig hadn't contacted him telepathically either. If something had gone horribly wrong he surely would have foreseen it.

Unless his "clenching" had blocked off his precognition. It had happened before.

Vacations _could_ turn deadly. Schwarz itself had killed several vacationing people over the years, taking advantage of their attempts to relax more and be less paranoid.

Shit, he needed to be less overwrought. If something had already happened he wouldn't see it, being a precog instead of a postcog. He could always put out a telepathic feeler to Schuldig if he really worried.

Actually, it might be better to just show up with as much of the element of surprise on his side as possible in case his telepath had just gotten up to mischief or flounced off in a huff. Although Schuldig had told him not to show up, the risky part of the argument resolution had to be over by now. As their leader, he should be there. If he couldn't find Schuldig at the cottage, _then_ he could give him a telepathic poke, at which point he'd probably find the wretch drowning his annoyance at Crawford by flirting with someone.

As he walked to the cottage, Crawford had to admit that Schuldig had chosen a good location with pretty scenery, temperate weather, and pretty people. His telepath had some good ideas. The sun felt more intense on his skin than Crawford had expected, so he shouldn't go out without sunscreen again. He'd expected Aya and Nagi and perhaps Farfarello to have problems, not himself. Maybe he should resolve to go out more during the day in general.

As he unlocked the door he opened himself to any foresight that would come to him but didn't sense anything. Annoying.

When he entered, Schuldig and Farfarello turned to face him. If Aya's absence from the room had any sinister or problematic aspects, Farfarello wouldn't look so calm. Good. Schuldig briefly looked straight at him then kept his eyes turned to the side, suggesting he felt hurt as well as angry. Crawford hated feeling that he'd fucked things up.

"I told you not to come, Brad," Schuldig said. "I handled it on my own."

Maybe he could improve the situation by admitting, "You were gone so long I started to worry."

That put a small smile on Schu's face. "Well. I managed to get Aya to promise to make me breakfast, which he'll do as soon as he's done dressing." The small smile died. "Unlike you, I haven't eaten yet today."

It looked like Schuldig intended to make him pay and pay and pay. No surprise. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Especially since he had a muffin and some of our fruit already," Farfarello said.

"Like you're a big fruit fan," Schuldig answered.

"You took one of my muffins."

"Your muffins, your bed...."

"I'm possessive, me. You know this."

Crawford hadn't heard them banter in that tone for quite some time. Perhaps Farfarello had really wanted Schuldig to intervene in his argument with Aya.

"What did I miss?" Aya asked as he walked out of the bedroom, fully dressed but with his hair still damp, matching Farfarello. He seemed more on edge than Farfarello but "on edge" was almost his default.

"The mindbreaker was bemoaning the emptiness of his stomach."

"'The mindbreaker' is a black hole."

"He does suck, yeah."

"So do you," Schuldig said.

Crawford had worried about them, but this atmosphere of banter and genial insults seemed fine and normal. In fact, some of it seemed friendlier than usual. He'd have to ask Schuldig what he'd done.

"Has Aya started breakfast yet?" Nagi asked as he walked into the kitchen. When had Nagi arrived? From the damp condition of his hair and the color in his face, he must have just washed up. At least he looked mellower and less cranky today.

Had his entire team intended to have breakfast together without him? This sure as hell wasn't the kind of bonding he'd intended.

"Everyone's been getting in my way," Aya answered as he started taking items out of the cabinets and refrigerator.

"Then everyone can stop. I'm ready to eat again."

"When did _you_ get here?" Crawford asked.

"I spent the night."

That could explain part of the Farfarello/Aya argument. "Your room wasn't sufficient?"

"I had my reasons."

"Should I cancel your room?"

"I know the urge to save money is really strong, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves."

True. He didn't want Schuldig to have to run to defuse their arguments every morning here.

"Aya, you should make something for Brad too," Schuldig said.

"Stop volunteering me for new tasks," Aya answered.

Although Schuldig said nothing aloud, Crawford could tell that Schuldig spoke telepathically with Aya even if he couldn't "hear" the words. Aya's expression darkened, and he muttered, "I am not."

"Schuldig," Farfarello snarled. "Don't take your bitchiness out on my kitten. You were better behaved before. Unless..." He cast a considering look at Crawford. "Maybe my kitten and I aren't the only ones who suck at vacationing."

It annoyed Crawford to have his private life speculated on, but it would be difficult to hide from a team as close as his. "It's not that bad." Thankfully, Schuldig said nothing, but it looked like Crawford would have to have a private talk with him to clear things up, no matter how onerous it would be.

"If you want eggs, you're in luck," Aya said. "Otherwise, deal with it."

"I'll have some eggs."

_Aya_ had stepped in for him as a distraction? It surprised Crawford, especially since Farfarello going after him had distracted from whatever had gone on between Farfarello and Aya. When the hell had personal relations among his team members gotten this fraught?

At least Nagi had lightened up. In fact, once in a while Nagi had a dazed little smile on his face, which was... odd actually. Sometimes he directed his smiles at Schuldig, who grinned back in a nearly flirty way. Schuldig flirted with everyone but rarely with such warm affection in his eyes. Wait a minute. No, it couldn't be. Not even Schuldig could close the deal with Nagi that quickly.

This needed further observation. "What did I miss?"

"Just me gluing the team back together," Schuldig said breezily.

"Gluing it back together with what?"

Schuldig just smirked. Nagi looked at Crawford with what appeared to be growing annoyance, while Farfarello observed the three of them with a nearly sadistic interest. Aya had his back turned to them but carried more tension in his shoulder and neck muscles than usual. It looked very likely that they all knew something he didn't and waited for his reaction.

"What did I miss?" Crawford repeated. He had a sudden flash of foresight, of himself shouting, "Did you really have to screw Nagi? Are you going to fuck your way to leadership of this team and make them a new Collective?"

Schuldig nearly blazed with rage as he answered, "One, I don't want another Collective. Two, I don't want to be leader of this team because a lot of the organizational and booking stuff you do bores the shit out of me. I _like_ my current position. Three, fuck you! If you knew how to handle your emotions like an adult, a lot of this wouldn't have happened. Four, if you feel like you're losing the loyalty and respect of this team, maybe you should examine your own paranoid, control freak ways to find the reasons why! If you let your hang-ups drive me away or force Nagi into a life of miserable isolation, you don't deserve to have any of us!"

When Crawford returned to the present, he saw his entire team staring at him and wondered how many objective current moments had passed while he watched and heard the future. He needed time to process, he needed to get through and past the rush of adrenalized emotions ripping through him, he needed to do all of that out from under his team's ruthless stare at him, and he needed to avoid the blowup he just foresaw. If he spoke from the anger, discomfort, and... jealousy he felt right now, he knew he would start a shouting match. He needed to leave, think, cool down, and regain control a bit before he said something stupid and irrevocable.

"I'll be back in ten minutes," he told them and strengthened his shields as he felt Schuldig try to pry out what he'd foreseen. "There's just something I have to do. If breakfast is ready before I return, start without me." It pleased him to hear his voice come out so level.

Schuldig looked at him so intently that Crawford wondered if his telepath was trying to read his face in the absence of getting information out of his mind. "All right, Brad, but after ten minutes we're sending out a search party."

Although he figured they had to know something was wrong, he maintained his face throughout as if there weren't. He held his composure until he was a calm ten-minute walk away, sat down in an area away from other people, and unpacked his new information. He wanted to _shoot_ something.

At least the foresight had been helpful in many ways. Over all the things he could be upset about, after having that vision as confirmation he had to admit to himself that Schuldig wouldn't _want_ to take his job. At least not the entirety of it. Schuldig had handled the field aspects of leadership well in Vienna, better than Crawford would have once expected, but lacked the administrative and ass-kissing talents needed for the rest of it and had no urge to develop them.

Schwarz was Crawford's to lead, and he had yet to see them losing respect and the willingness to follow his orders. They'd question and bitch in some circumstances, as usual, but they'd always followed. So far he hadn't seen a reason to doubt that this would continue. It didn't matter whether they liked him as long as they respected and obeyed him. Schuldig could be their fun time coordinator.

Crawford found it harder to forgive Schuldig fucking with Nagi. How could he? His telepath _knew_ he wouldn't approve and knew he had reasons for it. Schuldig might disagree with him regarding Nagi, but he never should have pulled this shit. They looked afterglow-warm toward each other now, but the long-term effects probably wouldn't be so pleasant. How would a moody teenager like Nagi deal with being nothing more than another notch on Schuldig's belt?

How the hell had he even convinced Nagi? Nagi had, very sensibly, refused him hundreds of times before. Not only had the boy given in, but he'd given in during what had to be a short time. It made no sense.

It didn't surprise Crawford at all that Schuldig had responded to his recent coldness by jumping another person's bones, so why did it... hurt the way it did? He couldn't quite convince himself that he had this reaction just because Schuldig had fucked _Nagi_. Emotions were so much more trouble than they were worth. Worse, they might have to _talk_ about this.

It galled Crawford that this wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been standoffish to Schuldig this morning, although he would never admit any culpability to Schuldig.

"Hey," Nagi said from nearby. "It's been 15 minutes."

"Really."

"If this is about me and Schuldig having sex, I want you to know that it was all my idea. He even turned me down at first."

What? "I find that hard to believe."

"Believe it. He didn't feel that I wanted it for the right reasons at first." Nagi smirked.

"I find it hard to believe that you just asked for it out of nowhere, without his instigation."

"He saw me being miserable and edgy and told me that I should let off some steam with someone fun instead of waiting for the perfect person who could be everything to me. I really feel that he hadn't been fishing for himself at the time. He even gave me several moments to say no and get out of it, so don't give him trouble over this. It was just sex for fun for the both of us, not me expecting to get a new boyfriend out of it. I shouldn't have to stay celibate on your say-so anyway. It's my life."

Crawford shouldn't be so surprised that Nagi had initiated the encounter, not when he'd busted in on Nagi and Kudou recently to stop them. It didn't sound like Nagi had any illusions about Schuldig's relationship with him either.

"Did you volunteer to go out to talk to me?"

"Yeah, because I want to nip this in the bud before it gets even stupider or you make it bigger than it is. Schuldig is just doing his usual job within the team."

"I have to tell you that I really don't like this."

"And I have to remind you that I'm not the virgin daughter you're trying to force into Promise Keepers. You might mean well, but it's annoying the shit out of me." Despite the casual clothing, Nagi looked nearly adult.

"I want to make sure you make good decisions."

"By taking the edge off, I'm making it easier for me to think straight."

"I did feel some concern over how cranky and miserable you've been."

"I doubt that's all over, but I'm feeling better."

"Even so, I'm surprised you're standing up for Schuldig."

"We survived so much crap that it seems really stupid to let stuff like this tear us apart."

That actually sounded wise. "I'll try not to be _too_ hard on Schuldig."

"Sounds good to me. Now can we go back so I can get some breakfast?"

"Yeah." As he allowed Nagi to lead him back to the cottage, he resolved to settle things with Schuldig without turning melodramatic.


	252. "You're never going to let me live this down, are you?"

Farfarello's ki healing had left Schuldig so _horny_, too horny to distract himself from. He dearly wished he could leave to stroke himself off in the bathroom, but too many things kept happening this morning for him to feel good about disappearing for a few minutes. With Brad such a mess and the Psycho Twins being more volatile with each other than usual, the team needed Schuldig present and working. He'd have to keep trying to ignore his hard-on.

If Nagi hadn't put out Schuldig would be a much worse mood over Brad's stupidities and the situation. Instead, he kept occasionally smiling at random as he remembered it. (Which, of course, didn't lessen his hard-on any.)

And Brad claimed he was hard to please.

"The eggs are ready," Aya said.

"Crawford's late," Nagi said. "I'll go out to get him."

"You don't want your scrambled eggs to get cold."

"If he doesn't come back quickly, I'll leave him out there. Nobody's going to make me eat cold scrambled eggs."

"Go out there and be more mature than he is," Schuldig had to say.

"I'll be back soon." Nagi stood and left.

When one of Schuldig's random smiles went in Aya's direction and Aya noticed it, Aya said, "Don't think that just because Nagi surrendered to you I will."

Rose-red always provided entertainment. Too bad Schuldig couldn't _really_ tease him while Farfie sat at the table and watched everything. Besides, after putting so much effort and sacrifice this morning into calming the Psycho Twins he really didn't want to mess them up again himself.

"I'm not going to give up hope, Aya, especially not after this morning showed me that fairy tales can come true. Besides, I put so much thought into how I would seduce you that it would be a shame to waste it."

"I don't see why you need to have me when you're eavesdropping on us all the time."

"Those are only previews! Farfarello has a completely different style. I want to know what you're like when _I'm_ making love to you." Although Farfarello had started this thing with Aya by going slowly and teasing the hell out of him, these days he tackled Aya in a much faster and more straightforward way. By contrast, Schuldig would torment Aya with light, slower touches and try to get him begging for more. He'd given it a lot of thought.

"...I see that I never should have started this conversation."

"Too true," Farfarello said.

Aya was shaking his head slightly. "You'd really... 'make love' to me?"

"You don't need your hearing checked," Schuldig answered.

"Hearing those words from you...."

"Makes you feel the urge to vomit?" Farfarello asked.

"That sounds about right," Aya replied.

How insulting. "You'll never know what I might do if you never try it."

"I think I'll survive better in ignorance."

"Your loss," Schuldig said as he started to eat his eggs. Aya served some to Farfarello and then himself before sitting down to eat quietly.

Looking and listening, Schuldig couldn't decide whether it was a good quiet or a bad one. Aya could be closemouthed, but Farfarello often filled the gap. Did they avoid talking out of being comfortable just eating together or to avoid chancing more fighting words or out of just being wary of each other?

Aya felt tense, but Farfarello seemed calm and lost in thought as he dismembered a blueberry muffin with his fingers. A thoughtful Farfarello didn't always bode well for everyone else. Schuldig tried to get a better reading off them but both had shielded up big time, especially Farfarello, which would require him to pry hard enough that they might notice it.

This made recent mornings in Vienna and Munich look easy and peaceful by comparison. Schuldig told himself that he did hate to be bored.

All this made Brad's return feel almost like a relief. Schuldig still wondered what had driven Brad outside like that. Had he foreseen something and needed time to process it?

"Look who I found," Nagi said as he followed Brad into the cottage. "Are the eggs still warm?"

"They should be," Aya answered. "Help yourself."

"I'll even get Crawford some. He doesn't deserve me."

"Don't go there," Brad said.

"Be nice to the person getting you food." Containers of juice and milk followed Nagi as he walked to the table with two plates of eggs and set themselves down on the table as he seated himself.

Once everyone had started eating, Schuldig asked, "What are all of you going to be doing today? Have you thought about it yet?"

"A little," Aya replied. "What will _you_ be doing?"

"Surf lessons."

"I think I'd like to try that," Farfarello said. "What?"

"Nobody here expected it," Schuldig answered as he wondered what Farf might be planning. "Really, surfing?"

"It intrigues me. While I'm trying that, Aya could take a tour or something. He mentioned wanting to do something like that."

"I'll be elsewhere while you're learning to surf?" Aya asked.

"If you wish to be. Perhaps the boy would like to go with you."

Everyone else stared at Farfarello in response to that for a while, and Brad was the first one to break the silence by asking, "What happened while I was away?"

"I'm willing to try new things to make what we have work," Farfarello said. "I'm compromising."

Dying to see the results of this, Schuldig decided to help. "Nagi could meet new people while on a tour."

After a surprised look, Nagi answered, "Yeah. That could be good. I'm open to taking a tour with Aya." Good boy.

"I was hoping the team could do something together today," Brad said.

"We're already having a spontaneous team breakfast," Schuldig replied.

"Yes, we are. All right." Brad pulled some brochures out of his jacket and put them out on the table. "We don't even have to stay here in Negril the whole time."

Leaning over to look, Farfarello suddenly grinned. "We could swim with the dolphins at Dolphin Cove." Nagi and Brad snickered with him. Bastards. At least it shriveled the low-grade continuing arousal Schuldig had been feeling.

"What?" Aya asked.

Annoyed, Schuldig answered, "Dolphins are very horny creatures with some sensitivity to telepathy."

"You of all people shouldn't have gotten offended," Farfarello said, still grinning.

"I like my partners to be human, thanks. You're never going to let me live this down, are you?"

"You were sexually assaulted by dolphins. How could we?"

"Eszett hadn't known of any non-humans who had that reaction to telepaths before," Brad said as he failed to keep a smirk off his face.

Annoyed, Schuldig crossed his arms. "That was embarrassing as hell."

"You're the one who always tells other people to lighten up. It's not like they hurt you. You fended dolphins off easily, and you _had_ to enjoy the looks on the employees' faces. The only thing injured was your dignity."

"What you have of it," Farfarello said.

"If you're all going swimming with dolphins, you can do it without me," Schuldig replied.

Farfarello grinned. "We're not the ones the dolphins want to do, so...."

Shaking his head, Aya said, "I'm sorry I asked. What are some of the tours I can take?" As he took some of the brochures, he looked thoughtful as he glanced over at Farfarello, obviously wondering what his partner's game was. "Maybe the Mayfield Falls trip. I don't feel like playing in the water _all_ day, especially not in this sun. Nagi?"

Schuldig wondered if Aya had done that out of impatience or to distract the others from ragging on about the dolphins. Whatever, it worked out nicely.

"Sugar plantations, villages, a river, lunch near the falls... sounds fine with me," Nagi answered after looking through the brochure. "If necessary, you'll entertain me, right?"

"Depends on the kind of entertainment you're expecting."

"Nothing _too_ embarrassing. I don't want people staring at _me_ either."

"You're too kind."

"You also don't deserve me. Farfarello, this is fine with you?"

Farfarello's expression darkened for a moment before he brightened it. "I trust you both to know how I would react if things went awry."

To get away from that going further and going wrong, Schuldig asked, "What will you be doing today, Brad?" Did Schuldig want to force a confrontation over what had happened this morning?

Maybe later.

No matter what happened, Brad better start making it up to him immediately. Brad had enough survival skills to know he'd have to. If he did it without prompting, even better.

"I'm not sure yet." Brad had a little more egg. "It's somewhat disconcerting. I do know I'm not doing a tour today."

"Nor surfing?"

"No. You and Farfarello can have all the fun with that."

Looking at the brochure, Aya said, "If we want to make the Mayfield Falls tour, Nagi and I have to call and then show up at a certain spot in about 25 minutes."

"Farf and I have to call to make sure we have a place in the surfing lessons, which start about 45 minutes from now. I'll make the call for us," Schuldig said. "I need to do something with my hair too."

"Then we should all start soon."

So they all had a plan of action and itinerary... except for Brad. This vacation kept getting weirder.

~ I'll talk to you later, in private, ~ Brad said. Joy.

******************************************************

With breakfast finished and cleared away and Mom and Dad gone back to their cottage, Nagi tried to pass the time before he and Aya took off for the tour by getting things done on his computer, but he just couldn't concentrate. Although he'd seen a lot of Europe and Asia, he'd rarely been an actual tourist anywhere. He worked, and whatever he saw of a country came inside a car, a hotel room, someone's office, and all too often a warehouse or lab. It made a lot of the world seem like the same old shit, just with different languages, bodies, and stupid politeness rituals to try to one-up the ignorant. What distinctly Japanese customs Nagi kept he mostly did to mess with and annoy the rest of his team.

It would be weird acting like tourists, regular people. It would be weird doing it with Aya, who could be even more reserved than he was, but cool too. They might have to dare each other to do things.

Nagi kept expecting a trap in it, though, especially after the events of this morning. From how Aya glanced at Farfarello now and then, he seemed to be expecting a trap as well, while Farfarello sat as still and mellow as a meditating monk on the couch and didn't appear to notice. Aya hadn't put out any further questions about Farfarello's uncharacteristic offer, perhaps to make sure he wouldn't rescind it.

It would be good to clear out of here and get away from Farfarello for a while.

"Have you applied sunscreen?" Aya asked.

Nagi and Farfarello both said, "Yeah," at the same time. Nagi asked, "Have you?"

"Yes, and I'm bringing the bottle since we'll be outside much of the day. You should take a bottle for yourself some as well, Farfarello, since you might not notice yourself burning until it's too late."

"I will, I will."

"It's about time for you to unplug, Nagi. It'll be good for you anyway."

Nagi had to answer, "I'm not plugged in now. This place has wifi, and my laptop is running on battery power."

"You know what I mean. Brat."

"Sure." Nagi turned everything off, put his laptop and accessories in his computer bag, and put the bag itself somewhere inconspicuous in case Farfarello decided to get passive-aggressive with Nagi's possessions in his absence.

"Are you missing the yelling and fighting?' Farfarello asked, sounding darkly amused.

For a moment Nagi thought Farfarello might be addressing him, but Aya answered, "I'm surprised. That's all." When Nagi looked over he saw Aya standing near Farfarello, who remained seated on the couch. Aya continued, "It feels good to be trusted."

"Hmm."

"Have a good day out." Aya sat next to him and gave him a kiss. In response, Farfarello pulled him over onto his lap and initiated more serious kissing. After initially stiffening up, Aya relaxed into it and reciprocated for a while before pulling back a bit and putting his hands on Farfarello's chest to stay that way.

Farfarello had a smile on his face and looked much less put out. "I will. You too."

Seeing their smiles, Nagi couldn't help feeling a rush of warmth. He wanted them to be happy. Well, Aya more than Farfarello but still.

When Aya stood he put on the black straw cowboy hat Farfarello had bought him, obviously making a point. Nagi put a hat of his own on with much less enthusiasm. Then, equipped with a container of sunscreen and money, they got into their shoes and left for a day of touring like normal people.

******************************************************

Crawford let Schuldig have his shower when they returned to the cottage. Washing his hair might put Schuldig into a better mood, and Crawford needed time to think about what he really wanted to say.

When Schuldig came out he took one look at Crawford, apparently interpreted the look on his face, and asked, "Can we talk while I braid my hair?"

"Yeah, but why are you doing that?"

"I'm going to be out surfing and in sea water, so I decided to put on some leave-in conditioner and tie it back to protect it and keep it out of my way."

"Isn't that Malice's look?"

Schuldig snorted as he combed his damp hair back. "Great. Look, I don't give a shit. The odds are good that not all of _my_ hair will stay pulled back anyway."

This might make a good opportunity. "Let me braid it."

Surprised, Schuldig asked, "Do you know how to?" He didn't ask why Crawford would want to.

"Yeah."

"Okay." Schuldig sat at the vanity table and used the mirror to see Crawford behind him. "But if it sucks I'll take it out and do it myself."

"Sure."

"I figure the best thing would be a French braid then clip the end up against the back of my head." He set the intended clip on the table within reach.

"You didn't tell me you wanted a French braid."

Rolling his eyes, Schuldig answered, "I'll give you a quick telepathic lesson. I can't really do that to the back of my own head."

"So you didn't intend to have a French braid until I made my offer."

"I'm taking advantage of available resources, which is a very Schwarz thing to do. Or so you've told us in the past. Do you want me to do it or not? You never know, it might be a useful skill one day."

"As I go undercover as a hairdresser? I think not. But, sure, give it to me." If Crawford hadn't been watching for it, he might not have even noticed the telepathic touch. "Now what?"

"Don't think too hard about it. I tapped into your body memory a bit so your hands will almost work on their own. Just start separating my hair into sections."

Crawford did and felt the next moves coming to him almost without thinking about it. Scary. Useful against their enemies though. Schuldig's hair, darkened and somewhat slick from the conditioner, easily ran through his hands.

As he went, Crawford asked, "Should I be doing this looser? This is a really severe look for you." With his hair pulled back like this, Schuldig's face seemed to be all bones, angles, and wide mouth, hard and sharp.

"It's fine. I'm not going to be flirting with the instructor because I actually want to learn to surf."

"While wearing that tiny Speedo."

"Actually, all the students will be wearing wet suits, me included. It's especially good in Farfarello's case since I'm not sure if the world is ready to deal with all those scars at once. I'm dying to see if I can pry Farfarello's plans out of him. I think I know what he's doing, but it's never a good idea to assume things about him." Even surfing on his vacation, Schuldig would be working.

This seemed to be as good a time as any. "I overreacted a bit this morning."

"Duh, o fearless leader. What am I supposed to do to avoid this in the future? Be a selfish, crappy lover? I'm curious."

Unwilling to be on the defensive, Crawford asked, "Are you even aware that you were radiating at me last night?"

Schuldig sneered. "I thought you might enjoy a taste of some of my pleasure. I guess not. Thanks for setting me straight."

Seeing the discussion becoming a disaster again, having already seen a future where it all went acrimonious and out of control, Crawford tried to put out some of the fires. "You know how much my control means to me."

"What does that have to do with it?"

"It was too much." Definitely too much, too intimate, and too overwhelming. "You seem to lose some of your finesse with telepathy during sex."

That appeared to have made an impression and cooled Schuldig down a bit. "Hunh. All right. It sucks though, because it felt good to share with you like that. With a lot of people I can get a pleasure loop going, but your brain doesn't allow that so I decided to try the next best thing a few times last night."

It had felt good to Crawford too, but he couldn't allow it. "I understand that, but it can't happen again."

"Hmm. Fine."

There was almost something meditative in having Schuldig's hair sliding through his fingers in repetitive motions. "You know why I got upset over Nagi, right?"

"I know. I just think it's ridiculous. Us being together sure as hell doesn't mean I have to agree with you on everything. Still, sex with Nagi won't become a regular occurrence."

"I worry about long-term effects from _this_ time."

"I'll monitor him and fix things, as usual."

"If we hadn't been at odds this morning, would it still have happened?"

"Hard to say." Schuldig smirked. "I'm no seer."

Crawford lightly yanked on his hair. "Be good."

"Ow! Bastard."

"I didn't tug it that hard."

"Says you. But if you're asking whether I did it just out of spite, the answer is no. I was thinking of Nagi first, you later. In other words, I did it _for_ Nagi, not _against_ you. Deal with it. He's happier and calmer now, isn't he?"

As much as Crawford hated it, Schuldig was right about Nagi's attitude change, and the sex had happened and couldn't be revoked, so he'd have to find a way to live with it, even if it did... hurt. "It _won't_ be a regular occurrence."

"It won't. I'm hopeful that Nagi will find somebody special for himself, and I know you don't really approve of that either but suck it."

"I know he can't be miserable and alone his entire life just because I hate realizing that he's growing up and don't approve of his choice in bedmates." The words tasted bitter in his mouth, but he had to admit that Nagi and Schuldig had made some valid points.

Schuldig looked pleasantly surprised. "There's hope for you yet."

"Depending on how today goes I may be looking for local work for Farfarello and Aya."

"Smart idea, though I'm hoping those crazy kids work things out without it."

"Me too, actually." He clipped Schuldig's braid up to his head and set his hands on the back of the chair. His telepath looked _so_ different with his hair done this way.

Schuldig picked up a hand mirror and turned around so he could see it. "Not bad. Thanks. Are we settled about this morning?"

"Are you still offended?"

"Somewhat. You shut me out completely before."

He'd definitely overreacted and lost some control over Schuldig in the process. "It'll be a work in progress."

"See you later, Brad." Schuldig left the cottage with a breezy wave. Definitely still offended. Tonight would be interesting and probably annoying. Crawford had the day to figure out what to do about it.


	253. "You're assuming I *have* style."

Aya and Nagi waited with a group of other tourists to board the bus. The other tourists. Aya still wasn't sure what to make of it, taking a vacation out in daylight with innocent people around. It shouldn't feel right. Killers should keep to killers.

And have lives of miserable isolation? Spelled out, it did sound somewhat melodramatic. His own actions and feelings showed that he didn't want Nagi to be alone and miserable, while Nagi was also a killer. So Nagi deserved happiness but he felt that _he_ didn't?

For a moment Aya suspected telepathic tampering. Why would he be undercutting himself now? Yet this contrasting voice actually seemed to be his too.

He hoped the bus ride would have a constant supply of distracting things to see, because he really didn't relish fighting another battle inside his head and brooding for an extended period of time. At least he had Nagi with him to talk to.

But when he saw Nagi casting occasional glances at a pretty young woman waiting along with them, Aya had to say, "You don't have to stick with me the whole time. In fact, if it helps you seem... cooler to a new friend, you can say I forced you to come along on this lame tour." He refused to let selfishness destroy Nagi's opportunities.

"What?" Nagi looked surprised then guilty then annoyed. "Even if I did see someone interesting here, I wouldn't throw you under the bus." At the look on Aya's face, Nagi said, "It's a figure of speech."

"Considering your abilities, I wanted to be sure."

"Besides, how would I start a conversation: 'I think you're hot, so let's get to know each other better'?"

"It seems to work for Yoji and Schuldig. Somehow."

"How? I mean, really, how? That wouldn't work on me or for me."

"Me neither. I don't know, but you've seen it work for yourself."

"Face it; they're just not like us. Thankfully, in Schuldig's case. Probably in Yoji's too." He smirked. "We're so mean."

"They ask for it."

"Especially Schuldig." Still, Nagi had a fond little smile on his face while talking about Schuldig that made Aya hope the afterglow wore off soon because it was _strange_.

"Maybe you can start a conversation once the tour goes on a bit. Talk about or express an opinion on what we've all seen. Not that I'm any kind of expert about breaking the ice."

"It sounds like a good, sensible idea to me, but I won't ditch you."

"I don't want to cramp your style."

"You're assuming I _have_ style." Nagi fanned himself. "The bus better have air conditioning. If people were meant to stay out in the heat they wouldn't have been given the brains to invent air conditioning."

"Bitch, bitch, bitch."

"Bitching is our official team sport. You hadn't figured that out yet?"

They'd given their names Western-style, and Aya raised his hand when the tour guide called for Aya Fujimiya. They'd considered aliases but decided that the odds were very good that no one would know them here. If someone did, it might be better to draw that person out and take care of him anyway.

After running through some other names, the tour guide said, "Nagi Na-- uhm."

Nagi raised his hand and answered, "Don't bother trying to pronounce my family name. I'm probably the only Nagi here anyway."

"...thanks." Once he finished going through the roll call, he said, "All aboard!"

As they boarded, Nagi said softly to Aya, "Ah, air conditioning. Maybe this won't be a disaster after all. Maybe it'll be good."

"That's the right attitude," Aya answered as he thought that sometimes he and Nagi had way too much in common. "Wait, if you think this will be a disaster, why did you come along?"

"I don't want to be left out of whatever happens next, especially when Farf will no doubt quiz us on it later, so I'm not missing this for the world."

"Do you know something I don't?"

"I'm not the member of the team who sees the future. But considering how jam-packed the morning has been...."

"...good point."

******************************************************

"The wet suit looks good on you, Farf. The blue brings out the color of your eye," Schuldig said.

"Black _and_ blue. Appropriate to dress us in bruise colors," Farfarello answered.

"Since yellow and green can be counted in that, I'm with you." As their surfing group slowly gathered, Schuldig used the time to try to pry some answers out of Farfarello. ~ What's up with you going surfing? I'm sure it's part of your plan to win Aya over but I can't see how. ~

Farfarello cast him a sour look but answered, ~ I had to try new things. I miss the strength of the bond we felt in New York but can't duplicate two of the major conditions of that time. We had our own flat, our own car, and our favorite neighborhood places. Everything was new, though we were gradually imposing our own routine onto it. ~

They'd lived alone together and been so far away from Schwarz, independent. Schuldig would have to mention this to Brad when Farf and Aya's desire for their own apartment came up again, as it no doubt would when they returned to Tokyo. In the meantime, Schuldig had to direct Farf away from all that. ~ You must've each had some of your own space there, though, because Aya's been getting stir-crazy here. So letting him go off on a tour without you is you giving him some space so he doesn't feel so penned in and smothered right now? ~

~ He did _not_ feel penned in and smothered. ~

~ I call 'em like I see 'em. ~

~ Either he'll see that he doesn't enjoy being away from me or he'll enjoy himself and be thankful that I gave him that opportunity. Those are good odds... as long as the boy doesn't try to reach above himself and my husband doesn't forget himself. ~

~ I think they'll be okay. ~ At the very least because they were both so reserved and would be surrounded by strangers the whole time.

~ As long as they're chaste with each other. ~ It almost sounded like a growl.

To his surprise, Schuldig noticed Brad sitting on a chair with a nearby small table on the beach, close enough to watch the surfing class but far enough away to be uninvolved. A large, festively colored umbrella kept the sun off his head and most of his body but he wore sunglasses and a white hat with his white linen suit anyway. The table held what appeared to be fruity drink, since Schuldig could just make out the tiny paper umbrella on top.

Although Brad had his laptop on his lap and occasionally worked on it, Schuldig couldn't hold it against him. If a guy _had_ to work, this was a fairly decadent way to do it, especially since Brad looked up to check Schuldig out once in a while. If Brad kept this kind of thing up, Schuldig might even forgive him in the near future.

******************************************************

As Brad looked up now and then to watch the surfing lessons, he decided that some of it might even help them in future missions. That led him to a rather humorous image of Schuldig surfing up to a target's building under the moonlight. But, seriously, he saw some physical benefits.

His operatives immediately outclassed the other students, especially Schuldig, with his easy flexibility and fine sense of balance. Having only one eye gave Farfarello a few debits that showed up in some situations.

Working with his e-mail, Crawford remembered that photo of Nagi curled up like a kitten against Farfarello during the car ride to Munich and realized he'd never sent it to his mother. He fixed that now. She'd love to see it, and sending it offered some payback to Nagi for this morning's escapade with Schuldig.

Crawford did love to multitask.

Planning ahead, he checked internet boards and e-mail lists that gave leads on upcoming jobs. It looked like he wouldn't have difficulties finding them work once they returned to Japan. Sources told him that the cut-off Austrian branch of Kritiker was seeing some hard times with their foreign cash flow ended. Too bad, so sad, for them. Reading between the lines elsewhere, it sounded as if the Argentinian branch of Eszett was under attack by someone powerful. He really wanted more information on that, but it looked like it would take a much deeper search to get it so he decided to assign it to Nagi the moment the boy needed a break from their vacation, as he no doubt would. If clients in Jamaica put anything up online, Crawford couldn't find it. Thus, he might have to network in more old-fashioned ways to get some leads on local jobs ready in case Farfarello and Aya desperately needed to work.

When looked up again to see the surfing members of his team, he noticed Schuldig, wet, looking sleek and graceful on his board. Dolphin-like. Crawford would have to remember to mention that if he wanted to yank his telepath's chain later.

******************************************************

Nagi still couldn't believe that he had _sanctioned_ alone time with Aya. People were strapping ice skates on in hell or something. Aya talked a bit during the trip too, mostly to point out things he liked or thought Nagi should see outside. (Nagi loved his deep voice, even though he couldn't put his finger on why.)

Nagi had to admit that the tour bus wound through some picturesque places, and he'd take photos if he dared open the dirt-filmed window and let precious air conditioning out. He had his chance to snap some when they stopped in one of the villages to pick up a packed lunch. After that the bus took them to the River Mayfield and let them out to walk up the whirling river to the wooded area they'd eat in. The water felt wonderfully brisk and cold.

Telekinetic, he had confidence that he wouldn't lose his footing. Aya simply walked, never slipping once. However, the girl Nagi had noticed earlier started to slide. Nagi went to her aid, quickly moving to her so everyone would be less likely to notice the telekinetic save that preceded him grabbing hold of her. How fortunate that he'd been walking so close to her. He noticed Aya rolling his eyes.

"Thank you!" the girl said, blushing a little. How cute! The ponytail she'd put her long dark hair up into sometime during the tour helped.

"No problem. I'm Nagi."

"Mia. I'm normally much better about things like this."

"Maybe we should stay close to look out for each other," he said. That had to sound a lot friendlier to her than "You should stay near me in case you fall again." He could too learn social niceties.

Mia looked back at an older couple in, maybe, their fifties who walked hand in hand. Nagi had seen them macking on each other now and then. Shuddering a little in apparent horror, she said, "Yeah, I'll stay close to you guys."

"Are they your parents or something?"

"Yeah. It's great that they love each other, but do they have to do things like this in public?"

Eager to connect, Nagi answered, "My parents can be embarrassing too. Especially my... mother. Embarrassing and inappropriate. There are lots of times when she seriously needs to get a room."

"I know, right? Hey, who's your friend?"

For a moment he didn't even remember Aya. Smooth. Real smooth. "That's Aya. We're almost like brothers." And almost like other, sexier things. Hey, it was Schwarz. Being like family didn't take any of them off the market.

Aya nodded his head to her and said, "Hello."

"So you're friends?" she asked.

"Yeah." Through sheer force of will he didn't make it sound like "Duh!" What had she thought they were?

Nagi heard a very soft, somewhat muddled telepathic sending of ~ She might have thought we're a gay couple. ~ It sounded like Aya!

Nagi felt a surge of pride in him for trying more telepathic things. Good for Aya! Then he processed what Aya had actually said. ~ _What_? ~

~ It's a possibility. ~

Nagi didn't think they acted particularly gay together. Then again, how many totally straight men did he know to model his behavior off of? Whatever, at least Mia knew better now. As much as Nagi sometimes wished otherwise, Aya wasn't his lover.

"Now we'll be going up the falls!" the tour guide said with extreme cheer.

Nagi had been admiring the falls from a distance as they walked. Very pretty. Mia looked a bit intimidated by them, though.

"If you slip," Nagi said, "I'll still be here to help you. I'm good at this kind of thing." Telekinesis was a natural-born gift, like athleticism, not a cheat.

Looking amused by the whole thing, Aya said nothing and just started walking up the falls, letting Nagi and Mia straggle behind him. Like Aya had cause to judge, when _he'd_ been flung into the lap of _his_ fiancé.

******************************************************

Hanging up the wetsuit, Schuldig said, "I didn't expect to ache at the end of that."

"I don't," Farfarello answered with a smirk. He'd already removed his own.

"Of course you don't."

"Perhaps you need to get into better shape."

"Funny," Schuldig said with a sneer. Fully dressed, they walked back out onto the beach together. "What'll you do now? Red is still off looking at waterfalls or something."

"I did things before I met him."

"Remember that you're not allowed to wound or kill anyone without Brad's permission."

What did the mindbreaker expect to accomplish with this taunting? Aside from annoying Farfarello. "I'm well aware. I can find ways to occupy myself even without bloodshed. I'm not that boring. What will _you_ do?"

"See if Brad has completely removed his head from his ass yet. See you later, Farf. Don't force me or Brad to come after you. Remember to reapply your sunscreen!" Schuldig left him with a cheery wave. Good riddance.

Left alone, Farfarello wondered what people were supposed to do at the beach while on vacation. Although the surf lessons had been enjoyable, he'd spent enough time in the water. Lying on a towel irradiating himself didn't appeal either. Beach volleyball required making friends of and working with people he'd usually be threatening. It would feel too strange.

He suddenly heard "Pirate!" yelled in a high-pitched voice nearby and turned his head to see a little girl with her black hair done up in little puffs pointing at him with a small plastic shovel. The sand castles near her had upside-down bucket shapes, no doubt made by the plastic bucket next to her. Her parents looked alarmed. Smart people.

"I'm on vacation," Farfarello answered.

"Pirates don't do that!" she said.

Assassins generally didn't do that either. "I do." Sand castles. That might be fun to do. He could certainly make prettier ones. "Can I borrow some of your tools?"

"Tools?"

"Bucket and shovel." He could use the edge of the shovel to help shape his creations. "We can share, right? Sharing is a good thing." Surely her parents said so and he could make use of that.

"No. They're mine!"

Perhaps the little one needed to be taught some manners. Parents could be so remiss. Farfarello knew all too well about wayward parents. He could teach them all....

~ Farfarello! ~

~ I did nothing. You won't even let me treasure such possibilities in my thoughts? ~ He wasn't stupid enough to attack a family in plain sight on a public beach.

~ I'm aware of how impulsive you can be. ~

Very disgruntled, Farfarello left the child and her relieved parents to go in search of tools. If he couldn't maim anyone, he'd have to content himself with other artistic pursuits. She would have been jealous of his sand sculptures anyway.

How far he had fallen. He couldn't wait for this vacation to end. He and his kitten had important things to do in Japan.

******************************************************

"Is it relaxing to get work done?" Schuldig had to ask as he walked up to Brad and sat on one of the armrests of Brad's chair.

"It works for _me_," Brad answered, of course looking much more relaxed here than he had this morning while freaking out.

Schuldig had cooled off a bit about Brad's recent screw-ups. If he cut Brad off every time Brad pissed him off they'd barely do anything together. He'd keep Brad guessing about it, though.

"Farfarello's getting antsy. Have you found any local work for him?"

One of Brad's silvery eyebrows rose a bit above his sunglasses. "I'm surprised you're saying that."

"I never said I needed a long vacation. If the kids get too restless, the vacation is no longer providing rest and relaxation and should be abandoned."

Speaking of Farf getting antsy, Schuldig noticed him getting too riled up around a family and telepathically yelled, ~ Farfarello! ~

Sounding disgruntled and somewhat guilty, Farfarello answered, ~ I did nothing. You won't even let me treasure such possibilities in my thoughts? ~

~ I'm aware of how impulsive you can be. ~

Farfarello projected a wave of annoyance at Schuldig but moved away from the potential victims, so Schuldig counted the intervention as a success. Watching Schuldig, Brad asked, "What is he walking off to do?"

"He's going to find a bucket, shovel, and tools so he can make sand castles."

Brad took a very dismissive sip of his drink as he said, "You're not that funny."

"I'm serious. That confrontation was building up from him wanting to share the little girl's stuff and space. Hopefully settling down to do something artistic will help distract and calm him down."

"Hmph. How are Nagi and Aya doing?"

"I've been too busy learning to surf to spy on them."

"You're not too busy now."

Schuldig pouted. Sure, he enjoyed spying on people and meddling with their lives, but it wasn't as much fun when Brad turned it into work. Nagi and Aya had relaxed their shields a bit on vacation so Schuldig found them easier. Brad would chide them for that if he found out. As he pondered whether it would benefit him more to tell Brad or not, he did some telepathic reading and couldn't help laughing at what he found. Poor Nagi. But maybe the kid could make things with this girl work out even despite the obstacles and Aya being hot. Schuldig would have to keep his mental eye on coming developments.

"What?" Brad asked.

"After some initial awkwardness at being tourists, they're fine and enjoying themselves. Aya's certainly doing a lot better than Farfarello."

"I'm not having much luck finding leads for local jobs online. I might have to figure out how to network in person here, which I _can_ do but takes time. If you're serious about making this a short vacation, it may be for the best."

Schuldig decided not to tell Brad that Farfarello intended to resume pursuit of the separate apartment thing again as soon as they returned to Japan. Their glorious leader could find out for himself later. It would be more entertaining. "Sure. But I want a woman tonight, Brad. Maybe even more than one." Schuldig had wanted that last night, but _Brad_ had enticed him into staying in the cabin for one-on-one time. "You can come with me just to watch or do some fucking too or stay at the cabin by yourself, but you owe me this after this morning."

Brad looked annoyed and thoughtful, but his most used "I'm thinking" face tended to look like that. Finally he said, "All right. I'll decide on my own level of involvement when we're closer to the moment."

"I'm checking out 3 Dives tonight. It sounds cool and like a place where I could pick people up. The kids might even start out with us there since I hear their food is very good. Depends on when Aya and Nagi get back. Are you going to stay there with me after dinner?"

"Yeah. I might participate too."

Maybe Brad really did intend to make it up to him for being so awful earlier. "Greatness. I need something to eat right now, though. Surfing has made me ravenous."

"I'll stay here to keep an eye on Farfarello."

Farfarello had returned and started to sculpt his own, more delicate and intricate castles, leading some people to get closer than might be safe for them. Schuldig smiled widely. This had potential.

"Don't," Brad said. "This is in public. In broad daylight, even."

"I won't, and I'll stop Farfarello if it comes to it. It was just an appealing idea." Later he'd have to tease Farfie about his pretty, pretty sand castles in private though.


	254. "*That* I have to take photos of."

The tour guide found the group a picturesque, shady spot near the falls to have lunch. Mia sat down with Nagi and Aya, sharing a blanket as they ate. After looking to be sure their daughter was safe, Mia's parents snuggled up together on their own blanket. Although Nagi could understand the gag reflex that inspired in Mia, he couldn't help feeling that she didn't know how good she actually had it. Schuldig's antics would make her head implode. Still, if seeing her parents act mildly romantic together made her sit with Nagi he wouldn't complain.

Much. He wouldn't change his entire personality for this girl.

However, even he had to admit that he had good food, great company, and a nice view. All the exercise had given him a sharp appetite and probably made lunch taste better. At least a lot of people claimed exercise could do that. Nagi's talent drained and worked his body too but had no positive aftereffects he'd ever noticed. Grapefruit soda turned out to be much tastier and less stomach irritating than he'd surmised, though he still wanted to try Aya's ginger beer. Aya really seemed to like it. Too bad the two of them trying each other's drink out wouldn't work well with such strong flavors.

"You two speak English really well," Mia said.

Nagi noticed Aya giving her a raised eyebrow of "Excuse me?" that matched his. Looking at them, she backpedaled fast. "I mean, you both sound really American, especially Aya. I didn't expect that."

Nagi decided to generously let her slide. "We work with an American. It helps." He had no intention of trying to explain Aya's American accent implant to her. Besides, it still seemed to annoy Aya that the implant's accent came out of his mouth quicker and more naturally than the English he'd learned on his own.

"Does everyone in Japan start working so young?"

How old did she think he was? Unwilling to ask, he took a small telepathic scan, easy with an unguarded mind. Shit, she thought he was even younger than he actually was. That would _not_ help.

She was also more attracted to Aya than to him. Of course. Aya had an aura of brooding mystery to go along with his striking, fucking hot looks and deep voice, while Nagi was a bit shorter than she was. It's not like she did it to be malicious.

Reading minds could _suck_. Schuldig probably put up with it only because he could literally change people's minds.

Nagi didn't have that kind of firepower on tap, so he'd have to try to change her mind the harder, mundane way. "I'm not actually that young. Besides, I'm kind of interning." Which was a total lie but sounded more reasonable to a mundane.

"But he's an integral part of the team," Aya said. Sweet of him.

"Team of what?" Mia asked.

"Security experts. It's more than just being someone's bodyguard. Nagi specializes in computer work."

"Do you work for anyone famous?"

"Probably not anyone you'd know. We work in Japan."

For Aya, this was a lot of talk. Was he interested in Mia too?

Nagi sighed at himself. He sounded ridiculous. Schuldig might consider this kind of thing an important part of life, but Nagi couldn't help seeing it as distracting, divisive, and undignified. If everything went well, Aya would be with him much longer than some girl he chased for a vacation fling who saw him as second best anyway. If his hormones made him crave sex too badly he could take himself in hand or ask Schuldig.

"What's wrong, Nagi?" Mia asked.

At least she noticed. "I don't think I'm in vacation mode yet," Nagi answered.

Aya nodded. "I think my fiancé is doing better at it than we are."

Nagi almost squeaked in glee. Well-played, Aya. As Nagi noticed the disbelieving yet crestfallen look on Mia's face, he found it harder to keep the squeak in.

"Fiancée?" she asked.

Aya shrugged. "I didn't want to try surfing so I did this tour with Nagi instead. We'll be meeting up at dinner."

"But-- but--"

Aya took off his hat and brushed his deep red hair aside to point at the gold ear cuff. "We do too much work with our hands to feel comfortable wearing an engagement band, so this is our version. It's pretty, isn't it? It was designed specifically for me."

"...uh, yeah...." From the crestfallen expression on her face, Mia now believed him.

Brutal. Nagi had forgotten how Aya had offhandedly broken the hearts of hundreds of rabid fangirls. Mia should count herself lucky that he hadn't bellowed at her to get out. Then again, he might reserve that treatment for the clingiest, screechiest, and most annoying girls.

~ I'm taking myself out of contention just in case, ~ Aya told Nagi.

Apparently, Aya still didn't fully realize that he was hot. ~ I appreciate it, ~ Nagi answered, wanting to hug Aya but certain Mia would misconstrue it.

Aya finished his lunch, closed it up, and put his hat back on before standing up and saying, "I'd like a closer look at the waterfall." Never mind that they'd recently gotten a very up-close, wet look at the falls. "Don't rush your lunches. I'll be back in a while." To Nagi he said, ~ I'm throwing myself under the bus. Good luck. ~ He walked away with the trash before Mia had a chance to say anything. Smooth.

She stared disconsolately after his departing back for a few minutes, while Nagi checked out Aya's ass in his wait for Mia to say something. Why suffer more than he had to? Then she turned back to look at Nagi and said, "Uhm."

Maybe he should have gone to take another look at the falls with Aya. "Yeah."

"Mmm." How eloquent.

To his surprise, he felt himself coming to peace with what a disaster this had been. "It's fine. People are always falling for him. He's so pretty he doesn't even look real sometimes, right?" Obviously Nagi would have to separate himself from Aya the next time he tried to chat someone up just to give himself better odds of getting somewhere.

But what had he really expected from this? It wasn't like Schwarz would take her with them after this vacation. He might decide that a bit of sexual release now and then would help him, but there was so much he couldn't tell anyone who was outside the business and he couldn't see having sex with someone who had no idea of who he was. It would be too impersonal. He really couldn't have a brief meaningless fling with someone he had to lie to.

He'd thought so many of these things before but this time didn't feel the same helpless despair over it, which of course made him much happier. He had to see if this attitude continued even on days he didn't first have sex on.

"I do like you, Nagi." So she'd noticed his interest. "Just not--"

"It's fine."

He should see this as practice. Not giving a damn could be so freeing. The Mias of the world would come and go, but Schwarz was forever and a teammate who wouldn't cockblock him was a treasure. (Schuldig might tend to be in favor of Nagi having a sexlife, but one never knew for sure in advance which way Schuldig would decide to go on letting Nagi get a particular partner.)

But the problem became that that he and Mia no longer had any idea what to say to each other. Fortunately, the tour guide suggested everyone finish their food soon because they'd be leaving and Aya returned not long after that.

Mia didn't sit with them on the trip back, although she occasionally cast uncomfortable looks in their direction. Aya let the situation go without comment for a little while until finally asking, ~ It didn't work out? ~ The more he did telepathic speech, the better he became at it.

~ It's okay. I'm not going to go to pieces over losing a girl I only saw for the first time a few hours ago and barely spoke to. No big deal. ~

~ No big deal? I put myself out there to help you. ~

~ Don't say things like that while smirking in that way. It makes you resemble Schuldig. ~

~ Thanks for the warning. ~ His telepathic voice shifted tone for ~ Did I ruin things for you? ~

~ I'm not going to blame you for her wanting you more than me. That's stupid, unproductive, and not your fault. ~

~ All right. ~

Eager to change the subject, Nagi said, ~ I do have to tell Schuldig about this big leap you made today in telepathic communication. He'll be so proud. ~

~ That sends a shudder down my spine. ~

~ ...mine too actually. But I still have to tell him. He'll find out somehow anyway and make us suffer a little less if we offer it up willingly instead of making him work for it. ~

~ It's amazing how many things we do just to avoid Schuldig meddling more directly in our lives. ~

Guessing the unspoken thought under that, Nagi answered, ~ Crawford leads and uses Schuldig's inclinations as a tool in that. It's easier to let him get away with some things and just take advantage. ~

~ You didn't see how he was at the school in Vienna, ~ Aya said, confirming Nagi's guess.

Nagi hadn't realized he'd missed anything when Schwarz had split up. Still... ~ Don't borrow trouble. If Crawford starts to think Schu is trying to take over the team, things would get messy for all of us. ~

Hell, if Crawford got the idea that _Aya_ might be playing politics and trying to split the team or take control of Schwarz himself by championing Schuldig, he might attack Aya too. If Crawford became too suspicious and convinced, Aya might not get a chance to talk him out of it. No matter how much Schwarz might have mellowed out and become more like a "family," Crawford would never mellow _too_ much.

~ I understand. Well, Schuldig _and_ I will be happy that he doesn't have to teach me mindspeech. Neither of us looked forward to it. ~

~ I hear that. I refused to let him teach me, and Farfarello ended up having to look for a teacher on his own. Maybe we'll get Friendly to teach you the other things. She helped Farfarello pretty well, and you already took _some_ training from her. ~

~ She beat my ass. ~ Aya looked more thoughtful. ~ Sometimes that's necessary. ~

~ Masochist. ~

~ That shouldn't surprise you by now. ~

~ True. Besides, it's better than going to school in Okinawa with all of Eszett's dregs. ~

~ Agreed. Nagi, I'm switching to speech now because doing this much telepathic speech is giving me a headache. ~

~ That would get better after training and practice. ~

~ You're funny. ~ Aloud, Aya said, "I wonder how Farfarello is doing. I can't imagine him surfing."

"I can't imagine it either." Not without laughing. "Schuldig will probably tell us all the details." Nagi didn't want to think about the mayhem that might have ensued if Farfarello had done this tour with them and Nagi had tried to chat Mia up. Aside from being unpredictable, Farfarello had a twisted sense of humor.

Then again, Mia probably wouldn't have approached them if Farfarello had sat with them. His scars might be lighter now, but he still looked scary.

When the bus let them off, they found Schuldig waiting for them, a big smile on his face and, strangely, his hair looking much less wild than usual. He grinned so hard at Mia that she obviously found it very disturbing and hung out very close to her parents as they left the parking lot. When he looked back at Nagi he had a sparkling smile in his eyes that Nagi hadn't seen there before and made him feel warm. Had the sex made that big a difference?

"It's a shame that didn't work out for you, Nagi," Schuldig said. "Pretty _and_ with a nice rack? But it's her loss."

"I know," Nagi said as he and Aya followed Schuldig away from the bus. "We couldn't work it out, but I'll live."

"Schwarz is sadly deficient in boobies."

"I wouldn't want to see any of you with breasts," Aya said.

Schuldig laughed. "Kinky. Brad would hate it though, because I'd be too busy enjoying my breasts to get any work done."

"Even you would have to get bored with them sooner or later.”

"My attention span would surprise you," Schuldig purred as he ran his fingertips down Aya's arm, making him jump.

Schuldig definitely seemed to be in a good mood, so maybe he and Crawford had worked out their problems or at least found a way to set them aside. Good. Although they snarked at one another constantly, moments showing bitterer kinds of divisions between them felt so wrong and unsettling, making Nagi wonder if this was what children felt when their parents fought. Since what little he remembered of his parents showed them united against him, he didn't know from personal experience.

When they reached Crawford, who'd achieved a kind of "lounging emperor" effect sitting in a beach chair, he said, "I hope you've taken photos of your tour for your grandmother, Nagi."

"I took photos but not for her. Why?"

"She'll probably contact you about the photo I sent her. She already sent _me_ an e-mail in response."

"What? What-- Oh, shit no." Not the photo of him curled up sleeping against Farfarello in the car!

"She declared it adorable."

Schuldig stopped laughing long enough to say, "It's your curse, kid. Deal with it."

This was why he couldn't have nice things.

"Where's Farfarello?" Aya asked, providing a welcome distraction.

"Speaking of things I'm not going to let anyone live down...." Schuldig pointed to a part of the beach closer to the water.

Nagi didn't notice Farfarello until he looked _around_ the big sand castle and fortifications under construction. "_That_ I have to take photos of."

******************************************************

After getting through the crowd of gawkers, Aya stopped at the edge of the moat Farfarello had dug and gazed over the knee-high thick castle walls behind it. For all its delicacy, the castle stood taller than that and hid a lot of Farfarello, seated behind it. Occasionally Aya could see his fingers, sand caught under the short nails, appear around the sides to pat and sculpt.

"Farfarello!" Aya called.

Farfarello's grinning head finally appeared in Aya's line of sight. "Puisín! I grant you permission to enter the castle's grounds. There's room here for you to sit near me, but the boy stays outside."

Nagi rolled his eyes and kept taking pictures. "Whatever."

Careful stepping got Aya over the moat and wall and next to Farfarello without wrecking anything. Farfarello patted the ground beside him, saying, "Once I'm satisfied with the castle, I'll finish the wall in a ring around it and draw the rest of the moat to circle it as well. Enjoy your tour?"

"I did." Aya sat beside him on the cool damp sand and took a better look at him. "You need to apply more sunscreen. The bridge of your nose, top of your cheeks, shoulders, and knuckles are turning red."

"I didn't notice."

The scene struck Aya as so endearing that it made his chest feel tight. "I'll put it on. Your hands are sandy."

"Good idea." Farfarello's smile widened. "Now _your_ cheeks are red."

No kidding, since Aya could feel the heat in them. It made him feel ridiculous. What did he have to blush about anyway?

Striving to ignore the lapse in his dignity, he willed his face to return to its proper pallor as he applied sunscreen to Farfarello's hot skin. Unfortunately, that led to other problems. Farfarello felt _good_ to him, and applying the lotion reminded Aya of other things he did with his hands on his lover's body. It didn't help him at all that Farfarello kept making these uninhibited "Mmmm" noises that went straight to his cock. They had an audience he needed to control himself in front of. The children especially would be scarred for life.

Also, earlier today he'd nearly thrown himself in the opposite direction from Farfarello but now he wanted nothing more than to pounce him? Why had his instincts changed so thoroughly? He didn't blame Farfarello for being frustrated with and confused by him since he frustrated and confused himself.

Was Farfarello aware of his lust and turmoil?

He needed to stop thinking about sex. "How was the surfing?"

Farfarello's tongue tip occasionally touched his lower lip and ran over his top teeth in his concentration on building and sculpting. Again, endearing. "Enjoyable. Of course, the physical demands of our job and the physique resulting from it gave us an advantage over the other beginners."

"Of course." Having finished applying the sunscreen, Aya stopped touching Farfarello, which lessened the lust a little.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too." He truly had.

Farfarello's smile could have blinded a person. "Good."

Aya firmly reminded himself that they were out in public and had to behave appropriately. "Hnh."

"Awww," Schuldig said as he walked up to the moat. "We'll be having a team dinner in two hours, so gather in front of the main office then. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves."

"Because we won't enjoy the dinner?" Nagi asked.

"You're such a funny boy. Don't force me to make sure you don't enjoy it."

"All right, all right. I want photos of the finished project," Nagi said as he handed Aya his camera.

"Sure," Aya answered with a wry look.

Schuldig waited somewhat impatiently through Nagi's quick tutorial of how the camera worked then said, "C'mon, Nagi. See you later, kids."

Aya noticed that Nagi left with Schuldig. Hopefully the boy would tell Schuldig about Aya's experimentation with mindspeech so Aya wouldn't have to. Schuldig would probably be less snide and ask fewer annoying questions if Nagi talked about it. Then again, Schuldig would probably just corner Aya about it later.

"Two hours," Farfarello said as he cast a thoughtful look in Aya's direction, while Aya felt a simultaneous hope and fear that Farfarello would suggest they return to their cottage to fuck the time away.

Apparently, there couldn't be enough therapy in the world to fix him.

"That's enough time to finish my castle and walls," Farfarello said, and Aya couldn't untangle his emotions enough to decide how he felt about Farfarello putting off sex. This indecisiveness would not do, and it wasn't fair to Farfarello either. He'd get his instincts and emotions in order tonight, and it would _stick_.__


	255. "...we're in the future from them?"

Once Nagi started walking away with him, Schuldig asked, "What did you want to talk to me about? I doubt you want to tell me that you led Aya off into the bushes and had your way with him during the tour though, fuck, that's a pretty thought."

"It is, but it didn't happen."

"Awww."

~ Aya started using mindspeech with me during the tour. I'm sure you'll be thrilled to have less work to do. ~

~ I am. Do you know whose talent he was piggybacking on at the time? ~

~ I have no idea. Telepathy isn't my specialty, unlike some people. ~

~ True. I'm so glad he picked this up on his own. People do so much better working on their own framework than having others impose one. ~

~ It amazes me how quickly you come up with excuses to continue your laziness. ~

~ I _will_ have to check him to make sure he's doing it in healthy ways. ~ If Aya hated that--as he no doubt would--all the better. It made Schuldig grin.

~ He said using it as much as he did during the tour gave him a headache. ~

~ Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. ~

"What are you so impatient about?" Nagi asked aloud.

"I'm not."

"Yeah, you are."

"If you must know, I have some things I want to do, some of which may get a rise out of Brad."

"One of your favorite things."

"You know it, baby. What about you?"

"I figure I'll go to my room and check my e-mail."

"And reply to your grandmomma?"

Nagi sighed. "She makes me regret ever having wished for a family interested in me and my personal life."

Schuldig had to smirk. "I thought that was _my_ doing."

"You too. She's just unexpected."

"Yeah, she's not the type of quiet, wallflower granny who's content to be fobbed off when you don't want to deal with her. She's up in your grill."

"I'll reply to her when I'm ready, and if she doesn't like it, tough."

"I wish you the best with that. I'll see you later for dinner, which is compulsory."

"Of course it is."

When they reached Brad, who already had his stuff packed up and ready to go, Nagi shook his head at Schuldig and went off alone to his hotel suite. Brad asked, "What are your plans?"

"I'd like to take a bit of a swim before dinner. I just need to go to the cottage to change into my Speedo and apply sunscreen before I go out."

"I'll be relaxing in the cottage while you do all that. I've had enough sun for one day."

Thinking about his plans for Brad, Schuldig had to smile. Brad might find _some_ of it relaxing. "Lead on, o fearless leader."

******************************************************

Nagi might have no intention of immediately answering Crawford's mother's e-mail but couldn't help feeling curious, so he opened her e-mail. He had to skim the section where she gushed over how cute he looked in that photo... and kill Crawford for that later.

She wanted to know how his "young man" was doing, and Nagi really had no idea how to answer that. Did he want to talk to her about their breakup? Not really. Plus, he didn't know how Omi was doing right now, though he wished him well and hoped he felt happy. Unfortunately, he figured that Omi was probably suffering right now, personally and professionally. Thinking about him made Nagi miss him and wonder about him, so he felt resentful she'd brought up the topic. He had more than enough time to deal with this when he returned to Japan.

She also updated him on Misoji's life with them: his interest in photography, his aptitude at schoolwork, and how well he got along with her husband, who'd apparently bonded with him. While Nagi wanted to say that he didn't give a damn what his clone did--Did people worry about what happened to their toenail clippings?--he had to admit that he felt some pride over his clone's intelligence and accomplishments and a bit of jealousy over the family-style bonding.

Also, if she'd forcibly "encouraged" that interest in photography Nagi would be pissed off. Misoji deserved an opportunity to find his own way and interests.

Family caused so much trouble. To relax, he loaded a first-person shooter game to play.

******************************************************

Crawford knew Schuldig had something planned; it was obvious to anyone who knew him. But what? Would it be a pleasant surprise or a pain in the ass? Knowing Schuldig, probably the latter, but "just in case" punishments seldom left the desired impact on his telepath. Schuldig had enough masochistic tendencies to see pain and discomfort as acceptable prices for mischief.

Besides, the morning's events had left Schuldig's fuse even shorter than usual. If he had something mutually enjoyable planned but received preemptive chastisement from Crawford, he would be understandably ticked off.

Schuldig really had no idea how many compromises Crawford made for him.

However, Crawford didn't like to wait if he didn't have to, so he opened himself up to any foresight that might come his way. "Unclenching" helped. Fighting and clawing to try to yank visions and impressions in also worked at times but always at a physical cost. His current wondering wasn't important enough to justify getting a blinding headache over it, although at least now his hair couldn't get any grayer.

Besides, they were on vacation and he wanted to enjoy himself. Sitting out on the beach with endless rounds of alcoholic drinks and a scenic view when he wanted to take a break from work had been restful, though he wouldn't want to do it all the time.

He could almost feel the future at the edge of his vision, at the tip of his tongue, so close.

Abruptly he foresaw Schuldig showing up in the room with him. Schuldig had pushed his wet hair back and wore a skimpy white Speedo with a wide white belt that had a sheathed knife through it, sexy, familiar. As skimpy as the Speedo might be, it was actually more modest than his underwear, but something about it and its pairing with the knife.... Then Crawford got it. It was an homage to Honey Ryder from _Dr. No_, and Schuldig would do this only for _him_, to pique his interest. The combination of the physical appeal and intention behind it raised Crawford's lust in the future and the present. His future self pounced Schuldig.

Why wait?

Once the vision faded, Crawford let himself into the bedroom and enjoyed the real-time view of Schuldig in his little white Speedo bent over the bed, where the belt with sheathed knife rested, waiting to be put on. Somehow Schuldig had lost the clawmarks and bruises from his back, something Crawford would ask him about later.

Looking over his shoulder at Crawford, probably to let him continue watching his ass, Schuldig purred, "Why, Brad, what inspired this wave of horniness? Not that I'm complaining."

"I saw the future." Crawford walked up to him and pulled him back into his arms, letting him feel his interest--and hard cock--up close. "I liked it."

Schuldig already sported an erection, which strained the fabric of his Speedo, in response. When Crawford ran his hand along its length, Schuldig pushed his ass back into him in response, wanton and very willing. Crawford _wanted_, and he wanted it right now. He put his thumbs under the top edge of the Speedo, pulled it down in one sharp motion, and smiled as Schuldig kicked it away once it reached his ankles.

Schuldig sat on the bed, spread his legs, grabbed a bottle of lubricant, quickly slicked up his fingers, and immediately pushed two of them into himself, throwing his head back and moaning as he fingerfucked himself in preparation, direct and unashamed and so damned hot. Later Crawford would think that it saved so much time having a telepath who _got_ these things without needing an explanation, but at that moment he simply watched his lover, unzipped his pants, pushed them and his underwear down and away, and put a condom on.

Just as Crawford thought he couldn't see this any longer without exploding, Schuldig slid his fingers out and gave him a challenging look, wanting and daring him. In seconds Crawford tumbled Schuldig backward onto the bed and was thrusting in hard and fast into Schuldig's welcoming heat as his telepath moaned and wrapped his legs around him. He had his hands on Schuldig's ass to pull him in closer and grind them together as they hungrily fucked and kissed and rattled the bed into the wall with the force of their movements. Occasionally Schuldig's bare heels dug down into his back, ass, or thighs, spurring him on. Having a cottage to themselves instead of teammates on the other side of a thin wall let Crawford be much noisier than usual.

Schuldig was always noisy. "Yeah. Yeah! Harder!" he gasped.

Crawford had to smile. "Like this?"

"Yes! Fuck!"

"I'm trying."

Schuldig bit his neck in response, which brought him to a rough, shouting, wonderful orgasm. When he finished thrusting, settled down, and could think again, he smirked at his telepath, who looked frustrated. Crawford felt the temptation to say, "That's what biting me will get you," but didn't because he really shouldn't dig himself into a deeper hole. As he slid himself out, he got the lubricant, slicked up his fingers, and took Schuldig in hand, stroking.

Eyes closed in pleasure, writhing, Schuldig looked very picturesque as he thrusted into Crawford's fist. His time out in the sun and their exertion together had given his skin a bit of a rosy glow.

Once Schuldig came, he sprawled out lazily, obscenely, and sleepily, grinning. "I was going to go swimming, but I don't have the energy for it now. You prevented the future."

Feeling much more relaxed, Crawford lay down next to him to enjoy his own afterglow. "I just adjusted it and brought it about sooner. Though if we were half as loud as I think we were, people outside might think we were murdering each other."

"From all the 'yes,' 'oh yeah,' 'ja,' and 'fuckin' give it to me,' I was spouting, they'll figure at least some of the murdering was consensual."

"Could you have the decency to close your legs?" Even for Schuldig, his current pose was obscene.

"What? You set me on fire, so I need to get some cool air."

"It's distracting." Crawford might not be able to get it up again so quickly, but Schuldig's positioning made him feel like he should be doing _something_ to his telepath right now.

"I'll bet." Eyes closed, looking blissed out, Schuldig grinned even more. "That was really something. I was wondering what was up with my unexpected insta-boner before your twister hit my trailer park. Do you still want me to dress up later even without the swimming?"

Would he still want even more? Yes. "You might as well satisfy my precognition."

"Yeah, like that's all I'd be satisfying. Mmm. Maybe I could try a little later out on the beach. You could always drag me back to the cottage after you see me. Hell, maybe letting some steam off here first will make us less likely to get arrested from you fucking me right out in the open. I do have to see if I can walk straight first."

"You've never walked straight in all the time I've known you."

Schuldig either coughed or laughed, or both simultaneously, but he still sounded somewhat petulant when he answered, "It's a good thing for you that you just put out."

******************************************************

Lust suddenly hit Aya like a flash flood. Drowning under it, instantly hard, Aya tried to think and control his thoughts and body. It couldn't be his, because he didn't work like that. Damn it. It was probably Schuldig.

"Do you feel that?" Aya asked Farfarello without looking at him. If he looked, the urge to pounce him would be even harder to fight. Aya tried to move a little further away from him, his body and warmth too tempting at the moment.

"Feel what?" Farfarello answered, sounding distant and distracted as he molded sand. It sounded like concentration distraction, not horny distraction.

"A wave of lust."

"No, but it could be because I fully associated myself into my body to feel my medium better. I'm not on." Farfarello's sudden, very direct stare at him forced Aya to meet his eye. "What is the mindbreaker doing now?"

Aya's hands clenched as he tried to distract himself. "Given what's coming at me, having very vigorous sex. I must be tuned to him."

Aya could almost feel temptation and annoyance warring in Farfarello before his lover said, "Tune yourself to me. I don't want to get you as a kind of sloppy seconds from him."

"That's insulting as hell."

"Deal with it."

"Why are you so annoyed with _me_ over this?"

"You connected yourself to _him_. He may be the stronger telepath, but I am your husband."

"It wasn't a conscious decision!" _Did_ his... talent or whatever you wanted to call it gravitate to the greater nearby power? Was he a... "size queen"? Aya didn't know.

It only made sense to cut himself off from Schuldig's feed, though. As Aya tuned himself to Farfarello he felt that vague sixth sense of Farfarello's emotions cut off as well as an end to the overwhelming lust and urgency, leaving his head oddly feeling a little too quiet.

Unfortunately, the stimulation had already affected him so his hard-on remained. Trying to will it into deflation got him nowhere, and he could hardly leave Farfarello alone amidst the spectators while he left to go jerk off somewhere. If somebody died because he left for a masturbation break he'd never forgive himself. He couldn't do anything about how he really wanted something up his ass to finish it either.

Sometimes he really missed being asexual.

Farfarello remained unaffected and quietly continued to work on his sand castle, which seemed damned unfair. Of the two of them, Aya shouldn't be the one who was a sex fiend. Also, if Farfarello put his attention elsewhere instead of focusing on and picking at Aya for a few hours Aya should be more than fine with that.

Smirking, Farfarello asked, "Will you be pouting now?"

"I don't pout," Aya answered as he strove to keep his face blank.

******************************************************

What the hell was Schuldig doing? All right, Nagi knew what Schuldig was doing and knew he didn't have any decency, but still! Nagi just wanted to play a game without distractions, especially without the distraction of someone getting laid when he couldn't. It was rude as hell. Unable to block it out completely, Nagi put his game on pause, pushed his chair back, unzipped his pants, took out his hard cock, and started to stroke it hard and fast as he thought about Mia, Aya, Schuldig (though the fantasies about Schuldig partly involved him smacking Schuldig for exposing him to this annoyance), Omi.... Anything to get it done and over with.

Once he came into a tissue and wiped up, he went back to his game and hoped they wouldn't get it up again for a while. They were getting older, so he had a chance. He looked forward to them getting even older for just this reason and if either of them started taking Viagra, he'd kill him.

******************************************************

Playing hooky, Mamoru drove a car to the flower shop. No limo, no driver, no security guards. As stupid a risk as that might be, he needed a break now and then. Around this time of the morning the fangirls should be in school, giving him a good chance to talk to the team.

As he looked through the door glass he had to smile on seeing the three blonds running the shop. He never would have expected Weiß to one day be made up of four blonds and Ken. Not that Sasha was a natural blond, but at least the bleached hair made him look a bit less like Schuldig. As Mamoru guessed, the shop had no customers.

As he opened the door he heard Sasha say, "...worked out very well for you, Yoji. Admit that you brought me to do manual labor around the shop so you wouldn't have to," as he swept the floor.

"You're lucky I'm awake and working before noon," Yoji answered from behind the counter.

"It is not luck," Fenris said. "Elena would take your door down."

Yoji smiled as he noticed Mamoru and said, "Hey, good morning. This is a surprise. Good to see you."

"It was an impulse thing," Mamoru replied. "Are Ken and Elena around?"

"Nah, he took her out as a kind of date-like breakfast thing."

"Finally," Fenris said.

"In the morning?"

Yoji shrugged. "I thought it was weird too, but he's trying to be unique. I tried to give him some pointers but he wasn't exactly thankful."

Sasha said, "You told him that taking a whole day out with her might just give him more opportunities to annoy the hell out of her, so I understand him not being thankful."

"Am I wrong?"

"Not necessarily."

"He had to do _something_," Fenris said. "Elena was starting to use what Yoji said was her colorful phrases."

"Colorful phrases?" Mamoru asked. It disappointed him to miss Ken, but he wouldn't call him while he was trying to gain points with Elena.

Yoji smirked. "This time it was 'shit or get off the pot.' Very classy."

"Better him than us," Sasha said. Then he looked at the drawing Fenris was working on behind the counter. "Damn, are my eyebrows really that orange?"

"I don't have any pencils in Sasha color," Fenris answered. "Your eyebrows are kind of brown-orange."

"That's not much better."

"My hairdresser could make your hair match again," Yoji said.

"I don't know if I want to do that yet. Shit, are you this woman's agent? Do you get a cut of the money when you refer people?"

"Whoa, junior. No need to get upset."

"So drop it."

"Are you on the rag?"

"It's amazing you ever got a reputation as a ladies' man. Plus, your friend is here."

"I'm just giving Omi a taste of our normality."

"Trying to make sure he doesn't feel any regret about getting out of field work?"

Sasha appeared to be integrating well into the team.

"Nah, Omi knows this is the way we show love. It's traditional Weiß."

"You scare me," Fenris said.

Yoji looked relaxed and good, thankfully. Mamoru had worried that Schwarz's absence might drag him down from how involved he seemed to be with them.

Still.... "By the way, Yoji," Mamoru said, "I haven't heard anything new from Aya or Schwarz."

"I didn't ask," Yoji replied but looked somewhat shifty.

"I know you want to."

"Isn't this too early for Schwarz too?" Fenris asked.

"Maybe that's part of their appeal for Yoji," Sasha said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Yoji protested.

"No, I think it's about dinner time of yesterday where they are," Mamoru answered.

"...we're in the future from them?" Fenris asked.

"...seriously?" Yoji asked.

"Wait," Fenris said. "Is this time zone stuff?"

"Yeah," Yoji answered.

"Huh."

"You were joking, right?"

Fenris looked a bit embarrassed. "Yeah! Joking."

Sasha shook his head then ruffled Fenris' hair, which brought a smile to the kid's face. This ease boded well for Weiß. Hopefully Ken wouldn't become a problem with Elena.

******************************************************

It didn't surprise Nagi when he had to pause his game again. Disgusted him but didn't surprise him.


	256. "Maybe I treasure an opportunity to be told I'm pretty, puisín."

By the time Nagi returned to the beach Farfarello had finished his light and airy looking sand castle and its protective wall. Farfarello sat near it with Aya and grinned over the curious onlookers walking around and examining it, so much like a proud artist that Nagi had to smirk.

Once Aya saw Nagi approaching he held out Nagi's camera to return it. As Nagi reviewed Aya's shots stored on the camera, he saw sharp if unimaginative photos and couldn't help imagining Aya crouching down, remaining completely motionless, to take them. Aya had odd gifts. Nagi would have to see how they looked full-sized on his computer. Since Crawford and Schuldig hadn't shown up yet, Nagi took some photos himself, most of the structure itself but some of the onlookers with it.

"It turned out pretty cool," Nagi said to Farfarello. It actually did. "It's a shame the next high tide will take it down."

"Such is the impermanence of life," Farfarello answered. "Makes it more precious."

"It's not exactly a Zen garden," Aya said.

"_I_ found it meditative." Then Farfarello lit up a bit. "Crafting something with rakes would be fun."

Nagi could imagine all too well how Farfarello would creatively use rakes. He could also imagine all too well Farfarello making Zen Christian gardens using actual Christians.

It was still so weird seeing Aya sitting around wearing a hat because the thing almost everyone remembered best about him was his red, red hair. He almost seemed like a different person without it in view. The hat provided some much needed protection from the sun at least. Bareheaded Farfarello looked somewhat burnt.

"Farfarello, I think you need more sunscreen," Nagi said. "From what I saw online, 3 Dives is all outdoor seating."

"Puisín, will you do the honors?" Farfarello asked with a grin.

"I will if you don't react as lewdly as you did last time. We're in public," Aya answered.

"I'll endeavor to control myself."

"I'll hold you to that."

"I'll even dissociate myself if it's a good time to. Boy, is the mindbreaker finished?"

"Yeah. Finally," Nagi replied.

"All right. Proceed, kitten."

Aya rolled his eyes but took a bottle of sunscreen out and set to work. Farfarello kept his word on remaining silent, but Nagi still had to look away from Aya's long-fingered hands smoothing lotion into Farfarello's skin. Life had been easier before his hormones had hit. He'd have to grow out of it someday, right?

"Your turn, Aya. We must keep you protected as well," Farfarello said, sounding a little too happy.

Nagi _definitely_ couldn't watch this, and Aya's occasional angry outburst of "Farfarello!" accompanied by a very unapologetic sounding "Heh, I'm sorry" from Farfarello suggested he'd been wise not to try.

Nagi initially thought he'd misheard Farfarello saying, "Now, your turn, boy," until Farfarello repeated it again. Turning to him, Nagi said, "Okay. Hand me the bottle."

"You're likely to miss some spots if you do it yourself," Farfarello answered. "Let me."

What? "Why would you even want to?"

"You're as pale as we are, perhaps more so."

"You know what I mean. You could have suggested Aya do it."

"He'd never suggest that, and I'd have to listen to him complain for the rest of the day if I did it. I'm not interested," Aya said.

"See?" Farfarello asked with a smile.

Shaking his head, Nagi said, "I'm not in the mood for mind games, not now and not ever."

"We're part of a team," Farfarello replied. "We have to work together. I'm showing camaraderie."

Aya had said something similar this morning, to Farfarello's derision. Nagi asked, annoyed, "Do you really think I'll believe that?"

"Get down here so I don't have to keep yelling up at you. It's demeaning, plus it lets the strangers around us hear our business."

Although Nagi considered refusing just for spite, he decided to sit down near him in the hope that Farfarello might actually reveal something. "All right. Dazzle me with your reasoning."

"I'm making a peace offering. Accept it."

"I find that hard to believe. Surely you can't be surprised by that."

"We can't keep having mornings like today's."

As much as Nagi wanted to be contrary, privately he had to agree. Sleeping next to and waking up next to Aya hadn't been worth all the drama that followed it. Schuldig spent enough time picking through the minefield of his love life without him having to call the troublemaker in himself to stop Farfarello and Aya from battling each other because of him. He also had no urge to tear Schwarz apart.

"What does that have to do with putting sunscreen on me?" Nagi asked.

"Like I said, peace offering, to show you I'm ready to move on. No tricks, no attempts to hurt you. Aya will be watching and ready to intervene, not that he'll have to."

To let Farfarello know Nagi wouldn't stand being toyed with, Nagi said, "That's right he won't have to. If you do something I don't like, I'll give you one warning and break some of your bones."

"A warning before breaking my bones?"

"No, I'll go right to snapping things."

"Kitten, you wouldn't let me be hurt so."

With a wry twist to his mouth, Aya answered, "I can say something, but I don't see how I could stop a telekinetic if he's really set on doing something."

"You can be so cruel to me," Farfarello said.

"For your own good. I also think you enjoy some of it."

Farfarello snorted. "Thus I am alone in this world. There won't be any tricks from me, boy."

Unable to see a way Farfarello could do him harm without getting majorly fucked up as well as frozen out by his husband, Nagi said, "All right. I'll let you apply it."

He couldn't help shuddering a bit over the feel of it as Farfarello smoothed lotion over his skin. Sometime over the course of getting a steady lover and regaining the ability to feel sensation Farfarello had become more skilled in touching people. Before, he had applied too much or too little force. As he applied sunscreen his fingers trailed along Nagi's skin, just on the edge of seductive. Maybe? Nagi could accuse him but couldn't be certain. After all, Nagi had spent most of the day thinking about sex and might just be primed to react.

Mind games. Maybe. Whichever, it left Nagi glad that he'd worn pants instead of shorts so Farfarello couldn't offer to trail sunscreen up his bare legs. He also appreciated that Farfarello kept a bit of distance between them. If he had Farfarello breathing right on him things might be worse.

"You appear to be finding me more attractive recently. I'm curious as to why," Farfarello said softly.

Then at times like this Nagi wondered how anyone could accuse Farfarello of being subtle. It seemed useless to deny the attraction at this point, so Nagi answered, "You're easier on the eyes lately. Your ability to heal yourself has done you a lot of good."

"Feel free to elaborate."

"Are you becoming vain now?" Aya asked. "It's not like your confidence needs a boost."

"Feeling jealous and threatened, kitten?"

"Not particularly."

"Maybe I treasure an opportunity to be told I'm pretty, puisín."

"...I have no words to answer that."

"Neither do I," Nagi had to say.

"So. Easier on the eyes how?" Farfarello asked. "I'm curious."

Why not? "The scars don't look as awful, and your skin tone and texture look much healthier. You don't move as stiffly as you used to either."

"I moved stiffly?"

"Not always, but sometimes the damage you didn't feel showed for a while afterward. It could be like watching a zombie move, which I don't consider attractive. Or like Frankenstein's monster, which wasn't attractive either."

"You used to throw me across the room when I showed interest, but not now that you find my looks more pleasing? I hadn't realized you were so shallow."

"I'm a teenage boy, with all the hormones that come with it. Besides, your earlier 'shows of interest' were creepy as hell. You used to crouch over me and stare at me as I slept."

Farfarello gently applied sunscreen to Nagi's face as he said, "You never could take a compliment."

Nagi had to fight off a blush over that touch and those words, so he was glad to see Crawford and Schuldig arriving as a distraction. Crawford asked, "Did you all stay out of trouble?"

"Of course," Farfarello replied as he stopped caressing Nagi's cheek. "I've been very good. I didn't even maim anyone."

"It helps if he keeps his hands busy with other things," Schuldig said. He had a small smile on his face and looked ridiculously mellow. Hopefully that obvious satisfaction meant Nagi wouldn't have to witness another sex show for a while. How much sex did one person need?

~ Our time together this morning will always be special to me, ~ Schuldig told him.

~ That's not the point! ~ Nagi answered.

~ Sure it isn't. ~

~ I don't have to be jealous to worry about you being a sexoholic, and I'm not jealous. I knew what I was getting into with you this morning. ~

~ Don't worry about me. Vacations demand excess, especially if they come after a particularly stressful time. I always settle down once I'm back at work. Besides, Brad was actually the aggressor this afternoon, and I had to let him make up for this morning. ~

~ Had to. I see. ~

~ Yeah. For the good of the team. ~

~ You should block yourself off better for "the good of the team." You were louder than usual this afternoon. ~

~ I'll consider it. ~

~ Don't just consider it. You're too good a telepath to be broadcasting like that. ~

~ Insulting and complimenting at once? That's special. ~

"Let's get going," Crawford said.

"Good," Farfarello said. "I'm ready to eat."

Nagi took advantage of Farfarello's distraction to get out from under his hands. "I'm ready to go."

******************************************************

Although 3 Dives might be more rustic than Crawford preferred, the tables' view of the ocean and sunset plus the great food made up for it. He decided not to say anything against the joyful mess Farfarello made as he ripped into his grilled lobster to get the meat. Aya had made a bib out of two napkins for him--which Farfarello had accepted and put in place with amusement--and Schwarz wouldn't have to clean up any mess that ended up on the table or ground.

This morning Crawford's team had been united together against him, but at dinner they each seemed to be lost in private thoughts and their food. He realized that he didn't prefer it this way.

~ Don't worry about it, ~ Schuldig said. ~ Aya's confused by his own hot- and cold-running emotions and desires, Farfarello's enjoying his lobster and pondering ways to best handle Aya later, while Nagi's thinking about the two hot people he didn't have a real chance with today and the one he did get. Nagi's also looking forward to a social engagement happening later, but don't get too shocked about it since it's just him getting together with some people he found online to play a video war game together. ~

~ I could have figured most of that out just by knowing and looking at them, ~ Crawford answered.

~ But you do appreciate confirmation. Sometimes people just need some time and space to process things, and I personally do some of my best thinking while eating. Or while on the can or in the shower. ~

~ The last two are usually done alone, though. When a meal is social, people should pay some attention to the others at the table. ~

Schuldig sounded amused. ~ You're that desperate for attention? ~

~ I expect the respect I deserve. ~

~ 24/7? Really, Brad. Some of us have lives. ~

Although Crawford could see some sense in that, he didn't feel like admitting it right out. ~ You've been unusually quiet too. ~

~ I'm enjoying my jerk chicken and Farfarello's callaloo along with my afterglow. Even I can't talk every minute of the day. ~

~ I'm glad to hear you so satisfied. ~ After all, Crawford had provided it.

~ I still want a woman tonight. ~

Crawford strove to stop his annoyance from bleeding into his mental voice. ~ How could you possibly still need a woman for more sex? ~

~ If the opportunity comes, I'll take it. I've been thinking about it for days now. ~

~ You're gluttony personified. ~

~ You always tell us to be perfectionists in everything we do. ~

~ You rarely apply my advice to the areas I want you to. ~

~ You're still invited to watch or participate, you know. ~

~ That's supposed to make it all different? ~

~ Couldn't hurt. ~

~ I'll consider it, depending on what you bring me. ~

Schuldig grinned then drank some more Red Stripe, occasionally letting his tongue suggestively flicker out toward the bottle opening. ~ I'll keep that in mind. ~

"After dinner I'll be taking a leap off the cliff into the ocean," Farfarello said. "This place is famous for that kind of thing."

"So, because a lot of other people jump off the cliff you have to too? At least wait until 30 minutes after you eat," Schuldig answered with a smile.

"You're taking this mothering thing too far."


	257. "I just had a painful moment of personal insight."

To his disappointment, Farfarello leapt off the cliff into the ocean alone. Aya claimed he felt too full for a swim, at which point Schuldig called Aya his "_good_ son" and Farfarello took his leap to get away from the horror.

Once he came back up, he and his kitten took their leave of the team for the night. With darkness falling, a bonfire and music had started, which made Farfarello want to get wilder in public than Schwarz would prefer. Wilder than he himself would prefer as well, because he needed to start working on his husband. What happened this morning could not be allowed to happen again.

Over the course of the dinner Farfarello had realized that in his zeal to _feel_ his kitten, physically, he'd been associating himself inside his body more lately and neglecting to keep close track of his kitten's insides. He had a tool to help him better understand Aya, so he should damned well use it.

Waiting until they were near the cottage, Farfarello took a tip from the mindbreaker's book of tricks by saying, "We seemed closer and happier in New York. Why do you think that was?" to jog Aya's thoughts and let Farfarello hear what surfaced.

"I agree." He'd felt warm there, cared for. "We had a place that was our own." Independence. "We..." --made a home for themselves, decorated to their tastes for the holidays, had a life outside their work, made cookies and watched TV together, had relaxed together, did their own thing separately while being together, created a sense of stability, gave him his own space.... "We were more of a couple there, with more space and fewer impositions on us and our time."

It turned out that Aya had spent a lot of time at dinner thinking about how he'd reacted to things this morning and come to some conclusions. He felt smothered. He felt weak seeing how easily Farfarello could entice him with sex and felt too guilty to deserve the love Farfarello had mentioned in the bathroom. It seemed weak to want to be loved and touched and soothed. Better to be angry, independent, and distant.

Even though Aya's logic rejected some of those reactions as stupid, the emotions remained, especially at the instinctive level.

Given the usual nature of Aya's emotions, there was probably even more to it that Aya didn't understand and couldn't articulate.

Although it gladdened Farfarello to get this information, it frustrated him too. He'd made so much _progress_ on the kitten. In New York Aya had found some stability and felt more secure in his place with Farfarello and within Schwarz. He'd even become more likely to start snuggling himself. Unfortunately, recent events--some of Aya's sister's remains showing up, his newfound abilities, the loss of his physical scars from the remains' influence, and the psychic damage he'd taken in battle with Breaker and the coma that followed it--had kicked Aya's feet out from under him, taking away his stability and security and leaving him with a heavy burden of new guilt and a feeling of dangerous vulnerability.

In Weiß, Aya could have returned to his home/workplace and flower shop job, a comforting routine to cling to, and quietly licked his wounds and regained strength. In a drifting and now vacationing Schwarz, Aya had nowhere to go that wouldn't expose him and nowhere familiar. Perhaps in self-defense he'd retreated to an earlier version of himself, one that would bristle up, all thorns, to look bigger, stronger, and more imposing.

Farfarello's metaphor had gotten a bit away from him, though he'd like to draw this bristling, thorny rose kitten his mind had just thought up. How much would be kitten and how much rose? He'd have to remember it for later and sketch it out to see.

Farfarello wanted his husband _back_. It had taken so much time, effort, subtlety, and risk to shape him the first time. He didn't know if he'd be so fortunate again, and the thought of expending all of that a second time left him feeling tired and very depressed. He couldn't even work on getting them a home of their own until they returned to Japan, whenever that would be, while he needed at least some of this fixed _now_.

Fuck it. Maybe Aya just needed his perception of the situation altered, needed to see what was at stake, to meet Farfarello partway.

"I know you've not been happy lately, and neither have I," Farfarello said, readying himself to listen in hard to his kitten's mind and emotions. "I'm trying to see a way to fix our marriage but so far can't. Perhaps we should part."

Farfarello might as well have struck Aya in the spine with a mallet from Aya's internal reaction, since the blow reverberated through his mind and body and cracked things into pieces. The dark, tangled knots of his emotions flew and rocked in a hurricane as Aya flashed with pain, guilt, fear, nausea, misery....

Although Farfarello had always possessed sadistic tendencies, feeling and getting proof of this reaction to his action made him understand the mindbreaker so much better. This was _power_.

Aya _cared_. Obviously and deeply.

In the physical world, Aya blinked his eyes and clenched his teeth. His breathing came out fast and unsteady. But his anger returned as he growled, "My reaction makes you _happy_?"

Oops. The kitten had some telepathy of his own these days. Farfarello's, actually. Fortunately, Farfarello could respond with a gut-deep truth: "It's good to know you care."

That hit Aya like another mallet blow, and the anger fled entirely to be replaced by more roiling knots of emotion. If someone could slow down Aya's complicated, whipsaw emotional reactions, they'd surely look like some kind of... Rube Goldberg device, like a large mechanism devised by a gifted lunatic made up of discrete, insane parts that took great effort to arrive at a distant, ridiculous goal. The ball of guilt would roll down a spiraling chute to smack something else to get the wind-up toy of anger hopping around until it pressed something that would tip the balance of the see-saw of love/hate that would lead to-- Fascinating to watch, but it left you wondering at the reasoning behind it.

Still, if Aya were easy Farfarello would have lost interest ages ago.

Aya looked like he might be on the verge of losing the fabulous dinner they'd just consumed, which would be a shame. Farfarello took him by the arm, saying, "Let's go back to the cottage, puisín," hoping that his kitten would understand that he offered privacy out of love.

"Yeah." Aya sounded like he had to talk around a lump in his throat, and he didn't move as smoothly as usual as they completed their walk. He took his shoes off at the door, flung his hat onto the couch, and sat at the kitchen table, shaking a bit as he leaned forward with his hands over his eyes and long bangs and ear tails hiding much of his face.

Farfarello put his hands around his kitten's wrists and said, "Let me see. Let me see that you care about me."

Fighting off Farfarello's grip, Aya put his hands down away from his eyes, showing that they were wet. He still looked highly nauseated, and his mouth trembled. "Is this... what you wanted to see? What you need to see?"

"_Yes_. I need to know that you're still my husband. Your reaction says a lot."

"There was a girl on the tour who seemed attracted to me. I told her that I was already taken."

It made Farfarello want to purr. "This is the kind of thing I need to hear. I'm sorry, but I felt like I was losing you and saw no other way to take your measure. It's been an unrewarding wall to smack my head against. I don't like to fight with you but refuse to give up on you. When we return to Japan, whenever that is, I'll work hard to get us an apartment, a home and space of our own, just as I promised, but I had to do something for us before that."

It would be a good idea to quickly get a work assignment for the both of them too. If they could take out their tensions in glorious bloodshed on others they'd fight less amongst themselves. A regular diet of work-related violence made Aya less snappish to his teammates too.

From the twist of Aya's mouth, the kitten hated how open-ended their vacation was. He'd want to know when they'd be leaving so he could prepare himself. Control and structure meant a lot to Aya. If Farfarello could make Aya feel more in control, it would make a big difference for him.

"Yes, I still want an apartment of our own, and I'll fight for it along with you. I still want an us." A bit of Aya's crackling anger returned. "I hate that you have the power to take me down like this. Does seeing this really help you?"

Aya considered anger a more acceptable emotion than most of the others, an emotion that showed strength, and Farfarello could understand that. Again, control.

Farfarello lightly set his hands over his puisín's on the table, providing contact without a feeling of being restrained. "Aye. I needed this."

"I suppose I can understand that," Aya mumbled, guilt rising a bit above his anger and misery.

******************************************************

Aya could have been purely, righteously angry and remained so if Farfarello had only done this out of sadism, but he could easily see how his recent actions would leave Farfarello uncertain of where they stood. After all, he confused himself.

By contrast, Farfarello usually showed exactly how he felt toward Aya, to the point of being too grabby about it. Aya never doubted that Farfarello loved and wanted him.

When Farfarello surprised him by asking him whether they should break up, he'd been even more surprised by the strength of his reaction, how deeply it had cut. It had felt like hitting a patch of black ice in your car while driving at night, a helpless and violent spinning out of control into oblivion, waiting for the crash, the future dark and uncertain. He might have stopped breathing for a few moments. It made him realize that he could no longer imagine his life without Farfarello at his side in it, and he didn't know when he'd reached that point.

Seriously, what would he do with himself?

Damn it. He'd known how Farfarello felt about him for some time now, felt some peace about that, and accepted the ear cuff knowing how Farfarello intended it. Schwarz had worked and socialized well with Weiß in New York City, Tokyo, and even Vienna, suggesting that his past and present could co-exist, creating the shape of a more peaceful future than Aya had ever expected. Although some frustrations still had to be conquered, he began to think that he _could_ have it all. He'd _loved_ Farfarello, with a warmth that seemed dismayingly foreign to him these days.

Events in Vienna had destroyed that budding sense of serenity and changed his view of himself, his sister, and his responsibilities. He especially felt different after coming out of the coma his battle with Breaker had put him into and began to worry that something inside him might still be damaged or at least unbalanced. He'd made a commitment to Farfarello, yet some things in his body and subconscious kept getting him to break it. Whenever he thought about how _he_ would feel if Aya had come out of her coma only to repudiate him, remembering his recent actions made him angry with himself and his chest ache with shame.

He tried not to think too often about having been in a coma himself for a few days because thinking about it made his soul scream. If Farfarello and, weirdly, Schuldig hadn't risked themselves coming in after him, with some late outside help from Yoji, he might still be in a coma now. He still occasionally felt some weird... resonances with them, which scared... _worried_ him since he couldn't help disliking anyone being _that_ close to him and possibly getting easy feedback on his feelings and thoughts, tangled though they might be. Still, he owed all of them a lot.

After everything everyone but particularly Farfarello had done for him and how he'd been lately, there should be some kind of punishment for him.

Aya turned his hands to hold Farfarello's. They'd become somewhat softer and smoother since Farfarello had learned to use his ki to heal. Aya saw all the physical differences in Farfarello's body that Nagi had mentioned earlier, along with some areas of mild sunburn.

"I'm sorry, Farfarello."

Farfarello looked really pleased. "I didn't need an apology but I'll accept one." He held Aya's hands in turn, sometimes stroking them with his thumbs. Uncomfortable with how nice that felt, Aya tried to move away but Farfarello kept a tight hold and said, "You deserve my love and touch, and I deserve yours. Martyrdom doesn't help us and only gives joy to our enemies." Then he had an annoyed look on his face.

"What?"

"I just had a painful moment of personal insight."

Aya couldn't help feeling amused. "It's not much fun when it's yourself, is it?"

"Indeed not."

Unable to take being the sole recipient of Farfarello's steady, intense gaze, Aya said, "I haven't... felt entirely right since... my coma, but I'll strive to do better. I will. Can we move on now?"

"We'll both strive together, and yeah."

"Despite my best efforts, you managed to get somewhat sunburned."

"So did you, but we're easily taken care of. C'mon."

Aya followed him to the bathroom, feeling some trepidation about returning with him to the scene of one of their worst moments this morning. If being here reminded Farfarello of Aya's earlier repudiation, he didn't show it, just whipped off his shirt and looked in the mirror at the reddened skin on parts of his face, shoulders, and hands before saying, "Unacceptable. I'm supposed to be a creature of the night, not a victim of the sun. This definitely won't do."

Aya watched the redness gradually fade and skin become healthier looking again. It still disquieted him a bit to see how easily and specifically Farfarello could heal himself these days, but it was such a handy ability to have. Looking at himself in the mirror, Aya noticed that despite wearing a hat and sunscreen most of the day he had hints of red along the ridge of his nose. He'd always been pale but turned even more so since joining Schwarz.

"I won't let such an obscenity mar the porcelain beauty of your skin, puisín," Farfarello said as he rested his right hand along the side of Aya's face to send a current of ki in. It felt tingly, somehow _bright_, and arousing and a bit itchy and uncomfortable all at once. Perhaps uncomfortable _because_ it was arousing? Something about it made him feel the need to close his eyes, but he kept them half-open.

_This_ healing wouldn't be done surreptitiously and without permission. Farfarello would have let him keep at least some of his scars in some form.

Farfarello was alive.

"It's a bit too much now," Aya said softly, surprised by how low and flirty his voice sounded.

"All right." The flow of energy ceased, but Farfarello's palm still rested on the side of Aya's face, warm and supportive.

Aya leaned into it, taking comfort and showing affection. Letting out a pleased little growl, Farfarello moved in closer to embrace him with one arm, snuggling in. Although he wouldn't have thought it possible after the emotional rollercoaster he'd ridden in the last ten minutes or so had taken such a toll on his body, Aya felt a sudden jolt of desire. While he didn't know whether sex would improve or worsen their situation, he couldn't help putting his arms around Farfarello and drawing him in even closer to enjoy the feel of bare skin against his hands. Farfarello's heartbeat felt like relaxed serenity compared to his.

"You need to calm down, puisín. Let's take this to the bed."

"I'm comfortable right now," Aya said, holding on.

"You could be more so. Let me do this for you. Come."

"Okay." Aya let him go, followed him to the bed, and settled onto it, lying down at his side. "Petting me won't calm me down." Even if it did feel nice.

Farfarello continued to stroke his hair and back. "Wouldn't hurt. Besides, I can tell you like it. You're just not in the mood to admit it."

Was Farfarello _trying_ to keep a fight going? Aya took a deep breath to stop himself from exploding again. Deep breaths....

Was Farfarello still listening in on Aya's thoughts and emotions? To find out, Aya concentrated a bit and realized that he couldn't hear much either, suggesting that Farfarello had associated himself more and thus turned down his telepathy. Good.

Farfarello held him closer, secure. Their legs tangled, and it felt comfortable. "As much as I hate the necessity," Farfarello said, "I think we should get the mindbreaker to check you for damage tomorrow. You've been much more irritable since our battle with Breaker, and I'm thinking he might have done harm to you we haven't found yet."

Although Aya had been wondering similar, something combative inside him made him say, "I've always been moody. I just became more so since Takatori destroyed my life."

"You've been much more so recently."

Aya really couldn't disagree with that. "Yeah. I just... really hate Schuldig poking around through me."

"Do you think I like it?"

"No. I know you don't. We'll bring it up to him tomorrow. He probably would have wanted to check me out anyway if Nagi told him that I'd used mindspeech this afternoon. At least I won't have to learn that from Schuldig."

Aya could feel Farfarello's smile against his neck as Farfarello said, "I'm so proud." It didn't sound sarcastic at all.

It made Aya feel better to have a course of action, as unappetizing as that course might be. He always preferred to be _doing_ something, or at least on the first steps towards it.

Farfarello's breath against his ear made him shiver and press closer, nuzzling Farfarello's neck. Aya really was feeling much better.

******************************************************

Neither of them was great at chess, but Fenris kept whipping Yoji's ass in that and other ways. Getting flustered over moving the pieces telekinetically made Yoji worse at chess strategy than usual, and he saw now that he never should have agreed to a telekinesis training session like this, especially not with Sasha watching and throwing little comments in from his seat on the sidelines, the traitor.

"Move your knight in a true L pattern _above_ the pieces! An L! A sharp and... crisp one!" Fenris demonstrated the shape he meant with his hand and then with a floating chess piece Yoji had already taken off the board.

"A real right angle," Sasha said, nearly succeeding in sounding bored.

"Yes! Right angle! Do that!"

It sounded kind of easy, but Yoji's chess pieces kept wobbling and smacking the tops of the pieces on the board. He couldn't quite get an angle to show on the movements, which kept wanting to arc in curves. Plus, his version of telekinesis kept trying to throw the floating piece across the room at the end of each motion.

Them being so intense about this gave Yoji performance fright on top of everything. "I don't normally use it for things like this. I make shields, or I use arcs and whip it out!" When Sasha started snickering, Yoji said, "Not like that. How do you get off calling me the perverted one?"

"I get off just fine, Yoji. Thanks for your concern," Sasha replied.

"You're not helping and you're definitely not being _moral_ support."

"I'm not here for any of that. I'm here for the entertainment." He even had the same smile over those sentences as Schuldig would have.

"You're developing quite the smart mouth lately."

Sasha shrugged. "Maybe I feel comfortable."

That sounded like a good thing, but Yoji still had to tease. "This is your real personality? The horror."

"Yoji." Fenris had a very serious expression on his face. "We know how you usually do it, but that's not the only way you can use your talent. You need to... develop it more. Don't you want to be the best you can be?"

"Don't you want to stop Fenris from feeling superior to you?" Sasha asked.

"Hell yes," Yoji had to answer. "But it kind of hurts using it this way. What, because you guys had to go through Rosenkreuz's abuse you have to make things tough on me?"

"You have no idea of tough, but there's no way we're replicating the mental, emotional, and physical abuse Rosenkreuz actually used. We don't have time for the necessary brainwashing either." Sasha seemed to be striving to sound light and snarky, but a tone of dark, real feeling showed right through.

"We're better than that," Fenris said, not really joking either. "And we like you. Insults and death threats and caning you wouldn't fit in with that."

So joking about how bad Rosenkreuz was wouldn't go over well here. Good to know. Yoji wondered if the place actually could have been even worse than he imagined. "I like to hear that."

They heard the door opening. Elena walked in and asked, "Why is the shop closed in the middle of the day?"

"Yoji told us we could close up! For lunch!" Fenris said, with Sasha saying, "He sure did!" right after him.

"That doesn't get you two off the hook. You all know the shop can run perfectly well with three people if you have staggered lunch breaks. You _know_ he's a bad example but you listened anyway?"

"Sasha went with it so I did too," Fenris said.

"Thanks so much for throwing me under the bus," Sasha said.

Elena shook her head. "You know how I feel about personal accountability, Fenris."

"Thanks, guys. She was in a good mood when we left the restaurant," Ken said, walking in behind her.

"So Ken gets to live another day. Yay!" Yoji answered.

"You have absolutely no room to talk," Ken replied.

Yoji knew when to change the subject. "Omi came by earlier, not for business, just to see how we were doing."

"I'm sorry I missed him."

"I'm sorry too, Ken," Elena said.

"Nah, it's fine." Ken smiled at her. "I was glad to be out with you. Good for Omi for getting out too."

Aw. They were so cute together.

Yoji suddenly felt a wave of shock and despair, like someone had ripped out his heart and torn out the bottom of his stomach. Drowning in it for a while, he didn't realize at first that Sasha had rushed up to him while everyone else looked very concerned. It started to fade a little, then hit again.

As the second hit faded, Yoji gasped out, "What the hell is this? Are we being attacked?" Would this _stop_?

Sasha, holding onto his shoulder and supporting him, said, "It seems to be coming over a mental link."

Over a-- "Are Aya and Schwarz okay?" Yoji asked in some panic.

"How are we supposed to answer that?" Ken asked. "How are we supposed to know?"

"This doesn't seem like a death or injury," Sasha said. "Just a major emotional shock each time."

"Probably Aya, then," Ken answered.

"Yeah, you're funny," Yoji gasped, still feeling weak and off-center even though the input had faded. He realized he was clinging to Sasha. Good thing he didn't see dignity as an all-important thing. "I need to know. I want to call Omi."

"You know, if he called they might not answer because they're on vacation, not because they're in trouble," Elena said.

"Or they might not answer because they're Schwarz and think they're above us," Ken added.

"Plus, it's night where they are," Sasha said.

"Can we ask Omi to anyway?" Yoji asked. "So I can feel like we're _trying_ to do something."

"Sure," Elena replied. "I'll do that. Yoji, take the afternoon off. Sasha, stay with him to make sure he's okay if he gets another attack. Ken and I will take over in the shop with Fenris after I call Persia-san."

"Yoji finds a way out of work? There's a shocker," Ken said, but he looked concerned.

"Feel better, Yoji," Fenris said.

"Up, Yoji." Sasha kept his hold on Yoji's shoulder until they reached the stairs and Sasha led him up.

Once inside his bedroom, Yoji sat on his bed, took a deep breath, and tried to take some encouragement from how he hadn't felt a third hit of negative emotion. Yoji believed Sasha that the hits weren't injuries or deaths, so the lack of another one suggested that whatever emotional thing that had happened had stopped and the person affected by it settled down. Thankfully. He still worried though.

"Elena didn't give you the day off work to let you worry and brood about things," Sasha said.

Yoji lit a cigarette. "How about drinking?"

"Somehow I doubt she wanted you to _drink_ and brood either." Sasha snorted. "She's sort of like Wendy with a team of Lost Boys."

"Hey, we dress better than that. Sit down."

"I can't snoop through your room if I'm sitting." Sasha seemed to be very involved in checking out Yoji's room.

"It's that fascinating?"

"I share a bedroom with Fenris. It's a different world over there. _This_ is the bedroom of an adult hedonist."

"True. So, no brooding, worrying, or drinking, and it's too early to take you out to a club like I promised I would someday. What does that leave?"

"Don't you have any hobbies? Sleeping in doesn't count."

"Does too." Yoji had a thought and smiled. "I haven't indulged in my other one for a while. I spent most of my time in Vienna getting cockblocked."

Sasha looked back at him with some heat and interest in his eyes. "Poor Yoji."

"It's tragic," Yoji answered, as he thought that Sasha _did_ look and seem more comfortable lately, sleek, healthy, and mouthy where once he'd looked gaunt, frazzled, and nervous. With all of that going on, Yoji hadn't thought of him as a kid in a long time. Sexy. "So, take advantage of me?"

******************************************************

Sasha had to laugh. While he'd expecting this at some point, somehow he hadn't expected it to come now.

"No, for real!" Yoji said.

"I'm laughing about your timing. I shouldn't be, because this isn't really that unusual for you, but that's it."

"Okay. I like to be taken seriously." As that put Sasha into another round of giggles, Yoji said, "Hey!"

"Sorry. I didn't mean to ruin the mood."

"Thank you," Yoji answered, all ruffled dignity.

Sasha liked him a lot and had been attracted to him almost since the moment they'd met, and he didn't feel so uncertain of his welcome anymore. He didn't have to accept Yoji's proposition, but he wanted to. However, something about Yoji just _demanded_ teasing. "So you're working on avoiding being taken advantage of... unless you ask for it?"

"...yeah."

"Schwarz may disagree."

"Oh, shut up."

"Okay, okay. I'll be sympathetic now. You had such a dry spell in Vienna."

"Damned right!"

"And for some time before it. How long was this dry spell anyway?"

That appeared to take some of the wind out of Yoji's sails. "Ah."

This looked promising. "I need to know how much attention you need from me. A month-long dry spell?"

"Sure."

"Liar."

"If I were lying, which I'm not, you'd never be able to tell because I am just that good."

"It's always interesting to meet someone who's proud of being good at lying. Especially if he's _not_ good at it. I don't even have to read your mind."

Was that a vein throbbing in Yoji's forehead? "Vienna."

"Right. You had no luck at all in Vienna. A ton of cockblocking, right?"

"Way too much cockblocking."

Although Sasha let Yoji keep his privacy by not reading his thoughts here, Yoji's brain just about flung out tidbits of all the ways and times he'd been frustrated. Sasha hadn't realized Yoji had nearly slept with _all_ of Schwarz. Even Farfarello? Wow. Gotta catch 'em all?

"How about before you reached Vienna?" Sasha asked.

"All right already. Enough, Sasha."

"So it was about two weeks. Two weeks. Wow, that's a real emergency. You could _die_ if you don't get any soon!"

"_Thanks_. Really."

"Do you know how many underprivileged guys in this world don't get any for years? Some of them for decades!"

"Okay, okay. I get the point."

Sasha sat on the very comfy looking bed close to him, thigh to thigh. "I'm not saying we won't have sex." The bed felt as comfy as it looked. Good.

"No, the mood's ruined now. Besides, I can't be with somebody who thinks my blue balls are funny." Yoji sounded half-serious. From the bulge in his pants, Yoji's dick had no qualms.

Smiling, Sasha rested his head on Yoji's shoulder. "C'mon, I'm here to rescue you." He knew ways to keep Yoji far too distracted to worry about anything.

Although Yoji _felt_ more pleased, he said, "You know you don't have to have sex with me, right? Your place on the team isn't dependent on it or anything."

"Oh yeah. I'm just going to do it because I want to."

Yoji grinned. "Good."

"Sure. Lots of people prefer to be actually wanted than be the lesser of two evils."

"You don't have to do anything you feel uncomfortable about."

Although Sasha could see himself winning against anything Yoji could do to force him, he decided to keep that to himself for Yoji's ego's sake. Besides, saying that right out to him was sweet. "Thanks. Are we gonna get on to the main event or what?"

Yoji stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray then leaned over to kiss Sasha on the mouth, which would shut a guy up... if he weren't a telepath. But Sasha decided to be merciful and just kiss back instead. Besides, he had Yoji's hands stroking and sliding down into the waistband at the back of his black jeans.

Making a sound of frustration, Yoji said, "Your pants are too tight."

"You really have the nerve to say that? You of all people?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Besides, there's an easy way to take care of that."

"Good point." Yoji stroked up the bulge of Sasha's erection to reach the button of his fly, undid the button and zipper, and put his hand under the Sasha's underwear to stroke his bare cock and balls, which made Sasha arch up into his touch. Since Yoji wore tight pants too, Sasha reciprocated his good deed, kissing him all the while.

He could lose his mind under all the mutual stroking and kissing and the soft sounds of enjoyment Yoji made into his mouth. He liked that Yoji was upfront about what he enjoyed. Yoji's pleasure washed through him and added to his own, making it feel _so_ good. It also made him feel trusted, adding warmth and yet another layer of pleasure.

Listening in, Sasha knew when to turn his soft strokes into something harder and more serious and grinned at the greedy little grunt Yoji made as Sasha caressed the length of his shaft and circled the head. Sasha gasped, "I want to get my pants off. I don't want to come like this."

As he figured, Yoji enjoyed hearing his lust-addled voice more than telepathic one. Sasha _felt_ it and noticed Yoji's shiver. "Me too," Yoji said.

"Mutual and temporary pulling away to strip?"

"Yeah."

They did so, both of them having trouble getting out of their pants and underwear. Yoji finished faster from being able to just take his pullover off in one sweep, while Sasha had buttons on his shirt to struggle with that Yoji soon came in to undo with him. Too bad Yoji's fingers kept getting in Sasha's way. It was kind of funny.

"Why did you have to wear something with so many small buttons?" Yoji asked.

"I'm a telepath, not a seer. I had no idea I'd be doing this today."

"That's a valid answer."

"Thank you." Sasha finally finished unbuttoning but Yoji pulled him back into his hands and onto the bed before he could take it off.

One great thing about them both being assassins is that they didn't have to make excuses for their scars. Yoji looked damned good with his, and the thin wire scars here and there on his hands actually looked interesting if you noticed them. Yoji looked at _him_ in a way that said he found Sasha incredibly sexy, and who wouldn't enjoy that?

Besides, those scars proved they'd survived.

Being nearly naked made stroking and jerking each other off _much_ easier. Sasha really appreciated Yoji being good with his hands, deft and confident. Good kisser too. Sasha returned the favor on both, nuzzling his neck occasionally and enjoying the somewhat salty smoothness of Yoji's skin. Their hips moved together, nearly in rhythm.

Doing things this way gave him twice the pleasure of his cock getting thoroughly stroked and handled since he felt it from Yoji's side too. He radiated his pleasure back at Yoji, strengthening the feedback loop and increasing both their sensations. They were both panting between kisses, so close.... When Sasha moved his hand to polish the head of Yoji's cock, Yoji went over into orgasm and pulled Sasha into it with him.

Afterward, lying tangled, sweaty, and mellow in companionable silence together, Sasha somehow felt comforted beyond his afterglow. Sleeping with Yoji in Vienna--actually sleeping in a bed with him--had been surprisingly nice, and he'd missed it. Not that he expected to shack up with Yoji nightly here.

Besides, Yoji was a snuggler, which Sasha approved of.

This bed felt so good to lie in. No wonder Yoji never wanted to leave it in the mornings.

Eventually, Sasha asked, "Feeling better?" even though he didn't have to. Yoji radiated contentment.

"Much. Thank you." Yoji kissed his nose, and Sasha felt a renewed stirring of interest.

"Would you like another go?"

Yoji grinned. "You have to ask?"

Sasha felt a kind of warning flash from Elena. "Damn it. She's coming up to tell us what Omi told her."

"Shit." Yoji picked up an undershirt from the floor, wiped them down a bit, tossed it, and pulled the covers up over most of the bodies in time for the knock at his bedroom door. "Yoji, I have news for you," she said. "Are you decent?"

"Yeah. Come in," Yoji answered.

She raised an eyebrow at them when she walked in. "Neither of you have anything I haven't seen before."

"Pervert. Okay, what did he have to say?"

"Crawford said it was Farfarello being a bit insensitive in an important conversation with Aya, they're fine, and it shouldn't repeat. For now, at least."

"Did he trust Crawford's word on that?"

"He said Crawford sounded credible. Though we have to keep in mind that Farfarello goes off the leash now and then."

"True."

~ Did we broadcast? ~ Sasha asked her.

~ Not much beyond some mild horniness. You're pretty good, ~ she replied.

~ Good. I really didn't want to rub this in your and Fenris' faces. ~

~ Kinky. But I really appreciate it, especially in Fenris' case. ~

"I'm going back to work," Elena said. "If you want to, Sasha, you can keep distracting Yoji."

"We were just about to do that," Sasha said.

She smiled. "I'll leave you to it. Bye."

Once they couldn't hear her footsteps in the hall anymore, Yoji gave Sasha a flirty look and said, "Let's play in the shower. We can wash up and get it on simultaneously."

"Sounds good to me."

******************************************************

Although it would never be smart to entirely trust Crawford, what Omi had relayed from him and what Sasha had said about what the psychic pains meant left Yoji feeling a lot better about things. Besides, he hadn't had another attack, suggesting that whatever had kicked Aya's emotional bearings out from under him twice hadn't continued.

Yoji supposed that he should expect this kind of thing to happen occasionally from the ever intense Aya and his crazy boyfriend. When Schwarz returned to Japan Yoji should consider trying to be a more stabilizing influence in Aya's life.

Yoji knew some people would laugh their asses off over that.

Given all this, he should probably avoid getting involved with any more telepaths, but he liked Sasha and telepaths tended to make great lovers, quick to pick up on what their partners liked. Affection and hedonism tended to rule Yoji's life these days, and he didn't see that changing any time soon. It was better than guilt and self-obliteration.

Speaking of hedonism, he started out their shower together by showing Sasha how sensual cleaning up could be, massaging his scalp during the shampooing and conditioning, running his soap-slick hands all along his skin, making Sasha melt and reciprocate and nearly purr. It was good seeing him so relaxed and happy. Having recently been living on the streets, Sasha probably hadn't been this pampered in a long while, which was a crime. His surprise certainly suggested he didn't treat _himself_ this well while showering, while Yoji tended to use his own showers as mini luxury vacations and spas. After all, hot water striking your skin added another layer of welcome sensation. Vacationing with other people could be so rewarding, as Sasha's hands all over him showed.

With what he knew of Sasha's past, if Sasha had shown any moments of hesitancy earlier or now Yoji would have backed off from the sex, no harm, no foul. Sasha had been forced into way too much during his life. But Sasha had been cheerful and enthusiastic throughout, so maybe he'd worked past the traumas.

Sasha deserved some good times, and if Yoji could help him _and_ help himself, all the better.

But it could still be so weird seeing and hearing Schuldig in him at times, especially now that regular eating had started to fill his face in more. At least when he'd been surrounded by Schuldig clones it had been too surreal to have an impact after a while, but one alone.... Most of the time he was just Sasha, especially while wearing the punk eye-paint on missions, but sometimes he looked way too much like a younger, more androgynous Schuldig, and his voice.... At least his very different short, bleached hair helped. Also, he teased Yoji too but rarely with sadism or the tone Schuldig could take on.

However, he didn't... _feel_ the same. He felt warmer, friendlier, less self-involved and conceited and invasive. He _wasn't_ the same.

Sasha nipped his ear. "Are you on autopilot here?"

Shit. Hopefully that question meant Sasha hadn't been reading his mind. "I just wandered for a moment."

"I'll just have to be more engaging." Sasha kissed him deeply and stroked him more thoroughly.

"Yeah...." Yoji murmured as he ran his hands down Sasha's back. Sasha smelling like Yoji's soap, shampoo, and conditioner sent a little caveman thrill of possessiveness shooting through Yoji's belly.

Soon enough, all the stroking, kissing, and contact drove Yoji crazy with lust, and this time he really wanted something more than just a handjob. "Sasha, fuck me. I really need it," Yoji said and smiled as Sasha's eyes lit up.

Wanting to be ready for wherever the mood took them, Yoji had brought condoms and a tube of lubricant into the bathroom with them. As Sasha uncapped the tube, he said, "You might want to face the wall and brace yourself against it," in a deep, low, and sexy voice.

Yeah, trying to do it face to face in the shower would probably result in one or the both of them falling and getting injured, which would do horrible things to the mood. Yoji followed orders and felt a pleasurable shudder run through him at not being able to get a good view of what would be going on back there.

"I'll treat you well," Sasha said as he rimmed Yoji's asshole with his slick fingers, occasionally pressing a little inside, raising Yoji's lust and impatience from how good it felt and how he wanted more right _now_. Once in, Sasha's fingers immediately found Yoji's sweet spot and stroked and stroked and stroked, sending sparks shooting through Yoji's spine and into his cock.

Groaning, Yoji pushed his ass back to try to take them in deeper and more. Sasha's answering chuckle sounded a bit evil, and the way he just continued caressing Yoji's prostate with only his fingers proved it. It gave Yoji the fevered idea that maybe Sasha had earned his "Misery" name _this_ way.

"Fuck. Sasha, give it to me."

"Give what to you? Do what with it?"

He suddenly touched Yoji's sweet spot in a way that almost made him explode right there, with only Sasha's other hand wrapped tightly around the base of his cock stopping him. It didn't stop Yoji's hips from making fucking movements though, forward into the ring around his package and back onto the not-satisfying-enough fingers.

Dignity could be overrated when all the blood had left your brain and you wanted to come this badly. "I want your cock. Fuck me with it."

"Okay." Sasha slid his fingers out. "You asked for it."

Yoji groaned as Sasha filled him, thrusting in balls-deep and then rocking into and out of him, rubbing, close to what he wanted yet not quite it. With that and some kind of telepathic echo, Yoji felt a sense of connection so strong it stunned him. Sasha still had Yoji's cock and balls in the ring of his fist too. He couldn't be cruel enough to force Yoji to ask for everything step by step, right?

He wasn't. Sasha started to move faster and harder on his own, creating the friction Yoji needed and going right for his sweet spot over and over again. His breath harsh in Yoji's ear, Sasha said, "God, Yoji, you feel so good to me...."

Those words gave him such a surge of feeling that he might have come from them if Sasha hadn't had such a cockring grip on his package. "Sasha...."

Sasha shuddered at that and continued fucking him into next week. It felt damned good but started to tread the edge of being too much. Getting impatient to come, Yoji moved his hips forward into Sasha's fist, trying to fuck it.

"Not yet," Sasha said breathlessly, and Yoji couldn't help the whine of frustration that came out of his mouth in reply. "All right, Yoji."

Sasha fucked him harder and deeper for a few more strokes, making Yoji wonder how much longer he could stand this, then caressed his sweet spot hard on the next thrust and opened his hand, freeing him, at the same time. Yoji came so hard he nearly saw stars in the rush of sensation and release. He heard Sasha cry out behind him and then suck hard on the back of his neck as he hit orgasm.

"I can't feel my knees," Yoji eventually said. Feeling the water getting too cold, he turned it off.

"...yeah. I'll get off you now. I think I'm getting cold."

Sasha pulled away, letting Yoji turn to see him. Sasha's eyeliner had smudged badly enough that he looked like he had shadows of sleeplessness under his eyes. It made Yoji feel oddly protective.

"That's what I have big, fluffy towels for. I'm ready for a long nap. Are you ready for a long nap?"

"Oh yeah."


	258. "I missed toga parties for your sake."

Crawford suddenly felt like something had kicked him in the chest. Just as that faded, he felt another such hit. He immediately looked up at his team to see if they suffered similarly and decide how to combat it. The look on Nagi's face suggested that he'd gotten a similar attack, complete with the aftertaste of despair and fear. Schuldig had turned _white_ and looked close to vomiting.

Before Crawford could say a word, Schuldig answered, "I'm scanning for it," in a choked voice. "Okay. Farf tried to solve the Gordion knot with a sword. I mean that he took some verbal shots at Aya while trying to get an emotional reaction. He definitely got one."

~ Why did it nail _us_ so hard? ~ Crawford asked. He didn't mind Aya's ridiculous angst being used as a weapon as long as it didn't turn on Schwarz.

~ Because Farf had his telepathy on and Aya was piggybacking it. Add in our links, and an echo was inevitable. ~

~ Fucking _train him_, Schuldig. This is unacceptable. What if this kind of shit happened in battle? An enemy could take all of us out just by hitting Aya. ~

~ I know, I know, and I know. I'll get on it. ~

~ Is Farfarello done, or do I have to make my displeasure known to him? ~ Nagi asked.

~ They're just talking now. Aya's somewhat calmer. Farf's ecstatic he got the reaction he'd hoped for, ~ Schuldig answered.

~ I'll be having a talk with him too, ~ Crawford said.

~ Your glasses just flashed. Wow. ~

~ Did he at least do this privately? ~

~ They were right in front of their cabin and then inside it. They weren't quarreling gay in public. ~

~ Are you all right, Schu? ~ Nagi asked, some concern bleeding into his mental voice. Of all of them at this table, Schuldig had the strongest telepathic link to Aya.

~ I will be. If I could survive the ambiance and getting dogpiled by my own clones, I can handle this. I'm not going to let Emo Boy stop me from getting laid tonight either. ~

"I should have known," Nagi said, sounding somewhat disgusted.

Grinning almost full strength, Schuldig answered, "You're lucky I didn't ask Brad to book us into Hedonism II."

"I'd never put us there," Crawford replied. "I'd have to knock you out and carry you _out_ of there."

"I'm probably too young to be allowed inside that resort anyway," Nagi said.

"Probably," Schuldig said, "and if they did let you in they'd demand you--singleton that you are--room with a guy they'd choose for you, so isn't it thoughtful of me that I didn't ask Brad for it? I missed toga parties for your sake."

"You're impossible. That's not such a loss." But Nagi didn't sound as annoyed by Schuldig as usual. He must have seen this as Schuldig assuring them he was all right, as Crawford saw it.

Crawford refused to see it as an aftereffect of them having sex this morning and resented his own mind for reminding him of it. Enough dwelling on this shit already. He needed work to clear the nonsense out of his head. Besides, he really wanted to kill someone.

After wiping his mouth and setting his napkin down, Nagi said, "I'm off. I have people I have to meet for virtual combat."

"You're in Jamaica, and you're playing video games indoors," Schuldig answered. "That's just _wrong_."

"We all vacation in our own ways."

When his cell phone buzzed, Crawford picked it up to see the incoming number. He didn't stop paying attention to his phone just from being on vacation.

A sudden flash of precognition told him who was calling him. Usually he'd let Persia go to voice mail to remind him of his place, but the flash suggested this, oddly enough, had something to do with Balinese, and he couldn't help wondering what the hell could have happened to inspire this call. They could hardly fuck Yoji or string him along while so far away from him, nor could Crawford see Persia calling them to let them know Yoji had gotten injured. Persia had to know he didn't give a shit and wouldn't pass the information to those members of the team who might.

His precognition didn't reveal anything further, so he answered the phone. "Crawford."

"This is Persia. What happened to Aya? Yoji felt two emotional kicks to the chest that his team's telepaths suspect came from Aya's direction. Is he all right?"

"Balinese felt this all the way in Japan? I find that hard to believe." Crawford saw Schuldig's attention snap to him, knowing full well this was important and Crawford would have to have words with him over it.

"Well, it happened. You didn't answer my questions."

"He's fine now. He and Farfarello simply had a very emotional conversation. He wasn't physically harmed. They've settled down, and Schu will be giving everyone involved lessons in how to stop this from spilling over into other people."

"Just a conversation did this? As I mentioned, Yoji felt it all the way in Japan."

The little bastard was annoying as hell. "I told you what happened, and you know that Aya feels things very deeply."

"...that's true. Still...."

"I've been more accommodating than you deserve just by answering the phone on something that's not work-related while we're also not currently working for you. We're on vacation, and you interrupted our dinner."

"I wouldn't have to if things your team did didn't interfere with one of my teams."

"If you want to discuss this you'll have to do it with Aya when we get back. He's the one who continues to feel a connection with Yoji."

From the moment of seething silence on the other end, Crawford could tell that Persia had fully seen the point he'd made. If _Persia_ wanted to snap the last links Aya had to his old team and friends....

"We'll continue this discussion another time," Persia said.

"Excellent. Good night." Crawford ended the call then asked, ~ Schuldig, why the hell _did_ Balinese feel that all the way in Japan? He's not a telepath, and he's not Schwarz. ~

~ Aya has had a telepathic link to him for a while, and Yoji was the first outside person who sparked a reaction during Aya's coma. As a result, Yoji, Farfarello, and I have stronger links to Aya than we used to. If not for Yoji, we might not have gotten Aya back and Farf might have gone off his rocker big time. Training Aya better should help discourage this kind of spillover-- ~

~ Training him _at all_ would be an improvement. ~

~ --but I have to tell you that I have pruned and clamped off his links many times before only to find out that he's unconsciously reestablished them. For a guy who spent so much time claiming that he wanted to be left alone, he sure holds the people close to him in a mental death-grip. All I can do is my best, Brad. I can only work with the materials given to me. ~

Nagi stood up. "I'm clearing out before anything else happens. Good night."

"Coward," Schuldig said with a smile.

"Smart, and you know it. Don't worry about me having to wait for a car because I'll be flying back. Yes, I'll be cautious." Nagi walked past the bonfire and into the night.

~ Do you still want to cruise for people after all this? ~ Crawford had to ask Schuldig. ~ I saw you when it hit, and you looked like hell. Have you really recovered enough? ~

~ Flattery will get you everywhere. I'm doing this. I've been looking forward to it for too long. Besides, the nausea is starting to fade. ~

~ Don't party too hard. Hungover and exhausted or not, you'll be working on Aya in the morning. ~

~ I know, and I have enough of a sense of responsibility for that. I'd understand if _you_ wanted to call it an evening, and I don't expect you to stay out with me if you're not feeling it. ~

Did he want to take the excuse out that Schuldig had just offered him? ~ No, I'm with you. ~ He'd appreciate a distraction from the pain, worry, and anger he'd just gone through in the last five or so minutes.

Schuldig smiled. ~ This will be interesting. ~ He stood up and joined the dancing crowd, mostly out of sight aside from the occasional flash of the top of his red-gold hair traveling through the mass a bit like a shark's top fin over water, a predator on the hunt.

As he awaited his telepath's return and drank his beer, he couldn't help feeling annoyed over that phone call all over again. He still couldn't get Weiß out of his, Schwarz's, business. No matter how many times they rebuffed him, Persia presumed too much and appeared to consider them to be his underlings. Schwarz hadn't destroyed Eszett just to become servants to some other usurping power. With the proper urging, Nagi had curtailed Persia's influence on him but occasionally fell prey to it again.

Crawford had once thought Omi would be more biddable to a Schwarz that included Aya and Nagi, but instead Persia demanded more from them.

Meanwhile, despite his best efforts, Crawford couldn't get his team away from Balinese, who continuously crept into their beds and mental links. Whatever he might think of Balinese's intellect, a man with the charisma to capture his entire team's interest should not be underestimated. Even Farfarello showed some signs of infatuation with Balinese. He insinuated himself within the team like kudzu, and it was easier to get rid of cockroaches.

All of this would have to be addressed again once they returned to Japan.

It occurred to him that a lot of problems could be avoided by moving Schwarz's main residence to another country entirely. Weiß might have followed Schwarz to Europe, but the ensuing mission had caused controversy and cost Kritiker its link to its Austrian faction. Someday all the young talents Persia had gained sway over might make up for that, but for now they were more of a problem than a benefit. All this might make Persia less likely to pursue Schwarz yet again. Surely Aya's bizarre magnetism by itself wasn't enough to keep Weiß on Schwarz's ass for all time.

Still, that showed some of the problems Schwarz would face in finding a place to relocate. Although Schwarz had fixed the poisoned ambiance in the area, Austria and Germany had been Eszett's home base in the past and were a stirred-up hornet's nest in the present. Schwarz had made new enemies in Austria, and the older enemies who hunted them in Germany would have to be eliminated completely if they wished to stay there. Various groups had interfered with them during their stay in the northeast section of the US. Eszett retained footholds and deep, camouflaged tendrils in parts of South America, particularly in Argentina and Chile. Although none of those things would stop Crawford from booking the team for shorter missions in those areas, he wouldn't want to live long-term in any of them for the unpaid work it would take to make them viable.

That still left a lot of the world free, but these days Crawford would have to present the team with good reasons for relocating and get their agreement. Thus, he'd have to come up with good reasons. They'd all spent too much time thinking about what they'd do when they returned to _Japan_, where Schwarz already had business contacts and a reputation and had crushed every remnant of Eszett that popped up. He also didn't want to screw his team over just to try to get away from Weiß.

It would require a lot of thought and research, more research than he could do in time for their departure from Jamaica. Of course, going back to Japan first and _then_ leaving permanently for elsewhere could make matters more difficult with his team, especially if Farfarello and Aya put a lot of effort into their search for an apartment of their own first. His team could use some stability after all the recent turmoil.

He had to ask himself if attempting to root out Weiß's influence--he had no guarantees he'd succeed--would be worth all the trouble. But he wanted to be free....

"You're right," a woman nearby suddenly said. She sounded some kind of British. The United Kingdom might have been a nice place to relocate to if it hadn't been home to that insane Kritiker offshoot, Kryptonbrand.

"Of course I was right," Schuldig answered.

Crawford had gotten so lost in thought that he hadn't noticed Schuldig and two pretty women coming up to him. Two? Being telepathic made finding playmates much easier, but Schuldig truly had a gift. Sloppy on Crawford's part though.

"What have you been telling them?" Crawford asked.

"That you're a young silver fox, not my much older sugar daddy. From a distance your hair threw them off." Schuldig had an arm around each of the women and pulled them in closer. "It's Susie and Sarah's last night in Jamaica, and they'd like to bring someone else in to make it extra special. I let them know we're interested in an extra special time ourselves. They're together. Ladies, this is Brad." He currently sounded American, so Schu hadn't played up the whole German tourist routine like he sometimes did. ~ I told them I'm Schu and that it's short for a German name I didn't want to divulge. ~

Crawford would follow his lead. He answered, "You have an excellent eye, as usual," happy for the timely distraction from his thoughts.

"We're ready to go. How about you?" Schuldig asked.

"Ready."

They had a surprisingly pleasant ride back to Sarah and Susie's hotel room. Surprising because Schuldig often enjoyed bimbos. Crawford idly wondered what Schuldig had done to make these two so comfortable with inviting two strangers back to their room.

Sarah said, "We considered staying at Hedonism II but decided it sounded a bit too cheesy."

"That shows you have better taste than Schu does," Crawford had to answer.

"Hey, I chose Susie and Sarah!" Schuldig protested. "Besides, _toga parties_."

"Again with the toga party. What _is_ the fun in walking around in just a sheet?"

"Novelty and easy access."

"You don't like a challenge?" Susie asked.

Schuldig grinned. "Depends on the kind of challenge."

Sarah and Susie had a very nice hotel room with a very large bed. Smiling, Schuldig said, "Hey, Brad, they told me before that they'd love to watch us make out a bit first. Like you, they like to watch." Exhibitionist that he was, Schuldig glowed a bit at the possibility of getting to do that.

Crawford felt a hot little surge of anticipation. "I have no problems with that."

Grinning, Schuldig said, "Great. Take a seat."

Curious to see where this would go, Crawford sat down in a large armchair. Schuldig immediately sat on his lap facing him and started kissing him, varying short and soft kisses with longer, harder, tongue-sucking kisses. The whole time Schuldig's hands ran through Crawford's hair, sometimes gripping. Kissing back, Crawford stroked Schuldig's back and soft hair, occasionally moving his hands down to cup and squeeze his ass. Panting, Schuldig started to rock into and grind against him, which made Crawford's cock even harder and had him grinding and rocking in return, increasing the friction. Every time Crawford opened his eyes he saw his telepath's eyes open, dilated, and watching him hungrily. Wanted him so much....

Ever aware of their audience, Crawford felt strangely more possessive, his every touch and kiss a show of his ownership. Schuldig was _his_. They could look, and even touch, but Schuldig belonged to him. During their other times with other people he'd never reacted like this; only Balinese brought this out in him. What did it mean? With Schuldig riding him like this he couldn't get his thoughts straight.

Schuldig stopped kissing for a little bit, with his panting suggesting that he'd stopped to catch his breath, then asked, "Ladies, do you want to just watch us come together or get a piece of the action? Because Brad and I are totally capable of getting each other off by ourselves, and it's going to happen soon."

It surprised Crawford that he felt annoyed at the thought that Schuldig might not finish him. After all, they'd already had sex throughout the afternoon and Crawford _enjoyed_ involving other people. Only time would tell if the odd thoughts and emotions he'd noticed today were aberrations or a sign of some permanent change.

He couldn't really think about it at the moment because Sarah had come up behind Schuldig and started to run her hand up and down his fly, which made him rock harder against Crawford. Her short, hot pink nails looked somehow incongruous there. Schuldig turned his head to kiss her and groaned as she unzipped him and stroked his cock more directly. They both looked flushed, beautiful in their lust. Crawford himself had Susie crouching near him to put hot kisses along his neck and unzip his fly. It looked like everyone wanted him to be more of a participant in this than he'd originally intended, and at the moment he liked the idea.

Concentrated around this one chair, they didn't have much space, so it didn't surprise Crawford to see Schuldig whisper something in Sarah's ear and the two of them backing up toward the bed, each starting to strip. At least the chair had a great view of the bed. Susie had a lacy blue bra under her top that she soon removed as well, and she looked appreciative when she saw what Schuldig looked like shirtless. Fully dressed, Schuldig didn't look like he had all that lean, defined muscle.

Crawford realized that just as he watched Schuldig with Sarah, Susie watched Sarah with Schuldig, her stroking hand on his cock and breathing in time with theirs, speeding up as she watched Schuldig's hand move under Sarah's skirt and his tongue tease her nipples as she moaned. Interesting. Susie was also stroking herself through her shorts.

"We appear to share a common interest," Crawford said into Susie's ear, which made her shiver.

"They certainly are pretty together," she answered, and smiled as her girlfriend's moans turned louder when Schuldig went down on her. "Your partner appears to be good with his mouth."

That was one way of putting it. "He's gifted. I have an idea for how we can both watch _and_ get off."

"Me too. It starts with us getting more undressed."

"I agree."

As they parted to take their clothes off, they also kept an eye on the proceedings on the bed. Writhing, her toes curling atop the sheets, Sarah currently had her hands clenched in Schuldig's hair, probably to keep his head where it was. Crawford couldn't blame her. When he wanted to put the effort in, Schuldig knew exactly what he should do and where he should do it.

When Sarah's cries hit a certain pitch, Susie said, "That's the first orgasm of the night. It better not be the last." She kissed Crawford hard and helped him put a condom on with a firm grip that made him squirm a bit.

He sat back down in the chair, expectant. Pushing her long curly hair aside so she could look back at him over her shoulder, she smiled at him, full of lust, before sitting on his lap and taking his cock in, grinding down. She felt wonderful. As she settled back against him and his hand went to stroke her clit, she purred, "Now we can both see."

By now Schuldig had gotten down to fucking Sarah fast and hard, and she'd wrapped herself around him, gripping him, digging her bare heels into him to spur him on, as they kissed hungrily. Crawford's thrusts up started to match his. Hands gripping Crawford's knees, gasping, Susie moved to meet his every stroke, and she made an entirely new sound as she saw her girlfriend claw Schuldig's back. With sights like that before him, creaking and moans and the sounds of flesh on flesh filling his ears, and Susie's body trembling, clutching, and grinding against him, he moaned himself as he approached orgasm.

Schuldig got there first, crying out and doing something to Sarah that wrung a similar sound out of her. Fully immersed in the view, Crawford came with another thrust and bit down where Susie's neck met her shoulder. Jerking, she clenched around his cock and moaned.

"That was good," Sarah gasped a few minutes later as they took a breather.

"We're just starting," Schuldig answered, sounding very pleased.

******************************************************

"Stop teasing me," Schuldig said, unhappy with how whiny his voice sounded. He didn't appreciate Susie holding onto his arms and Brad holding his hips to stop him from backing up and taking the dildo _in_ already. He could only squirm on his stomach as its slick head rubbed circles around his asshole, occasionally sliding maybe a centimeter in but always moving out again. All the stroking and teasing had left him so _sensitive_....

"Don't listen. He _loves_ to be teased," Crawford told Sarah, who grinned and continue to torment Schuldig with her strap-on.

"_You_ don't do this for this long to me."

"My dick is a lot more sensitive than silicone is." He sounded so _reasonable_. He wouldn't sound so reasonable if he were in Schuldig's place. There would be vengeance for this eventually. Still sounding _so_ smug, Brad said, "A four-person daisy chain takes time and preparation to set up."

"Bullshit. It's easy. You just line up the dicks and holes."

"Stop whining."

"You're loving this. Giving orders, having me restrained, and getting to watch." Schuldig moaned as the dildo briefly slid in far enough to nudge his sweet spot before frustratingly moving out again.

"Soon enough you'll have Sarah up your ass as you fuck Susie while I drive the whole thing from behind Sarah. It'll all be worth it."

"If it isn't, I'll have my vengeance."

"I doubt it." But when Brad finally thrust into Sarah, which finally drove the dildo in to hit his sweet spot and felt perfect, and Susie smiled and spread her legs, Schuldig didn't have any more complaints. Fuck yes.


	259. ~ You couldn't possibly cut in every time someone takes your name in vain. ~

Awake, feeling weirdly alone despite the three bodies tangled up in bed with him, Schuldig stared up at the ceiling and tried to figure out why it hadn't been _enough_. Usually a few bouts of sex left him calm and drained--rebooted--as well as satiated and contented. Yet in the last few days he'd had tons of great sex but still felt jittery under the mellowness of afterglow, as if someone had rubbed his fur the wrong way and no matter how many people stroked him correctly after that he couldn't get the _wrong_ feeling off his nerves. Not even several rounds in a foursome--and how many people aside from him could have scored two women that quickly and easily?--had helped much.

He couldn't keep feeding the beast this much; even his body needed a break now and then. That left... what?

No way in hell could he tell Brad about this bout of nerves, not after all the whining and demanding he'd done about getting himself a woman or two. Brad would never let him live it down.

He knew he'd figure something out alone like he always did, and it wasn't all that bad, just a vaguely uncomfortable feeling.

He felt Sarah wake up a moment before she pressed in closer to his side and asked softly, "You can't sleep? I would have thought that much sex would knock anyone out for a while."

Turning to face her, Schuldig purred, flirting on autopilot, "I'm special. I didn't wake you, did I?"

"Maybe a little." Smiling, she ran one hand down his abdomen and stopped it just above his dick, all warmth and lust. "Make it up to me? I could make it worth your while."

"If we got too loud or moved too much I'd have to make it up to everyone here, and I don't have the energy for that."

"We could move this to the chair and make a game of staying quiet."

"Good thinking." He wouldn't turn down a beautiful woman just because he wasn't getting all the usual benefits.

******************************************************

Close to coming, they both moaned into their kiss as Sarah rode him hard. They'd been stifling their cries of pleasure into kisses and each other's skin the whole time, which had added a bit more spice to the proceedings. So far, Susie and Brad remained asleep.

If he could reveal himself as a telepath to her, Schuldig would have talked dirty to her telepathically even as he stayed physically silent. Dirty talk had really revved her up earlier. Usually he manipulated people without their knowledge, but for some reason he felt an urge to communicate with Sarah, maybe because of the things they had in common.

None of that stopped him from using his telepathy to find her Spots and work them to maximize her blissful writhing on his lap. She liked it rough, and he was happy to oblige. With all the sex he had with men, he sometimes forgot how different a woman's desire and sensations could feel while he was this linked in, but he treasured it all. When she hit her climax, she pulled him over with her in a wave of radiating pleasure.

With the chair having enough room for one and a half people, Sarah moved to sit at his side, leaning on him and nearly snuggling. "Where have you been all my life?" she asked softly, sounding breathless.

Schuldig had to smirk. "Around. Fuck, I want a cigarette."

"But you don't want to move?"

"That, and I don't have a pack with me. I have to be inspired to smoke."

She grinned. "Sweet talker."

While he hadn't specifically meant that, he had no problem with her taking it as a compliment after she'd given him such a good time. "I can't help myself."

"Watching you two making out was hot. How long have you been together?"

Brad had slept through everything, and his face looked young and contented beneath his old man's hair. He and Susie hadn't tangled in their sleep; Brad rarely snuggled any of their temporary partners once the sex had finished. It made Schuldig wonder if he should feel complimented that Brad snuggled with him.

Seeing no reason to lie, Schuldig said, "We've known each other since I was about 14 and been co-workers with benefits for ages, but we've only been _together_ together for a little while."

"It's sweet the way he looks at you."

"The possessiveness?"

"It's not just possessiveness. He really loves you."

"He can be an ass sometimes. Like just this morning."

Brad had been all over the emotional chart today, while Brad's frustrated confusion over it all had made it impossible for Schuldig to get a good reading of what the hell was going on. Sarah might be misinterpreting, or she might be seeing something Brad couldn't figure out or totally admit to in all his logic and efficiency.

"People don't stop being jerks now and then just from being in love."

"I know that all too well."

"If you two are that new together, maybe he's still trying to deal with his emotions."

"There are some complicating factors."

"Such as?"

"He doesn't like to admit he has squishy emotions." And they were both badass assassins.

"Right. He's a guy. You're doomed."

Amused, Schuldig answered, "I'm a guy too. I just showed you several times over the last few hours."

"I know you've got a cock. I mean you're not such a guy in a good way."

She really had no idea what he was capable of, and fortunately for her he had no intention of showing her tonight. "I'll let it slide."

"It'll be weird going back to regular life tomorrow after this, especially with how cold it'll be back home."

"Maybe you need a different job. I'm looking forward to going back to _my_ regular life."

That actually made her look thoughtful. "Maybe."

"We have to get back into bed once we're done playing, because Brad hates finding out he missed something."

******************************************************

Crawford awoke feeling achy and a bit sticky but contented, all signs of the excellent choice in entertainment Schuldig had given him. He heard a muffled sigh coming from under his chin, where Schuldig's head rested. Soft orange hair brushed back and forth against his skin as Schuldig started to wake up with him, dragged to consciousness by his telepathy, and although his telepath sounded unhappy to be doing so, this morning Crawford didn't shut the process down, not after yesterday's blow-up. Sometime during the night they'd ended up in a snuggling position, melted together to huddle for warmth against the now overbearing air conditioning, their legs tangled, his arms around Schuldig, and Schuldig breathing against his collarbone. Sarah and Susie had spooned, with Sarah spooned against Schuldig as well, so Crawford's arms also brushed her chest and one of her hands rested on Schuldig's hip.

"Morning?" Schuldig asked in an annoyed mutter.

"Yes." Crawford put his glasses on and glanced at a nearby clock. "10 a.m."

"Argh. Why don't you have the power to manipulate time to let me sleep in?"

"It doesn't work that way."

"It should." Schuldig moved then let out a small moan. "Somebody's hand just slipped to a fun place. I think it's Sarah's."

"Do you want to go another round?" Crawford had a morning erection he wouldn't mind using.

"Nah, I'm starving and sleepy. I want breakfast and then a nap in the sun." With his head no longer under Crawford's chin, Crawford could see his face twist and sleepy eyes sharpen as he said, "Crap. I have to work with Aya today. When does _my_ vacation start?"

Crawford was about to tell him to stop whining again but suddenly realized that Schuldig actually had been doing some of his regular work by keeping Schwarz on an even keel. He'd mediated the argument going on amongst Farfarello, Nagi, and Aya, and later comforted Nagi (even though Crawford had hated his method). Today he'd be helping Aya prevent the kind of telepathic leaks that had kicked Schwarz in the gut and even touched Balinese in Japan.

Schuldig had been the loudest proponent of taking a relaxing vacation but so far seen the least benefit out of it. He should be like a cat in cream--happy, smug, and lazy--but instead seemed weirdly frazzled and wired at times. It couldn't all be from his fight with Crawford yesterday. Even last night's foursome in addition to some spectacular afternoon sex hadn't seemed to have made much of a dent in his mood. Unusual.

"You look tired," Crawford said. Tired, mussed, and somewhat vulnerable in a way that made a part of Crawford smugly purr and want to protect his property. On a mission his telepath should be close to invincible, but in bed.... "But you have the start of a tan."

"I'm glad something's going right."

Although Crawford usually laughed at the very idea of fairness, he couldn't help thinking that this situation wasn't right and his telepath deserved better. It left him wondering what could make it better and how involved he should get in fixing things. While Aya couldn't be left as a loose cannon, educating him shouldn't take Schuldig _all_ day, which left time for Schuldig to enjoy more of a traditional vacation.

Schuldig shivered as Sarah's hand stroked his cock. She asked, grinning, "Are you sure you're not up for a little more play before breakfast?"

"Even I need some time to recuperate, you succubus."

Before Sarah could ask, Crawford said, "If he's out, I'm out." Morning wood or not, he'd really indulged himself enough lately. "I had a good time though."

"Us too," Susie replied. "Not many people can keep up with us."

"That's our line," Schuldig said.

Crawford appreciated not having to deal with an awkward morning after. His telepath really had done an excellent job in choosing the night's partners.

******************************************************

Nagi stood in the sunlight and dappled shadows under a group of cherry trees and watched cherry blossom petals gently fall and glide, dancing on the breeze. Beautiful. When some of the metal rings dangling from his black leather jacket clinked against one another, it somehow sounded less like an annoying noise and more like wind chimes. It felt so peaceful here.

"Nagi!" Tot smiled at him from under her umbrella, her ruffled skirt swinging in the breeze, her big blue eyes beaming at him. "Tot likes the way you look."

"You look good too."

As she walked toward him she closed her umbrella, which let pink petals settle into her blue hair. Grinning, she stopped in front of him with a bit of a bounce. While for most of his life he'd felt like a wizened old man inside a young body, Tot was youth itself. He loved her for that.

She kissed and pressed into him, her lips soft but insistent, and he responded, happy that he'd gotten better at kissing since their first kiss. Her hands ran along his body, and she made a pleased sound as he stroked her back. He grunted as she backed him up against the trunk of a tree and kissed harder but he didn't complain. Fuck, he wanted her however she wanted it. His breath caught as she unzipped his fly and reached in to run her fingers along the length of his hardening cock through his underwear before pulling them down for better access. Her pale hands with their sparkly, pastel pink nails looked incongruous amidst the black and dark blue of his clothing.

"So pretty. You're so pretty, almost like a doll," she murmured. "Tot wants to take you inside her...."

"Then let's do it," he answered. While her childlike air should have made this feel terribly wrong, he found her incomplete innocence arousing.

Giggling, she leapt up onto him and closed her legs around his waist at the same time she put her arms around his neck. It quickly became obvious that she didn't have anything on under her skirt. Panting, he put his hands beneath it and cupped her bare ass to help position her, and they both moaned at his first thrust into her wet heat. She clutched him as he found his fucking rhythm and stroked her clit. Lost in pleasure and feeling, he kissed her soft skin and sometimes flower petals as they moved together.

"Oh, Nagi!" she gasped as she came.

She brought him over with her by suddenly biting his earlobe, making him come so hard he momentarily blacked out then had to use telekinesis and the tree trunk at his back to help hold him up. As she slid off him, he saw the cherry blossom petals stop swirling so violently and return to a slow, graceful fall to the ground. It made him happy that his telekinesis hadn't broken something during his distraction.

"Tot isn't done with you yet." Grinning, she now had a pink strap-on with Hello Kitty as its topper poking out from her scrunched-up ruffled skirt.

~ Hey! ~ Schuldig shouted in Nagi's head, which instantly woke him up.

~ What? ~ Nagi answered, hating that he'd have to hold a conversation with Schuldig while sticky from a sex dream and sleep-dazed.

Did he feel disappointed or relieved that he'd missed out on Tot pegging him with Hello Kitty?

Maybe he could blame the dream on whatever, whomever, Schuldig had spent the night doing, although he had to admit that the telepath had shielded fairly well most of the night. Nagi hadn't felt anything more than mild horniness while playing his war game, which left him wondering if he was better off getting a feed of what was actually happening or receiving a smaller, subtler flow that let his subconscious react in whatever possibly sick ways it could. He hadn't thought of Tot in ages, and he'd certainly never fantasized about outdoor sex with her or the... Hello Kitty thing. Seriously, what the fuck?

~ What _have_ you been up to, kid? You taste different this morning, interesting.... ~

~ Just get to whatever was important enough to jolt me awake. ~

~ Fine, fine. Report to a family breakfast at Farf and Aya's place in about an hour. ~

~ Do _they_ know they're hosting breakfast? ~

~ Not yet they don't! ~

Hearing the grin, Nagi mentally winced on Farfarello and Aya's behalf. ~ One day they're going to kill you, and I'll just watch in approval. Or maybe help them. ~

~ So cruel to the guy who showed you such a nice time yesterday morning. ~

~ You don't get to use that as a "Get out of jail free" card for the rest of our lives. This kind of shit is why I never had sex with you before that. ~

~ I'll try to do that less in the hope of getting further nookie from you in the future. ~

Argh. ~ Schuldig-- ~

~ If Snow-white and Rose-red are annoyed at me and Brad, there's less chance they'll be squabbling with each other. ~

That actually made some sense. ~ Alright, but if they poison you and Crawford today at breakfast, my only reaction will be "I told you so." ~

~ I have to go and let them know they're serving breakfast, so I'll leave you to shower, dress, and wonder if Mr. Bunny would approve of what you and Tot were doing. Bye! ~

Fuck. As Nagi got out of bed, he could only hope that Schuldig hadn't seen that dream in all of its somewhat twisted glory, but he knew he usually wasn't that lucky.

******************************************************

Waking up first let Farfarello watch his puisín sleep, something he always enjoyed but felt was especially important after the tumult of last night. Aya looked nearly peaceful as he slept, lost, unselfconscious, and much less tense. Pretty. Farfarello might not want this all the time but liked it once in a while.

It made Farfarello happy that his healing had removed Aya's sunburn and other signs of sun exposure because he far preferred his kitten pale, though not unhealthily so. They stalked the night together, after all.

He looked forward to them working together again and his kitten getting new scars as part of their life together. While he'd heal anything serious that struck his kitten, he'd like Aya to keep some of his scars.

He wanted to stroke the veins visible on the underside of his puisín's wrists.

Cracking open one eye, Aya asked, "Why are you looming over me?"

"I'm admiring your body."

"You're doing it in a creepy way," Aya said but sounded mellow about it. Teasing? Hard to tell sometimes.

"Is that really surprising for me?"

"Point." Aya closed his eyes again and snuggled into his pillow.

Silly kitten, although Farfarello appreciated the playfulness. "You're not really going to go back to sleep. I know you."

"...you're right. I'm not looking forward to asking Schuldig for help."

"Me neither, but we can't let the damage Breaker did linger."

"No kidding."

~ Hey, kiddies. A moment ago I heard my name being taken in vain, ~ Schuldig said.

~ You couldn't possibly cut in every time someone takes your name in vain, ~ Farfarello answered.

~ Yeah, sounds too much like work. Good morning, darlings. Prepare for a family breakfast at your place in about 50 minutes. ~

~ Why are we the lucky ones? ~ Aya asked.

"I'm so proud," Farfarello said to him.

~ Mindspeech from Rose-red. _Nice_, ~ the mindbreaker said. ~ We'll be working on your skills after breakfast. Brad, Nagi, and I didn't appreciate getting a telepathic emotional kick to the chest right after Farfie decided to be Dr. Phil. ~

"You all felt that?" Aya asked, obviously upset. Didn't he realize yet that they didn't have much privacy amongst themselves?

~ Even Yoji felt it all the way in Japan. You're going to have to learn how to shield better. ~

Farfarello had to set aside his anger at the slutkitten being part of this to better deal with his kitten's obvious upset. He started to dissociate more to better read Aya's mind and feelings, the complicated stew of negative emotions no doubt roiling inside him--

Aya's hand tightened on his arm. "_Don't_."

Of course. If Aya piggybacked on Farfarello's returning telepathy, once again _everyone_ would know his feelings.

~ You've been using Farfie's ability to turn his ability off as a crutch for much too long now. It's time you gain control and become self-sufficient. ~

"Who's the one who hasn't been training either of us?" Aya asked, his voice rumbling more in his anger, which gave Farfarello very pleasant shivers. Plus, Aya had a point.

~ You learned mindspeech on your own! But, yeah, I know, I _know_, and Brad is _pissed_. He hates getting verklempt over someone else's angst _and_ he hates that Yoji got a taste of it as well. Also, the thought of feeling some of it every time _you_ get angsty is horrifying because we'd never get anything done ever again. Besides, you've been taught to shield before but always end up tearing down your walls. You can either be claustrophobic and be perpetually mortified by the thoughts and emotions you're leaking to people, or you can man up. Neither of us can weasel our way out this time. ~

"I've never tried to 'weasel'--"

Seeing how easily this could turn into a never-ending cycle of bickering, Farfarello redirected the conversation. ~ Mindbreaker, we think you should check Aya for damage to his soul as well. We suspect that his fight with Breaker and possibly the subsequent coma left lingering wounds that are making him more volatile than usual. ~

~ Interesting thought. Telepaths heal telepathic wounds given enough time, but Aya doesn't really fall into that category. Sounds like another busy day for me, but does anyone appreciate my hard work? Noooo....~

Understandably having no urge to listen to the mindbreaker whine, Aya said, "We need to start putting things together for breakfast, while you're a distraction."

~ Aw, that's one of the sweetest things you've ever said about me. See you in a bit! ~

Noticing his kitten's unhappy look in his direction, Farfarello said, "I had no inkling last night that the rest of the team and the slutkitten would feel your reactions." He'd unintentionally betrayed his kitten, but what he'd meant didn't mitigate the damage done.

"I know." Aya ran his hand through his sleep-mussed hair, only making it look more mussed, although his hair, smooth and straight, never attained the craziness Farfarello's could. "I know."

"We'll force the mindbreaker to fix things. Forcing him to do things is fun."

Before that, Farfarello would have to try not to dwell on his anger over the slutkitten once again getting a back door in. The slutkitten kept being given things other people had to work for, then he had no idea of the value of it. He'd earned some slack by helping bring Aya out of his coma, but that would only last so long.


	260. "Could you put a shirt on? You're kind of distracting."

Although putting together a grocery list and buying enough food to satisfy the team for breakfast provided some distraction from his thoughts, they didn't provide enough. Aya felt mortified and horrified by what had happened and what he'd inadvertently revealed to Schwarz and Yoji, and those struck him as completely reasonable reactions. Most people would react that way to having accidentally revealed their deepest fears and selves to others and doing it in such a way that temporarily incapacitated those others. Nobody needed to know that depression and anxiety sometimes struck him like a jolt to the chest.

Shit. The rest of Schwarz had been at dinner when they felt it, but what had Yoji been doing? Had he been safe in his bed or clubbing or working in the flower shop?

Had he been on a mission? Had he gotten hurt during those painful moments of distraction?

Surely Schuldig would have told Aya if Yoji had gotten injured as a result, even if only to twist the knife of guilt in deeper and make Aya more likely to do his and Crawford's bidding. It would serve them better to reveal it _as_ they demanded he work on his shielding rather than save it for later.

Wouldn't it?

Aya didn't know what he'd do if he found out he'd killed or hurt Yoji by accident with his fucking _angst_.

"Puisín, _breathe_," Farfarello said.

Shit. As Aya opened the door to their cabin, he asked, "Are my attempts at shielding failing again?"

Farfarello looked worried and unhappy. "It doesn't need to when I can hear your breathing change and notice that look in your eyes."

Most people wouldn't notice. Right now, Aya wished he were around _them_.

"Do ye resent me for provoking you that far to get that reaction?" Farfarello asked.

"While I _know_ there were better, less hurtful ways for you to find out what you needed to know," it made Aya feel a bit better to see Farfarello wince at that, "I don't resent you for it. Something else would have provoked that kind of response and oversharing from me eventually. It's better to address it and try to fix it as soon as possible. I've been different lately too, and I want to find out why myself."

Aya wouldn't share his worries about Yoji with Farfarello, whose sexual attraction to Yoji was nonetheless strongly spiked with jealousy. Farfarello probably resented Yoji getting that inadvertent feed and wouldn't feel any sympathies. If Farfarello didn't know that Aya had just been thinking of and worrying about Yoji, Aya wouldn't volunteer it.

"Good attitude. We'll have breakfast, then get to work. With the mindbreaker."

It would be a long and distasteful morning.

******************************************************

Yoji awoke feeling great. The cause of his relaxation still slept next to him, looking very cute and very young. They'd talked things out beforehand, so this shouldn't be awkward at all.

Right?

...it didn't seem to be working out that way. Yoji didn't know if he _could_ leave to get something to eat in case Sasha woke up alone and wondered what it all meant. Damn. Sasha wasn't Schuldig.

"Damned straight I'm not," Sasha said as he opened his eyes, stretched, and smiled. "Aren't you just a ray of sunshine. Borrowing trouble already?"

Maybe there wouldn't be a problem after all. "I've gotten used to things going wrong wherever they can."

"Good point, but don't worry here. I'm hungry myself--sex does that to me--so maybe we could raid the kitchen together."

"Great idea."

"I'm full of them."

Feeling more comfortable, Yoji answered, "You're full of _something_," and smiled when Sasha punched his arm.

They put just their pants and slippers on then snuck down to the kitchen. Unfortunately Ken was there making a sandwich, and he asked, "Threw yourself onto his dick to save the rest of us, Sasha?"

Not much privacy inside a team that had telepaths. Yoji had to keep reminding himself of that. Elena and Fenris would hardly leave Ken to be the odd man totally out of the loop.

"I took a few for the team," Sasha answered, "but it's not like it was a _chore_. I'd be happy to do it again sometime."

Aw. "Sasha has good taste," Yoji said.

Ken smirked. "You realize this only continues your streak of being Schwarzosexual."

...shit. Ken was kind of right, but Yoji still had to try to salvage it. "C'mon, Sasha is Weiß now!"

"You know where he came from."

"I'm Weiß. Yoji has good taste too," Sasha replied. "Jealous?"

"Please. Schuldig has offered to take me on," Ken made a face, "not that I want him to."

"Don't take it personally, Kenken. He probably did it just to get a complete set," Yoji answered, keeping it light-hearted. "Don't feel so bad. The world wouldn't be able to deal with two people in this team who had my incredible level of sex appeal."

Ken's expression turned sourer. "Or ego."

"Thanks for making me feel like chopped liver, Yoji," Sasha said as he poured himself a glass of juice. Fortunately, he didn't sound serious.

"You're sexy as hell, Sasha, but you haven't had as many people hitting on you as I've had recently. It's my gift, it's my curse."

"It's your psionic ability?" Ken asked, which made Sasha laugh and ask, "Another form of telekinesis?"

While they were obviously joking, Yoji felt a little shudder at the thought but kept his voice light as he answered, "The _only_ talent I have for that is my natural sex appeal."

He almost expected Sasha to joke that _that_ might be a psionic ability, but Sasha just said, "Yeah, you don't need that any stronger than it already is."

"Jealousy. Pure jealousy."

"I'm done with you," Ken said as he walked away with his sandwich.

"You just can't deal with how epic I am."

"Blah, blah, blah."

Grinning at Sasha, Yoji said, "I thought he'd never leave."

"You're nuts," Sasha replied with a smile.

Once they'd nearly finished eating, Fenris bounced in with a DVD case in hand. "Sasha! I got it, and it's new! Can you come watch it with me?"

"If you want to, you can," Yoji said. "I'm fine."

"Fenris has been waiting for this to arrive for about a week, so yeah, I'd like to," Sasha answered then kissed Yoji's cheek. "See you later. Don't get angsty or broody, because we could still hear that and come in to smack the back of your head."

"The abuse I put up with!"

"You love it."

"I'll be good."

"Impossible!"

As they walked away together, Fenris asked Sasha, "Could you put a shirt on? You're kind of distracting."

Yoji noticed that Sasha had left all the dirty dishes to him. Little bastard.

Taking advantage of the alone time, Yoji lit a cigarette and thought about things now that neither shock/despair/anxiety nor horniness ruled him any longer. While it alleviated some of his worries that he hadn't gotten another deep kick of negative emotions from Aya, he'd still be happier hearing that Aya was okay from Aya himself. Getting it from Elena who'd gotten it from Omi who'd gotten it from Crawford didn't count as much. Crawford only told people what he wanted them to know and had a tendency to try to be the only mouthpiece Schwarz had.

Farfarello guarded Aya and information about Aya even more. Possessive little psycho.

How had Farfarello been "insensitive" to Aya? For fuck's sake, they were vacationing on a tropical island, so what did he have to needle Aya about? What kind of insensitivity could hit Aya in the heart so hard that Yoji felt it all the way in Japan twice?

Aya had been through a lot of hell recently and needed someone less likely to toy with his head than his psycho boyfriend. Or, hell, most of the rest of Schwarz. He needed special handling....

Apparently Yoji really needed to be more sensitive and less of a pervert himself. He needed to stop thinking of the ways he'd "handle" and comfort Aya.

Whatever. In any case, Farfarello was not the right guy to deal with someone recently injured physically, mentally, and emotionally. He might have somehow gotten Aya through his sister's death earlier but today's events suggested that a lot of that had been luck. Maybe the lunatic had gotten overconfident, or maybe his sadism had come out to play. The possibilities made Yoji's skin crawl.

Aya needed someone like Yoji. Every time Yoji thought of Schwarz's reaction to him declaring that Aya needed to have Yoji traveling with him wherever, it made him wince a bit from Farfarello's enraged jealousy, Crawford's condescending disdain, Schuldig possibly dying of laughter....

Admittedly, Schuldig accidentally offing himself like that would solve a lot of Yoji's problems. Hell, it would solve a lot of people's problems.

Nagi might let Yoji help, though Yoji couldn't always be sure which way the kid would go on things.

When Aya got back to Japan--and Yoji would damned well find out when--he'd get past Crawford and Farfarello to talk to Aya himself to see how Aya was really doing and if he didn't like what he heard he'd do something about it. What he'd do, he didn't know yet and wouldn't know until he heard about the entire situation, but he'd definitely get involved no matter what Schwarz had to say about it.

******************************************************

Nagi arrived at the door to Farfarello and Aya's cottage at about the same time Crawford and Schuldig did. As soon as Schuldig said, "Hey, Nagins--" Nagi answered with a "Don't even start with me."

"That's no fun."

"I agree with Nagi, Schu," Crawford said. "We have a lot of Schwarz business to get through after breakfast, so I don't want breakfast to drag out longer with you taunting Nagi." They had things to do, especially with Aya needing to be checked for telepathic damage as well as trained more.

Pouting, Schuldig replied, "_Really_ no fun, but I get you. I just wanted to get some entertainment before I spend the rest of the morning working."

"Working?" Nagi asked. "Like you ever work."

"What did I just say, Nagi? It applies to you the same as it does to Schuldig," Crawford answered. "He's been working, and he'll be working _more_ this morning. You'll find out what's going on after breakfast."

Taking on a very thoughtful look, Nagi asked, "We won't be vacationing much longer, will we?"

"Wait until after breakfast, Nagi."

"This is going to be a fun breakfast," Schuldig muttered.

As ordered, breakfast was a subdued affair. Aya looked wan and edgy, while Farfarello looked annoyed and somewhat nervous. Nagi retained his obvious curiosity and impatience to hear what Crawford had to say once they got down to business. Forbidden to toy with anyone and actually obeying, Schuldig remained silent and looked somewhat somber as well as thoughtful. They ate quickly and mechanically.

After they put the dishes, cups, and cutlery into the sink, Crawford said, "Now on to business. Since none of you appear to be vacationing well and happily, I'm contemplating cutting our vacation short to return to Japan and get back to work. I'll take your feedback into account, but the final decision is mine. Reactions?"

"I'd be happy to return to work and Japan," Nagi answered. Not surprising. "Sun and sand really aren't my thing."

"I vote in favor of returning to Japan and work," Farfarello said.

"I do as well," Aya replied.

Crawford didn't need precognition to know that Farfarello and Aya would be agitating for and working toward getting their own apartment again once they returned to Japan. So be it. It might even turn out to be a good thing, especially after Crawford steered it in that direction. Crawford looked forward to making Farfarello train himself better in the use of his electrical powers and having Schwarz learn to fight around him while he did it, wanted to take a deeper look at Schuldig's "design specs" CDs, and see and evaluate what Persia was doing with and inside his Okinawa school for talented youngsters.

"You know how I feel," Schuldig said, sparing himself from having to say in front of the group that _he'd_ first suggested cutting the vacation short for the sake of the rest of them. He had a reputation to maintain.

Schuldig wouldn't have to work so hard to stabilize his team members when they were working and thus not brooding. Crawford doubted that Schuldig appreciated the irony of being the person who most wanted and needed a vacation yet couldn't actually vacation during his vacation because of his insane teammates. Something would have to be done for Schuldig in Japan.

It looked like a full plate awaited them there to keep them busy, which was how Crawford preferred to live. He'd be looking into tickets to fly them out tomorrow, but he said to them, "I'll weigh all that as I decide and let you know. Next order of business: Farfarello, I won't stand by while you toy with Aya's emotions for your own gratification. What you two do for fun and in private is one thing, but hitting Aya _that_ hard could break him and deprive Schwarz of a working member."

Vibrating with rage, Farfarello replied, "If the mindbreaker had taught my kitten to shield properly, it wouldn't have done anything to the rest of the team!"

"Whether the rest of us personally experience it or not, you have to think more before doing these kinds of things. I'm sure there were ways of finding out what you wanted to know that _didn't_ punch Aya in the chest and take the chance of making him useless to the team. Don't force me to repeat myself on this. You've been given a lot more freedom recently than you used to have, but that can be taken away if you sabotage Schwarz." Aya belonged to Schwarz, and thus to Crawford. Given how it still stunned Crawford to think it, he saw that he'd have to make sure Farfarello understood that.

Aya had a surprised "what the fuck" expression on his face, while Farfarello still vibrated but had a considering look mixing in with the rage. Nagi and Schuldig appeared quite interested in the goings-on.

Crawford said, "No matter how the shield training goes and how long it takes, I'll be keeping an eye on this issue. Next piece of business is that Schuldig will be working with Aya today to strengthen his shielding. I've cleared Schuldig to use any force necessary, short of murder, if Farfarello interferes in a negative way in that."

"As long as the mindbreaker sticks to shielding lessons and a telepathic health evaluation, I won't see any reason to interfere," Farfarello answered. "His good behavior would guarantee mine."

"The burden of proof is on you, so think long and hard before you do _anything_ to him. After last night, you're much less trustworthy than he is." That should give the little psycho pause.

Although Farfarello still looked angry, he also seemed somewhat calmer and more focused. Sometimes he needed rules and guidelines set out, a kind of reality check, _structure_, to make him work and follow authority better.

It felt damned good to lay down the law.

"Can we get on with that already?" Farfarello asked.

"Sure. Can I safely leave you here with Schuldig and Aya?"

"Yes."

"If I get a feeling something's wrong, I'll send Nagi in to fix matters by force."

Nagi grinned, obviously enjoying the idea. Although the boy tended to be quieter about it, he enjoyed throwing people around too. Perhaps he missed doing violent work just as Aya and Farfarello did. "I could stay to make sure," Nagi said.

"The smaller the audience the better," Aya answered. "Please."

"All right," Nagi answered, looking worried. "But if you need _anything_ from me, Aya, please feel free to call."

Aya nodded to him. "Thank you."

"_I'm_ staying," Farfarello said. "I won't interfere unless the mindbreaker does something wrong. They need a guard while they're vulnerable."

"All right," Crawford replied. "Don't make me regret agreeing to let you do this, Farfarello. Is there anything else that needs to be addressed? No? Then Nagi and I will leave to let Schuldig get to work."

With Schuldig away Crawford could do as much work as he wanted without distractions, and he could hardly wait to spend focused quality time with his investments and e-mails.


	261. ~ You’re lucky I’m not whistling the tune of “The Stripper.” ~

Schuldig actually looked forward to getting inside Aya's head to tinker a bit and wondered what telepathic Ayan environment he'd end up in this time. Aya's inside might not be as exciting as what he tended to do out on the astral plane, but it usually presented surprises. Truly an adventure!

"The bed would be best for this." Schuldig had worn comfy clothes--a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals--in anticipation.

"Not happening," Farf said immediately.

"That's a small couch in the living room, and I don't know how much time we'll need to be under to really do Aya justice. You don't want your kitten to suffer, do you?"

"We'll be fine on the bed," Aya said. "Schuldig won't get away with anything. You'll be watching, right?"

Although Farf looked petulant about it, he answered, "Aye. All right."

Schuldig kicked off his sandals before bouncing onto the bed. Much better and softer than some small crappy couch. Noticing Rose-red's look of trepidation, Schuldig said, "Get down here! I'm not going to eat you!"

"Better not, mindbreaker," Farfarello answered as he settled into a nearby chair. "You'd get a taste of cold steel instead."

Aya sat stiffly, making Schuldig say, "Lie _down_. Get comfortable. This may take a while." Schuldig patted the bed beside him. "Next to me. You know we'll need skin contact for this." Aya's skittishness and twitchiness would be a lot funnier if they weren't such a step backward from what Schwarz had achieved with him.

"I hate you," Aya said.

Schuldig had to grin. "I know."

Once Schuldig got Aya to lie down, he snuggled into Aya's side and set his hand on Rose-red's wrist, feeling his pulse jump. Smirking, Schuldig closed his eyes and went in.

The glowing cables of Aya's telepathic links outward looked a lot neater than Schuldig had expected given Aya's history and what everyone had done to bring him out of his coma, although a lot of them did look a lot bigger and stronger than before. The "glass" Aya had put up in his coma to block himself off from outside influence had disappeared completely. Good signs. However, Aya hadn't fully maintained the clamps that would stop incoming or outgoing feeds on those links, and something needed to be done about that.

When Schuldig saw Aya's avatar, he realized they had a big problem on their hands. Aya wore tattered remnants of his mission outfit and looked like he'd had the hell beaten and savaged out of him by a strong, vicious man and a large vicious dog. Blood, bruises, burns, deep bite marks.... though no unsightly swelling. His battle with Breaker might have been brutal but it had also been _days_ ago. He should be looking and feeling much better than this by now.

Hell, if he retained this much damage he should have been feeling it enough that it would come up as a red flag to Schuldig or Farfie even if Aya wouldn't outwardly complain, yet they'd sensed nothing. Farfarello felt psychic damage just fine and had from the very beginning.

Did Farfarello's avatar look this bad too? Schuldig should give him a look after this.

~ Do you feel any of that? ~ Schuldig asked.

Aya looked down at himself and seemed surprised then _finally_ appeared to feel it, sounding sick as he said, "Now I do."

~ Calm down. ~

"I'm _calm_. I'm just in _pain_."

~ Did you look like this right after the battle with Breaker? ~

"I don't even know. I had more important things happening at the time."

Recall and list the chain of events. Farfarello had hitch-hiked inside Aya's avatar for the battle and then stepped out of him at some point, both of which had seemed very painful to Aya. Aya-chan's remains had given Aya enough strength to save Fenris and fight Breaker down to a defeat. Her contribution, from what they'd guessed her abilities to be, were more physical than psychic, giving Aya's _body_ more strength to go on. Aya had felt the remains die. Had that been enough source of telepathic trauma or just emotional trauma? Set that thought aside to consider later.

Aya went into a coma, which presumably had stopped him from piggybacking anyone else's talent. He'd just been a mundane who couldn't heal psychic damage. _But_ two telepaths had gone spelunking into him for days to bring him out of the coma. Shouldn't that have counted for something? It seemed not. Maybe Aya's weird talent saw that as their selves entering, not an infusion of their talents. When they'd found him floating, untethered, inside himself, he hadn't displayed this battle damage but he hadn't looked normal either.

Conscious, Aya had seemed to be much more of an emotional mess, in _emotional_ pain, than someone suffering telepathic battle wounds. They felt different. Schwarz hadn't seen the kitten's moodiness as a side effect of such wounds because Aya was always moody and even had a lot of cause this time, and Schuldig had kept a discreet telepathic eye on him but hadn't noticed anything really wrong.

When Schwarz stayed in Munich and tortured and killed Brad's treacherous, annoying clone, Aya occasionally borrowed and used Farfarello and Schuldig's telepathic talents. He should have at least done some healing _then_.

Had he actually been _worse_ before that? Set that thought aside to consider later.

Farfarello had spent a lot of his time in Jamaica associated within his body--surfing, fucking his kitten, sculpting sand castles--so Aya couldn't access and ride his telepathy as he often unconsciously did. However, he'd been pulling _somebody's_ to mindtalk with Nagi while they were out on the tour together. Possibly Nagi's small talent. Aya had obviously rode Farfarello's last night when his anguish had hit the entire team plus Yoji.

Schuldig still didn't feel certain of what it all meant. Had the psychic damage been too bad or the _way_ Breaker had dealt it too difficult to heal? Did Aya just not have the ability to heal himself from not personally possessing any telepathic ability?

It made Schuldig angry that he didn't know enough about any of this. Rosenkreuz had really failed them all when it came to telepathic knowledge and theory. Then again, Rosenkreuz hadn't wanted its tools to train themselves and others without its input and interference. As usual, he'd have to figure things out and experiment on his own.

Too bad they didn't have Friendly around to take a crack at Aya. She'd shown more patience and success with teaching than anyone in Eszett ever would have expected. Hell, she and her puppyish charge had blossomed once out of Rosenkreuz and Eszett's clutches. Maybe the kids Persia had brought to Okinawa might have a hope after all.

Probably not.

If they were wise, nobody would ask _him_ to teach at that school because he lacked the patience and was hardly anyone's best case scenario in telepathy anyway. Thinking about it, he realized that he should know more about what Rosenkreuz and Eszett had done to "train" and corral him, so he should have a look at those CDs.

Wait, better, he should track Malice down to find out exactly where he should look for what he wanted to know and what Malice knew that he _should_ know. Malice could hardly hate him more than he already did, and since that kind of lifetime-built hatred could be impossible to change why try, especially since Malice barely set off Schuldig's "Emory!" buttons even though Malice also didn't seem like Schuldig.

The Schuldig line. Please. There might be a mass of near-Emories running around but there was only _one_ Schuldig.

Impatient, Aya tapped his foot as he stared Schuldig down. Right. Hmm. Aya had mostly been picking up from others lately while using telepathy. It might make a difference if someone _gave_ him more power.

Schuldig had shown up here as a fluffy cat but changed himself into a human figure for this. Suddenly eye to eye with Schuldig, Aya asked, "What are you doing?"

~ I'm going to give you more of my telepathy to see if it makes a difference in your injuries. ~

"No kissing!"

~ I'm hurt! ~ Schuldig answered as he quickly came up close to him, grabbed him in a hug, and nuzzled his face while sending him an infusion of power.

Red shivered, inhaled, and made a small sound that went straight to Schuldig's dick and made him want to find out if Aya would react similarly to getting _that_ slipped into him. Aya broke loose and glared at him with eyes gone Schuldig blue.

~ Well? ~ Schuldig asked, grinning.

"I don't know if it's helping. I _feel_ a little different...."

~ It's too soon to really see healing anyway. Hey, come out onto the astral plane with me. Jamaica isn't crammed with telepaths the way Europe is, so it should be fairly peaceful and empty. ~ Having spent seemingly forever blocking Aya from his links and power and telling him to stay contained and having it not work out well, Schuldig wanted to give the opposite a try. It fit his own inclinations better that way anyway.

"Aren't we going to work on shielding?"

~ A little later. I want to see if I can get your self in better condition first. I think it'll help. What'll also help is if you get over your phobias and finally protect yourself and others. If you actually practiced what I've already taught you more often, maybe you'd be able to shield and clamp instinctively instead of always needing to make a conscious effort. Show some fucking initiative. You're lucky I'm not demanding you only use mindspeech here now that I know you're capable of it. ~

Aya still looked angry but backed down a bit. "Hnh."

~ Out we go. I can't wait to see what you come up with this time! ~

"How old are you?"

~ That's complicated. C'mon! ~

Aya shook his head, then smoothly went out onto the astral plane, with Schuldig following. Good boy to do that so well on his own with so little experience and no practice since his injuries. Schuldig found himself standing on sand near the ocean with the cottages nearby. The colors seemed to be somewhat off, and the sound of the ocean and heat varied. Although Aya imposed his own reality around him, his wavering grasp on _actual_ reality helped prevent him from recreating it in full on the astral plane. Besides, he didn't have the telepathic or attention power to keep everything going consistently at once. By necessity, his talent prioritized.

Still, impressive in its way. Aya would have been quite the sensation and curiosity within Rosenkreuz, if they didn't beat these tendencies out of him and force him to conform first.

Out of the link-lit dimness of his insides and into the "sun," Aya's battle damage looked even more obvious, although Schuldig noticed that the edges of some of it had healed already. Direct infusion of talent had helped.

Aya imposed his own idea of reality on this area and himself.... ~ Hey, ~ Schuldig said, ~ let's go into your cottage and get you cleaned up. It'll help you feel better. There's a first aid kit under the bathroom sink in these cottages. ~ Schuldig didn't actually know that but figured a first aid kit would be useful and sensible there.

"That makes sense. All right."

As Schuldig walked in behind Rose-red, he looked back and saw the ocean and beach fading into non-existence behind him. Trippy.

The cottage's interior almost resembled the one in reality, just missing small details here and there. Aya removed his boots at the door and put on a pair of house slippers, while Schuldig just walked in, his feet already bare.

Once they arrived in the bathroom Schuldig got a look at his own avatar and felt some surprise. He'd been aware of the worn-out blue jeans, but he also wore a blue headband with tinted sunglasses atop it and his old, gray "Freakin' Mindreader" T-shirt that had been destroyed ages ago while they were in Ireland getting Farfarello. He'd loved that shirt but hadn't thought about it in a long time. It made him wonder why it showed up on his avatar now. The headband made him smile. Brad couldn't burn a headband that didn't physically exist.

Hand placed at his neck ready to start unbuckling his collar, Aya gave Schuldig a very pointed look. ~ I've never left during this before and I'm not leaving now, ~ Schuldig said. ~ Besides, in the shape you're in, you might need help getting some of that off. ~

"You wish."

~ Devoutly. Now come on! Get to it. It's not like this is even your real physical body! ~

Aya overreacted so adorably. "It still counts!"

~ I need to see the extent of the damage. You have to let me help you heal. ~ Schuldig took a first aid kit out from under the sink, there because he'd told Aya it would be. Sweet.

"Hnh." Although he still glared at Schuldig, Aya continued to undress, opening his collar and then taking off his torn coat and setting it on a hook on the bathroom door, revealing pale and somewhat bloody bare arms and finger-shaped bruises around his neck. Schuldig could see actual teeth marks in some areas. The knife sheaths strapped to his arms that he now took off had protected his arms there at least.

Damn, Schuldig loved to watch him undress out of his mission gear, the slow unveiling. The blood and bruising took nothing away from it. ~ Keep going. ~

Blatantly disgruntled, Aya removed his gun harness and the shirt too, revealing bruising on his back and neck. Now that Schuldig took a better look, he could see blood in the matted hair on the back of Red's head. Apparently the kitten committed himself to simulating physical reality to a scary degree, and Schuldig found himself uncertain as to whether he should try to train that out of him thoroughly or not. In some cases it had some advantages, and it was so _interesting_.

"The pants stay on," Aya said.

~ No can do. I can see holes here and there in them, suggesting more wounds. We'll be taking care of everything. You're lucky I'm not whistling the tune of "The Stripper." ~

Aya growled but removed the leather pants as well, ending up in just black briefs and house slippers. Schuldig _wanted_ him so damned much, and it amused him that he could feel this ravenously horny outside of his actual body. It just further proved that the mind was the foremost erogenous zone.

~ Let's clean those up and take care of them, direct my power on 'em, ~ Schuldig said as he picked up a wet washcloth. It would be far more efficient to let Rose-red shower it all off, especially his hair, but a shower wouldn't let Schuldig touch him and focus hopefully healing telepathic power on the wounds. Also, Schuldig really wanted to pet him.

Although he looked far from enthused, Aya answered, "All right." He flinched away a bit as the wet washcloth stroked along his skin, wiping blood and some of the injuries away. Too bad temperature didn't exist here, because Schuldig would be alternating hot and cold water on the washcloth depending on what he wanted to achieve at that moment.

Given Aya's adherence to reality as he knew it, cleaning and wrapping everything would help him heal better. Schuldig supplemented that with his own talent and the power of suggestion.

Doing this to and _feeling_ Aya's actual body would be much more fun than this--Schuldig missed the scent, heat, and proper feeling of pressure against real skin--but this had its appeal too. It didn't have all the marks of reality on it, but Aya reacted to his close proximity, focused attention, and touch as if it were all real.

Besides, Schuldig found this process to be oddly soothing to himself.

He missed Aya's purple eyes. Currently Schuldig's blue with only a slim ring of purple, they made Aya's pale face, framed by his vividly red hair, look even icier. While Aya might still be very pretty, he didn't look enough like _Aya_.

Aya's flinching over being washed and tended to started to fade a bit, possibly because Schuldig's talent and attentions _had_ helped heal the wounds more. His current discomfort had more to do with how he couldn't help enjoying being touched and taken care of like this, and it made Schuldig smile. Standing this close to each other, with Schuldig occasionally crouching down to take care of injuries on Aya's legs, Schuldig couldn't help noticing the tented briefs Aya currently sported. Aya had shown signs of being attracted to Schuldig before--no matter how much Red protested it--and didn't seem to realize how useless it was to fight it. Schuldig had too much sex appeal, and everyone gave in to him eventually. Even Nagi.

It surprised Schuldig to be this _much_ in touch with his own lust while out of his body, since such things usually became intellectual exercises on the astral plane. Then again, he didn't often take human form either. Left to himself, he preferred to be a band of colors, able to move and strike at speed, hard to hold onto. When he thought about it, he realized that Aya making him a cat had given Schuldig unusual urges to be petted and made much of. All right, unusual urges for his _mental_ form. So maybe fitting himself into Aya's pseudo-real world while in his own pseudo-real body also made him behave the way Aya saw him? Things to think about.

As he wiped blood out of Aya's hair, he _really_ wished he could be doing this in reality, where he could feel the hair's texture. It looked so soft and smooth. Schuldig so wanted to nuzzle him....

******************************************************

Fidgeting, Farfarello watched his husband and the mindbreaker's bodies cozily nestled together and became ever more impatient. Dissociated, he could tell that they'd left Aya's body to take things out onto the astral plane, which hadn't been part of the plans they'd discussed earlier. Schuldig was a swift operator, and this was taking too long. They'd either run into trouble or the pervert had started to take liberties with Aya. Either way, Farfarello had to go in himself.

Farfarello settled onto the bed near them, closed his eye, and detached his soul from his body to go roaming out into the astral plane. In the midst of the clouds stood their beach cottage, which had to be Aya's influence. If his puisín needed rescuing from the mindbreaker's lecherous claws, Farfarello would do it gladly.

The door opened easily as he touched it, no lock, a sign that his kitten didn't think of everything in his worldbuilding but not surprising, not considering the recall and sheer power it would require. From here he could see the bathroom with its open door and Aya sitting inside. While it looked innocuous, Farfarello couldn't trust it, especially when he couldn't see the mindbreaker yet.

Closing the door behind him, he walked to the bathroom and found a nearly mundane scene from the real world in there. The mindbreaker wiped blood off Aya, occasionally wringing blood-tinged water from the washcloth over the sink and wetting it for more. Standing closer now, Farfarello saw some more blood and the fading remnants of bruises on his kitten. Saw them very well, because Aya wore only his briefs.

~ Mindbreaker! You will explain this, and it better be good! ~

Moving around Aya, Schuldig became more visible. ~ He was much worse when I first showed up. This is after a lot of healing and cleaning up. You were right about there being battle damage. ~

~ He's almost naked! ~

~ Pft! He'd taken a lot of slices through his clothes. I had to get to them. You'd accuse me of doing only a half-assed job if I hadn't. ~ Schuldig wore a headband here, which he hadn't in reality for quite some time, and his shirt...

~ ...you wore that the day Schwarz recruited me. ~

The mindbreaker grinned but looked surprised. ~ You really remember this shirt? ~

~ It was a memorable day, and I was one of the people who ruined it. ~

Schuldig in a headband and an old shirt, looking like a previous version of himself. He also appeared more relaxed and... cuddly here than he had in reality, softer and almost doting. Did this façade reflect anything inside the mindbreaker's soul?

"Schuldig's hands haven't strayed even once," Aya said.

~ No mindspeech for me, puisín? ~

"I'm conserving energy to work to heal myself from inside while Schuldig works from the outside. Also, once I became aware of my wounds they started to really hurt and distract me." He looked wan in some ways but brighter in others.

And he had the mindbreaker's blue eyes. Farfarello wanted to rage at that, but Schuldig distracted him by saying, ~ I'm used to my Schneeweißchen and Rosenrot, but here you could both be Rosenrot, truly Psycho _Twins_. How sweet. ~

Sometimes Farfarello still wondered why these two saw his soul as a redhead, but he generally had more important things to think about. Right now sudden small pains distracted him from such thoughts.

~ You took injuries from that fight too after all, but you're just feeling them now? ~ Schuldig asked.

~ It would seem so, though they've healed a bit since then, ~ Farfarello had to answer, suddenly aware of a range of bruises across his body and a sharp pain in the wrist Breaker had bitten into. ~ How is this possible? ~

~ I don't know. ~

~ You say that a lot. ~

~ It's truthful! You were in Eszett; you know how things were. ~

~ I expected you to learn things on your own. Friendly has. ~

~ Different experiences. Whatever. ~

"How was Eszett about this?" Aya asked.

The mindbreaker answered, ~ It refused to give teams the knowledge to deal with these things on their own. Team leaders were commanded to bring broken telepaths back to Rosenkreuz for repairs or to trade them in for a new one. Eszett stole and bred enough children that they often didn't bother to learn that many ways to help telepaths because they could just replace one telepath with another, as if we're interchangeable like machine parts. ~

"I can't see all teams going along with that."

~ That's because you have more knowledge about human nature than Eszett did, which should make Eszett feel ashamed about itself. Leaders held on to their telepaths out of the team being accustomed to working with this person or the team being in a situation where a sudden personnel change could be a major setback. Brad couldn't be certain that a new telepath would go along with his plans against Eszett, so that gave him a reason to try to hold onto me. Plus, I'm much more powerful than most of Eszett's telepaths. Knowing that a trip to Rosenkreuz would be the result of reporting telepathic problems, a lot of telepaths hid any problems they had until something blew up big-time. Eszett might kill you or bust you down to _really_ menial labor or make you a sextoy it loaned out to some of its members as a reward for good work. The last was something Eszett liked to do to any of its human tools who were paralyzed, comatose, or catatonic. ~

"Wait. Was Aya-chan--"

~ Schwarz didn't use her like that, ~ Schuldig answered quickly, ~ and we stayed in possession of her the whole time before and during the ceremony. ~

That mollified Aya, although he still looked somewhat upset. Farfarello didn't mention that Schuldig had said at the time that he wouldn't since he preferred his partners to be aware of what he did, good and ill, because having that come out would blow up in all of their faces.

"All right," Aya said softly. "Can you send some of your power Farfarello's way so he can heal faster too?"

~ It doesn't work like that in his case. You're the only one who can take in and use other people's telepathic power. ~

"I gave some of my borrowed strength to Fenris during our fight with Breaker, and it helped him."

~ Strength or telepathy? ~

"Strength."

~ Not quite the same thing anyway, but in the future, when I figure out how to even try it, I want to see if you could pass some telepathy to someone else. ~

~ My puisín looks much better. ~ In fact, Aya had visibly healed more since Farfarello had shown up. ~ Can you give him some tips to prevent him from spilling over to others again so we can return to reality? ~

~ I've _given_ him tips, but in the past he's been too claustrophobic to deal with shields--maybe he needs a psychiatrist instead of a telepath, but too bad since we don't have one--and he keeps forgetting to clamp down on his links. At least practice doing the clamping, Aya, until it comes naturally, instinctively, and proactively. ~

"I'm trying!" Aya answered. In a more subdued voice he said, "But I admit that I could be doing better."

~ Let's see if having some of this damage fixed makes you do better. If not, you and me are gonna have to get hardcore. ~

~ You're not doing _anything_ "hardcore" with my kitten, ~ Farfarello said.

Grinning, Schuldig asked, ~ Does that mean we won't have a threesome? ~

~ You're ridiculously predictable. ~ Yet this moment of Schuldig doing what one expected Schuldig to do finally let Farfarello understand what had been keeping him mentally off balance through the conversation. The mindbreaker looked like a previous version of himself but kept showing signs of a tenderness that didn't match it. They two had fucked at times when Schuldig had still looked like this in reality....

"No threesome," his puisín said, and Farfarello felt an odd moment of disappointment that he wanted to kick himself for. He couldn't threaten to impale Nagi for showing up in their bed _and_ suggest threesomes with the mindbreaker and the slukitten because his kitten reacted badly to inconsistency and hypocrisy.

~ You're breaking my heart, kitten, ~ Schuldig answered as he leveled a penetrating stare at Farfarello that suggested he'd seen that moment of desire.

The mindbreaker always saw too much. With that in mind, Farfarello said, ~ Aya, cut yourself off from his power. We're going back. ~ At the moment he _really_ didn't want Aya to read him.

~ You sure you don't want _me_ to pull my talent out of him? ~ Schuldig asked with a cheerful leer.

"I'll do it myself," Aya answered. "We'll leave simultaneously?"

~ Aye, ~ Farfarello replied. ~ Now. ~

This time when he returned to his body he could feel the annoying remaining wounds to his soul. At least he'd gotten better at ignoring pain. Sitting up in bed, Aya had a strange expression on his face and radiated a storm of conflicting emotions too tangled for Farfarello to make out. Giving him a very intense look, Aya said, "I-- Farfarello--" and his hands clenched and unclenched in his continuing inability to express himself.

"What?" Farfarello crawled across the bed to sit near him, curious.

Farfarello suddenly found himself tightly held and with his kitten's head on his shoulder as Aya shook a little and exhaled through his apparently intense emotions. Still, this seemed an improvement from most of their recent interactions, and Farfarello would never turn down an armful of his puisín.

He happily put his arms around Aya and said, "The words will come when they come. No need to rush them."

"This is why you should call me the miracle worker," the mindbreaker said, twirling a tendril of his hair around one finger, still lying in their bed.

"I'll call you what I will," Farfarello replied.

"It's only now that I realize that it was like sandpaper rasping against my skin," Aya said softly, "over the last few days when I've been near you. It started after I was brought out of my coma. Just irritation with you, with the world, with myself...."

"From the battle damage we hadn't known you retained?" Thinking about that made Farfarello draw protective patterns and sigils with his fingers along Aya's back.

"I suppose. I feel better now that so much of it has healed.... I wonder if our merger for that battle also contributed to that irritation with you. Separating the way we did hurt like hell."

"And may have contributed to you being irritated with _me_."

"Yeah."

Aya hadn't radiated this kind of open lovingness toward him in some time, so Farfarello basked in it and hugged him close, encouraging it. However, he couldn't forget they had an audience.

"No sugar for me after what I've done?" Schuldig asked.

"Have you ever considered the possibility that your sexual insatiability is a coping mechanism?" Aya replied, still softly.

"Duh, Rose-red. Though I also do it just for fun."

Obviously disgruntled, Aya said, "You're ridiculously difficult to insult."

"You love it. You know, I'd be willing to make my coping mechanism be a hug for the right person, like you. And/or Farfie."

"You rarely stop at just hugging," Farfarello answered.

"You and Rosenrot _are_ rare. How about it? Give me some sugar, sweetness."

"No," Farfarello said. "Considering what you did in our bed yesterday morning, you should consider yourself fortunate I even allowed you on it." Besides, he very much wanted to avoid any further stupid temptations involving Schuldig.

"Happy memories. Oh well." The mindbreaker put his sandals on and got off the bed. "At least I can entertain myself by coming between Brad and his beloved finances. If you two change your minds or feel like showing gratitude for my help later, you know how to call me."

"You know the way out."

"_So_ mean. See ya later, kids. Remember to practice your clamping and shielding, Red, or you'll see me much sooner instead of later."

A few minutes after Schuldig left, Aya said, "I'm... sorry. I know I've been difficult to deal with lately and haven't... upheld all of my obligations."

That phrasing didn't sit well with Farfarello at all. "Don't martyr yourself to me. I want you _willing_, not guilty. Guilt is for sheep."

"...good."

As much as he wanted to fuck his kitten, he restrained himself. It wouldn't be a good idea with Aya in such a delicate state of mind and mood. Instead he asked, "What would you like to do right now?"

"I don't really know," Aya answered with a small, wry smile. "Sorry."

"Hrm." Farfarello was _trying_.

"What we're doing right now would be nice for a while."

"I enjoy holding you."

"Right now I really would like to be held."

"I can do that." Happily.

******************************************************

Aya could finally feel the pain of the remaining psychic wounds, annoying but better that than be completely unaware. At least that irritation had disappeared and no longer quietly influenced all his relations with people.

It bothered him that he'd thought he'd known what he felt and why he felt it, only to find out that something unknown had influenced and colored his every recent reaction. If he thought too hard and long about that he might start to mistrust everything, and that would be a path to screaming madness. Until he could examine it all without obsessing over it, he'd be better off thinking that although it had happened it was over now and they would be on the lookout for anything similar in the future.

Not wanting Schwarz or Yoji to be aware of his turmoil, Aya clamped down on those links. At least, he hoped that's what he'd done. If he failed, he'd no doubt hear about it.

He didn't expend as much effort in Farfarello's direction because their physical intimacy made it more difficult to hide his feelings anyway. If it bothered him enough he could just get out of the hug, but he rather felt like he needed it right now. Once he would have seen it as weakness but at the moment it looked like sanity, even if a small part of him hoped the hug would prevent him from shaking apart.

He felt so many--too many--things at the moment, so he strove to cultivate a composed quiet and calm the fuck down already. Farfarello holding and petting him and being so understanding helped a great deal and made him feel nearly safe. Grateful, Aya held on and strove to let his body relax. Perhaps it even worked, because he eventually felt the world and his self start to peacefully quiet and dim around him just before he let himself fall asleep in Farfarello's arms.

******************************************************

Although Farfarello hadn't expected Aya to go to sleep, he probably should have. It might even do his kitten good, and Aya did look relaxed, peaceful, and adorable this way. Protective, he gently set Aya's head on the pillow and composed his body in a way that wouldn't lead to discomfort upon waking then snuggled in beside him and set an arm over him to tenderly stroke his hair.


	262. "Are we there yet?"

When Schuldig returned he brought a mouthwatering savory and spicy scent in with him. "I got dinner, Brad."

Crawford turned away from his laptop and saw that Schuldig looked _good_, vibrant and much more relaxed. He'd tanned lightly and gotten a bit more blond in his hair from the sun.

"I'm surprised you gave me so much time alone," Crawford said.

"I originally wasn't going to, but I saw Nagi sitting out on the beach with his laptop under an umbrella and couldn't help hanging out with him. We did lunch, and I sunbathed. Later I couldn't help taking a swim. I didn't have a swimsuit but did have a nude beach. Besides, the kid _should_ get some exposure to Nacktsports... so I exposed myself. Nagi was wonderfully horrified by my naked cavorting, so much so that he wanted to be left utterly alone for the rest of the day. Since I'm not a _total_ dick, I decided to respect his wishes. Plus, he threatened to use telekinesis on me."

"That must have been powerfully embarrassing naked cavorting."

"I can't possibly put it into words."

Crawford had to smile at that, then asked, "You didn't burn, did you?" Schuldig had a healthy looking light tan on his visible parts, but....

"Don't worry. I wouldn't risk any harm to the Kaiser or my family jewels."

"How are Aya and Farfarello doing?"

"They're better. Can you believe that Aya was being so much more Aya than usual because he'd taken damage to his self during his telepathic battle with Breaker? None of us knew, but it was subconsciously making him crankier and driving him off from Farfarello, who had some corresponding damage _he_ hadn't been aware of."

"Farfarello feels psychic damage whether he wants to or not, correct?"

"Correct. We're all wondering how they could both be so wounded without being consciously aware of it. Some of his had healed on its own, but Aya's hadn't at all, possibly because he himself isn't actually a telepath. I fed him some of my power, which did him a world of good. He'll still be Aya, but he won't as moody and cranky as he's been in the last few days."

"Good, because it's been ridiculous."

"If I know you--and I so do--you've already gotten us plane tickets."

"Our flight leaves at 11 a.m. Schwarz will depart at 8 a.m. since it's a two-hour drive just to the airport. It's going to be a very long flight--at least 27 hours and 40 minutes--and that's the shortest one available. There are two stops, one in Miami and one in London. I may ask you to knock Farfarello out for some of the trip because that's much more restroom sex than Aya should have to deal with."

"Aw. Rose-red really is growing on you."

"Not quite. Besides, after spending the whole trip in economy/coach I might be tempted to ask you to knock _me_ out."

"Economy/coach isn't designed for men of our stature. Nagi's maybe.... I'm surprised you'll be joining the peons."

"It's $2,295 a ticket. For economy/coach. I don't want to know what an upgrade for even just the two of us would cost."

"Ouch. Mystery solved. Are you going to let the rest of the team know or just show up on their doorsteps pounding on their doors tomorrow morning?"

"I saved the announcement for my telepath to make. It's one of the things I keep him around for."

"That's one of the things?"

"Apparently he sometimes brings me dinner too."

"Anything else?"

"A few other things, some of which he'll probably do later this evening."

Grinning, Schuldig answered, "Maybe. If you're good. I just sent out a telepathic announcement about our departure. Now get some plates. I have plastic utensils already and brought dinner so it's the least you can do."

"Are you suggesting there should be fairness in life?"

"Do you want to eat dinner tonight?"

It smelled really good too, making him hungrier. Sometimes, playing along with Schuldig had its pleasures. "Your point."

"Smart man. You'll go far. In the meantime, you'll get to eat." Schuldig's expression turned sultrier. "Later, you may get to play."

******************************************************

Aya knew he should be doing something right now. _Something_. Yet he couldn't bring himself to open his eyes all the way or lift his head from the pillow beneath his head on Farfarello's lap, not while Farfarello kept stroking his hair like this. It felt so good and so calming, reiterating the soothing effects of repetition he'd used on Farfarello in the past. It somehow cut him off from brooding as deeply as he usually would and made him feel nearly sedated. From the sound of Farfarello's humming and the contentment he radiated, the stroking helped him as well.

Aya suddenly heard Schuldig say, ~ Kids, we'll be returning to Japan tomorrow. Our fearless leader says we have to be ready to leave for the airport by 8 a.m. Remember to leave a coat unpacked since we're going back to winter and pack a lot of things to distract yourself in your carry-on since the plane trip will be at least 28 hours. That'll be all for now. ~

Aya wondered how they'd get Farfarello settled enough to handle being cooped up in public that long and hoped it wouldn't be entirely up to him but refused to think about it now. Tomorrow he'd talk to Crawford and probably Schuldig.

~ Rose-red, this message is for you alone. Snow-white won't hear because we don't need him getting worked up about it in advance. I'm going to put him out for a while so you won't be killing yourself fucking him into calm over the long trip. It's not ideal or what either of you would prefer, but it's safer for the both of you. You in particular. Mommy and Daddy love you. ~

As deeply and as much as Aya cared for Farfarello, he'd worried that he might not survive all the sex necessary to get through the plane trip. Farfarello might not either if Aya had started feeling angry, resentful, and sore. He said to Schuldig alone, ~ Prior to that last bit, I might have thanked you. ~

~ You're such a sourpuss that you rarely thank anyone. Talk to you later, honey! ~

"We've been given our marching orders," Farfarello said, putting a veneer of amusement over the apprehension Aya also heard. Farfarello didn't stop stroking though.

Although Aya couldn't find the ambition to really think much at the moment, something in his partner's manner suggested that he expected some kind of answer. Pretending he didn't hear Farfarello's anxiety, Aya replied, "Yeah."

"I look forward to getting back to work, getting back to life, getting out of this limbo and starting our shining new future. We have things to do, kitten, a purpose. Together."

Partnership, work, and a purpose. "That sounds good."

Farfarello smiled down at him and stroked along the rim of his ear, lingering on the gold engagement ear cuff. "I'm excited to return to Japan. It'll be difficult to sleep tonight."

"Mmmm. I'm game for it later." Since he no longer had to contemplate various bouts of restroom sex over the next day or so, thinking about having some tonight, in a bed, gave him a little warm glow deep in his belly.

From Farfarello's wide grin, Aya had translated his vagueness correctly and given him the answer he wanted. Stroking down the short hair at the base of Aya's neck, he asked, "Do you want dinner? We could make it here or go out. You'd mentioned wanting to go out when we first arrived, and we'll be leaving tomorrow morning."

"I'm not hungry at the moment." Aya set his left hand atop Farfarello's knee and gently squeezed. "For now I'm content where I am."

"You're the best kitten a man could hope to have."

Those words made the warmth spread and slightly change in character, leaving Aya feeling somewhat discomfited. Still, it felt... good to cause happiness instead of frustration.

******************************************************

When Nagi heard Schuldig say, ~ Kids, we'll be returning to Japan tomorrow. Our fearless leader says we have to be ready to leave for the airport by 8 a.m. Remember to leave a coat unpacked since we're going back to winter and pack a lot of things to distract yourself in your carry-on since the plane trip will be at least 28 hours. That'll be all for now, ~ his immediate thought had been "Thankfully!" It'd be over soon and he could go back to work, regular life, and walking through crowds where most people were as tall as people should be.

He'd even look more seriously into finding a partner, because watching Schuldig sunbathing and swimming in the nude had been seriously distracting and left him feeling uncomfortable in his pants. It hadn't helped that Schuldig had flaunted himself, as usual. Maybe dolphins wanted to have sex with him because he moved so gracefully in the water and it confused them. Plus, they might possibly sense his perpetual horniness.

"Another?" the cute waiter asked.

Down, Nagi. The waiter doesn't swing that way, and you're not Schuldig. "Yes please." He really needed to get his love life under control and moving in the right direction.

In the meantime, he'd try to do vacation things in the time remaining to it. Nagi had been outside drinking iced, non-alcoholic fruity drinks brought by his cute and diligent waiter and enjoying the outdoor scenery for hours now, because this struck him as a touristy thing to do.

******************************************************

Farfarello felt like purring. He currently had Aya on his lap riding his cock and moaning as they moved together and Farfarello stroked his cock in rhythm. The sensation of Aya's hair rubbing against his shoulder felt so good and arousing. When he took breaks from biting at and mouthing the back of Aya's neck, he looked over his kitten's shoulder to the mirror that showed Aya's heavy-lidded eyes and flush. Such a feast of sensations, sounds, and sights.

At the edge of his other sense he could just make out the impression of the mindbreaker with his mouth wrapped around Crawford's thick cock, sucking and murmuring, and the boy trying to sleep through it all but tossing in his bed from the echoes of desire. Although his own doings with his delectable kitten left him more than aroused and lustful enough, he appreciated the porn too.

"Farfarello," Aya murmured, "please... block that out. It's... distracting, and… I don't want to know and... I can't even try to... _shield_ while we're doing this...." Apparently he rode Farfarello's telepathy too.

Well. He really didn't need the porn, further associating himself in his body would make him feel things even better, and he preferred his kitten to be comfortable and focused on him anyway. As he turned his telepathy off, cutting off the feed, he felt his kitten's body lose a lot of its tension, just about melting against him. Smiling, he ran his thumb over the head of Aya's cock and hissed as Aya let out a gratifying cry and tightened around Farfarello's cock, almost bringing him to orgasm too soon.

Truly, he had everything he needed right here.

******************************************************

When Schuldig laughed/choked around Crawford's cock, Crawford pulled out and asked, "What?"

"My padawans are learning," Schuldig replied with a smirk.

"Don't ever use that term again."

******************************************************

When Schuldig, Brad, and Nagi showed up at the Psycho Twins' doorstep that morning, Farfarello greeted them in a much better humor than Nagi had. "We're almost ready to leave," Farf said.

Standing behind him, Aya looked far less perky. In fact, Rosenrot looked delectable: sleepy, heavy-lidded, and somewhat dazed. It made several parts of Schuldig twitch with interest. Farfie letting out a growl of warning when he noticed that reaction only made it even better.

~ What _did_ you do to Red, Farf? ~ Schuldig purred.

~ Some pre-emptive working out to cut out a trip or two to the restrooms at the airport, ~ Farf sounded nearly proud of himself, virtuous.

He didn't know Schuldig would be knocking him out for his own good, so he'd worked on it in his own ways. How sweet of him.

~ So that's what the kids are calling it these days? Calm down. I'm sure he appreciated having a bed this time. ~

Farf's grumble let Schuldig know that his dart had hit and hurt its target. Hell, Farf could use some more guilt in his life while Aya could hope for a little less fucking in airport men's room stalls. Once in a while might be kinky fun, but even Schuldig would balk at having to fuck amidst the funk and grunge several times during long plane trips, especially if it became less of an occasional favor granted and more a part of one's job description, expected.

"If you're done, Schuldig, I'd like to get us checked out and on the van to the airport," Brad said.

"I'm done for now." A two-hour trip in a van. Bleh.

"If you get bored and try to make your own fun, don't do it to a member of the team or the driver."

Sometimes Brad knew him far too well.

Unfortunately, since no other guests were taking a van ride to the airport, Brad's command left Schuldig no one to play with. In a space that small, Schuldig couldn't think of any ways around it that wouldn't get noticed either. Damn it. It made for a very long two hours.

At least the airport gave him a bigger and better supply of poor suckers to toy with for his entertainment. Once Schwarz got through security checks he had to do _something_ with himself as they waited for the boarding call. If he shaped the thoughts and emotions of the people around him he wouldn't be so trapped by the boredom, excitement, and/or anxiety of everyone else as they waited for their flights.

Like that one newlywed couple waiting for another flight. The hubby had a few small, truly petty complaints about their honeymoon here but hadn't intended to say anything until Schuldig gave him a helpful little push. The wife felt resentful and angry that she'd never seen this punkass bitch side of him until after they'd married. If she’d seen it before, it might have made a difference. During their escalating argument they mentioned a bunch of other situations and resentments to wound each other. If their marriage survived this, they were truly meant to be together.

A woman waiting for her flight back from a vacation with her friends worried a little that her boyfriend might have been tempted by other women in her absence. Schuldig fanned that anxiety into a full-on flame, knowing full well that she would worry about it all the way through the very long flight home. She couldn't exactly call him to ask since if he'd been cheating he wouldn't admit it. Schuldig suggested she take a cab to the boyfriend's place from the airport instead of asking him to pick her up, the better to catch him unaware and possibly red-handed. Wound up by pent-up paranoia and adrenaline, she'd no doubt swoop in like a crazy person.

One guy had quite a crush on his church's priest, and Schuldig made sure his next confession would be a doozy.

Some people watched soap operas for entertainment. An _artist_, Schuldig made his own, leaving his mark on the world. Besides, he preferred his entertainment interactive.

Looking very annoyed, Farfarello plopped down into the seat next to him. This might be interesting. "What?" Schuldig asked.

"...you should put me out at some points during the flights." He sounded so grudging about it.

Schuldig _had_ to ask, "You _want_ me to put you out?" just to be obnoxious.

"It's not a matter of _wanting_. It's just that relaxing me over the course of such a long trip would be hard on my kitten." They both looked over to where Aya sat napping with his long bangs and ear tails like a partial curtain over his face and looking more tired than the similarly napping Nagi. "Besides, you and Crawford no doubt plan to do it to me no matter my wishes."

"It really pleases me that you see the necessity of it. That's so mature of you."

"Don't tempt me to attack you. Dealing with security guards would add delays to Crawford's schedule and might stop us from boarding our first plane."

"Surely you have more self-control than that."

Farfarello smiled darkly. "Maybe, maybe not. Whatever it earned me would be worth it to see Crawford punishing _you_."

"Truce." They really needed to get back to work soon or all their pent-up nastiness would spill over on their other teammates instead of their targets and enemies. Not every member of Schwarz could let off steam the way Schuldig could.

Once they'd seated themselves on their plane and Schuldig put Farfarello out for a while he told a deliciously guilty-feeling Aya, ~ He volunteered for this. For your welfare. ~ Aya looked grateful for a moment before he remembered that he didn't _do_ gratitude or whatever and went back to his favorite stone face.

Brad better appreciate all the sacrifices Schuldig made and fun he passed up in the name of keeping the team bonded. He'd make Brad aware of it.

Seated next to him, Brad said, "Don't say it. I know."

"But--"

"Pre-cog."

"You take the fun out of things sometimes."

******************************************************

Farfarello came to with his head on a pillow leaning against his puisín's shoulder and, as usual for being knocked out like this, didn't feel rested at all, which contributed to his hatred of it. He asked, hoping, "Are we there yet?"

At least he regained consciousness in pretty surroundings, with a close-up view of his husband and a soft lock of red, red hair against his face. It made him happy he was fully associated into his body so he could feel it properly. That hair stroked along his skin as Aya turned and tilted his head to better face him and answer, "No. This is our stop in Miami. Sorry."

~ You can carry yourself off this plane and onto the next, Farfie, ~ Schuldig said. ~ It would look weird if _we_ did it. Besides, we don't want to. ~

~ I hate you, ~ Farfarello answered as he stood, stretched, and tried to ignore his drool on the pillow.

~ You think you hate me now, but wait until you come to after the next knocking out. You should conserve your hatred. ~

~ I don't have to conserve it because my hatred is _boundless_. ~

~ And that's probably one of the reasons why you make a good member of Schwarz. You should have more sympathy for me though. I've spent the last few hours just about folded in half in my Economy seat while Brad's absorbed in something boring on his computer that I somehow can't distract him from. ~

~ Truly, I'm playing the world's smallest violin for you. ~

Nagi said, ~ I know it's difficult to get it through your head, Schuldig, but not everything is about you. ~

~ After all your years in Schwarz, you should know better, ~ Schuldig answered.

******************************************************

"Ken, let's dance!" Elena said, raising her voice to be heard over the loud music.

"I can't dance!" Ken answered.

"You think I can? It's not like Rosenkreuz held dances."

"Most of the people already out on the floor can't dance either," Yoji said, ever helpful.

"...fine." Ken held his hand out to Elena. "Milady, may I have this dance?"

Her smile took years off her face and made her look closer to her actual age. "Yes, kind sir." She took his hand, and they left the table to disappear into the writhing mass of people.

"You don't have to stay to keep me company," Fenris said as he sipped his bottle of water through a straw. Once again telepathy had gotten him into a place his age should have kept him out of, though Yoji had brought them to a club where the only "adults only" aspect of it was alcohol. "I'm enjoying the music just fine and might dance myself later. If you have to do something for me, find someone to dance with so I have more things to look at."

"Smartass," Yoji replied.

"That's kind of... inevitable, considering the people I know."

"True."

"Sasha is off enjoying himself."

Sasha was off flirting with everything that moved, while a lot of them were flirting back. Aside from his continuing difficulty navigating Tokyo, Sasha didn't need Yoji's help or protection anywhere near as much as Yoji had thought he would during their times together in Vienna. Yoji told himself he had no call to feel a bit disappointed about that. He should simply be happy to see Sasha grow and bloom despite being transplanted to foreign soil, like a hardy yet pretty wildflower.

Maybe he shouldn't be so surprised to see a clone of Schuldig's prove to be so adaptable and resilient. Although Schuldig seemed to believe that very little remained of the baseline self he'd been born with, maybe Schuldig's ability to get along anywhere came from Emory. After all, it sounded like Emory had gone through hell after hell and survived what would have killed most people in his situations.

Sasha's moments of Schuldig-ness would never stop disturbing Yoji, would they?

Feeling occasionally disturbed didn't stop him from lusting after Sasha at times, and sometimes the two combined. At least Yoji owned up to his moments of fucked-up-edness.

With Sasha happily and easily finding dance partners, Yoji had no excuse not to get out there to search out some for himself. It might have been a while, but Yoji never became rusty at this no matter how long a break he took.

They wouldn't be thieves like those girls in Vienna either.

A moment after Yoji stood he suddenly had a warm _good_ feeling that made him wonder if the alcohol had hit him harder than he'd thought. Wow, _nice_. Further fortified, Yoji went on the prowl to share his good vibrations with somebody.

******************************************************

Coming to the third time felt as bad as the mindbreaker had suggested it would, and stretching didn't relieve the stiffness his body had. Tired and _very_ cranky, it took every bit of self-control Farfarello had not to inflict it on the Japanese public, especially as they waited for their baggage and took a cab ride to Schwarz's apartment. The others might not even blame him for it from how tired and cranky _they_ looked.

In his fatigue he'd dissociated from his body somewhat, so he didn't feel it himself but could see the others react in some shock to the cold that greeted them outside. The chill put more speed into their walk to their building than they might have had otherwise.

Upon their arrival inside the apartment Farfarello heard Crawford mutter something disdainful about the dust that had accumulated and Schuldig sniping back that this was what happened when _someone_ was too cheap to hire maid service, but Farfarello didn't give a shit. He wanted his bed and his puisín in it with him, and he wanted it _now_. From how Aya didn't protest Farfarello gripping his arm and leading him about, his kitten must have wanted similar.

The boxes of their belongings from New York sitting in piles around their room annoyed him, but in a good way. They'd provide a very visual reminder and goad for finding their own apartment. He could ignore them for tonight.

Aya pulled the slightly dusty bedspread off to reveal uncontaminated blankets, sheets, and pillows that didn't smell as stale as the rest of the apartment did and actually retained the faded ghost of his and Aya's scents. Very good. They quickly stripped down, turned off the light, and huddled together beneath the sheets and blankets. The tension and stiffness gradually left his body as his puisín stroked his arm and shared body heat, somehow knowing what he needed without having to be told or cajoled.

They were home.


	263. ~ This is why I’m the master. ~

Crawford wanted to make some jest about getting everyone up early tomorrow to get a start on all their pending business and to ask if Nagi, who’d looked exhausted, had gone to sleep yet, but when he turned to start he saw Schuldig lying on top of the bed with his eyes closed and a look of concentration on his face so he didn’t say any of it. It seemed that he performed for Schuldig almost as much as Schuldig did for him.

“Something wrong?” Crawford asked.

Schuldig opened his eyes to half-mast. “I’m adjusting my shields to an influx of local minds and talents. We went from an island in an ocean to Miami to London to super-populated Tokyo. My shields have to be a hell of a lot stronger and more rigid here. I also had to shield against our fellow passengers and everybody waiting in each airport. Plus, I’m exhausted.” He lifted his head to unwind his blue scarf from around his neck. “I usually make it all look easier than it really is.”

If Schuldig felt he could handle it, Crawford would let him. “Not true. Sometimes you spend a lot of time complaining about how hard you have it.”

“I could complain a lot more than I do.”

“You complain enough already.”

“You can be so mean to me.”

“I’m just mean enough.”

“Hmph. Nagi’s asleep, by the way, and if you tried to wake the team up early tomorrow all four of us would kill you. Just so you know.”

“You could all _try_. You don’t have to worry about an early wakeup, though. We don’t have any deadlines or pressing objectives, so I’m not putting Schwarz out on the Tokyo job market exhausted.”

“Sounds like somebody’s learned some important life lessons.”

“Sounds like somebody’s cranky without his beauty sleep.”

Schuldig laughed. “Yeah, yeah. I’m too tired to undress myself. Give me some help? You’ll be rewarded. Eventually.”

Neither of them had enough strength for the undressing to lead to anything strenuous, but it might still be fun. “Only if you’re done complaining.”

“I will be if you undress me right.”

******************************************************

Brad just woke up. Why was Brad awake and getting out of bed? “Get back here,” Schuldig muttered, only able to get his eyes open half-mast. “You can’t possibly have gotten enough sleep. _I_ haven’t yet.”

“I have things to do. You can go back to sleep.”

“...now I’m suspicious.”

“Schwarz needs food. I’m getting it. It’s not like we were able to bring much food from Munich or Jamaica past customs.”

“You’re volunteering to be food bitch? Now I’m _really_ suspicious.” Which woke Schuldig up a little more.

Brad petted Schuldig’s hair, which felt really nice. Good Brad. “I have some things going on that I want to set in motion. It’s a long story, while you’re only half-conscious. I’ll announce it later in the day once everything’s set up. I promise it’ll amuse you.”

If Schuldig hadn’t so drained himself shielding his mind from airport and airplane passengers over the course of an entire day, he’d be all over Brad demanding to know more about all these mysterious goings-on. But fuck it. With the petting ended, Schuldig rolled over into the still-warm, slightly Brad-scented space now open under the covers.

“This better be worth it,” Schuldig said.

“You’ll be amused.”

“While you’re getting food, buy me some pickles too. The cucumber ones, not some weird Asian thing. Pickled ginger, bleh.”

“What, are you pregnant now?”

Hee. “Farf would be thrilled by how _wrong_ that would be.”

“I’d hope Farfarello isn’t the father... well, the other father.”

“Jealous?”

“The poor baby would inherit madness from both sides of the family.”

“Shut up. Our babies would be beautiful. Like Verity is beautiful even though she inherited accounting from your side of the family. But I wouldn’t want to ruin my figure carrying some greedy little parasite who’d be hitching a ride for nine months. Oh! Buy me ice cream too! But not some Asian flavor like green tea or lychee. You know the flavors I like.”

Schuldig could hear the smirk in his “Yes, dear.”

******************************************************

Having experienced himself the weird oblivion Schuldig’s telepathic shutdown offered, Aya felt no surprise when he awoke before Farfarello and that his awakening didn’t rouse his fiancé. That shutdown didn’t offer any true rest and created its own kind of stress, thus, Farfarello had been tensed up for over a day, leaving him deeply asleep once he’d gotten the opportunity.

Although Aya felt that, having awakened, he should get up and start doing things--washing, dressing, making breakfast, practicing his swordwork and katas, neatening up the annoying boxes in their bedroom, getting to work, something, _anything_\--because staying abed was slothful, he didn’t leave Farfarello’s side under the covers or disengage from their mutual embrace. Sitting next to Farfarello in that shutdown state while on the plane had been stressful to _Aya_, a little too much like sitting vigil on his comatose sister. No, _worse_, because sitting together like that, so close, was more like he’d been lying next to her in her bed. Farfarello had felt _absent_, as Aya-chan had too often felt.

Besides, he knew Farfarello would feel hurt if he woke alone, abandoned.

Aya had once chosen to pride himself on being alone, independent, and self-sufficient, and thus _strong_. Forsaken by his original living family, cast out from Kritiker after the disaster in Sendai (although they reeled him back in later), he’d had no one but needed no one. It didn’t matter what others thought of him.

What a joke. What a sad, pathetic delusion. He’d always had _her_, comatose but in need of his support and providing living fuel and reminder for his revenge. On some of the worst times when his goal seemed too impossible and Takatori too far from his reach, when he wondered what right _he_ had to be alive and conscious, thinking of Aya-chan had kept him from ending his miserable life. Part of him had always dreaded the reckoning that would come when she awoke and found out what work he had done to keep the machines keeping her alive going.

He’d never gotten much accomplished while out on his own and always been more focused and effective with the support and intel of a team or organization behind him, no matter how hard he’d worked to emotionally distance himself from them.

Now he had Farfarello and even Schwarz, all of whom refused to let him shut them out, even though he’d tried to for so long. It made him feel very weak sometimes that he had so many hostages to fortune.

Since his family’s destruction, Aya had craved control. Control of something. Anything. He’d imposed strict control of his deficient body and worked to be master of his own destiny.

These days almost everything he did involved someone else’s wishes and timetables.

When had all this happened? Hell, he didn’t even know today’s date. Or what month it was.

Although his mind told him that he’d returned to Tokyo, although not even Schuldig would go to the effort of transporting all the New York City boxes away from the apartment to here just as a joke, Aya couldn’t quite feel it. He still felt adrift, directionless, and dislocated. The room felt a bit cold outside the covers, but that could be air conditioning, not winter. He wanted to reach out and _see_....

That confirmed it for him again. It had become normal for him to think of himself using telepathy, to see a problem and immediately see telepathy as a first solution. Hell, he’d started to reach out instinctively to the members of Schwarz to decide on the best one to employ before he caught himself. He _wanted_ to use it; he liked how it let him know things about people he usually had to guess at.

With his love and need for privacy, he of all people should show some common decency and know better than to invade people’s thoughts like that. What a horrible irony it was that his “talent” was to _use_ other people, or at least their telepathy. It bothered him so deeply he couldn’t even articulate how deeply it bothered him.

Farfarello’s eye opened, and when he saw Aya he _smiled_, dazzling. “Kitten,” he said in a deep affectionate rumble that struck Aya deep in the chest. It felt... good.

Aya was truly lost. Or, perhaps, found. He wanted to do something with Farfarello. “We could take a bath. Or spar.”

The smile widened. “Let’s spar.”

******************************************************

Nagi appreciated that they’d laid down plastic sheeting before starting to spar with knives. As good as Aya and Farfarello might be, they still drew blood now and then. Sweat gleamed on their muscular bare chests, backs, and arms, while Nagi had to wear a sweater over black jeans to feel warm enough. He shouldn’t have chosen the skinny jeans because he currently had an uncomfortable bulge tightening them further, even though he was supposedly watching the TV instead of ogling his teammates. At least Aya seemed to like having Japanese television on... which was kind of unusual for him, actually.

If anyone had told Nagi a year ago that he’d become one of those guys who were ruled by their dicks, he never would have believed it. He _hated_ this. No matter how he tried to distract himself from it, it kept demanding his attention. He should _not_ find the scent of sweat arousing. It was gross!

At least his dick calmed down a little once Aya and Farfarello stopped moving around and sheathed their blades. “Do you have any idea where Crawford went?” Aya asked, his dark red hair furthered darkened with sweat. Down, Nagi!

“From what I can tell, he went out to on business. He already brought back some food for us,” Nagi answered.

“It’s unlike himself to volunteer to be food bitch,” Farfarello said.

It made Nagi curious too, though. “I just live here.”

“He didn’t tell me what else he had in mind either,” Schuldig said as he entered the room with a towel wound around his hair and thick green robe belted tightly shut on. He must have been cold because he wore green pajama bottoms too. Fresh from the shower.... Down, Nagi. As Schuldig inspected the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator, he said, “Yes! Pickles! I’m not so big on the vanilla bean ice cream, though that’s still better than plain old cheap vanilla, but the chocolate sauce would go nicely with it....”

“We really don’t want to know, Schuldig,” Nagi said.

“For _eating_. Food can get too sticky and messy during sex, especially if you fall asleep with the remnants of it on you. Ew.”

“We _really_ don’t want to know!”

Farfarello had an intrigued and thoughtful look on his face. Aya elbowed him and said, “Hell, no.”

“That’s right, Snow-white. Nobody’s taking my ice cream from me. Unless I’m invited to help you turn Rose-red into a sundae and devour him. _That_ would be worth getting sticky and messy for.”

“No,” Farfarello answered, but he didn’t say it as quickly or emphatically as he should have. Nagi noticed and Schuldig sure as hell noticed, but had Aya?

“I’m no one’s sundae,” Aya answered. It looked like he hadn’t.

That was a huge, loud argument deferred.

Lust could be such a useless thing. Yeah, it made people perpetuate their species and could bond people together into families and cooperative groups, but it could also rip them apart and make them miserable.

“Let’s have a shower to get the worst off, then a long bath together, puisín,” Farfarello said. Smart man, to try to escape before Schuldig nailed him to the wall and let Aya slice him to pieces.

“All right,” Aya answered.

Schuldig said nothing, but his wide smirk told Farfarello plainly that he wouldn’t forget this and it _would_ come up some other time. Aya started to get a look of suspicion, but Farfarello grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him quickly into the bathroom distracted him. The door slammed shut.

“This team is never boring,” Schuldig said with a huge smile. He didn’t seem surprised by the possibility of Farfarello being into a threesome involving Aya, but he _was_ Schuldig.

“A little too exciting in the wrong ways sometimes,” Nagi answered, still having a problem with his jeans. It would only get worse once Farfarello and Aya started fucking around in the bathroom.

“That’s a really lovely sweater, Nagins.” Its blue deepened gradually to black from top to bottom, and it fit a bit closely. “And the jeans.”

As usual, Schuldig noticed too much. Then again, Schuldig radiated fresh shower heat at him from close range and Crawford wouldn’t return for a while.... Why not ask? At worst, Schuldig would say no, and Nagi doubted he’d get a no. Schuldig had survived the thousands of Nos Nagi had given him over the years.

It still amazed him that he could do this.

Letting his fingers trail down the side of Schuldig’s bare neck, which felt so wonderfully warm, Nagi said, “That’s a really lovely tan, Schu.”

At last Schuldig looked surprised, and it felt like a victory. One eyebrow raised, he asked, “You wouldn’t be using me as a substitute for anyone, would you?”

“Short of major telepathic intervention, I’d never mistake you for Aya, Farfarello, or Omi.”

“Heh. True.”

It had really been that simple. Amazing.

“I really want to fuck you.” Once the thought entered his head, Nagi couldn’t help trying to calculate ways around the height differences, especially since Schuldig seemed to mostly be made of legs. And hair, but the hair wouldn’t get in the way of the sex.

“Mmmm.” Schuldig looked almost flirtatious. “Papa Bear wouldn’t like it.” That appeared to add spice to the idea for him.

“We’d do it in my bed.”

“That would be just right.”

“If or when he finds out, we could tell him that this is what happens when he leaves Schwarz alone in the dark with nothing to do.”

“You really have learned from a master, Nagi.”

“Don’t get _too_ egotistical about it.”

“Me? Never.” Schuldig unwrapped the towel from his head, placed it on the back of one of the kitchen chairs, and started to finger-groom his damp hair into some kind of sane shape. He already had some trailing dry wisps.

“You might want to do that in front of a mirror.”

“Good point. Your room has one, right?”

“Yes.” Nagi grabbed Schuldig’s wrist and led him there since the telepath seemed to be prioritizing wiseass banter over getting laid, which happened sometimes. Nagi had no idea how his life had turned out like this.

Nagi didn’t let go, not even as he closed and locked the door to his bedroom behind them. A locked door would slow a member of Schwarz down at least. When he noticed Schuldig looking down at his hand on his wrist with an almost fond expression, he asked, “What?”

“Progress.”

“Hmph.” Nagi let him go, figuring he wouldn’t wander off now.

“How do you want me?” Schuldig asked as he took his robe off and used Nagi’s mirror as a guide to grooming his hair. “Your computer desk is a good height to bend me over, but you probably consider that sacred space.”

“Damned right, and doing anything on the rolling office chair would just lead to embarrassing injuries.”

Schuldig dropped to his knees to bend over the side of the bed. “Too short. Even for--”

Nagi smacked his green silk-clad ass. “This is _really_ not the time for height jokes.” Then he thought about the sound Schuldig had let out upon getting that smack. “You like that kind of thing?”

“Sometimes.” Schuldig sounded very pouty about it.

Yeah, Nagi doubted Schuldig could afford to divulge an attraction to even light S&amp;M or discipline to Crawford. “Maybe another time?”

Smiling, Schuldig turned around to sit on the edge of the bed, looking younger and cuter than usual. “I like the idea of ‘another time’ too. Hmm. Me on my hands and knees on the bed, you behind me?”

“No. I like to see more of my partner than that. Besides, I’d kind of feel like I was jockey on a racehorse.”

“And you without your riding crop.” Schuldig snickered. “I could sit on your lap.”

“That would look ridiculous. Besides, I’m not into getting smothered or holding your weight the whole time.”

“I’m not that heavy!”

“How long would you be sitting on me? You’ll seem heavier the longer you’re there. As for the smothering, there would be me, unable to breathe because your back is in the way. Though I guess I could always use telekinesis to throw you off me.”

“How mean. Smothering during sex is an interesting way to die, I mean, if you have to die.”

“I don’t have to die. I could use telekinesis to hold you up or down to start with but can’t take the chance of losing concentration at any point.”

“That’d be nasty. Do you--”

“Have any things in here I wouldn’t mind breaking? I do.”

“Good. Anyway, anyone who spent so much time doing Omi should know that physical position doesn’t always have much to do with who’s topping.”

Nagi sat next to him. “No kidding.”

“I have an idea of what we could do.” Schuldig nuzzled his neck. “You can just lie back and take me anyway.”

The nuzzling felt _really_ nice. “Are your nipples that hard because you’re cold or are you just happy to see me?”

“Both. Your sweater seems warm. Let’s get it off you.”

“That conversation makes no sense in context.”

“I’m cold and I’m a sadist, so strip, Nagins! Besides, we’ll warm each other up.”

“I can’t strip with your hands all over me!” Suddenly he didn’t have the sweater on anymore. It had all been a _blur_.... “How did you do that?”

Schuldig smirked, Nagi’s sweater in his hands. “I’m a man of many talents.” He put his hand in Nagi’s lap to stroke along the length of his fly, which felt so good. “Now the jeans. This may take a while though.”

“You’re only making them tighter.”

Schuldig undid the top button. “Then I’ll have to make amends.” And pulled down the zipper. “In my own way. Did you really have to wear underwear too?”

“It’s safer.” Except when Schuldig was petting him through his black briefs, like right now. Somehow this stole so much of Nagi’s brainpower that he couldn’t sit upright anymore and had to lean against Schuldig’s shoulder. It would be all too easy to come just from this. “Help me get the damned jeans off!”

“_So_ bossy. Will you be able to sit up without me here?”

“The more annoying you are, the less sex you’ll get from me.”

“Convincing argument.” Schuldig grabbed both cuffs and pulled while Nagi tried to slide them down from his end, and after a few minutes of struggle Schuldig nearly flew backwards into the wall as the jeans came off. “I got your socks too! How’s that for efficiency?”

“Properly German.” Smirking, Nagi decided that he liked the extra spark that showed up in Schuldig’s eyes as Nagi toyed with the waistband of his briefs, teasing.

Standing close to him, Schuldig said, “Take it off. Take it _all_ off.”

“Says the man in pajama bottoms.”

“Simultaneous stripping on both our parts? I will if you will.”

“This is really silly.”

“Nobody says sex has to always be serious business. Let’s just have fun.”

Nagi and Omi had always been very serious together, even in their more lighthearted moments. “Okay. What’s up with you wiggling that thumb under your waistband?”

“Have you ever seen a Western? Some of them have a gun duel where the guy who draws his gun out the fastest has advantages.”

“You’re challenging me to a strip duel?”

“Sure.” Schuldig grinned. “Let’s see who’s the fastest strip in the west. Or east.”

“You are. No contest.”

“Well, yeah, but you’re not even going to try? Just to show me up?”

“My briefs are more difficult to remove than your loose pajama bottoms and I know you’re better at this in general anyway, so what’s the point?”

Pouting, Schuldig asked, “How am I supposed to practice my craft?” Then he looked more thoughtful. “Wait, why don’t I stop arguing and just get naked?”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” Nagi said with a smirk.

“You go too. All right. One, two, three, strip! I win!”

“Of course you did,” Nagi said as he finished getting his briefs off. “Now stop bouncing up and down in victory like that because your whole package is bouncing too and it looks hilarious.”

“I didn’t aim your gaze there, pervert.”

“It’s cold. Get on the bed and warm me up already.”

When Schuldig leaned in for kisses Nagi grabbed his arm to get him in closer and on the bed. Lying tangled together on their sides, between kisses, Schuldig said, “I don’t need much warm-up. Watching them spar and feeling you want me got me hot.”

“We’ll see,” Nagi answered as his telekinesis brought a tube of lubricant and a box of condoms within hands’ reach.

Seeing Nagi’s intentions, Schuldig spread his legs a bit to give Nagi access. As Nagi slid two lubricated fingers into him, Nagi used his telekinetic sense to find Schuldig’s prostate and stroke it mercilessly, enjoying Schuldig’s moans and the way he rocked his hips and clawed at the sheets. There was so much power in this.

As he scissored his fingers and kept telekinetically stroking Schuldig’s sweet spot, he had to smirk at the bursts of Japanese obscenities flowing from the telepath’s mouth. The more distracted a telepath was, the more likely he was to default to the local language instead of his native one. He’d heard Schuldig often enough to make out the differences, though back then he’d be more likely to put a pillow over his head or throw something at the wall dividing them to try to get him to shut the hell up.

Schuldig obviously had to fight through his dazed pleasure to string actual sentences together. “I’m ready to get fucked. Let me get in position....”

Smirking, Nagi slid his fingers out and wiped them off. “All right.”

Suddenly he found himself lying on his back with Schuldig stroking the condom down onto his cock and applying lubricant, all of which felt incredible. Straddling Nagi’s hips, Schuldig kept a firm hold on Nagi’s cock and rubbed it against his entrance repeatedly, tormenting them both. So close.... Finally Schuldig gradually slid himself down onto it, and Nagi moaned at being taken into the hot grip of Schuldig’s body and the expression of utter pleasure on Schuldig’s face. He slid himself up and down Nagi’s cock, riding it, fucking himself on it, and smiled as Nagi’s hips kept thrusting up to try to prevent him from getting away.

It felt almost uncomfortable having so much of Schuldig’s attention focused so directly on him and he didn’t like feeling so passive, so he flipped them over, even if that did mean feeling a bit silly with Schuldig’s long legs over his shoulders and down his back. Getting more control and being able to thrust deeper, plus the _sensations_, totally made up for feeling a bit silly. Besides, this hook-up kept showing him that it didn’t all have to be serious business all the time.

For a moment Schuldig looked poised to complain or make a smartassed comment about the position change, but that quickly faded. It probably helped that Nagi still augmented his thrusts with his telekinesis, though that would have to stop when Nagi got more into it and distracted because he really didn’t want to break Schuldig from the inside at the moment. Eyes closed and features smoothed out from bliss, lost in his enjoyment, Schuldig looked younger, closer to Nagi’s age, and less imposing.

~ Don’t get too smug, kid. ~

True. Underestimating Schuldig could get him killed no matter how well and hard he fucked him. “You look good.”

~ Of course. You’re pretty yourself. Let’s get prettier. ~

With Schuldig radiating his own sensations to Nagi, Nagi got lost in it all, in pleasure, kisses and stroking hands, the heat and grip of his partner, fucking and being fucked, and the aching need to come. He didn’t feel cold anymore.

******************************************************

“We don’t have a change of clothes or our own things in here,” Aya said. “It doesn’t make sense to wash then get back into our sweaty pants. I’ll be right back.”

“Aya--” Farfarello seemed almost nervous about letting him out of his sight, not too unusual.

“Do you really want us to smell like Schuldig, Crawford, or Nagi? I’d have to use Crawford or Nagi’s shampoo and conditioner, and you’d probably end up using Schuldig’s--”

Disgusted, as Aya figured he’d be, Farfarello answered, “Go. I trust you to dress me. But come right back.”

“I will.” Aya just needed to get away from him for a bit to figure things out.

As he walked down the hall he could hear Nagi and Schuldig talking in Nagi’s room but couldn’t make out any words. Aya fought off the urge to... piggyback someone’s telepathy to find out for sure. He really didn’t need to know everything, and he needed to get a leash on his paranoia. Watching Farfarello, Nagi, and Schuldig have a Moment of perfect, simultaneous understanding without telepathy that had bypassed him completely hadn’t helped.

He wanted to think that if it was really important they would have cued him in....

Why was he always a late addition to an already established group? Each time he had to figure out his role in the team and sometimes feel left out, an outsider. It could hurt, no matter how many times he’d told himself it didn’t matter and he didn’t care. He always became a little too emotionally invested eventually. With Schwarz, he’d gone much deeper much faster.

He really needed to stop feeling sorry for himself sometime. It would be easier if he could keep himself busy.

Getting the mood swings to stop would help too. At least he used to be consistent in his depression, anger, or anxiety by sticking with each for a while.

Hopefully getting his psychic damage healed would help stabilize everything else.

As he carried clothing and toiletries through the hallway he heard noises coming from Nagi’s room that made him glad he hadn’t borrowed anyone’s telepathy. He already knew more than he wanted to know.

“That’s a strange look on your face, kitten,” Farfarello said when Aya returned to the bathroom.

“Nagi and Schuldig are having sex.”

Although Farfarello looked somewhat surprised, he answered, “After you do the unthinkable once, it’s easier to do it again.” His expression turned thoughtful and almost melancholy.

“I have to agree with you on that.” From so much personal experience.

“Do any of your cuts need tending?”

“No. At least, all the ones I can feel and/or see are small and shallow.”

Farfarello looked him over then licked one of the cuts on Aya’s right arm in a long stroke, sending a jolt of sensation through Aya that made him shiver and his heart pound. This kind of reaction shouldn’t surprise him anymore but still did. His voice sounded deeper and too breathy as he asked, “And you?”

Still standing close to Aya, Farfarello licked his lips and replied, “The same. Mmmm, I love the way you taste.”

“You could heal yourself anyway.” It pleased Aya that he could still think well enough to get complete sentences out.

“And you as well if you want it.”

Aya had to kiss him. Deepening the kiss and putting his arms around Aya to pull him in closer and stroke his back, Farfarello obviously approved.

Even though Farfarello felt wonderful rubbing up against him, Aya had to pull his mouth away from his to protest, “We’re in a bathroom.”

“Ours is cleaner than the airport ones, and I’ll make it worth your while.” Farfarello leaned into Aya and set his lips near the rim of Aya’s left ear as he said, “I want you to fuck me hard and thoroughly. From how dark your eyes have been for the last minute, I think you’re willing.”

Shivering, Aya answered, “I am.”

He had to be really far gone over Farfarello to find his sudden smile adorable.

******************************************************

Nagi asked for sex, gone all the way through with it, and even let Schuldig laze in his bed so they could enjoy their afterglow and snuggle a bit. Not that Schuldig would ever label this “snuggling” in front of Nagi, who’d no doubt decide to never do this with him again. What the tyke didn’t know he couldn’t react to.

Schuldig couldn’t help nearly purring a bit as Nagi toyed with his hair though, rolling the blondish-ginger strands around his fingers. Smirking, Nagi asked, “Should I give you a scritch too, kitty?”

“Well, my shoulder muscles _are_ tight, so if you wanted to massage them for me....”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Since you already knew that, it’s your fault for asking.”

“I’m not accepting the blame for that.”

~ I’ll be back in an hour, ~ Brad said suddenly. ~ I expect dinner to be there when I arrive. ~

~ Dinner is soon? Time flies when you sleep in. Sure, ~ Schuldig answered, happy yet again that Brad wasn’t a telepath and wouldn’t automatically read what Schuldig and Nagi had done. If it came up, Schuldig would rather have it be at a time when he had more control of the situation and conversation and Brad sounded mellower. ~ Tell me what you’ve been up to. ~

~ After dinner. ~

~ So it’s business. ~

~ You’ll find out after dinner. ~

~ Braaaaaad.... ~

~ You somehow made that even more obnoxious telepathically than saying it out loud. I’ll tell everyone after dinner, which I’ll expect to be ready when I arrive in an hour. ~

~ Yes, sir! ~

~ Funny. Goodbye. ~

“What?” Nagi asked.

“You have to make dinner. Brad wants to have it ready for him when he gets back in hour,” Schuldig answered.

“Why do I have to do it?”

“Because Aya and Farfarello are currently fucking in the bathroom and I can burn water.”

“You didn’t do too badly in Munich.”

“Do you really trust me to cook after just one good meal?”

“Good point.”

“Your only other option is to go into the bathroom, tell Aya to pull out, and deal with Farfarello’s blue balls.”

“Ew and ew.”

“I’m sure Farfarello would be thrilled. Murderously so.”

“... with them in there I can’t even wash up before dinner.”

“You could ask them to finish faster. Ha! Fat chance they would.”

“It’d be so nice if they had their own bathroom.”

“Someday. In the meantime, dinner isn’t making itself.”

“Fine. You realize I’ll have to get out of bed for this.”

“See? I have to make a sacrifice too here.”

“I’m three seconds away from smacking you with a pillow.”

Please. Nagi had threatened him with much, _much_ worse before.

Nagi got out of bed to throw some clothes on. “I need to see what food we have in the house.”

“How responsible of you.”

Raising an eyebrow, Nagi said, “It sounds like you don’t intend to get out of my bed.”

“Not yet. It’s so comfy, and I want to bask in my afterglow a while longer.”

“Lazy.”

“I have no idea why that surprises you.”

“You’re going to have to move sometime.”

“I know. Go be responsible.” Schuldig had already spent a ridiculous amount of time being responsible in Jamaica during what should have been his vacation.

Once Nagi made an obscene gesture and departed, Schuldig snuggled into the bed and let himself fall into a light doze. If Brad decided to be a brat and return earlier than he’d said, Schuldig would still be able to sense him coming. When he awoke again, he saw that Nagi hadn’t returned to bed, so he telepathically reached out until he found him taking a shower. He glanced at the clock and realized that the Psycho Twins had finished faster than usual.

Nagi said, ~ Farfarello and Aya were done, so I took advantage. If it comes up I won’t hide it, but there’s no need for me to smell like sex and shove it into Crawford’s face. ~

~ Yeah, literally and metaphorically shoving people’s faces into things is _my_ job. Try not to use up all the hot water. ~

~ Quick shower. Then you can clean up as well. ~

~ You’re _so_ kind to me. ~

Since Nagi obviously wouldn’t be returning to bed and Schuldig’s clutches before Brad returned home, Schuldig put his pajama bottoms, robe, and slippers on and went to bother the Psycho Twins. Aya’s psychic damage even gave Schuldig a decent excuse.

After two knocks at their bedroom door, Farfarello cracked it open and said, “Whatever it is, we don’t want any of it.”

“You don’t want me to see if Aya’s healing on his own?”

“Hmph. Not when you’re barely dressed and smell of debauchery.”

“Do you think me being dressed would really make a difference?”

“It would give me more time to make you regret messing with my kitten.”

“What is with the ultra defensive pose at the door? Has Aya become such a fragile flower that just me _looking_ at him could harm him? I’m so powerful!”

“Do you really think insulting us will get you anything?”

“It has in the past.”

Aya opened the door a little more. “I’m fine, and the two of us are fine alone together, so bother someone else.”

“Nagi’s in the shower,” Schuldig answered.

“Like that stops you,” Farfarello replied. “Bother him telepathically.”

“_Don’t_ bother him telepathically,” Aya said.

“What the hell’s going on?” Nagi asked as he left the bathroom in a robe and with a towel wrapped around his hair.

“The mindbreaker is looking for someone to pester,” Farfarello answered.

Nagi sighed. “Just take a shower! Crawford will be home and we’ll be starting dinner soon.”

“Showering isn’t as much fun as bothering or pestering, but fine.” The things he did to protect other people’s delicate sensibilities.

“You can check my healing progress later,” Rose-red said.

“I will totally take you up on that. You know, I can shower _and_ bother people at the same time.”

“Unlikely,” Farfarello said. “You like to give your hair your full attention.”

Nagi chimed in with “Because your brain doesn’t have as much wattage as most people’s.”

“Very funny,” Schuldig answered. He just liked to use showers alone as his concentrated me time. “I see I have to make your lives even more hellish to get the proper respect.”

By the time Schuldig got out Brad had returned and Nagi had started to put food on the kitchen table. He managed to get through dinner without pestering Brad for information, but as soon as they cleared the plates, he asked, “All right, Brad. What did you do today?”

Brad looked rather smug. “A few things. One of the things I found is a connected two-apartment location that Farfarello and Aya might be interested in.”

Schuldig wished he had a camera handy to record their shock. Alas, his memory would have to suffice. Masterfully played, Brad.

“...why?” Aya asked.

“You wanted your own place.”

“You know what I’m really asking. Don’t pretend otherwise.”

“I’ve decided to give you both a chance with this. If it works out, it might be good for all of us.”

Schuldig couldn’t help thinking that this move would let him have more control over the Psycho Twins’ attempt to get more freedom. From the look on Aya and Farfarello’s faces, they had similar thoughts. No one said anything about it though.

“We won’t agree to this sight unseen. We need to check it out for ourselves.”

“Of course.” Brad sounded so serene. “We could do it tomorrow.”

“...all right.” Aya still looked somewhat shell-shocked, at least by Ayan standards. “What do you think, Farfarello?”

Looking somewhat disgruntled, Farfarello said, “We’ll take a look tomorrow.”

~ Brad, it’s a good thing I’m not physically capable of it, because right now I want to have your babies. ~

Brad answered, ~ This is why I’m the master. ~


	264. "You had yours up my ass at the time. It makes a difference."

“You’re wearing a track into the floor,” Aya said, sitting on their bed looking very pretty as he watched Farfarello angrily pace.

Schwarz had sometimes hung Farfarello from the ceiling to prevent him from doing just this. “If not for this, I’d have to bang my head against the wall.”

“Don’t do that,” Aya replied, sounding almost wry.

“I’m angry. I’m surprised you’re not.”

“I _am_ angry. I’m trying to stay calmer because my emotions have already been all over the place lately.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

“I’m glad you like it. Farfarello, I think we should take the apartment if it fits our needs.”

“If we take it, Crawford wins.” It galled him how their team leader had tainted their dreams of joy and freedom.

“If we don’t take it, he’ll also win. Since he wins either way, we should take the option that benefits us the most, which would be a kind of victory.”

That sounded reasonable and sane, as much as he hated to admit it. “Hmm.”

“Let’s not be masochists and martyrs when we don’t have to be.”

Farfarello couldn’t help laughing. “That’s difficult for both of us.”

“I didn’t say it would be easy.”

“You know that Crawford and the mindbreaker are getting off from all this as we speak.”

“I try not to think about that.”

While Farfarello kept himself fully associated within his body to prevent himself and hopefully Aya from getting much telepathic spillover, it didn’t block out the audible sounds: the moans, thumping, and shouts. In a way, it was Crawford rubbing his victory in Farfarello and Aya’s faces.

Thinking about it, Farfarello decided that he should rephrase that.

He pondered letting Crawford know what had happened earlier today. As much as Crawford seemed to have a fetish for being cuckolded, hearing that Schuldig had sullied Nagi again by fucking with him might cool some of his ardor. It wouldn’t matter if the boy had been a willing participant or even the initiator.

No. Judging from the past, it wouldn’t be long before Crawford got past it, while the incensed boy would find ways large and small to make Farfarello’s life difficult _forever_. Thus, Farfarello wouldn’t squeal. Cut off from another possible attack, he wanted to go back to pacing the floor.

Trying to calm himself or at least set his mind onto a different track, he sat on the bed next to his puisín and leaned against him, feeling soft sweater and softer suede against his cheek. Even better, Aya put an arm around him and pulled him closer, his kitten again, reminding him that he had his own accomplice and they were a team within a team, their own side.

That was the important thing.

******************************************************

Schuldig made a very sexy sound expressing pleasure and some pain as Crawford sucked on the bruised mark he’d sucked on and nibbled a few minutes ago. “Motherfucker, that feels like you left one hell of a mark,” Schu grumbled, although he didn’t move out of Crawford’s arms or disentangle their legs.

Good. Although Crawford felt satisfied for the moment, he might want to fuck again soon, and he enjoyed the cozy pocket of heat they’d created together beneath the covers. “You weren’t complaining before. I remember you coming just from me biting you, when I didn’t even have my hand near your cock.”

“You had yours up my ass at the time. It makes a difference.” Schuldig’s kiss-swollen lips moved into a tired and mellow smile. “You were a fucking blitzkrieg, man. Screwing with the Psycho Twins’ plans and heads really turned you on.”

It really had. They’d reacted _so_ well and helplessly to his surprise and show of domination. “Pot and kettle. You loved it.”

“Yeah, but I’m famous for being a sadistic pervert. People think you’re more into efficiency.”

“Sometimes sadism improves efficiency, which is one of the reasons I keep you on the team. Sometimes it doesn’t, which is why I have to discipline you now and then.”

“I’m working on you.”

“I’m working on you back.”

“Hmmm.”

“Do you think they’ll reject the apartment even if they like it just because I found it for them?” He won either way, and thinking about it stoked his lust again.

“Farfie’s going back and forth on it, while, being unusually reasonable and logical, Aya’s determined not to give you the pleasure. It’s funny to listen to.”

“How’s Nagi?”

“Mentally rolling his eyes over the whole affair while he works on a few things online, though the thought of Farfie and Aya having their own bathroom and thus taking over his less often makes him kind of happy. He’s currently trying to block us out, as usual.”

Crawford didn’t mind Schuldig’s natural nosiness when it worked in his favor. Team telepaths were _supposed_ to be nosy about their team members to benefit their team leader.

He couldn’t help feeling pleased with himself. He’d found a possible new apartment set for Schwarz, which would put Farfarello and Aya in his debt if they chose it and would leave them seriously disgruntled if they didn’t, and he’d done it for them before Persia had gotten _any_ leads. In any case, it proved to everyone that he had superior contacts.

He’d also begun to feel out the current job market in Tokyo and seen several assignments Schwarz might find rewarding. Tomorrow his team would resume its usual full list of activities and get back to work, and they’d settle down more and feel happier once they had work to concentrate on. As much as they might like to bitch about their jobs, recent events had shown them that they _needed_ to be employed. He magnanimously declined to tell them he’d told them so, though that might change if they resumed bitching.

While returning to Japan brought Schwarz back into Weiß’s, and particularly Balinese and Persia’s orbit, being here felt good, _familiar_, which he hadn’t expected. It had somehow become home, and he refused to let anyone drive him away from that before he felt ready to leave. Weiß could be handled; he’d done it many times before. Hell, he enjoyed screwing with their heads... and occasionally other parts of Balinese. He and Schwarz had so much to do.

It didn’t surprise him that this kind of thinking plus Schuldig’s small movements against his body had gotten him hard again. Feeling Crawford’s arousal rubbing against his ass and inside his brain, Schuldig murmured smugly, “I’ve created a monster.”

“Are you complaining?” Crawford asked in between nibbles at the rim of Schuldig’s ear as he stroked his telepath’s cock.

“Mmmm. No.”

******************************************************

Nagi sighed. The sounds they were making had gotten loud enough to penetrate the barrier of music in his headphones, and the kind of sounds Schuldig made suggested that Crawford was using a vibrator on him, something Nagi shouldn’t be able to identify. At least his own shields kept a lot of the emotions and sensations out, and Schuldig appeared to be keeping a lot of it from leaking out on his end.

Nagi could magnanimously allow Crawford to celebrate his superiority. He couldn’t help smiling as he remembered he’d gotten Schuldig first today.

******************************************************

“I’ll tell you what you’re going to do. If you don’t want me to shoot this girl you’re going to back off and let me go, free and alive.” The bastard jostled the tearful girl he had in his arm and traced patterns on the skin of her neck with his gun. She’d be pretty if she weren’t too young for anything that had happened to her recently, too thin, terrified, and crying. The situation made Yoji want to hurt the man worse before they killed him.

Their mission file said that none of the victims would be here.

For now Yoji put his wire away, while Elena kept her gun trained on the bastard, their dark beast target. He hoped like hell that Elena didn’t prioritize getting this kill over that poor girl’s life.

“If you kill her you’ll have nothing left to bargain with,” Elena answered.

“I don’t have to kill her. I could just shoot messy, painful holes in her every time you press me too hard. You might be too cold to show anything, but your guy friend looks horrified enough.”

Although Yoji got the impression that it annoyed Elena that his too expressive face had let their enemy know how ruthless Weiß _wasn’t_, her voice sounded perfectly level and reasonable as she said, “There’s no need for you to do that.”

Their intended target started gasping for breath then pushed the barrel of his gun deeper into the side of his victim’s neck, making her squeak in terror. He said, “I know what kind of things you people can do, so don’t fuck with me! I _will_ put some holes in this girl, and at this range they’ll be _big_.”

Elena must have been cutting off his oxygen with the kinesis part of her pyrokinesis. She looked aggrieved but, judging from how their opponent started to breathe easier again, stopped what she was doing. “We’re at an impasse here,” she said.

“Not really.” He started to move backward while still keeping his hold on his hostage. “If you let me go I may let her live.”

It pissed Yoji off so much that the poor girl had to be further traumatized and victimized by this asshole, the leader of a slavery ring that specialized in pretty, _very_ young girls knocked around until they became too afraid to say no to anyone or anything. He wondered if Elena could reach into the guy’s head and stop him.

When her telepathic voice came through, it sounded lower and distorted. ~ He still has his telepath messing with my telepathy a bit and shielding him since the rest of us haven’t hunted her down to stop or kill her yet. Meanwhile, this guy’s head is _nasty_. With the shielding in place, he’s so protected that I’d have do the telepathic equivalent of sawing into random areas on a corpse looking for something inside that I could only find by feel. Every time I didn’t hit the jackpot I’d have to try again. ~

She could have been less graphic.

~ Not if I really wanted you to understand how disgusting it would feel. The man is a cesspool. The taste of his mind rivals some Eszett people I’ve dealt with. Sasha, Fenris, why haven’t you taken out that telepath yet? ~

~ She might not be all that powerful, but she’s damned good at hiding, ~ Sasha answered, his telepathic voice sounding just as messed up. ~ We keep running into leftover thugs too. ~

~ Seriously. Ke-- Siberian is getting really frustrated, ~ Fenris said.

~ Shows you that power levels aren’t everything, especially if you’re an expert with what you have. Still, take her out! Get to it! ~ Elena replied.

~ Yes, ma’am, ~ Sasha said.

They needed to find a way to take him down without letting him pull the trigger. Too many options gave him a chance at it.

Yoji started to wonder if his telekinesis might be the answer. He might not be powerful, but this situation called for finesse more than brute strength. He needed to get the gun pointed away from the girl and the girl out of this man’s hands, so each arm had to be moved outward and at different directions. It would be a good idea to make sure he couldn’t pull the trigger at any time, and the safest backup to that would be to point the gun hand up. Having to do so many different things with his telekinesis at once would be complicated. Although his teachers would disapprove of Yoji using his arms and hands to better focus the movements he wanted his target to make, he’d use this crutch to make _sure_ the girl didn’t die. Her life outweighed some idea of telekinetic purity or perfection so screw it.

While he did all that, Elena could shoot the guy dead. ~ I hear you, Balinese, ~ she said, and Yoji saw her nod once at him and change her stance and aim just a bit. Telepathy could be so damned useful.

As Yoji focused his thoughts on which hand would do what to his target, he almost felt wires in his grip. He could do this.

While the small, subtle movement of his left hand pulled the target’s gun, hand, and arm up and out to the side, the likewise small and subtle movement of his right hand pulled their target’s grip off the girl and pushed her away from him. It would have been much better and more convenient if the girl had stayed on her feet longer and run away instead of falling to the floor and crying, but Yoji would take what he could get. Besides, she was probably at the end of her rope after all the abuse. Even as his head started to hurt from all his exertion, he had to congratulate himself on getting the gun out of the guy’s hand with a flick of his own left hand’s fingers. Stylish!

“They didn’t say you could do this!” the guy whined.

Growling, Elena shifted her aim from a kill shot and instead shot him through the knee, sending him screaming and bloody to the floor. She ran up to him and put her foot down hard and sharp on one of his writhing legs, the injured one, as she shouted, “Who. Are. _They_!?”

With his head pounding, Yoji figured he wouldn’t be much good to Elena so he went over to the girl and faced her away from whatever Elena would do. Yoji asked, in the most comforting voice he could manage, “Hey, sweetheart, are there more like you in the building?” He wanted to hold her to soothe but didn’t know if she’d freak out over it so he just put a hand on her shoulder, which could also help keep her from seeing whatever Elena had in mind.

“Some,” she said softly.

“We’ll find them and get all of you out to safety after we’re done here.” He didn’t entirely trust Kritiker to treat these poor kids well or help them resume their original lives if it didn’t know Yoji would be keeping an eye on the situation. “What’s your name?”

She shrank away from him a bit as she replied, “I won’t-- won’t say.”

Idiot. She had good reasons to be wary. “All right. You don’t have to tell me. That’s fine.”

“I’m not telling you anything!” the dark beast yelled. “You don’t know what they’d do to me but I do.”

“They aren’t here,” Elena answered. “I am, and I _know_ what I’m willing to do to you.” A corona of fire surrounded her left hand, which she brought closer and closer to the target’s face. “Talk!”

Yoji turned so he wouldn’t have to watch what Elena did either, although he couldn’t ignore the sudden smell of burning hair or the sound of their target freaking out. Maybe it might be better to look after all, because his imagination gave him horrific ideas about what exactly was burning. He glanced back and saw that she’d only started to singe the hair off the man’s hand so far. Only. So far.

You could take the psionic out of Rosenkreuz but you couldn’t take Rosenkreuz out of the psionic. Elena’s ruthlessness could be useful on the job but still scared the hell out of him sometimes. These days _three_ members of Weiß had been trained in the Rosenkreuz style and were willing and able to commit merciless, very dark acts Yoji and Ken might refuse, something he and Ken now had the luxury of doing.

Maybe that made him a hypocrite.

“Finally,” Elena muttered, and soon after Yoji heard her gun go off. “We’re done here, Balinese. The rest of us nailed the staff telepath, which let me take what I wanted.”

So she’d found out exactly where she should shove her telepathic hand into the rotten corpse of the man’s brain. “Better you than me,” Yoji had to say.

~ He didn’t know much. The man was a figurehead, a literal tool. The dark beast we really want is still out there. ~

“More work for us later.” Yoji noticed that Elena stood in a way that blocked his and the girl’s view of most of the corpse, reminding him again that she wasn’t heartless. The girl in his arms might argue that one, though, especially from how she was staring in horror at the red, yellow, and orange flame pattern along the bottom of Elena’s black leather jacket now that she knew it was more of a warning label than a design preference.

~ Sadly. ~

“Now we have damsels in distress to rescue. I’ve heard from a reliable source that some of the victims are held captive here.”

Elena raised an eyebrow at him. ~ We’re a retrieval and evacuation team now? ~

“Some things deserve a personal touch.”

~ Let’s make sure they’re still there before we get upset or make any major commitments. If they are, then we’ll call Persia about them as well as this one to make sure they can be safe after we get ’em out of here. ~

That made sense so Yoji could agree to that. Also, it might be late at night but if Omi still went by his old work hours he’d still be awake.

~ I’ll keep in contact with the boys so they can catch up with us. ~

Aloud, Elena said, in the gentlest voice she could manage, “Okay, we’ll look for them. Miss, we’ll make sure you get out of here without worries. Lead the way.”

As they walked with the girl Elena had her gun in hand, ready, while Yoji kept his hand on his watch, both of them ready for any surprise enemy combatants. When Ken, Fenris, and Sasha showed up along the way, they briefly looked surprised to see the girl but didn’t say anything about it. Yoji noticed that Sasha and Fenris tried to move in ways that would screen Ken, with his very bloody gloves, from her view. All this fast, easy, wordless teamwork made Yoji feel warm inside and gave him a momentary distraction from his headache.

The room they were led to and picked the lock on had 14 young cute girls inside, who greeted them with terrified looks until Weiß assured them they were being rescued. “Do any of you know of any others being held captive here we can rescue?” Elena asked.

After talking softly amongst themselves, one girl answered, “We don’t know.”

“All right.” Elena called Kritiker with her cell phone. “Draco calling for Persia regarding our intel for tonight’s project, and I’m not taking no as an answer. Yeah, I’ll hold but not for long.” Shaking her head, Elena said to the team, “I wonder who chooses their hold music, because this is _awful_.”

Fenris sneezed. “Maybe someone’s talking about me.” Then he sneezed two more times.

“Are you getting sick?” Elena asked.

“Me? No!” His innocent expression looked overdone.

“Check-up tomorrow.”

“Aw!”

“If you’re sick you don’t have to do as much work, so I don’t know why you’re protesting so much,” Yoji said.

“You slacker,” Ken said.

“I don’t want to be left out of things!” Fenris said.

Yoji shook his head at that kind of thinking. “Elena, I blame you for warping him into a workaholic.”

She made an obscene gesture at him.

“Haven’t I already seen enough doctors to last me a lifetime?” Fenris asked. “I _hate_ doctors!”

“We’re taking you to a doctor who actually heals people, not the sadistic asswipes who did things to you at school. There’s a huge difference,” Elena answered. Then she said into the phone, “Yes, sir. We found 14 live victims here, which wasn’t supposed to happen. We’ll need some people to take them in and make sure they’re taken care of properly. We know of 14 but there might be more in other areas of the building, so it’d probably be a good idea to send a search team in.” She listened for a few minutes. “Okay. We’ll remain on-site until we’re relieved. Bye.”

His head pounding in time to his heart beating, Yoji thought he’d been suffering in a stoic, unreadable way, but Elena asked him, “Do you need to take a pain killer, Balinese? I have some.”

“I’d like to, but I can’t dry swallow anything. Chinchilla, stop coughing.”

Sasha smirked. “Sure, Balinese.”

Fenris handed Yoji a plastic bottle of water. “I carried this in my backpack.”

“Thanks, kid.” He took the pain pill Elena gave him and hoped it helped soon.

“I have some more water. Do any of you guys need a drink?” Fenris asked the girls and quickly saw a few raised hands. The girls seemed to have decided he wasn’t a threat, which wasn’t really true but worked for right now. Yoji gave them the water left in his own bottle.

By the time Weiß led the girls to the door, more Kritiker staff had arrived. Once Elena verified that they _were_ really Kritiker, Weiß handed the girls over to them and walked off to their car, more than ready to go home, shower, and sleep.

Ken got to sit shotgun up front next to Elena, while Yoji sat in the back between Sasha and Fenris. It made Yoji wonder if Ken had gotten it by putting out before he decided that he really didn’t want that mental image hanging around his brain.

After a few minutes on the road, Yoji asked, “Elena, can you keep an eye on those girls to make sure they’re okay?”

“You’re the one with a more personal relationship with Persia-san,” she replied.

“You deal with him and his assistants more often.”

“All right, fine. Not that the girls will remember us. Well, they’ll remember being rescued, but they won’t remember our faces and especially not our hair. They’ll think we were all properly but somewhat generically Japanese.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Thinking of making a victory lap, Yoji?” Sasha asked with a smile.

With his head hurting like this, it took him a moment to figure out Sasha meant, but the moment he did Yoji said, annoyed, “One, that would be really wrong of me after what they’d been through. Two, they’re way too young. Three, I don’t feel comfortable telepathically messing with their heads like that.”

“In this case it’s for their own safety as well as ours,” Elena said.

“I didn’t really think you were capable of taking advantage of them like that,” Sasha said.

That might have warmed Yoji’s heart a bit, but he still answered, “It wasn’t very funny.”

Looking worried, Sasha asked, “Are you okay, Yoji? I know you have a headache but you don’t normally get so cranky.”

Elena answered, “He used telekinesis to get the hostage away from our target in a somewhat complicated way. Thus, the headache.”

In his joy, Fenris bounced and just about snuggled into Yoji’s side. “That’s great! You know what I mean. Not the headache.”

“Yeah, I understand you,” Yoji replied, having difficulties being cranky at Fenris, especially when he sounded so very happy.

“I’m so proud of you!”

When Yoji thought about how Fenris had been helping to train him lately that made a kind of sense, but it still seemed so wrong.

“This team just gets weirder and weirder,” Ken said, “and I’m not sure if I like it or it freaks me out.”

“It can do both,” Elena said.

“Yeah, I’ve been noticing that.”


	265. "I'm carrying an awful lot of messages to pass on from a guy I didn't see tonight."

Yoji felt a lot better after a hot shower and changing into something more comfortable, a pair of silk pajama pants, before sliding under the warm covers of his bed. It was too cold to go totally naked, and he didn’t want to run into Elena or Fenris while nude in the hallway on the way to the bathroom. It kind of scared him to think of the many different and embarrassing ways she might react, while Fenris came off as too childlike to see Yoji in all his natural glory.

Plus, if Fenris started wandering around the place naked as well, something nobody wanted to see or have to talk to him about, Yoji knew everyone would blame him.

Yoji felt tired and wired simultaneously and hoped he could fall into a much needed sleep once he turned the light off. All of that fled his mind when his window opened by itself, letting in a lot of very cold air, and he heard a familiar voice say, “Hey, Yoji!”

“_Nagi_?”

“Yeah. Are you okay with having company?”

“I guess. Come on in.” Yoji knew that his bedroom being on the second floor posed no problem to the telekinetic, but-- “What about the alarm system?”

Nagi made a rude noise as he flew in. “_Please_.” He closed the window as soon as he made it inside and ran his hand through his wind-tossed hair to try to neaten it. It amused Yoji that Nagi artfully arranged the “messy” fall of hair he had over one eye. Back from a tropical vacation, Nagi looked just as pale as he always did.

If Nagi was here.... “Wait, that means Aya’s back from vacation too!”

Nagi shook his head. “You don’t have a one-track mind, but you’re close. Schwarz isn’t officially in town yet. The flights here from Jamaica were rough, so Crawford gave us some rest time before having us jump back into the swing of things. Almost nobody has any idea that we’re back.”

“How’s he doing? Aya, not Crawford.” Yoji couldn’t forget the pain and desolation he’d felt second-hand.

“He’s doing better. Farfarello overstepped, but a lot of Aya’s problems actually came from being hurt worse in that battle with Breaker than anyone realized.” Before Yoji could freak out over that, Nagi said, “Since then Schuldig has been working on the damage. He’s doing much better.”

He trusted that Nagi wouldn’t lie to him about this. “Good. Good.”

“Aya worried about you when he found out that you felt it.”

That made Yoji smile. “I fully intend to show him how okay I am in person no matter what Crawford or Farfarello try to pull.” He knew some of the ways he wanted to show Aya, but it would be hard to get that past Crawford and Farfarello. And Aya’s ideas of sexual and love morals.

“Good luck with that.”

“Hey, take a seat.” Yoji patted the bed. When Nagi raised his eyebrow, Yoji vividly remembered how they’d almost had sex together and how strange but incredible it had been. If Crawford hadn’t intervened.... “Your virtue is safe with me. Unless you _want_ your virtue despoiled.”

“I’ll think about it. Are you naked under those covers?”

“Not right now, but do you want me to be?”

“Cute.” Nagi took off his boots and left them near the window, then sat down next to Yoji atop the covers and unbuttoned his black trench coat, revealing a pretty blue sweater that gradually darkened to black and form-fitting black jeans. He looked good, really good. Sexy. Sensing where Yoji’s mind had gone, Nagi said, “I didn’t dress up just for you. I actually didn’t expect to come here. Thanks though.” His body language seemed more relaxed and less tightly wound than usual. Interesting.

“So why are you here?”

“You might laugh at this.”

“Now I _really_ have to hear it. I’m dying for something to laugh at.”

“Your favorite way of using your telekinesis is so uncommon that it stands out to me.”

Wait. “Are you trying to tell me you can feel _everyone_ using telekinesis in the area?”

“Not quite. Usually it’s just background noise to me, to the point where I don’t even notice unless I’m concentrating on it. It’s like how your eyes see everything but your consciousness doesn’t notice every single detail because it would be too much to process. I don’t notice you all the time, but tonight you did something strong and somewhat complicated while I had nothing else I was concentrating on.”

Poor kid. But it also made Yoji feel uncomfortable as hell. “You can feel me working from the other side of town?”

“Yeah, sometimes, and I’m not even much of a telepath.”

“I was kind of surprised to see you at my window instead of Schuldig.”

“He and Crawford had other things on their minds.”

“Ah.” Of course.

“Yeah, ‘ah.’”

“Altogether, this is such a huge invasion of my privacy. The telepaths on my team are already bad enough, and they at least try to be polite....”

“It drove Aya nuts on our team. Still does at times. But I think being in close proximity to one powerful nosy telepath and a few less powerful telepaths forced him out of his mourning depression and out of his shell. He knows he can’t keep as much back from us so he’s more likely to just say what’s on his mind, once he figures out what he’s thinking for himself. Plus, we’re all so deep in each other’s pockets that he can’t isolate himself to brood.”

Wow. “Nagi, I could kiss you.”

“You have before, but okay.”

“Nah, not like that. I mean that in a few sentences you answered a lot of questions I had without me even having to ask for it.” Whereas Farfarello and Crawford kept a lot of things secret that they didn’t need to just to feel powerful and be smug pricks.

It almost looked like Nagi blushed for a moment. “Yeah, well. Don’t tell Crawford about it.”

“I have absolutely no intention of it.”

“Good. So, how exactly did you use your telekinesis tonight? I know that you _did_ but don’t have the details.”

“Our head dark beast of the night had taken a girl hostage and kept a gun on her, threatening to shoot. I moved his arms way out and gave the hostage a little push to get her further away from him. I also managed to stop him from firing the gun and flick the gun out of his hand. Pretty slick, though you might not be happy that I moved my hands as a kind of control on the action. It was a delicate situation, so I used the telekinesis in a way I knew for sure would work. While I did it I felt like I kind of had a wire in each hand that connected to my target.”

“Don’t worry on my account. I know all about doing what you have to do in the heat of the moment. ‘Wires’ like the actual wire that comes out of your watch?”

“Not quite. I could feel them but couldn’t see or hear them.”

“Were they like the strings you said you perceived the last time we were in a hotel together?”

Shit. He’d forgotten because he just didn’t feel them often. “The strings were softer, and I only noticed them when I was close to you.” Yoji could have tormented Nagi about the definite slight blush on the kid’s face but decided not to out of wanting to stay on his good side and Nagi not always knowing when teasing was meant to come off as playful instead of hurtful. “I don’t see them the way you said you did. I wonder if I felt wires instead of strings tonight because I was on the job, where I’m most likely to use my actual wire.”

“That’s interesting. I’ll have to figure out how to research it.”

“I’m willing to help but only so far.”

“I’m not going to cut you open, Yoji.”

“Damned right you’re not.” Other ways though.... No matter how disloyal it made him feel to Omi, Yoji couldn’t help thinking that he’d like to try telekinetic sex with Nagi again, see how far it could be taken. It wouldn’t _happen_, but Yoji couldn’t help having hot little fantasies. With Nagi sitting this close and Yoji concentrating on him Yoji could feel Nagi’s strings, which currently waved gently around him. It took a lot of effort to fight the urge to pet them again and see what happened.

“Speaking of research, I found out what that chip I took out of Fenris was for. I’ll come over sometime when your whole team is up to make the announcement.”

“Just tell me and I’ll pass it on.”

“No. They’ll probably ask you questions you won’t have answers to, which will lead to all of you coming to me anyway.”

That made sense. “He’s been working to train me in telekinesis while you were away.”

“Fenris? Really?” At least Nagi didn’t sound as dismissive about it as Yoji expected.

“He doesn’t have anywhere near your power, but he has some decent ideas. I also think he figures it’s good for me to keep practicing.”

“Huh. I’ll have to reevaluate him. I look forward to evaluating your progress with him.” Nagi’s smile had a bit of a sadistic edge to it.

Sucking up never hurt. “You’re still the highest ranked sensei I have.”

“Of course.”

“Sasha sits in on a lot of the lessons, partly to give me support and partly to be like a rubbernecker at a car crash. He’s more Schuldiggy than any of us expected.”

Nagi grinned. “‘Schuldiggy.’ I’ll have to find an opportunity to use that term in front of the rest of Schwarz.”

“Sasha is doing well, thriving. You probably don’t care about that but Schuldig might.”

“You really think I’ll tell anyone in Schwarz that I showed up here tonight?”

“You might tell Schuldig, especially if he gets a whiff of it through his telepathy first. He took a special interest in Sasha. Hell, he named him.”

“Crawford _loved_ that.”

“Not everything is about him, no matter what he thinks.”

“Too true. Yoji, did you get a headache using your telekinesis the way you did?”

“Yeah. I took a painkilling pill Elena gave me but still have a bit of headache left.”

“Since you won’t always have other experienced talents around you when you use your telekinesis, you have to know that you shouldn’t take any painkillers with blood thinning abilities for a talent headache.”

Yoji remembered the nosebleeds he’d seen on overextended psionics in the past. “That makes sense. Thanks.”

“You should also carry it yourself just in case.”

Carrying it assumed a commitment to being a telekinetic, something Yoji couldn’t quite do yet. He didn’t say any of that because he knew he’d get no sympathy from Nagi, who’d tell him he should damned well work on that since reality didn’t care about Yoji’s tender feelings and delusions. At worst, Nagi might even be offended too.

“Yeah,” Yoji answered. “I’m not sure where I’d put it, though.”

“Is your mission outfit really that tight? Forget I asked. You still wear a long coat of some kind, don’t you? Have someone put a pocket in the lining near the trailing ends. This is simple stuff.”

“Not when I have a headache.”

“Awww. Poor baby. Should I kiss it and make it better?”

Whoa. Tempting, and yet.... “Is that a serious offer?”

Nagi looked annoyed at himself. “My mouth runs too freely when I’m with you, and I already had--” He stopped himself abruptly.

It suddenly hit Yoji. “You already got laid today, didn’t you?”

“One, nice term, and two, why the hell would you think that?” But he had a slight blush in his face.

“You’re usually not so relaxed, and there are... things about you that suggest afterglow.”

“I hate you. And I don’t ‘glow.’”

“But I’m still right.” Yoji had to fight the temptation to ask whom Nagi had gotten lucky with. If it had been Omi, Nagi probably would have said so and mentioned that they were or weren’t a couple again. Not that Yoji would be judgmental about whom Nagi _had_ gotten down with; he just liked to know this stuff. One of the things he liked about Schuldig was the way the telepath was a fount of information and gossip and completely willing to share that with others.

Plus, Yoji’s perverted imagination wanted to know whom it should fantasize as Nagi’s partner and refused to imagine anything sexual involving Omi.

Nagi sighed. “Fine. Yes, I did have sex today. Just don’t tell Crawford about it.”

“I have absolutely no intention of it.” If Crawford enjoyed keeping secrets so much, he should have it done back to him.

“Good. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t let your team or Persia know Schwarz is back before Crawford announces it. He’d be pissed off and look into who let it slip. He’s also much more pleasant to deal with when he thinks he’s master of his domain and winning.”

“That’ll be harder.”

Looking disgruntled, Nagi said, “Try _really_ hard, Yoji. If you don’t keep quiet, I may stop being so gabby around you. I’ll cut you off cold turkey.”

“Okay. I get it. When will you be coming around to deliver the news about Fenris’ implant?”

“Once I find out what my team’s schedule is, I’ll work something out. I’ll have to see when I can come by to evaluate your and Fenris’ telekinesis skills. It sounds like Crawford has a full plate for us, though, so I might not be able to show up again for a while.”

“Things are going that wrong?”

“Not at all. We just like to keep busy.”

“I find it hard to believe that all of the ‘we’ in Schwarz feels that way.”

“More of us do than you’d think.”

“Schuldig?”

“Maybe not him. He didn’t get to do much actual vacationing, though he did get to surf.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t tell you everything, Yoji. I have to go.”

“Because I asked questions?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Nagi’s smirk took some of the sting out of that. “Because it’s late, and Schwarz has a lot to do tomorrow. Well, today.”

“All right. I’m glad that you’re all back in town. I missed you guys.”

“Sure you did.”

“No, really.” He actually did.

Nagi smiled genuinely and prettily and blushed a little, confirming that, like Aya, his hard prickly shell hid a sweet center. It amused Yoji that knowing Aya had given him a better understanding of Nagi, while knowing Nagi had given him more insights into Aya. The... elegance of that pleased him. He felt that he’d made a positive change in the kid’s life.

Although it probably presented one more reason why Yoji should get his head examined--most of his team would certainly think so--he really had missed Schwarz and not just Aya. Schwarz had defused Aya’s deathwish and mellowed and thawed him out a bit in ways that worked to Yoji’s benefit as well. He doubted they would have become so close if Aya-chan hadn’t died and Aya had remained in Weiß, although that made Yoji sound like a really bad person to think of it that way.

Despite his prickly and surly moments, Nagi was a good kid under it all and really maturing, and not just into premium eye candy. He made a strict but good teacher, and he was loosening up. Schuldig had such a vibrant life force that it pulled Yoji along with it. Although the telepath’s mischief sometimes went into very mean and sadistic places, at its lighter moments it could brighten Yoji’s day. Schuldig was funny and rarely boring. Besides, Yoji enjoyed having another pervert, smartass, and gossip around. Crawford could be an arrogant pain in the ass, but it always felt like such an accomplishment to get the better of him and he occasionally had some likable moments.

Yoji still didn’t know what to make of Farfarello, which made sense since Farfarello obviously didn’t know what to make of him either. Farfarello seemed to hate him _and_ like him, sometimes both at once. Sometimes he did things that made Yoji feel sorry for him. The one-eyed psycho was violently possessive of Aya yet had attempted to bring Yoji into a threesome with them, and not just once. Yoji worried that, no matter how much Farfarello “loved” Aya that Farfarello would hurt Aya in a fit of insanity or rage. He’d dealt him major emotional pain just recently. How many times had it happened when Yoji _couldn’t_ feel it?

Yet Aya seemed to be genuinely devoted to Farfarello, and Yoji didn’t know if that came from actual love, a sense of duty, or masochism. He still pondered how much of Aya’s attachment to Schwarz had been caused by Stockholm syndrome.

He might like a lot of the members of Schwarz in one way or another, but he didn’t forget that they could be ruthless and gleefully sadistic, even if being an assassin himself made that something of a glass houses situation. Aya needed to know, _really_ know, he had contacts outside of Schwarz ready to help him, just in case.

“Tell Aya I’m fine and I want to catch up with him soon,” Yoji said.

“I’m carrying an awful lot of messages to pass on from a guy I didn’t see tonight.”

“If you pass my message on to Schuldig, the most powerful telepath on your team, it’ll be fine. He won’t rat you out.”

“Have you _met_ him?”

“You just have to approach him right. You know it. And Aya knows he has to keep his news from me private.”

“You’re not going to offer me any bribes to deliver your messages? I’m offended.”

“Are you serious?”

Nagi smirked. “Kind of.”

“Okay, I know you care about Aya, so you’ll let him know what I told you. If you give Schuldig _his_ news, he’ll be less likely to bust you.”

Nagi raised an eyebrow. “That was pretty well reasoned out.”

“I’m not just a pretty face. I’m deep.”

“Uh-huh. On the Aya front, you’re assuming I’m fairly noble.”

“I can tell he sees you as a friend.”

“...I hate you.” Nagi stood up and buttoned his coat closed.

“Is that a ‘Yes, Yoji, I’ll give them the news?’”

“Yes, but I’ll change my mind if you push me any harder.”

Yoji grinned. “Thank you, Nagi-sensei.”

“Hmph.” Telekinesis opened the window from across the room, sending a blast of cold air in. “I’ll come back when I can.” Once he had his boots back on, Nagi gracefully flew out the window like a superhero and telekinetically closed it behind him. It looked so damned cool.

Pleased, Yoji snuggled down under the covers and let his much smaller telekinesis turn out the light, just because it _was_ cool, and it didn’t add to his head pain. Although he still had some of his headache, he had to admit that he’d had a really productive night, and he’d even gotten a lot done while lounging in bed.


	266. "But teasing Nagi is an important part of a balanced breakfast!"

When Farfarello woke up to a landscape of pale skin he couldn’t feel, he realized he’d dissociated in his sleep. Fixing it let him better feel the warmth of his kitten’s skin and the fingers lightly toying with his hair. “Good morning, puisín.”

“Hmm. Yes.” Aya sounded lost in thought but seemed more present when he said, “It might be a good idea for us to have some idea and consensus on what we want in an apartment before we show up.”

“Indeed. But I don’t need much.”

“That’s good, because if it’s a Tokyo apartment the odds are good that it’ll be really small.”

“I could count myself to be a king of infinite space in most places as long as the locks are on my side.”

“I don’t appreciate being locked in either. I’d like a lot of sunlight.”

“Not too much. Give me at least a few corners in shadow.”

“I’m sure you’ll get that.”

“We need a tub and shower. I’d like a decent kitchen. I enjoyed baking and cooking in New York.” The cookies had been especially tasty.

“I’m open to that.”

“Western furniture. After the life I’ve had, I don’t want to sleep on the floor or stay on my knees if I don’t have to.” He would kneel only to suck his puisín’s cock, a blasphemous and far more satisfying form of prayer and Communion. Body of Christ indeed.

Aya looked somewhat amused. “It’s been Western furniture with Schwarz all the way.”

“I wanted to make sure. Do you have requirements beyond sunlight?” Kittens _did_ enjoy sunbeams.

“I don’t need much either.”

“Hmm.” Interesting how Aya’s skin looked even paler against the white pillows and sheets. Farfarello had never noticed or thought about it before. Surely an apartment of their own would require a few sets of bed sheets, giving Farfarello an opportunity to see how pretty his kitten might look lying on other colors, like blue or purple. Nice. He wondered if blue sheets would make Aya’s eye color seem to shift, something that sometimes happened when he _wore_ blue. This would require research and experimentation. He blinked when Aya tapped his nose and gave him a Look. “I’m fine. I was having thoughts of domesticity. Happy thoughts. Speaking of happy thoughts, I’d like you to wear one of your sexy black tops, like the one with all the zippers or the one with the laces and grommets. Or all the straps.”

“None of those is really appropriate to wear while looking over an apartment.”

“Do we really care what the realtor thinks? Besides, if it comes down to anyone outside our team having a say in whether we get to rent there or not, Schwarz will no doubt be discriminated against for being foreigners and Schuldig would have to screw their minds to prevent it.”

“I really don’t like the idea of that.”

“I don’t appreciate being denied a place to live from bigotry.”

“Hnh.”

“You know such discrimination happens.”

“That doesn’t make it okay to push the issue in other ways too.”

“You shouldn’t care what outsiders think of you.”

Aya’s look of annoyance reached a new intensity. “I want to look respectable while apartment hunting. _I_ do. It’s for me.”

Farfarello didn’t understand such an urge. Who cared what other people thought as long as they couldn’t stop you from doing what you wanted? No matter how much Aya would say that the urge came out of some internal sense of pride, he couldn’t convince Farfarello that it hadn’t actually been born from societal programming, other people’s thinking.

Still, it mattered to his kitten right now. Farfarello could set about deprogramming him later. “All right. Wear what you wish.”

Aya’s smile told him he’d made the right choice.

“I won’t wear rags or bondage pants, but I won’t dress up either,” Farfarello said. “With my scars and eye patch, putting fancy dress on me is like putting a pink bow on a wild boar.”

“In that it’s difficult?” Aya responded, obviously teasing.

“Funny.”

~ Hey, kiddies. In addition to seeing the apartment set, we’ll be checking in with Persia today, ~ the mindbreaker said. As usual, Farfarello had to wonder how long Schuldig might have been trying to listen in and how much he might have heard.

~ Should we show up in mission gear for the Persia appointment? ~ his kitten asked.

~ Not necessarily, but we’re coming in armed just to see whether Kritiker will demand we leave them outside Persia’s office or let us in with them. Brad plans to go to the apartments first then return here to pick up our weapons and possibly do a small costume change. Keep that in mind, outfit-wise. ~

~ I dress appropriately for every occasion, ~ Farfarello said.

~ Most of those occasions have been murders, assassinations, or hanging out in padded rooms, ~ Schuldig answered.

~ Yes. ~ Farfarello saw nothing wrong in that truth.

~ ...okay. See you in a bit! Don’t take a lot of time washing and smutting up. We have to be out of here to go see your potential new digs in two hours. ~

~ Fine. Bye. ~ Once he felt that the mindbreaker had really gone away, Farfarello said, “Of course you should dress to make yourself happy.”

If they’d be seeing the archkitten, Farfarello didn’t want his puisín to wear one of his sexy shirts, not when Persia already coveted Aya and fantasized too much and too often about him, not when the boy was also alone and needy. If the little bastard ever made another move on Aya, Farfarello didn’t want Aya blaming himself and saying some shit about bringing it on himself for dressing a certain way. Schwarz might not approve of him killing Persia for that trespass, which would make his life harder and more annoying.

Also, he’d have to do it in a way that wouldn’t estrange his kitten from him, which involved careful planning and revenge served ice cold while ruling out striking Persia down in a red, glorious wave of rage and bloodlust. “Sorry, kitten, went berserk” wouldn’t be excuse enough. Damn it.

To his annoyance, this kind of thinking had dampened his ardor considerably. Perhaps it would rise again as they washed.

******************************************************

Crawford couldn’t wait to get the day truly started. So much to do, and all of it forward progress for Schwarz.

Seeing Schuldig in a suit added to the day’s pleasure. His telepath had paired a black suit with a shirt that was a light green Crawford associated with dyed Easter eggs. It looked like he wore black engineer boots instead of shoes with it, but it looked good anyway. Schuldig fiddled with a black tie, not one of the eyesore monstrosities he sometimes went for. Although Crawford wouldn’t say he struggled with the knot, he didn’t show his usual grace and speed. Of course not. Schuldig did his best to avoid formal wear and thus rarely put on a tie.

“I could finish that for you,” Crawford said.

“Mmm, pinstripes,” Schuldig purred as he looked at Crawford’s dark blue suit with its lighter stripes. “Sure, come on over here.”

Fixing Schuldig’s tie for him felt oddly intimate. Then again, maybe he shouldn’t be surprised, not from the way it had them standing close enough to breathe each other’s air and put his hands right at Schuldig’s neck. The green shirt made Schuldig’s blue eyes appear somewhat greener.

“I’m surprised but pleased to see you in a suit,” Crawford murmured. Schuldig’s hair looked smoother than usual as well, another sign of unusual effort.

“I like to keep people guessing. Being unpredictable in the same ways becomes predictable.” Schuldig’s eyes just about glinted. “I have a matching vest on under the suit jacket too. I know you’re into that.”

Since he really did want to get out the door today, Crawford refused to let himself react to that now. He did say, “If we ever visit my parents again--and that’s a _big_ if--I really have to parade you in front of my mother dressed like this.”

“Knowing your mother, I’m not so sure that’s a great idea. You might have to fight to get me back, and I think your father would choose to help her, not you.”

“Sure, give me another reason not to go see them again.”

“Hey, don’t blame your cowardice on me, although I do have to admit that your mother can be frightening.”

“Being frightened of my mother is just good sense.”

“Good sense is one of the things I’m famous for.”

“...not quite, though I may reconsider that from your decision today to avoid wearing an eye-searing tie.”

“I originally considered the one that has winged pigs on a dark green background but decided I wasn’t really feeling it.”

“The world thanks you.”

“The world should pay me. I was thinking of finishing this ensemble off with that limo driver’s hat.”

“Don’t you dare.”

Schuldig grinned. “I dare a lot. It’s part of my job.”

“Your job doesn’t include wearing goofy hats. Schwarz has a reputation to uphold.”

“It’s cool, not goofy.”

“Also keep in mind that I already have my hands in position to strangle you.”

“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal,” Schuldig purred.

This probably shouldn’t seem so sexy. In any case.... “We don’t have time for it right now.”

“Pick it up again later if we’re still feeling it?”

“That’s the reasonable course of action.”

Pouting, Schuldig answered, “Curse your reasonable course of action.”

******************************************************

Schuldig _liked_ that hat, damn it. He couldn’t even wear it for Yoji, who surely would have appreciated it otherwise, because the kitty might remember the personally rather painful events surrounding Schuldig’s acquisition of it and lose that lovin’ feeling. While Schuldig occasionally enjoyed tormenting his partners and found their pain delicious, he didn’t currently have that kind of sexual relationship with Yoji. Besides, he wanted to deliver on the reward he’d promised Yoji for the inspired thinking that had rescued Schuldig, Aya, and Farfarello from Aya’s head in Vienna and traumatizing the hell out of him would get in the way of that.

Just like Brad, Schuldig had an itinerary. Unlike Brad, Schuldig had Yoji as one of the points on it.

To his relief, Schuldig felt much less jittery in Tokyo than he had in Jamaica, and it seemed to stem from how much more stable the rest of Schwarz felt as they went back to working toward some old goals. It would be good to relax and spend less time monitoring the others and spackling the cracks in everybody else’s sanity.

But Brad damned well better make good on that rain check for the vacation Schuldig deserved and was supposed to have had.

In the kitchen, Nagi cooked at the stove, a plain apron over his suit, while Brad poured himself a bowl of chocolaty cereal and opened the newspaper. Ah, domesticity. The twins hadn’t shown up for breakfast yet.

Schuldig smelled eggs and bacon, happy scents. “Nagi, you’re truly my favorite son.”

Made more aware of Schuldig’s presence, Nagi... buzzed to Schuldig’s telepathy a little but quickly hid it. Interesting. It suggested that Nagi knew something he _really_ didn’t want Schuldig to know about, which made it something Schuldig really had to find out.

Schuldig sent his words out on a tight, narrow beam to Nagi alone. ~ Confess, kid. Save yourself the time and trouble. I’ll get it out of you eventually, even if it’ll take a _lot_ of wheedling. ~

~ Could you stop being such a huge pain in the ass? I’m sure you could if you tried, ~ Nagi answered, continuing to cook and refusing to turn to face him.

~ That’s so much more trouble than just being me is. Somebody gave you a message for me; I can tell just from the taste of your not wanting to talk to me. ~

~ I’ll burn your eggs and bacon. Just watch me. ~

~ I’ll just steal from other people’s plates. ~

~ I hate you. ~

~ But it feels like a kiss. Confession time, darling. ~

~ All right! I saw Yoji last night, and he wanted you to know that Sasha is doing well and is more like you than Yoji expected. The terms “thriving” and “Schuldiggy” came up. ~

~ “Schuldiggy.” I like the sound of that, ~ he said lightly, even as it surprised him so much to hear that Sasha--a clone of Emory’s nature and none of Schuldig’s nurture, if you could really call what had been done to Schuldig or the Schuldig line “nurture”--would be doing things Yoji could see that way. He didn’t know how he felt about it or what it meant but knew he’d need much more time to think about it. Besides, Yoji might be mistaken, and Sasha wouldn’t be going anywhere. It could be put aside while Schuldig hunted his quarry. ~ How did you end up there? Did Yoji call you to him? Was it a booty call? ~ Schuldig doubted it, but he could hope.

~ No and no. He used telekinesis last night, and I felt it. I wanted to make sure he was okay. ~

~ You sweet thing. ~

~ I’m his teke teacher! ~

~ How responsible you are, going to him in the middle of the night. No sexual attraction at _all_. ~

~ I wouldn’t say _that_. ~

~ Was there any molestation? ~

~ No! ~

~ That’s sad. You know, if you two really want to get it on, and you should, there’s a simple solution. ~

~ Oh, really. ~

~ Get me involved. I’d be happy even if I only got to watch two hot telekinetics getting down, though I’d be even happier to have a more hands-on involvement. I’m famous for my evil, sexual voracity, and powers of persuasion, plus Omi hates me already anyway so he wouldn’t be surprised if he found out about it. Meanwhile, if Brad found out he’d be pissed off for a bit but get over it, at least if I can judge from how he reacted to the two of _us_ making sweet love in Jamaica. ~

~ If we get found out, blame it all on you? That isn’t... ~ Nagi briefly thought “fair” but decided he didn’t even believe in fairness so he settled on the slightly less ridiculous ~ ...right. ~ He felt that his lust and curiosity weren’t reason enough to get Schuldig in trouble.

~ You really are a sweet thing, but you should still feel free to take advantage of me. It’s not like I wouldn’t get anything out of it. ~

Schuldig could feel Nagi’s internal struggle over the offer and the way it intrigued him despite himself. As usual, the kid would need time to think about it, to the point that it would be weirder if he didn’t. Hopefully he wouldn’t talk himself out of it, but Schuldig wouldn’t push.

Well, he wouldn’t push too hard. He knew that Nagi responded badly to that.

“Schuldig, stop teasing Nagi,” Brad said without looking away from his paper. If Brad knew the content of their conversation, his voice wouldn’t sound like that, so light.

“But teasing Nagi is an important part of a balanced breakfast! Not that I’m _teasing_ Nagi right now. I fully intend to deliver.”

Hilariously, Nagi and Brad looked at him with nearly identical raised eyebrows, one each. Schuldig _had_ to grin in response.

“Nagi?” Brad asked.

“He hasn’t done anything worthy of death yet,” Nagi answered.

Amused, Schuldig replied, “I’m overwhelmed by your mercy.”

“You should be. Now take a seat and accept your food.”

“Ja, master.”

Once Schuldig sat down and smiled up at him, Nagi set down a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs and quickly turned away from him, though not fast enough for Schuldig to miss the hint of blush in his cheeks. Recent events seemed to have given Schuldig the power to fluster Nagi even when he offered to do nice things for the kid. How wonderful!

If they’d started having sex ages ago, like Schuldig had wanted to, he could have been enjoying this for ages already. Damn that kid’s stubbornness. He’d just have to make up for lost time. But carefully. If he pushed too hard, too fast, he could lose this new weapon in his arsenal, his charm offensive.

Brad’s eyebrow remained cocked and loaded. “Schuldig?”

“What? I’m enjoying the morning and the company and turning the world on with my smile.”

“The world doesn’t always consent to that.”

“Like I always bother with consent?”

“...I almost feel underdressed,” Aya said as he walked in with Farfarello.

“Speaking of which....” Schuldig had to say.

“Don’t,” Farfarello answered.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t talk. Don’t do anything.”

Schuldig pouted. “But that’s boring.”

“Schuldig, you know what I _meant_ about feeling underdressed,” Aya said. “I was talking about the three of you wearing suits.”

“Yeah, but that’s also boring.”

Aya wore black pants with a nice blue sweater, though Schuldig couldn’t quite read why Farfarello felt so pleased about the sweater, which was _just_ a sweater, lacking grommets, laces, buttons, or straps. Farfarello also wore black pants but a plain, medium blue shirt with it. That looked wrong. Farfarello wore straitjackets, leather, and kinkwear very well, while a suit looked so wrong on him that it _became_ right, but he couldn’t make mundane clothing work on him at all. It bent the brain.

Not the best look for either of the twins. Schuldig would dress them differently.

As Farfarello sat, he said, “Mindbreaker, I thought one of the reasons we killed the elders was so we couldn’t be forced to wear suits anymore.”

“I don’t mind wearing a suit now and then if it’s my choice.”

“I could still force all of you to wear suits,” Brad answered.

Considering the expressions on their faces and emotional radiations, Schuldig figured he spoke for all of Schwarz when he answered, “It’s so cute that you think that.”

“Don’t force me to prove myself,” Brad replied.

It didn’t quite sound like a joke, so Schuldig didn’t take it that way. Anyway, complacency killed. The sudden tension in the room tingled pleasantly along his nerves, but he knew he couldn’t let it go on too long or get too heavy. Aya worried about it more than he should, not knowing any better, but someday he’d be Schwarz long enough to get these things.

“I went to the trouble of cooking this, so everybody should just eat their fucking breakfast already,” Nagi said, not quite joking either, sounding like he’d _make_ people sit and eat if he had to. He’d already set everyone’s food on the table for them.

“Can we get the posturing over with?” Aya asked, his anxiety having turned into anger. “We have an apartment we want to see today.” It sounded so impatient and so like a sulky teenage son that it amused the hell out of Schuldig. It also lowered the tension a bit.

“Don’t worry, kids,” Schuldig said. “We appreciate the grub, _and_ we’ll get on with our day. Right, Crawdaddy?”

“Aside from the ridiculous name, you’re right,” Brad replied.

“Good,” Nagi answered as he sat down and started to help himself to some breakfast.

The meal passed quietly after that, with the mood so uncertain that it seemed that none of the rest of them wanted to test it. Schuldig kept his silence because he felt he’d done enough for now.

Once everyone had eaten but not yet taken their dishes to the sink, Brad said, “The apartments we see today may or may not be our new home, but now seems as good a time as any for this. I want all of us to still take meals together, jobs permitting, even after we change to a two apartment system. I feel it makes us closer as a team and as a... family.”

Heartwarming, but also efficient, since Schuldig couldn’t help seeing how a centralized setup would also make it easier for Brad to hand down orders. Not that he saw anything wrong with that.

Aya looked to Farfarello for a moment then replied, “As long as we all behave like mature adults about the new living situation, I have no problems with continuing to take meals together.”

Schuldig smirked. “I think that was directed at you, Brad.”

“I’m more mature than the rest of you combined,” Brad said with an air of excessive dignity.

“Uh-huh. The first step is admitting you have a problem....”

Even Nagi cracked a smile at that one. Score.

“You’ll see,” Brad said.

“We hope to,” Aya murmured.


	267. "It’ll slow him down. A little. Plus, I can have more locks on that door."

After spending so much time hiding in shade from the too intense Jamaican sun, it felt good to bask in the weaker sunlight that streamed through the windows of what would be his and Farfarello’s apartment if they agreed to it. When had he become such a pallid, delicate, skulking creature of the night?

Knowing how depressing that turn of thought would make him, Aya mentally kicked himself and abandoned it. Far better to concentrate on happier things. He liked this apartment and Farfarello might as well.

The rest of Schwarz appeared to be content with the adjacent apartment aside from Schuldig telepathically grumbling that he wanted a connecting door between the apartments that wouldn’t make him to go out into the hall to get into Aya and Farfarello’s. A completely unsympathetic Crawford had explained that if they waited to find two apartments in Tokyo connected that way they’d never move out of their current one. No doubt Persia had failed to find anything on the market like that himself. The lack of said connecting door and Schuldig being slightly thwarted pleased Aya even more.

Given the way the realtor hadn’t blinked upon seeing Farfarello’s scars, the number of foreigners in the group, or the way the five of them intended to live in two adjacent apartments with a total of three bedrooms, Aya could only think that Schuldig had messed with the man’s mind from the very beginning and all the way through. Although he didn’t like it, he had to admit that it made things easier. Also, that the rest of Schwarz wouldn’t care that he disliked it and would continue doing it.

As Farfarello inspected the bathroom, Nagi walked up to Aya and said on a very tight, quiet, specific telepathic wavelength, ~ I saw Yoji last night. He had a message for you. ~

Piggybacking Nagi’s bit of telepathy and using it the same way, Aya answered, ~ He doesn’t give up. ~ On second thought, remembering what mental shape Yoji had been in not that long ago... ~ That’s a good thing. What’s the message? ~

~ He wants you to know that he didn’t get hurt much and he’s fine now, but he’s worried about you and wants to see you and catch up with you. ~

Aya still felt such shame over Yoji experiencing his anguish and panic all the way across the world. Even if Yoji had been hurt by it, he’d be too gallant to say so in a message he wanted Aya to get.

Nagi said, ~ Aya, this is the very last reaction he wanted you to feel. I’m sure he blames Farfarello for forcing you to that point, not you. ~

Yoji thought better of him than he deserved. ~ I’m sure he does. ~

~ Aya-- ~

Eager to shift the subject, Aya asked, ~ How and why did you see Yoji last night? ~

~ What? You and Schuldig both asking-- C’mon. I can do as I like. I was there as his telekinesis teacher. ~ Nagi’s facial expression didn’t change or show any disturbance through all of that, probably because he didn’t want Crawford to know about the visit, a feeling that Aya completely understood and shared. The less Crawford knew about Yoji’s access to and influence on Schwarz the better. Yoji would live longer that way.

Wait. ~ Schuldig knows about this message? ~

~ I got away with just giving him Yoji’s message for _him_ without me admitting to or him looking for more. His self-centeredness has its advantages. ~

Aya worried over Yoji having a secret message for Schuldig because it’d be much safer for Yoji if he didn’t get too personally entangled there. At least Nagi seemed wiser about _his_ involvement with Schuldig. Then again, Nagi’s entanglement could get worse if it went on longer.

Not that Aya could proclaim himself to be superior to them in matters of love and desire, giving him no room to talk.

When Farfarello stepped out of the bathroom Nagi and Aya quickly but surreptitiously put more space between them. Once Farfarello stopped to stand between them, Aya asked him, “What do you think of the place?”

“It’ll do. You?”

Thinking that Crawford might want to play it cool during negotiations, Aya answered, more for the realtor than Farfarello, “It’ll do. Unless Crawford-san has something else he wants us to look at.”

Aya wasn’t picky because he really didn’t need much; anything that would get them out of living in a room half-filled with boxes and give them a little more privacy would do. At least, as much privacy as anyone could have on a team that included a very nosy telepath. He could live with the “shame” of taking an apartment Crawford found for them as long as Crawford didn’t press the issue too much. The precog should know well that Aya could press hard back with a sharp blade.

“Let me check my itinerary,” Crawford replied.

~ Now comes the lengthy boring process Brad loves: bargaining and negotiations, ~ Schuldig said to Schwarz. ~ _I_ always want to get straight to the victory. ~

~ I won’t draw things out too long. We have a schedule, after all, ~ Crawford said.

Grinning, Farfarello put his arm around Aya and pulled him in close. ~ _Our_ apartment. It feels good. ~

Although it wouldn’t feel entirely real and certain to him until they actually moved in and started unpacking, Aya had to agree.

******************************************************

As much as Mamoru wished he could give Katsura-san more time to adjust into her new position before she faced Schwarz with him, he couldn’t see any way to give her introductory bodyguard experience with training wheels. He also didn’t want Rex to take over too much of her training because Rex had her own interests and thoughts of what was right, some of which didn’t coincide with his. Although he would listen to other people’s opinions if they helped or made sense, he refused to let them control or manipulate him. Not again. Kritiker was his only if he held onto it tightly, and he refused to be someone’s puppet.

His staff had demanded that Schwarz disarm before they entered Mamoru’s office, as a matter of trust, and Schwarz was doing so willingly on its own, on camera, as Mamoru and Katsura watched. A grinning Farfarello had spent the last five minutes removing various bladed weapons from his person and didn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.

Aya _had_ told him that Farfarello had a sense of humor. Mamoru just hadn’t expected it to extend to this.

“I’m tempted to just let them in now,” Mamoru said to his personal body guard. He could see she wanted to object. Since he’d told her she could privately discuss orders she disagreed with, he asked, “Do you think we should let them wait longer? See if Farfarello will run out of weapons?”

“Wouldn’t letting them in early be rewarding them for flippant behavior, Takatori-sama?”

“They’re Schwarz. Very little prevents their flippant behavior. There’s some I tolerate and some that’s beyond the pale.”

“I’ve heard of Schwarz and their ways. Why hire them for anything? Their capabilities are surely outweighed by their willfulness and unreliability.”

An outsider wouldn’t understand. A lot of times he didn’t understand himself, aside from how it let him keep Aya--and people who might become his enemies again--closer. “I have my reasons. Schwarz isn’t aware of the true ones.”

She must have recognized that as a conversation ender, because she simply nodded in answer. Another way he’d chosen well.

A telekinetic and telepath, she’d already been given instructions to do her best to guard his mind and body against all obvious and any sneak attacks but also when to be sneaky and step aside in the face of far greater power or when Mamoru signaled her. Her telekinesis was a grenade to Nagi’s atom bomb strength, while Schuldig outclassed her telepathically, but she didn’t need to be that powerful for Mamoru’s purposes. If Schwarz was attacking him full-out, too many things had already gone horribly wrong. If Nagi turned on him and wanted him dead, very little on this planet could save him.

He could have gotten a Schuldig clone to guard him on the telepathic front but couldn’t trust them to stay on his side, especially against their line’s “father.” Given the way Breaker and that Crawford clone had tried to use Schuldig as a “skeleton key” to control and hurt all the psionics who had a biological link to him, which were a _lot_, Mamoru wouldn’t employ any of them either, which had severely limited his choices.

Besides, if he had to see Schuldig’s face close to him daily he’d eventually try to shoot it.

Katsura Fuku had been kidnapped into Eszett’s service, not designed, force-grown, and tape-fed her memories and experiences. It made her stronger, more mature, and more her own person. He’d seen that in his time in Vienna.

Besides, she was easily the best and most suitable of the four bodyguard candidates he’d tested and considered.

On screen, Farfarello was _still_ handing over knives. Mamoru messaged to Bunji to just let Schwarz in already. To Katsura he said, “My time is too precious to waste on Farfarello’s jokes. I’ve waited long enough.” Put that way, bringing Schwarz in before Farfarello finished was Mamoru asserting his power, not a reward for Farfarello’s fucking about, and he would explain it that way if they asked and he deigned to answer.

She wasn’t like Nagi, and that had also been by Mamoru’s choice. She was only a personal bodyguard, not Nagi’s replacement.

“Yes, sir. I’m ready. If Farfarello tries to make a move on you, I’ll make him regret it,” she replied as she moved to stand behind his chair and face the door.

Crawford’s walk was brisk and efficient but not fast, while Schuldig sauntered in at a slower speed about five steps behind him. Nagi slipped in quietly, as he preferred to do usually when he didn’t wish to make a grand, imposing entrance. Aya and Farfarello walked in together, matching each other’s strides, though Mamoru didn’t know if they’d done it on purpose or not. Either way, it worried him that they had such a connection. They also somehow looked paler now than they had in Vienna, even though the rest of Schwarz had visibly taken in some sun, even Nagi.

Nagi looked damned good.

Crawford stood a little farther forward, closer to Mamoru’s desk, than the rest of Schwarz. Interesting but not surprising. Schwarz obviously took Mamoru and Katsura’s measure, watching and making mental notes, just as he and Katsura took theirs. When he briefly looked back at her he saw a neutral expression on her face combined with an attitude of being _ready_. Very good.

“We wanted to check in to let you know we’re back in town and our current plans suggest that we’ll be here for quite a while,” Crawford said, glancing briefly at Katsura. “We’ll consider any jobs you think would be a good match for our talents.”

“I’m putting together a list of what jobs I’d like to offer you, but it’s not ready yet. I’ll contact you when it is,” Mamoru answered. He’d wanted to see and judge Schwarz again first.

“I also wished to let you know that you no longer need to search for two apartments for Schwarz--one of them for Aya and Farfarello--because we already found something suitable and signed for it this morning.” Smug bastard. He probably thought he’d one-upped Mamoru with that.

It annoyed Mamoru a bit but didn’t bother him much, though he wondered how Crawford had gotten around the aspects that had made the search so difficult. He’d probably changed the parameters somewhat.

Whatever. Getting his own apartment, even if he had to share it with his deranged lover, gave Aya some autonomy from Schwarz and space of his own, which could only be an improvement. Aya had seemed a lot better and more independent in New York, with a home of his own.

“I’m glad you brought Aya and Farfarello up,” Mamoru said. “I need to know that you’re making sure no other member of Kritiker gets blindsided just because Berserker wanted to prove a point to Aya, or whatever he thought he was doing. I also want to make sure he’s not tormenting Aya for his own amusement. It’s unacceptable from both a personal and business viewpoint. It would have been even worse if Balinese had been on a mission when he took that hit. Crawford, I’m sure you can appreciate what it would be like if one member of Schwarz was laid low in the middle of an operation by damage done to someone else far away.”

Aya looked upset and somewhat embarrassed by having the topic raised, but it had to be done because Mamoru wouldn’t put up with this kind of thing happening to Aya and Yoji again. If Farfarello had to be executed to insure it, Mamoru would do it.

Farfarello looked annoyed, but he could go fuck himself.

Mamoru wished he had a telepath of his own who could send a private message from him to Aya _without_ Schuldig hearing it and interfering, but he didn’t have anyone of Schuldig’s strength _and_ skill. Schuldig’s clones had either the power or potential but not his skill or his experience. They actually had less raw strength now that they’d been separated into individuals; they couldn’t batter their way through anymore and needed to use finesse instead. Battering didn’t work for secret messages anyway.

Someday he’d have the operatives he wanted.

Looking somewhat sour, Crawford said, “We’ve discussed it, and he knows that I won’t tolerate it either.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Aya, how are you doing lately?”

“...fine. Truly,” Aya answered.

“Good.” It seemed like it might even be true, so Mamoru set that aside to go on to the next bit of Schwarz-related business. “Nagi, your seminar before you left for Europe was a huge success, and a lot of people took you up on your offer to take questions from them. I created an e-mail address for them to send them to, and I wrote the information on it and password for it on this business card.”

Blatantly surprised, Nagi replied, “...oh. Okay.” Surprise made him look younger and less stern, sending a shock of feeling through Mamoru’s body. Their fingers brushed briefly as Nagi took the card from him, warm and tantalizing, but Mamoru kept his business face on.

“This mustn’t get in the way of his duty to Schwarz,” Crawford said. “He only offered that option as a courtesy, and it’s far more generous than he had to be.”

“I’m aware of that,” Mamoru answered, “and if any of the people asking questions have problems waiting for an answer I’ll remind them of that as well. I don’t expect him to put everything aside to reply in a hurry.”

“I have no other business to discuss and other places for Schwarz to be,” Crawford said. “We’ll be expecting you to contact us with a list of potential jobs.”

“I’m not done yet, not completely. I want to talk to Abyssinian alone for five to ten minutes.” Mamoru managed not to smile when Farfarello glared daggers at him but didn’t _throw_ any. Anything that discomfited Farfarello without hurting Aya made Mamoru pleased, and even Berserker had to know that starting something with him in front of Schwarz and within a Kritiker compound would lead to a war Schwarz wouldn’t want. “It’s a small thing, and surely you haven’t done anything awful to him that he’d report.” He _wished_ reticent, stoic Aya would confide some kind of abuse to him.

Although he looked annoyed, Crawford said, “I’ll permit it, but please remember that we’re on a schedule.”

“I’ll be fine,” Aya said softly to Farfarello, who, it appeared, needed to be pulled out of the room by a telekinetic leash from Nagi.

Mamoru heard Katsura let out a small breath of relief from behind him once Schwarz left the room, letting him know he definitely needed to debrief her about what had happened, psionically, during the meeting. Schuldig had certainly been staring at her a lot of the time.

“Aya, you can take a seat if you’d like,” Mamoru said. “Please.”

Although he didn’t look happy about it, Aya sat. “All right.”

“We were worried about you. Weiß and I.”

“...your new bodyguard?” The look on Aya’s face asked if Mamoru _really_ wanted to get into things in front of her.

“Yes. She’s been reliable. She protects my interests, doesn’t try to be a regent, and won’t say a word of our conversation to anyone else.”

Aya nodded, knowing what he meant, then said, “I’m all right. Farfarello won’t do it again.”

“How can you really be sure?”

After looking thoughtful for a moment, Aya answered, “The rest of Schwarz was hit by it along with Yoji. Crawford would severely punish Farfarello if he tried something like it again.”

“Knowing that does ease my mind.” It also made him happy that Aya would confide at least a few Schwarz secrets to him.

“At least it led to Schuldig discovering some psychic damage left over from my fight with Breaker. He’s healing it... and me. He does it under Farfarello’s supervision, who doesn’t want Schuldig’s hooks in me any more than you or I would.” The “See, he _is_ useful!” was unspoken but heavily implied.

“I’m glad that it’s being taken care of.” It still blew Mamoru’s mind that Aya had psionic powers. “Is Mastermind going to do anything about your psychic link to Yoji?”

For a moment Aya said nothing, while his face reacted in a minimalist Aya way, suggesting that what he felt--whatever it was--was _really_ strong. Mamoru would have to ask Katsura if she’d sensed anything from Aya and could identify his emotions.

Aya managed to sound neutral when he said, “Schuldig has tried several times to adjust that link to make it more controllable and less likely to spill emotions over in either direction, but it keeps coming back as strong as ever. It may be something only I can correct when I learn enough.” The neutrality disappeared on “I don’t want to hurt Yoji.”

Wanting to comfort him, Mamoru answered, truthfully, “He knows that, and I’m sure he doesn’t mind being linked to you.”

“There are... aspects of that I don’t mind too.”

Good. It made Mamoru so happy that Aya wanted to maintain his ties to Weiß. Also, if anyone could bring Aya back to the team eventually, it was probably Yoji. They’d even make a cute couple, though it would only work for Aya if Yoji could manage monogamy.

Aya said, emphatically changing the subject, “The apartments don’t have a connecting door between them.”

There you go. “The connecting door was really getting in the way of me finding a new home for you.”

“Crawford had the same trouble.” Aya smiled slightly, ruefully. “I’m much happier that Schuldig will have to go out into the hall to get into my apartment. It’ll slow him down. A little. Plus, I can have more locks on that door.”

“How do you deal with the lack of privacy?” It boggled Mamoru’s mind that Aya, infamously private, hadn’t snapped over it.

Hell, a lot of things Aya did and put up with these days boggled his mind.

“Sometimes it’s too much, and I throw a fit, but for the most part it’s part of the package. I think being more flexible is a good thing; it helps me survive.”

True, but... “Just... don’t be _too_ flexible. If you need help or need to get away or _anything_, please feel free to contact me or Weiß. If we’re not available at that moment, leave a message. You’re still one of us, Aya, and we look after our own.”

Aya looked pleased and somewhat flustered all at once, and was that a bit of a blush on his cheeks? “I... know. Thank you. I’ll also be checking in with Yoji in the near future because I’ve gotten his message that he needs to see I’m all right himself to stop worrying.”

“That’s good.” That, and it meant Mamoru didn’t have to suggest it.

Aya sounded somewhat annoyed as he said, “You all keep telling me these things.”

“We want to make sure they stick. You don’t always let the positive things stay with you, Aya-kun.”

“...I unfortunately can’t argue with that.”

Amazing. They might be making actual progress here.

Lingering psychic damage or not, Aya looked good. Healthy. Pale, but a healthy pale. Besides, Aya made pallor look good. Mamoru didn’t know what he’d thought he’d see when Aya returned to Japan after that hard psychic shock in Jamaica, but this wasn’t it. At least Aya had defied his expectations in a good way this time.

“Will you introduce me to your bodyguard?” Aya asked.

He hadn’t given her name to Schwarz and they hadn’t asked. “This is Katsura-san. I’ve been pleased with her skills so far.”

Aya bowed his head to her. “Katsura-san. No codename?”

Mamoru inclined his head to let her know that she could answer directly herself if she wished to. She said, “I refused to keep any name Eszett gave me, and we haven’t decided on a Kritiker name yet.”

“I’m Abyssinian, Fujimiya Aya.”

“Thank you,” she answered.

Mamoru’s camera showed Farfarello pacing in ever faster and angrier ways outside. Although he enjoyed watching it, he felt that he’d accomplished what he’d intended and didn’t feel he needed to say anything more. “I’ll let you get back to Schwarz,” Mamoru said. “I’m sure they’re concerned about you.” It took so much effort to keep a smile off his face, but he managed it.

Aya _did_ smile. “I’m sure they are.”

“If they bother you about this, tell them I kept you a while to give Farfarello time to get his weapons back and put them on.”

“I’ll be sure to do that. He’ll love it.”

Once Aya had left the room and closed the door behind him, Mamoru looked at Katsura and said, “Well? I want total honesty.”

“They didn’t behave quite the way I expected, Takatori-sama,” she answered.

“It looked to me like you and Schuldig were having a conversation.”

“He didn’t mock me all that much, which surprised me. He let me know that I wouldn’t be able to do much to stop him if he tried anything but didn’t taunt me beyond that. I got the impression that they want you to have someone keeping you alive but nothing about why.”

That surprised him, but he wouldn’t take it too much to heart, not when Schwarz could quickly change their minds about his well-being. He couldn’t help having a brief moment of wanting to get into horrible trouble just to spite them. “I’m sure they’ll continue to try to manipulate me.”

“No doubt. Schuldig made some half-assed attempts to read your mind just to toy with me.”

“That’s definitely Schwarz’s style.”

“At least Abyssinian and Prodigy have some feelings for you that give you some hold over Schwarz even as Crawford will continue to try to manipulate _you_ using _them_.”

Although Mamoru hadn’t gone into much detail about his affairs with Nagi, Katsura had apparently picked up on it during the meeting, which said good things about her skills as a bodyguard and possibly bad things about his ability to conceal his emotions on that front. “I would never _use_ them.” At least, he wouldn’t use them if he saw another way to get things done or it would hurt them.

“Yes, Takatori-sama.”

They both knew how reality and duty could interfere with a moral code.

“When Abyssinian reacted to my question about his link to Balinese, did you get to read any emotions off him?”

“It was quite a tangle.”

“That’s usual for him.”

“He cares very deeply for Balinese and doesn’t want him hurt, but he doesn’t want to get rid of that link either. I think he likes being connected to him in some way.”

It supported what Mamoru had thought. “So far, that’s a good thing for Kritiker. I want him to stay connected to us. I give him more access privileges to me than I do to Schwarz.”

“How much access to you do you want to allow Prodigy?” Katsura asked.

Although it galled him, he had to answer, “I’m not sure yet.” He would never get used to having to give so much personal information to bodyguards, even if he did it to protect himself better.

She nodded. “All right, though it might be difficult to stop him if he really wanted it. He’s much more powerful than I thought.”

“But you met him before when you attended his seminar.”

“It’s... different. I didn’t get close to him then. Also, he’d apparently stifled a lot of his power to seem less threatening to telekinetic students. In today’s meeting he didn’t bother. If he turned on Kritiker... the only safe and certain way to take him down would be to surprise him with a strong pre-emptive strike. I know that he’s not currently an enemy, but you told me to be honest and I wanted to tell you.”

In case something happened. “Thank you. That is exactly the kind of thing I want you to discuss with me.” He hoped to hell nothing happened.

“Berserker has been lightly tapping into the building’s power grid the whole time he’s been here.”

What? “Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”

“Until he walked into the room I didn’t know he was responsible. He drew on it even more when you took Abyssinian aside and kept him for a private talk, and it’s gradually dying down now that they’ve been reunited and Schwarz is leaving the building. ”

Damn. “That’s something I have to find a way to block.” He wondered if bringing it up to Nagi and asking him to think of a solution would be a good idea or a serious mistake. So much depended on Nagi’s loyalties and how he chose to compartmentalize the different parts of his life....


	268. "...that gives me a warm, fluttery feeling in my nonexistent heart."

Schuldig smiled down at the Kritiker employee using the desk he currently perched on the corner of. The employee glared back at him, obviously failing to notice the way he brightened everyone’s day just by being there. Speaking of men whose lives he brightened.... ~ I expected you to protest that more, Brad. ~

~ I don’t like it, but if I were in Persia’s place I’d demand similar if an operative from another team had so thoroughly comprised someone I considered one of mine. Farfarello might be getting better at controlling himself and thinking of consequences, but he still needs to work at it. Punishment when he screws up and reminders help that effort. If the punishments and reminders also come from people aside from me, his hate will be somewhat diluted. ~

~ Dunno about that. He’s a bottomless well of hate. It’s one of the things I like about him. ~

Farfarello currently sheathed the weapons returned to him in harsh, vehement ways that suggested he mentally sheathed each blade into Persia’s body instead, and a quick mental check confirmed it. If Farfarello had done this in actuality Persia would be long dead by now and Farfie would be left mutilating an insensate corpse. Well, whatever floated his boat. Farfie didn’t always have the strongest connection to actuality anyway.

~ Even if it’s infinite, at least not all of it will be heading my way, making it less infinite toward me. ~

~ You’re wooing me with philosophy now? ~

~ I’m deep. ~

~ I love it when you’re so witty. ~

Sounding impatient, Nagi said, ~ If you two could stop flirting for a moment, you’d realize that Farfarello is drawing more power from the building and might cause a blackout if he keeps it up. A reprimand and a speech about self-control from our illustrious leader would probably be a good idea. ~

~ A blackout would be funny as hell, ~ Schuldig answered.

But Brad said, ~ I’d rather Kritiker didn’t find out that was possible until we can use it to our actual advantage. ~

~ I can hear you, ~ Farfarello said. ~ I fully associated to make sure I could hear you and my puisín. ~ He must have done it since Schuldig had telepathically checked in on him.

Schuldig smirked. ~ Of course. Not that we were saying anything we wouldn’t say to your face. ~

~ Since you _are_ listening and know our reasons why, stop draining power. Save it for a time we actually need it, ~ Brad said, although he radiated a delectable hint of excitement and greed, _really_ liking the idea of having a lightning thrower on his team at his command.

Farfarello snapped a few sparks off his fingers, which gave Schuldig a weird, tingling, little thrill, then said, ~ Fine. I’m done. The boy can check if you don’t believe it. ~

If they’d been some goody-two-shoes outfit they might have taken his word for it. Being Schwarz, Nagi checked and answered, ~ He’s done. ~

~ It’s not like anything is going wrong for Aya anyway. I’m listening in myself, ~ Schuldig said. In fact, Aya was being amusingly strategic in their talk, trying to work out how much he should reveal to put Omi at ease about his loyalties to his old team versus what would be too much for Schwarz to bear. ~ Since you’re listening too, you should be aware that they’re just talking and Omi hasn’t bent Aya over the desk to fuck him or anything. ~ It made him hornier just imagining it, although he’d do far more inventive things to a bent-over Rose-red than Persia would.

To Schuldig’s amusement, a few more sparks crackled around Farfarello’s fingers in his rage. Brad said, ~ Schuldig, you’re not helping. ~

~ What? I can’t be helpful all the time. I gotta be me. ~

~ “Be you” in less irritating ways. Farfarello, stop playing with the building’s power. I promise you that you’ll get to use your new ability soon. ~

Schuldig saw Farfarello perk up along with him. Farfarello asked, eagerly, ~ We have a job? ~

~ No, but you’ll see, ~ Brad replied. ~ Behave for a while, or I’ll let Nagi make you behave. I’m not letting you find out anything in advance either, Schu. ~

~ That’s no fun, ~ Schuldig answered, pouting.

~ Not everything is about you enjoying yourself. I think this has dragged on long enough. Tell Aya to wrap it up. ~

~ He’s already winding the conversation up on his own, o fearless leader. ~

~ Good for him. He’s learning. ~

~ I’m done, ~ Aya said softly on a telepathic line only Schuldig would hear.

~ I’m so proud of you, Rose-red! ~ Schuldig answered on a telepathic line the rest of Schwarz wouldn’t hear. ~ Also flattered. ~

~ Don’t let your head get too swelled over this private communication. It’s just that you’re a strong enough telepath that I don’t have to shout to reach you, and I’m just being careful with Farfarello. ~

~ Sure, sure. I know you really love me. ~

Aya answered with a telepathic sigh.

A quick scan showed Schuldig that none of the telepaths in the building had really noticed his conversation with Aya. Good. He further threw a telepathic cloak around Aya to make sure. It made him wonder if maybe he could fuck with the office drone’s head to _really_ brighten the man’s life, but he decided it was too risky. Brad still wanted Schwarz to come across as friendly to Kritiker and would be upset if Schuldig jeopardized it over a short, cheap thrill. While that once would have been reason enough for Schuldig to do it, Brad in a good mood had been very rewarding lately. Thus, he would only sit on the man’s desk instead of rewriting his sexual orientation or turning him into the office exhibitionist. (Every office needed one!)

Brad was making an honest man of him? Sad. Schuldig would have to rebel in some fun way that wouldn’t screw Schwarz over in the near future.

None of that ended the warm, bright happiness he felt. Although he didn’t know why, he felt _good_, like a cat stretched out in the sun and loving every second of it.

Aya walked out of Persia’s office, took his weapons back, and put them back into their sheaths and holsters. “Persia is done with me. Do we have any further business here?”

“No,” Brad answered. “We’re leaving.”

The faster they got out of here, the faster Schuldig would find out whatever secret made Brad so happy and whether it would make the rest of Schwarz happy as well.

******************************************************

“I wasn’t in there that long,” Aya told a pouting Farfarello as they sat side by side in the backseat with a quieter than usual and distracted Nagi.

“You know why I worry,” Farfarello answered.

“I was aware of you monitoring me, so it’s not like something could have happened without you being aware of it and trying to... rescue me.”

“Hmph.”

Seeing that nothing would mollify him, Aya gave up on trying. “I expected Crawford to be more upset than he is.”

“I didn’t like it but I understood it,” Crawford answered. “If another team had compromised one of my own in a similar fashion I’d want a personal accounting as well.”

“I heard you the first dozen times,” Farfarello replied. “If you keep rubbing it in, you might finally infuriate me into doing similar out of spite.”

“Be careful with your threats. You don’t dictate to me, and there’s only so much insubordination I’ll let pass.”

Crawford’s unexpected reaction left Aya feeling... warm. He often believed that Schwarz saw him as Farfarello’s chattel--his to do with as he pleased as long as he left Aya in good enough condition to work--but recent events showed him that they’d take his side at times and wouldn’t simply leave him to Farfarello’s sometimes nonexistent mercies. They had his back.

“I didn’t reveal much, and I think what I did say didn’t give up anything you wouldn’t want him to know.” Aya hadn’t liked treating Omi as an outsider he needed to keep secrets from but saw the necessity.

“I’m glad you’re keeping that in mind.” Crawford asked, “Group, impressions of Persia’s current bodyguard?”

Schuldig answered, “Her telepathy isn’t up to my level and her telekinesis sure isn’t up to Nagi’s, but she seems competent and levelheaded. She’s smart enough to be intimidated by us but wouldn’t back down if she needed to protect the little kitten. With the enemies he has, it won’t be easy to keep Persia alive but I think she has a decent shot at it. Short of _us_ attacking him, of course.”

Apparently annoyed out of his distracted, thoughtful spell, Nagi said, “I would prefer to avoid attacking him.”

“Ditto,” Aya added, though not for the same reasons.

“Otherwise, I agree with what Schuldig said.”

Schuldig turned and grinned back at them. “Aw, Nagins, that gives me a warm, fluttery feeling in my nonexistent heart.”

“Don’t get a swelled head over it.”

Crawford parked the car. “We’re here.”

Looking suddenly much more interested, Schuldig said, “Hey, this looks familiar. Is it the same warehouse?”

“Yes.”

“And we’re here for the same reasons?”

“Yes.”

“_Excellent_.” Schuldig got out and approached the building with what almost looked like a skip in his step. Losing the pout and looking much happier, Farfarello also got out of the car and followed him.

“Everyone out,” Crawford said.

“What’s going on?” Aya asked, feeling totally out of the loop again.

“We used to train and practice here while we were in Tokyo,” Nagi replied. “I assume we’re here to do that again.”

Looking nearly excited, Crawford said, “I’ve updated the facilities to handle some of our new abilities. Out.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Nagi said. Aya followed him out of the car and the both of them to the warehouse door, where Schuldig and Farfarello still waited, to Aya’s surprise.

“Couldn’t break in yet?” Crawford asked them with a smile.

“Since this is our place, _literally_ breaking through wasn’t an option,” Schuldig said haughtily. “We just needed a little more time to get in more subtly without damaging anything.”

“Sure.” Crawford undid some locks and entered some numbers on a keypad then opened the door for them.

“This is all ours?” Aya had to ask as he saw the large space full of exercise and training equipment and mirrors. That might even be a gun range in the partially enclosed room at the back.

“Indeed,” Crawford answered with a smug little smile. Schuldig and Farfarello’s open expressions of excitement and gleeful enthusiasm probably fed it.

Aya couldn’t help feeling some pleasure himself over the thought of getting to train and fight in a space larger than their living room and just about ached to be let loose on it. Only Nagi appeared unenthused, prodding Aya to ask, “Nagi? You don’t like it?”

Nagi shrugged. “I can train anywhere so I don’t give a damn.” To Aya alone, he said, ~ I train Yoji in the flower shop’s _basement_ after all. ~

“_Such_ a jaded teenager,” Schuldig said as he removed his long coat. “Oooh, such a variety of gymnastic equipment and mats. You really do love me, Brad.” He must not have caught Nagi’s statement about Yoji, because if he had he would have said something. “Hey, Aya, all that running along rooftops and stuff I do? I didn’t practice on top of roofs and jumping out high windows _on_ roofs and _through_ second-story windows. I learned and tested things with mats in a gym.”

It made Aya happy to be able to say, “I honestly never thought about it.”

“Oh, boo. That hurts me right here.” Schuldig put a ludicrously woebegone expression on his face and his hand over his heart.

“I’m sure you’ll recover.”

“Only because I’m better than you.” Schuldig ran up the wall a little bit then did a flip and landed on his feet, his hair flying everywhere. Shaking his head to get it out of his face, he said, “For future reference, this is one reason why I wore headbands.”

“It doesn’t explain why you wore sunglasses on top of your head.”

“Decoration! Sometimes I’d stitch them down to my headband so they wouldn’t fly off.”

“You can sew?”

“I’m a telepath. Duh.”

“I knew Schuldig would appreciate a safe place to work on his parkour,” Crawford said.

“You will _not_ call it ‘parkour’ or me a ‘traceur’ when I can use ‘freerunning’ and ‘freerunner’ instead. About the only thing I do that I don’t mind using a French term for is ménage à trois.”

“You don’t even like ‘tête-à-tête’? It describes what you do so well.”

“Nope. It’s still French.”

“Stop being such an attention whore,” Farfarello said as he punched the head off one of the wooden practice dummies.

“It’s _me_.”

“_Try_ to stop being such an attention whore. Try hard.”

“Farfarello needs to develop his electrical talent and skill with it, and we need to learn how to fight around it,” Crawford said. “That room to the left is designed for him to experiment in, while we remain safe just outside. There’s another training area that’s somewhat protected that will let us practice as a team.”

Farfarello grinned and popped a few sparks off his fingers one by one. “Thus you should thank _me_ for all this, mindbreaker.”

“Now who’s the attention whore?” Schuldig asked.

“It’s still you. While you _beg_ for attention, I get it by simply existing.”

“You’re not as cute as you think you are.”

“Sour grapes. Crawford, are we supposed to accomplish all of these big plans of yours today?”

“Hardly. I expect all of us to make a good start on it, though. Farfarello, are those sparks off your... internal storage battery or drawn off from an external location?”

Schuldig smirked. “Which leads me to ask if he’ll ever need a jumpstart, how we’d jumpstart him, and where would we attach the cables? I know the first area on his body _I’d_ try. Being him, he might even like it.”

“Attention whore,” Farfarello said to him.

“That might make more of an impression on me if I gave a shit.”

“Schuldig, enough. Let him answer my question,” Crawford said.

“Hmph.”

Farfarello inclined his head and ignored Schuldig sticking his tongue out. “Thank you, Crawford. External always has more power and doesn’t sap my strength.”

“Do you ever use internal?”

“Sometimes. Rarely.”

The look Farfarello shot at Aya made him worry that he was blushing deeply in response and glad that Farfarello hadn’t answered with something like “On my kitten, in bed.” He could only hope that Schwarz wouldn’t figure it out from Aya’s face and Schuldig wouldn’t find out in his usual fashion, especially since Schuldig too obviously found Farfarello’s energy-channeling abilities arousing enough already.

If anyone in Schwarz had figured that out, none of them said so, which was still no guarantee. “Today I’d like Farfarello to work alone for a bit in finding the best ways to use his ability, while the rest of us practice our own skills. Depending on how things go, I may have us do some teamwork later before we leave.”

“Are we going to be doing a lot of this in the days to come?” Aya asked.

“Some--I want Schwarz to be its best--but it’ll depend on our work schedule as I get us jobs. We should take advantage of this space now, when we have it. If the work is compelling enough, we might leave Japan for a bit, not that I foresee it right now. Schwarz can benefit from having some feeling of stability and security for a while.”

Aya certainly would. “All right. I’ll be glad to get some exercise in an area I can stretch out more in.” He would miss sparring with Farfarello today but had so many things he could work on alone, at whatever pace he chose.

“Nagi, I want you to get some physical exercise as well. Telekinesis is all well and good but you shouldn’t rely on it totally. Besides, your power depends on your physical reserves. You’re much better off as a strong mind in a strong body.”

Looking disgusted, Nagi muttered, “I hate to sweat,” but didn’t rebel beyond that. Schuldig would probably rate it low on the teenage behavior scale.

Schuldig dipped his head in Nagi’s direction in a way that suggested a private telepathic conversation. When Nagi immediately blushed and walked off in a huff, Aya got his confirmation. Nothing for _him_ to do, so he started his stretching and katas in an area of his own. All of Schwarz had separated to work on themselves.

The exertion and routine brought him a welcome calm. It felt like coming home.

He lost track of time, as usual, but Crawford stopped all of them after what turned out to be three hours for a team exercise against an array of moving targets. Having no close-range person-to-person fighting to do, Farfarello fired longer distance ki bolts out. Schwarz would have to get used to him contributing that way, occasionally feeling the hairs along their skin rise, and getting out of his way when necessary. Crawford’s enthusiasm over it was almost cute, something Aya pondered telling him later. Of course, in other situations Farfarello would have to learn to discern the best tactic for the moment from his currently broader range of skills--when to cut close opponents versus when to jolt or fry them--without hesitating for long or getting distracted.

It couldn’t be appropriate for Aya to feel proud of Farfarello.

It felt odd to get the occasional telepathic heads-up or coaching but not as odd as it used to feel. He appeared to be getting accustomed to all the telepathy.

“You know I could destroy all of these all on my own,” Nagi said at one point.

“Don’t get such a swelled head that you’d need your telekinesis to hold it up,” Schuldig answered.

Schwarz took down every flying, popping up, and occasionally shooting-at-them target with ease. When they ended it, Aya felt tired, exhilarated, and somewhat loose. Beaming, Schuldig grabbed Farfarello and kissed him. Passionately. On the mouth. It might have involved tongue. Although he seemed surprised, Farfarello didn’t fight him off.

Watching it, Crawford and Nagi looked puzzled but not exactly surprised. Aya knew that Schuldig and Farfarello had past history, and Schuldig was Schuldig, but this act seemed to come from out of nowhere.

Aya’s reaction puzzled him. Although he felt annoyed at them, he didn’t have the stinging jealousy or hot, red rush of rage he would have expected. What the hell?

No longer kissing Farfarello, noticing the stares, Schuldig put his arm around Farfarello’s shoulders, grinned, and asked, “C’mon, _what_?”


	269. "Who are you, and what have you done with everybody’s favorite Yotan?"

It felt great to be destroying things again, and once they returned to working he’d be fighting and killing people again, which he found even more therapeutic than demolishing objects that couldn’t fight back, bleed, or die. How wonderful to have things in the near future to look forward to.

When the mindbreaker grabbed and kissed him, Farfarello had to stop himself from attacking in response as he realized Schuldig meant no harm. Besides, he was a very good kisser and good at sex, and Farfarello missed his sexual advances a bit. They tangled tongues for a while, then Schuldig pulled back a little to give him a brilliant, fizzy grin.

Nice, but it’d cause problems if Farfarello’s use of ki excited the telepath this much _every_ time. He couldn’t let himself get pounced like this after every fight, especially not when he had his jealous kitten waiting for him. Speaking of his kitten, he’d have to do damage control, assure Aya that this kiss meant nothing and reassure him of their own deeper and much more meaningful bond.

When Schuldig put his arm over Farfarello’s shoulders to turn them toward the others and ask, “C’mon, _what_?,” Farfarello got a look at his puisín and worried about what he _didn’t_ see on his face. At most, Aya looked annoyed. A light telepathic scan showed surprise amongst the annoyance but nothing more.

Farfarello moved out from under the mindbreaker’s arm and aimed an elbow at his ribs as he asked, ~ What the hell did you do to my kitten? ~

Schuldig just barely avoided the elbow and replied, ~ I didn’t do anything. What’s wrong with you? ~

~ He should be eaten alive by anger, jealousy, and insecurity, but he’s not! ~

~ You _want_ him to feel all that? How insecure an attention whore are _you_? ~

~ That’s normal for him. ~

~ Wow. Maybe you wanted that conversation in Jamaica to break him after all. You’re more of a sadist than I realized, not that I’m holding it against you. I’m the _last_ person to hold it against you. ~

Farfarello refused to let the mindbreaker shift the blame. ~ Stop trying to redirect this conversation! It won’t work! What did you do to him? ~

~ Nothing. I’m not responsible for _everything_. Even if I did something--which I did _not_\--people can’t be adjusted with pinpoint precision. It’s not like I could dial him down to three or up to eleven. But the most important thing to remember is that _I didn’t do anything to him_. You’ll have to psychoanalyze him yourself. Unless you want _me_ to do it.... ~

~ No. ~

The rest of Schwarz had come up to them during that conversation, with Crawford saying, “Schuldig, I won’t tolerate you becoming a problem every time Farfarello uses his new electrical abilities. Can you control yourself?”

“What happens if I say ‘no’?” Schuldig asked with a smirk.

“‘No’ is not an option. Control yourself or I’ll find a way to force you to.”

“Okay, okay!”

“If Crawford doesn’t find a way to make you control yourself,” Aya said, “I will.” The anger and jealousy came off a bit stronger now, although still not as strongly as Farfarello would expect.

“Big words, little man. Your mouth may be writing checks your skills can’t cash,” Schuldig answered, while he sent to Farfarello, ~ See? You worry too much! ~

“You’re not totally off the hook either,” Aya said to Farfarello. “You didn’t have to let him kiss you.”

“Was I supposed to kill him for approaching me?” Farfarello asked. “I’m not against it--”

“Hey!” the mindbreaker said.

“--but I need to know.”

“Death would be going too far, but you didn’t put up any kind of fight. Despite your reputation, you can stop people with non-lethal force instead of just killing them,” Aya answered.

~ This is what you wanted, Farfie. I hope you’re enjoying it. ~

~ Shut up. ~ Farfarello would have to figure out what just happened here with his puisín.

“You can all rip each other’s throats out some other time,” Crawford said. “We’re going home to have dinner. Maybe you’ll all be less bitchy on a full stomach.”

“What’s this ‘all’? I’m perfectly well-behaved,” Nagi replied.

“Asskisser,” the mindbreaker said.

“It’s not my fault you can’t behave like an adult while I can, and it’s something I do for myself, not Crawford.”

“But I still appreciate it,” Crawford said.

“You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t intend to learn from his example,” Schuldig answered.

“It would surprise me if you did. We’re going home for dinner. All of you can bitch at each other like cranky children afterward if you still feel the need.”

As they walked to the car, Farfarello noticed the intense glare his kitten directed at him, which was what he’d wanted, wasn’t it? “What’s that for?” he asked.

“I get the strong feeling you’ve been thinking stupid things for the last several minutes,” Aya answered.

“Why don’t you try to read my mind and find out?”

“Because I’m angry enough already, and I want you to _tell_ me.”

“_After dinner_,” Crawford said.

******************************************************

The center of attention, Yoji lost himself in the kissing, stroking, grinding, and thrusting as Schwarz took him every which way and in every combination and it felt so good. On the bed, on the floor, against the wall, in a chair.... Schuldig fucking him as he fucked Farfarello and blew Nagi while Crawford watched them all. He and Farfarello kissing and jerking each other off as Schuldig kissed the back of his neck and fingered him. Yoji lying on the bed with his hands tied together above him and legs spread with a bar as all of Schwarz stroked, kissed, sucked, and fucked him to ecstasy. He came and came and came. His cock had never been this happy before.

He could tell who was who just from how they touched him, without even having to see them. Nagi’s touches felt cautious, somewhat tentative, too aware of how easily he could hurt people, which made Yoji want to reassure him. Crawford’s suggested his arrogance and a desire to control and hold down. Schuldig’s felt wholehearted and held nothing back, ready to do anything to get more pleasure, while Farfarello’s were direct and a bit rough.

But where was Aya? It felt so weird to be doing this kind of thing with Farfarello without Aya around and participating. Still, Aya had to be okay, because Schwarz wouldn’t behave like this if he weren’t.

Did Aya know where Farfarello was and what he was doing? Did he approve?

Did he not want to be involved?

Fortunately, Schwarz thoroughly distracted Yoji from darker thoughts, lavishing pleasure and attention on him. They obviously wanted him.

At the end they dressed and left for work, with Schuldig giving him a long, deep kiss as he fastened a rhinestone-studded leather collar around his neck and secured its leash to the bed before departing with them. Contentedly nude aside from the collar and lovemarks, Yoji snuggled into the rumpled bed to take a well-deserved nap.

“Yoji.” Aya’s deep voice sounded sad and concerned and woke Yoji right up.

Interpreting the tone of voice and the way Aya looked at him, Yoji answered, “It’s all consensual, and I liked it. I missed you.”

“I worry about you.”

“I know, but don’t you want me?”

“Yoji.”

“Don’t you?”

Aya closed his eyes. “...you know I do.”

Hearing that gave Yoji such a feeling of relief, but... “I wish you’d show it more. Aya, I know you worry about me, but you shouldn’t. Anyway, you have a collar too.”

“But not a leash, and I’m not bound to anything.”

Aside from Farfarello, but he didn’t say that because he figured it’d just make Aya angry. “So? The bed is comfortable. Sit!” If he could get Aya close maybe he could convince him to get naked and happily fucked too. He wanted Aya so much, and not just so he could have the full set of Schwarz.

Thankfully, Aya sat down, near enough to touch. “Yoji....”

Yoji grabbed and kissed him, parting his closed lips to slip his tongue inside. Although Aya initially stiffened, he soon melted into Yoji’s arms and kissed back, glorious. He slid his hands down the back of Aya’s pants to--

A sudden loud annoying racket woke Yoji up, hard. Rattled and confused, it took him a few minutes to realize that he didn’t have Aya in his bed and he’d been dreaming, even though he could still taste Aya and almost feel the collar still around his neck.

He’d come in his pants like a teenager.

What the fuck had all that been? He’d just taken a _nap_. How did he have time for all... that?

He wasn’t that gay or that much of a slut. He _wasn’t_. He didn’t like how needy he’d seemed either. Fuck! Had Schuldig been messing with his head?

Just, _way_ too many dudes. He loved the ladies. He better start finding some, and he wouldn’t do that hanging around this sausage fest, Elena and the underage fangirls being off-limits.

Though it annoyed him that the alarm had gone off when it had, interrupting his time with Aya. If he had to be embarrassed by having a huge gay orgy, he should at least have _everybody_.

Ladies. He needed ladies!

He needed a shower and a change of clothes first. It might tick Ken off for him to show up for his shift late, but it’d disturb him and the customers more if Yoji arrived wearing sticky, come-stained pants. Besides, a shower would help clear Yoji’s head.

As he washed, he considered his options. He hadn’t gone out clubbing in ages, but he’d been told that after last night’s mission Kritiker would be giving him a break for a while, which meant he could go out and stay out late if he wanted to. And he _so_ wanted to. He’d taken a nap because last night had left him tired, but the nap should also give him more staying power for a late night out.

When he reached the kitchen to grab a before-shift snack, he saw Elena packing a bag and grabbing on a coat and had to ask, “What’s with the shirt?” She wore a pink T-shirt with longer black sleeves, and the front of the shirt had a black cat wearing a witch’s hat and the words “Wicked Kitty’s Twisted Candy Company” in English around it.

“What?”

“It’s so _pink_.”

“I’m showing my girly side.”

Suuuure. “Ha.”

“I do have one. I’m wearing a lace-trimmed bra as we speak. Yeah, it’s plaid, but there’s definitely black lace and a little black bow.”

Seeing an opportunity, Yoji said, “I can’t believe it unless I see it.” Ogling nicely-sized breasts in a pretty bra would knock a lot of the gay right out of him.

Raising an eyebrow, Elena asked, “Are you sure you want me to go there?”

“Are you scared?”

“If I don’t show you my boobs, I’m chicken? Please. No, I mean are you prepared to deal with Ken wanting to kick your ass if he finds out about it?”

“I can handle Ken.”

“Famous last words. All right, you asked for it.” She put her hands on the hem of her shirt and started to pull it up. This should be good.

“Yoji, what the fuck?” Ken screeched as he walked in. Damn.

“Are you sure you don’t have psychic powers!?” Yoji asked.

“Don’t change the subject!”

“Elena just wanted to show me her bra.”

“On her own? I don’t think so.”

“Actually...” Elena said. Good of her to have his back.

Ken’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he asked, “Are you kidding me?”

“To be fair, it was his idea. I was just going along with it. But it was strictly a ‘look and don’t touch’ deal.”

Ken shook his head. “Yoji, of all the women in Tokyo, many of whom you’ve personally put the moves on, you have to bare and drool over _my_ girlfriend’s breasts?”

“Ken-ken, your lady has a great rack. She should share it with the world.”

Elena grinned. “Nobody ever told me I had a great ‘rack’ before. Thanks, Yoji.”

“Elena, you’re not helping!” Ken said.

“They’re _my_ breasts. I can do what I like with them. Besides, you should know I’d never cheat on you and that if Yoji ever made a move on me against my will, which he damned well _won’t_ anyway, I would put him down _hard_.”

Shit. Yoji would never forgive himself if they had a fight over this, especially with Elena on her way out the door to go to Okinawa for two days to teach some classes at Omi’s school for psychics. But before Yoji could figure out what to say to defuse the situation he’d created, Ken said, “I know, but I’m sure you can understand why I wouldn’t want Yoji getting a look.”

“Yeah, actually I can.” She looked somewhat rueful. “Getting raised by Rosenkreuz leaves you with really unusual standards of behavior and a tolerance of nudity, but I know what the cultural norms are here. Hey, give me a kiss and a hug before I leave.”

“That’s what I came out here for! And you have a _great_ rack.”

As Ken and Elena had a very loving and somewhat cute hug-and-kiss, Yoji found himself confused yet again by how stable a relationship they seemed to have, especially with Elena’s Rosenkreuz upbringing and them both being professional killers. What was their secret?

Once freed from liplock, Ken said, “Yoji, your shift started fifteen minutes ago. Get your ass in gear already.”

Elena squeezed Ken a little tighter as she said, “That’s the spirit!”

They were evil! “Jeez. I needed a shower to look presentable for the customers and a snack so I don’t get peckish and distracted while on the job.”

“But you got distracted by my girlfriend’s breasts?” Ken asked. “If I hadn’t come in here and interrupted, how late would you have been?”

From the doorway, Sasha said, somewhat breathless, “The schoolgirls are eating us alive! We need help!” then disappeared back into the shop.

“Bye, Elena.” Ken gave her another kiss. “And get done and out there _soon_, Yoji. Don’t make me come back to hunt you down.”

“Yeah, yeah, Ken,” Yoji answered. “Soon.”

“I’m holding you to that! And, Elena, don’t show him anything when I’m gone no matter how much he begs!” Ken scurried off to the shop to give Sasha and Fenris some relief.

Elena shook her head. “Really, Yoji. I would have thought your dream would have left you satisfied instead of on the hunt for breasts to ogle. Did it just whet your appetite?” Seeing the horrified look on Yoji’s face, she said, “Not that I monitored the whole thing! I caught a bit of the beginning but quickly shielded myself and Fenris off from it. You deserve some privacy, and Fenris is easily distracted.”

That gave him a bit of relief. “Thanks.”

Smirking, she replied, “We’re not perverts like Schwarz.”

“What about Sasha?”

“I don’t know, didn’t ask, and wouldn’t impose shielding on him. You probably think telepaths are the pushiest, rudest people out there, but the best of us have _some_ idea of politeness and courtesy. Fenris got some more shielding from me because he’s young, needs some help sometimes, and is kinda my kid in some ways. Unless Sasha says something, you’ll have to ask him, if you dare bring it up. He might not have actually heard but could try to manipulate you into revealing things.”

“Thanks, Elena. I wasn’t paranoid at all before.”

“You’re welcome. Try not to get into too much trouble or turn into Schwarz’s love slave while I’m gone.” Yoji realized that he’d shown way too much of his reaction on his face when she said, “_That_ was the dream? _All_ of them? Holy shit, Balinese!”

Trying to save the situation, Yoji said, “That wasn’t it. You’re such a pervert.”

“Uh-huh. For my own sanity’s sake I’m going to pretend you convinced me.”

“Please make sure you keep whatever crazy theory you have tightly shielded while you’re at the school.”

She smiled. “Yeah, it might suck for you if the Bruise picked it up, as Schuldig-ish as they are.”

She did _not_ just-- “Elena!”

“Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me. I’m much better trained than they are. Bye, Yoji. Be good for Ken!”

“I’m not going to be _too_ good,” he said as she started walking out.

“I’m not asking you to snuggle up to him and keep him warm at night or anything!” she said just before the door closed.

That was the last thing he wanted.

Now that he knew Aya was in town again Yoji really wanted to see and speak to him, make sure he knew he had options, but no way would he see Aya until after he drowned himself in women for a while. At least for a night. Although getting Aya alone from the start would be ideal, it might not be possible, and if he exposed himself to Schwarz--not _that_ way!--with this dream and its urges too fresh in his mind and body it’d be like having an open, bleeding wound while inside a shark tank.

“Yoji, get your ass out here to work or I’ll have Fenris drag you out!” Ken yelled.

Fenris would drag him out telekinetically if he had to. While Fenris would have to be subtle doing it inside the shop, once he was out of the shop and sight of the fangirls....

“I’m grabbing a snack! I’ll be right out!” He just had to get through his shift.

After a quick snack, he walked out into full fangirl mob chaos. No wonder Ken didn’t feel that he, Fenris, and Sasha could handle it on their own. They looked worn out. At least keeping busy left Yoji no time to think. It took two hours before they even had a chance to relax a little.

Although he needed the breather, it left Yoji wondering about things again, like if Sasha had seen or overheard anything from his dream. Damn, living with telepaths could make you so paranoid.

“Did the nap help?” Sasha asked him softly when they both had a free moment.

“It helped.” He’d still been feeling some fatigue and after-effects from using so much power last night. “Of course, this rush took some of that right out of me.”

“Yeah, that happens. I think this afternoon took a few years off my life.”

Fifteen minutes later that appeared to be all Sasha intended to say for a while, and it had been a perfect opportunity for him to bring up the dream if he’d overheard it and wanted to. Unable to continue stressing out waiting for something that might not happen, Yoji finally said to him, very softly, “I had a really intense dream during my nap. I want to make sure it didn’t bother you.”

Sasha answered telepathically, which made sense, ~ With the mob storming the castle out here, I blocked you off when I got a bit of whatever you were feeling during it because I didn’t need the distraction. You know these girls can eat you alive if you lose your focus, and not even in the fun way. ~

He seemed to be telling the truth, and he wasn’t Schuldiggy enough to lie and then use what he knew against Yoji now or later. It gave Yoji some relief.

“Good,” Yoji replied. “It was almost as crazy as what was going on out here, and you didn’t need to have it going on simultaneously. Just two hours ’til closing, and I think I’ll offer to do the register count and most of the clean-up.”

“Who are you, and what have you done with everybody’s favorite Yotan?”

“Ken’s pissed off at me enough as is and doesn’t have a girlfriend to distract him, while I’m going out clubbing tonight and nobody really arrives until 10 anyway.”

“Plus, you were _really_ late for your shift,” Ken said as he walked by.

“Yeah, yeah, way to denigrate my generosity.”

Yoji so looked forward to hitting the clubs and straightening himself out.


	270. "Good luck teaching him that. I’ve been trying for years."

“I’ll make dinner,” Nagi said as they arrived at the apartment.

“You can’t take a shower before dinner,” Crawford answered. “The whole point of having dinner is making sure none of you can start a fight with each other before eating hopefully calms you down. Nobody is getting a shower first.”

Annoyed, Nagi asked, “Can I take back my offer, especially since I already made breakfast today?”

“No.”

“Hmph. I’m making stir fry. Farfarello, help me out with chopping the ingredients.”

Farfarello obviously considered refusing before finally saying, “Fine.”

“Nagi, when the Psycho Twins get their own apartment and there will be fewer people vying for our bathroom, are you gonna stop offering to make dinner as much?” Schuldig asked.

Nagi smiled darkly. “Maybe. Consider it a reason to stay on my good side.”

“We’re still going to have meals together like a family, right, Crawdad?” Schuldig asked.

“Damned right,” Crawford said.

“So you offer to make a meal for us now and then, Rose-red.”

“If you can’t keep your lips and the rest of your body to yourself you should be very afraid of any food I serve you,” Aya answered. “Keep that in mind. Actions have consequences.”

“Good luck teaching him that,” Crawford said. “I’ve been trying for years.”

Schuldig smirked. “Sounds to me like _Aya_ is trying to start a fight before dinner.”

“That wasn’t fighting. It was a dry recitation of fact,” Aya replied. “If I’m starting a fight, it’s much louder and more forceful.”

“Are you going to let him get away with this, Brad?”

“I’m fine with it,” Crawford answered.

“You’re siding with him? Does fucking you get me _nothing_?”

“You won’t like where that line of discussion gets you.”

“Are you foreseeing that or just blowing smoke?”

“That’s for me to know and you to wonder about.”

Nagi sighed. “I’m going to make dinner now. The sooner we eat, the sooner I can shower.” Farfarello, looking preoccupied, followed him to the kitchen.

Feeling grubby after their workout, Aya sympathized with Nagi. He’d prefer to feel clean as he ate as well, though Nagi’s hatred for being sweaty--seeing it as an inefficient, primitive, and gross cooling method for the body--far outstripped his.

~ Thanks for keeping Farfarello occupied and in a different room, ~ he said to Nagi. Otherwise, Aya might have felt too tempted to talk out whatever the hell Farfarello’s reaction to Schuldig’s kiss and to Aya’s reaction to it was before dinner, possibly starting a fight.

~ That’s me: thoughtful, ~ Nagi answered.

That left Aya alone with Schuldig and Crawford. Crawford took a seat and started to read one of his newspapers, while Schuldig took a seat and grinned up at Aya, challenging him, seeming to see no problems in starting a fight, making Aya wonder if Crawford would intervene if they did.

“I can tell you’re dying to say something, Rosenrot,” Schuldig said.

When Crawford didn’t weigh in, Aya asked, “Were you trying to screw up the team’s dynamics, or would that just be a pleasant side effect?”

Obviously annoyed, Schuldig answered, “I’m going to be honest instead of a bitch: it was a spur of the moment thing. I know a fight gets your blood up too _and_ that his electrical tricks arouse you too, so don’t get superior with me. You’d be better off asking Farf why he was so into it.”

“Don’t worry. He’s not escaping anything.”

“I won’t be making a habit of it, since once we get back into the swing of things I’ll become more inured to it.” Schuldig’s smile widened. “Though if you’d like to include me in your and Farfarello’s playtime I certainly wouldn’t turn both or either of you down.”

That reminded Aya of Farfarello’s intermittent and confusing desire for threesomes. He still didn’t understand how Farfarello could be so jealous yet still sometimes want to sexually share Aya with someone else, most often Yoji, someone Farfarello often seemed to _hate_.

It probably helped that Farfarello seemed to see potential third parties more as sex toys than people.

Schuldig flirted with and fucked people for recreation, rarely forming emotional ties through it. To a lesser extent, so did Yoji. They could have a good time with someone and then get on with their lives without a single look back.

But Aya didn’t work that way. He became deeply attached, which was one of the reasons why he tried so hard to avoid getting emotionally entangled with people to begin with. His sister’s death had nearly killed him, and dealing with Farfarello sometimes left him physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. While the new telepathy helped give him clues, despite such connections he often found himself desperately trying to figure out what the hell the people closest to him meant, wanted, felt, thought, etc.

“My plate is full enough already,” Aya answered.

Schuldig stood and came in close, close enough to breathe on Aya. “Or the two of us alone can even the score.”

To his annoyance, he couldn’t help feeling a pang of curiosity and temptation even though getting a kiss--or more, knowing how Schuldig worked--was a terrible, _terrible_ idea and he already felt too close to Schuldig (and Yoji) from how he’d been brought out of his coma. “No.”

“I can tell you want it.”

“It’s not worth the trouble.” Especially not with the blast of hypocrisy that would come from Farfarello. At least Farfarello couldn’t see them from the kitchen and make assumptions.

“I disagree.”

“Of course you would.”

“You’re no fun.”

“You have enough fun to more than make up for me.”

“Try not to break my team, Schuldig,” Crawford said without looking away from his newspaper.

“Yeah, yeah. You guys don’t know a good thing when you see it,” Schuldig answered.

“Stop toying with each other and come in to eat,” Nagi said. “Dinner’s ready.”

“Can I disarm before sitting at the table?” Aya asked. He at least wanted to put his katana somewhere else.

“_Should_ you?” Schuldig answered.

“He can,” said Crawford.

Pouting, Schuldig said, “Brad, I know you want a peaceful dinner, but you’re seriously cramping my style.”

“You’re seriously cramping mine, something you still do too often.”

“Dinner!” Nagi said louder. “I’m not warming it up for you if you keep lollygagging, and my shower will _not_ be postponed.”

“I’m coming,” Aya answered. Warm enough in the apartment, he took off his coat and gloves as well as his katana, leaving his arms bare aside from the sheathed knife he had strapped to each forearm, to be more comfortable while sitting.

Once he sat down at the table across from Farfarello, he couldn’t help noticing that his partner couldn’t keep his lustful eyes off those knives on his arms. Hell, he couldn’t ignore it, not when that gaze had such a hot, heavy weight. He tried though.

It didn’t work. He could feel his face getting hot and his cock start to rise under the attention. He tried not to squirm in his seat. In his distraction, he kept poking his lips with his chopsticks while trying to eat. Maybe he should excuse himself from the table to put his coat on, but that would only draw more notice to the state he was in.

“Hey, Red, you’re _really_ turning red,” Schuldig said, smirking.

Fuck it. “Shut up,” Aya answered as he stood up, got his coat, and put it back on.

“Mindbreaker, you ruin things for _everyone_,” Farfarello growled.

“Now that the show’s over and I’m finished with dinner, I’m going to take my shower,” Nagi said. “Try not to need me for anything.”

“Yes, leave so you can’t continue to ogle my kitten.”

Using his telekinesis to carry his plate and utensils to the sink, Nagi could flash a rude gesture at Farfarello with his hands.

“Farfarello, if you stop staring at Aya and distracting him from eating, you’ll finish dinner faster and get on to whatever you want to do with the rest of your evening together,” Crawford said.

“I don’t want to finish dinner if Aya just intends to yell at me,” Farfarello replied, sounding hurt and somewhat petulant.

Aya sighed. “...there will be more than just yelling.”

“Yes?”

Aya couldn’t help saying, “There will also be talking.”

Farfarello’s expression turned more petulant, which oddly made him look cuter. “Boo. In that case I’ll never finish dinner.”

“At some point I’ll turn the lights off in the dining room,” Crawford said.

“Then I’ll be sitting in the dark and brooding. We’ve all done it before.”

“Especially Rose-red,” Schuldig said.

Sighing again, Aya said, “I hate you all.”

“Nah, we know full well that you love us,” Schuldig answered, grinning.

“You’re delusional.” Wanting to leave the table and the potential for more painful discussions, Aya ate a bit faster. In about three minutes he could say, “I’m finished. I’ll be in our room waiting for Nagi to finish using the shower so I can get my turn. If you care to join me, Farfarello, you know where I’ll be.”

While washing his plate at the sink he could feel Farfarello approaching and it sent a shiver down his back. Once he stood at Aya’s side, Farfarello said, his voice almost a deep purr, his breath warm against Aya’s ear, “I don’t want to sit alone in the dark. I want you.”

“Even if there’s some yelling and talking?”

“Even if.”

He should stay strong and distant, something he used to be good at, instead of feeling so tempted and excited. “You can’t distract me from the issue with sex.”

“I could offer an apologetic blowjob.”

“A blowjob isn’t an apology.” Aya put their plates and things on the drying rack.

“It is if you do it right.”

“You’re spending too much time with Schuldig.” Which brought them back to the start of it all and reminded Aya to be annoyed.

“As if there’s anything either of us can do about that. He’s around and he’s not going anywhere.”

“...true.” Aya couldn’t argue with that.

“We’ll discuss things alone together in our bedroom.”

“All right.”

As they walked past the table, Schuldig said, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“You’re not funny,” Aya answered.

As soon as Aya closed their bedroom door behind him Farfarello had him backed up and pinned against a wall, pelvis to pelvis so Aya could tell he was hard, which made Aya simultaneously edgy and horny. “Move away or I’ll move you.”

“Relax, puisín. I mean no harm. Although I appreciate how jealous you are, I want to reassure you that no matter where whim or curiosity may sometimes take me, you’re the one I come home to, the one I want most of all.” Farfarello then muttered, “Though you didn’t seem as jealous as usual today.” He had a gift for contradicting himself.

“You want me to react that way and you _don’t_ want me to react that way. That doesn’t make anything easier on me.”

“Hmph. I like to know I’m wanted, yet I don’t want you to harm yourself.”

That made some sense. “I’m happy I didn’t go into an emotional meltdown. It’s happened far too often recently, and it’s tiring.”

“For more than just you, but your reaction today still confused me.”

Having been surprised by said reaction, Aya had to figure out how to explain it to himself as much as how to explain it to Farfarello. “I think I feel more... secure. I’m back in a familiar city and ready to resume work, which gives my life more structure. Once everything goes through I’ll have space of my own in the new apartment.” Could he possibly be healing? “I... fit in better with Schwarz these days.” And on his own merits, not just as Farfarello’s appendage.

He should probably run away screaming from all of that.

“That makes sense,” Farfarello replied.

While they were on the topic.... “It annoys me when _you_ go on a jealous rampage when I’m friendly with someone. You should trust me more.”

“Most of those people want to take you away from me completely! I won’t tolerate that.”

“I’m not your property.”

Farfarello’s facial expression begged to differ about that.

“Back off _now_,” Aya said, putting his hands on Farfarello’s chest to push him away if necessary.

“I didn’t even say anything.” Farfarello moved back a little and took Aya’s hands in his own while caressing them with his thumbs, which Aya didn’t want to admit felt really good.

“You didn’t have to. I could see it.”

“We can improve things together.”

“You better not be just humoring me.”

“I’m not just.” Farfarello brought Aya’s right hand up to his mouth to kiss it.

“...is this where the blowjob apology comes in?” He knew he shouldn’t encourage this nonsense or the distraction but couldn’t help himself.

Grinning, Farfarello replied, “I’m glad you asked,” then descended to kneel on the floor. “Take off your coat.”

Why not? Aya let his coat slide to the floor and couldn’t help enjoying the light that came to Farfarello’s eye.

Farfarello quickly unzipped Aya’s pants and pulled them and his briefs down to mid-thigh, leaving Aya feeling exposed and excited and annoyed with himself. His hard cock betrayed him, especially as Farfarello licked its head in circles before sliding his tongue up and down and around in strong strokes. It felt so good that it made Aya lean back against the wall to stay upright, run his hands through his partner’s wavy silver hair, and fight the urge to keep Farfarello’s head there by force, especially once Farfarello took Aya’s cock all the way into his hot, wet mouth, letting it hit the back of his throat, and started to suck and hum.

Weirdly, he also felt Farfarello’s affection, possessiveness, and full attention like another caress along his skin. At least he didn’t have to wonder whether Farfarello still wanted him.

He couldn’t help moaning, especially as he felt slick fingers circle his asshole before sliding in and up, immediately hitting and working his prostate. For a few seconds he wondered where the lubricant had come from but quickly decided that wasn’t really important at the moment. His body couldn’t quite decide how to move: forward to fuck Farfarello’s mouth harder or down on those fingers to better fuck himself.

He shivered all over and cried out as he reached orgasm, while Farfarello appeared to relish Aya’s harder final thrusts into his mouth and Aya’s fists clenched in his hair. Once he could think again, Aya let go. Standing, Farfarello kissed Aya deeply even as his fingers still moved and stroked.

“Bend over the dresser,” Farfarello said, his voice deep and rough. “I’m dying to fuck you.”

“You’ll have to help me get in position,” Aya replied softly. “At the very least, you’ll have to stop fingerfucking me for a while.”

“True.”

Aya soon found himself bent over the dresser, bared ass under his lover’s fond scrutiny. The mirror showed the both of them, Aya looking dazed and flushed, Farfarello staring down at him with an eye nearly glazed with lust and delight. Farfarello’s first thrust in felt like _so much_, a pleasure so intense it was nearly painful. Although he started with slow strokes, he soon sped up, apparently unable to hold back for long, which was for the best, since Aya didn’t think he could handle a longer ride. They came together.

Once the afterglow ebbed Aya started to feel uncomfortable against the hard surface; Farfarello must have anticipated that because he moved back to let him stand, which Aya appreciated. “It’s a nice apology,” Aya said, “but it doesn’t solve things.”

“Maybe not, but it’s a pleasanter foundation to work from.”

Aya saw the truth in that, as much as he didn’t want to.

******************************************************

Curious, Nagi went to the website on Omi’s business card and logged in to see “his” inbox. Surprise made him stop towel-drying his hair when he saw the number of e-mail messages there. It couldn’t be right. But as he scrolled through what he saw supported the number, of course.

When Crawford and Schuldig showed up at his bedroom a minute later, he realized that his emotional reaction had punched right through his shields. “How many e-mails resulting from that seminar, Nagi?” Crawford asked.

“243,” Nagi replied. “Some of them might be repeats from the same people, but still. But I don’t think Omi knew how many accumulated.” Omi wouldn’t have knowingly handed this giant pile to him without a warning.

“We have to renegotiate with him nonetheless. That’s far too much work for you to do for free.”

“And you haven’t even answered Bradmom’s e-mail yet,” Schuldig said with a big smile.

Just Schuldig being Schuldig. “Fuck you, Schuldig,” Nagi answered.

“You love me.”

“Not at all. Anyway, I agree with you, Crawford. My time is too precious to go through all of this plus do my regular work.”

“I’ll have to decide whether to renegotiate in person or over the phone. Either way, you don’t need to be part of it.”

Nagi knew Crawford’s reasons but actually didn’t mind it. Seeing Omi today had already thrown him a bit off his balance. Would it ever stop making him feel awkward?

He wished he could duck Omi like this without feeling like he was running away.

Emotions were so damned messy.


	271. "I’ll reward you vigorously all night long."

“Fucking Weiß,” Crawford said, annoyed, as he and Schuldig brought their things into the bathroom. 

“Fucking Weiß has its good side,” Schuldig answered. “It’s not _all_ crushing work for no benefit.” 

Of course he’d say that. Crawford knew suddenly that Schuldig would find and hang out with Balinese tonight, and it ticked him off. “What if I forbade you to? Don’t give me nonsense about giving him a promise of sexual favors as a reward for getting Aya out of that coma because we both know you only keep your word when you feel like doing so.”

Schuldig let his belongings drop heavily onto the counter and turned to face Crawford. “Forbid me? I’m not doing anything against Schwarz’s interests, I’m making it more difficult for Weiß to take us on, and you knew what I was like when you took up with me, so I don’t see where you get the right to forbid me from doing what I want in my off hours.”

“I’m your leader and your lover.”

“I already addressed both of those just a few seconds ago. We’ve gone over this before, and I thought we resolved this shit already. You’ve heard my arguments, I’ve heard your arguments, and I decided to keep doing what I’m doing. You don’t want to see what happens when you pull my leash too tight.”

Another burst of sullen independence. It had felt good to get out and do things alone, at his own speed and exactly the way he wanted to get things done, but it had left Schuldig alone and Crawford had the feeling that his telepath had made plans and decided to meddle in things, in Schwarz as well as Weiß. Crawford didn’t want Schuldig doing any social engineering of _his_ team without his input. 

He even understood a lot of Balinese’s appeal to Schuldig; Schuldig could master, dominate, and manipulate him in ways Crawford wouldn’t allow in _their_ relationship. 

Crawford grabbed him by the neck. “I want to make sure you keep your priorities and emotions straight.” It took so much self-control not to grab Schuldig by the tie, but he knew if he fell to temptation there it’d make Schuldig less likely to wear a tie in the future. 

Schuldig’s face looked sharper and harder in his anger, which unexpectedly made Crawford’s cock twitch. “I have them all straight, though maybe you’d be more confident about my loyalties if you spent less time being an asshole to me.” Schuldig grabbed Crawford’s other hand and set it on his crotch. “And maybe I’ll do fewer sexy things with Yoji if someone has already satisfied me. There are a lot of ways you can improve things, Brad, but threatening me isn’t one of them. Be the better man.” 

Crawford stroked his telepath’s neck and growing erection. Being aware of Schuldig trying to manipulate him by throwing down a challenge didn’t stop parts of him from wanting to rise to it. “I already am.”

“Then prove it.” Schuldig grabbed him by his tie and yanked him forward into an aggressive kiss, stoking his urge to fuck his telepath into compliance. Schuldig smelled of sweat and gunpowder, enticing, and Crawford had spent the day wanting to peel him out of that suit. 

Fine. Crawford kissed back, hard and demanding, and set his hands on Schuldig’s ass, the better to grind them together, hard cock to hard cock, making his telepath gasp. Although Schuldig used sex as a weapon more often, Crawford had it in his arsenal as well and knew from very pleasant experience that Schuldig wasn’t immune, far from it. Still grinding, his hands swept lower to stroke Schuldig’s perineum through his pants, making him writhe. 

Sometimes precognition could be used in a way that made it work almost like telepathy: Crawford could look into the future moment by moment to see what actions produced the best results, something that could come in especially handy during sex. Prolonged reaching for it--as opposed to those times when it came to him on its own--gave him headaches and sometimes erectile dysfunction, which stopped him from doing it more often, but making a point here and now with Schuldig made it worth the head pain and being judicious could stave off the other problem. 

“It’s a good start,” Schuldig gasped when their lips parted for them to take some deeper breaths. Crawford certainly felt somewhat breathless, not that he would admit it.

“The ride to the finish will be even better,” Crawford answered in all confidence that he _had_ him. Schuldig would no doubt still visit Balinese, but his body and mind would remember who owned them. 

Then a quick vision came that Crawford had to hide from Schuldig. He shouldn’t laugh or smirk either. Poor Schuldig, his kitty would leave him so disappointed and angry tonight.... 

Although special spectacular sex would no longer be necessary, Crawford decided to give it to Schuldig anyway. Just out of his own generosity.

******************************************************

“Shit, Yoji, what’s holding those pants up?” Sasha asked as Yoji walked past the living room. 

“Sheer will and my dick,” Yoji answered as he stopped. If his pants sat any lower on his hips he could have been arrested for indecency but he felt he needed to take the risk to let the ladies know what they’d get.

“It’s telekinesis,” Fenris said. 

“Really?” Sasha said. “Well, that makes sense.”

That took a lot of the fun out of the whole thing, but Yoji tried not to let that show as he replied, “Like I said, sheer will.” 

“Try not to get arrested,” Sasha said. 

“You’re staying in?” Even though Sasha might cramp Yoji’s style a bit if they went out together, Yoji wanted to make sure Sasha was getting out there, living it up.

“After the workday we had, definitely. I’m happy lounging on the couch watching anime with Fenris.”

Fenris sneezed and snuffled into a tissue. “The doctor said I should get rest and stay warm to get rid of my cold.”

“You didn’t sneeze or drip at work earlier,” Yoji said.

“Telekinesis,” Fenris answered.

“Ew,” Yoji said, while Sasha silently looked grossed out.

“It works,” Fenris said. “Yoji, your pants are so tight. Since you dance in them, do you ever split a seam?”

“If anyone else asked me that, I’d be sure they’d be busting my chops.”

“But it’s me.”

“In your case, I’m thinking it’s possible you’re busting my chops.” 

Fenris smiled. “Make sure you go out wearing a coat! We wouldn’t want you to catch a chill.” He waved his tissue for emphasis.

“Yes, Mom.”

“That’s Elena.” 

“He’s got you there, Yoji,” Sasha said. 

“Stop ganging up against me,” Yoji replied. 

“Only when you stop making it fun.” Very Schuldiggy of him. 

“You both suck. I’m leaving.”

“Have fun!” Fenris said, while Sasha said, “Don’t get arrested!” 

******************************************************

It had been such a much needed relief to stop thinking for a while and just _dance_, and he happily soaked up the appreciative looks so many people gave him. Although he’d started out often changing dance partners as the mood took him, he stuck with his current one, Taeko, a luscious beauty with glossy lips, long glossy black hair, lusty eyes, a body that wouldn’t quit, and very nicely displayed breasts. Yoji loved breasts. If she fucked like she danced, Yoji would have an energetic and very pleasurable night ahead of him. 

Suddenly another woman grabbed her by the arm, looking angry. The two could almost have been twins. Sisters maybe? This confrontation didn’t bode well, and he hoped it wouldn’t lead to him having to go to a different club to avoid drama. But Taeko just smiled at her and yelled over the music, “This is Yoji! I think you’ll like him. I do.”

The other woman looked him over, sizing him up, then smiled and asked, “Do you think you could handle the both of us at once, Yoji?”

Hot damn. “I’ll certainly do my best!” Yoji answered.

“I’m Fujiko.”

“I’m very happy,” Yoji replied. He still had it. 

******************************************************

Twitchy with anticipation, preferring to get on to the main event, they didn’t stay at the club much longer and went to a hotel, a fairly nice one, the ladies’ treat. They didn’t touch him during the cab ride but the sexual tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. They pounced him in the hotel room instead, not that he’d complain. Although it started with Taeko going down on her knees to suck his cock while Fujiko kissed him and purred as he stroked and fondled her breasts--fuck, he loved breasts so much--everything quickly became a blur of pleasure-giving hands and mouths. He’d missed women so much, their scent and breasts and softness and curves and the way he could make them wet from wanting him. Especially their breasts. 

He liked watching them make out with each other as well. Damn, that was hot. 

Good thing he recovered pretty quickly, because these ladies were _insatiable_. He fingered and went down on them too, but they wanted his cock and who could blame them? Happily for them, he didn’t believe in denying his partners what they wanted. 

Thankfully, he didn’t feel the urge to put his hands around their necks and squeeze even once. Such a relief.

After several satisfying rounds of hot sex, they all lay tangled together sleepily, enjoying the afterglow. Yoji roused enough to get up and say, “I’m off to the bathroom. Be right back.” Feeling them watch his bare ass as he left, he put a little more swagger into his walk. 

After he relieved himself he noticed the bathroom door opening and closing again. What the hell? Schuldig, smirking, suddenly appeared and said, “Hey, baby.”

Although this kind of thing shouldn’t surprise him anymore, it still made him jump. “What are you doing here?” Did the girls see him? Could the girls hear them?

“They can’t hear or see anything I don’t want them to.” Smiling, Schuldig jumped up to sit on the counter near Yoji and the sink. He wore black dress slacks and a light green shirt unbuttoned enough to leave his collarbones bare, along with a dark trench coat and boots, giving the impression that he’d been dressed up earlier but dressed down since. Something about him suggested afterglow. 

Yoji tried not to feel self-conscious about his own nudity, which was easier when Schuldig was similarly naked. Not that he necessarily wanted him to be naked right now. 

Not many people could make Yoji feel self-conscious about it. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

Schuldig shrugged. “I still have to reward you for what you did for me, Aya, and Farfie in Vienna, and I would have tonight if you hadn’t decided you desperately needed pussy.”

That probably meant that Schuldig had seen Yoji’s dream. Shit. 

“Of course I saw that dream,” Schuldig replied. “I may not track you moment by moment in real time, but you keep thinking about it and almost everything you’ve done since the dream is in response to it. That dream was fucking _hot_. I officially love your subconscious. Too bad your alarm clock went off before you got a chance to have Aya too.”

Yoji needed to steer the conversation better. “So you backed off when you saw that I needed a woman’s touch.” 

“You don’t _need_ it. Want it, yeah.”

“Need it.”

“Look at you getting so cranky over a really enjoyable sex dream. Are you a _nun_?”

Yoji would _not_ be distracted by that. “So you backed off on having sex with me tonight, but you still came here!” 

“I didn’t come as much as I’d hoped.”

Wait. “Did you _make_ those two want me?”

“No! After everything I did to get you over your issue with women, do you really think I’d give you a new one?”

“Yes! That’s _exactly_ the kind of thing you’d do!”

“Heh. You’re right, but I’m not doing that to you tonight. All I did was make sure they noticed you. It was their choice to proposition you. Your appeal remains intact despite all the cocks you’ve sucked and taken up the ass.”

“...if this is your idea of rewarding me, you have some really strange ideas.”

“When I reward you myself, you’ll know it. Trust me. I’ll reward you vigorously all night long.”

_Not_ getting distracted! “How can I possibly trust you when you do shit like this?”

“Shit like helping you get laid by two women at once? You should be thanking me. Letting me eavesdrop on it is the least you can do.” 

“I didn’t ‘let.’ I didn’t know you were there! Were you at the club too?”

“Duh.”

Yoji had such a headache now. 

“Calm down before your head explodes,” Schuldig said. “Relax, and go out there and have some more threesome sex. If you’re curious, I can let you experience their sensations along with your own. The female orgasm...” Schuldig’s blue eyes turned bright, lusting, and dreamy, while his voice became deeper and more insinuating. “It’s really something. Especially when it’s multiple orgasms.”

Yoji fought down his curiosity and natural hedonism. “That’s not necessary.”

“I know it’s not necessary for me to do that for you, but I want to give it to you. As a gift. Feeling it from the inside myself sure affects the way I fuck, and the ladies don’t have any complaints.”

Yoji hated his dick for getting hard from all this talk and his nudity for making it obvious to Schuldig. No matter how tempted that offer made him, he knew that giving in there would lead to more giving in later. “The best gift you could give me tonight is letting me fuck in peace and privacy.”

“That’s no fun.”

“Maybe not for you, but it sounds great to me. You keep saying you’re trying to reward me....” 

When Schuldig pouted Yoji refused to see it as cute. “You already ruined my plans for tonight by grasping so desperately at heterosexuality, and now you’re telling me to fuck off completely too? You suck, Kudou, and you’re helping Crawford win.”

“Wait, what?” 

“He’s dying to get Schwarz completely away from you. He’s also dying to separate Nagi from Omi and Aya from Weiß. You know this.”

“Me refusing to let you watch and eavesdrop while I have sex has nothing to do with any of that!”

“If you tell yourself that often enough maybe you’ll believe it, but the path of history has been changed by smaller things. I don’t get you. Your rewards and gifts can’t benefit anyone aside from you?”

“Farfarello used a similar argument in Vienna and it really didn’t work out.”

“Thanks so much for reminding me of the other threesome you disappointed me in.”

Other? Oh, right. “Hey, I was on board for that one. _Aya_ was the one who stopped the train.” 

“And you let him!”

“Are you serious? I’m not a rapist, thanks.” 

“Aren’t you supposed to be a smooth talker and master of seduction?”

“I _am_.” Damned right.

Schuldig’s smirk turned... smirk-ier. “Well?”

“I _tried_. It’s _Aya_. You know how he is and how hard it can be to change his mind.”

“We all have to make sacrifices so hotness may live. Aya should know that by now. Not that having sex with you and Farfie is such a sacrifice.”

“...I partially agree with that. And you’re trying to distract me again! _Leave_, Schuldig. In my mind I already had sex with Schwarz today, so I’d like to have my night free.” 

“Too bad we can’t say the same.”

“You’ll all survive somehow. Out.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!”

“...fine. You’re missing out, while Brad will be thrilled.” 

“I’ll find a way to live with that.”

Schuldig slid off the counter then smirked. “What should I tell Aya?” He did not _stop_.

“That I’m well and I’ll catch up with him later. You’re pissing me off. Right now I want you to get out. No more games, no more manipulation, no more sitting around invisible watching us, no fucking up this sweet threesome I have going on tonight that, yeah, you helped along a bit and thanks for that. _That_ can be part of your reward for me.”

“Might as well ask me to slit my throat. You’re demanding a lot.” 

He’d pissed Schuldig off? Good, since Yoji believed in reciprocation. “Do it for me anyway.” Maybe this confrontation was a good thing, since Sasha’s much milder form of Schuldigism had made Yoji complacent and Schuldig apparently needed to be reminded that Yoji had a backbone. 

“You’ve thoroughly ruined my mood.”

“Likewise.”

“Fine. I’m out of here.” Schuldig left in a huff and a dramatic swirl of his coat, Yoji right behind him to make sure he didn’t try anything with them ladies. 

Once Schuldig closed the hotel room door with a slam, Taeko asked, “What was that about?”

“I thought I heard something in the hall and wanted to check,” Yoji answered, waiting to hear her say something about the man who just left.

But she just grinned and said, “You’re naked. You could have given someone quite a show.”

Relief. “But I didn’t. The only people getting a show from me are you and Fujiko. Ready for the next act?” 

******************************************************

Aya awoke suddenly, confused by the anger, outrage, relief, and adrenaline rushing through him. Had he heard something too? People talking....

He didn’t hear anything now. He tapped into... Nagi’s telepathy a bit to scan the immediate area but found nothing aside from his sleeping teammates. Schuldig he didn’t hear because Schuldig had gone out. Should he get out of bed to investigate anyway?

Obviously still asleep, Farfarello pulled him closer, nuzzled him, and asked, “Hmmm?” 

“It’s nothing. I’m going back to sleep.” He could already feel a lot of it draining off anyway. Must have been some dream. Besides, they both had weapons in easy reach. 

******************************************************

Angry, agitated, Schuldig drummed his fingers loudly against the steering wheel. Yoji didn’t know how good he had it with Schuldig; most people would’ve gotten their brains exploded after that display. 

He’d had _plans_ for tonight, dammit. 

While he could still eavesdrop from a distance, it took a lot of the fun out of it and he wouldn’t get a live visual show of the three of them. Yoji had ruined everything.

No way he could go back to Brad in this state. Brad would gloat and enjoy his downfall too much. Besides, he felt too restless. He also still felt somewhat horny, but in this mood he’d tear someone apart and he didn’t feel like having to scrub blood out from under his fingernails.

He had to go somewhere. 

He started to smile as he knew exactly whom he could visit to lift his spirits. 

******************************************************

Frustrated with himself, Sasha sighed, stretched, and set the book down. He was _not_ having an easy time learning kanji, katakana, and hiragana. Adding that to how easily he kept getting lost in the streets of Tokyo, he started to wonder if he had some previously unrealized mental block when it came to some Japanese concepts since he usually picked things up faster than this. 

Being able to read would make it easier for him to find his way in Tokyo. 

Still, he shouldn’t be so hard on himself. Non-telepaths wouldn’t be able to speak and understand a spoken foreign language or expect to pick up a written foreign language as quickly as he did. 

His life here and how quickly everything had changed still surprised him. It hadn’t been that long ago that he never thought he’d get out of Austria, let alone find himself in a very different faraway country. Homeless, hungry, _hunted_, his prospects of having any kind of future had looked so dim. Now he had a home, friends, and a job that didn’t require him to sell his soul or body. 

Killing people didn’t bother him much. He’d been doing it for years and gotten very good at it.

He really should stop complaining. Elena and Fenris had to learn written Japanese the old fashioned way too, a process they hadn’t finished yet. 

He’d probably do better starting fresh after a good night’s sleep. Fenris had gone to bed about two hours ago.

Suddenly he heard a very familiar voice, even aside from how it sounded a lot like his, ask, ~ Hey, Sasha, wanna go for a ride? ~

It’d certainly distract him from his linguistic failures, and Schuldig had been pretty good to him, but it always paid to set down some ground rules first. ~ I can’t stay out _all_ night. ~

~ Me neither. I’ll get you home at a semi-decent hour. We’ll just have fun and catch up with each other a bit. Nothing to worry about. ~

~ Then I just need to get my coat. ~

Schuldig’s happiness and approval rolled over Sasha like a wave of very welcome warmth. ~ Good boy. ~


	272. "It's always good to have an alternate career ready."

Sasha sauntered out of the building and over to the car, which Schuldig approved. If you got it, flaunt it. Sasha had been a too thin, worn out shadow in Vienna, while here he looked and mentally sounded healthier and more confident.

Getting in, Sasha asked in German, “What’s up? I didn’t expect to get a personal visit.” 

“I can’t want to see how you’re doing and if Weiß is treating you properly?” Schuldig answered in the same. Once he got Sasha under better lighting conditions he could get a better idea of his progress. 

He was also curious to see if he noticed any “Schuldiggy” traits, something buzzing in his brain since Nagi had told him that Yoji thought Sasha had more of them than anyone would have expected. If true, it made Schuldig wonder if he had more Emory in his makeup than he’d thought, an idea that blew his mind. 

“You’re the master of ulterior motives.”

“You flatter me! To be honest--”

“Heh.”

“Hush, you. I can be honest. Sometimes honesty is more powerful and does more damage than lies. Yoji disappointed me tonight, and I needed some cheering up so I thought of you.”

“Yoji’s usually pretty accommodating. Did you get in the way of his clubbing tonight? He was really set on it.”

“Not even! He clubbed, he danced, and he picked up two women thanks to me and had a lot of great sex with them.”

“Which you listened in on.”

“Of course. I got them to notice him, so he wouldn’t have gotten them if not for me.”

“So then you came on to him and he refused you?” Perceptive brat.

“I wouldn’t put it that way.”

Sasha had the nerve to laugh. “So it’s accurate. Go Yoji!”

“That’s the completely wrong reaction. I didn’t even demand sex from him; all I asked was to watch and listen in, so little, but his heterosexual panic deprived me of even that.”

“But you were already doing that.”

“He didn’t know then. I decided to be nice and ask permission for more. I even offered to let him feel their pleasure and orgasms in addition to his own. He totally refused me. Teach me to be nice and ask people.”

“That’s really not the lesson you should take from this.”

“Maybe not, but it’s what I _am_ taking from it.”

“Don’t pout. It does you good to be refused once in a while. You’d get bored if you always got your way.”

“If that’s so, Brad makes sure I’m rarely bored, so I don’t need Yoji doing it too. This is after I defended Yoji to Brad tonight too, which makes it even more galling. Such an ingrate.”

Sasha’s lip curled at the mention of Brad’s name but otherwise he still sounded amused. “Did you tell Yoji that?”

“I alluded to it, and it didn’t sway him. You know, you’re failing miserably at cheering me up.”

“Deal with it.” But Sasha put his hand on Schuldig’s arm and squeezed a bit, comfortingly. “He’s usually more accommodating, but he seemed twitchy since he came back from his nap so maybe that had something to do with it. He mentioned an upsetting dream.”

“Upsetting? It was a damned _hot_ dream, but he managed to get upset enough about it to throw himself on as much pussy as he could find to deny it. You have to know that.”

“I don’t know. I don’t pry.”

What? _Really_? “You don’t pry? Weiß is ruining you! Is that the shit Friendly will be teaching in Okinawa? All the better for Schwarz, I guess, but I want you at least to be on top of your game.” 

“Call her ‘Elena.’”

“She was fine with ‘Friendly’ when the story behind it made Rosenkreuz assholes think twice about fucking with her.”

“You and Schwarz put a spin of contempt on it, and she’s out of Rosenkreuz now. And what’s this thing about me ‘at least’?”

“You’re special.”

Sasha felt pleased for a moment then said, “...now you’re just trying to manipulate me.”

“Yes, but I’m using the truth.”

“Yeah, yeah. But I’m not being ruined.”

“A telepath’s whole reason for being on a team is to pry, into his teammates and allies as well as his opponents. For the good of his team, and to some extent the needs of his team leader, he has to keep his finger on the mental and emotional pulse of his team.” 

“A finger just on the pulse?”

Schuldig grinned. “At the very least on the pulse. It’s up to him if he employs his fingers on and in other places on his teammates.” 

“So we’re like the Stasi?” Sasha didn’t look happy about it. “I know that’s the Eszett way and hoped for better.” 

“It’s for everyone’s good. Listen to the voice of experience, youngblood.” 

“It’s convenient that you _like_ to pry.” 

“Isn’t it just?”

“Tell me about this dream. I’m curious now.” 

“Nope. If you want to know, you’ll have to pry yourself. Why should I let you get the goodies without taking the trouble? I’m not _that_ generous.”

“Well, _this_ is a great start to our visit.”

“True. You haven’t even started to cheer me up.”

“You’re such an egomaniac,” Sasha answered affectionately. “What did you have in mind for tonight?” 

“Renting a hotel room for a few hours.”

Sasha raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“We don’t have to go all the way, but I’m open to it if our conversation and time together lead that way.”

“So am I, actually.”

Score! “Sweet thing. I do want to talk and see how you’ve been doing, and a club is too loud, while it might be a bad idea to talk about the things in our lives in front of strangers, even if we are speaking in German, so a bar is out of the question. I’m not going home to Brad yet, and--”

“And he hasn’t ever been welcoming to me anyway.” Obviously still a sore spot, not that Schuldig blamed him for it. 

“So, a hotel room. Any ideas on where to get snacks and drinks for it?”

“There’s a konbini down the street that has a good selection of snacks and a decent brand of beer.” 

A kid after his own heart, which made sense. “Beer? Foreign or domestic?”

“Depends on how you define ‘foreign’ and ‘domestic’ here. There’s nothing German, but the Japanese brand I’m thinking of is pretty good.”

“Impossible.”

“You’ll just have to try it and see.”

“All right. I’m trusting you.”

“Wise decision. I’ll direct you there.” After a moment, Sasha said, “But you have to behave yourself. I come to this place a lot, and the people there know me and so far like me. Behave yourself for real too, not just do shit and then erase it from their minds afterward.”

“You’re so mean to me.”

“If you misbehave, I’ll refuse to cheer you up at all. I’ll be out of here, and you could go home to Crawford and his smug sense of victory.”

“Fine.” Schuldig hadn’t intended to act up anyway, but Sasha looked so cute when he got like this.

The place looked like any other convenience store in Japan on the outside and inside. When they walked in the guy behind the counter greeted them with a friendly “Hello, Elend-san! This is later than usual.”

Sasha switched back to Japanese to answer, “Family came to visit, and we’re making a late night of it.” 

Schuldig just had to wave at the cashier after that. Once they were further away from the guy, he murmured to Sasha, “‘Elend,’ huh?”

“I was ‘Misery’ for too long to totally let it go. It’s a part of my past that sucked, but it’s still mine. I have pretzels and Pocky to go with the beer. If you want anything else, toss it into the basket.” 

“I’m good with what you have. If we need more, we can always go out again.”

Sasha raised an eyebrow. “I told you--”

“Don’t worry. I’ll let you go home to the kittens.”

When they brought their things to the register, the cashier said, “The family resemblance is obvious. It’s good to meet you. Is this your real hair color, Elend-san?”

Schuldig had to smirk, because the resemblance _should_ be obvious.

“It is,” Sasha answered as he paid. “The bottle-blond is actually less flashy. This is Schu, my older brother. Schu, this is Soseki-san.” 

“Charmed,” Schuldig said, surprised at the little thrill the introduction gave him. “I hope to visit more often.”

Although Soseki was somewhat surprised by how good Schuldig’s Japanese was, he didn’t say anything about it. More people should be as thoughtful. “We’re always open, so please feel free to come back. Good night!”

“Good night!” Sasha said as they left the store. 

Once they were in the car, Schuldig had to say, “See? I was perfectly behaved.” 

Smiling, Sasha answered, “Do you want a pat on the head?”

“At the very least!”

“Do you have a hotel in mind?”

“Ooooh, I _am_ getting more than just a pat on the head!”

“You know what I mean.”

“Actually, yeah. I won’t even get us one of those kinky theme rooms since it would distract us from the talking.”

“You’re all heart.”

“Yep.”

“Even though it’s only been less than a week, I’m actually enjoying the chance to speak to someone in German again.” 

“What about Fenris?” Fenris might not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he was German.

“He and Elena figure that the more practice with Japanese he can get, the better, so we all just speak Japanese to him. Yoji and Ken are also happier if they don’t have to hear German and remember why they know it.” 

“The sacrifices we make for the mundanes.”

“Yoji isn’t all that mundane.” The way he said it....

“You and Yoji got it on. I can tell. So spill the details.”

“_How_ can you tell?”

“I have my ways and I’m amazing.”

“Yeah, sure. It was the day when Aya’s inner torment smacked Yoji.”

“I’m so proud of you for taking that opening and running with it.”

Sasha flipped him an obscene gesture but didn’t appear to be _truly_ annoyed. “I didn’t _take advantage_ of him. _He_ asked me. It was a mutual thing where we enjoyed each other for a few rounds.”

“Nothing since then? Why not?”

“We talked about prying earlier.”

“I could pry harder and thus not need you to tell me anything willingly.”

“Hmph. It wasn’t all that long ago. I’m sure we’ll go again. Give it time. Besides, it’s not like we swore our undying love for each other and to never touch another person. Yoji isn’t exactly naturally monogamous, and we both had some fun with other people since then.”

“Good boy. Yoji’s a great lay--”

“No arguments there.”

“--but you’re too young and too recently free to get locked into an intense, monogamous relationship, _especially_ with a notorious playboy who’s been playing with all of Schwarz.”

“I’m sure you’ll be proud to know that it’s not even like he’s the first person I’ve had recently. I had sex with Wicked and Malice too, together, in Vienna.”

_Really_? “When in Vienna did this happen? How did I miss it?” Of course, if he had the terrible twosome at all it had to be in a three-way.

“You were trying to get Fujimiya-san out of his coma at the time, so I can understand you missing it.”

“I’m horrified _and_ fascinated while wondering about this, so I have to ask: How are they in bed?”

“Wicked is as caffeinated as you’d expect. Malice is totally the dominant one, with Wicked defying him only to get a rise out of him and occasionally from wanting to be punished, so in bed Malice is Crawford and Wicked is you.” 

Perceptive brat. “...you just had to go there, didn’t you?” 

Smirking, Sasha replied, “Hell yeah.”

Although Schuldig thought that someday Sasha might find his own Crawford, he didn’t say it. Sasha in a foul mood wouldn’t be as cheery. Instead Schuldig said, “It mystifies me how unlike the rest of us Malice is, especially since he was in the Schuldig program and survived and helped others survive by pretending to be me to the Rosenkreuz assholes.”

“As hard as he tries not to be, Malice is more like you than he wants to admit.”

“That makes more sense. I’d appreciate it if he’d stop fucking blaming _me_ for what Rosenkreuz did to him trying to replicate me. All _I_ did was exist and be awesome doing it.”

Sasha shrugged. “You’re around and they’re not. It makes you more convenient.”

“Not many people think I’m convenient, and it looks like I’m better off that way. We’re here.”

“Good. I can hear the beer and pretzels loudly calling to me.”

As they checked in, Schuldig made sure the desk clerk didn’t feel any curiosity about them at all, just in case someone asked later. He also made sure that the guy thought they’d paid for however long they decided to stay. 

Once they were inside their room, Sasha said, “I noticed that.”

“What?”

“The mind whammy you gave the guy at the desk.” 

“So?”

“You didn’t do it at the konbini.”

“Hey, I behaved, like you asked. Besides, there we were using _your_ money, not mine.”

Sasha shook his head and laughed. “Sure.”

“You don’t have any problems with me doing it here?”

“Be pretty hypocritical after some of the things I did to get by in Vienna.”

“Excellent. I was worried that Weiß would make you too much of a goody-goody.”

“We _kill_ people.”

“I’m sure you’ve noticed that they manage to sit on their high horses anyway.”

“...true,” Sasha answered as he took his dark trench coat and black leather boots off, revealing dark blue jeans and a charcoal-colored sweater that had suede patches at the elbows and shoulders. 

“You’re so _drab_. Where’s the _color_?”

“Fuck you. I like it, I was working in the shop today, and Yoji is gaudy enough for the both of us. Hey, I reapplied my eyeliner--”

“_Black_ eyeliner.” Which looked good on him, but it was still black. 

“--for you. What, do you want sparkle eyeliner or something?”

“No. Our blue eyes don’t need glitter fighting for a viewer’s attention.”

“Besides, the rest of your outfits are usually too busy blinding them.”

“I’m expressing myself and brightening up the world. Don’t make that derisive face at me. You’re just too young to know any better yet.” Maybe this was a phase Sasha would grow out of. 

“I made an effort in the time I had. I didn’t think you’d wait for me to change into something a little more fetish-y.”

“I _always_ have time for people to change into something like that.”

“_You’re_ wearing a lot of black tonight, and it’s a suit at that.”

Schuldig tossed his suit jacket, trench coat, scarf, and socks at a nearby chair. “Sometimes I dress to give Brad a bit of a thrill, just to let him know I can look like this if I want to. I just seldom want to. Besides, I cheer it up with this pretty green shirt.”

“I guess I can endorse something that tortures him at least a little bit, but did your shirt spend the whole day unbuttoned to show off your collarbones?”

“Actually no. Brad undressed me once tonight and I didn’t feel like putting the tie back on to go out.”

“Ugh. Didn’t want to know that.”

“You _asked_.” Schuldig had to add, “Also, your jeans should be tighter.”

“I’m still working my way back up to a healthy weight. No sense in buying a lot of clothes I’d quickly become too big for.” 

“It looks like your effort is going well.” Though Schuldig intended to get Sasha’s sweater off at some point for a better look. Pants too, maybe.

“Thanks. I’m also exercising so my new weight will end up where I want it. A gut isn’t sexy.”

Mmmm. “Depends on the size and person. And the mind.”

“You really are open-minded. Or indiscriminate.”

“I know you’re trying to make it sound like a bad thing because you can’t deal with my generosity of spirit.”

“That’s what you’re calling it?” Sasha opened a beer for himself and took a deep, sexy swallow. “Mmmm.”

“Speaking of generosity, give me one of those bad boys.” After taking a swallow himself, Schuldig said, “I may doubt your taste in color, but your taste in beer is good.” 

“Told you.” Sasha sat on the huge bed then bounced on it a bit. “Nice.” 

“I made sure we got a nice bed. No futons for us, sweet.” Schuldig sat next to him. 

“Have I become a total lightweight with alcohol, or are your toenails painted gold?”

Wiggling his toes, Schuldig answered, “I figured that if I’d be spending so much time in Jamaica without shoes on I should make my feet prettier.”

“You tan damned well for a redhead. I guess that gives me something to look forward to.”

_Thank you_. “I was waiting for _somebody_ to say something about my blond streaks and tan. Yoji didn’t notice.”

“Probably too busy trying to get you out of there so he could get back to being the filling in a lady sandwich to notice. Yoji gets tunnel vision in situations like that.”

“Hmph. So selfish.”

“I’m bravely resisting the urge to make a comment.”

“Shut up and give me some of those pretzel sticks.”

“Sure. They’re good too, so they should help cheer you up.”

“Pretzels and beer. We’re such huge stereotypes.”

“That’s why I got the Pocky too.”

“Smart of you.”

“Well, also because I like it.” 

“That’s allowed. We’ve both brought sausage too.”

Sasha groaned. “That’s terrible.”

Smirking, Schuldig asked, “We’re _not_ having a sausage fest here? Yoji’s not a fan of sausage tonight....”

“I didn’t go out with you tonight to let you torture me.”

“I thought you were made of sterner stuff, but fine. Oooh, _are_ we going out?”

“Never again if you keep up with the bad sausage jokes.”

“In that case, I’m done with them.” Having finished his first bottle, Schuldig opened a second one. 

Considering his lower body weight, Sasha might not be able to handle as much beer as Schuldig could and end up smashed faster than he expected. If it happened, Schuldig couldn’t see any downside to it.

“I’ll hold you to that.” 

“Yes, _hold_ me.”

Sasha rolled his eyes then asked, “Aside from Aya having a freak-out, how was Jamaica?” 

“Hot. Pretty. Not as much fun as it should have been since my team is full of workaholics with various issues they use work to hide from. I spent my whole ‘vacation’ working to stop my team from imploding.”

“Poor you.”

“I’ve been promised a real vacation in the near future.”

“By whom? By Crawford? Good luck there. He’s much happier making you _useful_. He’ll just put it off endlessly.” 

“You’re biased.”

“So are you.”

It would take time and Crawford being less of an ass to him to change Sasha’s mind, the last of which might never even happen, so Schuldig decided to let it go and move past it. “In the meantime, I need to relax _tonight_. Brush my hair for me?”

Sasha sputtered. “Really?”

“I’d brush yours, but there’s not much to it. So short. I could give you a scalp message in return for you brushing my hair.” Sasha had told him that Woeller had enjoyed brushing his hair, so somebody needed to give Sasha positive memories to overwrite the old ones. If he played it right, light and fun, it shouldn’t set Sasha off.

After a moment’s thought, Sasha replied, “All right. Done.” Victory!

“You brush my hair first.” Schuldig handed Sasha a brush he had in his coat pocket.

Sasha moved back on the bed more to give Schuldig room to sit in front of him but said, “If you get a brushing and fail to give me a scalp massage afterward you’ll never get anything like this out of me again. Believe it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” 

“You’ll have to let me know in advance next time you want a brushing so I can bring some bows, ribbons, and pretty barrettes.” 

“I like using those decorative chopsticks to put my hair up.”

“I was trying to be insulting.”

“I know.”

“You’re really annoying.”

“Yep, I know. It drives people crazy.”

As Sasha brushed his hair, Schuldig enjoyed it so much that he had no intention of reneging on his offer. He wanted this again, thanks. It felt so good it made his toes curl. Relaxing too. “You have a gift, Sasha.”

“It’s always good to have an alternate career ready.”

Too soon, Sasha said, “Done. My turn.”

No! “More brushing!”

“Your hair is completely brushed. I brushed it into as close to submission as it can get. It’s smooth now.”

“That’s the boar bristles in the brush at work. It could still be smoother though.”

“Don’t be greedy.” 

“Do you _know_ me?”

Sasha took the brush and his hands away from Schuldig’s hair. “Reciprocation time. Now.”

“Mean!” 

“Fair!”

Damn it. If he wanted more in the future.... “Fine. Switch places.”

“Yay!”

“Don’t celebrate _too_ hard.” At least Sasha didn’t have any product in his hair to get in the way. 

“Mmmm, this _is_ nice.”

“I warned you about excessive and loud celebrating.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“It’s getting longer.”

“I told you I’d be growing it out.”

“Yeah, but a lot happened since then. What about the color?”

“C’mon. The more people ask about it, the more I want to keep bleaching it.” 

“Woeller is dead.” Sasha jumped but Schuldig kept a light, calming touch on him. “And even though it makes you fit in more with the Weiß kittens to brood over whether or not you could have killed him yourself, pointless what ifs, the important thing is that he _is_ dead.” It might ruin the mood, but Schuldig thought it was important. 

“Fuck you.” Sasha shivered. “It’s not that easy to forget. It’s not that easy to move on.”

“I know, but you have to do this for yourself.” 

Sasha tried to pull away. “If this is part of your massage process, it _sucks_. Get someone relaxed then punch him in the gut?”

Schuldig didn’t let him go. “That wasn’t a gut punch. If I gut-punched you, you wouldn’t be able to talk about it. I _care_ about you, and you shouldn’t live scarred and disfigured by a man who didn’t mean _shit_ when he was alive and means even less dead. You deserve better.”

“I do deserve better, but I’ll do things on my time table, not yours. Also, I won’t necessarily go back to my natural color just because _you_ think it’s a sign of mental health.” At least he seemed more angry and defiant than hurt or traumatized now, an improvement. 

Schuldig went back to massaging his scalp. “Okay.”

“‘Okay’?”

“It sounds like you’re on the road to recovery, even if you’re still in the starting stages of the journey.”

“I’ve never felt pity for your team until now.”

“Hmph. They find me perfectly therapeutic.” Having finished the massage, Schuldig kissed the back of Sasha’s bare neck and smiled at the shiver it inspired. “I’m sorry for bringing you down a bit. I know just the thing to cheer you up.” Schuldig grabbed a pillow, and only Sasha’s Schuldigian speed and reflexes saved him from a thorough bashing, though he did take a glancing blow. “Pillow fight!”

“You are off your _nut_.” 

But Sasha leapt across the bed to grab one of the other pillows and they went at it, chasing each other around the room and walloping each other whenever possible. Sasha also knew the trick of letting the pillow slide all the way down, bunching up, into the hitting end of the pillow case for more impact. While Schuldig had more of an edge and got more shots in, Sasha matched him in speed and nearly in reflexes. Viciousness too. Good boy. 

After maybe 25 minutes Schuldig yelled out, feeling somewhat breathless and dizzy, “Truce!” 

Although he looked like he felt that way too, Sasha didn’t disarm or relax. “For real?”

“For real.”

“You know--”

“That it’ll affect your ability to trust me in the future if this is a ruse now? Yeah, I know. This is a for real truce.”

“Okay.”

They collapsed on the bed close together, lightheaded, panting, red-faced, and reeling. They’d thoroughly messed up each other’s hair, making it look crazy, but the pillow fight had obviously improved Sasha’s mood. 

Feeling almost uncomfortably full of emotion, Schuldig gasped out, “I’m glad you’re living in the area. You in particular. Not just any clone will do. I gave _you_ a name for a reason.”

Sasha looked somewhat choked up but answered, “You named the Bruise.”

“I didn’t give them that name: they heard me use it and took it, for whatever fucked up reason. You stood out to me. You tried to defend me from the others when you really didn’t have to.” 

“You’re trying to manipulate me again.” 

“With the truth. Again.”

Schuldig could read that Sasha was intensely touched by what he’d said but couldn’t entirely trust it, even aside from how it came from Schuldig. After what he’d experienced, Sasha couldn’t fully believe that people felt affection or loyalty toward him and expected an inevitable betrayal. He found it difficult to trust and assumed that people would try to use him. He felt welcomed by Weiß but remained cautious of them. 

While Schuldig didn’t know if he should disabuse Sasha of those notions since they might help him survive, Schuldig wanted him to be able to enjoy life and other people too. It didn’t _all_ suck, and surviving wasn’t necessarily _living_. He should have fun with things. 

Schuldig wanted his baby to win at life, damn it. 

And Sasha, despite everything he’d gone through from Woeller, had somehow managed to be one of the better adjusted clones. Many were much worse off. Schuldig actually found it easier to step in on Sasha because Sasha _didn’t_ need as much help as the others.

Lying on his side, facing Schuldig, Sasha looked at him as if he were a disassembled puzzle with pieces that didn’t quite fit. “I keep getting the impression that family is important to you.”

“Reading my mind, youngblood?” It bothered Schuldig because Sasha shouldn’t have been able to. 

“No. I just remember various jokes about Schwarz being family.” Sasha smirked. “With you as the mother.”

Was that supposed to offend him? “It sure as hell isn’t _Brad_.”

“Ugh, no.”

“A little like a family, but not too, because they’re my contemporaries, and none of them are related to me by blood.” Unlike some people. 

Sasha rolled over to him then straddled him. _Hello_. He could tell that Sasha was aroused, and he had wood himself. What did Sasha intend to do with this? Schuldig decided to let it play out a bit to see. It might lead somewhere very pleasant. 

Having Sasha’s face/Emory’s face/his face/not his face so close and looking down at him gave him such an odd feeling. Like all telepaths, he had a very good idea of what other people saw when they looked at him. Like all telepaths, he had moments when the face he saw in the mirror didn’t seem like it could belong to him, even aside from how his personality had been made up from a _group_ of people.

None of those people had a good family life. Emory might have, but he didn’t remember it well and even if he had his parents dumping him in an insane asylum when his telepathy switched on negated any of the good that might have come before it. As a telepath, he knew some people actually did have a good family life, and it intrigued him. 

“There’s something I didn’t mention when I told you what it was like having sex with Malice and Wicked, and it’s about the effect of having similar telepathic signatures while touching skin to skin for so long.” Because they were all clones, basically the same genetic stock, and skin contact strengthened the telepathic bond. “It’s hard to describe, but it was a bit like a hum or a vibration.” Mundane languages rarely had terminology suited to describing telepathic experiences. 

“I had some experience with that and a melting together effect when the Bruise tried to devour me. It’s not exactly a happy memory,” Schuldig replied.

“It doesn’t have to be bad. It wasn’t when I was with them for the three-way.”

He might regret this but... “You could always just show me.” When Sasha’s expression turned amused, Schuldig continued, “It doesn’t have to be sex to work. Pervert. Not that I would mind.”

“It can’t be a _totally_ casual touch. Wouldn’t work.”

Schuldig had begun to think that Yoji had either imagined the Schuldig traits or that something about Yoji brought them out because _he_ hadn’t seen them in Sasha tonight, but now? Yeah, _now_. 

With a somewhat twisted smile Sasha leaned down and set his forehead against Schuldig’s, and Schuldig felt it: the hum, the vibration, an electric zap of pleasure shooting through his nerves. It was so good but _much too much_. 

Sasha yelped and pulled back with an “Ow! Shit!”

Still wincing, Schuldig said, “If you’ve damaged me....”

“No! Tried too hard. I wanted to make sure you felt it.”

“You succeeded brilliantly then.”

“It didn’t feel that intense during the three-way.”

“I figured, because if it did the three of you would’ve been too busy twitching or having seizures to get busy.”

“Funny. Maybe it also hit that hard because you’re the original. It’s stronger with you.”

“Of course it is!”

“And because I concentrated it after I had a few beers.” Sasha stopped straddling him--dammit--to drape himself a bit on him instead, setting his head just under Schuldig’s and breathing on his neck. Snuggly. “Sorry. It’s more like this.”

“This” felt like a more muted version of the hum, vibration, tingling, and electrical pulse. Very nice. Sasha kissing his neck and rubbing against him a bit further heightened Schuldig’s urge to fuck and cuddle. When he put his fingers up under Sasha’s sweater to touch skin there he could actually feel more intensity from the contact points at his fingers. 

Still, Schuldig asked, “Are you doing this because of the telepathic signature thing or just because I’m awesome?”

“Does it matter?”

“Fuck yes! I want to be wanted for me.” 

Crap, what if his clone babies became more likely to get more involved with each other super incestuously because of the telepathic signature thing? (Malice and Wicked did more than enough of that.) Being at school in Okinawa together would make such hookups much more likely. Again, he wanted them to get out there and win at life, especially since his clones succeeding wildly would be something he could shove under Brad’s nose since _his_ clones constantly disappointed him. He could see himself telling Brad that his clones had been full of raw potential that only needed a tiny bit of refining from Schuldig to turn into full-on awesomeness, while Brad’s clones... well.... 

Though he knew full well he lacked a self-sacrificing and generous nature, there might be a way to enjoy and advance himself and help his clone babies too. 

Damn, Schuldig had to have Aya piggyback on his power and then touch him a lot, as intimately as he could get away with, to see if this worked off his power and not just his gene-set. It probably wouldn’t, but Schuldig sure as hell wanted to experiment with it. He couldn’t possibly turn down such an excellent excuse for molestation.

“Can’t I want you for both?” Sasha answered as he stroked the bulge in Schuldig’s pants, something Schuldig’s erection heartily approved. 

“Yes. Yes, you can.” 

Sasha quickly unbuttoned and unzipped Schuldig’s fly, pulled his pants and underwear off entirely, and pushed the bottom of his shirt up to kiss and suck on the skin just under his navel, so close but so far from where he should be, damn it. It felt good but torturous. His cock was standing up, demanding attention, _right there_, so get to it! 

Sasha took a break from the torture to ask, “Is that a real emerald?”

“Good eye. Schwarz took it from a client who tried to skip paying us. We can discuss my navel piercing _later_. Yoji left me too damned frustrated.”

The brat answered by rimming Schuldig’s navel, and thus the emerald in it, with his tongue. Nicely suggestive, and it felt good, but apparently if Schuldig wanted things done his way he’d have to do it himself, so he flipped them over to put himself on top, did his best to kiss Sasha into dazed imbecility, and unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans for closer access to Sasha’s cock. Someday he might let Sasha control things and toy with him at length, but he didn’t want to set that kind of precedent in their relationship during their first time. 

Schuldig’s tactics appeared to be working since Sasha just said, “Uh,” when he wasn’t moaning against Schuldig’s mouth.

“Let me take care of you, baby.” Not that Schuldig intended to give him much of a choice on it. “It’ll be _so good_....”

Since Sasha might start plotting against him again if he got a chance to gather his thoughts, Schuldig made sure to keep the kisses and stroking going as he pulled Sasha’s sweater, jeans, and underwear off. It revealed a much improved body that still required more feeding, a work in progress. Sasha got himself together enough to unbutton Schuldig’s shirt, but that worked in both their favors as more skin to skin contact increased that tingly, pleasurable telepathic effect. They also radiated their lust and pleasure at each other, doubling it and redoubling it. Telepaths made such great lays. 

Sasha interrupted their kissing, stroking, rubbing against each other, and rocking together to gasp, “Just fuck me already! I know you want to.”

“I _am_ wondering how that signature thing might feel for us when I’m inside you. You may have done this before, but if it’s so much stronger with _me_....”

Sasha let out a sound of frustration and asked, “Where are the condoms and fucking lube? I’ll put you in myself by hand if I need to.”

Smirking, Schuldig had to answer, “Shoe’s on the other foot now.”

“You said you’d ‘take care of’ me. Snap to it already!”

“Fine. I’ll put you out of your, heh, misery.” 

In his state of advanced relaxation, Sasha didn’t really need much prep, but Schuldig fingered him longer than he had to just to see the delightful squirming Sasha did every time Schuldig stroked his prostate. Schuldig’s fingers felt so great and tingly, and the echoes from Sasha’s sweet spot were amazing. “Just imagine what that’ll feel like when it’s my dick,” Schuldig said, smirking. 

“Maybe you could actually use your dick instead of asking me to imagine it,” Sasha gasped. 

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, dammit! You can feel it, you sadistic fuck.”

“If I can feel it but still keep on the path of denial, I must be masochistic too.”

“You _are_.”

“I’m glad we know each other so well.” Then Schuldig gave Sasha what he wanted and positioned Sasha to get the deepest penetration he could. 

Fuck, it felt incredible, especially with the both of them still radiating the signature-increased pleasure and experiences at each other, letting them be the fucker and fuckee simultaneously. It made thinking very difficult, and Schuldig couldn’t always watch his baby’s face through it because it was Emory’s face and thus a mindfuck in a bad way. At least here the bleached hair helped Schuldig deal with it and differentiate him. 

With so much sensual input going on neither of them lasted long, and Schuldig couldn’t tell which of them came first, not that it mattered much when he felt both orgasms. Their bodies still rocked together for a little while afterward before gradually coming to a halt. Afterward, Schuldig pulled out but they otherwise remained sleepily tangled together, somewhat dazed in their afterglow.

As Sasha lazily traced some of Schuldig’s scars with his fingers, Schuldig shivered and said, “Aftereffects of our trade. You know how fast and well we heal, so you can imagine how bad the wounds were. I’ve dealt with some serious shit.” 

“You don’t have to convince _me_ you’re hardcore.”

“What? I like to boast.”

Sasha stroked slow circles around the emerald in Schuldig’s navel, the sensation of which went right to Schuldig’s dick and made him ask, “Damn, kid, do you want to go again already?” 

“Maybe. I’m deciding.” Buzzed from the beer, Sasha didn’t maintain his mental shields as well as usual, leaking some thoughts about sending Schuldig back to Crawford thoroughly debauched to tick him off. 

It made Schuldig harder. “I’m game.”

Grinning evilly, Sasha said, “All right. But don’t pull my hair. I hate that shit.”

Schuldig remembered that Woeller had loved to do that as Sasha blew him. “I’ll restrain myself.”

It turned out to be really, _really_ difficult though because Sasha gave head like an expert, reducing Schuldig to a shivering mass of stunned pleasure. Schuldig compromised by clawing at the bedsheets instead and actually ripped the sheets when Sasha started to fingerfuck him as he blew him. Having already come twice, since he’d experienced Sasha’s earlier orgasm too, it took him somewhat longer this time. But Sasha wasn’t done yet and substituted his cock for his fingers, smiling down at Schuldig as he fucked him in long, deep thrusts and radiated his sensations to him. Once again, Schuldig felt his brain bend, but fortunately his brain had become very flexible over the years. Besides, after that blowjob he’d let Sasha do almost anything he wanted to.

After they came again they both kind of passed out, sleeping the deep sleep of the very well fucked, until Sasha shook him awake and yelled, “It’s 4 a.m.! 4 a.m.! This isn’t a ‘semi-decent’ hour! It’s a very indecent hour! I have to get up for work at 10, and I won’t even start sleeping until after you get me home.”

So much agitation over something so small. Schuldig felt quite comfortable and didn’t want to go anywhere. “Hmph. You shouldn’t even need much sleep; you’re young. Besides, you could catch more Zs _here_.”

“And miss work altogether. No thanks. After the night he’s had, Yoji will probably be late for work, which gives me even less leeway.”

Mmmm, Yoji. “You know, we could still swing by his hotel room and make him the filling in an us sandwich. It has to be harder to say no to the _two_ of us.” For that Schuldig would be willing to get out of bed and dressed. Surely he’d be able to get it up again....

“Home. Now.”

“Killjoy. Fine.” 

Schuldig thought he got his clothes on and hair groomed pretty quickly, though Sasha wanted him to move even faster. Maybe this sense of responsibility was an Emory thing. Still, Schuldig gave the desk clerk a jaunty wave on the way out. 

It was way too friggin’ cold outside. Would winter ever end? Sasha shivered less than he did, making him wonder if Jamaica’s warmth had temporarily messed with his endurance. 

As they sat in the car at the kittens’ doorstep, Sasha asked, “See you again sometime?”

“You don’t hate me for keeping you out too late showing you the time of your life?”

“I’ll survive it, so no, I don’t hate you for it.”

Aw. “Of course I’ll visit. You’re my favorite mini me, remember?”

Sasha snorted, cutely kissed his cheek, and got out of the car... with the remaining beer and snacks. Damn. Schuldig had hoped he’d forget about them. He didn’t drive away until he saw Sasha go inside and close the door. 

He knew he had a little smile on his face but doubted he could get rid of it. Aching, buzzed almost to drunkenness, tired, glowing, he felt thankful that he only had a short drive to deal with because he really didn’t want to die tonight. 

If Brad intended Schwarz to have an early wake-up and start today, Schuldig would be so boned.


	273. "I'll give you time to think about how wrong you were."

It didn’t surprise Crawford that Schuldig didn’t return right after striking out with Balinese because Schuldig would need a good wallow with someone else to salve his ego and make up for it, which would be better for everyone. Less ranting and whining. Besides, Crawford didn’t have a time limit of just tonight on being smug and teasing him about Balinese’s rejection. 

His precognition didn’t give him any more alerts, and after using it so extensively earlier he didn’t want to hurt himself chasing a vision that wouldn’t come on its own. His workout exercise with the team and then his sex session had left him sleepier than usual, making it seem even more pointless to stay awake and wait up. 

It still surprised him when Schuldig walked into the bedroom at 4:47 a.m., waking him up. Even by Schuldig’s standards, that was late. 

He didn’t say anything until after Schuldig had stripped and gotten under the covers with him. “You’re in late. And your hands and feet are cold.”

“Heh. It’s winter outside, you know?” Schuldig snuggled in, kind enough to avoid trailing his cold hands and feet all along Crawford’s bare skin. He could be kind sometimes. “I’m too tired and tapped out for an erotic reenactment of tonight’s romps.” Somehow he sounded more German than usual.

“Me too. Besides, we had fun earlier.”

“Mmmm. That’s for sure.”

But Crawford couldn’t help his curiosity about where Schuldig’s night out had taken him, especially since he didn’t come in smelling as strongly as he usually would if he’d spent hours in a club or bar. He’d started at a bar and club but spent most of the night somewhere else? “How was your time with Yoji?”

Sounding sulky, Schuldig answered, “I thought we weren’t going to do a bedtime story.”

“You can _tell_ me. Unless it didn’t work out well. Then I can understand you being unusually reticent.”

“Truthfully--”

“I appreciate that.”

“Shut up. He was in a full blown heterosexual panic tonight so I didn’t get him.”

“Shocking.”

“You foresaw that, didn’t you, you bastard?” Definitely in a sulk.

“If I told you, you would have gone anyway and tried to prove me wrong.”

“...”

“I’ve rendered you speechless?”

“I hate you.”

“Because I know you?”

“So I picked up Sasha instead and we spent hours together having a good time, some of it while mutually naked.”

“Very funny.”

“I’m not lying.” Schuldig sounded much too smug.

God damn it! Crawford knew that if he blew up at Schuldig the way he really wanted to it would only make the situation worse and Sasha more irresistible, so he managed not to, which took a lot of effort. He tried logic instead, though his telepath didn’t always follow logic. “We talked about this, and you agreed with me.”

“You convinced me that it wouldn’t be a good thing for me or my clones for me to adopt them. You never said I couldn’t socialize with them forever after, which is a good thing for you because I would never agree with that. You don’t get to tell me whom I’m allowed to spend time with.”

“You _fucked_ him.”

Schuldig had found and taken up with an even worse choice than Balinese. That took talent. 

“Ja. He’s a damned good lay. But we also talked and had a pillow fight. He’s a good kid, and he isn’t as clingy as most of them are.”

It took effort to unclench his teeth. “The clones aren’t good for your mental health.” 

“Worrying about my mental health? That’s kind of like shutting the barn door _after_ the horses escaped.”

“How can you be so flippant about that?”

“Because it’s a laugh or cry situation, and I’m deciding to laugh. Besides, I’m flippant about everything. Look, Brad, the great telepaths are the ones who take risks.”

“Is that what Rosenkreuz told you?”

“Yeah, but also what experience tells me. Telepaths aren’t like precogs; we _can’t_ be completely self-contained. It’s not healthy or natural for us. That affects our approach to life.” Schuldig only played at being a shallow airhead. How could he be so clearheaded after an entire night of debauchery and with beer still on his breath?

As much as it galled him to admit it to himself, Crawford wasn’t mentally prepared at 4:47 a.m., at least not tonight, to discuss how psychic talents shaped life philosophies and behaviors, their best usage, and what made a “good” telepath. Even more galling, he’d actually like to have this conversation some other time. 

Crawford tried to guide their talk back to the matters currently most important to him. “...the whole thing with your clones is still a perfect trap for someone with your past, psyche, and proclivities, so I often wonder if Eszett had planned it that way.”

“They couldn’t have, not all the way, since they had no idea that I’m a composite of Emory and his protectors.”

“Don’t try to derail the conversation again, because it won’t work.”

“I’m telling you some important facts, but if you don’t want to know, fine.” Schuldig sounded almost prissy. “So all this is about how you’re just worried about poor me and has nothing to do with your jealousy and possessiveness?”

“I won’t say that. It’s an ‘all of the above’ situation.”

“I appreciate your honesty,” Schuldig replied, his smirk audible. “Knowing you’d hate it made Sasha more eager, and it certainly added spice for me.”

“Are you trying to tell me that if I were less dead set against it you two wouldn’t find each other as tempting?”

“Possibly.” This time Schuldig sounded far too innocent. 

“But you’d still associate with each other.”

“Of course! I enjoy his company and he likes me and would benefit from having family. I don’t think Sasha will be forgetting the way you tossed him to Weiß like trash either. You might want to remember how that backfired and learn from it.”

Ridiculous. “You’ve pissed me off enough for one night, so you don’t need to keep adding fuel to the fire.”

“No such thing as too much, especially when you’re being an unreasonable, possessive dick.”

“I’m _concerned_ about you, you stupid--” Fuming, resentful, Crawford couldn’t even finish the sentence. Schuldig had actually managed to enrage him to the point of incoherency.

Crawford didn’t really feel like sharing a bed with him right now but refused to be driven out of _his_ room to sleep on the couch or something and knew Schuldig wouldn’t leave unless forced to. 

“The fact that you didn’t foresee anything as a result of this means it’s not all that important in the scheme of things,” Schuldig said. Trying to soothe him?

It would take more than that. “There’s no guarantee.” 

“Are you really going to argue over a long haul? Because I’m tired and you’re tired. At least postpone the rest of it for a time when we’re both awake and not as cranky.”

“I’m not cranky.” To his horror, he sounded cranky.

“Uh-huh. Herr Crankypants. If you’re having problems going back to sleep I could _put_ you to sleep.” The way he said made it sound like he might do it whether Crawford assented to it or not. 

Suppressing a yawn, Crawford replied, “I don’t need your ‘help’ for that. I can do it on my own. I just feel that we’re not finished here, and I won’t sleep until we are. Forcing me might not be as easy as you think, something you should know by now.” At the very least the prospect might chase Schuldig out of Crawford’s bed and onto the couch to escape him. 

“You’re exhausting the both of us. The difference is that _I’m_ willing to sleep so I can get up fresh for the day. I assume you have plans for Schwarz; you always do.” 

You always had to be wary when Schuldig started deploying logic and reasonability. It didn’t help that Crawford felt so tired that even _he_ started to feel bored and annoyed by his own complaints. “We’ll resume this during the day.” This was a postponement, not a surrender. “I’ll give you time to think about how wrong you were.”

Schuldig snorted. “Ja. Sure.” 

“Stay on your side of the bed.”

“Good night and same to you, Herr Crankypants.” 

Sometimes Crawford really hated him. 

******************************************************

Before Farfarello could get out of bed, Aya said, “Somehow I feel like a lot happened last night after we went to sleep.” Even aside from the one time he knew he woke up when that storm of emotions had hit him.

“But you just woke up for the morning, naked. You didn’t leave this bed.”

“Even so.”

That gave him Farfarello’s undivided attention. “Did your self go out wandering last night?”

“Not knowingly.”

Suddenly he had Farfarello right on top of him and in his face, a somewhat unsettling sight since he had his eyepatch off. The missing eye and socket used to look much worse before Farfarello gained the ability to heal himself, but it still looked very, very _wrong_, especially when seen this close up. Given the option, Aya’s gaze tended to quickly glide past the damage so he could direct everything at Farfarello’s remaining eye, but he couldn’t do that at this proximity. Aya could feel his eyes cross trying to take it all in. 

When Farfarello smiled, Aya had to ask, “What?”

“You’re cute.” His grin widened and deepened as Aya felt a blush rising.

“I’m _not_ cute.”

“That only makes you more so.”

Aya redirected the conversation. “I’ll ask Schuldig about this and see if he’s any more helpful than usual.” He felt so oddly... sensitive.

“You’re becoming an optimist now?” 

“Did Crawford tell you anything about what we’re doing today?”

“You really are cute.”

“So that’s a no.” Aya missed the days of knowing his schedule in advance and being able to dress for it. Routine and independence could be so comforting. 

******************************************************

Farfarello couldn’t help feeling somewhat disgruntled as he and his kitten went to breakfast because Aya hadn’t been as open to getting played with during their shower and soak, no doubt as payback for being called cute. Although Farfarello had been aware of the possibility, he couldn’t help himself: Aya _was_ cute and some of his reactions to being told that were cute as well.

Despite it being late morning, only the boy sat at the kitchen table. “I’m not cooking for anybody else,” Nagi said. 

“Are there any rolls left?” Farfarello asked him. 

“I’m not your personal assistant.” 

“There are some,” Aya said. “I could make you eggs if you want them as well.”

If he wanted someone to cook for him, he couldn’t call his puisín “cute” again. “I do. Scrambled, please.” 

While Aya cooked, Farfarello made tea for them, with milk and a lot of sugar for his and almost nothing added to his kitten’s. It made him feel quite domestic. It all seemed too quiet though, so as they sat down to breakfast Farfarello said, “This is too odd.”

“Schuldig came in later than usual and woke Crawford up, so maybe that’s why they’re still in bed.” Before Farfarello or Nagi could get a word out, Aya continued, “I think they argued. Don’t ask me how I know because I have no idea, though I get the impression I know that more because of Schuldig than Crawford.”

“If Schuldig were more conscientious, he’d be looking into that kind of thing,” Nagi said.

“I’m glad he’s not,” his puisín replied.

“That’s understandable. Why is this happening now? What changed?”

Good questions. God hated questioners, preferring His flock to simply take whatever He chose to tell them. Farfarello appreciated the boy applying his intelligence to the disturbing matter of Aya’s unpredictable abilities. The boy occasionally fucking with the mindbreaker split his attentions and satiated some of his lusts, thus making him less threatening to Farfarello, so _let_ him ponder the Ayan mysteries Schuldig couldn’t or wouldn’t focus on. It felt wrong to outsource _everything_ to Friendly, a non-Schwarz. 

It still felt so wrong for the boy to have sex with the mindbreaker, because Nagi had spent so much time and vehemence fending him off, but Schuldig had always said he’d get Nagi in the end. Pun completely intended.

“I didn’t get this in Jamaica,” Aya said. “We’re back in Tokyo, but I didn’t notice these abilities the last time we were here.” 

“Yoji is in Tokyo. Do you think this has been triggered by his proximity?” the boy replied, to Farfarello’s dismay. 

“Yoji?”

“He helped get you out of your coma. Maybe that strengthened... something.”

“Farfarello and Schuldig helped me out too, and they were deeper... inside me, and I’ve been with them non-stop.” Aya looked like he really didn’t want to be talking or thinking about these things. “As for Yoji, we were in closer proximity in Vienna, without this happening.” 

“But you still had those psychic injuries from your battle with Breaker while in Vienna, while they’re starting to heal now.” 

“But we’ve been in Tokyo for a little while, and I didn’t get this before last night.”

“Maybe Schuldig visited Yoji last night, and _his_ proximity to Yoji strengthened your... whatever you have. Somehow.” 

“...I don’t know.” Aya looked paler and somewhat nauseated. 

“I say we set this aside for a while, at least until after breakfast,” Farfarello said. “Aya should eat, something it looks like he doesn’t feel like doing while thinking these things over.” It roiled Farfarello’s stomach too.

“Sorry,” the boy said, sounding sincere.

“It’s all right,” Aya answered. “We should be working to figure it out. Just... maybe not this very second. Do you know what Crawford has planned for today?”

“No idea, aside from a possible conversation with Omi about those e-mails I was supposed to work on. There are way too many for me to do as a light hobby.”

“That probably wouldn’t take long or involve the rest of us though. If we don’t have anything scheduled, there are things I really want to do.”

“Like?”

“Go for a run, visit my family’s gravesite, and check in on Yoji in person.” 

“I object to two of those three,” Farfarello said immediately. 

Obviously annoyed, Aya replied, “I wouldn’t go to their gravesite to brood or get angsty. I just feel like I should see it and take care of it if it needs it. I have a duty to show my respect to my ancestors. Besides, it could help give me a sense of closure.”

“Bullshit. You don’t let go of _anything_.” 

“Give me a chance. Or don’t, because I’ll visit whether you approve or not. I’m not your property or prisoner.”

Unfortunately true. Once again, Farfarello had to regret that he preferred his partners feisty.

“You can’t dissuade me from seeing Yoji either,” Aya said. “Besides, if not for you I wouldn’t have cause to worry about him.”

He hated it when Aya used logic on him at times when he was too sane to credibly disagree. “Hmph.” Forbidding that visit outright wouldn’t stop his kitten, so he’d have to allow it but find a way to have it work out to his advantage as much as possible instead.

“So I want Crawford up to let me know how things will go today and see if I can attend to any of my own unfinished business.”

“You never would have survived in a mental institution or Rosenkreuz.” If Farfarello hadn’t learned how to just _be_ when necessary, his relative powerlessness over his own fate and the often unpredictable schedules would have made him as fretful and edgy as Aya. 

“Hopefully I won’t ever have to.”

“In a lot of ways there aren’t many differences between the two,” Nagi said. “You know, if Crawford went to bed angry at Schuldig, the odds are good he’ll still be when he wakes up and we’ll get to deal with it over the course of the day.”

Aya shook his head. “I still don’t understand how their relationship works.”

“We really try not to think about it,” the boy answered with a smirk before getting a more thoughtful look and saying, “Though I think it’s something nobody knows. They haven’t been together like this for long anyway, just starting around the time Farfarello... took you in. You’ve just never seen the way they were before, where they mutually used and tried to one-up each other. Schuldig slept around a lot worse then than he does now.”

“How is that even possible?”

“He probably gets more sex now than he did then though, since he and Crawford share a bed as partners these days. If you want sex, just grab or roll over. Before, he had a greater variety and went out looking for them.” 

Farfarello noticed Nagi’s quick but significant look in his direction. It surprised him that the boy hadn’t just said it, that Farfarello and Schuldig had spent a lot of time fucking around with each other’s bodies and minds. It’d been interesting and fun for Farfarello, though possibly dangerous to Schuldig, to see how far he could bend the telepath into a more simpatico state just by being near him. They’d had some wild, heated, unforgettable times. 

For whatever reason, Crawford’s personality didn’t seem to rub off on the telepath while _they_ were together, and Farfarello wondered why. (God hates questioners.) Too bad for Crawford. Then again, maybe he liked the challenges the mindbreaker presented.

Nagi could be an evil, misanthropic little bitch, so why _hadn’t_ he brought Farfarello’s old times with Schuldig up, further reminding Aya of the Schuldig/Farfarello kiss he’d seen and worried over a bit (not enough) yesterday? Perhaps he didn’t want to upset Aya. Whatever, it worked to Farfarello’s benefit. 

But he wouldn’t make the mistake of seeing the boy as an ally. 

The mindbreaker walked out of his bedroom with his clothes in his arms, headed for the bathroom. Before Crawford, without Crawford. He waved merrily at them before he closed the door. Crawford still didn’t show up. Still in bed? 

“Well, if it isn’t topsy-turvy day,” Farfarello had to say. Was Crawford alive or dead? The mindbreaker didn’t have any blood on him, but there were many ways to kill that didn’t involve bloodletting, although Farfarello personally preferred the bloody ones. 

“Maybe I should go back to bed and stay there until everything becomes sane, because no good can come of this,” the boy said.

“It’s never sane around here,” Aya replied. 

“I’ll settle for what passes for normal in this household.” 

“Crawford is alive,” Aya said, to Farfarello’s disquiet. When Nagi cast his kitten a confused look, Aya answered, “Farfarello was wondering.”

“You’re assuming whatever part of Schuldig you’re reading is telling the truth,” Farfarello said. 

“...now _I_ want to go back to bed and never come out again.”


	274. "Why the hell am I seeing *sparkles* around you?"

When Crawford woke up, he had the feeling that something was off, _wrong_. He _knew_ something was wrong when he heard Schuldig cheerfully call out, “_Good_ morning, Brad!”

“You’re awake. Before me,” Crawford said. When he put his glasses on and looked at the clock, he was horrified to see that he’d already lost most of the morning. By contrast, Schuldig had obviously already showered, dressed, and groomed himself, and Crawford refused to let him take the psychological advantage through that.

“It’s wonderful how you’re right on top of things the moment you wake up. Sometimes right on top of _me_....”

He couldn’t let Schuldig run off from the point. “I had an alarm set.”

“I turned it off.”

“I wake up early on my own.”

“I telepathically made sure you wouldn’t.”

“You _made_ me sleep?” Yelling hadn’t helped last night, so he tried to achieve some calm, difficult to do while this angry.

“You make me wake up. All the time. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Besides, you were really tired and could use the rest.”

“This is about revenge for last night.”

“Partly.”

“When I wake you up, it’s to get work done.”

“Not always. Sometimes it’s just for your power and ego.”

Crawford couldn’t totally deny that. “I like having you around.”

“Good try.” 

“You can’t just screw with my scheduling like this.”

“I knew Schwarz didn’t _have_ to be anywhere this morning, so it’d be okay. Besides, maybe you should loosen your hold on the team a bit, because they are _stalled_ in your absence. They have no idea what to do with themselves or what you’d do if they tried. They need more independence in your absence. I know you like to feel like you’re respected and the big man on campus, but this _isn’t_ good for operations.”

As much as he hated to admit it, Crawford could see his point. “I’ll consider it.” If it worked better for the team, great, if it failed as badly as he expected it would he could tell them he told them so and they’d go back to the way things had been with fewer complaints.

He felt so tired of having the same arguments with Schuldig, so it might be time to shift tactics.

“Really? _Gosh_, Brad.”

“Responses like that make me less likely to concede anything to you. Do you know what the team would do if they weren’t stalled?”

“Aya was talking about going for a run, visiting his family’s grave, and going to personally check on Yoji to make sure he’s all right after being telepathically gut-punched all the way from Jamaica.”

“I don’t know if it’s healthy for him to visit his family’s site.”

“Farfarello reacted the same way.”

“I don’t often agree with him.... Do you think Aya could possibly get any feeling of closure from it?”

“Him? I want to say no, but who knows. He has moments of stability.”

“My team.”

Schuldig smirked, then said, “Let him go. Saves the trouble of dealing with him sneaking out. I’d say the same thing about letting him go see Yoji.”

“You know I hate the idea.”

“Oh, yeah. There’d be less passive-aggression to deal with though.”

“I refuse to let him win like that.”

“Life is trade-offs. I say let him do it and get it over with so he’ll spend less time obsessing over it. Better for the team. Make it out to be some favor you’re giving him. He’s one of those guys who let themselves be bound by feelings of obligation.”

“You’re really focused and energetic for someone who spent a late night out drinking and debauching.”

“The things that hurt most people only make me stronger. I’m _magic_.”

“Why the hell am I seeing _sparkles_ around you? Get out of my head!”

“It’s easier when you’re tired!”

“One, don’t ever. Two, don’t waste it on trivial things.” 

“Trivial to _you_.”

“Tired, hmm? So the extra sleep didn’t help me at all?”

Pouting, Schuldig answered, “You’re asking a lot from a few extra hours.”

“I ask a lot from everything.”

“Don’t I know it. So what are the plans?”

“I want Schwarz completely moved over to the new apartments by the end of today. We don’t have all that much, even Aya and Farfarello, so it’s doable. If you want Schwarz members to have more independence, that’ll work toward it. Things’ll be a bit messy for a while as we figure out our new operating procedures for the two apartment setup.” Crawford didn’t look forward to the awkwardness, and he wondered how “family” meals would be worked out, but maybe they’d all grow from the challenge. “Tomorrow, the team has a job. We even get to kill people.”

“Excellent. I haven’t murdered anyone in such a long time, and I miss it.”

“If he has time left over today, maybe Aya can get some of his wish list done.”

“Taking my suggestions? Brad, I am _verklempt_.”

“Don’t get too excited.”

“Hey, no taking it back now.”

“It shouldn’t take me much time to move, so I’ll call Persia and tell him to make amends over Nagi’s e-mail situation. It’s ridiculous to make him do all that work, let alone try to get him to do it for free. But, first things first, I need a shower and a change of clothes.”

“You know, when I came out of here first for the shower, alone, the looks on their faces were priceless. Like the world had ended and people were ice-skating in hell. Farf half-thought I’d murdered you. Like I said, you’re a bit predictable.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Seeing Schuldig look a bit uncomfortable, Crawford said, “Out with it.”

“Out with what?”

“The thing you don’t want to tell me.”

“No such thing.”

“Schuldig.”

“I thought I didn’t have any tells left.”

“I know you too well.”

“Fine. Apparently Aya is showing some new telepathic sensitivities that he doesn’t know the origin of or how to deal with. The Psycho Twins and Nagi don’t trust me to solve it or teach him how to work with it.”

“For good reason.”

“I never claimed to be a good teacher. Or a good person, for that matter. I’ve never misled any member of the team about that. Their choices of teacher haven’t improved or changed since the last time we discussed the issue, Friendly or the Okinawa school. If I were the type of person to feel bad about things, I might feel bad about not being more helpful on this, forcing them to go outside the team.” 

It nearly sounded like Schuldig was taking responsibility. A good change.

Crawford didn’t know if he should consider the changes in Aya good or bad. So far they’d been a pain in the ass. 

Changes came no matter what anyone preferred. Putting off dealing with them just made them grow in scope and more likely to get out of control. Time to take the reins and stop denying things.

“Anything else?” Crawford asked.

“That’s what I picked up. You should probably grill them for more details. I don’t hear _everything_.”

“Of course. I’ll need to shower, change, and have breakfast.”

“I’ll leave you to it. I might join you for breakfast, since so far I’ve only grabbed a little something to take the edge off my hunger. Eating breakfast without you feels weird.”

“I’ll let you know when I’m ready.”

When Crawford left the bedroom with his things on his way to the bathroom, he saw Aya and Farfarello involved in knife-fighting practice and, surprisingly, Nagi working on his laptop at the table nearby. The boy usually preferred to be alone. Did Nagi want the company, to see when Crawford came out of the bedroom, both, or neither? If Nagi had become more social, the move to two different apartments might give him some quandaries. 

They all looked somewhat surprised when they noticed Crawford. Surprised why? “Good morning,” Crawford said before going into the bathroom. He’d deal with them after he’d groomed and dressed, when he felt more imposing. 

******************************************************

Showering refreshed him and took away the unwelcome grubby, sleep-rumpled feeling he’d had while dealing with Schuldig. When he returned to the kitchen he found Nagi, Farfarello, and Aya waiting for him, their curiosity obvious. If his morning routine had become as predictable as Schuldig had said, he could understand why, but his hunger took precedence over explaining anything. 

“Crawford?” Nagi asked.

“Not now. I’ll get to you,” Crawford replied as he decided to forego his usual cereal in favor of some protein. 

As he started to cook eggs and bacon, Schuldig suddenly appeared and said, “I heard something about bacon.”

“Who says you’re getting any?” Crawford answered. “I’d be within my rights to refuse to make you any after what you did.”

Schuldig pouted and asked, “If I let you wake up whenever, will you make bacon for me every morning?”

“You don’t get to bargain with that chip.”

“_So_ mean.”

“Deal with it.”

“Yet you mess with _my_ sleep schedule all the time.”

“You’re a telepath, so it’s more effort to _stop_ you from waking up with me.”

“But I can tell that you like forcing me awake.”

“I like to have you with me. Most of the time.”

“Oooh, burn,” Farfarello said.

Crawford had to hide a smile as he saw his words strike a chord in Schuldig. They drove each other crazy and tried to one-up each other, but they also cared deeply about each other, something that could sometimes get lost amidst the arguments and scheming and Schuldig’s voracious sexual appetite. 

But, unsurprisingly, Schuldig couldn’t completely submit. “Still. Not all the time.”

“I’ll think about it. So, team, Schuldig tells me that you all wondered if he’d murdered me.”

“We didn’t think that,” Nagi said.

“Some of us didn’t want to be thinking it,” Farfarello said, “but none of us could dismiss the possibility either.” 

“It’s been a highly unusual morning,” Aya said. “Crawford, I figured you were alive.”

“He sensed it from the mindbreaker, and somebody should be working on that kind of thing with him.”

“We will be, now that we’re back in Tokyo,” Crawford answered. “If I can think of someone better and more appropriate than Draco, I’ll let you know.”

“That’s much appreciated,” Farfarello replied. 

“We don’t have a mission today. Tomorrow we do, and it looks like an old-fashioned one, full of opportunities for violence and murder.”

Farfarello’s eye took on a bright gleam. “That’s _really_ appreciated.”

“Today we’ll move our things into the new apartments. We don’t have many possessions, so it shouldn’t take too long. I expect to leave our current apartment for the final time today and return the keys.”

“I’m going to end up carrying a lot of things, aren’t I?” Nagi asked in a very world-weary tone. 

“We don’t want people to be able to catch on to what you are so in public it’ll have to be subtle, but yes.”

Nagi rolled his eyes. “Of course.”

“Any time left over can be used for personal errands. I’m told Aya in particular has some in mind.”

As Aya glared at Schuldig, Schuldig answered, “Don’t look at me like that, not after I interceded for you. You might not have gotten the go-ahead without my help.”

“Wait, approval for what?” Aya asked.

“To visit your parents’ gravesite and see how Balinese is doing,” Crawford replied. “I trust that you’ll keep yourself under control and won’t make me regret allowing this. If it goes well, you may get to do these kinds of things more often.”

Aya actually turned a little paler in his surprise, while Farfarello looked annoyed. If Farfarello wanted the advantages of being treated as a sane individual and a big boy, deserving of his own apartment with his lover, he’d have to figure out how to take care of the potential problems of Aya meeting with Yoji on his own and in a responsible fashion. Crawford would be watching to make sure he didn’t fuck it up in some spectacular, team-harming way.

Crawford realized that he was actually enjoying himself. 

While a routine provided some comfort to precogs, he’d partly been so predictable to give the occasionally unstable members of his team a solid foundation. Crawford saw now that he’d become _too_ predictable and it had actually hampered members of Schwarz, so now he’d try something different. If he found some pleasures in the difference, all the better. 

“Thank you,” Aya said. 

“You’re welcome.” Crawford set a small plate of bacon down in front of Schuldig before he sat down with his own plate of breakfast. 

Schuldig briefly showed his surprise before saying, “Thanks, Brad,” and promptly picked up a piece of bacon to devour and savor. 

“I’m well aware that there will be a period of adjustment as we get used to the new living arrangements. If you have any ideas about how to make things work out better or any problems, I want you to bring them up to me. I may not have been enthused about splitting Schwarz between two apartments from the beginning, but I want it to work out because I want us to succeed at everything we do. You’re important to me.”

After a moment of silence where Schwarz just stared at him, Nagi said, “...I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”

“If Brad had feelings, that might have hurt them, kid,” Schuldig replied. 

Although Crawford wasn’t really offended, he answered, “None of you are as funny as you think you are, and you’ll see.” He cared deeply about his team, but anyone who thought that made him mushy would be very wrong.

******************************************************

When Yoji woke up at the sound of his alarm clock, he felt sore and tired in all the best ways. A man needed a varied sexual diet. What a night. 

Too bad he’d have to work now. At least the shower helped waken and loosen him up more and brunch with coffee gave him a little more energy. Even better, the shop didn’t have any customers in it; he preferred to start a shift during a lull and work his way up to dealing with people. Ken waved at him and immediately went off on a break. 

To Yoji’s surprise, Sasha wore dark sunglasses in the shop and had a certain familiar air about him. “Are you _hung over_?” Yoji asked him.

“Could you be a bit quieter? The customers were bad enough.... And yes.”

Yoji lowered his voice more. “You didn’t get that way in Fenris’ company. I hope.”

“Of course not. I don’t even want to think what he’d be like drunk. I went out for a few drinks with a friend afterward. I really need to put more weight on so I can handle my alcohol better and not shame my ancestors.”

“I didn’t think you had any drinking buddies.”

“It was family, actually: Schuldig.”

He didn’t just say that! “Wait, _what_? Schuldig got you drunk?”

“I spent a few hours talking and drinking with Schuldig.”

“You went somewhere with him and let him get you drunk? You know how dangerous he is!” Had Schuldig responded to Yoji’s rejection by looking for someone else to fuck over and deciding on Sasha? Yoji would kill him.

“I had a good time!”

“You _think_ you did.”

“Yoji, I’m _fine_.”

Yoji had a sudden bad feeling. “Did you two--”

“We fucked each other. By the end, I took advantage of him more than he did of me. Calm down, Yoji; I’m not all that fragile and I don’t need a white knight to protect me.”

“You might not feel the same way if you knew what Schuldig had been up to before he met up with you.”

“I already know. He was really put out about it and complained to me.” Sasha smirked. “I’m surprised that you’re surprised by it. This is exactly the kind of thing he does.”

“Sometimes he masquerades as a decent human being. He never does it for _long_, but....”

“He’s looking out for me.”

“For his own selfish reasons, and don’t forget that he liquored you up and fucked you.”

“He didn’t force me to do any of that. I made my own decisions.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s sweet of you to be concerned but you’re starting to tick me off. Give me _some_ credit, all right? I’m not helpless.”

It wouldn’t do anyone any good if he ticked Sasha off so badly that he chased him into Schuldig’s not so loving embrace. “All right. I won’t argue.”

“Good. If you’d seen us last night you’d know how silly you’re being. We ate pretzels, did each other’s hair, and had a pillow fight.”

The mental pictures Yoji’s brain came up with nearly broke him. “A _pillow fight_?”

“Yep, so chill.” Sasha walked off to deal with the customer that just walked in. 

Probably for the best. If the conversation had kept on going he might have said or insinuated something stupid and hurtful to Sasha, like that Schuldig had only spent time with him because Yoji had ticked him off, not because he cared for Sasha at all, even though Yoji _knew_ Schuldig had a soft, warm place in his black heart for Sasha. 

He’d love to mess with Sasha over his hangover but worried about setting a precedent for the many times when _he_ was hung over. Unfair.

“Yoji, we have work to do!” Sasha said.

“Sure.” Nobody knew the sacrifices he made. 

******************************************************

“It’s killing you, isn’t it?” Farfarello asked as they unpacked.

“What is?” Aya answered, annoyed that his stoic mask had failed. 

“You want to finish setting the apartment up to your perfect standards, but the promise of getting out to see the slutkitten when you finish calls to you, telling you that you don’t need to get everything done right now.”

Aya briefly considered lying but owned up instead, knowing Farfarello would see right through a lie at this point. “Yes. I’m frustrated with myself over it.”

Even with the housewares they’d picked up in New York and brought back, it hadn’t taken that long to bring their boxes and containers over and unpack most of them. (The Christmas items would remain hidden away in storage.) The apartment had already been cleaned well even before they’d seen it yesterday, so there hadn’t been much for Aya to do with that. They’d found good places for most of their belongings already, and Farfarello had made the bed up with deep green sheets that put more of a gleam into his eye than Aya understood or knew what to do with. They’d no doubt need to move things and get more things as the need arose, and it would take a while for this place to feel like a home no matter what he did, he knew that. Everything would feel much better once they disposed of the boxes they’d lived amidst since returning to Tokyo. 

Knowing how much Farfarello didn’t want him to see Yoji, Aya felt a bit guilty as well, which held him back. 

“I know,” Farfarello said. “Your frustration and indecision are rubbing even _my_ nerves raw.”

Aya could sense Farfarello’s own inner conflict over the situation--wanting his lover to settle in and feel some peace yet not wanting him to see Yoji to do that--and couldn’t blame him for it. This should be a happy occasion, their new apartment, their own larger space, and Aya hated himself for ruining it for Farfarello. 

“I’m sorry,” Aya replied. Not sorry enough to refuse to see Yoji ever again, but sorry. 

Farfarello came in close, put his hands on Aya’s shoulders, and rested his forehead against his. “Don’t be. I want your happiness. Get this over with so you can stop brooding on it.” 

“Thank you.” 

He really should see if Yoji was even available before he made any plans. Calling the shop could get awkward, and he should be working on his telepathy anyway, so Aya sent a little telepathic feeler Yoji’s direction, hopefully gentle and not enough to startle him. 

Yoji felt amused, especially since the light touch had come across to him as a knocking at his “door.” 

~ I didn’t want to be intrusive, ~ Aya answered. ~ I want to see you in person to catch up with you. Is that okay? ~

Yoji considered that to be more than okay and said that he’d be off work in two hours so Aya should come in the back door at the shop.

~ You’re lucky I’m not Schuldig, because I would have replied with something perverted. I’ll see you in two hours. ~ He broke off contact before Yoji could say something about how he _preferred_ Aya to be more perverted. 

“So?” Farfarello asked. 

“I’ll go see him when he’s free in two hours.” Aya had an idea on how he could make that a bit easier for Farfarello to deal with. “I’d like to visit my family’s gravesite before that, and I’d like you to come along.”

Obviously surprised, Farfarello asked, “You want me to meet your parents?”

“As close as you’ll get to it, yes.”

Aya figured that his parents wouldn’t approve of much of _anything_ he’d done over the past few years so bringing Farfarello wouldn’t make much of a difference. If he even really believed in such things, which he told himself he didn’t. 

Farfarello being Farfarello, Aya didn’t know whether he’d prefer Aya’s parents to approve or disapprove of him. 

Farfarello gave out such a sudden wave of happiness that Aya couldn’t help feeling it coming at him. Aya certainly hadn’t expected that. Grinning, Farfarello said, “I’d like to go with you, yes. Were they Christian?”

Aya probably didn’t want to know why he asked. “Probably not as you would think of it. We had very strong Buddhist and Shinto beliefs. You better not be thinking of--”

“No. Not at all.”

“Because if you were, you’re not going with me. This is my _family_.”

“Of course. I’ll be good.”

“I thought that maybe we could walk for some exercise to make up for me missing my run.”

“That’d be good, though I’ve heard that it may snow today so we should wear snow boots and bring umbrellas.”

“...okay.” This wouldn’t be weird _at all_.


	275. "Crawford would kill you for trying to poach me."

Farfarello walked with his husband under gray skies heavy with thick clouds, with the air trying to steal all the moisture from his mouth and everything quieted somewhat somehow. Snow-to-come conditions. Although he’d enjoyed Jamaica, there _should_ be snow and cold at this time of year. Beside him Aya walked, lost in his own world as he often became while walking or running. At such times, even when Aya had company he walked alone. 

Farfarello couldn’t help smiling a little over that. _His_ husband, the man he now shared an apartment with again and whose dead parents he would visit. Although it had started strangely, the day had given Farfarello some major victories. He tried not to let his glee show so much since his kitten saw visits to graveyards as solemn things, things a show of glee might be taken as disrespect for. That seemed to be the popular opinion. 

“I wonder if tomorrow’s job will be outside at all and if the weather will be decent,” Aya said.

“I don’t care either way,” Farfarello answered.

“Not all of us can turn off our ability to feel cold and discomfort.”

“Too bad for all of you.”

“Selfish.”

“Aye. But you complain too much. I know you’ve done things like wait motionless for hours in the pouring rain.” 

“Being capable of doing something doesn’t mean I _want_ to deal with that kind of discomfort.”

Watching the longer tails of hair near Aya’s face blow about in the wind, Farfarello just had to grab and stroke one, enjoying its softness against his fingers and thinking that it made also feeling cold worth it. 

Aya let him and even smiled a little, a victory. “Now you’re molesting me?”

“Has it really been so long that you’ve forgotten what true molestation is like? I doubt it, but I’ll give you a demonstration here and now anyway.”

“Not on a public street. Later.”

“At the Kitten’s House?” Farfarello had to ask as he grinned.

“_Later_ later,” Aya answered, openly annoyed. “Besides, you’re not coming in with me because the conversation I need to have won’t happen with you around distracting us.” 

“So flattering.”

“Playing dumb won’t get you anywhere.”

“You’d be surprised.” 

“It won’t get you anywhere with _me_, and it won’t get you inside.”

Matters involving the slutkitten demanded delicacy, something Farfarello didn’t do well. He’d have to be careful; Aya could only be pushed so far before he obstinately set his heels in and pushed back. He didn’t want to lose his kitten over this. 

Their arrival at the cemetery thankfully put a stop to that line of discussion. No crosses here, which made controlling himself easier. It looked winter-desolate now but might be pleasanter at other times of the year. 

Aya stopped in front of one of the stone monuments and said, “It looks good. Clean. I’ll have to ask Omi who’s been taking care of it in my absence and thank him.”

Aya had said he would have brought flowers or incense if not for the incoming snow. If he’d be coming here again, Farfarello would have to ask about the customs.

Although he’d known Kritiker had declared Aya legally dead for its own purposes, it still put a superstitious shiver down Farfarello’s back to see his beloved’s actual name engraved on a gravestone, made it _real_. He hadn’t realized Kritiker had gone that far, although he should have. 

Aya’s sister’s name had also been engraved on it. Farfarello knew when his kitten saw that from the way Aya’s breath suddenly caught and eyes closed, with a wet glimmer of tears showing up on his dark red eyelashes. 

“Omi apparently took care of my sister’s remains. I figured he would, but it’s good to have confirmation,” Aya murmured as he set his hand atop the gravestone.

Farfarello suddenly found himself wondering about his own dead family’s resting place. Did they have a marker stone? Did anyone visit them? He had no idea what had happened to them and later Sister Ruth after they’d become corpses. God....

Sister Ruth’s carcass deserved to rot in anonymity, befitting what a liar she had been and the depth of her betrayal, far worse than his “parents”... but his sister had treated him like the brother she’d believed him to be because she hadn’t been aware of the truth, hadn’t done anything wrong at all.... God had taken them all, guilty and innocent, and kept His own hands clean... by using Farfarello’s....

He didn’t want to think about these things or feel this sudden hollowness in his chest. They made him want to scream--

“Farfarello,” Aya said, casting him a worried sidelong look, “this is my family, as promised. I’m glad I finally came here. I should have after we recovered my sister’s body but Schwarz stole me away instead.”

It relieved Farfarello to think of other things, other people’s families. He had to keep it together. “If we hadn’t, you might be resting here eternally yourself now.” 

“That’s possible.” A few feathery snowflakes came to rest amidst his crimson hair.

“You promised me you wouldn’t become depressed and morbid if you came here.”

“‘Promised’ is too strong a word.”

“Nonetheless, you said it and I trusted you.”

“You’re--”

“Correct, and you know it. You’re alive and they’re at peace, so don’t let it destroy you.” As much as Farfarello disliked being a hypocrite, desperate times called for desperate measures. “Are you going to go to Yoji in this mood? You’ll worry him.”

Although Aya looked surprised that Farfarello had gone there with the discussion, he replied, “...no. I don’t want to do that.”

“Good. He’s not as strong as I am and can’t take it.” Today, that might be a lie. He had to do better.

Aya snorted, then looked horrified at himself for it. “I hate you.”

“For forcing you out of your angst? Live with it.”

His kitten kept looking worried for him. When Aya Fujimiya noticed and saw through your stoic mask, things were bad. 

As snow fell faster and thicker, Aya put up his black umbrella to stop more of it from getting in his hair and down his collar. A fluffy layer of white started to form over everything. “I’m done here for the day. Let’s go.”

Getting so upset over graves, especially considering the vast numbers of people he’d sent to them, injured Farfarello’s manly pride. His husband _noticing_ his upset and cutting a much wanted visit short over it hurt even more. “Puisín--”

“It’s snowing. It doesn’t make sense to visit when everything’s getting covered over anyway.”

“Puisín--”

“Let me take care of you. You take care of me.”

“Unfair shot.”

“I could postpone--”

“No. I don’t want” the slutkitten “Yoji getting some idea that I manipulated you or made up an emergency to stop you from seeing him.”

“Do you really care what he thinks about you?” It came off as part teasing and part honest question. 

“No. I just prefer to give him fewer opportunities and excuses to be a pain in the ass about us.” The slutkitten spent too much time trying to chip away at his kitten’s loyalty to and love for him already. “Don’t offer to walk me home either. I don’t need it.” 

Now he was arguing _for_ Aya going to see Yoji, and resented it. The day had truly gone to Hell. Farfarello opened his black umbrella and sulked under it. 

“I just want to make sure that you won’t be happy unless I’m doing the thing and seeing the person you really don’t want me to do or see,” Aya said.

“There’s no need to go pouring salt on the wound.”

“This isn’t a test, is it?”

“_Go_.”

“All right. Will you tell me what’s going on when I get back?”

“...maybe.”

If he managed to repress and deny well enough, he wouldn’t still be fucked up by the time his kitten returned. If he failed, well, he probably wouldn’t be any more fucked up than he was now, so Aya might as well go see the slutkitten. 

They walked together companionably, with the snow making crunching noises beneath their booted feet. When it came time for their paths to diverge, Aya comfortingly set his hand on Farfarello’s shoulder and Farfarello let himself feel it. Staring at Farfarello with his heart in his purple eyes, Aya looked even prettier than usual. Sometimes Farfarello took a keen pleasure just in _looking_ at him. Then he left Farfarello to head toward the Kitten House, and Farfarello had to start walking toward Schwarz’s building because Aya kept looking back at him. Amazing how quickly and suddenly the day had turned to shit. 

He felt so _wrong_. Also, how could he feel like he had a knot in his throat and an aching hollow in his chest? They didn’t go away when he dissociated his soul from his body, which usually cut off physical sensations, either. He thought of cutting himself to try to purge it but knew that his kitten would search for signs of such things when he returned and blame himself for it, no matter that Farfarello had all but shoved him at the slutkitten. It might not work anyway. He didn’t know what he needed or where to get it from. 

Wandering out in the snow alone wouldn’t do him any good, so he sped up to get back to their building. Although the mindbreaker had a taste for tormenting people, he could sometimes be useful in defeating mental/emotional upsets if you presented them to him in the right way. As much as Farfarello hated to admit it, he needed help. 

******************************************************

“Staring out the window won’t make him show up any faster,” Ken said. 

“It can’t hurt,” Yoji answered. 

“If you really want to distract yourself, you could always _work_.”

“My shift ends in ten minutes anyway.”

“Grrr.”

“We haven’t seen a customer in 45 minutes and won’t be getting many more in this weather anyway, while Aya wouldn’t let a little snow stop him from going where he wants to go, so take it easy, Kenken. When Elena gets back you can tell her that you did your best with me.”

“You know that’s not the only reason why.”

“But it is the one that might affect whether you get laid or not.”

“You’re such an ass.”

“But you still love me. You can’t help yourself.”

“I guess it’s possible, since there has to be _some_ reason why I haven’t killed you yet.”

It took a few minutes for Yoji to be sure that the person under the black umbrella approaching the shop was Aya, but once he did he had to smile from how it seemed funny and perfect at the same time. The phrase “little black rain cloud” came to mind. 

“He never has exactly the same psychic signature twice,” Sasha murmured. 

Yoji took his apron off. “I’ll let him know you said that. Well, I’m off. Try not to have an emergency while I’m out of here with Aya.” 

“You don’t do anything during flower shop emergencies,” Ken said. 

“You never know. I was just trying to be nice. Bye!” 

Busting Ken’s chops never stopped being fun. 

When Yoji opened the back door, he greeted his visitor with a very casual “Hey, Aya, come in.”

“Hello.” Aya gave his umbrella a strong shake to knock snow off before he closed it and stepped inside to change out of his boots and into house slippers. The cold had put some color into his face, especially his cheeks. 

But... “You’re looking so solemn, even for you. Did you just come here from a funeral or something?”

After a look of surprise, Aya answered, “It’s funny you should ask that....” 

“No way!”

“No. I just visited my family’s grave, though.”

“...I really don’t know what to say to that. Except to ask why you did it right before coming to see me.”

“I didn’t think about it that way. It’s just that Schwarz had some open time in its schedule for me to do so. Please tell Omi to thank whoever has been keeping up the gravesite for me while I was... away. I would assume it was Omi himself if I didn’t already know that he’s so busy that he might have delegated it. I’d ask him about it myself if I knew I’d be seeing him again soon, but I have no idea.”

“Sure, Aya. Can I make you some tea or something?” Had to be a good host. 

“Thanks. I could use something to warm me up a bit.”

With how formal Aya was being, Yoji wished he could add some alcohol to it to loosen him up a bit and be more like he’d been with Yoji in New York City and Vienna. Maybe Aya would warm up emotionally the more time he spent with Yoji, who figured he had that effect on people. 

Yoji led him to the kitchen and put the kettle on. “Take your coat off, have a seat, and get comfortable. The coat rack is in the next room.” When Aya came back without his trench coat on, revealing that he wore black slacks and what appeared to be that really nice sweater he’d worn during the X-mas party in New York, Yoji had to say, “You dressed up a bit for me? _Nice_. Wait, did you dress up to visit the gravesite?”

Aya smiled a little. “Sorry, Yoji.” 

“Hmph.”

“You still benefit from it. I figured I might as well dress up. I didn’t want to go in the somewhat grungy clothing I wore when we were moving into the new apartment. Farfarello and I have our own apartment now, next door to the others.”

That made Aya’s living situation a bit less like being part of a cult and hopefully gave him more autonomy. “Furnished or unfurnished?” 

“Why?”

“I’d help you shop for furniture. I have better taste than you do.”

“Not even close. Anyway, the furniture came with it and Farfarello and I still have the house wares we bought in New York City. Disappointed? I know you love to shop.”

“I’m a bit disappointed. But good for you on getting a separate apartment. Not that it’ll stop Schuldig.” _Nothing_ stopped Schuldig, damn it.

“It’ll slow him down a little. It counts.”

“Too bad he’s a telepath and can access you from wherever he wants.” 

“These days I’m a bit better at keeping him out of my head than I used to be.”

“That’s no guarantee of anything.” Yoji set a cup of hot water with a tea bag in each down on the table, one for him and one for Aya. 

“True.”

Once Yoji sat down across from Aya, he said, “You _look_ well. How have you been doing?”

“Aside from a few dramatic moments, I _have_ been doing well.” Aya set his hands around his cup as if to warm them and looked down into the cup. “Yoji, I had no idea that you would feel that from me. It’s the last thing I wanted.”

Yoji had wondered how they’d bring that up. “For a guy as private as you are....”

Aya looked up at him then, with a very intense look in his eyes. “That’s part of it, yes, but I would never want to cause you pain and anxiety like that, and if it had happened while you were on a mission, you could have been killed over it. That horrifies me.” 

Aw. “It worked out okay.”

“That doesn’t matter. It never should have happened. I’m looking into ways to make sure it never happens again. I need training for this bastard ability I have, and I’m trying to find out the best way to get it.”

“Shouldn’t Schuldig be doing that already?”

“You might think so but no, so I’m looking for outside help. Outside help aside from going to school in Okinawa. I have too much going on to be able to take time off for that. We’re actually considering Elena.”

Considering what Yoji knew of Schwarz and their attitudes, they must be desperate if they were thinking of going that route. “Has anyone asked _her_ yet?”

Aya sighed. “Of course not.”

“Another solution would be for Farfarello to stop poking you that hard to get a reaction. Don’t look at me like that. It’s true.”

That mention of Farfarello had put more of a melancholy, worried shadow into Aya’s brief facial expression than Yoji had expected. It made him wonder what might be going on and how to get it out of Aya.

“In any case,” Aya replied, “that would eliminate only one source of stress in my life. I’d hate to get horribly injured on a mission and share that sensation with you.”

“I’d hate for you to get horribly injured on a mission at all!”

“There’s that.” Aya suddenly got a weird expression on his face then said, “We have company.”

“What? Guys!” 

Ken, Sasha, and Fenris appeared in the doorway. Fenris waved. “Nobody said we couldn’t listen in,” Ken said.

“Yeah, you were so sure you were welcome you all hid and eavesdropped,” Yoji answered. 

“I worried about him too!”

“And I helped you get through it, Yoji,” Sasha said with a small smile. Yoji really didn’t want to think about Aya’s reaction to Yoji immediately getting over his pain and worry through a few rounds of recreational sex. “That has to count for something.”

“And I was around as, uhm, emotional support,” Fenris said. 

Aya seemed torn. Yoji figured that it made him uncomfortable to confess personal things in front of a larger audience--including Sasha and Fenris, people he didn’t even know well--but he didn’t quite feel comfortable telling them all off on what wasn’t his home turf anymore. The old Aya, member of Weiß, guy who lived above Kitten in the House with the rest of them, would have immediately snarled at them to go to hell and stop listening to his private conversations. 

Knowing that Aya would never open up in front of a bunch of people, Yoji stepped in so Aya wouldn’t have to make the decision. “We’ll make a public pronouncement later. For now this is a private conversation. Buzz off!”

“This is _our_ kitchen,” Ken replied. 

“Then I’ll take this up to _my_ bedroom, and now you know we don’t want you listening in. Plus, Aya is getting better at knowing whether people are eavesdropping telepathically. Later, guys.”

“Awww!” Fenris said as Yoji and Aya picked up their tea cups and went upstairs. It gave Yoji a little warm buzz to see the small, amused smile on Aya’s face. 

“Thanks,” Aya said once they were safely in Yoji’s bedroom with the door closed. “I prefer some privacy. I haven’t been in this new Kitten in the House before either.”

“Shit, that’s right. Damn, how many times did it get blown or torn up, forcing us to renovate or move?” Yoji pulled a small table over to his bed, set his cup on it, sat on the bed, and patted the mattress next to him to signal Aya to do the same. 

Aya sat down, a warm weight next to him. “More times than it should.” He unabashedly looked around, checking the room out, which Yoji felt had a comfortable look, only slightly cluttered. “It certainly smells nicer.”

“Hey. I cut way down on my smoking to help Elena quit her habit. That’s it.”

“How do you know cigarette smoke was the smell I was referring to?” Aya asked with an excessively innocent and bland expression on his face.

“...I can’t believe you went there.” Inwardly though, Yoji couldn’t help doing a little dance of glee that Aya had abandoned formality. “Here I am, trying to be a good host to you and....”

“I’m joking.”

“You better be.”

“I feel weirdly like a schoolmate invited me over to his house after school.”

Yoji had to laugh. “I don’t know if you want to play with _my_ toys. Not that I’d mind sharing....”

“I hope that’s not a proposition,” Aya said lightly.

Feeling the need to push his luck, as always, Yoji asked, “What if it is?”

That unfortunately shut Aya down a bit. “Yoji....”

“I’m sorry, but Farfarello did try to get a threesome going with me more than once.” 

“Even if that were appropriate, which it’s _not_, today is the worst day to ask about that.”

That sounded, and Aya looked, really serious. “Aya, what’s wrong?”

“I wish I knew.” 

“Aya.”

“Today Farfarello just....” Aya apparently didn’t know how to end that sentence. “I’m worried.”

“You sure it’s not just--”

“It’s not just something he cooked up to ruin us meeting with each other, Yoji. You didn’t see how angry and upset he was with himself for me seeing he had a problem.”

“I know you don’t want to hear it, Aya, but it’s not like he’s really stable.”

“I know, but this is different. But it doesn’t matter. It’s not your problem, and I don’t want to dump it on you.”

“Do you know what I think might help?”

Raising an eyebrow, Aya answered, “A few rounds of healing sex?”

“If only you were saying that seriously!”

“There is no way of saying that seriously.”

“Tease.” 

“What were you going to suggest before?”

“...I don’t remember anymore. Not after what you just said.”

“You didn’t really have an idea that would help, did you?”

Yoji _did_, he just didn’t think Aya would listen to it because his idea was that Aya cut ties with the little psycho for his own safety and stop worrying about him. It’d solve so many problems! No matter how much affection Aya somehow had for Farfarello, it wasn’t like anything Aya could do would make Farfarello sane. 

“You could always come back to Weiß,” Yoji said. 

Aya stared at him. “...what? How does that even...?”

“We have telepaths of our own these days, and one of them is the one you’re already considering to train you. Schwarz doesn’t have any telepath trainers you could trust. We have a lot to offer, and we’d love to have you back. You wouldn’t even have to fight Schwarz since we’re fighting on the same side these days.”

“...how does that help Farfarello?”

“I don’t think there’s anything anyone can do to help Farfarello. Can you? I mean, think about it.”

Aya looked incredulous and angry. “He’s unwell and depressed, and your solution is that I abandon him?”

“You could still live with him.” Not that Yoji wanted Aya to. A clean break would be so much better.

“That makes no sense at all.”

Yoji had thought Aya would be angrier than this over the suggestion and had worried about that, but Aya appeared to find the idea so nonsensical that he was too busy being confused to be angry, which kind of sucked. There had to be a way to angle Aya into doing what he wanted while having it _seem_ to work toward Farfarello’s favor if that’s what it took to get Aya to agree to it. Aya always martyred himself for a few select others. C’mon, brain, think!

“If you train your telepathy better, you can pick up on what’s bothering him.”

“By breaking into his mind?”

“He’s used to it! It’s practically a condition of being with Schwarz. You find out what’s wrong and either get rid of the thing causing it or find a way to distract him from it. You already have some plans to approach Elena about training you. When did you think that was going to happen? When would you find the time to train with her if you’re always with Schwarz?”

“You’ve been taking lessons in telekinesis with Nagi.”

“Not often, since he’s usually too busy. Also, my talent is small and pretty quiet and doesn’t tend to self-detonate on me and people around me. It only went out of control that time when I was drugged, terrified, and getting my life threatened.” Carefully watching Aya’s eyes and the emotions he could see in them, Yoji said, “Don’t take it personally and get angsty, Aya. This telepathy thing and our link weren’t your fault. It’ll work out with training.” He smiled as he saw Aya’s self-recrimination shift into annoyance.

“...has your team leader really authorized you to make offers in her absence?”

“I think she would agree with me on this one.” At the very least, she knew how much getting Aya back would mean to _Persia_ and that Kritiker Japan wanted more psionic agents. 

“I told you that I just moved into a new apartment with Farfarello.”

“Which is a good thing, since we’re full up here. Sasha and Fenris have to share a room. Come back. You know you like having a routine. Hell, you might even miss flower arranging a bit, since you seemed to find some peace in it.”

Aya looked almost dizzy. “...I... what?”

“I know you wouldn’t be able to make a decision right away. Think about it, okay? Really consider it.” 

“Besides, you would need time to actually run your offer by your team leader.”

“It’ll work out. I miss you, Ken misses you, Fenris loves you.”

“Elena and Sasha?”

“Barely know you, but saving Fenris from Breaker earned you big points with Elena while Sasha is easy-going.”

“Does ‘easy-going’ mean you’ve already had sex with him? Wait, what am I thinking, of course you did. You’re you and he’s a Schuldig clone.”

“That’s an unfair stereotype.”

“But true.”

“...but true.” Yoji briefly considered saying that they had sex as a therapeutic thing but decided that he didn’t want to bring up how bent out of shape Aya’s anguish had left him. “He’s not predatory like Schuldig is.” Well, not much. “We had much less sex than you’d apparently think.”

“Congratulations?”

“You don’t have to have sex with him if you don’t want to.” Oh man, he could be doing a much better job pitching his offer. 

Aya smirked a little. “Crawford would kill you for trying to poach me.”

“I was hoping I could blame some of it on Elena,” Yoji replied half-seriously. Elena felt so competitive with Schwarz and so wanted to give them a black eye when she could that she might be willing to take a lot of the heat.

“My hero.”

“I just worry about you a lot. What I felt from you was... really bad.”

“...it was. But it actually did some good too.” Aya paused, as if deciding how much to share about it. “It helped us discover that I was more injured in my battle with Breaker than any of us realized. Now that we know, we’re working on healing the psychic damage. I’m much better now.”

“Psychic damage? What does that mean? Did he hurt your... brain? Aya, this is serious! What you went through was bad enough to put you into a coma; what it could do to your....”

Aya put his hand on Yoji’s arm, trying to be reassuring. “Now that we know what to look for, we’re healing it. We already got a lot of it fixed. It’s nothing to worry about.”

It didn’t work. “You all missed it before. Can you really be certain that you’re totally aware of it now? Besides, you always downplay your injuries.” Yoji _knew_ Aya had held things back. 

“Yoji, it’s not that bad.”

Yoji set his hand over Aya’s. “Somebody has to worry about your well-being when you won’t. But I won’t keep hounding you about it, Aya, since I know you don’t like to hear about it.” Didn’t feel comfortable with people knowing he could be vulnerable. “Just stay a while, okay? Relax, drink your tea, zone out, whatever. I’ll put on some mellow music and just sit with you. I won’t bother you.” He wouldn’t even reiterate his offer to join Weiß because he knew Aya wouldn’t forget about it or be able to stop thinking about it.

“You’re incapable of that.” At least Aya didn’t move his hand or shake Yoji’s hand off. 

“I can do it, though I’d _really_ prefer it if you gave in to our unresolved sexual tension.” With Aya sitting on his _bed_, so close....

Aya shook his head and smiled a little. “Of course. I can’t stay too long, not with Farfarello in the shape he’s in, maybe an hour, but I’ll stay until I have to go or you do something to drive me away.”


	276. "You just used my actual name. Have things gotten this bad?"

Feeling surprisingly melancholy, Schuldig sat at the kitchen table of his new apartment and looked out the window at the heavy gray winter sky, wondering if it’d get any decent sunlight to bask in in months to come. He didn’t know how long they’d be living here, which didn’t usually bother him. From his teens on, the only place he’d steadily lived in for a long period of time was Rosenkreuz, and he’d very sensibly wanted to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. After that he’d done the nomadic thing with Brad and eventually the rest of Schwarz and adopted a be-in-the-moment attitude by necessity, letting Brad, who usually had more information from Eszett or his precognition than Schuldig had, do the planning ahead. 

(He played long games with some people’s minds without Brad’s orders, but those had been for sport, hobbies, trivial. If they failed or ended too soon they annoyed him a bit but didn’t put him out for long. Besides, there were always other fish in the sea, and the sea was endless.)

But now he wasn’t content to be a leaf in the wind anymore. He _wanted_ to plan ahead and have some expectation of where he’d be in, say, six months. He... wanted to do something that _mattered_, that lasted. 

He had no idea where the hell any of this had come from.

His most recent big plan hadn’t succeeded. He’d so wanted Schwarz to enjoy their time off and see the rejuvenating power of a good vacation to get them to go on them more often. Despite all the traveling he’d done in his life, he still had so many places he wanted to see and be in. Some locations he’d gone on a job didn’t count from the proscribed route of places there his work had limited him to. 

Unfortunately, Schwarz had fallen apart without jobs to stop them from thinking and tell them what to do and needed a kind of vacation from their vacation. They’d even ruined _Schuldig’s_ vacation by forcing him to work. Everything had been such a disaster he doubted they’d try it again for a very long time, if ever. 

If Schuldig did get the private vacation Brad had promised, he’d be appreciative (and somewhat surprised). It wouldn’t be the same, though, not without his peeps, his gang, his in-house entertainment. 

In almost every way, their Jamaica trip felt like a defeat. None of them came back rested or rejuvenated, and Schuldig knew he wasn’t alone in feeling jet-lagged and no longer adjusted to winter and its cold.

Ironically, Schuldig himself currently had too much time to think. Moving in hadn’t taken long because they didn’t actually have much to move. They all had possessions scattered across Asia, Europe, and parts of North America, jettisoned when they became inconvenient, and bought what they needed when they needed it. Schwarz had to travel light.

Both Brad and Schuldig had found Brad’s call to Persia disappointing and anticlimactic too, having looked forward to bullying Persia into doing what they wanted, fighting for a win, with Brad saying with a Crawford smile that he loved to play the villain to support his team. But Persia had given in on paying for Nagi’s efforts immediately, claiming he had no idea the e-mail account had exploded like that. Of course he wouldn’t take advantage of Prodigy. Schuldig had been tempted to mindread Persia to see if all that was bullshit, but Persia had Katsura on duty protecting his mind and Schuldig didn’t feel like taking the time and effort of discreetly breaking in just to satisfy his curiosity on something so small. The phone call took just a few minutes, and Nagi’s new work agreement came through by e-mail soon after that. Disappointing, though it pleased Nagi to face so little friction.

After that Nagi went to his new bedroom to work on his computer alone, while Brad left to return their old apartment’s keys to the landlord, which shouldn’t take long. It left Schuldig at loose ends. He didn’t have enough time to really get into anything, just enough to get bored and melancholy.

Maybe having some of the kids move out into their own place, even if it _was_ right next door, even though Nagi would still live with him and Brad, had something to do with his weird mood. Maybe, but Schuldig didn’t really see himself as suffering from empty nest syndrome, even if it might be fun to joke with Brad about how they didn’t even have a kids’ room they could convert into a rec room or walk-in closet. But things _were_ changing.... 

Self-analysis _sucked_, but every telepath had to do it periodically to figure out where their ideas and drives came from.

A sudden blast of regret/fear/confusion/panic/self-directed anger jolted Schuldig, and it had Farfarello’s unique mental flavor to it, even if Farfarello seldom felt some of those emotions. What the hell had happened? Schuldig reached out and found Snow-white and Rose-red at a local cemetery. Something there had unexpectedly set Farfarello off but Schuldig couldn’t pick up fine details under the deluge of feelings and Farfarello’s desperate attempts to repress and deny. Plus, reading Farfarello at the moment felt like sticking his hand in an operating garbage disposal, all darkness, stench, and sharp slicing and grinding blades. Schuldig backed off and waited to see what happened. 

Farfarello couldn’t repress successfully and put up a front Aya saw right through then argued and bullied Aya into going to see Yoji. Topsy-turvy day indeed. Even more worrying, Farfarello didn’t follow Aya to Kitten in the House to skulk about outside stalking them or find a way to get inside and put himself between them, which would be his usual two choices. Instead, Farfarello was rushing back to the apartments intending to get Schuldig to fix whatever had gone wrong. 

Shit. Maybe no longer getting a room they could lock from the outside had been premature. It probably wouldn’t get to that point, but it’d sure make Schuldig feel better if he knew he had the option of throwing Farfarello into a secured room. 

Farfarello better not make a mess. They’d just gotten this apartment.

Schuldig hid his gun under the newspaper on the table, in reach, and a knife up each sleeve. ~ Nagi, Farfarello is coming back in a major lather. Don’t come out of your room, draw attention to yourself, or restrain him when he gets here but be ready to intervene if things sound like they’re going bad or I call for you. He’s dissociated from his body, so make sure your mental shields are strong since he’s acting more and more like a telepath these days. ~

~ Do you expect things to go bad? ~ Nagi asked. 

~ He’s unpredictable at his best, and right now he’s in a lot of emotional tumult and unsure how to deal with it. He’s coming to me for help but if he’s not happy with how that’s going.... Better for us to be safe than sorry. ~

~ Understood. ~

As he waited for Farfarello to get back and explode all over everything, Schuldig found himself wishing that Brad would return already. Why should he have to face this kind of problem by himself? 

If things went to hell too quickly, Schuldig would act on his own initiative and make his own decisions on dealing with Farfarello, and they might not be what Crawford would prefer. If Crawford didn’t like the consequences, he should have foreseen this and been here to intervene. 

The keys turned loudly in the lock, then Farfarello opened the door in a rush and slammed it shut. He tossed his black umbrella to the side, obviously not caring where it landed, and strode forward until he stopped at the end of the table opposite from Schuldig, his single tawny eye blazing with emotion, his gloved hands clenching on the back of a chair. He radiated crisp winter cold. “Schuldig,” he said, his voice deep, dark, and almost agonized. 

“You just used my actual name. Have things gotten this bad?” Schuldig didn’t let his surprise or anxiety show in his face or surface thoughts. 

“I’m not here for you to break my mind. The opposite.” But instead of saying anything more he just breathed hard. 

“The suspense is killing me. What is this about? I expected you to be interfering with Aya’s reunion with Yoji.”

“I would far prefer that myself.” Farfarello’s regret/fear/confusion/panic/self-directed anger just about pulsed at Schuldig in bruise colors, mostly purple-black with tinges of sickly yellow, brown, and green. “When I went with my puisín to the cemetery to visit his family, I reacted... unusually. Badly. Unexpectedly.... I couldn’t help thinking of my parents, the people who lied to me and pretended to be my parents, and my sister, wondering where their corpses are now and if _anyone_ knows or if they have a marker or if people visit them. I never found out; no one ever told me. My parents _lied_ but not as badly or totally as Sister Ruth had, hadn’t _sinned_ as she had sinned. I’d trusted her, and she’d betrayed me in ways most people couldn’t even dream of. She deserved to have been thrown, nameless, in a ditch somewhere or buried beneath a crossroads so people can run over her burial place endlessly.... My sister... although I suppose she wasn’t actually my sister by blood... deserved none of that. She was innocent. Horrible enough to slaughter her, but why did God have to use _my_ hands?! 

“Schuldig, I’m around corpses all the time and sometimes cemeteries, and I never react like this. What the Hell is going on?” He sounded close to hyperventilation. “Am I being attacked from outside? Perhaps God is demanding my attention like the whore He is....”

Sometimes a calm response could foster calm. “Perhaps you’re empathizing with Aya visiting his dead family.” Dead parents and a dead sister after all. 

Farfarello’s expression turned contemptuous. “I think not. You answer my existential horror with that?” 

“What, is it too obvious and easy for you?” Schuldig sneered. “You need a grander, more desperately reaching explanation?”

“You....”

“_You_ came to _me_. Now take a seat and take a deep breath. What happened to you wasn’t an attack from outside.”

After a few minutes of angry and rebellious glaring, Farfarello pulled the chair back and sat in it. He nearly looked like the teen his age said he should be. It still shocked Schuldig what an obvious difference his healing powers had made to his appearance. Yeah, he’d done some work minimizing his scars, but his skin looked so much healthier too, with better circulation, far less pasty, and his silver hair gleamed. If you could strip his current emotional/mental upset away, Farfarello looked more like some kid who’d gotten into a _really_ unfortunate accident. With Aya as his partner, Farfarello also acted a bit more like a regular guy. Farfarello _was_ changing.

These days, sometimes they forgot the core of the person they were dealing with, and that could be dangerous. “Changing” didn’t mean “completely changed.”

While Schuldig loved breaking people’s minds for entertainment and spite, Farfarello had come to Schwarz already broken, with jagged shards thrusting out everywhere, which made toying with him less fun. Occasionally he’d even wondered what it would be like fixing him, if it were even possible, but that had always remained an idle fantasy since Farfarello’s damage made him a more valuable operative for Schwarz, someone whose mind hurt telepaths and madness drove precogs to the same. Crawford had used him like a weapon and put him in a locked box when he wasn’t needed. 

Farfarello had more going for him these days than that, many more ways to be useful, but Schuldig didn’t know if Crawford would still want to try to repair him. Why rock the boat? For the most part Farfarello worked out as is. Saner might be not actually mean _better_. If sanity were even possible. Messing with him could lead to an unknown and unpredictable result as well as member downtime. If you cut the wrong wire, he could explode.

Also, it was always easier to break something than fix it as good as, or better than, new. 

What Farfarello didn’t know but Schuldig did was that it had been Farfarello’s telepathic abilities turning on for the first time--showing him way too much unvarnished, unedited adult truth, secrets, and emotions--that had broken his mind and sent him on his first killing spree, not God, unless you said that God had made him telepathic and so set him up. While it would be a huge shift in worldview, perhaps one that Farfarello’s fragile sanity might not be able to handle, if Schuldig presented that God angle it might actually work. Since meeting Sister Ruth recently Farfarello had slowly come around to remembering that he’d had a (bloody) hand in the murder of his parents and sister, something he’d previously repressed and denied _hard_ and blamed entirely on God’s evil intervention, with him as a victim as much as them. He’d apparently integrated that truth by saying that God had _used_ him to do it, as if he’d been possessed. At least Farfarello had come to believe years ago that God hated psychics, something he saw from experience with his team members as obvious. 

As much as Farfarello refused to consider it, this new breakthrough had to come from empathizing with Aya’s family issues. Brad wouldn’t like this new development. 

Farfarello certainly didn’t. “Will I be suffocated by this useless regret forever?”

Then again, Aya had made a ton of positive changes to Farfarello too. “Aya seems to kill just fine.”

“I prefer to enjoy my job more than he does.”

Schuldig had to laugh. “Understandable. Give me a few minutes to confer with Brad about this.”

Looking alarmed, Farfarello asked, “Why does he have to be alerted to this? This is just a stupid emotional thing and won’t get in the way of my work, especially if you help me, which you will do because Crawford would bitch at you forever if you refused to do something that would help team dynamics.”

“Team dynamics is exactly why I have to talk to him first.”

“You have no qualms about keeping silent when it’s _your_ private business that could affect team dynamics.”

“Are you trying to _blackmail_ me, Farfarello?” If so, _huge_ mistake. 

Also, Nagi was listening in on the conversation in his bedroom and might react very strongly to the threat of Farfarello revealing his recent sexy playtime with Schuldig. Even if that might not be what Farfarello was currently talking about. Schuldig kept so many indiscretions to himself.

“No. It’d be stupid to get on the bad side of someone who might do work on my _brain_. I’m saying that you’ve kept quiet about your own doings, and _I’ve_ also kept quiet about your doings. I want the same courtesy returned.”

“We can’t always get what we want.”

“You’re too glib by far.”

Schuldig could almost feel the tension vibrate in the air between them--Nagi would probably be able to see it--and could feel adrenaline singing through his body. This could get dangerous fast; in fact, it surprised him that it hadn’t already gotten there. Farfarello really had changed. 

“I have an idea that might really help you, now and in the future,” Schuldig said, “but it’s a big shift, which is why I want to know what Brad thinks before I try it.” If Farfarello had changed so much, maybe an appeal to reason might work.

“I didn’t come to you for any ‘big shifts,’” Farfarello immediately answered as he backed away from the table and Schuldig. “Why the Hell would I need you to muck about with my personality or core beliefs over a brief episode like this, a one-time aberration? I was thinking of a bit of patchwork, something small and quick, and if that’s not what you’re offering I withdraw my request for aid. I’ll try my own kind of therapy: messing with my puisín and the slutkitten.” He grabbed his umbrella and ran out the door. 

“Hmph,” Schuldig said to himself. 

Nagi opened his bedroom door and said, “You handled that masterfully.”

“Oh, shut up. That was one battle in a war. Besides, I’m taking it as a victory that he didn’t rip anything or anyone to shreds here.” It was for the best anyway. He and Brad needed to have a talk and if he went ahead with it he wanted to have more planning behind it. 

A precognitive vision about the success rate would be great too if he could get it. 

******************************************************

Aya jumped when Kitten in the House’s alarms went off. Yoji shouted, “What the hell?” and they heard Ken yelling, “Yoji!” 

Feeling something brushing across his senses, Aya turned to the window and asked Yoji, “Could that be triggering the alarms?”

Farfarello crouched on the window’s ledge outside, peering in, getting snowed on. It annoyed Aya to see him but gave him some relief as well, since he hadn’t been able to stop worrying about his partner and this kind of behavior was normal for Farfarello. 

Yoji sighed. “Maybe, but our life sucks enough that we should check to make sure he’s not the only unauthorized visitor here. I’ll tell Ken to take somebody and check out the rest of the area.”

“Can Farfarello come in?” Aya would prefer it, but if he had to go outside to talk to Farfarello he would. He didn’t want to try it telepathically since just lightly touching Farfarello’s mind currently didn’t feel good at all.

“Through the window of my bedroom? Sure, that seems to be Schwarz’s favorite way of getting in here lately. Don’t give me that look, they’re _your_ team. At least for now.”

Aya still didn’t know what to make of Yoji’s offer so he set it aside to think about it later. Besides, he didn’t want to take the chance of a more emotionally unstable than usual Farfarello reading it off him. Mayhem would definitely ensue, and it’d ensue in the heart of Weiß’s base of operations. In Yoji’s bedroom, no less. 

Schuldig would make a perverted joke about that.

Yoji shook his head. “I’ll go downstairs to fill Ken in on what’s happening and get him to make sure there aren’t any more visitors. And turn that damned alarm off. You can let the little psycho inside, but try not to let him break anything or get too much snow on my stuff, okay? Or bleed or make you bleed on anything. I’ll be back.”

“I’m sorry, Yoji.” Farfarello had thoroughly inserted himself in their reunion, something neither Yoji nor Aya had wanted. Even when they’d been alone, Aya’s mind hadn’t been totally here. 

“Eh. You never made anything easy, so why you should you start now?” Yoji said as he left the room, and Aya wished he could dispute that. 

Aya unlocked and opened the window for Farfarello. Once he entered the room, Aya said, “Boots off,” and answered Farfarello’s growl with “They’re wet and dirty, and I won’t let you track that everywhere.”

“Fine.” Farfarello removed his boots.

“Are you finally willing to admit something’s wrong?”

“...aye. What’s that racket?”

“That’s the alarm you triggered while scaling the building.”

“I _wanted_ you and the kittens to be aware of me. I wasn’t sneaking in.”

Aya had to ask, “Are you sure it’s not just that you’re used to Nagi tampering with security systems for you?”

“You’re hard on a man’s dignity. I stand by my story.”

“All right. Are you willing to talk to me now? You had me worried.”

“I admitted that something was wrong. I didn’t promise to discuss it at length.”

That brought Aya back to briefly thinking about Yoji’s odd offer before he restored mental discipline. “Why did you choose to show up now?”

“I stupidly went to the mindbreaker for help first, but his ‘help’ sounded somewhat like a personality transplant so I declined.”

It had to be serious if Farfarello went to Schuldig about it. “The snow on you is starting to melt, so let me get you a towel. I’ll be right back. You’re a guest here, so don’t damage anything while I’m away.” Figuring that making it brief gave Farfarello less time to be tempted, Aya returned with a towel in about two minutes, to find Farfarello kneeling by the bed and seemingly sniffing it. “What the hell are you doing--?” Then he got it. “We didn’t have sex, if that’s what you’re trying to find out. We just talked and had some tea.”

“In the slutkitten’s _bedroom_, surely the scene of many a crime.”

“You think I’m a liar?” Aya growled as he threw the folded towel at Farfarello’s head. 

Farfarello used it to dry his hair. “I know that many people find him tempting.”

The blaring alarm gave Aya a headache, which made him even angrier than he would be usually. “Including you.”

“Including me _sometimes_. But I believe you that you didn’t give in to him. The bed doesn’t really give me a good idea because the slutkitten smells continually... excited.” As he walked over to Aya, coming close enough to breathe his breath, the alarm stopped, somehow emphasizing that moment. Farfarello grabbed him and kissed him hungrily, searchingly. In his surge of anger and sensation, Aya couldn’t decide whether he wanted to melt into the kiss or fight him off tooth and nail. 

When he found a moment when he could break away to breathe, Aya gasped, “This is neither the right time nor place.”

“No such thing. Besides, it’d help me feel better, more like myself....”


	277. "His mind *hurts* me."

“There’s nobody else invading,” Ken said. “We checked in person and with Sasha’s telepathy.” 

“I guess it’s okay for me to go back up to Aya and the little psycho,” Yoji said. “Make sure my room doesn’t get destroyed.”

“Are you sure it’s safe for just you? Maybe you should have backup.” 

“Aya’s there.”

“You remember that Farfarello is currently Aya’s _boyfriend_, right? I don’t know how much help he’ll actually be.”

Ken had always had less faith in Aya than Yoji did. “Aya won’t let him hurt anyone or seriously break anything here. I’m sure of it.”

“Whatever, man. It’s your funeral. I’m just glad that you’re the one who’s going to have to explain all this to Elena when she comes back, not me.”

Yoji didn’t look forward to that at all. “Coward.”

“They’re usually _your_ houseguests so they’re _your_ problem.” 

“The longer you two argue, the longer he’s upstairs alone with just Aya,” Sasha said. “Look, I’ll lightly monitor things when Yoji gets back there, enough to detect a spike in anger or fear but not enough to invade anyone’s privacy.”

“Smart guy,” Ken answered. “You know, since he came here without an invitation I have no problem with you invading Berserker’s privacy.”

“Too bad that I can’t even if I wanted to. His mind _hurts_ me. The only way we’ll find out his motives in coming here will be to ask him. Speaking of which....”

“Yeah, I’m going,” Yoji said as he started walking upstairs.

“Are you sure you don’t want backup?” Sasha asked.

Enough already! “I’m sure!”

“Fine.”

“It was nice knowing you, Yoji,” Ken said. “Well, not really. If things go bad, like they surely will, make sure to give us some advance notice instead of waiting for Farfarello to chop any important pieces off you.”

Fenris just looked worried and shook his head. 

“You people have no faith in me!” Yoji yelled down at them. He hoped they weren’t right. 

When he opened the door to his bedroom and had a look inside, part of him told him that he shouldn’t be totally surprised by what he saw. While Farfarello had the hots for Aya big time and hardly followed social conventions, Yoji had figured that Farfarello would be far more intent on immediately getting Aya out of enemy territory than putting the moves on him. 

Then again, Aya had been worried about Farfarello’s state of mind for his entire visit, so they might not be dealing with Farfarello’s usual state of “normal.”

Aya seemed to be torn between surrendering and fighting Farfarello off, making it harder for Yoji to figure out how to react to all this. Yoji felt this weird... shiver of something while in the room with them. Recognition? Empathy? He didn’t know, and it sounded stupid anyway.

They looked good together, pretty and sexy, _hot_, which made it even more unfair. Yoji’s dick reacted instantly and told him that he wanted to see more. He fully understood why people in New York City would be willing to pay to watch them dance/seduce each other, with knives or without. Farfarello’s scars had detracted and distracted from the natural prettiness of his face, but as he healed more the prettiness became more difficult to overlook. Someone had been dressing him better lately too.

Sometimes Farfarello hated Yoji, sometimes he grudgingly appreciated things Yoji did, sometimes he wanted to have sex with him, and the very last time Yoji had seen him Farfarello had given him a completely unexpected hug. All that unpredictability often made it difficult to deal with him.

If Yoji didn’t intervene, Farfarello could end up having sex with Aya in Yoji’s home, in Yoji’s _bed_. _That_ Yoji could predict. Considering how badly Yoji wanted to get Aya away from the little psycho....

“Oi!” Yoji shouted. “Do I need to get a hose?!”

Aya jumped and backed away from Farfarello. Once he collected himself, he looked somewhat relieved. Whatever his feelings for Farfarello, he generally didn’t like to put on a display and be watched as things went on. 

Casting a petulant glare in Yoji’s direction, Farfarello said, “You of all people should understand what was going on.”

“Not in my room, not on my _sheets_.”

“You don’t generally seem so fastidious.”

Always with the insults. “You’re such a clever guy. Did you know that Aya would have been leaving here soon, so if you’d had a little more patience you wouldn’t have had to talk to me at all?”

“...I didn’t know that.” But he followed that moment of vulnerability with an attack of “How could I possibly have known that?”

“You could have trusted your partner.” Yoji only stopped himself from smirking through sheer will. It wasn’t easy. 

That actually appeared to chasten Farfarello, who turned to Aya and said, “Puisín--”

Still flushed and rumpled, so hot, but under somewhat better self-control, Aya replied, “I _was_ leaving soon. I’ll try to look at your appearance here as a reaction to our earlier conversation, not a lack of trust in me. As for the rest, I’ll chalk it up to you being so glad to see me that you disregarded how I’d prefer not to put a show on for Yoji--”

“Unless I’m more intimately involved in it,” Yoji had to say, even though he knew it would tick Aya off a bit.

“Yoji!” Right on cue. 

“That’s doable,” Farfarello said immediately.

“_What_?” Aya and Yoji answered. 

“I _need_ you, Aya, and I don’t want to wait. Involving the slutkitten isn’t much of a hardship--”

“Thanks ever so much,” Yoji said dryly.

“--and could be part of my apology to you both for the emotional upheaval I caused in Jamaica.”

Yoji couldn’t read Farfarello’s facial expression _at all_, and from the look on Aya’s face it seemed that he had the same problem. Yoji couldn’t resist saying, “You think really highly of yourself.”

“You could ask Aya if I satisfy him.”

Seeing the “urge to kill rising” look on Aya’s face, Yoji replied, with a small smile, “I’d really rather not, especially not right now. You might want to change course yourself if you ever want to get laid again.” 

Farfarello turned his head to see Aya’s face again and finally got a look for himself, which apparently knocked some of the cockiness out of him. “...”

“Are you going out of your way to mortify me, Farfarello?” Aya asked, his violet eyes in full death glare mode. He looked like he was about to drag Farfarello out of the building by his ear.

While Yoji firmly approved of Farfarello getting in trouble, he didn’t want Aya to leave yet. Besides, angry Aya was _sexy_.

Aya suddenly raised an angry eyebrow in Yoji’s direction. Crap, had he heard that telepathically? Unfair! Stupid sexy angry _telepathic_ Aya....

“Everybody calm down and take a seat,” Yoji said as he walked past them, sat down on his bed, and pulled Aya down to sit beside him. Thankfully, Aya let himself be pulled, sat, and stayed sitting. Obviously surprised and trying to calculate, Farfarello gave them a long look before sitting next to Aya. His position on the bed meant that Yoji and Aya saw the side of his face that still had an eye. Yoji said, “Okay. Good. We’re going to be adults.” Yoji wanted them to get _very_ adult but tried to block Aya from possibly reading that by setting up a barrier of more generic but still charged sexy thoughts that should keep him away.

Due to that dream they’d shared in Vienna, Yoji kept half expecting to see Aya’s tail or his own fluffier one waving in the background. How weird was his life?

Annoyed, Farfarello asked, “Now what?”

“I wonder why you keep trying to set up a threesome when Aya shoots it down every time,” Yoji said.

“Probably for the same reason you try to tumble him every time you see him even though you constantly fail.”

_Ouch_. At least Aya looked somewhat amused now instead of just angry. 

Unable to figure out something to say to that, Yoji’s brain took a new path of conversation. “Aya, why _are_ you so against involving yourself in a threesome? You’ve seen that it doesn’t have to be serious business with major meaning for your relationships, and you’re not freshly grieving anymore.” Shit, did he _want_ to stay on Aya’s bad side? But he had Aya and Farfarello’s surprised and full attention. From the look on Farfarello’s face, Yoji might have just earned himself a few points with this.

After about half a minute of stunned silence, Aya replied, “Because it’s not normal.”

Having already put himself out here, he might as well go all the way. Besides, he really wanted to understand. “Your lover is a guy and you live and work with a group of assassins. I’m sorry, but the good ship ‘Normal’ sailed away, leaving you behind, ages ago.”

“That makes having a vestige of normality all the more precious.” 

That made a sad sort of sense. “So is it or isn’t it an issue of morality? Considering you’re friends with a lot of people who have them from time to time.” If Aya himself had a threesome, he’d lose a lot of moral high ground.

“It is and it isn’t. I haven’t spent that much time thinking about it.... Most people in most circumstances wouldn’t be asked to defend themselves on it!”

“I don’t mean this as a personal attack, Aya, I really don’t.”

“Somehow that actually makes it worse.” Obviously upset, Aya said, “Society said and I was taught that someday I’d meet someone meant for me. For a long time after my family tragedy I thought that had to be a lie, but the definitions of that relationship remained in my memory: that this person would love me above all others, I would feel the same, we would be faithful and monogamous, and we wouldn’t _need_ anyone else. We’d be enough for each other. The first person I do this with might not be The One for life, but changing the conditions.... A threesome breaks that, and giving in to urges to take another person would be giving in to weakness and a betrayal. Sometimes I want you in a lustful way, Yoji, but I don’t _need_ you. In a just world, the person I committed myself to wouldn’t need to bring anyone else in either, as naïve as that apparently sounds to everyone I know. I went into my reasoning on this a bit with Farfarello the first time he gave you an invitation.” The look Aya shot at Farfarello actually made him cringe a bit.

Yoji cringed a bit as well. Shit, he was making Aya feel bad. _Really_ bad, it sounded like. Also, for a guy who claimed he didn’t want to talk much, Aya could really hit hard with what he did say. “Aya, you don’t have to--”

“I have varying degrees of affection for a lot of people, and I’ve heard that a lot of people think I’m hot, so does that mean I have to give my body to _everyone_ to make them happy and less likely to think I’m a stiff-necked prude and buzzkill? Unlike most of the people I know these days, I don’t do casual sex. If I made myself have sex with them, it would mean something very different to me than it does to them. And to you. That’s a horribly lonely feeling.” 

It could get worse. Yoji hadn’t believed that possible. “Aya, what I feel for you isn’t just lust. I really care about you and like being around you. I don’t want anything as loveless and... sordid as what you seem to be describing.”

After briefly shooting Yoji an annoyed look, Farfarello put one hand atop one of Aya’s and said, “I would never want you to do something that would break your spirit. Never. I also don’t expect you to have sex with anyone and everyone who asks, and you should already know that.” 

Yoji cut in with “Aya, I would never suggest you have a go with _everybody_.”

“Really, Farfarello?” Aya asked. “Because you’ve been unpredictable on whether we’re monogamous together or not, and _you_ know _that_. On Yoji alone, I’m not sure moment by moment with you how, in your opinion, I’m allowed to feel towards him and what I’m allowed to do. Besides, I often feel like I’m being gradually backed into a corner with all the compromises and concessions I’m making, so how _can_ I know how far it’ll go? Like with Yoji and Schwarz. At one point he never had sex with men, then he had sex once with Schuldig, then he had sex with Schuldig a few times, then he had sex with other men, and now there are _lots_ of men. Given his example, I can’t help worrying where I’ll end up if I give in. Are you okay, Yoji?”

“Don’t mind me, I’m just feeling like I got punched in the gut,” Yoji replied. Because Aya was so horribly right, and at times Yoji missed being straight. 

“His case isn’t your case, puisín,” Farfarello said. “The slutkitten doesn’t have the same views as you on relationships, sexual and otherwise, and I am _not_ the mindbreaker. They’re each far more libidinous and casual about it than you and I. My intentions for you aren’t his for Yoji.”

“And now I feel nauseous,” Yoji said. While he’d figured Farfarello being here wouldn’t go well, he hadn’t expected it to go like this. It rankled even more that he had himself to blame for the conversation ending up in this direction. 

“Since you keep mentioning the idea of a threesome with Yoji at random moments, Farfarello, I’ll lay out my thoughts on the situation for you,” Aya said. “If you see him more as a sex toy than a human being, I won’t go along with it because I care about him as a person and don’t want to see him _used_. If you do see him as a human being and feel lust but no affection for him, I’ll find it disturbing and confusing that you want to bring him into our love relationship and refuse. If you do feel affection for him, I’ll be less disturbed but more confused.” 

“Is the slutkitten so unlovable?” Farfarello asked with a bit of a smirk.

“Hardly. I’m just thinking of your past relations with him.”

“But if I did feel affection for him you might consider a threesome?”

How much further could he and Farfarello push Aya in one conversation? Yoji had already decided to lay low a bit. 

“I already mentioned that I’d find it confusing.”

“Would you feel jealous?”

Yoji now had proof that looks couldn’t kill, because if they could Farfarello would be a smoldering pile of ashes. Yoji didn’t even want to be in the same room with them right now but was afraid to leave and wondered if Sasha might be suffering downstairs just from lightly monitoring the emotions and thoughts in this bedroom. Poor kid. 

Poor Yoji. 

“Jealous from you splitting your attention? Perhaps a little. Certainly not jealous of the way you treat him. Then again, sometimes you seem to _want_ me to be jealous,” Aya answered, his hot rage apparently turning ice cold, to the point that Yoji could almost feel the angry chill across his skin. “I’m not happy with the way I’m being treated myself. I’m done with this conversation and having you here. Yoji, if he refuses to leave I give you full permission to have your telekinetic throw him out.”

Farfarello obviously didn’t get it yet. “You wouldn’t. We just moved in together besides.”

“This is _your_ shit timing. I’d be even more upset with you if I didn’t know you were already having problems today that might be making you more snappish. I need a break from you before I do anything I might regret. Leave. Go home. Eventually I’ll head there too.”

“While you stay here?”

“For now. The weather is cutting down on my options. Don’t worry about me having sex with Yoji. I won’t do it today whether you’re having him with me or not.”

“_Today_?”

“You’re the one who keeps trying to get me to do it, so you shouldn’t have cause to complain. Go home.”

Farfarello suddenly had a knife in his hand, but so did Aya, who immediately shoved Yoji away from them to a safer position. Yoji didn’t want anyone stabbed or slashed to death on his bed! Bare-handed, Yoji couldn’t safely use his wire, but maybe his telekinesis could.... At that moment the door to Yoji’s bedroom swung open to reveal Sasha with his gun out, a very happy Ken with his claws on, and Fenris wiggling his fingers.

“Leave with dignity, Farfarello,” Aya said. 

“There will be a reckoning later.”

“I know, and I’m not looking forward to it, but that’s later, when I get home. And don’t you dare kill someone random and try to excuse it on this argument we’re having, because I won’t tolerate it and Crawford wouldn’t either.” 

This should be Yoji’s dream come true, but somehow he felt uneasy as hell about the situation. 

His movements jerky with anger, Farfarello sheathed his knife, stood, and put on his boots. Aya stood as well, vigilant and ready to go on the offensive if he had to. When Farfarello reached the door and the three Weiß members standing there, he bared his teeth at them threateningly. Ken grinned back, marginally less threatening, and said, “We’ll escort you outside to make sure you don’t get lost.” 

Casting one last reproachful look back at Aya, he stomped out of Yoji’s bedroom with Ken, Sasha, and Fenris trailing him. Aya’s stiff body didn’t relax until he heard the building’s front door loudly close. Then he went nearly limp, tired, his anger snuffed out like a candle. “I’m sorry, Yoji.”

Oh, Aya. Yoji replied, “I won’t lie to you and say that was fun, but you did what you had to do. In fact, you should defend _your_ honor with him as strongly as you did mine.”

“Please. Not now.”

When Ken returned to Yoji’s bedroom in a rush, he gave Aya an enthusiastic hug. “That’s the Aya I know. That was great! So glad to have you back!” 

Obviously thrown for a loop, Aya didn’t hug back or try to free himself. “...thank you? But I’m not returning to the team.”

Ken slapped his back, friendly, and stepped away, still smiling. “It’s okay. You’re one of us, Aya. We’ll always have your back. And any time you want Farfarello thrown out of a place, feel especially free to call me.”

“Thanks, Ken,” Aya said softly. 

“It’s dinner time soon. Will you be staying for that?”

“Maybe? But I’m not hungry at the moment.” 

“We’ll make a bit extra, and if you don’t eat we’ll have them as leftovers. See you in a bit, Yoji.” Ken closed the door when he left. 

Yoji could’ve kissed him. But not really.

Since Aya looked stunned, tired, and somewhat directionless, Yoji patted the bed next to him and said, “Get back here.” After a moment of balking, Aya sat near him. Yoji promptly put an arm around him and pulled him in close to show support. After a few shaky exhales, Aya let him and even rested his head against Yoji’s shoulder, which left some of his soft red hair stroking against Yoji’s bare neck. Altogether, it gave Yoji such a warm feeling. It wasn’t sex with Aya or a threesome including Aya, but it felt good to be seen as a helpful, calming presence and have Aya trusting him enough to act vulnerable around him. 

He wished that Aya would accept his earlier offer to rejoin Weiß but didn’t have much hope there.

“...that really sucked,” Aya said softly. “He’s not often like that. Today messed him up....”

“I don’t understand your relationship.”

“At times, neither do I.”

“Will you be safe going back there? Tell me the truth.”

“Yeah, I will. We’ll argue, but even if we come to blows I’ll be all right. Besides, Schwarz has my back too.” 

“That is so damned weird.”

“Schwarz liking me for myself?”

“Nah. Schwarz not being a pain in the ass about something. You know that if you _do_ need help, you can call us. By phone or--”

“I doubt it’ll be necessary, but thanks.” 

“When you go home, make sure he realizes that everything would’ve worked out much better for him with you if he hadn’t come here, pushed too hard, and been such an asshole.”

“I’ll make certain he understands that.”

With Schwarz in town, close, Yoji would have more of an opportunity to look out for Aya and his wellbeing. It also had to change something in Aya’s thinking, at least a little bit, knowing that if things blew up with Farfarello and/or Schwarz he had people and a place to go to. With luck, Schwarz and Farfarello might treat Aya better knowing that too.

Though in some ways Schwarz and Farfarello treating Aya better would suck, since it would lessen the chances of Aya coming to his senses and returning to Weiß.


	278. "I've had fantasies about you doing that, but under much sexier terms."

Crawford suddenly had such a bad feeling, but nothing focused enough to be actual precognition and something to justify speeding home for. Recent events simply showed that Schwarz had an amazing capacity and talent for getting itself into unprofitable trouble. He’d surely get a more concrete message or flash of something from Schuldig if something truly awful occurred. 

That said, he wouldn’t dawdle either. 

He walked into their new apartment to see Schuldig sitting at the kitchen table in a dark mood and Nagi standing near him with an expression that mixed amusement and concern. Obviously _something_ had happened.

“What?” Crawford asked. 

“You missed a few things while you were away,” Schuldig answered.

“Something happened with Farfarello and Aya, didn’t it? At least one of the things I thought they shouldn’t do went wrong.”

“Actually yes, but you get some points deducted from it going wrong for reasons you didn’t expect.”

“Just tell me already.”

“Farfarello isn’t well. More than usual. He’s thinking and feeling things about his family’s death and the aftermath, especially his sister’s, that he’s never thought and felt before. He might be picking up on Aya’s feelings without realizing it, or his delusions might be cracking from something else. Whatever, it disturbed the hell out of him so badly that he came to me for help of his own free will.”

“Which was a mistake?”

“Ha, ha. I didn’t want to try anything big on him without talking to you first.”

“That’s very responsible of you.”

“It wasn’t what he wanted to hear though, so he went off to get Aya out of the kittens’ home. That really didn’t go so well, partly because he pulled his ‘sex now’ routine while Aya still has some reservations about getting it on in front of other people. Farf suggested a threesome, at which point everything seemed to turn into a storm of ‘much worse’... then _cut off_ because someone put a telepathic wall up.” 

“Sasha?”

Schuldig glared. “I could have broken through but it might have led to a major problem with Kritiker later. Farfarello’s mind was becoming a steadily increasingly painful thing to try to approach anyway. He left the building _without_ Aya while in a dark red rage, and he’s coming here to no doubt give us an earful and to possibly get violent.”

Fucking Weiß. “So, Sasha.”

“He’s a free person with his own allegiances. I doubt you’d react well if he told you that I should let him read anything he wants out of Schwarz because we’re blood relations. Get back on target, Brad. Farf has always been unstable, but this is a new variety of unstable. I wondered if I should try to fix him or lead him back to sanity but forbore because I’m better at breaking things than fixing them and because whatever I did to him would have consequences for Schwarz. It’s risky as hell and not something to try on the fly.”

“You’re right. Something we’d have to find out is how badly this new thing will affect his ability to work with us. If it’s worse, then maybe you should intervene.” _Could_ Schuldig actually repair Farfarello’s sanity? 

Would Farfarello be anything like the same person if Schuldig did? Would he still be willing to be a killer? Would he be controllable at all?

How much worse could Schuldig possibly make his problems if it didn’t go well?

Crawford had such a headache now. 

“When he came here for help and to confront me, I really missed having a safe room with a lock on the outside of the door to throw him in to just in case,” Schuldig said.

Did they _need_ to lock him away when he returned? “Do you think he’s significantly more dangerous to _us_ now?”

“Probably not, but why take chances?”

Farfarello had come so far in such a short time.... “Could this be a side effect of his having too much... freedom lately?”

In the beginning, Farfarello had restrained Aya. Later, Aya had restrained Farfarello. With this new development, was Aya becoming a liability? Could something like this destroy Schwarz? Crawford certainly had no intention of letting anything demolish his team and would eliminate anything that threatened to do so.

“My instinctive feeling is no, but I don’t want to go digging through that head to try to find out. _Nobody_ would want to go in there.” Schuldig shook his head. “I hate to admit it, but I’m not super sure on how to proceed and try to do all this. You know Rosenkreuz would’ve made a few attempts then killed him if it turned out to be too difficult or time-consuming for their tastes, which it would have, so it’s not like I received any training there.” A fast, obvious kind of shiver suddenly ran through Schuldig’s body. “He’s almost here.”

“Shit, I can feel him too,” Nagi said, sounding surprised.

Before Crawford had a chance to say something, Schuldig replied, “You don’t _want_ to feel this, Brad. He’s like a tornado, with occasional lightning strikes. I can almost smell ozone.”

“I’m ready to restrain him if it becomes necessary,” Nagi said.

“I have my gun and two knives handy, but it’d probably be less bloody if you handle it, Nagins. Having you on the scene will be really helpful, Brad, since you can pull the trigger on decisions that affect the group with more authority than I can. Plus, that way you won’t be second-guessing and chastising _me_ if something goes wrong.”

When Crawford rolled his eyes at Schuldig, Schuldig smirked back, leaving him to hope that matters couldn’t be _too_ dire. Still.... “Will we have to babysit the two of them when Aya returns home to make sure Farfarello doesn’t kill him?” 

“Maybe. Probably? I’ll have a better idea after Farf talks to us.”

“Thrilling,” Nagi muttered.

“Are you sure he’ll come here instead of next door?” Crawford asked.

“Yeah,” Schuldig answered. “He wants people to rant to.”

Crawford started to get that feeling of a storm coming, waves of tension and force. Farfarello must be getting closer.

The keys turned loudly in the locks, then Farfarello opened the door in a rush and slammed it shut. He tossed a black umbrella aside but the wetness of his hair and snowflakes lingering on his clothing suggested he hadn’t used it. Teeth gritted in rage, breathing hard, he stomped up to the kitchen table, gripped the back of a chair, and apparently tried and failed to find words to express his emotions. The stiffness in Schuldig’s body let Crawford know that Farfarello’s dark tempest was battering his telepathic shields hard. 

After about five minutes of this tense, loaded silence, Crawford started to find it ridiculous and asked, “Is there something we can do for you, Farfarello?”

Once his surprise wore off, Farfarello replied, “Kill Weiß,” with a voice that sounded like stones getting run through a grinder.

“Is that including...?”

“No. He’s not Weiß, no matter what the kittens might think. They’re bad influences on him. Some of the fault here is his but most of it is theirs and I want to _hurt_ them.” The chair creaked under his tightening white-knuckled grip.

Crawford didn’t know if he wanted to discourage or encourage this thinking. At least it distracted Farfarello from some of his earlier angst. Besides, Crawford had two members of Weiß in particular he wanted dead.

“Are you trying to encourage me to turn on him?” Farfarello asked, sounding very dangerous. 

“I’m just trying to find out where you stand.”

“Our last attempt to socially engineer Aya and Omi through killing particular people didn’t have quite the results we wanted, Farfarello,” Nagi said.

Farfarello’s grip on the chair tightened as he exhaled noisily, obviously unhappy to recall that incident. As if his mood needed further darkening.

~ You’re not helping, ~ Crawford told Nagi in a fast, tight-band telepathic message Farfarello shouldn’t be able to overhear.

~ _You_ are? I don’t think it’s a good idea to encourage him on something like that, ~ Nagi answered the same way. 

“When you’re staring at each other that way, I _know_ you’re talking about me,” Farfarello said. “I _firmly_ suggest you stop it.”

“Duh,” Schuldig murmured, making Crawford worry that Farfarello’s mental outpourings might be twisting him to Farfarello’s side. One person this crazy and upset was quite enough. “Do you think you’ll hurt Aya when he gets home?”

Now Crawford had no idea whose side Schuldig was arguing on. The “what the hell?” expression on Nagi’s face suggested he felt the same.

Farfarello first turned angrier, then went white. “I don’t know,” he answered softly.

“I know you’ve told him to defend himself if you try to attack him but, Aya being Aya and somewhat masochistic, it’s hard to say what he’ll see as an attack. He might not try to protect himself until it’s too late, especially if he’s feeling at all guilty about your last conversation. I want to know if we should keep you separated, even if it’s only at first.”

“...I don’t know.”

“Maybe we should, just in case, at least at first. If you decide you’re okay with it, we can let him hang around with you afterward.”

“Is this really helping?” Crawford had to ask.

“You’re the one worried about how this’ll affect our job tomorrow. The job will _really_ be affected if one of our own has put another of our own in the hospital,” Schuldig answered with total insouciance. “It starts when we have to see the client tomorrow morning, right? So we don’t have much time to pussyfoot around tonight. Communications is part of my job, so I’m communicating quickly and efficiently.”

“And ruthlessly,” Nagi murmured. 

Schuldig shrugged. “We do what we have to. It’s up to you, Farf. You’ve come a long way recently, but you’re having a _very_ bad day today.”

After a loud exhale, Farfarello finally said, “Keep us separated at first. Until I have some idea of how I feel after his arrival.”

“I’d say that’s doable. Brad?” Schuldig handing the conversation over to him had a definite undertone of “You want so badly to be the boss? Go boss.”

Annoying, but Crawford didn’t want a digression on Schuldig’s attitude during an important conversation on Schwarz and Farfarello controlling Farfarello, something Schuldig no doubt counted on. “You’ll stay with us in this apartment,” Crawford said. “I don’t think it would be a good idea to have you next door alone for an unknown length of time. Do you feel like you need confinement?”

“I don’t know,” Farfarello answered, obviously angry and frustrated, grinding out his words. “I _do_ know I won’t be wearing a straitjacket. I refuse.”

A sense of control might help Farfarello, so Crawford wouldn’t deploy the straitjacket unless Farfarello went dangerously _out_ of control near Schwarz. One member’s sense of wellbeing didn’t outweigh the safety of the rest of them.

“We can’t kill Weiß,” Farfarello said. “At least not Balinese. Unfortunately, Aya is _mind-linked_ to him. I don’t want to take the chance that killing him would fuck up my puisín. Bad enough the man runs out risking his life all the time as his job. Sometimes I ponder crippling him....”

If only that would solve their problems with Balinese. Crawford replied, “Tempting as that might be....” The thought and image of breaking Balinese’s knees gave Crawford such joy. “That might seem safer mindlink-wise, but it probably wouldn’t make him less compelling to Aya. It might make him more so.” 

And if the crippling didn’t render Yoji impotent, Schuldig might still be interested in him. Hell, his suffering might make Schuldig _more_ interested in him. 

Schuldig cast a somewhat suspicious look Crawford’s way. Fortunately, Crawford knew him well enough to know that if he’d gotten through his shields and seen and heard all of that, that look his way would not just be “somewhat suspicious.” 

Still, it would be best to move on quickly. “Farfarello, do you have something you can do here to keep yourself occupied?” Crawford asked. 

“Can you get your art supplies unpacked?” Schuldig asked. 

“Yeah,” Farfarello answered. 

Watching him, Crawford could almost feel how much effort he was making to himself in check. Tomorrow’s work would hopefully be therapeutic, giving Farfarello safer targets to turn his violence and rage on. Also, they’d get paid for it. 

******************************************************

Aya’s anger/depression turned into a deeper depression as he realized he’d fucked things up pretty badly. He needed to think of ways to fix the situation, but his thoughts kept unhelpfully chasing themselves in circles. Feeling pathetic and needy leaning on Yoji, he moved away and let himself fall backward to lie across Yoji’s bed. 

“I’ve had fantasies about you doing that, but under much sexier terms,” Yoji said. 

Aya sighed. “You’ve had fantasies about _having_ me.”

“I’m not denying it. Aya, putting your foot down with him is a _good_ thing. He can’t expect you to throw yourself on his dick--and the dick of anyone else he decides on--every time he has a bad mental health day, especially not with how often that must happen.” 

“It’s not like dealing with his dick is an onerous duty.” Most of the time. When Yoji just coughed instead of saying anything in response, Aya continued, “I could’ve handled him and the situation better. It was a semi-public rejection.”

“Semi-public only because he tried to get you into a threesome with me again. You’ve refused him on that a few times before, so I don’t know why he thought it would work this time, when he was coming off as _more_ dangerous than usual.”

“All of Weiß got to see me spurn him and became part of throwing him out of the building.”

“He pulled out a knife and turned threatening.”

“It’s nothing we haven’t seen him do before. I can defend myself and so can you. Obviously, since we’re both still alive.”

“Farfarello flies off the handle easily, while Weiß is a team and this is our home. They didn’t want to take a chance. Don’t beat yourself up over this.”

“I should go home. The longer I’m away, the more time he has to stew and get angrier.” 

“Shit. Now I _really_ don’t want to let you go back.”

Angry, Aya sat up. “‘Let’ me? It’s not your place to stop me! I’m an adult, and I can handle my own affairs. I don’t want to keep having this conversation with you!”

“I phrased that badly. I’m sorry. At least stay here until you feel calmer. _Somebody_ will have to have a cool head when you meet up with him again.”

The apology placated him a bit. “I don’t know if I’ll feel calmer any time soon.”

“At least stay for dinner.”

“I don’t know if I can eat in my current state. I have no appetite.”

“Whether Farfarello physically attacks you or not--and he better not--there will be a ton of drama when you get home, and you probably won’t think of eating then. I want to make sure you get _some_ food in you.”

When Yoji gave him an odd look, Aya asked, “What?”

“I appreciate getting a belated insight at how you think. I can’t help thinking it would have been handier if I’d gotten it while you were still with Weiß.”

“I’ve changed since then.”

“Some, yeah, but not _that_ much.”

“You would have taken advantage of it if you’d had it then,” Aya replied lightly, not trying to be insulting.

“Okay, a little, but nowhere near as much as you’d think and not in a negative way.” Yoji looked at him so fondly....

Sitting here on this soft, comfortable bed in the midst of the golden light of Yoji’s lamps and warmth, soaking in _Yoji’s_ warmth and affection for him, Aya couldn’t help wondering what might have happened if he’d been more open to... _anything_ during his time in Weiß. Would he have gotten involved with Yoji in some kind of relationship? Yoji might be a perverted sex fiend, but Aya had ended up with one anyway. There would have been nights in this room--okay, perhaps not _this_ room in _this_ building, but in _Yoji’s_ room wherever--talking and snarking and fucking with each other, companionship, a break from the emptiness. Maybe he wouldn’t have taken his sister’s death quite as badly as he had if Yoji had been at his side for support and a reason to keep living. He would’ve been much, much harder for Schwarz to co-opt. Aya probably would never have discovered his odd talent and the way it turned into partial telepathy, and he never would have noticed the lack of it. 

There were a number of good things in his life from his time in Schwarz, but that other him wouldn’t be aware of those things and thus wouldn’t miss them.

He would be with a partner who had issues of his own but whose mental health wouldn’t be a challenge that Aya didn’t know if he could handle properly. He wouldn’t have to worry that the wrong word or action from him at any moment would send his partner into violence against himself and others. He couldn’t help worrying that he’d make Farfarello worse, if he hadn’t already done so today. 

Then again, if he hadn’t joined Schwarz Farfarello might still be kept in a locked room and occasionally hung from the ceiling while in a straitjacket. Nagi might not have come out of his shell more. Schwarz might not have succeeded against Rosenkreuz, ending the kidnapping and abuse of new children, and eventually gone on to free and help hundreds more people in Vienna. 

He could never know if that other life or his actual one would be better; there were too many variables. When he thought about it, it amazed him how many lives he’d affected. Wondering “what if” couldn’t undo all that, at the _most_ it helped you make better decisions in the future.

“Dinner!” Fenris yelled from somewhere in the stairwell. 

“We interrupt your brooding time to try to get you to feed yourself,” Yoji said with a smile.

“That’s some set of lungs on him. Considering the power set of your group, I’m surprised he doesn’t just send the message telepathically,” Aya replied.

“Ken and I have asked them to do some things the mundane, old-fashioned way, and they agreed to it.”

Yoji didn’t say, “We’re not Schwarz,” but he didn’t have to. 

When they came downstairs they saw Fenris setting the table for dinner, Ken sitting at the table with his meal already in front of him, and Sasha taking off his apron as he said, “We have beef goulash, rice, and creamed spinach. It’s self-serve: take what you want, as much as you want.”

Aya had gotten used to Schuldig’s clones while perpetually surrounded by them in Vienna--so many that he had trouble keeping who was whom straight (ha)--but during the days since it had worn off, which meant that a younger version of Schuldig’s face paired with bleached hair and subdued clothing colors made Aya jump a little inside. How did Yoji, who’d had sex with both of them, deal with it daily? 

“With a lot of practice,” Yoji murmured in Aya’s ear, to Aya’s surprise. “Don’t give me that look. I told you I’ve gotten better at reading you.”

“I _have_ become more obviously expressive,” Aya murmured back, unsettled.

“Give me some credit; it’s probably both. Get a plate and fill it. Sasha’s a pretty good cook.”

“Just ‘pretty good’? I’m a lot better than you are,” Sasha replied.

“That’s not much of an achievement,” Yoji answered.

Dinner smelled good, reviving a bit of Aya’s appetite. Yoji’s forecast of how things would go when Aya returned home didn’t sound completely unlikely. Better to eat something now to fortify himself and respond better for what might be a confrontation later than go hungry and weaken the rest of the night. 

Aya didn’t take much, figuring that he could always return for seconds if needed, and sat at the table with them. Fenris gave him a friendly smile between bites. Despite his misgivings about how much he’d be able to handle, tasting the food himself made Aya hungrier. 

Sasha looked innocently happy as he watched Aya eat, perhaps seeing it as a confirmation of his cooking skills. He was certainly less smirky than Schuldig. Sasha could be counted as someone whose life had improved by Aya being in Schwarz, the way Aya had thought about earlier. In Vienna, he’d been hunted, hungry, and homeless, but now he had a new life and friends in Weiß. 

“Will we open the shop tomorrow with all this snow?” Fenris asked. “I’d like a snow day.”

“Probably,” Ken answered.

“Aw.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t go out and enjoy yourself now and then,” Ken said.

Still looking somewhat disappointed, Fenris replied, “I guess that’s true.” Cheering up, he said, “Sasha, thanks for the creamed spinach. It’s great!”

“Thanks,” Sasha said. “What about the goulash?”

“That’s good too! It’s just that I can get things like goulash here easier than I can get creamed spinach.”

“It _is_ excellent,” Aya said. 

Sasha _beamed_, so easily pleased, disturbingly resembling Omi when Aya had first met him. That shouldn’t even be possible. 

“I bet Schwarz doesn’t have family dinners like this,” Ken said.

“Actually, we do,” Aya answered. 

“...I’m totally failing to imagine that. Schwarz never sits together around a kotatsu though, right?”

Aya nearly snorted. “We’d never trust Schuldig enough. Not that Weiß ever does it either.”

“We don’t trust Yoji.”

“Hey!” Yoji said. “One, I’m not like that and not that bad. I’m not _Schuldig_. Two, don’t flatter yourself, Kenken. Three, if I _were_ like that, I wouldn’t do it in front of Fenris.”

“Because I’m so pure and innocent,” Fenris said dryly.

“Don’t complain,” Ken answered. “You really don’t want to see Yoji getting his perv on. _I’d_ prefer not to see it.”

“Ha, ha. Getting back to the snow, can I give you a lift back to your place, Aya?” Yoji asked. “The snowfall will make it a longer, harder walk, and it’s dark out.”

“If the roads are slick, your car might not be able to handle it. I might be safer walking,” Aya replied. To soften it, he said, “But I appreciate the thought.”

“It’s a long walk alone, a lot of time to think.”

It disturbed Aya that Yoji knew that about him. “I’ll be fine. Besides, you dropping me off might just get me in deeper trouble.” 

“Damn. You call if you need us to get you, though. Don’t be too proud for it.”

“I’ll consider it,” Aya replied, more to stop the discussion than anything else. 

Yoji cast a dark “I know what you’re doing” look at him but thankfully didn’t say anything else about it, not until he stood next to Aya at the door to leave. “Aya....”

“I’ll be fine,” Aya said as he finished buttoning his coat up. “And if I’m not I’ll let you know.” 

“Come back whenever!” Fenris said. 

“We expect Elena back sometime tomorrow,” Yoji said. 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Aya replied. “Good night, everyone.”

But Weiß didn’t close the door until they saw that the snow wasn’t all that high and Aya had no problem walking through it. It simultaneously annoyed and pleased him. 

The cold, snowy night had such an odd atmosphere. The city streets seemed to be deserted, and all he heard was the soft _shush_ of snow falling onto snow and the crunch of his boots stepping on it. Everything sparkled under the streetlights. Snowflakes gently drifted down from the sky. It felt so peaceful.

Aya didn’t realize he was slowing down until he stopped walking completely. This tempting calm respite seemed so much better than returning to people and noise and strife, no matter how cowardly it might be. His soul was starving for this. He closed down his bastard telepathy and mental links as much as he could, as much as he knew how, wanting to be alone, quiet, and unnoticed.

He didn’t know how long he stood there just breathing, just _being_, calm and untroubled, before Nagi flew to him and touched down lightly onto the sidewalk in front of him. “I worried,” Nagi said. The snow slid off a telekinetic shield instead of landing on him. “I came on my own.”

“I’m sorry for worrying you,” Aya answered. 

“Can you come home with me now so we can get this over with? I could hardly breathe from all the tension in the apartment.”

“Yeah.” 

Nagi put his arm around Aya’s waist, not that he needed to, before he lifted them into the sky to fly away. Although he could feel the telekinetic force that kept them airborne and moving forward, part of Aya still couldn’t help feeling some fear amid the exhilaration as he looked down at the street far below them. Nagi had extended his shield to cover Aya too, saving him from getting struck by snow at the speed they were going. 

A few minutes in, Nagi said, “I don’t know if I could deal with having someone like Farfarello as my partner. Tot had some... issues, but she wasn’t as dangerously volatile.” 

“There are times when I don’t know if I can do it either,” Aya replied softly. 

Aya started feeling dread, which understandably increased as they came ever closer to their building, but he didn’t say anything about it to Nagi, and if Nagi noticed he didn’t say anything about it either. Nagi landed them in front of the building’s entrance to let them go inside and get to their apartments like normal people instead of flying through a window. 

As the elevator let them out on their floor, Nagi said, “He’s in our apartment, not yours, because Crawford and Schuldig wanted to keep an eye on him. He was still doing some art therapy when I was left.”

“Thank you. I’m glad to have some idea of what I’m walking into.” 

As they stood in front of the door, Nagi brushed Aya’s hair with his hand. “You had some snowflakes in it,” Nagi said, sounding a little embarrassed at his gesture.

“Thanks.” Mentally steeling himself, Aya turned his keys in the locks and opened the door.


	279. "We’ll all feel better tomorrow after doing some paid violence."

When Aya entered the apartment, Crawford and Schuldig immediately walked up to him, grabbed him by his arms, and moved him to the kitchen. This reception made him even more worried. 

“Nagi, get in here too,” Crawford said. “Why did you bring him directly here? You heard our conversation with Farfarello about keeping them separate at first so he can settle his emotions.”

“You were all so busy thinking of ways the situation can get worse that I figured he’d be a total mess by the time he actually saw Aya. Instead, let’s get it over with,” Nagi replied fiercely. “I picked Aya up because he was standing out in the snow staring out into space, and who knew how long he would’ve kept doing it if I hadn’t interrupted him?”

One eyebrow raised, Schuldig asked, “Who made you an expert on these things?”

“I’m a telekinetic. I can shield Aya with it until we know he’s safe from Farfarello. Duh.”

“Can you two please let go of me?” Aya asked, his anger and discomfort growing. Their crowding and manhandling him made it harder for him to keep calm and think. “Also, Farfarello isn’t deaf.”

“Indeed not,” Farfarello said from nearby, obviously much closer than the rest of Schwarz had expected from the way they jumped a bit. 

To Aya’s relief, he recognized the red on Farfarello’s empty hands as coming from a marker, not from his or someone else’s body. His relief fled as he felt Farfarello straining to hold himself together and retain self-control. The whirling vortex of Farfarello’s emotions and its violence made it difficult to accurately identify which one currently prevailed and what he might let loose on Aya in reaction to what had happened in front of Weiß. It worried him, for both their sakes, and hurt him to see Farfarello suffering. 

In their surprise, Crawford and Schuldig hadn’t let go of his arms, which would hold him in place and make it easier for Farfarello to strike him if he wished, while Nagi might be too unsettled to shield him in time. Whatever might come, Aya would face it, be strong for the both of them, and try to mend things. He knew what he felt guilty about and what he felt justified about, that he’d done some wrong things but wasn’t completely in the wrong and he refused to be treated as if he were. 

******************************************************

If Schuldig had intended the art to be therapeutic, it was failing miserably. Farfarello’s lines kept skewing into chaos and gibberish, his hand betraying him, his focus broken. 

It didn’t help that tension had tightened his muscles and made him stiff enough to creak. A good bout of bloodlust always loosened his body up, but it rebounded on him if he didn’t actually spill blood. The telekinetic boy had stepped out, leaving only a telepath and a precog, both talents he could baffle.... No, they were his team, part of his foundation. Besides, his kitten and the boy wouldn’t react well if they came home to that. 

His kitten also wouldn’t react well to him cutting himself. 

Farfarello couldn’t draw anything he tried for, never a good sign, so he put a fresh, clean page of paper down and let his hand go where it wished without attempts at interference or meaning to see if it told him anything. The resulting crabbed, messy, shaky knots of red marker ink, with some sections a darker, moister red where squiggles crossed over each other, didn’t say anything good about his state of mind and emotions.

The sound of the door opening made Farfarello look up to see Aya, face still red in places from the cold outside, enter the apartment with the boy behind him and scan it with his eyes, looking for Farfarello. Farfarello would normally give Aya some mental privacy but not now when things were so fraught. The cold, sharp rage Aya had radiated at him in the Kitten house had died down a great deal, leaving worry dominant, worry for Farfarello and worry for _them_ as a unit. He wanted desperately to talk to Farfarello to try to clear away misunderstandings, find the root of their problems, and go forward, stronger. Aya also had a feeling of being trapped and wanting to eventually find someplace dark and quiet where he could curl in on himself and rest, where people couldn’t poke or push at him.

For whatever reason, Farfarello felt less panicked and desperate now than he had when he went to get Aya in the kittens’ den. This time he didn’t feel the need to immediately latch on to his puisín sexually, which should help his case. Of _course_ Aya had resisted having sex with him in foreign territory and having sex with him _and_ the slutkitten together, having reacted similarly several times before. Some people said that insanity was doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. Farfarello had mishandled him.

And scared the hell out of everyone. 

When Schuldig had asked earlier how Farfarello felt about Aya and what he might do when Aya returned, Farfarello hadn’t known and agreed that it might be best to separate them for a while for their own safety. His outraged brain and hands might do something he’d regret in a calmer later. But he knew now that Aya had nothing to fear from him. Although he still felt confused over the thoughts about his fake family that had overtaken him at the cemetery, he felt better and clearer with Aya here again. They would figure things out together. His brain and hands ached to hold and caress his puisín, not hurt him, the sooner the better.

Thus he felt enraged when Crawford and the mindbreaker grabbed Aya and dragged him away into the kitchen to badger him in quiet but intense voices. Surprisingly, the boy looked angry about it as well and followed them in to argue Aya and Farfarello’s case. Nagi revealed that Aya had left the kittens even earlier than this and had been standing alone outside in the snow trying to decompress, which made Farfarello’s heart beat harder. 

Farfarello sensed Aya getting ever angrier at Crawford and the mindbreaker touching and cornering him this way, so it didn’t surprise him when Aya exploded with a “Can you two please let go of me? Also, Farfarello isn’t deaf.” 

“Indeed not,” Farfarello answered, having already arrived at the kitchen without consciously moving closer. Crawford and the mindbreaker retained their grip on Aya, while Aya faced him with a bit of worry and wariness but mostly with a pleasing determination to correct what had gone wrong. “Let go of him _now_ or I’ll _make_ you let go.” But he almost wished they wouldn’t so he’d have an excuse to fight them, even though he didn’t know if he could stop himself before he drew blood. 

Once he drew blood, he _knew_ he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from going further. The boy would attack him....

The mindbreaker and Crawford quickly let go, though the boy still watched Farfarello carefully and seemed to be ready to telekinetically intervene if necessary, something Farfarello actually didn’t mind. Failsafes were useful, and the boy had already been helpful in getting his puisín home safely and faster. Aya moved away from them and straightened his coat, then came to a stop in front of Farfarello to let him make the first move, whatever it turned out to be, cautious but trusting. 

“I won’t hurt you, puisín... and the rest of you,” Farfarello said, not touching his puisín yet. “I still have some issues to settle but I’m doing better now.”

“I’m sure you can understand our continuing misgivings about you,” Crawford replied dryly. 

“I have some things to talk out with Aya. Peacefully. I want some privacy for it. We’ll do it in your bedroom, Crawford, since you no doubt don’t trust me alone with Aya next door yet.”

“He doesn’t trust you, but why our bedroom?” Schuldig asked.

“Because the boy would never take the chance of me going wild and violent around the expensive gear in _his_ room,” Farfarello answered. 

Smiling a little, the boy said, “He’s right.”

Although he looked annoyed, Crawford said, “All right. You can use my bedroom. If we think you’re becoming dangerous in there, we’ll send Nagi’s telekinesis after you. We also have Aya’s well-being in mind, better than you sometimes do.”

Hearing that made Farfarello want to snarl, but he kept his teeth hidden and gently took hold of Aya’s wrist. Prior to this Aya had said nothing and merely watched them all with a neutral expression, but once Farfarello took hold of him he nodded in agreement. 

Farfarello quickly closed the door behind them but didn’t lock it, not seeing the point with a telekinetic on the other side. Crawford and the mindbreaker had unpacked their things, but the room still looked and felt impersonal, something the mindbreaker usually quickly changed with his clutter. 

“I hadn’t thought the rest of Weiß would get involved,” Aya said quietly. “That scene probably embarrassed you, and I apologize for that. I won’t apologize for refusing the threesome though. I got so angry over being pushed into that situation that I really needed to be away from you for a bit.” He shook his head. “It would help me a lot if you’d tell me what happened to you today. I’m worried for you.”

That was both less and more than he’d hoped for. “I hope you know that I went with them peaceably for your sake, knowing you wouldn’t want harm to befall them.” They better not think that meant he was intimidated by them. He might need to violently prove that to them the next time their paths crossed. Farfarello sat on the bed and said, “Sit next to me. I won’t make any sudden movements on you, and the mindbreaker hasn’t gotten a chance to defile this bed yet.”

As Aya sat, Farfarello felt a bit of Aya’s melancholy and concern cross over to him. He carefully adjusted how much his soul was associated with his body so he could get a light taste of his husband’s emotions while still being able to physically feel him. 

Things had too obviously gone very wrong for it to make sense for him to still keep the cause secret from Aya. “When we were in the cemetery I started to wonder about my family... my _fake_ family--the people who lied about being my parents and the innocent girl who thought she was my sister--and where their bodies rest. Wondered if anyone knows where they are or cares. If anyone comes to see them. I’ve never wondered about it before or felt so... _much_ about it. I have this choking feeling of _regret_.”

“...those seem like perfectly reasonable thoughts to me,” Aya replied, obviously somewhat confused. 

Of course Aya felt that way. When the mindbreaker had suggested that Aya had influenced those thoughts and feelings Farfarello had completely dismissed it, seeing as an attempt to trivialize it, but it seemed more reasonable now. “Given your background and history, you can’t immediately understand how disturbing this is to me. _I_ don’t understand... any of this.”

Aya put his arm around Farfarello and pulled him in closer, probably in an attempt to comfort and commiserate. Aya’s hair felt so smooth and soft and somewhat cold against the side of Farfarello’s face. “A lot of things have happened and you’ve gone through a lot of changes recently. A change like this isn’t necessarily negative.”

“It hurts so damned much, and I don’t know what it means.”

“In my experience, pain is a big part of life. I know you feel some of these things differently, and I’m trying to understand.”

His puisín hadn’t seen him at his worst today, as the rest of Schwarz had, and probably didn’t comprehend how serious it had been, which had their good points and bad points. “I had trouble controlling myself in front of the others today, to the point that they’re missing having a room they could throw me into and lock from the outside. Crawford really wanted to put me into a straitjacket.”

Farfarello could tell from the look on his puisín’s face that he probably wouldn’t like what he had to say. Aya confirmed that by saying, “I can’t entirely blame them. There are times when I’m afraid for you... and of you.” Aya managed to take things into another bad area by continuing, “I’m not the safest company for you either. I have numerous issues of my own. It can be difficult to know what I should say or do so I won’t make you worse.”

Farfarello had to decide what part to tackle first. “It’s harder for me to hold my own reins tightly, but I can do it! I don’t need a--”

“--safe space where it’s impossible for you to hurt others and more difficult for you to hurt yourself?”

It sounded nearly sensible when put that way, but Farfarello refused it. “I don’t need it. I was in a terrible state today but all I did was frighten people. I didn’t even hurt Weiß for what they did! I maintained control. I’m not perfect but no one is. Speaking of which, you’re fine with me; you’re the company I want. I couldn’t stomach someone who tiptoed around me all the time. You’re the reason why I’m _not_ in a locked room every night!” Farfarello would have said something about how Aya had been fine with being locked in a room with him when he was more obviously insane but Schwarz had forced that on Aya, which made it count less.

“The things I want, things that give me a feeling of stability, seem to make you _less_ stable.”

“We’ll find a balance. It’s too early to declare failure yet. Don’t give up on me, on _us_, yet.”

That appeared to strike Aya’s heart, as Farfarello had intended, but Aya replied, “You thought your problem was serious enough to _willingly_ go to Schuldig to try to fix it and it scared him badly enough that he wanted to give you what you called ‘a personality transplant.’ Neither of you scare easily, so it makes me wonder.”

A lot of things would be easier if Aya were less intelligent but, unfortunately, Farfarello wouldn’t have found him half as compelling that way. “We both may have overreacted in the heat of the moment. We should spend some more time evaluating things. I’m much calmer now.”

“You _are_ being much more reasonable than I expected.” 

Somewhat offended, Farfarello answered, “You as well, given what happened in the Kittens’ Den.”

Aya’s voice took on a darker tone as he asked, “Are you sure you’re not becoming calmer from leaning on my mind again?”

No. If he were leaning on Aya, it would make sense that he would no longer be as worried about the thoughts that set this whole thing off. “Yes, I am sure.” 

Aya’s tongue could sometimes be as sharp as his sword. This felt like a slow and showy knife fight, as the two sides evaluated each other. It left Farfarello with mixed feelings, enjoying it _and_ fretting about it. 

He also had mixed feelings about the possibility of this bout becoming more heated and dangerous. 

~ Can you two decide whether you’ll kill each other or kiss each other faster? We all have a job to start tomorrow morning, and the only way I want you two staying in my bed tonight is if you’ll make yourselves useful to me there, ~ Schuldig said. 

It made Farfarello wonder how deeply the telepath had eavesdropped into their minds. His mind usually tended to be difficult to read but for this conversation he’d focused his thoughts into more straightforward directions. 

~ If I told you, you’d fret less and that would spoil a lot of my fun. So, do you two need to sleep in different apartments tonight? Farf, do you think you’ll be able to work tomorrow? If you do work, do we need to throw a lot of victims at you to help you kill it all better? ~

After a moment’s thought, Farfarello answered, ~ No, yes, and it’s too soon to tell. Aya? ~

~ I’m not worried about sleeping in the same apartment or the same bed, ~ Aya replied. 

“Are you sure?” Farfarello asked him aloud. He _wanted_ Aya with him but didn’t know if he trusted himself yet.

Aya’s hand tightened its grip on his shoulder as he pulled Farfarello in a little closer. “Whose side are you arguing for here?” 

“Today was... occasionally scary for me too, and I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

“Then don’t.”

“...all right. I appreciate your trust in me.” Farfarello truly did. Unless Aya trusted him because he thought his proximity and influence would keep Farfarello calmer, a prospect Farfarello tried not to feel too upset about because he didn’t want to take the chance that cutting himself off from that would lead to him seriously injuring or killing his husband. 

He lived a precarious life.

“Weiß says Elena will be back from Okinawa tomorrow,” Aya said softly. 

Good, because they had to decide if they’d ask her to train them, but Farfarello could feel other things connected to it that Aya hid. His jealousy immediately suggested possibilities, but whatever Aya had buried ate at, disturbed, and confused him, which suggested something else entirely. Farfarello didn’t know what, but he could probably blame the slutkitten for that too. He’d have to try to poke at it during a less fraught time, hopefully when Aya was more relaxed and no longer expecting a blow-up.

“That’s good to know. We’ll see how things go.”

~ I’m still here, ~ Schuldig said. ~ So you’re decided on what you’re doing tonight? ~

~ Yes. We’ll sleep together in our bed in our new apartment and wake up tomorrow for work, ~ Farfarello answered. 

~ _Really_? You two don’t feel the need to yell at or beat on each other? Avoid or accuse each other? Drown in angst or anger? Use Nagi as a bodyguard to protect Aya? ~

~ No. We’re surprised about it ourselves. ~

~ ...okay then. Are you ready to come out now? Brad wants our bedroom back. ~

“Aya?” Farfarello asked.

“I am if you are.”

“I am. Today tired me out, and I’m ready to go to bed for some sleep.” They were being so reasonable it was almost disturbing, but Farfarello thought it felt much nicer to be this much calmer after his earlier extreme highs and lows. ~ Yes, we are. Are you disappointed? ~

~ ...I don’t even know right now. We’re opening the door. ~

When the rest of Schwarz opened the door, they looked somewhat incredulous to see nothing disturbed, no blood, and him sitting peaceably within the curve of his kitten’s arm on the bed, even though Schuldig would have told them what to expect. Then again, Schuldig had the same look on his face.

Farfarello stood and stretched. “Early to bed and early to rise.”

Crawford asked, “We’re not going to further address what happened today at all tonight?”

“We can look into it another time,” Farfarello replied.

“Sure,” Schuldig said. “Let’s not care if our team is stable before we take on a job that’ll put weapons in your hands.”

“I already mind-talked with you about this, and you have to admit that I feel much calmer now. I won’t turn my weapons on any of you and especially not on my puisín. Aya is willing to give it a chance, and he’s taking the most risk out of all you.” Besides, now that Farfarello had electrical abilities he could never be truly disarmed. 

He decided not to remind them of that.

“Aya’s sense of self-preservation isn’t always strong.”

“I’m also tired of hashing this over endlessly,” Aya said as he stood. “I’m tired. We’ll all feel better tomorrow after doing some paid violence.” 

Although it should already be evident, Farfarello said, “I love you.”

Aya flashed him a swift, bright smile, the more precious for being uncommon. He grabbed Farfarello’s wrist on his way out of the bedroom so they could leave together. Aya shot a quick look at the boy but didn’t break stride or change speed, though he did ask, “Crawford, what time should we wake up for? Has it changed?” 

“From my estimate of how much time you two usually take to get ready for a morning job, you should get up at 8 a.m. Wear your mission outfits and show up here armed,” Crawford answered without any fuss. Maybe he just wanted to get to bed too. “We’ll all be eating breakfast together before leaving.”

“Thank you. See you tomorrow.” 

Aya picked up their boots and led him into their new apartment. Although it still felt more like a large hotel suite than home and smelled uninhabited, they’d soon leave their imprint on it. _Their_ apartment, theirs alone, which thrilled and scared Farfarello all at once. He’d never had so much, and _he_ decided where the locks went and when to use them. He couldn’t afford to have a breakdown now and put all this at risk. 

Aya held his hand out for Farfarello’s still damp coat and hung both their coats in the bathroom to dry out completely. Farfarello turned on the bedroom light and smiled a little at the sight of the green bedsheets he’d demanded, wanting to see what the color would do against Aya’s red hair, pale skin, and violet eyes. Now that they’d unpacked most of their things boxes would no longer pen them in when they were in bed. It all put a fluttery feeling in his chest, but _this_ feeling didn’t scare him.

When Aya walked in, he briefly set his hand on Farfarello’s shoulder before he changed into loose blue pajama bottoms and a black T-shirt. Right, feeling exhausted after the day’s events, Farfarello had told him they’d simply sleep tonight, not having realized that coming back here with him would make him feel such a strong wave of desire. They _should_ just sleep; they had an early start in the morning anyway. Expressing things in such responsible terms nearly made him laugh at himself. 

He’d have to see what the green sheets did for Aya another time, when they had more free time and he could savor it all.

Aya sat on the bed and set the alarm clock then looked up at him and asked, “Farfarello?” He had goosebumps on his arms from the chill in the room and needed his husband under the covers with him to warm them up. 

“Just enjoying the view. I’m coming.” 

Hoping clothing would discourage licentiousness, Farfarello decided to wear his boxer briefs to bed and stripped everything else off, including his eyepatch. Once Aya turned the light out, they slipped under the covers together. Farfarello associated himself into his body more to better feel his kitten’s warmth. 

Unfortunately, his thoughts became more insistent now that he had less to distract himself with in the dark. Damned obsessive thinking....

“Farfarello, are you still thinking about... them?” Aya asked.

Yes. “No.”

“We could ask Nagi to search the internet for information on them. It’d be a place to start.”

“You don’t think I should just forget about it?” Farfarello asked, although he didn’t really have to. Family meant a lot to Aya.

“No. I mean, you shouldn’t let it rule your thinking, but I don’t think you should thoroughly repress it either. Repressed things can come back stronger to hit you later at the worst times.”

“Aye. I’ve... seen that happen. I’ll ask the boy.”

“I’m sorry that taking you to see my family’s monument messed you up so badly.”

Farfarello found one of his kitten’s hands in the dark and held it between two of his. “Don’t be. I never would have expected it myself, so don’t you go apologizing or blaming yourself.”

“You _know_ me.”

Farfarello kissed Aya. “Don’t blame yourself. Besides, I’m glad you wanted me to meet your loved ones. I’ll get through this. We two have survived things that would have killed other people, yet here we are, with a lot to be thankful for. We’re strong, despite all interference, and God can go fuck Himself.” As he said it, Farfarello felt the truth in it, that he would overcome it all, no matter what happened and how long it took. _They_ would, together. 

Aya moved in closer to him and tangled their legs together. In a better frame of mind and more comfortable, Farfarello fell asleep. 

******************************************************

“Nagi, you should have asked us before going out to bring Aya home,” Crawford said. “It went against what we’d discussed.”

“You two were really set in your thinking, especially Schuldig. Besides, Farfarello was listening to everything said and aware of a lot of telepathic communications, and asking you about it could have stirred him up again,” Nagi answered, blatantly unrepentant. “I don’t think he noticed me telling Aya to call me if he needs backup against him, but that was because I sent that to Aya on a quick, tight burst of telepathy while they were leaving.”

“Yeah, but a lot of times we know better than you do, kid,” Schuldig said. 

Nagi smiled. “Not this time!”

“As a telekinetic, you can afford to trust Farfarello more because you can harmlessly grab him telekinetically before he hurts anyone. We don’t have that option,” Crawford replied. “In the future, before you go off on your own doing your own thing....” 

“Ja! Well, I’m off to bed.” Nagi waved at them as walked out.

“I mean it! And don’t spend all night on the internet!”

“I’ll try not to.” He telekinetically closed the bedroom door. 

“He’s starting to take after my side of the family more,” Schuldig said. 

“The horror.” Crawford watched Schuldig take two knives out of his sleeves and a gun from his waistband. “You took this very seriously and really were set on keeping Farfarello and Aya separate.”

“As the team telepath, sometimes I know more than you do. You didn’t have to _feel_ him. I was taking a battering just being in the same room with him. Plus, he was scared of _himself_, not that he’d admit it to us.” 

“He calmed down significantly when Aya returned home, which is odd considering that being around Aya at Weiß’s home seemed to stir him up.”

“I’ll be wondering how that worked for a while to come.”

“I want you to keep an eye on him in the coming days.”

“I was going to do that anyway, but it’s good to make it official. I’m about to say something that might make you laugh.”

“This I have to hear.”

“I feel like there’s been too much personal drama in Schwarz lately.”

Crawford put his hand to his chest as if his heart stopped, and he was only half-kidding.

“Funny guy,” Schuldig replied.

“Either there’s way too much personal drama in the team or you’re starting to grow up.” When Schuldig stuck his tongue out, Crawford said, “It’s obviously the first option.”

They’d all have to work on minimizing the drama.


	280. "If I have targets and see you don’t have any, I’ll give you mine."

Aya woke up a second after the alarm clock went off and saw Farfarello moving as well. Looking annoyed, Farfarello said, “Our first morning here, and we have to race out. There better be people for me to kill.”

“If I have targets and see you don’t have any, I’ll give you mine.”

“You’re so sweet, kitten.”

Aya hoped having a busy morning full of distractions would work out for the best but couldn’t help asking, “How are you?”

“Cracked but not broken. I won’t let it get in the way.”

Unable to help himself, Aya did a quick emotional scan of Farfarello and found that he was feeling more annoyed and melancholy than usual but stable. At least, stable by Farfarello’s standards. Aya would keep an eye on him anyway. He could tell that Farfarello had associated himself in his body to reduce his telepathy, probably to lessen outside influences and see what he sounded and felt like without them.

It annoyed Aya how reflexive that telepathic scan had been. Even though the results gave him some relief, it didn’t feel right to violate Farfarello’s privacy. He should have spent some time considering it first, had a _choice_, at least. Aya knew he needed training and briefly thought about how he’d approach Elena to ask for it but stopped that train of thought quickly because it brought up Yoji’s offer, something Aya didn’t dare think about while near Schwarz. Even if he intended to say no to it, which he did, the others wouldn’t react well just to him having it in his memory. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help feeling that Schwarz discovering it would be more a matter of “when” than “if.” He feared for Yoji more than himself. 

He and Farfarello had a quick shower together then dressed in mission gear. Aya buckled his leather collar with the bell on it around his neck then fastened the collar of his mission outfit over it, knowing from experience that his mission collar would trap and silence the bell. Seeing him wearing it later might cheer Farfarello up a bit. At least Aya hoped so. 

It made Aya happy to see Farfarello grabbing a winter coat for himself on the way out the door to have breakfast; whether he felt the cold or not, he could still get sick from it. Next door, the rest of Schwarz barely looked up from their breakfast, with no obvious worries, as Aya and Farfarello walked in. A precog and a telepath probably figured that if a murder happened in the next apartment they’d get some advance warning of it. 

“We have rolls and eggs,” Crawford said as he stood up, his apron and manner suggesting that he had the cooking duties this morning.

“I’ll have my eggs scrambled,” Farfarello replied as he walked to the kettle to pour water for their tea. 

“I’ll have the same,” Aya said. 

Seated, with his tea and plate of scrambled eggs in front of him, Aya gauged the members of Schwarz. Aside from the team being much quieter and more subdued than usual, they mostly seemed to be pretending that nothing unusual had happened last night. Repression and denial had their pros and cons. Nagi’s gaze occasionally slid in Aya’s direction. Aya had appreciated Nagi’s telepathic proposal to come to his aid if necessary even if he had felt a bit offended as well. Having served Aya and Farfarello their eggs, Crawford alternated through reading his newspaper, eating his cereal, and drinking coffee, all of them calm and collected. Schuldig appeared to be lost in thought, which could be a sign of trouble. Farfarello spooned too much sugar into his tea, as usual, and tore into his roll. Although he was also going on with the “same as always” theme everyone else was doing, he sometimes looked at the other members of Schwarz with some suspicion in his eye. Sometimes Aya’s peripheral vision caught Farfarello looking at _him_ with a thoughtful facial expression Aya couldn’t otherwise read. 

Yoji would probably tell Aya that this was Schwarz acting a lot like Aya had at the breakfast table, probably adding something about karma. Aya had to keep Yoji and his various annoying comments out of his head, especially with Schuldig sitting right across the table. Proximity might not make much of a difference to the powerful telepath’s ability to hear, but it made Aya feel more self-conscious, which would catch Schuldig’s attention better. Thankfully, Schuldig still appeared to be too distracted to notice. Hopefully.

Aya _really_ hoped Crawford had a good job lined up for Schwarz today. They needed it. 

******************************************************

When the loud alarm sounded Farfarello woke up feeling somewhat out of sorts but not unusually so. To his relief, he felt calmer than he had last night, even as shadows of bad dreams he couldn’t quite remember still clung to him. He vaguely recalled spending a lot of time running in them. Although Aya had moved his arm away when he rose from bed, Farfarello still felt a bit of clinging warmth from where it had been wrapped around his waist. He’d associated himself in his body as he slept, letting him feel such things better, and it seemed like a good idea to continue that until they started work and it’d be more advantageous to be a telepath and impervious to pain. Maybe shutting everyone out like this could give him some idea of how much of what he’d felt had been some echo from Aya.

Unfortunately, Aya himself being somewhat telepathic made him difficult to completely close out.

As much as Farfarello dearly needed to kill people, he couldn’t help wishing he and his kitten had the luxury of staying in bed together in their new home, strengthening the ties between them that yesterday’s events had strained. They couldn’t even enjoy bathing together in the limited time they had this morning.

Schwarz was far too quiet and tense over breakfast, worrying him over how much impact his problems yesterday had had on the team and what they might decide to do about those problems. Farfarello knew better than to assume that the mindbreaker had forgotten their talks or that horrifying solution he’d suggested to “solve” things. The mindbreaker sitting quiet and lost in thought should worry anyone who knew him, and only a total innocent would think he wouldn’t notice things happening around him while so involved. 

Farfarello went along with their “everything’s normal and fine” attitude, behaving so calmly that no one could possibly think he’d need to be restrained or reprogrammed. His puisín, obviously uncomfortable with the whole situation, occasionally shot him worried looks, often enough that Farfarello finally sought out his hand and held it, under the table where it wouldn’t shout out anything to the others. Although Aya jumped a little at the first touch and fidgeted a little for a while afterward, he eventually steadied under the continued contact. His kitten getting that spooked over being touched by him on home turf suggested a major, unwelcomed backsliding. He’d have to keep an eye on that. 

Hopefully a massacre would do great things for everyone’s mood. 

As they got in the car Farfarello took the middle seat in the back. Usually Aya sat between Farfarello and the boy to stop them from bickering over who got him, but Farfarello wanted to test the waters. The boy gave him a Look but said nothing, which might mean that, nervous over Farfarello’s destructive potential, he might want to keep him closer and not have Aya between them during it. Aya shot him a Look too but went along with the new seating arrangement without a word. Aya and the boy made nice bookends of dissatisfaction.

After ten minutes of driving, Crawford muttered, “Hmm.”

“See? You can’t handle us being quiet!” the mindbreaker said, grinning. “You only _thought_ you’d like it. Now you know better.”

Crawford and the boy suddenly seemed to come back to life. The boy asked, “Wasn’t there a bet involved with that?”

“I believe there was!” the mindbreaker replied.

“Don’t even try,” Crawford said. “I know better than to _ever_ get into any serious bets with Schuldig.”

They seemed so chummy that Farfarello felt a jolt of paranoia and wondered about conspiracies but said nothing. Besides him, Aya took his left hand glove off and held Farfarello’s hand, their bare fingers together. Through that, Aya sent him a wordless message that he’d also felt a jolt of paranoia for the same reason. 

Had this been intentional? Did they have to expect this now that they no longer lived in the same apartment as the rest of Schwarz? Crawford could be petty....

As they approached the entrance to the office building’s parking garage Aya let go of his hand and put his glove back on. Farfarello dissociated himself to increase his telepathy and decrease his awareness of pain. You never knew when enemies would strike. 

So far, thankfully, Farfarello didn’t feel an increase in anxiety or melancholy, but that could also be from the excitement of mayhem to come and the greater focus he brought to it.

Crawford left the car keys with the valet, then Schwarz took the elevator to the eighth floor as a single, focused unit, all petty internal squabbles set aside for later. Flunkies met them as soon as the elevator door opened. Crawford gave them a rundown of the weapons Schwarz was carrying to be polite and to bypass them getting frisked; his count of Farfarello’s knives had been off by two, though Farfarello didn’t know if that had been on purpose or out of ignorance. 

“We’re here to accept your boss’ job, not to start trouble,” Crawford said. “If you’re cool, we’re cool.”

A voice from a nearby room called out to them to come in. When they obeyed they saw that its owner was a hard-looking man of somewhere around 40, no young punk but not an armchair general either. The flunkies stood at a distance behind Schwarz, which made Farfarello itch. He let the others concentrate on the conversation and negotiations with their possible client-to-be while he kept his attention on the armed men at their back, _feeling_ them without needing to look at them, a talent he’d used even before finding out he had telepathy. If they twitched the wrong way he’d know and it might turn out to be the last thing they ever did. He’d get the talk’s highlights from Crawford and the mindbreaker later.

Some parts of it stuck in his ears anyway. It sounded like there’d be _a lot_ of targets, since this man wanted the members of two other gangs massacred. Farfarello also liked the bit about wanting the kills to look brutal and messy, the better to send a message.

“I’m told that you all have special... abilities, which is part of why I’m willing to pay this high for you, so I want some of those deaths to show them.”

“Farfarello,” Crawford said, “give a small but harmless demonstration of some of your special firepower.”

Farfarello pulled some power from the building to pool in his right hand then turned it into a ki ball and let it crackle like lightning, so pretty and potentially dangerous. He turned a little to let the flunkies behind him appreciate it as well. Then he closed his hand and pulled the power inside himself to make the energy vanish from sight. It felt good. 

“That’s his talent,” Crawford said. “The rest of us have different ones, but we’re all dangerous. Does this suit you?”

“Definitely. Here’s the address of the warehouse. The meet will be in two hours, so be there then. My men will wear white armbands so your team will know they’re not to be touched. I’m, of course, also off limits. If someone is aiming for me I expect you to take him out, but I don’t expect that for all my men. They’ll be defending themselves.”

“Yes. You’ll see us in about two hours. We’ll be at the warehouse in advance.”

They left the office, picked up their car, and left without incident. Boring. As Crawford drove, the mindbreaker passed four photos back to Nagi, saying, “Everybody get a look. These are the people we _have_ to kill. They’re leaders. Farf, we don’t have to kill _everyone_ who’s not wearing a white armband. In fact, our client wants a few from each gang to escape to tell other people what happened and what kind of hell we unleashed.”

“Can I at least wound them?” Farfarello asked.

“Sure. Hell, permanently scar them.”

Crawford snorted but didn’t say anything against it. Excellent.

“The man who hired us is scum,” Aya said. “The members of his organization are also scum.”

“You’re surprised about that?” the boy asked.

“You know what I’m saying.”

“Do I really need to tell you that if we started killing our clients we’d never get hired again?” Crawford asked. “We’ll get him eventually, when we’re _not_ on his payroll. This massacre he’s having us do will put him higher on people’s hit lists, which means it’s more likely we’ll be hired to kill him in the near future and when we do we’ll get even more money for it.”

The mindbreaker smiled. “It’s the circle of life.” 

“In the meantime you get to kill a lot of evil people, so enjoy that,” Crawford said. 

“Listening to you, Red, people might think you didn’t kill people for Kritiker for years,” the mindbreaker said.

“It was different before I started feeling what people were like,” Aya replied.

“You’re so _young_. One day you’ll have been a telepath long enough to know that _no one_ lives up to your standards.”

“...and people say _I’m_ bleak,” Aya answered. 

“Only because you are. Look, eventually you’ll resign yourself to it, lower your expectations, and be happier.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“It’s _Aya_,” Crawford said. 

The mindbreaker smirked. “Oh, right, Aya doesn’t _get_ happy. My mistake. But it’s a good thing you didn’t have any telepathy while your sister was alive because I doubt even she could pass your purity test.”

Farfarello’s knife and lightning hit a teke shield before they could reach the mindbreaker. Nagi said, “Schuldig, don’t think you can always count on me to save you when you say shit like that.” 

The comment had hit Aya so deeply that he’d only just started to move to fight back at the mindbreaker now and gave it up totally when he saw Farfarello’s attack deflected. Deprived of physical assault, Aya had no way to express his obvious emotional distress, having been apparently enraged beyond the ability to speak in sentences. 

“That was gratuitous, Schuldig,” Crawford said, sounding annoyed. “Unwise too in such a small shared space. We’re going to have a talk about it later.”

“I couldn’t help it. Besides, I was trying to make a point that may lead Aya to eventually becoming better-adjusted.” But the mindbreaker didn’t sound and look as cocky as he might have. 

“_Don’t_ compromise my team, Schuldig, especially right before a job. Aya, Farfarello, I understand your reactions but direct your aggression at our targets instead. Farfarello, make sure to use your energy powers against our targets as well as your blades, since our client is paying extra for it.”

“I will,” Farfarello said, “but I will make my feelings known to him later. The next time you open your mouth to put your foot in, mindbreaker, my blade will go in first.”

“I’ll be looking out for it,” the mindbreaker answered. “But don’t do it during the job. If we don’t kill the most necessary targets before the melee starts, looking for them telepathically could be looking for philips head screws in a pile of slotted head screws.”

His puisín had put a mental wall up between them, something Farfarello didn’t like, something probably done to prevent Aya’s feelings from further burdening him after yesterday’s events, so he had only Aya’s face to judge from, and that suggested deep pain but also thoughtfulness. His kitten thinking that deeply had its pros and cons. When he reached for Aya’s hand, Aya moved it away and Farfarello let him. 

“I could telekinetically block the doors and windows once everyone’s inside to control our perimeter and let out only the people we want to let go,” the boy said, probably to change subjects. 

“Nagi is my favorite team member,” Crawford said. 

“Well, for your sake I hope you get over letting him put out, because if you keep this up you won’t be getting any from me,” the mindbreaker replied. 

******************************************************

After telekinetically casing the warehouse, Nagi found his best vantage point in part of the rafters. Once his telekinesis cleaned it off, Nagi settled in and enjoyed the view. He could see and feel almost everything from up here, and at least he’d be alone and somewhat removed from the tensions in the rest of the team. This way he only received bits of it through the team mental link. 

While he knew that Schuldig felt compelled to be an asshole every so often, even when it was self-destructive, the telepath had picked a damned bad time for it. Aside from being angry and in pain, Aya also appeared to be lost in thought, and Nagi hoped he snapped out of it before the fun started. If Aya got hurt because of it, Farfarello wouldn’t be the only person taking it out on Schuldig. 

He watched the groups file in. By the time everyone seemed to have arrived and a member of each of the three gangs manned each doorway to prevent anyone from entering or leaving, a lot of scum had gathered together. Schwarz’s client and his men wore the white armbands he’d promised, easily visible from where Nagi sat. 

~ Now! ~ Crawford said. 

Nagi snapped the necks of all the men guarding the doors who didn’t wear a white armband. The survivors looked nervously at the corpses, which had their heads spun backwards. When Schuldig telepathically said to them, ~ Go to your leader, but watch your enemies in the other organizations. _We’re_ not here to kill you but they can’t say the same, ~ the men looked confused and even more nervous, but they hurried to their boss’ side anyway, probably figuring that they should take the chance if they had it no matter where the suggestion had come from. With them out of the way, Nagi put a telekinetic shield over the doors and windows. 

If he wanted to he could probably kill almost everyone himself, but he decided to leave a lot of them for the rest of the team, particularly since Farfarello, Schuldig, and perhaps Aya _needed_ to kill while Nagi and Crawford just liked it. 

Nagi heard shots fired and saw three of the men in the photos hit the floor and the fourth stagger. The groups of intended targets started to move, looking for cover and their attackers. Schuldig came out suddenly at speed, a moving blur of orange hair and blue from his coat, to shoot that fourth down and give the other three a quick check before finding cover again. As annoying as Schuldig could be most of the time, when he had his head set on the job he could be so damned good. Schwarz’s client and his underlings moved away from the mass of targets to make things easier for Schwarz and fired their guns at their rivals. They better not hit any of Nagi’s teammates. As Crawford had expected, the scene had turned chaotic. 

From the masses’ movements Nagi could tell where his teammates came at their targets. Aya slashed and bludgeoned at one section, with Farfarello slashed and threw ki balls and lightning at another. They did this with more viciousness than usual, such as when Aya struck a victim’s head off so hard that it flew and hit another target in the face. Sucked to be that guy, especially since he got killed by Farfarello before he had a chance to recover from the surprise. Nagi could begin to detect the smell of burnt hair from some of Farfarello’s increasing hits. Crawford shot and moved with the aid of his precognition, while Schuldig shot targets and used his speed to help beat down anyone close to him. 

Nagi used little telekinetic shields to help most of his team avoid bullets, although he mostly didn’t bother for Schuldig, who kept moving too quickly and unpredictably to be kept up with. Nagi couldn’t help smiling as one of his more precisely angled shields made a target’s shot bounce back to strike him in the head, killing him with his own bullet, amusing and very efficient. 

Killing them helped cut down on the number of moving objects, which had gone so high at the beginning of the attack that it hurt Nagi a bit to feel it all going on. Three guys in particular especially disturbed his telekinetic senses so he snapped their necks to calm the scene down. Their fallen corpses contributed to the growing litter of incapacitated and dead bodies lying on the floor.

When Nagi noticed one slightly bloody man run for one of the exits, he asked, ~ Should I let him go or not? ~ and sent a mental picture of the man’s face, which currently looked surprised by the two corpses at the foot of the doors.

~ Let him go but give him something to remember us by, ~ Crawford answered. 

~ Sure. ~ Nagi broke the man’s dominant arm in two places and gave him a telekinetic push toward the door, sending him headfirst into it, though not hard enough to kill. With that done, Nagi removed his force field to let his target leave... whenever he managed to pick himself up off the floor. It took about five minutes. Nagi couldn’t help snickering at how badly he staggered on his way out. That bit of amusement out of the way, he reinstated the force field.

~ He’s a block away using his cell phone to let other parts of his organization know about the bloodbath here, as expected, ~ Schuldig said. ~ We have to wrap things up. ~

The still uninjured had taken cover, only darting out a bit at times to shoot at Nagi’s teammates, who did the same but with more accuracy. Up in the rafters, Nagi had a good view of everyone’s positions. Schwarz, of course, was easily discernible from above. When two guys Nagi thought belonged to the other opposing gang ran for an exit, he let them go out to tell the tale, as commanded. 

~ Yes, let’s wrap this up, ~ Crawford said. ~ Nagi, can you take the rest of our targets out? ~

~ Of course. ~

~ Mix and match death and incapacitation for them. Our client wants a few survivors to talk about this. ~

As Nagi started breaking his victims’ bones with his mind, he tuned out the screaming since some of it hit pitches he found unpleasant. Idly he pondered how the survivors would deal with having been and seen their partners ruthlessly broken and tossed around by an invisible force, and knowing it was possible and they couldn’t do anything to stop it. The same might also hold true for their client’s men, who’d only witnessed it. Some of them might need therapy for life. Cool.

Damn, he sounded like Schuldig. 

~ We all have to get our jollies where we can, kid, ~ Schuldig said.

Damn it. ~ Within reason, ~ Nagi replied. Keeping an eye on the unnerved witnesses among Schwarz’s client’s men and a force field up in case they started firing at Schwarz, he floated down to the floor. Fortunately for the men, none of them made the attempt. 

“Are you satisfied, sir?” Crawford called out to their client. 

The man looked almost maniacally pleased, to the point that Nagi found it kind of sick. “Yes. It was worth it. Your team puts on quite a show. Though not one I can afford often.” That last appeared to be directed at his men, who might have been wondering if Schwarz had made them obsolete. At least the smarter ones should have been. 

Nagi didn’t have to be a precog to foresee this job having large repercussions on Tokyo’s underworld, and not just from Schwarz removing so many people from it. From the thoughtful look on Crawford’s face, he seemed to be thinking the same thing.


	281. "When two assassins have chemistry--"

Getting some action had definitely done at least some members of his team some good. In the backseat, Farfarello had a small smile on his face as he leaned on Aya, his head on Aya’s shoulder. Schuldig grinned too, making Crawford wonder again why his telepath kept harping on about vacations when he so obviously enjoyed their work. Aya and Nagi looked thoughtful, both looking stormy but with Nagi having an even darker aspect to his look. 

Crawford should probably ask. “Nagi?”

“I can’t help thinking that the massive number of deaths we just quickly and obviously committed with our talents will have a big effect on the Tokyo underworld, and I’m wondering if that was the point,” Nagi answered.

“Yes. It would have happened sooner or later anyway now that so many European talents have come to work here, and the effect will increase even more as talents graduate out of Okinawa. This way _we_ affect and know when it starts happening.”

“Not all of those talents will stay though. A lot of them are having trouble adjusting to Japan’s written language, and the ones already on the market are finding that being a foreigner decreases their value and trustworthiness a bit. With Eszett gutted and the Bruise no longer transmitting their pain, it’s safer for them to go back home to Europe now.” 

Crawford could almost _hear_ Schuldig’s smirk. Annoyed, he asked, “Where and how did you find this out, and why is this the first I’ve heard of it?”

“The correspondence with the students from the seminar I taught, plus some of my requests to Omi. Prior to this, I didn’t have enough information to say anything for sure. My relationship with him and my agreement to teach this class have worked out, haven’t they, even though you were against them?”

That stung. Nagi didn’t toss out as many verbal barbs as Schuldig did, but his tended to be more precisely targeted to the tenderest areas possible. “Yes. But it’s not like I’d command you to give yourself to Omi to get that. Besides, now all you have to do is be friendly with him for this to continue.”

“You’d ask me,” Schuldig said with a smile. 

This would require some delicacy. “You’re--”

“--slutty?” Farfarello answered.

“--easy?” Nagi replied. 

“What they said,” Aya answered. 

“--less innocent and less likely to become emotionally attached,” Crawford decided on. 

Farfarello said, “We also know that Crawford has some kind of cuckolding fetish, so....”

Before Crawford could figure out a scathing enough answer to that, Schuldig said, “It’s a shame Omi’s still upset about the Ouka thing--and it’s not like _I_ shot her!--because getting me together with him would solve a lot of problems and net us a lot of data. I’d even be good for him.”

It gave Crawford some comfort that when he glanced in the rear-view mirror Nagi, Aya, and Farfarello looked as stunned and appalled as he felt. Nagi asked, nearly squeaking, “How would that even work?!” 

Crawford wondered the same. Just the mental image of Persia and Schuldig standing together as a couple made his brain twitch.

Schuldig smiled. “When two assassins have chemistry--”

“You know what I mean!”

“The height thing? _You_ know how that would work, Schätzchen.”

Nagi turned bright red. “No, that’s not what I mean. I mean as _people_ and the whole thing about being ‘good’ for him.”

“What? I’m a little black dress: I go with everything. And an attitude adjustment would do him some good. He may be a masochist but he’s going overboard.”

“_Don’t_ fuck with his head.”

“What if I made sweet love to his head?”

“No!”

“Fine.” But Schuldig quickly glanced in Crawford’s direction in a way that told Crawford Schuldig would do just about anything to Persia’s head that Crawford ordered him to do. Good. It might become necessary at some point.

“Backtracking a bit,” Crawford said, “what Nagi said about employers and talented foreigners makes me think that Nagi might seem very valuable to people who want to put more Japanese talents on the market, especially considering how powerful he is. We gutted Eszett and damaged the baby version of it trying to set up in Austria, but we know the surviving scientists have scattered, and I’m thinking some might end up here. I haven’t Seen it, but it may happen so I think we should be prepared. Despite Nagi’s powers and intelligence, he could still be taken by surprise and they’re not much help if he’s rendered unconscious.”

“People disgust me,” Nagi replied.

“But, Nagins, you’re wanted!” Schuldig said.

“Rarely in the right way.”

“I thought that was excellent strategy in the warehouse, to stay out of the way and unseen while having a good view of everything as you picked our targets off,” Crawford said. 

Nagi actually blushed a little at the praise, cute. “It just made sense to do it that way.”

“You really are our most valuable player.”

Nagi blushed harder, looked down, and smiled a bit. Although Crawford had been living and working with him for years, Nagi’s moments of sweetness and innocence in the midst of his usual prickliness could still surprise him. Not even seeing more of those moments since adding Aya to their roster had changed that.

Possibly trying to distract attention away from himself, Nagi asked, “Do we have more work on the schedule today?”

“Not right now,” Crawford replied. “I’d like to get a look at how what we’ve done this morning affects the market first once word gets out.”

“Could you drop me off at the apartment then? I’d like to address more of those e-mails. I’ll be so happy to get them all done so they won’t be sitting there waiting for me.” With a smirk he said, “Being the most valuable player in Schwarz, I’ll use them to keep track of our competition for you too.”

“Sure.” Crawford wished more of Schwarz showed Nagi’s diligence. 

“Just don’t let anyone kidnap you,” Schuldig said. 

Nagi rolled his eyes. “You’re hilarious.”

“I’d like it if you could drop me off at our practice space,” Farfarello said. “With my blood still up, anything I did with my kitten would be more battle than wooing anyway, so I’d like to work some of it off. Come practice with me, puisín?”

Aya sounded very neutral as he replied, “All right.” It would be nice if he didn’t so often seem like a bomb set to go off on a timer no one could see. 

Farfarello hadn’t killed Aya last night, so Aya should be safe alone (while armed) with him today. “That’s doable,” Crawford answered. “I’ll give Aya the numbers for the keypad entry.”

“What are you afraid would happen if I could get in on my own?” Farfarello asked, sounding amused. 

“I don’t know, but since you’ve proven in the past that you can exceed my imagination I’d rather not think about it. Schuldig, you’re staying with me. We need to talk.”

“Why do I feel like the principal is keeping me for detention after school?” Schuldig asked. 

~ You’d hoped I’d forget about the way you’d fucked Aya up right before the mission? I forget _nothing_, and Farfarello certainly won’t forget it either. From the way he’s shooting quick glances at you, he’s currently biding his time. You and I, we obviously need to talk, ~ Crawford told him telepathically. ~ Besides, it makes the others feel better to know that you’re not just getting away with things. ~

Aloud, Crawford said, “Maybe because that’s the general idea.”

Schuldig rolled his eyes at everything Crawford had told him. “Ugh. Some of it better be _sexy_ punishment.”

“If you like it too much, it isn’t punishment anymore.”

“The peanut gallery in the back can stop smirking now.”

“Perhaps we’re enjoying the opportunity to be sadists,” Farfarello said. “_You_ always do.”

Crawford stopped the car in front of their building to let Nagi out. When Schuldig yelled, “Remember to be careful about stranger danger, Nagins!” out the window at him, Nagi quickly flipped him the middle finger and kept on walking. 

After a ten-minute drive Crawford stopped the car in front of the warehouse they practiced in and reeled off the numbers Aya needed to input in the keypad, knowing Aya had a good enough memory not to need them written down. Farfarello said, “I heard the numbers too, you know.”

“Yes, and if you can remember them that’s fine,” Crawford answered. “I’m giving you an opportunity to prove yourself to me.”

“I’m touched,” Farfarello answered, somewhat snidely.

“I can always change the code after you two finish here.”

“That’s not necessary,” Aya said.

“If you don’t remember the code I gave you correctly, you’ll be locked out and have to walk back to the apartment in your mission gear without anyone figuring out that’s what it is. Perhaps I should stay until I’m sure you’re inside.”

“That’s not necessary either,” Aya replied with an odd look on his face. “Please leave. I won’t try to open the warehouse door until you do.”

“Fine. Get out.”

Farfarello smirked as he and Aya left the car. Crawford very pointedly drove away, but he did feel better when a block later Schuldig said, “They got inside without any problems. Poor Red. He’s unwillingly doing that thing where he’s associating you with his dad again.” 

“I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“That puts you in the same boat as him, since part of him still misses having a dad and isn’t completely against the idea of adopting you.” 

“I hate you for telling me that.”

“I know.”

Crawford found a somewhat deserted area to park the car in since he didn’t want to divide his attention by driving, turned to face Schuldig, and asked, “All right, what the hell were you doing by prodding Aya that hard on something you _knew_ would be an emotional gut punch to him right before a mission?”

“It didn’t get in the way of his ability to work.”

“You’re not a precog, so you couldn’t be sure of that in advance.”

“If Aya could get certain ideas out of his head he’d work better as an operative, telepath, and person.”

“So now you want to fix him, just as you wanted to fix Farfarello yesterday? Oh, and _Persia_ today?”

“If I fixed Persia for anybody it’d be for us, and he’d have some positive personal results as a side effect.”

“Don’t try to sidetrack me.”

“Rose-red and Snow-white are my teammates. Of course I want them to be their best, and if I can help I will.”

“Did you ever think that I’m fairly good at handling them as they are and might not be as adept with whatever you turned them into?”

“I shouldn’t help them get better because you might not be able to manipulate them as well if I do? That’s Machiavellian of you, but I _have_ thought of it. You’ll notice I didn’t make a move on Farf before talking to you, and when you said no I put it on the backburner.” 

“I don’t want it sitting on your backburner. I want it out of your head.”

“It’s damned well staying there because you might approve it later. You know as well as I do that he’s unstable as he is and still changing on his own.”

“All right. I can see that I may have to change my mind in the future. I just don’t want to worry about you deciding to overhaul him all on your own one day if I leave you two alone. I prefer to return to the same teammate I left.”

“Good for you for accepting the truth. What about Aya? You know he has issues.”

“He’ll have to be a work in progress and, again, I don’t want you rewriting him all on your own. You have to admit that your timing today sucked.”

“There’s something in his mind today.... He keeps stepping right up to the edge of it before jumping backward in a panic. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want me to see it, and I think it’s related to Yoji. I was hoping that the emotional gut punch would drop his defenses enough to let me get a look at it but no go. I _will_ get it though.”

Crawford had to ask, “Did he sleep with him?” He had no illusions about Yoji’s sexual fidelity or respect for the sexual fidelity of others, and Yoji and Aya could sleep together as often as they liked as long as it didn’t get in the way of Aya’s responsibilities and duties, didn’t make problems with Farfarello, and wasn’t part of a plot to steal Aya from Schwarz.

“No. I know the stew of emotions he’d connect to that and didn’t taste them. My, Brad, would you be jealous?” 

“Of Aya or Balinese?”

“Heh. We need to get you laid.”

Killing made him somewhat horny, so Crawford wouldn’t mind that at all. “You’ll be helping with that?”

“I usually do.” Schuldig shifted in his seat. “I just had the mental image of us sharing Aya, and it’s seriously fucking hot.”

Fuck. Now he did too. “What about his father issues with me?”

“It wouldn’t make you horny as hell to hear him calling you ‘daddy’ while you have your way with him?”

“...dammit.”

Schuldig laughed. “And I’d be witnessing all this and helping it along. If Rosenrot went along with it at all, his face would be nearly the same color as his hair. Damn, that would be _so_ hot.”

As hot as the thought of having Aya to himself made Crawford, he got a much stronger sexual jolt thinking about fucking him with Schuldig and couldn’t be sure why. Nobody got out of Rosenkreuz a virgin, but before getting involved with Schuldig Crawford hadn’t had much of a sex drive. He could take it or leave it and mostly used it as a tool to manipulate people. 

After hooking up with Schuldig for a while, he’d become... hungrier, not that he could keep up with his telepath’s voracious appetite. Few could. Perhaps getting all that sex had primed Crawford’s pump. 

Sometimes he wondered if his telepath had rewritten him to make him so. The very fact that he could wonder suggested that Schuldig hadn’t... or that Schuldig allowed that doubt to remain to make it seem like he hadn’t. 

Dealing with telepaths could leave you feeling like you were standing on quicksand.

None of these thoughts or worries decreased his current horniness. 

“Do you have any idea how much I want you to fuck me right now?” Schuldig asked. 

That didn’t help, though at least he could use Schuldig’s horniness against _him_ too. “I’m not taking you home to do you because Nagi’s there and I’m supposed to be giving you a stern talking-to and punishing you. Before you ask, I won’t use Farfarello and Aya’s bedroom either because he’s too fragile from yesterday for me to jostle his state of mind over something stupid. Yes, fucking qualifies as ‘stupid’ here, especially when he’s already pissed off at you.”

“We could rent a hotel room for a few hours.”

“Because you were bad, I should pay for a room? You need a spanking so badly. With a paddle.”

Schuldig’s eyes dilated, but he said, “That’s not happening.”

“But you obviously want it.”

“But you’re my leader as well as my partner, and I have _some_ necessary boundaries between my personal and professional lives. You’re usually thrilled when I’m being more professional, but I guess that only applies when you’re not getting cockblocked.”

The truth in that last statement annoyed Crawford. It didn’t help that he knew that unless something major changed he wouldn’t get to spank Schuldig unless he used Yoji as his proxy, another reason to resent Balinese. “Then I’ll live without having that on our sexual menu.”

“Yet you keep bringing it up.” 

“I’ve never gotten you to change your mind on something before?”

“...grr.”

“This kind of argument never gets us anywhere and just leaves both of us frustrated.” Crawford hated being on the defensive too.

“...true. And I still want to fuck.”

“Ditto.”

“What about the back seat? It’s not all that bloody back there.”

“In a sedan in broad daylight in a sketchy section of Tokyo?”

“That would just be spice for me but it sounds like a ‘no’ from you.”

“Only because it _is_ a ‘no.’”

Obviously horny and suffering from it, Schuldig answered, “Are you inhuman?” 

“I have standards.” And some self-control.

“...fine. _I’ll_ pay for a room for a few hours. But don’t you dare ask me again about a spanking unless it’s me spanking you.”

Crawford answered quickly, “I’ll agree to the room but not the spanking.” 

“What’s good for the goose--”

“The goose won’t get stuffed if you continue that statement.”


	282. "I have some idea, but I’m a telepath, not a smartphone."

Wearing nothing aside from his partially unbuttoned shirt, Schuldig made a sound almost like a hungry growl as Crawford unzipped his own fly, which amped Crawford’s arousal up further, immediately obvious in the way his hard cock pressed against the silk of his now visible boxers. Still growling, Schuldig pressed up against him for some frottage and nipped at his neck. Although Crawford often protested aloud, he admitted inwardly that he enjoyed their little games. Sex didn’t always have to be dead serious.

Crawford had a sudden flash that Persia would call him and it’d be a very important call. His phone went off half a minute later. “Schu, I have to take this. It’s Persia.” His cock had softened somewhat from the precognitive flash anyway. 

Schuldig’s eyes went dark and dead. “You better be fucking kidding me.”

“I’m not. Sorry.” Crawford disentangled himself from his telepath to get his phone. Schu was understandably pissed off, but business was business. 

Growling in a very different way, Schuldig grabbed his clothes, walked into the bathroom, and slammed the door shut behind him. This reaction suggested enough seriously hurt feelings and anger that Crawford might have to apologize _fervently_.

This call better be as worth it as his precognitive flash had suggested. Crawford answered his phone with a simple and curt “Hello,” not seeing the need to abase himself to Persia.

“Crawford, you gave me the impression that Schwarz wouldn’t work against Kritiker’s interests, so what the hell happened today?” Persia sounded _pissed_, though so far he’d made some attempt to rein it in.

“You’ve heard about today’s job already? Though you’re overstating the negative results for your organization,” Crawford answered pleasantly.

“Of course I’ve heard. You did something _really_ big and flashy with a high body count.”

“We’re freelancers, not your contracted employees. We don’t have to give you advance notice on everything we do, and what we did hear doesn’t go against Kritiker anyway. You should be happy that we’ve killed so many criminals.”

“You just upset the balance of power in Tokyo’s underground! Everything’s currently in freefall! Of _course_ that goes against Kritiker’s interest!”

“We needed to see how things would move. We can’t wait for all the talents Kritiker has gathered to hit the market and determine conditions _for_ us. You have a big advantage over us, and we needed to fix _that_ balance to be more fair to us. Also, these people were all criminals, and Kritiker claims to be anti-crime. Are you telling me that Kritiker is actually about keeping the crime at a status quo?”

Persia answered with a similar sweetness, although he added even more strychnine to his, “If your team keeps murdering this many people in one shot you’ll quickly put yourselves out of work. We’re anti-crime but there are certain balances to maintain. If you push too hard too quickly some things will _snap_. I can only hope Schwarz faces the results of that along with Kritiker. 

“You may be a foreigner, but you’ve lived here long enough to have some idea of things work here. Your time in Vienna and vacation in Jamaica weren’t _that_ long. I may have to reconsider hiring you for jobs in the future if your judgment is this off. At least Naoe is reliable.”

Crawford knew he had to keep his temper and not burn bridges, but he couldn’t entirely back down. “What do you think will happen to the status quo when the talents Kritiker is stockpiling start going out into the field? Kritiker cornering the market will give you some advantages, but people will _react_. Possibly _overreact_, given what will be your obvious monopoly. Change is inevitable. You should trust the judgment of a man who can see the future. Also, Schwarz absolutely can _not_ advise you on our non-Kritiker job or give you the right to refuse them for us. If people found out that Schwarz is giving out mission information to and being controlled by Kritiker no one would hire us, and with the number of talents showing up in Tokyo these days it wouldn’t take that long to get out. I refuse to make my team unemployable just to indulge your urge to micromanage people around you.”

Persia didn’t immediately reply, but the quality of the silence on the other end of the line suggested that he was thinking about what Crawford said, more than he ever could have said of Eszett. In Eszett they expected you to follow orders to the letter, and if the orders were impossible and you failed they killed you, maybe torturing you first, for that failure. If you tried to make them see reason before accepting an irrational order, they’d torture and kill you in front of the others to make an example of you. 

“I’ll consider your points,” Persia answered, “but I’ll need some kind of concession from you and Schwarz.” 

“Think about it and get back to me later. I was in the middle of something important when you called and have to get back to it. Consider me interrupting it to attend to your call instead an admission of how much of an important employer you are to us.”

“We’ll talk later.” Persia ended the call. Good.

Crawford had been approaching the bathroom through the conversation, so all he had to do now was open the door. After a warning knock. “Now where were we?” He’d have to work himself back up to arousal, but he’d do it.

Schuldig finished dressing himself in sharp, angry, jerking motions. “Where we were is over because I finished myself off. You broke one of the cardinal rules with me: Don’t take me for granted.” 

Fuck. The interruption had made Schuldig even angrier than he’d expected. “I’m sorry, but it _was_ an important call. And I told him off.”

“Gee. That makes my blue balls worth it. Like hell.” Schuldig knocked Crawford aside with his shoulder as he left the bathroom. “I’m not in the mood to talk to you. If you don’t want this to turn into a nasty fight right now, let me leave without a hassle, give me time to cool off a little, and then work extra hard to make this up to me. That’s as much mature behavior as I can manage at the moment.” A restrained response, by Schuldig standards. 

“All right. I’ll see you later, and I _am_ sorry.”

“Keep that in mind.” Schuldig went out the door into the hallway.

Crawford felt a flash of danger before he heard guns firing and saw Schuldig jump backward through the doorway to get back into their room and draw his gun. Schuldig said, “There are five in the hallway, three at the front desk, and three waiting at our car. I didn’t sense them before now because an off-site telepath was hiding them, but now that I know they’re here it’s impossible to for me not to notice. The telepath isn’t as powerful or skilled as I am. He is managing to give them _some_ telepathic protection from me. Once we finish the minions off and get our butts out of any immediate line of fire, I’ll see if I can seriously injure their telepath from a distance.” Thankfully he’d put aside his pique to go right into professional mode.

If their car had been visible from the room’s dirty window, Crawford might have tried picking off some of the gunmen around the car. With that denied him, Crawford asked, “Do I have time to dress?”

“I can hold them off long enough for you to do it quickly. Since we’ll have to go outside for whoever’s at the car, we’re better off if you’re dressed because it makes less work for me to do telepathically to any bystanders seeing us.” After a major cry of pain from the hallway, Schuldig grinned. “One down for good. And another one. The remaining three on our floor are now in the elevator using the door for cover. The other hotel guests have no intention of opening their doors or coming out into the hall. No heroes here.”

“The better for us,” Crawford replied.

Crawford dressed quickly while Schuldig fired at their attackers while using the doorframe and room for cover then drew his own gun to get in the game. When Schuldig needed to reload, Crawford shot at their attackers. Although they injured two of the three remaining gunmen, they reached a stalemate, which continued, fruitlessly, for a while.

“This is taking too long,” Crawford said. 

“The telepath is powerful enough to block me from influencing these guys into coming out where we can shoot them easier.”

“At least their holding the elevator car is preventing any more of them from coming up the easy way. Are any of them using the stairs?”

“So far, no. Screw this. I’m going to make a high-speed run at the elevator. Cover me, precog-style.”

“Of course I will. You don’t have to specify that.” Crawford immediately realized he’d given Schuldig an opening to attack him.

Schuldig snarled, “I shouldn’t have to tell you not to answer the phone while we’re having sex, but you made me do that and it didn’t even work.”

“This isn’t the time. We’ll get into it later.”

“We sure will. Okay, I’m ready to go.” Schuldig rushed out of the doorway into the hall and ran down the hallway at high-speed, zigzagging and shooting at them. If Crawford hadn’t been using his precognition on a moment-by-moment flash basis, he might have shot Schuldig while laying down cover fire. 

It made him wonder. Most of the telepathic clones Eszett had churned out had been based off Schuldig’s specs, thus making them preternaturally fast. How many of those clones would get hit in friendly fire incidents? They couldn’t _all_ have the proper backup. Had anyone considered this? 

Crawford would have to see if it would be more advantageous to mention it to interested parties or keep it to himself. He’d decide it on a case-by-case basis.

He noticed the gunmen in the elevator jabbing a button in a panic, making the door close before Schuldig could dash in. Skidding to a stop right in front of it, Schuldig asked, “With all the things that are run-down in this hotel, the ‘close door’ button has to work better than usual?” He spent another minute or two standing there with his gun ready in case the door opened again then said, “They’re heading down to the ground floor in it.”

It took Crawford a minute to gather the rest of their gear from the room. He stopped at each corpse and quickly took any items he thought worthwhile--wallets, cell phones, guns, and ammunition--before joining Schuldig. 

Riddled with holes, the elevator door at this level wouldn’t provide much protection, but the one at the ground floor would still be whole. Take the elevator down or the stairs? It would depend on their attackers.

“Do you know what they’re expecting us to do now?” Crawford asked. 

“They’re not sure, so they’re calling for backup. They were really hoping they could take us out while we were otherwise involved. And don’t you _dare_ tell me that makes Persia’s cockblocking and you going along with it a good thing. You know we’re both perfectly capable of defending ourselves and murdering people while still in the act.”

Although Crawford thought that they might be too involved in each other during sex to notice intruders and attackers until too late, he knew saying anything about it would just start another argument. Besides, Schuldig would no doubt respond that a phone going off had broken through Crawford’s focus. 

Instead Crawford asked, “But are they going to wait for backup or try attacking us before then?”

“They’re keeping the elevator car at the ground floor to force us to use the stairs. Thus far, they’re not coming upstairs, just waiting down there. The uninjured guys are bandaging the shot guys’ wounds, but all six of them are waiting at the stairway exit with their guns out. The guys near our car are staying there.”

“I can feel the telepath trying to scan me. I’m blocking him.”

“He’s trying to pry into me too, and I’m sending him the biggest headache I can manage. Wait, I’m wiping us out so the other telepath has no idea where we are, which is even better.”

“Can you figure out his location?”

“I have some idea, but I’m a telepath, not a smartphone. I still don’t have the power of GPS.” As their adrenaline rush and battle camaraderie faded, Schuldig appeared to be getting bitchier again. 

“I have no intention of waiting for their backup to arrive. I hate it, but we’ll have to take the stairs. Between the surfaces on the exterior of this building and the gunmen waiting near the car, going out the window and scaling the building isn’t an option.” 

“I could probably do it alone, but I don’t think I can do it and concentrate on keeping you invisible at the same time.”

“It didn’t look like there were many things to grab onto from what I saw of the exterior before we came inside, and if there were they’d be covered in ice or snow anyway.”

“I can do it because I’m magic. I thought you knew that.”

Crawford considered it aloud. “If you climbed down the exterior while I took the stairs--”

“--you’d have to face six gunmen alone because not even I can climb down the outside of this building faster than you can get down the stairs. I know you’re awesome and some of these guys are injured, but even you’re not invincible so I can’t leave you to face those kinds of odds alone.”

Even though that could have been practicality talking, something in Schuldig’s tone genuinely touched Crawford, making him blurt out, “I love you.”

After a moment of obvious surprise, Schuldig smiled and answered, “They’re not allowed to get you because your ass is _mine_. So we take the stairs, me first with you behind me supplementing my fire.” 

“Precog-style, of course.”

“Of course. If the banisters let me slide down while controlling my descent, I’ll be even faster and more surprising to our enemies.”

“For silent surprise, we walk down the stairs stealthily until we get to the last turn, then you slide at high-speed the rest of the way down. Don’t go so fast you lose me. I don’t want you taking six gunmen on alone either.”

“Gotcha. Let’s go get ’em.”

As they quietly walked down the stairs, Crawford said, ~ Let me know if they seem to suspect anything or start to come upstairs. ~

~ Of course! Currently, they’re still waiting for backup. ~

Finally they reached the last turn before the final flight of stairs and drew their guns. Crawford didn’t like the look of the banister, smooth from use but not as well-anchored as he’d prefer, but he knew Schuldig wouldn’t back down now and had the agility necessary to recover if it broke off under him. A very quick glance around the corner showed an open door and the gunmen.

Schuldig nodded at him then whipped around the turn and leapt onto the banister and just about _flew_ down, firing his gun all the way. Crawford followed, _not_ using the banister, and fired as well, able to aim easier than his speeding telepath could. It surprised the hell out of the men waiting for them, and those men paid the price in blood. Schuldig jumped off just before he reached the end, throwing himself into one of their attackers and knocking him down and dashing his head against the floor. In the heat of the moment Crawford didn’t know if all the men who went down were dead or just injured so he didn’t relax for a second.

~ I have to reload! ~ Schuldig said, not needing to say, “Cover me while I do!” 

Two men ran in from outside, guns out, and Crawford, half-expecting it, shot them both down. ~ Were they part of the backup or two of the men assigned to our car? ~ Crawford asked Schuldig. 

As he shot two of the men lying on the floor in the head to finish them off, Schuldig replied, ~ Two of the car guys. The backup hasn’t arrived yet. Right now, the remaining guy at the car is wondering what the hell to do as he waits for someone to call him or come out to tell him everything’s finished. ~ 

~ I won’t leave him in suspense, especially not with their backup on the way. ~ Crawford ran to the outside door, opened it, and shot the man in the head, happy that sketchy neighborhoods let him get away with doing things in public he wouldn’t try otherwise. 

When he came back inside, dragging the corpse in with him, Schuldig looked up from his looting. “They killed the desk guy and destroyed his security camera and its footage, leaving less work for us.” With strychnine sweetness, Schuldig said, “I’m glad I don’t have to pay for our unproductive time in our hotel room after all.” 

Since Crawford didn’t want to have a fatal accident in the near future, he replied, “I swear I’ll make it up to you.”

“You better. Anyway, I took any money I could find there and the sign-in book.”

They’d used fake names, but they had written something in there so Crawford wouldn’t complain. After he called one of their procurers to get them a new car and pick them up four blocks away from their current location, he helped Schuldig strip the gunmen of anything valuable and put it all in a handy tote bag Schuldig had taken from behind the front desk. Expecting that backup to arrive soon, they worked quickly. As soon as they got home he’d have to give Nagi all the cell phones to check them for valuable data and disable anything that could be used to track them. 

Schuldig straddled the man he’d bodily knocked down, crouched down to get closer, and took his glove off his left hand to get skin to skin contact as he rested it over the man’s mouth. The man’s eyes shot open, and he made desperate but muffled sounds of pain. 

Smiling down at him, Schuldig said, “Usually this wouldn’t hurt that much while I scanned you for the how and why behind your people finding and attacking us, but with your telepath trying to protect you I have to chip at you harder. So blame him.”

~ You don’t really have him pinned. He could attack you, ~ Crawford said, worried. 

~ Normally I’d put my weight on him for that extra pain, but he’s bloody and I don’t want to get it on my clothes. Don’t worry, I’m telepathically forcing him to stay down, which is scaring the hell out of him. Fuck, I love this stuff. I don’t get to do it often enough lately. ~

Although he’d usually say Schuldig exaggerated, he couldn’t truthfully do it this time. He hadn’t been letting Schuldig be as casually sadistic to avoid offending Aya’s sensibilities during this delicate time of integrating him into Schwarz, and Schuldig had actually obeyed, amazing given how much he enjoyed this work. 

And Crawford enjoyed letting and watching him do it. They shouldn’t have to completely deny themselves just for Aya. Crawford would have to find a way to let his telepath cut loose more often.

“That’s really all you know?” Schuldig asked his victim. “That’s pathetic. Guess I don’t need you anymore.” He brought his gun into the man’s view, letting him get a good look and have time to despair, then leapt up and shot him in the head.

“Anything useful?” Crawford asked.

“Yeah. I’ll tell you about it later, since the backup’s coming. They won’t be able to track us once we get rid of our current car.”

When they walked out to the car, Crawford saw that the driver’s side front window had been smashed for their enemies to see if Schwarz had left anything important and incriminating in there, which they hadn’t. Schuldig didn’t need an order to do what Crawford wanted him to do here; he used his lighter to set some papers from the front desk on fire and tossed them into the car through the broken window. Not happy with how that fire was coming along, Schuldig snapped the top off the lighter and poured the lighter fluid into the car near the little fires to help them burn. 

When Schuldig, obviously disappointed, looked to him, Crawford answered, ~ It’s good enough. There’s nothing incriminating in there that _needs_ to be destroyed, so we don’t need a raging conflagration. ~ Its license plates wouldn’t lead anyone to Schwarz’s home either.

~ But I love raging conflagrations! ~ It was the reason why he always carried a lighter, even when he didn’t smoke. ~ You know, as long as I’m not trapped inside them. ~

~ I know. Let’s get going. Quickly. ~

During their walk, Crawford felt thankful that yesterday’s snow hadn’t accumulated or left much of a mess for them to slog through. He hated leaving tracks behind for their enemies to follow and having wet feet, especially on cold days. It would have been ideal if Meguro had been waiting for them with their new car at the meeting spot when they arrived but didn’t work out that way, leaving them waiting in the cold, with Schuldig starting to fidget after about ten minutes. 

~ If you’re bored, you can try to track down their telepath and injure him, ~ Crawford said. 

~ That takes a lot of focus. Do you really want me doing that while we’re standing out on the street after being recently attacked? ~ Schuldig answered. 

~ Good point. ~

~ Their backup just arrived at the hotel. The looks on their faces... hilarious. The telepath had warned them that everybody had been killed, but we did it with such _style_ that it surprised them. ~ Schuldig grinned.

When Meguro showed up driving their new car--a black sedan of a different brand and model than their last car, nothing too new or too eye-catchingly shiny-clean--and got out, he said, “I’m sure I don’t want to know.”

After doing a brief walk around the car to check it out, Crawford replied, “That’s for the best,” as he got in and Schuldig let himself in on the passenger side. “Do you need us to drop you off somewhere?”

“No. My own ride will pick me up two blocks away from here. My payment will be delivered the usual way?”

“Of course. Thank you, Meguro-san.”

As Crawford drove them away, Schuldig relaxed in his seat and said, “This is comfy. I approve.” Yet he still fidgeted, obviously still excited and wired from the action at the hotel.

Crawford felt some of that himself. “That was excellent work back there.” 

“Of course. I rule. By the way, I can’t kill the other telepath but I just knocked him unconscious and gave him a bit of a hemorrhage. I hope he enjoys the nosebleed.” 

_His_ telepath. “I’m sorry about the... thing with the phone call.”

“I know business is your lifeblood and all, but that was going over the line. It’s cool that you apologized, but it better not happen again. _Especially_ not if it’s a call from that little cockblocker, Persia. You have voice mail, dammit, it can keep and you can hear what the caller wanted later, while getting _me_ back to where I was before isn’t as easy. I repeat, I will _not_ be taken for granted.” His telepath radiated cold, dark rage.

Crawford tried to lighten things a little. “I have a kind of Pavlov’s dog reaction to my phone going off.”

Schuldig answered it with a dangerous-sounding lightness. “Yes, and that’s why you turn it off completely during missions.”

That presented an immediate solution. “I swear I’ll turn it off in the future before we have sex. Every time. And I won’t go to answer it even if I get a precognitive flash.” At least not unless the flash told him the call was really, _really_ important. 

“You’re assuming you’re ever getting sex from me ever again.”

While he’d usually scoff inwardly at the idea that Schuldig _could_ deny him sex for long, this time he couldn’t entirely discount it, not with Schuldig sounding and _feeling_ like this. “You said you expected me to make this up to you. It stands to reason that I’d make up for a cockblocking through sex.”

“Does it.”

This didn’t sound like Schuldig’s usual sadism for giggles. This seemed serious, actual hurt feelings with consequences, so Crawford stepped very carefully. “You’re a great partner and a great telepath, and I really enjoy the fucking. I don’t want to lose you. There’s also the matter of what I said to you in the hotel. I know you heard it.”

“It could have been an ‘in the heat of the moment’ thing. I know how much killing enemies excites you and that you find competence sexy.”

“_I love you_. I realize I did something stupid that hurt you, and I’m trying to make it right.”

At last, Schuldig softened, possibly because he knew how difficult that had been for Crawford to say, how it went against his training. “Okay.” 

That was probably as good as it would get, at least for now. Understanding the seriousness but knowing there was only so much he could do in the car, Crawford would work for better when they arrived home.


	283. "I’ll handle you just fine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> April 2013 was the 10-year anniversary--the tentacle anniversary?--of me working continuously on this fic.

Wanting to switch things up a bit, Aya took off his coat and guns, leaving his arms bare aside from the knife sheaths strapped to his forearms, making Farfarello growl appreciatively. “I just want to work out with my katana,” Aya said as he rolled his shoulders, feeling lighter and looser without the weight. “If this gets you overexcited, I’ll put the coat back on.” Considering what had happened yesterday, Aya really didn’t want to get Farfarello overexcited.

“You don’t need to be worrying about me handling it,” Farfarello answered as he grinned and took off his own coat and tossed it aside. “I’ll handle you just fine.”

“Are you flirting with me?”

“Do I ever stop flirting with you?” 

By Farfarello’s standards of flirting, no. 

They fought blade to blade in a fast flurry of blows ranging across the floor. It still worried Aya a bit that he loved fighting so much, getting high off it, and especially enjoyed it with Farfarello and saw it as foreplay almost as much as his partner did. To Aya’s relief, despite his excitement Farfarello retained a lot of control and grace in his sword-work, even when Aya smacked Farfarello with his scabbard now and then. Farfarello hammering brutally at someone with his sword would be a bad sign, especially after yesterday’s events. 

When instinct made Aya jump back away from Farfarello fast, Farfarello stopped the fight and asked, “What made you do that?”

“It felt right.”

“It didn’t have anything to do with me thinking how much fun it is to send an electrical current down my blade? Not that I intended to do that to _you_.”

Appalling. “I didn’t consciously read that out of your mind, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Hmmm. You shouldn’t worry about it. I know you’d be much less fun electrocuted.”

“...thanks. Wait, did you just feel that? Did Schuldig close you off from the Schwarz mental link too?”

After a moment’s consideration, Farfarello replied, “Aye. _That_ might be something to worry about.”

~ Schuldig? ~ Aya asked outward in his direction.

~ Rosenrot? Huh. What’s the what? ~ 

~ I felt a change in the Schwarz link. Is everything all right? ~

~ There’s nothing here we can’t handle. You might want to make sure nobody’s waiting to ambush you two outside though, since a group tracked the two of _us_ down and they have some telepathic shielding. Also, when we come to pick you up we’ll be arriving in a different car. We had to ditch the one we used this morning. But it’s all good. ~

~ That doesn’t _sound_ good. ~

~ It’ll be okay, worrywart. You’ll know for sure that all’s clear when I return our mental link to its usual setting. ~ 

~ Are you sure you won’t be needing backup? ~ Farfarello asked. ~ I’m game to kill more people. ~

~ I know you’re always game for that. Sorry, Charlie, but we don’t need it. So, Aya sensed the change in the link? Are you becoming _that_ sensitive, Red? ~

~ I don’t think so, ~ Aya answered. ~ I’m just more focused on everyone while keeping an eye on Farfarello’s mental state. ~

~ Better you than me. Catch you later! ~

“He used to be better about letting me have fun,” Farfarello said. “At least we can check to see if anyone’s outside. I hope some are.”

Farfarello went to a console and used it to check outside camera feeds Aya hadn’t been aware of, though it made sense to have them. Aya stood right behind him to look too. The cameras didn’t pick up any people, nor did Aya feel anyone. 

“Disappointing,” Farfarello muttered. “Also, knowing I could be killing real people sours me on going back to just practicing. No offense, kitten.”

“I’m not taking any. So what do you want to do?”

“If we knew when Friendly was getting back, I’d be tempted to go over to talk to her, with the pleasant side effect of bothering Weiß. I don’t forgive them for tossing me out yesterday. But she’s not in Tokyo yet, and I can’t reach her from a distance without much more effort, which I’m currently too riled to manage. Can you?”

Why did people keep thinking he’d achieved full telepathy? “No.” Besides, he’d rather Farfarello didn’t visit Weiß while in a bad mood. Which might be an impossible wish, but Aya could still hope. “Maybe we should get home on our own instead of waiting for Crawford and Schuldig to arrive in a different car.”

“The mindbreaker said there might be people hunting us.”

“So we walk around while keeping full awareness of our surroundings.” At least they didn’t look bloody enough to catch the attention of innocent passersby. “We should be able do that; we’re _assassins_.” 

Farfarello laughed. “I can’t argue with that.”

“There are things I could do at home, to further get our living space in order.” 

“What if all I’ll let you do when we get home is have sex with me?”

Although he’d actually prefer to do some housekeeping... “I can deal with that.” 

“Hmph. More enthusiasm would be appreciated.” 

******************************************************

As Nagi continued to press onward through the e-mails the seminar students had sent him, he figured that he’d gotten about halfway through them. It gave Nagi some relief that the e-mails didn’t contain many stupid questions, at least not so far. He’d be happier if he could be snarkier in his replies when he did get stupid questions but the recipients didn’t know him well enough to reliably detect his sarcasm so he didn’t. Being a mature, responsible adult could really suck sometimes. At least Omi paid him for this. 

When a cheery _ding!_ from his own e-mail account made him check for new mail, Nagi sighed when he saw the sender. He still hadn’t answered Crawford’s mother’s last e-mail, and if this one from her complained about that he’d be really annoyed. Nobody had warned him that membership in Schwarz would require ongoing correspondence with his leader’s family, especially when said family member could be very scary. But Crawford had ordered him to do it, so....

He should just open the damned thing and get it over with. 

She started with a subtle dig about how he still hadn’t replied back to her but didn’t spend much time on it. Instead, the brief content asked when Crawford and Schuldig would be home and available to pick up the phone to take a call from her. Apparently she felt it very important to talk to the two of them live and directly about a major issue--though not bad news--she refused to discuss in an e-mail. Wonderful. Nagi couldn’t even imagine. 

Refusing to provide current information about Omi or comment on what she’d said about Misoji in her previous e-mail, Nagi just typed up a brief reply to tell her that he’d e-mail her when Crawford and Schuldig returned. Out of the goodness of his heart, he attached some photos of their Jamaican vacation before hitting Send: some landscapes featuring the cottages, the beach, and several angles of Mayfield Falls, including one very close up, and some shots of Crawford and Schuldig sitting on the beach, Farfarello and Aya working on the sand castle, and the team at 3 Dives since a lot of people seemed to like and expect vacation photos that included people. None of the photographs included his image because he didn’t see the point. 

Although it seemed kind of silly, he couldn’t help feeling weirdly proud that the members of Schwarz looked so handsome.

He didn’t have any shots of Schuldig sunbathing or swimming nude that one day since those images had burned into his retinas. Besides, Crawford’s mother already had unseemly perverted thoughts about Schuldig and didn’t need encouragement. (The horror.)

It put Nagi in the odd position of being protective of Schuldig. For sexual stuff! Because he didn’t think Schuldig would be able to handle one particular woman who wanted to get into his pants! It was _ludicrous_.

He didn’t try to convince her to tell him what she wanted to say to Crawford and Schuldig without a phone call because he knew her too well and didn’t believe in doing futile things. 

Suddenly a small part at the back of his brain went a little quieter, so small that Nagi might have missed it. Once he realized that he’d noticed the team mindlink shutting down, he sent out a query of ~ Schuldig, is everything okay? ~ 

~ You noticed it too? Brad’ll be so proud of how observant you guys are once I bother to tell him. Remember what I said earlier about you being careful? Be _extra_ careful, because a group tracked the two of _us_ down and they have some telepathic shielding, meaning they have a telepath, which is why I’m temporarily closing down the team mindlink. These guys are nothing Brad and I can’t handle, so we don’t need backup from you or the Psycho Twins, but keep an eye out for anyone showing up at the building looking for you. You’ll know for sure that all’s clear when I return our mental link to its usual setting. _We’ll_ be showing up in a different car since we had to ditch the one we used this morning ~

~ That doesn’t sound like no trouble. ~

~ It’s trouble the two of us can handle. Nagins, is there something _you_ want to tell me? ~ 

~ Nope. Happy killing. ~

~ With us, it usually is. See you later. ~

Apparently Schuldig had been too distracted to catch more than a hint of what had happened with Crawford’s mother. Good. If Nagi told them in advance they might delay coming home, and he wanted to find out what she wanted to tell them too badly to wait any longer than he had to. 

******************************************************

“Home again, without our new enemies aware of it,” Farfarello said after they walked into their bedroom. 

As much as he would’ve loved a bloody fight, he wouldn’t do anything to draw enemy attention when his puisín--and no doubt Schwarz--didn’t want it. Once he wouldn’t have cared so much about the others, and at that time the team had kept him alone in a room that only locked from the outside. He had no urge to return to that.

These days he had responsibilities as well as perks. Often, the two had close connections, with one leading to the other. He could control himself, especially when his husband and team made it worth it. He could have one scary day and come out of it the next because he was _strong_.

He’d certainly shown his self-control while sparring with Aya earlier, resisting the enticement of his kitten’s muscular bared arms and the seductively visible knives strapped to them. So fucking hot. As much as he’d enjoyed sword-fighting with him, he’d so wanted to grab Aya and _take_ him. 

Still did, and his kitten had agreed to do it once they returned home. Aya removed his coat, revealing his bare arms and showing off his tight leather trousers and shapely ass. His katana, the guns in their leather harness, and the knife sheaths came off next. When Aya loosened his high collar, Farfarello heard a very familiar ringing sound that sent him straight to his kitten, molding himself against his back and asking directly into his ear, sometimes nibbling on the rim of it, “That’s your bell, isn’t it?” Although Aya didn’t look bloody, Farfarello could smell some on him and it stoked his lust even further.

Aya shivered and pulled his uniform collar away to show off his leather cat collar with bell that had been beneath it. “You know it is. I put it on this morning. For you.”

“I appreciate it. Thank you.” Farfarello put his arms around Aya and moved one hand down to stroke and cup Aya’s growing erection, a match to the one he pressed against his kitten’s ass, and the way his kitten moved with him left no doubt to his willingness. The zipper of Aya’s fly sounded so loud as Farfarello pulled it down to get his hand in but not as loud as Aya’s gasp when Farfarello ran his fingertips along his bare cock. They rutted against each other, and if Aya’s cat collar hadn’t been in the way Farfarello would have bit him at the junction where neck met shoulder. 

Farfarello had been somewhat offended earlier when Aya hadn’t sounded properly enthusiastic about the possibility of them fucking, but his puisín had apparently warmed up nicely since then. 

“We’re too dressed,” Farfarello growled, so he took a break from jerking Aya off to remove his jacket, shirt, and the weapons hidden in them. 

“I agree.” Aya quickly pulled his shirt off over his head, seriously mussing his hair. Aya’s tight leather trousers never came off easily, so Farfarello pushed him down onto the bed, grabbed them by the ankles, and pulled until they came off, enjoying the wiggling Aya did to help in the effort. Aya’s briefs, socks, and gloves pulled off with much less fuss, leaving him nude but for his cat collar. 

The emerald green sheets brought out the purple color of Aya’s eyes but just looked X-masy beneath his red hair. Fortunately, Farfarello loved X-mas and growled in appreciation as he removed his own trousers, socks, fingerless gloves, and remaining weapons before putting himself atop his kitten’s body to kiss and rub himself against him, enjoying the squirming and writhing they inspired. 

The way Aya’s strong legs wrapped around him made him want to fuck him _so_ hard. Having remembered his kitten putting a tube of lubricant in the top drawer of the night table--excellent thinking--Farfarello reached over and into it to grab it, difficult when he had his husband writhing enticingly and so wildly beneath him. Aya’s hands went everywhere on him, occasionally scratching....

Farfarello sat up and moved away a bit to slick up his cock and give a bit of a show doing it. His kitten looked flushed, mussed, debauched, and delectable watching him. When he gently pushed two slick fingers into Aya, directed right at his sweet spot, his kitten hummed and pushed down onto them, eager and relaxed and far too hot for Farfarello to be able to bear spending much more time preparing him. After two more thrusts with his fingers, Farfarello pulled them out and smoothly thrust in with his cock, with Aya taking him all the way in, so deep, so good. He had to stop and gather himself for a moment so he wouldn’t shoot off too soon, something Aya didn’t help when he clenched down around him with an evil smile. Sometimes he wondered how much his kitten _wanted_ to get hurt. Farfarello kissed that smile away, sometimes tangling tongues with his husband. They already rocked together a bit in anticipation of the ride to come. 

When Farfarello started to fuck him in long, deep strokes, Aya moaned and clutched at him, sometimes drawing some blood in thin lines down his back with his short nails. The hints of pain increased and sweetened the pleasure and quickened Farfarello’s pace, making the bedsprings and Aya’s bell sing. Aya spurred him on with his heels, apparently wanting it harder, so Farfarello gave it to him. 

Orgasm hit Farfarello in a drowning rush of sensation, a relief for having been so long--seemingly days--in coming but a disappointment that it struck so rapidly. His kitten quickly followed him, clenching around him, and they continued to rock together a while, with Farfarello kissing his lips and neck, enjoying this quieter, still intimate time. 

Farfarello hadn’t realized how stressed out Aya had looked until orgasm had relaxed some of it out of him. He also couldn’t forget that Aya had gone to his family’s grave looking for closure and some peace but spent that time and a lot of the rest of the day dealing with his partner’s meltdown instead. Truly he had failed his kitten, and something had to be done to make up for it.

“The team mindlink is back,” Aya said.

~ Yep, ~ the mindbreaker said to them. ~ I could have done it a little earlier but I knew that if I cockblocked Farfarello yet again he’d yell and whine, while I’m not in the mood for that right now. It’s all about me. ~

~ It’s always all about you, ~ Farfarello replied. 

~ Exactly. I’m so glad you understand. It looks like you made it home okay without any attacks on you. Crawdad and I will be there soon. ~

~ I won’t tolerate having to get out of bed and dressed for a briefing. ~ He’d just gotten his kitten here and unwrapped!

~ That won’t be happening immediately since Brad has to make some things up to me, which should keep him busy for a while since I am _pissed_. ~

Usually Farfarello would have snarked that the mindbreaker spent a lot of the time swanning around upset about various things but didn’t want to rock the boat when it looked like the telepath’s tender emotions would work in his favor. Besides, having Crawford and the mindbreaker have makeup sex in the next apartment might spur and inspire his kitten to greater heights. 

Instead Farfarello answered, ~ Enjoy the making up and try to make it last as long as possible. ~

~ I fully intend to. Ta! ~

~ See you later. Much later. ~

“You’re so generous,” Aya said.

“I’m renowned for my generosity,” Farfarello answered.

“I’m sure that’s not what you’re renowned for.” 

******************************************************

Nagi felt Schuldig arrive as a storm cloud of lust and anticipation before he even opened the door to the apartment. Based off that, he wouldn’t tell Crawford’s mother that they’d come home yet because Schuldig would keep Crawford occupied for a long time. No way Nagi wanted to get sucked into that.

As he packed up his computer so he could leave the building, he wished he could get all the way out of Tokyo too. Hell, out of the _country_.

Schuldig gave him a smile and a merry wave as he sped out, but Crawford handed Nagi a full, small tote bag when he reached the door and said, “While you’re at it, check these cell phones for valuable data and disable anything that could be used to track us.”

Nagi accepted it, even as he replied, “You both suck,” and left them as quickly as possible.


	284. "Sorry, but that’s not part of our home delivery service."

Schuldig grinned at Nagi’s rapidly fleeing back. Wimp. 

Crawford looked somewhat nervous. Good, because he should. He’d denied Schuldig a lot of things lately, and Schuldig wouldn’t be satisfied without making Crawford suffer a bit and taking full advantage of Crawford’s promise to placate him. Who knew when he’d get another golden opportunity?

“I’m going to give Yoji a call to invite him over for some playtime,” Schuldig said sweetly, enjoying Crawford’s wince and lack of refusal. Yeah, this would be _good_. 

He’d offer Yoji the opportunity to fuck with and torment Brad without telling the kitty that Schuldig intended to do the same to _him_. No way could he let Yoji’s ingratitude about the straight man’s dream threesome Schu had gotten him, subsequent refusal to fuck, and snotty dismissal of him go unpunished. It’d be _sexy_ punishment, yes, but it would still show Kudou who wore the pants in their relationship... and who had his pants ripped off so he could be _taken_. Schuldig got hard just thinking about it.

Yoji should be grateful for Schuldig’s mercy, since Schuldig had killed people for less. Besides, as much as Kudou bitched about things for principle’s sake and out of a love of bitching, he enjoyed being abused. 

******************************************************

Yoji and Sasha drowned in fangirls, who had them running ragged around the flower shop. Where had they all come from and why did they suddenly need flowers? Ken and Fenris needed to return from the airport with Elena _soon_. 

Before Fenris left with Ken, the workload had been light and the shop empty. They’d all assumed the light snow would keep customers away, making having three employees on flower duty overkill. Hell, _two_ of them working in the shop had seemed like too much at the time.

Aparently they never should have let Fenris leave.

The phone ringing came almost as a relief. “I’ll go get that!” Yoji said. 

~ Don’t go too far away with it and don’t leave me alone for long with these locusts! ~ Sasha answered. 

“You’ll be fine.” Yoji picked up the receiver with a cheery “Kitten in the House flowers. How can we help you today?” 

“You can come over here, get naked, and fuck our brains out,” Schuldig promptly replied. 

Oi. Even worse, the offer made his dick twitch. “Sorry, but that’s not part of our home delivery service.” And what did he mean by “_our_ brains”? Did Crawford yearn for a taste of the Yoji too? 

Schuldig’s voice sounded rich and deep. “You’d get so much more business if it were.”

Yoji moved further into the backroom and closed the door most of the way, since any conversation he had with Schuldig probably shouldn’t be overheard by customers. “We don’t want any more business than we already have.”

“I’d make it so worth your while. Crawford would too.”

He should still be mad at Schuldig, and he was, but the mention of Crawford getting involved made him so curious. “Does he want me?”

“Yeah, though he doesn’t want to want you. Today he _has_ to want you.”

It took Yoji a moment to puzzle that through, but when he did he said, “Oi, sex with me isn’t punishment.”

“That’s for sure. But he has to make things up to me, so I’m going to force him to display his lust for you.”

Yoji knew he shouldn’t be interested. He knew he should just hang up the phone and end the conversation. Too bad the thought of making Crawford admit his feelings for him made him so horny and hard as a rock. But. “Due to staffing issues, it’s just me and Sasha working the shop alone for a while. If I left him to do it solo, he’d track me down and kill me. Possibly literally.”

“So bring Sasha along and add him to the party! Crawford won’t object. Much. He’s in the room with me right now listening and hasn’t said a word in protest. Though the expression on his face is fun.”

“How deep in the doghouse _is_ he?” And what had he done to get there? 

And what could Yoji get away with making Crawford do if he went over there?

“_Very_. You’d have to come here to get more details though.”

Sasha would probably get as much of an erotic kick out of Crawford’s suffering as Yoji would, but Yoji still had to say, “No can do.”

“_Please_? I’ve heard that’s a magic word,” Schuldig purred. “I’ll show you what other magic I can work....”

“At least not right now. I’ll try to get at least myself out of here when the others come back. I can’t make any promises for Sasha, but I’ll ask him.”

“Awww. Damn it. All right, but remember that Crawford’s involvement in this is a limited-time offer.”

“I’ll keep all of that in mind. Bye.” Too bad Sasha would never let him stay back here long enough to jerk off. At least the apron would hide his hard-on a bit. 

“Everyone’s favorite Yoji-kun has returned,” Yoji said as he entered the main area of the shop again. A lot of the girls actually _squealed_ in response. Ow.

~ You’re not helping, ~ Sasha said. ~ What was the phone call about? A mission? You wouldn’t have gone in back if it had been flower work. Wait, was it _Schwarz_? ~

Sometimes Yoji could focus his thoughts well enough to send out actual mind speech but not right now. He did manage to push some memories and impressions of the recent phone call to Sasha though.

Sasha’s lopsided grin looked _very_ evil. ~ I would _love_ to fuck with you and Schuldig right under Crawford’s nose while he’s not allowed to protest, and maybe even put some moves on the man himself to mess with his head. So I’d be game to try to make a break for it with you when Elena and the others get back. They owe us after the hell we’ve been through this morning. ~ 

Suddenly remembering yesterday’s attempt to get Aya to rejoin Weiß, Yoji asked Sasha for extra telepathic shielding from Schuldig if their sex session happened after all. Although the attempt might amuse Schuldig if he found out about it, especially since Aya hadn’t agreed to it yet and might _never_ agree, it might really piss him off too. Schwarz could be very possessive of anything it considered its property.

Although Yoji would have preferred to leave Sasha in the dark about it until and unless Aya said yes, he couldn’t ask for the protection without thinking of the why.

~ You really do like to live dangerously. ~

Sasha couldn’t be implicated if he didn’t know about it, so it had been for his protection, really. 

~ Uh-huh. Yeah, I’ll shield you. Just keep in mind that I can get distracted by sex as much as the next guy and possibly more. ~ Sasha gave him a considering look but didn’t say anything else, so Yoji shot him a questioning look, to which Sasha answered, ~ It’s nothing. We’ll see what happens. ~

Maybe Sasha wondered why Yoji would take the chance of getting his mind read by willingly going to Schwarz--just to get laid, no less--when he didn’t have to. Maybe he judged Yoji for it. But Yoji knew that Schwarz would continue to dog his path, making the odds of Schuldig finding out eventually very high, so Yoji might as well get something out of them and enjoy himself. If Sasha couldn’t shield his mind, few could, so the failure would involve the two of them. If Sasha was still listening to him, Sasha could put that in his telepathic pipe and smoke it.

Sasha smirked at him and answered, ~ Fine. ~

******************************************************

“Too bad,” Crawford said. Maybe he’d dodged a bullet.

Although he looked somewhat disappointed, Schuldig answered, “He didn’t give me a total no, and I could feel that he’s intrigued. Can you foresee whether he comes over to play today? How about Sasha?”

Crawford gave it a serious attempt out of really wanting to know--though not for the reasons Schuldig did--but didn’t get a response. “Outcome is hazy. Try again later. You’re enjoying this too much.”

Schuldig grabbed him by the tie and pulled him in very close. “You _know_ I’m a sadist and a hedonist. You’ve known for years. Luckily for you, I won’t do anything to you that you won’t enjoy, even if you won’t admit your enjoyment to me or yourself.”

Fuck, he shouldn’t find that arousing, but the feeling of things being out of his control and the small tinge of fear lent unwelcome spice to his lust. He did his best to keep those feelings shielded from Schuldig.

******************************************************

Aya had to fight the urge to whine. He refused to whine or beg. Farfarello’s hot, thick cock was in him to the hilt, leaving him feeling so _full_, and moved only enough to occasionally rub against his prostate, while Farfarello’s fist around Aya’s cock preventing him from getting any relief there. Occasionally a callused thumb rubbed a few gentle circles on it to madden him further. Farfarello had pinned him facing the bathroom sink too, with the mirror letting Aya see Farfarello’s wide, evil smile just over his shoulder. Aya tried going up and down on his toes to force the issue, but Farfarello had him too well caged to let him move much. 

With no escape and no way of distracting himself with thoughts of something else, Aya couldn’t help being completely aware of and focused on Farfarello’s cock and hands. _Tortured_, he _ached_ for release. 

“_Fuck me_,” Aya growled, a command, not a plea. 

“Not yet. Though it isn’t like the mindbreaker to wait this long to start while in such a mood.”

“I don’t care about him. We don’t do this for him.”

“So selfish.” Farfarello sounded pleased.

“Show him what he’s missing.”

“That idea pleases me.” Farfarello started to rotate his hips a bit, literally screwing Aya. Finally. 

Then he loosened his fist a bit and started to thrust, gradually speeding up, creating delicious friction and pleasure, fucking Aya as Aya fucked his fist. They couldn’t get a coordinated rhythm going on, but at the moment Aya didn’t give a shit, just braced himself against the sink and moved his body forward and back to get the best, fullest results. Knowing that Farfarello watched his face in the mirror stoked Aya’s lust further and gave him some small spasms of shame over his utterly wanton behavior, although even the shame currently felt erotic and added spice. Aya could feel his arriving orgasm like lightning traveling along his spine. 

“_Kitten_.” Farfarello growled happily against his neck then nipped, the sudden shock of pain accenting his pleasure. Aya shuddered, moaned, and came in waves as Farfarello licked the small throbbing wounds. 

Farfarello hit his own climax in three hard, long strokes that felt like so much _more_ from how sensitized Aya had become and caught him when his knees gave out from under him. Despite everything, still hard, Farfarello bent Aya further over the sink and managed some more deep thrusts, hitting a different angle that made Aya cry out in overwhelmed and nearly painful pleasure again. 

Could that bastard be using ki to keep going? 

“Aye, I am,” Farfarello answered with a dark chuckle as he tightened his grip on Aya’s hips, “but I’ll share.” 

He channeled it through his cock in a flood of heat directly into Aya, who immediately went hard, throbbing with renewed lust and need, and started to grind against the warming porcelain of the sink to find some relief. The extended fucking felt simultaneously good and torturous, too much, too much, yet somehow never quite enough to reach orgasm. Drowning in sensation, Aya felt like a vibrating bundle of overexcited nerves. 

This had gone on so long that Aya needed a break, so he clenched down to try to bring them both to an end. Fortunately, Farfarello came, shouting out Aya’s name and taking Aya with him, so good. 

Breathing hard, calming, Farfarello ran a finger down the length of Aya’s spine, briefly ending at the small of his back before traveling further down to right where they were still connected, and asked, “Are you all right, puisín?”

“I’m dizzy,” Aya huffed. “Also, I can’t feel my legs.” 

“I sincerely doubt I crippled you.” But he sounded very smug. 

“You will if you try to fulfill your dream of having sex in every room in the apartment _today_.”

“I can heal you.” 

That could lead to _very_ bad places, so Aya needed to stop that kind of thinking immediately. “I prefer not to get damaged in the first place. I’ll avoid sex with you if I know it’ll hurt me.”

“Mmmm. I don’t want that.” Farfarello pulled out gently, which thankfully decreased some of the full-body tingling sensation Aya felt, and cleaned him with a warm, wet cloth... which returned some of that tingling sensation. Unfocused and wobbly, Aya continued to cling to the sink. 

Although it galled Aya to admit it, he said, “I need a rest.” He retained _some_ sense of self-preservation. 

He wondered if he’d ever be able to sit down again.

“Then you shall have it.” 

Farfarello picked him up like he weighed nothing and tenderly carried him, bridal-style, back to their bed. Embarrassing. Aya carefully settled atop the sheets since under them would be too much sensation for him to currently bear. 

Farfarello beamed down at him with warm fondness. “I believe we showed the mindbreaker how it’s done.” 

******************************************************

“Whether Yoji shows up here or not, I fully intend to get laid and see no reason to wait for him,” Schuldig said as he led the way into their bedroom and tossed his coat onto a nearby chair. 

Preferring this to be one-on-one anyway, Crawford came up behind Schuldig and put his arms around him. “I see no reason to wait either.”

Schuldig moaned, and his body suddenly stiffened then writhed against Crawford. As much as Crawford might wish otherwise, he knew his telepath wasn’t reacting to _him_ and asked, “Farfarello and Aya?”

“Farfie is thoroughly plowing him from behind, while Aya is taking it and demanding more like a total slut. _Fuck_, it’s good.” As Schuldig undid his fly to free his erect cock, he pressed his ass against Crawford’s groin and rubbed. “I don’t need any foreplay or prep, just lube up and take me.”

“What if _I_ want to do more than just stick my dick into you and thrust while most of your attention is centered elsewhere? I’m more than just a dildo.” Making up for his earlier behavior didn’t mean he had to let Schuldig _use_ him.

“You’re _my_ dildo. But whatever. _Do_ things to me and prove it.”

That seemed fair. Crawford undid the buttons on Schuldig’s shirt and pulled it off while Schuldig pulled his pants and underwear down and kicked them away; together, their efforts left Schuldig nude and very tempting. To differentiate his fucking from Farfarello’s Crawford wouldn’t screw Schuldig from behind so he turned him around to face him. Schuldig’s happy little growl and hand unzipping Crawford’s fly suggested he approved. 

Telepathically radiating lust and pleasure, Schuldig walked backward toward the bed and pulled Crawford along with him by his grip on Crawford’s belt loops. Schuldig sat, pushed himself further up the bed, stroked his own cock, and spread his legs to display himself. From his panting and body movements and the somewhat glazed look in his eyes, he was deeply submerged in Farfarello and Aya’s fucking. 

Crawford had to grab Schuldig’s attention back to him, so he pulled his hard cock out of the open fly of his pants, took condoms and a tube of lubricant out of the top drawer of the night stand, and prepared himself with them, applying lots of lubricant in case Schuldig had overestimated his body’s readiness to receive him. He settled himself on the bed between Schuldig’s legs and put them over his shoulders before plunging in, smiling as Schuldig cried out in pleasure and looked at _him_ instead of something going on next door. His telepath fit him perfectly, like a hot, tight glove. Stll feeling aggressive from the killing earlier and his arguments with Schuldig, Crawford fucked him in fast, hard, and deep strokes, to Schuldig’s vocal but wordless approval. After Schuldig’s fingers slid uselessly along the fabric of Crawford’s shirt, he diverted them to jerking himself off. 

Although he didn’t have to, Crawford picked up the speed and rhythm Farfarello was using for his thrusts, mostly because watching Schuldig’s body try to react to two different ones pained him. Schuldig moved as if someone had done something painful and pleasurable to his neck, then shuddered and climaxed, nearly pulling Crawford over with him.

“No, I’m far from done with you,” Crawford said between kisses as he kept going. 

“Heh. Ahhhh, I’ll hold you to-- Farfie, what the hell?” 

Crawford felt the echoes of an unnatural vitality as it flooded through Schuldig’s body. Schuldig confirmed Crawford’s suspicion as he panted, “Farfarello’s powering another round of sex through ki manipulation for him and Aya. It cut his recovery time down to nothing; he’s already fully hard again. Fuck, it’s too much for me and Aya.... We’re both feeling too sensitized....” He sounded overwhelmed.

“Cut off your feed then. _Shield_ dammit, and focus on _me_.” 

Schuldig smirked. “Of course you’d say that,” he panted.

Crawford pressed his forehead to Schuldig’s and _concentrated_ at him. “Here with me on our bed, just my body and yours as the only connection. I’m the only one actually inside you.”

Although Schuldig said nothing, Crawford could _feel_ when he cut off most of the feed from Farfarello and Aya from the way his body and breathing calmed. Wonder of wonders, Schuldig had obeyed him and was only with him, reacting only to him. It made his lust spike further, and it made him thrust again and smile as Schuldig cried out in pleasure. 

“Don’t get too smug,” Schuldig murmured.

“I’ll only get exactly as smug as I should.” Crawford kissed him almost feverishly as he increased his pace and felt orgasm approaching. 

“Even when you’re supposedly making amends you--”

“Sorry. I just feel so _pleased_.” He showed it in his thrusts, kissing, and stroking, wanting Schuldig to know through his touches how much having Schuldig meant to him. 

From the way Schuldig clung to and clenched down on him, at least some of that had gotten through, the thought of which brought Crawford over into a climax that turned the world briefly white and wrung him out. When he could focus on things again, he noticed that Schuldig looked somewhat dazed and almost... softened in his afterglow. That softness would be brief, so Crawford had better appreciate it while he had it.

Schuldig being Schuldig, he smiled and said, “You have come on your clothes now, Brad.”

A peril of just unzipping one’s fly and going at it, spontaneity. “I don’t really care.” Though later he might. He disengaged from Schuldig to strip them off and toss them aside, letting him lie nude beside him. 

When Schuldig rested his hand on Crawford’s cheek, Crawford smelled a hint of blood and gunpowder, which inspired him to suck suggestively on two of Schuldig’s fingers. In response, his telepath purred, moved in closer, and set his other hand on Crawford’s bare ass, languidly stroking in circles. Soon enough they’d be feverishly going at each other again, which put a warm glow of anticipation in Crawford’s chest and groin. 

“Hmmm, ki-powered sex,” Schuldig murmured against the side of Crawford’s neck.

Argh. Too often, Schuldig chased potential thrills without caring whether they were truly worth the risks. “Schuldig.” 

“It’s not like he can only give me extra energy by fucking me. He’s sent some into me before just by touching me. Fuck, Brad, you have no idea how horny it got me when he healed my back that time. You only got an indirect, shadowy taste of it here so you don’t really understand that it’s _so_ good. I don’t want you to be deprived of the experience.”

It didn’t mean that Schuldig would _never_ fuck with Farfarello, just that he knew hearing it now would upset Crawford. By Schuldig’s standards, that was tact. 

Wait, did that whole thing about wanting Crawford to experience it too mean that Schuldig hoped Crawford and Farfarello would fuck? The very concept broke Crawford’s brain. 

Schuldig turned his caressing into a stinging slap on Crawford’s ass. “I just told you he doesn’t need to send you the energy via his dick.” The area felt so much more sensitive when the caressing resumed. 

Crawford let Schuldig’s fingers go with a final lick then said, “You’re lucky that didn’t make me bite down on them.”

Schuldig used those wet fingers to circle one of Crawford’s nipples, which made him squirm a little. “Luck is for amateurs.” 

“Not that I want to fuck Farfarello, but why aren’t you shoving him at me the way you keep shoving Yoji and Aya?”

“If things go bad during the sex--”

Crawford wanted to protest that things never went bad during sex with him but realized that Schuldig might be able to include the events of earlier today, and he so didn’t want to resume that argument.

“--they’re less likely to kill you during it than Farfarello is.”

“You first got involved with Yoji when he was strangling his lovers!” Crawford objected. 

“But I _fixed_ that!”

“He’s assaulted his lovers more recently than Farfarello has.”

“Stop throwing facts and logic at me. You should know by now that I don’t operate on those. Facts and logic are cages that small minds are happy to live in. Anyway, we could get a ki boost and lord it over Yoji.”

“Schu, I enjoy the time in between to bask in the afterglow and languidly make out. Endlessly thrusting a perpetually hard cock can start to seem robotic, joyless, and futile.”

Schuldig’s eyes widened a little, and he unfortunately stopped playing with Crawford’s nipple. “That’s actually an interesting argument against it. Bravo.”

“Wow. Thanks.”

“I’ll have to think about that.” Grinning, he moved closer and did a little bump and grind. “In the meantime, lacking any ki boosts, let’s bask and make out some more.”


	285. "Maybe I’ll even figure out a way to use him against them...."

“I’m glad to be back,” Elena said. 

As he drove, Ken asked, “What was the worst part of it?” He didn’t like how worn-out she looked.

“Definitely the Bruise. At first all those similar bodies with similar thoughts are really disturbing, then you get used to them, then they do something that disturbs you all over again. In an endless cycle. At least some of them have different hair colors. The Okinawans aren’t thrilled with them either.” 

“Are you going to be okay with Sasha?” Fenris asked from the backseat. 

“I’m sure I’ll be fine with him. He’s one of ours, and he’s not in a crowd of lookalikes and soundalikes I have to deal with. Besides, he’s more of an individual than they are and had to fend for himself.”

“Kritiker just had you teaching, right?” Ken asked.

Elena leaned her head against the passenger-side window. “Yeah, but that’s tiring when it’s mostly telepathic work. At least Kritiker is developing and hiring other telepathic teachers, because there’s no way I’m teaching in Okinawa as a part-time job.”

“Even if it’s not all about teaching the Bruise?” Not that Ken _wanted_ her to keep going away for a few days at a time. 

“Even if. I don’t like it, and I’m not cut out for it. You know, even the non-Bruise Schuldig clones are disturbing? It turns out that the star pupil at the school is _Flood_.”

“Flood... you mean Evil? The one who was so disconnected from reality that....” He couldn’t even bear to finish that. Eszett had gotten off too lightly and should have been made to suffer more before it was destroyed.

“He’s making up for lost time in spades. He’s using the Bruise as amplifiers for and extensions of his telepathic power, which is brilliant but creepy. Ugh. Can we talk about something else? I spent the last few days immersed in this stuff.”

“Sure.”

“What did I miss while I was gone?”

Shit. Ken didn’t want to get into it and didn’t feel that he should be the one to suffer. Fenris tried to seem casual but failed, and if Ken could tell the kid was hiding something Elena sure as hell could. 

“What?” she asked, her voice turning stern.

“You’ll have to talk to Yoji for the full details,” Ken replied. “He’s the one who had the most exciting events.”

“How many times did Schwarz drop by?”

“We got to make Farfarello leave the house without a fight last night. Without any injuries!” Fenris said. 

“Why the hell was Berserker there?”

“He came to take Fujimiya-san back, though it seemed that he didn’t care whether Fujimiya-san wanted to or was ready to go back yet.”

“I think Yoji is trying to tempt Aya into coming back to our team,” Ken said. “You’ll have to ask Yoji for more details.”

That decreased her obvious annoyance a bit. “Persia would be pleased to have him back....” 

“No kidding.” But Ken had mixed emotions about it. While it’d be nice to get most of the old team back together, they’d all changed a lot since Aya had belonged to Weiß, for better and for worse. It wouldn’t be the same. Though he did like how much more approachable and companionable Aya had become. Taking Aya back would also equal declaring war on Schwarz again, which could get very messy, especially since Yoji had so many ties to them. Schwarz fought dirty, and Farfarello could be vicious enough even before you stole his lover away. 

While Ken wouldn’t consider Aya’s relationship entirely healthy, not from what he saw of it, Aya had shown that he could still tell Farfarello no and make it stick. If Aya had seemed abused or come asking them for help, it would be a different story and Ken would give his all, but Weiß had purloined an unwilling Aya before and suffered an embarrassing defeat over it. 

Yoji didn’t think like that though, having some weird thing for Aya and a tendency to try to play white knight to his intended romantic partners. He might also be “thinking” with his dick again. 

“You’ll have to ask Yoji for more details,” Ken said again. “He hasn’t been sharing much with us.” When he glanced to the side and saw the dark look on Elena’s face, he said quickly, “But it’s not like he’s lying to us or anything! I think he just doesn’t want to talk about it until it looks more certain and likely to happen.” Yoji deserved to be in trouble for all the shit he’d done lately but not in _that_ much trouble. “Aside from Farfarello, nobody from Schwarz invaded our home while you were gone.” Aya didn’t count from having been invited and having dual citizenship. Although Ken didn’t like to tag Aya as Schwarz, Aya had been with that team too long for it to be ignored.

“Farfarello is enough of an invasion on his own,” Elena said.

“Yoji talks about sex in general a lot but doesn’t go into much detail about what he’s actually doing,” Fenris said. 

After she shared a moment of silent shock with Ken, Elena replied, “I’ll kill him.” She kind of sounded serious about it. 

“It’s fine!” Fenris said. “He’s not... corrupting me or anything! Besides, I already know a lot of stuff because I’m a telepath, and you know that!”

“Elena, he’s right,” Ken said, since he didn’t want Yoji to get murdered either. “Yoji may be a bit of a perv, but he doesn’t go into detail in front of Fenris. Let’s not blame Yoji for things he _didn’t_ do.”

“The shop looks really crowded,” Fenris said suddenly.

Ken had been concentrating on the conversation so hard that he’d gone on mental autopilot to drive them back and hadn’t realized they’d reached the shop. “Yeah, it does.” If he could see that all the way from outside and in the street, it had to be really bad.

“We should get in there and give them some help. And I’m not just saying that to change the subject.” 

“Especially since you just reminded us of it again.” Ken couldn’t help smirking when he saw Fenris’ crestfallen expression in the rearview mirror. “Elena, you look like you could use some rest, so you should go take a nap while Fenris and I try to save Sasha and Yoji from getting crushed.” Hopefully she’d be less hair-trigger and short-tempered after some sleep, which could save Yoji’s hide. 

He hoped like hell she hadn’t telepathically heard that.

Whether she did or not, she gave Ken a somewhat weary smile and said, “Fine.” She _must_ be tired.

“Let me carry your luggage up while Fenris goes to the shop and gets the guys some relief.” 

Fenris just about leapt out of the car as soon as Ken parked it, probably out of a need to be helpful and wanting to get away from Elena before he said something else that got Yoji in trouble and set her off. Elena shook her head, obviously seeing right through it.

As soon as she got to her bedroom, with Ken holding her luggage right behind her, she sat on the bed hard and said, “I’m sorry, Ken. The whole experience really tired me out, and while the Okinawa school isn’t abusive the way Rosenkreuz was the whole ‘school for psychics’ thing and the lingering effects of the abuse on the Rosenkreuz alumni bring back bad memories for me.”

“And you’re worried that Kritiker might take advantage of them,” Ken said. When she looked at him with evident surprise, he answered, “I’m not just a pretty face.”

She smiled. “People will regret it if they underestimate you.”

“Hell yeah. Elena, if doing this is messing with your head so badly you should tell Omi that you can’t do it anymore. He may be more of a hard-ass than he used to be these days, but he’ll understand.”

“Kritiker doesn’t exactly have a lot of trained telepaths hanging around who have any idea how to teach it to others, and I’ve been showing good results with the Bruise since Vienna. The Bruise knows I don’t have an agenda and don’t want to _use_ them, and they trust me. I’m probably one of the few people they’ve ever met who isn’t out to use them. Look, Persia knows I’m not happy teaching and says he’s working on training a replacement for me. I’ll hang on with it until the replacement is ready.”

A lot of the psychics they’d picked up in Vienna were basically abused kids, and Elena apparently didn’t want to run out on them. Ken understood and appreciated that. “You have a bigger heart than some people realize.”

“Yeah, but don’t let that get out. You’ll ruin my rep.”

Keeping that bigger heart in mind.... “You know, Yoji isn’t as bad as you’re thinking. Fenris and I just weren’t talking about it well. He’s loyal.”

Looking rueful and a bit annoyed, she shook her head and said, “I love Yoji, but he has a self-destructive streak and some vulnerable points he can be manipulated through very easily. Rosenkreuz trains its operatives to root those out and use them against people. You can also use his dick as a handle to lead him around by.”

It didn’t help Ken’s attempted defense that she was kind of right. “Uh.”

“I won’t kill him. I’ll probably be in a better mood by the time I wake up anyway. Maybe I’ll even figure out a way to use him against them....”

“Say what?”

“Eh, we’ll see.” She took out her braid, giving her long and now loose blonde hair shiny waves. 

Ken itched to touch it. Then he figured he could work his way around.... “Now I’m really sorry I promised to help out downstairs.” He loved her hair down but knew its length would get in the way of her regular living, making it impractical, so he came to peace with the braiding by deciding that it let him keep this softer and more feminine looking Elena all to himself. 

She looked at him with some heat and smiled but said, “I’m too tired for that now anyway. But later....”

“Something to look forward to. I missed you.” He kissed her to give her an idea of how much but didn’t let it get _too_ sexy, because then he definitely wouldn’t be able to go away to work in the shop. 

“I missed you too, Ken. A lot.”

“I’ll see you later.”

Fenris appeared to be helping the customers get their things and get out faster, to Sasha and Yoji’s obvious relief, but even with Ken joining them it took at least a half hour to get everyone out. Fortunately, not many new people came in to replace them. 

“What the hell happened?” Ken asked when they got their breather.

“Yeah! The snow didn’t stick as much as I hoped, but that was still a lot of people coming in despite the weather,” Fenris said.

“Some kind of multi-school class trip let everyone out for a bit. The rest of it was just insanity,” Sasha answered. 

“How long was the crush going on for?” Ken asked. 

“Going on for about two hours before you arrived.”

“Man.”

Leaning wearily on the counter, Yoji asked, “Hey, Ken, could you and Fenris give me and Sasha a few hours for a break? We’re bushed.” 

“Yoji, what are you up to?”

Yoji looked a little too innocent. “Nothing! We’re just beat.”

“Keep in mind that the sheriff is back in town, and she’s already annoyed from what little she already heard about what went on while she was gone.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I didn’t say anything to Yoji or Sasha about it,” Fenris said. “Didn’t have a chance or the time.”

Looking annoyed, Yoji asked, “What were you guys saying about me?”

Seeing that they only had one customer left and that customer happily browsed the shop on her own, Ken took Yoji by the arm and pulled him into the next room behind the counter area. “We mentioned Berserker being here yesterday and you, uh, consorting with Schwarz,” Ken replied, keeping his voice down. 

By contrast, Yoji yelled a bit. “‘Consorting’? What the fuck? And I don’t spend anywhere near as much time with Schwarz as you think I do.”

Ken closed the door to try to muffle things. “Sure, Yoji.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You just get secretive when you know you’re doing something the rest of the team won’t approve of.”

“_Fuck_ you, Ken. Aside from everything else that’s wrong with what you’re spouting, my sexlife is nobody’s business.”

“It is if it involves people who are our enemies when they don’t feel like working _with_ us.”

“It’s not my fault if they’re some of the many people who think I’m sexy, and fuck you again, Ken.”

This _really_ wasn’t going well. Although Yoji kept pissing him off, Ken tried to calm things down. “Elena approved of you trying to tempt Aya into rejoining Weiß.” 

“I’m glad the car ride home didn’t consist _entirely_ of you stabbing me in the back.”

“That’s not fair, Yoji.”

“Neither is getting stabbed in the back.” Yoji angrily took off his apron. “I’m too angry to work with you right now. I’m out of here, whether you approve or not.” 

“Yoji! Get back here!” 

“You can’t make me.” On his way out, Yoji grabbed Sasha by the arm and said, “C’mon. Ken’s too righteous to work with the likes of us.”

Obviously confused, Sasha asked, “But I’m a good guy. How did I get roped into this?” but went along when Yoji seemed determined to drag him away if he didn’t go on his own, though he gave Ken a nervous wave goodbye as they left the shop. 

“Do you think Yoji will get his coat before he totally leaves?” Fenris asked, wide-eyed. 

“He likes his comforts so yeah, he’ll get his coat. Maybe Sasha’s too,” Ken answered. “Typical Yoji, running away when things get difficult or someone asks him to take responsibility.” With Elena gone, Ken had let him get away with some things but Yoji had to have known that wouldn’t last forever.

“You’re not going after them? I’d watch the shop for you.”

“With how pissed off I am right now, if I did I’d end up punching Yoji instead of talking and I might not stop.” 

Why the hell had he taken Sasha? Maybe he had some thoughts of Sasha’s telepathy hiding and protecting him from Elena’s. As if Sasha hadn’t had enough people using him in his past.

“I don’t like it when we fight each other.”

“I don’t either.” Ken didn’t know what would happen if Yoji didn’t come back with Sasha before Elena woke up. She might decide they were _all_ idiots. 

******************************************************

“C’mon, get your coat and the right shoes too,” Yoji told Sasha as he changed into his in the team’s living area. “It’s cold, and there’s some snow out there.”

“What the hell was all that?” Sasha asked, though he did what Yoji told him to anyway. 

“Ken running his stupid mouth saying ugly things about me. He can go to hell.”

What, Elena returned so Ken remembered he was supposed to be pussy-whipped? Fuck him.

“I still don’t hear where I mix into all of this. Am I your hostage?”

“No! Partner in crime.” 

“So I’m immoral support?”

“Hopefully. We’re going to go have the kind of fun Ken wouldn’t approve of. You remember the invitation I got over the phone.”

“So your response to Ken saying things about you is to do exactly the kind of things he accused you of?” Sometimes Sasha could be really Schuldiggy.

Yoji so didn’t want to hear it. “_Don’t_ psychoanalyze me, Sasha. I’m not in the mood.”

Sasha put his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Okay. Peace.”

“You’re still interested in going, right?” Yoji asked. Sasha could use some fun, and if anybody deserved to see Crawford getting some punishment it was Sasha after the shit Crawford pulled on him in Vienna. Besides, Sasha’s telepathy would be helpful against Elena and Fenris’. 

Sasha followed him into the garage. “Yeah, I am still interested, but I can’t guarantee that my efforts will totally hide what we’re doing here in the present and the future. Elena’s good, I’m not perfect, and the two of us are going to get distracted at some points. We could still get in trouble.”

“I don’t mind, since it’s better than I’d do by myself. Get in.”

As Sasha sat in the front passenger seat, he said, “He could be lying through his teeth. This could be a trap.”

“I don’t think so. Besides, I’m not going in alone. I have you with me, and you’re the clone he has the closest affectionate relationship to.”

Sasha smirked. “You have no idea, but that’s still no guarantee.” 

Yoji buckled his own seat belt. “We’ll be alert, and we’re not totally helpless. I have my watch on and I’m a telekinetic, while you have your own deal.” When Sasha directed an indulgent look at him, Yoji continued, “I’m _not_ an idiot. You have to take some risks sometime. You can’t live in fear.”

“Okay. So if Schuldig’s not lying, what do you think Crawford did to deserve and agree to this?”

Grinning, Yoji replied, “I have no idea but I’m looking forward to finding out.”


	286. "I like to live dangerously."

Nude, Schuldig threw back his head, moaned, and arched his back as he slowly fucked himself with the fox tail plug, legs spread wide to let Crawford see the penetration and movements, a perfect picture of erotic wantonness. Schuldig also telepathically fed Crawford the sensations of the plug stroking his prostate, sending shivers of pleasure throughout his body. Sometimes he stroked his hard, erect cock, pausing now and then to lick his fingers and smile brightly at his audience.

Crawford wanted so much to touch, control, and direct him but currently wasn’t allowed. Part of his punishment. Though the very pretty view Schuldig presented him was a gift as well as torture.... Allowed to touch his own cock, Crawford stroked and gripped it in response but not enough to make himself come, something he’d prefer to do in Schuldig’s ass or mouth if Schuldig relented. So far his precognition hadn’t let him see the future on that, but he remained hopeful.

Schuldig’s eyelids fluttered, then he said, “Yoji and Sasha have just arrived to join the fun. Since we just moved here, I’m not sure how to buzz them into the building or whatever yet, so can you get dressed to go down and get them? They’re waiting at the curb.”

How completely demeaning. Crawford should have known Schuldig would go too far, because Schuldig _always_ did and couldn’t seem to help himself. “Be careful with your little punishment games. Don’t push me too far.”

“Brad,” Schuldig’s voice sounded so warm, “if everything works out the way I’m trying for, you’re going to get a lot of things you’ll enjoy today and Yoji’s a part of that. Show some trust. And don’t you dare try to push your talent into giving you a peek at upcoming events.”

“I don’t deal well with surprises.” But he couldn’t help feeling intrigued. 

When Schuldig slid the plug in all the way to the base and gripped it with his internal muscles, he let Crawford feel the fullness of it and the way it brushed his prostate every time he shifted. He shifted a great deal as he crawled over to Crawford across the bed on hands and knees then rose up to kiss him deeply, lingeringly, with a languid tangling of tongues. 

“Give it a try,” Schuldig said breathily. “It’ll be worth your while.”

It better be. “You promise?”

“I’m too realistic to guarantee anything, but I’ll do my best. Besides, at the end of this they’ll go home, while the two of us _are_ home.” As Schuldig crawled back to the head of the bed, his fox tail waved back and forth. He took a cockring out of a drawer, put it on himself, and let Crawford have a good look at him, obviously knowing Crawford would find the sight arousing as hell. “You won’t be missing anything while you’re downstairs.” By Schuldig’s standards, he’d made a lot of concessions, which Crawford appreciated.

“All right.” Crawford didn’t go all out dressing himself just to get Balinese and Sasha but had too much pride to look messy or desperate either. Getting his pants fastened over his rock-hard cock didn’t make anything easier. “I’ll be right back.” 

******************************************************

Schuldig had let them know that Crawford would arrive to take them upstairs. Crawford! “I wonder if Crawford’s pissed off and if he’ll take it out on us,” Yoji said, not caring about that as much as usual because he hoped to get inside and out of this ridiculous cold soon. 

“He doesn’t have to be pissed off to take things out on other people,” Sasha answered. “How do you _do_ this? I’m nervous as hell about going in, especially when Weiß wouldn’t know to look for us here if something happened to us.”

“I don’t get it. You had sex with Schuldig recently.”

“He waited for me outside our place and then we went to a hotel. I didn’t walk into Schwarz’s home turf for it. Right now I’m close to shaking from the adrenaline.”

“The adrenaline rush is part of why I do this kind of thing.” Yoji grinned at him. “I like to live dangerously.” 

“That’s not the term I’d use, and no kidding.”

“You’re that afraid of Crawford?”

“Shut up. That’s not it. I don’t trust him, and I know Schuldig’s loyal to him. I can manage Schuldig on his own.”

“Really? Because that would make you one of a kind.” Though lots of people had the delusion that they could “manage” Schuldig, Yoji himself had woken up to the reality ages ago.

“I have an advantage most people don’t have.”

“Considering that there seem to be hundreds of clones of him, that doesn’t make you all that special.”

Sasha appeared to be annoyed _and_ amused. “Are you going to insult me the whole time we’re waiting here?”

“I’m not insulting you. I just don’t want you going into this too cocky.”

“And you’re the one who’s not nervous about going inside.”

“I appreciate the idea of having someone with me who can watch my back. You won’t do that great a job of it if you’re overconfident.”

“Self-centered much?”

“Somebody has to protect me, since I’m not always that good at doing it for myself.” 

“It’s a good thing for you that I find you entertaining.”

When Crawford walked out of the building toward them, he looked dapper and controlled to the casual eye. Somebody who knew him better, the way Yoji somehow had managed to, would note that he hadn’t dressed as neatly or completely as he usually did, especially not for a cold day. He must have been in the middle of something naked and sexy with Schuldig and thrown some clothes on to chauffeur their new arrivals upstairs. 

Being Crawford, he shot them an annoyed, long-suffering look meant to wither them in their tracks but did a bit of a double-take when he saw Sasha’s Schuldiggy answering grin. Good. Yoji shouldn’t be the only person freaked out by how eerie Sasha could get with that. 

“Come with me,” Crawford said, “and don’t get too comfortable or cocky because what happens today won’t happen again.”

“_Come_ with me, hunh?” Yoji couldn’t stop himself from asking. 

“Don’t make this any more unpleasant than it has to be. Get inside.”

Yoji really had to fight the urge to be obnoxious to him just to rub it in more. His struggle must have been obvious since Sasha elbowed him. All right, he’d be good. He’d be better off saving it for the sexy funtimes anyway. Besides, he wanted to get indoors where it would be warm as soon as possible, so he quietly followed Crawford and Sasha inside. 

Judging from the foyer and the elevator, Schwarz had taken apartments in a _nice_ place. It made him wonder what their salaries looked like compared to his. 

Basically, he wondered if evil paid better. 

Then again, he couldn’t see Aya going along with Schwarz getting into anything _too_ evil, not when Schwarz didn’t have something like his sister to hold over his head the way Kritiker had... which made Kritiker more evil than Schwarz? Obviously, he’d be better off not thinking too hard about it. 

Schwarz’s nice new address.... Right, he’d wanted to throw a housewarming party for Aya finally getting an apartment separate from most of Schwarz, partly for the opportunity to tease Aya (and party!) and partly because Aya had missed out on a lot of normal life things like that. Though Aya and Weiß throwing Farfarello out of Weiß’s home would probably make Farfarello less likely to approve something like that, Yoji would somehow find a way. People needed parties. _Yoji_ needed parties.

~ How do you live with that kind of stuff rattling around in your brain all the time? ~ Sasha asked telepathically. 

“One, hey! And two, since it’s my brain I’ve never known anything different so _excuse_ me,” Yoji replied. 

“You’re making even less sense than usual,” Crawford said. 

“So, how did you get roped into doing all this? What did you _do_?”

“I only agreed to bring you up, not to try to explain anything to you. Besides, Schuldig will be more than happy to talk at length about it.” Tetchy. 

“I’m sure he’ll be biased and probably unfair to you. You could give us your side of the story right now!” 

Although Crawford looked slightly tempted, he said, “No. Besides, I’m sure I’ll be giving my side and objecting to his characterization of events while he’s talking to you. I’m sure you can wait a little longer. Don’t get pouty over it.”

“I wasn’t.” 

“_Please_.”

When he saw Sasha’s smirk, Yoji said, “You’re supposed to be on my side, not his.”

“Sorry. But you _were_ getting pouty.”

Crawford cast a brief surprised and possibly appreciative look at Sasha. If Crawford got to see Sasha here alone, away from all the other inconvenient Schuldig clones that swamped him in Vienna, an individual, would he form a new, better opinion of him? Yoji didn’t know if he wanted that to happen, not when Sasha’s distrust and hatred of Crawford could be so useful to him and Weiß. Entertaining too.

As Crawford unlocked his apartment door, Yoji idly wondered whether Aya and Farfarello lived to the right or left of it. He couldn’t tell. When they all walked inside, Yoji looked around and saw what seemed to him to be very generic furnishings and decorations, no personal touches from the members of Schwarz who lived there at all. (Though did he know them well enough to notice a “personal touch” from them if he saw it? And if he did know them well enough, did he really want to admit that?)

The members of Schwarz who lived in this apartment: Crawford, Schuldig, and Nagi.... Wait. Yoji had to ask, “Is Nagi here right now?”

“He’s not part of this!” Crawford answered. “And no, he isn’t.”

“Chill. I didn’t expect to make him part of an orgy,” Yoji said, knowing full well Crawford would never have gone for it, punishment or no, no matter how much the possibilities of what kind of sex tricks a master telekinetic could do intrigued Yoji. Crawford was so selfish. Not that Yoji could see having an orgy with Nagi that involved Crawford going well. Maybe one-on-one with Nagi would work, or Yoji and Schuldig with Nagi.... Moving on! “I just needed to know if we’d be disturbing someone living here who isn’t participating.”

“Nagi fled as soon as we arrived,” Schuldig said as he opened one of the bedroom doors. His copper hair looked sexily disheveled, and he wore a long green silk robe while sporting a prominent bulge that let Yoji know he was already completely set to party. Freshly fucked and ready for more always looked good on him. “So we can get as loud and uninhibited as we like. Get in here.”

“You two started without us,” Yoji said. 

“I never said we’d chastely wait for you. We have _needs_. Crawford had to put his clothes back on to go get you, so you better make it worth it. Glad you could make it, Sasha.”

“I’m not sure yet whether I’m glad to be here,” Sasha answered with a small smile.

“We’ll settle that soon.” Schuldig grabbed Sasha’s wrist and pulled him into the bedroom, so Yoji followed, with an annoyed Crawford right behind him. 

Well, fortunately not _right_ behind him. Yoji would need some foreplay and preparation for something like that. 

The bedroom also looked generic, although the rumpled sheets and scent of sex added some character. He knew that Schuldig had a sex toy collection in here somewhere....

Seeing Schuldig from the back, Yoji noticed a really large bulge where he didn’t expect one. While Schuldig had a nice ass, it sure as hell wasn’t _that_ big, so what did he have going on under the robe? This should be interesting.

While looking back over his shoulder at them in a “come hither” fashion, Schuldig undid the belt on his robe and let it all fall to the floor, showing a fucking _fox tail_ on his ass... attached to a butt plug maybe? Some of the sleek, shiny fur even matched his hair color. What had Yoji gotten himself and Sasha into? Sasha had a “...what?” look on his face. 

When Schuldig wiggled his ass and made the tail sway enticingly, Yoji started to _get_ it and appreciate the kinkiness. It lent Schuldig a greater air of sensuality and, heh, animal magnetism. If Yoji tugged on it, would it rub against Schuldig’s sweet spot? It probably would, and Yoji wanted to hear the sounds he’d make. (What did Schuldig have to do to keep it _in_?) He really wanted to touch the tail, but hell, he wanted to stroke _everything_ on display.

“How soft does it feel?” Yoji had to ask, because it sure looked soft. Schuldig had picked the right animal for himself too.

“Only one way to find out for sure,” Schuldig answered, knowing full well what Yoji wanted. “Get over here.”

Yoji came over, close enough to feel the heat coming off Schuldig’s bare skin, and let his fingers brush lightly against the tail, teasing himself, knowing it wouldn’t be enough, fighting the temptation to touch Schuldig’s ass while he had it so close. The thick, electric sexual tension made his cock harden further. 

Schuldig snorted and said, “Tease. _Really_ touch that tail. I give you permission.”

Yoji smiled. “So you’re asking for it.”

“Hell yes. Go for it.”

Yoji let his fingers sink into the soft, _soft_, sleek fur, which felt so luxurious to him. He lightly tugged on the tail and grinned at Schuldig’s gasp. “You _asked_ for it.” He kept a loose grip on the tail, giving it enough presence that Schuldig knew he had it there and might use it again.

“That tail isn’t coming out yet.”

“What, do you have all this planned out?” 

“Some of it. Would you like to spank me for a start? I was thinking you could drape me over your lap and go to town.”

Schuldig, willing and nude aside from his fox tail, in a long sprawl across his legs, _wanting_ Yoji’s disciplining hands on him. “Fuck yes.” 

Yoji so wanted that, especially to do it in front of Crawford, who never got permission for it, which had to _burn_. He looked to Crawford, whose stone face had taken on a more annoyed cast. Poor guy couldn’t entirely hide it.

“Then you should take off your clothes and get more comfortable.” 

“But not Sasha and Crawford?”

“Crawford will be undressing Sasha as he watches me getting spanked.”

Whoa. “Are you really going to put up with that, Crawford?” 

“I might if you don’t call a lot of attention to it,” Crawford replied. 

Schuldig pouted then said, “So don’t ruin it for the rest of us, Yoji. If you taunt Brad about _any_ of this--what I have him doing, what I’m letting you do--playtime stops and you don’t get any dessert. I need to keep the balance here.”

Could he really spank Schuldig without trashtalking at Crawford or gloating at all? Apparently, he’d have to. At least for now. Yoji recognized the gameplaying and would gradually see how far he could improvise and bend the rules, because it took a lot of the spontaneity out of it and _nobody_ plotted out Yoji’s playtime without his input. Meanwhile, Sasha’s evil grin nearly devoured his face, probably because he’d see Crawford embarrassed no matter what happened. 

“Can you handle it, Yoji?” Schuldig asked. 

Yoji gave the tail another gentle tug then let go and started stripping by taking off his coat, knowing it would be for taken for a “yes.” When Schuldig turned to face him, Yoji saw that Schuldig had a black leather cockring on, restraining his hard cock. Like the butt plug, the cockring made a promise to him and _damn_, but he wanted to get his hands on all of that. Yoji started to strip a bit faster, though he still made a little show of it as a reward for his partners, and felt glad that he’d already removed his footwear coming into the apartment. Crawford pretended not to be interested but Yoji knew better.

Finally nude, Yoji sat on the bed and patted his knee in invitation. It took Schuldig some effort to comfortably arrange his long body across Yoji’s legs, but that revved Yoji higher. Schuldig’s skin had taken on some lovely color in Jamaica, and since Yoji didn’t notice obvious tan lines he figured Schuldig must have been sunbathing nude, which he appreciated. Stroking little circles on Schuldig’s cheeks made Schuldig squirm nicely. 

“How much and what kind of spanking are we talking here?” Yoji asked. 

“A light, fun spanking. I’ll let you know when I’ve had enough.”

Yoji gave his ass light smacks, enjoying the sounds he made, his writhing, and how the skin turned pink and warm. Sometimes he kneaded the skin a bit or petted the tail. Yoji shivered as Schuldig started to radiate out, sharing some of his lust and sensations, which made Yoji get even harder and more aroused. Knowing that he had an audience, he made it all look as pretty as possible while not saying a word, hard as that might have been. 

Crawford watched quietly but with a lustful heat in his eyes as he absentmindedly and somewhat clumsily undressed Sasha while Sasha rolled his eyes, though Yoji could tell that Sasha wasn’t as above it all as he pretended. But Crawford stopped a moment to look at Sasha’s bare left shoulder, making Sasha ask, “What?”

“...I know you’re clones, but somehow I didn’t expect to see the same birthmark here,” Crawford replied.

Feeling that Schuldig could use a break, a feeling Schuldig obviously didn’t share from how he protested, Yoji stopped spanking, looked at Schuldig’s left shoulder, and saw a small dark brown spot. “Hunh,” Yoji said

“I’ve had it my whole life, and I’m sure Sasha can say the same,” Schuldig answered, squirming, breathless. “Less sightseeing, more spanking.”

Yoji lightly trailed his fingertips along the smack-warmed skin and smiled at Schuldig’s gasps and shudders. “Are you sure you can take any more of this?” Not that Yoji really wanted to stop, not when he had Schuldig powerless and desperate like this. 

Then again, he also really wanted to come but didn’t want to do it yet, not from this.

“I can take it until Brad finishes undressing Sasha. Besides, I already came a few times today.”

“Thanks for reminding me that I haven’t.” Yoji did a very enthusiastic cheek smack for that one and grinned at the sound Schuldig made. “You’re still wearing that cockring, right?”

“Sasha is done, so you can stop now,” Crawford said, just about vibrating, as Sasha stepped out of the pants now pooled around his ankles. Very obviously hard and erect, Sasha couldn’t maintain his cool as easily anymore.

“Excellent,” Schuldig answered as he pushed Yoji’s hands away and stood up.

Suddenly Yoji found himself kneeling and sitting back on his heels on the bed, his wrists and ankles bound together behind him and a cockring on. When he tried to wiggle forward he hit the end of his slack and realized that they’d tethered him to the bed’s headboard too. Looking back, he saw a chain. What the fuck had just happened? As Schuldig crouched in front of him while grinning wildly, a smiling Crawford held Sasha back. They both looked _really_ pleased with themselves.

“Sasha, what just happened?” Yoji asked as he squirmed and struggled. It felt like he might have padded cuffs around his wrists....

Schuldig answered, “My telepathy blanked you and Sasha out for the time I needed to use my speed to get you in position and trussed up like this. You recently refused to let me have the playtime I planned, then when I helped you net those two honeys you ungratefully wouldn’t let me enjoy them with you. I’ve killed people for less, but you’re just going to get some punishment for a while. Plus, keeping you bound up like this in front of Brad makes him more amenable to things he’d usually consider beneath him, so it’s a win for me all the way around. You do remember me talking about balance earlier?”

Oh, fuck. “Sasha! Free me!”

“He’s not in any danger, Sasha, and I’ll let him go when I think he’s spent enough time looking but not touching. A little sexual frustration won’t hurt him. Besides, he did say some really dickish things to you downstairs,” Schuldig purred. 

“That’s true, but I don’t appreciate being blacked out,” Sasha replied with some heat. “You must have done it because you knew I wouldn’t let you go ahead with this.” 

“Yeah, it’s always easier asking for forgiveness afterward than permission before, but think of the possibilities. Also, giving this to Brad makes him more amenable to doing some things I want him to do for you. The two of us discussed it.”

Instead of immediately coming to Yoji’s rescue, Sasha appeared to be thinking it over. Shit!

Sasha nodded then said, “I won’t let them hurt you, Yoji, and I want to see what Schuldig could get Crawford to do. You’ll be fine.”

“Sasha, this fucking hurts!” He wanted to come so badly, not watch other people get it on!

“You’ve survived blue balls before.”

“At the very least take the cockring off!”

“Nope,” Schuldig said. “Without the cockring there’s no point. Don’t think of calling out to any of your telepaths for help either, because I blocked you off from contact.”

He hadn’t even thought of that and wished to hell Schuldig hadn’t either.

“Sorry, Yoji,” Sasha replied. “It’s staying on.” Crawford let him go, and Sasha didn’t rush over to set Yoji loose or anything even if he didn’t have a Schuldiggy look on his face. Damn it.

“I could’ve done worse,” Schuldig said. “I could have blindfolded you too. Or inserted a vibrating butt plug. Or both. Instead you’ll just have to live with watching three hot guys get it on. Some people would pay for this. I’ll let you loose when _we’re_ ready.”

Crawford directed Sasha to stand on the floor within easy view of Yoji then continued to strip, while Sasha watched with one eyebrow raised. Once he achieved nakedness--well, aside from his glasses--Crawford went down on his knees in front of Sasha, put his hands on Sasha’s hips, and licked a broad, swirling stripe around Sasha’s cock before taking it completely in his mouth to start sucking, head bobbing, really working it. Aw, _damn_, no wonder Sasha moaned out loud. With _Crawford_ on his knees, servicing him, so hot to watch so what must it _feel_ like, Yoji nearly forgave Sasha betraying him to get this. 

Then Schuldig knelt behind Crawford, applied lubricant to his fingers, and slid one finger into him while murmuring, “Remember, don’t use any teeth no matter how this feels.” Yoji watched, breathless, as Schuldig went to two fingers then three then four, fucking him with them, as he started to stroke and jerk Crawford off. A total trooper, Crawford didn’t pause in his cocksucking at all, just gripped Sasha’s hips a bit tighter and occasionally moaned around his mouthful. 

Sasha had been watching Crawford with a smirk before this but closed his eyes and gasped with obvious pleasure now. Despite his earlier stated urge to humiliate Crawford, he didn’t pull on his hair or forcefully fuck his mouth the way he could have. Gentlemanly, Sasha kept his hands on Crawford’s shoulders, tightening and releasing in reaction. 

During the fingerfucking and handjob, Schuldig’s hips rocked in time with Crawford’s, making his fox tail sway. Eyes half-closed, he leaned into Crawford’s back and murmured, “Fuck, you’re hot. When you’re done, I’m going to fuck you and make you feel _so_ good.” Although they spent so much time bitching at each other, despite most of this being Crawford’s _punishment_, seeing and hearing this made Yoji see the depth of Schuldig’s feelings for Crawford. As crazy as it might seem, Schuldig appeared to actually love Crawford. 

Schuldig telepathically made Yoji feel _everything_: all their sensations and pleasure and lust, all rising, being sucked and fingerfucked and stroked and jerked and clutched tightly, the way the plug in Schuldig’s ass kept rubbing against his sweet spot, Sasha’s bliss and smugness and surprise, Schuldig’s delight in all of his plans paying off, Crawford’s embarrassment and his chagrin that it was helping him get off even more, all of them wanting so badly to come....

Feeling and watching all of this, Yoji ached and throbbed with the desperate need to come himself. He’d explode! When Sasha spread his legs more, Yoji knew exactly how he could fit into this scene, how he could come up behind Sasha and-- 

“Set me loose already!” Yoji said. 

“Ohhh, no.” Schuldig’s voice came out deep, throaty, and breathless, pure sex. “You haven’t been punished enough yet. Blue balls won’t kill you, kitty.”

Damn it! “Motherfucker!”

“I haven’t even met your mom! And it’s not too late to put a gag on you too, sweetness.”


	287. "I’m sure you don’t want to see what Sodom and Gomorrah they’re up to in there anyway."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a particularly rough section to write, mostly because of Aya, who ruins everything for everyone for ever, all the time, always. It’s like he’s one of the Endless: he’s the eternal embodiment of literal and metaphorical cockblocking. *g*

Lust poured into Aya from whatever Schuldig and Crawford had going on next door, even through the shielding Schuldig had put up to prevent Aya from getting details. (Given Schuldig’s lack of shame and love of oversharing, what could they possibly be up to that Schuldig thought he needed to hide it? Aya would probably be better off if his ignorance continued.) 

“Pointing that thing at me is just intimidation,” Aya said over his shoulder to Farfarello.

Farfarello asked, “‘That thing’?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“As if my cock were a weapon? I wouldn’t use it on you that way. Besides, you can’t even see it right now with your back turned to me.”

Aya was lying on the other end of the bed facing away from Farfarello so he wouldn’t have to look at Farfarello’s full arousal and Farfarello wouldn’t get to see Aya’s half-hard version. “I can sense it.”

“My cock has presence? You flatter me.”

It still bothered Aya at times that his teammates’ lust could infect him. (It would still bother him _all_ the time if he hadn’t become somewhat resigned to it.) When he’d asked Farfarello if it bothered him that Aya’s lust for him wasn’t always _Aya’s_, he’d answered that he knew his kitten loved him but didn’t have as strong a sex drive as he did so any extra time he could get would be just fine. No help there.

But Farfarello had spent most of his life at the mercy of emotions and compulsions randomly crashing into him, getting him used to it. Aya never wanted to get so accustomed to it that he completely accepted his loss of free will. He’d fight it.

His body, aching and throbbing with lust, didn’t make it any easier, but he had experience in fighting his body’s wants and weaknesses too. At least the extra energy Farfarello had given him had settled down or been converted to match his own, making him feel less jittery.

“...Aya, I won’t make you do what you don’t want to do. I know I can be difficult, demanding, selfish, controlling, and unstable. I know that you took a big risk last night by going to bed with me after the way I acted. I appreciate your refusal to give up on me. I do notice such things, and I’ll try to do better.”

Needing to see Farfarello’s face to better judge his sincerity, Aya turned to face him and saw him looking solemn and completely serious. Unable to find the words to answer that but wanting to show that he was listening and participating, Aya replied, “Hnh.”

“You won’t deny any of the qualities I attributed to myself?” 

“Not when they’re accurate.”

“Ouch.” 

“You’re not just saying these things to manipulate me?”

“The words are pretty but also the truth. I treasure your willingness to be with me and will strive to be worthy of it.” Farfarello reached out to lightly stroke down the side of Aya’s face to his neck and then to flick the bell on his collar to make it chime, all of which made Aya’s foolish heart beat a bit faster. “Let me show it and give you pleasure. The emotions involved would be ours alone.”

Aya _wanted_, so much, but refused to be ruled by his body, especially when his body took notes from _other_ people’s desires. “We’ve just had a lot of sex.”

“But neither of us is fully satisfied, so we obviously haven’t had enough.” Farfarello’s fingers ran down Aya’s chest before stroking a hot line along the length of Aya’s rising cock. “We have nowhere to go and nothing else we have to do. Why deny ourselves?”

Thinking became more difficult, and Aya’s reasons disappeared. Pride remained, but for how long?

Aya twitched as he felt a sudden blast of Yoji’s hot and aching frustration and outrage, blowing a hole through the shielding Schuldig had done, giving Aya better reception of the goings on next door. Crawford and Schuldig had Yoji tied up? And Schuldig mocked him as they refused to listen to his pleas.

“Where are you going?” Farfarello asked. 

Aya hadn’t even realized he’d gotten up. “They have Yoji in restraints next door. I’m going to free him.” The interruption would tick Farfarello off, but they could still have more sex later.

“So he’s tied up,” Farfarello said, sounding very unimpressed. “Are they doing anything else to him?”

Aya couldn’t make out much through the haze of lust and pleasure, with Crawford adding some embarrassment into the emotional mix. Somehow Schuldig seemed almost doubled... no, that was _Sasha_ there too? What the hell? “...they’re having a lot of sex in front of him.”

“Ah, _torture_. Please. I’m sure he came here of his own free will. Again. He doesn’t learn! Let him face the consequences for his actions for once. They won’t kill him; I can’t be that lucky. At the worst they’ll tease the hell out of him. There’s no need for you to get involved. I’m sure you don’t want to see what Sodom and Gomorrah they’re up to in there anyway.”

Schuldig’s shielding still worked enough that Aya couldn’t get more detail and he didn’t want to know either but... “One last time, then. I’ll rescue him one last time. He’s really hurting.”

“Hurting or just aching with lust? He’s just sexually frustrated. Given how perpetually horny he is, he’s used to it. He’ll live.”

“Farfarello....”

“Hmph. Maybe he’s not the only one who needs to face the consequences. I should have remembered that your refusal to give up has disadvantages as well. Go. If you don’t return by a certain time I’ll go in after you. Your cockblocking skills may be mighty, but the temptation you present might be too strong for the mindbreaker to resist.”

“Are you really trying to warn me off by saying Schuldig might rape me if I go over there?”

“No, because he’ll have you believe that it’s not rape because you want it. But I don’t expect that to work on you. I’m telling you I won’t stop you from going, and I’m letting you know I’ll eventually arrive as backup if you need it.”

Aya wouldn’t mention the odd pulling sensation he felt that drew him to Yoji and Schuldig while they were together, something that never happened while they were separated. He could only guess that it came from those two having exerted the most effort at getting him out of his coma aside from Farfarello, who had been an irritant to Aya’s psychic self for a while and thus didn’t belong to exactly the same category. 

What had his life come to that he could make statements like that?

Although he considered telling Farfarello all of this, he ultimately rejected the idea given that he had no certainties about it and it would only further worry Farfarello over what might be nothing when Farfarello already had too much on his (somewhat cracked) mind. 

Having expected more of a fight over this, Aya felt some relief. “I appreciate it. If they’re detaining me, I’ll be looking forward to your arrival.” 

“Take off your collar before you leave.”

“Of course.” Aya removed it and left it on the night table then pulled a sweater and a pair of jeans out of the closet. 

“Not that sweater. The large neck hole shows too much of your shoulders and collarbones.”

Because Farfarello had a point, Aya swallowed down his annoyance and chose a different sweater before walking into the bathroom to wash up and change. Going next door looking debauched wouldn’t help him. 

“Let me help you,” Farfarello suddenly said from behind Aya, his breath hot in Aya’s ear, before licking his fingers, pressing himself up against Aya’s back, and wrapping his hand around Aya’s hard cock, making Aya gasp. 

As Farfarello stroked and jerked Aya off, he rubbed himself against Aya, thrusting rhythmically, and kissed and nibbled at Aya’s neck and ear. It all felt so good that Aya pressed back into him and his loose embrace, surrendering. It didn’t take long before Aya came with a final thrust into Farfarello’s fist, relief at last, and felt Farfarello achieve his own orgasm in a hot rush. 

As they breathed hard together, still entwined, Farfarello purred, “I couldn’t let you go in there in that state; it would be like putting blood in the water near a shark. Also, now you can fit into your jeans easily.”

“So you did this for practicality’s sake?” Annoyingly, he felt so much mellower now.

“Also because I wanted you.” 

“I have to wash up even more now.”

“I could help.”

“I’d never leave, so no thanks.”

“I tried.” Farfarello kissed his cheek and let go of him, giving a jaunty wave before he left the bathroom. 

Feeling that he really needed to stop screwing around so he could alleviate Yoji’s misery faster, Aya washed up, dressed, neatened his hair, and left quickly. When he opened and closed the door to the other apartment he didn’t make any effort to be quiet, but it seemed that no one noticed or cared, given that no one greeted him and the lewd sounds coming from the bedroom continued without a break. Did he really want to see what was going on to make all those noises? 

“Get me out of this!” Yoji yelled.

No more dawdling. Better to get this over with. Aya walked to the open doorway and looked in.

He hadn’t expected _this_. Crawford was on his knees, wearing nothing but his glasses, apparently but unexpectedly sucking Sasha’s cock, while Schuldig jerked him off and fingerfucked him. For some reason Schuldig had a fox tail, and his ass showed enough distinct handprints amidst its flush to let Aya know that he’d been spanked previously. A naked Yoji knelt on the bed with his hands bound behind him and a cockring on, positioned for maximum sexiness, erect and looking very frustrated as he watched the goings on but obviously not in actual peril. (It disturbed Aya how much seeing Yoji bound, helpless, and on nude display aroused him. Yoji looked too good that way.) While Yoji deserved to be disciplined at times, it shouldn’t be like this. 

Sasha probably wouldn’t have consented to Schwarz kidnapping Yoji, so the two of them must have come here on their own. Damn it, Yoji.

Farfarello had been, of course, correct, and he’d no doubt be insufferable about it. 

Aya sternly told himself that nothing he saw and heard here turned him on.

“Aya!” Yoji said with obvious relief and happiness, which made the others look to the doorway and notice him too. Crawford came, Sasha came, Crawford coughed and dribbled a bit from his sudden mouthful, and Schuldig just about lit up with joy as he said, “Since we just had Christmas, this must be my birthday. Which is possible, since I have several.”

Seeing that this could go horribly wrong very quickly, Aya said, “I only turned up here to untie Yoji, but now I’m not so sure I should bother.” 

Yoji directed huge, doleful puppy eyes at Aya. “What? C’mon, set me free, Aya!”

“You came here on your own free will again, didn’t you, Yoji? Even after all the times and reasons I told you to stay away. You had to have, since Sasha is with you. Schuldig couldn’t puppeteer you both and wouldn’t want to bother carrying the two of you. No way _Crawford_ would carry you here when he doesn’t want either of you around. I’m not always going to rescue you after you walk yourself into a trap.”

“I thought you cared about me!”

Yoji made him feel so _tired_ sometimes. “It’s the fact that I care about you that makes me so upset that you keep doing this to yourself!” Aya wanted to protect Yoji but Yoji had to _help_, damn it.

Wonder of wonders, that seemed to make an impression, given the expression now on Yoji’s face. “...oh.”

“Thank you,” Aya replied, pleased to see Yoji getting it.

“Does that mean we get to keep on doing what we’re doing with him?” Schuldig asked with a grin. 

When you put it like that.... 

Aya’s head hurt. 

Schuldig removed his fingers from Crawford, wiped them clean, and approached Aya, fox tail swaying. “I’m happy he managed to call you here. Possibly happy enough to unshackle him.”

“Possibly?” Aya asked. 

“It depends on you.”

“I just told you that I’m not sure I intend to unshackle him myself, and you take that to mean that you could use him as a hostage to make me do something I wouldn’t do otherwise?” Aya glanced at Crawford and Sasha, but they remained uninvolved. Crawford, who’d wiped his mouth, especially looked like he wanted everyone to forget he stood there or had taken part in anything, not that Aya could blame him since Aya’d never forget what he’d already seen of him or how it had blown his mind. He might never look at Crawford quite the same way again.

“That’s some paranoia.”

“I know who I’m dealing with.” Besides, he could feel Schuldig’s lust and... warmth for him.

“Schuldig, don’t mess with Aya over this!” Yoji yelled. “Aya, you don’t have to do anything for my sake.”

Schuldig put his hands up in an “I’m unarmed and harmless” gesture then backed up toward Yoji and undid his shackles, thoroughly confusing Aya. Yoji looked at least as confused as he stretched his stiff limbs. Schuldig put his arm around Yoji’s shoulders, leaned in close to him, and set his hand near the cockring in a way that suggested he might release it soon. What was he up to?

“There’s nothing for either of you to feel threatened over,” Schuldig said. “I want us all to have a good time together.”

Aya didn’t have to ask what he meant by that. Did Schuldig know about the pull Aya felt toward them together and start this to take advantage of it? They both stood there attractive, naked, aroused, unsatisfied... and wanting him. Unfortunately, he desired them too, especially Yoji. But it was wrong, and it didn’t matter that it being wrong made the temptation all the greater because Aya should not fall prey to it.

“I don’t--” Aya started.

“You don’t have to do anything with Crawford if you don’t want to. He enjoys just watching too,” Schuldig said. 

Aya glanced over at Crawford, who had a very neutral, unreadable expression on his face. By contrast, Sasha had his eyebrows raised and probably wished he had a bag of popcorn handy as he watched the entertainment. The notion of Crawford observing everything as a voyeur should have disturbed Aya and given him another reason to say no, so why didn’t it?

Shaking his head, Aya said, “Farfarello will be coming to get me if I don’t return on my own by a certain time,” trying to use that thought as a shield.

“I have absolutely no problems with including him,” Schuldig answered. “In fact, I’m intrigued as hell by the idea of using ki to further energize sex. Yoji, you would really enjoy experiencing it for yourself. It feels _amazing_ and can keep you going longer.” Schuldig nearly nuzzled Yoji as he talked to him, making Yoji shudder a little. “With how Farf has been lately, he might be up for an orgy. I could definitely make it worth his while.”

Although Aya had known Schuldig usually eavesdropped on his sex, hearing about it like this embarrassed the hell out of him, especially given how wanton and desperate he’d been at the time. “The ki use has drawbacks,” Aya said in an attempt to discourage them. His team members--and to a lesser extent Yoji--were already too involved in his sexlife with Farfarello.

Undeterred, Schuldig answered, “Farf just doesn’t have much experience using it yet. With more practice, he’ll improve. Don’t worry about it, Aya,” which he said as if he wanted to comfort Aya about the state of Aya’s future sexlife with Farfarello. He no doubt _actually_ meant that he wanted Farfarello to show up now for an orgy that would provide more experience and practice in sexual ki use.

Aya knew he should leave, since the longer he stayed here, the more time he gave Schuldig to mess with his head and convince him of things. Also, he no longer knew whether Farfarello, who was currently even more unpredictable than usual, would take him home after he arrived or opt to join in the group sex.

~ Farfie is almost always so forceful and straightforward with you, Aya, while I’d like to show you a gentler, subtler, more tender style of loving, ~ Schuldig told him telepathically.

Not really wanting to think about what Schuldig had just said, Aya telepathically answered, ~ You’re wearing a buttplug connected to a fox tail, thus your argument is invalid. ~

Schuldig grinned and resumed talking aloud. “Give it a chance. Besides, if you stay, you can make sure we treat Yoji well. You’ve seen for yourself how tempting he looks tied up and helpless, and I’ve never had a strong moral fiber, so....”

How the hell could he answer that? 

******************************************************

Aya had heard him calling out and come for him. Okay, Aya hadn’t _come_ for him... yet... but Yoji still couldn’t help feeling very pleased. Aya had yelled at him a bit, but only out of concern. That ogling look Aya had cast his way upon first seeing him on display had done happy things for Yoji’s ego too, and he could tell that Aya still wanted him. 

(Yoji had to ogle back, because damn, Aya looked good in blue and the form-fitting sweater and jeans showed him off well. How could hooking up with _Farfarello_ have improved his fashion sense? But it might be that just having a lover, _any_ lover, would have made Aya start dressing more attractively. Maybe _he_ could’ve gotten Aya to do this ages ago if he’d made his move back then, and done the whole world a favor.)

Unfortunately, Yoji had pulled Aya into a precarious situation. While Aya’s arrival had led to Schuldig mostly unbinding him, Schuldig obviously now aimed at getting Aya to have sex with them. As much as Yoji would love to have sex with Aya, he didn’t know if doing it under these circumstances would be good for _Aya_. Aya wasn’t the exhibitionist Yoji was and could very well regret not just having sex with other people but also being _observed_ having sex with other people, one of them being his team leader. Yoji could also say from experience that sex with Schuldig once tended to lead to it happening a lot more in the future, whether you intended it to or not. 

Yoji wanted Aya in more intimate circumstances. He wanted to _make love_. One on one would be best, but he’d take a threesome with Farfarello as long as he didn’t get stabbed over it, especially if the threesome made Aya more likely to tackle Yoji alone in the future. 

Besides, Yoji and Aya in the same room, thinking about each other, made the possibility of Schuldig finding out about Yoji’s offer yesterday to rejoin Weiß much more likely. Getting distracted while having sex together would make it even more likely to slip. Yoji had Sasha’s protection, at least while Sasha wasn’t completely distracted, but could Aya’s shielding hold under those circumstances? Since Schuldig didn’t appear to already know about it, Aya must have been doing well so far. 

But Schuldig’s talk of Farfarello’s ki-sharing ability and the effects it could have intrigued the hell out of Yoji. Hedonist that he was, he wanted to try it for himself. Did it really give _that_ much pleasure and extend lovemaking?

If it did, it might make it that much harder to get Aya to leave Farfarello.

Then again, this _was_ Aya, who could be contrary on matters Yoji would usually assume any man would agree on. 

Schuldig lightly poked Yoji in the back and subtly motioned with his head toward Aya, obviously wanting Yoji’s help in talking Aya into it. Yeah? Well, Yoji wanted the cockring off but didn’t seem to be getting anywhere on _that_.

Schuldig said telepathically, ~ If I take it off you’d probably explode, while I’m assuming you only want to come under the right circumstances. Speaking of which.... ~

Yoji had a moment of terror that Schuldig had read everything out of his mind, but surely Schuldig would have given some kind of reaction to finding it out. So Yoji should be safe. 

Unless Schuldig _had_ read it and decided to save the punishment for later.

Schuldig could also have read _that_.

Hell. Thinking too hard about living in a world with telepaths would make him crazy. Yoji either was screwed or he wasn’t, and he wouldn’t find out which unless Schuldig brought the hammer down on him. He might as well enjoy himself for as long as he could, and he might still get away scot free.

Seeing Schuldig giving him an “Are you braindead?” look, Yoji realized that he should be deciding whether to seduce Aya or not. If he kept daydreaming, Schuldig might get curious and start digging.

So...

Aya looked very tempted but also harassed, confused, and somewhat unwilling. Could Yoji convince him into full temptation? Should he try? 

Yoji found Aya’s reluctance strangely sexy....

Sasha suddenly said, “With the way things are going, it looks like Farfarello will be coming in, so I should get going. I helped throw him out of Kitten in the House just last night, something I’m sure he’ll remember. You don’t want to antagonize him. Besides, all of you guys have a ton of old history that I’m not a part of.”

“What? No,” Schuldig answered. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to leave. You just got here! You barely got to enjoy yourself.”

Sasha grinned as he picked up his clothes and started to quickly, efficiently dress. “I got a blowjob from Crawford and came in his mouth, all of which will give me feelings of evil glee for a long time to come. It’s a kind of ‘I can cross this off my bucket list’ thing.” He grinned harder, pointedly, in Crawford’s direction. Crawford obviously didn’t appreciate it.

Yoji had his own grievance. How would he keep hiding his secret without his telepathic backup? In a world containing telepaths, a guy needed a telepath of his own to watch his back.

~ I don’t have to be in the room with you to shield you, ~ Sasha said telepathically. ~ In fact, I may do a better job if I’m not having sex or orgasming. I can’t really boost Aya’s ability to hide it though, not without risking discovery from Schuldig, so _he_ could still ruin you. Don’t bitch at me for derailing things by leaving either, because you can _use_ more time to figure out what to do with Aya. But if I say much more at this speed and tight focus, Schuldig may notice, so I’m off. ~

“Besides,” Sasha said to Schuldig, “it’s not like I’ll never have another opportunity to have sex with _you_.” Which would also piss Crawford off, which had to make it even sweeter.

Schuldig grinned back. “True. Returning to the kittens?”

“Hell, no. They’ll want to interrogate me about where Yoji is and what he’s doing, while that’s something I think _Yoji_ should handle.”

“Thanks a lot,” Yoji said.

“I’m not falling on the grenade for you over this. You can’t blame me for that.” 

With how pissed off Yoji had left Ken and with how pissed off Elena would get once Ken filled her in? No, he couldn’t blame Sasha from wanting to avoid getting blasted by them over something someone else had done. “I guess not, but you could’ve been a pal....”

“And take the heat? Nope. Later, you’ll have to let me know what Crawford did to deserve all this because I’m dying to find out. Though not dying enough to wait until Farfarello gets here and tries to kill me.”

“Schuldig?” Yoji asked.

“I’ll get to it, but not when it’ll bring things to a crashing halt,” Schuldig answered. “Like now, for example, when Sasha’s already throwing a monkey wrench into the momentum.”

“I’ll take that as my cue to go,” Sasha said as he left. “Ciao!” 

“What _is_ going on?” Aya murmured. 

“I’ll try to make sure we all find out,” Yoji murmured back to him.

“Yoji?” Schuldig asked expectantly.

Shit. Although Sasha had given Yoji more time to make a decision on what to do, Yoji had been so involved in following the conversation that he hadn’t given it more thought. It was too hard to think while he had a cockring on!

~ Because of the constriction on the one brain you _use_? ~ Schuldig asked.

“Fuck you,” Yoji answered, totally annoyed.

“Maybe if you’re good,” Schuldig replied. 

Yoji heard the apartment’s front door open. As Farfarello entered the bedroom, he asked, “What the _hell_ is going on over here?” 

_That_ took the matter out of Yoji’s hands.


	288. "You're my husband, so I damned well should be there."

Farfarello eavesdropped on what events he could pick up through the telepathic link now that he had Aya in there to give him the full feed. He well understood Aya’s worry over the mindbreaker’s shielding. The mindbreaker had no shame, so what could he have been doing that was so terrible even he wanted to hide it? Alas, the answer involved the slutkitten, as too many things lately did. 

Farfarello sighed as Aya’s entrance stopped the sex but refocused most of the lust and entreaties for more sex onto him. The mindbreaker might claim that Aya had what he called piggyback telepathy as his only psychic talent, but Farfarello couldn’t help wondering if Aya also had the unconscious power to make everyone desire him. Only a very cruel God would give such an ability to someone who wanted no part of it and cockblocked everyone as a result. By contrast, the mindbreaker would love having the power to make everyone want him. 

...never mind. The mindbreaker having it would be cruel to the _world_. 

(While Balinese had the extra psychic talent of making everyone around him stupider, or at least infecting them with his own bad judgment.)

As matters progressed further, Farfarello got dressed. He should have known from the start that the clusterfuck would require his presence to reach a resolution. The small crowd next door wanted his puisín, while his puisín apparently couldn’t stop himself from wanting the slutkitten, to the point that even his often ridiculous sense of monogamy and powerful talent for cockblocking couldn’t save him. 

Having finally figured out that his kitten’s insistence on monogamy came from insecurity and a nostalgia for the mores of his dead beloved family, Farfarello had begun to think of ways to get around it but didn’t intend for anyone else to benefit from it without his involvement. The mindbreaker apparently hoped that Farfarello would himself join and get Aya to join in his orgy, but Farfarello didn’t know for sure yet which way he’d decide. He’d feel things out once he arrived.

Once he arrived, things looked pretty much the way Farfarello should have expected them to, with everyone but Aya naked and imploring his puisín to join them in it. Feeling all the lust in the room, he could tell that Aya _wanted_ them, at least as much as or even more than Aya _didn’t_ want them. 

Although he felt he had a good read of the situation, Farfarello asked, “What the _hell_ is going on over here?” to announce his arrival with a bang.

When Aya saw Farfarello, he seemed simultaneously happy for it and dreading it, which let him know that the mindbreaker had thoroughly talked him into so many circles that he didn’t know what to think anymore. Aya still looked too appealing in all that blue, but Aya didn’t have ugly clothing in his wardrobe anymore. Maybe he should get some. 

Farfarello knew that Aya’s main temptation came from the slutkitten, though the mindbreaker could also entice him. Although he didn’t know what part Crawford would play in the scene, as doer or watcher, Crawford shouldn’t be overlooked as a noncombatant. Farfarello wondered what he would be like as a lover, an unusual, possibly unprecedented thought for him. 

...the mindbreaker had a _tail_. It swished as he moved. Did everyone else see this? Ah, the slutkitten shivered as the fur brushed over his bare leg. Real.

He enjoyed seeing the slutkitten do that, and it made him want to do things to him to get more reactions like it, which let him know what he’d be trying to get his kitten to do now. “Aya, come to the kitchen with me,” he said. Although it might be easier to get Aya to agree if he stayed in proximity to his lust object, the mindbreaker and the slutkitten would keep interrupting anything he and Aya said to each other because they couldn’t help themselves. As persuasive as the mindbreaker could be, he sometimes ruined it for himself through his inability to keep his mouth shut on _anything_.

“So we’re not just leaving,” Aya said, understanding Farfarello’s drift and looking ambivalent about it.

“Exactly. We have to talk.” 

His kitten shook his head yet still went to the kitchen with Farfarello as he had been bid to, so obedient. He’d see how long that obedience lasted. Knowing Aya, not long. 

******************************************************

“You may be overreaching yourself trying to get Aya involved, Schuldig,” Crawford had to say. “It’s certainly stopped the momentum on your orgy.” He didn’t know for sure whether he felt happy or sad about that, no matter how his cock might feel. 

“Sometimes you have to take a risk,” Schuldig replied, grinning. “Can you foresee which way he’ll jump?”

“No, he’s still too unsettled at the moment. I don’t have any idea how long it will take him to come to a decision either, though, given his history, the odds aren’t good. Not that I’m getting a taste of him either way.”

“He’s not ready to get down with you yet. Letting you watch is getting your foot in the door for the future, wearing him down. That kind of thing works for me a lot. As a precog, you should understand that.”

“I do.” At one time it had seemed that Schuldig, needing instant gratification, couldn’t plan too far ahead, so it pleased Crawford to see him maturing in this way, even if he so far mostly used it to get sex.

“You’re plotting against Aya right in front of me!” Balinese said. “I won’t go along with that.”

“It’s not as if you don’t plot to get Aya into your bed,” Schuldig answered. “You’re just cranky. I can fix that.” 

In a flash, Schuldig unfastened the ring around Balinese’s cock, which made him come _hard_. To Crawford’s pleased surprise, Schuldig immediately had a wad of tissues in place so the explosion of semen could be easily disposed of and wouldn’t mess up their bedroom. Hell, the whole situation made Crawford smirk.

Bent over, Balinese yelled, “Fuck you! I didn’t even get to enjoy that!” He didn’t look as pretty as usual like this. 

Patting Balinese’s head--fortunately for Balinese, not with the hand holding the sticky tissues--Schuldig answered, “Don’t worry. No matter which way Red jumps you can get more sex and come again.”

After throwing the tissues away, Schuldig carefully perched on the edge of the bed next to Crawford, unable to sit down as usual due to his fox tail. Leaning in close to whisper it into his ear, Schuldig murmured, “I remember promising to fuck you,” which made Crawford twitch. The stroking hand that settled on his upper thigh and moved toward his cock helped too.

“I really appreciate you giving that blowjob your all,” Schuldig said while nuzzling the rim of his ear, “since I could feel how much pleasure you were giving Sasha, to the point where it was almost like you were sucking my cock too.”

Schuldig’s punishments today had turned his emotions inside-out. While it had been debasing to undress Sasha and suck his cock, a small part of Crawford had enjoyed it. It had even enjoyed the embarrassment of Aya showing up to _watch_ him in his humiliation. In the midst of all that Schuldig had done some things specifically to please him too, like toying with and punishing Yoji to make up for inviting him in the first place and this recent thoughtful thing with the tissues. 

Usually he fucked Schuldig and not the other way around, but he had to admit that the few times he’d allowed it Schuldig had made it good for him, having too much invested in having it happen more often for him to make it a terrible experience. Besides, Crawford felt horny as hell and didn’t know how long it would take for Aya to decide if he’d be joining them.

Crawford had to wonder what role, if any, Balinese would be performing, although at least Schuldig had to be aware that Crawford wouldn’t let Balinese fuck him. He had limits to what he’d do in penitence and limits to how far he could be pushed. 

Balinese looked annoyed yet hungry as he watched them, cocked his hip to better show off his goods, and said, “I’ve had enough of being cockteased. Whatever sex you have next, I’m damned well going to be involved in it.” 

A brave statement. Or a stupid one, given the kind of whims Schuldig sometimes had. 

“I’m thinking a daisy chain would be fun, Yoji. I fuck Brad while he fucks you, so get over here so I can lube you up. The bed’s big enough for four friendly people, and we’re _quite_ friendly.” Telepathically, Schuldig asked, ~ Are you game, Brad? ~

He had a choice in this? How novel. ~ I like it. Yoji’s a good ride. He doesn’t know how easy he’s getting off, considering he just said he wanted to be involved in _any_ sex you wanted to have. ~

~ It’s me, Brad. I _never_ let him “get off” easily. Hey, are you still relaxed enough to go or do I need to give your ass some more attention? ~

~ I’d appreciate it if you checked with your fingers. ~

Schuldig grinned at Crawford, then grinned harder when Balinese sat on the bed and gave them a sultry look. ~ It looks like my fingers are going to be really busy. ~ 

******************************************************

“I thought you would be arriving to get me out of here, not to add another voice to the chorus,” Aya said, looking much sharper and more focused away from Balinese and Schuldig. Taking him out to the kitchen might have been a horrible mistake. 

“You’re the one who’s turned down every offer so far. I would have thought you wouldn’t _need_ someone to take you away,” Farfarello replied.

Aya’s glare should have burnt him down to ashes. “This is all _my_ fault? How do I win with you when you keep changing your mind and twisting the rules? What happened to not wanting Schuldig to have me?”

Farfarello had his own anger but had to play this out right. “I don’t want him to take you away from me.” 

“But if you’re there participating it’s fine?”

“You’re my husband, so I damned well should be there.”

“...what.”

“They’re all already involved in our relationship emotionally and sexually, attached to us. Being actually physically with them just brings it to the inevitable end. _You_ want them, so I don’t see what the problem is.”

“That’s a really creative idea of monogamy, but there’s a problem because one member of the team who’s also attached to us emotionally and sexually would never be allowed into it physically by you and probably Crawford, and that could destroy the team.” 

So the boy would ruin things for him _again_? The thought forced Farfarello to say, “I’m not completely against him.”

“You put stipulations on my time with him that you don’t apply even to Yoji because you find him more threatening, so that’s bullshit.” 

“He _latches_. The others don’t.” Unlike the others, the kitten-smitten boy _loved_ Aya in a devoted, one-on-one way.

“If I were insane enough to take on every other member of the team--_and_ Yoji--Nagi would understandably feel discriminated against, isolated, and resentful, especially since the nature of the team bond means that he’d be aware of it and feel it every time the rest of us got together. I can’t do that to him. Crawford would be against me doing this if he knew about this eventuality.” Aya’s anger became even more tinged with hurt as he asked, “Also, how many more times today will I have to deal with you trying to manipulate me into sex I don’t really want? It really underlines my worry that you don’t feel I’m enough for you and that you’ll do whatever you have to to get what you want.”

How had things gone so wrong so quickly? Farfarello had come into this confident that he could handle Aya and talk him around, but apparently he’d been horribly wrong. He needed to figure out what to say to cool his kitten down before it got any worse but hit a total blank. 

The front door to the apartment slammed open to let in a fast-moving blue and black blur that flew into the kitchen, grabbed Aya, and flew out of the apartment with him, slamming and _locking_ the door behind them before Farfarello could even react. What the hell had just happened? 

..._the boy_. It had to be. He’d stolen Aya! Farfarello was going to find him and _slaughter_ him!

“It _is_ Nagi, and you’re not going after them,” Crawford said as he, the mindbreaker, and the slutkitten, all still naked, stepped out of the bedroom into Farfarello’s path. “That’s an order!”

“Nagi actually saved your hash, Farf, you idiot,” the mindbreaker said. “This gives Aya time to cool off and climb out of his total _meltdown_ and gives you a chance to put together words to talk him down that hopefully won’t make him hate himself and/or you. You sure as hell don’t have any ideas on how to do that right now.”

Although that made sense, it wasn’t what Farfarello wanted to hear. Besides: “The boy lusts after him along with the rest of us!”

“Nagi’s a _gentleman_. Plus, he _loves_ Aya and probably understands him better than you do. He knows the last thing Red can deal with right now is yet another person trying to stick his dick in him, so he won’t try it.” 

That hit hard, but Farfarello wouldn’t back down. “As if you’re so superior, thou hypocrite!”

“At least I’m not compounding my errors. Stubbornly pushing blindly forward in the face of continued repudiation makes things worse. Besides, in the unlikely event Nagi puts the moves on Aya we’d know it and could step in.”

“You’re not going after them, Farfarello,” Crawford said. 

Farfarello vibrated with rage, which felt better than giving in to the fear and panic the thought of losing his kitten left him with. “_I will_.” He wanted to rend and maim and destroy.

“Hurting either of them will only further snap any ties Aya has to you, which should be _obvious_. I’ll give you a choice. You start listening to reason and willingly go to our workout room to deal with your feelings by hitting inanimate objects, with Schuldig monitoring your position the whole time to make sure you stay where you’re supposed to, or I have Schuldig turn you off for a while. If you attack or disobey us, you’ll get the second option.”

That set Farfarello back. “You never once suggested the mindbreaker shut me down yesterday, and I scared the shit out of all of you yesterday.” 

“Your behavior now is even more worrying than usual given what happened yesterday. Also, I’m getting flashes of potential futures now that justify it.” He sounded dead serious. 

Farfarello’s soul cringed and stomach dropped. “No....”

“Nagi did you another favor,” the mindbreaker said. “You were about to shove a final sword thrust through the heart of your relationship with Aya, all your fault, then Nagi swept in to not only stop that from happening but also give you someone else to shove your anger and fear and the blame on. You could dodge responsibility.”

Barely able to breathe, Farfarello said softly, “I won’t run after them. I won’t injure them when they return either. There’s no need to shut me down.”

“Good,” Crawford replied. “I’d let you stay next door if I didn’t have to worry that you’d start tearing things apart over there if you didn’t have an outlet or something to do. Work out, think over what happened, and figure out a way to fix matters. Go. Remember that Schuldig and I had people hunting us early, so be careful as you go. Schuldig will keep a telepathic eye on you.” 

As Farfarello went next door to get his coat, boots, and blades, he started wondering _hard_ what the hell to do. 

******************************************************

“‘Schuldig will keep a telepathic eye on you,’ huh? There goes my threesome,” Schuldig said, pouting a bit. “I can’t do that while distracted. Sorry, honeys.” 

“No complaints?” Crawford asked.

“Some, but keeping Farfarello out of trouble is important enough that I’m not going to really get into it.”

“I guess I’m out of here then,” Yoji said, disappointed because he was _horny_ but also quietly thoughtful over what he’d just heard about Aya. It wouldn’t be a good idea to shout out those thoughts near Schuldig. “But before I go, you _have_ to tell me what happened that Crawford had to ‘atone’ for.”

“I _don’t_ have to,” Schuldig replied, “but I will. Crawford took a cell phone call in the middle of sex with me.”

“Dude.” While Yoji understood how that could be annoying and insulting, he felt that Schuldig had been more brutal than he had to be over it. But it _was_ Schuldig. “I’m off to the bathroom to jerk off then get dressed.”

Schuldig slung an arm around his neck to pull him in further for a hug/near-strangulation. “Don’t be a stranger. I’ll call on ya another time.”

By the time Yoji had finished in the bathroom, Schuldig had a robe on and saw him to the apartment door. Once Yoji reached the sidewalk, he sent out a telepathic mayday to Sasha, wondering “aloud” if Sasha had returned to Kitten in the House yet.

~ Without you? _Hell_ no, ~ Sasha answered. ~ If I have to face the third degree from the others when I get back, you’re damned well gonna be with me. I’m just wandering around taking in the sights on foot. I didn’t expect you to be done with your orgy so soon. ~

Yoji hadn’t either, and, damn it, he hadn’t gotten _any_ sex. He decided to ignore Sasha’s evil laughter over that and told Sasha to let him know where he was so Yoji could pick him up in the car and take him somewhere to grab a snack. Then they needed to bide some time somewhere somehow. Eventually Yoji hoped Sasha would telepathically find two people for him. It’d be easy because the two people would be together. Yoji just didn’t want to drop in on them too soon.

~ So mysterious. You’re lucky I’m too honorable to just read it out of your mind. ~

Yoji got into the car. Yeah, “lucky.” 

******************************************************

To Aya’s relief, Nagi stopped in the building’s stairwell near the roof. They’d been going _fast_, and he could use a chance to catch his breath. Also, although Nagi had identified himself to Aya before grabbing him, Aya had still gotten a fight-or-flight adrenaline rush. It was how he was made. 

The twisted jumble of negative emotions from everything going on with Farfarello made him feel sick to his stomach, leaving him relieved that Nagi had gotten him away from it. He’d thought they’d made promises to each other, he’d thought Farfarello respected him, he was sick of this shit recurring.... He half-expected Farfarello to come running up on them in a rage any second. 

When Nagi handed Aya a pair of his boots and one of his coats, Aya gave him a surprised look. Grinning, Nagi said, “Your wallet is in the left pocket. Unlike some of the idiots back there, I plan ahead. I’m glad someone was looking out for me. Thanks. Schuldig and Crawford aren’t letting Farfarello chase after us, so you don’t have to worry about that. Let me get you out of here, take you somewhere you can chill out.”

He really needed that. “You have something in mind?”

“Like I told you, I plan. You can trust me.”

It’d be nice if he could truly trust someone. 

******************************************************

“What is this?” Aya asked. 

“A place people go to get comfortable and chill out in,” Nagi answered. He wanted Aya to chill, but he’d stay alert in case the people who came after Crawford and Schuldig somehow tracked them down too. “This is a cat café.” 

“Thus, the cats.”

“This place has 14. I like that its website has bios on each of them. Have a seat.” 

“So you online-date your cat cafés?” But Aya looked around appreciatively at the cushions and comfortable couches, cat castles, and full bookshelves. When he sat on some cushions near one of the tables, three of the cats approached him and he petted the head of the nearest one. 

“Your whatever works on cats too? I should’ve guessed.” Nagi sat across the table from him and handed him a menu. “They mainly serve tea and desserts.” 

“I’ll have tea, but I’m not really hungry.” Probably too upset to be. 

“That’s okay.” After they ordered from their waiter, Nagi asked Aya, “Can you hand me a cat?”

With a very small Aya smile, Aya handed him an orange tabby that Nagi set beside himself and petted the back of, saying, “I wish I could have a pet at home, but it wouldn’t work out.” Everyone else on the team had someone of their own so Nagi should’ve been able to have at least a cat, but no way would he expose some poor animal to Schuldig or Farfarello.

Maybe some of that thinking bled through to Aya, because he asked, “How much detail did you... feel of what was going on?”

Talking vocally instead of telepathically would probably be easier on Aya but they couldn’t air all of their dirty laundry in a public place, so Nagi switched languages to the Austrian edition of German they’d spoken in Vienna as he said, “I blocked a lot of it out, so it started out pretty generalized, just an awareness of everyone else on the team getting some. But then I started noticing something different and focused in so I knew what was going on. I don’t know _what_ Farfarello’s deal is, but I say that about a lot of things involving him.”

In the same language, Aya replied, “We should all be more thoughtful toward you.” 

“Hey, you did when it counted. I know that I was partly an excuse for you to refuse Farfarello’s offer and line of reasoning, but I appreciate it.”

“It’s _not_ fair to you, and it’s not fair that Crawford won’t let you have anyone of your own. And I don’t know why anyone who knows me assumes I’d do well in a multiple... get-together. A threesome might be more than I can deal with.”

“Plus, the times you’ve been attracted to Yoji and Schuldig and had some thoughts about doing something with them, I doubt your fantasies had Farfarello involved in the scene. Don’t get that look on your face, because it’s human and you’re still pretty young and haven’t had much experience with people that way. Talk to me, Aya. I really think you need to talk to someone.”

A black cat settled itself, purring, into his lap. Aya petted it silently for a few minutes before saying, softly, “It’s not right to have those thoughts, though at least I didn’t _do_ any of them. I don’t know why Farfarello would suddenly want threesomes or moresomes so often and insistently unless he’s decided I’m not enough for him.”

Aya was opening up to him! “Yet he’s jealous enough to get angry at you when _you_ have thoughts and might want someone else, even if it’s momentary.” It ticked Nagi off. “I don’t think it’s that you’re not enough for him; I think he’s just getting really greedy and needs a major correction.” Their tea and Nagi’s pastries arrived.

Aya picked up his cup, took a sip, and kept the cup in his hands, breathing in the steam. “I don’t know why he keeps manipulating me and doesn’t respect me. I miss how we were together in New York. I know part of that comes from being alone together in a new place, free to mostly do what we wanted the way we wanted to do it for the first time, but he really was different there. He respected me and my needs more, and I felt really loved. We’ve had some problems lately, and I hoped having an apartment all to ourselves again would make a positive change. It may be too soon to say that was a failure, but he’s been doing so _badly_.... I thought we promised to support each other last night, but then he does this....” Aya petted his lap cat in silence for a few moments. “Nagi, I can’t keep letting him do this to me, and I can’t keep letting him get away with things just because he’s unstable and getting refused could tip him over. _I_ can be unstable, so it would be appreciated if he’d give similar consideration to me. I’m... resenting him.”

This sounded really, really bad. “...what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Although these days they all liked to pretend that Aya had joined Schwarz and become emotionally and sexually involved with Farfarello of his own free will, in actuality he had been kidnapped, corralled, and pushed into all of it, just to make one of Crawford’s visions on defeating Rosenkreuz come to pass. What Aya wanted and needed hadn’t really been factors, and Crawford had looked out for Aya’s health only as far as it would make him an easier teammate and tool to deal with. In the process, Aya had become a significant part of Schwarz, to the point where they still wanted to keep him after they destroyed Eszett, even aside from Nagi’s feelings for him. 

If Aya broke up with Farfarello, it would be messy and could rip the team apart. If they broke up, Farfarello would explode and Nagi didn’t think Aya would be able to remain with Schwarz. 

It didn’t matter that Nagi felt Aya _should_ break up with Farfarello, and not just because of his own feelings with Aya. If someone Nagi loved who claimed to love Nagi pulled the shit on him that Farfarello did to Aya in Jamaica just because Aya wasn’t healing from his coma and mourning quickly enough, he’d dump the motherfucker. Farfarello had deeply wounded Aya _on purpose_ just from impatience. Farfarello acted less like he loved Aya and more like he owned him. He smothered Aya and kept him on a very short leash. If someone told Farfarello that if he didn’t amend his behavior he’d lose Aya, he’s probably respond by handcuffing Aya to his headboard (again).

Aya needed a friend, but everyone around him had ulterior motives. Including Nagi.

What should Nagi do here? Crawford would want him to do whatever it took to keep Schwarz together. If he told Aya to do what was best for Aya, Schwarz--and Nagi--would lose him. Or Schwarz would try to reprogram him again, which would probably involve getting him back together with Farfarello. 

But Aya didn’t have any places he could go if he left Schwarz that would make him happy anyway. Weiß would take him in but the team had changed in his absence, and Yoji would throw himself at Aya but couldn’t provide the kind of stable relationship Aya craved, not while he had that perpetually wandering eye and occasionally went along with Schuldig’s booty calls. Aya didn’t entirely trust Kritiker anyway, for good reason. If he stayed in Japan, Kritiker and Schwarz wouldn’t leave him be to let him live his own life. He was dead under his own name, his sister was dead, and his family had cut him off years ago. The remnants of Eszett might hunt him if he relocated to Europe, he’d _been_ hunted in the eastern US, and that Kritiker offshoot in Great Britain might try to take him if he went there. 

For a moment, Nagi had the mad urge to say that he and Aya could run away together. The western US--Seattle or some part of California--might work out well....

Madness. No one would let them get away with it. Nagi knew what he had to do, though it hurt him and would hurt Aya.

“Everyone goes through rough patches,” Nagi said. “You’ll figure out a way to set him right. Also, Crawford and Schuldig see you as a member of Schwarz in your own right, not just Farfarello’s plus one. You notice they didn’t let Farfarello hunt us down. They want the team to work well, so they want you to do well too.”

“I don’t want to tear Schwarz apart either,” Aya answered.

Damn it. Aya was accustomed to sacrificing himself for others. 

“We have to do something with Farfarello, though. Or to him. This can’t continue. It’s not fair to you.”

“‘We’?”

“If I can help, and I think I can, I will.”

“You don’t have to. I’m sorry to burden you with my problems.”

Nagi went over to Aya’s side of the table to sit beside him and put his bare hand on Aya’s for emphasis. “I know you don’t open yourself up to many people, so I’m glad you shared them with me. I was feeling alone, overlooked, isolated, and disrespected earlier today, but _you_ thought of me. That means a lot.”

To Nagi’s pleased surprise, Aya clasped his hand. “We have to do something for you too. You deserve to have someone truly special of your own. You don’t even have a cat.”

Aw. “Sasha seemed pretty level-headed today. Maybe I could give him a try, though Crawford’s head might explode.”

“Crawford kind of deserves it.” 

Nagi had to laugh. “You know, I considered grabbing Yoji too on my way out but didn’t because 1] he was naked and I couldn’t spend more time in the apartment grabbing his clothes too and 2] Crawford would’ve _hunted us down_ if I did.”

“You told me you think ahead.”

“I do.”

More seriously, Aya said, “I don’t think I could’ve told you everything I told you if Yoji had been here.”

Which made sense and gave Nagi a warm glowing feeling. “Thanks. Now I suggest we hang around here and chill a while to give Farfarello a really good chance to think about what he fucked up and what he might lose for it.”

“I like that thought.”

“It’s kind of a shame because Crawford’s mother e-mailed me to say that she had not-bad news that she wanted to tell him and Schuldig over the phone when they got home. I’m curious as hell about what it is.”

“They got home.”

“Not in the state they were in when they showed up. Trust me on that. You _felt_ it.”

“...true.” 

******************************************************

His emotional firestorm had wiped Aya out, so he’d made a nest of soft pillows to half-doze in. He had a sleeping, purring cat on his chest, at his left hip, and at his feet. Nearby, Nagi quietly worked on his computer, self-sufficient. Aya appreciated not having to keep someone occupied and entertained. 

Sometimes Nagi petted one of Aya’s cats. Sometimes he petted Aya’s hair. Aya decided he didn’t mind either way. 

At the moment he felt peaceful and didn’t think about what had happened earlier. How he reacted when he returned home would depend partly on what behavior Farfarello greeted him with. 

He didn’t know how much time had passed like this--maybe two hours or more--before he heard someone say, “Good, my favorite kitty is here.” Yoji. 

As Aya opened his eyes, Yoji settled onto his knees next to him so he wouldn’t have to look up and said, “I’m sorry for my role in that disaster. I kind of ended up being the bait for you.”

“Thanks, but it’s not your fault,” Aya replied. Still, it made him feel a bit better to hear it. 

“Sasha and I are going out to dinner. I want to invite you and Nagi to come with us.” 

“I’m involved with this now?” Nagi asked as he glanced at Yoji and then up at a bemused looking Sasha behind him. 

“You’re my friend and teke teacher,” Yoji replied, “and you got the short end of the stick today, so yeah.”

“I could eat now,” Aya said, surprised.

“Okay. I could do dinner too,” Nagi said. “But if Crawford shows up in a panic at some point during it, I told you so.”


	289. "Are we ever going home again?"

Yoji took his sunglasses off, as if that would really change what he looked at. “You’re kidding me. Aya and Nagi are _here_?” A cat café? 

“Yup. They’re not really hiding their signatures either,” Sasha answered. 

“Couldn’t that just mean they want everyone to _think_ they’re here?”

He could tell that he’d surprised Sasha. “Telepaths do that sometimes but it doesn’t feel like that’s going on here, especially since Nagi isn’t that strong in it and Aya is probably picking up on his talent.” 

“Unless Aya’s picking up on someone we’re not aware of.”

“Now you’re just being a pain in the ass. Besides, Aya doesn’t strike me as having been trained in that kind of thing. Some shielding, yeah. Radiating a false signature that would read as being somewhere other than he is? Hell no. Even if he did, he’d have to be nearby.”

“That’s useful to know.” Considering the way he couldn’t get away from telepaths lately. Yoji found a parking spot.

As they got out, Sasha asked, “Are we ever going home again?”

“Eventually.” Though he doubted that Elena would be more forgiving or have fewer questions the longer he stayed out. 

“Just making sure.”

Once they were inside, Sasha asked softly, “Wait, this is really a place where people pay to spend time with cats?”

“Tokyo apartments are small and not very pet-friendly,” Yoji answered. Some cute chicks hung out here....

A cat café. Nagi had probably chosen it, though Aya could be oblivious to things. 

He soon saw Nagi in his natural habitat, working on a computer while Aya.... Somebody should take a photo of Aya contentedly nestled in a pile of pillows napping and snuggling with cats to post to the café’s website as an example of the kind of serenity and pretty scenery that could be found here. He’d even chosen pillow colors flattering to him: shades of blue and gold. Aya being Aya, he could have chosen orange, pink, and green pillows. 

Why couldn’t Aya do cute and sexy things like this in private, where he’d be less likely to fight Yoji off for reacting in the most obvious way? Weirdly, Aya didn’t like _public_ displays of affection. Yoji really needed to retrain him on that.

“Good, my favorite kitty is here,” Yoji said to him then settled down onto his knees next to him so he wouldn’t have to look up at him. “I’m sorry for my role in that disaster. I kind of ended up being the bait for you.” Aya had worked himself to a calm state, which benefited Yoji, who wanted to keep him there.

“Thanks, but it’s not your fault,” Aya replied, though he looked pleased that Yoji had said it. Good. 

“Sasha and I are going out to dinner. I want to invite you and Nagi to come with us.” 

“I’m involved with this now?” Nagi asked as he glanced at Yoji and then up at Sasha. The kid could be prickly, which had to have been worsened by what had gone down with Schwarz earlier, and protective of himself and Aya.

“You’re my friend and teke teacher,” Yoji replied, “and you got the short end of the stick today, so yeah.” He hoped saying this would be as effective as it was true.

“I could eat now,” Aya said, bless him.

“Okay. I could do dinner too,” Nagi said. “But if Crawford shows up in a panic at some point during it, I told you so.” 

“That would suck.” Yoji sighed. It would screw things up considerably if Crawford came flying at them like some dad nervous over his daughter’s virginity. 

“I can’t think of any way we can make sure that wouldn’t happen,” Sasha said.

“I have something I can try,” Nagi replied. He typed something into his computer then used the mousepad to do something before he started to pack it all up. “All right, I gave it my best shot. Let’s go.” 

******************************************************

Monitoring Farfarello’s mental state and making sure he didn’t run off after Aya kept Schuldig busy and unfortunately put an end to the sexy funtimes. Fully though casually dressed in a KMFDM _Godlike_ T-shirt and old blue jeans, Schuldig lounged on the coach half-watching a Japanese game show on TV, while Brad--dressed in pants, a button-down shirt, and tie but at least not a vest and suit jacket as well--sat nearby and looked through e-mail correspondence. Too bad Schuldig couldn’t think of a safe (for him) way to make Farfarello pay for this. 

Though Farfarello might be paying a _huge_ price for what had gone down earlier with Aya. Although he’d mostly domesticated Aya, the redhead remained volatile and unpredictable, like an old explosive device that had sat quietly for years but could still go off if given a nudge. If Aya _really_ blew up, it could affect all of Schwarz. Farf had become too complacent about Aya, and they all might pay for it. Schuldig tried not to worry about it and wondered if Brad had any emergency plans for that possibility. Brad might, since he knew full well he didn’t foresee _everything_.

Schwarz being his _family_, Schuldig might have considered giving Aya a telepathic adjustment if he thought it might work. Alas, he didn’t, Aya being too complicated and stubborn for a major intervention to stick, part of the reason why they’d _worked_ to gain Aya’s loyalty instead of just imposing it to begin with. 

~ Schu? ~ Nagi asked. ~ Could you help me out? ~

~ Has Aya decided that he’ll only have a threesome if it’s with you and me? ~ Happy thought, but highly doubtful. 

~ Ha, no. Yoji has arrived with Sasha to take me and Aya out to eat. I know you have some telepathic trick that can baffle Crawford’s foresight a bit, so can you please use it so we can eat in peace? You know what he’ll do if he foresees Yoji near me in what might be read as a date situation. ~

All too well. Schuldig would rather Brad stay home for another attempt at sex later. Although he felt some misgivings that a frustrated Yoji might be attempting to further ingratiate himself with Aya and Nagi, Yoji tended to be so hapless and Aya so obstinate that he doubted anything could really come of it. 

But Nagi had more to say too. ~ To help his distraction along, I forwarded some e-mails from Crawford’s mom to his e-mail account. She says she has news she really wants to tell him and you on the phone. Not bad news, she claims. She’s really set on it so it may be really important, and in one of the e-mails she even asks that Crawford use FaceTime for this. ~

Bradmom wanted them all to see each other during the call? What could this possibly be about? ~ How impatient is she? ~

~ Very. She e-mailed right before you and Crawford got home. I didn’t tell you then because I didn’t think anything short of a nuclear explosion could’ve stopped you from fucking, while I don’t know what you might have done to Crawford if he’d suggested putting it off to take her call. ~

~ You’re a smart kid. ~

~ Duh. I hoped to be there when you guys did the call, but a peaceful meal is worth more to me. The e-mails should be arriving in his inbox soon. Will you help? ~

~ Yeah, sure. This might be fun. Enjoy your time out, though I don’t know if even the both of us can misdirect Brad long enough to stop him from foreseeing it if you and Yoji try to have sex again. ~

~ I’ll keep that in mind, ~ Nagi answered dryly. ~ Thanks. ~

~ _Are_ you going to try again? Because I’m all for it, and Yoji didn’t get any actual sex this afternoon after a ton of teasing so he’s even more open to it than usual. ~

~ I kind of doubt it. ~

~ Be more optimistic and confident about yourself! You’re hot, while he’s desperate, always a good combination. You deserve a break today! ~

~ I’m not even going to-- All right, I’m ending this conversation now. Keeping in mind that I deserve a break today, please do what I asked. ~

~ Sure, sure. Have fun storming the castle! ~

“Nagi just forwarded some e-mails from my mother,” Brad said, sounding somewhat concerned. “But that’s what you were just having a telepathic conversation about, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question.

As long as Brad didn’t notice what else he and Nagi had talked about. Schuldig turned off the TV. “Yeah, did you read them? She wants a phone call with us to tell us something kind-of in person.”

“With FaceTime. That worries me.”

“Maybe she just wants to _see_ you.”

“Schu, she’s _my_ mother.”

“Right. So there’s actually a major reason and she doesn’t just want to see her baby boy. Maybe she wants another look at my hot bod?”

“Please don’t make me think about these things right before I have a talk with her, especially not when she can see my face.”

“So, are we doing this?”

“Yeah. Let me e-mail her to let her know she can call us.” Brad looked utterly unenthused. 

Knowing Brad’s mother, Schuldig couldn’t blame him for feeling apprehensive.

When they picked up the call, Schuldig could see that Brad’s mother stood in the family’s living room with Brad’s father. It’d never stop feeling weird to Schuldig to be able to see and talk to people in FaceTime but not Hear them. 

“Hello, Brad, Schuldig. I’m glad I could finally get a hold of you,” she said, putting some weight on the “finally.”

“Mom, what’s going on?” Brad asked. “Considering how many e-mails you sent, it must be important.” His tone implied, “It _better_ be important.”

“Some unexpected guests arrived today,” she answered as Malice and Wicked came into view. What the _hell_?

“Why are you at my family’s home?” Brad growled. 

“We were going to take a vacation, but we got obsessed with an idea and had to go do that first instead,” Wicked replied. “We figured that Verity should get to meet her aunt. Her _other_ aunt.”

“What other--”

A very pretty, lightly tanned blonde woman maybe a bit younger than Schuldig came into view. While he didn’t need his clones there to see the strong family resemblance, having them stand near her certainly underlined it. Schuldig remembered Crawford mentioning that Emory had a sister, Ingrid, who’d also been caught by Eszett. He’d said Eszett kept her at the Argentina branch. Schuldig didn’t retain enough of Emory’s memories to remember her himself. 

“_You_ were the people who attacked the Argentina branch?” Brad asked.

“Yeah.” Wicked smirked. “Mission of mercy and all that. Besides, I enjoy breaking things. We didn’t exterminate them--we didn’t have enough people on our side to manage that--but we fucked them up badly enough that it’ll take a while for them to regroup. Plus, a lot of their operatives escaped, so altogether we gave them a _big_ black eye.”

Ingrid said, “They told me that you call yourself Schuldig these days, and that most of... my brother was destroyed, so you probably don’t remember me on your own, but I’d really like to meet you. I’m Ingrid Disl, Icebreaker. And you must be Crawford. Verity really does resemble the two of you.”

Stunned, Schuldig didn’t know what to make of any of it and couldn’t figure out whether he wanted to meet her or not. She’d obviously been told what had happened to her brother, aside from knowing that people changed over the course of a decade or so, but she’d surely find him disappointing, even if he was the last family member she had left. But a lot of the Collective, hungry for family, inside him demanded he meet her and try to form some kind of relationship with her.

“Your team should come visit us, Brad,” Brad’s mother said. “To see your children and Ingrid.”

“That’s not happening, Mother,” Brad answered. “We only just got home after a lot of traveling, it’s been a very stressful time, and we’ve put ourselves out for hire again on the local market. It’d be a terrible idea to uproot us all again. I will come to visit you again, but not in the near future.”

Brad resisted seeing Verity as his daughter even more than Schuldig did and certainly didn’t want to be forced into a fatherly relationship with her. It managed to be funny and kind of sad simultaneously. 

Although Schuldig tried not to let any of it bother him, Verity’s existence wigged him out far more than his clones’ did, though he’d be even more disturbed if she were a child instead of a teen. Her being only a little bit younger than him made it thankfully feel more unreal. 

It surprised Schuldig that Bradmom hadn’t forced Verity to show up for this call, the better to guilt Brad with and force him to acknowledge his “daughter,” but perhaps Verity had fought it too hard for even Brad’s mom to win. Fortunately, Verity hadn’t seemed enthused about being and acting as their daughter. Although Schuldig couldn’t help wondering how the battles of will between Verity and Bradmom went down, he wouldn’t want to actually be there for them.

“Are you all right, Schuldig?” Brad’s mother asked. 

If she could see it even on that small screen, he better pull himself together. “I’m just really surprised,” he replied. “Yeah, I’d like to meet you, Ingrid.”

“But we’re not returning to New York for it,” Brad said.

“The terrible twins and I looted the compound on the way out, so I have the money to fly to see you,” Ingrid said with a smile that Schuldig sometimes saw in the mirror. “I’d like to see Japan, and it’d be nice to do some major traveling anyway. I haven’t been out of the Americas in years.”

Of course, Brad’s mother looked really displeased. “Brad....”

“I have to take care of my team,” Brad answered. “They’re my family.” Brad could guilt his parents right back.

“We understand, son,” Brad’s dad said as he put an arm around his wife’s shoulders and gave her a _look_. “But should we expect more of Schu’s clones to show up? They were a bit of a surprise.”

“They’re not mooching off you, are they?”

“We’re staying at a nearby hotel,” Malice replied. “Besides, your mother doesn’t come across as someone easy to mooch from.”

“Dad, the broad majority of Schuldig’s clones are in Okinawa, so probably not. Hopefully not.”

“I pity the Okinawans. They’ve put up with so much,” Brad’s mom said.

“Ha, fuckin’ ha,” Schuldig answered.

“Are all their names so terrible?” she asked. “I’ve been calling these two ‘Fred’ and ‘George.’”

“‘These two’ are right here,” Wicked said. 

“One of them was named ‘Evil,’ no lie,” Schuldig answered. “Some of them were just given numbers.”

She shook her head. “The people who took all of you don’t deserve to live.”

“That’s a major reason why we kill so many of them. Fred and George, I’m glad you two got Ingrid out.” As the idea settled in, Schuldig couldn’t help being curious about her. Weirdly nervous about her too, but mainly curious.

“I’m very glad to be out, although it took me some time to get used to your clones,” Ingrid said. 

“I’m sure they hear that all the time,” Schuldig replied.

“Cute. Hearing stuff like that makes us not want to help you in the future,” Wicked said.

Ingrid gently elbowed him then said, “After I make the travel arrangements, I’ll e-mail... I guess Crawford the details since I’ve gotten the impression that you don’t use e-mail. I’m aiming for the soonest reasonable date available. You don’t have to worry about me, Mr. Crawford; I’m self-sufficient and I don’t latch on where I’m not wanted.”

Schuldig just barely held back a snort. Had she picked up on that just from this phone call, been told something prior to it, or figured it out based on Brad’s mother?

“I’m not worried about that,” Brad answered, the liar. “Malice, where will the two of you be off to once Ingrid is gone?”

“What, are you pushing us out of your mother’s home and into the street?” Wicked asked with a smirk. 

“You might not believe this, but I’m concerned for your well-being. While we were in New York we had to fight an organization that was trying to forcibly recruit some of us.” Also, Brad no doubt wanted them out of his mother’s house and far from her bed.

“Since we’re in the US already, we were thinking of trying Vegas.”

“Though we’d have to be subtle in Vegas,” Malice told Wicked. “I don’t want unnecessary trouble.”

“I can do subtle!”

“No, you can’t. You sometimes have weird ideas about what trouble is ‘unnecessary’ too.”

“Can we talk about it later since this is not the right time, place, or company?” Wicked seemed almost embarrassed.

Obviously amused, Malice replied, “Yeah, sure.”

“Mom, I _will_ visit you in the future,” Brad said, trying to take control of the call and bring it to an end. “And I’m sure that Verity and Misoji are doing well. Is there anything else?”

“Verity is out with friends,” Bradmom answered, obviously annoyed.

“I’m glad she has them,” Brad said, probably being polite. “We weren’t sure she or Misoji would be able to relate to regular American teenagers.” 

The American teenagers were the ones who should be afraid. 

“Misoji is with a study group right now. They both had a rough time starting out but they’re doing well these days, and your father has really bonded with Misoji.”

“Tell them we love them,” Schuldig said, mostly in the hope that Verity and Misoji would be horrified to hear that. Brad shot him a look and smirked. “Ingrid, I’m looking forward to meeting you.”

“Ditto,” she said.

“I’ll talk to you later, Mom, Dad,” Brad said. “Later” could be any time.

“We love you, Brad,” his father said, then thankfully ended the call.

“I just thought of something horrible,” Brad said. “Considering her attraction to you, I wonder if my mother propositioned Malice and Wicked.”

Schuldig had to smirk. “_Your_ parents? Your father might have wanted to make it a foursome.”

“There are telepathic teens in that apartment!”

“That’s why they’d probably use the Toxic Twins’ hotel room instead of doing it at home.”

Brad actually _shuddered_. He might be a coldblooded man who killed people for pleasure and money, but it still freaked him out to think of his parents having sex, which was kind of cute. 

Of course, telepaths didn’t have that luxury. 

Schuldig would really enjoy telling Nagi what the call was all about, especially since once Nagi heard he’d be upset he missed it. Schuldig knew the kid had no idea since he couldn’t have sounded and felt so blasé during their telepathic conversation if he’d known. Bradmom must have wisely realized that secrets didn’t stay secret within Schwarz for long.

Schuldig would be meeting his body’s sister soon. It’d be _weird_.

“Are you all right, Schu?” Brad asked.

Aw, so sweet of him to ask, so much better than how he’d been earlier in the hotel room. “Yeah. I’m just stunned. Maybe a bit nervous too about this upcoming meeting, even though that makes no sense since she _knows_ she’s not going to find any traces of the brother she knew, and I shouldn’t care about that anyway.” 

“It’ll be fine, and if it’s not Schwarz has your back.”

“No matter what happens, my loyalties will always be to Schwarz first. Having a sister changes nothing for me.” Schuldig shook his head. “Strange days. In Rosenkreuz we were alone, yet these days you have family, _I_ have family.... Though if one of Farfarello’s family members shows up, I’m running for the hills.”

“One of Farfarello’s? I’d join you.”

Schuldig felt so _fond_ of him. Horny as hell too, and he hadn’t yet fulfilled his promise to fuck Brad today, dammit. “If not for this thing with Farfarello taking my attention, I’d pounce you right now.” 

Farfarello had to _pay_. 

 

+++

btw, [this](http://www.rockabilia.com/kmfdm-godlike-t-shirt.html) is the shirt Schuldig is wearing, while what I consider to be _the_ T-shirt for Schuldig clones is [this](https://www.threadless.com/product/3662/The_Original_Copycat/tab,girls/style,shirt).


	290. "I'm *your* demented, evil fox."

It pleased Yoji when he saw the restaurant he’d chosen pass muster with Aya and Nagi. He selected it for its large selection of excellent comfort food, warmth, relative hush, and casual, relaxed atmosphere. It always smelled so damned good in here too. They’d come somewhat early, so their food should arrive quickly. 

Normally he’d sit at the bar, near the cooking and the action, but he figured that the kind of conversation the four of them could get into should be at a more isolated table, even if they _were_ all speaking Viennese/Austrian German. Jumpy Aya obviously appreciated having a corner at his back and a good view of the door. Hopefully it would relax him. The comfy chairs should help. Yoji figured Sasha would appreciate getting chairs instead of eating in a more traditional Japanese style. Nagi sat next to Aya with the attitude of protecting him, while Yoji and Sasha sat across the table from them.

They all figured out what they wanted quickly and ordered from their waitress, most of them opting for the variety of sauced, grilled meat on sticks, an excellent choice here. To Yoji’s surprise and concern, Aya ordered saké. He’d never seen him drink and had no idea of his alcohol tolerance level, and as much as Yoji would love to see what kind of drunk Aya was, he didn’t want it to happen in public or from Aya trying to drink away his sorrows. 

He wanted drunken Aya as a private performance for him alone that would hopefully lead to sexytimes. 

Aya must have noticed his concern, since as soon as the waitress left them he said, “I just want to get a bit buzzed and have some of the sharp edges sanded down. To relax a little. I have no intention of getting obliterated. Since when are _you_ the sobriety police?” Suddenly Aya jumped a bit and glared at Nagi, who looked excessively innocent, then said, “I’m sorry, Yoji. I know you mean well. It’s... been a rough two days.”

Had Nagi _kicked_ Aya to make him apologize?

~ Yep, he did, ~ Sasha said with a smirk.

“I get that, Aya,” Yoji replied. “I’m here as support and all. It’s just that as far as I know you don’t drink.”

“And you don’t know if I can handle it?” Aya asked, looking slightly offended. “I’ll be eating and drinking water too. I don’t intend to lose control.”

“You shouldn’t have to be under iron-gripped self-control all the time, and it’s good to relax. I just worry about the timing.”

“I don’t have many occasions to really drink. I’m not about to get drunk with my team.”

“I’ve done it with Schu,” Sasha said. “It was fun.” 

“I’m not that brave,” Aya answered. 

Or foolhardy. Yoji sure as hell wouldn’t take that chance either. Schuldig managed to talk him into doing enough stupid stuff when he was _sober_.

“I’m definitely not getting drunk with Farfarello.” Aya’s already sad expression turned even sadder. “Especially not lately.” 

Yoji couldn’t let that continue. “Set that aside for now, Aya. This should be a brooding-free zone. We’re going to get fed and buzzed and have a good time. Maybe even go out dancing later if everyone’s game for it.” 

Aya and Nagi looked surprised and perhaps a little intrigued, while Sasha shook his head, grinned, and said, “We’re really never going home, are we?”

******************************************************

His limbs so heavy with fatigue and overuse that he noticed it even while dissociated, Farfarello came out of his trance, sank to his knees amidst the rubble, and ended his orgy of destruction. It looked like something had shallowly sliced all the way up his right arm too, probably shrapnel. As he wiped the blood off it with his other hand he focused ki into it to heal it.

The room stank of char, ozone, sweat, and a little blood. He’d carved, hacked, gouged, pounded, burned, and electrocuted what he could in his practice area, which left him feeling a bit clearer, somewhat high, and less likely to turn his violence and frustration on Aya. 

Although he’d never say it to the boy, he felt grateful that Nagi had separated him from his kitten before either of them could do or say something in wrath that they’d regret later. He’d already said enough he regretted. That didn’t mean he had any better idea what to do or say now, but at least he wouldn’t do something extreme as he drowned in a thick, red rage. 

Hopefully his kitten would be calmer as well. Aya had his own rage and mental health issues.

Aya currently blocked him out of his mind, creating a high, thick wall surrounded by wicked thorns around his thoughts. Farfarello could feel some of his emotions though, with angry hurt and hurt anger vying for first and strongest and confusion close behind. A vein of something dark and cold ran through them, an emotion Farfarello couldn’t identify for certain but found disquieting. It felt as hard, strong, and cold as iron.

So many legends, tales, and parables warned about the dangers of hubris. In his arrogance and instability he’d forgotten how hard Aya could dig in his heels when pushed too hard and too far. He’d demanded again what Aya kept saying no to, what Aya had said no to multiple times just _yesterday_, as if a small shift in the terms would change Aya’s personality and put all of his kitten’s fears to rest. He’d thought he’d figured out the key to get what he wanted but saw now that what he’d demanded and how he’d demanded it had left his kitten feeling disrespected and undervalued, which made sure he’d say no. Why had he done that? What had he been thinking? He didn’t need more sex partners more than he needed his kitten!

They’d just gotten their own apartment, and Aya had stood by him yesterday--aside from refusing a threesome--despite his meltdown and problems. It would be stupid as hell to inadvertently drive Aya away, especially now.

When Aya returned--as he _had_ to return--Farfarello would be more careful with him and make certain he felt loved and valued. He’d remind his kitten of the cracks yesterday had put in his sanity, say that he worked on getting better, and humbly ask that Aya be patient with him. 

He’d deal with it later, after he slept awhile on the floor. 

******************************************************

Although he tried to be productive and might actually look like it to Schuldig, Crawford couldn’t keep his mind off his team’s personal business. If he could resolve Aya and Farfarello’s problems, he’d actually be productive there, but so far no solutions came to him.

Out of all the ways he’d guessed the two of them having their own apartment could blow up in Schwarz’s faces, he’d never foreseen this one or something happening so quickly. Farfarello exploded almost as soon as they moved in! Yesterday had been scary, but they’d seemed to move past it... then Farfarello messed up with Aya and in such an unexpected way today.

Farfarello had always been unstable, but he’d been consistent in it and his triggers. Recently he’d seemed to be getting better, and in a consistent way. No longer. 

Perhaps he’d previously fooled them all about it. Perhaps he’d fooled himself too.

Would Aya be able to move past the newest outrage? Would he want to continue sharing an apartment and bed with Farfarello? Would he want to remain with Schwarz? If he couldn’t and didn’t, would it destroy the team?

Crawford felt such a temptation to move Farfarello out and Nagi in. It’d solve so many problems and make Nagi happier, something that seemed necessary after what had happened today. Farfarello would throw a violent fit over it but fuck him. Despite everything, Aya had been content and loyal before all this. After it? _Schuldig_ had been so alarmed yesterday that he’d considered killing or rewriting Farfarello, thoughts he’d rarely had through the many years Farfarello had worked with him. 

Crawford would prefer not to give Aya up. Aya had truly become a part of Schwarz, which made Aya _his_ and Crawford didn’t relinquish things that belonged to him. Losing Aya would make Nagi very unhappy, especially if Schwarz lost Aya over something like this. Given how unhappy everything else had made Nagi today, it might be the last straw and make him do something... extreme. Not so long ago Nagi never would’ve dreamed of stealing someone away from the rest of the group without permission. Aya brought some new talents and skills to the team, brought Nagi out of his shell and made him happy, provided a link to Kritiker and thus new jobs, and continued to be someone Persia wanted and looked out for, which made Persia less likely to take action against Schwarz. Persia, Kritiker, and Weiß wanting Aya back with them made him valuable. 

Schuldig would probably say that Crawford also wanted to tap that ass, but that didn’t have a part in his decision making process. 

It frustrated Crawford that he couldn’t foresee what would happen when Aya and Farfarello met again. It gave him a strain headache too. He’d always had trouble foreseeing Farfarello’s actions, but sometimes he got around that by being able to foresee for the people around him. That didn’t work in this case at all, probably because Aya’s reactions depended on what Farfarello did. Farfarello couldn’t foresee for himself, and he could change his cracked mind on a second’s notice. 

Now that Schwarz no longer had the contents of its roster enforced by outsiders, Crawford had more leeway in dealing with its members.... 

Unable to come up with solutions to that issue, Crawford set it aside to come back to it later and went to the other piece of personal business that gnawed at him: the arrival of Schuldig’s sister. Or Schuldig’s body’s sister, as Schu had put it, which made Crawford even more confident that, at best, she’d come in secondary to Schwarz in Schu’s loyalties. That short conversation couldn’t give much of an idea of what kind of person she was or what she wanted.

She really did resemble Schuldig so much, though her features were more feminine and less... extreme than his, her chin less pointed, her mouth less wide.... She might be beautiful, but Schuldig was _striking_, even when he somewhat resembled a demented, evil fox. Sometimes especially when he somewhat resembled a demented, evil fox. She looked more... generic than he did. 

Though it didn’t stop Crawford from idly wondering what she’d be like in bed. 

“She _is_ pretty....” Schuldig said as he shifted closer to Crawford on the couch. He didn’t sound at all upset. “But you have more immediate things to think about. Farfarello has finally exhausted himself and passed out, so I don’t have to monitor him as closely anymore and your ass is finally mine, as you promised.” 

“...how much did you overhear?”

“I was too polite to listen to most of your thoughts, especially since it felt like you were thinking in circles, but once you switched over to Ingrid and our family sexiness your mind was a much pleasanter place to be. Especially when your thoughts say I’m prettier than her. I’m _your_ demented, evil fox.” 

“It didn’t bother you that I wondered...” 

“It’d be hypocritical if I did--”

“Like that necessarily stops you.”

“Hush. It’d be hypocritical since I’m kind of wondering about it myself.”

Really? “...ew.”

Schuldig just smirked. “She’s my body’s sister, not mine!”

“Incest taboos are very concerned with sibling _bodies_ doing sexual things together.”

“That’s mostly about having babies. But I probably won’t make a move on her anyway. _She_ sees me as her brother. Besides, Rosenkreuz and Eszett put another layer of abuse on its female minions, especially the pretty ones, so her attitude about sex might be so screwy you might not have a chance at her either.”

“Thanks for ruining it completely for me.”

Schuldig snuggled in a bit and rested his head on Crawford’s shoulder as he said, “I live to serve.”

“Since when? Speaking of serving, do you have any ideas about how to deal with Farfarello and Aya’s problems? I’m open to suggestions. Because Farfarello’s involved, my precognition is coming up blank on what he’ll do next.”

“I gave you some ideas yesterday.”

“Executing him or rewriting his personality? I thought you’d have more loyalty toward him.” 

“My greatest loyalty is toward my own safety. In the absence of having a nearby cell or really sturdy closet we can lock him in....”

Maybe they should look into that. “Rewriting or death is extreme. I hope we’re not _there_ yet.”

“I’d rather not do them either, but he went scary as hell yesterday and it’s _painful_ to me. You just didn’t get the full effect because you’re not a telepath. If he keeps that up or gets worse.... You know, if Farf really damages Aya it’ll get difficult for Schwarz to continue living in Japan. We may totally outclass Kritiker and Weiß, but Kritiker has more people than we do and can make life more complicated and annoying than we want to deal with for free.”

“Good point. I’m half-seriously considering trying to move Farfarello out of that apartment and move Nagi in.”

“I’m sure that would go over well. If Farf’s head explodes as a result, it _would_ solve some of our problems. If you really do try it, make sure I’m there to watch.”

“I need to stop thinking about this for a while.”

“I have just the thing for that.” Schuldig grabbed his tie and used it to reel Crawford in closer, close enough to breathe each other’s air. Crawford let him. “No more distractions. After all the disappointments of the day, I’m owed my treat.” Then the expression on his face changed. “It annoys me that I have to beg to fuck you, especially since I know you enjoy it, even though you don’t like that you like it. The fact that you think you’re above getting fucked but it’s fine for _me_ has really unfortunate implications. I know you have control and dominance issues, but....”

Schuldig was delaying sex to have this talk? _Schuldig_? Especially after all the teases and disappointments he’d had in recent hours?

“We’re really going to get into this now? Right now?” Crawford asked.

“Given what happened today, yeah. I was more tolerant when we had Eszett overlording us and you had legitimate worries that they’d see me sticking it to you as a sign that you no longer had command of the team you led, but that’s finished. We don’t have the same relationship now that we had then either. At least we better not.”

They’d started having sex to try to manipulate and one-up each other, not out of any affection or attempt to bond. Crawford hadn’t even felt much lust in the beginning and had seen the sex as another way to make Schuldig submit to and service him, while Schuldig could have quenched his lust elsewhere and often did. It hadn’t been pretty.

Looking at it now... “...we were such assholes to each other.”

That surprised a laugh out of Schuldig. “Yeah. But we’re supposed to be different now, and I’m not just your subordinate anymore. I haven’t said all that much before about this, but it would’ve come up sooner if we were exclusive. We’re closer to exclusive these days, so....”

“It means that much to you?”

“Because I like doing it, because I like doing it to _you_, and because of the implications, yeah, it does.” Schuldig actually sounded hurt. “You know I always make sure to give you a lot of pleasure when I fuck you, so it shouldn’t be some horrible thing you avoid or think is punishment. If it’s about trust, you should have some in me by now. If it’s about your control issues, talk to me about it and we’ll work on it.”

“I swear to you it’s not about ‘keeping you in your place,’ looking down on you, or distrusting you.” 

Crawford had been too busy thinking about himself and his own issues in sex to have that kind of ulterior motive, and he hated the idea that Schuldig had taken a different interpretation from it and felt hurt as a result. (Actually, truly hurt, not “hurt” as a route to manipulate people or complain.) Being a telepath didn’t let Schuldig read motives Crawford didn’t fully know or understand himself, and sometimes Schu’s emotions blinded him a bit. Crawford actually preferred that his telepath couldn’t read everything about him.

“It’s just the way we’ve always done things, Schu, not me playing mind games on you. There are also plenty of times when you’ve topped from the bottom.”

“Don’t try to derail this.”

“I’m not. I just didn’t realize this had become a problem for you.”

“It has. _Could_ you deal with being the receiver more often?”

It scared him a bit, something he’d never admit to Schuldig. “I have years of thinking and attitudes I’ll have to reconsider, but I can try. Can you be patient with me? Today is the first time you’ve mentioned it after all.”

“Me, patient? I can try.”

“I have faith in you.”

“It’s nicer to hear that when it doesn’t involve me postponing something I want. Or someone.”

“You’re going to be getting it now.” He’d promised, and Schuldig _always_ made sure it felt good.

“Okay, that’s much better.” Schu grinned as he unzipped Crawford’s fly.

******************************************************

Deep in their carnivore enjoyment of their excellent meal, they’d mostly been eating quietly until Aya said, “Maybe Nagi and I should be the ones living in an apartment together.”

After a moment of surprise, Nagi blushed a little, cute, and replied, “That would be _awesome_.”

“I like you and feel safe with you. It’d be nice to be able to go home and just _be_. I could use some peace and quiet, as well as the right to decide for myself whether I’m going to engage with people.”

“I can just imagine the wild parties you and Nagi would throw,” Yoji had to say. 

Nagi made a playfully obscene gesture at him, but Aya just looked wry. Yoji didn’t think he’d ever seen Aya this relaxed and softened, and he liked it. The saké had definitely loosened him up, though eating might be helping too. He’d have to get Aya to imbibe more often.

Though he, and probably Nagi, kept a careful eye on Aya’s alcohol intake. Aya returning to Schwarz and particularly Farfarello drunk would be a disaster for everyone.

“After everything that went down today, I’m surprised you two would return to Schwarz,” Sasha said. Stirring the pot?

“Weiß would take you two in,” Yoji said to make sure he got that out there. “No problems, no questions. Kritiker values you, and _we_ like you.”

Unfortunately, Nagi’s expression turned sadder, making Yoji feel that he could really use a snuggling, though he didn’t know if Nagi would accept it if someone offered. “There’s no way Crawford could let that happen without making a lot of trouble, and I don’t know if Weiß would survive it. I don’t think even fleeing the country and going into hiding would get him off our trail. The funny thing is that not that long ago he wouldn’t have cared much if we went our separate ways after beheading Eszett and breaking free, but these days he thinks of Schwarz as his family and responsibility.”

“You thought about leaving the country?” Yoji asked. 

“Before you arrived to pick us up, yeah, but I realized that we’d never get away with it for long so what’s the point.” 

It suddenly struck Yoji that he’d really miss Nagi too if Aya and Nagi left. The prickly but sweet kid had gotten under his skin more than he’d realized. What, did he want his own small stable of tsunderes or something? But instead of saying something mushy Nagi would pretend to despise him for, Yoji asked, “If you disappeared, who would train my dumb ass in telekinesis?” 

“Fenris and I have been doing our best in Nagi’s absence,” Sasha answered with a smile. 

Nagi just about bristled. “Fenris is a sweet guy and smarter than he seems, but there’s no way he can teach at my level since he doesn’t have my fighting or practical experience. He’s not particular enough about things either. I’m sure he lets Yoji get away with all kinds of crap.”

“Not as much as you’d think,” Sasha replied.

With Aya smirking at him, Yoji had to protect himself. “I don’t pull ‘crap’ on people helping me with my telekinesis.”

“Really? No laziness? No excuses?” Nagi asked. 

“I was about to say what a good teacher you are and how much I miss you, but now... fuck you, kid.” Yoji’s mock hurt wasn’t _all_ mock. 

“...thanks. You’re not _that_ bad. I feel guilty that I haven’t been around to train you much recently. We’ve been busy, there’s been a lot of drama, and Crawford’s been flipping out now and then about any connections his team has to yours....”

Aw. Okay, that helped Yoji feel better. “I understand.”

“You have a better idea of what’s been going on in Schwarz than most outsiders do,” Aya said.

“Which Crawford doesn’t like either, which makes him act like more of a dick,” Yoji answered. “Speaking of, I’m happy that he hasn’t swooped in here yet to rescue his two baby birds from my corrupting influence.”

“Please don’t jinx us.”

“I used his mother to distract him,” Nagi said. 

“...what?” Yoji asked. “I’m not sure I wanna know.”

“She had something important she wanted to talk to him about. I noticed a spike of surprise from him and Schuldig, but it settled down and they don’t seem to be worried or angsty after it. I’m curious about what she had to say to them but not enough to dig for it. I think they’re about to have sex now. I hope Schuldig _thoroughly_ distracts him with that.”

“Schuldig was abstaining before to keep a mental eye on Farfarello,” Yoji said. Should they be worried?

“Schu can be surprisingly diligent, so maybe Farfarello’s sleeping now.”

“He is,” Aya said. “It’s a combination of asleep and passed out.” His mouth twisted, then he took another swallow of his drink. 

Aya looked like he felt guilty and upset, making Yoji say, “Hey, enough, guys. This is a Farfarello-free zone.” 

Aya felt guilty? After what had happened yesterday and today? Aya’s life would be a lot easier if he didn’t actually have feelings for the little psycho, but for as long as Yoji had known him he’d always made life difficult for himself.

Nagi raised an eyebrow. “You’re the one who brought him up.”

“I’ve learned the error of my ways. I don’t want Aya to make that face again.”

Aya’s lips quirked, and he thankfully looked less depressed. “You’re unhappy with my _face_?”

“Just that one version of it! Aya, you know I love all your other versions.”

“If I were drunk, I’d have no idea what the hell you just said. As it is, I’m still having some trouble.”


	291. "Why do you think Crawford is so set on me never having sex?"

With a bright and somewhat wicked smile, Schuldig kissed and caressed nearly every part of Crawford’s body as he undressed him on a towel on top of the couch. The wickedness could be a bit worrying considering where Schuldig would eventually be putting his dick, but it wouldn’t be Schuldig without some wickedness. Besides, he’d promised and everything felt so good.

He felt _too much_....

Despite his years with Schuldig, Crawford still found it surprising that his body could react so strongly to this kind of attention after all the sex and orgasms he’d already had today. Schuldig played him like a master with his chosen instrument. 

Schuldig soon had him completely undressed aside from his glasses but hadn’t removed any of his own clothing, which seemed unfair, so Crawford undid his fly and found that Schu hadn’t bothered putting on underwear so he let his fingers dance along the head of Schu’s cock. 

“Impatient?” Schuldig asked with a smile and a bit of a moan. “But thanks, since that was getting uncomfortable.”

To his annoyance, Crawford couldn’t help feeling disappointed that the badly timed drama with Aya had prevented him from getting a chance to fuck Yoji (while Schuldig fucked him). Left to his own devices, he wouldn’t set up an opportunity to play around with Yoji. Too proud. The intended orgy hadn’t turned out the way he or especially Schuldig would’ve wanted.

Schuldig bopped Crawford’s nose with his index fingers. “Be more present, please. It takes a lot of the fun out of fucking you if you’re not here for it.” At least he’d fully removed his _Godlike_ T-shirt, since there was no way Crawford would let him fuck him while wearing it for fear of encouraging bad thoughts or dialogue. 

“I’m here. I just have a lot on my mind.”

“I could bite something on you if you need help--” 

“That’s not necessary,” Crawford answered quickly then kissed him deeply and helped him out of his jeans.

It became much harder to think when Schuldig started jerking him off. “See, no biting necessary,” Crawford said with a moan. The way Schu writhed against him helped too.

“That’s encouraging.” Schuldig further encouraged him by stroking two fingers into him that went right to his prostate, sending him straight into waves of orgasm. “I’m flattered by how quick that was.”

“I was as much a part of the stop and start sex today as you were.”

“Frustrated too? Not for much longer....”

Writhing in his sensitivity as Schuldig continued to fingerfuck him, Crawford said, “I really don’t need that much preparation.”

“Just making sure....”

Schuldig’s first thrust in rode the edge of being too much, too fast, nearly painful, but Crawford _had_ kind of asked for it that way. Schuldig gentled it a bit in the rhythm he set, but Crawford found the pleasure nearly overwhelming anyway, completely out of his control, leaving him feeling open, vulnerable, and like he’d been filled with something too foreign. The way Schuldig made sure he got a lot of pleasure out of being fucked actually made things worse for him. But he couldn’t help being aware this time of how much Schu enjoyed fucking him, obvious in every kiss, caress, and thrust. 

Crawford felt a vision trying to come to him. Metaphorically, it was on the tip of his tongue or just beyond the reach of his fingertips. 

Schuldig’s next deep and very thorough thrust traveled along Crawford’s sweet spot and sent a jolt of pleasure through him that blanked out his thoughts, one of the reasons he preferred not to be fucked. He felt like he had so much of Schuldig inside him....

“Brad, you do remember what ticked me off earlier, right?”

“You expect me to answer questions right now?”

Schuldig nipped his ear and said, “Don’t go chasing visions. Stay with me. I’ll be pissed off and vengeful if you don’t, especially since you’ve already been warned. Do I need to fuck you harder to keep your attention?”

His stupid body shouldn’t have reacted positively to that question. “No. I’ll be good.”

“Oh, you will be. One way or another.”

His stupid body shouldn’t have reacted positively to those sinister statements either. 

******************************************************

Yoji noticed Nagi smirking and obviously trying to hold back a snicker, so he asked, “What?” 

“I’m just thinking that if you want to really focus and control your telekinesis you need to lay off the sex. For at least a month. You’ll be amazed by the difference,” Nagi replied.

“No. Way. You better be kidding,” Yoji said and glanced at Aya to see his reaction but Aya maintained a stone face, which could mean anything, while Sasha shrugged and said, “I can’t tell if he’s kidding. I’ve never heard of this before, but I also have to admit that Nagi’s much more powerful than any other telekinetic I’ve dealt with.”

“Why do you think Crawford is so set on me never having sex?” Nagi asked. “Abstinence increases my power and control. And one of the reasons Schuldig keeps calling you for booty calls is that it decreases Weiß’s telekinetic firepower. You’re inadvertently helping him keep your team at a disadvantage.”

Yoji refused to believe any of that for even a second. “Hell, no. Schuldig calls for me because I’m irresistibly sexy and he’s an insatiable pervert.”

“If he could help Schwarz and screw over Weiß by fucking someone he already wants anyway, you think he wouldn’t do it? It would add _spice_ for him.”

“He would do that in a hot second, but that’s not what I was getting at!” Yoji shook his head. “My ability isn’t strong enough to justify it being necessary, and if abstinence is a requirement for nurturing my telekinesis, my telekinesis can go hang because I’m not doing it. I never asked or wanted to be a teke!”

“I’m sure Friendly would be thrilled by your priorities. Like I said before, you’re lazy and not willing to put in the work necessary. Also, none of us asked for our abilities. Calm down. You’re making a public scene.”

“If you think this is a scene, you have no idea.”

“I have Schuldig and Farfarello on my team, so _you_ have no idea, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you to make even a small scene.”

Aya, buzzed, cracked first and snickered, then Nagi grinned. Annoyed, Yoji said, “So you _were_ putting me on. Very funny.” That’s what it took to put a smile on their faces? “What if I agreed to try abstinence?”

“There’s no chance in hell you would’ve agreed to try it,” Nagi replied.

“In the highly unlucky event of you actually trying abstinence, we’d probably be placing bets on how long you’d last,” Aya said, making Sasha snicker.

“That’d be a great idea,” Nagi said. “Though I doubt Yoji would be able to abstain for long, especially since Schuldig would be tossing himself at Yoji even harder, which would actually go along with my prank hypothesis.”

“If Yoji said yes to abstinence, he still might try to sneak some sex in on the sly, as if we wouldn’t find out.”

“I thought you guys cared about me!” Yoji said.

“We do, but Yoji, you have so much sex that going without for a little while wouldn’t hurt you,” Aya answered. “It might even be good for your health.”

“That’s just nonsense. Why and how are you all ganging up on me?”

“I saw Nagi start off and couldn’t resist.”

“Ditto,” Sasha said. “You suffer so prettily.”

“_You_ I’m not surprised about since you already betrayed me once today,” Yoji replied. 

“Given the circumstances, can you really blame me?”

...not entirely, but he didn’t have to _say_ that. “I’m more shocked about Aya and Nagi.”

“You mean the people on an opposing team?”

Argh. Pouting, Yoji said, “I’m not so sure I want to take you all out after this kind of treatment.”

“We’ll be good!”

“You better be. All of you.” 

Nagi smirked but said, “Fine.”

“Aya?” Yoji asked.

“You know I don’t start these kinds of things, but all right, I promise to be good.”

“You don’t have to promise to be ‘good,’ just promise not to taunt me or help in taunting me. In fact, I can’t help hoping you’ll be a bit bad with me.” 

“You’re terrible,” Aya said though he apparently couldn’t help smiling for a moment. But then he said, “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you a bit. I don’t think I could do a club today. With the saké and good food, not sleeping well last night, and the earlier emotional rollercoaster, I’m too tired. It’s catching up with me again. A quiet, safe place to sleep sounds like heaven right now. Please go out to have a good time without me. I mean it.”

Yoji had assumed that Aya’s sleepy-eyed look had come from the saké, but it seemed that at least some of Aya’s mellowness had come from gradually getting actually sleepier. Damn. Yoji had so been hoping to get Aya out on a dance floor and try to get him to cut loose as much as he could, something that might be possible with Aya buzzed, but if he needed to go to sleep Yoji wasn’t selfish enough to deny him that.

“I’d offer to let you sleep over at the apartments above Kitten in the House--it’d certainly make Elena somewhat happier with me--but I’m sure that would start a war with Schwarz,” Yoji replied. Too bad. Too bad Farfarello was a deeply jealous and violent nutcase and Crawford already has a huge bug up his ass about him.

“I know, and I wouldn’t want to put you in the middle of what’s going on with us, Yoji. I figured I would get a hotel room,” Aya said. Before Nagi could say anything, Aya continued, “Nagi, you should go out and have fun with them. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me too much to let you waste your time monitoring my sleep while you work on your computer. If things with Farfarello and Schwarz have gotten so bad that I need a bodyguard... but they haven’t, and I’m not helpless anyway. It’s also not fair for you to work while the rest of us aren’t doing anything useful anyway, so please take a break.”

Yoji had just assumed he’d lose Nagi along with Aya, which would also be a shame since the last time they’d gone out clubbing together Nagi had been hot and intriguing and he’d seen such possibilities. “We’d love to have you with us, Nagi. Right, Sasha?”

“The more the merrier. I don’t mind,” Sasha answered.

Nagi looked very tempted but said, “There’s still the problem of Crawford being a precognitive buzzkill. He ruined my last night out together with Yoji.”

“The hell with him,” Aya answered. “You do so much for the team, and you’re always working. Just this morning he said you were very valuable. It’s past time for you to be getting benefits for what you put into and bring to Schwarz, so he should at least let you have a _life_.”

“If he tries to drag you off, I’ll argue in your defense,” Sasha said. “I would’ve said ‘fight,’ but I doubt Yoji or Aya want that to happen on a crowded dance floor.”

Despite knowing that Sasha didn’t have completely altruistic reasons for standing up for him to spite Crawford, Nagi briefly showed what looked like surprise and gratitude, a momentary crack in the kid’s usual cynical and negative façade. After all, Sasha didn’t _have_ to do anything of the sort or anything at all. 

“I’ll fight harder for you this time, Nagi,” Yoji said. Nagi deserved to have a life! “Last time they caught me by surprise.”

“Kind of with your pants down,” Nagi replied as he smiled. Usually it would’ve come out as more of a smirk. 

“Your pants were in a similar state.” 

“So does this mean you two will defend me for a night of dancing, or are you offering yourself and possibly Sasha too for sex as well?” _That_ he asked with a smirk.

“Are you actually interested in that?” Sasha asked. “Theoretically I’m game, but let’s see how things go and how we feel if it comes up later.” 

The conversation had kind of gotten out of Yoji’s control. That kept happening. Aya’s amused look at him didn’t help. 

Well, Schuldig _had_ promised him personal sexytime but hadn’t delivered, and Yoji _had_ been expecting a threesome or moresome, so maybe he should be open to where the day took him, which made Yoji answer, “We’ll see how it goes. If you’re interested.”

“I may be,” Nagi replied. “But are we going in there with me as your dom or what? You seemed to like it last time....”

Aya and Sasha looked really interested in hearing about this... and no doubt metaphorically busting Yoji’s balls over it. Yoji just said, “Argh.”

“I’ll stop torturing you.”

“_Nobody_ stops doing that. So are you willing to take a chance and go out with us to see what happens?”

“Nagi, you can leave your computer with me. I can keep it in my room with me so it’ll be protected,” Aya said. 

It surprised Yoji to hear the world’s number one introvert working so hard to get Nagi to go out on the town for a wild time, but he found it touching. Aya and Nagi apparently looked out for each other in many ways. As much as some of today’s events might have kicked the two of them in the gut, what Yoji saw of them together made him feel better for them. 

It also gave him a view of Schwarz’s dynamics that Elena would want to have, maybe enough to buy him some forgiveness. Hell, she’d be interested in a lot of what Yoji had seen go down and what it might mean for the future. 

“...yeah, I’m going out with you two,” Nagi replied. “I can use an opportunity to let off some steam. Crawford is in the wrong, as he’s been in the wrong about this the whole time, and his high horse is much shorter than usual today.”

“Yeah!” Sasha looked jazzed about it.

“But make sure it’s worth my while,” Nagi said.

“I will try my hardest,” Yoji answered. “I’m trying to convert you to the wonders of going out, after all.”

“You have a rep to maintain,” Sasha said. 

“That too.” 

“So we went from Nagi trying to prank Yoji into abstinence to us possibly getting Nagi laid.”

“I’m magic, my friend,” Yoji replied. “Are we done here? Does anyone want dessert?” The consensus seemed to be nope. “Aya, do you know what hotel we should drop you off at?” 

“Not really,” Aya answered. “I want a place that’s good to actually just sleep in.”

Nagi fired up his laptop. “The internet will provide. I have a pretty good idea of what you’d like and want.” In a few minutes he said, “Got it.”

“Do I have enough money for it?” 

“Use the team credit card in there. Considering why you need a hotel room, Schwarz should damned well pay for it, not you. I think Crawford would actually agree with me on that one. Don’t worry, it’s good.” 

“Thanks.” Aya looked nearly as surprised as Yoji felt. 

Nagi turned the laptop screen in Yoji’s direction. “Yoji, can you find this address?”

“Yeah, no problem.” 

They paid for their meal and left, just about racing to the car to get out of the brutal cold of a winter evening, made more brutal by the restaurant having been _so_ much warmer. Yoji immediately turned the heater on. 

As he drove, Yoji enjoyed the buzzing air of anticipation everyone in the car had, even Aya, who must have been eager to go to bed. Sitting in the shotgun seat next to Yoji, Aya looked relaxed, which meant that at least some of Yoji’s plan had worked. 

Yoji stopped in front of a hotel that looked nice but not _too_ nice. Nagi really did know Aya. Although Yoji felt disappointed that he wouldn’t get to take Aya out on the town, he wanted Aya to be _well_. As Aya got out of the car with Nagi’s laptop bag, Yoji said, “Sleep well, Aya. Take care of yourself.”

“You make it sound like I’ll never see you again,” Aya replied lightly, with a smile. Damn it, Yoji needed to get him buzzed again sometime when they _could_ spend more time together. 

Matching Aya’s lightness, Yoji replied, “You know what I mean! You _better_ see me again.” 

“_Yes_, Yoji. Thanks.” 

Yoji didn’t drive away until he saw Aya go through the doors and noticed that Nagi didn’t stop watching Aya until Aya couldn’t be seen anymore. 

“Onward,” Yoji said.

“Where are we going?” Sasha asked. “None of us are terribly dressed up, except maybe Nagi, but none of us want to go back to our respective homes for a change of clothes either.”

“It’s fine,” Yoji answered. “None of us are going out to be on display for prospective hook-ups, right? Sasha! You’re only making that disappointed face to try to mess me up, right?” Sasha knew he’d be able to see it in the rearview mirror.

“Yeah, yeah. We already have our hook-ups together in this car.”

Nagi snorted. “I haven’t promised anything.” He looked excited though, and Nagi rarely did that.

Sasha grinned at him. “You haven’t promised you won’t either.”

“I know a place,” Yoji said. “Have faith.” 

******************************************************

“Do you want a room with a really nice view?” the man at the front desk asked. 

“I’m not here for a view so no,” Aya answered. Having Nagi’s computer bag with him made him look more like a regular person checking into a hotel for regular reasons, which he appreciated. “I’ll be leaving before check-in tomorrow.”

“Very good. Here’s your keycard, which has the room number on it. You’re going to the second floor. Please enjoy your stay.”

“I expect to.” He better have a quiet, peaceful, solitary, mostly unconscious stay.

His room had a spare, clean and simple aesthetic, mellow colors, and a thick curtain closed over the long window. When he sat on the bed, it had that perfect balance of being neither too soft nor too hard. The soft sheets, blankets, and pillows smelled as if they’d been dried in the sun and clean winds. No sounds penetrated the walls or window. Restful. He would have to thank Nagi later for making a perfect choice.

Once stripped down to his sweater, jeans, and socks, Aya turned off the lights--which, thanks to the thick curtain, left the room in true darkness--and settled into bed. At first it seemed too strange to be alone in one--with no one else’s breathing, warmth, and weight beside him or on him--but he quickly became accustomed to it again and found all the tension drifting out of his body. No one else to be mindful of, careful of. No one he had to please or placate. No possessive grasp he had to settle himself into. Although mental shields often felt too claustrophobic for him, this time he consciously set them up to be as thick and all encompassing as possible, currently finding comfort in a small, close space. Breathing deeply and evenly, he emptied his mind, closed his eyes, and, with gratitude, fell asleep.


	292. "Yoji, how *could* you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Esinde Nayrall for help going on.

“Thank you. Goodbye,” Mamoru said into his cell phone. How many emergency calls like it had he made today? He’d lost count. In the seat next to him, Katsura cast him a worried glance. Did he look as tired as he felt? Though maybe he didn’t have to look it, since she might be lightly monitoring his mind as well as shielding it from telepaths.

He wanted to kill Crawford so badly. 

A mass slaughter job that had probably been less than half an hour of work for Schwarz had turned Tokyo’s underground and Kritiker upside-down, with effects that probably echoed throughout Japan. Gangs had broken up and reformed. Sting and undercover operations Kritiker agents had spent months on had exploded or died from the deaths of informants, middlemen, and connections. Agents and criminals alike scrambled to find new people to get them what they wanted. Groups desperately looked for psionic agents of their own to help them compete in the new arms race, which made Mamoru graduate some from his school in Okinawa earlier than he’d like. 

The remnants of one of the gangs Schwarz had killed had contracted a telepath to help them take Schwarz down. A bloodbath at a hotel in a sketchy part of town may have resulted from one of their attempts. Something about the style of the mayhem said “Schwarz” to Mamoru. 

The gang that had hired Schwarz found itself besieged from all sides from people out for vengeance and/or looking to take on the top surviving group and gain the title for themselves. Their client hadn’t fully thought out the consequences of what he’d asked them to do, and Schwarz hadn’t volunteered any advice, just taken the money and done the slaughter. The leader no doubt tried to contact Schwarz for help, but if he had the same experience Mamoru had the several times _he’d_ tried he couldn’t get Schwarz to respond to calls, e-mails, or texts. What the hell were they doing?

Chaos and bloodshed reigned throughout the city, requiring Mamoru to make endless personal visits and phone calls to various organizations and parts of his own to try to calm things down. He’d reassigned various Kritiker teams. He hadn’t taken a real break that wasn’t actually him sitting in his car on his way to another meeting or eaten since early this morning. 

Crawford had basically set several bags of shit on Mamoru’s doorstep, lit them on fire, then waltzed off laughing. It no doubt did his massive ego a lot of good to so quickly and easily upend everything in Tokyo.

Mamoru had left Weiß for last. Draco picked up his call after one ring, saying, “Sir, I’m so glad you called.”

“Have you been able to feel what’s going on?” he had to ask.

“I strengthened my shields because things have felt rougher today, if that’s what you’re asking, sir.”

So she hadn’t. A lot of the local telepaths had just strengthened their shields so they wouldn’t have to feel the chaos instead of investigated the cause. It had seemed to be almost instinctive to them, a protective measure. 

Before he got into that, he asked, “Why did you want to hear from me, then?”

“Yoji had apparently been spending a lot of time around Schwarz in my absence, and when Ken confronted him about it Yoji blew up and took Sasha away with him, presumably Schwarz-ward. They’ve been gone for hours, with no word. If something horrible had happened to them I’d probably feel it, but.... I didn’t track them down because that’s something Eszett would do to us, keep us closely monitored all the time. However, if I had permission from his boss....”

Mamoru hadn’t thought he could get much angrier, but the rage flared above his exhaustion anyway. Yoji had exquisite timing as usual. And of course he’d dragged one of Weiß’s telepaths into it with him, the better to hide himself. “You have my full permission to track them down,” he said.

“Yes, sir.” She sounded almost maliciously happy. “I can’t find them--Sasha may have shielded them from being searched out--but I’m scanning for people around them and... uhm.”

“What? Is Yoji okay?”

“...they’re at a club. Yoji and Prodigy are flirting with each other. I can’t read any deeper into Prodigy without breaking into his shields, which he and Guilty might notice so I’m forbearing, so there might be more going on, some detail I’m missing, but it does seem like they’re flirting. I’m sorry, sir. But Yoji flirts with _everything_: women, men, children, animals, and inanimate objects.”

But Yoji knew about Nagi and shouldn’t have been flirting with him, and definitely shouldn’t have continued flirting when Nagi was flirting back. Mamoru decided that he felt angrier at Yoji, who had more experience and knew better.

What was one more wound and betrayal after a day full of them? But this one hurt so much worse.... Mamoru could barely breathe.

“Takatori-sama,” Katsura said softly, offering a check on his wild storm of emotion, support, or a reminder of who he’d become. She’d replaced Nagi in his bodyguard role but in no other way. 

“What should I do?” Draco asked. 

Although Mamoru knew he should approach this in a clear-headed way, he couldn’t see how. “Send the club’s location to Katsura. If Balinese isn’t listening to his team members, _we’ll_ personally retrieve him and Chinchilla.” He wanted to see Yoji and Nagi’s reactions firsthand and deserved to take some time off from his busy day to do something for himself, even if it would be painful. “Wait for further directions for Weiß from me, because I’ll need to do some reassignments since Schwarz did a mission today that blew apart almost everything Kritiker has been working on.”

“...Weiß could go in with you as backup, sir. I’m not certain of all the nuances of the situation, so you’d be going in nearly blind.”

Maybe she worried about what he’d do. For all he knew, she might be right, but he couldn’t confront Yoji and Nagi with such a large audience of people who knew all of them, not when he didn’t know exactly how he’d react when he saw them. “Unnecessary. Just send Katsura the location so she can tell our driver. My bodyguard should be sufficient company for this.” 

“Understood,” Draco answered softly.

“Thank you. Goodbye.” Mamoru ended the call, sighed to try to return his breathing to normal, then said, “Katsura-san, keep me shielded and obscured to the eye the whole way through the club. I don’t want them to know I’ve arrived until I want them to know.”

“Yes, Takatori-sama.” 

******************************************************

The club Yoji and Sasha brought Nagi to seemed like much less of a meat market than the one he’d visited with Yoji in Vienna. People here dressed more casually but still stylishly. Fortunately, Sasha’s casual semi-dishevelment looked like a punk fashion statement, Yoji had dressed to present himself to potential lovers even in knockabout work clothes, and Nagi always looked put-together when he left his home, even in his more goth moments.

Sometimes the three of them danced together, sometimes they danced with others, sometimes two of them paired up. The two blonds in Nagi’s group drew attention from across the room, so Nagi had a parade of picks, and most of those picks found him cute or attractive too. He noticed that no matter where Yoji went or who he went with, he’d occasionally look over to keep track of Nagi, which gave him a warm feeling. Clubs were definitely much more enjoyable if you went with someone or someones who could watch your back or be a fallback option if strangers stopped coming by, didn’t stay, or failed to entice. 

No one caught Nagi’s interest enough for him to stick with them and all the dancing tired him out a bit, so he took a glass of ice water and a seat in a nearby booth to people watch. A married couple that had latched onto Sasha might be out for a threesome, but Yoji walked to Nagi’s table alone with a drink in hand and sat next to him, the “threads” of his small telekinesis flirting with Nagi’s telekinetic field, perhaps unconsciously, perhaps not. 

“How are you doing?” Yoji asked. Sweet of him.

“I’m good. I wish Aya would’ve come with us.”

Yoji grinned. “Me too. Especially since he’s cute when he’s buzzed and sleepy.”

“No kidding.”

“But I didn’t bring you here so you could sit off somewhere by yourself.”

“I just needed a break.”

“Nobody’s ringing your bell?”

It took Nagi a moment to translate that before he answered, “I’m picky, plus there’s the whole telekinetic thing that happens if I lose control.”

“That’s no way to live.”

“Since the other option involves seriously accidentally hurting someone I’m being intimate with, there’s no other option. And before you say that you know I’m not a virgin so it can’t happen all the time, that was with people I knew and was comfortable with and people who know what I am, so there was far less stress.”

“People you knew who knew you, huh?”

“You’re fishing.”

“Heh. I don’t mean to.” Yoji looked somewhat embarrassed. “About earlier--”

“Now that you’re no longer thinking with your frustration and your dick you’ve remembered that doing anything sexual with me would feel like betraying Omi?” Nagi had wondered when that would rear its ugly head again. 

“...yeah. Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t tease you on purpose.”

“I figured.” Why did Nagi have to be so much more mature than 99% of the adults around him? He should be too young to be so resigned. 

“That doesn’t mean you and Sasha can’t do something together if you’re both still interested. He doesn’t have the ties to Omi that I do.”

“That’s sweet of you to offer someone else like that--”

“It’s not like that!”

“--but he looks pretty engrossed in the couple he’s with so I won’t rely on it.”

“I’ll figure _something_ out for you.”

“Thanks.”

“Yoji,” a familiar but ravaged and hurt voice said nearby, Omi’s. Suddenly Omi, in a disheveled suit, and his new bodyguard appeared. “Yoji, how _could_ you?” His personal kinetic field of emotion pulsed with darkness and whirled like a vortex.

Nagi jumped along with Yoji, as shocked and oblivious to their approach. Was Katsura that good, was he too distracted, or both?

“Omi, I didn’t do anything and I wasn’t _going_ to do anything!” Yoji said. “My teke teacher, Nagi-sensei, has just had a bad day and--”

“He’s not alone in that,” Omi said darkly. “You picked a particularly _bad_ day to abandon your team and cozy up to Schwarz, Yoji. You and Sasha are coming with me.”

“Omi, Nagi is your ex. You don’t get to say who he’s allowed to be friendly with.”

Wait. Was this really happening? Was he going to get cockblocked in everything every time no matter what he did, even when he wasn’t even about to have sex? Was Omi going to give him a dressing down once he finished with Yoji, even though he had no right to tell Nagi what he could do? Was Nagi allowed to have anyone, _anything_? Would it ever _end_? Why was everyone doing this? Almost everyone he knew.... No one had the right to do this to him! He had to make it _stop_!

“Are you. _Kidding_ me?!” Nagi asked, his head pounding. When he put his hands down on the table, it rattled harder and made a crunching noise. His glass, Yoji’s, and every glass thing near them shattered, plunging their area and much of the club into darkness. 

The screams and sudden dark brought Nagi back to himself a little. He needed to get out of here before he hurt everyone so he sent his telekinesis out like sonar to get an idea of where everything stood in the room before he busted out through a side wall to get out to the street. Feeling the power building up in him and wanting to explode out, he shot himself straight upward above the buildings, above the mountains, before he screamed out his rage and hurt and let it all go, surprised by the resulting _boom_. 

Feeling somewhat tired and less likely to explode, he fell for a while before recovering himself about 50 stories above the street and landing lightly on a nearby rooftop. Breathing hard, he pounded the snowy roof with just his bare fist about five times, which hurt his hand and didn’t help him feel any better emotionally. At least he currently had less telekinetic power to back up his rage/depression and desires to kill and destroy. He started to shiver convulsively in the cold.

He knew of only one person and place he could go to. 

******************************************************

Once his small telekinetic sense stopped ringing, Yoji allowed himself a moment to facepalm before he tried to face the world. The teen-sized hole in the wall didn’t let enough light come in to let him see Omi’s reaction, so he said, “Before you accuse him of running away instead of dealing with you, Omi, keep in mind that he just saved all of our lives by doing it. He’s a very upset teen alpha telekinetic, and I like myself and you too much to see either of us reduced to a thin paste on the floor or walls.” 

Flashlights and people’s cell phones started to light the space back up, so Yoji _saw_ Omi jump along with everyone else when the sound and force of that _boom_ went off outside. 

“...is he okay?” Omi asked softly, looking somewhat chastened. Yoji hoped it lasted long enough for him to tiptoe away without some kind of punishment, but he never had that kind of luck.

“Alive yeah,” Sasha answered, “‘okay’ not so much.” 

Poor Nagi. The kid just wanted a healthy, happy relationship with someone who loved him back. And to get laid. It shouldn’t be too much to ask, yet it so often was. 

Today had to end soon, right? Yoji didn’t think he could take much more.

******************************************************

Schuldig had been contentedly dozing in his tangle with Brad when _something_ went off that shot him completely awake. Brad too, it looked like. 

“Was that Nagi?” Brad asked. 

“Yeah, but--”

An explosive sound outside somewhere above cut him off.

“Was _that_ Nagi?” Brad asked forcefully.

“_Yeah_. I can tell he’s very upset, but he’s otherwise blocked himself off completely from me. He’s not letting me talk to him, and I currently can’t track his location. Aya’s also blocked off... and asleep but seemingly not in the same area. There’s a citywide ambiance of fear and uncertainty I have to deal with too, so I don’t know what’s going on. I’m scanning for--” Oh, shit. “It seems that Tokyo’s gone to hell in our absence a lot harder and faster than you expected. And Omi caught Yoji clubbing with Nagi, which is what detonated Nagi.” Usually Schuldig would’ve covered for Nagi, but here it was too involved in everything else to skip over.

“_What_?”

“Concentrate, Brad. Yoji is only a tiny part of things, so don’t let him distract you. Be patient. I’m still putting the pieces together.”

Brad untangled himself and got off the couch, definitely in work mode but still sexy. Plus, nude except for his glasses. “You do that. Meanwhile, I’ll be looking at the news and my e-mails and voice messages.” 

******************************************************

With all the noise and clamor crashing about in Farfarello’s head and ears, waking him up, he briefly wondered if the Rapture had arrived. Before he could truly ponder it, the mindbreaker said, ~ Return to home base, Farf. Big things are going on, so we have to set some personal issues aside. ~ 

~ Mayhem. ~

~ In the future maybe. For now we have to circle the wagons and plan. ~

Far less fun, but if he showed steadiness in this it would have to accrue toward the team’s thoughts of him, _Aya’s_ thoughts of him, and “circling the wagons” meant Schwarz would call his kitten back in. ~ I’m on my way. ~ 

******************************************************

Unable to return to sleep after the din, Aya just stared into the darkness toward the ceiling. Away from the whole team, having shut down all of his telepathic senses for a while, Aya couldn’t gather together enough power himself to ask Nagi if something had happened--something about the upset tasted of Nagi--but couldn’t bring himself to try to get the attention of the more telepathic Schuldig for a boost, which would feel like a betrayal of himself and Nagi. Then he felt Schuldig reaching for _him_ but managed to block him out, using walls, clamps, and whatever other metaphorical tools he could think of.

His head seemed too quiet this way. He should laugh himself sick from the irony. 

When the door to his hotel room opened, letting in light from the hallway for a moment, Aya instinctively reached beneath his pillow for a weapon but found nothing. He cursed himself for getting too complacent even as he prepared to use his own body as a weapon. Near total darkness fell again for a moment, before the overhead light switched on. Looking tired, lips nearly blue from the cold, shivering, Nagi stood near the door without his overcoat on. Looking closer, Aya saw tear streaks on his face. How badly wrong had things gone? 

“I can’t be here, Aya,” he said softly. “Not here, anywhere but here. I want to kill almost everyone....”

Apparently _very_ badly.

Aya wanted to get Nagi warmer before they went into detail. “My coat is in the closet to your right. Put it on and come over here.”

It looked almost adorably oversized on Nagi’s smaller, shorter frame, and from the way Nagi’s lip briefly curled he was well aware of it. When Nagi sat on the bed next to Aya, Aya wrapped the covers around the both of them so his body heat might help warm him up as well. Nagi’s skin was cold as ice and somewhat damp. Aya put his arm around him and let Nagi lean into him.

“What happened?” Aya asked.

“Apparently I hadn’t been screwed over by enough people today so Omi showed up at the club to castigate Yoji for flirting with me. Though he didn’t show up until after Yoji remembered that he couldn’t touch me because Omi’s his bro, so it wasn’t like Omi interrupted anything Omi might feel truly justified in interrupting.”

“Yoji’s bro?”

“Bros before hos.”

“Doesn’t he consider you a... bro too? You’re his telekinesis teacher, and he enjoys talking to you. You’re definitely not a ho.”

“Omi was his teammate, friend, and bro for far longer, so he’s more of a bro than I am.”

“Yoji was still flirting with you.”

“Yoji flirts with everyone and everything, you know that.”

“He flirts harder and more seriously with some people than others.”

“Like you, for an example. And are you saying Omi was justified in messing with my life just because we used to date? Whose side are you on?” Nagi sounded annoyed. At least his shivering had died down. 

“No, and I’m on yours. Definitely yours.”

“Good answer. Omi showing up how he did was just the last straw. I’m not allowed to have _anything_. Everybody wants me to do things for them and takes me for granted, but I’m a person too and you’re the only one paying any attention to what _I_ might want or need. I’m so sick of it! Schwarz and Kritiker can _blow_ me. I need to get away from them for a while. If I don’t, I might lose my temper and break someone. Literally.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m skipping town. Hell, I’m getting out of Japan. It’s better for everyone’s health, and maybe they’ll appreciate me more if they don’t have me around for a while.” Nagi looked up at Aya, eyes wide and pleading. “Come with me? Please? It won’t be for forever. Hell, you know somebody, possibly _everybody_, we work with would try to hunt us down eventually, so I’m not talking about forever because it doesn’t seem feasible. Farfarello would still be around for you to have a verbal throwdown with when we get back, and maybe he’ll appreciate you more too if he’s cut off from you for a while and he gets to see what he’s risking. Please, Aya, I really need this, and I think you can use a break from being used too.”

“Earlier today it sounded like you were telling me to stay and stick it out with him.”

“I’m thinking our getaway would just be a few days.”

“We didn’t vacation well last time.”

“Thus it only being a short getaway, and this time it’d be up to you and me where we went and how long we stayed.”

It felt cowardly to run away from Farfarello instead of returning to confront and hash things out with him, but Nagi seemed to really need this and he rarely asked for things. For all his prickliness, Nagi didn’t do well when completely alone, and a big reason for this getaway was that so many people weren’t allowing him to have anyone of his own. This time he’d felt so pushed into a corner that he’d had to detonate his talent above Tokyo. Nagi _needed_ him. _Someone_ should be looking out for him.

It might also be good for _Aya_ to see and experience who he was when he didn’t have Farfarello pushing, tugging, and leaning on him mentally and physically. He’d wanted more control and say over his circumstances....

“We have only the clothes we’re wearing--while you don’t even have a coat--and no weapons,” Aya said. 

Nagi must have sensed Aya wavering, because he brightened as he answered, “For years I’ve been salting money away into accounts Crawford doesn’t know about so we can buy a lot of what we’d need, I don’t figure on us needing to attack and kill people, and I have _my_ weapon with us: my computer. If we’re attacked I have a lot of power to protect us with, and it’s not like you’re helpless without your katana and guns.”

“Schuldig will try to track us down before we manage to leave. I’m blocking him out so far but don’t know how much longer it’ll hold.”

Nagi hugged him hard. “I didn’t know you could do that! That’s great! I’m sending him static back, which is what he sometimes gets from me when I’ve used so much telekinesis that I’m strung out, but there’s only so long he’ll accept that. I can buy our plane tickets online and get us out here fast. Don’t worry about what people will think of your lack of luggage, because in my experience if you have enough money behind you people can accept anything. We’re flying first class, and I can even get us passports fairly quickly. I have a go-bag packed with clothes and toiletries for myself that I can pick up. Sometime after we board the plane and are en-route I’ll e-mail Crawford to let him know that we’re okay and we’ll be back eventually. I can make it so he won’t be able to track our location from it.”

Although Aya worried about... everything, he also couldn’t help feeling a spark of anticipation and excitement too. After the last two days he could use a change of scene. “You already have a destination in mind.”

Nagi smiled, which made him look younger. “Yes! This will be great. Thank you so much!”


	293. "Where are our lost lambs?"

Tokyo had indeed gone to hell while he’d been incommunicado. Although Crawford had briefly checked his e-mail earlier, not much had been going on and he’d been too distracted to really dig into anything anyway. The major action had been on his phone’s voicemail, which he hadn’t accessed until now. 

“Don’t blame me for that,” Schuldig said. “Blame Omi’s bad timing for making me ask for the phone ban.”

“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to accept the responsibility for that. He’s left five voice messages for me today, and each one is angrier than the last. He’s taking this rather personally.”

“What else is new?”

True. “There were a lot of voice messages from our recent client.”

“Well, he’s dead now, so it’s up to whoever is currently heading his group to decide to hire us again or not. Good thing we already got paid.”

Seriously? “This is ridiculous. What kind of underworld is so half-assed and delicately balanced that a single culling could throw it into this kind of chaos?”

Schuldig smirked. “To be fair, Brad, we killed a _lot_ of people this morning. Are you going to call Omi or wait for him to call us _again_?”

“Do you know what he’s doing?”

“Making sure the two lost Weiß kittens get back to the kitten lodge. I get the impression that he’s a bit regretful about upsetting Nagi but otherwise angry. I can’t read more without taking the chance of Katsura noticing. I don’t think it’s worth it.”

“I agree.” Wanting to feel more professional, Crawford dressed quickly. “I don’t want to call him unless Schwarz is fully assembled, but if he calls me, I’ll take the call. Where are our lost lambs?” 

“Farf is on his way. Aya’s conscious now and, like Nagi, is blocking me out. Under different circumstances I might be proud of them for it. Aya seems to be doing it partly by closing off his piggybacking telepathy ability, something he hasn’t done in a long while. I think he appreciates the way telepathy gives him a better idea of what people around him are feeling and thinking. And before you get on my ass again about how I might have prevented this by training him, nobody we know of has ever run into his kind of ability before so we’re all winging it.”

“Are they shutting us out just from being pissed off about what happened earlier?”

“The whole point is that I _can’t_ read them. Duh. But my opinion is that there’s more going on than just that, and that Aya is closed down at least as much to keep Farf out as to keep me out.”

After a bit of concentration, Crawford had a vision of Nagi and Aya traveling in a cab. He would’ve preferred a more detailed and helpful image. “They’re traveling. Could they get an impression of us calling them back even if they didn’t let you in?”

“Sure could. I was smacking an emphatic ‘Come back’ against their mental walls.”

******************************************************

Nagi got back into the cab with his go-bag and told the driver the next address to visit, then switched to Austrian German to resume his conversation with Aya so the cabbie wouldn’t have a clue what they were talking about, something the cabbie should be happy about. “Seriously, the members of Weiß never packed any go-bags of clothes, important belongings, and money and left them somewhere safe in case things went bad or your home blew up? I know your home over your shop blew up along with it at least once.”

Aya’s expression suddenly went very blank. “My family home too. While Aya and I were inside.”

Nagi hadn’t been aware of that part of Aya’s history. “Shit. Sorry.”

“I got her out safely but I was pinned in the wreckage and then Takatori.... It’s... past. And no, none of us did. And get that pitying look off your face.”

“Heh. Sorry.”

“I know you’re not, and I know you think we were stupid.” But Aya’s mouth twisted upward a bit, smile-ward.

“I think some of you still are.” So Nagi wouldn’t tell Aya that Schwarz didn’t know about _this_ go-bag of his, the one he packed after Farfarello killed Tot, Nagi blew up the building in grief and horror... and Nagi awoke in the rubble alone, Schwarz long gone, having abandoned him and not come back. Crawford had slapped him earlier that night too. When they all met up again, they all pretended nothing had happened, but Nagi couldn’t forget and had his private contact create a new passport with an alias for him that very day. Aya lost his sister again during that incident. “Our passports should be ready by the time we get there. Mine already was, and I e-mailed him your photo and told him to give you the same family name and address as what’s on mine to finish it faster.”

“So we’re brothers?”

“Yeah.”

Aya gave him an actual fond smile. “I can live with that.”

Nagi could be such a fool for that smile. “You’ll have to, at least for a little while. We’re not going to stay away forever.”

“They’d hunt us down, Schwarz, Weiß, Kritiker.”

Omi having seen him again today would only increase the probability. “We’re wanted men. I bought tickets for a flight leaving soon, so we’ll have to hustle as soon as we reach the airport.” 

“If it looks like we’re running out of time at the airport, I could carry you on my back and run.”

Nagi’s brain stopped completely for a moment as the image of himself holding on tightly while being held and rubbing up and down against Aya’s back during a jolting dash came up. He managed to say, “I don’t think my dignity would survive.” Among other things. It’d be impossible to hide the inevitable boner in that situation. His face better not be blushing.

“If you say so.” That was definitely a smirk on Aya’s face. 

“I have an e-mail set on a timer to notify Crawford of our short vacation sometime after we’re in the air and out of his reach.” So far Crawford hadn’t foreseen this in time to stop it, something Nagi really hoped would continue.

“Where _are_ we going?”

“I’d like to keep that to myself until it’s absolutely necessary, just to be safer. You’ve been doing a good job keeping Schuldig out so far, but....”

“I understand. It’s just that I seem to spend a lot of time getting moved around in the dark in Schwarz, and I’d appreciate having more of a feeling of personal agency.”

“You’re right, and I at least intend to do something about that in the future, but in this case we’re better off with just me knowing for as long as possible. In the near future you’ll get to choose a lot of things for yourself. It’d be hypocritical as hell for me to rebel over the rest of Schwarz leaving me out of things and then do that to you myself, and I’m not a hypocrite.” 

“Thanks.”

When the taxi stopped, Aya asked, “Should I go in with you or stay in the car? Do you need backup and another set of eyes around this person?”

Aya looked more imposing, but without his weapons or borrowed telepathy he’d be really limited in what he could do, as opposed to Nagi, an alpha telekinetic. Fortunately for Aya, Nagi did have a sense of tact and the intention to use it here. “I’ll be fine on my own, and this shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes maximum. If I need help, I’ll mentally call for it.”

It only took ten. He’d chosen this man partly for his efficiency and dislike of idle chitchat. Nagi got and examined the two passports--which looked official, correct, and somewhat worn as if with use--then handed over the agreed-upon cash. The counterfeiter quickly checked how much Nagi had given him then thanked him for his business. Nagi left. Everything in life should be that easy, fast, and professional.

When he returned to the taxi, he saw Aya somberly taking off his earring and ear cuff and putting them into a sealable pocket in the interior of his coat, zipping it shut. He looked _wrong_ without the perpetual single hanging earring, un-Aya-like. At Nagi’s questioning look, Aya answered, “I don’t know if it matters or not, but I’m trying to make myself a little less distinctive looking. I’ll also wear my hood up inside the airport when I can.” 

His dead sister’s earring and Farfarello’s engagement cuff. “Are you sure you’re okay with that?” Nagi asked. “You don’t have to take them off.” Did it mean something that Aya had offered to do this? 

“I want to feel like I’m doing something on my part to make this work. You’ve set everything else up.”

“You’re only leaving the country and going on the lam with me because _I_ desperately needed to escape for a bit. You’re already doing me a favor.” Nagi handed Aya his new passport. “I’m kind of hosting this, and you’re my guest... though that doesn’t mean I’ll be putting mints on your pillow or anything.”

“Good. That would get a little weird.” After Aya opened his passport and flipped through a few pages, he said, “I’m well-traveled.”

“I asked him to replicate parts of my own passport to make it faster and easier, so....” As Nagi turned the pages of his near Aya’s, he saw that the destinations and dates did match. 

“Apparently my brother and I travel together often.” He sounded pleased by the thought.

The thought pleased Nagi too, but they’d reached Haneda Airport and the cab had stopped, so he just said, “We’re going to have to run a bit to make sure we make our flight.” 

“That’s no problem for me. It’s not too late to agree to--”

“No.” This time Nagi could feel himself _really_ blush. “I’ll make it there on my own two feet.” 

******************************************************

As Brad made phone calls and worked the internet and e-mail to get a handle on how Tokyo’s criminal ecosystem had changed, Schuldig stayed out of his way, partly to avoid distracting him and partly because Brad had to be blaming him at least a little bit for him missing this as it happened. He had some good cause to feel that way, so now wouldn’t be a good time to be in the way and annoying. 

Schuldig couldn’t feel terribly repentant about it though. They’d certainly had a better day while incommunicado than they would’ve had if they’d been swimming in the thick of things. The fuse had already been lit and the explosives gone off by then, so they could only mop up the squishy debris. 

But Brad would appreciate a head’s up on _this_: “Brad, Farfarello’s just come out of the elevator, and he’s heading straight here.”

“Thanks,” he answered. 

At least Brad hadn’t gone pissy enough to stop being polite, a good sign.

As soon as Farf opened the door and saw Schuldig sitting on the couch inside, he said, “I can’t feel or hear my puisín. Is he here?” His clothes looked somewhat burnt and slashed but he seemed uninjured, so he’d probably healed whatever damage he’d done himself.

“No. He’s not next door either,” Schuldig answered. “The last Brad saw, he’s in a cab on the move.” He didn’t mention that Nagi had been with Red since that could cause a tantrum.

“Has he left himself open to your telepathy?”

“No.”

“Hmm. Good. I’m not alone in being shunned.”

“Are you calmer now?” He seemed to be, but Schuldig wanted to hear what _he_ thought of it. 

“Aye. If he comes back only to flee again, it won’t be my behavior triggering it. I learn.”

That would be a nice change. Then again, Farfarello had been very unpredictable the last two days, to himself included. “We’re not going to have as much time for personal drama, not when Tokyo’s underworld is heating up the way it is.”

“Explain.”

“This morning’s mission had far wider repercussions than we expected. A major bloodbath and reshuffling is taking place. The earlier attack on me and Brad was just a taste of it.”

“We could use some work to unify and distract us.”

“Just what I was thinking,” Brad murmured. “We’ve had some job offers, but I’m not going to engage with any of them until the team is fully reassembled, especially since some of the offers might actually be traps.”

“The little bastard is especially upset with us for knocking over his little chessboard,” Schuldig said, “but given the way he’s meddled with us and especially Nagi today he should stew in it.”

“The boy has not been having a good day.” Farf had mixed feelings about that, since Nagi _had_ stolen his kitten but that had worked out in Farf’s favor a bit. Both Farf and Aya could be explosive when that freshly, rawly enraged, so a cooling down period of some time apart should help. 

Schuldig felt a sudden flash through his peripheral senses, like he sometimes did when Brad had a vision. “Why am I seeing them on an airplane?” Brad asked aloud, sounding surprised, angry, and somewhat confused. Possibly, also hurt.

“Them?” Schuldig asked.

“_Them_. Nagi and Aya. In the very near future.” He quickly packed up his laptop to go then went to get his coat and shoes. 

..._shit_. As soon as Farfarello understood, Schuldig applied some telepathic calming on him, which never worked perfectly or totally but every little bit helped. He seethed, radiating a bruise-like mix of outraged emotions, but didn’t explode. Fortunate that he’d spent so much time wearing himself out. 

As he also got dressed to leave, Schuldig kept his moment of pride in their swift rebellion to himself. Given the speed and efficiency, Nagi had to be in charge of it. Good for him! 

Schuldig knew he’d be the only other member of Schwarz to find it hilarious too. “Any idea which local airport they’re flying from?” 

“No. You’ll have to drive as I use the internet and make calls to try to find their flight. Nagi is faster and better at that than I am, so Schuldig, you need to get through their blocks to get more information. Farfarello, hold it together.” Brad just had to say something.

Once poked, Farfarello felt more inclined to assign blame. “You’re the one who let them--”

“I couldn’t have expected this. Apparently this is a snap decision they made, possibly from Persia pushing Nagi. Schuldig, shut Farfarello down if you have to.”

“Yes, sir,” Schuldig answered as he shot Farfarello a “don’t make it necessary” look. 

“That will not be needed,” Farfarello growled as Schuldig _felt_ him hold himself together very tightly. A stew of corrosive emotions kept trying to burst out, but he kept stuffing it back in and down.

“But I’m going to be driving _and_ working on their shields?” Schuldig asked Brad.

“Unless you crack them before you get in the driver’s seat,” Brad replied.

“How much force are you suggesting? Especially since they’re already pissed at us and on the run _as is_? All out assault may make it even harder to get them to stay, Nagi already went nuclear over Tokyo once today, and he’s _very_ fond and protective of Aya.”

“So he’s less likely to have the juice to do so again. But you make good points. You have some sense of discretion; use it.”

Schuldig wished he knew whether it would be better for Nagi and Aya in the end to get away in time or get caught. But he also knew he had to make a good, obvious effort in front of Brad either way. 

******************************************************

As they got onto the plane, Aya put his hand to his head as he stumbled at the same time Nagi felt a sudden burning pain in his own head. “Telepathic attack,” Nagi said in Austrian German. “Crawford probably just saw what we were doing, so Schu’s cracking down on us harder... but not as hard as he could’ve, so maybe Schu is giving us his blessing while making an effort to appease Crawford.”

“Are you sure? That really hurt,” Aya answered in the same. 

“Trust me, he’s done much worse.” 

“...okay, I can believe that.”

“To be safe, we should probably pretend to ourselves that it hurts worse than it does in case Crawford can feel anything through the team link. I’m sure you can suffer melodramatically.” Nagi couldn’t help smirking a bit over that. 

“You’re funny.”

“I know. Here are our seats. See how much nicer they are than the ones we had flying back from Jamaica? First class this time.”

“Hnh.”

That could mean anything, as usual. “We’re almost out of here. We could still pull this off, especially if we’re not sitting on the runway for too long and Schu will get us more time.” Thinking that helped him get through the anxiety.

“Can I have the window seat?” 

“Sure.”

As Aya sat, he asked, “Why would Schuldig help us? Farfarello will probably be harder to deal with while I’m gone, especially since I ran off with you. Sure, Schuldig enjoys tormenting his teammates to some extent, but this will be a pain in the ass for him.”

“He used to run off on his own constantly, so he’ll understand that--” 

“He did? How did Crawford react to that?”

“...not well, but things were different then.” The last part wasn’t a lie but might be overly optimistic.

“...right.”

“Schu wanted us to enjoy a vacation in Jamaica and was disappointed by how soon we had to leave, so that’s another reason. Plus, he may find a way to use our departure to get things he wants out of Crawford. I’m sure he’ll try.”

“Of course he will.” Aya seemed anxious, which made sense, especially as the reality of what they were doing started to smack him in the face. Nagi hadn’t really noticed it until now, because Aya’s minimalist face fooled him too at times.

Although Nagi would dearly love to have Aya with him, he wouldn’t be a good friend if he didn’t give Aya a last chance to get out of what might end in a ton of trouble. “If you’re really worried, it’s not too late for you to back out on this. I would love to have you with me on this, but--”

“No, I’m fine. You need this, and I’m here for you. Besides, I need to get away for a bit too. I’m not chickening out.”

“I wasn’t calling you a chicken! I’m not trying to manipulate you into staying with me, though I really do want you with me.”

“Good. I’m not backing out now.” 

Since crying in gratitude or passionately kissing Aya would just lead to embarrassment at the moment, Nagi just said, “Thank you,” and buckled his seat belt. 

******************************************************

Although it relieved Schuldig on a personal level that he could break through their blocks when he really tried, he really hoped that Brad wouldn’t realize it since he hoped to give those two crazy kids the opportunity to get away by doling out the information as gradually as he could get away with. Having to drive, block break, and monitor Farfarello in the back seat simultaneously made that more feasible. 

“I’m starting to pick up some things. They’re flying Delta,” Schuldig said. 

“That helps,” Brad answered as he kept checking things online. 

It would help Nagi and Aya that Schuldig had the car headed toward Tokyo’s main international airport, Narita, instead of Haneda. He’d wait until they were really out of the way before mentioning Haneda and the need to turn the car around.

“Nagi isn’t booked under his own name or using any of the aliases I know about,” Brad said.

“That makes sense.”

“No, you don’t get it. It’d be difficult to get the necessary ID for a new name this quickly and Nagi does nothing big on the spur of the moment, so he had to have had all that ready in advance of today’s events and troubles.”

Making Nagi not quite the obedient doormat Brad had apparently hoped for. “You know, I can think of a few times right off the top of my head that Nagi would’ve felt justified in leaving this team over.”

“When I killed the bunny girl he loved on your orders,” Farfarello helpfully volunteered to Brad from the back seat. 

“That’s time #1, ja. Plus, you slapped him that night. I’m more surprised that he _didn’t_ leave us after all that. He probably stayed to make sure we actually killed the Elders. Not sure why he continued staying though.”

Brad actually looked somewhat downhearted over that. Had he thought Nagi would _thank_ him for it? 

Brad asked in a quick burst over their link, ~ Does it seems like they’re intending to leave for good or just temporarily? ~ Yeah, he might not want to mention Aya leaving forever in front of Farfarello.

~ From what I’m getting, they seem to be thinking of doing it temporarily, just long enough to rest and recharge away from the people giving them problems. ~ Schuldig felt Brad think hard and fast but couldn’t read the thoughts involved without effort. ~ What, Brad? ~

~ I’m wondering if maybe we should let them go. ~

Wow. ~ And his heart and brain grew five sizes that day. Amazing. ~

~ Fuck you. The timing is horrible--the timing on almost everything today was horrible--but Nagi just reminded us that when _he_ snaps he could take out part of a city. Farfarello is more of an attention-grabbing squeaky wheel, but he actually causes less damage and can be stopped easier. Nagi’s just so quiet and well-behaved that I missed how much his needs were being ignored, and Aya could use a break from getting constantly assaulted by Farfarello. ~

~ So we’re calling off the hunt? ~

~ Hell no. Farfarello’s going to be enough of a pain about Aya skipping off, especially since he skipped off with Nagi; he’ll be unbearable if he thinks we didn’t try to stop them from leaving. ~

~ Don’t make me the only one who’ll deal with him being a pain in the ass. It’s more than I can or should solve alone. ~

~ I think I’ll have to help you on this one. ~ 

Better than nothing. ~ Gee, thanks. ~

~ Another reason we’re not calling off the hunt is that I don’t want Nagi and Aya to feel comfortable and carefree as they abandon us. Thus, I don’t want you telling them that they can leave with my blessings. ~

~ Ah, sadism. I can understand that. ~ Because of that, he wouldn’t let Nagi and Aya know that the pursuit had ended.

“Is there a problem?” Farfarello growled from the backseat. 

“Nope,” Schuldig answered.


	294. "Yes, because their flight from us was all about rejecting *you*."

Aya didn’t have to “pretend” to suffer, not when it felt like Schuldig occasionally rubbed a dull knife against his skull _hard_, making it difficult for him to keep a stoic face. The complex tangle of emotions he struggled under didn’t help. 

He felt very guilty for leaving while Farfarello had troubles and worried for Farfarello (and Schwarz having to deal with Farfarello without him) but also resentful that Farfarello kept trying to drag and push him into something he’d refused multiple times. He’d refused it just yesterday! It had been insulting today seeing Farfarello trying to twist Aya into doing what he wanted in such a ham-fisted and condescending way, as if he only had to phrase it right to fool Aya into going along. 

It too often fell to him to keep Farfarello stable and stop him from murdering people, which shouldn’t be his responsibility. He shouldn’t have to be the one who most often surrendered and sacrificed. It turned sex into a duty, a chore, and with how much sex Farfarello demanded, uncaring whether Aya wanted it or not, that was a lot of chores. Once upon a time, Farfarello had cared whether he truly consented or not. Farfarello needed to be more proactive and work at his own stability instead of leaning on Aya for it. Aya resented being on such a tight leash, and he couldn’t keep up with Farfarello’s quickly and suddenly changing moods: 

Farfarello could lust after anyone he wanted but Aya couldn’t. Aya could be jealous, because Farfarello loved that. Aya shouldn’t be jealous, because he could trust Farfarello. Wait, Aya wasn’t jealous enough. Farfarello only wanted Aya; no, Farfarello needed more people in his bed. Aya should have a threesome or orgy with Farfarello because Farfarello wanted it, but Aya wasn’t allowed to truly want anyone other than Farfarello during it. Perhaps Aya wouldn’t even be allowed to enjoy what other people did with him if Farfarello started feeling jealous. Whether or not that would end all the sex, who could know in advance?

Although there had always been elements of coercion and manipulation in their relationship, Farfarello had once seemed to care more and respect him more and made him feel important. They’d felt like a partnership, a team. These days... did familiarity truly breed contempt? Perhaps Farfarello thought he owned Aya now and thus no longer needed to work at things or worry about Aya’s reactions. 

A major turning point might have been that moment in Jamaica when Farfarello had said he wanted to break up just to see Aya’s reaction because he was impatient with the rate of Aya’s recovery from what had happened during their psychic battle with Breaker. Farfarello had enjoyed Aya’s panicked, guilty, heartbroken reaction to it, how Aya had hurt so badly in response that Yoji felt it all the way in Japan. Aya had _apologized_ to Farfarello afterward. In pain, grieving, damaged, vulnerable, Aya had forgiven Farfarello for it all even though Aya had known damned well there had been other, better, gentler ways Farfarello could’ve dealt with the situation. Although a few good things had come of it, like revealing the psychic damage that battle had given Aya, the lesson Farfarello might have taken from it was that Aya was _his_, no matter what he did. 

Looking back now, with more distance, Aya felt angry at Farfarello for wounding him so deeply so unnecessarily, especially considering how _he_ tried to be so careful with Farfarello’s mind and emotions, and tried to be so patient, something that didn’t come easily to him.

Coercion and manipulation....

Without privacy, unable to retreat alone to the endless loops of his guilty and grieving mind, distracted, his captivity making him fight for his life, Aya had survived his death wish _because_ of the things Schwarz had done to and with him and because of Farfarello’s interest in him. He felt fairly sure that if he had never been taken from Weiß and stayed with them he wouldn’t be alive now. They wouldn’t have been able to lift him from the depths of his anguish, wouldn’t have known what to do with or for him, and it looked like they’d dropped into emotional holes of their own not long after his sister’s death.

But today.... Today.... He’d thought things had changed, that he’d become a full partner in Schwarz, but it currently didn’t feel like it.

Had he lost himself completely somewhere along the way? Who was he when he didn’t have Farfarello and Schwarz in his space, in his face, in his mind? The time Weiß had “rescued” him and cut him off from Schwarz’s influence didn’t count as being away from Schwarz to be himself because he’d been held captive in a _cage_, under surveillance and angry at Weiß over all of it. 

Although some guilt remained over running away like this, Aya thought this might be the best thing for him... though, depending on the results, Schwarz might disagree. Thus, Aya kept shielding thoughts like that _hard_, in case Schuldig managed to hear something that sounded like Aya was shaking off the brainwashing and redoubled Schwarz’s efforts to stop him and Nagi from leaving. 

He’d be with Nagi, but Nagi hadn’t been involved in Farfarello and Schwarz’s worst outrages against him, hadn’t imposed anything on him, and generally wished only the best for him. Since Nagi had such a light, non-invasive presence, Aya might reopen his mind a bit to telepathy once they ended up wherever they ended up. Nagi had even decided to take a vacation because his recent lover was also too overbearing and demanding and far too inclined to cut him off from other people, while Schwarz took him for granted. Nagi deserved better. 

Familiarity bred contempt? Absence made the heart grow fonder. Let Farfarello and Schwarz live without Aya and Nagi for a while to see what they missed.

As Aya felt the plane start to climb into the air, he smiled at Nagi, who looked back at him with a smile and an excited light in his eyes. Too late now, bitches. 

******************************************************

“Haneda!” the mindbreaker said suddenly then started looking around to get out of the lane he currently drove in. “We’re currently heading to the wrong airport.”

Of course. Farfarello’s fingers clenched on the side of the mindbreaker’s chair as he growled, “How far out of the way are we?”

“Not very!”

Liar. Unfortunately, bashing Schuldig’s head--their driver’s head--into something would only make it harder to get to the airport they should have been going to all along, so he abstained from causing a further delay. Although he wanted to throw a big fit at the mindbreaker and Crawford for how they’d allowed this getaway to happen by preventing him from going after his puisín and the boy earlier, it wouldn’t do him any good or make them catch up faster. Besides, if he’d gone after them in a rage himself _he_ might have caused them to flee the country. He so wished he could lose himself in righteousness, utter irrationality, and pure anger, but he knew he bore some responsibility and couldn’t blame what had happened on everyone else alone, although they had big roles in it. 

It’d been so long since Aya had tried to run away from him that he’d become complacent. He’d become complacent in many ways. Lazy. 

He hadn’t even thought Aya could block off his telepathic access so well. Or truly want to.

Already he’d heard the voices and seen some of the colors brightening and changing, so he associated himself deeper into his body to decrease his telepathy and distractions. It quieted things a bit. If they didn’t get there in time to stop the kitten, which unfortunately looked likely, he’d have to get used to reining himself, by himself, in more.

At least Crawford suffered a bit too. Two of his birds flying the coop looked bad for him. That he hadn’t foreseen it only added to the irony. His discovery of his misperception about the boy had to gall as well. How could anyone who truly knew Nagi not know that the boy always had his eyes on the exit? Hilarious. 

Not that it made up for the boy exiting with Farfarello’s Aya. If not for the kitten theft, Farfarello would be laughing his ass off. 

“Their plane just lifted off,” the mindbreaker said suddenly, which made Crawford sigh. 

No! His kitten couldn’t have left him, couldn’t have been _that_ upset.... “Keep going!” Farfarello replied. He couldn’t feel Aya.

His chest ached. He didn’t know why. He hated being this deeply inside his own body when it kept throwing bad distractions at him; he already had enough pain to deal with. Purer pain. 

“What’s the good of getting there now?”

“Proof. Evidence.”

“Farfie! It sounds like you don’t trust me.”

“Then it sounds correct. I need to see for myself; I need to be sure. I want to know where they’re going.”

“What? So you can follow them? That won’t make Aya any happier with you, especially if you try to force them to return. ”

Farfarello hadn’t thought that far ahead, having hoped he could intercept and reassure Aya before he left. Following them abroad would probably make him look obsessive and stalkerish instead of simply showing Aya his love and devotion. He didn’t know if he could keep calm when he tracked them down and had them in front of him, which would make him look bad and might make the boy throw him through a wall. Or pulverize him, depending on how pissed off the boy was.

What the hell could he do? He felt so fuckin’ powerless. 

“I won’t follow. I just need to know.” Thinking about it more, Farfarello added, “Unless they intend to _stay_ away, in which case we _need_ to go after them. Right, Crawford?”

Crawford just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Good to see him suffering too. 

“Okay, so we’re going into the airport?” the mindbreaker asked. 

“Yes,” Crawford answered. “You and Farfarello get out first and go in to get the data we want. I’ll find parking for the car. I’ll come in after you once that’s taken care of.”

They got out at Delta, switching drivers. Although Farfarello wanted to run, needing to work off some frustrated energy, for all the good running would do to get Aya back at this point, he and the mindbreaker simply walked fast. Although Schuldig would play his mind games on all the people around, surveillance cameras would pick up two gaijin behaving very suspiciously and while Farfarello’s long coat hid his damaged clothing, the rest of him still looked violent. 

The voices buzzing in his head seemed louder and sharper inside the terminal, so he pulled his self into his body even more. He couldn’t see staying like that though, so he’d have to practice other methods more when he had the time and fewer distractions. And felt less panicky.

Showing unusual consideration for others, the mindbreaker went to the counter with the shortest line, walked up to the front, and telepathically rearranged the employee’s priorities to get her to give them the information they wanted and the closest people in line so they wouldn’t protest the usurpation. Showing up behind them, Crawford asked, “So?”

“How did you get a parking spot so fast?” the mindbreaker asked.

Crawford grinned. “Don’t ask.” Apparently he’d managed to work off some of his own frustration. 

“Two flights just left,” Schuldig said. “The most likely is Seattle. Seattle! But it’s winter there too!”

“Our tropical vacation didn’t work out well, so maybe the boy decided to go the opposite way,” Farfarello replied. 

“This is a total repudiation of my vacationing expertise!”

“Yes, because their flight from us was all about rejecting _you_.”

“There’s no reason why Farfarello and I should be the only ones feeling rejected here,” Crawford said. 

The mindbreaker looked outraged for a moment before he broke into giggles. “This has been such a ridiculous day.”

“You’re sure about Seattle?” 

“I crosschecked with various minds along the route to that plane’s gate, and they show Aya and Nagi. Even with his hood up, Aya’s pretty distinctive looking. And just pretty. It overshadows Nagi a bit.” The mindbreaker smirked. “Nagi’s false IDs for them made them brothers. So cute.”

If only Farfarello could believe that would stop Nagi from putting the moves on his kitten. He could hope that Aya’s yen for monogamy would hold true enough that he wouldn’t reciprocate, but Aya might be angry enough with him to find the irony amusing. 

His kitten was gone, and he’d truly have to fend for himself, with no one to lean on. His will alone would have to hold back the flood without him cutting himself, without needing a straitjacket. He’d won too much, progressed too far, to get knocked back down to where he’d been. Yesterday’s breakdown had already made Schuldig nostalgic for the days when they tied him up and locked him in a cell.

“_Are_ we going after them?” Farfarello asked. He wouldn’t look like as much of an obsessed stalker if all of Schwarz together tracked Aya and the boy down, and he unwillingly missed the days when the whole team helped keep its newest member in line for how much easier it made things for him.

“Let’s move away from the counter,” Crawford answered.

“Sure.” Schuldig then waved to the employee and said, “Thank you!”

As they walked to the car, Crawford said, “If they just need a few days to cool down, it might be best to give it to them. Nagi just reminded us that it’s a bad idea to get him really upset. If they intend to stay away, my plans will change.”

“How will you know which they choose?” Farfarello asked. 

“Nagi will send us an e-mail. I’m very curious to see what he says in it.”

“He might lie. After all, he must know you won’t let them escape permanently, while a lie might misdirect you long enough to give them a head start. Taking a plane to Seattle doesn’t guarantee them _staying_ there.”

Crawford looked a bit rattled by that, not that people who didn’t know him would notice. Good. Fear Farfarello’s calm rationality! (And be thankful it didn’t show itself more often.)

“From what I could read, they do intend to come back to us,” the mindbreaker said.

Please. “I’ve already established that I don’t trust you.”

Such a pretty pout. “If I had a heart, it would be broken.”

“I have to ponder how to handle this situation,” Crawford said as he took out his cell phone. “In the meantime, I have to make Persia pay for driving them away like this.”

“A phone call can’t make him suffer enough,” Farfarello replied. Persia needed to feel Farfarello’s pain.

“It’s only the beginning.”


	295. "...wow, you're a lot snarkier than you used to be."

Not even the Takatori name kept them from getting held up at the club by the authorities. The cops desperately wanted to know what shot out through the wall into the street, but bystanders inside the club were fortunately confused as hell about how and why it happened and Mamoru had no intention of enlightening anyone, especially since the cops had already been riled up by the massive increase in crime today. Takatori Mamoru, innocent businessman from a prestigious family, wouldn’t know anything about psionics.

Besides, he didn’t have time for this shit and wanted to get Yoji back to his team and the tongue-lashing he deserved.

(Instead of up the wall, he drove Nagi _out_ the wall. Damn it. He should have known better than that.)

Yoji and Sasha played ignorance too. Nobody wanted to have a long conversation with the cops.

When they finally got out, Mamoru had his car follow the one Yoji drove all the way back to Kitten in the House to make sure Yoji didn’t try to make a run for it and stay out even longer, though he shouldn’t have to do this with a supposedly grown-up man. When Yoji found a spot to park his car, Mamoru had his driver leave him and Katsura there as well. 

“I don’t need you to walk me inside!” Yoji said. At his side, Sasha looked somewhat amused. 

“Just making sure you don’t take off,” Mamoru answered. “You know it’ll only get worse the longer you stay away.” Yoji could be such a kid in some ways. “They’re expecting me anyway.”

“I just remembered: Aya wanted to thank you or whoever you had looking after his family’s memorial. Probably you either way, he figured, since you’d get someone to do it if you couldn’t do it yourself. He really appreciated it.”

That stabbed him right through the heart. Well played, Yoji. “He visited?”

“Came here directly from his family grave yesterday. Aya has his own weird way of doing things. I made sure he knew he’d be welcome back here in any capacity, even if it’s just for telepathic training.”

“Schuldig can’t do that?”

“Apparently the situation is a mix of Schuldig not being a good teacher and not being willing, and none of them trusting him not to mess with their heads while ‘teaching’ them. I picked up a lot of interesting information while hanging out with them.”

On the one hand, Mamoru would happily take any data Yoji had soaked up from Schwarz. On the other, wasn’t this Yoji essentially whoring himself out again, something that had nearly destroyed him before? Unless Yoji justified it to himself as him having sex he’d want anyway and managing to pick up important information along the way.... Mamoru might have to talk to him about this. 

Unless Yoji hadn’t made the connection? He probably went there only for sex but offered the information now just to save his ass, which in his mind wouldn’t count as whoring. (If you enjoy what you do, you never work a day in your life?) Maybe Mamoru shouldn’t say anything after all; it could be better for Yoji _and_ Kritiker that way. 

He hoped no one in Weiß said anything like that to Yoji. (Though Rosenkreuz-trained Elena might even approve of whoring.)

“That’s useful to know,” Mamoru answered, “but that’s all stuff you learned from Aya yesterday, isn’t it?”

“I have more, things I got today. I just don’t want to really get into all of it out on the street.”

“There had to be better way of getting information than walking out on the job in a huff and taking a teammate with you. Also, escorting you to where you should’ve been to begin with wasn’t a way I wanted to spend part of my day either.”

“Yes, Dad.”

Unbelievable. “Today is really not the day to get into it with me, Yoji. Schwarz has fucked up a _lot_ of things, big things. While you were trying to get laid, Tokyo’s underground went to pieces as a result of what your sex partners did earlier today, so I’m even less sympathetic than I’d usually be.”

“For real?”

“I’m not making things up just to be funny. I’ve been rushing around putting out metaphorical fires all day long.” Behaving like an adult, unlike some people. 

Then again, he hadn’t dealt with Nagi well. He might’ve reacted better if he hadn’t been running around in crisis mode all day. At least, he liked to think so. Nagi probably wouldn’t want to see him again for a while, so Mamoru decided to give him his space.

“Schwarz didn’t seem to be aware of this.”

“They are now. Maybe they would have checked their voicemail sooner if they hadn’t been involved in an orgy, an orgy you helped along.”

“They would have had it without me.” Yoji’s tone turned somewhat bitter. “In many ways that’s what they actually did.”

As if the person who’d suffered most today was _Yoji_. “So sad. You know who else was left disappointed today? Most of Tokyo. A lot of them are dead now too. Thus I’m playing the world’s smallest violin for you right now.”

“...wow, you’re a lot snarkier than you used to be.”

“You would be too, if you had to do my job.”

The team waited for them in the basement meeting room. Yoji said, “Hey, guys,” sounding smooth and carefree, as if that would get him off the hook instead of sinking him deeper. They responded by shooting him very annoyed looks. “Tough crowd.”

“Don’t start with us, Yoji,” Elena said. “Persia, sir, thank you for bringing our lost lambs back.”

“I wasn’t staying away _forever_,” Yoji protested.

“_When_ were you coming back? Since you went off in a huff and didn’t contact us at all after that, how could I know for sure? Things like that make it hard to rely on you.” Elena almost sounded nearly as disappointed in him as angry.

From Yoji’s expression, he heard it too. “Elena.”

“I don’t care about the fucking--I’m not the sex police--I care about you becoming too loyal to and dependent on people who are sometimes our enemies. I care about you shirking work to go out on booty calls and clubbing or because your feelings are hurt when we bring up understandable concerns. I also have to point out that your reaction to our worries was to do exactly what we worried about.”

Ken looked simply angry, which was very Ken, while Fenris looked worried. Sasha had gone blank-faced and mute, probably figuring himself to be a distant concern and hoping to be overlooked. Mamoru wondered what Katsura made of all of this, but she looked even blanker than Sasha and didn’t give a sign that she’d telepathically eavesdropped on that thought. As far as he knew, she didn’t constantly skim the thoughts of the people around her like Schuldig and to a lesser extent Nagi did.

“This isn’t going to be a regular occurrence!”

“How can I possibly know that or trust that right now? I’m not much good as team leader if you don’t give a shit and go off to do whatever you like whenever.”

Elena came off as so direct so often that Mamoru hadn’t known she could hit these notes of emotional blackmail. It impressed him. 

“I’m sorry, okay?” Yoji sounded apologetic but also defensive. “Today was just a perfect storm of things.”

“I’m not terribly sympathetic, since this was a shitty welcome for my first day back from Okinawa. It makes me wonder if you need my full-time supervision.”

“I don’t! Look, I’ve returned bearing intel on Schwarz, so I got some work done. There’s major turmoil inside the team.”

Elena had her “convince me” face on as she asked, “Is that why Prodigy went nova over Tokyo?”

Shit. Yoji shot a look at Mamoru before replying, “That was part of it. The team split is Aya and Nagi from Crawford, Schuldig, and Farfarello.”

“Was that why Aya let us throw Farfarello out of the house last night?” Ken asked. 

Wait, what? Yoji hadn’t mentioned anything about Farfarello being here.

“Part of it. It evolved from there to become a bigger thing. Aya and Nagi feel like the other three are taking a lot more from them than giving back, and it all busted wide open today. I was in the club mostly to try to coax Nagi out of his dark mood.”

Elena rolled her eyes. “You’re truly a martyr, Yoji. You didn’t have Fujimiya-san with you too?”

“After everything last night and today, he just wanted to sleep, so we left him at a hotel. He’s not big on clubs anyway.”

“Are they upset enough to leave Schwarz?” Mamoru asked. That would be truly convenient.

Though Nagi might not want to have anything to do with him or Kritiker right now.

“And come to us?” Yoji smirked. “I don’t think they’ve hit that point yet, but they might if things don’t improve.”

Mamoru wondered if that situation could be poked into resolving, to Kritiker’s benefit, faster. 

“That’s a pretty devious look on your face, Omi,” Yoji said with a smile.

He’d thought he had a better command of his facial expressions these days, though Yoji also had the advantage of having known him and his face for years. “Your training with Nagi and Aya’s with Elena could be opportunities to make sure they know they can come to us.” 

“Training? What training? When is this training happening?” Elena asked. 

“Yoji said that Aya sees you as the best option. None of them trust Schuldig as a teacher.”

“I already gave him and Farfarello some lessons. When did I become Schwarz’s trainer? Hell, how did this become my life? No one who’s aware of my nasty reputation should want me as their teacher.” 

“You’re good at it,” Sasha said. “You turned the Bruise around in a really short time. These days you’re not so sadistic, either.”

“Maybe I should revert. You’re sweet, Sasha, but this isn’t about me lacking confidence in myself and my skills. I don’t _want_ to teach, especially not when it helps Schwarz.”

While Mamoru could understand her feelings and already knew she was tiring of teaching, this could be a problem. From the “oh, crap” look on Yoji’s face, he agreed. Mamoru said, “I could pay you to train Aya in telepathy if that would help.”

“Schwarz might even let you, but I don’t think it’s a good precedent to set. I only trained Farfarello to get him to stop annoying me, and in retrospect that wasn’t a great precedent to set either.”

“I agree with you, but I also don’t like Aya suffering and being more vulnerable when he doesn’t have to be and I know someone who could help him if she chose to.” 

“Understandable. Plus, you really like the idea of getting Aya out of Schwarz’s clutches and being able to do something for him that Schwarz can’t. I know.”

It helped that Elena provided his own arguments for him. Mamoru had been using emotional blackmail for _years_ and considered himself fairly good at it. 

Mamoru’s cell phone buzzed, showing Crawford’s phone number. “Excuse me. I _have_ to take this.” He trusted his team enough that he didn’t leave the room, but he wouldn’t put this call on speaker.

Crawford started the call with a characteristic shortness. “Persia.”

“It’s about time you called me.”

“I needed to resolve some things before I called. You’ve driven Nagi out of the country and Aya went with him to look after him. That leaves Schwarz down two members, one of whom is our valuable heaviest hitter, which will limit the jobs we’ll be able to take so you owe me damages pay.”

Unbelievable. The _gall_ of the man! “Pay _you_ for damages? After what your team did to my city today, you should be paying _me_ for damages!” Wait, Nagi left the _country_? Aya was gone too?

“We’re not your employees and you never shared your plans for Tokyo with us so how could we have known? But what happened already happened and can’t be undone. The important thing is that Nagi is _gone_ because of you. He doesn’t know how many days he’ll need yet.”

“Nagi being upset isn’t all on me. I’m aware that you, Schuldig, and Farfarello contributed a lot more for a lot longer. At most I was the last straw.”

“I see that Balinese is already making use of his time with us,” Crawford answered dryly, sounding unruffled by the accusation or Mamoru’s inside knowledge of Schwarz. “Ask him if Nagi had intended to return home tonight until you met up with him and so destroyed him that he needed to detonate his power to calm down. Consider the damage _your_ actions could have done to Tokyo if he’d lost all control. You claimed to care about him.”

What could he answer, that Nagi wasn’t usually that emotionally fragile? Or that Nagi’s hard, prickly shell hid most things? That he’d been so upset that he hadn’t thought how he’d make Nagi feel? They sounded like whiny excuses, and he shouldn’t have to explain himself to Crawford anyway. He _would_ ask Yoji, but not right now, especially not when Crawford might be right. Mamoru couldn’t let himself fully feel his own guilt during this conversation either, not when Crawford might pick up on it like a predator smelling blood.

“No answer, Persia? I suppose we both already know the answer. So you’ve deprived my team of Nagi _and_ Aya. Farfarello is less stable without Aya, so that’s more damage you owe me for.”

“Since you know that happens, why did you let Aya go?” Mamoru asked as he ignored the “Tell me what the fuck is going on” face Yoji had on. 

“We’re not Aya’s jailors.”

“_That_ certainly wasn’t always true. I don’t even believe you now.”

“After what you did, Nagi needed him. Nagi shouldn’t be alone right now.”

And, given the team split Yoji had mentioned, Aya was the only member of Schwarz Nagi wasn’t upset with. But Mamoru had the impression that Crawford had lied about something, even beyond the obvious. “I’m not giving you damage pay. You must have known that, so you only called me to annoy me. Mission accomplished. I’m still deciding how I’ll deal with Schwarz over the mess you’ve made.”

“Likewise. One way or another, we’ll make you pay.” Crawford ended the call, obviously intending to make it seem ominous. He succeeded.

Did this mean Schwarz intended to go back to war with Kritiker? Mamoru actually wouldn’t mind that, especially since the Schwarz people he cared about had left. Open warfare would make a nice change. 

“Omi, what’s going on with Aya?” Yoji asked. 

As Persia, Mamoru didn’t have to say, but he remained Omi enough to answer, “Nagi left the country in a hurry, and Aya went with him to look after him. Crawford claims he doesn’t know when they’ll be back. Being the smirking bastard he is, he called to demand I pay him for the monetary damages of two of his team members being away.” He felt a bit sick to his stomach. “So, Elena, we can shelve the discussion on training Aya for now.” 

“Nagi was so upset about what happened at the club that he fled town? And took Aya with him because his mind wasn’t in a good place and he _needed_ support?” Yoji sounded angry and accusing. Justifiably.

Mamoru really shouldn’t have taken that call in front of the team. Or at least not in front of Yoji. Needing to strike back a little, Mamoru said, “So your intel about Schwarz is already somewhat outdated.” After what Yoji had done, he shouldn’t get the option of making all of this about how Mamoru had failed Nagi and Aya.

Yoji winced then answered, “Nagi was going to return to Schwarz after the club. Aya too. They were going to stay within our reach.” Before Mamoru crashed in and became involved.

“At least they aren’t in Schwarz’s reach either.”

Ken asked, “Am I the only person in this room who has no idea what’s going on?”

“I’m trying to be polite, so I _don’t_ know as much as you think I do,” Elena replied. 

Fenris nodded. Sasha looked like he wanted to be somewhere else. 

Katsura sighed, reminding Mamoru that she was there. What must Katsura make of all this embarrassing drama? 

Well, he paid her to deal with it.

“Wait. Elena, Katsura, could you make sure Nagi and Aya aren’t in Japan?” Mamoru asked. “Crawford might just be messing with us.”

“Omi,” Ken said, still trying. 

“Let’s first make sure the situation is what I think it is, Ken.”

After a moment, Elena said, “Even after some digging, I’m not reading them anywhere locally.” 

“Ditto,” Katsura said. 

“Why is Crawford blaming you for Aya and Nagi leaving?” Ken asked. Then his eyes widened and he said, “Wait, I think I have some idea, and I probably don’t want to know anything further.”

What the hell could Ken be imagining to put that look on his face and sound in his voice? Better to come clean. “No! I just ran into Nagi and Yoji at a club today, and after the horrible day I had I didn’t react well, and after the day _he_ had Nagi got upset about it. Apparently upset enough that he grabbed Aya and left Japan for a vacation to help him cool down.”

“So Schwarz doesn’t have its crazy powerful telekinetic right now. Hunh.” Ken grinned. “You talked about ‘dealing’ with Schwarz. Will any of it involve violence against them?”

“Maybe. Crawford was somewhat threatening on the phone himself.”

“So it’d be self-defense.”

“They still have a guy who can see the future, a very powerful mindreader, and a berserker who can cut you or throw lightning at you, so don’t get _too_ cocky,” Elena said.

“I’m still pondering,” Mamoru replied. “Depending on how things go, Yoji, Aya and Nagi might be better off out of the country. They’ll surely be having a better time than we are. Elena, do you have any suggestions on how to punish Yoji for blowing off work like he did earlier today?”

_That_ made Yoji close his mouth. Mamoru hadn’t forgotten about him. 

“If we don’t have something else we’ll be doing instead, I thought we could start by making him could open the shop tomorrow morning. I have ways of making sure he wakes up and gets moving on time,” Elena answered. “But you said our team may get some reassignments?”

“I have to get a better idea of the changed landscape and see what difference the reassignments of other teams may have already made before I decide what job to give Weiß, so Yoji can do a morning shift at the flower shop.”

Annoyed, Yoji replied, “You might be able to make me get up, but since I’m not a morning person I can’t promise I’ll do a good job.”

Mamoru shrugged. “It’s not like you have to be Einstein to do it.”

“I’ll figure out what I can do to make it fun for _me_,” Elena said with an evil smile.

Should Mamoru be worried for Yoji? Nah. Yoji had it coming. “You can’t kill or maim him, Elena, but otherwise I leave it to your discretion.”

“Omi!” Yoji protested.

“I was already having a bad day, and you made it worse. You don’t seem to repent it at all either. So we have to find some way to make sure you don’t do it again in the future, which requires some suffering on your part.”

“It doesn’t. It really doesn’t. What happened today isn’t going to happen again.”

Yoji stated that as if his running off had been something that had occurred instead of something he’d _done_, as if he had no responsibility for it. Like saying “mistakes were made” instead “I made a mistake.” Wrong attitude. 

“Really? Right now Elena doesn’t trust you about that and neither do I. That’s a big problem for us, so it has to be a big problem for you too. You can’t just run off whenever, and especially not to go to Schwarz. I’m not going to let you recast this as you going to them to get us intel and mislead them about us, because I don’t think you can keep your motives straight in that situation now or in the future. They could just as easily use _you_ against _us_. All of that will only get worse if hostilities between us and Schwarz do end up heating up the way Crawford just insinuated they might. I’m not changing my mind.” He wanted Yoji to _know_ that if he went to Schwarz for recreation in the future, he did so without Kritiker’s blessing and might even be considered a traitor for it. 

Mamoru could see Yoji trying to think up a good comeback or way to charm himself out of this situation, so he didn’t give him a chance. Mamoru said, “Good night, everyone. I’m going back to my office because I still have work to do.”

“I’ve notified your driver that he should return with the car,” Katsura said. “He expects to arrive in five minutes.”

He didn’t know if he’d ever get used to that, no matter how convenient it was. “Thank you.”

“Good night, sir,” Elena said. 

Yoji had the nerve to look somewhat betrayed as Mamoru left. Ironic and deeply annoying. Mamoru far preferred Sasha’s neutral expression; Sasha had to know that he’d gotten off lightly but wisely didn’t look smug over it or openly celebrate. Yoji had so obviously been the motivating factor in what had happened today that Mamoru didn’t feel he needed to discipline Sasha any further than letting him see what happened to Yoji over it. Plus, Sasha seemed to still be uncertain enough of his welcome within Kritiker and the team that he wouldn’t want to chance it by rocking the boat, something Mamoru could use. Maybe he should be sad that Sasha already knew at his young age when to keep his head down, but after the events of this grindingly long and bad day Mamoru could only feel appreciative. 

At least Yoji hadn’t been petty and thrown Sasha under the bus by trying to make sure Sasha faced punishment too. He didn’t want to lose _all_ respect for Yoji.

Hopefully, Yoji wouldn’t try to pull it on Elena tomorrow.

As he sat in his car, Mamoru finally let himself feel guilty and worried over Nagi. He hadn’t known he could hurt Nagi that badly and easily, but he should have. Yes, Nagi had faced a few emotional hits before Mamoru had burst in on him, but Mamoru’s strike had been the one that broke him. Mamoru made Nagi flee the country!

Although she sat next to him, Katsura managed to make him feel that she’d given him space and privacy to think. Once again, he wondered what she thought of all this, if she thought him an idiot or wondered what the hell was wrong with all of them. 

“Katsura, I’m tempted to ask you something, but I don’t know if you’d give me a truthful answer, not when I’m your employer,” Mamoru said.

“Many times when an employer asks for something like that, he doesn’t actually want the truth. A good employee understands that,” she replied. “There are also boundaries I don’t want to overstep.”

“In a way, you just answered my question.” He felt so _tired_. 

“I hope it was helpful.” 

“In a way, it was.”


	296. "Given your wickedness, he’d be better off introducing Shion to you through your chest."

“So?” Farfarello asked from the backseat after Crawford ended his call. 

“Persia is pissed off,” Crawford replied with obvious amusement. 

“And worried about Aya and Nagi, as he should be, the selfish little asshole,” the mindbreaker added from the driver’s seat. “He’s thinking and feeling so loudly that even his telepathic shadow can’t stop me from hearing some of his thoughts. He’s considering open war with us, and the possibility makes him somewhat happy.”

“Warring with Kritiker again would make _me_ happy,” Farfarello said. He’d appreciate getting _something_ positive out of this horrible day.

“I can’t foresee yet whether it would give us any benefits,” Crawford answered. “It would definitely make things harder... but it _would_ be fun.”

******************************************************

“I’m sorry, Nagi, but I really need to sleep,” Aya said. “My hotel nap wasn’t long enough.”

“You’re sorry...? You don’t have to stay awake to keep me company all the time!” Nagi replied.

“That’s cute, but I don’t intend to stay awake for days. It’s just that this will be a long, boring flight and maybe you need some help getting through it.”

“I can’t get internet here, but I have some things on my computer I could do and a book in my carry-on. I’ll be fine. Besides, I’m good at being on my own.” Usually. When Aya gave him a Look, Nagi said, “Yeah, I know it’s why you’re here, but I can handle an airplane flight on my own for a few hours. You can take a break.”

“I’m trusting you on that. Thanks.” Aya put the shade down on the window, closed his eyes, and gradually went to sleep, showing a lot of trust in Nagi and Nagi’s ability to protect him. 

It might give Nagi a warm feeling if sleep didn’t also make Aya so enticing and Nagi felt kind of bad about feeling that. Napping peacefully, Aya looked less pinched and prettier. Something about the way the long tendrils of red hair framing his face rested against his shoulders begged for someone to touch them. His lips were slightly parted, which was so damned unfair.... Nagi turned his eyes away to stop looking.

Having been told no or denied on things so often, Nagi felt a strong urge to really do something _really_ forbidden, especially since he’d wanted it for a long time, but he _couldn’t_ do anything to Aya, the person in his team who most looked after Nagi’s interests, Aya who trusted and liked him. Aya who already had a lover who treated him like a sextoy too often.

Nagi started to really realize that taking off alone with his crush object might be a real problem and terrible temptation. He should get two single rooms at the hotel for them but couldn’t resist the idea of getting one double room. There would still be two different beds! Aya would be closer, which would be nice. Nagi could control himself, really. Left completely to himself, Aya tended to become withdrawn and he had his unresolved situation with Farfarello to brood over, so Nagi should keep him close to keep him upbeat--well, “upbeat” by Aya’s standards--and interactive. 

He really didn’t want Aya to screw himself up while helping _him_. That would be so unfair, and Nagi wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. 

Damn, when had _that_ become a thing? He was really ruining his reputation.

It might be okay if it only applied to Aya. Nagi should be allowed to indulge a pet. 

That thought was awful yet hilarious. Schuldig would approve. Hell, Schuldig would probably hand him some condoms and a tube of lube--at _least_\--and nudge him at Aya while saying he should make sure Farfarello isn’t around.

Schuldig would say that Nagi’s pervy thoughts about Aya couldn’t do him harm as long as Aya didn’t know about them. 

Damn it, hormones made a person stupid. Nagi wanted to blame all of this on adolescence but he’d seen too many adult men get stupid the same way. 

But at least thinking pervy thoughts about Aya gave Nagi a respite from thinking angry and hurt thoughts about everything else that had happened, so maybe he should keep quietly perving on. He couldn’t lose himself in work because his work involved everyone who’d angered and hurt him. 

Once upon a time he’d felt hurt and angry all the time, though he hadn’t always let all of it show. Hadn’t even let himself really _feel_ all the time, even though the emotions were still underneath and stuck to him like a shadow, because it would wear him down too much. Life after Eszett was supposed to be different than that, and most of the time it was, but it looked like he’d have to maintain his quality of living himself. 

Currently with a little help from Aya.

The fond feeling that brought made him glance at Aya again, a mistake since the pervy feelings flared even higher from the visual reinforcement. Emotions made life so damned difficult. 

******************************************************

The apartment seemed so achingly empty and hollow without his kitten in it, and his voice had echoed off the walls the one time he made the mistake of vocalizing. Getting this apartment should have been a great victory in their relationship as a couple and membership within Schwarz, yet they’d barely spent a day in it together before it all fell apart, turning to ashes. Although he dearly wished he could blame God, the mindbreaker, and Crawford for all of it, he knew a great deal of responsibility for it fell on himself. 

That, and Aya’s absence, had _really_ started to sink in. There would be no kitten in his bed or bath or within hands’ reach. He wouldn’t get to hear his voice or tease him. That teasing flash of red he sometimes saw at the corner of his eye was his mind playing tricks on him, not his kitten at his back.

Although he’d merrily scared Crawford with the possibility of the boy and his kitten staying away forever, Farfarello figured that Aya would surely return at some point because his katana remained in its rack. Aya might leave the guns and knives behind without worry, but he’d never abandon Shion. Although Farfarello had preferences among the weapons he owned, he never had a relationship with any of them anything like Aya’s with his katana. 

With his soul associated this deeply within his body, when Farfarello picked it up he thought he could feel the impressions of the grip his kitten used most often in the braid on the sword’s handle. Although the sword was beautiful and well-cared-for, it was obviously a working weapon, not an ornamental piece, and all the better for it. The scabbard looked somewhat battered from his kitten’s charming tendency to sometimes use it as a bludgeon or a way to block enemy strikes. 

Holding Shion made him feel somewhat closer to his kitten again.

It worried him that Aya had departed unarmed. The boy might be an alpha telekinetic, but Aya had the luck of a man God especially hated and drew trouble like a magnet. It made Farfarello feel slightly better knowing that Aya wouldn’t consider it beneath himself to use sharp table knives when threatened but still. Telekinesis could forcibly “heal” some injuries but not the way Farfarello’s ki use could accelerate a body’s natural healing processes; the boy could _damage_ Aya while trying to help him.

The boy might love Aya, but today’s events had proven that love wasn’t always enough. 

The physical and mental silence in the empty apartment weighed on Farfarello too badly and heavily. It would be hard to sleep here and intolerable to wake up alone, without the warm fullness of Aya’s body within his arms, without the feel and sound of him breathing and living close by. He lovingly returned his kitten’s sheathed katana to its holder, packed a small bag with clothing and necessities, picked up Aya’s pillow (which retained his scent) and a blanket, locked the door, went to Crawford and the mindbreaker’s apartment, and set his stuff down on their couch. 

Although they seemed to want to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, the answer was so obvious that neither did so. They looked at each other, and Farfarello didn’t have to be a telepath to know that they used the mind link to discuss the pros and cons of him sleeping in their apartment before deciding it would be for the best. Maybe he could get Schuldig to give him some tips on how to use his own telepathy better so he wouldn’t have to keep shutting it down completely in his kitten’s absence, though he wouldn’t hold his breath.

“Nagi’s e-mail has arrived,” Crawford said as he sat with his laptop on the kitchen table. 

“You’re aware that he’s the only one good at tracking the location they come from,” Schuldig said. 

“Yes.”

“And that he’s probably fiddled with it to make sure the location doesn’t read correctly, which would make it even harder for us to tell.”

“Yes.”

“And that you won’t hire someone to do it for us because our new employee would find out some things about Schwarz and Nagi’s beef with us that you’d never want to admit or let get out. _And_ that a lot of the community is so aware of you killing temporary hires after you’re done with them that almost no one wants to work with us.”

There should have been steam rising out of Crawford’s head. “_Yes_.”

The mindbreaker smiled. “Good.”

Yes, _suffer_, Crawford. Crawford’s bizarre need to safeguard the maturing boy’s nonexistent innocence had led to a lot of this. 

As Crawford read the very short, terse e-mail on his laptop, the mindbreaker and Farfarello read it over his shoulders. Once done, Farfarello asked, “Can we really believe he’s telling the truth?”

“Possibly,” Crawford replied with a sigh. “I’d be happier if it told us how many days he intends to take, but it seems more truthful that he doesn’t know how many he needs.”

“Besides, Farfarello thinks Aya at least will come back, even if it’s just for his katana,” the mindbreaker said, smiling when Farfarello shot an annoyed look at him for reading his thoughts. “Did he really _name_ it? Wait, of course he did. Hmph. He never formally introduced us.”

“Given your wickedness, he’d be better off introducing Shion to you through your chest,” Farfarello muttered. 

“Flatterer.” Telepathically, the mindbreaker said, ~ I’m not really one of the people you’re angry at. ~

~ I can be angry at anyone I please, rational or not, and don’t tell me you wouldn’t have happily fucked my kitten without me. ~

~ So I won’t tell you that, but if you’d let me handle things earlier Aya might not have balked. ~

That might even be true. 

“If he’s still away at the end of three days from today and hasn’t given us an estimate of when they’ll be back, we’ll go after them,” Crawford said.

“If they’d truly run away to stay away, three days would give them a big head start on running and hiding,” Farfarello answered. Going after them by himself would probably just result in him getting his ass telekinetically kicked six ways to Sunday.

“I know you heard me earlier when I said we have to give in to Nagi on _some_ things so he won’t blow up in our face, and he’d be especially pissed off at you. Also, you just said yourself that Aya will return at the very least for his katana.”

“Are you going to inform Nagi of this deadline?” the mindbreaker asked. 

“On the morning of that day, if it reaches that point. Now I need some alone time to concentrate on my e-mails and voice mail, because some of the job offers have been changed or cancelled in reaction to the fallout from this morning’s job. We no doubt have some new ones showing up in reaction to it too.”

“Sure, Crawdad. Farfie, sit with me on the living room couch. I have something I need to get you up to speed on.”

That didn’t sound good. “I’m not sure I want to.”

“You have no choice in the matter, especially since you tend to react to surprises by sticking a knife in them.”

They already distrusted his sanity and self-control and wished to put him in restraints again, so he should save his obstinacy for things that really mattered to him. With that in mind, he pushed his belongings to the other end of the couch and sat next to the mindbreaker, close but not enough to touch, so Schuldig had to extend his arm a bit to put his hand on Farfarello’s knee, the gesture and pressure of this old signal of his telling Farfarello to pay attention and focus. A familiar, somewhat comforting--especially in times of uncertainty like this--but also unwanted gesture. As much as routine and ritual could soothe him, he didn’t want to return to how things used to be for him in Schwarz, didn’t want to be the uncontrollable lunatic they managed and slightly looked down upon again. 

Farfarello knew he had to be careful since his behavior over the last two days had the mindbreaker and Crawford looking at him in that old way again and thinking he could explode at any time and that they’d be safer with him in restraints. In Aya’s absence, they might revert to older ways of doing things. Of all of Schwarz, Schuldig had treated him the most like a person and he’d been the closest to Schuldig, but the mindbreaker’s patience and willingness to put himself out for others were finite. Farfarello had come too far and won too much to lose it all now along with his kitten. 

Aya’s presence had protected him in ways he hadn’t even realized. 

“We got a call from Brad’s mom today to let us know that Wicked and Malice broke my body’s sister--Emory’s sister--and a bunch of other people out of Rosenkreuz’s Argentina branch,” the mindbreaker said. “She wants to come see me, and we said yes. We don’t have a date yet. I wanted to run this by you in advance because yesterday you were fragile about your own sister, perhaps picking up on Aya’s obsession with his.”

Farfarello really hadn’t expected this. “That’s not what’s going on.”

“You never gave your dead sister that much thought before. She was just one in the family group of victims.”

She had been an innocent among them and hadn’t deserved what happened to her at all. The last thing she saw and felt was her God-damned brother killing her.... “I don’t want to talk about it.” Didn’t want to talk about it, didn’t want to _think_ about it. Truly. He didn’t have Aya around to lean on or talk him down here. “Isn’t this going to be weird for you?” The mindbreaker liked to talk about himself, so let him.

“Yeah, a bit. But she already knows there’s not much left of her brother’s personality in here, it’s been ages since she’s seen him anyway, and we both went through Rosenkreuz’s school of hard knocks so she _really_ doesn’t expect to get the brother she knew. She looks a lot like me, so she’s pretty.... This could be interesting.”

Schuldig had to be one of the most upbeat and optimistic people Farfarello knew. His being a sadomasochist probably helped that.

“Do you want to fuck her?” Farfarello asked, because it was _Schuldig_. 

“I certainly wouldn’t turn it down if she was up for it, but I’m not expecting it. I don’t even know what kind of relationship we’ll fall into when we’re actually with each other.” The mindbreaker looked at Farfarello with an interesting expression on his face.

“What?” Farfarello asked.

“It still weirds me out sometimes seeing you with your lighter, shallower scars and healthier skin tone and hair. Being this close to you makes it difficult to avoid it.” 

That might work in Farfarello’s favor by reminding Schuldig and Crawford that he’d changed, but the hunger he saw in the mindbreaker’s gaze worried and tempted him. Not that Schuldig had been repulsed by him before.... “You’ve always said I was pretty.”

“It’s even more obvious now.”

“Is this idle talk or are you heading somewhere with this?”

“Yes.”

“Schuldig.”

“It depends on you.”

“Are you truly that insatiable? Wait, of course you are.” But Farfarello would’ve said yes immediately if he didn’t know that his kitten would explode on him and feel even more justified in staying away from him after finding out it happened. And he would find out, because that was how life and living with telepaths worked.

The mindbreaker shrugged. “Nobody’s forcing you to do anything. I’m curious about your upgraded body and ki use, while you need something to calm you and help you sleep.”

“The side effects would be worse than any drug could cause.”

“So Aya can cockblock me even from thousands of kilometers away? Typical.”

“You’re bold. He’s only been away for a few hours and you’re already moving in.”

“You know I’m not big on propriety. I just go for what I want, and I haven’t had you in a long time.”

Farfarello realized. “You’re trying to distract me. It won’t work.”

“It’s not like I’m offering out of altruism, and I have it on good authority that I’m very distracting.”

“Get thee--” Farfarello broke it off when he realized how Schuldig would respond to the rest of that quote.

“--behind me, Satan? I have no problem with that position.”

“You’re annoying.”

“You’re surprised?”

“No. If you’re done telling me useful things I _need_ to know, get off my couch so I can sleep.”

“Fine, fine.” The mindbreaker took his hand off Farfarello’s knee and stood up. “But tell me if you change your mind. Also, don’t get naked on this couch unless I’m involved.”

“Thou hypocrite.”

“Not this time, since it’s _our_ couch. You can be naked on your own couch alone or with other company any time you want.”

“Now you’re just reminding me that my kitten isn’t around to be naked _with_.”

“So fragile you are!”

“Fuck off.” He couldn’t even fault Schuldig for being his usual self. In his own way, the mindbreaker had tried to help. It’d _failed_, but an attempt had been made.

It certainly beat being tied up, strapped down, chained up, hung upside-down from the ceiling, and locked in a room. Some would say he should count his blessings, but that hadn’t been his style for many years, most of his lifetime. 

******************************************************

Schuldig bid Farfarello a fond farewell in favor of sitting at the kitchen table next to Brad, more receptive company. Besides, Brad seemed to be frustrated and suffering, while Schuldig had to bask in that and spread his sunshine around. 

~ So, this morning’s job appears to have resulted in quite the clusterfuck, ~ Schuldig said, telepathically so Brad would be more comfortable being honest and Farfarello would be less likely to kibitz from the couch. 

~ It’s not that bad. ~

~ It’s thrown Tokyo’s underworld into chaos, gotten more locals hunting us, messed with our jobs, and possibly put us back at war with Kritiker. ~

~ That last one was the result of Persia messing with Nagi and Nagi leaving Japan. All of that could’ve happened without this morning’s job. ~

~ Yes, but it sure as hell didn’t _help_. ~

~ ...we may have gone too far this morning, and my foresight missed the result from it not being able to foresee the excessive stupidity and weakness of said local underworld. We won’t suffer monetarily over _that_, just what we’ll miss from not being able to take jobs requiring Nagi’s talent and skills while he’s away. ~ Brad sounded very disgruntled, but at least he’d admitted that some of it was his fault. Progress.

~ Your precognition can’t see stupidity? It’s amazing you foresee anything then. ~

~ You sound far too happy considering all the shit that happened today. ~

Schuldig couldn’t help grinning. ~ I’m still mad at you for prioritizing that call from Persia over our nookie, and not everything worked out as I wanted, but today was exciting in good ways! ~

~ Nagi and Aya leaving the country? Not getting to have sex with Balinese? Farfarello being unstable as hell? ~

~ I got a lot of nookie, I got to order you around and see you suck Sasha off-- ~ 

~ For your sake, I hope you enjoyed it, because it’s not happening again. ~ Aw, so grumpy about it, which made it even better!

~ --I nearly lured Aya into bed with us, I got to meet Emory’s sister by video-phone and I’ll get to see her in person in the future, and I got to kill a _lot_ of people. Besides, I enjoy chaos. ~

~ Of course you do. Much more than I do. Schwarz will suffer a downgrade in pay for as long as Nagi’s away. ~

~ I know the amount of money we get is your way of feeling like you’re winning at life, but we’re rich already, and if we’re unhappy with our earnings we can always get Nagi to embezzle more from people when he gets back. And he _will_ come back. ~

~ I better not find out that you helped Nagi get away. ~

~ Who, me? No way. His being away gets me stuck with more duties in the team, and you know how much I hate having to do more work. ~

Brad still looked suspicious, but as long as he didn’t _know_ anything.... 

~ How is Farfarello doing? Do we have to worry about a homicidal rampage? Him coming into our bedroom to stab us in our bed? Though whatever you answer, I’m still locking the bedroom door for how it would slow him down and give us some warning. ~

~ I wouldn’t argue against that precaution, but so far Farfie is holding onto his self-control tightly, partly because he really doesn’t want us to restrain and lock him away again and partly because he wants to be able to give a good account of himself to Aya when he returns. We can use that. ~ Schuldig kind of missed strapping Farfarello into his straitjacket; the motions had been weirdly soothing. ~ Farf’s more depressed and scared than angry and homicidal. ~

~ “Depressed and scared” isn’t reassuring. ~

~ Can you foresee anything on that? ~

~ No, for the usual Farfarello reasons. ~

Namely, too unpredictable and unsettled, and often unknown in advance even to himself. ~ So we keep a close eye on him, which is easier to do in our apartment. ~ If Farfarello went on a murder spree in the building they lived in, the media attention would make it easier for the people who wanted to kill Schwarz to find their home base and Schwarz would have to move again. 

~ So, why did you proposition him? Because he’s pretty, because you want to experience his ki use during sex, or because you thought it might actually help him? ~

~ All three, plus I miss fucking him and he’s marinating in his suffering, making him even tastier. ~

~ You’re consistent. ~ 

~ Farfarello is unpredictable enough that I don’t have to contribute more of it. See how good I am to you? ~

Brad looked unimpressed by Schuldig’s noble deed. Well, fuck him. No, really, fuck him. Schuldig set his hand in Brad’s lap and stroked him. ~ Take a break. You can stare annoyed holes into our current job offers tomorrow. Besides, we’re keeping Farf awake while we’re in the kitchen with the lights on, and a sleep-deprived Farf is crazier and more mulish. ~

~ I could still ponder our jobs in the bedroom. ~

~ I’d prefer it if you didn’t. ~

~ I’m not exactly in the mood for sex right now. ~

~ The way you’re getting hard right now says otherwise. ~ Schuldig knew Brad wanted it. 

~ My cock responds that way to almost anyone who strokes it, and it’s not the head I think with. You’re not worried that Farfarello would see us having sex as rubbing his face in his loss? ~

~ I’m _not_ staying celibate the whole time Aya is away. ~ No way in hell. Schuldig felt concerned and sorry for Farfarello, but he wouldn’t stop living his own life over it, so he shouted to the living room, “Hey, Farf, you’ll be fine with me and Brad fucking in our bedroom, right? Not that I’ll accept no for an answer.”

“Then why’re you even asking?” Farf shouted back. 

“I’m being considerate!” 

“Then go fuck yourselves. I’m not so fragile.”

“See, he’s fine with it,” Schuldig said as he leaned into Brad’s side and kept on petting his dick through his pants. “I’ll let you top.”

“‘Let’ me? Get in the bedroom now.” Considerate and sweet of Brad to let himself be manipulated.

“Yes, sir!”


	297. "Let's not get into an argument over who sucks more."

Choosing the couch to sleep on had been the right idea. Although his body and soul still longed to have his kitten entwined with him, reacting like an addict denied his fix, the narrow couch demanded a single sleeper, completely unlike the empty sprawl of their large bed. Two people couldn’t sleep comfortably here.

Would Aya be sleeping alone? Smitten with him, Nagi might take advantage of the situation and court him, maybe while telling himself that he was cheering Aya up and was better for the kitten than Farfarello. The two of them feeling hurt, vulnerable, and betrayed, now left to themselves to do whatever quiet interests they liked together while playing hooky, could be a potent combination for romance. Despite his loyalty and sense of propriety, Aya might even fall for the boy, thinking that a temperament that mirrored his own would suit him better, unable to see that he _needed_ someone who surprised and pushed him sometimes. 

Inclined toward sadism, Farfarello’s mind kept bringing out lewd images of his kitten with the boy in hundreds of scenarios with varying levels of Aya’s consent and enthusiasm, all of them making Farfarello hard, scared, and frustrated. (He would like to believe that his kitten wouldn’t agree to have sex with someone else but also hated the idea of someone forcing him.) So much fucking, sucking, stroking, and tonguing in various positions, all of them offending his mind in some way, even as his kitten-deprived body kept reacting to the pornography. Seeing Aya in any sexual situations, even with other people, would always set him off, while he couldn’t help finding Nagi’s pretty looks and slender, lithe form aesthetically pleasing, especially when his usually pinched and unhappy expression was replaced by this love, lust, and bliss. 

Aya lost himself so well in sex that Farfarello couldn’t help hungrily watching him during it no matter the situation, especially since Farfarello didn’t always have a good view of Aya’s face during their sex play. While Aya spent most of the time deep in his own thoughts with layers of distance and reserve providing him both armor and a moat against other people reaching him, physical pleasure, once it reached him, grounded him very much in the present moment and his present lover. In such a sensitive state, he reacted immediately to touch, his body begging for more. It should always be to _Farfarello’s_ touch.

Only Farfarello should get to ride him bareback and fill him with his seed. 

Farfarello especially growled over the boy using telekinesis to keep Aya’s limbs pinned to the bed and his legs open wide as Nagi fucked him with a large, wide dildo made of telekinetic power, with the boy stroking himself off as he watched Aya’s little pink hole stretch and pulse around it and heard Aya gasp and moan in pain, pleasure, and embarrassment as he struggled against it all. Even though it made a very pretty picture.

In the scene that disturbed Farfarello the most, his kitten and the boy were lying together entwined but fully clothed, their smiling faces close as they whispered to each other, loving and simpatico, with even their hair mingling. Farfarello knew too well that Nagi had things to offer Aya that he didn’t and hated the idea that Nagi could justify moving in on Aya as _rescuing_ Aya and not be completely wrong. Nagi shared a similar introverted temperament and many of the kitten’s quieter interests and was gentler and far more stable than Farfarello, _safer_. Farfarello knew that his kitten worried about him doing harm to himself as well as others. Many people would think Farfarello selfish for hanging onto Aya in the face of all that. 

Those people could go hang. Farfarello knew what he needed and wanted. Aya would be _dead_ now if not for him, his care, his presence, his efforts. If not for Farfarello’s pushing, Aya wouldn’t be with anyone even though he needed people, hurting himself. The boy and the slutkitten tried to take advantage of Farfarello’s groundbreaking, which made them poachers. 

He would even be encouraging the boy to find a mate if he’d set his sights on someone other than Farfarello’s kitten. In a team of pairs, Nagi had understandably been feeling shortchanged and miserable over his single status. The thought of Nagi having sex appeared to, hilariously, give Crawford the vapors, while the shy and misanthropic boy approached people he liked awkwardly, which would also entertain Farfarello. If the boy could find someone of his own, he’d spend less time making eyes at Farfarello’s husband. 

The thought of Nagi lusting after Aya brought Farfarello’s brain back to its fevered pornographic fantasies, from Aya deepthroating the boy’s cock to Aya on his hands and knees, flushed and moaning as the boy took him from behind, to-- 

Farfarello didn’t even really notice his awareness of an approaching psionic lightning storm until the mindbreaker stopped right in front of him and yelled, “Farf, _quit it_! Or at least choose one fantasy to torment yourself with because you flipping through the channels like this is distracting and annoying as hell!”

“Am I disturbing your nookie?” Farfarello asked with a smirk, inclined to spread the pain. A good fight might settle him. “Maybe all this wouldn’t be showing up in my head if you and Crawford screwing nearby hadn’t set it off.”

“No, I’m quite sure you’re horny and frustrated on your own, but show some self-control.”

“_You_ don’t.”

“Let’s not get into an argument over who sucks more,” Crawford said. “No one really wins in that.” Farfarello and the mindbreaker must have had some look on their faces, or he’d foreseen something, because Crawford said, “I’m not in that competition!” 

Smirking, Schuldig replied, “Depends on the kind of sucking we’re talking about, but I know you mean the bad kind of sucking. I hate to tell you this, but you don’t always get a choice on whether you’re in the competition or not. You _are_ in it and you know it.” 

******************************************************

As Aya drove their rental car, Nagi had his laptop open on his lap to check the local hotel and entertainment options on the internet and tried not to stew in annoyance. Although he’d made the arrangements and his money paid for it, he wasn’t old enough by US standards to legally sign for, pick up, or drive the car so Aya did all of it. 

“I’m smarter than a lot of the adults I know, so I can’t wait until I’m old enough that I don’t have to use proxies for things,” Nagi muttered, then had an odd feeling of expectation after it. From the sudden tilt of Aya’s head he seemed to be expected something too. Once he figured it out, Nagi asked, “Were you expecting to hear someone in the car say that I’ll never reach an adult size?”

“Not in those exact words, but yes.”

“Even when Schuldig isn’t around he can insult me. I’m going to have to punish him for that when we get back.”

“Will you explain it first or try to take him by surprise?” Obviously Aya approved.

“He can be slippery, so I should probably nail him and then tell him what he did to deserve it.”

“He’ll probably whine that it’s unfair.”

“I’ll remind him that the crap he so often pulls on me is unfair. He’ll take it and like it.”

“Good choice.”

“Hopefully you’ll feel the same way about the hotel room I just booked for us.” Nagi felt fairly confident that he’d gotten it right by remembering to go with “something nice but not _so_ nice that Aya would feel uncomfortable about it.”

“Are we going straight there or stopping elsewhere first?” 

“I’d like to do some clothes shopping first. You only have what you’re wearing, while the clothes I have in my go-bag don’t suit my current style well.” He’d been glad to have a coat in it though, since he’d left the club too quickly to retrieve the coat he’d gone in with. Seattle might not currently be as cold as Tokyo was, but it was too cold to spend much time outside in just his clothes. 

“I’m paying for my clothes.”

“I’m not stopping you.”

“We’ll need more luggage for them too. I need some personal care items too.”

“Obviously.”

“I’m getting the urge to stick my tongue out at you.”

“I’m resisting the urge to say something dirty in reply. Schuldig really is in the car with us.” 

“I have no answer to that.”

“Good. You know, you might be able to use the luggage, clothes, and toiletries you pick up here to create a go-bag for yourself later on.”

“I’m vacationing with you, not choosing you as my lord and master.”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s your loss. I just found a listing for a store nearby where we can get some clothes in our style. Since I’m not your lord and master, _please_ buy some fetishy or kinky stuff to wear because you want to lift my mood by being eye candy for me. You know you do.”

“I don’t remember agreeing to that.”

“C’mon.”

“They’re not exactly cold weather gear.”

“Nobody is stopping you from wearing a coat outside or in cold rooms.” It might even add a bit of a thrill for Nagi to know that only he would get to see it.

“Hnh. We’ll see what they have. Give me directions.”

“Thanks.” In between giving them, Nagi asked, “What would you like to do while we’re here? I’m thinking we should hit a few touristy places, if you’re okay with that.”

“Depends. Nothing stupid or kitschy.”

“I’m not Schuldig. Maybe a museum or two.”

“I like art and I don’t usually have people to see it with.”

“Seattle Art Museum and maybe Chihuly Garden and Glass? Though I doubt the outdoor section of the glass museum will be as good as it’d be in a non-winter month.”

From the light in his eyes and his soft smile, Aya approved. “We won’t be here in a non-winter month, so I’m fine with it. Maybe some music stores for you?”

How thoughtful! So unexpected in Schwarz! “It annoys me that the internet and MP3s are killing those, and yeah. Used bookstores for you? Seattle apparently has a lot of them. A lot of adult shops too for some reason, not that I need any sextoys since I ended up getting all the ones Schu gave me and Mamoru for X-Mas after our breakup and I already don’t use _those_.” Damn, just because he was accustomed to having someone--Schuldig--motor-mouthing nearby didn’t mean _he_ had to babble to fill the quiet. He felt wound up, mostly because he still couldn’t believe he’d succeeded in getting away. Calm down, Nagi.

“Once again, I have no answer to that.”

“That’s probably for the best.”

“Yes please to the bookstores.” 

“You’re not going to want to go skiing, are you? Because you’d have to do it alone since there’s no way I’m skiing when I can just _fly_ instead. Flying beats strapping boards to your feet, putting long sticks in your hands, and throwing yourself down a mountain any day.” 

“No, I have no urge.”

“Good. I’d fly you around if you wanted and asked for it. ” Nagi found it weird, refreshing, and _civilized_ to make plans without having to defend them or argue about them, just two people being considerate about each other’s likes and interests.

After a little comfortable silence, Aya asked, “Do you know how long we’re staying here before returning to Japan? Because from how you’ve been talking we _are_ returning.”

“I’ve thought about it,” a lot, “and I’m figuring three days unless something happens to change my mind.” His attempt to vacation in Jamaica had been a failure that quickly sent him--like Aya and the rest of Schwarz--running back to work, and he needed to see if he and Aya did better this time.

Aya’s smile started to curl a little... meanly. “Will you give Crawford advance notice on this?” 

Nagi couldn’t help giving a nasty smile in return. “Yeah, but not right away. Let him worry and stew for a bit. Hey, there it is. Make a right turn here.”

The store turned out to be large and looked well-stocked once they got inside, and Nagi immediately found something he liked for Aya. “Try this on. It has grommets along the top, and how tightly you tie the laces through them on the sleeves determines how much skin you show. That’s useful.” It would show the top of Aya’s shoulders too. It was black and clingy around the torso, completely unlike the lace-up brown _sack_ top Omi inexplicably wore for a while.

“Why is everyone in the team so obsessed with dressing me?” Some of Nagi’s dirty thoughts must have shown on his face, because Aya said softly, “I already know why you all want to undress me.”

“Because the non-mission outfits you wore while with Weiß showed that you need help.”

“I had no one to dress _for_ while I was there. No point to it.”

Wow. Nagi hadn’t expected that answer or that kind of honesty. Hearing that made him feel sad for Aya too. “But you dressed up for your targets?” They’d been speaking quietly in Japanese the whole time, so it should be okay. Seattle had more Japanese speakers than many American cities, but it didn’t look to Nagi like any of them were in this store.

“We killed people who did horrible things and deserved to be afraid as they died. I needed to look intimidating.” 

Nagi had to smirk. “Was it also necessary to look kinky too?”

Aya raised an eyebrow. “Most of you have been happier with the clothing choices I’ve been making lately, namely looking kinky most of the time, not that I need anyone’s permission about what I wear.”

“Yeah, you’ve been doing better but positive reinforcement is still a good thing,” Nagi replied. “We’re attractive men and believe in maximizing our eye candy status. We do it for our own good and for the good of the people around us.” He deliberately made it sound a bit pompous, taking some pointers from their fearless leader.

“That sounds like a rather Crawford answer, aside from how it also sounds like we think we’re doing a public service.”

“Aren’t we? I’m sure Yoji would agree.”

“He’s not the most objective judge of these things.”

Nagi doubted Aya would take it well if he told him that Schwarz’s consensus was basically that his striking colors, pretty face, and excellent physical condition made it a crime to let him wear mundane, frumpy, baggy clothing. Aya looked good in his current blue sweater and slim-fitting blue jeans, but _anyone_ could wear those. Yoji probably felt the same way.

Then again, Yoji might say that Aya should take all of his clothes off and leave them off.

At least Aya took the shirt to try on. Progress. 

As they continued browsing and selecting, Aya said, “I don’t see _you_ picking up any ‘kinky’ clothing items.”

“That’s not so much about you being Schwarz’s eye candy as about me having already spent way too much of my life fighting off pedophiles. Thanks for reminding me.”

“Ah. Sorry.”

“Yeah. Hopefully, I’ll grab some _positive_ attention while we’re here.” Someday he would finally look like an adult and the world better watch out. 

******************************************************

Farfarello saw them at his feet: sister, mother, father, Sister Ruth, so bloody, three of them dead (though the one who most deserved it remained alive though badly injured), his sister wrapped in that fucking angel tapestry Sister Ruth had given them. (No, his “father,” “mother,” and “sister,” not biological family. His mother was.... His mother was....) The voices didn’t sound as loud now and they’d stopped screaming, although his soul still screamed. He had blood on his hands and the blade he held.

Knowing that Sister Ruth would survive, he should finish her off now but couldn’t get his small body to move to do it, having no more choice about that than he had about killing them all. He was trapped in this set of events, this moment, and couldn’t wake up or change it. It _hurt_.

He’d never seen his memory of this so clearly before, and he’d preferred it that way, but he’d been getting closer and closer to recovering it since meeting Sister Ruth for the last time, when she reminded him of what his broken, outraged mind had previously hidden, that he’d killed his family, not a robber as she’d told the authorities, and that he’d been set off by her revealing that she was actually his mother. 

She had lied to him all her life. His family was a lie. They had all lied and made him an unwitting accomplice to it. His life was a lie. _He_ was a lie.

He’d committed and excused his years of mass murder based on another massive lie.

God was still a lying monster, but not the way Farfarello had thought. God had still destroyed his family but used Ruth and Farfarello to do it, made him _complicit_, perpetrator as well as victim. God always found new ways to make things worse. He pulled the wings off flies for sport, made worse by how He’d given them wings to begin with.

How could he have killed them and _not known_? What else had God gotten him to do that he hadn’t remembered?

It had been so much easier thinking that God had used a robber to kill his family. He’d still loved his mother and father that way and scorned Sister Ruth only because after everything she continued to preach about a merciful and loving God. (Of all people, how could she claim she never lied?)

She’d said he had to know his sins to truly repent them. It astounded and outraged him that despite everything he’d done and his total repudiation of her evil God she hadn’t seemed to repent _him_. 

Farfarello had massive gaps in his memories of this time of his life. He did remember being an orphan, one of many in the home, but one considered broken and unadoptable, who flew into a rage whenever someone told him he should praise and thank God for his life and be _grateful_, who hurt himself and others and sometimes claimed he heard voices no one else could. He’d made what he’d previously thought was his first kill while in a manic, berserk rage, the first of many, at about the age of 9. Soon he spent most of his time in prisons or asylums in between bloody sprees of vengeance against others and at times against his own body, God’s precious gift to him. Eventually Eszett picked him up and threw him into Rosenkreuz, another kind of prison. They let him out to kill at least but abused, drugged, and thrown him back into a cell when they didn’t use him.

It all started here. He’d killed them himself, except for the one who most deserved it. Sister Ruth got another 14 years of life, unlike his sister, an innocent in all this. 

In the moment, he’d been swamped by rage, pain, confusion, and what the mindbreaker said had been the first drowning waves of his own telepathy. Now he felt an additional, unwelcome guilt, a little for the man and woman who’d raised him but a lot for the little girl who’d probably hadn’t been in on it and thought that her biological brother was murdering her and the people she loved. Even knowing that God had to be enjoying his torment, Farfarello couldn’t help himself.

Suddenly he sensed someone behind him. Although he tried to make his dream self _look_ first, he couldn’t stop himself from turning around and _stabbing_. His blade sunk deeply into Aya’s gut, making Aya crumple and cough up blood. As Aya fell and the life left his eyes, he looked so sad... but not surprised. Not surprised at all.

Heart pounding, choking on a scream, Farfarello woke up reaching for his kitten, his husband, to prove what he just saw wrong, but came up empty. As waking sense slowly returned to him, he remembered that Aya had left with the boy, fleeing to another _continent_ to get away from him. 

That might have been a wise choice. 

Farfarello felt wetness on his face. The ruin where his left eye had been could still shed tears, letting him weep on both sides of his face. He already knew so well that God enjoyed suffering, but perhaps God joyfully took sustenance from tears as well. 

“He hasn’t even been gone a day and you’re falling apart,” the mindbreaker said from the other end of the couch, making Farfarello jump a little. He hadn’t seen Schuldig in the dark or felt him. 

“Some of this started before he left,” Farfarello replied as he caught his breath. He resisted the urge to scrub the betraying tears off his face because he couldn’t fool a telepath of Schuldig’s power on that kind of thing.

“Right, this ties into your freakout yesterday.”

“The one that freaked _you_ out.” Again, Farfarello felt the temptation to let the mindbreaker--who could literally change his mind--erase or bury his newly recovered, more painful memories. In many ways it would be easier, and even if he didn’t trust Schuldig not to throw some unwanted things in, maybe he should consider that the payment he had to make. 

_No_. No. He fought God determining the path of his life, so he certainly shouldn’t invite Schuldig to do it. Lies only helped God, and Sister Ruth had been His appropriately lying handmaiden until suddenly, twice, when it would be most devastating, she hadn’t been. It was hard to live with the truth, but life was hard.

As Farfarello’s eye adjusted to the darkness, he could make out the mindbreaker’s outline. Facing him, perhaps seeing him better than he could see Schuldig, Schuldig said, “If our roles had been reversed, you would’ve felt concerned too.”

“...aye.” 

“Are you concerned about yourself around Aya?”

“...sometimes. Between my bloody madness and God’s... he may be in danger from me.” He couldn’t always control himself.

“You’ve come a long way in a short time. Yeah, you changed yourself because of him and with his help, but you’re the one controlling yourself and keeping it going. You can keep working on it in his absence.”

“I should be past that.”

“This may be something you’ll have to fight for the rest of your life. It sucks, but it’s up to you if you succeed or decide to continue. Is it really so shocking that God would let you think you won then attack you when you least expect it?”

Compassion from the mindbreaker, surely a sign of the apocalypse. Or it might be manipulation. “You don’t believe as I do. You’re just taking on the trappings of what you think I need to hear.”

Schuldig shrugged. “You can fight on, or give in by tossing out all the victories you’ve earned, shrugging back into your straitjacket, staying in small cells behind doors locked from the outside, and going back to just being Schwarz’s or God’s weapon. It might be easier for Schwarz in some ways if you give up, but I thought you had more pride. Fighting on has to be better than that alternative. Am I making sense to you?”

Yes, but... “Why are you doing this? You delight in the suffering of others, enemy and ally.”

“I haven’t suddenly become St. Schuldig. If you follow my advice, you don’t need as much of my supervision and your mind is pleasanter to be around.”

“Can you read me easier like that?” 

“When you no longer sound so much like rocks grinding over sharp metal? Yes, but me removing the memories you recovered, the way you asked me to yesterday, would _also_ give me an easier in for the future and you’d probably lose some additional unexpected bits of memory because that’s the way minds work.” The mindbreaker stood. “But it’s up to you, it’s your life. Though I would like to remind you that your choices also affect the people around you, like Aya.”

“And like you, who has to always hear.”

“And me. If you didn’t appreciate this little talk, try to suffer and dream quieter for the rest of the night.”

“I’ll try,” Farfarello muttered. He had a lot to think about. 

******************************************************

As Schuldig slipped off his robe and got under the covers with Brad, he said, “It gives me a bit of a headache to translate a pep talk into Farfarello’s personal language, but hopefully it’ll be worth it. The things I have to do for you and your team....”

“Sure, _my_ team.”


	298. "It’s amazing what you can get in Tokyo on short notice."

As Aya walked into the nice but not too nice hotel room and set his bags down, he thought that Nagi had his tastes _down_. It worried him and made him feel a bit paranoid. 

Ugh. Sometimes thinking his thoughts made him feel very tired.

He went to the bathroom mirror to put his sister’s earring back in. It had bothered him seeing himself without it in the mirrors while trying clothes on: his head seemed and felt lopsided. Once he had that in his ear, he looked at the gold engagement ear cuff Farfarello had bought him for X-Mas. The gloves they wore on the job made rings inconvenient, but the undivided circle of a ring had a symbolic meaning a cuff didn’t. If he wore the cuff, no one would recognize him as “taken”; it only had meaning to himself, Farfarello, and his nearest associates.

The meaning it had to him....

Aya didn’t know what would happen and what he would do when they went back. What he would do depended on what Farfarello did, which was unpredictable. He’d feel much calmer if they’d settled it before he’d left, but Nagi had needed him immediately, hashing things out could take a very long time, and Farfarello would have fought hard to stop him from going. 

None of that left him any closer to deciding whether he should put the cuff back on. 

Did he intend to try to work things out with Farfarello? In many ways it’d be the path of least resistance, which didn’t necessarily make it the right thing to do. Farfarello’s sudden shift in the last two days had been scary but also exacerbated and highlighted problems they already had. Aya didn’t give up on anything easily, and he had strong feelings for Farfarello, but.... His thoughts kept going in useless circles.

“Are you okay?” Nagi asked, making Aya, who hadn’t noticed him coming into the room, almost jump a little. 

“I’m just thinking.”

“It looks painful, so maybe you should stop it. Let me know when you’re ready to go out.”

“Sure. It’ll be soon.”

“Okay.” 

Aya could see Nagi’s worried look at him in the mirror as the boy left the room, worry there and something else, something that might become a problem during their stay. He knew that Nagi had a... thing for him but being in such close quarters alone with him made it even more obvious, though part of the emotion might be gratitude for coming to Seattle with him in his time of need. Nagi didn’t ask for much from Aya, but his eyes had such _longing_ in them sometimes that it hurt to see it, especially in someone he cared about. He didn’t care for Nagi in the same way Nagi wanted him and he doubted Nagi would want Aya to be with him out of pity, so that aching longing would have to continue.

Although Nagi had asked, Aya had refused to model clothes for him as he tried things on because he didn’t want to lead Nagi on in any way.

Aya missed being oblivious to that kind of thing, because it hurt him to reject people he cared for. Farfarello often wore him down into agreeing through constant requests and demands, but Nagi’s looks at him also wanted an answer and all too often Aya’s only answer was no, he didn’t want it and also he couldn’t be everything to everyone or both. With so many people longing in his direction, he’d inevitably have to turn some of them down. His former obliviousness might have been better for other people too, since then they could say that maybe Aya would say yes to them if he _knew_ they wanted him.

Aya put the ear cuff back on for now and said, “Let’s go,” as he walked out into the bedroom. Anything to stop him from thinking for a while. 

******************************************************

The pounding at his door half-woke Yoji up, but when he turned to look at his clock he could see that it was way too early and rolled over to go back to sleep. The sudden weight on the edge of his bed roused him again as every “she has a boyfriend/husband who just came home” instinct he had brought him fully awake and ready to flee. 

Elena lightly bomped him on the head with her right hand as she said, “Stay.”

“What the fuck, Elena?” He pulled the covers up around himself since he didn’t know how she’d react to his nudity. She’d seemed sweet on him at times, but she had a weird and horrific upbringing, and after yesterday she might have no patience left for him. 

“We had this conversation yesterday. You have to make it up to the team for running off yesterday.”

“Yeah, you’re going to make me open the shop, but this is still way too early.”

“You need to shower and get dressed for it.” She showed him a garment bag and a duffel bag. 

“Nobody said anything about wearing something different.”

“Since I have to be there supervising you, I said I’d have to find a way to make it fun for myself, since _I_ didn’t do anything deserving punishment. Shave your legs in the shower, Yoji, because you’re going to be dressed up and made up as a woman today. Well, a Gothic Lolita, actually.”

“Hell no!”

“I think you’d make a pretty woman.”

“Of course, but hell no to doing it! And where would you even find something overnight that you might think would fit me?”

“It’s amazing what you can get in Tokyo on short notice.”

“Don’t you think public humiliation is too much?”

She shrugged. “Tell people you lost a bet. Though some of your fangirls will be thrilled and won’t need an explanation.”

“No!”

“Yoji, trust is very important in our night work. We need to know that we have each other’s backs and you won’t go running off without a word because you’re bored or frustrated.” 

“There were words!”

“Initially. Then you stayed away without any contact for hours. You have to do something to show that you value us and are committed. What you did also disrespected me as the team leader. I was barely home for a few minutes before you blew up and disappeared. It feels terrible.”

“I didn’t intend any disrespect for you. You had nothing to do with any of it.”

“You might not have realized, but it reflects very badly on me as a leader. You need to do _something_ to make it up to us.”

Yoji actually agreed with that, although he wished he didn’t. “I need to do something, but does that something really have to involve everyone in Tokyo who visits the shop today? Especially since the fangirls who’d be into this would call all their friends to come over to see it and get underfoot?” 

After a moment of thought, Elena went through the duffel bag, and pulled out a pretty pink pair of thong panties with lace trim, and gave him a pointed look before tossing them in his lap. They felt silky soft when he ran his finger along them. Why the hell did this situation make him blush like a schoolgirl? 

“All right. Wear those under your pants at work today all day,” she replied. “Final offer.”

“How did you even size--?”

“Ask yourself if you really want to know the answer to that question.”

He did not. “A thong?”

“You don’t strike me as a demure, full-coverage, cotton panties type of girl. Plus, this way you can’t truthfully complain about them giving you a visible panty line. Only your teammates will know.”

To further delay things, Yoji asked, “What does Sasha have to do?”

“We all know full well he wouldn’t have left if you hadn’t, and he’s a newbie, so he got a stern warning. _You’re_ the instigator and the adult who’s been working for Kritiker for years. No more stalling.”

The panties felt soft, nobody would have to see them on (though for all he knew they might affect the way he walked, not that most people would immediately make a connection if they didn’t already know), and he could tell himself this was just kinky. He was a liberated kind of guy and confident in his masculinity. Besides, he really did have to make some kind of gesture of repentance. “Fine. I’m going to shower now. You don’t have to wait here for that.”

“Actually I do, or at least see you when you get out. I need to check at least the waistband to make sure you put them on. And before you pair that outraged face of yours with a ‘don’t you trust me?’, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation and talking about you putting on women’s panties if I still felt like I could trust you. Also, I know you can be sneaky.” 

“And you want to see me in women’s panties.”

“Duh. I’m not the stern, motherly joykill a lot of you expect, and sometimes seem to _need_, me to be. I’d be in a far worse mood over your shenanigans if I weren’t getting _something_ for myself.”

So if he gave her some sizzle, he might get out of the doghouse faster. He had no qualms about utilizing his sexiness in a good cause.

But when he got out of bed to get his things together for a shower, she turned her head away so she wouldn’t see him in all his glory. “You want to see me in panties but not in the nude?”

“I have _manners_, Yoji. It’s respectful. Do you _want_ me to look?”

He didn’t know. Probably not?

“Just get on with it,” she said. 

Good idea. Get it over with. Although he tried to leave without them, Elena tossed them atop his pile of stuff on his way out. 

He took a quick but thorough shower, dried himself off, and put them on. At least they had enough room for his package; he’d thought he’d end up free balling it. (How _did_ she decide on a size?) They felt _great_, so soft, and sometimes they caressed his cock and balls when he moved. Looking down at them, they looked so sexy.... Shit. The panties couldn’t hold his cock in _now_. He sent a mental prompt Elena’s way.

~ What’s up, Yoji? ~

He couldn’t do this. He didn’t think she’d be thrilled if he kept leaving work during his whole shift because he kept getting hard-ons and had to jerk off to get rid of them.

No words came over their link, but her irritation translated as a darkening blood red color and a sound like rocks being ground into gravel, making him wince. 

Maybe she had some girly panties he could try that had less of a decadent, sexytime vibe? Something in cotton? 

~ I’m not a vending machine! I don’t have bags of unused panties lying around, and I’m not going to lend you a pair I’ve used before because that’s just too kinky and weird. They might not even fit you. ~

That _would_ be too kinky. And he just got even harder thinking that. 

The red-black she radiated now pulsed and felt fever-hot, while the grinding stones now sounded more like an earthquake. Elena was _pissed_. 

Maybe he could dress regular in his own clothes and underwear for work but let her dress and make him up for a private show for the team later? He could survive that. Just. Ken might never let him live it down....

~ ...that would be acceptable, and I’m holding you to it. ~

Would it be better or worse if he actually _did_ look gorgeous dressed like a woman? (Surely he would.)

He’d have to go to his bedroom to get some of his underwear, since after this he’d probably be too sensitive to safely go commando. He wouldn’t ask Elena to bring any to him because she’d probably burn him to a crisp for it and he couldn’t entirely blame her for that reaction. 

But before he could wrap a towel around his waist and walk out of the bathroom he had to take care of his hard-on. While he wouldn’t ordinarily think it, he hoped this would be the last time he’d have to jerk off today. 

Today would be hell. 

******************************************************

Crawford didn’t look forward to the work he’d have to do today figuring out the new shape of Tokyo’s underworld, but he wouldn’t loll in bed putting it off either, especially if Farfarello went volatile on them for lack of a violent job to work off his emotions. When he noticed Schuldig’s telepathy pulling him awake, Crawford said, “Go back to sleep. I know you spent a lot of last night monitoring Farfarello, so you need it, and the things I’ll be doing would bore you anyway.”

“Stupid things sometimes happen if I don’t get up with you,” Schuldig mumbled sleepily, still burrowed into his pillow and under the covers.

Crawford couldn’t help smirking as he replied, “I promise I won’t do anything stupid without you.”

“You’re not as funny as you think you are, but fine. Have fun storming the castle.”

Although Crawford wanted to shower and dress before he started networking, he checked up on Farfarello first, though he kept some distance. The team’s berserker slept uneasily on the couch, looking rumpled, exhausted, and uncomfortably twisted even down to his hair. No matter how useful they could be against other precogs, Crawford resented how Farfarello’s unpredictability and madness made it impossible for him to see his future. Sometimes Crawford could get around it by seeing the future of the people Farfarello would interact with, but most of the time that didn’t work and he had to deal with blind spots. 

If any kind of shit went down while he was in the shower Schuldig would have to take care of it, because Crawford refused to get out for anything less than a full-on apocalypse until he was _finished_. 

In a welcome change from recent tendencies, nothing went wrong as he showered or dressed. He wanted Farfarello to remain unconscious as long as possible, so he took his computer and phone into Nagi’s room, closed the door behind him, and set himself up on the bed. He didn’t intend to disturb anything in here, and if Nagi had any complaints he could damn well _come back_ to voice them. 

As he called and e-mailed sources, Crawford saw to his annoyance that some of the leaders and players had changed again just since last night. What the hell kind of Jenga underworld did Tokyo have?

As Schuldig entered the room, still with his bedhead and seemingly dressed only in a “furry,” acid green robe, like he wore a Muppet’s pelt, he quietly closed the door behind him. He looked ridiculous but also very pettable. “Hey, I heard that ‘ridiculous.’ Before you say anything, your exasperation woke me up. Are things that bad? Talk to me.”

If Schuldig had walked in this way to put him in a slightly better mood, it worked. “Yeah, sure. I’m just getting the lay of the land, but the land keeps shifting, which makes it harder for me to decide what jobs to take or find a short, sweet, and bloody job for Farfarello. What we did yesterday shouldn’t have had this huge an effect. I’m also wondering if Kritiker is at least responsible and if so why they did things this way. Is Kritiker _managing_ the ‘dark beasts’ instead of trying to get rid of them all? Maybe they realized they could never clean things up entirely, but what is their criteria on the work they _are_ doing now? Their own financial interests? Has the little kitten truly gone Takatori?” 

Schuldig sat next to him on the bed. “Interesting questions. If Kritiker is selectively managing the underworld, I guess it’s careful as to which poor kid crying out for vengeance they take in. After all, Kritiker likes ’em _young_, and young people don’t like hearing that they’re not allowed to take out the person they hate so much. ‘Because I said so’ doesn’t work well on them, and they go rogue. The little kitten deludes himself to some extent, since he needs to feel like he’s doing good things. I’m saying that as a telepath. But maybe it’s worse than I realized, since he has psychic protection these days and it’s harder for me to look deeply. If it _is_ worse and Schwarz truly has become the do-gooders Aya prefers us to be, we might look into big, bad Kritiker and take them down. Some folks might even pay us for it, if we don’t mind that some of those ‘some folks’ are criminals.”

Crawford couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face but said, “Kritiker has a lot of money, people, and chapters around the globe.”

“So did Eszett. You _did_ say some things about making little Omi pay for what he did to our team yesterday. Plus, if Kritiker is manipulating the underworld, it’d be very difficult for us to find work without consulting them first. We fought Eszett to get _away_ from that kind of shit.” 

“Yeah, I’m not making us beholden to _anyone_.” Crawford smirked. “Who gets to inform Aya of this if we do put the moves on Kritiker? You? You might enjoy it. That makes you less than objective.”

“I so would, and objectivity is for weaklings. We can think on these things while he and Nagins are far, far away. Hmm, do you think it’s just Tokyo that’s in this weird condition or other Japanese cities too?”

“I spent most of my time looking at the local conditions, so I can’t say for sure. I may have found something for Farfarello in Yokohama at least.” Schwarz might have to move elsewhere. This shit ruined his reputation for infallibility. 

“_What_ reputation for--”

“Don’t go too far. And get out of my head.”

Schuldig grinned. “Maybe you should make me work at it harder.”

“You’ve often told me I should keep an open mind, but _now_....”

“Yeah, yeah.”

As Farfarello opened the door, he growled, “How _nice_ for you two that you can banter and flirt with each other.” Even his hair seemed angry.

Crawford could have his gun in his hand in seconds if necessary. 

“We’re taking a break from working on something for _you_, you ungrateful bastard,” Schuldig drawled back. “Also, you could be bantering and flirting with someone yourself right now if _you_ hadn’t miscalculated so badly.”

“...hmph.” Farfarello stood down a little bit, suggesting that Schuldig had reacted the right way for whatever the hell their berserker had going through his head at this moment. Sometimes he wanted to be cajoled and coddled, while other times he’d see that reaction to him as a show of fear and weakness and back off only if his targets bristled back at him. “What is this work?”

“A wetwork job in Yokohama,” Crawford replied. “Tokyo is far too volatile at the moment.”

“We’re wondering if, for whatever dumb-assed reason, Kritiker is responsible for the volatility and if so what we should do to retaliate since we don’t want to become their butt monkeys just to work in Tokyo,” Schuldig said. 

Crawford wouldn’t have told Farfarello all that, at least not yet, but hearing it seemed to calm Farfarello even further. 

~ It makes him feel better to have some idea of what’s going on instead of being left in the dark. A lot of people are like that, ~ Schuldig said.

~ Nobody likes backseat drivers, ~ Crawford replied.

~ That’s fine, because I know you _love_ me. ~

“I’m game to shed blood in Yokohama,” Farfarello said. 

“Of _course_ you are,” Schuldig answered with a smile. “I’m game too, but you need it more than I do so I’ll let you have all of it.”

“So considerate you are.”

Before this could degenerate any further, Crawford said, “I’ll confirm you for the Yokohama job. Schuldig will go with you as your driver and backup, while I’ll remain behind to further research the still changing job market and look into that group that attacked me and Schuldig yesterday.” 

“If any of them are still alive after the continuing shakedown,” Schuldig said. “Them all being dead already would be a positive.”

“You don’t want to hunt them down yourself? Not that I’d necessarily let you take revenge if it’d further damage our job market, but I’m curious.”

Schuldig shrugged. “If I took revenge on everyone who’d ever wanted me dead, I’d have to kill a ton of people, and it’s not always worth it doing it myself.” When Farfarello snorted, Schuldig replied to him with an “Even you don’t want to be fighting and killing people _every_ second of the day. You have to eat and sleep sometime.” 

“Let’s get this started. You both need to shower, dress, and eat before leaving,” Crawford said. 

“I wouldn’t mind petting his furry robe in the car,” Farfarello replied. “How many plush toys died to create it?”

“It might not have made it onto toys first, so it’s kind of like a killing of the unborn?” Schuldig answered. 

“Stop flirting with me,” Farfarello said. 

“Don’t kill each other in the car,” Crawford said. To Schuldig he said, ~ Don’t fuck each other in the car either, since neither you nor I can get an accurate prediction over whether it would destroy our team. No sex for “cheering him up” or “social engineering.” No sex _period_. Let’s not further destabilize an already unstable situation. ~ As much as Schuldig loved chaos, even he had to see that his own team had too much of it going on already. ~ And don’t bring your robe into the car. ~ 

~ You’re such a killjoy, but _fine_. ~


	299. "...they look like Schuldig exploded."

As the mindbreaker started up the car, he said, “The ride over should take about 45 minutes.”

“If you drive in the correct direction this time.” Farfarello still suspected that Schuldig had started out driving them to the wrong airport on purpose yesterday.

“Bitch, bitch, bitch. Just be thankful that you’ll get to kill someone in the near future.”

Farfarello did desperately need to kill someone.

Although he would usually be fine with silence, today he didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts, so he kept talking, asking, “What do you think about this Kritiker thing?” He idly wondered how Kritiker chose which criminals it would prune and which it would allow to bloom, not that it actually made much difference to him.

The mindbreaker snorted. “In all the time I’ve been aware of it, Kritiker has always been corrupt and incompetent, just in different levels and varieties, no matter who leads it. Grandfather Takatori, like the rest of his family, was certainly no paragon. The world lost nothing of value when Nagi ended him.”

“My kitten was much more aware of its corruption than the other kittens, but I think he couldn’t fully acknowledge it for a long time because he’d have to think about how he’d sold his self and soul to bad people to take out one bad man. He couldn’t deny it any longer after he found out that he worked for Takatori’s brother. But I think he figured his Omi in a leadership role would make the organization better.”

“He’s more optimistic and naïve than he realizes.”

Farfarello would never forget or forgive that time the little Takatori had gotten Aya drunk and taken advantage of him, with Aya managing to blame himself for it. No matter how tempting Aya might be, no one else was allowed to infringe on him and sure as Hell wasn’t allowed to make him feel guilty about and responsible for said infringement. 

But these days was Farfarello truly so different from the little Takatori? Aya had come into his life a sick and injured cat, whom Farfarello had healed and tamed through care and patience and some bondage. In time, Aya had come to love and trust him, sometimes trusting him more than he should. He’d trained Aya out of running away from him, so Aya running away yesterday had to come from getting pushed past a breaking point. 

If a man had a goose that laid golden eggs, trying to force it to lay even more was more likely to kill it than get him more than he already had. 

He had to be better than this.

“Yeah, it was a real kick in the head to him when he found out that the man giving him his orders was Reiji’s brother,” the mindbreaker said. “Persia even showed up at the scene the night Reiji killed Aya’s parents and put his sister in a coma, and Aya saw him. Priceless. Considering how Kritiker was and probably is, Rosenrot really doth protest too much when _we_ try to make him do shady things.”

Did Persia gloat to himself in the years Aya worked for him while not knowing he was the brother of the man he needed to slay, another fucking Takatori? 

“Farf, now I have an image of Persia as a villain evilly stroking his Weiß kittens. It’s hot or disturbing depending on which kitten it is and where his hands go. And whether they’re dressed or not.”

“I’d chop his hands off for daring to touch my puisín that way.”

“You’d chop his hands off for fun.”

“True.”

“But getting Aya to fight against Kritiker with us isn’t totally about it being corrupt or not. The problem is his friends in the organization: Omi and fuckin’ Weiß. He might be able to tell himself he won’t directly fight against Weiß but _anything_ he did would be a strike against Omi. Maybe Omi’s even enough of a bastard to deliberately set Weiß against us if Schwarz took on Kritiker. _I_ would if I were him.”

“Omi might do that to poke you too, since your fucktoy is on the team, though he can’t truly believe that would stop you.” 

“It’d annoy me if I had to kill my sexy, gullible kitty, but yeah.” 

“Your clone cub too, the one you cared enough about to personally name.”

Schuldig briefly took on a darker look then lightened up and said, “If we go against Kritiker, we may have to be careful and subtle to get away with it unscathed.”

“‘Careful’ and ‘subtle’ are my middle names.”

The mindbreaker snorted. “Yeah, mine too. Obviously.” 

******************************************************

Nagi far preferred vacationing in Seattle. The part of Jamaica they’d visited had been mainly a tourist hub and party area, making everything and everyone seem fake and phony to him. He’d felt unmoored from reality there. Here, the people around him and Aya just lived their regular lives, and their normality nearly rubbed off on him. _That_ was a vacation. 

Besides, this time he had Aya all to himself. Introvert powers, activate. 

At the first used bookstore Nagi got a little silly over the very large, very fluffy, very friendly cat that came right up to him for love and pettings, but Aya didn’t tease him about it and said he wouldn’t tell anyone about it in exchange for a favor to be named later, which made Aya both unlike and like Schwarz. Aya might be joking about that or he might not. With Aya, it could be difficult to tell. Nagi didn’t mind.

The smell of musty paper inside the store bothered Nagi a bit, but Aya breathed it in with a smile on his face. While Aya perused several sections, Nagi mostly concentrated on art and photography books. While he already had his own aesthetic and point of view for his photos, knowing what people considered the rules of the art form could be useful. Then he could knowingly break or keep them, depending on the photo. He didn’t bother with the computer books since most computer books that came out on paper through a publishing house were already antiquated by the time they hit the store, which made used computer books all the more useless. 

Nagi wondered if Aya had finished all the books Farfarello had bought him but not so much that he’d ask Aya and bring Farfarello up.

At the second used bookstore, Nagi decided he’d take advantage of the in-store coffeehouse section and take some time for refreshment and surfing the web on his laptop, which Aya had no problem with at all. Just like that. No wheedling, no telling him he wasn’t a team player or had to buckle down to do what everyone else was doing, no need for him to justify himself and his own desires, no reminder that he was the youngest member of the team and a _child_ so he’d have to subordinate himself, just the acknowledgement that they each had their own interests and the right to pursue them. Very adult. Nagi was getting spoiled by this. 

Adults should behave more like adults or forfeit the advantages of adulthood. 

Things would be different when they returned to Schwarz whether Crawford, Schuldig, and Farfarello liked it or not. Nagi would demand their respect and better damned well get it. 

Crawford hadn’t sent him any more e-mails, which might mean that he was respecting Nagi’s desire for space _or_ trying to do some kind of petulant “well I’ll show _you_” thing. If it turned out to be the second option, Crawford could go fuck himself; his silence didn’t scare Nagi. 

Holding two bags, Aya sat down at the table with him and smiled in an Aya way, apparently pleased with his haul. Nagi turned his laptop’s screen so Aya could see it and said, “We talked about going to Chihuly Garden and Glass. These are some photos of his artwork I found online.” 

“...they look like Schuldig exploded.”

“Yes! Exactly. So we have to go there before we leave. Not today though.”

“I’m done here. Do you want to check out that record store you mentioned earlier?”

“Hell yeah. Thanks.” So far, best vacation _ever_.

******************************************************

Schuldig found a spot near the bar and parked. “We’re here. Everybody out.”

~ Are you looking out for something specific that’s making you so cautious or is it me you’re worried about? ~ Farfarello asked over their mindlink, his voice a mixture of concern, curiosity, and smugness. 

~ Not everything is all about you. Things aren’t as crazy here in Yokohama as it is in Tokyo, but it’s getting some of the outward ripples. Violent regime change can be messy and usually creates a lot of collateral damage. With the atmosphere being what it is, I’m not going to let anyone get the drop on me because I was careless. ~

~ Atmosphere? ~

~ Tokyo’s ambiance felt like a nest of upset wasps. It’s not that bad here, but I can’t let myself relax. You’d know this yourself if you didn’t have your telepathy shut down so hard in Rose-red’s absence. You can’t use him as a crutch forever. ~

_That_ dented Farfarello’s smugness. Good. 

Schuldig hadn’t even realized how bad Tokyo’s mental ambiance had become until they’d driven far enough away from it, probably like that analogy about a frog in a pot of water that is slowly raised to a boiling point not seeing the danger until too late. If Farfarello hadn’t been concentrating so deeply on himself, as usual, he might have even noticed the moment it hit Schuldig. Fortunately, Farfarello remained too self-involved. Schuldig hated to show weakness in front of him, especially when he was particularly unstable. 

He didn’t mind Farfarello noticing him being cautious and on guard. It might spare him some acting out. 

As much as Schuldig had enjoyed yesterday’s chaos, the longterm consequences from it sucked so far. Only a total airhead would prefer one day of fun to a longer unfucked-up future. Plus, he still hadn’t gotten to have sex with Aya.

Two goons came up to them as soon as they walked in. Schuldig put his hand on Farfarello’s wrist as a stopping gesture the goons would notice and said, “They’re with the man we’re here to see. We’re on the same side.”

Despite that, Goon 1 said, “Weapons.”

Really? “We’re going to be here a while if you expect Farfarello to hand over everything he’s carrying.”

Farfarello smiled in a very disturbing way. Good boy. 

“Let them in,” an authoritative voice from the next room said. “But they have to keep their hands away from their sides once they come in. Everybody clear?”

“As crystal,” Schuldig replied. 

Schuldig and Farfarello went into the room with their hands out and away and the goons breathing down the back of their necks and trying to be intimidating. They failed. 

Some of the goons in the room recognized Schuldig’s face, with a quick read of their minds showing that some of his clones worked locally, though none for this gang. Sighing, Schuldig wondered if they had graduated school or were doing a work-study or illicit moonlighting. Or it might be some of his clones who hadn’t accepted Kritiker’s offer and schooling. Whichever, they hadn’t been obvious about being telepaths because most of the people in the room hadn’t knowingly seen a psychic at work outside of fiction. The clones must have improved at telepathy in general since Schuldig hadn’t noticed them in the area. Then again, maybe the urge to be on guard had been him subconsciously picking up their presence. A light scan--all he had the time and attention span for at the moment while he was dealing with their client and his minions--didn’t pick any of them up. 

He’d have to get used to hearing about, working with, or facing off against them in the future. It might suck, but it might be fun too. A lot of them had treated him like a king and revered patriarch in Vienna, but he couldn’t rely on that continuing. He’d have to wait and see. 

He’d abruptly gone from having no family to having too much. Eventually he’d get used to it.

Whatever, Schuldig had business to conduct here now. 

“The silver-haired man appears to be your swordsman,” Hashimoto said. He dressed expensively but tastefully and lounged in what seemed to be some seat of honor, with some of his men at his sides.

“Yes, Hashimoto-sama,” Schuldig answered. 

“Does the swordsman speak?”

“He does,” Farfarello replied, “though Schuldig does the talking in front of clients while I mainly hurt and kill people.”

So much for respectful speech. Schuldig had to hide a smile, though. Besides, he didn’t mind playing respectful foreigner to Farfarello’s rough and rude one in their little show. 

“I won’t pay for two men. I only need a swordsman.”

“I’m his backup and chauffeur,” Schuldig said. “You won’t be charged anything above the price you negotiated with our agent.”

“You already have the details on my target?”

“I know what our agent told me. The target is your father, head of the family. He’s old-fashioned and has some samurai aspirations, so you want him to be fought and killed with a sword as cleanly as possible. Don’t mark him up or make him suffer anymore than we have to. You want us to avoid killing anyone with him if we can.” Because his father’s goons would become his goons after his father’s death. 

“That’s essentially correct. Your man looks like a wild one. Can he control himself well enough?”

He better. “Yes.”

~ I can, especially if the old man has enough skill with a sword to satisfy me, ~ Farfarello asked. 

~ Brad’s research says the father is 61 but fairly spry. Nothing about his skill with blades though. ~ Schuldig asked, “How capable is your father at swordwork?”

Hashimoto made a dismissive gesture. “He’s good. He’s also old and slower than he used to be. But some of the places you might find him this time of day wouldn’t give him access to a sword, which would make the point moot.”

“...thank you.” ~ That was thoroughly useless but the best we’ll get from him. Sorry, Farfie. ~

~ Eh. You tried. I’ll find out for myself soon enough. Could be fun. ~

“I have a list of places he likes to frequent this time of day. I want this finished as soon as possible.”

Not that a telepath of Schuldig’s strength and skill would need a list in this city that didn’t have many people shielding their thoughts, but he appreciated the gesture. “So do we.” He didn’t find Hashimoto and his goons interesting or entertaining. “Thank you.” 

Brad had already negotiated the price and method of payment, so Schuldig and Farfarello just got the list, said their respectful goodbyes, and started traveling to their target. Quick and clean.

As Schuldig drove, Farfarello asked, “What happened in there? I saw you react in surprise to something. Our client and his men don’t know you well enough to notice.” Without his kitten around, he seemed to be paying more attention to other people. 

Well, fuck. But it’d be better to let Farfie know so he could be on guard himself. “Some of them have seen my face around the area before. Apparently some of my clones are working in Yokohama.”

He showed some surprise. “That could get messy.”

“Ya think? And of course Hashimoto’s men don’t know any of them well enough to give me an idea of which clones.”

“So you don’t know if any of them here love you or not.”

“It’s not like I’d bank on getting preferential treatment either way.” It’d be embarrassing as hell if one of his clones took him down, especially if it happened because he assumed his attacker would treat him with kid gloves for being their progenitor. 

He still couldn’t find any of them with his telepathy, but he’d made it so none of them could sense him or Farfarello or see them through the eyes of bystanders. His clones must have done the same. 

Schuldig easily sensed other things though. “Hashimoto’s father is home. The place is large and done in the traditional Japanese style. He has eight men with him, two guarding the front gate, and access to a few katanas and a wakazashi.”

“So I may get my swordfight after all. But eight men? I may have to kill some after all.” So pleased.

“If eight men are too much for you to do without getting lethal with them, I can take them out. It’d be nice to get some exercise.”

“You’ve been much less fun since we’ve reached this city. Is it Yokohama? The presence of some of your cubs?”

Schuldig didn’t know for sure. “Maybe I’m being more professional to better keep you in line in your kittenless time.” Maybe he had fewer people to put on a show for here so he didn’t.

Maybe he should worry, but he’d also always been like this, able to become whoever he had to be to get what he needed done. 

“Hmph.” Farfarello would probably bring it up again in the near future, but for now he said, “Hashimoto. When someone wants his father murdered, he should do it himself.”

“Not everyone is as principled as you are, Farfie. Besides, it seems that he thinks his father’s partisans aren’t the kind of people who’d be impressed by his taking his father out himself and swear loyalty to him for it.”

“Is he correct in that?”

“As far as I can tell, yeah. Employing us gives him plausible deniability. As long as none of his goons who saw us today squeal at least.”

“Are they squealers?”

“They don’t think they are, at least not today. Hashimoto junior also deliberately hired Westerners thinking it would muddy the waters about who ordered the hit.” When Farfarello grinned, Schuldig asked, “What?”

“I like getting to hear all of this. Usually I just get pointed at targets and told to kill without much reason or background.” 

“Most of the time that’s enough for you.”

Farfarello shook his head. “You’ve always been better to me in Crawford’s absence.”

Schuldig wouldn’t argue with the truth, at least not this time. “I’m not Brad, thankfully.”

“One of himself is enough.”

“If there were more, they’d try to kill each other to be the only one left. Don’t get too excited about that image, Farf.”

“Unfair thing of you to ask after giving me such a mental feast.”


	300. "I love to watch you dance and kill."

When they reached the music store, Aya went straight for its small book section. He really didn’t seem to have love for or major preferences in music, which Nagi found kind of inexplicable but tried not to judge. Nobody was perfect. Maybe he’d ask Aya about it directly some day.

Nagi flipped through the CDs to see if they had any rarities from his favorite bands. Not everything old made it to MP3s. Some people claimed vinyl was the best medium but items that large and fragile remained too much of a luxury and pain in an ass for Nagi’s itinerant lifestyle. He found something oddly comforting in the clacking noise the plastic CD cases made as he rifled through them and how... physical they were, tactile. Real.

He became aware of someone stopping to stand next to him and turned to give said person a look and be ready to defend himself. From the look on her face, she hadn’t expected him to notice her that quickly or react that intensely. She wore an outfit that looked like a punk had attacked a Gothic Lolita ensemble with a knife, she was cute and smelled a bit like incense, and her long hair, in twin tails, was two shades of purple. She might be in her late teens. Taller than him, but so many Americans were, damn it.

“Uh, hi,” she said. “Sorry to bother you, but if you’re into them, you might like my band. We’re performing tonight. If you hand the doorman this flyer, you get $5 off the door fee for you and a +1. Interested?” All of that came out in a quick, nervous burst. 

As Nagi took the small flyer from her, he asked, “What do you play?”

“Keyboards! I do backup singing too.”

“I’m in town with a friend, so I’ll discuss it with him to see if we can go. So maybe.” 

“Yes! Thanks. I hope to see you there.” She waved goodbye to him before joining a small group of punk teens who looked proud of her. Then the store owner chased them out, probably for bothering his customers with their solicitations.

“She was cute,” Aya said as he came over. 

“You’re transparent. Are you going to ask me if she reminded me of Tot? Because if so, no she doesn’t.” A girl just reminding him of or seeming a lot like Tot wouldn’t be enough to get him interested in her or trying to date her anyway. Once upon a time it might have worked, but not lately. His tastes had shifted. For one thing, he needed better conversation from a partner.

“Good to know. Do you want to go to her show?”

The flyer featured an illustration of two children, a boy and a girl, lost in spooky-looking woods underneath the information about the club and its address and what time the show started. “Yeah, can we? Some local color and nightlife would be cool. We could always just leave if it sucks or we get bored. If you want to leave, don’t suffer in silence because you think I’m enjoying myself, just tell me.”

“Schuldig would be proud of you.”

“Are you trying to dissuade me?”

“No. Besides, who cares? You can’t let him liking you doing something stop you from doing something you want to do. I know you enjoy music. So yes, we can go.”

He suddenly felt such an urge to give Aya a happy, affectionate hug or grab his arm that way as a show of appreciation. Weird, especially since Aya didn’t even seem to like public physical displays of affection so Nagi wouldn’t be doing it for his sake. Since Nagi didn’t touch people if he didn’t have to, he didn’t hug or grab him. “Thanks.” 

******************************************************

They parked half a block away from their target’s home and approached on foot, both of them wearing winter hats and a lot of the mindbreaker’s bright hair stuffed under his coat to be less eye-catching. Having seen a good place to observe the 4 meter high fence while having some cover and not being conspicuous, Schuldig stopped him and asked telepathically, ~ Farf, what’s your range on being able to feel and manipulate electricity? ~

~ Dunno. Never made a study of it. No interest. I’m a swordsman, not a kinetic of any type. I like to use my hands and my blades. I use the power to heal us and smite my enemies with lightning, and that’s it, no matter how much more Crawford would like me to be able to do. ~

~ Seems like a waste. ~

~ It’s my right... no, almost my _duty_ to waste whatever “gifts” God gave me. ~

~ Just that it’d be useful here since we don’t have Nagi around to take care of the security devices for us. I don’t want to be recorded. ~

Farfarello enjoyed dispatching two- and four-legged security, not the electronic stuff, which he happily left to the boy. He left the boring stuff to the other members of Schwarz and just killed everything. Crawford would probably tell him that if he wanted to be more of an equal partner, more informed and more involved in decision making, he had to take more responsibility and do more.

~ I’m also curious to see if you could affect just the cameras without taking out the rest of the compound’s electricity. You probably could if you let yourself feel into it and gained more experience. ~

~ You are the damnedest creature. We’ve been begging you to train us in telepathy, as you are a telepath, and you’ve refused every time, yet you want to train me in _this_. ~

~ _I_ wouldn’t be the one training you in this! ~

~ Really? Think about what you just told me to do. It sounded like a teacher directing a student. ~

The mindbreaker looked surprised and annoyed. Hadn’t he realized? 

~ Who _are_ you today? ~ Farfarello asked, out of curiosity and to be a smartass. Since Aya had been brought into the team the telepath, Legion, had shown a more consistent personality for a longer period of time. At least aside from that stretch of time Schuldig had come somewhat unglued until he had a chance to revisit and resituate his selves, something that he apparently had to do periodically. But today the mindbreaker had been different. Because Aya had left? 

Farfarello remembered that he and the mindbreaker hadn’t spent much time alone together since Farfarello had gotten his kitten. Schuldig hadn’t shifted until after they’d left Crawford behind to go on this mission as a duo. 

But the mindbreaker usually became more fun and more like Farfarello that way. 

Schuldig raised an eyebrow. ~ So if I’m not fun, reckless, and bloodthirsty while I’m with you there’s something wrong with me? ~

~ That bit about trying to train me surprised you as well! ~

~ I surprised myself. It happens. Yesterday was my day off from responsibility, but I’m picking it up again today, partly because you fucked things up for the team. Today is definitely not a day for you to be lazy. You’ll get some bloodletting, but you’re going to need to give more too. One of the reasons Red left you was because you want so much but don’t give much back. Grow up a little. ~

How dare he? Farfarello’s vision nearly turned red from his rage, and he had a knife in each hand in seconds. Though if the mindbreaker wanted him to work on his ki abilities so badly, maybe he should electrocute him with them.

The mindbreaker used his speed to zip out of easy reach and have his gun drawn and said, ~ It takes so little to get you to backslide. That makes it hard for your own teammates and partners to trust you. ~

That stopped Farfarello from throwing himself, blades first, on Schuldig. He felt the truth of those words, and it hurt. He needed to get better than this. Still, ~ I can see you avoiding the subject of your personality shifting. ~

~ We’ll see how things go. I don’t think it’s something to worry about. ~

~ Crawford would probably enjoy you like this. ~

~ That’s one of the reasons I doubt you’ll see much of it in the future. Farfarello, you were doing so _well_, growing as a person, getting better, taking responsibility and control for yourself, no longer self-mutilating, but lately you’re definitely backsliding. So you really want to be a mad dog straining on a leash or nothing more than a blade in someone else’s hand all your life? ~

The mindbreaker shouldn’t have known about Farfarello’s feeling that God had used him to kill his family, that in some ways God had made him a helpless tool. ~ Did you read my mind!? ~ Usually Schuldig had difficulties doing so. 

~ No, but it seems that I hit a sore spot anyway. Are you so afraid of change that you keep retreating? _Aya_ was a change. ~

Aya had been a change who’d left a rippling effect of more changes in his wake. 

~ No, I’m not afraid, though it’s not like you could truly understand that feeling when _you’re_ constantly changing. ~ 

~ No matter, I see it often enough to know. Farf, you can be more than what you were. Greater. Get past your tragedies and stop letting them define and limit you. ~ The mindbreaker smirked at him. ~ Go ahead and surprise God. ~

~ You’re trying to manipulate me again, just like last night. ~

~ Just like last night, I’m trying to put things in terms you understand. So, are you going to give your energy manipulating ability a try on our target’s home, or will I have to do _everything_ since this isn’t supposed to be a “kill ’em all” job while “kill ’em all” is the only thing you’re capable of doing right now? Let me know so we can stop wasting time. ~

That stung his pride, but would he let it goad him into doing what the mindbreaker wanted? No. Farfarello still had some fight in him. ~ Aya has to rely on his sword and guns in the field. ~

~ Do you really think you’d lose him if you used your energy talent more? That’s silly and not very flattering to him. He hasn’t shown any problems working with any of us and our talents. Hell, he’s worked with you while you were using telepathy and energy manipulation before. You’re losing him by being a selfish asshole, not _that_. You’re creating problems for yourself that don’t exist! Your lame excuses annoy me! I’m done pep talking you. Have fun doing whatever and being pathetic while I work to get us inside. ~

_This_ version of Schuldig--smirking, malicious, high-handed, goading, _whiny_\--Farfarello knew well.

~ I’ll give it a shot. Just stop fucking complaining for a few minutes. ~ After reaching out with his energy sense, letting him feel it and almost see it, all of which still felt odd to him since he formerly felt much _less_ than normal people did, he said, ~ I can feel it but can’t really work with just that one man’s property’s electricity at this distance. I’d be drawing on everything and probably mostly on what’s closest. Electricity _flows_, which adds to the difficulty. I don’t know if that’s the limit of my ability or my inexperience. ~

~ Can you break or burn out the circuit connecting his property to the grid so it’s out of the flow? ~

~ Maybe. It would be safest to get me closer. ~

~ We wouldn’t have to get closer if-- ~

~ Shut the fuck up. There’s nothing we can do about that right now anyway. ~

~ I’ll have a plan B ready in case you can’t handle it. ~

~ I know what you’re doing. Still trying to manipulate me through my pride and emotions. ~

~ It’s not like I ever stop, and even if you know what I’m doing you have to go along with it anyway. Let’s make the approach from the side. If you can’t get the cameras or power turned off, tell me so I’ll know we need to avoid the cameras’ ranges. ~

~ Jawohl, mein Herr. ~

~ Your snark will never hurt me. Hey, can you even walk and do your energy work at the same time? Oooh, your growls will never hurt me either. Do we take the gate or climb the fence? ~

Damn it, it _was_ difficult walking and reading his energy sense at the same time. ~ The gate is electric but might be movable manually. I don’t know. It’s not like there’s an instruction booklet available to me. ~

~ We’ll try the gate, and if that doesn’t work for us then we’ll scale the 4-meter high fence. Could you try to trigger the gate open, _then_ cut off their power? If you get it open enough to let one person through, that’d be optimal. ~

Easily said, less easily done. ~ Would you like that on a silver platter, my lord? ~

~ If _you_ want to get fancy about it, sure! ~

~ You’re not taking this seriously. ~

~ I am _so_ serious. So, get the gate. ~

Farfarello’s first attempt _hurt_ and didn’t open the gate. Was he even doing this right? _Should_ it hurt? He idly wondered what he’d actually just affected instead of the gate. He... felt around the electrical flows--and until recently he wouldn’t even have the proper conception of how to try this or the personal experience vocabulary to express it--and tried to manipulate the spot that might be his target. The gate began to open, but it took a sustained, slightly painful mental effort to keep it opening until it provided enough space for him and Schuldig to get inside single file. Then Farfarello killed the power to the property. ~ Done. ~

The mindbreaker let out a _whoop_ of joy and put on a burst of his preternatural speed to reach the opening and club down the man trying to defend it and close the gate. In seconds, he and his victim disappeared inside the compound, leaving the gate still open for Farfarello to follow them inside. 

Farfarello loved it when clients who only previously saw the languid, lounging, lazy version of Schuldig first witnessed the speeds he was actually capable of, loved their surprise, disbelief, and sometimes awe. It helped that the mindbreaker made it look so effortless too. 

Farfarello had asked him more than once if he _needed_ to move languidly the rest of the time to conserve his speed and life but the mindbreaker gave him varying answers, to be mysterious or a pain in the ass or just Legion, Farfarello didn’t know. Perhaps he should ask one of Schuldig’s clones sometime.

But he liked it that while the mindbreaker might enjoy making people fight each other or themselves through his mind games, Schuldig also enjoyed flinging himself into the fray physically, flesh to flesh or, since the telepath did love to use his gun to shoot or batter people, metal to flesh _battling_. As a duo, they made a great team in a fight.

Let the mindbreaker go in first. Manipulating the gate and the home’s link to the power grid had taken a bit of a toll on Farfarello, and Farfarello would have to fight his own killer instinct while facing the home’s defenders while Schuldig had no problem with leaving people alive to suffer the consequences of what he’d done to them. 

Farfarello put on an extra burst of speed after hearing muffled gunfire, knowing that Schuldig didn’t have a silencer on _his_ gun. 

Getting through the gate would be one of the most perilous parts of his way through, since he could easily be sniped down in the contained space. Although he heard and felt bullets whizzing past, none hit him. His eye took in a chaotic scene: three of the defenders down and out cold with Schuldig grappling with a fourth, while another man tried to shoot them from a distance. 

To his surprise, Farfarello’s first thought had been to take out the distant shooter with a lightning strike, something he’d only picked up recently. Although he’d thoroughly enjoy smiting the man, a lightning strike would be too distinctive--too much of a Schwarz signature in a city thus far low in psychics--and therefore not a good idea. Instead, he threw one of his heavier throwing knives so it would hit the shooter in the face hilt first, a brutal blow but one he could survive. By the time he took his opponent down, Schuldig had slammed his own foe’s head into a post hard enough to knock him out. 

Earlier, the mindbreaker had given the tally as eight men plus Hashimoto Senior, now they had five accounted for. ~ The other three are inside the house with your target, and they definitely know we’re here, ~ the mindbreaker said telepathically, sounding exhilarated, and his already bright blue eyes looked even brighter than usual. He had two tears on one of the sleeves of his coat, no doubt from being grazed by bullets, but showed no blood shed.

~ So let’s go get him, ~ Farfarello answered as he retrieved his thrown knife.

~ Let me close the gate first, since we don’t want any neighbors to notice something wrong here and call the cops. It can be done manually. ~

With that finished, they entered the house as a team, weapons drawn, sweeping through the rooms they needed to go through to get to his target. Doing this by day meant that they didn’t have to travel in darkness while the electricity was off. They passed many lovely and probably valuable antiques, suggesting the target had taste as well as wealth. Not that he’d live to enjoy them much longer. 

~ Everyone is in the next room. ~ 

~ Give their positions to me in a mental image. I have my telepathic talent partially on so it should come through clearly. ~ He needed to practice so he wouldn’t keep using his kitten as a crutch. 

~ You’ve got enough of a handle on that? If you start seeing things change color or hearing angels and demons talking to you, tell me and shut your telepathy down completely immediately. ~

~ _Now_ you’re giving telepathy tips? ~

~ Fuck you, Farf. ~ Schuldig gave him a telepathic image of the room’s layout and the people in it, then positioned himself, his gun up and ready, at the sliding door their quarry waited behind. ~ Remember, we’re not trying to kill his guards or him yet. That means I can’t just spray gunfire in as soon as we get the door open. We’re gonna have to really work for this one. I’m gonna quickspeed inside first to take advantage of the element of surprise and so you hopefully won’t have as much to deal with. ~ 

~ So I’ll open the door. Inside, I take left and you take right, as usual? ~

~ The dynamic duo, back in action. Yeah! Ready? Now! ~

The mindbreaker sped through as soon as Farfarello opened the door enough to let him pass. Farfarello raced in after him and went to the left, taking advantage of the way everyone currently had their attention and gunfire going toward the menacing, speeding devil attacking them from the other side of the room. Schuldig already had one man down and the other injured. 

Although it went against his instincts, Farfarello led with his fist instead of his blade’s edge and punched the man down. While his puisín could knock someone out with the flat of his katana, Farfarello’s sword didn’t give him that option, which usually didn’t feel like a problem. The punch dazed his opponent but didn’t stop him, so Farfarello punched him in the face again, then added a third once the man hit the floor. A quick telepathic check let him know that he’d finally sent his opponent into unconsciousness. 

His ultimate target turned his gun toward Farfarello, who grabbed his wrist and yanked so its muzzle faced away from him but couldn’t figure out a way to make him drop the gun that wouldn’t result in him injuring his dominant hand and ruining the client’s specified sword-fighting death. 

_**~ Drop the gun, ~**_ the mindbreaker said telepathically so loudly and forcefully, so _purely_, that surprise and the way the “sound” seemed to vibrate through his body would’ve made Farfarello drop a gun if he had one. Hashimoto senior let go of his and flung it away instantly, even as his face showed a kind of shellshock. 

Schuldig grinned. “He’s all yours now, partner. From here on, I’m just watching your back while you take care of business.” He’d finished his own opponents. 

“Who the hell are you people?” Hashimoto asked. 

“We’re destiny calling,” Farfarello answered as he let go of Hashimoto’s wrist and stepped back. “Pick up your sword and fight me to have a say in it.”

“My son sent you, didn’t he? He still hasn’t learned patience. I’m sure he thinks he’s doing me a favor by giving me the option to fight, the condescending brat.” But, despite the disparagement, the man backed up toward the katana and wakazashi he had mounted on the wall.

Seeing that made Farfarello smile and flex his fingers around the hilt of his sword. “I’m sure you know him better than we do.” Bad Fathers so seldom took responsibility for what Their shortcomings did to Their children.

“I’ve seen your friend’s face around town recently.”

The mindbreaker sighed and replied, “I’m sure I don’t have to say how problematic and interfering family can be to _you_, not right now.”

“Hmph. True.”

Farfarello took off his hat and ruffled his flattened hair up to feel even more purely like himself. Although Hashimoto didn’t have a visible reaction, Farfarello could feel him react a little on the inside to Farfarello’s unusual kind of ugly beauty: the eye patch, with the damage it suggested, and scars. His appearance had been even more disturbing before his ki use had made his skin and hair look healthier, and sometimes he missed that since it took more effort and mutilation to scare crime figures. 

As Hashimoto unsheathed his katana, Farfarello wondered if he’d use the scabbard as a bludgeon the way his kitten would. All that experience fighting and sparring against Aya’s katana would be very helpful today. The target’s taste for tradition didn’t extend to his clothing, since he wore a suit, and the wakazashi remained sheathed and attached to Hashimoto’s belt. 

“How do I know I won’t get commanded to drop my katana during the fight?” Hashimoto asked. 

“You could always decide to do nothing and let my partner run you through without a fight, if that’s what you’d prefer,” the mindbreaker answered. “Do you really want to die this very instant? You might as well take the chance, since it’s not like your other choice is that great. Besides, my partner is chomping at the bit for a swordfight, and I wouldn’t want to disappoint him.”

“Aye, less talk and more fighting,” Farfarello said. “Show me what you’ve got, old man.”

Hashimoto settled into his stance. “If you’re trying to make me angry and sloppy, it won’t work.”

“Don’t underestimate his ability to enrage you,” Schuldig said with a grin.

“How do I know _you_ won’t interfere during the fight or after I injure or kill your friend?”

“Again, _he_ wants a good fight and I want to give it to him, so I won’t interfere by hobbling you. I doubt he’s the one who will lose, but if he does I’m not gonna shoot you down. The client doesn’t want that. If you don’t trust me about that, I don’t care. Life has no guarantees, my friend. Take a chance, or face the surer death right now.”

Enough. Time to fight. Farfarello leapt in for the first strike, fast and ruthless, eager to test his opponent, and his opponent blocked it and struck back, the clash of metal feeling so much more visceral while he was partially associated within his body. Wonderful! Aside from his sparring with Aya, he so rarely got to go blade to blade with someone, let alone someone who knew what he was doing. An actual fight, with the risk of injury or death, got his blood pumping even more.

They danced, moving across the floor as they struck and parried, the harsh, vibrant sound of metal against metal their music. Exertion and killing intent warmed Farfarello’s body. Hashimoto was actually _good_, and it made Farfarello wonder what it would’ve been like to fight the man while he’d been in his physical prime. Then again, he might not have been as skilled back then. 

A sudden _thump_ from somewhere behind him briefly distracted Farfarello, but Schuldig said, ~ One of the goons was waking up, so I knocked him back down. ~

~ Good. ~ Linked with him like this, Schuldig almost felt like an extension of Farfarello’s body, which pleased Farfarello more than he expected.

Hashimoto got under his guard, too close, and left a burning stripe as he slashed across Farfarello’s stomach. Not a deep cut as far as Farfarello could tell but it _hurt_, something Farfarello still hadn’t become used to, yet it gave him the opportunity to stab through his opponent’s upper left arm. The arm wound bled freely, creating a growing stain on the sleeve of Hashimoto’s gray suit jacket, and the sight and smell of it made Farfarello even more eager to kill and win. Sheer joy bloomed within him like deadly red poppies. Hashimoto retained his stoic face, but Farfarello’s telepathy sniffed out a tinge of fear and disquiet under that serene mask, partly caused by the feral glee currently on Farfarello’s face. Good. 

Farfarello pressed him harder, striking at him with more strength and dancing with greater speed and intent. He so loved his work.

Age and blood loss started to slow his opponent. Farfarello toyed with him a little longer to prolong the joy of the fight before stabbing him through the heart. The man looked more resigned than afraid or surprised as he died. The glee within him wanted him to stab and stab and _stab_ but he managed to remember that their client didn’t want his father mutilated and hold himself back. Just. He felt so full and needed to vent somehow but held himself together and under control.

He cleaned the blood off his sword and sheathed it, then turned to face the mindbreaker. Schuldig looked excited as he purred, “I love to watch you dance and kill.”

Drowning in the need to let everything out, Farfarello marched up to him, tore the hat off his head, grabbed him, and kissed him hard. The mindbreaker melted against him and kissed back in a heated tangle of breath and tongues. Since he could feel now, Farfarello resented their coats for blunting some of the feeling of their bodies meeting and grinding. He wanted to push Schuldig into something and have his way with him. 

The mindbreaker pulled back from him, and when Farfarello followed lips-first Schuldig put a hand over his mouth, apparently trusting that Farfarello wouldn’t bite. The mindbreaker said, “I know you get a thrill from fucking amidst the dead, but we have to leave the crime scene, bandage you, and report to Brad and our client that we finished the job. I can’t keep knocking the goons out, especially if I’m otherwise occupied.”

“I don’t care,” Farfarello said, but as his mind cleared a little he remembered his husband and that he shouldn’t be fucking or even kissing the mindbreaker in his husband’s absence. If Schuldig hadn’t stopped him he might have gone all the way through with it and been able to blame it on the heat of the moment, so he resented Schuldig stopping him. 

At least he could always tell his puisín that he didn’t _love_ Schuldig. 

“So selfish,” the mindbreaker replied but smiled. He picked his hat up and put it back on his head, covering some of his soft, bright hair again. “It’s not like I enjoy being the responsible one either, but sometimes I _can_ refuse the thrill of the moment to prevent future drama.” 

******************************************************

Nagi ended up enjoying the band’s music, and Aya liked it too. Nagi even ended up buying a CD from their merchandise table, saying that he wanted to hear if they sounded as raw on a recording as they did live. 

After the band finished breaking down and taking their equipment and instruments off the stage, the same girl who invited Nagi stopped at their table. “You came! Thank you!” she said. She’d dressed a little sexier for the performance.

“I even bought a CD,” Nagi answered as he held it up for her to see. 

“Excellent! I mean, you could have bought MP3s of the songs off our website, but there’s a special thrill in knowing that people are taking something we physically made away with them. Our frontman records and produces our music in his basement studio, and we burn the CDs ourselves. We design and print the art, liner notes, and labeling off a home computer.” She smiled. “I ended up doing some of my vocals for the album inside a literal small closet lined with soundproofing foam.”

Nagi’s eyes lit up a bit more. “I noticed you had a lot of equipment onstage with you. I’m into computers and machines along with music, and I’d enjoy talking with your frontman about his equipment and work if he didn’t mind.” 

“He loves talking about himself, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Also, me bringing you over would prove that I’ve been schmoozing with people in the audience like he asked me to.”

Aya said, “Nagi, go. I’ll be more than fine by myself for a while.”

“Really?” Nagi asked.

“Go!” 

As Nagi went with her to an area near the bar, Aya stretched in his seat and relaxed. They’d gone to a goth club for the show, and Aya liked the mellow atmosphere. He sat at a table lit by a candle in a small glass holder at the center of the table, leaving him mostly in shadows, since the whole club was mostly dark aside from the candles at the tables and along the bar and the scattered lights above the dance floor. Some people sat at tables as he did, talking amongst themselves, or danced at the open area near the stage. Some people were using a column as a part of what looked like a mellow, amateur, so far still fully-dressed bondage scene. The clientele managed to seem friendly without being intrusively so, and the music was loud without being painfully so. He felt comfortable here.

He’d felt comfortable, contented, and peaceful through the whole day since they’d left their hotel room, something unusual for him.

The flickering candlelight sometimes shone off the many buckles of the many straps on Aya’s black shirt. When he’d said to Nagi that this top might look complicated but was easier to get on and take off than you’d think, Nagi had replied, “Don’t make me imagine that!”

Aya glanced over at the bar to see the lead singer using his hands to help explain something to Nagi, who looked absorbed in the conversation and delighted. It would be fun to tell Schuldig about this when they returned to the team, that Nagi could go out and happily socialize without being forced or set up into it, that Aya and Nagi could achieve this where Schuldig had failed. 

Thinking of the team gave Aya a little pang. He worried over how that reunion would go, especially his return to Farfarello. He and Farfarello had a lot of anger between them, and Aya had run off for what he’d felt had been his own protection. Would his absence teach Farfarello anything or improve his behavior? Aya hoped so.

It also didn’t make Aya happy that he currently felt a bit horny, since his body had apparently become accustomed to having sex frequently and protested the lack of it now, which made him think about Farfarello, which made him.... 

He wouldn’t tell Nagi about this, especially since it embarrassed the hell out of him. 

Aya went back to watching the bondage scene, since it seemed somehow methodical, which calmed him. Yoji would find that hilarious, so Aya would have to tell him about it someday. 

When Nagi returned, he said, “They were really happy when I told them I’d be taking the CD back to Japan with me. I’m really hungry. Are you up for going out and grabbing something to eat?”

“I’m a bit hungry too, so that’ll be fine.”

They put their coats, scarves, and gloves on and went back out into the cold. At least it wasn’t snowing anymore. The area had a lot of clubs and bars, so a large number of people, many of them some level of inebriated, wandered the sidewalks with them at around 2 a.m.

Aya noticed when someone ahead of them knocked into a woman and ran off with her purse. The purse snatcher suddenly hit a wall of air _hard_ and fell backward, striking his head on the concrete and knocking himself out cold. As the victim and onlookers retrieved the purse and spoke of calling the police, Nagi and Aya nonchalantly walked past, both of them smiling. 

About half a block’s walk later, Aya murmured, “Another person saved by that dark-clad defender of the innocent, Telekinetic Man.” 

Nagi snorted and replied, “Thank you for not making me Telekinetic _Boy_.”

They stopped at a 24-hour diner that seemed to be popular, where the way most of the customers dressed showed Aya and Nagi that they hadn’t been the only ones who’d gotten the munchies after clubbing. The warmth, golden light, and good cheer inside made the place feel very welcoming. They immediately started unwrapping their scarves, taking off their gloves, and unfastening their coats.

After they sat down on cushioned seats across from each other in a booth, they perused the menu until Nagi ordered chocolate chip waffles, which intrigued Aya so he ordered the same. The waffles arrived very hot, with the chocolate chips studding them melting from the heat. Aya applied maple syrup to his the same way Nagi did and found them tipping on the edge of too sweet from the syrup but getting rescued by the only semi-sweet chocolate. 

“These are really good, but there’s no way we’re going to sleep tonight after all this sugar,” Aya said.

Nagi nearly glowed with happiness. That and his smile made him look even prettier and more endearing. “Sleep is overrated. Besides, dark circles under our eyes work for our aesthetic. What is it?”

Aya was so glad to be here with Nagi. He felt very warm and contented but also... more than that, something disastrous that would seriously complicate matters. “I’m... happy. I’m having a good time.” He didn’t mention the “more than that” aloud. 

Nagi smirked. “That’s _terrible_. Tragic. I hope it makes you feel a little better that I’m happy and having a good time too. I’m so glad you came with me. I think I’ve smiled more since we arrived here than I have in the last few years combined, and you’re a big part of that.” 

He... loved Nagi. He wasn’t _in_ love with Nagi. Was he?


	301. "I’m not talking about just Schwarz."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of this was audienced and typo-watched by Rosaleendhu but the rest was just me due to a lack of betas.

The work day seemed to be dragging on forever, while Yoji felt so nervous about the coming evening’s enforced crossdressing and the way he felt that everyone was already looking at him weirdly over it that Elena had to take him aside to tell him that he was radiating such anxiety that even non-telepaths noticed it and _that_ was why customers kept looking at him weirdly. So, you know, stop doing that. Easier said than done.

Yoji felt a sudden emotional hit of... _something_, with an effect similar to someone striking a big shrine bell and getting a loud, deep _*bong*_ out of it. What the hell? He couldn’t identify the emotion beyond a sense of turmoil. At least the intensity faded, and even that intensity didn’t come close to the last time an emotional shock sucker-punched Yoji. 

He couldn’t see anything around him inspiring that, so it must have been Aya. What could’ve happened to Aya on vacation with _Nagi_? Since Yoji quickly stopped sensing anything outside his own emotions, it must not have been that hard a knock Aya had taken. He hoped Aya would take care of himself, or allow Nagi to do it, because Yoji certainly couldn’t do anything for him across the Pacific Ocean.

Wondering about it gave Yoji some distraction from his own troubles. 

******************************************************

Ten blocks away from the scene of their crime, Schuldig stopped the car so he could make the call to their client without distractions. Good thing he stopped, since an emotional shock of some kind surprised him, though briefly. Aya? It didn’t feel lethal or dangerous though, and Aya had Nagi nearby. But would Schuldig’s enhanced link to Aya ever fade? 

Farfarello didn’t appear to notice Schuldig’s moment of startlement, much less that it had anything to do with his kitten. Good. Then again, Farfarello seemed to be recovering from a moment of distraction himself, so maybe he felt the same thing? If so, did he recognize the source?

Schuldig waited about five minutes for him to bring it up. When he didn’t, Schuldig mentally shrugged and went on with things, unwilling to bring Rose-red up if Farfarello wouldn’t. 

Schuldig called the number he’d been given, probably for a burner phone, and said, “The job is finished.”

“Excellent. I’ll pay as specified,” Hashimoto answered. 

He’d probably send people over first to check up on their work, but Schuldig didn’t mind that. He’d do the same. “A pleasure doing business with you.” Hashimoto ended the call, not that Schuldig had any more to say.

“I just healed myself. You forgot that I don’t need bandaging as much anymore,” Farfarello said. 

“You didn’t correct me at the time, so you forgot too in the heat of the moment.” Schuldig grinned as Farfarello’s pout proved him right, though Farfarello was also still pissy about Schuldig turning down his earlier sexual advance. “Besides, you enjoy bandages and use them as a fashion statement.”

“Hmph. You should start the car and drive away, because one of your clones just turned the corner and is coming toward us.”

Pulling a wheeled suitcase behind him, no less. “I’m way too curious to do that.”

Farfarello growled. “Do you even know which one he is?”

“Not yet. He’s shielding well. I could break in with a little effort, but why take that trouble when it looks like he’ll talk to us in a few minutes?”

“I thought you made us telepathically invisible so they couldn’t find us.”

“I did, which makes me even more curious about this one.”

“Your curiosity may kill you someday. It certainly annoys the hell out of me.”

Like Schuldig would stop doing something just because Farfarello disapproved. He let his clone walk up to them. As he rolled the window down to talk to whichever one this was, Schuldig greeted him with a merry “Hello, hello.”

“Hello. Room for one more on your trip back to Tokyo? I have some news on Kritiker and the school to share if so.” The clone might not have offered his name but his husky, damaged, kind of sexy voice identified him as Flood, formerly Evil. Once considered a foe, he turned out to be Breaker’s cats-paw on a tight leash and then actually useful and finally an ally. He looked much perkier and better cared for these days. 

“I’m sure we could get it from other sources,” Farfarello replied, apparently sulky toward the whole world. 

“Aw. And here I was kindly disposed toward you for saving me from getting my mind and life ripped apart that one time.”

“Don’t mind him, he hates everyone and everything right now,” Schuldig said as he unlocked the back door. “Get in. We’ll chat as I drive.”

“A road trip with two of you. I should’ve brought ear plugs,” Farfarello muttered. 

“Deal with it.” Once Flood finished getting himself and his luggage into the car and closing the door, Schuldig started driving and asked, “Are you sure you want to go all the way to Tokyo with us? Schwarz has more people gunning for us than usual, so looking like me in Tokyo might be a liability.”

“Nice timing,” Flood replied. “Schwarz is making friends as usual?”

“You know it.”

“Take me to Tokyo anyway, since I’ve researched it better than any other Japanese city and if I don’t like it I can take a plane out of there.”

“Do you have permission to go off the plantation, Flood? Not that I’ll refuse you a ride either way. I’m just curious.”

“Don’t need it. They didn’t give me much schooling I didn’t already have, and I’ve done enough jobs for them. Besides, I hear that Tokyo is such a mess right now that I can probably pick up Kritiker jobs there too if I want.” Flood grinned, which Schuldig could see in the rear view mirror, and _didn’t_ say, “Schwarz knows all about that because they started it by accident” but obviously knew. 

“Why not stay here?” Farfarello asked.

“Big fish in a small pond syndrome,” Flood answered. “There are a lot of Orange liners in Yokohama right now, and I’m tired of seeing my face everywhere. Though there’s a benefit to it that you called on yourself once today, Schuldig. You can boost your own telepathy’s power using a local mass of Orange and/or Guilty liners.” 

Called on once today himself? Was that what the “drop the gun” moment with Hashimoto senior been, the one where his telepathic command made Hashimoto fling his gun away instantly and Farfarello look like he wanted to drop a gun he hadn’t even had? Schuldig had been surprised by its strength and power but not aware of pulling any of it from somewhere else. 

From the look on Farfarello’s face, he might be remembering it too. “If being near a mass of them brings more power, why leave?”

“I don’t really need the boost that much, I want to live my own life and make a break from my past, and it takes a lot of the fun out of things. There were way too many in the school so I came to Yokohama, but there are still too many here for my tastes.”

“Do you know how many are in Tokyo?” Schuldig asked, curious.

“As far as I know, you, Misery, and two others.”

“Which others?”

“Does it truly matter?” Farfarello asked. 

Schuldig had to laugh. “Bitchy! So bitchy!”

“I don’t know which ones,” Flood replied. “Being adopted in by them doesn’t let me know everything. I don’t think any of them know all of us or where we all are. A lot of the Bruise members hadn’t even really been individuals for a long time. Some are still finding themselves, some are renaming themselves, and some quietly left.”

It made sense. “Interesting.” His babies. 

“Talk is that Kritiker will be recruiting inside the school for a mission in Argentina. An Eszett base there recently took a big hit from someone, which led to its discovery by Kritiker, which wants to hit them while they’re down and still weakened.”

“I have news for _you_. The people who struck the base were Wicked and Malice.”

“No shit!” Flood laughed. “I thought they intended to take a vacation from the game for a while.”

“They were distracted by something shiny instead.” The possibility of freeing Emory’s sister, which they did. Schuldig looked forward to meeting her and seeing what she was like. Then they couldn’t resist visiting the Bradfamily homestead to show off. Schuldig idly wondered if they made it to Vegas or got sidetracked by something else, especially since Malice hadn’t been enthused about going there.

Flood grinned. “Sounds about right. Does Kritiker know? I get the impression they don’t.”

“_We_ didn’t tell them.”

“Heh. It’d be funny if the follow-up to Malice and Wicked’s attack is another wave of invading Orange liners. I almost pity Argentina. Though for all I know Kritiker might ask Schwarz to participate.”

Schuldig wouldn’t tell Flood about Kritiker’s current beef with Schwarz if he didn’t already know. “For all _I_ know, no offer has been made yet. Crawford acts as our agent.” 

“Really? You’re a fuckin’ telepath.”

“He’s right, you know,” Farfarello said. “You are.” At least he sounded more amused than petulant now. 

“No shit, Sherlock,” Schuldig replied to them both. “Maybe I just don’t care what Kritiker wants. I doubt we’d leave Japan so soon anyway.”

Not with Farfarello unstable in new ways, and the team’s hold on Aya and Nagi tenuous. Schwarz needed to get its shit together before it went venturing out to a new country for a fight with a different part of its old nemesis. 

As much as Schuldig understood Nagi and Aya’s need for a vacation and some peace, Schuldig wanted them back soon so he could engineer and glue the team back together again in some form. He wanted his people back in his reach.

Besides, Emory’s sister would arrive in Japan soon. 

******************************************************

It made Nagi sad that for the rest of their meal Aya sunk into somewhat brooding thought, but it shouldn’t surprise him. Surely Aya hadn’t been that happy for that long in years--it had to be a shock to his system--and must be rusty at it. 

Nagi could actually say the same. His face hurt a bit from how much smiling he’d been doing. But, unlike Aya, he wouldn’t say it made him unhappy--or at least worried, maybe _guilty_?--to be happy. 

They still had more vacation time. They should get some sleep--if all the sugar they’d just eaten didn’t keep them awake too long--then do more things they enjoyed, and maybe he could distract Aya into experiencing some more contentment. Nagi liked that plan. 

They returned to their hotel in companionable and somewhat sleepy silence. It felt so _late_, like on nights when they had a job as opposed to nights Nagi stayed up too long on the internet, like a physical exertion late. He might sleep after all. 

At his size and height, Nagi had trouble finding pajamas that didn’t look too cute, especially in western countries. He currently wore flannel pajamas that were deep blue with little white snowflakes on them, still a bit cute but at least they didn’t scream “kawaii!” and he liked them. 

He and Aya in the bathroom removing their eyeliner and brushing their teeth together before bed just seemed hilarious somehow. Weirdly sweet too.

“Do you have a wake-up time in mind?” Aya asked.

“Not really. It’s our vacation, so we should be able to sleep as long as we want,” Nagi answered. “We also might have some trouble with jet lag.”

“But if we spend a lot of time sleeping on our vacation, we could’ve just sacked down anywhere and there was no point in choosing an interesting place to go. I think we need a balance.” 

“True. We should both get up by 11 a.m.?”

“Sounds good.”

“I’ll set an alarm.”

Their mundane domestic time together. 

Although Nagi found his bed really comfortable, he couldn’t quite fall asleep from still getting that feeling of something disturbing Aya, who apparently had too much on his mind and heart to sleep. Nagi gave it about twenty minutes before he sat up, turned on the light, and said, “Aya, just tell me about it.”

Still lying in his bed in the dark at his side of the room, Aya said, “I’m not ready. I need to process it more to figure out what I really feel and think. Besides, since when I am the person who tells everyone about his feelings?” 

“Never, but you’re keeping me awake.”

“I’ll try to shield better.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Wait. “Does this concern me, and you don’t want to say anything to me about it in case it turns out later that you were wrong about it or didn’t really mean it?”

“No.”

“By which you mean ‘yes.’ Now I _have_ to know!”

Aya sighed. Confirmation. “Maybe I should after all,” he replied, though he sounded deeply reluctant. “If we go back to the team, either Schuldig’s or Farfarello’s telepathy will pull it out of me at some point and that could go really badly. Possibly catastrophically.” 

“Yes! And I’ll keep in mind that what you’ll tell me hasn’t been fully processed yet. No harm, no foul, no offense.”

“You say that _now_.”

“I mean it!” What could it possibly be? About _him_? 

But Aya did overreact on things at times, and his recent weeks had been full of various stresses, some of them deeply personal. That nearly made Nagi feel guilty about wheedling the information out of him. Almost.

After a long silence that felt like Aya gathering himself together to put it into words, he said, “I’ve been happy with you here. No stresses, nothing overstepping my boundaries, no arguing about every single thing or how I am, no demands. I feel _safe_, and it’s not about us not fighting and killing people today because I don’t mind that and... sometimes even enjoy it. I feel safe as a... person with you. I feel understood too, which is rare.”

“Those are good things. You shouldn’t feel guilty about that. Is this about you feeling bad about being happy?” Nagi really wished Aya would turn on the light near _his_ bed so Nagi could see him during this, but maybe Aya needed to feel a little less exposed at the moment.

“No. I’m just setting up part of my conflict for you and what other people might tell me is what’s really going on here.” 

“Which is?”

“When we were eating our waffles together and you noticed a surge of emotion from me and asked me about it, I lied about what it was. Nagi... I’ve liked you for a long time. Maybe even to the point of loving you. But at that moment, what I felt.... I may be in love with you. That’s what I realized at that moment.”

For a moment Nagi just sat there in shock thinking that he couldn’t have heard what he thought he’d just heard. Then it felt like a sun burst in his chest and he wanted to dance around the room. Aya reciprocated his feelings? 

Wait. _Listen_, idiot. “May be?” 

“I’ve been in an emotionally compromised state for a while now, while our time together today was so _nice_ so... I didn’t want to say anything to you until I was sure. Some people might see it as me running away from Farfarello for someone easier and less dangerous, not something genuine. I would never want to do that to you; you deserve better.”

Nagi felt touched and a bit depressed all at once. “So if I hadn’t prodded you, you would have kept this to yourself to digest it more first.”

“Yes. I’m sorry. You deserve a love confession that isn’t tainted with such doubt and selfishness, something pure you could feel happy about. But then I thought about how intimately and often Farfarello touches me and how invasive he can be and realized that he would pick up on my feeling. With how possessive he is of me, even a _maybe_ I’m in love with you could lead to significant violence from him.”

No kidding. “Wow.”

“Over the last two days I’ve been wondering if he’s actually in love with me or just passionate about me. There’s a big difference. I’m wondering if I’m actually in love with him or just imprinted on him. Or if I’m just so tired of the drama, constantly trying to stop him from riding roughshod over _my_ desires, and trying to be careful not to do one of the many things that set him off that I’m trying to pick up someone else.”

“It must be nice not getting sexually assaulted constantly too.”

“I wish that were a joke.”

“Yeah, he’d blow up. What are we going to do?”

“We? This is my problem to solve.” 

“I’m in love with you and you might be in love with me, at the very least you love me, and you’re the only person who truly looks out for me inside Schwarz, so _we_. Should we go on the run?”

“Running away hasn’t become a better option now than it was when we discussed it and dismissed it at the café.” 

“But we have another incentive now. A big one.” The thought of running away with Aya made him feel scared and thrilled.

“‘We’ again. You shouldn’t have to throw away everything you’ve ever known for a stressful and uncertain life on the run with me, whether I’m in love with you or not.”

“Are you kidding? The only things I value in Schwarz came about as a result of you joining us. Crawford had Farfarello kill the girl he knew I loved in front of me. Right before that, he bitchslapped me across the face for daring to want something for myself instead of being his perfect obedient weapon that focused only on what he wanted. Schwarz stayed together because we needed each other for our goals. I don’t know how much longer we would’ve stayed together if you hadn’t become part of the team, maybe just until after we destroyed Rosenkreuz.” 

“I’m not talking about just Schwarz.”

“What? Yoji, Omi, Japan? I’d miss Yoji but I’d survive.” Nagi didn’t _need_ Yoji, especially if he had Aya. “Omi can go fuck himself, and so can Japan. My parents who threw me out and the peers who threw rocks at me were Japanese. Besides, I can’t leave you to run away alone because _I_ love _you_. You’ve been sacrificing yourself for others for years, and it’s about time someone took care of _you_. The very fact that you’re looking out for my interests over your own and willing to make sacrifices for me only proves that you have some kind of honest love for me. I can’t imagine Farfarello being willing to put someone else’s needs over his own.” 

The small sound Aya made at that last statement made Nagi feel guilty for saying it no matter how true it was. Aya didn’t refute it though. 

Didn’t say anything about the rest of what Nagi had just said either. “I hate the thought of running away,” Aya said instead, “not just because it seems cowardly but also because it would be like I was getting chased out of the country of my birth, _my_ country. I have bonds to it you don’t and shouldn’t have to be the one to leave. It’s ridiculous. Besides, I’m... _tired_, Nagi, and that’s not conducive to a successful life on the run.” 

Nagi really should have expected that last bit since Aya had been through a lot in a short time. Aya sold himself and his soul for revenge and to pay for his sister’s care, then he got his revenge and not long afterward someone murdered his sister, leaving him without any purpose in life. He tried to kill himself but his team prevented it from succeeding. Schwarz kidnapped him, put him in the care of their most psycho member, and drafted him into killing alongside them on their missions. Aya tried to kill himself a second time, but Schwarz prevented it. Over time (and possibly from Stockholm syndrome), Aya started to have feelings for and sex with Farfarello, which made him happier for a while. Schwarz became a kind of family to him. He found out that he had a psychic ability himself though it depended on having telepaths nearby and no one was willing to train him to use it. Their time in Vienna led him to a surviving bit of his sister but that bit died saving his life during his grueling battle with Breaker, which also damaged him and put him in a coma. He came out of the coma days later mourning her a second time and feeling intense survivor’s guilt. Impatient with Aya’s mourning and depression, Farfarello treated Aya pretty callously. As Farfarello became unstable in new ways, he leaned on Aya harder, argued with him much more, and disregarded Aya’s needs and desires as he also started treating Aya more like his personal whore than a treasured loved one, leaving Aya feeling perpetually attacked and doubting himself. 

Aya was fragile mentally and probably wouldn’t stay free for long if he went on the run alone. He might even try to kill himself again.

He needed help, and Nagi wanted to start giving it. “Can I sit next to you?”

“...all right.” Aya apparently didn’t see why Nagi wanted it.

Nagi turned off his light, turned on the light near Aya’s bed, sat on it next to him, close, and put an arm around him, finally giving in to the urge to touch him he’d been feeling on and off all day. After initially jumping a little in surprise, Aya leaned into him and the embrace a bit, feeling warm and solid and smelling really good. Nagi, enjoying the contact more than he expected, felt like he was getting away with something illicit, which only fed into the happiness he already felt over Aya reacting to him this way. 

With how slender Aya looked when dressed, Nagi often forgot how much of that slender body was actually muscular and didn’t know how he felt about that physique since he partially defined himself by his hatred of jocks. Nagi loved Aya _despite_ his rock-hard body and defined abs?

Even sitting this close, he found it difficult to read Aya’s facial expressions but didn’t want to use telepathy because it would be too invasive. Nagi wouldn’t be the first person to wish Aya emoted more.

Trying to lighten things up a little, Nagi said, “If you went on the run you’d have to dye your hair and wear colored contacts to hide your most distinctive and unusual features, which would suck for me.” 

“Why?”

“You might not be as pretty that way, and I need my eye candy.”

Fortunately, Aya took it in the spirit Nagi intended. “You’ve been spending too much time with Yoji. Besides, I’ll probably still be stunning. Also, we do have to go back to Schwarz’s apartments, even if it’s not to stay, because I need to retrieve Shion.” 

“Huh?”

“My katana.”

Really? “Of course you named it.” 

“It doesn’t deserve to be snorted at.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that I thought it was cute you named your katana, connected you to someone else I once had a crush on, and ended up with a thought of you killing people with a katana named Mr. Bunny.” At least he could joke about Tot now.

“I’m sure my targets would be mortified.” 

They needed to get Aya’s orange sweater too because that crime against fashion had sentimental value to Aya.

Aya shook his head. “I don’t know how to handle this situation. I don’t want to run but don’t see other options. I don’t want to ruin your life by taking you with me either.” 

“You wouldn’t be ‘ruining’ it, and it’s my life.”

“I’m not thinking clearly, _you’re_ not thinking clearly--”

“I don’t agree with that.” This might be the most arguing the two of them had ever done with each other. This was _hard_. Nagi needed to save Aya from his worst, most self-destructive impulses but didn’t want to be yet another person forcing things on him either.

“I’m considering asking Crawford’s opinion, even though I resent and hate the thought of it.”

“I really don’t think that’s a good idea. If we decide to run, that would give him some warning and more of a jump on us. He’s not exactly objective about the situation either; he tends to prioritize the team over its members, something I know from firsthand experience. I just _told_ you.”

“At least our being so far away from him baffles his precognition of us a bit. Do you have any idea of who else we could ask for advice? I’m asking honestly, not to be a smartass.”

“Shit, I really have no idea. I wish I did.”

“It’s late and we’ve had a busy day, so maybe we’ll have a fresher view if we sleep on it and try again in the morning.”

“That sounds good to me.” Nagi hoped Aya would be less shell-shocked by his emotions and the situation in the morning. “But do I have to move?”

“Are you asking to sleep in the same bed with me?”

“We’ve done it before.”

“Never without Farfarello.”

“Considering the conversation we just had, I don’t see why it’s a problem.”

“Considering the conversation we just had, I don’t know what your expectations about this are.”

“I don’t have any aside from getting some sleep. Really. After what I’ve seen you go through with Farfarello, there’s definitely no way I’m going to make demands of you. It’d just be nice to have some warm company on a winter night and maybe you’d like it too. This isn’t some romantic comedy where you’ll wake up with me wrapped around you like a blanket.”

As Aya raised an eyebrow at him, Nagi could just about feel Aya thinking about it, weighing it, and wondering if it might be a scam. Of course he’d wonder.

“I’m sorry, forget about it,” Nagi said, feeling like a skeevy, selfish idiot and a terrible person. “I shouldn’t push anything on you, and I don’t want you to feel like you have to do it to make it up to me for your declaration of kind of possibly but maybe not really falling in love with me.”

“I’m not _that_ big a martyr.”

“Really? Because sometimes you are.”

“I think I wouldn’t mind sharing a bed with you. We can both control ourselves.” That might be a faint but fond smile on Aya’s face. 

Yes! “I am the king of self-control.”

“I wouldn’t go that far in describing myself, so I may be the prince of self-control. Good enough. Can we stop talking and thinking for a while and try to go to sleep now?”

“Yes! Uhm, I mean, yeah.”

“King of self-control.”

“Shut up.”

Nagi turned off the light telekinetically and got beneath the covers with Aya, who even _snuggled_ into him (while keeping their pelvises well apart). This was _amazing_ and better not be just a dream. How could Nagi mind a life on the run if he did it with an Aya willing to banter with him and share a bed (and possibly more eventually) at night? 

Still, they should see if they could think of something better and easier. In the morning. For now, Nagi would enjoy having his very own Aya in his arms.


	302. “Bad day at the office, dear?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Graegal for the beta.

Despite Farfarello’s expectations, the mindbreaker and his clone actually didn’t jabber much during the trip to Tokyo. Aside from a few bits of conversation and banter, Flood mostly napped in the backseat and Schuldig let him. The relative quiet should make Farfarello happy, but since he’d wanted an excuse to be very angry and irritated it just irritated him further, which made him feel like he had no rational reason for his emotions. Everyone might think him mad, but he preferred not to be so irrational in this way. While he should be angry and irritated over his husband’s flight and absence from him, he shouldn’t be _this_ angry and irritated. 

It didn’t help that he’d briefly felt _something_ from his puisín but couldn’t identify it, though it didn’t seem to be a threat. 

Sometime after they entered Tokyo, the cub said, “You can let me off here.”

“You sure about this?” the mindbreaker asked as he stopped the car in a no-parking zone and made obscene gestures at the drivers honking at him. “You could run into a chickenhawk or something.”

“Oooh, that could be fun. Playtime. Don’t get my hopes up like that if it’s not gonna happen!”

“You really are my clone.”

“Duh.”

“You know, you could come with us.”

Smiling, Flood pulled his luggage out onto the street with him. “Thanks, but no. Crawford is all yours. I don’t want to get involved with that.” 

“Like Crawford would even be interested in you that way when he has me.”

“Sure, sure.” The cub shook his head with a grin. “See you around!” He shut the door and walked away, and the mindbreaker watched him go, looking somewhat disappointed.

Farfarello had to say, “They’re not actually your children.”

“I know that, but since they carry my face and parts of my personality I want them to prosper in the world. It’s like they’re part of my _brand_.”

“I actually can understand that.”

“Good.” The mindbreaker resumed driving. “You know, he tried to lie to us. He does know one of the other Orange clones in Tokyo, Siebenundsiebzig, and he’s going to meet him.”

Wait. “77?”

“Yeah, he’s still calling himself by his number but only in German. People can call him ‘Sieben’ for short, ‘Ben’ for shorter.”

“He’s _choosing_ to still call himself by a number. A number assigned to him by others.”

“Get off your high horse. If Eszett hadn’t killed all your clones in anger over not being able to figure them out, we’d get to see what kind of stupid and destructive things _your_ clones would be doing.”

...indeed.

Schuldig smirked. “Not so funny now, is it? I wonder how many body parts they’d be missing, and how much of that was self-inflicted. Besides, I can relate to him. I chose to name myself ‘Guilty’ as a teen because it seemed cool. Of course, that was before Eszett decided to create a whole fucking naming convention for my clones around it. If Eszett hadn’t offed all your clones, it probably would’ve named them all after demons too, invalidating one of your reasons for naming yourself.”

Thinking about Eszett naming his others like that enraged him too much to spend time on, so instead he said, “Aye, you named yourself in that fashion before it became mainstream.”

Snorting, Schuldig had a strange, bright smile on his face and look in his eyes. “Damn, I missed this, us. Teaming up, hanging out, talking, snarking.”

Before Farfarello got his puisín. Actually, Farfarello had missed those things and the mindbreaker too, including the occasional fucking, though not enough to swear off his kitten entirely. Maybe he could have both? Aya would probably even like some time away and alone now and then. As long as Aya didn’t spend that time with the boy.... 

Unwilling to touch all that, Farfarello asked, “How do you know Flood didn’t let you pull that information out of his head for his own purposes?”

“Because I am the original, ‘accept no substitutes’ telepathic badass. I have many more years of experience, and everything that didn’t kill me over those years just made me stronger. You should know that. Besides, he was napping, which made it, and him, easy.”

“And you like easy things.”

“And hard things.” 

“And I should have expected that answer.” Unfortunately, it reminded him of things he currently lacked, and that the mindbreaker could provide if only they could get past certain obstacles.

The mindbreaker gave him some prime side-eye then parked their car. When they entered the apartment, Crawford was seething so hard and so much that Farfarello didn’t need to be a telepath to see it. Of course, Crawford’s rolled-up shirtsleeves and slightly messier hair helped sell the impression. 

“Bad day at the office, dear?” Schuldig asked, as if he had to.

“The Tokyo underworld is a mix of the Wild West and _Lord of the Flies_ at the moment.” It burst out of him as if he’d been dying for someone to rant to, something Farfarello understood from experience. “You won’t be able to get revenge on the group that attacked us at the hotel because most of them are dead already.” 

“How tragic. I hope they suffered.”

“I spent so much time creating a dossier of the groups and people in this city, and now all that work is useless. Things are changing too quickly for me to bother working up another one yet. Also, Kritiker is interfering in it through their own agents and I don’t know what they intend and refuse to ask.”

“As if they’d even tell us the truth if we didn’t sign our lives away to them first.” 

“Exactly. It’s fuckin’ chaos out there.”

“Hey, chaos can be profitable. There has to be a lot of work out there for professional killers.”

“This is the kind of chaos where a lot of ambitious, enthusiastic amateurs are in the mix. If we got a job with anyone we’d have to worry about being targeted by someone ostensibly on the same side we’re currently on, either out of confusion or on purpose to screw someone over and take power. Besides, whoever hired us might not still be alive by the end of the job and there’s only so much pay we dare to ask for in advance since, like I said, a profusion of amateurs is out there. My trepidations aren’t just about wanting to be in control and be right about things, so stop trying to manage me, Schu.”

The mindbreaker had once listed those two traits as major weaknesses a lot of precogs had.

Schuldig smiled and shrugged. “I’m not trying to manage you; it’s just that chaos is in my wheelhouse more than yours. So, Kritiker is the only steady employer in the Tokyo area these days?”

“Are you really suggesting we work for Kritiker?”

“Certainly not on a permanent basis; we could do a few temporary jobs. The thing is, you know that I start to get screwed up and weird and go friendly fire on my own team if I can’t occasionally wreak mayhem, and I’d prefer to get paid for it than give it away for free. Then there’s _this_ guy.”

The mindbreaker’s words suggested that Farfarello should wave cheerfully at Crawford and that’s what he did. 

“We need to do some killing again sometime soon. Maybe we might even overhear something that’s useful while working for Kritiker.”

“It chafes my pride.”

“No kidding, but we could still turn on them at any point. It’s not like we’d be signing contracts with our blood. It’s not like we even have to hire the full unit of ourselves out there as Schwarz and put all of us in one place to be targeted; we could do smaller jobs as a duo or solo.”

Crawford growled. Intransigent as usual. Perhaps the mindbreaker could eventually talk him into being more practical. It might sound funny to many people, but Schuldig had come out of his shell more recently, making suggestions and talking about strategies to Crawford more openly than he used to. Farfarello liked it.

“Brad, did you know that with all the upheavals and deaths Tokyo currently has an ambiance I can feel? Not anywhere near as bad as what we faced in Vienna and I didn’t even notice it until we’d gotten out of the city, but it’s enough to make me edgy and a bit high. Is the chaos here screwing with your precognitive sense?”

Crawford didn’t answer in words, but his body language and the look on his face said yes. He seemed to realize that Farfarello and Schuldig had noticed it, which obviously made him angry.

The mindbreaker might defuse and distract Crawford in a moment, but Farfarello shouldn’t let him do all the work. 

“An edgy and high feeling from experiencing the deaths and chaos in the city?” Farfarello asked, throwing the conversational ball into the mindbreaker’s court. “You described it in more negative terms earlier today.”

“It was then. But slowly getting back into it and knowing what’s going on makes it feel better for me now.”

“Truth?”

The mindbreaker rolled his eyes. “Yeah, truth.”

“Then I’d like to try this for myself.” Though he’d have to open himself up more to his telepathy to do it....

“You don’t share my precise brain chemistry or power level so I don’t think you’ll get exactly the same experience, but I can monitor you while you try and be your lifeguard, Farf,” Schuldig replied. “What’s that look for? I just don’t want you flipping out and destroying our new apartment.”

Sometimes the mindbreaker did nice things and disguised them in assholery... and sometimes he was just an asshole. “Truly, you’re self-interest personified.”

“I try.”

“By the way,” Crawford said, taking advantage of Farfarello diverting the conversation and further rerouting himself, “our client was very pleased with your work. Good job.” 

Unsolicited praise from Crawford. Perhaps current events had truly and deeply unsettled him.

The mindbreaker grinned. “Farfarello was very good.”

“I’m not sure if you’re honestly assessing my performance or saying that like I’m your dog,” Farfarello replied.

“If I were saying it like you were my dog, I’d be saying, ‘Who’s a good boy! _You’re_ a good boy, Farfie! Brad, let me tell you what a good boy our Farf was!’” 

“...I stand corrected. If you talk to me and about me like that, you won’t live long to regret it.”

“Now who’s flirting?” 

Farfarello bared his teeth at him in a snarl. Unfair of the mindbreaker to smile and banter and be so attractive if he didn’t intend to put out. Schuldig really did need some outside targets to aim his sadism at to spare his team.

“While Farf and I were in Yokohama we ran into one of my clones, who told us that Kritiker intends to take advantage of the mayhem Malice and Wicked wreaked on that Eszett base in Argentina to send a squad in to sweep things up themselves. I don’t really wanna to go to South America myself right now, but are there things there we don’t want Kritiker to get their hands on? Aside from trying to net any psychics they find there, which I doubt we could entirely stop. Who knows what those Eszett folks have in their files and cells at their Nazi summer home?”

“I know what you mean, but stymieing Kritiker there sounds like a lot of work for almost no reward,” Crawford replied. “Even if we took their pay and went in pretending to work for them while actually sabotaging their efforts in secret.”

The mindbreaker nearly had stars in his eyes. “That actually sounds _awesome_.” 

“Schu, I know the opportunity to troll them that hard sounds great now, but it’ll be so much work that you’ll end up regretting it.”

“Pfft. I guess.”

“Don’t sulk.”

“Whatever.”

“How was Yokohama? Were there many clones there?”

“Enough clones that the client’s goons recognized my face coming in but not enough or perhaps not visible enough for said goons to be that perturbed at seeing my face or for them to know that I have psychic powers. The Great Psychic Arms Race hasn’t become a thing in Yokohama yet the way it’s starting to in Tokyo, though that may change as more talents graduate from Takatori Mamoru’s School for Gifted Children and get local jobs. Though early indications say that not all of them are staying in Japan. Some of my clones are in Tokyo too.”

“That Yokohama job turned out to be a good investment.”

“Aye, we’re impressed with you, we are,” Farfarello said, making the mindbreaker giggle and ask, “Are you fishing for compliments, Brad?”

“My fuse is already short, so don’t fuck with me,” Crawford answered. “I have some more research, e-mailing, and calling to do, and I’m going into Nagi’s room for peace and quiet to do it. Keep yourselves occupied and quiet somehow and don’t bother me for a while.”

“Sure, sure. We can have Farfarello opening up his mind on the couch and me monitoring him. Have fun!” 

******************************************************

After Crawford closed the door to Nagi’s room, he got a quick burst telepathic message of ~ You realize that what you said means that even if Nagi had stayed here you wouldn’t want to use him much professionally. ~

~ I hate you, Schu, ~ he answered, in the same quick burst fashion since they didn’t want Farfarello to “hear” them mentioning Nagi. 

~ I’ve heard that before. ~

~ You might be wrong about me hiring out Nagi under these conditions. Anyone who tried to take him down would get a big, nasty surprise. ~ 

~ Unless they caught _him_ by surprise in a certain way or managed to hold Aya or possibly Omi or Yoji hostage in a way that prevents him from fighting back. Nagi’s not invulnerable. ~ 

Somewhat surprised, Crawford asked, ~ Do you spend a lot of time thinking of ways to take members of Schwarz down? ~

~ Don’t you? ~

~ ...of course. ~ 

~ I’m not just a pretty face. Besides, I’m Batman. ~ 

Apparently, he needed a reminder not to underestimate Schuldig. Underestimating him often led to getting fucked over or dead. At least Schu had just nudged him with a friendly reminder for it instead of taken advantage of him. 

If Schuldig ever decided he wanted to be Schwarz’s leader....

No. He’d prefer to rule the team quietly with no one realizing it and let Crawford handle all the paperwork, petty details, and annoying people Schuldig didn’t want to bother with. 

That thought didn’t make Crawford feel better, especially since he knew that Schuldig was becoming more powerful as he aged. Still, he couldn’t help feeling some pleasure and a bit of exhilaration over having a tiger by the tail. It certainly made life more interesting. 

******************************************************

“Looks like you ruined another coat and shirt, Farfarello,” the mindbreaker said. “You’re so hard on your clothes.”

“Our target did.” Farfarello opened his coat. “The coat might be ruined, but it might look like the slash on my shirt is deliberate if I--”

“No. Just buy another shirt.” The mindbreaker looked down to unfasten his own coat and snorted. “I didn’t realize you got blood _all over me_.”

During their heated clinch and kiss. He’d noticed all the blood but knew Schuldig would telepathically stop bystanders from noticing them whenever they were outside the car so hadn’t said anything. “We’re not going to start talking about the kiss again.”

“Of course not! It’s just that I wonder whether you realize that the ‘multiple partners’ sex thing Brad and I do only works because we’re _both_ into it. Because you don’t seem to. And that’s the last I’ll say about it for now.”

“I’m not a child. Don’t talk to me like one.”

Farfarello watched Schuldig visibly restrain himself from saying something. No, a few things. The mindbreaker breathed out of his mouth sharply then clenched his teeth together and did an agitated little spin. 

“This is killing you, isn’t it?” Farfarello couldn’t help being amused. 

“Ask a shark not to swim. Be _seriously_ flattered that I’m making the effort for you.” He sounded _pissed_.

“You’re not joking.”

“I’m not joking. I’m so tired of this repetitive shit of saying important things to you while you refuse to listen, which makes me repeat myself, but since you’re still not listening I have to repeat myself again and you’re _still_ not listening, so I am _done_. You’ve wasted too much of my time.” The mindbreaker took his bloody coat off and put a different one on. “I think it’s my turn to go off in a huff for a while. I’ll telepathically tell Brad I’m taking a break from wrangling you. You’ll have to behave yourself on your own for a while instead of making someone else take the responsibility.”

Quickly realizing that the mindbreaker wasn’t just throwing a dramatic moment and actually intended to _leave_, Farfarello leaped over the coffee table and grabbed Schuldig’s wrist. The sudden jolting blast of ~ _Back off_! ~ from the mindbreaker hit so hard that Farfarello flinched and barely managed to keep holding on. Did the addition of another Guilty cub to Tokyo increase his power or did he usually not show it as much? Schuldig’s bright, angry blue eyes blazed at him so hard that it should have reduced him to a small pile of ashes.

“Don’t go,” Farfarello said.

“I know you’re used to having a live-in, full-service nanny, sex toy, and audience in Rose-red these days, but I am _not_ going to do that in Aya’s absence, especially since it seems to come with zero reward. He must have more patience than I gave him credit for because he put up with your hypocritical shit so much longer than I would have.”

“I have reasons--”

Schuldig sneered. “You have _bullshit_, and deep inside you know it. Now that the newlywed ‘wrapped up in each other’ stage is over, you’re straying but _he’s_ supposed to be focused on only you and do whatever you want him to even though you don’t reciprocate? He’s supposed to be monogamous to you and love and want to have sex with only you whenever you want it... and sex with whoever you decide to invite into your bed with him... while you party with whomever whenever? Who the fuck do you think you are? He’s miserable, but you only care about it because seeing him miserable annoys you. I’m glad he showed some spine and took off for a while. An Aya who surrenders to everything isn’t an Aya. If you’re bored with him, a lot of people are willing to take him off your hands and treat him right.”

Angry and unable to come up with words, Farfarello snarled at him and held on tighter. The answering telepathic jolt from the mindbreaker made his head rock back a bit. 

“You may be the member of Schwarz who hates a ‘because I said so’ rule of law the most, but you’re imposing it on your partner long past the time you should have,” Schuldig said. “Seriously, who the fuck do you think you are? God?”

Maddened beyond sense, Farfarello grabbed one of his knives but Schuldig, using his preternatural speed, knocked it from his hand and had his gun jammed up under Farfarello’s jaw in seconds, pushing his head up a bit. The mindbreaker had anticipated him and been prepared, perhaps had been prepared even before he said those damning words. 

“The safety isn’t on, Farf. If you go for another knife I will blow your meager brains out of your skull.” He just about radiated anger, certainty, and murder. “Pull a knife on _me_?”

The gun pressed up hard enough to hurt, so Farfarello dissociated himself from his body further, which dialed up his telepathy too and made him feel the mindbreaker’s dark, seething rage even clearer. “You knew what saying something like that would do to me.”

“Right, everything is everyone else’s fault.”

“Stop this. You won’t kill me.” Farfarello wished he could feel more certain about that. 

Although Farfarello truly didn’t want to die, Schuldig doing this earned more of his respect.

“What were you going to do with that knife? Tickle me?”

“...I don’t know. I was angry.”

“That’s no excuse. You might have stabbed me.”

“I might not have.” ...he might have.

“I’m not willing to take the chance. You’ve just been burning through partners and allies. You’re driving Aya away, alienating Nagi even further, and pushing me past my patience with you. Crawford isn’t all that attached to you and he’ll be far less so if you kill or drive away his team members. You might wanna stop before you find yourself completely alone or someone puts you down like a rabid dog. I empathize with your issues and most of the time I like you, but I am _not_ going to let you hurt me or ruin the relationships I want to keep. I’m not going to censor every single thing I say to you or avoid calling you out when you’re behaving badly. I’m willing to put you down myself if you threaten me or people I care about, and if I do Crawford will be, at most, only mildly bothered by it and only because he finds interviewing for new members tiresome. I’m not joking.”

“I can feel that.” He did. Farfarello let go of Schuldig’s wrist, put his arms and hands out away from his body to show he wouldn’t attack, and radiated sincerity. Some of the voices in his head laughed at him. 

He’d fucked up very badly here; he saw it clearly now. Schuldig had long been his best--and sometimes his only--ally and advocate on the team. How could he come back from this? 

He could only try. “I apologize; I was out of line and in the wrong. I’m sorry. I’ll think about what you’ve said. You don’t need to keep your gun on me any longer.”

“Are you saying that because you mean it or because you want me to remove my gun?” 

“I’ll think on what you’ve said.” He didn’t want to think about the disquieting things Schuldig had said about him and how he treated his kitten but doubted he had a choice.

“That would depend on you actually having _listened_ to me at some point in the last few minutes.”

“It’s a lot to digest, but if I have any blank spots or questions I’ll come to you for illumination.”

After a few more tense moments, the mindbreaker took his finger off the trigger and moved his gun away, though he watched Farfarello closely throughout to make sure he didn’t make any sudden moves. Farfarello didn’t. 

“I _can_ feel the deaths and chaos,” Farfarello said softly, breathing easier. “I’m noticing it now that I have my telepathy turned up more. I actually didn’t turn it all the way off after the fight with Hashimoto so I’ve been partially aware of this ambiance all along and I think it made me feel more irritated than usual, even though I wasn’t consciously aware of it.” It made sense. Too bad he couldn’t enjoy it the way the mindbreaker did. 

Schuldig still held his gun in his hand, ready. “Is that an excuse?”

“No. Just an observation.”

“Hmmm.”

Should he let the mindbreaker go or ask him to stay? A walk and a bit of debauchery might drain some of the venom out of Schuldig’s anger and frustration with him, but somehow the thought of Schuldig leaving like this, under these terms, made him feel deeply uneasy, even though he had no idea how to get back into his good graces. 

“Please stay,” Farfarello said. 

“And do what?” 

“It’s up to you. It’s your time.” 

After a few long, silent minutes, Schuldig’s grimly blank-faced, stoic look melted into something more amenable before he put his gun back into his holster and sat down on the couch. “Damned straight. You sit on the other end since you’re feeling so handsy.” When Farfarello quietly sat down where he’d been told to, the mindbreaker said, “Good. You’re going to think about things, while I watch TV.” Using the remote, he surfed the channels for a little while before stopping on a sadomasochistic Japanese game show.

When Farfarello turned his head, he could see his knife stuck in one of the walls, still quivering a bit.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Schwarz Cuddle Snippets](https://archiveofourown.org/works/85525) by [jmtorres](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jmtorres/pseuds/jmtorres)




End file.
